Compare this with a similar example of an unjust sentence of death (Q7:123-126):
Fir’aun said, “You believed in him before I gave you my permission. This is verily a plot that you contrived within the town to drive out its inhabitants. But you shall come to know. / I shall cut off your hands and feet on alternating sides, and then shall crucify you all.” / They replied, “Indeed unto our Lord we are returning. / You do not wreak vengeance on us other than for our believing in our Master’s signs when they appeared to us. O Lord, pour out upon us fortitude, and take us back as ones who have submitted.”
َالَ فِرْعَوْنُ آمَنتُمْ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَنْ آذَنَ لَكُمْ إِنَّ هَذَا لَمَكْرٌ مَكَرْتُمُوهُ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ لِتُخْرِجُوا مِنْهَا أَهْلَهَا فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
لَأُقَطِّعَنَّ أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ مِنْ خِلاَفٍ ثُمَّ لَأُصَلِّبَنَّكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
قَالُوا إِنَّا إِلَى رَبِّنَا مُنقَلِبُونَ
وَمَا تَنقِمُ مِنَّا إِلاَّ أَنْ آمَنَّا بِآيَاتِ رَبِّنَا لَمَّا جَاءَتْنَا رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًا وَتَوَفَّنَا مُسْلِمِينَ
In each case, the expected answer is known – God. But in the first example, on death row, the answer is rejected. What makes it so satisfying and triumphant in the latter instance?
The presence of death, or disgrace, or disaster, is like a koan, an existential puzzle or dilemma. The student who receives the koan already knows, theoretically at least, what the answer should be – satori, or instant enlightenment. The believer, likewise, ‘knows’ that God is the answer. But the student and the believer may conclude that the dilemma is meaningless – a conclusion that lasts for as long as they do not ‘rephrase’ the question implicit in it.
When confronted with an existential crisis such as imminent death, the ‘novice’, whether a student or a believer, is trapped within the frame of ‘What’s in it for me?’ The answer, ‘Nothing’, is of course the exact opposite of ‘God’. The question of the novice presupposes a false duality, namely that between him and God – a zero-sum situation of ‘He wins, I lose.’ This is the mentality underlying the conversation between the pastor and the prisoner in The Confession.
But the mentality of the magicians sentenced to death by Fir’aun is totally different. Their attitude is summed up in (Q23:1):
The faithful have already gained success.*
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
* This success is not a free pass won by belonging to any particular sect or church. A believer does not know whether he/she is a believer. Nor does this success guarantee freedom from Divine retribution. Rather it is the success of heading in the right direction, given one’s character, circumstances, and sins.
The koan is solved, not by any new information, but by adjusting the frame that defines its parameters, or the presuppositions that informed it And just as satori can be instantaneous, so is real faith. A lifetime of scholarly learning or intellectual analysis is no substitute for it. It only takes a moment. And often it is only in an extreme moment, like death, or like the Hour constantly referred to in the Qur’an, that this crystallization of insight can occur.
In other words, they are winners no matter what happens. The spell of duality under which they lived before is broken. They identify entirely with GOD, and with His decrees, so death, disease, and destruction are as ‘good’ for them as their opposites.
The koan is solved, not by any new information, but by adjusting the frame that defines its parameters, or the presuppositions that informed it And just as satori can be instantaneous, so is real faith. A lifetime of scholarly learning or intellectual analysis is no substitute for it. It only takes a moment. And often it is only in an extreme moment, like death, or like the Hour constantly referred to in the Qur’an, that this crystallization of insight can occur.
So do they wait for anything but that the Hour will suddenly beset them? Its portents have already come. How, then, will it be for them when their remembrance comes to them? / So know that there is no god but AL-LAH. (Q47:18-19)
فَهَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلاَّ السَّاعَةَ أَنْ تَأْتِيَهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَقَدْ جَاءَ أَشْرَاطُهَا فَأَنَّى لَهُمْ إِذَا جَاءَتْهُمْ ذِكْرَاهُمْ
فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّهُ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ
A koan is a staged exercise, supervised by a master, and meant to reveal the limits of dualistic thinking. By serious, unremitting concentration, the student aims to make the dilemma assigned to him existential and decisive.
But a dilemma from GOD is more than that. At least one, of course (and usually many more), is assigned to every human being, whether the recipient is ready for it or not. A term for it in Arabic is fitnah, or trial – a trial of faith. No two trials are exactly the same, as the circumstances and character of each person make their trials virtually incomparable. A death sentence for me at my age, given what I know, will have a very different impact than on you, given your experiences and family ties. And every trial almost always signifies much more than, say, the limits of rationality or dualism.
