For most of us in modern times, our parents neither help us to find a partner, and neither stop us from finding a partner (73:17, 42:14).
And then we are divided into two groups:
Those who are ready to fall in many kinds of sins, just so that they can get married.
Those who are even more ready to get married, but they do not want to achieve it sinfully. (2:273)
So for this last group of people, after doing a systematic review of ALL the verses in the Quran, we can identify three factors which you might want to keep in mind when considering a marriage partner. And these factors are valid for both males and females. But first, let’s mention some which are not actually that important from the Quran when facing the situation of a potential marriage partner:
Not religion – So many forced marriages, so many missed opportunities, and even murder have happened simply because religious people did not read the Quran or the Bible carefully. Nowhere in the Quran do we find the prohibition for a man or for a woman to find a partner from a different religion. Yes, marrying an idol-worshiper is prohibited for the believers (2:221), but today you can find idol-worshipers in every religion, and you can also find believers in every religion. So, idol-worship does not have much to do with religion anymore. The Quran associates the allowance to marry someone, with the allowance to eat their food (5:5). So, the question is: Would you eat a chocolate which you buy in the market? You probably would. This means that you are allowed to marry the people who made that chocolate, and they are from different religions. And it does not matter if you are a male or a female, you are equally allowed to marry someone from another religion. Some dogmatic Muslims who have not analyzed this issue carefully, like to point out that the Quran mentions the allowance for men to marry Christian and Jewish women, while it does not mention for women the allowance to marry Christian and Jewish men. But let me tell you, that the Quran also does not mention the allowance for women to marry Muslim men. So, should the women not marry at all? No. The reason why God mentions the allowance for men and not for women is because men are supposed to initiate the marriage proposal, and God reveals the information on a need-to-know basis – so men need to know that, while women can just say “OK” or “Not OK”, to a man from any religion. And remember, what the Quran does not prohibit, it’s not prohibited (6:19, 38, 114, 115; 50:45). After all, religion today is only 2.5% of a person’s character, and more than half of that 2.5% is the same in all religions anyway – so let’s say that 1.5% is the same anyway – so this means that the difference in character between two people due to religion is only 1%. Would you refuse a glass of water, if it is 1% empty? Would you refuse someone, if they are only 1% different from you?
Not age – It’s so silly and close-minded to say, “He is five years older than me!”, or “She is forty!” or similar statements. (11:72&73)
Not family – Why would you care if someone’s brother is a bad person for example? You are not going to marry their brother.
Not race
Not ethnicity
Not nationality
Not social status
Not wealth
Not past history – It really does not matter who she was friends with in High-school. People change.
Not what kind of music they like
Not cooking abilities
Not employment status
etc.
Some people even consider hair color, or body type, or how many friends on Facebook you have. None of these are real factors in marriage.
The Quran gives us only one example of the process of finding a partner for marriage, and it is the example of Moses in chapter 28, verses 22 through 29, and from these verses, and even from the Bible we can deduce that Moses married someone from a different religion, different ethnicity, different race – without considering age, social status and so on.
Now, let’s list the three factors, from the Quran, which if you consider them, you will guarantee yourself a happy marriage:
Righteousness (Soul beauty) (24:26). Approximately at your level.
Smartness (Mind beauty) (39:9). Approximately at your level.
Beauty (Facial beauty) (4:24). Approximately at your level.
And to make these factors practical, we need to add another one:
Tolerance (your tolerance and their tolerance) (7:199, 64:14). No one is going to be exactly like you want them to be, and if you are not tolerant, it is never going to work. So, let’s say, you tolerate and marry someone slightly below your league, and God will definitely compensate you for it, or let’s say that you marry someone slightly above your league. Then you should be ready to compensate them with hard work, while letting them relax a little bit more.
Someone might try to prove to you that other factors must also be considered by asking questions like: “Would you marry a child?” The answer to that is: “A child is never smart enough.” “Would you marry a very old person?” Are they beautiful enough? “Would you marry a dogmatic terrorist?” They are not tolerant enough. As you can see, the four above mentioned criteria work, and they include other factors by default. So you do not need to use any other factors, because this article has managed to simplify it for you from thousands of factors, into only four important factors.
Now, pay attention that these are not rules for marriage. Marriage has only two rules, which are (1) Love and (2) Dowry – a gift for the bride (4:24), (See also clarification Marriage and Divorce Rules from the Quran” for further details).
All of you through your life have gone through tough situations, and you probably prayed dearly to God, with prayers like, “Please God, let me pass that exam.” or “Please God, I need that job.” or “Please God, convince that girl to marry me.” or “Please God, bring my husband back.” or “Please God, make my child a believer.” or “Please God, cure my child’s cancer.”, and often you fail the exam, you do not get the job, the girl rejects you, or your husband never comes back, your children hate you, and your child dies from cancer. And a lot of people lose their faith after this.
Atheists tell them, “See, I told you, there is no God.” Religious people tell them, “You did not pray sincerely.” “What?! My child was dying from cancer. Of course, I was praying sincerely.” So then, why did the prayer not get answered? Isn’t it true that the Bible says, “Ask, and it will be given to you.”? (Matthew 7:7) And doesn’t God say in the Quran, “When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me…”? (2:186). So, then why do you not get answers to your prayers? Well, in this video, I show you how to pray and have it answered, guaranteed. But first let me deal with the problem of ‘unanswered’ prayers. To understand why our prayers do not get answered, let’s imagine that your mother has to go shopping and she leaves you with your baby brother and she tells you. “Dinner is on the table, take care of my baby, and whatever you do, don’t turn on the gas stove.” As soon as she leaves, you turn on the gas stove, leave it on, and the kitchen explodes killing your baby brother. They put you in prison for a short while. The prison is freezing cold, and the guards do not give you blankets. You need a blanket or you are going to freeze, and the guards don’t care. All you have is your mother’s phone number, and you want to call her to send you blanket. You know she is mad at you. You killed her baby. Would you have the courage to ask her? Do you think she should send you blankets? How many times would you have to apologize to her, before she even decides to listen to you? You would probably have to speak to her with the nicest words possible, and promise her to become a good person. You would probably have to say “sorry” a hundred times? Remind her how much you love her. Say “sorry” again. Only then, maybe, and just maybe, you would have the courage to ask her for blankets. Do you think you deserve to get the blankets? Do you think she should respond to your request for blankets? The situation is similar with God; we abused God’s generosity in a similar way, and now it is wrong to ask “Why does God not answer our prayers?” Instead we should ask, “How come God still answers our prayers, even though we betrayed Him?” And the answer is, “Because He forgives, and He forgives, and He forgives.” Now, just like there is always a way to get to your mother’s heart, despite what you have done, there is always a way to appeal to God’s love and have Him answer your prayers.
You need to fulfill 10 conditions to have your prayer answered:
Forget the idol (6:41, 17:67). Very often the thing you are asking for in a prayer is actually your idol. For example, let’s say that you fall in love with someone, and you pray to God to make that person love you too. See, as long as you can not stop thinking about that person, and you are seeking their love, that person is your idol. That is the definition of an idol – someone or something you can not stop thinking about and you want to achieve their love – and God will not answer your prayer, because it is a condition to completely forget that person for God to answer your prayer. God says that it is mandatory to forget your idol for your prayer to get answered (6:41, 17:67).
Don’t make the same prayer or request to someone else (6:71, 13:14, 17:67, 19:48, 25:68). Some people for example might pray to God to help them get a job, and then they meet a friend who works in that company, and ask them to help them get the job. Well, in this case God can say, “Let your friend answer your prayer.”
Be active (7:128, 4:95). If you want a job, did you go to the job interview? If you want your diseases healed, go and visit the doctor, and then God will answer your prayer. God answers the prayers of those who are not lazy.
Be steadfast (2:45, 39:53). If you pray to God, and it does not get answered for a while, and you lose your patience and say, “God did not answer it.” If you say that, you cancel your prayer.
Believe that your prayer will be answered (13:14). If you don’t believe that a prayer will be answered, it is better not pray at all, because God is not to be tested. We are the ones who are being tested.
You must really need what you ask for (6:42, 7:94). You can not be honest about your request, if you don’t really need something.
The request needs to be good for you, not bad for you (5:101, 17:11).
Gratify God with His beautiful names (7:180, 17:110). Call Him, “My Lord”, call Him “the Most Gracious”, call him “the Most Kind” while you are praying to Him. When you please God, He pleases you.
Be righteous (5:27). God only accepts prayers from righteous people (5:27).
Worship Him (2:186). God says in the Quran, “When my WORSHIPERS ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to me…” So, God answers prayers of His WORSHIPERS.
Preferably, pray to God when you are alone (19:3, 2:271, 65:64), in a humble position (7:55, 6:63, 39:9), or even prostrating (39:9), at dawn (51:18), and when you are emotionally unstable either being in fear or hoping for something, or joyful or sad, and even better if you are crying (53:60). Now, let me show you how to pray, the best prayer, the best dua, which if you say it, God will answer it, guaranteed:
The Prayer (Dua):
My Lord, there is no god other than You. Be You glorified. I have wronged my soul. (21:87, 7:23, 28:16).
My Lord, please forgive me (7:151, 11:3, 11:90, 12:92, 14:41, 23:109, 23:118, 28:16, 38:24, 38:35, 51:18, 110:3, 2:285, 7:155, 59:10, 60:5, 3:16, 3:135, 3:147, 40:55, 2:286, 3:193, 7:155). I beg you (52:28, 11:90, 11:47, 110:3, 3:38, 4:32).
You are the Most Merciful (7:151, 12:92, 23:109, 23:118, 11:90, 2:128, 12:98, 52:28, 59:10).
I repent to you (11:3, 11:90, 38:24, 7:156, 46:15).
Save me from the retribution of Hell (40:7, 3:16, 2:201, 3:191, 26:87).
You are the Redeemer (110:3, 2:128).
My Lord, protect me from the devils (12:23, 14:35, 40:9, 23:97, 23:98, 40:27, 113:1-5, 114:1-6, 2:286).
Guide me in the right path (1:6, 28:22, 18:10)
Give me steadfastness, wisdom, and strength (7:126, 3:147, 20:31, 2:129, 26:83).
My Lord, grant me victory over the disbelievers (2:286, 3:147, 7:89, 23:26, 23:39, 26:118, 29:30, 60:5, 10:85, 10:86).
You are the Almighty (2:129, 40:8, 60:5).
My Lord, give me good things in this world, and give me good things in the next world (2:201, 7:156, 2:126, 28:24, 3:194, 4:32).
Admit me into the company of Your righteous worshipers (27:19, 27:59, 40:8, 7:151, 5:84, 23:94, 25:74, 26:83, 26:85, 3:193, 3:194).
You are the Most Kind (52:28, 3:8, 59:10, 38:35, 11:90).
Our Lord, let our spouses and children be a source of joy for us (25:74).
My Lord, have mercy on me, my parents, my family, and all the believers (17:24, 26:86, 26:169, 27:19, 2:286, 23:118, 12:92, 14:41, 23:109, 23:118, 3:8, 7:155, 12:98, 18:10, 46:15, 59:10).
I believe you, my Lord (3:16, 23:109, 3:53, 3:193, 5:83, 5:84, 7:89, 10:85).
You are the Hearer of the prayers (3:38, 2:127, 14:40).
Thank you, my Lord (27:19, 46:15, 14:7).
How the Prayer was Constructed?
This prayer (dua), was constructed by all the verses of the Quran where prayers are made, and they are simply a list of all the prayers (duas) in the Quran. So, this is a general-purpose voluntary prayer which anyone can make, and it essentially includes all the prayers of the Quran. Of course, your prayer does not have to be like this. It can be partially like this, but in that case, it is going to be partially answered – you might ask for cookies for example and you get bread, but you always get something good, because God is good. God is better than your mother. So, whenever you pray to God, God definitely does something about it; He may grant it, grant it partially, grant it later, or forgive some of your sins. All of them are good. If you have no sins, and your prayer is perfect like this one, then there is only one choice: God grants your prayer. Now, here is where it gets complicated. What if you your father prayed something about you and it is in conflict with what you prayed? In that case, your father’s prayer is given priority. Prayer is like planting a tree. If your father planted an apple tree, and you want to plant an orange tree in the same place, the orange tree is not going to grow, because the apple tree is already there and you cannot cut it. It could be even worse. If your father did not pray at all, you are like an abandoned child in the desert with no trees; you might still survive but you will probably end up poor. And it will seem like God is not answering your prayers, and it might not seem fair, but that is simply how it works. God answers prayers in the order they are received, ceteris paribus; and your father had a chance to make his prayer or not make is prayer before you did. It gets even more complicated when the prayers are made partially correct by people, and they are answered partially, and then they get in conflict with one another, and part of one prayer is mixed the part of another prayer and millions of other prayers. It should be called ‘prayer jungle’, but people call it ‘luck’, because they don’t understand how these things work. Our fate is 100% correlated to previous prayers, the prayers of our ancestors, the prayers of angels, even Satan’s prayers; for example, we all have one common fate, death (21:35). This is because God is answering Satan’s prayer. Satan prayed to God, “Give me a respite until the day of resurrection” (7:14), and God gave him respite (7:15). Satan prayed before all of us, and he got his prayer answered. The more time passes, the more prayers are in existence, and the more likely it is that your prayer will be in conflict with previous prayers, and when the people in Hell pray to take them out (23:107), they will not be answered (43:77). Some people might say, “If God has already decided everything, including what you will get during your life, then why do we need to pray to Him? Is it going to change anything?” (7:164). Well it is true that God has already decided what people will get during their lifetime, and he has decided to give it both to those who pray and those who do not pray (2:126), but he also has decided who will get it deservedly (28:56). If He thinks you are one of the deserving ones, He will make you pray first and then give you the provision. And if He thinks that you are not of the deserving ones, then He will give you the provision before you get the chance to pray (17:18). Everything belongs to God (4:126), and any time you get something without having asked Him, you in are in fact stealing. No owner likes it when you get something from them without asking for it. But when you say, “Can I have it please?”. They might say, “Here you go. I was going to give it to you anyway, but thank you for asking.” Now, the best form of prayer is the Contact Prayer (Salat) (29:45) which is mandatory at specific times of the day (4:103), and it is more than just prayer; it’s also glorification (2:130), worship (20:14), and physical obedience to God (2:43), but in this article, we were talking about spontaneous voluntary prayer (Dua) (10:12), whenever you are emotional and need to talk to God (21:90), when you feel like you need something from God (40:60). See, wishes come from Satan (15:3), and prayer is simply a way to turn your evil wish into a positive request from God (6:43). It’s like telling Satan, you wanted to seduce me by giving me that wish, but look I have turned it into a form of worship for God.
Marriage is a merger agreement (25:54), between a male and a female (42:50, 27:55), who are not blood-related (25:54). It’s neither an obligation, and neither a right. It’s a big privilege and a blessing (43:12-3, 42:12). But why should marriage exist? Why shouldn’t males and females just mate like the animals do without getting married?
Well, the animals also have a process through which they earn the right to mate. It’s called force. For example, two rams will fight, or two giraffes, or two lions, or two stallions, and so on, to earn the right to mate with a female counterpart. And among animals the benefits of this outweigh the damages, because then the offspring will be more fit to survive the harsh environment of this world. And this process of selecting a mate continued even among the human-shaped beings, Neanderthals in Europe, Denisovans in Asia, and the so-called Sapiens in Africa (21:95-96, 18:93-94). But, then God created Adam and Eve in the Fertile Crescent (2:35), independently of the other human-shaped beings (3:59, 55:14), and the only fundamental difference between Adam and Eve compared to the other human-shaped beings was the word which God gave Adam and all his descendants – us (2:37, 2:33, 7:35). This ability for abstract speech enabled us to reach agreements (70:32), and marriage is an extension of our ability to reach and keep agreements. Now, this same ability to reach agreements also enabled the children of Adam to organize in building such deadly weapons, and other far extending skills (14:46), and had they tried to select the mates through force, due to their far extending skills, then the damages would outweigh the benefits, which would be far worse than the mating process among animals (25:44). More men would die during the process of selecting a female, than children would be born, and this is not beneficial for humankind. So, because God’s word which He gave to humans gives them both the ability to reach agreements and be catastrophically deadly when they use force (17:70), then the only way to mate for humans without causing wars is by reaching agreements, which is marriage. All the other methods of multiplying do more harm than benefit to the humankind, even when it doesn’t look like that (25:68, 22:48). So, marriage is a way to prevent fighting and wars between men. This means that in the future, in the last days, when adultery and involuntary celibacy fully dominate marriage (because states will unavoidably fully replace fatherhood (31:33, 12:7-24)), there will be no fate for those people except war (48:28). The last generation cannot escape war. But, while God has still left marriage as a very big blessing among us (16:53), let’s learn about the rules of marriage (75:19).
The Rules of Marriage
The rules of marriages are very simple. All you need is:
Mutual agreement between the man and the woman (4:24), and the permission of her family or the government. (The Arabic Quran demands us to ask the permission of her “ahlihinna” (4:25), which literally means her “people”, which includes either her family or the government, or both, depending on the circumstances. They are all her people; by whom she is protected, depending on her independence level from her parents).
Dowry (4:24), (which may be a financial guarantee for the woman, or a state registered marriage (which is a government guarantee for the woman)).
Two witnesses, at least (2:282, 5:5). (They can be family members preferably, or close relatives, or close friends, or so on, or those government officials as a less preferred alternative, because it is harder to find them again, if you ever need them to testify about your marriage. This means that engagements or marriages can not happen online. The bride and the groom must be there seeing one another for real, and the witnesses must be live. Of course, other people may participate online, if it suits them like that, but they don’t count as witnesses. There is no such thing as online witnessing for such an important matter, or online engagements or online marriage (4:21). By the way, you are also not allowed to keep the marriage a secret (5:5). This is exactly why we need witnesses. The main difference between marriage and adultery is that it is not a secret. If you keep your marriage a secret, that is adultery. On the other hand, if you publicize your adultery, it becomes 1.8 times adultery (24:2, 24:4). But anyway, regarding the witnesses, through whom your marriage becomes a public agreement, and not a secret, when you invite the people to witness the agreement, you owe them lunch or dinner, because you are not allowed to harm the witnesses (2:282), and that is a compensation for their time. If you want to invite 100 witnesses, that is your choice, but you have to give all of them lunch or dinner (33:53), and if they agree to travel from a far, you have to pay their traveling expenses. Or you can do the marriage with only a few witnesses, and then invite the others only as guests, which would be a wedding or dinner after marriage, or you can invite all of them, at the moment when you are getting married, and all of them are guests and witnesses at the same time, which means that the marriage and the wedding happen at the same time. Either way is fine. So, giving food and comfort to the witnesses is the wedding. There is no need to hold a wedding in the style which is understood in certain cultures. Simply giving food and comfort to the witnesses is the weeding, regardless if you call it a wedding or not. And also, you are responsible for what happens at your wedding or marriage. You should not let the people use your wedding or marriage ceremony as an excuse to dress immodestly. Feel free to prohibit them at the door, if they do not fulfill the minimum requirements of dressing modestly, and if you are going to invite non-submitters as well, make sure to remind them beforehand about the dress code, or talk to them somewhere outside without causing any drama, or just don’t invite non-submitters. You can do the marriage pretty much anywhere; at an official marriage state office, or in a restaurant, or in your yard, or in your house.
Contrary to common expectations of religious people, marriages actually should not happen in places of worship. Marriages are important unions approved by God, but at the same time they are worldly business (28:27), and business is prohibited in places of worship. Christians and some recent Muslims have invented the idea of marriages in a places of worship, but none of any people mentioned in the Bible or the Quran ever got married in a place of worship. You may use the yard of the mosque for that, or some adjacent building or the hallway which leads to the mosque, but not the actual prayer area in the mosque which should be used only for worshipping God (72:18).
So, these are the three requirements of marriage, and that’s it. And in most cases today, in state registered marriages, all those requirements are fulfilled automatically, because the state will demand that you sign a document which is the agreement, and they will witness it (or at least give you space to bring more closely related witnesses), and the state will indirectly guarantee the woman’s rights with their own budget, which is her dowry. So, this is marriage.
