Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I New Age Islam I 17 Jan 2014
These days ‘human rights’ are a much-talked about subject. In addition to human rights, there are a great many human responsibilities. But these are not talked-about much today, including in the media, ‘social activist’ and NGO quarters, and even in government circles.
Another question that I am often asked is “If God cannot control man’s action, then how is He All-Powerful”? There is no doubt that God is All-Powerful. However, since He has decided to put man to the test, He has given man a freedom of choice to do what he likes. As if there was no free will, there would be no test. So, in order to test man, God has withheld His power when it comes to man and given him freedom to respond in any way that he wants.
When a paradisiacal personality develops in human beings, the present world is rendered meaningless in their eyes. Their intellectual plane reaches to such heights that everything becomes immaterial. They do not find any fulfillment in the material things of the world. The world of paradise is so perfect that the riches of this world are nothing in comparison to it. Owing to their heightened consciousness, they realize that the present world is not the place that they have been created for. Their hearts cry out to God:
In the present world of trial, any man or woman, to be eligible for Paradise, needs to have two qualifications: one is to acknowledge truth of the One God, while He is still unseen and the other is to lead a principled life based on the principles of life laid down by Him. Those men and women who qualify in this test will be given a place in Paradise – where all their desires will be fulfilled. For those who fail in this test, they shall spend their lives in a state of eternal deprivation.
According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time at every moment throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are integral part of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation.
Animals have no consciousness of tomorrow. They live only in their ‘today’ and die in their ‘today’; whereas man has a sense of tomorrow. Man cherishes a very pleasant consciousness of tomorrow, an aspiration towards a better day, or the fulfillment of his dreams. All human beings strive hard to make their tomorrow better and better. But they do not find this ‘tomorrow’. The reason being that this ‘tomorrow’ is not to materialize in this world, but will come into existence, in the eternal life to come, i.e. in the Hereafter.
As per the creation plan of God, utmost importance is given to intentions or niyyah. No action is acceptable to God purely on the basis of its outer appearance. He accepts only such actions as are performed with proper intention, and rejects those performed with ill intention. Right intention is the moral purposiveness, which underlies all actions performed solely for God’s pleasure. One who acts on such feelings will be rewarded by God in the Hereafter.
It is essential that man should have within his reach, a super formula for life’s management. God provides just such a formula—a complete principle for life’s management.
Of all moments that lie within the realm of human imagination and beyond, death is the most savage. All the other calamities that cause man distress are nothing compared to that which he will encounter in the form of death.
With death we enter the most difficult stage of our lives. We become totally powerless, destitute and helpless. All worldly suffering has a limit, but in the world that we will enter after death suffering and torment will be unlimited.
