The Creation Plan of God pdf download

The creation plan of God

THE CREATION PLAN OF GOD

The Creation Plan of God

The Famous historian, Edward Gibbon, observed: “Human History is little more than a register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” Other historians have also arrived at similar conclusions, for the ideal existence envisioned by philosophers is nowhere reflected in human societies.

Orientalists who have made an in-depth study of human history have remarked that, as regards the human failure to achieve the ideal

society, Islamic history is no great exception.

Orientalists hold that, although the history of the first phase of Islam—known as the golden age—no doubt presents a better picture than that of other periods, it too fails to measure up to the ideal.

During the life of the Prophet, owing to the antagonistic activities of the hypocrites internally and the Jews and idolaters externally, Madinah, the city of the Prophet, could never in any significant sense be converted into an area of peace.

After the Prophet’s demise, and shortly after the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, had been appointed to be the leader of the Muslims, most of the Arab tribes revolted. It was

 only when force was used that they were prevailed upon to re-enter the Islamic fold.

Subsequently, in almost every period, unfavourable developments repeatedly proved to be hindrances to the formation of the ideal society.

During the times of Umar, the second Caliph, a secret lobby in Madinah, working towards the extirpation of Islam, finally succeeded in having the Caliph assassinated. Afterwards the age of open opposition set in. The third Caliph, likewise, was publicly murdered.

 The reign of Ali, the fourth Caliph, was marked by civil war in which thousands of precious lives were lost and the Caliph himself was martyred.

Given the state of affairs, thinkers and philosophers have always expressed pessimistic views about human history, holding it to be an ongoing tragedy: events have shown that, in this world, the building of the ideal human society is well-nigh impossible.

The reason for this pessimistic view of history does not lie in history itself, but in our flawed approach to the subject. Our criterion to study history is not the correct one, for it has been formulated by human beings.

The only valid criterion, in the light of which we should study human history, is that laid down by our Creator. The right way to understand this matter is, therefore, to discover the creation plan of the creator and then attempt to study history within its framework.

From a study of the Qur’an, we learn that for a proper understanding of human society the central idea is not ideal society, but it is human freedom.

Man has been granted full freedom of speech and action in this life the reason being that he has been placed in this world by the Almighty for the purpose of being tested.

As a prerequisite for this test, man is at liberty to deny God, to kill prophets and to oppose the da‘is (messengers) of truth. Given such a state of affairs, human freedom would have to be withdrawn altogether in order to bring an ideal society into existence.

And God, in accordance with His plan of creation, would never under any circumstances abrogate human freedom. The particular nature of human existence on earth has been thus explained in the Qur’an:

We offered Our trust to the heavens, to the earth and to the mountains, but they refused to accept the burden.

Man undertook to bear it, but he has proved foolish and unjust. God will surely punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the unbelievers, both men and women; but God pardons believing men and believing women. God is Forgiving and Merciful (33:72-73).

‘Trust’ in the above verses refers to the freedom of choice with which man has been entrusted. The earth and the heavens have neither such freedom nor any will-power of their own.

They are compelled to adhere to the laws of nature laid down by God for all eternity. But man has no such compulsion. He is totally free in word and deed.

From other verses in the Qur’an, we learn that, according to the Creation plan of God, what is of actual importance in this world is the building not of an ideal society but of ideal individuals (67:2).

The ideal human society will, therefore, come into existence not in this world, but in the world Hereafter — referred to in the Qur’an as Darus Salam (the Home of Peace).

The actual obstacle to the building of the ideal society in this world is the presence everywhere of rebellious and insolent people.

In the heavenly society of the Hereafter, all such evil-doers will be separated from good people; the heavenly society will then be comprised only of virtuous souls. Only in heaven then will it be possible to create an ideal society.

The error in the thinking of secular philosophers derives from their desire to construct in this present world the ideal society — the society which, according to god’s scheme of things, is going to become a reality only in the world of the Hereafter.

 The most formidable obstacle to the emergence of an ideal society is human freedom, but thanks to the exigencies of God’s trial of humanity, human freedom is not going to be taken away.

The ideal society will thus remain a distant dream.

According to the Qur’an, the truth has been fully set forth in this world. Now it is up to man to put his faith in it or to deny it (18:29). At another point the Qur’an says:

It rests with God to show the right path. Some turn aside from it, but had He pleased, He would gave given right guidance to you all (16:9).

The Qur’an further observes; Had your Lord pleased, He would have made mankind a single nation. But only those to whom He has shown mercy will cease to differ.

To this end He has created them. The world of your Lord shall be fulfilled: ‘I will fill Hell with jinn and men all together’ (11:118,119).

This freedom granted to man by his Creator is the reason why a society with uniformity in all its aspects could never be produced in human history. If in a society there are virtuous people, there are wicked people as well.

The unworthy have never ceased to create disturbance, even the societies founded by the prophets are no exception.

That is why despite the existence of good individuals in this world, a good society could never become a possibility.

However, this is not a matter of evil, or even of deficiency.

The truth is that the recurrence of disturbance and dissension in society is essential to the realization of the Creation Plan itself, for good people of the highest calibre are produced in unfavourable rather than in favourable situations.