In one way or the other, all the problems in life are the price of the inappropriate use of freedom. When people misuse their freedom, it creates problems for others. On its face, this price seems to be a very high one. However, from God, we have this good news: after death, when the Day of Judgement will come, God will hold one to task only when it was proved that he had misused the freedom he had been given. For whatever other difficulties a person may have faced based on God's creation plan like the problems that he faced due to the misuse of freedom by others or due to the handicaps that he faced, arrangements will be made for their compensation. This will make it clear that whatever difficulties and hardships he had encountered while on Earth were in line with the demand of justice.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
As a young person when I started working, I used to see often see written in places ‘For Disabled Persons’, but now we come across the words ‘Differently-abled persons’. It has been found out that disability is not disability alone, rather one who is disabled in a certain way is abled in a different manner. Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of writing for the visually impaired, was blind. When John Milton wrote his magnum-opus Paradise Lost, he too was blind.
There are newer ways of providing education for the mentally-challenged children. The parents of such children should be aware of the world they are living in. Parents only know of pampering; they should rather discover the quality their children possess and should nurture that particular quality. And if a person is disabled on one account, he is super-abled on other accounts.
Source: The Seeker’s Guide
Talking of the issue of why there is so much suffering in the human world, people often ask: ‘If God is All-Good, why did He make such a world where people are forced to face different types of problems and where there is so much suffering?’
This question can be answered by understanding the creation plan of God. Unpleasantness has been put into this world for man to learn proper lessons from it. The true lesson taught by unpleasant experiences is that man should remember the next world of Paradise where there will not be any suffering. Having understood the creation plan of God, one’s approach to life should be: “Let me not suffer in the Hereafter what I have suffered in this world.” This understanding should make one strive for Paradise in the Hereafter one’s very purpose in life.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
'The problem of evil' is the most debated question concerning man and God in philosophy. This is because while the rest of the universe is evil-free, man, exceptionally, is afflicted with the ‘problem of evil’. This can be explained by understanding the freedom given to man. As per the creation plan of God man is placed in different situations to test him.
Paradise is the answer to this seeming conundrum. The concept of Paradise tells us that all those good things that are there for the rest of the creation are fully available for man too, with the only difference that the rest of the universe gets what it desires in the world of ‘today’, while man will get all that he wishes in the world of ‘tomorrow’ (the Hereafter).
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Those who want to interpret human history in the light of predetermined law as is done in the physical world, cannot but meet with failure. While the physical world may be explainable within the framework of predeterminism, the events of the human world are simply not amenable to interpretation in terms of any such law.
Others want to interpret the events of the human world in the context of freedom. But they are not satisfied either, with their interpretation. This is because, in the case of human freedom, the suffering experienced in this world has no valid understandable explanation. The failure of both these interpretations is due to the fact that they attempt to explain the whole in the light of a part—which is not at all possible.
The truth is that the right principle by which to interpret human history is neither that of predeterminism nor of freedom. According to the Quran, there is only one correct principle to interpret human history and that is the principle of test. Man has been placed in the present world for the purpose of being tested. On the outcome of this test will depend the eternal future of all mankind.
Favourable circumstances were a sine qua non for this test in the world. Predeterminism had to a certain extent to be a feature of these circumstances as a guarantee against any obstacle coming in the way of carrying out man’s trial. On the other hand, the element of freedom was also essential in order that the intentions and actions of each individual could be properly judged. For man can be granted the credit for a good deed only on the condition that, despite having the opportunity to indulge in bad deeds, he chooses of his own free will to act virtuously.
If in this world everything had been totally predetermined, the element of trial would have been absent. However the granting of freedom did involve the risk of some people misusing their freedom and misuse it they did. This gave rise to the problem of human suffering which results from evil, yet this suffering, or evil, is a very small price to pay for a very precious thing.
According to the Quran, that person is the most precious who leads his life in this world in such a manner that despite facing all sorts of temptations he succeeds in overcoming them. Despite having the power to misuse his freedom, he refrains from doing so. Despite the possibility of leading an unprincipled life, he chooses of his own free will to be a man of principle. To identify such individuals, it is essential that an atmosphere of freedom prevail in the world. This is not possible under any other system. Only such people will be found eligible for Paradise in the Hereafter.
Source: Simple Wisdom
Everything has a price, and the price of Paradise is the realization of God. Nothing less than that can open the gates of Paradise. The truth is that if anything less than the realization of God is regarded as the price of Paradise that would constitute the belittling of Paradise. Those selected for Paradise are the ones who have made God their foremost concern in the life of this world. Their thinking and feelings have all been devoted to God. Their mornings and evenings have been filled with the remembrance of God. These are the fortunate souls who will be selected to live in the neighbourhood of God for all eternity.
