Quranic View About Time in afterlife ?

  While the word "day" has been used in Quran in numerous occasions, there are only a few verses where time is defined for this world and for the one after.

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيم

10:5

هُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ ضِيَاءً وَالْقَمَرَ نُورًا وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ ۚ مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ ذَٰلِكَ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ ۚ يُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ

"It is He who made the sun a shining light and the moon a derived light and determined for it phases - that you may know the number of years and account [of time]. Allah has not created this except in truth. He details the signs for a people who know." 

32:5

يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ

"He arranges [each] matter from the heaven to the earth; then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand years of those which you count."

22:47

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالْعَذَابِ وَلَن يُخْلِفَ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ ۚ وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ

"And they urge you to hasten the punishment. But Allah will never fail in His promise. And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count."

70:4

تَعْرُجُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ

"The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years."

صدق الله العلي العظيم

Quran quotes and translations from Quran.com

To begin with, the verse 10:5 explains how majestically the concept of time on earth is created by counting the position of the Sun and the Moon. The other three verses in contrast, introduce a time from God's perspective in comparison with what we know as a day and a year on earth. 

Moreover, these verses suggest that time is, in fact, a byproduct of the specific settings that God has determined for each world.  Therefore, since the settings of our current world, the earthly time based on the movement of the Sun and the Moon, will end when our world ends, then there will be a new standard for time represented by the word "day" which governs the world of afterlife.  This is not to say that the bigger world and the bigger time frame does not exist simultaneously with our solar time. 

Most importantly however, the latter verses prove there will be a concept of time in the afterlife too, which will logically follow that change will still exist in the heavens as time and change are basically interdependent concepts.  This is also consistent with various verses of Quran through which the details of heaven and hell as well as the Resurrection day are pictured.  

We can further learn from Quran that Adam and Eve were living in heaven until they were deceived by Satan. As a result of their sin they were transferred to earth evidently in the same body.  Specific clues in verses such as eating from the tree, clear references to their body parts and what material Adam was created from, would all corroborate this assumption.  Therefore, it follows that the heavens may consist of  the same matter but with different settings. We may call it different laws of nature. 

From another perspective, our spiritual nature requires a constant change, or better say a continuous spiritual elevation just as our body needs food constantly.  This spiritual necessity manifests itself against any repetition which leads to a state of psychological boredom.  I have seen people living in a part of the world, for example, where is famous to be a piece of heaven on earth because of its nice weather, its stunning natural scenery or generally due to its heavenly surroundings but they still get bored by their daily routines and have to travel for a change every now and then.  Complains of mundane chores (lake of excitement of a new experience) is also a well known universal cause for mental frustration which may lead to sever depression.   Perhaps, "necessity of having a new life experience" in the today's culture confirms the same basic spiritual need as part of human nature.  

We can, perhaps, conclude that since we will be revived with the same material body and with the same spiritual nature in afterlife, even residing in heaven for us will not be enjoyable unless it involves some sort of spiritual growth.  Therefore, what we call from earth as "afterlife" may only be another step for us to continue to spiritually develop and get closer to God although each day of the new world is equal to a thousand years as we count on earth. This would also imply that heaven and earth may both be two different path to get to the same ultimate spiritual destination namely God. 

Last but not least, the clarification of time, from heavens' view, can as well explain how God has created the whole universe in 6 days, if that seems too short to us. 

  

Is the Afterlife Resurrection Spiritual or Material?

A number of recent prominent Islamic thinkers believe the resurrection of after life described in Quran is meant to be understood figuratively and not literally. That is, we will come back to life with a spiritual body and our material body will not be restored.

Perhaps this is one of the fundamental questions that all believers may ask God at some point in the evolution of their faith.  That is why, Quran has address this subject as follows:

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيم

2:260

وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ ۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِن ۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي ۖ قَالَ فَخُذْ أَرْبَعَةً مِّنَ الطَّيْرِ فَصُرْهُنَّ إِلَيْكَ ثُمَّ اجْعَلْ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ مِّنْهُنَّ جُزْءًا ثُمَّ ادْعُهُنَّ يَأْتِينَكَ سَعْيًا ۚ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

And [mention] when Abraham said, "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead." [ Allah ] said, "Have you not believed?" He said, "Yes, but [I ask] only that my heart may be satisfied." [ Allah ] said, "Take four birds and commit them to yourself. Then [after slaughtering them] put on each hill a portion of them; then call them - they will come [flying] to you in haste. And know that Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise."

2:59

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِي حَاجَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ فِي رَبِّهِ أَنْ آتَاهُ اللَّهُ الْمُلْكَ إِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّيَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ قَالَ أَنَا أُحْيِي وَأُمِيتُ ۖ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْتِي بِالشَّمْسِ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ فَأْتِ بِهَا مِنَ الْمَغْرِبِ فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

Or [consider such an example] as the one who passed by a township which had fallen into ruin. He said, "How will Allah bring this to life after its death?" So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him. He said, "How long have you remained?" The man said, "I have remained a day or part of a day." He said, "Rather, you have remained one hundred years. Look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time. And look at your donkey; and We will make you a sign for the people. And look at the bones [of this donkey] - how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh." And when it became clear to him, he said, "I know that Allah is over all things competent."

