THE Holy Quran says, “Raise up in their midst a messenger amongst them, who shall recite unto them our signs and shall teach them the book and the wisdom and purify them.” Another verse, “Truly God was gracious to the believers and sent a messenger to the unlettered people to show them His signs, to teach them the book and the wisdom and cause them to grow.” “Quran says, “He is indeed successful who causes his real self to grow and he is lost, who stunts it.” In Surah Al-Lail, “Far removed from it will be the righteous, who may give his wealth, so that he may grow. The purpose of life as per Quran is to grow and all this growing, learning and developing experience is an essential stage in our personality creation to take us to our next life. Quran says, “Those who remember God, standing, sitting, lying and reflecting on the creation of heaven and earth say, Our Lord, you did not create all this in vain.” “We have not created heavens and earth and whatever is between them in play, if we wish to take a sport, we could have done it ourselves.” God does not satisfies whims, fancies, or entertains Himself. “Do you think we created you without purpose and that you will not be returned to us?” (Surah 23)
What is the purpose of life that Quran is talking about? It talks of believers and rejecters and wants us to be believers, so thatwe can experience in this life and in much greater degree in the next, a relationship of love with God. The believers will turn to God in love and God will turn to them in love. Quran tells us that mercy, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, warmth, generosity, all things that are associated with God are freely given to all humankind and believers will experience this. When Quran speaks of God’s love, it is something very special. If we do not turn to God in love than when we may receive His mercy, forgiveness, kindness, beneficence, warmth, generosity all those wonderful nurturing things, but we reject it. It is always there, but unless we really enter into that loving relationship with God, we will never experience it. Once we reject it, one turns into an infidel or kafir, which means to reject, turn back or ignore. Only believers will feel this sublime relationship. Quran tells us that there are men who take others besides God as equal and loving them as they should love God, but those who believe, love God more ardently. “Say, if you love God follow me and God will forgive your faults for God is the forgiving the merciful.” “Oh you believe if any one of you should turn back from His faith, God will surely bring a people He loves and who love Him.” Quran repeats it again and again the type of person that God loves.
It is therefore apparent from Quran that one of the essential purpose of creation is to produce from this subset of humanity, a group of people that will freely enter into a relationship of love with God. They will not only experience the beauty of other relationships in their lives, but the love, which they experience with God, is a sublime experience. It will be infinitely greater in the next, when all the distractions are stripped away. Quran tells us as believers, if we do good, have a relationship with God and a complimentary relationship with all the people, it will give us peace and serenity in this world even though we have to struggle and survive.
What does Quran expects from Believers, so that we can have a common ground to have this relationship of love with God. The types of individuals loved by God are the ones who do good deeds, show compassion, are merciful, forgiving, just, protect the weak, defend the oppressed, seek knowledge and wisdom, be generous, truthful, and peaceful and love others. Quran says, “Truly those who believe and do good were the most merciful and endowed with love. To this end, We made this scripture easy to understand in your own tongue, so that you might convey glad tidings to the God conscious and warn those given to contention.” What does Quran tell us about God, “nothing could be compared to Him, our definitions do not encompass Him, and our reasons cannot comprehend Him? He transcends time and space, while we are bound by it. He is Infinite, while we are finite, He is Immortal and we are mortal, He is Incorporeal, while we are corporeal.
If an ordinary mortal cannot be compared to Him then what is the essential link. Open any page of Quran /Surah, it tells us, “In the name of God, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate,” and Quran tells us, “God is Merciful, God is Compassionate, Forgiving, Gentle, Kind, Protector, Generous and Truthful.” There are tens and thousands of such references in Quran. His most beautiful names are attributes of perfection repeated again and again. God is Compassionate, Merciful, Forgiving, Just, the Protector, Defender of the oppressed, the Knowing, Wise, Generous, Kind, Truthful, Loving, Peaceful, the source of all things and so on. All these qualities that we human beings are supposed to develop, in their infinite source and perfection are found in Allah Subhanwa Tallah. —To be continued…
Extracts from Professor Jeffery Lang, a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas USA, who converted to Islam after reading Quran and author of book, ‘Struggling to Surrender.’
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
(muhammadtahir50@hotmail.com)
