Magic in the light of Quran
Magic, sorcery, witch-craft, whatever name may be called, all these are illusions, tricks, and sleight of hands. These have nothing to do with the Quran which is an absolute Truth and an objective Reality.
Magicians claim to be able to do things with the help of supernatural powers or by their own knowledge of nature's secrets. This claim itself exposes their ignorance about nature. They should know that there is nothing in the universe which is beyond the laws of nature. The only one which we could call Supernatural is God Himself. And God is not a magician. He does create things according to well established scientific laws. So, Magic and Reality cannot be alike. They are as much far apart as are The Truth and The Falsehood. For example, apparently a Mirage (an illusion of sea in hot air condition) and a Sea looks similar but in reality they are not. One can refute a Mirage scientifically but he can not refute the existence of a Sea by any means.
The biggest Reality in the universe is God. And The Quran is the only True Words of God. Therefore, it cannot contain Magic at all. There is not even a single verse which approves the existence of magic and its effects. Contrarily, it strongly refutes magic with ample reasoning and logic. It expressly warned the Believers against dabbling in magic or believing that anything can hurt us except by God's Will, and God is Just and Righteous. Ref:
"........but they could not thus harm anyone except by God's permission....." (2:102)
A Just and Righteous God will never teach Magic or Sorcery. Similarly, His Books and Prophets will never preach them. The influence of Truth is much stronger than a spell of magic. Therefore, neither the Books contained magic nor the Prophets taught magic to the Believers.
Whenever, God sent His Books and Prophets to people, the Non-Believers among them, due to their sheer ignorance, called them work of magic and magicians. But, in fact, whatever God sent was Absolute Truth. Ref:
“When the Truth did come to them from us, they said: ' This is indeed evident sorcery!” - (5:76)
Sorcery is the very opposite of Truth,- being deception or plausible shows by human skill. But these cannot succeed or last permanently, and Truth must ultimately prevail. Ref:
"Moses said: ' Are you saying this about Truth - when it has (actually) reached you ? Is sorcery (like) this? But (the fact is and you know it) the sorcers will not prosper (succeed)." (5:77)
In the following verse, this is more explicitly explained:
"But when Our Signs came to them that should have opened their eyes, they (instead) said: "this is sorcery manifest". (27:13)
The God's Signs should have clearly opened the eyes of any person who honestly examined them and thought about them. Those who rejected them were perverse and were going against their own light and inner conviction.
Similar blames and allegations were hurled against Prophets. For example:
About Moses they said:
"Said the Chiefs of the people of Pharaoh: This is indeed a Sorcer well-versed" - (7:109)
About Prophet Salih they said:
"They said: " Thou art is only one of those Bewitched!" (26:153)
Same words were said about Prophet Shohaib - (26:185) and Prophet Younis (10:2) and they condemned Prophet Mohammad in these words;
"So they wonder that a Warner has come to them from among themselves! And the Unbelievers say: "This is a sorcers tellling lies" - (38:4)
The Unbelievers were full of envy and spite against one of themselves who has been chosen by God to be His Messenger, and they vent their spite by making all sorts of false accusations. The man who was pre-eminent for truth and conscientious consideration, they call - A sorcerer and a liar.
Not only this that they accused the Prophet as a sorcerer, they also denounced him as one who speaks under a spell or who is bewitched. See what they said;
"Or (why) has not a treasure been bestowed on him, or why has he (not)l a garden for enjoyment? The wicked say; You follow none other than a man bewitched."-(25:8)
The above verses clearly show that neither the God's Books contained magic, nor His Prophets were magicians. In other words, the magic and magician has no real existence. These are illusions and tricks faked by wicked men. They might have some temporary affects on those who believed in them but they have no affect on those who believed in Truth.(2:102)
This is an irony of fate, that magic which is clearly refuted in the Quran is accepted by the Muslims as Truth. They believe that Prophet was bewitched by a Jewish lady whereas Quran refute and condemn it. Those who believed that Prophet was bewitched they are wicked and wrongdoers in the sight of Quran.
The concerted attack of evil is sometimes so well contrived from all points that falsehood appears and is acclaimed as the Truth. The believer of truth is isolated and a sort of mental dizziness creeps over his mind. But by God's Grace Faith asserts itself, gives him confidence and points out the specific truths which will dissipate and destroy the teeming brood of falsehood.
