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[Go down, all of you, from hence]

I've noticed in the Qur'an that life is described as a repeat occurrence, I.E, you live, you are judged and from that judgment you either are reborn in the earth or continue to live in eternity (in the heavens.)

I was recently reading Surah 30 which hints at this;

30:55 - And on the day when the Hour riseth the guilty will vow that they did tarry but an hour - thus were they ever deceived.
30:56 - But those to whom knowledge and faith are given will say: The truth is, ye have tarried, by Allah's decree, until the Day of Resurrection. This is the Day of Resurrection, but ye used not to know.

This seems to imply that those 'whom knowledge and faith are given' witnessed the guilty from a different plane of existence, which suggests to me there are 3 main 'planes of existence', one being the Earth and that which is near to it? The second being the heavens, and the third being the hereafter. -- Not to say that's all that there is, just that this is all I have observed.

It would also tie into that which was mentioned in 2:38,

2:38 - We said: Go down, all of you, from hence; but verily there cometh unto you from Me a guidance; and whoso followeth My guidance, there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.

'Go down, all of you, from hence' to me suggests that the heavens were our place of residence up until the time Adam was created, but if we are all sons of Adam then either my logic is faulty or we have been looking at the Qur'an slightly incorrectly. It also mentions, 'neither shall they grieve', meaning those who understand the reminder (the Qur'an) will understand the 'life cycle' and as such will have no reason to grieve knowing what happens to a soul after death.

My questions are, has anyone else noticed this? Also, can anyone show me contradictory evidence, that would be quite nice to see so I can further my research.

Peace be upon all of you.

Salam, all

I've seen lately a lot of Muslims talking about Allah being a concept of reality, or just the life force that powers the universe and as such is not a deity, nor should be worshipped.

I ask, why must it be exclusively one or the other? My understanding is that Allah is both, and beyond these definitions also.

Just trying to understand your viewpoint.

I will preface this by saying, I do not believe the Qur?an is a miracle in the traditional sense. A miracle as I understand it is a divine occurrence so spectacular it breaks the known laws of nature. Laws that the creation are bound to ? not the creator, which is why miracles are possible.

The Qur?an, despite no human being able to replicate it?s status or composition, does not break the laws of nature. It is quite possible to write an amazing book ? you could never write the Qur?an, but you could write an amazing book. If the Qur?an is a miracle just because Allah created it, then flies are miracles, the ocean is a miracle, dandelions are miracles. A better term for it would be a portent, or a sign.
The Qur?an is essentially, the ultimate reminder, or sign, or portent. Allah creates the universe, and populates it with all sorts of things and binds it to laws, and then he creates this encyclopaedia of everything relevant inside it. The Qur?an to me is what ties humanity, the creator and the natural world together.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

103:1 - By the declining day,
103:2 - Lo! man is a state of loss,
103:3 - Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.

It really encapsulates the whole of the Qur'an, Islam, and the meaning of life in 3 ayat. It's one of the shortest, and has overnight become my favourite.

Blows my mind. So much so I turned it into my desktop wallpaper.

Thanks to Brother Nouman Ali Khan for reminding me of this surah.

Loan to Allah a beautiful loan.

In this life, we frequently use the term 'Loan' to refer to a financial transaction. And I too used to think this way when Allah was referring to it. I took this term to mean that you should give of your wealth to those who need it. Recently I have been considering this term deeper. Allah uses the adjective 'beautiful'. Had he just said, a 'goodly' loan, then I could interpret it to mean financial, but he says beautiful.

So what do we loan to Allah in this life when we become Muslims? Our lives. Think of the depth of this phrase, Allah created you and everything else in existence -- you already belong to him. Considering that he says if you loan him this beautiful loan, he will reward you. I think this favours the 'free will' argument. Not that our will is entirely unbound, because it isn't. But if we had no will and everything in our life was decided for us, there would be no need for us to loan him our lives, he already owns them and is in complete control of them.

This is a great mercy, I believe. Allah trusts you to make the right decisions and trust in him. Because in truth, although we have faith -- we cannot see Allah, we cannot hear Allah, and we cannot touch Allah. Our relationship with him is entirely based upon trust. You trust that what you have read in the Qur'an is the truth, you trust that when you die you will be judged in fairness, and you trust your prayers are heard -- even when they are not answered.

The depth of the wisdom in the words of the Qur'an astound me every day. Every line and every verse has significance, even if you overlook it. But it is when you come back and attempt to solidify your understanding that the truth becomes manifest. I think this ties into loaning Allah this beautiful loan. I have loaned him my life in exchange for guidance, peace, and a whole host of other intangible reasons. And I'm glad you've done the same.

Just wanted to share something I noticed, salamu alaikum.

Where did this come from? I don't remember reading the Qur'an and Allah referring to higher stations for more pious people, so why did this come about as an orthodox belief?

Jannah would be a utopia, right? Would a utopia not be based in equality? If everyone in Jannah is experiencing absolute bliss, how can one be 'more absolutely blissful' than another?

It would be possible, because Allah is capable of all things, but still, considering IIRC it's not mentioned in the Qur'an...

[Muslims]

God through the Qur'an taught us patience, especially toward our fellow believers.

I've been reading this forum for a while, but only very recently have started posting. And I have to be honest, some of the things I read here depress me just as much as what I read on the Sunni/Shia forums.

If we claim to be bearers of the truth, the absolute truth that is God alone, then why do I see people saying things such as they don't want to be called Muslims, or they don't want to call their religion/belief system/deen/way of life Islam? Have we not read the Qur'an? Has God not defined such things for us already?

And that's not even my biggest complaint. My biggest complaint is this seeming sense of elitism that some -- not all, but some, seem to have about following God alone through the Qur'an, and the Qur'an only. Yes, it is a great shame that our brothers who label themselves sunni and shia and sufi and so on seem to believe that without hadith you cannot have Islam, but does that not mean it falls to us to try and show them the light?

And when I say show them the light, I don't mean just throw a bunch of illogical hadith in their faces and tell them it doesn't make sense. Ask them questions, 'Why do you need more than the Qur'an?' 'How can a hadith abrogate the Qur'an?'. If we do not know the answers to these questions already, and are incapable of proving the answers through Qur'an then we must go back to the drawing board and educate ourselves.

When I hear about these two things, it makes me think that a large amount of Qur'an alone Muslims don't care about their brothers. We'd rather just sit around on our high horses and poke them from afar, rather than walk up to them and help them remove the blindfolds from their eyes.

And yes, it is immensely painful when you have this discussion with someone and they say you have fallen into kufr. If it doesn't hurt you emotionally when your brother truly believes that about you then we are losing part of our imaan. Why? Because at the end of the day, you may have disagreements about some things, but you're still both Muslims. And when your Muslim brother or sister thinks that you are no longer worthy of that title it should hurt you because this isn't just that brother/sister's opinion, you know inside of yourself that others will hold that same opinion.

To come back to my first point, and to finish, we need to have patience. Patience is one of the most beautiful attributes of God, and although we can never be 'like' God, we can share in his attributes as he has blessed us the ability to exhibit them, if we let them, that is.

Please don't give up on the Ummah. Please. If we all just seclude/separate ourselves then nothing will change, and the Ummah will only become more and more blinded.