The Divine Scheme

According to the Quran, man was created as an eternal being. The period of life in the present world is the pre-death phase and is temporary, while the period of life after death will be eternal, post-death period of human life. The fact is that God created man with a well thought out plan, the gist of which was to give man 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. This test is not just for the sake of testing mankind. It is for a high purpose. Before creating man, God created an ideal world, that is, Paradise. Now God wanted ideal men and women who would merit settling in this Paradise for all eternity. Therefore, the present world is a selection ground.

According to this divine scheme, the present human lifetime affords a great opportunity to man. In the pre-death period, man gets the chance to qualify for Paradise, so that in the post-death period he may settle as a deserving candidate in this perfect world.