By, the way, because the rules of marriage are only three and simple, it would be more helpful if we did not impose additional conditions to ourselves and to others through peer pressures, and cultural norms (29:25) – conditions such as certain extravagant wedding celebrations (17:27), or certain culturally imposed expensive dresses, or certain singers, or things like that (17:27). The extravagant are brethren of the devils (17:27). And although, a lot of those cultural norms may be allowed celebrations (7:32), they discourage marriages by putting unnecessary barriers (7:86). If marriages were kept simple and righteous (25:63, 25:67), more people would get married, and more often, and earlier (25:68, 16:112).
Now, the word “nikah” which is used in the Arabic Quran means both marriage and engagement at the same time. It’s the same thing, from the Quranic legal perspective. So, you don’t need to have both an engagement and a marriage ceremony. You may do so, if you wish, or if a certain situation demands it, but just be aware that you would be repeating the same thing. So, in cases when you reach your agreement in the state offices, just call it a marriage. And even in cases where you want to reach the agreement outside of the state offices, it’s still better to call it a marriage, but you may also choose to call it an engagement, if you wish, if you reach the agreement without any concrete plans to move and live together in the near future. In this case, when you call it an engagement, once you move together, or once you have sexual relations, you just switch into calling yourself married, in your social media status, for example, or things like that, and you don’t need to have a second ceremony. Either way is fine.
However, in case your marriage or engagement fails, then you should make sure to use the appropriate words in English, depending on what happened. If you break it up after sexual intercourse, you must call it “a divorce”, regardless of whether you called it an engagement or marriage in the beginning, and if you break it up before sexual intercourse, you must call it “breaking the engagement”, regardless of whether you called it marriage or engagement in the beginning. This may seem like a later retroactive shift of definitions, but because of the incomplete match between the English and the Arabic definitions, it is better to shift the definitions afterwards than to implicitly accuse someone for something which did not happen, because in the English language and culture, if you say that someone got divorced, when they actually did not even sleep together, if we take into consideration what the word “divorce” implies in the English culture, it is sort of an implicit accusation of immorality, or something more than what really happened, and the Quran prohibits that (24:11-18).
Now, marriages are not allowed with certain people.
We are not allowed to marry:
Idol worshipers (who openly agree that they worship other than God, or God and someone else) (2:221).
People for whom definite proof of adultery exists, unless you are also a proven adulterer (24:3).
People of the same gender (26:165-166, 42:50).
Women who are already married (4:24, 24:32).
Our parents (4:23), (which according to the Quran also includes our grandparents and great-grandparents (2:133)).
Our children (4:23), (which according to the Quran also includes our grandchildren and great-grandchildren (2:211).
Our siblings (4:23).
Our aunts or uncles (4:23).
Our nephews or nieces (4:23).
Our foster mothers (4:23).
People with whom we shared the same foster mother (4:23). (which very often includes our first cousins, because often our mothers and aunts helped each other to raise the children).
Our parents-in-law (4:23)
Our sons-or-daughters-in-law (4:23).
Our siblings-in-law (4:23)
Women who were previously married to our fathers (4:22).
Also, if you are a divorcee, there are additional prohibitions regarding whom you can marry, and under which conditions you are allowed to marry again, and these additional prohibitions or limitations emerge from the divorce laws, but before I explain that, let me first talk about divorce in general.
The Rules of Divorce
Both men and women have the freedom to initiate divorce (2:226-227, 33:28). If they divorce before they had sexual intercourse, that divorce is not even a sin (2:236, 33:49), and in that case, they should call it “breaking the engagement”, not divorce. If they divorce after they had sexual intercourse, they should call it a divorce, and that divorce is a tolerated sin. After sexual intercourse, both believing men and believing women should try to avoid divorce as much as they can, and there are rules in the Quran which are designed to prevent unnecessary divorce (4:128). First of all, it is not right to make difficulties for your spouse in order to pressure them to initiate divorce (65:1). A healthy dose of kindness, tolerance, and respect is required from both parties (4:19). And also it is prohibited for others to behave towards couples in such a way to incite one of them to initiate divorce (2:102), especially if the couple are both submitters.
Now, there are two types of divorce:
Sharp divorce which is because of adultery (65:1, 4:19) or incompatible religious differences (4:24, 60:10), and
Soft divorce which happens due to other reasons.
In cases of a sharp divorce, there is no need for consultation with families, and there is no waiting period before the spouse decides to divorce (4:24, 65:1). And after the divorce, the parties do not maintain amicable relations. They should try to the best of their ability to never contact each other again, and never meet each other again. Not even in the street, or their child’s birthday party, or taking trips together for the sake of the children, or things like that. None of that (60:9). And remarrying each-other is prohibited forever for them (24:3), unless the wrong party publicly confesses that they have repented, changed their religious beliefs, and joined the submitters. Otherwise, it’s a permanent divorce with no turning back (60:10, 24:3). Not even children should be a reason to return to friendly amicable relations (60:9-10). Now, you do not have to divorce someone just because they committed adultery or just because you have religious differences (66:10-11). However, if you do that, then it’s forever, and friendly relations should completely be cut off, not even in social media, and if you see that person in the street, you should continue as if you never knew them. Also, if someone divorces a non-submitter, he or she is not allowed to marry a non-submitter again (6:10).
Now, soft divorce may happen for reasons other than adultery or incompatible religious differences. In case of a soft divorce, there are procedures which need to be followed, depending on whether the husband or the wife wants to initiate the divorce. If the husband wants to initiate the soft divorce, first, the partners should discuss their problems (4:34). If that doesn’t work, they should give each other some individual space for personal reflection, by sleeping in separate rooms, if possible, and try to decrease their time together, maybe the wife can go to her parents for some days, or the husband can go to a short outdoors trip (4:34). If that doesn’t help at all, then they should involve their family members in the discussion, to hopefully help them (4:35). Then, he must stop the sexual relations for four months. Anytime during those four months, he may change his mind and go back to his wife, and continue with the marriage. If not, he then should officially express the divorce at the end of the four months (2:226), in the presence of two witnesses (65:2), or through the state procedures, whichever applies. After the divorce, if the home belonged to the woman, then the man must leave. If the home belongs to both, then they split it, or split the living space, and preferably sell it, take their portion, and move to separate places. If the home belonged to the man alone, and she has nowhere to go, no property, then he is not allowed to exclude her from the house (65:1). She is still allowed to live in the same house or in the rooms in which she lived before as mandatory charity from the man. They are divorced, and they are prohibited for one another, but she is allowed to stay there, or she can leave, if she wants. But, if they are renting, or he does not fully own the house, he is not obliged to do that. The woman may keep the dowry, because he initiated the divorce (2:229), unless she forgives parts of it, to adjust the situation to a fair division, especially if she knows that the state has supported her side more (2:229). And the woman must wait for three months after the divorce, as an emotional detox, and to double check that she is not pregnant (2:228), after which she is free to marry someone else, but if she finds that she is pregnant, she must wait until the end of her pregnancy (2:228). So, these were the procedures when the man initiates the soft divorce.
Now, if the woman initiates the soft divorce, everything is the same as if the husband initiated it, except that the woman can not choose to stay in her ex-husbands property anymore (33:28), because it was her choice to divorce. She must leave, unless it is her property. And she must return the financial dowry, if it was of the financial nature. The soft divorce may be retracted twice (2:229), regardless of who initiated it.
By the way, what happens in a marriage stays in that marriage (2:187). At the moment of divorce, you may give the general reasons why you divorce someone, in front of two witnesses, preferably in a written and signed document, or whatever the state requires, if that is the case, but after that you keep your mouth shut for the rest of your life. You do not reveal anything from that life, or private information regarding your ex-spouse (2:187) – not to your new spouse, not to anyone. If your ex-spouse reveals or publicizes something from your previous private life or private discussions, private pictures, or anything like that, you may respond in the same way, but never do it first (8:58). It’s an extremely bad behavior and a betrayal of those who have previously trusted you (8:27).
Now, regardless of who initiated the divorce, if they had children, it is better not to split up the children, because siblings are used to one another. For each parent, it is wrong to leave their children, so I would encourage both the father and the mother to try to do their best to keep their children, through any reasonable legal means. And that is what any good mother or father would do. However, there are no religious arguments which would be powerful enough to show that the other parent has no right to keep the children. And when the arguments are not powerful enough, power becomes a legitimate argument (26:4). So, in the past, the husband showed his power, and said “I am keeping the children. What are you going to do about it?” So, the show of power is a legitimate argument in this case (26:4), because both parties are right for the same thing. However, the governments these days will show even bigger power, and they might say, “She is keeping the children. What are you going to do about it?” or they might say, “She is keeping the children for 70% of the time or 50% of the time. What are you going to do about it?” And again, power is a legitimate argument in this case (26:4), because no other Quranic arguments exist. However, there are Quranic implications to this. When the mother achieves the keeping of her children, she inherits limitations with it. She, a divorced woman with minor children, is not allowed to marry again, unless she shows or sends to her new husband-to-be a concrete guaranteed plan in writing on how she will be able to fulfill these four conditions in her new marriage:
Not abandon her minor children willingly (66:6).
Never leave the new husband alone with her previous children in private spaces, or put them or him in situations where they are indirectly forced to be alone in private spaces while she is not there.
Never expect financial help from him for them. (This last part is actually almost always enforced by the governments anyway, through child support laws, which consider the biological father of the children to be financially responsible for them, even after divorce.)
Never meet her ex-husband or talk to her ex-husband without the new husband’s permission, even if it has to do with her children (4:34). And the new husband may choose to be there, if he wishes.
And this plan should not rely on the mercy or cooperation of her ex-husband, but she may rely on the cooperation of her family. And, she may also present a plan B which fulfills these conditions, and if she breaks any of these conditions, he is allowed to re-discuss the plan, or divorce.
