Spirit of Islam December 2017

13 Spirit of Islam Issue 60 December 2017 RIGHT APPROACH TO LIFE Acceptance of the Creation Plan of God A CCORDING to the 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 parts of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement is to remind man of the fact that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort, but rather as a period of trial and as such will help determine whether he is eligible for eternal life in Paradise. In spite of tremendous development in the present world, adverse conditions are still in evidence. But people, owing to their lack of awareness of God’s creation plan, do not understand why this is prevalent. So, they continue to react negatively to situations and by giving such a response, prove themselves—in the eyes of God—to be failures in the examination He has set for them. It is situations such as these that are the tests for man. Giving negative responses to negative situations leads to failing the test. On the contrary, giving positive responses to such situations leads to passing the test. In short, a soul of Paradise is one who has opted for the way of forgiveness in moments of anger; who has converted sentiments of jealousy into those of well-wishing, who has converted negativity into positivity, who has converted hatred into love, who has diffused tensions, instead of causing them to mount: above all, who has convertedmaterial loss into non-material gain, by opting for the course of introspection, when beset by complaints and grievances. Stress is another major problem faced by people everywhere. Many institutions have been established which claim to be able to eliminate stress. Anyone who, in their endeavor to de-stress people asks them to stop their thinking process, are only bringing on them a kind of temporary anaesthesia. This is, however, not a real solution to the problem of stress. There is only one practical solution to this problem and that is to adopt the correct Difficulty and sadness are integral parts of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation.