CHAPTER THREE

 

Choice and The Body

  We mentioned that man was not given the ultimate choice from Allah, only a limited choice that best suits his mission in life and that coincides with the needs of the law of Allah that He (SWT) assigned to man. And now we move to another area, the human body, to see whether the body is a property of man that he can do whatever he wants with or whether Allah (SWT) wanted us to know that the human body is owned by Allah and that we are only heirs of it in our life time which is actually a testing period for us.   Most of the parts in the human body, the parts that are related to life and its functionality, and more are oppressed by Allah (SWT). For in our bodies there are many organs that we know nothing about and we do not notice them unless they are destroyed or infected, but as long as they function in a normal way we do not feel them.   First we will start with those parts of the body that are completely oppressed by Allah (TWT) and then we move to those parts that are still oppressed by Allah (Galla Gallaloh) but that we have some kind of control over them. If we look to the life cycle in our bodies we find that we eat the food, chew it with our teeth and then it goes through the esophagus to the stomach where it is digested in a complex mechanical process. Then the food goes to the small intestine where the nutrients that are the fuel of human life get absorbed and carried by the blood to different parts of the body and then the body gets rid of the waste through the intestine. Starting with the food, do we have anything to do with the reacting process taking place between food and the body? Truly not, when the food reaches the stomach where different enzymes are secreted upon it, it is a question of oppression, for no one willingly tells his stomach to start secreting the required enzymes and no one can stop the secretion of enzymes from digesting the food. It is a process that takes place in our bodies and we don’t feel it. If we watch a movie showing what happens to the food inside our stomach we will sure be stunned from the divine power that made all those processes take place in the stomach without man knowing anything about it. There have been a lot of people that lived and died without knowing how their stomach digested the food or what were the glands that secreted the enzymes necessary for the digestion process.   Then if we move to the liver for example, that has main functions in the body, do we know what the liver does? Do we feel it starting to work? Of course not, for the liver is working in the body without us knowing or feeling that process and it can go on like that for years as long as it is functioning in a normal way. Do we know what does the small intestine do? And can we make the heart beat or stop beating when we want? And with the process of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange taking place continuously in your lungs day and night, is it you that manages that exchange? And the blood circulation that is taking place in your body, do you know anything about it? The blood contains tens of the cells among which are the red and white cells and many more, do you know about them?   There is battles going on inside your veins, by the time the microbe enters the patient’s body the white blood cells starts to face it by preparing the immune necessary to kill the microbe and retain your health. Do you do that? Of course not for that is all subjected to Allah (SWT), you do not know anything about it and if you see it you are stunned that all those processes are taking place in your body without you knowing anything about it.   And more important is that you have no control what so ever over all those processes taking place in your body, they do not take any instructions from you and you cannot make them function or stop functioning and that is mercy from Allah (SWT). For, if they were subject to your will, it would have been a big problem.   Imagine that you are asked to order the heart to beat, the stomach to work and the lungs to breath. Surely you will not have the time to do all this and even if you have the time you will not be able to seek your living, improve your civilization and apply the laws of Allah. You will not be able even to sleep and how can you sleep when you are the one who orders the heart to beat, it will sure stop beating by the time you sleep. And how could a little kid who still doesn’t know anything, make those devices work without stopping?

Oppression and The Body

  You are oppressed in most of your body and that oppression is a mercy from Allah (Galla Gallaloh) so that you can go on with your life and do your work, otherwise if you had choice in your body, you would not have been able to survive.   So the majority of the human body is subjected to Allah (SWT) and it functions by oppression and not by choice, it does what Allah (SWT) wants it to do and it stops when the Creator orders it to stop.   And so you have no choice in that majority of your body and you do not have knowledge about it, except what Allah wants you to know. If He (Galla Gallaloh) wills to hide information about your body from the whole humanity, He sure will hide it. And if you find that this is awkward, remember that Allah (SWT) hides the information about the soul from all His servants. He (TWT) says:   <<They ask you concerning the Spirit (of inspiration). Say: “The spirit (comes) by command of my Lord: of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you (O! men)>>    Ayah 85 from surat Al – Israa

