Exalted and Debased

In reading the first five ayats of Surah Mutaffifin (Those Who Give Short Measure), it struck me how truly integrated the grandeur of God is woven into the most mundane of tasks. The verses say:

WOE UNTO THOSE who give short measure: those who, when they are to receive their due from [other] people, demand that it be given in full – but when they have to measure or weigh whatever they owe to others, give less than what is due! Do they not know that they are bound to be raised from the dead [and called to account] on an awesome Day – the Day when all men shall stand before the Sustainer of all the worlds? (83: 1-5)

To me this signifies that nothing that we do is without consequence. Everything is meaningful and has a powerful spiritual dimension, whether it be running a business or sustaining a relationship.

It strikes me that the human being is given so much significance in some places in the Quran and yet debased in others. In these ayats, for example, even our commercial transactions are considered imporant enough to receive an accounting in the very presence of God as we stand before Him. And yet God reminds us that we are, after all, nothing but seminal fluid (86:5-6), and that we are but beggars before Him (47:38).

There is, then, nothing intrinsically significant about us. At our core, we are nothing but drops of liquid. But because He involves Himself so intrically into our most mundane of tasks, we are exalted. Whatever our worth, it stems from Him, to the extent that He deems fit.