The ‘right here, right now’ culture has gained popularity today. This means that people want to live in their present and are not willing to think about the other side of life.
According to a survey, roughly 150,000 people die every day. Among the dead, there are people belonging to all groups—children, youth, and the old. Long life has always been man’s beautiful dream. All the kings and rich people wanted to have a long duration of life and were ready to give all the wealth they possessed for it. But history tells us that all of them failed in achieving this goal. By nature, man desires an eternal life but he only gets a very short span of life.
The concept of ‘right here, right now’ is not workable. This thinking is against human nature. The sensible decision can only be one in which a person makes eternity his goal. According to human nature, anything less than eternity cannot truly be man’s goal. If a person adopts a method that is not in accordance with his nature, then he will forever live in stress.
The right attitude towards life is that which takes into account the post-death period. The concept of life that is based on the pre-death period alone will be certainly unnatural, and an unnatural attitude is certainly harmful.
Source: Spirit of Islam July 2016
According to Islam, the present world is a place of work, while the world Hereafter is a place of reward. When one dies, life does not come to an end. One simply enters the second phase of life, that is, the world Hereafter. It is only in the present world that one can prove that one is deserving of Paradise in the world Hereafter. This opportunity ends at the time of death; after death, there is no opportunity to prepare oneself. Success and failure are both determined by one’s deeds in this world, in the pre-death period.
The basic theme of the Quran is to make the reader aware of the creation plan of God, according to which the present world has been created for a limited period of time. When this time is over and this world shall be brought to an end, the Day of Judgement shall take place. According to Islamic belief, it would be a Day of Justice where the deeds of every individual – good or bad – shall be laid bare and according to the deeds in the pre-death period, their final destination shall be decreed.
Entry into Paradise is not based on any kind of recommendation, and it is not anyone’s birthright. It depends totally on one’s deeds and how one uses one’s God-given freedom. The Quran is very clear on this point: “Man shall have only that for which he strives.” (The Quran, 53:39)
A believer surrenders to God in the present world itself. A person of true faith in God is modest. His speech and his conduct reflect his living faith in God. He thinks of God constantly watching over him. Some commentators on the Quran have defined a true believer as one who believes in the unseen in the manner in which he believes what is seen. A believer lives in this world in the same state that will overcome people when they directly see God on the Day of Judgement.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Death is by no means the termination of this life: It is the commencement of a new era. Death is simply the dividing point between the two stages of our life. Take the farmer’s planting of a crop as an example. He invests his capital in it and cultivates it, until such times as the crop ripens and dries up. Then he harvests it so that he can use the grain and store it up for his year’s requirements. Harvest is the end of one phase in the crops' development, during which time planting and cultivation had taken place. Before the cutting of the crop there had been only toil and expense; it is afterwards that he will enjoy the fruits of his efforts.
Source: Spirit of Islam April 2015
The existence of man is such a unique phenomenon that no other such example can be found throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Man is rightly called the ‘best of all creations,’ which means the best and most meaningful ‘being’ among all the things created. Such a ‘meaningful being’ cannot have been created without a purpose. The Creator of man has created him according to a special Plan. His intention being that man must spend a period of trial in this present, imperfect world, and subsequent to this, according to his deeds, he will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, another name for which is Paradise.
The Creator of the world has created this world, as one half of a pair—the present world, in which we pass our lives after birth, is the first half; and the next eternal world where we live after death is the other half. The Creator of man has thus created him as an eternal creature and has divided his life into two stages—the pre-death period or the life in this world and the post-death period or the life after death. The limited period before death is meant to be a test for man, while the period after his death will be the period for his reward or punishment, based on his performance in the test in this life. This is the scheme of existence for this world as devised by its Creator. The real aim of creation is to select those who are fit to inhabit the world of Paradise.
Source: The Reality of Life
According to Islam, God created man as an eternal being but divided his lifespan into two: the worldly life and the post-death life. While the pre-death period is temporary, the post-death one is eternal. To illustrate this, let us compare human life with an iceberg. An iceberg is a huge mass of ice floating in the ocean, but only about 10 percent of it is above the surface of the water, and the rest of it is underwater.
God has created a world called Paradise—an ideal world, a perfect world. According to the Quran, it is a place where man will find fulfillment of all his desires:
“Therein, you shall have all that your soul desires.” (The Quran, 41:31)
“[Paradise] is a place where people shall not fear, nor shall they grieve.” (The Quran, 2:112)
Our life on earth is just a preparation for the eternal afterlife. In this world, there are different kinds of situations and challenges. Man is here to face those challenges and prepare himself to be a deserving candidate for Paradise. In this sense, our life on earth is a world of opportunities. Those who avail of these opportunities and prepare themselves accordingly will be chosen and will be settled in Paradise after death.
