THE CREATION PLAN OF GOD — Discover Meaning

of recovery in the Hereafter. He patiently bears the deprivation of the pleasures and comforts of this world, so that he may be entitled to a place in the eternal Paradise of heavenly bliss. Such a precious soul cannot come into being in a vacuum. Nor can he develop in the normal atmosphere of society — no matter how closelyapproaching the ideal that society may be. It is only in the jungle of adversity that such a soul can emerge; there is no other possible breeding ground. God has created this world in order to select those individuals who are capable of inhabiting heaven. What philosophers describe as social evil is a training ground devised by the Creator to produce human beings of great moral and spiritual character. That is why, in every period of human history, mankind has been faced with all manner of conflict and dissension. The true believers; the virtuous and, in particular, the prophets, have invariably found themselves in unpropitious situations. There is a Hadith to this effect: “When God loves a people, He puts them to the test.” Unfavourable circumstances are not peculiar to non-Muslim societies; in one way or another, they have always been a part of Muslim societies too. In ancient times, the prophets whenever sent to any nation were subjected to severe persecution by unbelievers and deniers. We learn from the Quran that the Prophet Moses was likewise threatened with mental torture and physical agony, even though he had been sent to the People of the Book, that is, to the Jews (33: 69). The Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, established a properly organized state in Arabia, later known as the Khilafat-eRashida, and ruled successively by the four rightly guided Caliphs. But even during this ideal period of Islam, the state continued to suffer from a variety of severe problems. Indeed, there is no period of the Islamic State which can be pinpointed as one in which Muslims led their lives in a state of perfect peace and normalcy. This is not due to any deficiency in the Islamic State, but rather due to the exigencies of the 'training course' established by God Himself for the moral discipline of human beings. As mentioned above, it is not part of God’s plan that an ideal society should be formed in this world