arah
2012-06-11 16:50:05 UTC
Why were we Created?
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
All praise is due to Allah. May His prayers and blessings be upon his
Last Messenger and on all those who follow the path of righteousness
until the Last Day.
Not just Muslims, but every single human being has to answer the most
fundamental question at some point in his or her lifetime:
"Why was I created? Why am I here? What am I doing in this world? Why
did God create me?"
These questions are questions which each and everyone of us reflects
on at some point during their life. We have some answers, which are
given generally but usually these answers don't satisfy us - seeming
somewhat simplistic. So, we still wonder: "Why me? Why here?". I know
all of you (Muslims), are saying, "To worship Allah, khallas (finish).
What more is there to say? Why do we need to have a big long talk on
why we were created when we all know it is to worship Allah?!"
But wait. If this is presented to a non-Muslim, the next logical
question would be, "Why does Allah want us to worship Him?" Then your
stuck, which can only mean that in our own minds it is not really
clear. Why did Allah create us to worship Him?
Addressing the question, "Why did Allah create us?", we have to
understand how to deal with those people we live with (in the West).
Those who don't consider there to be any purpose in man's creation,
firmly believing that they are just a product of evolution and that
the forces of nature. Just as we don't have apes, dogs or cows
thinking about why they are here, then we also don't have to think
about it either. Following from this belief being the basis of the
philosophy of Western society (that man is without purpose), the whole
issue of government, morality, etc. has no basis for them in
Revelation. The product of this attitude is, of course, the corruption
that we are living in.
When a Muslim addresses this topic, we have to find our understanding
from Divine Revelation and not human speculation. Because human
speculation has no bounds; we can imagine all kinds of things and if
any of you has studied philosophy of religion, you will know how many
opinions there are about the creation of man and existence. Because of
the variety of philosophies which are out there, no one can say this
one is correct or that one is incorrect, because there is no guidance
behind it. No Divine Revelation. It is only from Divine Revelation
that we can determine the reality of our creation, because it is Allah
who has created us and so He knows the purpose of our creation. We can
hardly understand it ourselves, much less trying to understand the
essence of things. So it is for Allah to inform us through the
revelation in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the Prophetic traditions)
which were brought to us by His Last Messenger and the Messengers
before him.
Now if we are to look initially into revelation, to determine why was
man created, there is a deeper question that we should be asking
before that: "Why did God create?". This before we even get to man
because man is not the greatest act of creation. Allah says:
"The creation of the Heavens and the Earth is indeed greater then the
creation of mankind; yet, most of mankind know not." [Surah Ghafir,
verse 57]
Man is not the greatest act of creation, this universe is far more
complex and far more magnificent than man. So the issue of creation
should then go to, "Why did God create?", as opposed to simply, "Why
create man?".
Fundamentally, we can say that the creation is the natural consequence
of the attribute of creator. Allah is the creator. That is one of his
attributes. That is what he has informed us. That being his attribute,
the creator, the natural consequence or the product of this attribute
is his creation.
A painter, if we are to draw a similitude on a lower level, who tells
you that he is a painter, if you ask him where are his paintings and
he replies I don’t have any. What kind of painter is this? The concept
of a painter who doesn’t paint, there is some thing not quite gelling
together here, of course Allah is beyond this. But if we are to
understand on the simplest level, the two go together. The perfection
of a painter lies in his paintings. His quality and his ability to
paint, is manifest in his paintings. And Allah, beyond all that, as
creator, this quality of creation is manifest in the creation itself.
Allah didn’t create out of a need. No, the fact that he is the
creator, is manifest in the creation.
Furthermore, consider the act of creation, this act, with regards to
Allah is unique. Though we use the term i.e. So and so created a table
etc, actually it is in a limited sense. Human beings don’t really
create, they manipulate, because they can only "create" what already
exists. When we make a chair or a table, we didn’t create the wood, we
had to take it from a tree, we didn’t create the metal, which makes
the screws etc, we had to melt down rocks and take the metal out. So
we are not creating from nothing. We are manipulating things which
Allah has already created in to different shapes and forms which are
useful to us. We call it "creation" but the real act of creation, is
creation from nothing, and this is unique to Allah alone.
This is a concept, which many people in ignorance, because they
couldn’t grasp the idea of creation from nothingness, it lead them to
conclude that the world is Allah. Those who say "inside of each and
every atom is Allah." And you have people, who call themselves Muslims
saying this. Non-Muslims have said this before and there are Muslims
who claim this. That Allah is inside each and everything, because
Allah is the reality and everything else is fake in their
interpretation. That means then, that the creation is Allah, and
Allah is the creation. Very, very dangerous concept, which leads some
of those who make this claim to say that you don’t have to worship
outside of yourself. Ibn Arabi, was famous for this statement, he is
considered to be one of the saints, amongst the so called Sufi
religion. Ibn Arabi said "There is no need to worship one outside
yourself, you are Allah. It is sufficient to worship yourself." This
is Shirk.
This concept of Allah being within his creation, no distinction the
creation and Allah, it leads them to this shirk. Because they are
unable to accept the uniqueness of Allah’s creation, they compare the
act of creation by Allah to human creation. That is, just as we
manipulate, Allah took pieces of himself and made the earth and the
universe. Others will say that all human beings have inside of
themselves Allah, that there is a part of Allah inside each and
everyone of us. The whole essence, the purpose of life is for us to
realize that we have part of Allah inside of ourselves, remove the
material blocks which keep us from Allah and again become one with
Allah in what they call "fana". This is again a teaching of the Sufi
religion.
