What Islam offers mankind Friday, 29 October 2010 06:22

By A K M Mohiuddin

Islam invites man to truth and success. It offers to guide man out of darkness to light and to show him how best to live. It tells man that a life lived in conformity with truth can alone ensure him true success. It provides man the enduring foundation on which he can build a life of rest and peace, and shows him how to do it.

With his limited knowledge and experience and his subjective bias, man on his own could never know the truth about his existence or determine the proper course for his life. He could never know the origin and meaning of his life and the huge universe in which he finds himself.

He could never find out his true identity, his position and function in the universe and his destiny. He could ask questions about these things, but he could never come up with any satisfying answers. He could not even understand himself well and thus would remain a stranger to himself.

Without clear, comprehensive and consistent answers to these questions, man’s life remains dark, empty and meaningless, an insoluble puzzle and an unbearable burden. He gropes from blunder to blunder, accumulating despair on despair, and never finding any rest, hope and peace in his heart - a state of indescribable despair.

To get out of this bewilderment and agony man needs help from someone who is free of all limitations, who is perfect in knowledge and understanding, and also perfect in ability, and who is attentive and kind to man. Is there any such help available for man? Is there any hope for man ever finding a life of sense and purpose?

Islam offers that help and hope.

First, Islam provides a clear, consistent and comprehensive explanation of the universe and everything in it, including man’s own life.

It tells man that there is a Creator and Master of the universe, who is above all limitations. He is perfect in power and knowledge and wisdom. He is eternal and self- sustaining. He has no partner, nor any equal. He is unique, unlike anything or anyone we know. The name this Creator and Master calls Himself is Allah. (Exalted is He in glory and power.) Islam not only states that He exists, it also provides ample justification for man to accept this truth.

Allah can create whatever He wills, out of nothing, and determine its function. The universe and its order is the result of His will and will exist only as long as He wishes it to.

There are only two sides in His scheme of things, the One and Only Creator and His creation. The two are distinct. The creation is dependent on Him, but He is not dependent on anybody or anything, and whereas He is Eternal, creation is only temporary.

One day He will bring this order of creation to an end. There is no power that can avert this, or hasten or delay its coming. There is no power capable of frustrating His Will. Allah alone is the only true and everlasting reality, and creation has only a fleeting existence.

Allah has created everything with a purpose. There is nothing that is random or accidental. Everything in creation has been appointed a function and destiny. Allah is ever awake and ever cognizant of everything. Nothing can escape His sight or hearing. Nothing is a secret to Him.

This is the most fundamental truth to which Islam invites man. This is the heart of Islam, or the bedrock on which Islam stands. This is the truth expressed by Islam’s concept of tawheed (the oneness and uniqueness of Allah). Everything else in Islam follows from this single truth.

Truth alone can save man. In the absence of truth, there is only impenetrable darkness and falsehood that trap and destroy man. But man cannot create truth. He can only speculate and conjecture and create mere illusions that burst like bubbles. The most he can do is yearn for truth, and recognise and accept it when it appears and then strive to adhere to it.

Nor can man create meaning and value. For anything to have any meaning at all, the universe must have a meaning. There can be no meaning for man if the universe in which he lives has no meaning; there would only be blind confusion and disorder. Nor can there be any value in a universe without meaning. Meaning and value cannot be born or created by man out of a void. Both proceed from the Creator and Master of the universe and the Designer of its destiny. He alone can give meaning and value to whatever He pleases. Only that is meaningful which He makes meaningful, only that is of value which He makes of value. They have no existence independent of Him, just as nothing else in the universe has.

Once man has grasped the truth of tawheed, he has found the anchor of his life that can save him from drifting aimlessly in the ever changing tides of this world, floundering on the rocks of confusion and illusion. With this knowledge of the Lord of the universe man now understands that he lives in a meaningful universe and that his life has sense and purpose. On this enduring foundation alone man can build his life without any fear of its crumbling, a life free of painful fragmentation and irreconcilable contradiction.

To be continued

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