Tareek al-Hedayah: Episode 3
The Creation
Translated by: Dar al-Tarjama – The English Convoy
Allah (SWT) created four types of Mankind: he created Adam (PBUH) without a father or a mother, created Eve from Adam’s rib, from a male without a female, created Jesus (PBUH) from a female without a male, and created the rest of Mankind, including the prophet Muhammad (PBUH), from both a male and a female.
It is mentioned in the Hadith that a delegation from Yemen came to the prophet (PBUH), and asked him: “O Allah’s Apostle! We have come to ask you about this matter (i.e. how creation began)”. The prophet understood that this question needs an answer in order to prevent any misinterpretations resulting from vain desire or Satanic thoughts, so he said: “First of all, there was Allah, and there was nothing before Him, and His throne was over the water, and He wrote everything in “Al-Thikr” and then He created the Heavens and the Earth.”
Another version of this “Hadith” mentioned: “… and there was nothing other than Him”.
The water upon which was Allah’s throne was all the water that He created, and “Al-Thikr” means the “protected tablet”. So, we have place Allah at the beginning of all our thoughts in order to avoid wondering who created this and who created that until we reach the question: and who created Allah? Because this is caused by Satanic play with our human minds.
The answer to the question of how the universe was created, could be found in the teachings of the Messenger (PBUH). So everything was written in “Al-Thikr” prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth. This confirms with what he said in another “Hadith” that: “Allah created the Pen and commanded it to write, so it wrote the fate of all creations fifty thousand years prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth.” This means that Allah first created His throne, then the Pen and commanded it to write everything. Then He created the heavens and the earth, all prior to the creation of Adam (PBUH). Thus Adam was created after Allah created everything else for him as mentioned in the “Hadith” narrated by “Abu Horayra”: “ the prophet (PBUH) took my hand and said to me: “Allah created the soil on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the adversity on Tuesday, light (Noor, which is used to refer to Moonlight in Arabic as opposed to Diyaa’ which is used for sunlight) on Wednesday, the animals on Thursday, then, finally, He created Adam on Friday during the last hour between afternoon and sunset.” Allah raised Adam (PBUH) above all the other creations as mentioned in Surat “Al-Isra”: “We have honored the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favors, above a great part of our creation.”(Qur’an 17:70).
Honoring Adam in this way proves that Allah created him between one noble type of creations (the angels) and one ignoble type (the animals), which resulted in creating Adam as an intermediate being between the two types. Allah also provided Adam with keys, which he could use and raise himself to the angelic level or he could leave and degrade himself to the level of beasts by following his lustrous beastly instinct. Arabs traditionally used to use the word “orphan” to describe a human child who lost his or her father whereas they used to use it to describe a young animal who lost its mother since they generally observed that the animal male, after attaining its lust, would leave the resulting offspring who are then brought up by their mother.
Man, however, does not reach the level of Satan who is created from fire. Therefore, man could either be a follower of Allah or a follower of Satan, based on whom he chooses to obey and not based on the nature of his creation. Thus, the difference between these two concepts is great.
When Man fasts he raises himself above his human nature and gets closer to the angelic level. A proof of that is what we find in the Quran, where Maryam PBUH said:” ‘I have vowed a fast to ((Allah)) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'” (19:26).
In this verse, “Maryam” refrained from talking to any human being but if “Gabriel” had come to her, she would have talked to him. Thus, fasting raises Man to the level of angels and absolute blind obedience to Allah since this is the way the angels are destined to be. However, obedient humans are dearer to Allah than angels since obedient humans, though capable of both “taqwa” (piety or self-restraint) and evil, willingly choose “taqwa” and obedience to Allah whereas angels are entirely obedient by nature. Allah emphasizes this meaning in Surat “Al-Balad”: “And shown him the two highways? But he hath made no haste on the path that is steep.” (90:10,11)
He also mentions in Surat Ash-Shams (The Sun): “By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its inspiration as to its wrong and its right;-“( 91:7,8).
