seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Quran 14:22. And Satan will say, when the issue is settled, “God has promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you, but I failed you. I had no authority over you, except that I called you, and you answered me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor can you come to my aid. I reject your associating with me in the past. The wrongdoers will have a torment most painful.”
23. But those who believed and did good deeds will be admitted into gardens beneath which rivers flow, to remain therein forever, by leave of their Lord. Their greeting therein will be: “Peace.”
24. Do you not see how God presents a parable? A good word is like a good tree—its root is firm, and its branches are in the sky.
25. It yields its fruits every season by the will of its Lord. God presents the parables to the people, so that they may reflect.
26. And the parable of a bad word is that of a bad tree—it is uprooted from the ground; it has no stability.
27. God gives firmness to those who believe, with the firm word, in this life, and in the Hereafter. And God leads the wicked astray. God does whatever He wills.
28. Have you not seen those who exchanged the blessing of God with blasphemy, and landed their people into the house of perdition?
29. Hell—they will roast in it. What a miserable settlement.
30. And they set up rivals to God, in order to lead away from His path. Say, “Enjoy yourselves; your destination is the Fire.”
31. Tell My servants who have believed to perform the prayers, and to give from what We have given them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there is neither trading nor friendship.
32. God is He Who created the heavens and the earth, and sends down water from the sky, and with it produces fruits for your sustenance. And He committed the ships to your service, sailing through the sea by His command, and He committed the rivers to your service.
33. And He committed the sun and the moon to your service, both continuously pursuing their courses, and He committed the night and the day to your service.
34. And He has given you something of all what you asked. And if you were to count God’s blessings, you would not be able to enumerate them. The human being is unfair and ungrateful
This is the commentary this morning.
The devil mentioned in this verse is none other than the proud misleader of the preceding one. Compare also 37:30, where the very words we had no authority over you are put into the mouth of the leaders of evil from among men.
Whenever a person is misled into an evil deed, he finds in the end that the promise of a good consequence for an evil deed was only a deception.
The devil, or the leader in evil, only points out an evil way, and the evildoer follows that way.
An alternative significance is I disbelieved because you associated me with Allåh; in other words, the leaders disbelieve because their followers lead them by their flattery to think that they are worthy of being obeyed and followed.
The parable likening a good word to a good tree follows immediately a description of the final abode of those who do good, which is repeatedly described in the Holy Qur’ån as being a Garden or Gardens wherein rivers flow. This gives us a clue to the real nature of paradise. A good word is like a good tree which gives its fruit in every season, and therefore the fruits which a man will find in paradise, ever ready and within his reach, are only the fruits of his own good deeds. The trees of paradise are in fact man’s own good deeds, which have grown into trees, bearing a fruit which is an embodiment of the spiritual fruits of the good deeds of this life. It should also be noted that, as good deeds are likened to fruit-bearing trees, faith is likened to water repeatedly in the Holy Qur’ån, being the source of physical life. It is for this reason that, just as the righteous are always spoken of as being those who believe and do good, paradise is always described as being a Garden in which rivers flow, the rivers corresponding to faith and the trees of the Garden corresponding to the good which a man does. By the kalimah (word) is meant a thing, or an affair or a matter, because every matter is termed a kalimah, whether it is a word or a deed.
The evil deed is likened to a tree whose roots do not go down into the earth, and in whose case, therefore, the process of nutrition must stop. Therefore an evil deed does not prosper and cannot bear any fruit.
Allåh does what He pleases, but it is the wrongdoers only, whom He leaves in error. The immediate cause of their going astray is their own iniquity.
They reject Allåh’s favour, the Revelation, which aims at making them a great and exalted people, and adopt disbelief in its place.
The whole of creation is here, and in the next verse, declared to be made subservient to man, to show his high place in creation. How much then does man degrade himself by bowing before and worshipping things which were made to serve him!
Well... there's an answer for me. I've been asked.... those people who lived their whole life murdering and stealing.... and have their great salvation moment at their last breath..... still get saved?! How rude is that?
The people who generally ask that question are the same people who have been sitting in the pew every time the doors open to the church.... and not necessarily just to be seen. Generally it's the real believer who has been working for the good of the faith their whole life. I can see how it would seem rude that a murderer who accepts Jesus on their deathbed gets a free shot to Heaven.... and we've been working for forever and we get no higher rank.
Well that discussion is answered right here. Every good deed, every prayer, every worship service, every good word, every good thing we accomplish on this earth.... produces a piece of fruit for us in Heaven. We will have delicious fruits to eat.... and the murderer.... well he'll have to wait for one of the angels to bring him an apple. Poetic right?
I think begging for an apple in Heaven has got to be better than praying for someone to allow you to lick a little spit to wet your tongue in Hellfire.... right?
Generosity will exist in Heaven. Maybe I'll share my apples and oranges with someone who wasn't raised in the church. After all... they had to work to get to Salvation.... that's harder than having it shoved into every Sunday and Wednesday schedule. After all... they didn't get a taste of the grape juice or stale crackers to keep them going. So I'll share my apples and oranges with them.... if I'm allowed to do it..... it is after all Heaven and God is definitely giving the rules to live by in Heaven.
How's your fruit tree looking?
