Stairway to shame or dignity 

 
 
 
[10:25]  GOD invites to the abode of peace, and guides whoever wills (to be guided) in a straight path.
     Heaven and Hell are Eternal
[10:26]  For the righteous, the reward will be multiplied manifold. Their faces will never experience any deprivation or shame. These are the dwellers of Paradise; they abide therein forever.
[10:27]  As for those who earned sins, their requital is equivalent to their sin. Humiliation is their lot, and no one beside GOD can protect them. Their faces will seem overwhelmed by masses of dark night. They will be the dwellers of Hell; they abide therein forever.
 
We tend to analyze certain experiences we go through, categorizing them as humiliating or dignifying based on our human, shortsighted standards. Vanities such as wealth, health and power or the lack of any of them sometimes mislead us into wrong judgments and perceptions of both shame and dignity. The Quranic perspective on the other hand provides us with a perfect scale that helps us distinguish the path of divine dignity and the trigger of real humiliation.
 
A student of the Quran knows that when we recognize God and appreciate all His blessings we begin to sense how He honored us as humans. He has committed His whole creation to our service. The unconditional submission of everything in the heavens and the earth including our own body systems is an indication of this full service. Besides our perfect design (64:3), and being born with the natural instinct of knowing God (2:172), we are blessed with a precisely measured supply of all means of sustenance and growth (15:19). After the recognition and appreciation comes the love and trust. When we love God the most (2:165), support Him alone, and trust in Him unconditionally, His love, victory, and support truly become ours in this life and in the Hereafter. Believing in these divine laws dictates a sense of beauty, peace, clarity, divine honor, and dignity to our lives irrespective of our surroundings, all trials and turbulences we go through, and how all of this might be perceived by the ignorant ones:
 
[47:7]  O you who believe, if you support GOD, He will support you, and strengthen your foothold.
 
[3:160]  If GOD supports you, none can defeat you. And if He abandons you, who else can support you? In GOD the believers shall trust.
 
      The Ultimate Winners
[28:83]  We reserve the abode of the Hereafter for those who do not seek exaltation on earth, nor corruption. The ultimate victory belongs to the righteous.
 
[14:27]  GOD strengthens those who believe with the proven word, in this life and in the Hereafter. And GOD sends the transgressors astray. Everything is in accordance with GOD's will.
 
This beauty, peace, and dignity could be eternal, when we choose to hold fast to the rope of God, and abide by His truth all the way until we leave the earth as righteous believers:
 
[56:91]  peace is the lot of those on the right.
 
On the other hand, God clearly made it so clear that we shouldn't get deceived by the illusion of the Satanic kingdom. The real humiliation in this life is when we don't heed the guidance and pursue that illusionary world. We lose God's love, guidance, and support and this is when we step on a stairway to eternal shame.
 
     A Common Occurrence
[22:8]  Among the people there is the one who argues about GOD without knowledge, and without guidance, and without an enlightening scripture.
[22:9]  Arrogantly he strives to divert the people from the path of GOD. He thus incurs humiliation in this life, and we commit him on the Day of Resurrection to the agony of burning.
 
[34:5]  As for those who constantly challenge our revelations, they have incurred a retribution of painful humiliation.
 
     Retribution for Opposing God and His Messenger
[9:63]  Did they not know that anyone who opposes GOD and His messenger has incurred the fire of Hell forever? This is the worst humiliation.
 
Fear, the well-known tool Satan uses against us, weakens our will to implement the absolute truth of God. If not defeated by knowledge and awareness, fear certainly intimidates us to adopt a compromising path of shame and humiliation. True believers have no interest in adopting such path, transgressing or pursuing the pleasure of their friends and allies on the expense of jeopardizing any of the Quranic principles. They are focused to move forward on the straight path seeking the true dignity as defined and granted by God:
 
[63:8]  They say, "If we go back to the city, the powerful therein will evict the weak (and we will be victimized)." (They should know that) all dignity belongs to GOD and His messenger, and the believers. However, the hypocrites do not know.
  
[4:138]  Inform the hypocrites that they have incurred painful retribution.
[4:139]  They are the ones who ally themselves with disbelievers instead of believers. Are they seeking dignity with them? All dignity belongs with GOD alone.
 
We are on the divine path of peace and dignity when we side with God and His Truth, and we are utterly humiliated when we persistently ignore the word of God. Both states stay with us eternally depending on our choice we make on earth. It is ONLY the divine truth that grants us real dignity. Any other standarads simply belong to Satan only to deceive us and lead us off the path of God.
 
        All Dignity Belongs With God
[35:10]  Anyone seeking dignity should know that to GOD belongs all dignity. To Him ascends the good words, and He exalts the righteous works. As for those who scheme evil works, they incur severe retribution; the scheming of such people is destined to fail.
 
[3:26]  Say, "Our god: possessor of all sovereignty. You grant sovereignty to whomever You choose, You remove sovereignty from whomever You choose. You grant dignity to whomever You choose, and commit to humiliation whomever You choose. In Your hand are all provisions. You are Omnipotent.
 
Peaceful Friday, salaam, and God bless.

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