And these conditions stem from different rules in the Quran, and especially from the fact that the Quran allows foster mothers or stepmothers but it does not allow foster fathers or stepfathers for children whose father is still alive. Children are allowed to be left alone in private spaces only with their family members or close relatives, or a foster mother (33:55, 24:31). Now, the new husband is not any of these, and therefore the mother is responsible to never leave them alone with him at home or in private spaces, without her presence there. There is no such thing as a stepfather in the Quran, only mom’s husband. Also, did you know that about 1 in every 5 girls who grows up with a stepfather is sexually abused by him, and even in cases where it does not happen, it’s because the man has to act like a servant in his own house, which is then emotionally unfair to him. And, even if the child is a boy, it’s still unfair towards the child, because that would technically be enslavement. No one has the right to subject someone’s children to someone else’s authority, while his mother is not there. That’s what the brothers of Joseph did with Joseph. They took him out of their father’s home, and he ended up in another man’s home, while his mother was not there with him. That’s enslavement. Now, if the child is with the mother, that’s not enslavement, but if she leaves the child alone with her new husband, that’s enslavement. It’s not enslavement the other way around, by the way, when a divorced father with children marries a new wife, because even when the children are under the authority of the new wife, she is under his authority (4:34), and therefore all of them are still under his authority – whatever authority still applies these days.
So, because the governments today have empowered the women to keep the children after divorce, they have disempowered them to marry again without fulfilling those four conditions, for which they must have a concrete plan, which they must present to their potential new husband, before they marry. One such plan could be, for example, that from Tuesday to Friday, she keeps the children at home, but she guarantees that she will always leave home after the husband or at the same time, and come back from work before the husband, so that the child is not left alone with the husband, and even when she is home, she should not leave the husband in one room with the child, and go to another room, unless the door is open. Then, on Friday, she sends the children to their grandmother or grandfather. On Saturday, their father picks them up from their grandmother, and returns them back to their grandmother on Sunday or Monday, and then the mother takes them from their grandmother’s place on Monday, and then repeat again next week. This is just one example, but you can have a different plan. Maybe the plan might simply involve owning a bigger house with separate entrances for the husband and the children, or things like that, but as you might be able to imagine, all these plans require additional efforts and additional finances from the wife. And someone might say, “Why does the Quran not mention these rules for widows who are also single mothers, and we know that the Quran allows the men to marry them?” Well, the natural expectation in the Quran is that single mothers should directly jump into a polygamous marriage (one man marrying two divorced mothers with children). Verse 4:3, which mentions this permission, mentions two, three, or four, wives, but skips one, meaning that the idea of marrying only one single mother is not presented there at all. It goes directly to two, because women in the past did not provide for themselves, and it was impossible for them to fulfill these four conditions with additional finances and efforts. So, the only option for a single mother in the past was polygamy. But today, because women work, single mothers might be able to avoid polygamy in a new marriage, simply by investing additional finances into the problem, but still polygamy would be for them the only option which does not require additional finances and efforts, because in that case, the husband stays at the other wife’s home, whenever she needs quality time with her children, and then he comes back when the other wife needs quality time with her children. And no additional efforts or finances are needed from either woman in that case. So, verse 4:3, recommends two single mothers, in cases when we are concerned about the rights of their children, and it recommends one single mother, in cases when we are concerned about the rights of the mother. And generally, in circumstances of poverty, due to incompatible living space, and heavy efforts which are required to make it work, the rights of the children are at risk, but in richer circumstances, in general, due to sufficient space arrangements, the rights of children are fulfilled, which means that the rights of women then should be given priority. So, generally, in cases of a poor single mother, especially if she does not have the help of her family, or the state, then the best option is polygamy, and in case of definitely rich single mothers with sufficient support, the best option is monogamy.
And I understand that this might sound humiliating for the poor women of today, but the humiliation only lasts a few days until she realizes that the husband always comes back, especially if the other woman is a good person who will not try to “steal” her husband. And by the way, this is one among the only four unnatural special cases where the Quran allows polygamy as an admitted problem (4:129), in order to solve a bigger unnatural problem. Otherwise, in all the other natural circumstances, the Quran preaches monogamy (4:1, 7:189, 39:6, 78:8, 49:13, 11:40, 23:27, 51:49, 43:12, 34:46, 3:195, 53:45, 92:3, 4:129), which is the natural way, because from the first day God created one man and one woman.
But, in the case of divorced women with children, it is an unnatural situation, and it may be solved with either polygamy, or with additional efforts and finances by the woman. And admittedly, if you are a single mother, this might be a difficult situation, but think of the women who never get married. We are going towards a world where 50% of the women will never get married, while at least you have a child, which means that you are not completely alone. And even though the Bible says that marrying a widow is a good charitable deed, actually a widow and a divorced woman are not exactly the same thing, and also, these days, the women who are in their thirties and above and did not get married yet are closer to the widows of the past than the divorced women with children.
So, a smart choice for women in democracies would be to marry early and have children slightly later, to reduce the chances of such a situation. Contraception methods may be used (7:32). You can ask the appropriate doctors about that, and if either the man or the woman does not want children, they both should agree not to have children (4:29), or the party who definitely wants children may choose to divorce, but they should not force or scheme children into a marriage. So, because of the existence of contraception methods these days, it is recommended for the potential couples to talk about whether they would eventually expect children in a marriage and how many, to avoid later disagreements. And, of course, ultimately God is in control of everything (42:49-50).
So, this is all you need to know about marriage and divorce, but most importantly, remember this: No matter who comes and goes in your life, or who comes and stays in your life, you should focus on serving God, and don’t let anyone divert you from that. If you can find a submitter and righteous person who will support you in the cause of God, even better. If not, don’t stop striving in the cause of God, on your own.
The Arabic word ‘qātil’ which means ‘fight’ or ‘kill’ is mentioned in the Quran 170 times. Here are all the Quranic verses where it is mentioned.
Three of the verses actually deal with killing or hunting wild animals. One of them deals with David killing Goliath. 23 of the verses deal with murders and killing incidents during the time of Moses. 16 of them deal with disbelievers killing or fighting the prophets. 23 of them deal with disbelievers killing or fighting the believers. Six of them deal with disbelievers killing their own children. Seven of them mention the fact that disbelievers are cursed. 21 of them talk about people who do not wish to fight. Two of them talk about disbelievers fighting each other. 14 of them talk specifically about the prohibition of killing. 9 of them talk about battles specifically during Muhammad’s time. 7 of them talk about the rewards of fighting in the cause of God. 38 of them are orders to fight or kill disbelievers under strict conditions.
So, now let’s look at these last 38 cases of the word ‘qātil (fight or kill)’ refer to BELIEVERS FIGHTING DISBELIEVERS. All of these 38 cases without exception come with conditions attached to them.
Below is a list of those verses, and all the conditions:
So, looking at all these 38 cases, we can not find a single verse in the Quran which orders the believers to fight the disbelievers simply because they have a different belief system. Someone might say, “yes, but you only looked at the word “qatil” (fight), and you did not look at the popular word “jihad’ (strive).” So let’s look at the word ‘jihad’ as well.
The word ‘jihad’ is mentioned in the Quran 41 times, and it actually means ‘to strive’ or ‘to keep trying’ or ‘to not give up’, it does not mean ‘to kill’. Here are all those 41 cases:
From all the 41 cases above, only 4 of them actually talk about ‘striving’ against the disbelievers. And those cases are in verse 9:73, 25:52, 25:52, and 66:9. Two of those cases are specifically about the time of Prophet Muhammad (9:73, 66:9), who was already being unjustly abused by disbelievers, and the two other cases are both in verse 25:52, which says:
“Therefore, do not obey the disbelievers, and strive (jihad) against them with this (Quran), a great striving.” (25:52)
So, this is the only verse in the Quran which orders the believers to do ‘jihad’ (strive) against the disbelievers, and what it is really saying is that ‘jihad’ against disbelievers is done by reciting or preaching the Quran.
Summary:
Fighting (qatil) against disbelievers is only allowed for self-defense.
There is no such thing as Jihad (proactive striving) against disbelievers, except for preaching the Quran to them.
And here are two crucial verses which prove this conclusion:
“There shall be no compulsion in religion: the right way is now distinct from the wrong way. … “ (2:256)
“Had your Lord willed, all the people on earth would have believed. Do you want to force the people to become believers?” (10:99)
An atheist television personality once said that given the immense size of the universe, and the extremely large number of stars, there must be aliens out there, and if there are no aliens and all these stars and all this space was only intended for humans, then God must be terribly inefficient. Why didn’t God simply create the Solar System, and that is enough space and material to test the humans? Or why did God not create only our galaxy? All the 5000 stars which we can see with our naked eye are within our galaxy anyway. So why did God create the billion trillion other stars, and all that vast interstellar space, if it is not of any use to humans? Well, in fact, there is a perfectly good reason for an extremely vast amount of space outside of our reach, and an extremely large number of stars outside of our use. And that reason becomes obvious once you realize what will happen with all those stars. All that material, a billion trillion stars will be piled together and be used as fuel for permanent Hell. It will ignite under its own weight. It will be jammed in a tight space, as small as the core of the earth, causing a nuclear reaction, and its nuclear fire will burn the disbelievers, and that famous atheist. Not even an atom will go to waste, and not even an inch of space will go unused. Everything which God created has its final purpose. All that mass in the universe is being prepared as a fuel for Hell and disbelievers will burn in it. Someone might still try to argue that this manner of punishment is again inefficient.
Why is so much fuel needed to punish the disbelievers, when a small fire would also do the job? Burning is burning. Yes, but the fuel which will be burned in Hell will be used as an energy source for a perpetual motion giant machine to run the pipes which move the rivers underneath Heaven, and Heaven is big, so you need a lot of energy. See, God is so efficient, that he sets up the system in such a way that He lets Hell do the dirty work for Him. God is holy. “Holy” literary means “untouchable”. A king does not need to get his hands dirty. God does things through angels, and in the Hereafter, He will set up a perfect system where the material of this world will be used as a nuclear fuel for Hell, and the fuel of Hell will produce energy, and the energy will be used to maintain Heaven – for example, to water the permanent gardens and so on. They will be watered from underneath, not like in this world where they are watered by rain from above. And God’s system will be so perfect in the Hereafter, it will never fail – a perpetual system – an effortless system – an efficient system – where nothing goes to waste. Compare this with the most efficient power plant built today by humans, which is only 62% efficient. The rest of the energy is wasted through leaked heat, lost in the grid and so on.
