Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Islam critiqued is a heartbreaker; Allah seals the hearts?

In answer to the video "No Compulsion in Religion"

Repeated sins and transgressions diminish the remembrance of Allah 58:19. This inevitably leads to heedlessness as to the higher meaning of the innumerable signs in and around man 40:69. The notion of a hereafter becomes a highly doubtful proposition 83:10-14. The heart becomes a niche for evil spirits 26:221-3, hard to the remembrance of Allah 39:22, shrinks upon hearing the calls of guidance 39:45. To take a spiritual breath becomes as hard as when climbing high in altitude 6:125, and the heart ultimately darkens
2:7"Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing and there is a covering over their eyes"  
57:16"so their hearts hardened, and most of them are transgressors".
The sealing of the heart is therefore, like all natural laws, a divine decree. The person himself prepares the ground for it, through his freechoice. It is a well known biological, neurological reality that our choices are in huge part conditioned by our previous experiences. Although this conditioning can be broken at anytime with will and resolve, a point may be reached where nothing can break the behavioral pattern and the individual becomes completely desensitized to the condition he has himself progressively prepared the ground for, as well as its consequences.

As the Quran states, each action inescapably leaves its impression on the soul either sharpening its ingrained understanding of divine guidance, good, and evil, or corrupting it 91:7-8 until the spiritual senses reach a culminating point where they are damaged beyond repair and are caused to naturally die (sealed)
7:179"..they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear".
This verse is similar to Moses' admonishion of the "stiff necked" Israelites in the Torah, who despite all the miracles they witnessed were still doubtful
Deut29:3-4"With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear".
Man was created in the best of molds, capable of rising to the highest spiritual rank as represented by the prophets, just as he may degrade himself to the lowest of the lows in terms of spirituality, morality 95:1-5.

The Prophet illustrated that notion with his saying
"When one commits a sin, a black speck appears on his heart. If he disowns it and repents, his heart will be purified. But if he repeats the sin, the spot spreads, until it overtakes the entire heart".
This parallels what the Quran says in
83:14"that which they were earning has covered their hearts with rust".
Prior to reaching that irreversible condition, the door to repentance and cleansing of the accumulated rust remains wide open. Repeated denial of the signs of creation, and the guidance of revelation 6:104, progressively brings about that spiritual condition of blind denial. This law has been decreed and maintained by Allah and thus indirectly caused by Him, just as one's spiritual receptivity is increased consequently to engaging in a righteous pattern of behaviour 92:4-21. Once spirituality is sealed, only Allah can reverse it 6:12,74:56. The Quran however repeatedly stresses that there cannot be coercion in religion 2:256,18:29. In the Hebrew Bible God promises the spiritually dead, that in some future time
Ezek11:19-20"I shall give them one heart, and a new spirit I shall place within them, and I shall remove the heart of stone from their flesh, and I shall give them a heart of flesh. In order that they walk in My statutes and keep My laws and perform them, and they will be My people, and I shall be their God".
This implies that such people can never return and reform themselves without a forceful divine intervention.

Those who remain in their degenerate spiritual condition, they will seek vain excuses even if they are shown a glimpse from the unseen realities of the heavens
15:14-15"Only our eyes have been covered over, rather we are an enchanted people".
They will remain unsensitive no matter which signs are manifested before them or warner sent to them 7:146,10:101. Such a condition is so severe that even if the angels or the dead speak to them, and all unseen realities are shown to them, they still will try to find a way to maintain their position, except if Allah pleases 6:111. Belief in Allah is tied to Allah's will, because it is dependant on a system of causality, established and allowed by Him; belief may only come as a result of opening one's mind and heart to the signs within and outside of man. He will never force our hearts and minds to accept it
11:28"shall we constrain you to (accept) it while you are averse from it?". 
Therefore those who reach such advanced stage of spiritual degeneration will not turn back. The prophet Nuh's son remained in pride and disbelief even while the prophecied punishment was unleashed 11:36-43. Sometimes as in Pharaoh's case, they do repent before being overtaken by death, but such untruthful repentance is rejected. Repentance and faith can only be deemed valid when asserted through trials and times of moral hardships
6:158"its faith shall not profit a soul which did not believe before, or earn good through its faith".
The reality is that such people will never turn back and mend their ways, unless forced by God. Keeping them alive is therefore by itself a punishment, they will be adding sins upon sins 3:178. 

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