God's angels will welcome those men and women who reach the Hereafter with all the above qualities. The angels will come forward and say: "Congratulations, O Blessed Souls! Enter God's Heaven by divine decree. Here, there is no death and no parting from this joyous world. The eternal life has been given to you for all eternity." The Quran says: “O Soul at peace! Come to your Lord well pleased, and He will be well pleased with you. So enter among My chosen servants. And enter My Garden.” (The Quran, 89:27-30)
Source: God’s Creation Plan
One of the essential teachings of Islam is that on receiving anything, we should be grateful to God in acknowledgement of His bounty and utter these words 'All praise and thankfulness is due to God, the Lord of the Worlds.' Praise of God, in its true spirit, is the essence of the Quran. After accepting Islam, a believer's inmost feelings find expression in these words of praise.
Man's existence is a blessing from God. Man's extremely balanced body is a blessing from God. The entire world created so favourably for man is a blessing from God.
When this reality dawns on man, and he realizes God's immeasurable blessings upon him, his soul is filled with gratefulness to God. His greatness overawes his heart and mind. At that moment, words of acknowledgement of God—'Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds' spontaneously come to his lips.
God is All-Powerful. God is the Giver; man is the taker. The only thing man can offer Him is acknowledge His blessings. The moment of man's greatest worship of God is when God's glory and greatness pervade his soul; when he recognizes God's divinity as compared to man's servitude; when, in full awareness of his helplessness, he comes to acknowledge God's bounties in the true sense of the word.
When man discovers God with all His attributes, his soul lies prostrate before Him. His whole being turns towards God. The feelings inspired in him by God's bounties surge within him like ocean waves. When all these feelings find verbal form, they are called praise and gratefulness to God.
God is the greatest Being, yet in the universe, God remains invisible. But His supreme glory is visible in His creation. Therefore, the realisation of God can be attained through discovering His greatness in the signs visible everywhere. This realisation finds expression in words such as 'praise be to God—Lord of the worlds’.
One who lives in the glory of God in this world will be eligible for living in Paradise where he will live in the eternal glory of God.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
God will allow only those people to live in His neighbourhood who adhere to divine ethics at two levels: one stands in relation to man versus man, and another stands in relation to man versus God. These two codes of ethics are different in their dimensions. In relation to other human beings, one must follow social ethics like love, respect, well-wishing, and peace. Adherence to such social ethics makes one a giver member of society.
But no one can be held deserving of entry into Paradise just by adhering to social ethics. To be deserving of entry into the neighbourhood of God, man has to live up to the divine code related to God. This begins with the realization of God. When an individual discovers his Creator, this transforms his mind. His divine nature is awakened, and, as a result, all those qualities have been produced that measure up to the standard of elevated human ethics.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Paradise is another name for eternal life in the neighbourhood of God (66:11). Paradise is the eternal ideal world, which is the ultimate objective of every human. Paradise is called the 'Home of Peace' (10: 25). We learn from the Quran that the people of Paradise will wish peace for one another, which indicates the importance of peace in the ideal society. In the world before death, those who live in the neighbourhood of God at the psychological level and feeling will, in the world Hereafter, live in the eternal neighbourhood of God—Paradise—in reality.
The good fortune of finding a place in God's neighbourhood in the eternal life of the Hereafter will be based totally on merit. God's neighbourhood is like a universal garden. Only those will find a place in this universal garden that measure up to the divine criterion. Anything short of this will not guarantee a place in this universal garden.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
We seek a life of comfort. However, we are not able to find it in this world. In a tradition the Prophet of Islam explained that comfort is only available in Paradise in the Hereafter: "O God! There is no comfort, but the comfort of the Hereafter." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 2961) To search for comfort and happiness in the present world is like a passenger trying to construct a mansion on a railway platform. An individual stays on a railway platform for only a brief period, so it is not the right place to build a mansion where he can live for a long time. The present world is a place for engaging in actions that can make a person eligible for Paradise: It is not the place for building a 'paradise'. The right place for Paradise is in the Hereafter.
If we seek a life of comfort, we must set Paradise as our goal.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Paradise is the name of the ideal world, the desire for which is lodged in the hearts of every man and woman. Paradise is a place where people will have no sorrow. It is Paradise where the personality of a human being shall achieve fulfilment in the complete sense.
Paradise is that world in which a creation such as man attains his complete fulfilment, where he thinks the way, he wants to think; where he sees what he desires to see; where he listens to the sounds that give pleasure to his ears in the real sense; where he has the company of those people who make his life highly meaningful.
Paradise shall be a world that would have everything that a person can think of and more. It would be a world devoid of limitations, disadvantage, illness, and unfortunate circumstances.
The Quran mentions that the inhabitants of Paradise will 'have no fear, nor will they grieve' (2:38). It means that no one is bereft of fear and grief in the present world. The present world's system has been made so that attaining a life free of anxiety and grief is impossible. Given this, the only proper attitude for man is that he should not make this world his goal. He should give the world only the status of a road that leads to his true destination—Paradise.