The aforementioned prospect of hideous torture and certain death is one such trial mentioned in the Qur’an. But there are many other types.
It can be an unexpected encounter with the truth:
Truly those who formerly were given knowledge, when it [the Qur’an] is recited to them, fall fall upon their faces in prostration, / Saying, “Exaltedly Transcendent is our Lord; the promise of our Lord has surely been fulfilled.” (Q17:107-108)
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ إِذَا يُتْلَى عَلَيْهِمْ يَخِرُّونَ لِلأَذْقَانِ سُجَّدًا
وَيَقُولُونَ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّنَا إِنْ كَانَ وَعْدُ رَبِّنَا لَمَفْعُولاً
It can be a mission failure. The mission was a test of patience, and failure was another test:
And [remember] Dhan-Nun [Yunus], when he left angrily, and thought that We had no decree for him. Then in the darkness [in the belly of a whale] he cried out, “There is no god but You; exaltedly Beyond are You! Indeed I have been one of the unjust.” / Then We responded and We saved him from distress. In that way do We save the faithful. (Q21:87-88)
وَذَا النُّونِ إِذْ ذَهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَى فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنْ الظَّالِمِينَ
فَاسْتَجَبْنَا لَهُ وَنَجَّيْنَاهُ مِنْ الْغَمِّ وَكَذَلِكَ نُنْجِي الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
It can be intolerable social and psychological pressure:
When the earth closed in on them, despite its vastness, and their souls closed in on them, and they perceived that there was no escape from GOD except to Him – then He relented to them that they might repent. (Q9:118)
إِذَا ضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ الأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ أَنفُسُهُمْ وَظَنُّوا أَنْ لاَ مَلْجَأَ مِنْ اللَّهِ إِلاَّ إِلَيْهِ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَتُوبُوا
And it can simply be a total loss of wealth and the ruin of one’s hopes:
The yield [of his gardens] was destroyed, and he began to wring his hands for having spent so much on it and now it lay in ruins, saying “Ah, if only I had not made anything a partner with my Lord!” / He had no force to help him other than AL-LAH, nor was he winning. / There the right of rulership belongs to GOD the Truth. He is the Best in recompense, the Best in outcome. (Q18:42-44)
وَأُحِيطَ بِثَمَرِهِ فَأَصْبَحَ يُقَلِّبُ كَفَّيْهِ عَلَى مَا أَنفَقَ فِيهَا وَهِيَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَى عُرُوشِهَا وَيَقُولُ يَالَيْتَنِي لَمْ أُشْرِكْ بِرَبِّي أَحَدًا
وَلَمْ تَكُنْ لَهُ فِئَةٌ يَنصُرُونَهُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانَ مُنتَصِرًا
هُنَالِكَ الْوَلاَيَةُ لِلَّهِ الْحَقِّ هُوَ خَيْرٌ ثَوَابًا وَخَيْرٌ عُقْبًا
There are many more of these existential tests and instants of transcendental awareness in the Qur’an – storms at sea, drownings, battles, miracles, and encounters with the unexplained, to name but a few. One could say that almost all of its stories and brief narrations have such moments as their core and ultimate purpose. Better still, one could say that the Qur’an itself is another one such storm, battle, or rendezvous with the uncanny. The reading of it becomes a trial in its own right – a test of the reader, a ‘proof’ of who he is:
As for those who have denied [the truth], they say, “What does AL-LAH intend by this as an example? Many He misleads by it, and many does He guide by it, and none does He mislead but those who are astray.” (Q2:26)
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِهَذَا مَثَلاً يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلاَّ الْفَاسِقِينَ
Those on whom We have bestowed the Book, reading it the way it should be read, are those who put their faith in it. And as for those who spurn it, they are those who lose. (Q2:121)
الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمْ الْكِتَابَ يَتْلُونَهُ حَقَّ تِلاَوَتِهِ أُوْلَئِكَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِهِ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الْخَاسِرُونَ
The denier is the one who refuses to be tested, who is incredulous that her life boils down to just this. The believer, on the other hand, is one who has been preparing her whole life for this, or, even if not prepared, instantaneously recognizes what this moment means, and embraces it for good.
Let us return to those scenarios I imagined, and give them proper endings.
The GOD You Already Know 