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(Quran 17:53) And tell My servants to say that which is best. Indeed, Satan induces [dissension] among them. Indeed Satan is ever, to mankind, a clear enemy.

I'm struggling over the proper interpretation of this verse.

Is this verse saying:

• That we should say things and agree with everyone else so that we have everyone's approval and become united and no dissension occurs OR
• That we should be kind and fair with words so that no discord and conflict occurs between people?

In other words, should we seek everyone's approval of us and say only things that agree with them (even if we don't) and doesn't cause discord or should we just speak kindly and fairly?

Both of these interpretations seem plausible, I'm wondering what the proper interpretation of this verse is and how you arrived at it!
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[ONE SOUL shall not avail ANOTHER in the least, neither shall intercession on its behalf be accepted]

Hello everyone! I wanted to address a strong disagreement that I have whilst reading one of brother Joseph's article titled "Intercession and the Prophet's help".

I mean no disrespect for such disagreements, if anything, this disagreement may bring to light further knowledge!

Brother Joseph stated: "No soul will benefit another on the Day of Judgement unless God wills"

I would have to say that this is entirely unsupported in the Quran.

I begin by citing 2 explicit verses that make clear that intercession will not benefit anyone!

O children of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations. And be on your guard against a day when ONE SOUL shall not avail ANOTHER in the least, neither shall intercession on its behalf be accepted, nor shall any compensation be taken from it, nor shall they be helped. S. 2:47-48

O children of Israel, call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations. And be on your guard against a day when NO SOUL shall avail ANOTHER in the least neither shall any compensation be accepted from it, nor shall intercession profit it, nor shall they be helped. S. 2:122-123

In these above verses, it becomes clear that under NO circumstance that one soul can avail another in the least and under no circumstance that intercession from anyone can profit you..

But what about verses that create an exception and state that intercession will be granted only if Allah allows it?

One of the verses which the Sunni's use to claim that Muhammad will intercede for his nation on Judgement Day is 2:255, and specifically the following words:

"Who can intercede with Him, except with His permission?" 2:255

In 2:255 God speaks about those who cannot intercede, except if He gives the permission, which in some ways suggests that God may give His permission to some to intercede.

But we are also told very clearly in numerous other verses that there will be no intercession on Judgement Day (2:48, 2:123, 2:254, 6:51, 6:70, 7:53, 26:100, 30:13, 32:4, 36:23, 39:44, 40:18, 74:48).

The Sunni's use the words "except with His permission" to say that God would not say these words if He will never give anyone permission to intercede, so to them these words indicate that God, with His permission, will allow Muhammad to intercede for the Muslims. They go on to claim, with the support of various hadith, that Muhammad will be asked to name his wish from God, then Muhammad will ask for his "Ummah" (nation) to be saved! Various hadith in Bukhari go on to say that God will give permission to Muhammad to take out of hell many of his "Ummah" who are already in hell. One example is the hadith (Volume 6, Book 60, Number 3).
The hadith followers believe these hadith and advocate their content. God in His infinite wisdom knows that these hadith will be fabricated, thus God tells us:

"As for the one who was sentenced for punishment, can you (Muhammad) save those who are in the fire?" 39:19

This awesome rhetorical question, which is worded with mockery, provides absolute evidence that Muhammad will not be taking anyone who is in the fire out!

The mere suggestion of such hadith, that God will put someone in hell then Muhammad will be allowed to take them out, indirectly implies that it was Muhammad's intercession that saved them, albeit with God's permission!

In view of all the above, what is the correct meaning of the referred to words in 2:255?
God has promised that all the answers are given in the Quran (16:89).
First, the genuine believers will accept the message of all the verses which speak of intercession as something that belongs to God alone.
The full picture about intercession will be completed with the following words:

"They (messengers) do not intercede, except for those already accepted by Him, and they (messengers) will stand in awe out of fear of Him." 21:28 (also 53:26).

These words state categorically that even the cherished messengers of God do not have any authority to intercede except to those already redeemed by God. Like everyone else, they will be too busy on Judgement Day worrying about their own necks:

Needless to say, those who are already redeemed by God would not be in need of any intercession.

