Believers Never Retire

Old age and its ailments are inevitable facts of life. Despite the improvement of the living conditions and the advances in medical science, we humans get old sooner or later. Still, we hear people saying "your soul never gets old". Projecting this observation of ours to the realm of faith, we can formulate some questions: Do we get old in our belief? What is it like to be an old believer instead of a young believer?

To answer these questions, we need to look at the concept of "believer" anew. A believer is someone who actively and constantly believes. So, it means more than "an identity that is assumed at a certain point in time". If you are not actively believing, that means you have retired. This dynamic notion of a believer is implied in several Quranic verses. A poignant one in this matter is from the chapter Al-Hadid:

"And what is the matter with you that you believe not in Allah! While the Messenger (Muhammad SAW) invites you to believe in your Lord (Allah), and He (Allah) has indeed taken your covenant, if you are real believers." (57/8)

If you look carefully, the beginning of the verse says "why don't you believe?" and the end of it says "if you are believers". From the classical perspective, if you are a believer, you cannot be addressed with "why don't you believe?", and if you are not a believer, there is no covenant between you and the Lord! So, this verse cannot be understood according to the classical stance on the concept of a believer. And this is why you see a lot of interpretation in the translations. However, if you distinguish between "believer" as an identity and "believer" as a person who is doing an act, then things fall into place. Just like you can ask a swimmer why they are not swimming, you can ask a believer why they are not believing!

Now that we are done with this matter, the next step is to digest what the act of believing is. Once you become a believer, you are actually starting a journey, an adventure with God. During this adventure, He passes you through various and several challenges. At the same time, He accompanies you during your adventures. So, if you are a believer and have set out on a journey like this, you must believe your Companion, your Guide. You can rephrase this notion of belief as trust. If you are not performing this act of trusting, you are not believing, even if you claimed yourself as a believer before. That is why God admonishes and invites the believers to believe. The same call for attention is present in this verse, too:

"And expend in the way of God; and cast not yourselves by your own hands into destruction, but be good-doers; God loves the good-doers." (2/195)

Clear message reiterated in this verse is that being a believer merely as an identity is not enough! Worse, it may lead to destruction, because inaction is as bad as evil action. What is needed is good action. But even that is not enough. You need to do good and sacrifice from yourself and from your belongings continuously. The way to ensure such perpetuity, a person who believes in God must believe God. That means a believer must believe what the Designer of all creation tells them. That means a believer must believe what their personal Sustainer and Guardian tells them.

So, we clarified the two points, i.e. distinguishing believer as an identity and believer as an actor, and believing God (on top of believing in God) as a guarantor of stability on the way of God. Let's now get to the third point in the first verse we looked at: the covenant between you and your Lord.

A covenant is made between two parties, in this case God and the believer. Each party has their part of duties. In case of a believer, there are two different types of covenant.

First is the general covenant between God and all believers. People are obligated to perform certain acts of worship and good-willed actions, in return, God gives guidance for the matters of this world and grants happiness both in this and in the next world. The conditions of this covenant are objective and clearly defined. They are the same for each and every believer. And this covenant is permanent. Such gathering of all believers into a single body carries the notion of the Oneness of God (Wahidiyya).

"And We will most certainly try you with somewhat of fear and hunger and loss of property and lives and fruits; and give good news to the patient, who, when they are visited by an affliction, say, 'Surely we belong to God, and to Him we return'; upon those rest blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those -- they are the truly guided."(2/155-157)

"God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon God in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph." (9/111)

Second type of covenant between God and believers is subjective. That is, it is not the same for everyone, it is not constant over time even for the same person, and it is not clearly defined. These covenants are temporary and have an expiration date. This notion of addressing each believer in a unique way is a manifestation of the Uniqueness of God (Ahadiyya). It is this second type of covenant that I want to elaborate on.

"Among the believers there are people who are true in their promise to God. Some of them have already passed away and some of them are waiting. They never yield to any change." (33/23)

"Who is he that will lend to Allah a goodly loan so that He may multiply it to him many times? And it is Allah that decreases or increases (your provisions), and unto Him you shall return." (2/245)

A little reflection on these two types of covenants can reveal that the first one is more solid, rigid and slow, whereas the second is more fluid, flexible and dynamic. And this realization brings us to the summit where we find answers to the questions in the beginning. Do we get old in belief? Yes, if our covenant with the Creator is mostly of the first type, and no, if there is more of the second type. The intention here is not to undermine the first type of covenants, because a true faith is based on both types. However, in a "young believer", no matter how old they are biologically, there is a rich and dynamic interaction with God through both types of covenants.

Similarly, retirement is about getting old, and it implies weariness, slowness, rigidity. And belief is about life, eternal life. So, true believers never get old, they never retire...