JULY 17
The Creative Plan of God
The system of guidance in this world is based on the principle of faith in the Unseen (2:3). That is, all realities are placed here in invisible state. Now it is man’s job to bring into play his intellectual powers and discover these hidden realities and then lead his life in complete accordance with them.
Now what is required of man is to give all greatness to God, in spite of the fact that God’s greatness is not visible to the naked eye. Similarly, it is required of man that he joins hands with the preachers of truth, however since the preachers always come in the form of common men, this recognition (of the preacher) is possible only for a person who has the ability to penetrate beyond appearances.
This is also the case with matters of the world. There were great potential in matter, but all of these lay hidden inside the earth. Discovering these material potential and developing them into the form of an advanced civilization was the job to be performed by man. It was this task which man has performed on a large scale in modern times.
It would be true to say, therefore, that the method of nature is exactly the same, as is termed ‘the discovery method’ in the science of education.
Man has been given a brain of high quality, having potentially all the necessary abilities in order to put this discovery method into practice. Man’s mind had the capacity to arrive at the realities of things by thinking deeply. It was thus possible for him to recognize his Creator on the one hand and discover hidden material blessings and put them into use for building his civilization, on the other.
The status of the Prophet in this process is one of a reliable guide. God’s message gives man those basic principles in the light and guidance of which he may begin his journey of discovery and arrive ultimately at the destination of success. The reality arrived at in this way is man’s personal discovery. It deeply influences his whole personality. It becomes for him an eternal asset of his life.
But when we see the history of the world we learn that soon after the beginning of humanity on earth, absolutism (system of coercion) was established in the form of monarchy. The entire populated world came under the rule of certain kings. To consolidate their power, these kings adopted the system of total absolutism. In this way, free thinking and freedom of expression was totally uprooted. What is called freedom of speech never existed in the ancient world.
It is this coercive system which was a permanent obstacle to the propagation of the message of the prophets. Then this same system of coercion remained a continuous obstacle to the path of scientific discoveries and advancement. For any idea requires free thinking, free discussion for its development. In the old system of coercion, people were denied freedom of speech, hence open intellectual exercise was not possible in those times.
Besides general prophethood, the Prophet of Islam was also entrusted the task of breaking this system of coercion established in the world. For this he was specially provided with all the necessary help needed to perform this great task. That is why within a space of less than one hundred years he along with his companions either broke the institutions of imperial absolutism all over the world or weakened them so considerably that they could not stand long. In this connection the jihad (military oppression conducted by the Prophet and his companions were, in reality, a kind of divine ‘oppression’ with a definite goal of demolishing the man-made system of coercion and replacing it with the system of nature based on freedom of speech, in order to throw open the floodgate of worldly as well as religious progress for humanity).
It is this system which is called fitna (mischief) in the Quran and the believers have been commanded to wage war with the upholders of this coercive system so that the matter of religion rests only with God (Al-Anfal 39). In this verse, religion is referred not to Shari‘ah but to the religions of nature. That is, this verse asks believers to wage war with those oppressors who disturb the creative scheme of God. Only through their subjugation the unnatural system of suppression of speech established through dictatorial absolutism maybe brought to an end, bringing in its wake God’s desired system on the basis of intellectual freedom. Only then the artificial situation may yield place to the natural state on earth. This work has now already been performed fully all over the world throwing open the gates of all kinds of blessings on man.