Inspiration here means guidance. In other words, Allah, SWT, provided the human soul with an understanding of what is piety and right conduct and what is sin, impiety and wrongdoing. Allah, out of his great mercy, gave Man this most precious gift of distinguishing between right and wrong; He clarified the path of wrong doing in order to help us to avoid sins and evil deeds, which is a great blessing. Similarly, Allah clarified the path of “taqwa” (piety) in order for us to follow it since it matches our natural human instinct. Therefore, inspiring the human soul with recognizing wrongdoing is a great blessing of Allah to enable us to avoid that path and all the misconduct it leads us to.
Analyzing the Qur’an, we find that Allah mentions only two things that He himself created with his own Hands (not to be taken anthropologically): Adam, as mentioned in Surat Saad: “O Iblis! What prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with my Hands?” (38:75), and the heavens, as mentioned in the Qur’an: “ And We built heavens with Our Hands and We shall expand them”. (51:47)
Thus, creating Adam this way was a great honor. In total, there are four things that Allah honored Adam with:
– Allah honored Adam by creating him with his own Hands as mentioned in Surat Saad “What prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with my Hands?” (38:75). As we explained earlier, based on what is mentioned in the Qur’an, only Adam and the heavens were created by Allah’s own Hands.
– Allah honored Adam by breathing into him of His own Spirit, which is something that did not happen to any of the other creations. This is mentioned in Surat Saad: ““When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My Spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him.” (38:72).
– Allah, SWT, commanded the angels to prostrate themselves to Adam, which again is something that did not happen to any of the other creations. This is mentioned in Surat Ta-Ha: “When We said to the angels, “prostrate yourselves to Adam”, they prostrated themselves, but not Iblis: he refused.” (20:116).
– Allah taught Adam the names of all creations, as mentioned in Surat Al-Baqara:” And He taught Adam the names of all things;” (2:31). The “names” here refer to everything that Allah created, even speech. Therefore, Allah did not say: “and He taught him speech” since speech is not equivalent to “names” whereas “names” encompasses speech. In other words, speech is made up of nouns, verbs and prepositions but it is possible to speak without mentioning any names as when you use verbs and prepositions only. For example, when we say: “The boy plays with the ball”, we can grammatically analyze “plays” as a verb in the present tense. Another example is grammatically analyzing the phrase “present tense verb” considering “verb” as a noun, “present” as an adjective and “tense” as a noun. A third example is the word “Inside” which could be a preposition or a noun depending on the context. Therefore, Allah mentioned in the Qur’an that He taught Adam the “names” rather than the “speech” since the word “names”, in the Arabic language, includes nouns, verbs and letters. This meaning is emphasized in the following verse from Surat Al-Baqara in which Allah said: “then He placed them before the angels,”(2:31)
In the Arabic language, the word “aradahoum” (placed them) includes a pronoun that refers to the plural of things that include masculine and feminine words whereas the plural of nouns in the Arabic language requires the use of a feminine pronoun only as in “aradaha”.
Many people repeat the idea that Adam is Allah’s vicegerent on earth, which is wrong and leads to “Kufr” (disbelief) since it conveys a different meaning than that intended by Allah in Surat Al-Baqara: “Behold, thy Lord said to the angels; I will create a vicegerent on earth” (2:30).
Here, Allah said that He will create “A vicegerent” using an indefinite article rather than a possession pronoun like “my vicegerent”. Moreover, the word “vicegerent”, in the language, is used to refer to someone who succeeds someone else and takes his place while the first person is away due to absence or death.
When Adam was created he succeeded the Jinn who used to inhabit earth and caused mischief and bloodshed. Thus, when Allah informed the angels that He will create a vicegerent on earth, their immediate question was: “.” They said: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- (2:30)
They asked this question based on what they previously knew of the mischief caused by the Jinns, whom the angels were commanded by Allah to supervise their Exodus to the islands in the middle of the seas.
