Do Muslims really hate Jews?

One of biggest lies that modern Zionism's propaganda promotes is that the Israeli-Arab conflict is based on a conflict of civilizations started by Muslims who are motivated by an historical hatred of Jews and try to eliminate the democratic Jewish state. Another attempt to connect the Palestinian resistance movement to the global Wahhabi terror committed mainly by Al Qaeda, ISIS and other Wahhabi groups that hijack the Islamic name. It appears that the real goal of this propaganda is to be portrayed in the West as the first line of defense for Europe and Western culture against all fanatics from the East, and as the protector for the Middle East’s Christians and Western values. I also believe that Zionists aim by promoting this propaganda to build a psychological fear barrier among the new Israeli generation to keep them suspicious and afraid from breaking the walls with Palestinians, supporting the one democratic secular state or adjacent independent Palestinian state. Unfortunately, it seems they have succeeded to a great extent, as Golda Meir’s quote: "We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." That takes the conflict out of its ethnic cleansing context has become normal in Israeli society.

All of these misleading claims like historical hate or civilization conflict or Arab attempts to throw the Jews into the sea are mainly to maintain a public opinion that resists the Palestinian right of return or equal rights in this land which contradicts the Zionism’s vision of exclusive rights in the land. In fact, what occurred in 1948 is the opposite: tens of thousands of Jaffa inhabitants were forced to flee by sea in 1948. In other words, they were thrown into the sea by Zionists, and until today they have not been allowed to return.

In this article, I will not discuss how Israel aimed to transfer the conflict from nationalism to religion backed, As initially it was an attempt to create a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) that was led by Palestinian Nationalism, left wings and Marxist freedom fighters but not by Islamist, though it ends up with making Islamist the major player in the military resistance . As an example I can refer to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) which was founded by George Habash, a Palestinian Christian who was born in Lydd (today Lod near Tel-aviv) and became a refugee in Jordan after the Zionists expelled almost all of the town's 50,000 Arab residents without any distinction between Christians and Muslims and killed Habash's sister. He, as a Christian, surely hadn’t fought Zionism either because of holding any Islamic beliefs or because of any historical hate between Jews and Muslims.

I also will not discuss the rise of Wahhabi ideology of terror and hatred because it’s not really connected to our context as these groups started to appear as global terror groups only in the 1980s and 1990s. Few decades after Palestinians-Zionist conflict started. I am going to discuss the origin of Wahhabism in a different article but let me mention here the fact that this hatred ideology actually is not only against Jews but towards all non-Wahhabi groups, including Sunni and Shiite Muslims. It’s not a secret that more than 90% of the terror attacks have occurred in Islamic countries like Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and north Africa and more than 90% of their victims have been indeed Muslims.

What I will do in this article is putting things into their real context and refuting the claims referring to some historical events or verses in the Quran as promoting hatred of Jews and as the reason for the rise of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world ---even though this is a misleading term as Arabs are also a Semitic race! I could argue that the rise in anti-Semitism is a result of the lack of distinction between Zionism and Judaism in mainstream media. At least that was my personal case when I was a kid, as both terms Zionism and Judaism appear always together in the Arabic media. I think the source of this lack of distinction is that Zionist propaganda itself is based on promoting Zionists as the representatives of Jews, hijacking their name and their symbols like the star of David and other biblical symbols. The fact that most Jews are not Zionists and most Zionists are not Jews is completely ignored in mainstream media, including the Arabic media.

Does the Quran really promote hatred against Jews?

Accusing the Quran of promoting the hatred of Jews by misquoting and taking verses out of their context is a completely absurd claim that is used to hide the original conflict context of ethnic cleansing ideology. There are some Muslim groups that use it to gain more political power in the internal political map by accusing the other party of not following the Quran’s teachings. Any objective reading of the Quran in its original Arabic script while being aware of the time and place context will lead immediately to the conclusion that the Quran is completely a love and justice message from God to the whole of mankind. Let me refer to the TED talk of Lesley Hazleton, An agnostic Jew that reads the Quran :

Another example for the Justice message that the Quran promoting are the verses that reprimand Muhammad of being little inclined to false Muslim alibi and clearing a Jewish man from stealing accusation which I refer to it in my other article “Is The Quran Authored By Muhammad or From God?” And the story of Jewish man said "God is poor, and we are rich." Which I refer to it in my other article “Killing In The Name of Defending The Prophet”

A common claim promoted by some Muslim groups that I personally hear it many times in TV programs is that the prophet requires the expulsion of the Jews and Christians from Arabia. This  refers to one oral hadith that seems to be unauthentic or misquoted as it contradicts Quran's teaching itself. It's enough to ask the very simple question why neither He nor his companions or Rashidun Caliphate who followed him did that? They even did the opposite and guaranteed the freedom of worship to all communities. Jewish and Christian communities do exist in all history in Arabia and even up to today in Yemen, the south of Arabia. According to Islamic laws we should give priority for Quran over oral Hadith and to discredit the oral Hadith that contradicts with the Quran core teaching.

