God decrees mercy upon Himself - why?
-
peace all,
Read something interesting the other day, thought I'd share with you all. It is taken from Mustansir Mir's book
http//islam-and-muslims.com/Dictionary-Quranic-Terms-Concepts-Mir.pdfThe Quran does not see a conflict between God's mercy and His justice. Rather, the justice of God is seen as a manifestation of His mercy. The point is well brought out by 612 "He has imposed mercy upon Himself; He will assemble you on the Day of Resurrection." According to this verse, if God were not to bring about a Day of Judgement, it would imply that, in His eyes, good and evil are the same, justice and injustice have the same value, and existence is devoid of moral meaning. It is thus a logical corollary of God's being merciful that He should bring about a Day of Reckoning. Also, if God were to invert the principle of justice, thus rewarding the wicked and punishing the righteous, no one could stop His hand. It is out of mercy, then, that He has bound Himself to the law of administering justice.
As far as I can recall, "mercy" is only attribute discussed in this way, i.e. "decreed mercy upon Himself", which is interesting, and in the above context, makes sense.
-
peace all,
Read something interesting the other day, thought I'd share with you all. It is taken from Mustansir Mir's book
http//islam-and-muslims.com/Dictionary-Quranic-Terms-Concepts-Mir.pdfAs far as I can recall, "mercy" is only attribute discussed in this way, i.e. "decreed mercy upon Himself", which is interesting, and in the above context, makes sense.
It is aligned with the overall theme of series of "God's books".
Tanakh mainly teach about Justice ("Eye for an eye, tooth for tooh" and the do and the dont.
Gospel mainly teach about Mercy/Forgiveness/Love.
Quran is summarization of the above.Salam / Peace
-
Peace Wakas.
It was interesting...
I think the reason why there is going to be the judgment day, is because human beings have free will (to be good or wicked). If human beings beings did not have free will, i think there would not have been a judgment day. One of my friends, recently told me that he is afraid of being punished on the judgement day, not for the mistakes/wrongdoings he has done in life, but for all the good things he has not done yet. He had this belief that he was a bad person because he has not done many good deeds. However, he is a very kind and moral human being, so i think his belief was not based on reality or facts. When I, a human being, don't think he deserved punishment because he has not done enough good deeds, how can Allah,our lord, the most just and most merciful want to punish a person that has not done enough good deeds? If Allah is the most merciful and most just, that means he is more just and more merciful than me, and any other human being on the entire earth. That would be the most logical explanation. At the same time, we can never not what Allah knows. For example, i might think a person does not deserve punishment because i only have seen some of the actions of that person. A person might have done many bad actions and mistakes that he has never told anyone, bad actions and mistakes that have been hidden from peoeple. And i might have only seen his good actions. This is the reason why i believe human beings should not judge eachother, because we can never know all of the good and bad deeds a person has done. We can never no it, because we have not seen all of his good or bad deeds. We have not been with him wherever he have been. But Allah knows everything we do, Allah knows everything we say, and Allah knows what is in our heart. Therefore i think the creator, is the only one that can judge human beings the most objective and just way. Because Allah sees all our intentions, all our deeds and all our words. The one who knows you most, is the one who can judge you best.
I think some people may have wrong beliefs about Allah. Beliefs that contradict what Allah tells about himself in the Quran. From Quran we know that Allah is the most just, and is the most merciful. But still, people see themselves as sinners (sin is a concept taken from greek religion and christianity), and they think Allah is an angry lord, unpredictable and will judge people based on what Allah wants, not based on objectivity and evidence. These beliefs are illogical and and unquranic. The Quran tells us that we will be judged the most just way. Allah can see everything, not even the weight of an atom smallest and less than that can be hidden from our lord. And Allah will not even wrong the weight of an atom (440), which means that allah will count all our deeds, even the smallest ones. Human beings can never count the smallest deeds of other human beings. That would be impossible. From the Quran, we know that any person who does the smallest good deed will see it (997). And any person who does the smallest bad deed will see it ( 998 )
We should not believe we are wrongdoers or that we are going to be punished. At the same time, we can never know if we are going to be punished or rewarded until the day of Judgment. We should never feel secure that we are saved. If we think we would be rewarded, then we would become content, and we would forget the true purpose of this life. And besides, a person that is thinking he would be saved, is doing guesswork, and is arrogant. For example, a person might have done a lots of good deeds in over 40 years. When he becomes 50 years old, he decides to relax, to forget his duties when it comes to islam, to relax, and just have fun and enjoy the rest of his life. One day, a couple of years later, he might do a mistake that will erase all his good deeds. Only one great mistake might be enough to erase all he has ever contributed. And then, his good deeds won't matter much. Deen islam, is a system which should be in motion everyday all our lives. It's from the womb to the tomb. Not from the womb until we are 50 years old. The sun, the moon, the stars and the animals and the plants serve God all the time. Islam is like a lamp that should be on until we die. The lamp of islam should be activated all the time. The day we turn of the lamp of islam, is the day we are no longer following islam. And it is the day when the bridge that enable us to go back and forth in islam, will be burned. We can either follow or own desires, or follow the laws of the almighty. The choice is ours.
-
All people are not the same. Some people may have to exert themselves very very much for a single good deed or to abstain from a wrong one, while the same thing for another person may just come naturally. Objectively for those who live close to the first person, this person is not a good person, whereas the second would be a good person by all measures. How will al-lah judge? Justice would be that He would reward effort. But are there other things? God says whoever has done an atom good will see it whoever has done an atom evil will see it. Some translations says instead of judgement day day of reckoning. O accounts, where we see what everything is really worth may be? If so, wouldn't it be a moment of ultimate knowledge of ourselves? and tnerefore o what we must put right or wrong? or of burning our old self?
I must admit here that I cannot believe in an "eternal" hell or paradise. I do not think we are able to comprehend what that means. Khalid or khlidun to me is a way of saying "rot in hell" like would say "rot in jail", and I think there is a similarity. Rot with oneself for company, that is with nothingness. We are nothing, ony God is. On the other hand time is dimension of material existence, a constraint like the three other dimensions...
All this to say that we speculate when we try to fit God's creation, inluded paradise or hell, we cannot talk abut as if they were things we know, or what that khalidun means exactly. But the certainty of the just and the compassionate we have. Would punishing sobody for an eternity for something done over 60 or 30 or 90 years be just? We most humans who are not particularly loving, just or compassionate, would do that to anybody, how can we consider just to punish somebody forever or something done a very limited time? I cannot conceive therefore that putting somebody in hell forever agrees with what God reveals of Himself. I think we do not know because it is beyond our realm of conception or understanding. However, we know how to turn to truth whenever we understand reality. There is no God, but God, and it is our nature to submit and worship Him and that is the source and fountain of full bliss. There is no possibility that that realisation and deep acknowledgement will not free as from the shackles of deceit.
Salaam
