The Moral Values of The Qur'an
(42 - 44)

42. Not Calling Believers By Nicknames

It is the habit of unbelievers to call each other by offensive nicknames. The idea behind it is again to humiliate others and to “prove” one’s own superiority. The nickname may call attention to a physical defect or to past errors. The unbelievers do not forget wrongdoing and always remind the person of his mistakes, although he may not ever have repeated them.

However, believers are different from them. They are forgiving, and there is a close brotherhood among them; they do not stoop to behave in this way. Moreover, Allah has ordered the believer neither to “defame nor be sarcastic to one another, nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames.” (Surat al-Hujraat, 49:11)

43. Being Worthy of Trust

The Qur’an describes the rendering back one's trusts to those to whom they are due as a moral principle and a way to success. Believers should always respect the trust reposed in them and thus win others' confidence in return. Besides, believers should also determine to whom to hand the trusts, that is, to whom they are due. On this, the Qur’an delivers the following injunction:

A trust may be something of financial value, or atask or a matter of responsibility. The believers should use their wisdom and sense of discrimination in determining those who are worthy of trust.

44. The Illusive Universe

A major flaw in any society which is ignorant of the precepts of Islam is its members’ view that the material world they touch and see is the greatest and most absolute actuality of our earthly existence. In fact, they reckon that matter has an “eternal and never-ending” existence. Eventually, they start to deify matter, and seek help only from it. Consequently, they start to think of Allah less and less and even deny His existence. Their perception of Allah is of a “less realistic and more imaginary” being when compared to matter. However, this is a great misconception on the part of the unbelievers. The absolute being is not matter, but Allah. The Qur’an is quite specific on this point:

In truth, matter has the ability to exist only so longas it has been created by Allah. Its existence is preserved only at His wish and by His command. Consequently, the permanence of the absolute existence of matter is out of the question: matter can exist only as a result of the “Be” command of Allah. Allah states this fact in the Qur’an in the following verse:

This means the complete world exists only with the sustanence of Allah and when He so orders, it shall cease to exist. In fact, this means that the entire universe is made of illusive matter, which will end when commanded. This boundless will of Allah is beyond comprehension, but dreams may be a way of understanding this creation to a certain extent. For instance, when someone wakes up from a dream, the universe which existed with all its details in the dream will fade from existence and disappear since the reason for that universe’s existence is only one’s own mind during sleep. When the mind stops “forming” such a universe, it suddenly “disappears,” and does not exist anymore. Surely it had no material or independent being at all.

The prominent Islamic scholar, Imam Rabbani, narrates this absolute truth (the narration has been simplified and re-worded in translation):

“Allah has determined the reflection of each one of His names (the Just, the often returning, the Compassionate, etc.) andhas given His attributes to the created ones. And the beings for this reflection were created out of sheer nothingness. The One and Only Allah with His Power decreed a place of realization for His names and created them in the illusive (imaginary, supposed) universe. Moreover, He did this in the time and shape He wanted.

The existence of the universe is only in the illusive and sensational state and not in externality. In this case this is a permanence in nothingness and the illusive gains strength and soundness with the creation of Allah. So, the created becomes alive, knowing, doing, asking, seeing, hearing and speaking to the extent of His will. However, because of its being a reflection and having only a shadow existence, there is no trace of it externally. In the outside world, there is nothing other than Allah’s Being and His names.

Everything has appeared on the mirror of the Superior Being and in this way, they have acquired an external appearance: they have looked as if existent in the outside world. But there is nothing other than this on the outside. There is no one and nothing but Allah.” (Mektubati Rabbani, Imam Rabbani, p.517-519)

Since there is no being other than Allah and everything in the universe is a manifestation of His Being, then the author of all deeds is again the Almighty. In the Qur’an this secret is revealed in a number of verses:

The world has an immanent face as well as an evident one. In the evident, everything looks to be independent and uncontrolled. However, in the immanent, in accordance with their illusory creation, everything has bowed to Allah's will. With the words of the Qur'an;

Knowing that there is nothing other than Allah, unveils the secret reality that no one can do anything by himself. This secret should always be in the minds of the believers. Accordingly, the believers know that all perversions and misdeeds of the unbelievers are again decreed by Allah. Believers, therefore, interpret and evaluate all happenings according to their immanent implication. This helps them to do right, and to behave in a way which is most sincere, heedful, and wise.