The Theme of God in Qur’anic/Islamic Conscience

If one is to point out to the single central theme/goal in the entirety of the Qur’an; one would find it to be, rather than informing Man, transforming him. If one looks carefully and holistically into the text, one shall find that its very principal goal is not to inform Man about things s/he does not know, but to provide, for those who are in need, the ideal holistic conception o f this world, with Man as a part of that world. Even when the Qur’an informs Man, this is essentially a para-qur’anic goal. The fact that the Qur’an calls itself “The Reminder” itself avers this very conception of revelation.

Accordingly the Qur’an does not revolve around God, (since this is beyond the finitude of Man; since there is essentially a graspability dichotomy between the facts/realities of God and those of Nature/World, Man included) but rather almost exclusively around Man—at the end of the day, the Qur’an calls itself “guidance for mankind” (2:185), and if any apparently irrelevant themes are raised therein; they are, again, to serve the principal goal: transforming Man or, in other words, exciting his/her inherent religious conscience. For instance, talking about God’s perfectness in the Qur’an serves to give a relativistic meaning/definition for Man’s judgment/evaluation of central concepts of the moral status of Man in this world. Indeed, moral evolution is the dimension Man struggles with the most in this life e.g. justice, mercy, power, integrity, patience, etc. The Qur’an purely serves to connect with the inherent religious component of the complex human structure or what the Qur’an calls “Man’s pre-eternal covenant with God” (7:172).

It is also important to consider the fact that the Qur’an has not been revealed to “re-create” Man, since this essentially suggests a subconscious conception of more than one deity—one who creates and another who guides (sends revelations). Man was created as God wanted him/her to be, and all the consequences of this creation including the divine revelation are to connect to this very nature of Man. Indeed, it is very important to look at that with this holistic mentality—that is the act of creation, the primordial religious component of Man, the nature or what the Qur’an calls “signs of God” in this world and the divine revelation i.e. the Qur’an here. It is also important to remove the element of time from the whole equation—since this multitude of events occur(red) in the realm of God rather than that of Man, it is inaccurate to apply the laws of one realm on the other. Indeed, it is extremely important to bear in mind that Time is one of the laws of this very world (Sunnanullah), and not an absolute one.

But what is exactly this conception/paradigm that the Qur’an wants to infuse into Man?

This can actually be explained with two axial Qura’nic/Islamic pillars in mind—Taw’heed and Taqwa. These two principles are, interestingly, functionally overlapping. The paradigm can be named The One-God Conscience, which, qur’anically, must be the one and only filter (hence Taw’heed) through which Man looks through into the world, him/herself included (These two principles will be discussed in detail in later posts).

An interesting relevant Qur’anic story can be mentioned here. Many prophetic traditions (hadiths) purport that surat 112 equates one-third of the entirety of the Qur’an. Interestingly, the word “As-Sammad” linguistically means the immovable, indestructible, pore-free, crack-free rock (The one rock; As-Sammad). Only this One-God Conscience can give that value, unity and wholeness to life which makes thoughts and deeds ”inherently” worthwhile and meaningful; any partialization of reality, parochialism, or fragmentation of Man’s conception of this world is considered to be “Shirk”, which is the only unforgivable (or, at least, the least forgivable) sin (4:48), because this shirk paradigm simply destroys the whole order of Man’s journey in this world. These conceptual bifurcations of shirk in Man’s conception of the world, despite their apparent complexity, are extremely fragile from within. The analogy made in 29:41 clearly depicts this idea.

Reflections continue.