Welcome to our weekly program "Path towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an. We start from where we left you last Friday and here is ayah 7 of Surah Fatir:

“There is a severe punishment for the faithless, but for those who have faith and do righteous deeds there will be forgiveness and a great reward.”

Last week we talked about Satan’s avowed animosity towards Adam and his children the human race, and how he deceives the unsuspecting and weak of faith among mankind to end up with him in the fires of hell as the Devil’s Party.

The ayah that we recited to you now means to say that disbelief and denial of truth open the doors for the Satan to sneak in and establish his sway over human beings, whose lack of faith and immersion in sins, entails severe divine punishment for them.

But as for those who have faith and do good deeds, the temptations of Satan are in vain, because persons with firm belief in God and Divine commandments, even if they slip at times, make quick amends through repentance and seek forgiveness from the All-Merciful, Who forgives the sins and rewards them from His infinite grace.

It is clear that faith without good deeds is of no use and brings no reward, while disbelief deprives a person of the bliss of paradise; because a person on the wrong path, never finds the destination, even there is lavish spending on supposedly good things.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. Those who die in the state of disbelief, denial of God, or unrepentant of sin, are subjected to severe punishment and deprives themselves of the bliss of paradise.
2. The believers who do good deeds are rewarded by God, Who also forgives and greatly compensates those who sincerely seek repentance for their faults, shortcomings and sins. Acceptance of repentance in the Divine Court cleanses a person thoroughly of the filth of sins and errors, and make the forgiven persons deserving of paradise, which is not the place for the deniers of truth and the unrepentant sinners.

Now we listen to ayah 8 of Surah Fatir:

 “Is someone the evil of whose conduct is presented as decorous to him, so he regards it as good (like one who is truly virtuous)? Indeed Allah leaves (to go) astray whomever He wishes, and guides whomever He wishes. So do not fret yourself to death regretting for them. Indeed Allah knows best what they do.”

This ayah means to say that those who feel proud of their evil deeds and consider their evil actions as good – similar to the one who is really virtuous – are actually deceiving themselves and have been clearly misled by the Satan; and as a result of their crooked conceptions that kill their conscience and erase any thought of repentance, they are left to stray by God, Whose infinite wisdom determines who really are deserving of guidance.

In other words, the one who depicts the evil behaviour of a person as a pleasant one, and instead of criticizing it, misleads such a person through flattery, is considered a Satan. As a matter of fact, this very attitude is the cause of all miseries of the misled, intransigence and sinful peoples, societies and nations, whose wicked deeds seem fair to themselves because of the fact that they are consistent with their lusts and their black hearts.

It is also evident that obstinate sinners neither accept any admonition, nor do they usually show any inclination for listening to criticisms, and as a result they are not bothered of repentance, of reviewing their actions, of rectifying their clearly wrong behaviour, and of reforming themselves, because any anxiousness for the consequences of their evil is dead. Moreover, when ugliness and beauty of deeds is spoken of, they feel proud of their sins and evil ways, while disdaining the virtuous and pious persons as ugly and undesirable. The more these indifferent people repeat their wicked deeds these ugly things seem beautiful and decorous to them, to the extent that they come to regard evil actions as honours and virtues, when in fact they are immersed in the filth of sins that lead them to hell.

While believers measure their deeds on the scale of obedience to God and adherence to Divine Commandments, the disbelievers and the sinners measure their wicked ways on the scale of lust, greed for power, exploitation of others, accumulation of wealth and satanic inclinations, such as theft, violence, murder, war and bloodshed.

Towards its end the ayah refers to the extraordinary sympathy and compassion of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The Prophet spared no efforts to guide the deviated ones to the right path, despite the fact the obstinate and intransigent disbelievers mocked at him and ridiculed him, to the extent he use to feel pity for them and feel sad at the state of their own self-destruction. In view of these fact, God Almighty tells the Prophet of Islam, whose behaviour teaches us the state of a truly Divine leader, not to feel disappointed at the continued disbelief of the deniers of truth, since Allah knows best what to do. While addressing the Prophet, the message here is for all true believers not to lose heart and to overburden themselves with grief at the intransigence and tyranny of the disbelievers, since Allah is aware of their inner thoughts.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. It is not right to justify sins and evil ways, which gradually become decorous in the eyes of the sinners, who lose the conscience to do soul-searching in order to rectify their wrongs.
2. Good and bad should be measured on the solid criteria of intellect and reason, and not be swayed with the deceptive wishes of the heart.
3. People and societies that do not correct their beliefs, do no reform themselves and do not give up sins and evil ways by turning sincerely to God Almighty for repentance, kill their own conscience and thus end up in the eternal inferno.
4. Truly divine leaders spare no efforts for the guidance of the misled, taking great pains and feeling pity for the disbelievers who are all set on the course of self-destruction without being aware of it due to their immersion in sins.

AS/ME