Therefore, if the angels, at the time of being informed of the vicegerent, had understood that Allah was referring to Adam as His own vicegerent, they would not have asked this question since they have a good knowledge of Allah’s deity and they entirely surrender to Him in obedience and worship.
Furthermore, it is impossible for Allah to have a vicegerent of Himself since He is unlike anything else. Besides, I would like to pose a question: when is the vicegerent appointed? The answer is: when the original person dies. Abou-Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was appointed a vicegerent of Allah’s prophet (PBUH), after the death of the prophet. This could not apply to Allah since Allah is “the Living” that never dies. Thus, we should not cross the line when talking about Allah by mentioning these ideas.
Therefore, saying that “Adam is Allah’s vicegerent on earth” is wrong and a sin since it portraits Allah as if he was someone who needs one vicegerent on earth, another one in the sky and a third one in the mountains whereas Allah; the Most Glorious, is above all these sayings.
Allah, unlike humans who need vicegerents as in the case of the ruler for instance who might even need more than one vicegerent, is unlike anything else and a vicegerent of Him could never exist. This meaning is conveyed by this verse from the Qur’an in Surat Al-An’am (The cattle):” It is He Who hath made you inheritors of the earth”(6:165)
Thus, the interpretation of this verse was the basis that the Muslim scholar, Ibn Kathir, relied on when he interpreted the meaning of the previous verse: “I will create a vicegerent on earth” (2:30).
As we mentioned earlier that Allah manifested his power in the four different types of human creations: Adam, Eve, Jesus and the rest of mankind including the prophet (PBUH). So, lets analyze the differences between these four types of creation.
Allah created Adam from one handful of dust from the whole earth, thus the children of Adam varied in nature in accordance with all the variations that are found on the surface of earth. However, Adam was unique since he was created first from dust and water which turned into mud molded into shape, then turned into sounding clay, which in turn dried and turned into pottery, then finally Allah breathed into him of His spirit causing the clay to turn into the human body.
That was how Allah created Adam without a male or a female, then He created Eve out of Adam’s rib, meaning from a male without a female, then Allah created the rest of mankind from the unity of both male and female, leaving only one type of creation still to come: the creation of a human from a female without a male. Thus came the creation of Jesus as such to confirm Allah’s absolute power to create all the different types of creation.
In this sense, we draw the attention of those, who wondered at the creation of Jesus saying that his creation was unusual but then did not go any further, to what Allah mentioned in Surat Al-Imran (the Family of Imran): ”The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: “Be”. And he was.”(3:59).
In other words, they should have wondered more at the creation of Adam since he was created without a mother or a father whereas Jesus had at least a mother who carried him in her womb. This should have made them acknowledge Allah’s Glory and power since He who created Adam this way is well able to create Jesus from a female without a male.
Analyzing the creation of the rest of mankind, however, we find the different stages of their creation mentioned in some verses of the Qur’an and in some “Hadith”. In one Hadith, the prophet said: “The creation of everyone of you starts with the process of collecting the material for his body within forty days and forty nights in the womb of his mother. Then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period (40 days) and then he becomes like a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then an angel is sent to him (by Allah) and the angel is allowed (ordered) to write four things; his livelihood, his (date of) death, his deeds, and whether he will be a wretched one or a blessed one (in the Hereafter)”.
Whereas the version of this “Hadith” by Al-Bukhari mentions that “the soul is breathed into him (any human)” after the questions, some of the version of this “Hadith” by Ahmed and Al-Tarmathi mentions that “the soul is breathed into him (any human)” after the questions, while other mention that it is after.
The precise process of the different stages of how Allah created mankind is mentioned in the most eloquent way in the beginning of Surat Al-Mu’minun (The Believers): “Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create! “ (23:12,13,14).
This verse mentions the creation of Adam from clay, then how another type of creation took place referring to how the rest of mankind are being created from a drop of sperm.