Becoming one with Allah, returning back to Allah in this sense. But
this is in fact part of the teachings of shirk. Shaytan (Satan) has
deluded man into this imagination. It is part of the belief of the
Hindus. Nirvana, the concept that when you die, you are reborn again,
and you move up in stages, each time, if you are a good boy or good
girl, you go up higher and higher, until you get to the top. You know
you have reached the peak, because when you die the next time you
become one with the universal soul, Nirvana. That is the end of
rebirth. So your whole purpose is to return and become one with God
again. This is all, as I said, a product of the inability to
understand the concept of creation from nothingness, which is unique
to Allah. Allah says:
"There is nothing like him, and he is the hearer and seer of all."
So when we try to interpret Allah’s creation like the way we create,
then we have made Him like his creation and it leads us ultimately to
those aspects of shirk which I have mentioned. This is quite common
amongst the Muslim world today, because when you look into the various
branches of the Sufi religion, where they have prescribed various acts
of purification, they call it dhikr, exercises to torture the body
through spinning and dancing. What is the purpose of this? They will
tell you, to liberate the soul from this earthly body and to achieve
that state of "fana" or "itihad", a variety of names they have for it.
It is this concept, which lead al-Hallaj, many centuries ago, when he
was promoting this idea, and he was put before a panel of judges
questioning these concepts, which he was expressing. When they asked
him to recant, to take this stuff back, he stood up, opened up his
cloak and said "There is nothing inside this cloak except Allah". So
they executed him. And of course, those in the Sufi religion, they
have stories that when they cut his head off, it rolled around saying
"Allah, Allah, Allahu Akbar etc". It might have, that is Shaytan may
have entered and said these things, as happened with the calf of the
Isrealites, when the Prophet Musa (Moses) let Egypt and the people,
after crossing the red sea, had a desire to have a god that they could
see, so they made a golden calf which they began to worship. This calf
was saying "moo" like the calves do. This is what convinced them that
this was the real thing. We know it wasn’t the calf saying this. The
evil jinn can enter the in to physical entities, make sounds and give
these impressions. So there is no problem for us to say ok, maybe when
they cut of al-Hallaj’s head that it said these things, because this
was part of a test. If we are clear in terms of creator and creation,
this is no problem for us.
Allah is the creator and everything besides Him is His creation, which
He created from nothing. It is not Him, nor is He it. This is the pure
concept as taught by the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, his
companions, and the early generations of righteous scholars, the
students of the companions and those who came after them. The best of
generations. That is how they understood this matter. There was no
confusion in their minds. It wasn’t until Islam spread to areas like
Egypt, India and Persia, areas where the Christians had already gotten
into deep philosophies, trying to explain how Jesus was a man and god
at the same time. When they came in to Islam they brought it with
them. This is the reality. It is not something we should necessarily
condemn them for or feel is unusual. It is natural, when a person
reverts to Islam, that they will carry with them what they believed
before. What has been clarified for them, of the basic principles,
they accept, and they reject things, which obviously contradict. But
it doesn’t mean that every last thought that they have, and everything
that was wrong in their philosophies, ideology and concepts will be
erased. They will carry these things in with them. This is why in the
later part of the Prophet's sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam life, prior
to his death, when he was coming back from one of the battles, his
companions asked him to set aside a tree for them, that they could
hang their weapons on, like the way the pagans would hang their
weapons on trees, believing that when they hung the weapons, it became
super-powerful, as if some power was coming from the tree, that their
shields would now block steel and their swords would cut through the
enemy. Some of the companions who had newly accepted Islam, asked the
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam to designate one for them, a
special one, an Islamic one. They understood that what the pagans had,
this was wrong. These were the companions of the Prophet sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam and he had to clarify it for them. He said:
You are like the companions of Musa who asked to have the calf built.
And he clarified for them that all of this is shirk and there is no
place for it in Islam. So if it could happen to some of the
companions, then we cannot blame the generations who have come after
them, who come into Islam and carry with them some of their old ideas.
What it is for us to do is to clarify.
So what we have in front of us then, is that Allah created this
universe out of nothing, and everything that is in it was created. For
example:
"Allah created all things, and he is the agent, upon which, all things
depend." [Surah 39, verse 62]
This is the reality. This is stressed for us, in order for us to
realize that ultimately, all good, all evil, that takes place in the
world, only takes place by the permission of Allah. Therefore we
should not seek any other channels to protect ourselves from evil, or
to gather for ourselves good, as people commonly do today. They will
go to fortunetellers, this is big business today, all the magazines
have various forms of fortunetellers like dial a horoscope etc. in a
society that has lost touch with Allah, this is what is open to them.
Allah has stressed for us that no calamity will befall us except by
Allah’s permission;
"Nothing is taking place in this world except by the permission of
Allah."
And the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam further emphasized this
principle by saying;
"If the whole of mankind gathered to do some thing to help us, they
could not help in anything which Allah had not already written for us.
And if the whole of mankind gathered together to harm us, then they
would not be able to harm with anything which Allah had not already
written for us."
