“Then Satan whispered to them that he might manifest unto them that which was hidden from them of their shame, and he said: Your Lord forbade you from this tree only lest ye should become angels or become of the immortals. And he swore unto them (saying): Lo! I am a sincere adviser unto you. “And their Lord called unto them, saying, did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you: Lo! Satan is an open enemy to you?”
(The Qur’an, 7:20-22)
Good News:
Allah Shows a Smiling Face!
True religion is the only salvation for the world. All idol worship, including the worship of one’s self or one’s own achievements, is degrading. This degradation leads to suffering and ruin, which is contrary to Allah’s loving will for the world that he created.
He is so merciful that he even cares for the needs of the animals and birds. “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing.”1 “Look at the birds flying around: they do not sow seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds?”2 If He cares for all animals and birds alike, without arbitrary preference, how much more does He care about human beings!
Birds and animals are not evil-minded. They do not fight wars or practise genocide. Man is not an evolved animal, as evolutionists claim. Man was created in the image of Allah and Adam was called “the son” of Allah, because he created him noble, upright and pure, for “in the image of God created he him.”3
Man, however, has a problem. Something has happened to him, and he is no longer noble, upright, and pure. Any daily newspaper, or newscast on radio and TV, will give us ample evidence that evil has invaded the heart and mind of mankind all over the world.
Education is powerless to make him good. Technology has only intensified his evil, and even electronics have made war all that more horrible. Higher education and wealth have succeeded only in revealing more clearly that man is selfish. Only pure, true religion will uplift and redeem him; and Abraham our “father” learned that true religion.
Brilliant sunshine is not a thousandth part as bright as is this revelation of Allah’s love. Imagine a room so dark that you cannot see a sheet of white paper held before your eyes; then light a single little candle, and lo, the darkness flees! Light is always stronger than darkness. The Injil says: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”4
Likewise follows the amazing truth that love is stronger than hatred. A little candle of Allah’s love shining in one human heart will dispel darkness from an entire village. An enemy that our machine guns, poison, and bombs cannot eliminate can be changed into a friend by love, and thus the enemy is no more. This is true conquest! Love is actually the strongest force in the entire world!
The world press reported that the war between Iran and Iraq, cost Iraq one and a half thousand million dollars a month! Just think of how much money love could save these governments!
Love is not a human invention. No pagan idolater could ever create it. World history has given ample proof that love is something that descends to earth from above, not vice versa.
Someone may say, “Well, isn’t love naturally born in the heart of mankind? Doesn’t a mother love her baby whether she is a believer or a pagan? And don’t husbands love their wives with physical love whether they worship Allah or not?” Yes, there are such evidences of human love; and to be fair, when we ask that question we must also note that the animals seem to have some of the same “love.” A mother monkey fiercely loves her baby and will give her life for it, and such is the case with almost all animals. Is this kind of love “the Light that shines in the darkness” of the world?
No, the love that enlightens and saves the world is entirely different. There is more than one kind of love. Here is where Hazrat Abraham’s faith becomes a guide enabling us to see where the two paths of love diverge. It is impossible to understand the true love of Allah unless these differences are recognized:
1. Natural human love is possessed by the pagans and godless people as well as by those who worship God. This natural possession includes the love of parents for their children, the love of children for their parents, and physical love. This love is earthly in its origin while the love of Allah is heavenly; it is from above. It is not natural to anyone, for it is a gift from heaven. Man can obtain it only through faith. Education or culture alone can never impart it, and man’s age-long cleverness could never invent it.
2. Natural human love is dependent on the beauty or goodness of its object. When a man wants to marry a wife, he seeks someone who is pleasant, good, and beautiful. He is never attracted by an evil, ugly woman. Likewise, it is good people that we are drawn to for friendship and we tend to shun bad people. In contrast, Allah’s love does not depend on the beauty or goodness of its object. “He makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? … And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect—just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”5
The holy record of Allah’s dealings with man for thousands of years has shown that his love is not dependent on man’s worthiness. Allah is greater than ourselves?
3. Natural human love thinks of “God” as hiding from man, so that man must go in search of him. All heathen or pagan religions are based on this fundamental idea—hence the rise of polytheism and idolatry among all primitive races and cultures the world around. Only a few very clever and persevering people are considered successful enough to “find” him. They are praised by men for their cleverness and supposed holiness.
