1. THE TRIAL OF MAN

1. THE TRIAL OF MAN ~ 14 ~ before ‘Adam,’ to pay him his due, whether it entails verbal recognition, or material transactions. We cannot ‘hear’ God’s command as if, physically, it were an auditory experience. But that is all the more reason to open our hearts to it. That is the way to achieve moral success in life. Those who respond to God’s command by saying, ‘I am better than he is,’ are little better than moral failures. If one responds to God’s command as the Angels did, the reward of Angels will fall to one’s lot, but if one follows Satan, one’s fate cannot be other than hellfire and damnation. If what is actually required of a man is that he should bow before God, how is it possible to tell whether he has truly submitted to God or not? The test of his submission is his willingness to bow before whichever ‘Adam’ confronts him in life, for the “truly devout servant is one who obeys God’s commandments by giving other human beings their rightful due. A man who prostrates himself before God, but fails to acknowledge the rights of others, treating them with arrogance and injustice, is only going through a meaningless ritual. When God