MISSING LINK FOUND
God Almighty created the universe. In its vast space there are stars, galaxies, planets, the solar system, countless other particles and so on. All these items of creation have adopted a culture of worship, which is total surrender to God, without the slightest deviation. It is this surrender to God that makes our universe a totally zero-defect universe. This fact is mentioned in the chapter Al-Mulk (Kingdom) of the Quran in these words:
God created seven heavens one above the other in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the Gracious One. Then look once again: can you see any flaw? (67:3)
However, there was a “missing link” in this universe. The universe, with all its vastness, has surrendered to God under compulsion. Now, there was a vacant room for a creature that surrenders to God by choice. God Almighty created man to fill in this gap. Man was given total freedom. At the same time, he was given a thinking mind. It was required that man utilizes this mind and surrenders before God as a reality rather than as a matter of compulsion. When such a human being surrenders to God in this way, it is as if he is saying, ‘O God, You are great and I am not great. I am accepting this fact as a reality, without the slightest compulsion.’
The fact is that man is the only creature throughout the universe who has been endowed with a mind, who consciously knows ‘I am what I am’. Although man has no power, but as regards freedom, he enjoys complete freedom without any restrictions. In other words, God is All-powerful while man is all-powerless in spite of having complete freedom. When man says: ‘O God Almighty, You are my Lord!’ he says this consciously, without any compulsion. This phenomenon is the greatest moment in the whole universe. This is like making the second extent of the all-powerless in comparison to the All-powerful.
This is the speciality of man. It is this speciality that makes man a deserving candidate for Paradise. Paradise will not be granted on a mass scale. It will be given to those lucky persons who are able to stand on this highly complex test. Paradise is a perfect place, and only those individuals will find entry to Paradise who prove that they possess the perfect quality of having discovered God at a conscious level. It is this missing link of the universe that is called man.