Therefore what is required of us is to depend on Allah, put our trust
in Allah. This is what we have to draw out of this attribute of Allah
being the creator. This creation exists because of that attribute. Its
practical significance to us lies in putting our trust in Allah.
There is another aspect, besides the fact that the creation exists
because Allah is the creator. We can also see from what the Prophet
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam has informed us, that in the creation
there is manifestation of Allah’s attributes of mercy, forgiveness,
kindness etc etc. Allah created man in paradise, they disobeyed Allah,
but Allah had taught them how to repent, how to turn back to him and
seek his forgiveness, then he would forgive them. Having done that,
they were forgiven, Adam became the first prophet, and mankind was
absolved of that sin. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of human
existence. Human beings are given a consciousness of Allah. When Allah
created all human beings, as he states in the Qur'an, he took from
Adam (Adam) all of his descendents, and made them all bear witness
that Allah is their Lord. So we are all born with that consciousness.
He has also given us a consciousness of what is right and what is
wrong.
"We have inspired each and every soul to an awareness of corruption
and righteousness."
Allah gave revelation through his commandments, not to eat of the
tree. However, human beings forget. And when they forget Allah then
they fall into sin. We can absolve ourselves of that sin by means of
repentance, and Allah forgives us when we repent sincerely. The
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said;
"The one who repents is like the one without sin."
"If you did not commit sins and turn to Allah seeking his forgiveness,
then he would replace you with another people who would sin, ask
Allah’s forgiveness and he would forgive them."
So in our sinning and asking Allah’s forgiveness, the attribute of
Allah’s mercy and forgiveness becomes manifest. Allah knew what we
were going to do before he created us, he knew that he was creating a
species who would sin. If he didn’t wan t them to sin, if it was not
his intention to permit them to sin, then he could have created
angels, more angels. But the had already created angels, so he chose
to create a being, that would disobey his commandments through
forgetfulness or just simple disobedience, but would turn back to him
in repentance, and his attribute of forgiveness would become manifest.
Similarly, his mercy;
The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam is quoted as saying that when
Allah created the universe, He made an obligation on Himself, recorded
in a document, kept by Him, that "My mercy precedes my wrath." He
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam also was reported as saying;
"Allah created mercy with a hundred parts. One of which was sent down
upon the jinn and human beings and other living creatures. It is out
of this one part that they love each other, show kindness to one
another, and even the animals treat their offspring with affection.
Allah has reserved the remaining ninety-nine parts for his true
worshippers on the Day of Judgment."
This is the mercy of Allah manifest in his creation. What is also
manifest in creation, in the act of creation, the creation of man, is
his attribute of justice, fairness, which comes out as the judgment at
the end of this world. I am sure we have all read the ahadith in which
the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
"Allah created some people for hell and some people for paradise."
For allot of people, this is something very heavy. And the companions,
they asked the prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam then what is the
point in doing good deeds? If Allah created some for heaven and some
for hell then what is the pin in doing anything? It has already been
decided. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
"Each one of you will find it easy to do what he was created for."
So if you choose the evil way, you find it easy and you carry on in
that way, then that was what you were created for. But ultimately it
is your choice. You choose hell. The fact hat Allah has recorded,
before anything was created, who would be in hell and who would be in
heaven does not change the fact that it is we who choose. The judgment
is only to manifest to those who go to hell, that they deserve to be
in hell. It is only for them basically. Because if Allah created you,
and put you in paradise, with all that is in paradise, and you see
those people in hell suffering, are you going to ask Allah, why did
you put me in paradise? No. your going to say "all praise be to
Allah!" you don’t want to question or to wonder, all you will be is
ecstatic that you are of those in paradise. So the judgment is not for
you, it is for those who are going to hell. If you happen to be
amongst those who were created for and put in hell, you would say, why
me? Why did you put me in hell? And Allah would say; because you would
have done so and so in your life. But you would say; no, no I
wouldn’t. If you give me a chance I would do good deeds. You would
not give up arguing.
So Allah has allowed us to live out our lives. So when we stand before
him, our book of deeds is spread before us, we know without a shadow
of a doubt, that we chose hell. That Allah’s judgment is just. There
is no injustice in it, in any way shape or form. Allah says he
oppresses no one. We will know that we chose hell.
And the only thing that remains for us, and I pray that it is not in
fact us, who are going to hell, is to beg Allah for another chance.
Allah says;
"If you could only see when the sinners will bow their heads before
their lord, saying; O Lord, we have now seen and heard, so send us
back and we will do righteous deeds. Verily, we now believe with
certainty."
This is the only response, which will be left for them. Or as Allah
said;
"And those whose light scales of good deeds, they ruined themselves
and they will be in hell eternally. The fire will burn their faces,
and they will grin with disfigured lips, I will say to them; Were My
Verses not recited to you, and you rejected them? They will reply; Our
Lord, our misery overcame us and we were a people astray. Our Lord,
bring us out of this, and if we ever return we will truly be unjust."
When we die, there remains behind us a barrier, the Barzakh, none of
us will come back, it is a one-way ticket. Those poor individuals who
think they will get another chance, this is the new age religion, they
think it is new, but it is just plain old Hindu delusion, that when
you die, you get another chance to come back again. The effects of
this actually, among Hindus, where I am in the UAE, there are a lot of
Hindus here, everyday in the news paper you read about a Hindu man or
woman who ties a rope to a ceiling fan, which is found in many of the
homes, put it around their neck, kicked away the chair and passed out
of this world. Suicide is common amongst them. Why? Because they think
they have another chance. It will be a rude awakening for them when
they meet the angel of death and find themselves in the next life,
realizing that there is no coming back.