In this life, there are all kinds of problematic and unwanted situations. But they have a purpose. They constitute a training ground that gives us a chance to cope with adversity, thus preparing us for eternal entry into Paradise. The Quran introduces Paradise thus: God calls man to the home of peace. (Quran 10:25)
Source: God’s Creation Plan
A study tells us that a more significant incentive is not ease and comfort for man's progress but challenge and difficulty. One aspect of this freedom is that it produces competition and challenge, without which no progress is possible. Misuse of freedom leads to problems, and problems are, in a sense, a sort of shock treatment because they can become a means for man's inner growth. It is only through challenges that we can progress in life.
People’s engagement in different kinds of activities with complete freedom, at times, goes against the interests of others. It is a challenging situation, causing great suffering to people. This is necessary for testing human beings and selecting them for Paradise. Further, this system is not evil in the absolute sense, for there is also an element of goodness. Suffering and challenges are the most powerful teachers of life. All such unpleasant experiences prove to be a kind of ‘shock treatment’ for individuals, leading them to undergo a tremendous mental activity called ‘brainstorming’. As per psychological studies, brainstorming is the source of intellectual development.
With ease and comfort, often, man's abilities are ruined. In contrast, challenges and problems often motivate people to develop virtues and scale new heights. That is why one can say that it is not ease but effort, not facility but difficulty, that makes men.
This point can be understood with the help of a real example. In the materially affluent societies of the West, a new disease has emerged named 'Affluenza'. This is a disease of the materially rich. In 'rich' families, people become intellectual dwarfs instead of intellectual giants. Their IQ is very low. They are lazy and do not do much work. In contrast to them, people who have grown up with difficulty and challenges often go on to do great things.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
In one way or the other, all the problems in life are the price of the inappropriate use of freedom. When people misuse their freedom, it creates problems for others. On its face, this price seems to be a very high one. However, from God, we have this good news: after death, when the Day of Judgement will come, God will hold one to task only when it was proved that he had misused the freedom he had been given. For whatever other difficulties a person may have faced based on God's creation plan like the problems that he faced due to the misuse of freedom by others or due to the handicaps that he faced, arrangements will be made for their compensation. This will make it clear that whatever difficulties and hardships he had encountered while on Earth were in line with the demand of justice.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
As a young person when I started working, I used to see often see written in places ‘For Disabled Persons’, but now we come across the words ‘Differently-abled persons’. It has been found out that disability is not disability alone, rather one who is disabled in a certain way is abled in a different manner. Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of writing for the visually impaired, was blind. When John Milton wrote his magnum-opus Paradise Lost, he too was blind.
There are newer ways of providing education for the mentally-challenged children. The parents of such children should be aware of the world they are living in. Parents only know of pampering; they should rather discover the quality their children possess and should nurture that particular quality. And if a person is disabled on one account, he is super-abled on other accounts.
Source: The Seeker’s Guide
Talking of the issue of why there is so much suffering in the human world, people often ask: ‘If God is All-Good, why did He make such a world where people are forced to face different types of problems and where there is so much suffering?’
This question can be answered by understanding the creation plan of God. Unpleasantness has been put into this world for man to learn proper lessons from it. The true lesson taught by unpleasant experiences is that man should remember the next world of Paradise where there will not be any suffering. Having understood the creation plan of God, one’s approach to life should be: “Let me not suffer in the Hereafter what I have suffered in this world.” This understanding should make one strive for Paradise in the Hereafter one’s very purpose in life.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
'The problem of evil' is the most debated question concerning man and God in philosophy. This is because while the rest of the universe is evil-free, man, exceptionally, is afflicted with the ‘problem of evil’. This can be explained by understanding the freedom given to man. As per the creation plan of God man is placed in different situations to test him.
Paradise is the answer to this seeming conundrum. The concept of Paradise tells us that all those good things that are there for the rest of the creation are fully available for man too, with the only difference that the rest of the universe gets what it desires in the world of ‘today’, while man will get all that he wishes in the world of ‘tomorrow’ (the Hereafter).
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Those who want to interpret human history in the light of predetermined law as is done in the physical world, cannot but meet with failure. While the physical world may be explainable within the framework of predeterminism, the events of the human world are simply not amenable to interpretation in terms of any such law.
Others want to interpret the events of the human world in the context of freedom. But they are not satisfied either, with their interpretation. This is because, in the case of human freedom, the suffering experienced in this world has no valid understandable explanation. The failure of both these interpretations is due to the fact that they attempt to explain the whole in the light of a part—which is not at all possible.
