The Signs of GOD
THE SIGNS OF GOD : THE CONCEPT OF AYAT IN THE HOLY QURAN
-ZIAUL HUQ QUTUBUDDIN
I. INTRODUCTION :
"In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are surely signs for men of understanding. Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and (lying) on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord, Thou hast not created this in vain! Glory is to Thee! Save us from the Chastisement of the Fire." (3:190-191).
The ultimate destiny of man is to return to his Creator, Allah, and the Lord of the worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful, to whom man belongs. The destiny of man in this world is to complete this short sojourn called al-hayat al-dunya, the life of this world, with constant remembrance of his Lord and Creator and in complete and full submission to His will. Out of the vast ocean of His Mercy and Grace, Allah, the Beneficent and Merciful (Al-Rahman and al-Raheem) has sent for the human kind, and shows man, innumerable of His signs in the created universe and in man himself so that man is enabled, through deciphering the Signs of God, to fulfill his destiny and achieve the true purpose of his creation.
II. DICTIONARY MEANING OF AYAT :
PENRICE: To betake one's self for rest or shelter, have recourse to.
Ayat : A sign, miracle, a name given to the verses of the Quran, each of which is held to be a miracle.
Plural - Ayat : Signs.
LANE'S LEXICON (Vol 1, Page 135) : He put, or set a sign, token or mark, by which a person or thing is known. Its synonym is 'Alamah.
(I) It properly signifies any apparent thing inseparable from a thing not equally apparent, so that when one perceives the former he knows that he perceives the other, which he cannot perceive by itself, when the two things are of one predicament: and this is apparent in the object of sense and in that of the intellect (Raghib).
(II) A sign as meaning an indication, an evidence, or a proof.
(III) A sign as meaning a miracle and a wonder, for Ayat Allah means the wonders of God-an example or a warning.
(IV) A message or communication sent from one person or party to another. Its synonym is ‘Risalah’.
(V) The body or corporeal form or figure or substance of man which one sees from a distance (as being a kind of sign) or a person or individual.
Hence, a verse of the Quran, as being a collection of the words of the Book of God, or a connected form of words of the Quran continued to its
breaking off, so called because it is a sign of the breaking off.
III. SIGNIFICANCE OF AYAT :
1) In eternity, Allah took a covenant concerning themselves from the descendants of the children of Adam, i.e. all the humanity, born or unborn, without any limit of time, and made them testify that Allah is their Lord. This was done lest they should say on the Day of Judgment that they were not aware of this: " And when the Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants, and made them bear witness about themselves: Am I not your Lord? They said: yes; We bear witness. Lest you should say on the day of resurrection: We were unaware of this.” (7:172)
2) This event of confirmation and acceptance of Allah's Lordship was not allowed to be retained in full in every person’s consciousness after his or her birth in this world because that would defeat the purpose of test for which human beings were endowed with life and sent to this world. "Blessed is He in whose hand is the Kingdom, and He is possessor of power over all things. Who created death and life that He might try you-which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Mighty, the Forgiving." (67:1-2).
3) So, it seems, out of his All-Comprehending Mercy and Grace, Allah, the Beneficent and Merciful, provided the means through which human beings may remember the original covenant and realize, and re-confirm consciously that Allah is the Lord and He is the Truth and Reality which every person is seeking:
"Supremely exalted then is Allah, the King, the Truth."(20:114).
"That is because Allah, he is the Reality."(22:6)
4) The means employed by Allah for this purpose was the ayat, which He sends to all human beings and shows them everywhere so that they may consciously live according to their commitment of "Yes", which they said and confirmed in eternity.
5) Though the Holy Quran makes it amply manifest, still one of our major efforts should be to "try to decipher some of the signs, or ayat, which through their infinite variety point to the One Truth.... All the miracles that the seeing eye perceives in the created universe point to the necessity of God's existence; they are His signs, ayat, which He placed into the world." (Deciphering the Signs of God by Annemarie Schimmel).
6) "We will soon show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves, until it becomes manifest to them that it is the Truth. "(41:53). "For the Muslim, everything could serve as an ayah, a sign from God, and the Quran repeats this truth over and over again, warning those who do not believe in God's signs or who belie them. The creatures are signs; the change between day and night is a sign, as is the loving encounter of husband and wife; and miracles are signs (cf. Sarah 30:20-25): they all prove that there is a living God who is the originator of everything. These signs are not only in the 'horizons', that is, in the created universe, but also in the human souls, that is, in the human capacity to understand and admire; in love and human inquisitiveness; in whatever one may feel, think, and experience. The world is, as it were, an immense book in which those who have eyes to see and ears to hear can recognize God's signs and thus be guided by their contemplation to the Creator Himself.
