People have the opportunity, at least for now, to take advantage of some real time learning activities. As painful as that may be in this modern age, it still can be a real lesson in achieving spiritual success.
The ONE GOD is WHO HE said HE is or else HE isn’t! Mankind cannot have it both ways in attributing all power to the ONE GOD and then turn around and make out that GOD somehow keeps missing the boat. Either HE is in command and dishes out rewards and punishments about which we know little about and cannot even guess correctly concerning it or HE just throws things ‘helter-skelter’ without thought, rhyme or reason like a mindless entity.
If a person believes that GOD is All-Powerful and ALL-AWARE and is truly sincere in desiring Paradise, he must work for it. Not that it can be an automatic given or something random or happening by chance. One has to follow the pattern laid out by our own adam in taking on the challenge and his pattern was to move through the stages one step at a time.
You {O mankind} shall surely travel from stage to stage. Quran (84:19)
One cannot be a copy of a blueprint design as a Sign without going through its stages. If one wants to get that PhD degree, then one should go through the process before leaping from grade one to PhD candidate in one mammoth leap.
Abu Huraira reported ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) as saying:
There was an argument between Adam and Moses. Moses said: Are you that Adam whose lapse caused you to get out of Paradise? Adam said to him: Are you that Moses whom ALLAH selected for HIS Messengership, for HIS conversation and you blame me for an affair which had been ordained for me before I was created? This is how Adam came the better of Moses. Muslim
Abu Hurairah reported ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) said:
That the Messenger of ALLAH said: “When ALLAH created Adam HE wiped his back and every person that HE created among his (Adam’s) offspring until the Day of Resurrection fell out of his back. HE (GOD) placed a ray of light between the eyes of every person. Then HE showed them to Adam and he said to GOD: ‘O LORD! Who are these people?’ HE (GOD) said: ‘These are your offspring.’ He (Adam) saw one of them whose ray between his eyes amazed him, so he said: ‘O LORD! Who is this?’ HE (GOD) said: ‘This is a man from the latter nations of your offspring called Dawud’{David}. He (Adam) said: ‘LORD! How long did YOU make his lifespan?’ HE said: ‘Sixty years.’ He (Adam) said: ‘O LORD! Add forty years from my life to his.’ So at the end of Adam’s life, the Angel of death came to him, and he (Adam) said: ‘Do I not have forty years remaining?’ The Angel of death said: ‘Did you not give them to your son Dawud?'” He (Prophet Muhammad) said: “Adam denied, so his offspring denied, and Adam forgot and his offspring forgot, and Adam sinned, so his offspring sinned.” {All of them being human beings following suit, meaning following one after the other in showing the ‘oneness’ of the human trait of what it is like to be human.}* Muslim
{*So ALLAH set forth that one man (this son of David) to be that ‘signpost’ for the human race in that IF he conquered all things set up for him by HIS LORD and with his LORD’s help, then the LORD would send HIS PROPHET unto mankind as the religion to be followed in paradise on Earth and the leadership of this kingdom would be given to him who conquered ‘all things’ in ALLAH’s NAME.}
For us, we are shown great Mercy because our natural tendency seems to be something on the order of two steps forward while falling one step behind. Even the man who killed 100 people, in hadith literature, still had a chance to right his ship if he applied himself in earnest and did not worship more than ONE LORD.
That is a MERCY from the LORD, for without it, even Muhammad (pbh) couldn’t get to Paradise according to him in a factual hadith. So our striving in the correct way (without arrogance and with a belief in the PERFECT LORD) has to be rewarded because HE has said so and HE is THE TRUTH!
This is not a one shot affair but more like the waves of an oscilloscope showing peaks and valleys – growth and stagnation. And because this is so, we cannot trust human intelligence or tealeaf readers to come up with the correct picture. So, one has to put one’s trust in ALLAH and believe in HIS GUIDANCE in the proper framework for that guidance – prophethood!
Look at the following and see what they have in common:
And who does more wrong than one who is reminded of the SIGNS of his LORD but turns away from them {in haughty pride}, forgetting the {very} deeds which his {own} hands have sent forth {passed on before him}? Verily, WE have set veils over their hearts so that they understand this not and over their ears deafness. If you call them to guidance {right proper}, even then will they never accept guidance.