10:45

وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ كَأَن لَّمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِّنَ النَّهَارِ يَتَعَارَفُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ ۚ قَدْ خَسِرَ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِلِقَاءِ اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ

"And on the Day when He will gather them, [it will be] as if they had not remained [in the world] but an hour of the day, [and] they will know each other. Those will have lost who denied the meeting with Allah and were not guided."

صدق الله العلي العظيم

From Quran.com

According to another verse of Quran God knows what is in our heart We can therefore, understand that the verse 2:260 is directly addressing the same concern of all humans namely how God can revive a dead?  It is not a blasphemy to ask God an honest question as Abraham did. This verse also proves that God will never ignore our doubts and questions if we are really keen to know the answer. We however,  tend to avoid a direct conversation with God, most of us at least.

This is mainly because if we are answered and it becomes clear to us that God has somehow answered us, then it will become our responsibility to either testify the truth or to deny it.  Each choice will bring about huge consequences in our life, which we mostly rather to avoid.  I believe, most of us, can not believe and do not want to believe that every ordinary human can enter a direct conversation with God. Perhaps, that is one of the qualities that make us different from a prophet.

That said, God's answer to our doubt on resurrection clarifies that our material body will be restored with its appearance before death. The verse 2:260 also implies that our body will be revived in a way that it will have full functionality since the revived birds could fly back to Abraham.

God must be a perfect philosopher too as he has also addressed this subject from another perspective. In verse 2:59, a believer who is passing by the remains of an ancient village  asks God how he can revive them.   " So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him. ....." , Which is a beautiful story and self explanatory.

Thirdly, verse 10:45 states that when people are revived after life they recognize each other.  This can only be possible if we are resurrected in our material body that we have lived in over our life on earth where we get to know others. Otherwise we will not be able to identify our acquaintances by their soul.

Lastly, while it is understandable that interpreting the Resurrection day as merely spiritual may be a solution to some apparently incomprehensible descriptions of heaven and hell, it seems clearly contrary to the above mentioned verses of Quran.  Hence reducing resurrection day to only spiritual revival can not be the truth.

Does Quran Instruct to Cut off a Thief's Hand?

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيم

وَالسَّارِقُ وَالسَّارِقَةُ فَاقْطَعُوا أَيْدِيَهُمَا جَزَاءً بِمَا كَسَبَا نَكَالًا مِنَ اللَّـهِ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

5:38  "the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent [punishment] from Allah. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.'

فَمَنْ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِ وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ اللَّـهَ يَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

5:39 "But whoever repents after his wrongdoing and reforms, indeed, Allah will turn to him in forgiveness. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."

                                                                  صدق الله العلي العظيم

The first verse above constitute one of the often heard controversies about Quran as it,  apparently, orders a clearly sever punishment for the crime of theft.  

I should say that I spent quite some time thinking about this verse since it did not make much sense to me to apply one fixed punishment regardless of the scale of the theft. That is to say, it seems that there is no difference between a petty theft or a large size steeling for cutting off the thief's hand, which does not seem reasonable. 

Looking for other situations in Quran where the words "cutting and hand" are used together, we find the verse 12:31 which narrates part of the story of Joseph when the "first lady" of the time is blamed by the other women in the city for seeking to seduce a slave. Defending herself, she invites the women to a room giving each a knife and some fruit. Then she asks Joseph to walk into the room while the women were peeling their fruits and this is what happens:

فَلَمَّا سَمِعَتْ بِمَكْرِهِنَّ أَرْسَلَتْ إِلَيْهِنَّ وَأَعْتَدَتْ لَهُنَّ مُتَّكَأً وَآتَتْ كُلَّ وَاحِدَةٍ مِّنْهُنَّ سِكِّينًا وَقَالَتِ اخْرُجْ عَلَيْهِنَّ ۖ فَلَمَّا رَأَيْنَهُ أَكْبَرْنَهُ وَقَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ وَقُلْنَ حَاشَ لِلَّهِ مَا هَٰذَا بَشَرًا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ

"So when she heard of their scheming, she sent for them and prepared for them a banquet and gave each one of them a knife and said [to Joseph], "Come out before them." And when they saw him, they greatly admired him and cut their hands and said, "Perfect is Allah ! This is not a man; this is none but a noble angel."

Skipping all the lessons that the beautiful story of Joseph entails, the context of this verse can define the phrase "cutting their hand".  That is cutting the skin of their finger or of their hand as it is the only conceivable event that may happen to any one using a knife in a similar situation.

It however, can be equally argued that in verse 5:33 the same combination of words has been used in a very different context of a battle field, where it could most likely be understood as cutting off a hand or a leg of those who fight against God or his messenger in a war.

Based on these two verses (12:31 & 5:33), I acknowledge the fact that the phrase "cutting hand" can have both meanings, inferring from the two situations discussed.  That is, it can mean cutting the skin of a finger or it can also mean cutting off a whole finger/ hand. Particularly because it is mentioned as a punishment for what a thief has acquired.  Therefore, we can not apply this verse if we only consider this phrase semantically.

