Does Allah deceive? makar-Allahu
by Khurshid Imam
A. Introduction
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Quran translation: "And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah" 3:54
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Anti-Quranic people: "See! The Quran says that Allah is deceiver / plotter because the arabic word "makar" refers to plotting / deceiving. Muslims mistranslates Quran and change the meaning. They wrongly write that "makarAllahu" means planning - "Allah plans". The correct translation should be "Allah plots / deceives".
Almighty God is deceiver-What does it mean??
B. How do we understand any attribute of God? How do we understand any action of God?
a. In the beginning ONLY God existed. There was no Arabic, Sanskrit, Hebrew.
b. Then creation took place. Human being started living on the earth.
c. As a result of evolutionary process human being started using / inventing language. Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, English came into existence gradually.
d. God revealed his scripture in these languages and detailed about himself using these languages.
The last point has the crux of the article. God describes about himself / his actions / his doings using the language that was invented by human being. Now question is:
How EXACTLY is GOD?
How God DOES anything?
How God perform any action?
How exactly God does that entitle him to be called The CREATOR?
How exactly God does that entitle him to be called The SUSTAINER?
How exactly God does that entitle him to be called MOST MERCIFUL?
... and so on.
Any honest person will say - "I do not know".
Understanding things beyond our material world
Its but natural that human mind can not grasp the complete and exact nature of God. How can we? When none of us has ever seen him? The brain with which we want to comprehend God - was given by him. Science tells that human being is able to use hardly 5-10% of his brain. How can we grasp / understand the nature of God with limited mind, without seeing / experiencing him.
He was there when nothing else was there. He created nature, he gave us eyes to see, ears to hear, mind to think and we want to comprehend him 100%? It is not possible at all.
Why only God? Even paradise-hell: its exact nature; our life after death; how angels take out soul at death; the life of barzakh (stage after death till the day of judgement) ... all such things are beyond our material world. None of us has seen these with eyes or seen photograph or had audio / video; they are beyond this material / physical world hence we can not grasp exact nature of all these till we are in this material world.
Human mind perceive and understand those things about which it had some experience of seeing / feeling etc OR at least there exists something similar to that. Things that we have not experienced at all and whose resemblance does not exists - we can not perceive fully. We can just use some terms to explain its nature yet never we can explain fully. Take an example:
Discovery of "orange" !!!
Imagine a time in the past when human beings had discovered "Apple" and "Lemon", but "Orange" was not discovered. Now one fine day Khurshid imam discovers "orange" :)
Now how he will explain about orange to the masses? Please keep in mind that even the name "orange" will be given to that entity using human language. He will explain nature of newly discovered thing by telling:
- You know the fruit that i have discovered is somewhat similar in shape of Apple. But it is not exactly of apple shape.
- Its taste is - more sweeter than lemon but less sweeter than apple. Its sweetness is in mid of these two fruits.
Even if i write voluminous books just to explain the taste of "orange" i can not make people understand how it taste. It is ONLY after actually tasting that someone will understand what is the taste of orange.
Now imagine about God!! There is no resemblance of him. Nothing is like him. How can we make anyone understand how exactly God is? How he does anything? No way! Absolutely no way! We have to rely on what he has revealed to us and we can get only a glimpse of his attributes.
Talking to unborn baby?
Imagine a hypothetical scenario. A 7 month old unborn baby in the womb of mother. Suppose somehow someone from outer world can communicate to him :) Baby is told that as of present he is residing within the "body" of a "human being". One day he will "come out". Then he can see lot of "man", "woman", "boy", "girl", "animals", "plants". He can sit in "car". He can see huge "mountain", he can go to "lake" which is full of water. He can see "computers", "robots", "washing machine that washes clothes", "TV that shows videos"......... oh! i will faint.
Do you thing these words will make any sense to the unborn kid? Can he comprehend any of these things? NO! All these are beyond his perception, beyond his small "world", beyond his imagination. You can only make very very little effort in explaining nature of these things to the baby. You will use things that are within his domain to explain about out-of-womb things.