But your LORD IS MOST FORGIVING, FULL OF MERCY {in giving chances}. If HE were to call them to account {at once after they have breached their trust} for what they have earned, then surely HE would have hastened their punishment. But they have {been given a reprieve in} their appointed time {marked down} beyond which they will find no refuge {and their fate will have been determined}. Quran (18:57-58)
Do not be deceived, GOD is NOT MOCKED; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap {eventually and for of surety he shall not escape}. Galatians (6:7)
As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble {shall} reap the same {back on their heads}. Job (4:8)
Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity {false assumptions of the self}: for vanity shall be his recompense. Job (15:31)
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices {for what they planted they shall reap}. Proverbs (1:31)
ALLAH! There is no god but HIM, The Ever-Living, The Self-subsisting, The Sustainer of all. No slumber can seize HIM, nor sleep. HIS are ALL THINGS in the heavens and on earth. Who is there who can intercede in HIS PRESENCE except as HE permits? HE knows what (appears to HIS creatures as) BEFORE or AFTER or BEHIND THEM. Nor shall they encompass anything of HIS KNOWLEDGE except as HE WILLS. HIS THRONE does extend over the heavens and the earth and HE feels NO FATIGUE in guarding and preserving them for HE is THE MOST HIGH, THE SUPREME (IN GLORY). Quran (2:255)
On NO SOUL does ALLAH place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (So, pray 🙂 “Our LORD! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our LORD! Lay not on us a burden like that which YOU did lay on those before us; our LORD! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. YOU are our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith.” Quran (2:286)
One Day every soul will come up struggling for itself, and every soul will be recompensed (fully) for all its actions, and none will be unjustly dealt with. Quran (16:111)
Those before them did (also) devise plots; but in all things the Master-Planning is ALLAH’s {for} HE knows the doings of every soul: and soon will the Unbelievers know who gets home in the end. Quran (13:42)
And Satan will say when the matter is decided: “It was ALLAH WHO gave you a promise of Truth: I too promised, but I failed in my promise to you. I had no authority over you except to call you but you listened to me {and that is your fault}: then reproach me not, but reproach your own souls. I cannot listen to your cries, nor can you listen to mine. I reject your former act in associating me with ALLAH. For wrong-doers there must be a grievous penalty.” Quran (14:22)
Your LORD does create and choose as HE pleases: no choice have they (in the matter): Glory to ALLAH! And far is HE above the partners they ascribe (to HIM)! Quran (28:68)
How dangerous is it to reference one’s Guardian LORD as to being ‘dull witted’ and easily fooled?
The Jews say: “ALLAH’s hand is tied up.” Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both HIS hands are widely outstretched: HE gives and spends (of HIS Bounty) as HE pleases. But the revelation that comes to you from ALLAH increases in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them WE have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, ALLAH does extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And ALLAH does not love those who do mischief. Quran (5:64)
We do not know the mysteries of the soul nor the blanket (body) that it wears as to its time, journey and destination. We do not make our own bodies (in one sense, however, we do) nor are we responsible for the laws of physics. But if one can see, even dimly where the pitch is coming from, the game of life might become more profitable if not more understandable.
So, a person like Paul is placed where and when he is placed and that provides the actions that follow! Due to Paul’s training in Greek logic and philosophy, he can take on that ‘skin’ and translate it to the ‘new Judaism’ taking growth which the New Testament calls the WAY.
He communicates as he was trained and this plus the corrupt following he will achieve in the centuries after his death (called in modern lingo ‘Pauline Christianity’) and the small forgeries done in his name by the known forger Marcion not to mention the boost that ridiculous philosophers will provide for future generations, all will come together to produce a strange religious atmosphere guaranteeing that the Jews will also be remembered quite well.
How remembered? In the worst of ways and the torment, humiliation and the killing of Jews will be a foregone conclusion as is seen from the sad and sorry part of human history!
To be of those who proclaimed that ALLAH’s hand is tied up will end up being costly featuring a tale of degradation and humiliation yielding to despair and carnage. So think of those who went through this earthly ‘hell’ as not just Jewish but scoffers who decided that GOD wasn’t worth two bits.
Also, those who ever thought that way, being Jewish or not, could join the party facing human degradation. All of them collected in one neat bag and a place determined!
Paul has been dead for a long time but that didn’t stop those who went on to proclaim that their ‘god’ was killed by crucifixion, a god who somehow became a ‘savior to the world’, was suddenly ill-treated by the hands of who? And when these people didn’t jump on the bandwagon of the new philosophy of god on earth, savior to mankind, then they were going to be the center of some very harsh treatment as history has shown us all too clearly.
So, Paul has his fit in the grand scheme of things and as they dumped on him it turns out that they were going to be dumped on! They, those Jews in power, hated Paul because Paul used to be of their ilk but is seen as a turncoat when he espoused Jesus (pbh) as the Way!
This is truly a complicated issue that cannot be fully understood at this time! Still, it fits the religious definitions given above for those who try to contest with THE ONE GOD and to slam HIS DOMINANCE and POSITION OF TOTAL POWER AND THOSE WHO WON’T LISTEN TO RHYME OR REASON. But still there is hope as ALLAH is MOST MERCIFUL and does not reject the repentant chastised soul!
The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple {obedient ones}.
The Precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The Fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
the judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them YOUR servant is warned;
in keeping them {these judgments} there is great reward. Psalm (19:7-11)
This story shows that when a person dies (except for the end of his term appointed), he cannot say that it is over and that he can’t be touched by the hand of GOD! All the more reason to submit to HIS RULE within one’s reasonable ability to do so.
This requires choices to be made and knowledgeable ones at that. As ‘Umar Ibn Khattab is reported to have said, “Sometimes the people with the worst past, create the best future.”
ALLAH is always ready to forgive anyone if they did bad things in the past. For example, ‘Umar was a disbeliever in the past but ALLAH forgave him his faults when he became a Muslim and even granted him success in this world and in the next (Isaiah 19:20)!
And it will be for a Sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors {Roman rule}, and HE will send them a savior and a mighty one, and HE will {then} deliver them {into the fold of true Faith}. Isaiah (19:20)
It is also reported that ‘Umar also said: “I fear the day when the disbelievers are proud of their falsehood and the Muslims are shy of their faith.”
The moral of this story is: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!