What does changing the creation of God mean

Sarah

Peace

So when we get haircuts, cut our toenails, when men shave their faces and people dye their hair...we are temporarily changing our appearance. But people tend to think this is all halal.

However, when we pluck eyebrows, get piercings, tattoos...a lot of people think it's haram even some of the Quran aloners.

And it seems cosmetic surgery is seen as totally haram because it permanently changes one's appearance.

So where do we draw the line?

And is 'changing the creation of Allah' meant literally or even translated correctly?

Mohammed_

Can you think of any prophet without having cut his nail and hair?

We know what would happen if one didn’t cut his hair/nail.
Both hair and nail are dead cells -we won’t feel any pain while cutting it, and both will grow back again.
Hair/nail growth is normal/common; but surgeries are usually done for abnormal things.
I think the first step is to turn to God (the Almighty, the Just, the Merciful) and seek His guidance/help. Surgeries and healing occur only if He wills.

Conscious and genuine people already have a secure identity; they are self-confident and satisfied with their true selves.
Beautification is sometimes used to mask one's true identity.

Note: Post updated with corrections. Responses may refer to the original version.

Mohammed_

haram -meant if it's shirk

Jafar

First I would recommend to shift away from the judgmental attitude and mindset which prevalent especially within Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The before mentioned cultural group always tries to judge everything between kosher and terefah, halal and haram, allowed and forbidden, up to the the intricate details which actually doesn't matter.

With that being said; human has 'changed the creation of God' if you're putting on a mindset of separation between human and God or from another perspective we can also say 'become God's instrument for change' since many centuries ago if you're putting on a mindset of unification of all things (including human) within God.

Among the example are domestic cats and dogs.
The plethora of varieties within cats and dogs exists due to active participation of human.
There are also many other examples, from wheat, rice, apple, orange and many other plants.
Which has resulted in the explosion of human population to 7 Billion as of to date.

Now zooming in to 'self physical modification', my perspective is it should be left back to each individual.
Everyone should have the rights to modify or not modify any elements of their appearance.
There is nothing wrong nor nothing right with that.

Iyyaka

And is 'changing the creation of Allah' meant literally or even translated correctly?

Salam Sarah,

I guess you are referring to verse 4119.

Sahih International And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them desires, and I will command them
so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.
"And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss.

If this is the case then it is not really deal with your questioning (tattoos..).
Here is the historical context of revelation of this verse
I quote 2 authors about this verse

Muhammad ASAD
The pre-Islamic Arabs used to dedicate certain of their cattle to one or another of their idols by cutting off or slitting the ears of the animal, which was thereupon considered sacred (Tabari). In the above context, this reference is used metonymically to describe idolatrous practices, or inclinations, in general. The allusion to Satan's inducing man to "corrupt God's creation" has a meaning to which sufficient attention is but seldom paid Since this creation, and the manner in which it manifests itself, is an expression of God's planning will, any attempt at changing its intrinsic nature amounts to corruption.
Maudidi
This alludes to one of the superstitious customs of the pagan Arabs. After a she-camel had given birth to five or ten young ones, they would slit her ears and dedicate her to their god and consider it unlawful to get any work from her. Likewise, if a camel had been a partner in the birth of ten young ones, his ears were also slit to mark that he had been dedicated to a god.
This does not condemn the alterations that man makes in the creation of God for their right and proper use, for in that case the whole of human civilization will stand condemned as a seduction of Satan. It is obvious that the civilization is nothing but the right and proper use of the things created by God.

However, this verse reveals a fundamental problem do you work or serve for god or for an idol? Knowing that God gives himself to be known to us as the "all-full of love (al-rahman)", ask yourself if your actions symbolize or active the satanic principle, or not.

Will you make good use of God's creation?

Rahma

Conscious and genuine people will already have good identity; they are self-confident and satisfied with their true self.
But unconscious people will try to mask their true identity (they call it beautification). E.g. plucking eyebrows, piercings, tattoos, dyeing hair etc

That's a lot of generalization --- lots of women pluck brows and have several piercings (let's leave tattoos and dyeing out of this for a while). In fact I pluck my eyebrows and I have couple of piercings. How does that hide my true identity?

jkhan

Peace

So when we get haircuts, cut our toenails, when men shave their faces and people dye their hair...we are temporarily changing our appearance. But people tend to think this is all halal.

