Rejecting Divine Truth

Rejecting Divine Truth

1992 10-11 October-November 6 Rejecting Divine Truth (326) Truth is a matter of divine revelation. The Qur’an states this specifically in the second and third verses of the forty fifth Surah:

The revelation Of the Book Is from Allah The Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom. Verily in the heavens And the earth, are Signs for those who believe.

Subsequent verses give details of God’s manifold signs, but make it clear that people who are arrogant will learn nothing from them. They also give fair warning that one who ‘takes them in jest’ can expect ‘a humiliative penalty.” (Verse 9)

What are those things which, according to the Qur’an, are not taken seriously? One example is that of the 19 angels standing guard over Hell. (74:30). In the time of the Prophet, certain non-believers, ignoring the crux of the matter, chose to ridicule the figure of 19. There was a wrestler among them who said, ‘There are only 19 of them. I can cast them down single handed.’

The insensitive and arrogant resort to ridicule in order to shun the truth. They ignore the ayah and make much of what is irrelevant. Such scoffers are the worst culprits in the eyes of God.

The acceptance of truth is always at the cost of self-abnegation. It entails a change in one’s way of thinking and a necessary subjugation of one’s desires; it means the forgoing of exalted positions and the voluntary acceptance of a lonely station in life. Man is hardly ever ready to wage this greater jihad. At the same time he does not want to be labeled as one who rejects the truth. That is why he resorts to derision so that others may feel that what he has rejected is not in any case worth accepting.

But it should be borne in mind that those who reject the divine truth will themselves stand rejected in the world of the hereafter, and those who are rejected by God are doomed for all eternity.