This fact is very nicely elaborated in the story of Moses as follow:
"Throw that which is in your right hand. Quickly will it swallow up that which they have faked. What they faked is but a magician's trick: And magician thrives not (no matter) where he goes." -(20:69)
Magicians are wicked men' they thrives not (no matter) where he goes; they cannot hurt anyone except by God's Will and God is Just and Righteous; these are the words which Quran has used against magic. Then how can one justify magic in the light of Quran. So as Muslims we should not believe in these things like we don’t need to wear amulets or to solve our problems through sorcery or witch-craft, we should always be logical and rational because Quran is not a magic and it is the ultimate truth based on logics and rationales.
Tuesday, June 2
What is the fact of fat and destiny (Taqdeer kia hai)
What is fate? Is our destiny pre-decided? Are we inescapably bound to our fate? Can we know what lies in store for us? Can we change our destiny by our actions?
A person with conscious and logical thinking will be always finding questions like these confusing and nagging. I want to discuss these questions in the light of Quran, which gives comprehensive and satisfactory answers to all these questions.
Before going to the Quranic concept of destiny (Taqdeer), I would like to tell something about the traditional notion about destiny (Taqdeer), which is very common in the religious world in general and in Muslim’s world in particular. According to this traditional notion of fate (Taqdeer): At the dawn of the creation of universe God laid down the rules for the entire operations of the universe which will govern each and every product of his creation, living and non living (Including man) for eternity until the cessation of the universe. Like God has marked a circle for every product of his creation which it will have to fulfill ( A famous saying in urdu can indicate this notion which means that “Not even a leaf can stir without God’s permission).
Some believe that pre- decided destiny can be changed by excessive prayers, good deeds and even by intermediaries like saints (peer).
Some hold the believe that major actions of a man’s life are bound to fate like mirages, education etc while the minor actions are not influenced by the hand of fate, which is consider as a line of demarcation between man’s freedom of choice and his pre-decided destiny.
The above traditional view about fate and destiny give rise to an overwhelming dilemma, which I would like to explain as follow:
Dilemma: This view clearly comes in clash with the universal justice and fairness of God. Let me elaborate this confusion and dilemma by questions like:
Why does God let innocent and helpless beings like children suffer in poverty and disease? Why is the west sublimely prosperous while the areas like much of Africa, Asia and South America are badly poor? Why are the Palestinians suffering while the Israel is well established? Why did some time noble and humble people get suffered while the sinful people enjoy the resources of life? And most importantly if we are bound to the machinery of fate (Taqdeer) then why would God reward us or punish us for our actions? There are comprehensive, logical and rational answers present in Quran about all these nagging questions.
Quranic View of Destiny (Taqdeer): In Quran the word Taqdeer (fate) is used in many places in many forms but it literally means to make something according to certain measures and standards. God has marked certain measures and standards for all the operations of universe which are unchangeable. For example it is pre- decided for water that it will freeze on 0C and vaporize at 100C, fire has to burn and earth has to pull by gravitational force and so on so forth. But these measures and standards (Taqdeer) are not pre-decided for man. It is to be noted that man is totally free in his choices but there is a fixed naturally designed Taqdeer for each action one do. For example if one puts finger in fire one must suffers burns (Because it is the taqdeer of fire to burn) and after burn if one put some remedy on one burns it will heal because now it is the taqdeer of that remedy to heal you. So before doing any action one should bear in mind about the taqdeer of that action.
So for getting the desire Taqdeer we should first discover all the standards and measures of the universe that God has set for every action and every operation and creature of the universe.
These standards and measures which God has pre-decided for all the components of Universe (Except man) are called permanent values(Aqdaar) and these will never change. Let me post here few verses from Quran which explain about these permanent values (measures and standards) TAQDEER:
1 ˜He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: no one has He begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion: it is He Who created all things and ordered them in due proportions (fa qaddara hu taqdeera). Al-Furqaan (25: 2)
Note here the words “fa qaddara hu taqdeera which means in due proportion”
2 He sends down water from the skies, and the channels flow, each according to its measure (be qadrehaa) Ar-Raâ (13 : 17)
Word ( be Qadrehaa for measure)
3And there is not a thing but its (sources) and treasures (inexhaustible) are with Us; but We only send down thereof in due and ascertainable measures (be qadrem maloom) Al-Hajar (15 :
Conclusion: Let me conclude my discussion with the fact that no one is bound by fate, but each action we do has certain measures and standards which should be thoroughly consider before doing an activity to achieve desirable consequences.
