Choose Your Path

Man is free in this world. If he chooses a life of gratitude to God, he will be held deserving of bounties in Paradise in the Hereafter.

Chapter 76 of the Quran states: “Was there not a period of time when man was nothing worth mentioning? We created man from a drop of mingled fluid so that We might try him; We gave him hearing and sight; We showed him the way, whether he be grateful or ungrateful.

[Now,] behold, for those who deny the truth, We have prepared chains, iron collars and a blazing fire, but the righteous shall drink from a cup mixed with the coolness of kafur, a spring from which God’s servants will drink, making it gush forth in branches. They keep their vows and fear a day the woe of which will spread far and wide; they give food, despite their love for it, to the poor and orphans and captives, saying, ‘We feed you for the sake of God alone, we seek neither recompense nor thanks from you. Truly, we fear from our Lord a woefully grim Day.’ Therefore, God will ward off from them the woes of that Day, and make them find brightness and joy, and their reward for being patient will be a Garden and silk [clothing].” (76:1-12)

A human being has been created free in this world and then he has been shown two paths leading respectively towards a life of gratitude and a life of ingratitude. Now, it is for the concerned person to choose either of the two paths. For one who adopts the way of ingratitude, there will be the punishment of Hell in the Hereafter, and for one who adopts the way of gratitude, there will be the bounties of Paradise.

One who recognizes God, also recognizes all realities. The knowledge of God opens the door to all other knowledge for him. If he has known God, then he becomes in the full sense a knower of reality. This realization enables him to fulfil divine obligations as well as the obligations toward fellow human beings. In reality, there is no difference between human nature and divine law.