Perhaps what can shed light on this case, is paying attention to the absence of any scale for this punishment, bearing in mind that God commandments are to save lives and are to elevate our way of life. That is to say, logically it makes no sense to have the same punishment for a petty theft and for a large scale steeling, embezzling a large some of money for example.  Hence, it is sensible to assume that we can only apply this punishment for the largest scale of steeling for which in many countries currently death penalty is given.

From this perspective, this verse 12:31 is actually setting up the most severe punishment for the crime of theft as opposed to being their first penalty.  There have been many people in recent years (or perhaps at all times) who were sentenced to death because of the huge amounts of money that they took from government or from the so called "public money"  while Quran is telling us the penalty for theft with largest scale of anytime is cutting off a hand not death penalty.   I have no doubt those who lost their lives because of their monetary crimes would have been more than happy if they had lost a finger or a hand instead.

I believe, in this way the verse 12:31 not only will save life but it will also be a reasonable punishment that would deter similar crimes, which could potentially devastate a large number of people, and can improve human's communal life.

Homosexuality, Once Again, Highlights the Contrast Between the Traditional Version of Islam and the Quranic View

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

أَتَأْتُونَ الذُّكْرَانَ مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ

" Do you approach males among the worlds" 26:165

وَتَذَرُونَ مَا خَلَقَ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّنْ أَزْوَاجِكُم ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ عَاد

"And leave what your Lord has created for you as mates?
 But you are a people transgressing." 26-166

وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهِم مَّطَرًا ۖ فَسَاءَ مَطَرُ الْمُنذَرِينَ

"And We rained upon them a rain [of stones], and evil was the rain of those who were warned."173

أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ النِّسَاءِ ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ

"Do you indeed approach men with desire instead 

of women? Rather, you are a people behaving ignorantly."27-55

إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ النِّسَاءِ ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِفُونَ

Indeed, you approach men with desire,"  
7-81 "instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.

صدق الله العلي العظيم

from Quran.com with Sahiheh Int. translation

In the above verses God directly addresses the topic of homosexuality. There might be more verses that I have not found besides 29:28-34 in which God referrers to the Lot and his people. 

From these wordings it is clear that God explicitly forbids men from using other men instead of women as the people of "Lot" did. Consequently, they were punished and wiped out of the earth by divine retribution. 

The important lesson to learn for our time, is the fact that according to these verses God does not order his prophet of the time (Lot or Abraham) to go and fight them or to stop them by any means they could.  It is left to God to deal with them in anyway necessary.  This is the lesson we should learn from Quran. That is, in many cases such as homosexuality despite being strictly forbidden, we are not to harm the doer's of such actions or prevent them doing so by force.   

This is one of the many occasions when the Quranic view is not supporting the traditional Islamic punishment system which are mostly derived from "Hadith"(The bonafide wordings of the prophet) or "Sunna"(The way prophet acted upon different situations).   The contrast between the Quran's position, which is leaving such sinful actions to God, with sever punishments imposed in Islamic tradition seems to be of immense significance since there are examples for which "Sharia" laws do not make sense in our age, to say the least. 

That is not to say we should totally abandon "Hadith" and deprive ourselves from the precious teachings of our dear "Prophet Mohammad", but rather we should not hold them as sacredly as Quran which instructs us to hear all the ideas and choose the best (39-18).

"Who listen to speech and follow the best of it. Those are the ones Allah has guided, and those are people of understanding."

In this manner we can open-mindedly look at Prophet's tradition and learn from what he did or said bearing in mind that all prophet's wordings and actions (except for Quran) have meant for the time of the prophet and the specific circumferences of the time. Obviously, our time requires different measures and different lifestyle compared to 1400 years ego.  

I however, strongly believe that content of Quran is universally applicable and true while the "Hadith" and tradition of Islam are certainly limited in their scope of time and context. If the tradition of Islam, as unfolded at time of prophet, was supposed to be held true for all times then Quran should have included all those laws in details.  Whereas in reality, Quran has contained eternally true principals and universally comprehensible concepts leaving the details to humans to work out as deemed most suitable for the specific conditions they are living in.  This could potentially be one of the main reasons God has clearly stated that he will protect Quran himself (15-9), which is needless to prove that is very much the case.

It might seem an unsupported statement at this stage, but it appears to me (once again here) that Quranic version of Islam is very much viable all over the world while the traditional Islam may not.   I understand that even in Quran there are some punishments that seem inappropriate for our time, yet, the fact of the matter is they are set so meticulously that if we consider their subtle conditions seriously these punishments make perfect sense.  I will discuss them one by one over the future posts.

One of the unnoticed delicacies is the fact that Quran never instructs the believers to interfere in other people's life in order to implement God's commands unless someone is being hurt physically, emotionally and/or financially.  Otherwise, no mater how sever one's wrong doing is, it is only left to God to deal with him. That is, the prophet or the righteous have nothing to do in such cases except for reminding the wrong doers of what they are doing and invite them to the right path.