Another verse that was abused to serve that claim is 6:82. You will find that the people most hostile towards the believers are the Jews and the polytheists. And you will find that the nearest in affection towards the believers are those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks, and they are not arrogant. 6:83. And when they hear what was revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears, as they recognize the truth in it. They say, "Our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses." These verses were revealed in a narrow context, reading the whole chapter will point out that they also refer to specific Jewish communities near Madina; what these verses tell is that Christians near Madina were more kind to Muslims than Jews and polytheist- Arabs because they had less ego and were not arrogant, which made them more open to the newborn community. Trying to generalize this beyond that time and place is irrelevant. For example, the Crusaders were Christians but they were not kind to anyone and they were highly arrogant. In addition, after the revelation of these verses no action was taken against any Jewish community as these verses only have an informative context that does not call to any action. All reference to hatred in the Quran are based on actions and not towards people. In other words, hate the wrong action or the but not the wrongdoer who could later regret what he did and be forgiven by God. Misquoting, adding false interpretation that contradicts the behavior of the Prophet himself and totally ignoring verses that complement all believers regardless of their label like (2:62) "Those who believe, and those who are Jewish, and the Christians, and the Sabeans-any who believe in God and the Last Day, and act righteously-will have their reward with their Lord; they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve". Or verses like (3:64). Say, "O People of the Book (Jews and Christians), come to a level word between us and you: that we worship none but God, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that none of us takes others as lords besides God." And if they turn away, say, "Bear witness that we have submitted." Which called to unity between all Abrahamic religions under the monotheistic terms, or the Qur'anic term “level word” are completely an abuse of the Quran verses.

Add to that that it’s ironic to claim that the Quran promotes hate against Jews or Christian while the Islamic laws do allow the Muslim man to marry Jewish or Christian woman and force him to allow his wife to practise her religion in his house in case she choose to stay on it. Would it make sense for anybody to marry a woman that he had to hate and yet to allow her to practise her religion freely?

The REAL roots of the conflict

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 3013 from 1973 States:

“The struggles of people under colonial and alien determination and racist regimes for the implementation of their right to self-determination and independence is legitimate and in full accordance with the principles of international law.”

Palestinian resistance is not only in full accordance with the principles of international law, but also in full accordance with all basic human rights and all Abrahamic religions teaching including Islam, as the Quran states:  42: 39. And those who, when wronged, defend themselves. 40. The repayment of a bad action is one equivalent to it. But whoever pardons and makes reconciliation, his reward lies with God. He does not love the unjust.

A good lecture I recommended for who want to know the real roots of Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “Beyond Zionism” by Miko Peled; the author of the son of General!

The concept of fighting in Islam

When Islam was pure religion without a political entity(13 years of Meccan period) fighting was totally prohibited even in case of self-defense as Islam was a faith only without laws or regulations. Fighting was allowed only in Medina period(10 years followed the 13 of Meccan) when Islam became a political entity and there was a need to regulate political and social issues. In that period Islam start regulating everything from relations between communities (see constitution of madina) to defense policies and war laws. In the case of fighting it was allowed only in narrow circumstances and only allowed fighting back but totally prohibit killing or betraying.we can see that in the context of 22:39 which is the first verse that permitted fighting in Islam. 22:38 Indeed, God defends those who have believed. Indeed, God does not like everyone treacherous and ungrateful.22:39 Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, God is competent to give them victory. 22:40 [They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only because they say, "Our Lord is God ." And were it not that God checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of God is much mentioned. And God will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, God is Powerful and Exalted in Might.22:41 [And they are] those who,when We empower them in the land, establish prayer and give regular charity and command what is right and forbid what is wrong. And to God belongs the outcome of [all] matters. In other words fight should be in the context of a battle and the context of self-defense or fighting back and your rival should be fully aware of that. Attacks against civilians and targeting non-fighters like women or children or even fighters not in battle context are cowardly, outrageous acts that can’t be justified under any term of Islamic laws.  

And again the Quran never generalize the fight to the whole group but restrict it the small one that act against you as Quran states 17:15 No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another.  As we can also see that in the context of the polytheist-Arabs who were fighting against the new born community 60:8. As for those who have not fought against you for your religion, nor expelled you from your homes, God does not prohibit you from dealing with them kindly and equitably. God loves the equitable. 9. But God prohibits you from befriending those who fought against you over your religion, and expelled you from your homes, and aided in your expulsion. Whoever takes them for friends-these are the wrongdoers.

