The fifty-sixth verse of chapter 51 of the Quran explains the purpose of man’s creation as follows: “I created the jinn and mankind only so that they might worship Me.” (51:56) In this verse, worship means realization of God. That is, man was created so that he might achieve the realization (maarifah) of his Creator. How will he arrive at this realization? To this end, God gave man such a mind as has the unlimited capacity to think.
Vis-à-vis this capacity, man was placed in a world which is a manifestation of God’s attributes. There is food for God realization in everything in this universe. Man, under the guidance of the Prophet, can attain realization of God by pondering upon God’s creation.
But history tells us that it has not been possible to fulfil this purpose of creation. Unfortunately, man leaves this world without properly utilizing his mind, yet the Quran tells us that God’s signs are so numerous that, even if all the trees could become pens and all the seas, or even the double of all the seas, could become ink, the signs of God could not be enumerated (31:27). These signs are, in fact, signs of realization. In this way, we find that the signs of God have yet to be written, that is, have yet to be discovered.
Why is this so? We find the answer to this in the Creation Plan of God. According to God’s Creation Plan, human life is divided into two stages. The temporary period that is, man’s stay in this present world, and the permanent period, or man’s stay in the Hereafter. Just as man has failed to utilize the potential of the human mind, the signs of the marvels of God, scattered throughout the whole universe, still remain undiscovered.
When we reflect upon this, we learn that the present world is the beginning of human existence, while the world of the Hereafter is its completion. In the present world, those individuals are being recruited who have the ability to complete this process in the Hereafter. In the Hereafter, the unworthy will be separated from the worthy and will be thrown into the universal dustbin, while those who have proved their ability to live their lives in the right way will be selected for entry into Paradise.
We can express this differently: The world before The Day of Judgement (Qiamah) is the world of incomplete human civilization; whereas after the Day of Judgement will come the world of perfect, divine civilization. Apparently the age of human civilization has reached its final limit. Very soon the time is going to come when the stage of divine civilization will begin. And this will last forever.
Just as the present civilization was developed by certain human beings, the divine civilization will also be developed by certain fortunate people, who will be aided by the angels. The process of developing the civilization of the present world was carried out by strenuous effort, as is referred to in the Quran in chapter 90, verse 4. But the process of divine civilization, on the contrary, will be a joyful activity (See chapter 36, verse 55). On the subject of Paradise the Quran states that there man will be given similar things (2:25). This does not just mean that the fruits of Paradise will be similar to the fruits of this world. The truth is that it covers the whole of human life. It means that just as man leads a life full of activity in this world, he will lead a life full of activity in Paradise. The difference is that, in the present world, all activities are performed in a less than ideal environment, while in Paradise these activities will be performed in an ideal environment. In the present world, man has to endure grief (35:34) and must labour hard (90:4); whereas all the activities of Paradise will be of a joyful nature.
Source: The Purpose of Creation