In contrast, the true love of Allah reveals him not as hiding himself from mankind, but revealing himself to us. He has done this through his prophets through the ages. Allah himself is the Good Shepherd who goes in search of his lost sheep. He does not wait for the lost sheep to seek him out:
Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what does he do? He leaves the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and goes looking for the one that got lost until he finds it. When he finds it, he is so happy that he puts it on his shoulders and carries it back home. Then he calls he friends and neighbours together and says to them, “I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!” In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.6 (There is irony in those words: such “respectable” people only think they don’t need to repent!)
Allah is not hiding himself in some pagan shrine, or at Rome, or in a Buddhist temple, or at Mecca or Medina. He is not waiting for us to make an expensive and dangerous journey to seek him in his hideaway. He “is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”7 His love is active, not passive. There is a reason why this truth is so important:
If he hides himself so that man must seek him out, then man becomes the more clever of the two. Man’s persistence becomes greater than Allah’s ability to hide himself. This would make man superior to him, like the winner in a child’s game of hide-and-seek! This common idea is the root of all idol worship and false religion, for man then sees himself as his own saviour, and as the ultimate object of his worship. Paganism is the fruit of a false idea of love, while true religion is the fruit of a genuine, heavenly idea of love.
4. Natural human love depends on the value of its object. We all treat wealthy, powerful people with more respect than we normally show to the rubbish collector. The prophet David (Daud) writes of Allah, “Even though you are so high above, You care for the lowly.”8 This kind of love is foreign to this evil world. Allah’s love actually creates value in its object. A human being is transformed when he receives and believes the love of Allah for him. This is true religion.
Pick up an ordinary stone lying on the ground. It is so worthless that you could not sell it anywhere, even for a copper coin. But if you could love that stone the way a mother loves her baby, and in so doing transform it into a piece of solid gold, you could then sell it for a fortune. This is what Allah’s heavenly love does for us poor, unworthy mortals: “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.”9 Praise be to him for his creative love! This is the reason why Allah must be our Saviour. Man cannot save himself because he has no natural-born love like that of Allah. For this reason he cannot transform his impure, selfish nature.
5. Ordinary human love is possessive by nature. Even sexual love is highly acquisitive. We speak of a friendship with a person as something we have acquired, something added to our possessions. It enriches us. By contrast, Allah’s great love is not acquisitive in nature. The reason he loves us is not because he wants to get something out of us, so as to enrich himself. This amazing reversal of the ancient values of human love is seen in the words of Jesus (Issa).
When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; … they are not able to pay you back.10
The Holy Injil portrays the character of Allah in a much more glorious light than the ancient Jews were able to perceive it. A kind, compassionate, loving father does not seek to enrich himself at the expense of his children; rather, he will give himself for them, even dying if necessary in order to save their lives. so Allah is revealed as One who gives himself for those who worship him, and not as one who selfishly enriches himself at their expense. Such love is the credential of divine character. Love like this is a miracle, for it has no human origins.
6. When examined closely, ordinary human love proves to be nothing other than self-love. Many godless people have praised self-love as being a fine thing. The ancient Greeks considered it to be the highest form of human goodness; but those ancient Greeks were pagans, and we must reject the new paganism of self-worship which is sweeping our modern world. It cannot redeem society because the root of society’s problem is selfishness. How can more of the same sickness possibly cure a disease?
A clear example of the contrast between human love and God’s love is seen in comparing ancient Greek love with what is proclaimed by the Injil. The pagan Greeks had a favourite story. A certain hero, Admetus, became very ill. The pagan “gods” decreed that he must die unless someone could be found willing to die in his place. His friends asked various ones if they would be willing to die for Admetus. No one volunteered. Then they came to his own parents. “Would you die for your son, that he might live?”
“Oh,” they replied, “we love our son very much; but sorry, we could not die for him.”
Finally they came to his wife, Alcestis. Her response was like this: “Admetus is such a good man, so noble, so valuable to the world, that, yes, I will die in his place!” The Greeks hailed this as the supreme manifestation of love, the greatest the world could see—someone willing to die for a good man. They could imagine nothing better!