Abusing the permission of fighting by manipulation of terms

You may have heard different versions used by minority groups in the Palestinian side to justify violence acts against all Israelis, such as the claim we are in an open battle with Israel, and military service in Israel is mandatory for both men and women so there is no thing called Israeli civilian, everyone is either an active or reserve soldier. For me such claims are a misleading by manipulation of terms. My message for all Palestinians is that look who is your example when you fight, Zionists of the 1940s are not our example and it makes no sense to fight them using their own 1940s terror tactics thus we become equal. And if we are equal then what is the point of fighting? Add to that not all Israelis consider themselves in open battle with Palestinians and we can’t take position in their behalf, In fact many of them either reject the Zionism in case of the orthodox Jews or redefine it far from it’s ethnic cleansing roots in case of the left wings secular Jews, and yet many of them are advocate Palestinian rights, including the right of return more than the Palestinian’s leaders themselves. The open battle concept might be true for some right-wing Zionist settlers who live in private Palestinian lands and those who are continuously attack Palestinians and Palestinian properties in west-bank to “inherit” their lands but surely can’t be applicable to all Israelis and surely can’t be regardless of specific time and place.

Even those who label themselve with “Zionism” can’t be automatically defined as enemies as the Zionism term itself has also become an ambiguous one as the many of the new Israeli generations who define themselves as Zionists are totally unaware of the ethnic cleansing based roots of Zionism. They simply hear a different narrative which I discussed in my other article, "Voiding the Israeli-Zionist narrative" and they have been brainwashed to adopt the Zionist ideology without being aware what it is. There are groups who still define the Zionism as its roots, and they still practice and promote the racist ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories and calling to transfer Palestinians to Jordan and to “clean” the land. Yes these groups are in power and part of the current government but many have also re-defined Zionism as the love of "birthplace" and defending Jewish values and calling to end the occupation of the west bank.

An example of the “ambiguity” of this term happened in the last Knesset elections  when the "Jewish Home" party led by the extremist Zionist Naftali Bennett accused the "Zionist Union" party of misleading others by calling themselves Zionist while they accept two state solutions which, according to him, is against Zionist values. The "Zionist Union" party responded by accusing the "Jewish Home" party of misleading others by calling themselves "Jewish home" while promoting racism and ethnic supremacy in the West Bank, which is against Jewish values, and claiming that their values were the true Zionism values.

     

My last advice to my Palestinian-Muslims. We already have lost our lands and lives of dear people but let us not lose our moral, It’s our right to resist Zionism and racism but let us choose the better way and investigate well the means. The end justifies the means has never been part of our culture and should never been our value. I would prefer to lose my land, properties and even my life than carrying iniquity against others or attacking somebody just because of his label or committing any wrongs in the name of the resistance, as God describes those who come to Judgement day carrying iniquity as complete failure. Being a “loser” in this worldly life is way better than being a loser in the hereafter!

20:111. (All) faces shall be humbled before - the Ever Living, the Self-Subsisting(In the Judgement day); hopeless (complete failure) indeed will be the man that carries iniquity 20:112. But he who works deeds of righteousness, and has faith, will have no fear of harm nor of any curtailment (of his reward).

Roots of tolerance and cooperation

There are definitely no historic roots to any conflict between Arabs and Jews beyond the last century. As prior to the rise of Zionism, Jews lived in large communities in all of the Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Palestine itself, without the fear of any Holocaust like their brothers in Europe. But instead of continuing validating or invalidating controversial narrations, in an argument that will never end, I will refer to historical facts that will make it clear to you which version was the authentic and which was not. I will only refer to the last 14 centuries only even though the roots of cooperation are much deeper in history: I could start with Moses time who indeed was married to an Arab woman from Midian or with Abraham, the father of two nations but that makes no sense in our context.

* In 622 AD, immediately after the Prophet immigrated to Medina, he ordered the constitution of Medina. The constitution starts with a declaration that all of the inhabitants of Medina, including non-Muslims and 8 Jewish tribes are one nation and should not show any hostility towards others. see the full version in the website  http://www.constitutionofmadina.com/ , As a summary it declares that non-Muslim are members and the Jews will have the same political and cultural rights as Muslims. They will have autonomy and freedom of religion and all of them will take up arms against the enemy of the nation and share the cost of war. There is to be no treachery between the Muslims and non-Muslims of Medina.

* In 637 AD, immediately after Patriarch Sophronius agreed to surrender and submit Jerusalem Umar, he entered Jerusalem and announced the Umar’s Assurance to the People of Jerusalem in which he gave them an assurance of safety and security for their property and churches, and ensured freedom of worship for all including Jews. This ended 500 years of oppressive Byzantine rule, where Jews were not allowed to worship inside Jerusalem. The Jewish Community flourished in Jerusalem until the time of the Crusaders, when Jews and Muslims fought together and they also lost together with the fall of Jerusalem and suffered together the brutality of the Crusaders who killed more than 30000 and burned the synagogue of Jerusalem which was used as shelter.

