Corona Virus and God 13th March, 2020

Corona Virus and God 

Two approaches to life – one with no God and the other with a God. I will take the second approach: There is a God. God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Provider has spoken to us. God hasn’t gone away after His creation or found His Creation burdensome or an afterthought.

 Background:

There are two predicaments regarding the apparent tangibility of God. One is that God says no eyes can grasp Him: Qur’an (6:103) “No vision can grasp Him while He grasps all visions. He is the Subtle, the Aware.” Secondly, He says that there is no one Like Him: Qur’an (42:11) “There is no one like Him. He Alone hears all and sees all”. How does one deal with these predicaments? How can we relate to God? The Qur’an shows us that one should relate to God through His attributes.

 The Qur’an presents His attributes through which God has introduced Himself. Qur’an (7:180): “And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them, and leave the company of those who belie or deny (or utter impious speech against) His Names. They will be requited for what they used to do”.

 Let me share some of His attributes (names) to develop a clearer understanding of God. The attribute: Ar-Rahman means All-Compassionate. Ar-Rahim means All Merciful. Al-Malik: The Absolute Ruler. Al-Quddus: The Pure One. Al-Aziz: The Mighty. Al-Jabbar: The Powerful. Al-Mutakabbir: The Greatest. Al-Qahhar: The Subduer. Al-Alim: The All-Knowing. Al-Hakam: The Judge. Al-Adl: The Just. Al-Latif: The Subtle One. Al-Khabir: The All-Aware. Al-Hakim: The All-Wise. Al-Matin: The Forceful One. As-Samad: The Support. Al-Hadi: The Guide and more are mentioned in the Quran.

 The English language uses the article ‘the’ to describe its specific or absolute sense. The language of the Qur’an (Arabic) uses the suffix Ar- or Al- or As- as shown above to convey its absolute sense. The first attribute ‘Rahman’ would ordinarily mean compassionate. We as humans are also compassionate, but with the suffix Ar- it would mean the ‘most’ compassionate in its absolute sense. If we scan through the names of God above we start to have a fair idea of God.

 Main Theme: 

God terms His message as a Reminder: Qur’an (15:9) “We have revealed this Reminder (Qur’an), and We shall preserve it”. What does the Qur’an mean by Reminder? It means the fact of the certainty of the advent of the Hereafter where each soul is to be accountable for its deeds in this world and subsequently rewarded and reprimanded. Qur’an’s basic message and premise in its message is this very fact.

It calls it a Reminder based on three basic and innate instincts carried by each soul – the belief in God, the belief in the Hereafter: Qur’an (7:172) “When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful" - coupled, with the sense of morality: Qur’an (91:7-10) “ By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right; Truly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it”! So, each soul on earth is bestowed with the consciousness of God, the certainty of the advent of the Hereafter based on the morality it carries innately.

God has planned to keep us mindful of the advent of the Hereafter, a fact people tend to eliminate from the ‘equation’ of their lives. The domain and the main thrust of the Qur’an’s message and subject matter revolve around the certainty of the advent of the Hereafter. God has carried out the manifestation of the advent of the Hereafter through His messengers by creating a ‘miniature day of judgment (Hereafter)’ on earth.

The Qur’an mentions the account of some eight messengers of God before Muhammad. These are Nuh, Lut, Hud, Saleh, Shoaib, Yunus, Musa, and Eesa (Alaihimussalaam). These are oft-repeated messengers in the Qur’an. If we read their account in all cases we find the first addressees of the messenger rejected the message of these messengers scornfully and arrogantly. Eventually, after the conclusive communication of the Truth God asks the messenger to leave his addressees. This migration of the messenger with his believers is followed by punishment of God to the willful rejectors of God’s message.

In one of the oft-repeated stories of such messengers, God sums up the treatment in the Qur’an (54:15-17) “And We have left this as a Sign (for all time): then is there any that will receive admonition? But how (terrible) were My Penalty and My Warning? And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy as a reminder: then is there any that will be reminded”? Here what God means by the ‘reminder’ is the reminder of the certainty of the advent of the Hereafter.

Coming back to Corona Virus. Let me present the following Qur’an verses in light of Corona Virus: the Qur’an (7:130-136) “And We certainly seized the people of Pharaoh with years of famine and a deficiency in fruits that perhaps they would be reminded. But when good came to them, they said, "This is ours [by right]." And if a bad [condition] struck them, they saw an evil omen in Moses and those with him. Unquestionably, their fortune is with Allah, but most of them do not know. And they said, "No matter what sign you bring us with which to bewitch us, we will not be believers in you." So, We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood as distinct signs, but they were arrogant and were a criminal people. And when the punishment descended upon them, they said, "O Moses, invoke for us your Lord by what He has promised you. If you [can] remove the punishment from us, we will surely believe you, and we will send with you the Children of Israel." But when We removed the punishment from them until a term which they were to reach, then at once they broke their word. So, We took retribution from them, and We drowned them in the sea because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them”.

 With the fast-paced life and inventions around us, especially in the Post-Modern era, we consciously or unconsciously tend to eliminate God from the ‘equation’ of our lives. God has no place in our lives. We may believe in God, but our actions and deeds belie our Qur’an-quoted words. Our actions belie our faith in God. God appears as an impediment in the ever-evolving and ever-progressing world.

The fact of the matter remains there is a God – the God – the Ever Present, Ever Alive and Living (Al-Haye). The Sustainer is the One who sustains, protects, and oversees. The One who provides, preserves, watches, and manages all that exists. He is the One who feeds but is not fed (Al-Qayyum). The ever Provider, (Ar-Rabb). The All Knower (Al-Alim) and Ever Aware (Al-Khabir). Ever Seer, The One who is Most knowledgeable of the most subtle details. His actions are so fine and subtle that they may be beyond our comprehension (minutest of details; Al-Latif). The ever Powerful (Al-Aziz). The All in Control (Al-Matin). The Absolute Ruler, the King, the One who possesses the attributes of kingdom, dominion, power, and authority. The One who possesses the disposal of all affairs (Al-Malik). The Greatest of them all, the Supreme, the Majestic (Al-Mutakabbir), the Ever Wisest and Most Wise (Al-Hakim), the Actual Judge, the Only true Judge (Al-Hakam). The Fairest (Al-Adl). The Subduer, the One Who dominates everything in His kingdom. He is the One before whom the whole creation has humbled itself, and submitted before His Grandeur, power, and perfect strength. He is the Vanquisher without ever being unfair (Al-Qahhar).

The events occurring around us whether in the universe, or earth, or within us act as a Reminder for us to relate to God and realign our life equation. To remain humble and not exhibit an arrogant demeanour. The coronavirus is a microbe but enough to shake up the world and its economy. Such incidents should serve as a reminder that God’s Might is absolute and consummate. It should serve us to remain ever mindful of God and His expectations; and in not bypassing God and His expectations. In remaining cognizant of God’s Invincibility. Remaining mindful in declaring products ‘unsinkable’ with God’s Grace. The doomed Titanic ship was declared unsinkable. Remain human; do not play God.

Conclusion:

The literal meaning of the verses of the Qur’an called an ‘Ayat’ means a ‘sign’. A ‘sign’ means an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. It may not be visible to the naked eye but that may not mean it would not exist. The ‘signs’ are deciphered, deducted, and concluded by employing the human intellect based on rationale, sound arguments, and logical deductions. Based on this premise God expects the human intellect to read and decipher the signs of God which abound around us. Indeed, the Qur’an (8:22) while testifying to this very fact states: “Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb who do not use reason”.

It may be surmised that the retribution of God to the direct addressees of His messengers, is God’s manifestation of the Day of Judgment to follow this life by creating a ‘miniature day of judgement’ on earth for us to be reminded through the Qur’an. We do not have messengers amongst us (the last one being Muhammad, Alaihissalam, 1500 years back) therefore, we cannot receive God’s word at the level of His messenger. Hence, God’s retributions are not applicable now. We have no way of knowing a calamity at a local or international level on earth is the punishment of God. We have the God’s message (the Qur’an) intact with us. The Qur’an terms itself a Reminder. Pandemics or endemics should be considered as signs of God for our introspection and ratiocination.

Aamir Yazdani