Everyone in Paradise will probably intercede on behalf of his/her loved ones: "Please God, admit my mother into Paradise." If the person's mother deserves to go to Paradise she will be in Paradise, whether her loved ones interceded for her or not. Thus, intercession, though it will take place in this manner, is utterly useless.
This is confirmed in the following words:

"On that day, intercession will not benefit anyone other than the one whom the Almighty has granted permission and accepts what he has to say." 20:109

The advocates of intercession claim that 20:109 implies that Muhammad will indeed intercede for his people. This is a clear manipulation of the words of 20:109. When we read the words of this verse we realise that God is speaking about the ones who will benefit from intercession and not the ones who will intercede.

The ones who will have any benefit are in fact the ones who are already approved by God to be pardoned. Their benefit is a result of God's mercy and not a benefit of human intercession. This also confirms that even though intercession will take place, yet it can never change God's Judgement nor benefit anyone who is not already pardoned by God.

As a result, the whole doubt regarding the words in 2:255 is totally resolved for the believers. The words "except with His permission" are given full light by means of the words "for those already accepted by Him". The two sets of Quranic words remove all doubts about this issue.

Conclusion:

Brother Joseph and I generally agree on all other matters in this topic. The one disagreement that I have is when he stated, "No soul will benefit another on the Day of Judgement unless God wills".While it is true that everything goes by God's will--God has explicitly stated that he will not will for any soul to benefit another in the least, not under any circumstances.

No soul can benefit another in the day of judgement. Intercession cannot be your profit for the day of judgement. Allah will ONLY allow others to intercede for you, ONLY if Allah already forgave you and accepted you. Thus, it becomes clear that no soul will ever benefit another on the day of judgement. If Allah decides a soul can intercede, Allah has already forgave and accepted you, the intercession of that soul will thus not benefit you--it is practically useless.

No soul will benefit another, not even in the slightest atom's weight--not under any circumstance or exception.

[Quran 24:32 Marry those among you who are single, or the virtuous ones among yourselves, male or female: if they are in poverty, Allah will give them means out of His grace: for Allah encompasseth all, and he knoweth all things.Quran 24:33 But let them who find not marriage abstain [from sexual relations] until Allah enriches them from His bounty.]

Quran 24:32 Marry those among you who are single, or the virtuous ones among yourselves, male or female: if they are in poverty, Allah will give them means out of His grace: for Allah encompasseth all, and he knoweth all things.

Quran 24:33 But let them who find not marriage abstain [from sexual relations] until Allah enriches them from His bounty.

It seems to me that marriage is something that you should be actively looking for. If you cannot find it, you should not have sex and wait until you find it.

I get the impression that you should desire marriage and should try to get married. Is it thus sinful if I desire to be single forever and not look for marriage? The Quran seems to say that I should be looking for marriage. Am I obligated to marry if I have the ability to marry, but choose not to?

To me marriage is not going to make my life any better. I find peace in loneliness and I do not plan on having children. My sexual desire is at a minimum. I don't find many women attractive and I do want anything to do with anyone.  Is this a sinful lifestyle as per the Quran?

Please ignore any personal bias. Objectively, from the Quran--Am I supposed to actively look for marriage? Personally, I do not connect with people and cannot form emotional connections with people. But I can pretend for Allah.

I find no issue with getting married just for Allah. But I would be doing it just because I was told to--not because I want to and not because I would love my spouse. Quite the contrary, I don't think I would love her--she would just be something I use so that I fulfill my obligations towards Allah. It would be like prayer. You do it just because Allah commanded it and you want to get closer to Allah.

The Quran states that you should not pray while intoxicated.

I'm wondering what constitutes intoxication?

I've been prescribed medical marijuana for treatment of my panic disorder, now is this islamically speaking an intoxicant?

The alternative to marijuana is xanax, which also causes some form of altered state of consciousness--it literally changes the neurotransmitters in your brain so the panic disorder goes away, you actually feel happier and different...

So, should a Muslim avoid praying under any medicine that treats psychological disorders, or would you argue that the psychological disorder (let's say schizophrenia) is itself an intoxicated state and the medicine makes you sober and sane and thus you MUST pray with the medicine if you have schizophrenia?

Many pharmaceuticals may cause drowsiness and an altered state of mind from your original mind state. At what point do they constitute intoxication?

As you can see, this is a very complex topic and I'm wondering if I should just do away with all psychological drugs and just go through cognitive behavioral therapy alone?

In a place the Quran says that we will be a new creation with different forms in the aftelife. Yet the Quran seems to say that the creation isn't really different as Allah will just re-assemble our bones, we will have legs, bones, arms, faces, etc...

The Quran says:

1.) That Allah will change our forms in the afterlife (Quran 56:61) and we will be a new creation (Quran 17:89)

Yet the Quran also says:

2.) That Allah will reassemble our bones, fingertips...and our legs will wound against us...Quran 75:3, Quran 75:4, Quran 75:29 and etc..

[(Quran 32:7) Allah is He who has made everything He created BETTER, and He began the creation of the human (being) out of clay]

(Quran 32:7) Allah is He who has made everything He created BETTER, and He began the creation of the human (being) out of clay--> He made everything he created better. Evolution seems to explain the mechanism of perfecting God's creation. (Clay is a product of wet earth-Exactly what you are made of: Water and Earth.

What's even more fascinating about this verses is that Allah say he made all of his creation better from the original and he began the creation of a human. This verse is hinting at a connection. A connection that human beings were made through a process of evolving better than the original creation.

(Quran 32: Then (thumma) He made his posterity out of the extract of a liquid disdained.

^This verse comes right after the previous one. So AFTER human beings BEGAN forming,, our posterity comes from an extract of semen. This is hinting at sexual reproduction forming.

(Quran 32:9) Then He proportioned him and breathed into him from His [created] soul and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful.

^AFTER Allah made sexual reproduction, he proportioned us and given us vision/hearing/consciousness.

Allah BEGINS the process of creation, lets sexual reproduction happen, and then we get proportioned and achieve higher consciousness. Aren't these verses clear in their support of gradual creation of humans?

The preceding verse seems to be a highlight of the major evolutionary steps and it uses a sequential conjunction to illustrate its purpose. Creation began from a basic earth like substance (clay), then after the initiation of creation, sexual reproduction develops and then after that higher intelligence forms. This verse specifically says that our posterity was made from an extract of a liquid disdained, this implies that after the initiation of creation of man from the Earth, the ability to sexually reproduce formed.  After sexual reproduction formed, higher intelligence develops. Evolutionary, we can say that life formed from the Earth (or what became to be the earth). Their mode of reproduction was asexual. Then sexual reproduction occurred which allowed for more variation and more complexity in organisms. Through sexual reproduction, more variation occurred which allowed extremely complex multicellular organisms capable of thought, like humans to develop. This Quranic verse appears to highlight such a phenomenon by stating that creation started out of the Earth, then sexual reproduction developed, then humans formed.

(Quran 35:11) And Allah did create you from dust; then from a reproductive fluid; then He made you in pairs

^Here the Quran makes a very important point. This verse is stating the process of creation. We were first created from dust (a basic compound) then we were created from a reproductive fluid (This is signifying the creation of sexual reproduction), after sexual reproduction: we were created in pairs-male and female. This also shows that the first humans were created from a reproductive fluid and not instantly as creationists believe. The process of formation involved simple compounds and then sexual reproduction formed which ten allowed humans to be in pairs-male and female. This is exactly how it occurred in the evolutionary timeline. The first cell came from the Earth, then through several generations, sexual reproduction evolved which gave rise to more variation and genetic recombination which allowed for higher-level organisms like mammals to evolve.

One extremely important verse:

(Quran 82:6-9) O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous, Who created you, then proportioned you, and then balanced you; in whatever form He willed has He assembled you.

^This verse is referring to the whole of mankind. It separates creation, proportioning and balancing into 3 separate categories implying a difference of steps and time in each. Then the verse tells us that we (mankind) have been assembled through the process of creation, proportioning and balancing

The Quran states that people in paradise will be seated in thrones of dignity and they will be arranged in ranks.