* In 711 AD, the conquest of Hispania (Spain) took place and some historians refer to it as Jewish-Umayyad allies against the Visigothic Kingdom. This claim is not historically validated and few resources refer to the fact Umayyad Caliph refused to send an army to Spain as it was not under Byzantine rule and posed no threat on him but later accepted after getting calls from Jews asking for help against the Visigothic's persecution laws. But either way what is sure is that the Umayyad army that entered Spain got huge support from both local Christians who followed a different church than the official one and were persecuted because of that and from local Jews who suffered from harsh laws passed by King Sisebut and later in 694 were enslaved by citing them with conspiracy. During the 700 years of Umayyad’s rule of Spain which in general was tolerant to all communities, the Jewish community flourished there and this period is described as the golden age of Jewish culture. Later in 1492 AD, again as with the case of Crusaders, Muslims and Jews lost and faced the same fate together. Both were given the choice to convert to Christianity or to leave and those who refused were later expelled to North Africa, where Jewish communities continued to flourish until the last century with the establishment of Israel while their brothers in Europe faced antisemitism and later the terrible Holocaust. A good documentary about this period is "When the Moors Ruled Europe"

* In 1187 AD, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem. Upon the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle again in the city after they were prohibited by the Crusaders. In particular, the residents of Ashkelon, a large Jewish settlement, responded to his request and moved to Jerusalem.

My Last call

I can go on and on and provide more examples but I think my point is clear now. This article aimed to put things in their real context and to emphasis that it could be better as it was before. The walls of fear and distrust that were built between the two communities just to serve the political views of extremist should fall. Those extremists who manipulate terms and historical events to serve their agenda of having exclusive rights in this land without any consideration for the people who will lose should not be given the stage. From my deep knowledge of Palestinian society, I can say with full assurance that the Palestinian resistance which was started by refugees would end with their return! Any other solution that doesn't give them this basic right while giving the right of return to Jews who can't even trace their ancestors to the ancient Hebrew is racist, unacceptable and would keep this conflict running on.

Even if we use the same absurd logic of historical rights using the same source, the Bible; Jerusalem was built and inhabited by Jebusites before it had been conquered by King David. So the modern Palestinians, who like other Levant inhabitants are a mixed race of Jebusites, Canaanites, Ghassanids and Adnanite-Arabs, could have a stronger claim of historical rights as they were the ones who built Jerusalem according to the Bible. The lie of historical roots of the conflict is clearly to justify the ethnic cleansing act and prevent any consideration in the Israeli society to accept a nearby Palestinian state or the one democratic state solution between the river and the sea. Answers like, "Can you trust them? They hate us!" or "How could we give land to Arabs, our historical enemies?" are a direct result of the last few decades of hate spreading but decades of conflict can't hide centuries of cooperation. 

Continuing to build these walls and to increase the hatred will lead to a huge conflict that will eventually result in one pure ethnic state between the Jordanian River and Mediterranean Sea. I am afraid of how many people will die if this continues. And what ethnicity would it be? The middle east nowadays is not the same as 1940s, any try to make a 2nd ethnic cleansing round is a huge risky bet. For that reason I could argue that Ultra-Zionism is the real enemy of the Jews as it is insane to take this risky bet on the behalf of a whole nation. .

Why would God, who needs nothing, create us to worship him?

Not a human being has run through this busy life without asking these basic questions: For what? From where and to where am I going? What is the point of this short life which is filled with pain and calamities and then followed by death?

These are very simple but critical questions. The answers are found inside us yet many fail to remove the veil from their hearts and cheat themselves with excuses such as, “our life is short and we live only once so let’s makes it perfect and enjoy our time instead of researching such metaphysical topics”.

Yet, any attempt to make this life perfect and pain-free would fail! It may actually even result in the opposite. We find many examples of people who tried to make their life perfect by working hard to succeed in business and making money. However, at the end they end up having a miserable life. When stupor of death comes, a moment that you can’t avoid, they will realize the truth that time has “consumed” them without giving them the space to look for the point of this life.

You may have tried to find the answer to “why did God create us?“ from faithful followers of the monotheistic religions and received replies like the following:

God creates us in love.  He loves us and gives us, out of his love, with provision…

But yet, if He loves us, why are we facing pain and suffering here on earth?

They will answer, “God creates us to test us, whom doing well will go to Paradise and whom doing evil will go to Hell”.

But yet, isn’t God omniscient? That means he already knows the outcome of this test. So again, what is the point of this test? How could a Merciful and Compassion God create a Hell to punish the people that he loves?

They would answer, “Actually God created us for Paradise without the purpose of being suffered or punished in the Hell but we are here because of Adam’s sin.

But yet, isn’t God just and fair? Why would He punish us for Adam’s sin which is not our fault? A fair God should grant each one of us a perfect pain free life and let only the sinners suffer!

They would answer, “It’s not the main point. He actually created us so we would worship him and do what he commands us”.

But yet, what is the point of worshipping God? Isn’t God perfect and neither needs us nor gets benefits from our worshipping or prayers? Why does He command us to do good deeds, give to charity and feed the poor while He can provide them from his grace? Isn’t he the provider?

There are many books that discuss the topics surrounding the purpose of creation and the relationship between human and the Divine. I will refer to some of these books throughout this article. I will quote from the work of Ibn Arabi and the work of Prof. Jeffrey Lang and will provide concise answers from the religion of Abraham. The message that started as a covenant to Adam, defined as religion by Abraham, enhanced with life laws by Moses, renovated by Jesus and lastly, perfected by Muhammad peace be upon all of them.