We also find the following incident mentioned in Surat Al-A’raf (The Heights): “When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”- They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: “Of this we were never mindful”(7:172)
This verse refers to what happened in “Alam Al-Thar” (a stage in our life in the pre-worldly existence) where people were able to talk, testify and do all that Allah commanded them, which emphasizes Allah’s power, knowledge and supremacy over his creations. This verse speaks of a true incident that really took place when all Mankind starting with Adam and including all the humans who will exist until the Day of Judgment testified that there is no God but Allah. Furthermore, when Allah commanded Abram to call people for the pilgrimage, Abraham said: “and whom will my call reach?”. Allah answered: “You have to call and We will take care of whom your call has to reach”. So, Abram climbed to the top of “Abi-Kabis” Mountain and called: Oh, Mankind, Allah has built a house for you to visit and perform the pilgrimage”. Then, all the souls in the pre-worldly existence answered: “You Allah, we answer. There is no God but Allah”. Those souls who answered were the souls of all the people whom Allah had written (in the Book in Heaven) that they will perform pilgrimage or “Omra”.
This verse from Surah a-A’raf is a proof that Allah took from the lions of the children of Adam what will turn into human beings later on in this earthly world, and made them testify that they know that there is no God but Allah. The verse also mentions the reason behind this: that is, no one could claim on the Day of Judgment that he was never mindful.
Therefore, Muslims have to always meditate and stay alert to the fact that all the technology and scientific research and discoveries provide a clear proof of the existence of Allah, the Glorious, who created the entire universe from nothing.
A simple woman, who was guided by her instinct, was asked once: did Islam reach you? She said: No. They asked her: Then, how did you know that there is no God but Allah? She answered: if you see the droppings of an animal, you know that some animal existed; if you see footsteps, you know that someone has passed by; so if you see the universe with all the seas, lands and mountains, should not that be enough to prove that there is an all- knowing and wise God?
Similarly, when Abraham went to mediate in his search for the Creator and looked at the planets, he was not convinced that any of these planets could be the creator since they all come and go, meaning forever changing. Thus, he said to himself: whatever changes must have someone that changes it and that someone that causes this change to happen is the only one worthy of worship. So, Abraham continued to search for that who changes things but never he himself changes until he said that he set his face to the One who created the heavens and the earth. This is in Surat Al-An’am (The Cattle): “When he saw the sun rising in splendour, he said: “This is my Lord; this is the greatest (of all).” But when the sunset, he said: “O my people! I am indeed free from your (guilt) of giving partners to Allah. For me, I have set my face, firmly and truly, towards Him Who created the heavens and the earth, and never shall I give partners to Allah.” (6:78,79)
In this way, Abraham was one of the people whose testimony to Allah’s Oneness was derived from their instinct. Thus, confirming that the pure human instinct leads Man to worship Allah, the One and the Creator as we mentioned earlier in the verses of Surah Al-Mu’minun (The Believers).
Knowing how Allah honored Adam by creating him with His own Hands, as we have explained, makes one wonder: how could anyone disobey Allah!
Allah also honored Adam by breathing of His own spirit into him, commanding the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam and not making Satan, who is disobedient to Allah, prostrate himself before him, and giving him the knowledge of all “names”. So, Allah is the one who taught Man what he did not know before. Thus, no Man should say that he “invented” something but rather “discovered” it since “to invent” indicates “to bring into existence”, and Allah is the only Creator, who brings things into existence from nothing, while scientific research only leads to the discovery of things.
Questions by the audience:
– Question: You talked in a previous episode about the repentance of angels. Could you please clarify the nature of this repentance?
– Answer: The repentance of the angels meant that they surrendered to Allah’s will as mentioned in Surat Al-Baqara: “They said: “Glory to Thee, of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom.” (Qur’an 2:32) This was after their question that is mentioned in a prior verse, in the same Surah,: “Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?” He said: “I know what ye know not.” (2:30).
