Part 33

Reflect, then, on the compelling wisdom embodied in the fish breeding more than all other animals! You see in the abdomen of a fish more eggs than one can count. The wisdom in that is to produce enough for the many animals that seek it for nutrition. Most animals eat fish, even wild animals; they prowl on the edges of jungles, in proximity of clean water, and if they fail to catch land game, they lie in ambush for the fish to snatch them. And so, since wild animals eat fish, birds and humans eat fish, big fish eat fish, land beasts eat fish; all by the will of the Lord Almighty are given fish as food; He willed in his judgement to provide fish in that abundance! If a human were to see what the sea contains of diverse animals, precious stones, and other things that none but the Lord can keep count of, and which humans know only a scanty number of, nothing compared with what they ignore, he would be overwhelmed with what he had seen, and would realize the expanse of Allah’s kingdom, and the multiplicity of His troops, which none but Him can keep count of!

Consider the locusts, some of the legions sent by Allah, fragile of physique, amazing of structure, a composite of the structure of seven species! You can see how their troops advance, irrepressible and countless. No king can stop them from invading his territories for all the cavalry, infantry, beasts or armour that he might mobilize! See how they swoop on the lands like a torrent, invading plains and hills, the suburbs and towns, in such swarms that they block the sun’s rays and veil the surface of the sky with their wings. They soar to such height as cannot be reached by birds of bigger wings. So we ask the denier: Who sent those weak troops — which cannot resist an animal that assaults them — during a night to swoop against an army in all its power, equipment, numbers and

plans, unable to stop their progress. Humans just watch passively as the locusts snatch their provisions and turn it to waste, leaving the land a bare stretch, while the owners are incapable of withstanding them or blocking their attack, This is an illustration of Allah’s wisdom, letting the weak unarmed creatures overpower the strong, by which He takes revenge on the latter, and visits on him that which He had always warned them against, a revenge that they are incapable of withstanding or resisting.

The right of the oppressed

We read in the Qur’an:

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“And we desired to show favour unto those who were oppressed in the earth, and to make them examples and to make them the inheritors.

And to establish them in the earth, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts which they feared

Oh for righteousness with Allah and giving priority to His pleasure every time the oppressed and downtrodden is repaid so that the oppressor may realize that the oppressed is closer to Allah and His Apostle than he is. But as itis, Allah, the Most Mighty, the Most Wise, has willed in His wisdom that the tyrannical oppressor should persist in his oppression protected by the sins of the oppressed and the maltreated. The latter’s misbehaviour is a great cause for mercy in regard to the oppressor; he is forgiven some of his sins on that account; this situation also relates to the beggar and the begged one: when the begged one declines to help the indigent, the begged one is forgiven

some of his misdeeds, because of the beggar’s falsehood; but if the beggar were truthful, the begged one would be a real loser to deny him help. Other similar instances are those-of the burglar and the robber who are partly justified by the money-owners’ failure to fulfill what they are supposed to do in the eye of Allah. If they were to observe what is ordained by Allah in connection with the money, Allah would preserve it for them. This also isa glaring example of the wisdom of Allah! It enables an observer to discern one of the mysteries of destiny and the hierarchy of dominance in the world; how hierarchies of dominance are allowed to stay, and the oppressors and bullies to have their way! Glory be to Him Whose every deed bespeaks of His wisdom and embodies compelling evidence of His mercy! Even when animals trespass on people’s property and provision, they are behaving in retribution for humans’ misbehaviour; otherwise no such aggression would have occurred.

This digression might prove, for those who reflect on it, more useful than many of the above chapters, but only for those who contemplate it and ponder over it. It will be a very rewarding exercise, but guidance comes from Allah.

It is recounted that a cattle owner used to mix milk with water before selling it, claiming that it was unmixed. So Allah sent on his sheep a flood that killed them. He was puzzled. So someone came to him in his dream and explained: Are you puzzled over the flood’s drowning your sheep? Well, the cause is those drops of water which you used to mix with milk! They multiplied until they were a flood! By taking a lesson from this parable you can apply it to your and others’ conduct, and it will dawn on you that Allah stands for truth, that He keeps a watch on each living soul to see what it earned, that He does not wrong even as little as the weight of an ant!