However, when we pluck eyebrows, get piercings, tattoos...a lot of people think it's haram even some of the Quran aloners.

And it seems cosmetic surgery is seen as totally haram because it permanently changes one's appearance.

So where do we draw the line?

And is 'changing the creation of Allah' meant literally or even translated correctly?

Peace Sara...
As usual... All your questions you yourself confused... God questions each individual, so follow with what God guided... Let people say this is haram and that is halal.. It's their business... Make sure what is right within quran... Do whatever beautification as much as you want as long as it is making you pleased... And not to boast in front of people... I don't see anything wrong being beautiful using what's God given... If you wear a jewellery it is not part of natural beauty.. But addition... If you pluck your eyebrow it gives you pleasure and better look same men pluck moustache /beard line.. If you keep your hair long or shorter or curly or straight all your choice... If you cut your nail short or long.. That's your choice... God has not given any restrictions.. If you lost a teeth and if you replace with an artificial that's your choice that facilitates .. If your tooth are not even if you level them that's your choice same if you fill cavities...
If eyesight is weak if you use a lense then it's your choice... If you are shorter and if you wear a heel...etc etc.. Going away from what God created for beauty and necessity is no harm.. It's not changing what God created... God created with necessity and desire... Use it and be thankful. God made the meat raw.. Cook or fry or smoke.. Your choice.. If you graft a tree for quick benefit.. No harm.. All God naturally allowed that's why it works..
Make your life easier and beautiful with knowledge..
If you can't deliver naturally do scissoring.. What harm in it... If the child cannot hear use a hearing gadget ... If you can't walk use a wheel chair.. If your loved ones need blood use other people's blood.. Etc etc.. . If God put diseases then take medicine... You are not changing anythjng of what God created...
God created this whole world without houses.. So build houses for you to live. So you change the nature for your livelihood... No harm..
Don't go away from God's natural law.. That's changing.. SATAN entice deception.. Don't get trapped... Don't lie with what God created.. That's changing the creation of God...

As Iyykaka pointed out... Dear Sara you may be referring the verse 4119 ...
In these verses, SATAN challenges to God.. Let's refer the verses..
4117-118 " ..... ..... and they call upon none but a rebellious Satan whom Allah has cursed. For he(satan) had said, "I will surely take from among Your servants a SPECIFIC PORTION.

Yes.. This specific portion among us is the most dangerous for believers... Be careful from them.. They are in mighty majority..

Then comes the next verse.. 4119.. Unfortunately I am not with conventional understanding of cattle and cutting ear.. Satan has more powerful thing to do than cutting ears of cattle..challnege of iblees is mighty with anger and arrogance...
So I take for "Adhan" instead of 'Ear' as listening capacity / information / calling / permission / announcement / proclamation ... And for "An'am" instead of cattle as Good / excellence / favor / bestow / pleasant things/ etc..

So based on that only I take the above verse... That makes sense for me... I know most of you won't agree.. But that's the guidance I get.. Time will tell whether I have chosen the right path or not...

SATAN will. Definitly use such people to change the creation of God by disconnecting the listening capacity of us from all good/ excellent things of God.. SATAN will dupe us to wrong things since SATAN has taken the majority to his web..satan will indoctrinate that great portion he challenged to God.. Then automatically disconnected information of truth thus losing knowing the blessing of God... Creation changed..

For example God created this Earth and heavens... But, what is truth? Is it really what we learned in colleges about the universe is true or the SATAN has changed the creation of God as he rightly challenged God... We are disconnected from Adhan of Anam thus changed the truth of God's creation and in fact changed the creation to another reality which is mighty.. That's my understanding... I am much satisfied with this understanding...
I know very minute people will agree with me.. Coz SATAN has won..

Iyyaka

So based on that only I take the above verse... That makes sense for me... I know most of you won't agree.. But that's the guidance I get.. Time will tell whether I have chosen the right path or not...

Salam Jkhan,

wise words (in bold - above).

I notice that, for this quranic passage, you start from your view to read the text.
But it is necessary and prudent not to mix two time frame

what a text says about the recipients which are not us and
the lessons that we draw from the text for our current lives which makes the text alive.