God is the most efficient king. He is the King of efficiency. By the way, the size of Hell compared to Heaven is like the size of a small battery compared to our universe, and I am actually underestimating the difference. If God did not tell the people of Heaven where Hell is, they would not even find it. It is so small compared to Heaven, that space in the Hereafter will practically be all Heaven, and a tiny isolated speck somewhere will be Hell. It will actually be the size of Earth’s Core, which is nothing compared to Heaven. Nothing. Can you see how efficient God’s system is? Can you imagine powering the whole earth forever with energy with a power plant as small as a battery?
So, the typical idea of people who imagine the hereafter as half heaven and half hell is enormously wrong and distorted. Hell is so small compared to heaven, it is practically Heaven’s garbage can, even though it will contain the material of all the stars today.
Someone might say,” That still seems inefficient, because all the material of the universe is surely enough to fuel Hell, why would you need the tiny humans as additional material for burning? Well, where would you put them? Everywhere else you can possibly live in the next world will be Heaven, and it’s not right to put the bad people in Heaven because they are rebels and will cause trouble and inefficiencies. God runs things efficiently. So, bad people are not fit for Heaven, because they cause inefficiencies constantly.
Then why not create just a tiny separate Heaven somewhere close to Hell, just a small city where disbelievers would not burn, and let the rest of the material burn for fuel in Hell? Well that tiny city would again need to be maintained, because bad people are so bad, they will turn it into Hell again in one day, unless God maintains it and fixes it constantly, and the maintaining of it would cause the angels just as much hardship as the hardship which would be relieved for disbeliever. So, why bother, and why would God waste efforts to maintain something which would be constantly destroyed? That would be inefficient for God.
Then, why not send those disbelievers back to earth, to give them another chance? Well, they would do the same thing again. It would be inefficient to try once more. People who were given more than 14,000 thousand chances, practically every day of their life, they went to sleep, they woke up, still disbelievers. They went to sleep, they woke up, still disbelievers. More than 14,000 times, still disbelievers, and one more is not going to change it. God would not send them to Hell, unless it was proven that under any circumstances, they are disbelievers deep in their core.
Then why not give them pain killers or some way for them to avoid the pain while in Hell? Well, that’s still inefficient. How are you going to distribute pain killers in Hell? God can send the angels to do it, but that would require efforts by the angles, and it would not be right for God to help the evil beings at the expense of good beings. And, if you left the disbelievers to distribute it on their own, they would not do it properly. The guy near the entrance door would try to take them all by himself or whatever and the pills would burn. They never do the right thing, especially in circumstances where it matters. But more importantly the disbelievers are supposed to feel pain, because God has promised to make the truth prevail. Everything in the hereafter will say the truth, and the only thing the disbelievers accept as true is pain. If you ask them, “does it hurt?”, they will say “oh, yes it hurts,” and so finally they will speak the truth and the truth shall prevail and falsehood will vanish. This has been the purpose since the beginning – to make the truth prevail over falsehood, and if the disbelievers are going to speak the truth only regarding their pain, then it will be so. The truth will ultimately prevail, which is the purpose of existence.
Then why not simply vanish them? Well, when God created us, he created us to be permanent souls. He promised us that we would last forever, and he is not going to break his promise. God does not break is promise. He created us with his word, and his word is true and truth lasts forever, which means that we, the true us, the souls will last forever.
You might say, “then why did God create disbelievers in the first place, knowing that they will end up in Hell?” Well, this question leaves a very important part without mentioning. It fails to mention that the disbelievers deserve it. See, when God created disbelievers who He knew will end up in Hell, He without exception made sure that He created them such that they would definitely eventually deserve to be in Hell. So, they are so bad that they definitely deserve it. So, then why did God create disbelievers who will eventually deserve to be in Hell? Well, the truth is that He did not create them as disbelievers initially. He created humans. He simply made the souls at different levels of strength which are not necessarily bad or good. They are just different strengths. Only when the body was created as an additional vehicle for humans, if the soul was weaker than the body, that was bad, because when the body leads the soul, it causes it to do bad things.
Then why did God create the body? He created the body to test Satan, because Satan wanted to see if he could also be a god on earth and God created the bodies to give Satan some material over which he could rule, and to see if he can be a god, and we see from all the suffering on earth that Satan is not an efficient god.
Then, why did God create Satan? Well, God did not really create Satan. He created Iblis (Lucifer), who later willingly became bad and therefore Satan.
Then why did God create Lucifer, knowing that he will become Satan. He created Lucifer because when you take everything into account, a version of the world with Lucifer in it, in the end is better than a version of the world without Lucifer in it. In other words, God, the All-Knowing, knew of all the possible versions that the world could exist, and He chose the best of all possible versions, because God is efficient. So, when it is all said and done, we will realize that it is impossible, even in theory, to have a world unfold which is better than the version which God created. Someone might say, “Yes, it is possible in theory to have a world better than this one. For example, if this world had one more moral person in it.” Well, no, in this perfect version of the world people go through a testing process against each other and there must be exactly ten disbelievers who are being tested for every believer who is being tested to keep the struggle in balance. Otherwise, one party would have won a long time ago, and the world would have ended. But, it is feature of a perfect world that 100 organized believers can defeat 1000 disbelievers, because of their better coordination and willingness to give up their wealth. So, a world with one more moral person would need ten more immoral people, and therefore it would only be more overcrowded than the actual version of the world, and therefore less perfect. So, a world like this one, with evil and hell allowed in it, in the end is the best of all possible worlds.
You might say, “How can it be that a world with Hell is ultimately in total better than a world without Hell?” Well, a world without Hell is a world where God constantly provides and the creatures consume, while a world with Hell is a world where God provides in addition to the automatic provision mode powered by the burning in Hell, which is used as additional energy for heaven. So, hell is heaven’s stove. Is a room with a stove and an invisible garbage bin better or a room without either of them? So, God allowed us to make a mistake and leave heaven so that when we go back there it will be updated and boosted up, at least twice as good as when we left. So, God wanted to multiply our happiness, because He love us. So, yes, Satan is being used, but rightfully so, because he is fool and thinks that he is using us, and he deserves nothing less or more than what he will get. See, Satan is hoping that by convincing enough humans to side with him, knowing that God loves us, will convince God to change His mind and give Satan part of His kingdom. Well, what Satan does not understand is that just because God loves us, it does not mean that He needs us. He loves us because He is love, and He has a lot of love to give, but not because He needs us. While Satan who has no love inside, confuses love with need. So, God never needed us, but Satan’s misuses of God’s love fell right into God’s perfect plan for a world with merit based happiness. So, in a world without Satan, angels have to work, so that people can live, which is not merit based, but in a world with Satan, angels have to work only for a brief period, only when we are in this world, and when we get to the next world, both we and angels will be completely free to worship God. So, is a world where it is harder for angels, and harder for people better, or a world which is completely effortless for the angels, and completely effortless for the people, but hard for a small group of bad creatures who deserve it anyway? So, not only God chose the best of all possible versions of the world to create, it is also the easiest option for all of us. So, God has created a version of the world which in the end will have the maximum total happiness for his creatures with the same efforts.
Of course, God does not need Hell as a fuel source for Heaven. We know this, because he is providing for people in Heaven right now, without using Hell as a source of energy, but He is so efficient, that in the Hereafter, if He can use the fuel of Hell for useful purposes, then why not? He is efficient. He does not waste anything. Everything He creates has a specific purpose.
Someone might say, “then why did God have to create anything at all?” Well, He is the Creator. His name is the Creator. That’s what He does. Someone depressed philosopher might then say, “If that’s how it has to be, then why should God exist?” Well, why shouldn’t He exist, if He is:
the Greatest
the Peace
the Infinite
the Initiator
the Efficient
the Lord of everything
the Shaper
the Outermost
the Provider
the Giver of Life
the Innermost
the Repeater
the Nurturer
the Almighty
the Omniscient (all-knowledgeable)
the Supreme
the Hearer
the Ultimate Inheritor
the Absolute
the Seer
the Resurrector
the Truth
the Respiter
the Gatherer
the Eternal
the Gracious
the Accounter
the Highest
the Merciful
the Witness
the King
the Forgiver
the Just
the Glorious
the Guide
the Judge
the Honorable
the Faithful
the Avenger
the Praiseworthy
the Grateful
the Holy (the untouchable)
the Dignifier
the One in Charge
the Light of the world
the Responsive
the Independent
the Protector
the One
the Living
the Redeemer
God
The only one who has reason to exist is God. No other being has sufficient reason to exist, except to worship God. So, our only sufficient reason to exist is to worship God. And God, who is the Most Powerful, does not chose to do things in the hard way, because he is also the Most Wise, so if he can do the same exact thing in an easier way, He will do it. He is efficient. He created this world in the most efficient manner, to get the maximum results with the least amount of efforts. If it is more efficient to create an electron, and then copy and paste it, then that is what He did. No wonder all the electrons are the same. If it is more efficient to create the Helium out of Hydrogen rather than from nothing, than that is what He did. If it is more efficient to create the planets from the remnants of stars, rather than from nothing, then that is what He did. If it is more efficient to produce the Dog from the Wolf, rather than from scratch, then that is what He did. If it is more efficient to clone Eve from Adam, rather than creating her from scratch, then that is what He did. If it is more efficient to create you from your parent, rather than from nothing, then that is what He did. If it is more efficient to produce milk from the cow, rather than constantly sending it to us from the sky, then that is what He did. So, yes the impression of evolution is simply people noticing signs of God’s efficiency. Someone might say, isn’t it more efficient to produce the human from the monkey because their genes are mostly similar? Well, in this case it is not because of some specific factors, but that is another topic which I explain in another video. But, the point which I am making here is that God creates, forms, judges and provides for his creatures in the most efficient way. He even guides and saves in the most efficient way. Here is how efficient his redemption system is. All you have to do is believe what He says. It takes less efforts to believe than to doubt. Instead, you are making things harder for yourself, if you do not believe God. If you are against God, God will not let you touch his efficient system. His system is perfect, and if you do not believe, you will be:
Defeated
You will have no property, no belongings, no smartphone
You will not be able to distract your mind away from reality
The truth will hit you
You will submit
Deprived of everything you longed for
All your secrets will become known
You will be blamed
Ridden with remorse and sorrow
Despised
Humiliated
Shamed
You did this to yourself
Shame on you
Go to Hell,
and stay in it.
