With the holy month of Ramadhan going on, let us loosen up some time and take a break from routine to re-calibrate our life. Moreover, taking a break can sometimes lead to great breakthroughs. Ramadhan is a training period to perfect us for the remaining eleven months much as probation to a new appointee.
We are trained for self restraint, patience, charity-giving, self accountability and devotion to God. Other than that, it is enshrined with two marvelous gifts viz; the night of destiny – laylatul qadr and an incredible course instructor – the glorious Quran. Open its chapter 55 and read the four peak-attributes to the creator and his creation.
Firstly, God refers to Himself as the most compassionate who taught Quran. Then, He refers to having created humanity and bestowing it with power of speech. Thus four things are set on a pinnacle; God as the most gracious, Quran as the best knowledge, human as the best creation, and speech as the best of his abilities.
Though compassion, love and mercy are quite humanly virtues as well, why should God claim the copyright alone? Well, this is for consistency in the flow of His mercy and being independent of who the recipient is. With humans, this is not possible.
He has a consistently kind and forgiving attitude towards His creation over whom He has the power to harm or right to punish. We float in the limitless expanse of cosmos as He sets a mathematical condition valid to nullify gravity. Then He also keeps preventing many unpleasant things to happen to us and every time we are saved, we say “Thank God”.
We keep saying it a million times in our lifetime, though we are unmindful of Him. His mercy takes many forms and embraces all things. We keep sinning, He keeps forgiving. There is a hadith stating God would replace sinless people with those who sinned but then asked repentance. We keep disobeying. He lets it go. We do the turbulence.
He does the streamline. We keep destructing. He keeps constructing. We keep polluting. He keeps purifying. We exhaust the fertile land. He expands the virgin vegetations. We keep devastating.
He keeps rehabilitating. God provides everything that makes life possible without levying any standard forms of tax. To His love should we reciprocate with love and thanks-giving. His grace and majesty have been beautifully penned by the poet.
arz-o-sama kahan teri wusat ko pa sake
mera hi dil hai wo ki jahan tu sama sake
how can earth and heaven, your vastness contemplate?
It’s just my heart, your glory, that can accommodate
There is, however, one caution. The God of mercy will be God of justice only on the Day of Judgment. He has notified that in a pronouncing way in the Quran. This book has been referred to as the criterion for right and wrong. It describes the individual roles and the collective responsibilities. It is addressed to pagans and to Muslims; to believers and to unbelievers with equal emphasis and attention seeking. It is anti-corrupt and against hypocrisy. It is the peace. It is antiviral, antibacterial and antidepressant.
It is the dose. It is more favoured towards struggle than charm, towards whole than part, towards caliber than class, towards poor than rich and towards women than men. One sixth of the book talks about sciences and one third about the intellectually most profound community – the jews.
It has balancing models for polity and social institutions. It is a must read, besides sacred. There is a proclamation by God in the Quran itself which reads ‘We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to understand and remember; then is there anyone who will remember’. This is an icing on the cake for those who are eager to understand.
Mental faculties make human beings a superior creation and the best among his abilities is the skill of narration. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist and poet, “Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.”
The medium of instruction of the beloved prophet [PBUH] was ‘spoken word’ only. Islam is pre-eminently a faith founded on the power of words. It is very significant that the Prophetic mission began with just one word, “IQRA!’ meaning READ!’. Prophet Moses had asked God to also grant prophet-hood to his brother Aaron for being more conversant than him and it was granted.
Einstein was a radical from his student days and would call himself a fire-belching Vesuvius. Similarly, Hitler had given a record number of 1525 speeches from 1919 in Munich until the last speech in February 1945. His fiery speeches have played a far greater role in naming and faming him than the wars fought and won.
Speaking is the “real” language and writing is only a representation of the same. However, for centuries, people have regarded writing as superior to speaking. This is because in the past almost everybody could speak but only a few people could write. Even today, not everybody can read but everyone can listen. Therefore, one should love to be an orator than a writer to connect to all.
Dr. Qudsia Gani, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Govt. College for Women
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.