What is fate? Is our destiny pre-decided? Are we inescapably bound to our fate? Can we know what lies in store for us? Can we change our destiny by our actions?
A person with conscious and logical thinking will be always finding questions like these confusing and nagging. I want to discuss these questions in the light of Quran, which gives comprehensive and satisfactory answers to all these questions.
Before going to the Quranic concept of destiny (Taqdeer), I would like to tell something about the traditional notion about destiny (Taqdeer), which is very common in the religious world in general and in Muslim’s world in particular. According to this traditional notion of fate (Taqdeer): At the dawn of the creation of universe God laid down the rules for the entire operations of the universe which will govern each and every product of his creation, living and non living (Including man) for eternity until the cessation of the universe. Like God has marked a circle for every product of his creation which it will have to fulfill ( A famous saying in urdu can indicate this notion which means that “Not even a leaf can stir without God’s permission).
Some believe that pre- decided destiny can be changed by excessive prayers, good deeds and even by intermediaries like saints (peer).
Some hold the believe that major actions of a man’s life are bound to fate like mirages, education etc while the minor actions are not influenced by the hand of fate, which is consider as a line of demarcation between man’s freedom of choice and his pre-decided destiny.
The above traditional view about fate and destiny give rise to an overwhelming dilemma, which I would like to explain as follow:
Dilemma: This view clearly comes in clash with the universal justice and fairness of God. Let me elaborate this confusion and dilemma by questions like:
Why does God let innocent and helpless beings like children suffer in poverty and disease? Why is the west sublimely prosperous while the areas like much of Africa, Asia and South America are badly poor? Why are the Palestinians suffering while the Israel is well established? Why did some time noble and humble people get suffered while the sinful people enjoy the resources of life? And most importantly if we are bound to the machinery of fate (Taqdeer) then why would God reward us or punish us for our actions? There are comprehensive, logical and rational answers present in Quran about all these nagging questions.
Quranic View of Destiny (Taqdeer): In Quran the word Taqdeer (fate) is used in many places in many forms but it literally means to make something according to certain measures and standards. God has marked certain measures and standards for all the operations of universe which are unchangeable. For example it is pre- decided for water that it will freeze on 0C and vaporize at 100C, fire has to burn and earth has to pull by gravitational force and so on so forth. But these measures and standards (Taqdeer) are not pre-decided for man. It is to be noted that man is totally free in his choices but there is a fixed naturally designed Taqdeer for each action one do. For example if one puts finger in fire one must suffers burns (Because it is the taqdeer of fire to burn) and after burn if one put some remedy on one burns it will heal because now it is the taqdeer of that remedy to heal you. So before doing any action one should bear in mind about the taqdeer of that action.
So for getting the desire Taqdeer we should first discover all the standards and measures of the universe that God has set for every action and every operation and creature of the universe.
These standards and measures which God has pre-decided for all the components of Universe (Except man) are called permanent values(Aqdaar) and these will never change. Let me post here few verses from Quran which explain about these permanent values (measures and standards) TAQDEER:
1 ˜He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: no one has He begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion: it is He Who created all things and ordered them in due proportions (fa qaddara hu taqdeera). Al-Furqaan (25: 2)
Note here the words “fa qaddara hu taqdeera which means in due proportion”
2 He sends down water from the skies, and the channels flow, each according to its measure (be qadrehaa) Ar-Raâ (13 : 17)
Word ( be Qadrehaa for measure)
3And there is not a thing but its (sources) and treasures (inexhaustible) are with Us; but We only send down thereof in due and ascertainable measures (be qadrem maloom) Al-Hajar (15 :
Conclusion: Let me conclude my discussion with the fact that no one is bound by fate, but each action we do has certain measures and standards which should be thoroughly consider before doing an activity to achieve desirable consequences.
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