In the famous divine saying hadith, God said: “I was a hidden treasure; I loved to be known. Hence I created the world so that I would be known. ”

Ibn Arabi (the words for prof. William C. Chittick) elaborates this by focusing upon Wujûd, that is, being, existence, or that which is found. Wujûd is the Real (al-haqq), which is another name for God. In itself, wujûd is concealed. In other words, it is the Hidden Treasure. However, wujûd loved to be known, so it created the universe in order to be known. Those who know wujûd in a full sense are true human beings, or Perfect Man. But people cannot know wujûd unless wujûd makes itself known to them. It makes itself known by manifesting itself in three basic ways: through the universe, through the self, and through scripture. Scripture, the Qur'an in particular, is the key that opens the door to the universe and the self. Unless Muslims have recourse to the Qur'an, they cannot know the universe and themselves. And unless they know themselves, they cannot know God. Ibn Arabi frequently reminds us of the Prophet's words, 'He who knows himself knows his Lord.' It follows that he who does not know himself does not know his Lord. Some scholars refer to the relationship between the Prophet, the Quran and the universe in the say: The universe is a silent Qur'an , and the Qur'an is a speaking universe and the Prophet is a walking Qur'an!.

Looking at the Qur'an, we find that one of the most significant realities for understanding the nature of human beings, and therefore the reality of God Himself, is love.

Love has many similarities with wujûd. For example, like wujûd, it cannot be defined. A person recognizes love when it abides within him and when it is his own attribute. He does not know what it is, but he does not deny its existence.

Ibn Arabi calls love 'a knowledge of tasting', which is to say that people cannot know love until they have tasted it and experienced it in themselves. But, even then, they cannot explain it to others. As he says, 'he who defines love has not known it, and he who has not tasted it by drinking it down has not known it'

Ibn Arabi often states that the world was originated from absolute mercy and to mercy it shall return; any pain or wretchedness is therefore temporal and apparent.

In the first Sura of the Quran, Allah begins by saying: 'In the name of Allah, the all-Merciful, the ever-Merciful, Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the all-Merciful, the ever-Merciful'. Commenting on this verse Ibn Arabi affirms that since Allah mentioned His two names the all-Merciful and the ever-Merciful (ar-Rahmān, ar-Rahīm) before and after mentioning the worlds, this certainly implies that the worlds, or the creation, emanated from His Mercy and will also conclude with His Mercy. And elsewhere in the Quran, Allah says “My Mercy has indeed covered everything” (7:156).

The difference between ar-Rahmān and ar-Rahīm, the all-Merciful and the ever-Merciful, is not very clear, and these terms are normally translated in various ways, such as the Compassionate, the Beneficent, the Gracious and the Merciful. Ibn Arabi says that the mercy of the ever-Merciful (ar-Rahīm) is a pure mercy, whereas the mercy of the all-Merciful (ar-Rahmān) may incorporate some pain or suffering, just like the medicine that may have a bitter taste but brings benefit to the one who takes it so as to cure some disease. Wrath or anger is also out of His love and mercy. If His love or mercy did not exist, He would not care at all. It is like a father who becomes angry with his son when he does something wrong, because he has care and concern for his son and his entire family, because he wants his son to correct his behavior and set a lesson for other children not to copy that wrong act.

Conditional and unconditional divine love

Although God loves human beings unconditionally, He also loves them conditionally. In the first case, He loves everyone without exception and, in fact, He loves everything in the universe, because He created everything beautiful, and He loves beauty. God certainly does love you, but this gives you no advantage over rocks and toads, because He loves everything. Advantage and disadvantage, gain and loss, happiness and misery – these enter the picture only in terms of the second sort of love, which depends on your own recognition of your love for God. As long as you think you love others, you will not be able to actualize true love and true happiness.

The door to God's conditional love can open up only when people have understood the principle of divine unity, the fact that there is no beloved but God. At this point they need to focus on the real object of their love. Achieving focus is not possible without the assistance of the almighty Beloved; for He is far beyond human ability to comprehend what He wants without His explicit instructions. Hence people must have recourse to the help that He has given in the form of prophecy and scripture. In other words, the road to actualize love for God and make oneself worthy for His conditional love is to follow His guidance. The connection between love and following is made explicit in the commonly cited Quranic verse about love: 'Say [O Muhammad!]: "If you love God, follow me; God will love you"' (3:31).

When we put this verse aside with "He loves them, and they love Him" (5:54) the picture is clear: God loves you unconditionally, and the fruit of His love for you is that you exist and you love Him. Your existence, however, does not guarantee the ultimate well-being of your soul, for He loves those in hell just as He loves those in paradise. You need to acknowledge and realize your actual situation as a lover. You must accept what is expected of any lover, which is to submit to the wishes of your beloved. What God wants from you is defined by the Sunna of the Prophet. That's why the religion of God is called "Islam", which is the Arabic word of submission, and the name Abraham gives to the believers. 2:132  Abraham exhorted his sons, and Jacob, "O my sons, God has chosen this religion for you, so do not die unless you have submitted” ( the Arabic translation is “unless you become Muslims”).

