The Quran about faith 5

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful

The main postulate of the attitude to the transcendental information in the Quran is the voluntary nature of its recognition. Otherwise, there will be no sincerity, not to mention the fact that coercion to the faith will be the basis of justification on the Day of Debt. At the same time, the Prescription contains a system of logical persuasion of people, accompanied by a warning about a possible tragic outcome:

Those who do not believe in it are impatient for it. But those who believe are fearful of it and know that it is the truth. Unquestionably, those who doubt the hour are in extreme error. (42:18)

The main polemic concerning faith with the messengers arose in the next stage of life. Many people refused to believe in things that could not be tested empirically.

Do they wait for anything except that the maintainers should come to them or your Lord should come or that there come some of the signs of your Lord? The day that some of the signs of your Lord will come no personality will benefit from its faith as long as it had not believed before or had earned through its faith some good.

Say, “Wait and we will wait.” (6:158)

But not all opponents openly indicated their position. There is such a category of people that hides its true attitude to the divine truth:

And of the people are some who say, “We believe God and in the last day,” but they are not believers. They deceive God and those who believe, but do not realize that they deceive not except themselves. (2:8-9)

And when it is said to them, “Believe as the people have believed,” they say, “Should we believe as the foolish have believed?” Indeed, it is they who are the foolish. But they do not know it.

And when they meet those who believe, they say, “We believe”; but when they are alone with disobedient ones, they say, “Indeed, we are with you; we were only mockers.” (2:13-14)

It is people from this category that are most dangerous for those who sincerely believe in God. After all, behind the mask of faith, they build a system of gradual alienation of believers from the direct path:

And when they meet those who believe, they say, “We have believed”; but when they are alone with one another, they say, “Do you talk to them about what God has revealed to you so they can argue with you about it before your Lord?” Then will you not reason? (2:76)

In this passage, the technology of “priests” for hiding a part of the truth is vividly shown. After all, it is not necessary to distort all the divine information, it is only necessary to make some correlation, slightly to turn aside, and after a certain time the mass of adherents will obediently follow the direction indicated by them, which we observe today. Therefore, the Creator warns against believing on the word, the one who believes God must be judged by his deeds:

Here you are loving them, but they are not loving you. You believe in the Prescription – all of it. And when they meet you, they say, “We believe.” But when they are alone, they bite their fingertips at you in rage.

Say, “Die in your rage. Indeed, God is Knowing of that within the breasts.” (3:119)

The first to conceal their true intentions at the time of Muhammad were some of the Jews:

O Messenger, let them not grieve you who hasten to close themselves of those who say, “We believe” with their mouths, but their hearts believe not.

From among the jews, there are listeners to lies. They are, the ones listening to another people who have not come to you. They change the order of the words, saying “If you are given this, take it; but if you are not given it, then beware.”

Indeed, he whom God intends to confuse – never will you possess for him a thing against God. Those are the ones for whom God does not intend to purify their hearts. For them in this world is disgrace, and for them in the hereafter is a great punishment. (5:41)

Such a practice could not but affect the doubters, which showed further experience:

They say, “We have believed God and the messenger! We obey”; then a party of them turns away after that. And those are not believers. (24:47)

But not everyone was like that. Many of the Arabs at the time of the prophet, following the majority, officially accepted the faith, although in the heart they did not:

The arabs said, “We have believed.”

Say, “You have not believed, but you say, ‘We are humbled,’. For faith has not yet entered your hearts! And if you obey God and His messenger, He will not deprive you from your deeds of anything! Indeed, God is Forgiving and Merciful.” (49:14)

This is an illustrative example of the merciful attitude of the Most High to those who did not fill the heart with faith, but fulfilled all the prescriptions of God rigorously. The chance of success is given to everyone, but whoever uses it will be clear on the Day of Debt.