The Best Judge

April 9, 2009, 7:30 am by dc-agape.

Cover of God of Tarot (Tarot Sequence)

Surāh 95 – Al-Tīn:  The Fig

By the fig and the olive!

And mount Sinai!

And this city made secure! –

Certainly We created man in the best make.

Then We render him the lowest of the low,

Except those who believe and do good; so theirs is a reward never to be cut off.

So who can give the lie to thee after (this) about the Judgment?

Is not Allah the Best of the Judges? 

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

This surāh has two pretty images.  One that is without doubt true: that humans can be a variety from the best to the worst.  The other image is pure fantasy: the good will be rewarded.  I also find the royal “We” quite interesting.  To end this post I will answer both verse 7 and 8. This is why I decided to post the surāh in full.

It is wonderful when religion recognizes the human potential.  It is also wonderful when religion recognizes that experiences in this life bring us to low points.  As I grew up my mother would keep reminding me:

It’s never so bad that it can’t get worse.

Most people would see that as a pessimistic concept.  But one must take this in context: my mother had polio in her entire left side of her body.  The hard parts of our life teach us to persist and hope for a better future.  Growing up knowing this and hearing this quote many times, left me striving to not experience the worst!  But it also taught me that there was no justice in the world, except that which we humans make.  Nature (“God”) is cruel and ambivalent to the suffering of humans. 

It is a pretty fantasy that we will be rewarded after we die for suffering (or believing or doing good) here on earth.  But I learned from one of my favorite authors that this is a lie used to manipulate the masses.  In the God of Tarot by Piers Anthony, the main character is allowed to communicate with prominent leaders of the past.  When he asks a High Priest for proof of the promise in the here-after, the Priest responds with:

There is no here-after, but how else can we (the ruling caste) control the masses.  The promise of a better existence later allows us (the ruling caste) to do whatever we please to the masses.  (Parapharsed)

The first time I read this I was overwhelmed with the “Truth” in that passage.  It is exactly what the Egyptians did.  The same happened with the god-head of Rome.  Monotheism only switched it from a human king to an eternal supernatural being that no one can reach and no one can disprove.

The only reward we have is this life.  If we do not make the best of it, it is our own fault.  True disasters in life can set us back, but they are not the end of the world.  As humans we have the ability to strive for perfection.  But an arbitrary “one-size fits all” perfection is meaningless.  Each of us can strive to be the best; hopefully we will strive to be a positive influence.  But many strive for personal power, money, and fame.  And almost all of them are not punished in this life by some supernatural being.  Many of the iron-fisted tyrants of our modern day society control their nation’s population and cause great suffering to their “subjects”.  Yet nothing is done to stop this tragedy.  No supernatural being intervenes to alleviate the suffering of the innocent, no matter what religion they belong to, no matter which “god” they pray to. 

The use of the royal “We” is similar to that which is used in the Book of Genesis.  But is it truly the royal use?  Christianity gets around this question by the use of the Trinity.  I am sure that Islam wiggles around this by claiming all the “heavenly hosts”.  But the Gnostic Christians believed that the “We” actually represented the Powers That Be which numbered seven in all, with YHWH as the leader.  This gnosis came from Jesus (and the writings in the same century as Jesus lived), how do we not know that this is the “Truth”.  Thus I will call the lie to the Judgment!  I will also call Buddhism to the stand.  Buddhism does not require a supernatural being to have humans reach perfection.  All it takes in Buddhism is “the necessary aspiring determination and the necessary exertion”.  Hence, religion “Truth” is not always the Truth. 

And what about the concept that Allah is the “Best of the Judges”?  The first proof is that he waited for thousands even millions of years to make himself known to humans.  That is pretty much enough proof that he is not the best of judges.  Keeping himself hidden, or worse, confusing the situation by having a variety of “Truths” does not make him the Best.  But let us see how he has judged.  How many innocent lives were massacred and will still be killed in the future due to the US’s presence in Iraq?  Has any supernatural judgment come yet?  The situation in Palestine is also horrific.  Has any supernatural judgment occurred?  What about the terroristic attacks by Al-Qaeda?  When will Allah step in and judge that?  The answer to all these question is the same: none.  If this is any indication of how Allah judges here in life on earth, why should we expect him to be a better judge in death?  It is obvious to a gay Atheist that we are responsible for cleaning up these messes.  Waiting for supernatural intervention only allows the suffering of innocent people to continue.

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