Your final destiny
Your only destiny
Your unavoidable destiny
The worst destiny
Your idols can not help you
Your parents can not help you
Your children can not help you
Your friends can not help you
Your money can not help you
You will have no helpers
You can not help yourself
You will have no power
You will have no escape
No ransom will be accepted from you
No intercession, no nepotism, no trade
You will lose your family, if they go to Heaven
And you will lose your family, if they go to Hell
And you will never see them
You will be chained in shackles
Confined in iron pots
You will eat as food completely bitter stuff, with no other taste
It never nourishes, nor satisfies hunger.
Drink boiling water and sand
And no pain-killers
You will be overwhelmed by fire
You will be owned by fire
Clothed with fire and tar
Hellfire
Retribution
In misery
In pain
In severe pain
In agony
Suffering
Gehenna
Eternal Punishment
The suffering will increasingly get worse
It will start from the worst you ever felt and end with the worst you can possibly feel
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. We read in the Scripture, the proven word of God, that God is love, that God is peace, that He is the most compassionate, the most merciful. Yet, when we look around us in this world, we see a lot of misery, a lot of war, oppression. The vast majority of people in the world are suffering from poverty, diseases, starvation, cancer. And the question, the inevitable question that arises is why? If God is loving, compassionate, and merciful, as we read in the Scripture, if God is in full control, why do we see all these problems, the earthquakes, the miseries? Why so? As you see, we are dealing with some very heavy material. When we look around us all over the world, we see a lot of misery, a lot of famine, starvation, poverty, accidents, earthquakes, problems, diseases, cancer. The world is full of problems. The vast majority of the world is under dictatorship, oppression, and poverty. So the inevitable question that pops up in our minds, justifiably so, is: If God is full of love and compassion and mercy, why all these problems? Why does God permit this famine, starvation, accidents, and misery? It’s a legitimate question, and this article deals with this question.
In order to answer the question, “Why are we here, and what is the purpose of our lives?” we have to go back in time to where there was God and nothing else.
Then, God created the angels to perform functions where the existence of God is not necessary or simply devastating, as we will learn later on in the article.
The angels had to possess immense powers, and just to give you an idea, today the angels have to travel billions of light years in only a few of our hours. They have to possess immense powers, and God gave the angels immense powers. We have heard in the last few years about questions like, “How many angels can dance on the tip of a pin?”—this kind of silly question—but the exact opposite is true. Just to give you an idea, one angel can hold the planet Earth in one hand. We know these things now after the discovery of the mathematical code and the mathematically proven statements in the scriptures. One of the angels became infatuated with his God-given powers. He had so much power that he thought he could be a god in his own right. That angel’s name was Lucifer, or Satan, or the Devil, or El Diablo. He has many names. Let us call him Satan for the purposes of this article. You can imagine Satan flying in the universe and saying to himself, “I can be a god in my own right. I can rule part of this universe by myself.” That was all in his head, and of course, his fellow angels had no idea what Satan was thinking. But God knew about Satan’s super serious thoughts deep in his head. God knew those thoughts, and there were two alternatives. Either God could simply wipe out Satan, and in this case, the angels would wonder; they would be perplexed. Why did God do this to Satan? Satan didn’t do anything wrong. The other alternative was to expose Satan first. And to do this, God decided to create a tiny, minute creature from a lowly material—mud. You can imagine the size of the human being compared to the size of an angel who can hold the planet Earth in his hand. So God created a tiny creature from mud, then God ordered the angels to bow down before Adam, this tiny creature. They all did, except, you know who, Satan. And thus, Satan was exposed as a rebel. Now, the angels see for themselves that Satan is a rebel who deserves to be banished from God’s kingdom. That was the first reason for creating the human race. It was mercy from God that He decided to expose Satan first by creating the tiny creature from mud, then ordering the angels to fall prostrate, bow down before Adam.
The other reason for creating the human race is a bit more complicated to understand. This second reason, we have to go back to the time when Satan was infatuated with his power and saying, “I can rule part of this universe by myself. I can be a god in my own right.” God said to himself, when he knew about Satan’s super serious thoughts, “Alright, you want to be a god? I will make you a god and see how good you are. There is much more to godhood than you think.” This is what God thought to himself, and this is where the second reason for creating us comes in.
In order to make Satan a god temporarily, God decided to give Satan a dominion and constituents. In order to be a god or a king, you have to have a dominion and constituents. To give Satan a dominion, God went out of his way to show Satan that the dominion God is giving to Satan is really tiny, minute. God created this vast universe, the seven universes that I described to you, and in this vast universe, God told Satan, “I’m giving you this tiny, tiny planet Earth. This is your dominion.” So, now that Satan has his dominion, where will he get his constituents?
That’s right, the human race. God created the human beings and gave them the freedom of choice. God told us, you and me and everyone of us, that if we choose Satan’s kingdom, we belong in Satan’s kingdom, and if we choose God’s kingdom, then we belong in God’s kingdom. Now, this choice depends on siding with Satan’s point of view or God’s point of view. God’s point of view is that God alone is Lord of the universes. He has no partners, no other gods besides Him. This is God’s point of view, and when you agree with this point of view, you will belong in God’s kingdom.
Satan’s point of view, on the other hand, is that God alone is not enough. There can be or there must be another god or gods besides Him, and Satan wanted to be that other god. So the human beings have the freedom of choice, and those among them who side with Satan’s point of view become Satan’s constituents. So now Satan has his dominion, the planet Earth, and his constituents, the human beings who side with his point of view. And Satan is being tested as a god. The results are all around us. Now you know why the famine, the starvation, the misery, the accidents, the cancer.
Satan’s kingdom is plagued with these problems. On the other hand, these problems do not exist in God’s kingdom. When you side with God’s point of view, that is, decide that God alone is Lord of the universes without any other idols in your life, you belong in God’s kingdom. And God’s kingdom has no cancer, no accidents, no headaches, no problems. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect peace, perfect happiness.
This might sound unbelievable, but it’s true. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, perfect happiness, and joy. When you choose God’s point of view, you will belong in God’s kingdom, and you will have no headaches, no problems, no traffic tickets. You will forget what headaches are. You will have no financial problems, no health problems. God runs the universes, and this is His law. If you belong in God’s kingdom, there will be no accidents in your life, no misery, no marital problems, no problems of any kind.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people have sided with Satan’s point of view that God alone is not enough. They do this by idolizing, setting up idols like Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or San Francisco or the boss or the dollar. They set up all kinds of idols, and when they do this, they uphold Satan’s point of view, and automatically they become Satan’s constituents.
Don’t get me wrong, Satan is trying very hard to make his kingdom the planet Earth and his constituents the people who choose him and his point of view. He is trying very hard to make his kingdom a perfect kingdom. He wants very badly for his constituents to enjoy perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect peace and happiness. But he just can’t, and this is the whole idea. Satan is being put to the test with a dominion and constituents, and his incompetence as a god has been proven. And this is the whole idea of our existence.
And here, we are not talking about some kingdom to come after life or something like that, but we are talking about now. You and I. And some of you may ask, “I didn’t want to be in this test. Why am I here involuntarily?” And this is a wrong question because we learn from the scripture that is proven by mathematical code, by physical evidence, to be God’s message to the world. We learn that you and I and every human being was asked whether we want the freedom of choice or not. We met God before the creation of the heavens and the earth, and we bore witness that He alone is our Lord. But this knowledge is obscured with this body. We cannot remember it now. We will remember it when we get rid of this body, this garment, and become free again. What we are talking about here is that every human being, you see, is either a constituent of God or a constituent of Satan. And as said earlier, constituents of God enjoy perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect happiness and joy now in this world.
Satan’s constituents are plagued with problems: financial, marital, health. They have all kinds of problems. And we have to emphasize that these statements are proven by physical evidence, by the mathematical code of the Quran. It is very important to realize that we are not talking from the top of our head, that this is proven material by physical evidence that anyone can examine and verify. When you are in God’s kingdom, when you side with God’s point of view, that God alone is Lord, without any idols, without Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or the saints or the boss or the dollar, you belong in God’s kingdom, and you enjoy a perfect life.
When you side with Satan’s point of view here in this world, you suffer the consequences. What you see around the world is the consequence of Satan’s incompetence as a god. God gave him this planet Earth and gave us the freedom to choose him and become his constituents.
The scripture tells us that if God wins, He can make all the people believers, which is true. If God wills, He can make all the people on Earth believers. The question is, why doesn’t He? And the answer in the scriptures is, if God made all the people believers, where will Satan get his constituents to prove Satan’s incompetence as a god?
See, we are here to provide Satan with constituents, those among us with our freedom of choice who chooses Satan becomes his constituents. By their choice, this is happening here and now. Any human being you look at belongs either in God’s kingdom or in Satan’s kingdom, whether they know it or not. There is no other choice. You either belong in God’s kingdom or in Satan’s kingdom. How can you tell?
If you have any problems whatsoever – if you have headaches, financial problems, health problems, marital problems, any kind of problems – this will be your hint that you have made the choice to side with Satan’s kingdom. Somehow, you will have to examine your own life.
That is the difference between Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, and peace of mind.
If you look into your life and find that your life is full of problems or has some problems, if you come to the conclusion that you have been victimized by Satan or duped by Satan into joining his kingdom, what is the way out? How can you join God’s kingdom? How can I join God’s kingdom? This is a very easy matter. At the same time, it is not so easy for the reasons that I’m going to explain to you.
First of all, you have to come to a solid, unshakable conclusion that God alone is the Lord of the universe, that no one besides God can help you or harm you. You have to come to this solid conclusion. So let us say you claim that you came to this conclusion, that you believe that God alone is the Lord of the universe. The scripture tells us in the Quran, Chapter 29, Verse 2. I’m going to quote it now: “Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ without being put to the test? We will surely put them to the test to distinguish those who are telling the truth from the liars.”