The essential role of the Prophet as intermediary explains the literature on love, whom Ibn Arabi describes as the greatest beloved of God and the greatest lover of God.

In one passage, Ibn Arabi summarizes the difference between God's unconditional and conditional love in terms of the human reception of divine blessings. These blessings come in the form of existence and all that it entails. He points out that God bestows blessings in two ways: in an unqualified manner, that is, without anything expected from His creatures in return; and in a qualified way, that is, on condition that people follow divine guidance. He warns the seeker not to accept whatever God offers by way of creation, only what comes by the intermediary of the Prophet.

How this world serves the purpose to experience the Divine love?

In his lecture, Dr Lang who turned to atheism after failing to find satisfying answers for the purpose of this world speaks about his own experience of reading the Qur'an. He derived the answer to “Why would a merciful, almighty God, who needs nothing, create us and cause us to suffer and yet commands us to worship him especially, since He has angels who do so and they do so flawlessly?”. What makes this lecture unique is that it isn’t based on deep metaphysics or knowledge of taste like the works of Ibn Arabi, but based on logic. As a professor of mathematics, he has the logic of his trade. His story is honest, at times painful, and one of the most gratifying explanations of why we are here.

Dr Lang starts by showing the 3 basic principles that the Qur'an emphasizes on human being from the story of Adam’s sin: The intellect, the choice and the suffering. He explains in great detail how these three things play an essential role in the development of the human being to gain and develop the essential characteristics required to be able to experience the divine love. The love that angels, who don’t possess intellect or freedom of choice, would ever experience.He concludes that this worldly life is simply another stage among other stages started before and will continue towards the al-insān al-kāmil (the perfect man) as Ibn Arabi described in his book “The Seals of Wisdom”.

He points out that in order for a relationship to develop, the two parties must have some common ground. The greater the common ground, the stronger will be the resulting bond and relationship. Describing different levels of relationship, he offers the example of his own relationship with his goldfish, his dog and his daughter. With increasing common ground at each higher level, the bond gets stronger. The primitive goldfish won’t be able to enjoy her owner’s love and compassion as his dog, and surely his daughter is more capable to experience that of his dog. The more you “develop” a common ground with God, the more you will be able to know Him and experience His closeness and Love. The only possibility of such common ground, between humans and God, lies in the moral dimension i.e. the adjectival nouns or attributes of God, e.g. mercy, truth, care, compassion, benevolence, guidance, peace, love, etc (the ~99 most beautiful names of God mentioned in the Qur’an). By cultivating these attributes in our own personalities, we can bring ourselves closer to God. Thus, according to Dr. Lang, we are placed here on earth to grow in our moral dimension. We are not finished products yet, but are rather work-in-progress creatures. In that sense, we can more appropriately be called human-becomings rather than human-beings. Once developed, this moral dimension will be the necessary common ground between God and us, for an eternal relationship of love and friendship. The final product of this process would be the best of the creatures – al-insān al-kāmil (the perfect man)

In his talk, he spoke about his personal experience as an atheist who read the Quran trying to figure out the link between humans and God and why humans and not angels. He starts by stating the things that God likes and how they correlate with the 3 concepts of intellect, freedom of choice and suffering. He goes further by talking about the point of God’s commands to be merciful, forgiving, charitable and doing good deeds. As previously stated, developing characteristics that God attributes to him will make you feel more close to God whom you have “something” in common with. When you possess these attributes, you actually “share” with God some of the attributes that he is the infinite source of. God describes himself as “the ever-merciful, ever-forgiving, ever-provider, and ever generous.  Add to that, doing good deeds makes you miss the meeting with God and wait for it in joy. You are going to meet God, whether you want to or not or whether you believe in Him or not. God liked to meet you, even before you were born, as he breathed something from his spirit into you as the Qur'an tells us. But, He also wants you to be well-equipped for that meeting and to look forward to meet him and to rush into him with love and happiness. Take the example of two kids where one succeeded and the other failed a final exam. The one who succeeded will run to his home in excitement to meet his family because he knows he achieved something his parents will like. The child who failed, on the other hand, will try to avoid the meeting with his parents.

By the end of his talk, Dr. Lang states how our life in this world serves the purpose to develop to the level being able to experience the Divine love. Why didn’t God simply create us like the Angels? Or, why didn’t He create us merciful, forgiving and able to do good deeds only? He states that these 3 things: the Intellect, freedom of choice and suffering are a must to develop these qualities! You can’t be truly merciful or truthful if you haven’t the freedom of choice. We can’t say the X-ray machine is merciful because it can diagnose diseases, or this computer is truthful! without freedom of choice you can’t be merciful or truthful simply because you are programmed to be so. The intellect and freedom of choice is what truly makes the mankind “supreme”, even to angels, who could never experience the divine love and closeness as a mankind can! Only in the presence of these three necessary ingredients, we have a chance of moral growth. That makes suffering, at least in theory, an opportunity rather than a nuisance. The quantity of suffering one is subjected to, however, depends upon many different factors, not all of which we can understand completely. But like a good teacher, who wants the student to learn and grow, always gives assignments, just above the current caliber of the student – enough to challenge but not too much to frustrate – the extremely difficult lives of the chosen messengers and prophets of God, like Muhammad, Jesus, Abraham, Job, Joseph, etc, makes perfect sense.