So there is a ranking system. Someone else has more dignity than you because they better obeyed Allah and they are higher than you in paradise. In other words Allah values them more and they have more dignity because they better obeyed Allah.

But let's say that you made some serious crimes against Allah, you were punished for them and you are in a low rank in paradise. How can you be happy? You upset Allah, you didn't meet your full potential. People did better than you, they are better than you and you are inferior to them (because there are ranks and you are lower).

How can you be happy in paradise, knowing that Allah negatively judged you and that people remember you in the previous life and your mistakes and your crimes against Allah and how pathetic you were?

How can one be happy? How can there be peace if you are inferior to others and Allah knows that you made mistakes?

It has been stated in Answering Islam that "Although, as we shall discover later, the presence of the number 19 in the Quran as presented by Dr. Khalifa, is impressive". Obviously the Answering Islam article had objections to it, but nevertheless, they assert there is a vast presence of the number 19 in the Quran.

I have NOT studied this nor do I YET believe in a code 19 in the Quran.

I think the only solution is for me (and you) to study this and see whether such a code exists in the Quran.

It just seems rather odd that an anti-Islamic site that is meant to refute Islam testified to the truth of the Code 19 in the Quran...there must be something serious to it.

http://answering-islam.org/Nehls/Ask/number19.html

[AND]

Let me be the first to say that I am not a supporter that the Quran has "scientific miracles" in it. I do not believe that is what the Quran was meant for.

But this one thing showed up and I'm wondering if it is a coincidence.

The Quran states that the Universe (heavens AND earth) was created in 6 periods. Quran 7:54

The Quran then states that Earth was created in 2 periods. Quran 41:9.

Now both the Quran and modern physics testify that time is relative. So 6 periods could equal any amount of time.

Moving forward. By the 2 verses given above, it appears that the Quran states that earth is 2/6th (or 1/3) the age of the universe.

Now if we apply this to modern measurements of the age of the universe (which COULD change):

The universe is 13.7 billion years old. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.

By a simply division, 4.54/13.7 you get a number that is roughly 1/3rd. That means the Earth is 1/3rd the age of the universe by modern measurements.

Is there something to this?

Now one could argue that in a few billion years that ratio would not be 1/3rd. And you would rightly argue that. It appears that the Quran further tells us that the heavens and the Earth and everything in them has been created in 6 days.

[Quran 50:38] And indeed we created the heavens and the earth and all between them in six periods

What is between the heavens and the Earth? Humans. That means the age of the universe when Allah created all the heavens and the Earth and the humans is 6 days. When the Quran says that Allah created the Universe and the Earth and Everything in between them (including humans) in six days this means that the Quran is referring to the period of existence. That means that in the distant future, the Quran would say that Allah created the universe and the earth and all that is between them (what will become between them) in 7, or 8, or 9 periods and so on. 

[[3:185] The life of this world is no more than an illusion. [6:32] The life of this world is no more than illusion [57:20] This worldly life is no more than a temporary illusion.]

It appears that the Quran states that the nature of reality is a delusion and the real reality is the life hereafter.

[3:185]  The life of this world is no more than an illusion.

[6:32] The life of this world is no more than illusion

[57:20]  This worldly life is no more than a temporary illusion.

[29:64] And this worldly life is not but diversion and amusement. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the [eternal] life, if only they knew.

Now when these verses state that this life is an illusion, do they mean that life is an illusion because this life is not what is important, it is the next one--or do they mean that this life is actually an illusion?

Some verses in the Quran state that we will feel as if we have existed on the earth for only ONE day [Quran 20:103-104]. Perhaps this life is like a dream? Or a computer simulation that we will wake up out of after signing the initial contract or covenant with Allah?

In this case, here are some interesting videos that relate to Quantum Mechanics and how this life is nothing more than a dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C5pq7W5yRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Xsp4FRgas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1lQMCOguw&list=UU5qDet6sa6rODi7t6wfpg8g

^These are very interesting. So just watch it for fun.

Here is a video that shows we took a COVENANT with Allah before we were created:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGZ7sSlLZU&list=UUSEJJw_7lB_nzuHxsej_WnA