Allah has designed this universe in its best moulds and certainly is desirous that human beings have to make it more beautiful and more meaningful. It is obvious that a human being is a creation of Allah and takes birth in its beautiful planet which has already been created by Almighty with its wonderful biosphere. The Quran says: From it (earth) We created you and into it We shall send you back and from it We will raise you a second time” (20:55). Besides the pleasures and rewards of the world hereafter, the other major role that religion performs is of teaching moral principles to a person. Moreover, these moral principles are not just to be read or understood, rather they need to be put to practice in this world so that the followers of the religion represent their religion on the best manner and on the basis of the life they live, they get an appropriate reward in the world hereafter. Islam is the response to humanity’s search for meaning. The purpose of creation for all men and women for all times has been one: To know and worship God. Islam is the complete code of life and it gives details and mentions about each and every aspect of life. Therefore, by following the instructions of Islam one can live the worldly life in the best manner. However, there are others who think that following the principles of Islam alienates them and takes them away from this world and hinders in their way of achieving success in this life. Such a conception about Islam is wrong and it has nothing to do with real message of Islam. The Qur’an teaches us that every human being is born conscious of God: “(Remember) when your Lord extracted from the loins of Adam’s children their descendants and made them testify (saying): ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes, we testify to it.’ (This was) in case you say on the Day of Judgment: ‘We were unaware of this.’ Or you say: ‘It was our ancestors who worshipped others besides God and we are only their descendants. Will you then destroy us for what those liars did’?” (Qur’an, 7:172-173) In Christianity, the meaning of life is rooted in faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the proposition is not without serious problems.
First, if this is the purpose of creation and the precondition for eternal life, why was it not taught by the prophets to all the nations of the world? Second, had God turned into man close to the time of Adam all mankind would have had an equal chance to eternal life, unless those before the time of Jesus had another purpose for their existence! Third, how can people today who have not heard of Jesus fulfill the Christian purpose of creation? Naturally, such a purpose is too narrow and goes against divine justice. The Prophet (peace be upon him) teaches us that God created this primordial need in human nature at the time Adam was made. God took a covenant from Adam when He created him. God extracted all of Adam’s descendants who were yet to be born, generation after generation, spread them out, and took a covenant from them. He addressed their souls directly, making them bear witness that He was their Lord. Since God made all human beings swear to His Lordship when He created Adam, this oath is imprinted on the human soul even before it enters the fetus, and so a child is born with a natural belief in the Oneness of God. This natural belief is called fitra in Arabic. Consequently, every person carries the seed of belief in the Oneness of God that lies deeply buried under layers of negligence and dampened by social conditioning. If the child were left alone, it would grow up conscious of God — a single Creator — but all children are affected by their environment. The Prophet of God said, “Each child is born in a state of ‘fitra,’ but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It is like the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any young born mutilated before you mutilate them?” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim) According to Islam, there has been a basic message which God has revealed through all prophets, from the time of Adam to the last of the prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon them). All the prophets sent by God came with the same essential message: “Indeed, We have sent a messenger to every nation (saying), ‘Worship God and avoid false gods…’” (Qur’an, 16:36) The prophets (peace be upon them) brought the same answer to mankind’s most troubling question, an answer that addresses the yearning of the soul for God.