In the creation of man is manifest the grace of Allah. This is a
particular point which all of us should reflect on and be thankful to
Allah for. His grace, and Christians, they like to refer to us Muslims
as those who don’t believe in the grace of God, we are those who look
at God’s judgment and it is just about deeds, you do good then you go
to heaven, you do bad and you go to hell, that is it, no grace there
at all. For them the grace of God is there for all those who accept
that he became a man, and was crucified by man, to provide salvation
for human beings who’s sins had become so great that they could not
remove that sin through any act themselves. So it was with the
spilling of the "Blood of God" that we could be absolved of our sins.
For them, if you accept that God spilt his blood for mankind’s
salvation, then you have earned the grace of God. Does not matter what
you do as long as you have accepted this belief in the grace of God.
Muslims also believe in the grace of God. Actually it plays a major
and significant role. Often it is not stressed but it is important for
us to realize how the grace of Allah is manifest in our creation. The
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said;
"Observe moderation, but if you fail, try to do as much as you can
moderately and be happy. For none of you will enter Paradise only
because of his deeds."
Of course when the companions heard that they said;
"O messenger of Allah, not even you? And the prophet sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam said, not even me. Were it not that Allah wrapped me
in his mercy. And bear in mind that the deed most loved by Allah is
one done constantly even if it is small"
What does this mean? It means that God’s grace is manifest in our
lives in that were He to call us to account, one good deed, one evil
deed, equal to each other, then we would not enter paradise, not even
the prophets of Allah. But Allah through his grace and mercy has
multiplied the value of the good deeds. Allah says;
"Whoever brings a good deed, shall the value of ten like it. And
whoever brings an evil deed will be punished with one like it. And
they will not be wronged." [Surah Al-'Imran, verse 160]
This is Allah’s grace. Good deeds erase evil deeds. One good deed will
erase at least ten evil deeds. Allah’s grace is not arbitrary, simply
because you say I believe you have his grace, no matter what you do,
no. The more good you do, the more of his grace is manifest in you. If
you chose evil and reject the good, then you don’t receive His grace,
it doesn’t matter what you say. If you say, I am a Muslim, I believe,
but really you don’t believe, it is just some words you are saying,
them you will not be subject to the grace of Allah.
So the creation is a manifestation of Allah’s attribute of being the
creator. In the creation of man within the scheme of things, there is
manifest Allah’s attribute of mercy, his attribute of justice and this
is the reason for the creation of man from the point of view of Allah.
From human perspective, why did God create man in terms of for what
purpose? Then this is the one we all know and are familiar with;
"We did not create the jinn and men except to worship us" [Surah adh-
Dhariyyat, verse 56)
So relative to Allah, we were created in a means or a way in which
Allah has chosen to manifest his attributes of creation, mercy, grace
etc and he could have chosen another one. But relative to us as human
beings, we know that our purpose is to worship Allah. As we said,
Allah does not need our worship, a Allah didn’t need to create. When
he created us to worship him, he didn’t create us, out of a need for
our worship, because Allah has no needs. In a famous hadith qudsi in
which Allah says;
If all of you, jinn and mankind, were to worship like the most
righteous amongst you, it would not increase the dominion of Allah in
any way shape or form. And if all of us, jinn and mankind ...
Therefore when we look for the purpose of worship, we have to look
into man. Allah created us to worship him, because we need to worship
him. It is something he has given us as a means of benefiting
ourselves. We are the ones who benefit from it. Worship has been
established, fundamentally for the growth, the spiritual growth of
man. This growth takes place through the remembrance of Allah. When
you look at all the different aspects of worship, you will see the
core of it is focused on the remembrance of Allah.
"Establish the prayer for My remembrance."
This is the essence for the consciousness of God. Allah says that he
has:
"…prescribed for us fasting, as he prescribed it for those before us,
so that we may fear him."
Worship is there for us to remember Allah. And it is in the
remembrance of Allah, that we achieve that consciousness. Because it
is when we forget Allah, that Shaytan causes us to disobey Allah and
fall into sin. So it is only in His remembrance that we can attain
salvation. All of the various acts of worship from saying "Bismillah"
when we eat is to help us remember Allah in order to grow spiritually.
Allah has said that he has created us to test us, to see which of us
is best in deeds. He is not testing us to know, in the sense that he
doesn’t already know, but this world is a test for us in order again
that we can grow spiritually.
We cannot develop this spiritual characteristic of generosity unless
some of us have more then others and then we are required to give of
the wealth we have. When we give, we grow. Similarly, if we were not
in a position where others had more then us then we wouldn’t have the
ability to develop the higher spiritual quality of contentment,
patience, satisfaction in what Allah has given us.
So it is all there in order to bring out the higher spiritual
qualities, which enable us to attain the state, which makes us
suitable and eligible to return to paradise. The paradise from which
we were created, we were created in paradise and for paradise. Through
our choices we have left, in this life, a field of testing, where we
can grow to a state where we deserve paradise.
The purpose of this life is the worship of Allah, this life is a test.
A test for us, will we worship Allah, or will we forget Him. This is
where our focus has to begin.
