Page 75 - Timelessness and the Reality of Fate

The Secret Beyond Matter 73

else, of which they actually had an experience of only the copies, and igno-
rantly grew arrogant toward Allah in their reliance on these things. Display-
ing the greatest unreason, they revolted against Allah by being boastful,
thereby taking their unbelief to extremes. While so doing, they totally relied
on matter. Yet, they were so lacking in understanding that they failed to think
that Allah totally encompasses them. Allah announces the state to which the
unbelievers are led as a result of their thick-headedness:
Or do they intend a plot (against you)? But those who defy Allah shall
themselves be ruined! (Surat at-Tur, 42)
This is most probably the biggest defeat in history. As they grew more
arrogant, materialists were tricked and suffered a serious defeat in the strug-
gle they attempted to wage against Allah by bringing up something mon-
strous against Him. The verse: "Thus have We placed leaders in every town,
its wicked men, to plot therein: but they only plot against their own souls,
and they do not perceive it," indicates how lacking in awareness these peo-
ple who ignorantly revolt against our Creator are, and what their fate will
be. (Surat al- An'am: 123). In another verse the same fact is related:
Fain would they deceive Allah and those who believe, but they only
deceive themselves, and do not realise it! (Surat al-Baqarah, 9)
While the unbelievers try to plot, they do not realise a very important
fact, which is stressed by the words "they only deceive themselves, and do
not realise it!". This is the fact that everything they experience is a piece of
copy image they deal with in their minds, and they have experience of the
copies of all the plots they devise in their brains just like every other act they
perform. Their folly has made them forget that they are all alone with Allah
and, are thus entrapped in their own devious plans.
No less than those unbelievers who lived in the past, those living today
face a reality that will shake their devious plans to their very foundations.
With the statement that "…feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan" (Surat
an-Nisa, 76), Allah says that these plots were doomed to end with failure the
day they were hatched. He gives good tidings to believers with the assertion
that "…not the least harm will their cunning do you." (Surat 'Ali Imran, 120)
In another verse Allah says: "As for the unbelievers, their deeds are
like a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst mis-
takes for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing."
(Surat an-Nur, 39). Materialism, too, becomes a "mirage" for the rebellious,