Therefore, when you make this claim that you believe that God alone is the Lord of the universe, you will have to be put to the test to show that you’re not just offering lip service, that this is a deep, solid, unshakable conviction.
We read in the Bible that Job was put to the test. Satan inflicted a lot of harm upon Job, and this is my chance to tell you that any problems, any diseases, any accidents, any misery, is inflicted only by Satan. God does not inflict any harm on His creation.
There are four kinds of disasters. The first kind is the admission tests. What I call admission tests when you or I claim that we believe that God alone is Lord of the universe without any idols, we must be put to the test. These admission tests are designed to show that we uphold this conviction solidly, unshakably, under all circumstances—rich or poor, health or sickness. Admission tests are characterized by the fact that they do not leave permanent damage. They test you thoroughly, and then you are admitted into God’s kingdom. That is the first kind of disaster.
The second kind of disaster is called an educational disaster. This is designed to bring us back into God’s kingdom if we sway out of God’s kingdom, if we make a mistake and step out of God’s kingdom. This is exactly what happens: you step out of God’s kingdom, and Satan captures you, smites you, gives you a problem, a disaster, and this will be your attention-getter. You will be alerted that you have stepped out of God’s kingdom, and you will come back fast. That is called an educational disaster. And as you see, admission tests and educational disasters are inflicted by Satan.
The third kind is called blessings in disguise, and these appear to be disasters. But when they are passed, you look back on them and you discover that they were actually good for you. You go apply for a job or something, and you don’t get it. You flunk in the interview, and you’re very upset because you wanted that job. But later on, you discover that with time, you obtained a better job, and that had you succeeded in getting that job, it would have been much worse for you. So that is a blessing in disguise.
The fourth kind of disaster is retributive disaster, and it happens when a society or an individual reaches the point of corruption where there is no reform, the point of no reform. A good example in the Bible and the Quran, in the scriptures, is Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were corrupted beyond reform. They became hopelessly trapped in their corruption, and God decided to inflict the retributive disaster that they deserved. And this is the only kind that you may attribute to God, but actually, it is the end of their life. It was the final blow, and death is a fact of life, as you know—everyone dies. So it is not really a disaster since it is the final act. Death is a fact of life; we all die, and that is not a disaster. So these are the four kinds of disasters.
You might have heard a story that was told by a famous preacher about two men. One believed in God, and the other did not. The man who believed in God was telling his friend, “Well, listen, if you don’t believe in God, then if there is a day of judgment, you will be in deep trouble. But if you believe in God and there is no day of judgment and there is no God, you’ve got nothing to lose.” Now, this argument, the preacher said, makes sense. It makes sense that you believe in God. But actually, it doesn’t quite work like that. You cannot believe in God just in case there is a God. The only way is to reach deep, solid, unshakable conviction about God—not only that God exists but also that God is the only Lord of the universe, that there is no idol, no other God besides Him. And as I told you, it is very easy to make the switch from Satan’s kingdom to God’s kingdom. All you need to do is to reach this deep conviction. You have many years to study, look around, research, think, reflect, and make a decision. And if you are fortunate to make a decision to join God’s kingdom by believing that God alone is Lord of the universe, then you would be put to the test to show that you mean it, that it is not only lip service or just in case, as in that story.
Your decision to join God’s Kingdom, based on deep, unshakable conviction, must be accompanied by repentance and remorse for the wrong things you have done in the past. You simply say to God, “I’m sorry I did those things. I am sorry I did not side with Your point of view. That I fell into idol worship. I committed certain sins. I will never do them again. I repent to You.” This repentance wipes out all your sins; you become like a newborn baby, no sins whatsoever. Better yet, we learn from the Scripture that all your sins of the past will be transformed into credits. And credits mean growth, development, and strengthening of your soul. So, on the day of judgment, you will be strong and able to withstand the energy of God, being close to God Himself.
A lot of people ask the question, “Why are the children suffering? Why are the innocent children suffering?” In the last few years, we have been watching in our living rooms, on the TV, children starving and dying in Africa.
And a lot of people are justified in asking, “Why are the children suffering?” It is very important to point out that when we side with Satan’s point of view, we move ourselves and our families out of God’s Kingdom into Satan’s Kingdom. We and our families become constituents in Satan’s Kingdom and subject to Satan’s incompetence as a temporary god. This is why the children are suffering. On the other hand, the suffering and death of those children is actually a blessing in disguise. When we study the Scripture carefully, we realize that these children are going straight to Heaven, and it is indeed a blessing for them. They actually do not die; they move on from this life to a much better life. The chances of those children growing up and making the right choice, siding with God’s point of view, the chance is very nil that they will do that. And it is far better for those children to die now and go to Heaven than to suffer for a long time and then end up not making it and ending up in an eternal Hell.
This brings us to a very important issue: the unforgivable sin. At the end of our term in this world, at the time of death, murder is forgivable, adultery is forgivable, stealing is forgivable, lying, cheating, all these are forgivable sins. There is only one unforgivable sin when maintained until the time of death. This one unforgivable sin is idol worship.
We fully appreciate now why idol worship is the only unforgivable offense. Because now we realize that the whole idea behind our existence, the whole idea behind creating us, is to provide Satan with the constituents who agree with his point of view, that God alone is not enough, that there can be other gods, other idols besides God. The grossness of idol worship can be appreciated when you remind yourself that the planet Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun, and it takes light only a few minutes to reach us from the Sun? But from the edge of our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the light takes not minutes, not days, not years, not centuries. It takes thirty thousand years for the light to travel from the planet Earth to the edge of our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. Can you imagine how tiny the planet Earth is in the Milky Way Galaxy? Andmour universe contains 1 billion galaxies like the Milky Way, and distances up to 26 billion light years. So, where is the planet Earth in our universe? It is almost nothing. And our universe is one of seven universes. The other six are much larger universes, if you can imagine that. So, the planet Earth is terribly insignificant. Now, on this tiny, insignificant planet Earth, a man named Muhammad walked for 63 years. All his life, from birth to death, was 63 years. On this tiny, insignificant planet Earth, there was this human being, Muhammad, and millions of people around the world idolize him against his will. Can you imagine the grossness of this idol worship? On this tiny, minute, insignificant planet Earth, a man named Jesus, a creature of God, walked on the Earth for 33 years. So, how significant is he? How significant is Muhammad? And you can imagine, you can appreciate the grossness of idol worship when people idolize creatures of God like Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or the saints who walked on this Earth for a limited period of time. And this planet Earth, as you see, the whole planet Earth is terribly insignificant. So now, with the study of the Scriptures and the physical evidence supporting it, we come to appreciate that the only unforgivable offense is idol worship. God is holding the seven universes in His hand, and we see now that our purpose in life, to be successful, is to side with God’s point of view, that He alone is enough. God describes His greatness in the Scriptures for us to appreciate God and to see that He alone is Lord. And we, and to see and appreciate the grossness of idolizing anyone else. The definition of idol worship, by the way, is that if you believe that anyone other than the one who created you can benefit you, then you have fallen into idol worship. This is the definition of idol worship. If you believe that anyone other than the one true God, the one, the specific one who created you, if you believe that anyone other than God can benefit you, then you have fallen into idol worship.
It’s a well-established fact by now that if you live in Europe, Mecca is towards South-East. In Asia, Mecca is towards South-West, or West. In Australia and the islands around it, Mecca is towards North-West; in sub-Saharan Africa, Mecca is towards North-East; and in North Africa Mecca is towards East or slightly South of East; in South America, Mecca is towards North-East. And people agree about these regardless of the type of map they use – whether they use a flat map, or a globe.
But when it comes to the continent of North-America, people do not agree anymore.
Those who use a flat map say that Mecca is towards the South-East,
and those who use a globe say that Mecca is towards the North-East.
So who is right?
Here are the arguments for both sides first:
Those who like to follow North-East, say that this is the shortest distance between North America and Mecca, and therefore this mus be the direction. However, there is a drawback to this argument, because this direction starts as North-East, but it eventually turns into South-East anyway.
On the other hand, those who like to follow South-East say that this is constantly South-East, and this would be a direction which is constantly the same relative to the stars. However, there is a drawback to this argument as well, because this is not really the shortest distance, and a direction is supposed to be the shortest distance between two points.
So, as you can see, both sides have arguments pro and against. This means that they don’t have enough arguments – they don’t have conclusive arguments. And when arguments are not enough, we need guidance (6:77, 27:63), and that is why God sends messengers (2:150-151, 49:7, 65:11). And, the guidance is in the Quran (27:77, 41:44).
The Quran never directly orders the believers to face Mecca, or Kaaba, per se (5:95, 5:97, 48:24, 3:96); it only orders us to face the Sacred Masjid (2:144, 2:149, 2:150). And there is a difference between these. The difference is that Mecca is the City (48:24), Kaaba is the cube shaped building (5:95, 5:97), and the Sacred Masjid is the ground underneath that building. So even if destroy Kaaba and Mecca, the Sacred Masjid would still be there. So, since the Sacred Masjid is the ground underneath Kaaba, if we go one meter underneath the ground, would it still be a sacred masjid? Of course. If you go two meters underneath the ground, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. If we go ten meters underneath the ground, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. If we go one mile underneath Kaaba, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. And if we go all the way to the center of the Earth, would it still be the Sacred Masjid? Of course. This means that the center of the earth is part of the Sacred Masjid. And, if we turn towards the center of the Earth, that means that we would turn towards the Sacred Masjid, and that’s what we do when we do the Contact Prayers. When we do the Contact Prayers, we bow down, and we prostrate, and at both times we are facing the center of the Earth (2:144). So, if you do the Contact Prayers, in each case you are facing the Sacred Masjid, regardless if you are turning East, or West, or North or South – it does not matter (2:177).
When you do the Contact Prayer, you are facing the Sacred Masjid.
So, it really does not matter which way you turn. All directions belong to God (2:142, 2:177, 2:115, 73:9). And this matter of turning towards the North-East or the South-East has nothing to do with righteousness (2:177, 2:142). It’s so not important, that it is not even religion – it’s geography.