Source: The Seeker’s Guide
From this understanding, it also becomes clear what Paradise and Hell are. Paradise is the home of the eternal joy and peace of serious and righteous people, while Hell is the place to punish rebellious people who were addicted to falsehood.
The understanding that emerges in line with this is that the present world has been made as a testing ground, and the next world as a place for acquiring the results of one’s actions performed on Earth. Each person has been bestowed with a being that shall never die. However, man’s life is like an iceberg, with a tiny portion visible above the water while the rest is sunk deep in the sea. Man’s lifespan is divided into two portions—one, a small part, which has been kept in this world, and the remaining portion of his lifespan, which has been kept in the world of the Hereafter and will last forever.
There is an ‘examination paper’ for every person that he must ‘answer’ in this present world. Everything in this world exists so that man can seek to perfect his personality. For example, this present world is full of bitter experiences. It is so that man, passing through these experiences, can prove that he can live with positive feelings even in negative conditions. Only people with such a positive personality will be admitted into the ideal world of Paradise in life after death.
In contrast, people who become victims of reactions when faced with negative experiences become negative. Such negative people will be considered non-eligible for Paradise.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Man’s life is divided into the pre-death and post-death periods. The limited period before death is for the test, while the eternal period after death is for obtaining the results of one’s performance in the test. Those who pass the test will be blessed with Paradise, and those who fail the test will be consigned to Hell.
This is the creation plan of the Creator for this world. However, the status of Paradise and Hell are not the same. The actual purpose of creation is to select the people of Paradise. As far as the people of Hell are concerned, they are just relative components of creation; they do not form any real part of the creation plan.
The world before death is made following the demands of the test. After the period of this test, there will be no need for this world, nor will there be a need for those who fail the test. After this period, only Paradise and those people selected to be settled in the ideal world of heaven will remain in the universe.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
According to the Creation Plan of the Creator, what is important in this matter is what kind of personality is being nurtured in a man while he experiences different sets of situations. Will it be a God-oriented personality or a self-oriented personality? Just as man has constantly to acquire food in the present world for his physical existence, so also does his spiritual existence require a continual supply of spiritual food. It is this spiritual food which develops in man the God-oriented personality.
Source: The Purpose of Life
The answer is just one—man should undergo a conscious inner revolution and obtain awareness of Paradise. After receiving this awareness, his frustration will end because he will come to know that the things he is searching for to satisfy his desires do not possess the ability to give him complete satisfaction and contentment. Following this discovery, his focus will be on Paradise of the Hereafter. After this, he will use the things of the world only at the level of his needs, not his desires. Moreover, when this transformation happens in a person, he will begin to live with a feeling of discovery and finding, rather than deprivation and frustration.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
By birth, every person is a perfectionist. Therefore, it is right to say that man is a perfection-seeking being. It is this feature of human nature because of which almost every person is drowned in frustration, so much so that even those who have obtained all the things of the world are not exempt from this feeling. Therefore, by Nature, man is a perfectionist, but nothing is perfect in his world. In this way, there is a contradiction between man's desires and the things of the world. This incompatibility between the two is the real reason for man's frustration.
Man makes every effort, seeking to fulfill his desires. Finally, the time may come when he obtains wealth, power, and everything he desires. However, he feels as frustrated as before, even after getting the things he had hankered after. Even then, he is not able to feel contented.
Before obtaining something, he desires, man thinks it is that particular thing whose desire he nurses in his heart. However, after receiving it, he does not find the peace and satisfaction that one should have in obtaining something one desires. This is because his desire was for something perfect, while everything in this world is imperfect, and a perfectionist cannot find peace and satisfaction in something imperfect.
There is only one solution to this problem: that man should make the perfect world of Paradise his goal or target. In the most total sense, Paradise is an ideal world, while the present world is only an imperfect place compared to it. Paradise is the perfect world that man has been seeking since his birth. However, because of their unawareness of Paradise, a man tries to fulfil his desires in this present world itself, and because of the incompatibility between his nature and the nature of this world, he becomes a victim of frustration.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Realisation of God is a challenging campaign. This is because an element of doubt is present in every single component of this world in the pre-death period of life. In this world, nothing is bereft of doubt. In the pre-death phase of life, man's task is to draw apart the curtains of doubt and see the truth. Despite doubts, he should obtain a state of complete certainty.
A veil of doubt is placed over everything that exists in the world. As soon as a person takes birth in this world, he finds himself in a jungle of conflicting thoughts. Man is confronted with all sorts of philosophies of life that can leave him utterly confused. There are dogmas of religions and other worldviews, and each religion or ideology claims it is true. Each person nurses a storm of emotions and desires inside him, which are a hurdle in acting rationally. Everyone is entangled in family attachments and social bonds. Everyone is guided by self-interest. Everyone is so caught in the web of wealth and relationships that he does not know what to do or what not to do.
