THE QUEST FOR IDEAL SOCIETY

not the intention of God that a social system of justice and welfare be established on the earth for the whole of humankind. In line with the plan with which God created man, an ideal social system was simply not possible at all. According to this creation plan, every human being was given full freedom. Every person had complete freedom of choice. It was absolutely natural, therefore, that people would misuse their freedom and in this way the majority of them would become corrupt. On account of this, God chose an attainable target, i.e. to establish His creation plan based on individuals, not on the principle of a collective community. According to this plan, there is an atmosphere of complete freedom on earth. People are born here, one after another. Among them, some individuals use their freedom in the right manner, while others use their freedom in the wrong manner. At the same time, in accordance with an unseen system of recordkeeping, the angels are compiling a complete record of every person. This record will be presented before God on the Day of Judgement. The events of that day have been foretold and explained elsewhere in the Quran. For example, it has been said (42: 7): …..warn them of the Day of Gathering which is sure to come: when some will be in the Garden, and some will be in the Fire. According to this understanding of creation, in the Hereafter, from among the whole of humanity, only the righteous individuals will be selected, i.e. those who had given evidence by their deeds that despite their freedom, they did not use their freedom wrongly. Despite their freedom, they led a principled life and saved themselves from going astray. In this way, they proved that they were worthy of being settled in the ideal society of Paradise. In the Hereafter, these selected individuals from the whole of human history will be settled in Paradise. o