My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #103 - October 10, 2014, 07:02 PM
7. Have you forgotten the rain? It is the greatest of Gods gifts to his servants in this world. Since without it there would be no life at all, for there is no life without water: "And we made from water every living thing." (21:30) So of course God is going to stuff himself here completely no-holds-barred. As usual and without any regard for natural laws, God sends rain down from the sky, not because warm moist air cools causing condensation and then rain, but because God has sent it down to wherever he wishes and to whoever he wishes and he withholds it from whoever he wishes. The universe is his universe, he controls everything, he has no partner in his dominion, nor (needs) He any to protect Him from humiliation*.
Since God inserts himself into the actions of man and these are purposeful actions subject to man's own will, then of course you can be sure he is going to insert himself into acts of nature: "It is He Who sends down water from the skies: with it We produce vegetation of all kinds: from some We produce green (foliage), out of which We produce grain, heaped up, out of the date-palm and its sheaths are clusters (of dates) hanging low and near: and gardens of grapes, and olives, and pomegranates, alike and unlike, behold the fruit of it when it yields the fruit and the ripening of it; most surely there are signs in this for a people who believe." (6:99)
If it weren't for the fact that rain falls according to well-defined and observable natural laws governing how, when and where there is moisture in atmosphere and processes of evaporation, condensation, geography and so on - then this might actually be an amazing sign. For example if God made the rain fall in conditions that contradicted natural laws so that there were never droughts nor floods, but exactly the right amount of rain to make everywhere fertile and producing these fruits and crops for everyone - regardless of the lack of the correct geographical zone, weather, climate, soil & other natural conditions, then yes, this would indeed be a great sign.** But as it is it is no more a sign than saying God populates and makes desolate, saves and doesn't save, gives life and takes life, in other words covering all bases - where is the sign in that? So rain doesn't fall according to natural laws but according to the will of God: "Do you not see that Allah sends down water from the sky, then makes it go along in the earth in springs, then brings forth therewith herbage of various colours, then it withers so that you see it becoming yellow, then He makes it dry up and crumble away? Most surely there is a reminder in this for the men of understanding." (39:21)
This is how he sends down the rain, and brings forth fruit. He causes springs to gush forth, and he leads water to dry land: "Have they not seen how We lead the water to the barren land and therewith bring forth crops whereof their cattle eat, and they themselves? Will they not then see?" (32:27) Though he forgot to mention that he also leads the water to boggy swamps and shanty towns where the poorest of the poor & most wretched live, where the water God led there causes mud slides and ground collapses or sweeps away dwellings and drowns the weak and helpless. God forgot to mention how he keeps increasing the rain as rivers burst their banks and communities lose what little they had and countless lives are destroyed. God also forgot to mention that he withholds the rain in other places causing a drought in a land where there is no grain heaped up nor pomegranates. Only listless shadows waiting for Azrael to take them to the happy place they have been promised.
If God does mention any of this it is only by way of a stick & carrot. In this case the destruction that rain brings is the result of what people's hands have earned. Even though those who suffer from disasters caused by rain & floods are usually the poor, the weak, and the sick. As for the rich and strong, God rarely allows harm to touch them no matter how much their hands have earned. They are his favourites, his cherished sons his pampered ones. Like Israel the spoilt daughter of America. The rest are just terrorists and so we can ignore all the injustices. God must increase the hunger of the starving and increase the wealth of the fat cats.
This is the law of the jungle. The law that; "might is right," whether in heaven or on earth, it's just the same - God help us! Let one group be happy and let another taste bitter fate and don't let anyone stretch their eyes to what one group enjoys over another. Let one group accept their lot patiently, while the other hasten to fulfil their every desire, while God knows what is best for each group: "It may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is bad for you, but Allah knows, while you do not know." (2:216) So poverty, disease, famine, stagnant open sewers in shanty towns are better for the inhabitants of these places. As for the others: "Step by step we gradually lead them on from whence they know not." (7:182)
So the meaning of this is that God in the Qur'an only speaks about the positive kind of 'subjugation' which makes him look good and paints him as the benefactor and the one who grants favours upon us. As for the negative type of 'subjugation' - if the at is the right word - i.e. the one that brings harm & destruction, the Qur'an never mentions it except when talking about testing man through trial & tribulation. Of course God in the Qur'an doesn't mention it since it is an argument against him, not for him. So, of course, he didn't bestow upon us the the poisonous snakes, scorpions, malaria mosquitos or fleas carrying plague, nor all the diseases, infections, bacteria and viruses, nor all the disasters and tragedies that are too many to count throughout history. No. Complete silence, like the silence of the dark.