Similarly everything that is beyond our material / physical world viz: God, paradise-hell, life of grave will be understood better when we cease to exist in this physical world, when we leave this material body. Until then we will get only minimal description of these things. Now the question is How God makes us understand these things? Answer is: using the language human beings understand. That is why the Quran describe beautifully about God in these words:
Say: He is Allah (Almighty God), the One and Only;
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begets not, nor is He begotten;
And there is none like unto Him. Quran; Surah Ikhlas 112
This the shortcut but unique description of almighty God. As we have seen earlier that human mind can only understand things using his experience / his understanding. If he tries to understand completely the nature and essence of God using his brain then he is bound to fail. The same thing happened with dayanand sarswati - the founder of aryasamaj. He tried to understand the exact nature of God using his limited brain. His brain told that how can God create something from absolutely nothing? His logic was that since for any creation human being need some initial matter to start with; and in absence of any such matter no creation can take place hence - he propagated that - almighty God also can not create anything from absolutely nothing. I m sorry to say that Pandit dayanad sarswati completely failed; he underestimated God. He was using defective scale to measure the length!!!
C. What is meant by "makar" (plotting / deceiving) of Allah?
We can not see or feel God. So how we know him? Through his signs and attributes. Quran has given so many attributes to almighty God. Some of them are:
Ar-Rahman (الرحمن) The All-Compassionate
Al-Malik (الملك) The Absolute Ruler
Al-Jabbar (الجبار) The Compeller
Al-Musawwir (المصور) The Shaper of Beauty
As-Sami (السميع) The Hearer of All
Al-Basir (البصير) The Seer of All
Al-Hakam (الحكم) The Judge
Al-Hasib (الحسيب) The Accounter
Ash-Shahid (الشهيد) The Witness
Now we say God is Al-Basir i.e. "The Seer of All ". How he sees everything? Its exact sense - we don't know.
a. Human beings also see. Animals also see. Seeing of human beings will have a limit. This attribute of "seeing" in infinite sense will apply to God only. There is no comparison between seeing of human being and seeing of God. When i tell you "i saw a peacock". Then you can understand what i m talking about, you can grasp it. But, when God says that "He sees" then we may not grasp it fully. Why?
b. For any action / attribute of human being; a medium is required.
When you talk about same action / attribute for God then medium is eliminated. There is no medium. We never know HOW he DOES anything?
For human beings to see they require "eye" - something with which they can see.
Not only presence of "eye" but also its various elements like retina etc should function well.
Not only this, but also some "light" is required so that their eyes can function.
... and similarly one can see that so many mediums are required for the action of seeing.
.. However, when you talk about GOD then seeing of God does not discuss or take into account any medium but it only reflects the end result. How he sees? we don't know. But the end result that by seeing he is well aware of everything - is correct.
When we say God is As-Sami i.e. The Hearer of All - then we never mean that God requires a ear, a medium where sound can travel etc but we only mean the end result; that is he is hearing everything so he is well aware of speech of people.
When we say God is Al-Khaliq i.e. The Creator - then we are only expressing the end result that he will cause things to come into existence. How exactly? We do not know. Human beings need initial material, a process, a plan, a time line, other favoring conditions but when for God we can only say that these medium will be eliminated and as a end result creations will come into existence.
.......
Similarly if you ponder over any attribute of God then you will realize that all attributes express the ultimate end result by eliminating medium. Now let us come to the actual topic of the article.
People from all faith ultimately believe in what i have explained till now. Please note that there can not be any word in any language to denote the exact nature of any action of God. When you ask a hindu / christian / or any theist - "How exactly God does anything? How he creates? how he sees? how he hears? How he destroys? Then all will say - we don't know, we can not grasp super power God"
It is true that Quran refers to "makar" of Allah at several places. But what will this action "makar" will mean when used for God? We have seen that any action of God always conveys the end result by eliminating medium. Because medium is required for human beings. "makar" means to deceive.
What happens when i deceive you?
In simple words "what you were understanding was actually wrong. You were thinking that you were right but actually you were wrong" - right? Now for deceiving you i would have used some medium. I might have spoken lie, i might have tricked you into believing something else. So a medium is required when deceive word is used with human being.
When makr is used with Allah then medium for "makar" is eliminated. We do not know medium but we know the end result that people were actually wrong when they were thinking they are right. If Allah has done makar with anyone then it indicates that those people were believing / understanding wrong thing ultimately.
If you read all such reference of makar of Allah then you will be surprised to see that in all such references people were actually believing something wrong while being convinced that they were right. So makar-Allah is the most appropriate word for such instances!!!! In order to cut short the article we will take only one instance for explanation.
a. Quran, Surah Al Imran 3:54
See how beautifully this ayah refers to the wrong belief of those people who believed that jesus had died!!
Read Surah al-imran; ayah 46 onwards till 55 and you will realize that only "makar" Allah was the befitting word for the event described.
Surah Al Imran 3:45 - describes about the glad tidings of birth of jesus to Maryam (Peace be upon her). It is prophesied that Jesus will be an honorable person.
Surah Al Imran 3:46 - speaks about the prophecy of speech of jesus when in cradle.
Surah Al Imran 3:47 - Maryam would be surprised how she can bear without any physical touch. She will be assured that God will make this happen. Now here also please note: God will make maryam give birth to jesus even without male intervention; how it is possible? We don't know exactly. As its action by God we will eliminate the medium which is required in normal case. Only end result is know i.e. Maryam will give birth to Jesus.
Surah Al Imran 3:48-53 - details about teachings propagated by Jesus. Then he would know about some people who would reject his teachings and planned against him.
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And then 3:54 speaks about planning of jews against Jesus. They planned to kill jesus. Obviously Jesus did not want to be killed. Jews did everything to make sure that they kill jesus. But what happened? Did they kill? Answer is NO.
Quran says emphatically in 4:157 that though jews thought that they had killed jesus but actually they did not kill. And this planning , deceiving is mentioned in Surah Al Imran 3:54.
"And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah" 3:54
makara l-lahu - refers to the false belief of jews i.e. they were deceived into believing that they had killed jesus. They were made to believe that they had killed jesus while actually they had not. Plotting by Allah is not same as plotting by human beings; but the end result is same that people believed/understood wrong!!!
Note: Jesus was killed or he will return back? Go through below articles for detailed analysis:
http://khurshidimam.blogspot.in/2012/06/jesus-dead-or-alive.html
http://khurshidimam.blogspot.in/2012/06/jesus-is-not-dead-and-will-come-again.html
Similarly you can analyse following ayah and understand in context that how some people were deceived and they believed wrong things.
b. Quran, Surah Anfal 8:30
c. Quran, Surah A'araf 7:99
d. Quran, Surah Namal 27:50
D. Allah mocks?
Once you have understood what is meant by makara l-lahu it will not be difficult to understand other supposed-to-be-negative qualities that are used for God. Why we assume them to be negative is because we understand it the way it is used for human being. While God is free from any error.
al-lahu (Allah) yastahzi- Allah mocks at them and gives them increase in their wrong-doing to wander blindly.... (2:15)
Let us read in context. If you read Surah baqrah 2 ayah 8 to 15 then you find:
8. And of mankind, there are some (hypocrites) who say: "We believe in Allah and the Last Day" while in fact they believe not.
9 They desire to deceive Allah and those who believe, while they only deceive themselves, and perceive (it) not!
10 In their hearts is a disease and Allah has increased their disease. A painful torment is theirs because they used to tell lies.
11 And when it is said to them: "Make not mischief on the earth," they say: "We are only peace-makers."
12 Verily! They are the ones who make mischief, but they perceive not.
13 And when it is said to them (hypocrites): "Believe as the people have believed," they say: "Shall we believe as the fools have believed?" Verily, they are the fools, but they know not.
14 And when they meet those who believe, they say: "We believe," but when they are alone with their Shayatin (devils - polytheists, hypocrites), they say: "Truly, we are with you; verily, we were but mocking."
So here Almighty God is speaking about people who
- want to deceive allah and believers;
- have knowing rejected truth and thus this has lead to disease of rejecting truth
- Used to lie;
- Would not mend their rebellious nature;
- Would consider believers as fool;
- they would proclaim that they are mocking at truth / believers.
Then next ayah says - Allah mocks at them and gives them increase in their wrong-doing to wander blindly. Quran, Surah Al-Baqrah 2:15
Kindly ponder - if you read with context then you will realize that those people who are trying to make mockery of truth / believers would be mocked by God. Meaning - these rebellious people would think that believers are lower / wrong / mean / going astray while actually God will make these people be wrong and going astray.
These are they who have purchased error for guidance, so their commerce was profitless. And they were not guided. Quran, Surah Al-Baqrah 2:16
Now we see some people make mockery of religion. How? We have seen detail in 2:8-14 i.e. by falsely claiming so many things and considering believers to be fool and on wrong path. When you mock someone then you may or may not lie and you will end up showing the opponent as lower or mean.
Allah mocks. How? For sure his way of mocking is not as that of human being. But the end result is same. ACTUALLY these deviated people will end up being shown on wrong path and hence lower. Ponder over ayah 15-16 "....These are they who have purchased error for guidance, so their commerce was profitless...."
Thus they will be mocked by God.
E. Conclusion
1. Anti-islamic writers attack Quran by saying that it speaks about God deceiving and plotting. They say "How this is possible". They refer to 3:54 and other ayah.
2. God existed when nothing existed. Language was invented later by human beings. God reveals his scripture in these languages. God describes about himself using these languages.
3. God is without any likeness, without any resemblance. No word in any language can describe the essence of God. None of us has seen him so that he can describe how God is.
4. When a action is attributed to human being then it is well understood, but when same action is attributed to God then it express only the end result. The medium used for performing this action is eliminated when we talk about God.
5. For human beings to see they require "eye" - something with which they can see.
Not only presence of "eye" but also its various elements like retina etc should function well.
Not only this, but also some "light" is required so that their eyes can function.
.. However, when you talk about GOD then seeing of God does not discuss or take into account any medium but it only reflects the end result. How he sees? we don't know. But the end result that by seeing he is well aware of everything - is correct.
6. Makr-Allah i.e. plotting by God expresses the end result that these people were made to believe wrong thing, they were misunderstanding while thinking that they are understanding. This is makr-allah. The medium for this action is eliminated.
7. Remember everything we talk about God is conveyed to us using language invented by men. So we can never get complete grasp of his essence until we actually feel (which is not possible till we are in material / physical world).
Note: * If you don't agree with the article then instead of giving fatwa of deviation / kufr / shirk / biddat - have faith in Allah and leave it to him to judge.
* Author: Khurshid Imam is software engineer at Bangalore, India. For any criticism / feedback / suggestion feel free to mail – serviceforhumanity@gmail.com
The article can be found at: http://khurshidimam.blogspot.in/2012/07/allah-decieves-makr-allaho.html
The article can be downloaded as pdf from: http://www.scribd.com/KHURSHIDIMAM
1. Anti-islamic writers attack Quran by saying that it speaks about God deceiving and plotting. They say "How this is possible". They refer to 3:54 and other ayah.
2. God existed when nothing existed. Language was invented later by human beings. God reveals his scripture in these languages. God describes about himself using these languages.
3. God is without any likeness, without any resemblance. No word in any language can describe the essence of God. None of us has seen him so that he can describe how God is.
4. When a action is attributed to human being then it is well understood, but when same action is attributed to God then it express only the end result. The medium used for performing this action is eliminated when we talk about God.
5. For human beings to see they require "eye" - something with which they can see.
Not only presence of "eye" but also its various elements like retina etc should function well.
Not only this, but also some "light" is required so that their eyes can function.
.. However, when you talk about GOD then seeing of God does not discuss or take into account any medium but it only reflects the end result. How he sees? we don't know. But the end result that by seeing he is well aware of everything - is correct.
6. Makr-Allah i.e. plotting by God expresses the end result that these people were made to believe wrong thing, they were misunderstanding while thinking that they are understanding. This is makr-allah. The medium for this action is eliminated.
7. Remember everything we talk about God is conveyed to us using language invented by men. So we can never get complete grasp of his essence until we actually feel (which is not possible till we are in material / physical world).
Note: * If you don't agree with the article then instead of giving fatwa of deviation / kufr / shirk / biddat - have faith in Allah and leave it to him to judge.
* Author: Khurshid Imam is software engineer at Bangalore, India. For any criticism / feedback / suggestion feel free to mail – serviceforhumanity@gmail.com
The article can be found at: http://khurshidimam.blogspot.in/2012/07/allah-decieves-makr-allaho.html
The article can be downloaded as pdf from: http://www.scribd.com/KHURSHIDIMAM
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