Meaningful Interpretation of History

Meaningful Interpretation of History A study of the Quran reveals that there is only one product desired by the Creator through various activities of history. This product is called a godly man (rabbani insaan) in the Quran (3:79). That is to say, that the real goal of God’s creation plan is the development of divine personality within an individual—a “man created in God’s image.” As long as such divine (rabbani) individuals continue to be born, the course of history will not come to a halt. Only when such people cease to exist, the present period of history would be brought to an end. Subsequently, its second period, the life hereafter, would commence in the next eternal world. According to the goal set by the Creator, it is not right to examine human history in terms of a just social system. It is because the Creator’s plan is to produce righteous people in this world—a testing ground— rather than an ideal system. These ideal people are the ones who would be selected to live forever in the ideal world of Paradise. A meaningful understanding of history is therefore possible only in the light of the above principle.