God Oriented Life

human beings. They led their lives just as others did, thus demonstrating to their people how God’s servants should, in practice, conduct themselves on earth, and showing them clearly what path they must tread in order to avert God’s displeasure and make themselves worthy of His blessings. Man has been placed on this earth by God in order that his obedience to his Creator may be put to the test. For this purpose he has been given complete freedom to tread the paths of both good and evil. He has a choice. But to follow the path desired for him by God, man is in need of guiding principles. The true source of guidance, according to Islam, is to be found in prophethood. Throughout human history, God in His infinite mercy selected certain individuals to communicate His message to mankind, so that all human beings might be given an opportunity to follow the right path. These chosen people were called prophets, or messengers. A prophet is a person chosen by God as His representative. When God appoints someone as His Prophet, He sends His angel to him to inform him of his new status. In that way, the individual can have no doubts about his appointment as God’s Prophet. Later, God reveals His message to him through His angels, so that he may communicate the divine teachings to all his fellow men. God has given man a mind so that he may be endowed with understanding. But this mind can only grasp things that are apparent. It cannot go below the surface, and there are many things to be apprehended, for which a superficial knowledge is God’s prophets were born into this world just like any other human beings. They led their lives just as others did, thus demonstrating to their people how God’s servants should, in practice, conduct themselves on earth, and showing them clearly what path they must tread in order to avert God’s displeasure.