Shakir Shahid asked:
“A journalist asked a question about Allah’s Decree upon His creation ( he meant no offence, just wanted to understand ):
” When a person dies as a Hindu / Christian / Catholic or an Atheist I.e.he dies as a disbeliever, then is it because of his own fault that he was a disbeliever, or is it solely due to Allah’s Decision that he would die as a disbeliever? ” ”
(Dara: please excuse the non-edited response)
This question is bigger than the life itself, and if the answer was obvious or easy we would not have existed. Our beings, and the magnificence of engineering to produce us, our birth our life and our death, are the answer to this and other fundamental questions.
Quoting Shams-e Tabrizi:
The intent behind the creation of the universe was a place for the lovers to tryst at!
Source: http://untiredwithloving.org/shams_uwais.html
Those who loved Allah are to tryst with Allah on this planet, and those who loved other than Allah are to tryst with other than Allah here.
The problem with answering this question in English is English language itself. We say Believer, we say Un-Believer or Dis-Believer, they have special meaning in European psyche. In the language of Qur’an, there are other derivatives, in particular for this question, Those Who Believed (Past Tense) vs. those who did not! The past tense indicates:
- The belief or disbelief happened in infinite-past (Qidam) not post natal on this earth
- Belief or disbelieve is not subject to potentialities and probabilities governing this life i.e. it is one way or the other in absolute form.
In English language people believe or disbelieve after they are born on this earth, and they do so by their own free will or by the subjugation from God (or some mixture of the two), so are the beliefs of the European Christians in particular English speakers. Uneducated Muslims today are of the same opinion, since they have long lost their knowledge.
In Sufis metaphysics, each of one of us, in the realm of Qidam (Infinite-past) believed or disbelieved (past tense), a primordial decision taken by us in infinite-past. However the INVESTIGATION for this decision, in postmortem is being conducted during our lives on this planet.
We are not believing or disbelieving here and now, we are investigating the particularities of that decision our souls made in infinite past, do investigate during the life on this planet.
In Infinite-Past Realm, we had no limbs not even these forms of discernible individuation, but each soul in presence of Divine made decision then and there in Qidam: To love Allah, or to love other-than-Allah.
The biological conception and birth on this planet, is a theater upon its stage (life) we enact that primordial belief-disbelief once again to investigate our decisions! Now we have bodies, minds, both fully individuated (by terrific structure of Nafs), we seek to understand why we made that particular decision to love Allah or to love other-than-Allah!
Suyuti’s write up on this particular matter is elucidated in a grand fashion by usage of the language of Qur’an:
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/suyuti_fathul_jalil.html
There was a decision (by each soul) for loving Allah (entering into light) or loving other than Allah (exiting into darknesses), and there is a continuous motion from light to dark and dark to light to render that decision, in part in the life of this world.
Those who made the primordial decision to love Allah find Allah’s closeness and friendship, while those who found other-than-Allah more beautiful and loving find the closeness and friendship of others in darkness.
Allah befriends and stay close to the former (those who believed) and aids them to stay close, and Allah gives the friends and lovers to the latter (those who disbelieved) who desired other than Allah, to have to befriend to love what they find more beautiful (other than Allah).
So investigate your decision made in infinite past, by observing your conduct in this life, treat your Self as a third person, then seek evidence: who do you actually love?
The answer is fully individuated as well, i.e. my answer to this question, is not your answer to the same question!
Ishara (Pointing): Imagine being inside a skyscraper where the answer to this question is found by looking out the window! I am on the second floor, I look out the windows see people and cars. You are on 35th floor, you look out the windows and see mountains, seas, tiny dots which you suspect are people. The outside landscape is one, but the answer to “what is outside” is not! plethora of many answers!
Dara