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
All praise is due to Allah. May His prayers and blessings be upon his
Last Messenger and on all those who follow the path of righteousness
until the Last Day.
Not just Muslims, but every single human being has to answer the most
fundamental question at some point in his or her lifetime:
"Why was I created? Why am I here? What am I doing in this world? Why
did God create me?"
These questions are questions which each and everyone of us reflects
on at some point during their life. We have some answers, which are
given generally but usually these answers don't satisfy us - seeming
somewhat simplistic. So, we still wonder: "Why me? Why here?". I know
all of you (Muslims), are saying, "To worship Allah, khallas (finish).
What more is there to say? Why do we need to have a big long talk on
why we were created when we all know it is to worship Allah?!"
But wait. If this is presented to a non-Muslim, the next logical
question would be, "Why does Allah want us to worship Him?" Then your
stuck, which can only mean that in our own minds it is not really
clear. Why did Allah create us to worship Him?
Addressing the question, "Why did Allah create us?", we have to
understand how to deal with those people we live with (in the West).
Those who don't consider there to be any purpose in man's creation,
firmly believing that they are just a product of evolution and that
the forces of nature. Just as we don't have apes, dogs or cows
thinking about why they are here, then we also don't have to think
about it either. Following from this belief being the basis of the
philosophy of Western society (that man is without purpose), the whole
issue of government, morality, etc. has no basis for them in
Revelation. The product of this attitude is, of course, the corruption
that we are living in.
When a Muslim addresses this topic, we have to find our understanding
from Divine Revelation and not human speculation. Because human
speculation has no bounds; we can imagine all kinds of things and if
any of you has studied philosophy of religion, you will know how many
opinions there are about the creation of man and existence. Because of
the variety of philosophies which are out there, no one can say this
one is correct or that one is incorrect, because there is no guidance
behind it. No Divine Revelation. It is only from Divine Revelation
that we can determine the reality of our creation, because it is Allah
who has created us and so He knows the purpose of our creation. We can
hardly understand it ourselves, much less trying to understand the
essence of things. So it is for Allah to inform us through the
revelation in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the Prophetic traditions)
which were brought to us by His Last Messenger and the Messengers
before him.
Now if we are to look initially into revelation, to determine why was
man created, there is a deeper question that we should be asking
before that: "Why did God create?". This before we even get to man
because man is not the greatest act of creation. Allah says:
"The creation of the Heavens and the Earth is indeed greater then the
creation of mankind; yet, most of mankind know not." [Surah Ghafir,
verse 57]
Man is not the greatest act of creation, this universe is far more
complex and far more magnificent than man. So the issue of creation
should then go to, "Why did God create?", as opposed to simply, "Why
create man?".
Fundamentally, we can say that the creation is the natural consequence
of the attribute of creator. Allah is the creator. That is one of his
attributes. That is what he has informed us. That being his attribute,
the creator, the natural consequence or the product of this attribute
is his creation.
A painter, if we are to draw a similitude on a lower level, who tells
you that he is a painter, if you ask him where are his paintings and
he replies I don’t have any. What kind of painter is this? The concept
of a painter who doesn’t paint, there is some thing not quite gelling
together here, of course Allah is beyond this. But if we are to
understand on the simplest level, the two go together. The perfection
of a painter lies in his paintings. His quality and his ability to
paint, is manifest in his paintings. And Allah, beyond all that, as
creator, this quality of creation is manifest in the creation itself.
Allah didn’t create out of a need. No, the fact that he is the
creator, is manifest in the creation.
Furthermore, consider the act of creation, this act, with regards to
Allah is unique. Though we use the term i.e. So and so created a table
etc, actually it is in a limited sense. Human beings don’t really
create, they manipulate, because they can only "create" what already
exists. When we make a chair or a table, we didn’t create the wood, we
had to take it from a tree, we didn’t create the metal, which makes
the screws etc, we had to melt down rocks and take the metal out. So
we are not creating from nothing. We are manipulating things which
Allah has already created in to different shapes and forms which are
useful to us. We call it "creation" but the real act of creation, is
creation from nothing, and this is unique to Allah alone.
This is a concept, which many people in ignorance, because they
couldn’t grasp the idea of creation from nothingness, it lead them to
conclude that the world is Allah. Those who say "inside of each and
every atom is Allah." And you have people, who call themselves Muslims
saying this. Non-Muslims have said this before and there are Muslims
who claim this. That Allah is inside each and everything, because
Allah is the reality and everything else is fake in their
interpretation. That means then, that the creation is Allah, and
Allah is the creation. Very, very dangerous concept, which leads some
of those who make this claim to say that you don’t have to worship
outside of yourself. Ibn Arabi, was famous for this statement, he is
considered to be one of the saints, amongst the so called Sufi
religion. Ibn Arabi said "There is no need to worship one outside
yourself, you are Allah. It is sufficient to worship yourself." This
is Shirk.
This concept of Allah being within his creation, no distinction the
creation and Allah, it leads them to this shirk. Because they are
unable to accept the uniqueness of Allah’s creation, they compare the
act of creation by Allah to human creation. That is, just as we
manipulate, Allah took pieces of himself and made the earth and the
universe. Others will say that all human beings have inside of
themselves Allah, that there is a part of Allah inside each and
everyone of us. The whole essence, the purpose of life is for us to
realize that we have part of Allah inside of ourselves, remove the
material blocks which keep us from Allah and again become one with
Allah in what they call "fana". This is again a teaching of the Sufi
religion.