"These signs are necessary, for the human heart longs to catch a glimpse of the Divine-even though God is beyond all forms and imagination-and yet one hopes to 'touch' the Numinous in some way or another: does one not respectfully kiss the copy of the Quran in which God's word is written down?
Everything can become an ayah, a sign, not only the verses of the Quran, which are called by this very name. To be sure, (God) can be found through them, He who reveals His will through His word; who has talked through the prophets; and whose guidance leads humankind on the right path to salvation.
Everything created praises the Creator with its own lisanal-hal, the silent eloquence-for this is the purpose for which they were created. Thus, the entire universe could be seen, as it were, in a religious light: that is why every human act, even a seemingly profane one, is yet judged from religious viewpoints and regulated according to the divinely revealed Law." (Deciphering the Signs of God by Annemarie Schimmel).
7) The concept of Ayat Allah, or the signs of God, is extremely significant also inasmuch as it provides not only the Islamic basis and methodology of Science, rather, the basis of Islamization of knowledge itself. Bereft of this fundamental concept and orientation, the science developed in the western world rid itself of God and religion and is now groping in the dark to find light so as to avoid self destruction and the destruction of the world and the whole human civilization.
8) Allah shows His signs so that we may recognize them (27:93) and through them know Allah and obey His commands. Those who believe in these signs surrender themselves to Allah (43:68-69)
IV. USAGE IN THE HOLY QURAN :
As-
(1) Message or Communication :
(i) "These are the messages of Allah- We recite them to thee with truth; and surely thou art of the messengers." (2:252); (ii) 2:39; (iii) 2:106; (iv) 6:39, (v) 6:130; (vi) 7:35; (vii) 23:105.
(2) Verses of the Quran :
(i) "He it is Who has revealed the Book to thee; some of its verses are decisive-they are the basis of the Book-and others are allegorical. "(3:7). (ii) "Alif Lam Ra. These are the verses of the Book, full of wisdom. "(10:1).
(3) Miracle, Evidence, Proof :
(i) "And certainly we gave Moses nine clear signs; so ask the Children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him: Surely I deem thee, O Moses, to be one bewitched. "(17:101). (ii) "And their prophet said to them: Surely the sign of his kingdom is that there shall come to you the Ark of the Covenant, with (an assurance) therein of security from your Lord and the relics left by the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, carried by angels. Surely there is a sign in this for you if you are believers."(2:248). (iii) "And to Thamud (We sent) their brother Salih. He said: O my people, serve Allah, you have no god other than Him. Clear proof has indeed come to you from your Lord. This is Allah's she-camel-a sign for you-so leave her alone to pasture in Allah's earth, and do her no harm, lest painful chastisement overtake you. "(7:73). (iv) 6:37, (v) 6:109, (vi) 6:124, (vii) 54:1-2
(4) Sign, token or mark, by which a thing is known :
A. Signs of God's Power : (i) "Or like him who passed by a town, and it had fallen in upon its roofs. He said: When will Allah give it life after its death? So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him. He said: How long hast thou tarried? He said: I have tarried a day, or part of a day. He said: Nay, thou hast tarried a hundred years; but look at thy food and drink-years have not passed over it! And look at thy ass! And that We may make thee a sign to men. And look at the bones, how We set them together then clothe them with flesh. So when it became clear to him, he said: I know that Allah is possessor of power over all things." (2:259). (ii) 2:73; (iii) 3:41; (iv) 5:114; (v) 19:21; (vi) 25:37; (vii) 36:33.
B. Natural Phenomena : (i) "In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, and the ships that run in the sea with that which profits men, the water that Allah sends down from the sky, then gives life therewith to the earth after its death and spreads in it all (kinds of) animals, and the changing of the winds and the clouds made subservient between heaven and earth, there are surely signs for a people who understand. "(2:164). (ii) "And of His signs is this, that He created you from dust, then lo! you are mortals (who) scatter. And of His signs is this, that He created mates for you from yourselves that you might find quiet of mind in them, and He put between you love and compassion. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect. And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colors. Surely there are signs in this for the learned. And of His signs is your sleep by night and by day and your seeking of His bounty. Surely there are signs in this for a people who would hear. And of His signs is this that He shows you the lightning for fear and for hope, and sends down water from the cloud, then gives life therewith to the earth after its death. Surely there are signs in this for a people who understand. And of His signs is this that the heaven and the earth subsist by His command. Then when he calls you-from the earth-lo! you come forth. And His is whosoever is in the heavens and the earth. All are obedient to Him. And He it is, Who originates the creation, then reproduces it, and it is very easy to Him. And His is the most exalted state in the heavens and the earth; and He is the Mighty, the Wise. "(30:20-27). (iii) 10:5-6; (iv) 12:105; (v) 17:12; (vi) 30:46; (vii) 36:37; (viii) 40:13; (ix) 41:37; (x) 41:39; (xi) 42:32.