The truth is that the right principle by which to interpret human history is neither that of predeterminism nor of freedom. According to the Quran, there is only one correct principle to interpret human history and that is the principle of test. Man has been placed in the present world for the purpose of being tested. On the outcome of this test will depend the eternal future of all mankind.
Favourable circumstances were a sine qua non for this test in the world. Predeterminism had to a certain extent to be a feature of these circumstances as a guarantee against any obstacle coming in the way of carrying out man’s trial. On the other hand, the element of freedom was also essential in order that the intentions and actions of each individual could be properly judged. For man can be granted the credit for a good deed only on the condition that, despite having the opportunity to indulge in bad deeds, he chooses of his own free will to act virtuously.
If in this world everything had been totally predetermined, the element of trial would have been absent. However the granting of freedom did involve the risk of some people misusing their freedom and misuse it they did. This gave rise to the problem of human suffering which results from evil, yet this suffering, or evil, is a very small price to pay for a very precious thing.
According to the Quran, that person is the most precious who leads his life in this world in such a manner that despite facing all sorts of temptations he succeeds in overcoming them. Despite having the power to misuse his freedom, he refrains from doing so. Despite the possibility of leading an unprincipled life, he chooses of his own free will to be a man of principle. To identify such individuals, it is essential that an atmosphere of freedom prevail in the world. This is not possible under any other system. Only such people will be found eligible for Paradise in the Hereafter.
Source: Simple Wisdom
Everything has a price, and the price of Paradise is the realization of God. Nothing less than that can open the gates of Paradise. The truth is that if anything less than the realization of God is regarded as the price of Paradise that would constitute the belittling of Paradise. Those selected for Paradise are the ones who have made God their foremost concern in the life of this world. Their thinking and feelings have all been devoted to God. Their mornings and evenings have been filled with the remembrance of God. These are the fortunate souls who will be selected to live in the neighbourhood of God for all eternity.
God's angels will welcome those men and women who reach the Hereafter with all the above qualities. The angels will come forward and say: "Congratulations, O Blessed Souls! Enter God's Heaven by divine decree. Here, there is no death and no parting from this joyous world. The eternal life has been given to you for all eternity." The Quran says: “O Soul at peace! Come to your Lord well pleased, and He will be well pleased with you. So enter among My chosen servants. And enter My Garden.” (The Quran, 89:27-30)
Source: God’s Creation Plan
One of the essential teachings of Islam is that on receiving anything, we should be grateful to God in acknowledgement of His bounty and utter these words 'All praise and thankfulness is due to God, the Lord of the Worlds.' Praise of God, in its true spirit, is the essence of the Quran. After accepting Islam, a believer's inmost feelings find expression in these words of praise.
Man's existence is a blessing from God. Man's extremely balanced body is a blessing from God. The entire world created so favourably for man is a blessing from God.
When this reality dawns on man, and he realizes God's immeasurable blessings upon him, his soul is filled with gratefulness to God. His greatness overawes his heart and mind. At that moment, words of acknowledgement of God—'Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds' spontaneously come to his lips.
God is All-Powerful. God is the Giver; man is the taker. The only thing man can offer Him is acknowledge His blessings. The moment of man's greatest worship of God is when God's glory and greatness pervade his soul; when he recognizes God's divinity as compared to man's servitude; when, in full awareness of his helplessness, he comes to acknowledge God's bounties in the true sense of the word.
When man discovers God with all His attributes, his soul lies prostrate before Him. His whole being turns towards God. The feelings inspired in him by God's bounties surge within him like ocean waves. When all these feelings find verbal form, they are called praise and gratefulness to God.
God is the greatest Being, yet in the universe, God remains invisible. But His supreme glory is visible in His creation. Therefore, the realisation of God can be attained through discovering His greatness in the signs visible everywhere. This realisation finds expression in words such as 'praise be to God—Lord of the worlds’.
One who lives in the glory of God in this world will be eligible for living in Paradise where he will live in the eternal glory of God.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
God will allow only those people to live in His neighbourhood who adhere to divine ethics at two levels: one stands in relation to man versus man, and another stands in relation to man versus God. These two codes of ethics are different in their dimensions. In relation to other human beings, one must follow social ethics like love, respect, well-wishing, and peace. Adherence to such social ethics makes one a giver member of society.