Regard also the wisdom of Allah, the Most Mighty, the Exalted, in holding rain from His servants, and penalizing them with draught after they have failed to pay zakah (money due), by which they deprive the needy of their right! For holding from the indigent what is due to them, observe how they are deprived and cut off from the source of food (i.e. rain)! In this way Allah is telling them, by deeds rather than words: “You have failed to fulfill what you are supposed to do, and so you are deprived of rain. So why do you not invoke rain by offering from what you possess in your hands that which is due to Allah!”

Reflect now on the Allah’s wisdom as implied in diverting guidance and faith from the hearts of those who drive people away from guidance and faith! He drove them away from that which they drove His servants away from, misguidance for misguidance, and deprivation for deprivation. In the same way, observe the wisdom embodied in cursing the riches of usurers and letting loose financial disasters on them, the same as they did to the possessions of others, bringing them to nothingness and destroying them with usury! They were penalized with destruction for destruction! You seldom see a usurer but his destiny one day is destruction, lack of funds and destitution.

Allah’s ways with creation

Consider now the wisdom of Allah as illustrated in letting loose an enemy of His to attack His creatures if the powerful persecute the weak, and the maltreated are not backed to get even with the oppressor. See how He sends on people enemies that do to them as they did to the weak and to their subjects; it is exactly tit for tat! This is the way of Allah, from the day He created the world to the day He folds back the earth, and brings it back to its first state. Regard His wisdom when He deems that the kings, rulers

and governors of humans should exactly correspond to people’s behaviour! It is as if their deeds materialize into governors and kings! If they behave well, their kings will be upright, and if they misbehave, so will their kings. If they persecute others, their rulers will persecute them, and if they are crooks, so will be their rulers ; if they hold back the due of Allah and behave miserly concerning that, their kings and rulers will hold back what is due to them and behave meanly concerning it. If they extort from the weaker people what is not their right to take when offering their services, their kings will extort from them what is not right for them to take, tributes and tolls will be levied on them, Whatever they extort from those weaker than them will be extorted from them by force at the hands of kings. Their rulers have been the crystallization of their behaviour. It is not right that wisdom should appoint as a ruler of the sinful and crooked, one who is different from them. For instance, in the case of the early Muslims, they were the leading generations in devoutness and righteousness, and so were their rulers. And then, when they declined, their rulers declined. In our own time, the wisdom of Allah denies us rulers like Mu’awiah and Umar bin Abdul-Aziz, to say nothing of Abu Bakr and Umar bin Al-Khattab. Our rulers are rather of our own character, and the preceding generations had rulers of their own calibre. In both cases wisdom is maintained and realized. If the shrewd reader makes a mental survey of these facts, he will discover such aspects of the Divine wisdom and its manifestations in the operative destiny, both visible and concealed, exactly the same in both creation and commandments! So never commit the folly of assuming that any of Allah’s manifestations of destiny is done for anything other than absolute wisdom. Indeed, all forms of judgements and fate from Allah are realized for utmost wisdom and justification. But feeble minds are veiled by their

feebleness from perceiving the truth, in the same way as feeble eyes, like the bat’s, are too weak to look at the sun. The feeble minds come upon falsehood and find it compatible with their activity; and so they forge ahead, uttering and chattering, in the same way as a bat would find in the night its chance to fly and roam. It is in fact as expressed by a poet:

Bats which blink during the daylight, Find their chance in the dark of the night.

The wisdom of transforming some humans to animals

Reflect on the wisdom of Allah as demonstrated in the punishment of past people, whose penalties were made to fit their sins. Read for example the following verses from the Qur’an:

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“And the tribes of ‘Aad and Thamud! Their fate is manifest unto you from their ruined and deserted dwellings. Satan made their deeds seem fair unto them and so debarred them from the Way, though they were keen observers.