Examples of Thoughtlessness In The Qur'an

The Qur'an cites numerous examples of unreasoning human behaviour throughout history. Without a doubt learning about these examples will help one to comprehend the costs of thoughtlessness and to avoiding its consequences.

Qarun, The Owner of Treasures

Allah's giving Qarun, one of the people of Musa (as), great wealth is thus described in the Qur'an:

As is seen in the above verses, his people warn him not to forget that it is Allah Who has given him all this wealth, to thank Allah, and use his wealth in a way that would please Allah. But, Qarun grew arrogant and insisted that this wealth had been given to him because he possessed a certain knowledge.

Qarun's fascination with wealth and thinking he possessed it because of himself was thoughtless behaviour, since the only real owner of wealth is Allah: He can give wealth to whomever He wills, whenever He wants and take it away whenever He desires. After Allah makes His decision, neither a person's knowledge, wealth, nor possessions can change this decision.

Here is where Qarun's thoughtlessness was exposed. He acted with arrogance, thinking that his treasures would be able to save him in the face of Allah's warning and punishment. Instead of thanking Allah by using this wealth in order to please Him, he tried to gain the respect of others with his possessions.

Qarun's thoughtless behaviour exposed the other thoughtless people in his tribe, who looked at Qarun in the midst of his ostentatious wealth envied him and wanted to be in his place. People with wisdom, on the other hand, condemned their behaviours by reminding them that meriting Allah's approval was much better than all the magnificence and richness of the world:

Finally, because of his foolish arrogance, Allah obliterated both Qarun and his wealth. Neither his riches, nor the other things he claimed to possess could save him from this punishment. Those who had longed the day before, to be in Qarun's place as a result of being deluded by the adornment of the world, now realized how wrong they had been when they saw what happened to Qarun:

Owners of The Garden

People who are mentioned as owners of the garden in the Qur'an, fell into a similar error as that of Qarun, being guilty of thoughtless behaviour. They also failed to remember that the garden they owned was a blessing given to them by Allah. This is how their situation is mentioned in the Qur'an:

This is the point where the owners of the garden were thoughtless, because no one can ever be definitely sure of what will happen in the future. Allah can put a person in an unexpected situation or a very different environment, whenever He wills. For this reason, the best and wisest thing to do in this situation is to be aware that one can only do something if Allah permits, and to ask Allah's permission. The Qur'an lays down how one should behave in such a situation:

The mistake made by the owners of the garden in this situation, was to forget that the owner and ruler of everything is Allah. When they went there early in the morning, they clearly saw that they had been greatly mistaken and now saw the seriousness of their thoughtlessness. To make them understand that the real possessor of power and wealth was Himself alone, Allah sent a plague upon their garden and dried the crops from their roots:

The owners of the garden were talking among themselves, as they were about to go their garden in the morning, they voiced their greed in worldly goods as:

So, this was another mistake they made. When they voiced their worldly greed, they forgot that Allah was a witness to it. They thought that by going to their garden early, they could avoid running into poor people. However, once Allah wills something, they don't have the power to prevent it from happening, whatever they do. As they had been extremely greedy about the crops they were going to harvest, when they saw what had happened to their garden they were baffled and thought they had come to the wrong place. But, later on they realized that the reason for this was because they had not been sufficiently grateful to Allah, and they began to condemn themselves:

The Prophet Nuh (as)'s Son

Prophet Nuh (as) invited his people to believe in Allah, but except for a small group of people, they didn't accept his pleas. Then Allah informed Nuh (as) that He would send down a disaster to destroy them:

The Prophet Nuh (as) built an ark as he was told by Allah in the above verse. Then, he brought believers and his family on to this ark at Allah's command.

However, Nuh (as)'s son didn't board the ark and chose to stay with the unbelievers. Nuh (as), who knew that Allah would drown them, warned his son to board the ark and not to stay with the unbelievers. However, his son insisted, saying that he would take refuge on a mountain and that the mountain would save him from this flood disaster:

Without a doubt, it was not possible for Nuh's (as) son to escape from the great waves and the mountain could not save him. The thoughtless error Nuh (as)'s son fell into at this point was not comprehending that no one but Allah could save him from this calamity that He had sent down. Because, as it was Allah Who created the waves, He also created the mountains and it was He Who subjected them to Him. After Allah wishes to destroy an individual or a community, there is no power or shelter that can defy Him.

In fact, Nuh (as) reminded his son of the truth by saying, "There is no protection from Allah's judgement today except for those He has mercy on" but his son did not take this important advice into consideration. Even though he was warned, he did not obey Allah's messenger and, as a result of his thoughtlessness, he received his punishment by drowning under the waves.