Let’s emphasize the issue even more: The Contact Prayers are like money, with which you can buy heavenly food (2:277, 7:170), and whether you pay with them with the bill facing up or with the bill facing down, it really does not matter. The bill has the same value, face up, or face down. And you can even fold it, and it still has the same value. And the case of North America is like folded money. Part of it is facing down, and part of it is facing up, but it still has the same value. So, in the case of North America, part of the Qiblah is North-East, and part of the Qiblah is South-East; but it still has the same value. God will not waste your Contact Prayers, because of the direction which you are following (2:143).
So, if the Contact Prayers have the same value, regardless of the direction you turn, then why would God tell us to face the Sacred Masjid? Well, it’s simply to distinguish those who follow the messenger, from those who do not (2:143). And this is why the very definition of the word “Qiblah” in the Quran is ‘the direction with which the messenger is pleased with’ (2:144). So, it’s simply a matter of preference – whichever way the messenger like (2:144), and it has nothing to do with right and wrong (2:177).
Therefore, it’s not even theoretically possible for God’s messenger to misguide you in this issue, because this matter has nothing to do with right and wrong. It’s simply a matter of taste – whether you like what the messenger (chooses) likes (2:144). And this finally brings us to the question. What does the messenger like? Does the messenger like Qiblah to be North-East for the United States and Canada, or does the messenger Qiblah to be South-East for the United States and Canada? And here is what Clarifying Mesenger, Alban Fejza, chooses:
Instead of giving you directions, he gives us the liberty (4:28) – Liberty, by informing us that what he likes for Qiblah for the United States and Canada is the whole range of directions from North-East to South-East (2:148).
He likes them all. This means that from Alaska, Qiblah is the whole range of directions between North and South-West. The rest of the world might say, ‘Wait a minute! Why do American get a chance to choose from a range of directions, while we have to follow a more specific direction. Is it fair? Yes it is, because, the rest of the world had the privilege to build mosques before building roads, and this gave the rest of the world the opportunity to adjust the roads according to the mosques, while Americans have built roads before building mosques, and this is why they are forced to adjust the mosques according to the roads, and according to the urban planning. And of course, this additional flexibility will have to be paid for. For example, North Americans, when they travel to Hajj, they will have a longer distance, and therefore more expensive flight tickets.
So, this whole time, what people might have perceived as confusion and uncertainty about this issue (2:142), was in fact purposeful liberty, and purposeful flexibility from God (2:148).
In cases when someone else is leading the prayer for you, then you just follow them (2:43), because it’s not possible to go wrong in this issue. And when you are praying alone, for example, at work you can choose one direction, because that’s how it suits you (2:148), then you can go home, and pray in another direction, as long as it’s between North-East and South-East for USA and Canada (2:148, 2:144), and let’s say, then you go to the masjid, and pray in another direction (2:43) – it really does not matter (2:177) – you can constantly change your mind, wherever you go. And the whole range of directions between North-East and South-East are correct – all of them (2:142, 2:115, 2:177).
CONCLUSION:
In the USA and Canada, Qiblah is EVERYTHING between North-East and South East (2:145, 2:148) because that the way the messenger likes it
Other directions are also not wrong (2:177), but that’s simply not the way which the messenger likes (2:144).
No wrong Qiblah (2:177, 2:148). IT’S ONLY WRONG TO ARGUE ABOUT IT (2:142).
The tables in the video above show you the Night of Destiny dates during a specific year of our century, for your specific location. The Night of Destiny, or ‘Laylat al-Qadr’ in Arabic, is the night in which the angles and the Spirit descend (97:4), It is the night in which the Quran was revealed (97:1), and it is also one of the Ramadan nights (2:185). But which Ramadan night exactly? People have speculated about this for centuries (10:36), and now finally God has revealed this information to us – the correct information, and we can extract it from the Quran. Here it is:
In the short chapter which talks about The Night of Destiny, the fifth verse gives it away. It says:
“Peaceful it is until the advent of the dawn.” (97:5)
This is, of course, not talking about peace between, humans – because so many wars and crimes go on right through the night of destiny. This is talking about peace between angels and jinns, as we can see it from other verses in the Quran, and especially from the fourth verse in the same chapter (97:4).
And the jinns who are made of fire (38:76), when they try to cross into our dimension, they are chased by the light of the stars, the light of the sun and the light of the moon (67:5, 72:9), and this is not peace. Peace is when they are not being chased (72:1). Therefore, angels can not make peace with jinns under sunlight and under moonlight. It has to be a night (no sun), and it has to be moonless – a moonless night.
So, in this context, let’s replace the word ‘peace’ with the word ‘moonless’ and here is what we get:
“Moonless it is until the advent of the dawn.” (97:5)
And this sentence now gives us the exact times, the exact dates of the Night of Destiny: Moonless it is, until the advent of the dawn.
So the Night of Destiny is the Ramadan Night which is moonless until the advent of dawn. (97:5), and this means that the moon rises after the beginning of Astronomical Dawn, and this can happen anywhere from the 19th night of Ramadan until the 29th night of Ramadan.
So now that we know it, we can simply look it up in the astronomical almanacs, and we did it for you, and the results are in the tables in the video above. By the way, you can see from those tables that calculations for specific locations in the extreme north or extreme south are not available (n/a), and this is due to the polar night or the polar day or the absence of dawn, and this means that in these regions, the Night of Destiny simply merges together with the rest of the nights, and this means that when the Night of Destiny ends in our locations, it does not really end – it simply retreats towards the North Pole or the South Pole depending on which one of them is in darkness.
However, there is a particular case when it is forced to end, and this happens when it is daylight both at the North Pole and the South Pole, and this is called the Spring Equinox or the Fall Equinox. And this can only happen during the Spring Equinox and the Fall Equinox. A simplified computer simulation can show that this happens after 1025 months sometimes, and after 1640 months at other times, and both these time periods are longer than a thousand months. So, this partly explains the verse which says that the Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months (97:3), It’s because, it is longer than a thousand months.
But of course, at the specific location where you live, it happens only once a year during Ramadan, and the exact dates for your location are in the tables presented in the video above.
°Let’s take year 2095 as an example. Let’s say that you live in London at this time, and you can search “London Latitude”, and you get 51° North, and in the table for the year 2095 in the video you can see that at 51° North, the Night of Destiny starts on the 1st of February which happens to be the 26th Ramadan night, while in Istanbul (41° N) for example, the Night of Destiny starts on the 2nd of February which happens to be the 27th Ramadan night, but in other years it can be in any of the last ten nights of Ramadan (89:2).
This is why the Quran says:
“By the dawn, and the ten nights” (89:1-2), because the moon rises at dawn only in any of the last ten nights of Ramadan. And we finally know the exact night (75:19), because this generation is obsessed with calendars and planning (3:54, 13:42), and God with His mercy decided that since some people are going to plan for it anyway, then at least let them have the correct date (25:13).
Conclusion
The Night of Destiny is the Ramadan night in which the moon rises after Astronomical Dawn for the first time; it is a moonless night until the advent of dawn. (97:5). Therefore, it is predictable with astronomical precision.
The video above shows you the calendar dates in which fasting is possible and the dates in which fasting is not possible for all geographical latitudes, one after another. Fasting is not possible in certain Extreme Norther and Extreme Southern Regions, which happens only at certain times of the year in locations above 49 degrees in Latitude, because of lack of beginning of astronomical dawn or lack of sunset. Both sunset and beginning of astronomical dawn are necessary for fasting, because fasting starts at the beginning of astronomical dawn and ends at sunset. And when one of them is missing, fasting is not possible.
We find instructions about what to do in this situation in the Quran. It says:
“…those of you who witness the month of Ramadan shall fast in it, and those who are ill or IN BRIGHTNESS(safar),fast the same number of other days…” (2:185).
The word “brightness (safar)” is also used in other verses, where it refers to ‘bright faces’ (80:38), and in verse 74:34 where it refers to ‘brightness of the dawn’. In other words, situations when the night is bright, when it does not get completely dark, or continuous twilight (74:34), or as the Nordics call them “white nights”.
The exact astronomical definition of this is “nights in which the sun does not go more than 18° under horizon.”
So, when Ramadan comes, and it is not possible to fast (due to safar – brightness of the dawn), then we simply can not fast. We compensate those missed days after Ramadan, at the earliest possible time of the year, when fasting becomes possible again.
By the way, all kinds of fasting are acceptable to God, even if you are just dieting, losing weight, but here I am talking about fasting like Muhammad, and Abraham, the perfect form of obligatory fasting. So, at certain times of the year in the extreme north and south, you will not be able to fast like Abraham and Muhammad. I am not saying, “Do not do it.” I am saying “It’s not possible to do it”, and God orders us to do it properly, even if it has to be outside the month of Ramadan (2:184-185, 187).
The Quran instructs us that fasting should be done from the beginning of dawn (when the sun is 18° below horizon), until sunset. (2:187).
Another rare situation, which happens only in polar circles, is when sunset is also missing. In those rare cases, you do not even need to compensate the fasting, because those are not full days. You can not have a Quranic day without sunset. I show these dates with dark red in the calendar.
The Quran informs us that fasting is obligatory only on specific days which are specifically prepared for fasting (2:184).
It says, “Prepared days (are designated for fasting)…” (2:184)
Just to drive the point home, let me inform you that the pillars of Submission or Islam or religious rituals include Contact Prayers, Obligatory Charity, Hajj, and Fasting. We do not find Ramadan as pillar of submission anywhere in the Quran. But fasting is obligatory for believers (2:183). It is obligatory during Ramadan when it is possible to fast during Ramadan, and it is obligatory outside of Ramadan when it is only possible to fast outside of Ramadan (2:185).
By the way, the previous prophets also fasted (2:183), but not necessarily during Ramadan. Ramadan only became a mandatory month of fasting when the Quran was revealed (2:185), so that the believers can organize easier (2:185) (i.e. preparing food together, easier spousal relations; I mean, it can be frustrating for a spouse not to know when the other spouse is fasting and out of reach). So, Ramadan is a timetable to help with easier coordination of fasting between people (2:185). However, it is fasting which brings you closer to God (2:183, 33:35), not Ramadan. So, as long as you fast about thirty days per year (inside or outside of Ramadan), you are fulfilling one of the main pillars of submission to God: Fasting.
