The Most Important Issue in Life

How important is the important issue?                

Like a piece of melting ice, our expected days of life are shrinking each day. But surprisingly, many people live this life without knowing its ultimate purpose! Even not realising the most important issue! They exactly resemble a man who drives days and nights without knowing the roadmap. Whatever efforts he puts only expedite his journey towards a wrong destination. Are we among them? A good job, a nice house, good food and professional skills are mere means of our survival. But it is most important to live this life to meet its assigned purpose. Even in ancient ages, people showed wonderful skills. They built pyramids, raised huge wall on mountains and preserved decaying deaths for ages. But their problems started when they lived a life with deception and missed its real purpose. The same problem is eating into our own life even today. We still risk being wholly lost for mere survival, and failing to meet the real objective of our creation. This is why our amazing scientific achievements could not bring sanity to our wisdom! So, we killed more than 70 million people in the last two World Wars, and still keeping our killing machine constantly active in many lands.

Such moral failures owe to our failure in understanding some basic questions that directly relate to our life. Where did we come from? Why to live and how to live? Where do we go from here? Who is our Creator? Will we face punishment for our failures? How to define our failure and success? What is the most original truth that survives through the history? These questions are most basic, but very decisive. Our values, culture, behaviour and attitude are all indeed dependent on our understanding of such issues.

The Most Original Truth

The long history of mankind reveals some unique truth. Although the tools, the people, the lands and languages differ in different ages, the truth that was professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon all of them) was the same. While the scientists living in the same campus cannot conform to the same opinion on so many issues, it is astonishing that these disconnected prophets living in different ages could possess exactly the same opinion on so many issues like the Creator, the hereafter, the day of judgement, the accountability, Hell, Heaven and so many other issues. Indeed, this is the most amazing feature and the most valuable legacy of human history. The uniqueness of this truth owes to its unique source, the Almighty creator. We are not the accidental outcome of a cosmic event, rather highly planned creation of the All-powerful and All-knowing creator – is the common truth that was expressed in the Divine chain of prophet-hood.

The Divine road-map

Allah – the Creator knows the inadequacies of humans. Man can think, imagine and innovate, but cannot invent a roadmap for attaining real success and the right destiny. Here the knowledge of the unseen and the unpredictable is indispensable. So, this is an exclusive domain of Allah – the All-knower. So Allah reveals, “Guiding (man) is my responsibility” (The Qur’an, Chapter 92 Verse 12). This is why, with the creation of man, He sent down prophets and Divine guidance. So the first man himself was also the first prophet. Noah, Abraham (Ibrahim), Jacob (Yaqoob), Isaac (Ishmail), Moses (Musa), Jesus (Issa) (peace be upon all these prophets) were indeed the mentioned few in a chain of several hundred thousand. And they preached the same Divine truth. Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) was the last prophet in that Divine chain. And Qur’an is undoubtedly the final book of guidance for those who believe (Chapter 2, verse 2). So Islam is not the religion of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) alone, rather the religion of all prophets through all ages. He is the last prophet and the Holy Qur’an is the last commandment. “There is none worthy of worshiping except Allah and Mohmmad is the last messenger” is its core concept. With the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, not only chain of prophet hood came to an end, but also the Divine guidance reached it perfection and completion. So the Holy Qur’an says, “This day, I have perfected your religion for you (the mankind), and completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion”. (Chapter 5, verse 3). With seal of prophet hood, the Holy Qur’an also warns, “Unto Allah, Islam is the only acceptable religion” (Chapter 3, verse 19).

The plain and consistent truth

Is it is rationale to believe that someone’s sin will be pardoned by other’s suffering. Neither it is sensible, nor justifiable. Every man and woman is accountable for his or her own deed, and would be rewarded or punished accordingly. Simplicity, consistency and sensibility are the core essence of the Divine Truth. Allah has no partner, nor any son, daughter or minister. The concept of trinity, the Holy Ghost and son of the Almighty are all incompatible with the Divine Truth. Islam prohibits adultery, drinking alcohol, gambling and others sins – as were practised by Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon all of them). Islam thus upholds the Devine revelation free from corruption.

The most rational

Doesn’t it beggar belief that this vast universe and its men and women, plants and animals, planets and galaxies were created mere accidentally? Can an accident in the universe or natural evolution create such a beautiful world with its most delicate and complex livings and non-livings? Could science ever prove such accurate creativity of an accident? Doesn’t it beggar belief that this vast universe and its men and women, plants and animals, planets and galaxies were created mere accidentally? Can an accident in the universe or natural evolution create such a beautiful world with its most delicate and complex livings and non-livings? Could science ever prove such accurate creativity of an accident? Can the extremely complex make-up of the human brain, the functioning of heart, lung and other body-organs, the creation and maintenance of body’s millions of cells and the cellular ingredients, the delicate construction of beautiful flowers and millions of  other creations be the outcomes of accidents? Can a rational man believe that accidents could generate an evolutionary process to develop the mankind, the universe and the millions of other wonderful creations in their present forms?

The only road to success

Men and women are created with a definite purpose. The holy Qur’an tells about the purpose and thus reveals, “He is Allah, Who has created death and life to test who among you is good in deeds” Chapter 62, verse 2). Therefore, this world is virtually is an examination hall; here all men and women are indeed assigned with specific tasks. Like any exam, here it counts every minute. So, a wise man cannot disengage from such prescribed tasks, nor can engage in tasks that would not please Allah, rather would bring His wrath. He is required to put his every effort and potential to do the job in the best possible way. For that, the holy Qur’an is the Divine guide. It is the Book of sure success; and has been described as Allah’s best blessing for the mankind. It helps not only to know the nature of the Divine assignment for every man and woman, but also shows ways to do things with highest perfection. It is impossible to pass the test without following this Divine guidance, hence it a Divine obligation to understand it. The early Muslim fulfilled the obligation; as a result they could achieve a spectacular success with in a short period of time. Their success is still unparalleled in human history.

The question arises, what is our own response to this highest blessing of our Creator? Do we wish to pass the test without this Divine guidance? Is not a sheer arrogance against Allah and His blessings? It is indeed a wake-up call to come to the sense. We must realise the importance of success in this Divine test and indispensability of Divine guidance. If we fail, that will cause catastrophic failure both here and in the hereafter. As a result, hellfire will be the ultimate abode. We spend years after years reading books that seldom help pass this decisive Divine test. Thus society breeds more deception, and plunges into more failures. So, isn’t it wise to study this Divine roadmap? Otherwise, how can our journey follow the right track?

The revealed Qur’an is not exclusively for the Muslims, rather revealed for the whole mankind. Its ownership belongs only to Allah, all men and women of all denominations can be its rightful beneficiaries. So, why not all men and women should come forward to study this greatest Book -the Qur’an that humans have ever experienced. Our success lies on our own success to know and follow this Divine roadmap -this greatest gift of the Creator in every spheres of life. Knowing and following the Divine guidance is indeed the most important singular task in an individual’s life. If we fail in this task, then life will meet failure as the ultimate end result. Therefore, shouldn’t we invest our own time, energy and all potentials to know and follow this prescribed guidance?