IDEA 20
Greater Life, and Greater Death
In the Qur’ān, then, ‘saving’ is a rescue not from corporeal death, which no mortal escapes, but from the spiritual death of those who acknowledge nothing beyond ‘Deceased.’ Faith in a greater life, the Life of GOD, saves us from the greater death, the death of the spirit. (IIQ, pages 240-241)
By historical standards, life has never been so great.
More people today are driving cars, eating out, carrying devices they can use to contact anyone else on the planet, and converting from ancient belief systems to modern ‘scientific’ materialism than ever before. Visit some remote nomadic tribe in Central Asia, and an 11-year-old boy who is herding goats on some barren hillside will tell you that he wants to become a teacher, a doctor, or an airline pilot.
I feel like weeping when I hear this. All over the world, people are drifting away from the potential grandeur of a life with GOD and into the jaws of a system that will entice you with images and promises of success that never come true for you, but which nonetheless have had enough time to rewire your brain and enslave your heart.
What greater life are they missing? It is a life that no one but you may ever see or feel. It takes you out of your personal circumstances — a little life over which you have little control — and brings you to your knees in a potent potion made of fear, awe, insight, and peace. You are spurned, humiliated, neglected, oppressed, or even left for dead, but you no longer care. You are bound to worship and thank One Who brought you forth out of the void, from zero, and let you breathe His air, taste His medicine, hear His music, see His beauty, and feel the finger of GOD in the pulsing of your heart before He takes you back and asks you, ‘Was that enough to convince you Who I am?’ You say, Indeed, we have been witnesses (Q7:172), and your soul is gladdened for ever after.
The greater death, consequently, is simply the continued absence of that experience. You never know it because you never feel it. You hear me say these words and they mean nothing to you. You go through what they call life, in comfort or condemned to poverty, or a little bit of both, and you leave it convinced that you saw it all and that GOD had no part in it. Or you claim to worship Him, but you are merely doing what the others around you are doing, and you prefer to stop when they stop.
Every soul is tasting death (Q3:185). But AL-LAH makes it plain that not every death is the same. And do not say of those who have been killed upon the path of GOD ‘Deceased.’ Rather [say] ‘Alive,’ but you are not aware. (Q2:154)
Try to find that greater life before the greater death finds you.
Download the PDF version for free at Ideas Inspired by the Qur’ān – Mont Redmond complete version, or purchase a hard copy at Ideas Inspired by the Qur’an: Redmond, Mont: 9781738842506: Books – Amazon.ca.
