THE WORD OF GOD

The remedy for ignorance is asking questions. (Prophet Muhammad) The spirit of enquiry is the hallmark of an open society and the above saying of the Prophet aptly illustrates this principle. A culture of curiosity and open-mindedness will foster development in any society by motivating its members to learn enthusiastically and enrich their knowledge. This is because awareness of one’s ignorance is half of knowledge, as it becomes a stepping-stone to seeking and finding answers. A questioning mind is like a flowing river that is replenished with fresh thoughts and ideas and continues on its journey. YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED Miss Sarah Bancroft is the associate editor of Independent, an English newspaper published from London. She visited New Delhi in the last week of April 2002. Through Mr Muhammad Khalid Ansari (Hindustan Times), she sent us a questionnaire. The below are the answers that were emailed to her. What is the purpose of man’s existence? What is the purpose of man’s existence in this world, to understand this question, we should first know what the creation plan of God is. According to the Quran, God created an ideal world called Paradise. This is an eternal and perfect world where man will get everything that he desires. This world with its limitations and imperfections is a selection ground. Here, those people are being selected who will prove worthy to be settled in the eternal world after death. Studies show that man is such a creation which has exceptionally unlimited capacity. The busiest or the most successful of human beings, however, could hardly utilize 2% of this capacity. The reason being that this world with its limitations does not offer unending opportunities to human beings to live life utilizing the full capacity. According to this study, there is a difference in human capacity and the world that can be made full use of. This difference is an indication that there must be another world where man could obtain total fulfilment, where man could live his life utilizing his full potential. It is like a psychological proof that apart from this limited world, there indeed is an unlimited and perfect world. Paradise is the other name for this world.