C. Place : (i) "Certainly the first house appointed for men is the one at Bakkah, blessed and a guidance for the nations. In it are clear signs : (It is) the place of Abraham: and whoever enters it is safe; and pilgrimage to the House is a duty which men owe to Allah-whoever can find a way to it. And whoever disbelieves, surely Allah is above need of the worlds." (3:96-97).
D. People : (i) "And she who guarded her chastity, so we breathed into her of Our Inspiration, and made her and her son a sign for the nations." (21:91); (ii) 10:92; (iii) 18:9; (iv) 25:37
E. Events, History : (i) "Indeed there was a sign for you in the two hosts (which) met together in encounter-one party fighting in the way of Allah and the other disbelieving, whom they saw twice as many as themselves with the sight of the eye. And Allah strengthens with His aid whom He pleases. There is a lesson in this for those who have eyes. "(3:13); (ii) 12:7
F. Ships : (i) "And a sign to them is that we bear their offspring in the laden ship. "(36:41); (ii) 31:31; (iii) 29:15
G. Man's Creation : (i) "And in your creation and in the animals He spreads abroad are signs for a people who are sure. "(45:4); (ii) 30:20
H. Animals : (i) "And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and what He has spread forth in both of them of living beings. And He is all-powerful to gather them together, when He will. "(42:29); (ii) "And when the word comes to pass against them, We shall bring forth for them a creature from the earth that will speak to them, because people did not believe in Our message. "(27:82). (iii) 20:54
I. Earth : (i) "And of His signs is this, that thou seest the earth still, but when we send down water thereon, it stirs and swells. He who gives it life is surely the Giver of life to the dead. Surely He is possessor of power over all things. "(41:39); (ii) 51:20
J. Hearts of the learned : (i) "And thou didst not recite before it any book, nor didst thou transcribe one with thy right hand, for then could the liars have doubted. Nay, it is clear signs in the hearts of those who are granted knowledge. And none deny Our signs except the iniquitous. "(29:48-49).
K. The Unseen : (i) "Certainly he saw of the greatest signs of his Lord. "(53:18); (ii) "Glory to Him who carried His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Mosque, whose precincts We blessed, that We might show him of Our signs! Surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing. "(17:1).
L. Human Relationships : Love, Mercy : (i) "And of His signs is this, that He created mates for you from yourselves that you might find quiet of mind in them, and He put between you love and compassion. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect. "(30:21).
M. Diversity of Color and Language : (i) "And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the Diversity of your tongues and colors. Surely there are signs in this for the learned. "(30:22).
