Human Traits—Know Yourself

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for our redemption is left out of this Quran (6:38, 12:111, 6:115). The upgrading path is the difficult one, and we should choose it.

[90:4] We created the human being to work hard (to redeem himself).
[90:5] Does he think that no one will ever call him to account?
[90:6] He boasts, “I spent so much money!”
[90:7] Does he think that no one sees him?
[90:8] Did we not give him two eyes?
[90:9] A tongue and two lips?
[90:10] Did we not show him the two paths?
[90:11] He should choose the difficult path.
[90:12] Which one is the difficult path?
[90:13] The freeing of slaves.
[90:14] Feeding, during the time of hardship.
[90:15] Orphans who are related.
[90:16] Or the poor who is in need.
[90:17] And being one of those who believe, and exhorting one another to be steadfast, and exhorting one another to be kind.
[90:18] These have deserved happiness.

Frank

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Round-trip Journey of our Soul

God is teaching us through Quran that our soul was created long before our arrival to the earth. Then our souls became unappreciative of our Lord, and we got involved in the Great Feud.

The Great Feud

[38:67-69] Say, “Here is awesome news. That you are totally oblivious to. I had no knowledge previously, about the feud in the High Society.”

*38:69 The feud in the High Society was triggered by Satan’s challenge to God’s absolute authority. This is definitely the most important event in the history of the human race. We failed to make a firm stand regarding God’s absolute authority. This life represents the third and final chance to redeem ourselves (See the Introduction and Appendix 7).

When God out of His mercy gave us a chance to repent and submit, we made the wrong choice again (33:72) and chose to come here as humans.

The Most Gracious out of His mercy has given us another chance, this last one. He created the earth, and He created the body, the temporary house for our soul, from earthly material. To send down all the souls one by one, He created “death”.

[67:2] The One who created death and life for the purpose of distinguishing those among you who would do better. He is the Almighty, the Forgiving.

[7:11] We created you, then we shaped you, then we said to the angels, “Fall prostrate before Adam.” They fell prostrate, except Iblees (Satan); he was not with the prostrators.

[38:71-2] Your Lord said to the angels, “I am creating a human being from clay. Once I design him, and blow into him from My spirit, you shall fall prostrate before him.”

[19:17] While a barrier separated her from them, we sent to her our Spirit. He went to her in the form of a human being.

 

The Origin of Man

[32:7-9] He is the One who perfected everything He created, and started the creation of the human from clay. Then He continued his reproduction through a certain lowly liquid. He shaped him and blew into him from His spirit. And He gave you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brains; rarely are you thankful.

What is the “spirit” (Ruh in Arabic)? Most of us have a sense of our “body” and how it’s different from our “soul” (the real self). However, the concept of the “spirit” is less understood. The root of the word “Ruh” appears in six different forms in the Quran’s Arabic text with different meanings, for a total of fifty-seven occurrences (corpus.quran.com). As a noun “Ruh” appears twenty-one times in the Quran (with multiple meanings). One of these is the reference to God’s spirit from which He blew into the human (e.g., 15:29, 32:9, 38:72). In Arabic dictionaries, e.g., Dictionary of the Holy Quran by Omar, this word Ruh is sometimes translated as the “breath of life.”

We know we have a soul and a body. In my view, for the body to function as a house for the soul, it needs to be more than a clay shell—and the “spirit” or “breath of life” allows that.

To use an analogy, God gave us a car (the body) that we (the soul) get to drive, so we can inshallah make it back home, by pleasing God.

What is important for our salvation is to remember that the Most Gracious out of His Mercy is giving us one last chance to redeem our souls. And as long as our soul is in this world, we must make the best of the opportunity by fulfilling our true purpose.

The Purpose of Our Existence

[51:56] I did not create the jinns and the humans except to worship Me alone.

Because in a very short time we will all be at the end of our journey.

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