CREATION PLAN OF GOD
God created a perfect realm called paradise. Since such a paradise can only be inhabited by beings of pure perfection, God created humans with the potential to seek and strive for this ideal. Placed in this finite world as a test, our actions and choices will determine our worthiness to enter Paradise.
God—the Creator, has created man according to His Plan. To become acquainted with this Plan, a man must have a thorough understanding of himself—just as the workings of a machine can only be understood when we study the drawings of the engineer who made it. Besides the mind of the engineer, there is no other thing that can clarify what the machine is meant for. The case of man is the same. The existence of man is such a unique phenomenon that no other such example can be found throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Man is rightly called the ‘best of all creations,’ which means the best and most meaningful ‘being’ among all the things created. Such a ‘meaningful being’ cannot have been created without a purpose. The Creator of man has created him according to a special Plan. The Quran, the only preserved religious scripture, sheds light on this Plan:
“Enthroned above the waters, it was He who created the heavens and the earth in six Days [periods] in order to test which of you is best in conduct.” (11:7)
“We have adorned the earth with attractive things so that we may test humankind to determine which one is best in conduct.” (18:7)
“He created death and life so that He might test you and find out which of you is best in conduct.” (67:2)
The human being was created as an eternal being, and ‘death and life’ represent both the pre-death and the post-death period of human life. So, death and life cover the entire eternal lifespan of human beings.
The Creator of man has created him according to a special Plan. His intention is that man must spend a period of trial in this present, imperfect world and subsequent to this, according to his deeds, he will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, another name for which is Paradise.
God, according to His will, created a perfect world called Paradise: a world in accordance with all of our desires as human beings, in that it is free of all limitations and disadvantages, free of fear and pain, and free of all imperfections. It would be an eternal world where there is neither death nor old age, an ideal world where we could achieve complete fulfilment.
Less-than-perfect beings cannot inhabit a perfect Paradise. So, God created perfection-seeking beings—human beings. He intended us to spend a period of trial here. After this, according to our deeds, we will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world. As part of this test, Paradise is kept hidden from us.
The essence of God’s Creation Plan is to give a person complete freedom–not simply as a gift, but as a test. The result of this test would enable God to know who misused his freedom and who put his freedom to the best use. This was, and still is, the divine scheme of things for man. In the pre-death period of life, an individual has the chance to qualify himself for Paradise so that in the post-death period of life, he may be settled as a deserving candidate in this perfect world.
This world, therefore, has all the components necessary for a test. It has perfection-seeking beings in a less-than-perfect world, beings who have been given complete freedom to choose their actions. We thus have a choice—we can misuse our freedom to do evil, or we can use our freedom wisely, submit to God and qualify for Paradise. Those who misuse their God-given freedom are chastised thus in the Quran:
“This is the Truth from your Lord. Let him who will believe in it, and him who will deny it.’ For the wrongdoers, We have prepared a Fire which will cover them like a canopy, and if they beg for water, they will be given water as hot as molten lead, which will scald their faces: how dreadful a drink, and how evil a resting place!” (18:29)
The Creator of the world has created this world as one half of a pair—the present world, in which we pass our lives after birth, is the first half, and the next eternal world, where we live after death, is the other half.
The Creator of man has thus created him as an eternal creature and has divided his life into two periods—the pre-death period, or the life in this world and the post-death period or the life after death. The limited period before death is meant to be a test for man, while the eternal period after his death will be the period for his reward or punishment, based on his performance in the test in this life.
According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are integral parts of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement is to remind man of the fact that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort but rather as a period of trial and such as will help determine whether he is eligible for eternal life in Paradise. This is the scheme of existence for this world as devised by its Creator. The Creator—God Almighty—aims to select those who are fit to inhabit the world of Paradise.
Once this desired list of accepted and rejected individuals is complete, the Creator of the universe will replace this world with an ideal world, that is, Paradise. Then, the individuals who had been selected would be settled in this Paradise to enjoy a life free from fear and sorrow forever, whereas those who had been rejected would be thrown into the universal dustbin to live a life full of intense regret and remorse for all eternity.