Finally, I believe it is time for Muslims to believe that: it is possible to truly love God and his greatest messenger, to have a Quranic life in modern time and at the same time use their logic and reason to handle their worldly affairs in line with God's satisfaction (to the best of their collective understanding) looking to the future instead of past in order to live happily and peacefully with the rest of the world.    

Consciousness in Quran

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اللَّـهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَا ۖ فَيُمْسِكُ الَّتِي قَضَىٰ عَلَيْهَا الْمَوْتَ وَيُرْسِلُ الْأُخْرَىٰ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

"Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought." 39:42

صدق الله العلي العظيم

In a previous post this verse was mentioned when attempting to put pieces of information together in order to find out human's nature described in Quran as "Nafs".  Yet this single "Ayeh" provides us with invaluable clues on one of the most complicated problems in metaphysics, that is how our soul ( Nafs in Quran or mind/ conscientiousness in philosophy) is related to our body.  

Generally speaking, the nature of interaction between the metaphysical side of the world and the material side appears to have always been a dead end in human's intellectual endeavor throughout the history especially in today's heated discussions around the subject of mind-body problem.  I believe it is one of the secrets of the world that we would not be able to figure out without God's guidance. 

Please note that I do not claim that Quran has given a clear explanation on this challenging question (or any other) but rather, it provides sings to be followed by personal inspiration which can lead us to a new insight on how the world works as a whole. Therefore, any understanding we may reach will, like always, be a fallible human attempt toward seeing the ultimate truth of the world and as such is inevitably relative and uncertain.  Theoretically, it might be basically impossible for us as an infinitesimal member of the cosmos to acquire a comprehensive view of the whole world (material and immaterial section combined).                                                

That said, what is explicitly stated in the above verse of Quran is: when we die God takes away our soul and if we are sleeping and not dead our soul is separated but it will be return to the body if our time of death has not come yet.  And what we can infer is: 

A dead body and a asleep body they both lack consciousness and since Quran says God takes away your "Nafs" when we are asleep or dead, we can therefore, claim "Nafs" has the same meaning as consciousness which are equivalent to soul or mind. The is why I will use these words interchangeably. 

We can also note that every time we go to sleep our soul is separated from our body according to Quran. This is very interesting as the traditional view might be we only lose our soul once we die. Moreover, it shows that our physical body can be biologically alive (in sleeping state) while its soul is away. This would mean that although being conscious is not a necessary condition for being alive biologically, it is essential to be a human functionally. 

Above all, this verse proves that our identity, our personality or what make us a human in general sense, is in fact our "Nafs" ( our consciousness, soul or mind) without which no lover will have any feeling for a dead body or for an unconscious body long asleep. 

Furthermore, as we ,most of the time, have similar experiences of happy, sad, fearful feelings while sleeping, due to the events happening in our dream, we can deduce that our soul can, independent of our body, experience mental states and at the same time reflects them on the asleep body either in terms of a brain activity and/or in form of moving parts of our body.  That is to say, as result of a scary situation that we are perceiving in our dream we see our self screaming out of fear and feel as if our heart is squeezed. At the same time these feelings are reflected on our body which is seemingly asleep and unconscious.  Consequently, we may suddenly wake up to find our-self actually screaming or moving a leg with our heart pounding.

Another reason that may show our soul can learn and experience autonomously is when we dream our-self in a situation that is in line with our wishes and desires (which are of immaterial nature) projected onto a future event, something that we wish to happen or it can be a completely unexpected circumstances.  In such cases, we never hesitate the authenticity of our experience while dreaming because we live these experiences as real as they can get in real (awaken) life.  As a matter of fact, these dreams can potentially have the same impact on us as any daily life experience we go through. 

It may be argued that our dreams are the result of some chemical activity in this and that specific location of the brain in the first place.  The counter argument would be firstly, the brain is always stimulated by the data (or neurons) it receives from the five senses namely sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.  In the absence of any signal from the physical senses in sleeping, if the brain shows activity it has to be a reflection from mind actually or better say from the soul's independent journey. Secondly, the nature of human's perception including good, bad, right, wrong , thoughts and conceptions are in fact abstract and absolutely immaterial. This follows that no material interaction can lead beyond the physical world unless they have an impact (of unknown mechanism) on the immaterial mind which perceives them beyond the material domain.  This argument may refute the recent movement in philosophy in which the origin of all mental stats ( all feelings and thoughts) are merely the result of some biological process in the brain. 

This is not to say that our body does not have any effect on the soul (mind).  It certainly has as we may have a bad dream as result of a specific condition associated to our body as everyone has experienced this.  Soul and body clearly have a mutual interrelation.  Nevertheless, these physical impacts on our soul during sleep time account for only a small portion of our dreams.  Our mind (soul) seems to be working nonstop as our thinking state continues while we are sleeping. 