So, the question now becomes: Is this the best of the worlds that God could create to its purpose? Most people, who think that this world is not the best of the worlds that all-loving all-powerful God could create, mistakenly presume that the purpose of this world is for us to be comfortable and have fun. That is confusing earth with heaven – we’re not there yet. But if we understand the purpose of this world to be a learning academy – a place where we can grow, morally and intellectually – then the verdict might be different. We humans learn from our experiences, and the choices we make and make this learning experience positive or negative.

So far we have discussed what links us to God, what the purpose of creating mankind was and what the point of obeying God’s commands are. But, if all is about love then what is the point of reward and punishment, and what is the point of creating Paradise and Hell?

Dr Lang has answered the question of why God created Paradise and Hell and why He frequently states a terrific description of life in hell (fire) and the wonderful description of life at paradise (Janna) at the conclusion of his talk, but here I want to give a different perspective of it.

God refers to the Qur'an as “guidance to all mankind”. For that purpose, the Qur'an talks to all types of people with a message to motivate them not to stray from the right path. God said: “God intends to redeem you, but those who follow their desires want you to turn away utterly. God intends to lighten your burden, for the human being was created weak” (4:27, 28). Mankind in general is weak and requires motivation especially in the first steps to God’s path.  Different people get motivated by different things. Almost everything we do in life is motivated by fear, love or to gain something.

One could pursue academic studies because of fear from poverty and being jobless without a degree. Others could be motivated by the social status of an academic degree and others may be motivated simply because of the love of studying.

The Quran provides us with a terrifying image of Hell and a wonderful description of Paradise. In addition, a “transcript” of a conversation between the people of Paradise and those in Hell that the Qur'an states are all serving as motivation in terms of “fear” and “gain”.

We can also see in the Qur'an a “threat” for people doing bad deeds that their punishment would be that God won’t talk to them! This is for the person who is motivated by love since only those people will feel how painful it is to be “filtered” by your beloved who refuses to talk to you. People who got motivated by fear or by gain would not even consider this as a punishment but those motivated by love would consider that God turned away from them as a severe punishment, one that is worse than abiding in Hell. But God wants His redemption to reach all kinds of people, not just the honorable ones.

These 3 concepts are repeated in Qur'an in many commands or alerts of doing some deeds. For example, the Quran says “Those who conceal what God revealed in the Book, and exchange it for a small price-those swallow nothing but fire into their bellies. And God will not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them, and they will have a painful punishment. It is they who exchange guidance for error, and forgiveness for punishment. But why do they insist on the Fire?” (2:174).

For those who get motivated by love will find that God will not speak to them. This is the motivation to not disobey God’s commands to reveal his Book to all. Those who are motivated by gain will consider the loss of being purified as the motivation, and the people who get motivated by fear will find having a painful punishment as the motivation.

These three types of motivations will accompany you throughout your entire journey to God. In a moment of weakness or laziness, gain and fear will motivate you to do the deeds God commands you to do and to avoid what God forbids so eventually you will develop the complete love relationship with God, which is the real purpose.

It is important not to get attached to Paradise and consider it as the destination of your journey. God is the destination, and the paradise is a gift from Him. Imagine a king who gives gifts to all his visitors and afterwards he sees that one of them is getting too attached to that gift to the level that he is unaware of the presence of the king or the meeting with the king.

Yes, the paradise is a great reward. God describes it as “I have prepared for My pious servants which no eye (has ever) seen, no ear has (ever) heard and no human heart has ever perceived”.

Lets look at another verse which promises even more:

“For those who have done good is the best (reward, i.e. Paradise) and even more” (10:26).

Scholars say that "and even more" is to look at the Honorable Face of Allah referring to the verse that confirms that “Some faces that Day shall be radiant. Looking towards their Lord. And other faces on that Day will be gloomy”. (75: 22 - 24).

It is narrated in the relic that the one who looks at the Honorable Face of Allah will faint for 50.000 years out of ecstasy. This is the real destination that you should pursue – God, not Paradise. If you truly love God then ask yourself if you would still be worshiping and obeying Him if he neither created Hell nor Paradise.

The path to Ihsan

Whether you aware of that or not, you are following a path. You should know that your ultimate happiness or ultimate misery is based upon this path. For that God gives us the intellect. To examine, question and ponder.

