GOD AND MAN
Whoever seeks to build his life in the right way should study the Quran and discover the One God, without whom no person can genuinely build his future.
Anthropologists have found that the concept of God is deeply embedded in man’s very nature. Every person by birth comes into this world with the concept of God. Consciously or unconsciously, he must spend his entire life with this conception.
Further study reveals that God is a compulsory necessity for man. Man is an explanation-seeking being. He wants to explain himself, his existence, and the environment around him. Moreover, it is a fact that without accepting God, their explanation is simply impossible.
Similarly, because of his limitations, man sometimes feels that he is simply helpless. This feeling can be overcome only by faith in an all-powerful being—that is, God.
Experience tells us that every person lives with unfulfilled desires. It is only God through whom man can hope for complete and lasting satisfaction. Because of his spiritual nature, man wants to live with firm conviction. The source of this conviction, too, is none other than God. For his activities, man requires a target to continue his journey towards it confidently. This target, too, he can obtain only through belief in God.
Studies tell us that every person in this world believes in God somehow or the other, even those who seem to be atheists. Many atheists cry out in utter helplessness to God when they face a major crisis. No person is an exception to this.
Now, the question is that when every person believes in God in some way or another, why do they not all get the result one should get if one genuinely believes in God? Even while believing in God, most people’s condition is that they are without divine inspiration and lack peace of mind. Even many who claim they trust God are deprived of the blessings of trust in God. People accept God but feel that they do not have communion with God. Despite believing in God, the evidence of the blessings of God is often not visible in people’s lives.
This is because many people worship some ‘non-god’ in the name of God. They may verbally claim that they believe in God but are tied to some ‘non-god’ or the other in actual practice. For example, someone has seated some living or dead person in God’s place. Someone worships a ‘sun god’ or a ‘moon god’. Someone else worships money and fame. In the name of Humanism, some seek to transfer the seat from God to man. Some people regard the laws of Nature as a substitute for God. Similarly, some people believe in a monistic concept of God, where God is viewed as a vague spirit, not a Being with whom one can be in communion and relationship.
If you tried to call someone on your phone and, by chance, you dialled the wrong number, from the other end, you might hear a voice that says, “Sorry, this number does not exist.” Unfortunately, it is precisely the case with many people today. In the name of God, they are calling out to some or the other non-God, including the things and beings that, in reality, have no existence at all. Their reply is, as it were, “Sorry, this god does not exist.”
If we are serious about the issue, we need to discover that system of thought or ideology where the concept of God is present in its pure form. This is important for every person. In their belief, every person has made some or the other ‘deity’ as their ‘god’. However, he does not obtain the results that follow from believing in the real God. From their experience, every person feels that the problem for them is not lack of belief in God but lack of the results of faith in God. It is an almost universal fact that nearly every person can know through personal experience.
The cause of this difference between belief and the hoped- for results of belief can be just one. That is, in God’s name, a person has faith in some non-god. In this situation, naturally, he will not obtain the results of belief in God.
Many scholars have researched this issue and have found the answer to it. One of them was a highly educated Bengali, Dr Nishikant Chattopadhyaya. In 1904, in a lecture in Hyderabad, he spoke about how he found the answer to his questions. He pointed out that although all the religions that had come into the world before the 7th century CE had a concept of God, in later times, their original texts did not remain intact. He said that the concept of God had been changed in all of these religions, as their original text was not preserved.
Islam emerged in the first quarter of the 7th century CE. A unique quality of Islam is that its original text is fully intact and preserved. That is why now, for later generations, the reliable source to know the correct concept of God is Islam alone. Therefore, one who seriously wants to know the right concept of God has no other choice but Islam.
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.
God is man’s Creator and Sustainer. On account of this, God fully knows man’s reality. God knows our every need. Because of this, God alone is capable of fully understanding man and providing him all that he needs. It is only such a Being who can be man’s God. Other than Him, no being has the power to fulfil man’s needs.
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.
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 fulfilment.
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 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.