There are also many other physical experiences in our daily life that have noticeable effect on our soul such as eating, physical contact with others and so on.  In fact, what Quran pictures for us is we actually shape our "Nafs" (soul or mind) through these worldly actions considering the fact that whatever we do will affect our soul permanently.  The point however, is that it is the soul that has the superiority over the body and is our identity, our self and our humanity.  It is also our soul that is independent of the material world and will ultimately survive our physical death.  To some extent, the association of a soul to a body can be regarded as a driver to a car. 

We can further understand that when we sleep and we lose our consciousness, our body takes a rest and feels refreshed after waking up. This tells us when the soul is engaged with our body it physically exhausts our body. Hence the body needs to take a break from this connection. Perhaps, we can say that the biological body can not contain the soul for as unlimited time as we can understand from our sleeping pattern.  This time limit for the soul and body entanglement might actually be a valuable clue in understanding the mechanism by which the two sides affect one another. 

Probably, this discussion gives rise to more questions than it answers concerning soul-body interaction over sleeping time such as what happens in "sleep-walking", in the medical condition "coma" or when we are chemically put to sleep for a surgery. I hope we can look into them in future

Finally, I do admit that, at this stage, we are still in dark as to how exactly the soul (mind) interact with our body which boils down to the interaction of mind with cells, molecules, atoms and .... . At least, we now know where to focus and on what question exactly we need God's intervention.  

How Does God Speak to Us?

At some point in life all of us feel desperate for hearing God one way or another.   Here is how God speaks to us according to Quran: 

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

وَمَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَن يُكَلِّمَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَّا وَحْيًا أَوْ مِن وَرَاءِ حِجَابٍ أَوْ يُرْسِلَ رَسُولًا فَيُوحِيَ بِإِذْنِهِ مَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ عَلِيٌّ حَكِيمٌ

"And it is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a partition or that He sends a messenger to reveal, by His permission, what He wills. Indeed, He is Most High and Wise." 42:51

 صدق الله العلي العظيم

This verse has immense significance as it explicitly rules out the possibility of  humans ( Even prophets) being directly addressed by God.  On the other hand, it clarifies that God does speak to us indirectly in three ways:

1. Trough revelation ("VAHY" in Quranic terms) 
2. Sending his messages to us in disguise
3. Sending a prophet (messenger)

Subsequently,  there are three questions that come to mind.  Firstly, why God chooses not to speak to us directly. Secondly, what is the nature of God's communication with us and thirdly, how do we differentiate God's message from other potential sources.  

In order to reach a conceivable answer to the first question, perhaps it helps if we consider our relationship with a creation of ours such as a painting or a mechanical machine made of steel parts.  Simply speaking, if we want to communicate with the individual shapes in our painting or with the metal components of the machine we have made, there would be no way but through the means within the realm of each creation.  

That is to say, we can only speak to a three or any other forms in our painting via the paint we have made them from. It can also be said that we can only alter the shape of any thing in our painting only by the paint itself which is the very nature of that object. In other words, we as a creator are always limited to talk to our creations by their nature.  Similarly, if we want to fix or change a piece in the machine we have made, it is only plausible to use tools (means) of the same nature, metal in this case.   

The painting and the machine as two examples of human creation are limited by their nature. They do not have the capability of a human language or  the intelligence for that matter.  By the way of analogy, we can conclude that God-human relation is, in principle, no different than any other creator-creation relationship in which the creation is inferior in terms of its capabilities to its creator.  

We can therefore, deduce from our empirical knowledge from the world that a creation can never be identical to its creator with respect to its abilities and its intelligence, otherwise it is not his/her creation.  This would explain why no creator can covert itself into the nature of his/her creation as it would be contradictory (since it will no longer be a creator once it has reduced its qualities to the level of its creation) and therefore impossible. Furthermore, from the causality point of view, in the material world nothing can be the cause of itself, so it would not make sense for that reason either. By the same reasoning, we can perhaps understand why it is inconceivable for God to reduce himself to a human form (his creation) or to speak to mankind directly.

It may be argued though that our children are ,in a way, our creation and in the meantime they possess exactly the same qualities which constitute every human being. The answer to this argument could be, the main distinction between a creator and a creation is the fact that the existence of a creation depends on the will of the creator, which is not the case for our children.

The existence of a painting or of a machine in my earlier examples are completely in our hand while this is not true about our children.  On the contrary, when it comes to our children we will do our best to protect them from any potential harm, which clearly shows their fate is not entirely in our control.

Therefore, the right view regarding our role in creating our children appears to be mostly an exclusive and substantial influence in determining their material features as well as in shaping their initial spiritual identity. I believe the physical expression of a child is less representative of the parents' spiritual endeavor towards God in their life time than it is for the impact parents leave on a child's heart (soul or mind) when they co-create a human with God.  This is mainly due to the fact that children inherent their genes naturally from their parents and parents can hardly do any thing to improve or change their appearance.  Whereas, parents' beliefs and their life style consequently, will greatly influence who their children will be in most cases.

On the second question of the nature of God's communication with us, it is important to pay attention to the fact that in all the three forms that is stated in this verse, ultimately there is a message conveyed to our heart which is the only human's faculty to differentiate good from evil and feel the divine with certainty, as explained in a recent post.