However, even the latter (negative phenomena) can be explained away in the logic of religion using the usual way of whitewash and gloss in the books of tafseer and Sufi sayings. Defending them by inventing all sorts of justifications and profound wisdoms which lay behind them. So they are either a test and a trial, or the result of what people's hands earned, or expiation for sins and mis-deeds, whose punishment is brought forward in this life so they can be paid for now in this life, so that one would not feel any fear as he goes over*** the fire of Hell on his way to paradise: "Not one of you, but will pass over it." (19:71) So he who crosses safely, crosses safely, and he who falls down, falls down. May God protect us from it and make us of those who are saved and accepted. He is all-hearing, always-responding.
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*Reference to Qur'an: 17:111
**The Qur'an repeatedly uses natural phenomena, like rain, as 'proof' of God. Yet God could have made rain happen without any discoverable natural laws. Instead he chose to make it subject to very precise and observable laws of nature so, for example, a desert region will get less rainfall than a temperate zone. Then after having made everything subject to these laws, God in the Qur'an then points to them saying they are a 'sign' of God and that he controls them and sends them where he wants. Yet if God had really wanted to place rain and other phenomena directly under his control & as a 'sign' of God, he could have done that by making them happen miraculously whenever and wherever he wished with no observable natural laws at play. Why do it this way then claim they under his direct control and a 'sign' of his existence? The answer perhaps is that in ancient times man was not fully aware of the natural laws that governed the elements and so they would have seemed to be happening miraculously and under the direct control of God. Which is why natural phenomena were a very convincing argument for God in the past. Rain appeared to bring the desert magically to life rather than it being because of dormant seeds hidden in the sand, blown there by the wind. A tornado was seen as an act of an angry God rather than the collision of warm and cool air. Lightning was retribution from the heavens rather than an electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground. Despite the fact that we know better today, this argument is still used. It is the argument from design which put simply is; 'look at the amazing complex world around you, it must have been created by a very wise and very powerful creator.' Firstly even if the premise were true it certainly doesn't support the claims of any specific religion. Secondly, given how much bad and/or malevolent design there appears to be in the world, it is just as likely to have been designed by a committee of confused, flawed and/or wicked gods than a single, all-wise & all-powerful god. Also the fact that the world is complex and amazing only poses a question, it doesn't provide an answer. By arguing that it must have been created by a wise and powerful being only raises more questions. Where is this being? Why did he do it? Who created him? If he is uncreated then this answer is something that lies outside human logic and reason, in which case any answer can be postulated. The truth is that the there will always be things we don't understand, but that is not in itself proof of a God.
***According to hadith there is a narrow bridge called Al-Sirat, that crosses over Hell, that must be crossed in order to reach paradise. Some will cross easily, but others will slip and fall into the fire below. Narrated by Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri: We, the companions of the Prophet said, "O Allah's Apostle! What is the bridge?' He said, "It is a slippery (bridge) on which there are clamps and (Hooks like) a thorny seed that is wide at one side and narrow at the other and has thorns with bent ends. Such a thorny seed is found in Najd and is called As-Sa'dan. Some of the believers will cross the bridge as quickly as the wink of an eye, some others as quick as lightning, a strong wind, fast horses or she-camels. So some will be safe without any harm; some will be safe after receiving some scratches, and some will fall down into Hell. The last person will cross by being dragged over the bridge." (Sahih Bukhari- Volume 9, Book 93, Number 532)
Topic: My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation