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Why We Don’t Understand the Quran

Why do we suffice with simply repeating the metaphors and symbols in the Quran without actually feeling the need to recognize the truths they point to?

Why can’t we free ourselves from having to think within the limits of our ‘five senses’ and escape our cocoon?

Why is it so difficult for us to discern the reality that: 

The level of strings, which comprises a SINGLE frame picture, is what Sufism refers to as the dimension of “the Names”. This is where “forms of knowledge” are made. Beyond this is “Absolute Nothingness”!

Why do we think that by simply jumping into the shower we can suddenly become purified of the “filth” the Quran refers to in pertinence to the filthy thought system based on “duality”?

Let’s remember the following verse:

“Verily the dualists (who claim the existence of their ego-identities alongside the Absolute Oneness)are contaminated (filthy)!”[1]

“None but the purified (from the dirt of shirq– duality – animalistic nature) can touch it (i.e. become enlightened with the knowledge of the Absolute Reality)”[2]

For the longest time, these two verses have been construed and understood as “you’re dirty if you don’t have wudu and therefore you cannot touch the Quran!”

Whereas what they really mean is:

“If you are of the opinion that there is this world that you can perceive, and then there is alsoa god up beyond in the heavens somewhere that you can’t perceive, then clearly you have a dualistic view. In this case, you should stay away from this magnificent Knowledge (the Quran) that accentuates and constantly reinforces the reality of the Absolute Unity and Oneness of existence, for with a dualistic view, it’s impossible for you to recognize and evaluate the profound knowledge contained within it.”

Let me give an example to shed some light on why metaphors and symbolic language have been used in the Quran, Hadith and Sufism.

Imagine you were beamed five hundred years back into time and your mission was to explain to the people of that time the concept of the Internet and where its boundless data was kept, and how computers and televisions worked… How would you explain it to those people? How much would the examples you give them reflect the actual reality? 

Allah’s Rasul and final Nabi, who lived more than 1400 years ago, had observed all of the mechanics of the System and Order, referred to as the Sunnatullah, to the extent they were revealed to him, and then he had to explain them according to the mental capacity of the people of his time. How else could he have expressed these truths?

It is unfortunate that albeit mankind has advanced tremendously in many fields, when it comes to evaluating the realities revealed by the Rasul of Allah (saw), we don’t refrain from thinking like the people who lived centuries ago, subject to the limited conditions of their time! Those people are excused, for they did not have access to the information that we do today. But us???



[1]Quran 9:28

[2]Quran 56:79

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