Becoming one with Allah, returning back to Allah in this sense. But
this is in fact part of the teachings of shirk. Shaytan (Satan) has
deluded man into this imagination. It is part of the belief of the
Hindus. Nirvana, the concept that when you die, you are reborn again,
and you move up in stages, each time, if you are a good boy or good
girl, you go up higher and higher, until you get to the top. You know
you have reached the peak, because when you die the next time you
become one with the universal soul, Nirvana. That is the end of
rebirth. So your whole purpose is to return and become one with God
again. This is all, as I said, a product of the inability to
understand the concept of creation from nothingness, which is unique
to Allah. Allah says:
"There is nothing like him, and he is the hearer and seer of all."
So when we try to interpret Allah’s creation like the way we create,
then we have made Him like his creation and it leads us ultimately to
those aspects of shirk which I have mentioned. This is quite common
amongst the Muslim world today, because when you look into the various
branches of the Sufi religion, where they have prescribed various acts
of purification, they call it dhikr, exercises to torture the body
through spinning and dancing. What is the purpose of this? They will
tell you, to liberate the soul from this earthly body and to achieve
that state of "fana" or "itihad", a variety of names they have for it.
It is this concept, which lead al-Hallaj, many centuries ago, when he
was promoting this idea, and he was put before a panel of judges
questioning these concepts, which he was expressing. When they asked
him to recant, to take this stuff back, he stood up, opened up his
cloak and said "There is nothing inside this cloak except Allah". So
they executed him. And of course, those in the Sufi religion, they
have stories that when they cut his head off, it rolled around saying
"Allah, Allah, Allahu Akbar etc". It might have, that is Shaytan may
have entered and said these things, as happened with the calf of the
Isrealites, when the Prophet Musa (Moses) let Egypt and the people,
after crossing the red sea, had a desire to have a god that they could
see, so they made a golden calf which they began to worship. This calf
was saying "moo" like the calves do. This is what convinced them that
this was the real thing. We know it wasn’t the calf saying this. The
evil jinn can enter the in to physical entities, make sounds and give
these impressions. So there is no problem for us to say ok, maybe when
they cut of al-Hallaj’s head that it said these things, because this
was part of a test. If we are clear in terms of creator and creation,
this is no problem for us.
Allah is the creator and everything besides Him is His creation, which
He created from nothing. It is not Him, nor is He it. This is the pure
concept as taught by the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, his
companions, and the early generations of righteous scholars, the
students of the companions and those who came after them. The best of
generations. That is how they understood this matter. There was no
confusion in their minds. It wasn’t until Islam spread to areas like
Egypt, India and Persia, areas where the Christians had already gotten
into deep philosophies, trying to explain how Jesus was a man and god
at the same time. When they came in to Islam they brought it with
them. This is the reality. It is not something we should necessarily
condemn them for or feel is unusual. It is natural, when a person
reverts to Islam, that they will carry with them what they believed
before. What has been clarified for them, of the basic principles,
they accept, and they reject things, which obviously contradict. But
it doesn’t mean that every last thought that they have, and everything
that was wrong in their philosophies, ideology and concepts will be
erased. They will carry these things in with them. This is why in the
later part of the Prophet's sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam life, prior
to his death, when he was coming back from one of the battles, his
companions asked him to set aside a tree for them, that they could
hang their weapons on, like the way the pagans would hang their
weapons on trees, believing that when they hung the weapons, it became
super-powerful, as if some power was coming from the tree, that their
shields would now block steel and their swords would cut through the
enemy. Some of the companions who had newly accepted Islam, asked the
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam to designate one for them, a
special one, an Islamic one. They understood that what the pagans had,
this was wrong. These were the companions of the Prophet sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam and he had to clarify it for them. He said:
You are like the companions of Musa who asked to have the calf built.
And he clarified for them that all of this is shirk and there is no
place for it in Islam. So if it could happen to some of the
companions, then we cannot blame the generations who have come after
them, who come into Islam and carry with them some of their old ideas.
What it is for us to do is to clarify.
So what we have in front of us then, is that Allah created this
universe out of nothing, and everything that is in it was created. For
example:
"Allah created all things, and he is the agent, upon which, all things
depend." [Surah 39, verse 62]
This is the reality. This is stressed for us, in order for us to
realize that ultimately, all good, all evil, that takes place in the
world, only takes place by the permission of Allah. Therefore we
should not seek any other channels to protect ourselves from evil, or
to gather for ourselves good, as people commonly do today. They will
go to fortunetellers, this is big business today, all the magazines
have various forms of fortunetellers like dial a horoscope etc. in a
society that has lost touch with Allah, this is what is open to them.
Allah has stressed for us that no calamity will befall us except by
Allah’s permission;
"Nothing is taking place in this world except by the permission of
Allah."
And the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam further emphasized this
principle by saying;
"If the whole of mankind gathered to do some thing to help us, they
could not help in anything which Allah had not already written for us.
And if the whole of mankind gathered together to harm us, then they
would not be able to harm with anything which Allah had not already
written for us."
