The Fifteen Billion Year Planning

reach the highest level of intellectual development. It was a plan that took a long time to unfold. In fact it took about 15 billion years to reach completion. It has been repeatedly said in the Quran that the sky and the land and all the things in them are made for human beings. Looked at in this way, the 15 billion year-creation plan of the universe was solely for man’s benefit. What is now required of man? That is just one thing: the realization of God. What man has to do is reflect upon God’s creation and achieve this realization of God in this world itself. It is this realization which is the price of eternal Paradise. This process of realization is not limited in nature. It starts in the present world and continues right into the world Hereafter. It is an eternal process, the starting of which is known but whose end remains unknown. The process of the attainment of realization starts initially in this world, and it will continue in its ultimate form in the Hereafter. This realization is the real distinction of human beings. It is this realization, which qualifies man for entry into Paradise in the ‘seat of truth with an all-powerful sovereign.’ (54:55) The present global warming and coronavirus pandemic is a signal from God alerting man to the fact that the first stage of creation is about to come to an end, that is, the stage of selection of man. That now the time has come for the Lord of the Universe to reveal Himself. With perfect justice, He will decide people’s eternal future. Now the ultimate moment has come for man to wake up from his slumber and, by making due preparations, make himself worthy of finding a place in eternal Paradise, in the world of the Hereafter.