Man’s Earnings

MAN’S EARNINGS Everyone has been given opportunities; some use them to earn the world, others to gain everlasting life. Seeing opportunities as God’s gifts and using them in the service of God will earn a man the everlasting gardens of Paradise in the Hereafter. The following verse from the chapter of the Quran entitled, Al-Ahqaf, states: “on the day when those who deny the truth are brought before the Fire, it will be said to them, ‘you have had the good things of the life of this world, and you enjoyed them. now this day you shall be requited with humiliating punishment, because you were arrogant in the land without justification, and because you acted rebelliously.’” (46:20) Man has been endowed with certain faculties in this world. he has been invested with bodily strength and blessed with intellectual prowess. he has been granted access to wealth, rank, resources, and opportunities. all these human faculties are from God. he has given them to man for a purpose: that man should use them to earn something for himself. There are two ways for a man to “earn”. one is that which leads to what the Quran calls being “arrogant in the land without justification, and because you acted rebelliously.” however, another form of earning is the opposite of this, which is the earning of humility and graciousness from