Islam means ‘submission’ and worship, in Islam, means ‘obedient submission to the will of God.’ Every created being ‘submits’ to the Creator by following the physical laws created by God, “To Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and the earth; all obey His will.” (Qur’an, 30:26) They, however, are neither rewarded nor punished for their ‘submission’, for it involves no will. Reward and punishment are for those who worship God, who submit to the moral and religious Law of God of their own free will. This worship is the essence of the message of all the prophets sent by God to mankind. For example, this understanding of worship was emphatically expressed by Jesus ((peace be upon him), “None of those who call me ‘Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ‘Will’ means ‘what God wants human beings to do.’ This ‘Will of God’ is contained in the divinely revealed laws which the prophets taught their followers. Consequently, obedience to divine law is the foundation of worship. Only when human beings worship their God by submitting to His religious law can they have peace and harmony in their lives and the hope for heaven, just like the universe runs in harmony by submitting to the physical laws set by its Lord. When you remove the hope of heaven, you remove the ultimate value and purpose of life. Otherwise, what difference would it really make whether we live a life of virtue or vice? Everyone’s fate would be the same anyway. Disbelievers have purposes in their lives such as collecting money and property, indulging in sex, eating, and dancing. But all these purposes are transient and passing ones. All these purposes come and go, go up and down. Money comes and goes. Health comes and goes. Sexual activities cannot continue forever. All these lusts for money, food and sex cannot answer the individual’s questions: so what? Then What? However, Islam saves Muslims from the trouble of asking the question, because Islam makes it clear, from the very beginning, that the permanent purpose of the Muslim in this life is to obey Allah in order to go to Paradise in the second life. We should know that the only way for our salvation in this life and in the hereafter is to know our Lord who created us, believe in Him, and worship Him alone. We should also know our Prophet whom Allah had sent to all mankind, believe in Him and follow Him. We should, know the religion of truth which our Lord has commanded us to believe in, and practice it … While fixing your eyes on the eternal prize, be sure to inform yourself regarding what Allah expects from you in this life. Recognise that Allah is lord and master, not only of this world, but of all possible worlds, and that He provides for the world and saves it. So they routed them by Allah’s Leave and Dawud (David) killed Jalut (Goliath), and Allah gave him [Dawud (David)] the kingdom [after the death of Talut (Saul) and Samuel] and Al-Hikmah (Prophethood), and taught him of that which He willed. And if Allah did not check one set of people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief. But Allah is full of Bounty to the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists). [Quran, 2:251] Avoid disgracing others. Then, you are those [same ones who are] killing one another and evicting a party of your people from their homes, cooperating against them in sin and aggression. And if they come to you as captives, you ransom them, although their eviction was forbidden to you. So do you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part? Then what is the recompense for those who do that among you except disgrace in worldly life; and on the Day of Resurrection they will be sent back to the severest of punishment. And Allah is not unaware of what you do. [Quran, 2:85] Don’t value the world life above the life of the hereafter. The world is truly full of joy and beauty in spite of all of the sin and suffering, but the heavenly life will be better. Beautified for people is the love of that which they desire – of women and sons, heaped-up sums of gold and silver, fine branded horses, and cattle and tilled land. That is the enjoyment of worldly life, but Allah has with Him the best return. [Quran, 3:14] The worldly life is your only opportunity to establish obedience to your creator. You won’t get a second chance. Those who followed will say, “If only we had another turn [at worldly life] so we could disassociate ourselves from them as they have disassociated themselves from us.” Thus will Allah show them their deeds as regrets upon them. And they are never to emerge from the Fire. [Quran, 2:167] Recognise that Allah does not depend on the world— rather the world depends on Him. In it are clear signs [such as] the standing place of Abraham. And whoever enters it shall be safe. And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House – for whoever is able to find thereto a way. But whoever disbelieves – then indeed, Allah is free from need of the worlds. [Quran, 3:97] Avoid injustice. These are the verses of Allah. We recite them to you, [O Muhammad], in truth; and Allah wants no injustice to the worlds. [Quran, 3:108] Spend wisely the resources given you by Allah. The example of what they spend in this worldly life is like that of a wind containing frost which strikes the harvest of a people who have wronged themselves and destroys it. And Allah has not wronged them, but they wrong themselves. [Quran, 3:117] You get what you ask for, so ask for the best. And it is not [possible] for one to die except by permission of Allah at a decree determined. And whoever desires the reward of this world – We will give him thereof; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter – We will give him thereof. And we will reward the grateful. [Quran, 3:145] Guard yourself against the delusions of this world. Don’t be fooled into thinking that that’s all there is. And leave those who take their religion as amusement and diversion and whom the worldly life has deluded. But remind with the holy Qur’an, lest a soul be given up to destruction for what it earned; it will have other than Allah no protector and no intercessor. And if it should offer every compensation, it would not be taken from it. Those are the ones who are given to destruction for what they have earned. For them will be a drink of scalding water and a painful punishment because they used to disbelieve. [Quran, 6:70] Don’t create, say, or do anything dishonest or misleading. Indeed, those who took the calf [for worship] will obtain anger from their Lord and humiliation in the life of this world, and thus do we recompense the inventors [of falsehood]. [Quran, 7:152] Desire for yourself what Allah desires for you. . . . Some Muslims desire the commodities of this world, but Allah desires [for you] the Hereafter. And Allah is exalted.
( The authors write regularly on Islamic topics for “Kashmir Horizon” exclusively. Views are their own)
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