Bearing this in mind, it makes no difference from this perspective, whether God's message is transferred to a human by a revelation directly to his/her heart or by an indirect message in disguise or through the words of a prophet. The message will ultimately reaches our heart which is to recognize its source and is to follow.  It actually does not matter if it is perceived through senses or not.

It is also equally important to note that our heart needs to be fine tuned in order to hear God's directions. More importantly, our heart has to be in a state that would willingly surrender itself to the truth no matter what hardships it may entail in the material world.  In other words, it is our heart that decides which way to go based on what feels right or wrong.  

It would be logical then to assume that if we choose the wrongdoing despite the findings of our heart and ignore how it feels we will intentionally lose its capacity to hear the truth and to recognize good from evil gradually.  Conversely, if we follow the path of the light, our heart becomes more skillful in tracing God's words, filtering out the noise (our personal desires and interests) effortlessly. This is corroborated by numerous verses in Quran including the amazing verse 24:35 in which God beautifully describes him self as the light of the skies and the earth ( it also implies God's words are always there to guide us).

That said, we humans can freely choose the path of ignorance to the degree that we would even deny an obvious miracle in the material world as some did in the past at the time of Moses, Jesus and other prophets, according to Quran.  My point is, no mater how clear and undeniable the message or the sign is, it is ,at the end of the day, up to us to willingly take it as God's or not.

Thirdly, how do we distinguish between God's message and Evil's ? In case of revelations I presume, the message will appear so clear and so strong in a human's heart that there will be no doubt about its origin.  Same is true about the message that is delivered by a true prophet.

The challenging case however, is when we are hearing some inspirations inside our heart or when the message appears in shape of an event or a sing in the context of daily life. This is the time we are required to use our mental processing to highlight and recognize God's message.  Practically speaking, whenever in doubt, perhaps, it helps if we ask our self which choice would be the most satisfactory to God and the implications of which decision will be more in line with a Godly action.  I believe, if we can always keep our heart in a status that we can properly converse with in these situations, we can surely detect the rays of light even in the darkest times.  As a matter of fact, we may finally come to the realization that we can only commune with God through our heart.

Is Our Heart a Source of Knowledge at All?

Human's knowledge of the external world is acquired through our senses and is essentially relative and uncertain.  This may lead us to doubt the existence of everything in the material world as a reality.  Instead, in a skeptical view,  everything is fictitious or mirage.  

Rene Descartes, the French philosopher ,who is "credited as a foundational thinker in the development of Western notions of reason and science"according to the page below, developed and answered this argument by resorting to his most basic instincts in his famous line "I think, therefore I am." http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-7/descartes-i-think-therefore-i-am

I believe Descartes' proposition primarily and indirectly proves that our most fundamental source of knowledge is ,in fact, our conscience which is synonymous with our existence. That is the knowledge that comes instinctively and naturally with no efforts. I also believe that "conscience" is commonly referred as"heart" and it is precisely equivalent to "Nafs" in Quran. 

Here is the definition of the word "conscience" from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:  "the part of your mind that tells you whether what you are doing is morally right or wrong."

And these are two of the verses about "Nafs" in Quran which clarifies the fact that it is indeed God who inspires our Nafs (Conscience) resulting in a clear or in a troubled conscience. 

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

"And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it." 91:7

فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا

"And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness." 91:8

Speaking of inspiration, the major breakthroughs in human's knowledge has always rooted in an inspiration according to the history of science.  Although it is true that usually inspirations occur after hard work and long hours of concentration on a specific problem, they come when we feel we are stock in a dead end situation. Needless to say, all forms of  art are also undeniably associated with the inspiration that the artists feel in their heart. 

Furthermore, all the rules of logic ,which is the basis for the entire human's knowledge from philosophy to mathematics, from natural sciences to the humanities, are based on the most basic question of " Does it make sense or not? " which we answer intuitively without any thinking.  

In other words, the foundational principals of our knowledge whether it is based on data collected from our senses or it is the result of a thought experiment merely in our mind, are all based on the basic rules that are hardwired in our existence.  It is only the findings of this core in us that brings us certainty and peace as clearly seen in the case of Descartes's quest for the Truth.  

Perhaps we can then, rightfully, conclude that our heart / conscience is indeed the primary source of knowledge regardless of being conscious of it or not.  

Lastly, we need to differentiate the findings of our heart from the product of our mind by the fact that the former one comes naturally, effortlessly and intuitively while the latter is the result of a thought process and some analysis.  Finally, we may be able to distinguish between the two by noticing that what we find in our heart is the only absolute perception from the whole world internal or external to our-self. 

Design Argument for the Existence of God

The following video clip is an interesting example of a human design which gives rise to the old discussion of design argument for the existence of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ9gs-5lRKc

If the link doesn't work search for "Magnets and Marbles" on you tube.

And here is a well written article which encapsulates the philosophical views for and against the design argument.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/design/

It is hard to imagine that the "Magnets and Marbles" system could be a product of randomness and pure chance, if we refrain to use the word "impossible".  By the way of analogy, it seems reasonable to assume that the natural martial world ,even the apparently lifeless Eco-system all around us, to be more complicated than the Magnets and Marbles system, the main resemblance being the coordination of highly complex parts in serving a specific purpose.