Therefore what is required of us is to depend on Allah, put our trust
in Allah. This is what we have to draw out of this attribute of Allah
being the creator. This creation exists because of that attribute. Its
practical significance to us lies in putting our trust in Allah.
There is another aspect, besides the fact that the creation exists
because Allah is the creator. We can also see from what the Prophet
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam has informed us, that in the creation
there is manifestation of Allah’s attributes of mercy, forgiveness,
kindness etc etc. Allah created man in paradise, they disobeyed Allah,
but Allah had taught them how to repent, how to turn back to him and
seek his forgiveness, then he would forgive them. Having done that,
they were forgiven, Adam became the first prophet, and mankind was
absolved of that sin. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of human
existence. Human beings are given a consciousness of Allah. When Allah
created all human beings, as he states in the Qur'an, he took from
Adam (Adam) all of his descendents, and made them all bear witness
that Allah is their Lord. So we are all born with that consciousness.
He has also given us a consciousness of what is right and what is
wrong.
"We have inspired each and every soul to an awareness of corruption
and righteousness."
Allah gave revelation through his commandments, not to eat of the
tree. However, human beings forget. And when they forget Allah then
they fall into sin. We can absolve ourselves of that sin by means of
repentance, and Allah forgives us when we repent sincerely. The
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said;
"The one who repents is like the one without sin."
"If you did not commit sins and turn to Allah seeking his forgiveness,
then he would replace you with another people who would sin, ask
Allah’s forgiveness and he would forgive them."
So in our sinning and asking Allah’s forgiveness, the attribute of
Allah’s mercy and forgiveness becomes manifest. Allah knew what we
were going to do before he created us, he knew that he was creating a
species who would sin. If he didn’t wan t them to sin, if it was not
his intention to permit them to sin, then he could have created
angels, more angels. But the had already created angels, so he chose
to create a being, that would disobey his commandments through
forgetfulness or just simple disobedience, but would turn back to him
in repentance, and his attribute of forgiveness would become manifest.
Similarly, his mercy;
The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam is quoted as saying that when
Allah created the universe, He made an obligation on Himself, recorded
in a document, kept by Him, that "My mercy precedes my wrath." He
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam also was reported as saying;
"Allah created mercy with a hundred parts. One of which was sent down
upon the jinn and human beings and other living creatures. It is out
of this one part that they love each other, show kindness to one
another, and even the animals treat their offspring with affection.
Allah has reserved the remaining ninety-nine parts for his true
worshippers on the Day of Judgment."
This is the mercy of Allah manifest in his creation. What is also
manifest in creation, in the act of creation, the creation of man, is
his attribute of justice, fairness, which comes out as the judgment at
the end of this world. I am sure we have all read the ahadith in which
the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
"Allah created some people for hell and some people for paradise."
For allot of people, this is something very heavy. And the companions,
they asked the prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam then what is the
point in doing good deeds? If Allah created some for heaven and some
for hell then what is the pin in doing anything? It has already been
decided. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
"Each one of you will find it easy to do what he was created for."
So if you choose the evil way, you find it easy and you carry on in
that way, then that was what you were created for. But ultimately it
is your choice. You choose hell. The fact hat Allah has recorded,
before anything was created, who would be in hell and who would be in
heaven does not change the fact that it is we who choose. The judgment
is only to manifest to those who go to hell, that they deserve to be
in hell. It is only for them basically. Because if Allah created you,
and put you in paradise, with all that is in paradise, and you see
those people in hell suffering, are you going to ask Allah, why did
you put me in paradise? No. your going to say "all praise be to
Allah!" you don’t want to question or to wonder, all you will be is
ecstatic that you are of those in paradise. So the judgment is not for
you, it is for those who are going to hell. If you happen to be
amongst those who were created for and put in hell, you would say, why
me? Why did you put me in hell? And Allah would say; because you would
have done so and so in your life. But you would say; no, no I
wouldn’t. If you give me a chance I would do good deeds. You would
not give up arguing.
So Allah has allowed us to live out our lives. So when we stand before
him, our book of deeds is spread before us, we know without a shadow
of a doubt, that we chose hell. That Allah’s judgment is just. There
is no injustice in it, in any way shape or form. Allah says he
oppresses no one. We will know that we chose hell.
And the only thing that remains for us, and I pray that it is not in
fact us, who are going to hell, is to beg Allah for another chance.
Allah says;
"If you could only see when the sinners will bow their heads before
their lord, saying; O Lord, we have now seen and heard, so send us
back and we will do righteous deeds. Verily, we now believe with
certainty."
This is the only response, which will be left for them. Or as Allah
said;
"And those whose light scales of good deeds, they ruined themselves
and they will be in hell eternally. The fire will burn their faces,
and they will grin with disfigured lips, I will say to them; Were My
Verses not recited to you, and you rejected them? They will reply; Our
Lord, our misery overcame us and we were a people astray. Our Lord,
bring us out of this, and if we ever return we will truly be unjust."
When we die, there remains behind us a barrier, the Barzakh, none of
us will come back, it is a one-way ticket. Those poor individuals who
think they will get another chance, this is the new age religion, they
think it is new, but it is just plain old Hindu delusion, that when
you die, you get another chance to come back again. The effects of
this actually, among Hindus, where I am in the UAE, there are a lot of
Hindus here, everyday in the news paper you read about a Hindu man or
woman who ties a rope to a ceiling fan, which is found in many of the
homes, put it around their neck, kicked away the chair and passed out
of this world. Suicide is common amongst them. Why? Because they think
they have another chance. It will be a rude awakening for them when
they meet the angel of death and find themselves in the next life,
realizing that there is no coming back.
