INTRODUCING THE QURAN

God Almighty created human beings with freedom of choice and then settled them on the planet earth. Then God Almighty established a system of complete recording. This recording system is managed by the angels. It is so comprehensive that it can record the intentions, speech, behaviour and dealings of every single person. This system is operative at all times, day and night. The purpose of all these arrangements is to select the people who deserve to gain entry into eternal Paradise. At the time of Doomsday, God will appear with His angels and according to the angelic record; He will select those people who passed the test. And then all of the others who failed to mould themselves into heavenly personalities will be thrown into the universal litter bin forever. What are those qualities that are required for a person to be a deserving candidate for Paradise? In a single word, it is spirituality. Paradise is a spiritual world and only those who have developed spiritual qualities in their personality will be blessed with entry into Paradise. According to the Quranic description, “Paradise is the home of peace” (10: 25). Paradise is a place where there is no nuisance, no noise; it is free of all kinds of pollution. The inhabitants of Paradise will be positive thinkers in the complete sense of the phrase. The environment of Paradise will be free of all kinds of negative states, like anger, malice, hate, revenge, wrong desires, jealousy, fighting, exploitation and dishonesty, for these negative factors cannot be part of the psychology of the spiritual inhabitants of Paradise. The definition of spirituality given in the dictionary is—the state of being opposed to worldliness. This definition is partly true, for not being worldly is not just for itself, it is for the sake of a higher goal. And that goal is to develop a spiritual way of life. There are two kinds of spirituality—negative spirituality and positive spirituality. Negative spirituality means renouncing the material world while living in society, or leaving society and settling in some jungle or mountain. This kind of negative spirituality has no creative role. It suppresses all the natural qualities of a human being, who then dies without having made full use of his potential. The Quran calls us towards spirituality of the positive kind. It means living in the world and trying to derive spiritual food from material things as a matter of intellectual discipline. It means to control rather than kill your desires.