The main contemporary argument against assuming an intelligent creator for the world ,as far as I heard, seems to be the hypothesis of evolution and "natural selection" at its core as explained in details on this page:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01 

I tend to believe that "natural selection" would be mostly applicable to the live creatures of the world in which there is an intelligent identity that is trying to survive in the its living environment. To keep this post short, I will discuss the evolution theory as the origin of human being in a later post. 

My point from referring you to the philosophical discussions around this subject is , as it is well demonstrated in the article,  there seems to be a never ending discussion without reaching a definite conclusion like most of the other subjects in philosophy. In other words, philosophy which is derived from logic,fails to help us reach an absolute certainty probably in most cases. On the contrary, it appears that depending on our internal initial tendency we are capable of coming up with a logically sound argument for or against the discussed subject.  As a matter of fact, in philosophy our mind can be trapped in a superficial fight between the valid forms and logical structures of reasoning without really creating much value in terms of providing us with a peace of mind and certainty. 

Certainty and peace of mind ,I believe, comes only with the truth and truth can only be found by our heart. Yet, in no way I mean to neglect or under value our logical faculty which is the foundation of all human's knowledge built on empirical data collected by our five senses.  That is to say, we need to compute the material aspect of the world by our logic, by our mind and then present their findings to our heart ,that is in touch with the non-material dimension of the world, to take a side or to choose from choices we are left with after rational processing. Our heart has its own findings too that doesn't come from our senses which are only in touch with the material world. 

In a practical example, when we are to find a life partner, as much as it would be wrong to go with merely our gut feelings, it will be equally wrong to rely on a rational thought process to find the best match for the features we have listed in our mind.  Perhaps, the best choice will be the one that marries the best of the two worlds.  That is when our heart corroborates the findings of our mind.  By the same token, never marry a belief unless your heart tells you to. 

At the end, I would like to emphasis that no matter how solid our logic appears to be, it is always our heart that makes the final sense of the world.  It is only our heart that is capable of seeing the truth and can help us get to the truth once all the available arguments/data are presented to it. 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى مَدَّ ٱلۡأَرۡضَ وَجَعَلَ فِيہَا رَوَٲسِىَ وَأَنۡہَـٰرً۬ا‌ۖ وَمِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٲتِ جَعَلَ فِيہَا زَوۡجَيۡنِ ٱثۡنَيۡنِ‌ۖ يُغۡشِى ٱلَّيۡلَ ٱلنَّہَارَ‌ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٲلِكَ لَأَيَـٰتٍ۬ لِّقَوۡمٍ۬ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

13-3 "And it is He Who spread out the earth, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and (flowing) rivers: and fruit of every kind He made in pairs, two and two: He draweth the Night as a veil o'er the Day. Behold, verily in these things there are Signs for those who consider! "

هُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ ٱلشَّمۡسَ ضِيَآءً۬ وَٱلۡقَمَرَ نُورً۬ا وَقَدَّرَهُ ۥ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعۡلَمُواْ عَدَدَ ٱلسِّنِينَ وَٱلۡحِسَابَ‌ۚ مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ذَٲلِكَ إِلَّا بِٱلۡحَقِّ‌ۚ يُفَصِّلُ ٱلۡأَيَـٰتِ لِقَوۡمٍ۬ يَعۡلَمُونَ

10-5  "It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for it: that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). No wise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness. (Thus) doth He explain His Signs in detail, for those who understand." 

 وَقَالُواْ مَا هِىَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنۡيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحۡيَا وَمَا يُہۡلِكُنَآ إِلَّا ٱلدَّهۡرُ‌ۚ وَمَا لَهُم بِذَٲلِكَ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍ‌ۖ إِنۡ هُمۡ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ 

45-24 "And they say: "There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we live and nothing destroys us except Ad-Dahr (time)[]. And they have no knowledge of it, they only conjecture. "

أَلَمۡ تَرَوۡاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَأَسۡبَغَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ نِعَمَهُ ۥ ظَـٰهِرَةً۬ وَبَاطِنَةً۬‌ۗ وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يُجَـٰدِلُ فِى ٱللَّهِ بِغَيۡرِ عِلۡمٍ۬ وَلَا هُدً۬ى وَلَا كِتَـٰبٍ۬ مُّنِيرٍ۬

31-20 "Do ye not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen? Yet there are among men those who dispute about Allah without knowledge and without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!"

 صدق الله العلي العظيم

Why Quran 's text is protected ?

To a believer it is a basic fact that the original Arabic text of Quran has not been changed since it has been written about 14 centuries ago.  This is itself an undeniable miracle of Quran if we are willing to open our heart to it.  Miracles are to increase our belief in God which is the ultimate unseen truth of the world. In that sense, Quran itself corroborates this miracle in 15:9:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

انا نحن نزلنا الذكر وانا له لحافظون

"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian."