Where is The Soul

  All of the scholars in religion could not tell us where is the soul that gives the life to the body. Is it in the heart? Or in the brain that thinks? Or in the blood circulation that never stops? Or in the feet that moves? Or in the eyes that see? Or in the ears that hear? Where is it? A question that science cannot answer, because it is a secret that no one knows except Al-Haqq (SWT), and it will remain a secret that only Allah knows.   So if you could feel the soul that is a creature in your body and you know its effect because it is giving you life, but yet you do not know anything about it because Allah (SWT) hides all information about it from you, how come you say that your body is subject to your will? No it is not subjected to you but to the will of its Creator, Allah (SWT).   If we move after that to the things in your body that Allah has made subject to your will. For example, Allah has made the tongue subject to your will, that’s why it obeys you when you want to witness that there is no God but Allah <<<La illah illa Allah>>> and it speaks the words – Al-Shahadah. And it also obeys you when you want to say the word of infidelity, Allah forbids. And your eyes obeys you when you want to see what is Halal and when you want to meditate the Signs – Ayat - of Allah throughout His universe, or when you look to what does not belong to you and is forbidden by Allah – Haram.   The hands obey you when you want to help with it a disabled man to cross the street and it also obeys you when you want to physically assault someone weak or to kill your enemy. And the feet obey you by going to the mosque or by going to places that serve wine and allow iniquity.   All those organs will obey you in all that you order, whether it is to obey Allah or to disobey Him, because they are tools subjected to your choice. But you should know two important facts: first that all those organs are praising Allah (SWT), and Allah Jalla Jallaloh has created your body from dust. And the atoms of dust that the body is created from chose to be oppressed to obey and so they are by themselves praising Allah. They obey the infidel in what he wants but at the same time curse him and at the Day of Resurrection, will bear witness against him and that witness will be a cause for sending him to Hell. Read what Al-Haq (SWT) says: <<On the Day when their tongue, their hands and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions>>

Ayah 24 from surat Al-Nur

  And Galla Gallaloh says: <<They will say to their skins: “Why do you bear witness against us?” They will say: “Allah has caused us to speak, He causes all things to speak: and He created you the first time and to Him you are made to return”>>

Ayah 21 from surat Fussilat

  Therefore all those organs that are submitted to your choice are only apparently submitted to your orders, but in fact they are praising Allah and at the Day of Resurrection when the infidel will go to Hell, those organs of the body will be in ultimate happiness because they cause pain for the infidel and punish him for his sins. And if you want to go through a perceptible experience that confirms those meanings, look at the pilgrims at the time of HAJ and you will find that they sleep very little of the night. Yet their bodies can endure the fatigue and short of sleep to a marvelous extent so that one can wake up after two hours sleep full of energy. Why? Because the body that is praising Allah is comfortable with the praise, the prayers and all the HAJ ceremonies. For that the body does not want to sleep or to overlook the glorification of Allah, the praise and the prayers except for the least time possible and with that harmony the believer does not feel any fatigue in his body.   On the contrary, the infidel who does not do anything except the sins, you will find the atoms of his body always exhausted from those sins. That is why he sleeps till noon and even when he wakes up, he would still have the feeling that he wants to sleep again because the parts of his body that are tired from doing sins are hating to do them and are trying to have a break from those sins, and sleep is the only way to keep that infidel away from performing sins and so the body will look tired and exhausted pushing that man to sleeping for long intervals of time. That is why when the people go to Al-HAJ, you will hear many of them say to you that they had an incredible strength while performing the HAJ ceremonies, so that they used to sleep few hours of the night and still were extremely active. They will tell you that they never had the feel of sleep and they wanted to remain awake all the night as well as the day.   Truly that happens but no one notices the reason behind it. The atoms of the body are harmonious with the obedience of their Creator and they do not want to overlook that obedience except for the least possible. This is the fact of Faith related to the human body.  

No Choice in Your Body

  So there are organs of your body that are oppressed and do not submit to your choice, and there are other organs that submit to your choice by Allah’s exploitation of those organs to obey you and not by your own subjectivity. Allah (SWT) gave you that choice and made those parts of your body submitted to your orders so that they will witness you on the Resurrection Day and will witness the best of the obedience that you offer and the most evil of the sins that you commit. Al-Haqq (SWT) wanted to draw our attention to that so that we do not think that those organs are submitted to us by our subjective abilities. For example, we think that we see with our own abilities and there are people with open eyes and yet cannot see. And if sight were subject to man, there would not be anyone that cannot see with his eyes. Also Allah (SWT) made some men with feet that cannot walk so that we know that the feet do not walk by the ability of man but with the power of Allah (SWT) or else how would it be possible that there are people that cannot walk with their feet. And He (SWT) also made those people with ears that cannot hear and if hearing was subject to the ears, everyone with ears would have the ability to hear and everyone with a tongue would be able to talk.   Those few examples Allah made in His universe to give us a hint that our organs are subjected to us by the power of The Creator and not by our own abilities. And Allah compensated all those people whom he denied the sight, hearing, walking or any other senses by providing them with other abilities that give them privileges that exceeds what the have lost and more. And He gave us examples of his power (Jalla Jallaloh), by showing that loosing those senses do not prevent the people from reaching superiority in life especially in the area that needs those missing senses. So He made Beethoven, the famous deaf musician who cannot hear and yet creates the best music melodies. And He also made Taha Hussein who was superior in knowledge, although he was blind and not able to read. And He made other examples of superiority in many fields that man would not be superior in without loosing some senses. Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) wanted by those limited examples among His people to give us the proof that the human power over anything is not subjective to man, but it is dedicated from Allah who made it subject to man.    