Allah’s love is different and more wonderful. The apostles of Jesus “turned the world upside down” with this astounding, revolutionary idea of love:
It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good [valuable, beautiful] person. But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners. … We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends.”11
Over thousands of years, many stories and dramas had been written by the ancients, including the Jews; but no one had ever conceived of love such as this! This was the most amazing idea ever proclaimed in the world, and it is still a wonder to earth’s millions. This is why the enemies of the apostles complained, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”12 The, power was not in the sword, nor in higher education, but in love. That new idea of love was embodied in the apostles’ little word agape, a word that was like dynamite. Agape is a Greek word that is not very well known in the world today, and it describes a type of love that is also not very well known. That agape love did a great work in the days of the apostles. It divided humanity into two camps, one transformed into joyous followers of Jesus, and the other into their implacable enemies. None who heard the news about agape could be neutral!
But wait, the most amazing contrast is yet to come!
7. Ordinary human love always wants to rise up higher, to climb to greater heights. Sometimes this is called “progress”, but often it means climbing over other people in our push to improve our own situation. Seldom do we see a politician who is at the head of a state or in a high office, who is willing to voluntarily step down to a lower position. Seldom do we see a rich man willing to return to the levels of poverty where his career began. Human nature wants to climb higher.
God’s love is not a sentimental, weak emotion. It is as tough as steel and utterly demanding. Nevertheless, it is the direct opposite of man’s natural “climb up higher” desire; it dares to step down lower, and still lower, in order to ransom wandering human beings.
We shall see this kind of love revealed, but let us first find out who it was that invented man’s natural idea of self-seeking and climbing up higher.
It was Iblis himself. Satan was once an angel in heaven, but something went wrong with him. Allah said of him:
Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. … The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.13
Clearly, words like these could be said of no other one than Satan (Iblis) himself! What was the “iniquity” that was “found” in him? How did he change from a pure, perfect angel to the horrible adversary of Allah and man that he is now?
The prophet Isaiah tells us the story. Note the five instances that Lucifer, who became Satan, proudly talked about himself (“I”) as his supreme object of worship; and the five times he talked about climbing up higher (the expressions will be emphasized so you can catch them readily):
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.14
When Adam yielded to evil temptation in the beginning, it caused a change in human nature, with man becoming like Iblis in aim and character. Every human being who is intent on his own pride, seeking to push himself higher and still higher, is simply following his lead. This can be seen everywhere, and is Satan’s invention: The love of self. No baby ever cries because some other baby is hungry for milk—he cries for himself. Man is born self-centred.
If there were no true religion to counteract this natural-born love of self, we would reveal this natural selfishness in many ugly ways as we grew older. Greed, lust, materialism, hatred, wars, sensuality; the list of manifestations is endless. As each human being looks at himself, he is compelled to recognize this as a picture of his own heart, were it not for the mercy of Allah.
The love of Allah for the world must reverse this selfish spirit of Iblis! It must reverse this universal human process that is so productive of injustice, suffering, and pain. It must undo the sin of selfishness. Forgiveness is much more than a mere pardoning of evil while continuing to tolerate it. True forgiveness undoes the evil, and changes the heart. Allah’s love is not the selfish kind of “climb-up-higher” love that Iblis revealed; instead, it is a love that dares to step down lower, a love that knows no cowardly, selfish fear. It is powerful.
Except by revealing this kind of love, there was no other way that Allah could untie the knot of sin that Iblis had tied. Even angels were amazed to behold Allah’s demonstration of a kind of love undreamed of through all the past ages of eternity.
Did Hazrat Abraham begin to see the unfolding of this great divine love in his day, long ago? Yes, he did; and we must continue to search for its meaning.
Chapter 7: Allah’s Way to Health, Happiness, and Longer Life
Index: In Search of the Treasure of Faith
References:
- Psalm 145:15, 16.
- Matthew 6:26, TEV.
- Luke 3:38; Genesis 1:27.
- John 1:5, NIV, (margin).
- Matthew 5:45-48, TEV.
- Luke 15:4-7, TEV.
- Luke 19:10.7.
- Psalm 138:6, TEV.
- Isaiah 13:12.
- Luke 14.13, 14, TEV.
- Romans 5:7-10, TEV.
- Acts 17:6.
- Ezekiel 28:12-15.
- Isaiah 14:12-15, emphasis supplied.