So, the angels, when asked Allah that question, were saying to themselves that: “Allah, SWT, will never favor any of his other creations over us”. Then, when they got alerted, they repented for what they said, which was a question, not actually a wrongdoing. Furthermore, their question was out of their need for clarification and not out of objection to Allah’s will. For example, when we ask: Has the boy passed (the exam)?, this is not a question as much as it is request to clarify, for certain, that the boy has passed.
The angels, thus, were not objecting to Allah’s will, since they are a creation that is, by nature, entirely obedient to Allah; their question was rather a request for clarification based on the mischief and bloodshed that they know the Jinns had done previously on earth. They thought that the purpose of however inhabits earth is to cause mischief and bloodshed.
There are many details in the explanation of this verse, which we might tackle in future episodes.
– Question: One viewer asked about Satan and how he purposely targets and misleads Man after he had seen that Man was a hollow creature whereas Allah is the Eternal and the Absolute.
– Answer: Satan attacks us from every corner as he himself said: “ ’I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires;”(Qur’an 4:119), and we do listen to him, since the sins Man commits are either due to Man’s own desires or due to Satan’s temptation. In spite of the fact that Allah warned us of listening to Satan, who is our enemy “Verily Satan is an enemy to you: so treat him as an enemy” (35:6), we still listen to him everyday and follow what he says although he is not strong, as mentioned in Surah An-Nisa (The Women): “feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan” (4:76)
– Question: What is the wisdom behind the creation of Satan?
– Answer: Satan’s purpose, based on the way he was created, is to mislead Mankind and he fulfills his purpose better than humans fulfill theirs, as mentioned in Surat Al-Hijr: “(Iblis) said: “O my Lord! because Thou hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth, and I will put them all in the wrong,-“(15:39). In other words, while the purpose of Satan’s existence is being fulfilled, the purpose of our existence is not being fulfilled since we are supposed to avoid him and never to follow his footsteps.
If we search the whole Qur’an, we find that Mankind could either be a follower to Allah or a follower to Satan, who was created to tempt and mislead us. This is the wisdom behind the creation of Satan and it is mentioned in the Qur’an in Surat Al-Sajdah (The Prostration): “If We had so willed, We could certainly have brought every soul its true guidance: but the Word from Me will come true, “I will fill Hell with Jinn and men all together.” (32:13) and in Surat Saad: “That I will certainly fill Hell with thee and those that follow thee,- every one.” (38:85).
In this sense, Man has the chance (option) to obey Allah or disobey him. If he sticks to the instructions of the Qur’an and “Sunnah”, he will end up in Paradise, Allah permitting, whereas if he ignores them, he will end up in the Hellfire – against which we seek Allah’s refuge.
When Satan whispers to you to do wrong, there is no angel that whispers to you with the contrary to tell you not to do that thing but there is the Qur’an and “Hadith”. And so our Creed is the base for our survival although, unfortunately, we have misunderstood the Qur’an, “Hadith” and have disobeyed Allah and the prophet, which lead us to the status from which we now suffer.
– Question: You have previously talked about the miraculous numeration system in some verses of the Qur’an. Could you please illustrate on that?
– I mentioned, in a previous episode that verse 13 in Surat Muhammad: “And how many cities, with more power than thy city which has driven thee out, have We destroyed (for their sins)? and there was none to aid them.“(47:13) refers to the 13 years that the prophet had spent in Makkah. Also Surah “Al-Touba (The Repentance) which is the Tenth section of the Qur’an refers to the 10 years the prophet had spent in Al-Madinah. Furthermore, at the end of the 23rd section of the Qur’an, in Surat Az-Zumar (The Groups), verse number 30: “Truly thou wilt die (One day), and truly they (Too) will die (one day) “ refers to the prophet’s death after 23 years of Prophethood.
– Question: How important is it to purify one’s self from urine based on what is mentioned in the following “Hadith”: “Once the Prophet went through the grave-yards of Medina and heard the voices of two humans who were being tortured in their graves. The Prophet said, “They are being punished, but they are not being punished because of a major sin, yet their sins are great. One of them used not to save himself from (being soiled with) the urine, and the other used to go about with gossip. “Then the Prophet asked for a green palm tree leaf and split it into two pieces and placed one piece on each grave, saying, “I hope that their punishment may be abated as long as these pieces of the leaf are not dried.”
– Answer: Urine is impure and since impurity takes Man outside the pure circle of angels to the evil circle of Satan and since Allah honored Man and informed him that the key to Paradise lies in fasting, which makes humans closer to angels, and praying, which starts with “wudu”(ablution), then Man, through continuously purifying himself, could raise himself to the level of the angels for all his life. The prophet (PBUH) once told Bilal that he heard the sound of his footsteps Paradise, and Bilal explained; “I always renew my ablution after every time I break it and I always pray two units every time I renew my ablution.”
The alert Muslim, therefore, should always renew his ablution in order to rise to the level of the angels who stay away from any impurity. Similarly, as the prophet (PBUH) advised us, no person in a state of Janaba (the state between having sexual intercourse and bathing), or any woman during her menstruation period, or during postnatal bleeding should visit a person who is on his deathbed since this will keep the angels away. Also, when Man urinates, he should purify himself with water, then renew his ablution.
– Please, explain this verse number 172 in Surat Al-A’raf: “When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”- They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: “Of this we were never mindful”(7:172).
– Answer: This verse refers to the fact that Allah created Man with the natural instinct of Islam and that during our life in the pre-worldly existence, we all testified that there is no God but Allah, even those who are not Muslims on this earth.
In a medical conference in Cairo in 1985, they explained how the sperm circles the ovum (female reproductive cell) 7 times anti-clock wise, even electrons do this circling activity 7 times anti-clock wise THIS IS NOT TRUE!, exactly the same way we circle the “Kabba” during pilgrimage. This is a proof that any creation, even before it is created, testifies to the Oneness of Allah, as Allah, the Glorious said in Surat Al-Imran: ”Do they seek for other than the Religion of Allah.-while all creatures in the heavens and on earth have, willing or unwilling, bowed to His Will (Accepted Islam), and to Him shall they all be brought back.” (3:83)
In this sense, neither the Muslim nor the non-Muslim, when they wake up every morning, could do anything that Allah does not will to happen; they both surrender to Allah willingly or unwillingly. This leads us to another question, which might require a full episode to discuss, that is: does Man act by freewill or is he destined to do certain things without having the choice? In brief, we could say that Man is given freewill in relation to matters that are related to faith, belief and worship in a way that does not interfere with the Allah’s absolute knowledge that precedes everything and is infinite.
Allah does know whether I will end up in Paradise or in Hellfire but this does not contradict with the fact that I am given the choice to be a believer or a disbeliever. So, Allah’s knowledge is one thing and my freedom to choose is another, although Allah knows, in advance, all the choices that I will make. This caused some confusion for some people. One group said that Man is destined to do certain things in all matters, another group said that Man has freewill in all matters while a third group said that Man is destined in some matters but has freewill in other matters.
– Question: What is the explanation of the “Hadith”: “Allah’s Messenger (PBUH), the truthful and truly-inspired, said, “Each one of you collected in the womb of his mother for forty days, and then turns into a clot for an equal period (of forty days) and turns into a piece of flesh for a similar period (of forty days) and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e., his provision, his age, and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed (in the Hereafter). Then the soul is breathed into him. And by Allah, a person among you (or a man) may do deeds of the people of the Fire till there is only a cubit or an arm-breadth distance between him and the Fire, but then that writing (which Allah has ordered the angel to write) precedes, and he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it; and a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is only a cubit or two between him and Paradise, and then that writing precedes and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it.”?