The logic is to start FIRST from the point 1 before to go to the point 2, and not to do the opposite, otherwise we do what historians call anachronism or we distort the meaning of the words in the text.

I would not be exhaustive but 2 remarks about the point 1

Linguistics

ādhāna = (the) ears.
l-anʿāmi = (of) the cattle/livestock.

Confirmed by classic Arabic dictionary and ALL the reference of this form in the Quran (intertextuality)
http//corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=nEm#(41196)
We are mainly urban dwellers in the West but, at the time of Muhammad, having a healthy and a big cattle were a sign of wealth and happy situation

Textual Context (Translation inspired by Sahih International)

4118 Whom Allah has cursed. For he had said, "I will surely take from Your servants a determined portion.
4119 And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah." And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss.

If you link verse 4 118 and 4 119 together, you understand that a portion/share of the livestock/cattle were dedicated to idols under the influence of Shaytanic ideas

Other similar context
6136 And the polytheists assign to Allah from that which He created of crops and livestock a share and say,
"This is for Allah ," by their claim, " and this is for our partners ." But what is for their "partners"
does not reach Allah , while what is for Allah - this reaches their "partners." Evil is that which they rule.

Again, an atomic reading of the Quran, by isolated verse, may leads us to misunderstand the the factual meaning of the text.

amin

A question,

Can we create a large forest in the midst of the hot Arabian desert?, it can be a dream of many, but in reality it cant survive, I see the changing of God's creation is like this, We follow and will so many illogical things, without considering the blessings of God which only finally sustains.

good_logic

It is not up to us to draw lines. We have zero control.
People can change what they want the lines are already drawn by GOD who is in total control.
Let us not think like Iblis who wants to fool us and we fall into his trap.
Or are believing Iblis
GOD bless.
Peace

TellMeTheTruth

Salam!
If an'am means livestock including chicken then how people cut off/slit chicken's ears?
Peace!

Iyyaka

Salam!
If an'am means livestock including chicken then how people cut off/slit chicken's ears?
Peace!

Salam TellMeTheTruth,

l-anʿāmi = grazing livestock / field of pasturing

here are the links for knowing opinions about what kind of grazing livestock it meant at the time of the prophet muhammad

http//ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=1163,ll=2915,ls=57,la=4478,sg=1151,ha=795,br=975,pr=157,vi=372,mgf=816,mr=737,mn=1438,aan=674,kz=2700,uqq=401,ulq=1690,uqa=427,uqw=1677,umr=1092,ums=921,umj=857,bdw=890,amr=643,asb=1005,auh=1635,dhq=570,mht=908,msb=241,tla=95,amj=841,ens=723,mis=2225 (Hans Wehr - left column)

http//www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000289.pdf (middle column)

and from a quranic perspective in verses 6143 and 6144
l-ḍani = sheeps
+
l-maʿzi = goats
+
l-ibili = camels cattle
+
l-baqari = bovine cattle
= for each 2 pairs 2*4 = 8

An another interesting quranic sign is that it seems to be grazing livestock from which milk is withdrawn (and also for bedding/carpet/covering the ground in 6142 - wafarshan)

1666 And indeed, for you in grazing livestock is a lesson. We give you drink from what is in their
bellies - between excretion and blood - pure milk, palatable to drinkers. (Sahih International)

conclusion

so,
grazing livestock (with quranic definition)
+
milk
+
something who cover the ground
= it is not about little cattle like backyard poultry.

peace.

TellMeTheTruth

Salam!
Thanks Iyyaka!
I asked because some ppl think chicken are aming an'am while this is not the case as per Quran.
Now to another question How slitting of ears can change cattle's creation or design. For example, we cut ears of a cow then it still remains a cow. Or is it about cloning etc?
Or it is just about changing a condition as per below ayah
الْأَنْفَال 853

ذٰلِكَ بِاَنَّ اللّٰهَ لَمۡ يَكُ مُغَيِّرًا نِّـعۡمَةً اَنۡعَمَهَا عَلٰى قَوۡمٍ حَتّٰى يُغَيِّرُوۡا مَا بِاَنۡفُسِهِمۡ‌ۙ وَاَنَّ اللّٰهَ سَمِيۡعٌ عَلِيۡمٌۙ‏

This (torment) is because Allah never changes any blessing that He grants affluently to some people till they change their blessed state themselves (i.e. when they commit ingratitude, disobedience and sins and even lose the sense of loss they are seized by destruction and devastation). Allah is indeed All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

web.analyzequran.com/explorer/853

I see غ ی ر and.ن ع م together in this ayah. غ ی ر also used for people themselves. بانفسھم
People should ghayyir themselves but should not ghayyir their cattle? Are people not خلق اللہ؟
Peace!