Only someone who can develop objective thinking can realise the truth in such a situation. He should develop the ability to lift and remove the curtains of doubt and see truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood. He should see things as they indeed are. Along with this, he should be able to accept willingly what he knows to be true. If he realises something is right, he should accept it unhesitatingly. Changing the direction of his life, his aim should be to attain self-discovered truth.
The means to remove the curtain of doubts that man is confronted with is just one: knowing and understanding God's creation plan. This creation plan explains things so that all doubts are removed, and the truth is made evident, like the sun appearing bright and shining after the dark clouds have moved away.
After having discovered God, one asks what is God's creation plan for me? According to the Quran, God created an ideal world that was perfect in all respects. He ordained that this ultimate world be inhabited by impeccable ideal human beings. To achieve this target, God first settled man on Earth giving him complete freedom. The present world is a selection ground for this grand project. Here, it is being observed who makes proper use of his freedom and who misuses it. At the end of human history, those who have abused their freedom will be rejected, and those who may have exercised their freedom judiciously will be selected by God and settled in Paradise.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
There have been seekers of God among people of every age. Their very nature set them out to search for God. Religions of every age kept providing men with knowledge of God through their search. However, no foolproof system of writing scriptures down and preserving them had been developed in ancient times. As a result, these religious books did not remain preserved in their original form. Finally, in the early 7th century CE, the Quran was revealed. On account of special arrangements, it was made possible to fully preserve the Quran in its original form. Whoever now seeks to build his life in the right way should study the Quran and discover that God without whom no person can genuinely build his future.
Based on their personal experience, millions of people have testified that they have studied the Quran and obtained an introduction to God that their very nature was searching for. They have acknowledged that other conceptions of God did not prove to be the answer to their inner quest. However, when they learnt about the concept of God in the Quran, their heart called out that this was the God they were seeking all along and in whom they secured complete fulfillment.
The Quran is the only scripture that has been preserved in its original form. According to the Quran, God is One. He alone is the Creator and the Lord of the universe. He is the Sustainer of all the worlds. God is a living Being. He sees, and He hears. Therefore, it is possible for man to directly connect with Him at every moment and in every place. With His unlimited powers, God can make up for every limitation of man. God is the Helper of man in both his pre-death and post-death periods. God is the limitless treasure of peace and security for man. Throughout human history, God has guided man through His prophets. The Quran is a reliable and authentic introduction to this same God. The Quran is the only source for anyone to obtain a reliable introduction to God.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Man is a truth-seeking being. I have personally experienced this myself. From childhood, I have desired to search for the truth somehow or the other. In the year 1942, this desire became particularly intense. At that time, my condition was such that I would go off into the wilderness and, in solitude, would cry out, "O God! When will you come? Till when shall I wait for your arrival?"
Finally, I got the answer to this in a tradition of the Prophet. According to this Hadith, God said: "I was a hidden treasure. I wanted to be known. Therefore, I created man." (Kashf al-Khafa by al-'Ajluni: 2016) According to this statement, the purpose of man's existence is to attain a realisation (maarifah) of his Creator. Moreover, as a reward for this realisation, he will be rewarded with a place in eternal Paradise in the Hereafter. The period of man's life before his death is the period to acquire this realisation, and the post-death phase of his life is the period to live a life of comfort and peace in eternal Paradise if he proves eligible for this.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
It often happens in this world that man loses something, or suffers some calamity. On such occasions, Islam teaches us to willingly resign ourselves to our misfortune, taking that to be God’s decree. On all such occasions, the sufferer should utter the words: ‘We belong to God and we shall return to Him.’
God has made this world for the purpose of putting mankind to the test. Here, receiving and losing are both designed as a trial for man. Therefore, when man receives something, he should prove himself to be a thankful servant of God. And when he loses something, he should adopt the attitude of patience. Only one who can do so will pass God’s test.
In this world, man cannot save himself from experiencing unpleasant things. Sometimes he will suffer from the pangs of hunger and thirst, at others, a life very dear to him will pass away or he will incur a loss of wealth. On all such occasions, these words must come to his lips...‘We belong to God and we shall all return to Him.’
Through these words man acknowledges his status of servitude vis à vis God’s all-powerfulness. He expresses himself in words such as these: O God, You are the giver. If You have taken something out of what You have given me, You had the right to do so.
Saying Inna Lillah is a form of worship. This is to adopt the attitude of surrendering to God’s will instead of complaining against fate. It is to convert the loss into a new discovery.
This phrase, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return,’ (The Quran, 2:156) is, in short, an acknowledgment of God’s godhead on the part of His servants.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