N. Other Things :
1. Trees : 14:24; 53:14
2. Bee, Gnat Spider, Dog, Camel, Hoopoe : 16:68-69; 2:26; 29:41-43; 18:17-18; 88:17; 27:20-26
3. Rains : 24:43-44; 39:21
4. Breeze, Winds : 34:12; 69:6
5. Thunder, Storm, Lightning : 30:24
6. Oceans : 16:14
7. Water : 56:68-70; 39:21
8. Mountains : 16:15; 59:21
9. Stones : Hajr-e-Aswad, the Black Stone.
V. SIGNS ARE FOR :
A. Believers : (i) 2:248, (ii) 3:49; (iii) 16:79; (iv) 29:44; (v) 30:37; (vi) 39:52; (vii) 45:3
B. Those who fear the punishment of Al-Akhirah : (i) 11:103, (ii) 51:37
C. People who reflect : (i)10:24; (ii) 13:3; (iii)16:11; (iv) 16:69; (v)30:21; (vi) 39:42
D. People who are mindful : (i) 6:126; (ii) 16:13
E. People who listen : (i) 10:67; (ii)16:65; (iii) 30:23
F. People who ponder : (i) 2:164; (ii) 3:118; (iii) 13:4; (iv) 16:12; (v) 16:67; (vi) 29:35; (vii) 30:24; (viii) 30:28; (ix) 45:5
G. People who know : (i) 6:98; (ii) 7:32 (iii) 9:11; (iv) 10:5; (v) 27:52; (vi) 30:22
H. Every Servant Turning (To Allah) : (i) 34:9
I. Men of under-standing : (i) 3:190
J. People who understand : (i) 6:99
K. People who give thanks : (i) 7:58
L. People who are God-conscious : (i) 10:6
M. Every stead-fast, grateful one : (i)14:5; (ii) 34:19; (iii) 42:33
N. Those who take a lesson : (i) 15:75
O. Men of under-standing : (i) 20:54; (ii)20:128
P. In the hearts of those who are granted knowledge : (i) 29:49
Q. People who are sure : (i) 45:4; (ii) 51:20
R. Those who inquire : (i) 12:7
S. Mankind : (i) 2:187
VI. SIGNS ARE SENT, SHOWN, MADE CLEAR AND REPEATED SO THAT :
A. You may understand : (i) 2:73; (ii) 2:242
B. You may be guided : (i)3:103
C. You may give thanks : (i) 5:89
D. You may be certain : (i) 13:2
E. You may reflect : (i) 2:219; (ii)2:266
F. They may be mindful : (i) 2:221
G. They may be God-conscious : (i) 2:187
H. They may understand : (i) 6:65
I. They may return : (i) 7:174; (ii) 46:27
VII. DENIAL OF, AND DISBELIEF IN, THE SIGNS :
(1) Severe chastisement for those who Disbelieve. : (i) 3:4; (ii) 8:52
(2) Rejecters of Signs, destroyed; they are companions of Fire. : (i)2:39; (ii) 3:10
(3) Those headless of Signs : (i)7:146; (ii) 10:92
(4) Those who strive in opposing signs. : (i) 34:5
(5) Those who deny signs : (i) 7:51; (ii) 41:15; (iii) 41:28
(6) Those who make mockery of signs. Not to take Allah's signs for mockery. : (i) 18:56 (ii) 2:231
(7) Most of the people do not believe in signs. : (i) 26:8; (ii) 26:67; (iii) 26:103
(8) Signs do not profit those who disbelieve. : (i) 10:101
(9) The works of disbeliever's in signs are vain and get no weight on the day of Judgment. : (i) 18:105
(10) Those who forget signs will be forgotten on the day of Judgment :(i) 20:126
(11) Those who disbelieve in the signs are losers. : (i) 39:63
(12) Disbeliever's dispute about signs : (i) 40:4; (ii) 42:35
(13) Those who make the signs of Allah a jest. : (i) 45:35
(14) Those who reject signs are deaf and dumb and in darkness. : (i) 6:39
(15) Those who treat signs with pride and reject. : (i) 7:40; (ii) 7:146
(16) Those who distort the truth in the signs. : (i) 41:40
(17) Not to ask for hastening the signs. : (i) 21:37
(18) Which of the signs will man deny? : (i) 40:81
(19) If the disbeliever's saw every one of the signs, they will not believe in them. : (i) 6:25
(20) Signs are repeated but disbeliever's turn aside from Allah's Signs. : (i) 6:46
(21) Turn away from those who are engaged in vain discourses about Allah's Signs. : (i) 6:68
(22) Do not follow the vain desires of those who reject Allah's Signs. : (i) 6:150
(23) Those who turn away from Allah's Signs do great wrong and injustice. : (i) 6:157
(24) Those who take a miserable price for Allah's Signs. : (i) 9:9
(25) People who devise plans against Allah's Signs. : (i) 10:21
(26) Those who rejected signs drowned. : (i) 10:73
(27) Disbelievers call the signs manifest sorcery : (i) 27:13
(28) Disbeliever's reject the signs and hold them up in ridicule; their end will be evil. : (i) 30:10
(29) Disbeliever's turn away from the signs of their Lord. : (i) 36:46
(30) When disbeliever's see a sign, they mock at it and call it sorcery. : (i) 37:14-15
(31) In what exposition will the disbeliever's believe after Allah and His signs? : (i) 45:6
(32) Disbeliever's dispute and mock at the signs. : (i) 46:26
(33) When the signs are rehearsed to the disbeliever's they say these are tales of the ancients. : (i) 68:15
(34) Those who reject the signs are people of the left hand. : (i) 90:19
VIII. SIGNS OF GOD AND THE MODERN WESTERN SECULAR WORLD :
(1) Corruption and abandonment of the revealed sources of knowledge and the proper methodology and purpose of study of man and nature led the western world to develop and evolve science as we now find it and the modern secular liberal point of view which was its inevitable consequence. According to this point of view there is no design or purpose in creation. The creation of the universe, the existence of life and the creation of man-all are as a result of blind chance. According to the proponents of this philosophy, there is no Creator, and even if some of them believe in God, the Creator, their concept of God is extremely limited inasmuch as they consider that He has nothing to do with the creation after the initial act of Creation.