Iyyaka

Now to another question How slitting of ears can change cattle's creation or design. For example, we cut ears of a cow then it still remains a cow. Or is it about cloning etc?
Or it is just about changing a condition as per below ayah
853

salam TellMeTheTruth,

Yes it remains a cow ( ;D). We focus on the problem of cutting the ears of some animals WHILE Quran is focusing on the criticism of banning a food which god did not prohibit the consumption. We have to change of paradigm.

Pagans, at the time of prophet Muhammad, altered the ears of some grazing livestock so that people would recognize them with others because they were forbidden to eat them. The purpose of this practice was prohibition. It is THIS goal that the quran criticizes.

Message of the Quran Grazing livestock is a blessing from god for all people => prohibiting or restricting its consumption is altered the purpose of what the livestock is made for.
We must return to the Quranic context of verses 6136 to 6149 (translation inspired by Sahih Internationa)

6138
And they say, "These animals and crops are forbidden; no one may eat from them except whom we will," by their claim.

6140
Those will have lost who killed their children in foolishness without knowledge and prohibited what Allah had provided for them, inventing untruth about Allah. They have gone astray and were not guided.

6142
And of the grazing livestock are carriers and those for bedding. Eat of what Allah has provided for you and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.

cloning ? you will not find DIRECTLY an answer to the Quran because it was not a question in the 7° century after issa.
it is from our own responsability to draw lessons from the Quran and to apply to our known world.

definition of the root word "ghayn yā rā (غ ي ر)" (http//haqeeqat.pk/roots/Tabweeb/00016%20A%20Ghair%20Ghain%20Ya%20Ra/16.%20Lane.htm)
"
2 غيّر الشَّىْءَ , (S, Msb, K, *) inf. n. تَغْيِيرٌ, (Msb,) He made the thing other than it was; (K made it cease to have the quality which it had; (Msb altered it; changed it. (K.) He, or it, altered, or changed, the thing in odour, or otherwise, for the worse; corrupted, tainted, or infected, it; rendered it ill-smelling, stinking, fetid, rancid, rank, fusty, or frouzy. (The lexicons passim.) It is said in the Kur , ذٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللّٰهَ لَمْ يَكُ مُغَيِّرًا نِعْمَةً أَنْعَمَهَا عَلَى قَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ until they change what God hath commanded them to do. (Th, TA.) ― -b2- ― -b3- غيّر الشَّيْبَ He plucked out the white, or hoary, hairs. (TA.) ― -b4- غيّر عَنْ بَعِيرِهِ He put down the saddle from his camel, and put it to rights, or adjusted it, or repaired it. (TA.) One says تَرَكَ القَوْمَ يُغَيِّرُونَ He left the people putting to rights, or adjusting, or repairing, the camels' saddles. (S, TA.) -A2- See also 1, latter half.
"

Further explanations
The form II has three declinations

neutral swap / perform a permutation
negative change / alter / corrupt
positive correct / improve

peace.

Mohammed_

الْأَنْفَال 853

salaam TellMeTheTruth,

There is no evidence in the Qur’an for title of Chapters, i.e. God didn't give it.
Also, see
Chapter Headings
In reviewing the oldest written records of the Scripture, it was found that no actual chapter names as used in current printed editions ever existed (e.g. 'the cow, the family of Imran, the women, etc.&#039 and that they were later insertions to ease reference.
https//free-minds.org/quran/PM/P

It may become problematic, if you interpret verses based on the title.

good_logic

peace
Who introduced the titles and when?
Where would you use this to interpret verses and why?
GOD bless.
Peace

TellMeTheTruth