QURANIC INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN HISTORY
The present world is a testing ground for which man has been given complete freedom. Here, God is selecting individuals from the entire human history for Paradise. Those who make proper use of their freedom will be inhabited in eternal Paradise, while those who misuse it will be eternally deprived.
God first created the physical universe over a long and gradual process. Human history, from the Quranic point of view, begins with Adam and Eve. God created them and settled them in Paradise while giving them complete freedom. The guidance given to them by God was as follows:
“O Adam! Live with your wife in Paradise and eat freely from it anywhere you may wish. Yet do not approach this tree lest you become wrongdoers.” (Quran, 2:35)
The creation of Adam’s wife was an indication that God desired not just a human being but a human race. The only condition set for man to be entitled to Paradise was his willingness to abide by a self-disciplined character without abusing his freedom. When Adam and Eve failed to fulfil this condition by eating the fruit of the ‘forbidden tree,’ God expelled them from Paradise and settled them on Earth.
This means that initially, the man was given the opportunity to live in Paradise. But when man transgressed the covenant, God decided that from then onwards, only the deserving people would be admitted to Paradise. So, after that, the selection for Paradise will be selective rather than general. In this way, God has managed human history while fully maintaining human freedom. God created the life support system on Earth, but man was given complete freedom of speech and action. Man, once again, misused this freedom. The perversion of human beings went on increasing, and ultimately, man became involved in polytheism and nature worship. If the first man had eaten only the fruit of the ‘forbidden tree,’ now his progeny had started worshipping the ‘tree’ itself, holding it to be a deity.
According to the creation plan of man, God was meant to be worshipped by him. However, as God was unobservable, man started revering some visible objects like the tree, making nature his god by virtue of its visibility. However, it was not possible to revoke human freedom. Therefore, God again opted for the method of managing human history while maintaining human freedom. Towards this end, God selected certain individuals from amongst human beings and revealed to them His Message for humanity’s guidance. These Messengers communicated to mankind that there is only one God worthy of being worshipped, and they should shun the worship of any other being. While in the traditional age, no supportive evidence for this was available, in the modern scientific age, science itself, through its findings on nature or creation, provides evidence affirming the existence of the One God, who is the Creator, Master, and Sustainer of the universe, as described in the Quran. Sincere thinking people can discover God at a purely rational level.
Any sincere, thinking person can also discover the right and wrong use of human freedom. Anyone who reflects on this seriously will discover that there exists a criterion inside every person for distinguishing between right and wrong by birth, called ‘the conscience.’ Everyone can learn what to do and what not to do by listening to the voice of his conscience. It is as if every person’s conscience is his guide for him.
By birth itself, within everyone, a powerful emotion of acknowledgement is present. Through his conscience, every person knows he ought to acknowledge this if somebody behaves kindly to him. Man’s internal guide recognizes this acknowledgement as a lofty ethical virtue. Acknowledgement reflects a high level of righteousness, while failure to acknowledge indicates corruption and moral decline. In this sense, a person who acknowledges others keeps his status as a human, while someone who does not falls from that status.
This decision of the conscience is also accurate in the same way about the Creator. In line with the voice of his nature, every person should acknowledge his Creator. He should acknowledge the manifold blessings of his Creator—all that he owes to Him. He should consciously recognize and be grateful for all His Creator has given him. He should feel this in the depths of his heart and openly announce it through his tongue. Acknowledging God is in accordance with human nature, while non-acknowledgement deviates from human nature.
Having discovered our Creator—God Almighty, the questions that come to mind next are why God created man, and why did He send him to this world? We can find an answer to such questions by reading the Quran. According to the Quran, God created an ideal world which was perfect in all respects. He ordained that impeccable ideal human beings inhabit this perfect world.
To achieve this target, God created an ideal-seeking creature—man and divided his life into two periods—the pre-death period as a trial period and the post-death period as a reward period. That is to say, God first settled man on Earth, giving him complete freedom. As per the Quran, the present world is a testing ground. (Quran, 67:2) Here, it is being observed as to who makes proper use of his freedom and who misuses it. At the end of history, those who have abused their freedom will be eternally deprived, and those who may have exercised it judiciously will be selected and inhabited in eternal Paradise.
The present Earth is, therefore, a selection ground for this purpose of creation. Here, God is selecting individuals from the entire human history to inhabit eternal Paradise in the Hereafter. The Quran states that on the Day of Resurrection, according to the record which the angels present based on our deeds, only selected men and women will find a place in the ideal world of Paradise (41:30-31).
