Witness
of the Universe
In surah al-Anaam of the Quran there occurs a description of flatterers who ask the Prophet to show a miracle to prove the credibility of the message brought by him from God. The Quran says that faith does not depend on miraculous events but on man’s ability to derive inspiration and deduce messages from such signs as can be perceived with open eyes. Anyone who possesses this quality of perception will realize that the miracles he demands are already in existence. Can there be a greater miracle than the existence of the universe with all its diverse manifestations? And does it not confirm the truth of the message of God brought by the Prophet? No miracle can convince a person who is determined not to learn a lesson from the events taking place before his very eyes.
The Quran cites as further examples of God’s miraculous creation the other creatures, like birds and animals also living, besides man, in the world. At other points the earth and the sky too become parts of this ecology. In surah Bani Isra’il God suggests that these creatures have many lessons to teach men. They are, like men, creatures of God. They too have their way of life as man has his.
However, as compared to the human world, the greater part of the rest of the world, comprising vegetation, natural objects and animal life, is in a completely different category. For billions of years that part has been continuously pursuing a definite course, with none of its elements showing the slightest deviation from its predestined function. It is man who does not accept or abide by a pre-ordained scheme of things; every human being has the desire to act according to his own free will.
What does the Prophet demand from you other than the avowal that there is one single Creator of the world? The prudent course for you would be to eschew pride and stubbornness and obey the Creator. If you seriously think about the universe around you, you will realise that the entire expanse of the earth and the sky is evidence of the truthfulness of the call to God. The phenomenal world where man lives is itself an expression of submission to its Creator. How does man, who is a negligible part of the vastness of nature, justify his rebellion against his Maker?
Every particle of the expanding universe is performing its respective function. Each move on a set course, clearly indicating that some powerful and omniscient Being is controlling it by His will. The taking to a separate course of action as a matter of human volition in this vast universe is a pointer to man’s deviation from total assimilation with the rest of the universe.
The entire universe is in consistent progress and motion. None of the major orbiting bodies ever collide with each other. To indulge in conflict is a purely human characteristic. The entire universe, for all its incessant action, heads towards a positive goal. Man, on the contrary, opts for such courses of action as lead to chaos and destruction.
Two separate water bodies do not trespass upon each other’s territory. Even a herd of bulls moves and feeds within its defined territories. One does not cross over into the other’s land. It is man who does not want to abide by any laws. Honeybees accomplish their constructive work with exemplary discipline and by the strict division of labour. But man creates disorder by breaking rules. Ants and birds rely on their own labour for their subsistence instead of snatching others’ food, whereas man exploits his fellow beings in order to fill his own belly.
No wild animal attacks and kills its own kind, but man does not shrink from shedding human blood. Even reptiles harm other creatures only when they have to defend themselves. Man oppresses his fellow beings irrationally, and adopts gluttonous ways in all his affairs, while animals eat, copulate or build abodes just to satisfy the basic need and urge.
Animals engage themselves in their own specific spheres, while man is fond of interfering in others’ spheres. Scores of sheep intermingled with another flock will gather around their own shepherd whenever he calls them. But the human being is different from all other animals. When man is called to God and His Prophet, he deliberately ignores the call.
Man’s existence, be it as small as a grain of mustard, is a part of the universe. Therefore, no course other than that followed by the greater universe will do man any good. Where man chooses a separate path, despite such clear guidance, he deprives himself of the bounties inherent in the universe and deserves to be displaced from it. All universal phenomena should derecognize him. He should be denied of all the blessings of the universe and remain in a state of eternal deprivation.
Those who are not ready to co-exist with nature, have no right to benefit from its advantages. Nature with its entire wealth should be given to only those human beings who not only coexist with nature but also obey the Creator, in the same way as nature has been doing since time immemorial. Those who take to the course of rebellion against God should receive no share in the comforts and pleasures afforded by nature in the form of light, air and water. They have no right either to build a house for themselves in this world, or to eat off the fat of the land, or to enjoy themselves in any other ways. Justice demands that all possible paradisial comforts of nature be bestowed on those obedient to God, while the disobedient deserve to be deprived of all divine favours.
