SPIRIT OF ISLAM MARCH 2O18

10 Spirit of Islam Issue 63 March 2018 ABOUT THE QURAN Creation Plan of God I F you read the Quran, you will find that it deals with all of the subjects relating to human beings. But the basic theme of the Quran is the creation plan of God. All other subjects touched on by the Quran are related to this basic theme, directly or indirectly. God Almighty created the universe, and it is God Almighty who revealed this book called Quran. The primary purpose of the Quran is to reveal that divine plan according to which the world was created and people were settled in it. This theme, which is central to the Quran, is thus described in chapter 67 Al-Mulk (The Kingdom): “He created death and life so that He might test you, and find out which of you is best in conduct”. (67: 2) The word ‘life’ represents pre-death period and the word ‘death’ represents the second period, which may be called the post-death period. The pre-death period is very short, about a hundred years, while the post-death period has no such limit. It will continue for all eternity. According to the Quran, God Almighty created an ideal world that is called Paradise. The present world—the planet earth—has all those things that man needs or desires. But, in this world everything is imperfect in its form. In Paradise, on the other hand, everything will be perfect and ideal. Paradise will be free of every kind of limitation or disadvantage. Moreover, Paradise is an eternal world. Paradise has a beginning but it has no end. God Almighty created man and woman, bestowed them with freedom of choice and then settled them on planet earth. Through His prophets, God Almighty gave guidance to humanity. In every age the prophets guided the people of all races about right and wrong. It was simply a matter of guidance; there was no compulsion for people to follow it. People were asked to develop their thinking in such a way as to bring about moral consciousness in themselves and to lead a good life by their own choice. In this sense, everyone is being tested. Then God Almighty established a system of complete recording. This Spirituality according to the Quran is living in the world and trying to derive spiritual food from material things as a matter of intellectual discipline. It means to control rather than kill one's desires.