This World: A Selection Ground for Paradise

PARADISE: THE DESTINATION OF MAN Paradise will only be found in a state of perfection hereafter. In Paradise, man will find a life of joy, peace, and happiness forever. There will be no necessity for physical labour; pleasant intellectual activities will suffice to achieve all the desired goals. Man must realise that he stands on the threshold of Paradise. The present Earth is a Paradise-inthe-making, not Paradise itself. How can man achieve the Paradise of his dreams? To find an answer to this question, one must become aware of the Creation Plan of God. God has created man according to His Plan. To become acquainted with this plan, a man must thoroughly understand himself. Just as the workings of a machine can only be understood when we study the engineer’s drawings who made it. Besides the engineer’s mind, there is no other thing to clarify what the machine is meant for. The case of man is the same. Only by understanding the Creation Plan of the Creator can we know the purpose of man’s life. Man’s existence is such a unique phenomenon that no other such example can be found throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Man is rightly called the ‘best of all creations,’ which means the best and most meaningful ‘being’ among all the things created. Such a ‘meaningful being’ cannot have been created without a purpose. The Creator of man has created him according to a unique plan. The Quran, the only preserved religious scripture, sheds light on this plan. The Quran states: