you are quite right munni baji, we are too ungrateful to Allah and too lost in our temporary lives that we rarely see His love and mercy for us. :-(
I came across a very worthwhile article, where a person raised a question 'How Merciful is Allah?' and a muslim gave an answer with the verses of Quran and tafseer. I would like to share that article with you all:
Mr. Jochen Katz has summarized one of his articles thus:
He has prescribed mercy for himself [6:12], yet he does not guide some, even though he could [6:35, 14:4].
The basic theme of Mr. Katz's brief article is that at one place, the Qur'an says:
He [Allah] has inscribed [prescribed] for himself (the rule of) mercy.
According to Mr. Katz, if God really is as meriful as the Qur'an says then He should have guided all of mankind to the right path and thereby allowed them the everlasting bliss of the life of Paradise. But, the Qur'an says that this is not the case. It says that even though Allah could have guided all of mankind to the path of His liking, but He still did it not:
... If it were Allah's will, He could gather them together unto true guidance. ...
Instead, the Qur'an says that, rather than guiding all of mankind to the right path, He guided whom He pleased and the rest He led astray, as is clear from one of the verses of the Qur'an which reads as:
Allah leads astray whom he pleases, and he guides whom He pleases, ...
Mr. Katz writes:
If it is Allah's will that some perish, if it is his will that some are not guided as 6:35 clearly says, how can aya 12 of the same sura be true, that He has prescribed mercy for Himself? Is it merciful to lead astray...
In the article that follows, I shall try to briefly present my point of view regarding the verses and the concepts that Mr. Katz seems to have misunderstood, because of which he believes that the referred verses contradict each other.
An Analysis of the Referred Verses:
Let us, first of all, take a look at the three verses, which form the basis of Mr. Katz's article. The first among these verses - Al-An`aam 6: 12 - reads as:
Ask them: Whose is it that is between the heavens and the earth? Say: It is Allah's. He has decreed mercy for Himself, [thus] He shall definitely gather you all to the Day of Resurrection, in the coming of which there is no doubt. Indeed, those who have lost their souls shall not believe [in it].
The second verse - Al-An`aam 6: 35 - reads as:
If it is hard for you to bear their aversion [from the truth] seek if you can a chasm in the earth or a ladder to the sky by which you can bring them a sign [for We are not going to show them any signs to make them believe]. Had God pleased, He would have guided them all [to the right path]. So, do not be carried away by your desire [to guide them].
The third verse - Ibraheem 14: 4 - reads as:
Each messenger that We sent, spoke only in the language of his own people so that he may clarify [Our commandments] to them. Allah leads astray whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases. He is the Mighty, the Wise.
These are the three verses on the basis of which Mr. Katz has pointed out the said contradiction in the Qur'an. These three verses, as is quite obvious, deal with two separate phenomena. One is the obvious corollary of Allah's Mercy (the first verse), and the other is the wisdom behind the Allah's law regarding guidance of the human soul in the life of this world (the second and the third verse). Now, obviously, being merciful does not automatically imply lack of wisdom. What it does imply is that the wisdom should not negate mercy in anyway. As shall be seen in the following paragraphs, the two * go hand in hand, and are in no way mutually exclusive or contradictory.
God's Mercy -- As Introduced by the Qur'an
The Qur'an says that God is Most Merciful. He is Rahmaan and Raheem. Rahmaan means that the extent of His Mercy is beyond our comprehension. He is infinitely Merciful. While Raheem means that this level of His Mercy extends forever, it shall never reduce.
According to the Qur'an, some of the signs of God's Mercy are that:
His Providence and His blessings in the life of this world, are not limited to those who submit to His commands. He is the Provider for everyone, whether a person is faithful to Him or whether he rejects His call; He does not punish the sinners for their sins immediately He gives them respite and time to correct their behavior; When a sinner turns to Him and asks His forgiveness with an honest heart and a sincere resolve to correction, He not only forgives his sins but also converts his bad deeds into good ones; When a person calls Him with a sincere and an honest heart and asks for His guidance, He opens the doors of His guidance for such a person; He does not put a man in such a situation where he is forced to lose his faith in Him; He does not hold man responsible for something that is against the commands of Allah, if man is forced to do such evil by external conditions; He does not hold man responsible for something that is against the commands of Allah, if such evil is done in ignorance; He sent His prophets and messengers for man's guidance to the path of His liking; He rewards man for his intention of doing good, even though man is not able to carry out his intention; I am sure if a person looks at and around himself, he shall find innumerable items that are a sign of God's infinite Mercy. If our eyes see and our ears hear and our touch feels, and our tongue tastes and our hearts beat, it is only because of His infinite Mercy. He has provided everything that was not only essential for our subsistence on this earth but also that which makes our stay on the earth comfortable and enjoyable. He has filled the heart of parents with the love that a child needs. He has provided water with the quality to quench the thirst of a dry mouth. And He has bestowed trees with the cool shadow to provide the wayfarer a respite from the burning sun. He has given us our senses, He has bestowed on us the faculty of reason and, most of all, He has given us this life -- A life which we never want to let go.
The Qur'an also tells us that one of the obvious corollaries of God's Mercy is justice. Thus, the Day of Judgment -- the day on which good and evil shall be separated and shall be given their respective rewards -- according to the Qur'an is an essential requirement of God's infinite Mercy.
The Law of Guidance of the Human Soul
The first part of the law of guidance of the human soul pertains to the freedom of choice that God has given man in a particular sphere. The Qur'an tells us that the life of this world is a test. Man is given this life and is bestowed with all the good things in life not because he earned these good things, but to be tested as to how he uses these things. The good times and the bad times in this life are generally distributed among individuals not as a reward or a punishment for their deeds, but to test them regarding whether they are thankful when given good times and whether they remain steadfast in the way of their Lord, when given bad times. The Qur'an tells us that for the purpose of this test man was given freedom to choose in a particular sphere -- especially the sphere in which he was being tested. Thus, man may, if he chooses, turn away from the right path or he may submit to its demands. God Himself gave man this freedom.
If God had so wanted, He could have made all men follow the right path. But that would effectively have meant that man was not given any freedom to choose. And without this freedom the human soul could not have been tested. In such a case, all men would have been good, not by choice but by default. Reward or punishment would then have become meaningless. Thus, even though God could have guided all men to the right path, He did it not, so that man could be tested effectively and so that his good and bad deeds be truly called his own and so that he be rewarded for opting for the good and punished for opting for the evil. This is exactly what the following verse means:
Had God pleased, He would have guided them all [to the right path].... (Al-An`aam 6: 35)
The second part of the law of guidance of the human soul is that God opens His doors for guidance only to those who prove themselves deserving of this favor. If man honestly searches for the truth, God shall guide Him to the right path. But if man is wary of the truth, God shall only increase his hatred for the good. This law of guidance of the human soul has been explained by Dr. Khalid Zaheer, in one of his articles titled "The Qur'anic Law of Guidance"[2], in the following words:
According to the details available in the Qur'an on the nature of the law, each individual who has been put through the test of this worldly life has been provided with adequate abilities to distinguish right from wrong, truth from untruth. However, since the this-worldly part of man's life was meant to be only a trial in God Almighty's plan to decide as to who from amongst the human beings are going to be found deserving the privilege of entry into al-Jannah and who are not, wrong and untruth were allowed to be shrouded under tempting, attractive appearances.
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