As it is clear by now, the propose of this post is not to prove that Quran has remained unchanged  over time.  Instead, I would like to draw your attention to why it is so.  Why possibly God has intended to protect this text unlike the previous ones.  Needless to say, it is only God who knows the real purpose but as it is the case through the Quran we can get a idea by looking at the facts with making a judgement through our hear applying the highest degree of honesty we can find inside our self.    

Basically if we try to take this approach in understanding Quran, in that we are not trying to prove anything to anyone, and only for the benefit of our own, we would naturally try to be our most honest with ourselves.  I truly believe that if all the facts are presented to our heart and all the potential biases such as fame, money or power are removed, our heart is absolutely capable of forming the right judgement especially in terms of good or bad, right or wrong, true or false, love or hate and all the metaphysical matters which are beyond the reach of our rational mind. 

That said, I would wonder how we can make sense about  this property of Quran.  One of the reasonable  hypothesis I heard is since Quran outlines the fundamental metaphysical laws of the world which have been and will be true forever, it does not need any change as the most fundamental principals of the world will not change.  

I believe what makes more sense however, is the fact that Quran appears to be an on going conversation between God and human. That is to say,  every one can potentially find himself the one who is addressed in Quran directly.  Basically, it appears that hesitations, questions and thinking process of Abraham, Noha, Moses or all the others are the same for all us if we would be willing to seriously make sense of our lives. 

Yet it is not only Quran's life changing stories of the past that are amazing, but also its incredible level of customization in addressing our personalized unique situation makes Quran a live conversation.  It may not be easy to prove that Quran is , in fact, alive and ongoing publicly since we are talking about individual circumstances that may not be a concern for others but in our personal lives they are extremely important and real.   

So I would invite everyone reading this to check this for yourself.  I invite you to engage a conversation with God directly by asking something that you have been struggling with for a long time, something that you have been thinking that will reveal more of God to you, something that if clarified would change your life, something you long for and wait for the answer to come to you either in context of a specific verse of Quran or indirectly through a clarification or inspiration that you will feel it in your heart which will settle your worries and gets you out of that situation.  The only requirements are being serious about it and being absolutely honest with yourself. 

It would be great to hear your experiences by replying to this post. 

Last but not least, while recognizing Quran as a live personalized conversation will help us in our lives, it does not answer the question of why God did not protect the previous scriptures.  What made 1400 years ago different from the prior history of mankind.  This is a question that I have had in mind for sometime and I hope God will let me to the answer if he wishes so. 

How Far is the Judgment Day?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

   إِنَّ ٱلسَّاعَةَ ءَاتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخۡفِيہَا لِتُجۡزَىٰ كُلُّ نَفۡسِۭ بِمَا تَسۡعَىٰ (20:15)

"Indeed, the Hour is coming - I almost conceal it - so that every soul may be recompensed according to that for which it strives."

ٱقۡتَرَبَتِ ٱلسَّاعَةُ وَٱنشَقَّ ٱلۡقَمَرُ (54:1)

"The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two]. "    

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عِندَهُ ۥ عِلۡمُ ٱلسَّاعَةِ وَيُنَزِّلُ ٱلۡغَيۡثَ وَيَعۡلَمُ مَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡحَامِ‌ۖ وَمَا تَدۡرِى

 نَفۡسٌ۬ مَّاذَا تَڪۡسِبُ غَدً۬ا‌ۖ وَمَا تَدۡرِى نَفۡسُۢ بِأَىِّ أَرۡضٍ۬ تَمُوتُ‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرُ (31:34)                     

"Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted."

  صدق الله العلي العظيم

I have recently seen some Islamic scholars' video lectures in that they are trying to predict a specific time when they believe according to the sings implied in Quran the world will end  and consequently the resurrection day and judgement day will follow soon after. 

This is while according to the verse 20:15 above, it is only God who knows when the world will end and he has purposefully hidden this event until it is very close and there are obvious sings such as the moon being split into halves (verse 54:1) and so on.  Basically if people had a way to discover it then it would defeat its purpose of only believers in "Ghaib" unseen would be rewarded.  Only the true believers  in God who have lived their lives for God doing good deeds out of their faith  will survive that day. 

That said, we can look at the world's end-time  in a practical way.  That is, end of the world may either  happen in our life time, which one would reasonably consider it unlikely as our mind tells us that if it has not happened in thousand years already it is unlikely to happen soon, or alternatively our personal world will end by our death which is undeniably coming and will connect us directly to resurrection day. 

The question would now be if anyone can predict his death. The verse (31:34) states that it is again only God who knows where and when we will dye.  This time however, we can form at least a time frame in our mind as to the latest time when we will move to the other world.   That is to say, usually we are about our thirties and forties by the time we take these thoughts seriously in our life.  By then, we will be left with the remaining of average life expectancy in the particular place we are living in, which may vary from another 30 or 40 years later. 

In other words, by the time we potentially take our next life to our heart we have gone already half way.  Looking back at our first half of life on the Earth, it appears to us just like yesterday.  By the same token, perhaps we can come to the belief that our departure from the world would not be too long from now, if not tomorrow.   That is how we realize by our heart that : "Indeed, the Hour is coming".