Bounded Choice

  We can see that man’s choice over his own body is bounded by the energy that Allah gave him and made it subject to his obedience. And all that man could do is to direct that energy which is created by Allah to take the action that he wants. But is that it? Is it the scope of choice wide open?   We say that there are a lot of things in this life that goes beyond your scope of choice, first of all is the power of Allah. For you have no choice over the pre-destined things that happen to you, they occur beyond the choice domain. For example if you are walking down the road and a car hits you, or if a stone falls on you, or even if you get ill with some disease, is it within the domain of your choice? Could you stop an accident that is pre-destined by Allah(SWT) from happening to you. Could you prevent a disease or stop it from attacking your body. Of course you could not, for none of us has the power to push the fate of Allah that inevitably happens to us and over which we have no control.   This is the first thing that narrows down the scope of choice, for all of us are subject to the fate of Allah that we cannot do anything about. None of us nor the people around us can do anything about it and that is why regardless of what has been said about the human choice it could not exceed the limits that Allah (SWT) has drawn around it. For you cannot push harm that has been pre-determined by Allah (TWT) away from yourself or your children and you cannot also stop benefits pre-destined for you by Allah (Jalla jallaloh). And that applies to all of us, the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the powerful among us (Kings and Emperors) and the powerless who do not own anything. And we should consider what Al-Haqq (SWT) says in that:   <<Say: “O Allah! Possessor of Power and (Rule), You give the kingdom to whom You will, and You take the kingdom from whom You will, and You endue with honor whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will. In Your Hand is the good. You have power over all things”>>

Ayah 26 from Surat Al-i-Imran

  If we read this Ayah, we will know that the power and kingdom come from Allah and they are not a result of human planning. Allah (SWT) provides the reasons leading to power and kingdom to those whom He wills, and by that He enables them to have it.   And how many times has fate played a role where a man could find himself in great power without being qualified or powerful enough to acquire it. Everyone likes kingdom and power and everyone works on getting it, but they never have it except by the pre-determination of Allah (SWT). Because He is the true Possessor of Power and Rule and because earth with everyone and everything on it, all belong to Allah (SWT) and Allah gives his kingdom to who ever He pleases. And if the kingdom has been reachable by the subjective abilities of human beings, they would have kept it for themselves and it would have not been taken away from them. But Allah (TWT) says:   << In Your Hand is the good. You have power over all things”>>

Ayah 26 from Surat Al-i-Imran

  And this Ayah is a proof that the kingdom is taken by force from man and that no one would ever want to leave it deliberately. And that is why you find the person with the top most power, his orders being obeyed and everyone is submitted to him and all of a sudden, in a moment when the fate of Allah applies you will find the closest people to him are walking out of him and he then becomes scared trying to hide away and save his life by any means.   The diminishing of power away from him is not within his own abilities, but it is by the power of Allah (SWT) and it is totally a question of inheritance on earth. For no one believes that he reaches power or even maintains it with his own abilities. Allah (TWT) gives kingdom to who ever He likes and removes it from who ever He wants.

Fate and Choice

  The events of the universe are the fate of Allah (SWT) and they are the real aim of Allah in His universe and no one could prevent or stop or even intervene in the real will of Allah in His universe as it is executed on everyone and there is no choice in it. The events that happen by the fate of Allah are not within the bounds of choice, the same as the events that happens to you from some other person, you have no choice in it. If you are walking down the street and someone came and slapped you on the face or threw a stone at you or shot a bullet at you or even attacked you at home, all those events and others that happen to you by some other person are outside the scope of your choice. For you have no choice in people verbally or physically assaulting you, by making you hear what you do not like or by beating or killing you. All that is outside the boundaries of your human choice.   By that, we see that the scope of choice is narrowed so that it is restricted to one thing, and that is what you do or what you say. All other remaining life events you have no choice in. You have no choice in your birth, death or hours of sleep. You also have no choice in what happens to you and is pre-destined by Allah (SWT) nor in what is happening to you by some one else. So the remaining scope is what you really do and even in that narrow scope, your choice is bounded by part of it and the rest you have no choice in.