But no one can be held deserving of entry into Paradise just by adhering to social ethics. To be deserving of entry into the neighbourhood of God, man has to live up to the divine code related to God. This begins with the realization of God. When an individual discovers his Creator, this transforms his mind. His divine nature is awakened, and, as a result, all those qualities have been produced that measure up to the standard of elevated human ethics.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Paradise is another name for eternal life in the neighbourhood of God (66:11). Paradise is the eternal ideal world, which is the ultimate objective of every human. Paradise is called the 'Home of Peace' (10: 25). We learn from the Quran that the people of Paradise will wish peace for one another, which indicates the importance of peace in the ideal society. In the world before death, those who live in the neighbourhood of God at the psychological level and feeling will, in the world Hereafter, live in the eternal neighbourhood of God—Paradise—in reality.
The good fortune of finding a place in God's neighbourhood in the eternal life of the Hereafter will be based totally on merit. God's neighbourhood is like a universal garden. Only those will find a place in this universal garden that measure up to the divine criterion. Anything short of this will not guarantee a place in this universal garden.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
We seek a life of comfort. However, we are not able to find it in this world. In a tradition the Prophet of Islam explained that comfort is only available in Paradise in the Hereafter: "O God! There is no comfort, but the comfort of the Hereafter." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 2961) To search for comfort and happiness in the present world is like a passenger trying to construct a mansion on a railway platform. An individual stays on a railway platform for only a brief period, so it is not the right place to build a mansion where he can live for a long time. The present world is a place for engaging in actions that can make a person eligible for Paradise: It is not the place for building a 'paradise'. The right place for Paradise is in the Hereafter.
If we seek a life of comfort, we must set Paradise as our goal.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Paradise is the name of the ideal world, the desire for which is lodged in the hearts of every man and woman. Paradise is a place where people will have no sorrow. It is Paradise where the personality of a human being shall achieve fulfilment in the complete sense.
Paradise is that world in which a creation such as man attains his complete fulfilment, where he thinks the way, he wants to think; where he sees what he desires to see; where he listens to the sounds that give pleasure to his ears in the real sense; where he has the company of those people who make his life highly meaningful.
Paradise shall be a world that would have everything that a person can think of and more. It would be a world devoid of limitations, disadvantage, illness, and unfortunate circumstances.
The Quran mentions that the inhabitants of Paradise will 'have no fear, nor will they grieve' (2:38). It means that no one is bereft of fear and grief in the present world. The present world's system has been made so that attaining a life free of anxiety and grief is impossible. Given this, the only proper attitude for man is that he should not make this world his goal. He should give the world only the status of a road that leads to his true destination—Paradise.
Source: The Seeker’s Guide
From this understanding, it also becomes clear what Paradise and Hell are. Paradise is the home of the eternal joy and peace of serious and righteous people, while Hell is the place to punish rebellious people who were addicted to falsehood.
The understanding that emerges in line with this is that the present world has been made as a testing ground, and the next world as a place for acquiring the results of one’s actions performed on Earth. Each person has been bestowed with a being that shall never die. However, man’s life is like an iceberg, with a tiny portion visible above the water while the rest is sunk deep in the sea. Man’s lifespan is divided into two portions—one, a small part, which has been kept in this world, and the remaining portion of his lifespan, which has been kept in the world of the Hereafter and will last forever.
There is an ‘examination paper’ for every person that he must ‘answer’ in this present world. Everything in this world exists so that man can seek to perfect his personality. For example, this present world is full of bitter experiences. It is so that man, passing through these experiences, can prove that he can live with positive feelings even in negative conditions. Only people with such a positive personality will be admitted into the ideal world of Paradise in life after death.
In contrast, people who become victims of reactions when faced with negative experiences become negative. Such negative people will be considered non-eligible for Paradise.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
Man’s life is divided into the pre-death and post-death periods. The limited period before death is for the test, while the eternal period after death is for obtaining the results of one’s performance in the test. Those who pass the test will be blessed with Paradise, and those who fail the test will be consigned to Hell.
This is the creation plan of the Creator for this world. However, the status of Paradise and Hell are not the same. The actual purpose of creation is to select the people of Paradise. As far as the people of Hell are concerned, they are just relative components of creation; they do not form any real part of the creation plan.
The world before death is made following the demands of the test. After the period of this test, there will be no need for this world, nor will there be a need for those who fail the test. After this period, only Paradise and those people selected to be settled in the ideal world of heaven will remain in the universe.
Source: God’s Creation Plan
According to the Creation Plan of the Creator, what is important in this matter is what kind of personality is being nurtured in a man while he experiences different sets of situations. Will it be a God-oriented personality or a self-oriented personality? Just as man has constantly to acquire food in the present world for his physical existence, so also does his spiritual existence require a continual supply of spiritual food. It is this spiritual food which develops in man the God-oriented personality.
Source: The Purpose of Life
