Spirit of Islam October 2017

7 Spirit of Islam Issue 58 October 2017 THE VISION OF ISLAM God Worshipping, Man’s Well-wishing G OD has created man in freedom, but this freedom is not unlimited. The freedom of the individual is taken away at death. And, the freedom of the whole human race will be taken away on Doomsday. After the cessation of life in this world, a new life will begin in the Hereafter. There, people will be divided into two groups; one who, having made proper use of their freedom making it subservient to the will of God, will enter into Paradise; the other group will be of those who, having been fearless of God in using the freedom granted to them, will have to face punishment. This division will be eternal. About a hundred years of life in this world is going to end in an eternal fate for man. And the end will either be a terrible punishment or the greatest of rewards. This state of affairs makes the matter of life extremely grave. Despite this extraordinary gravity, all realities remain hidden from human eyes. God, the angels, Paradise, Hell; nothing is visible. As such, it was expected of man that when these realities were revealed, he would say, “God, I did not know that this was going to be the end of life. Why did You not tell us before?” This would be a futile excuse as God has made plentiful arrangements for His message to be conveyed to mankind. With the very creation of man, God began sending prophets to the world. In fact, the very first man was also the first prophet. The prophets were sent revelations so that they could convey the divine message to mankind. This series of prophets continued from Adam to Jesus Christ. Finally God decided to send the final Prophet to whom He would send the last divine book which would be preserved with the message of God for all time so that no further prophets were required anymore. For the conveyance of God’s message to people after the last Prophet, the true followers of the Prophet were assigned the role. This is the task referred to in the Quran as ‘calling people to God’. This duty involves conveying the message with beauty and wisdom and without any compulsion as per the Quranic commandments. Those who take up this divine task must bear in mind that: Calling people to God involves conveying the divine message with beauty and wisdom and without any compulsion as per the Quranic commandments.