– Answer: this “Hadith” is the complete version of the “Hadith” which starts with the creation process of Man as we mentioned earlier. The answer is Yes, I, as a human being, do not know whether Allah has written that I will enter Paradise or Hellfire. However, I am greatly honored to know that Allah has written that I would be a Muslim, which logically compels me to be steadfast in my worship and the commandments and avoid the wrongdoing in order to reduce the possibility that I could die while doing this wrongdoing. This “Hadith” is an advise to steadfast on piety and a strong warning to stay away from wrongdoing no matter how trivial Satan makes it seem to us in case we die doing it.
In this sense, the whole matter is in Allah’s hands. Someone who lived all his life in piety, then decided to taste alcohol, for example, and died drinking it, would be considered as if he reneged on all the previous good deeds that he did prior to this.
Allah, also, covers-up those who act wrongly in order to give them a chance to return to him and the path of piety and in order that they would not set a bad example to others. The thief, for instance, is covered-up by Allah so others would not see him and imitate him. This gift (the covering up of the bad deeds) is one of Allah’s gifts for which we should give Glory and thanks to Him as well as for the greatest gift of all: Islam.
– Question: How is Allah established on His throne?
– Answer: What we know is that Allah is established on His throne but we do not know how. In matters like this, which has confused philosophers and scholars, we just have to believe and obey Allah as the prophet taught us without asking how, where and why. Allah’s saying that “His throne was over the waters” has a certain wisdom which is to demonstrate that everything in relation to Allah is finite.
– Question: Is it true that Adam and Moses objected to death when the angel of Death went to them?
– What we learn from the story of both Adam’s and Moses’ death is that all humans fear death although people should like to meet Allah so Allah would like to meet them and that they should prepare in advance for their death.
As for Adam, when he was created, he was shown his future lineage and when he saw David and asked who he was, he was told that he is a prophet in a much later time than his own. Adam then asked how long will David live and he was answered: 60 years. So, Adam asked Allah to make it 100 years. Allah told Adam that Allah could do that if he (Adam) accepts to give the difference (the extra 40 years) out of his own life. This was a test by Allah and Adam accepted. Afterwards, Adam lived 960 years, then the angel of death went to him and Adam asked him: who are you? The angel answered: I am the angel of death. Adam asked: what do you want? The angel said: did not you give David 40 years out of your own life? Adam answered: No, I did not. In this way Adam (PBUH) was ungrateful and so were his children afterwards; he forgot his promise and so did his children who came after him. The lesson we learn from this story is that one should never give a promise and then go back on on it.
As for Moses (PBUH), he poked one eye of the angel of death and said to him: I do not want to die. So, the angel went back to Allah, who ordered the angel to go back to Moses (PBUH) and tell him that Allah orders you to put your hand on the back of a bull and He will increase the years of your life by the number of the hairs which you will touch. Moses (PBUH) asked: “and then what?” The angel answered: “then you die.” Moses answered: Then let me die now.
The lesson we learn from this story is that death is, without doubt, coming to everyone and Man has to prepare himself for it. The prophet (PBUH) said: “Frequently remember the destroyer of all pleasures (death)” and he also said: “whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him”. So, when it was time for the angel of death to go to prophet Muhammad, who understood this reality, believed in the destiny created by Allah and knew how dear he was to Allah, he said: “O people, A slave of Allah was given a choice between this worldly life and meeting Allah, and he chose to meet Allah”. That was when Abou-Bakr understood that the prophet was going to die soon. The fear of death was the reason why Moses did what he did although we cannot say that he hated death. That is why we should learn from the prophet, Muhammad (PBUH), who set a great example by preparing in advance for his death. The Muslim, thus should prepare for his death and believe that death is, without doubt, coming to everyone as Allah said in Surat “Al-Jumu’ah” (Friday): “Say: “The death from which ye flee will truly overtake you:” (62:8).
This Episode was aired on 7/3/2004