If you were to obey most of those on earth, they would divert you from God's path. They follow nothing but assumptions, and they only conjecture. (6:116)

Nowadays stray ideologies and power people who benefit from spreading corruption and blasphemy are commonplace. add to that many stray schools inside the religious groups themselves that distort God's message and teach the opposite, hate and enmity instead of love and peace. But still as long as you possess intellect, you have no excuse to follow anyone without examination and investigation, In the Quran God has repeatedly condemns blind following without knowledge and examination, For example: 

2:166-170 Those who were followed will then disown those who followed them, and they will see the retribution, and ties between them will be severed. 167. Those who followed will say, "If only we can have another chance, we will disown them, as they disowned us." Thus God will show them their deeds, as regrets to them, and they will not come out of the Fire. 168. O people! Eat of what is lawful and good on earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. He is to you an open enemy. 169. He commands you to do evil and vice, and to say about God what you do not know. 170. And when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We will follow what we found our ancestors following." Even if their ancestors understood nothing, and were not guided?

As the Prophet said, this religion is divided into 3 dimensions: Islam (submission), Iman (faith) and Ihsan (sincerity) and each of these consist of sha’bs (degrees). The lower level (Islam) is basically about the rituals, in other words the body or the physical worshiping. The higher level (Iman) is the inner worshiping, described by the Prophet as what takes root in the heart and shows in one’s actions. The highest level (Ihsan) is about sincerity and witnessing God, as the prophet defines the level of Ihsan to worship God as if you see him, but if you cannot see him, be sure that he is constantly watching over you. In other words, you always feel His presence! This is the level in which you taste the vicinity heavens of God here on Earth.

There is a big difference between practicing the rituals and being a believer with true faith. We can see this in the example when the Arab tribe came to the prophet which was mentioned in the Quran, “The Desert-Arabs say, "We have believed." Say, "You have not believed; but say, 'We have submitted (become Muslims),' for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. But if you obey God and His Messenger, He will not diminish any of your deeds. God is Forgiving and Merciful" (49:14). “The believers are those who believe in God and His Messenger, and then have not doubted, and strive for God's cause with their wealth and their persons. These are the sincere” (49:15).

The Sufism or the Tariqa is one path to Ihsan, which scholars consider the shortest path. You enjoy an accompanied guide, who spiritually leads you just as the Prophet lead his companions and you will enjoy a company of the Mureeds that will help you pass the first stages which require many struggle and striving. There are many Tariqas but all of them lead to the same target and have the same entry, which is self-control, striving, and being grateful. Restraining your soul from lower desires, such as anger and love of money and striving in the cause of Allah is the essence to get purified and to gain the required qualities we discussed in this article  to enter the Hadra of God. These qualities are repeated over and over again in the verses of the Quran, such as:

“And race towards forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous. Those who give in prosperity and adversity, and those who restrain anger, and those who forgive people. God loves the doers of good. And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember God and ask forgiveness for their sins-and who forgives sins except God? And they do not persist in their wrongdoing while they know” (3:133-135).

“Repel evil with good, and the person who was your enemy becomes like an intimate friend. But none will attain it except those who persevere, and none will attain it except the very fortunate. When a temptation from the Devil provokes you, seek refuge in God; He is the Hearer, the Knower” (41:34-36).

Yes, it’s not easy to treat your enemy as he is your intimate friend. You are building the qualities of being merciful and forgiving. Look around and see how God is giving from His grace even to ungrateful people who don’t believe in Him. Remember that the key to enter the Hadra of God and being close to Him is to attain the qualities that He has and urges you to grow.

Almighty God is A’ziz and because of that He accepts only the pure and He reveals his lights and shares His secrets to pure and sincere servants only. The hard striving at the beginning is a must if you want to be purified because those qualities become your routine and you become purified. Once your actions and deeds become out of sincerity and not just striving, then you will actually be on the level of Ihsan. It seems hard, but don’t worry, He won’t leave you alone -

“And those who strive in our (cause) –we will certainly guide them to our paths” (29:96).  

Yes, the first step is yours, but the next step is Him. Strive in restraining your desires and let Him purify and guide you to His light, the ultimate truth. He is generous and waiting patiently for you to turn your face to him and to knock on His Hadra’s door and He won’t leave you alone as God says: “Surely, those who say: "Our Lord is God," and then go straight, the angels will descend upon them: "Do not fear, and do not grieve, but rejoice in the news of the Garden which you were promised. We are your allies in this life and in the Hereafter, wherein you will have whatever your souls desire, and you will have therein whatever you call for. As Hospitality from an All-Forgiving, Merciful One" (41:30).

Yes, you will be able to physically see these Angels and even more if God removes the veil from your heart and permits you to enter His Hadra.

The 7 obstacles faces the wayfarer to God (30 Episodes with English subtitles)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoIHYx0vytqhnmnblm8jgjrsAh5PWQVhG

Rituals of Islam vs the basic needs of mankind - Purpose of Man's Existence

Lesson(01-36):

http://nabulsi.com/en/art.php?art=10595

Lesson (02-36):

http://nabulsi.com/en/art.php?art=11416