(2) According to the Holy Quran and the point of view of Islam, Allah, the Creator of the Universe, is the All-Powerful, Living and Eternal God Who is ever-Active. The universe, life and man were created for a purpose. He has a design and purpose in creation and this can be discerned through a study of the Signs of God.
(3) In a brilliant analysis of the genesis, development and culmination of western science and the modern secular western philosophy of life, Bryan Appleyard states in his book "Understanding the Present": "Science itself has no morality or faith and can tell us nothing about the meaning, purpose and significance of our own lives... Hard scientific truth denies us a place in the world, an ultimate significance and a sense of the worth of our own actions; it subverts values by insisting upon the contingency of all that we do and are. " He emphasizes the urgency and the need for "an understanding of the appalling spiritual damage that science has done and how much more it can still do ... Science, quietly and inexplicitly, is taking us into abandoning ourselves, our true selves.... it has gone too far .... it is potentially out of control, ... it now threatens to throw our civilization out of balance. That is why now is the time to resist."
(4) The Holy Quran tells us that Allah is the Real, the Truth, the Lord and the Creator. The entire universe was created for a purpose and with a design. It has a meaning. Man was created to worship God, to know His message, to understand His signs and to live in this world in accordance with His commandments. Man has been honored and accorded a central place in the creation as the vicegerent of God but he has the potential to fall into "the lowest of the low" if he does not properly understand and decipher the signs of God for leading life of full commitment (Iman) to One True God and righteous conduct.
(5) Following the Greco-Roman tradition and failing to decipher the Signs of God in nature and in man himself in the proper manner, science in the western world evolved as it did with enormous and dangerous consequences for the entire human race and civilization. "One clear message that science has wished to pass on to us ever since Galileo applied his eye to the telescope:" says Appleyard," that we are nothing but trivial accidents, and that each man must hope and believe what he can in the grim certainty that nobody and nothing will ever be able to tell him whether he is right or wrong".
In this view of life, "modern man could only see a great vacancy ... a world in which meaning cannot be found. Just as the material benefits of science and technology were invading our lives in force, transforming our economics and our health, the terrible vacuum beneath their achievements was suddenly being made dramatically apparent to us all ... Only the most willfully insensitive could be unaware that something had gone badly wrong with the nineteenth century's dream of material progress. For we have not only inherited that century's legacy of the cold shock of a meaningless universe we have also to cope with the discovery of a range of potential evils unknown to the world before the advent of science and technology." This was, we may say, a direct result of the severance of knowledge and value which "had been a common place of philosophy for two centuries.".
(6) In arriving at the conclusion that the western liberal scientific society is unstable, inadequate and in deterioration and that the western scientific understanding as a basis of human life is radically inadequate, Appleyard writes:
'One of the greatest benefits that science confers upon those who understand its spirit', wrote Bertrand Russell, 'is that it enables them to live without the delusive support of subjective certainly. That is why science cannot favor persecution'.
This remark embodies the liberal creed in its most abject form -- expressed in the trappings of high philosophy ... It demands that we disregard everything that is truly our selves-everything that is utterly real to us, that outside the reach of science ... It never occurs to Russell to consider that it is the terrible things that should be eliminated rather than the 'subjective certainty'."
(7) Appleyard concludes: "In answer to the question: What more is there to worry about? My first answer was that it is inhuman not to worry about our spiritual impoverishment. My second answer is that liberal society is unstable and in deterioration. The scientific understanding as a basis for human life is radically inadequate, yet it continues to triumph. As a result human life itself will become inadequate. That is what there is to worry about.".
(8) The Holy Quran urges man to think, to understand and to decipher the Signs of God so that man may realize his potential and fulfill the destiny for which he was sent to this world as a vicegerent of God. Man is told that whatever there is in the earth has been created for him. He has been asked to acquire knowledge, to make use of everything but in complete submission to the will of God, the Creator of man and the universe so that there is a perfect balance and harmony in the universe and in his own self.
Published in the Muslim World League Journal, Vol 24, No.8
SHA'BAN 1417 - DEC 1996, Makkah Al-Mukarramah
A Journal of Rabitat Al Alam Al Islami
- By
Mr. Ziaul H. Qutubuddin
References:
1. Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam. By Annemarie Schimmel. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1994.
2. Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Man by Bryan Appleyard. Pan Book Ltd., London, 1993.
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