In the creation of man is manifest the grace of Allah. This is a
particular point which all of us should reflect on and be thankful to
Allah for. His grace, and Christians, they like to refer to us Muslims
as those who don’t believe in the grace of God, we are those who look
at God’s judgment and it is just about deeds, you do good then you go
to heaven, you do bad and you go to hell, that is it, no grace there
at all. For them the grace of God is there for all those who accept
that he became a man, and was crucified by man, to provide salvation
for human beings who’s sins had become so great that they could not
remove that sin through any act themselves. So it was with the
spilling of the "Blood of God" that we could be absolved of our sins.
For them, if you accept that God spilt his blood for mankind’s
salvation, then you have earned the grace of God. Does not matter what
you do as long as you have accepted this belief in the grace of God.
Muslims also believe in the grace of God. Actually it plays a major
and significant role. Often it is not stressed but it is important for
us to realize how the grace of Allah is manifest in our creation. The
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said;
"Observe moderation, but if you fail, try to do as much as you can
moderately and be happy. For none of you will enter Paradise only
because of his deeds."
Of course when the companions heard that they said;
"O messenger of Allah, not even you? And the prophet sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam said, not even me. Were it not that Allah wrapped me
in his mercy. And bear in mind that the deed most loved by Allah is
one done constantly even if it is small"
What does this mean? It means that God’s grace is manifest in our
lives in that were He to call us to account, one good deed, one evil
deed, equal to each other, then we would not enter paradise, not even
the prophets of Allah. But Allah through his grace and mercy has
multiplied the value of the good deeds. Allah says;
"Whoever brings a good deed, shall the value of ten like it. And
whoever brings an evil deed will be punished with one like it. And
they will not be wronged." [Surah Al-'Imran, verse 160]
This is Allah’s grace. Good deeds erase evil deeds. One good deed will
erase at least ten evil deeds. Allah’s grace is not arbitrary, simply
because you say I believe you have his grace, no matter what you do,
no. The more good you do, the more of his grace is manifest in you. If
you chose evil and reject the good, then you don’t receive His grace,
it doesn’t matter what you say. If you say, I am a Muslim, I believe,
but really you don’t believe, it is just some words you are saying,
them you will not be subject to the grace of Allah.
So the creation is a manifestation of Allah’s attribute of being the
creator. In the creation of man within the scheme of things, there is
manifest Allah’s attribute of mercy, his attribute of justice and this
is the reason for the creation of man from the point of view of Allah.
From human perspective, why did God create man in terms of for what
purpose? Then this is the one we all know and are familiar with;
"We did not create the jinn and men except to worship us" [Surah adh-
Dhariyyat, verse 56)
So relative to Allah, we were created in a means or a way in which
Allah has chosen to manifest his attributes of creation, mercy, grace
etc and he could have chosen another one. But relative to us as human
beings, we know that our purpose is to worship Allah. As we said,
Allah does not need our worship, a Allah didn’t need to create. When
he created us to worship him, he didn’t create us, out of a need for
our worship, because Allah has no needs. In a famous hadith qudsi in
which Allah says;
If all of you, jinn and mankind, were to worship like the most
righteous amongst you, it would not increase the dominion of Allah in
any way shape or form. And if all of us, jinn and mankind ...
Therefore when we look for the purpose of worship, we have to look
into man. Allah created us to worship him, because we need to worship
him. It is something he has given us as a means of benefiting
ourselves. We are the ones who benefit from it. Worship has been
established, fundamentally for the growth, the spiritual growth of
man. This growth takes place through the remembrance of Allah. When
you look at all the different aspects of worship, you will see the
core of it is focused on the remembrance of Allah.
"Establish the prayer for My remembrance."
This is the essence for the consciousness of God. Allah says that he
has:
"…prescribed for us fasting, as he prescribed it for those before us,
so that we may fear him."
Worship is there for us to remember Allah. And it is in the
remembrance of Allah, that we achieve that consciousness. Because it
is when we forget Allah, that Shaytan causes us to disobey Allah and
fall into sin. So it is only in His remembrance that we can attain
salvation. All of the various acts of worship from saying "Bismillah"
when we eat is to help us remember Allah in order to grow spiritually.
Allah has said that he has created us to test us, to see which of us
is best in deeds. He is not testing us to know, in the sense that he
doesn’t already know, but this world is a test for us in order again
that we can grow spiritually.
We cannot develop this spiritual characteristic of generosity unless
some of us have more then others and then we are required to give of
the wealth we have. When we give, we grow. Similarly, if we were not
in a position where others had more then us then we wouldn’t have the
ability to develop the higher spiritual quality of contentment,
patience, satisfaction in what Allah has given us.
So it is all there in order to bring out the higher spiritual
qualities, which enable us to attain the state, which makes us
suitable and eligible to return to paradise. The paradise from which
we were created, we were created in paradise and for paradise. Through
our choices we have left, in this life, a field of testing, where we
can grow to a state where we deserve paradise.
The purpose of this life is the worship of Allah, this life is a test.
A test for us, will we worship Allah, or will we forget Him. This is
where our focus has to begin.