THE TWO COURSES

THE TWO COURSES A Sincere Inclination towards Truth I N the present world, there are two courses open to man. One is the straight path. The other course has many deviations from the straight one. The Quran (16: 9) explains: ‘The straight way leads to God and there are ways which deviate from the right course.’ The straight path is that man should have a central place in his life for his Creator. He should make the Creator his supreme concern. The path that deviates from the right course is that man loses himself in worldly beings and things. He plans his life only in relation to these created things. In the universe, there are only two things: the Creator, and the creation. The religious term for making the Creator one’s sole concern is tawheed, while the religious term for making creation one’s concern is shirk. Starting with the birth of humankind, in every age God sent prophets, who gave people guidance regarding right and wrong. The mission of all the prophets was one and the same—to invite people towards tawheed and exhort them to save themselves from shirk. It is a fact that just as in every age tawheed was one and the same, in every age shirk too has been the same. Ancient shirk, or the ancient version of shirk, was based on nature worship. Nature’s status is that of a creation. It has been created by God. But ancient man gave natural objects the status of a deity. He adopted the evil of nature worship. That is, instead of worshipping the Creator, he worshipped the created. This is referred to as the ‘worship of natural phenomena’. Today also, this shirk remains with its full strength. Man is doing the same thing as before—instead of the Creator, the creatures have become his supreme concern. The difference between ancient shirk and modern shirk is only in terms of external appearances, not in terms of their reality. Ancient man had made nature an object of worship. Modern man has made nature an object of entertainment. The centre of his devotion earlier was in creation, and it is so now as well. The straight path is that man should hold a central place in his life for his Creator. He should make the Creator his supreme concern. The path that deviates from the right course is that man loses himself in worldly beings and things.