Purposeful Creation : God's Vision for Mankind

QURANIC INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN HISTORY points out this fact in the following words: ‘It appears that man has strayed into a world that was not made for him’. According to the Quran, the present earth is not a habitat for man forever. Man’s eternal habitat lies in the world Hereafter. In accordance with the Creation Plan of God, man must develop a spiritual personality in the pre-death period so that he is selected as a deserving candidate for this habitat or Paradise in the postdeath period. QURANIC INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN HISTORY The present world is a testing ground for which man has been given complete freedom. Here, God is selecting individuals from the entire human history for Paradise. Those who make proper use of their freedom will be inhabited in eternal Paradise, while those who misuse it will be eternally deprived. God first created the physical universe over a long and gradual process. Human history, from the Quranic point of view, begins with Adam and Eve. God created them and settled them in Paradise while giving them complete freedom. The guidance given to them by God was as follows: “O Adam! Live with your wife in Paradise and eat freely from it anywhere you may wish. Yet do not approach this tree lest you become wrongdoers.” (Quran, 2:35) The creation of Adam’s wife was an indication that God desired