2017 07 The Light July 2017

July 2017 The
Light 10
LORD is good to all, and his tender mercies are
over all his works.” — Psalm 145:8-9.
It is true that there are verses in the Honoured
Quran (and the Holy Bible) that could be
used to justify violence, but we need to understand
context, and why things were originally
said, rather than using a few isolated verses to
describe who Allah is and how we should behave.
When I was younger, my parents had
thirty clocks in the home. Big clocks, little clocks
… clocks that ticked, and clocks that even made
bird sounds on the hour! Very occasionally, 28
clocks would be telling us it was 2.30pm. But
two clocks for example, might have stopped, or
were running a little slow. But just because one
clock was saying it was midnight, or one clock
was saying it was ten to three in the afternoon,
we knew the real time was 2.30pm because of
the testimony of the vast evidence of the other
clocks! No one would have ever suggested it was
midnight or ten to three! Similarly, those who
have committed ‘identity theft’ may try and justify
their violent actions by looking at one or
two verses in the Quran, rather than knowing
the true character of Allah by reading everything
else that is said.
It is commonly said that “the heart of the
problem, is the problem of the heart.” I wonder
sometimes, if the real cause of evil mistakenly
performed in the Name of Allah is not just found
in misrepresenting and misreading a text in the
Honoured Quran.
Terrorism has no religion.
Gardeners often
speak of the perils
of Japanese Knotweed. This weed is aggressive,
and spreads rapidly. In summer, its bamboo
like stems can shoot up to seven feet, and
can choke and suppress the growth of good
plants. In this climate of fear and violence all
done in the name of religion (even by those declaring
“Allahu Akbar”), maybe we need to understand
the nature of spiritual Japanese Knotweed.
What is it that can turn hearts that are as
pure as ice, to hearts that are as black as the
darkest cave with no stars or sunlight visible?
Terrorism has no religion.
In the Honoured Quran, we read: “And behold,
We said to the angels: ‘Bow down to Adam’
and they bowed down. Not so Iblis, he refused
and was haughty: He was of those of who reject
Faith.” — Al Baqarah 2:34. Those who “reject
faith” — these are strong words. Could it be that
the real problem of those who are guilty of
I Shall Love All Mankind.
‘identity theft’ (and distortion) of Allah’s character
have also followed the haughtiness of Iblis
… refusing to truly submit to Allah? Could
haughtiness be like spiritual Japanese Knotweed,
crushing and distorting hearts that were
created to surrender to Allah the Lord of the
Universe? A true surrender that honours God’s
Law, and wants to willingly follow it?
(To be continued)
The Holy Quran
Stellar Artistry
By Shazia Ahmad
At the age of seven, I felt I had done my duty
by reciting from the beginning to the end a set
of words that meant nothing to me; triumphant
on completion, I shut the book, never believing
that it would re-enter my life in subtle ways.
In the 1980’s, I went through a haze believing
this book to be nothing more than a set of
edicts. A book of rules. However, at university,
the haze began to clear; a smiling young woman
set me on my journey, No, she countered; it is a
book of arguments. This intrigued me; argument
is an intellectual concept which I had
never associated with the Quran. I started to attend
lectures in and out of campus to learn
more.
I was startled when
ideas that I was coming
across in Mathematics
started enigmatically to appear in the Quranic
surah’s I was encountering at the time, e.g., the
concept of axioms or foundational facts upon
which further facts can be built or the ideas of
existence and uniqueness — for example in Surah
Ikhlas one of the last surah’s in the Quran,
Allah (swt) declares
Say: He is Allah who is One (here Allah is
stating the fact that- He exists)
The eternal refuge
He begets not and is not begotten
Nor is there to him any equivalent
(Here Allah is making a statement of
uniqueness)
Structurally it is in the right place in the
Quran, as the ayah’s and surah’s that have gone