of the
Authorized
English translation of the Quran by
Dr.
Rashad Khalifa
Why Were We
Created?
We are in this world because we committed a
horrendous crime, and thislife is our chance to redeem ourselves, denounce
our crime, and rejoin God's kingdom.
It all began a few billion years ago when "a
feud arose in the Heavenly Society"
(38:69). One
of the high-ranking creatures, Satan, entertained supercilious thoughts that
his God-given powers qualified him to be a god besides God.
He thus challenged God's absolute
authority. Not only was Satan's idea
blasphemous, it was wrong - only God, and no one else, possesses the
qualifications and ability to be a god.
Consequent to Satan's blasphemy, a division
occurred in the Heavenly Society, and all constituents of God's kingdom became
classified into four categories:
1. Angels: Creatures who upheld God's
absolute authority.
2. Animals: Creatures who rebelled but
then accepted God's invitation to repent.
3. Jinns: Creatures who agreed with Satan;
that he is capable of being a "god."
4. Humans: Creatures who did not make
up their minds; they failed to
make a firm stand with God's absolute
authority.
The Most Merciful
|
The angels
expected God to banish the creatures who
did not uphold His absolute
authority
(2:30).
But God is Most Merciful; He decided
to give us a chance to denounce our mistake,
and informed the angels that He knew what they did
not know
(2:30).
God knew that some creatures
deserved a chance to be redeemed.If you claim
the ability to fly a plane, the best way to test your
claim is to give you a plane and ask you to fly it. This
is precisely what God decided to
do in response to Satan's
claim. God created seven vast universes, then informed
the angels that He was appointing Satan as a
god on the tiny mote called "Earth"
(2:30).
The Quranic accounts related to appointing Satan as a temporary "god" (36:60)
confirm the previous scripture. God's plan called for
creating death
(67:1-2), then
bringing the humans and jinns into
this world. Thus, they start over without any biases,
and exercise full freedom to uphold
God's absolute authority
or Satan's polytheistic theory. To make this crucial decision,
every human being receives a message from God advocating
His absolute authority, as well as a message from Satan pushing his polytheistic principles.
To give us a headstart,
the Most Merciful gathered all the human beings before Him,
prior to sending us to this world, and we bore witness that
He alone is our Lord and Master (7:172).
Thus, upholding God's absolute authority is a natural instinct that
is an integral part of every human being.
After putting
the rebels to death, the souls of humans and jinns were placed in a special depository. God
then created the appropriate bodies to house the souls of jinns and
humans during the test period.
The first jinn body was made from fire, and
Satan was assigned to that body
(15:27).
The first human body was created from earthly
material, clay
(15:26), and
God assigned thefirst human soul to that body.
The divine plan called for the angels
to serve the humans on earth - guard them, drive
the wind and rain for them, distribute
provisions, etc.
This fact is stated in the Quran allegorically:
"Your Lord said to the angels, `Fall prostrate before
Adam.'" Satan of course refused to have anything
to do with serving the human race
(2:34,
7:11,
17:61,
18:50,
20:116). |
You,
Lucifer, said in your
heart:
"I will scale the
heavens.
I will set up my
throne.
Above the stars of
God.
I will take my seat. on
the
Mount of
Congregation,
in the recesses of the
North.
I will ascend above
the
tops of the
clouds;
I will be like the Most
High!"
[Isaiah
14:13-15]
The devil then took
Jesus
up a very high mountain
and displayed before him
all
the kingdoms of the world
in their magnificence,
promising: "All these
will I bestow on you if
you
prostrate yourself in
homage before me."
At this, Jesus said to
him, "Away with you,
Satan!
Scripture has
it:
`You shall worship the
Lord your
God; Him ALONE shall you
dore.'"
[Matthew 4:8-10] &
[Luke 4:5-8] |
|
While Adam's body remained on earth, the real
person, the soul, was admitted into Heaven in the outermost universe.
God gave Adam certain commandments, represented
by the forbidden tree, and Satan was appointed as Adam's companion to deliver
to Adam his satanic message.
The rest is history.
Every time a human being is born, a human person
is assigned to the new baby from the depository of souls. God assigns the
souls in accordance with His knowledge
(28:68).
Every soul deserves to be assigned to a certain
body, and live under certain circumstances. God
alone knows which souls are good and which souls
are evil. Our children are assigned to our homes in accordance with
God's plan.
An independent jinn soul is also assigned to
the new human being to represent Satan's point of view. While the physical
body of any jinn is reproduced from the parent jinns, the jinn soul is that
of an independent individual. Jinns are descendants of Satan
(7:27,
18:50).
The assigned jinn remains with the human being
from birth to death, and serves as the main witness on the Day of Judgment
(50:23).
A continuous debate takes place in our heads
between the human soul and the jinn soul until both of them are convinced
of one point of view.
The Original
Sin
Contrary to common belief,
the "Original Sin" was not Adam's violation of God's law when he ate from
the forbidden tree. The original sin was our failure to uphold God's absolute
authority during the Great Feud.
If the human person convinces
his or her jinn companion to denounce that original sin, and uphold God's
absolute authority, both creatures are redeemed to God's eternal kingdom
on the Day of Judgment.
But if the jinn companion
convinces the human being to uphold Satan's idolatrous views, then both creatures
are exiled forever from God's kingdom.
To promote his point of
view, Satan and his representatives advocate the idolization of such powerless
creatures as Muhammad, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Since we are here due
to our polytheistic tendencies, most of us are easy prey for
Satan.
Satan's incompetence as a "god" has already been
proven by the prevalence of chaos, disease, accidents, misery, and war
throughout his dominion (36:66).
On the other hand, the
human beings who denounce Satan, uphold God's absolute authority, and refrain
from idolizing powerless and dead creatures like Jesus and Muhammad, are
restored to God's protection - they enjoy a perfect life here in this world
and forever.
Because our life in this world is a series of tests
designed to expose our polytheistic ideas, idol worship is the only unforgivable
offense (4:48,
116).
The world is divinely
designed to manifest our decision to uphold either God's absolute authority,
or Satan's idolatrous views
(67:1-2).
The day and the night change constantly to test our willingness to uphold God's
laws by observing the Dawn Prayer and fasting during the hottest and longest
days.
Only those who are totally certain about God's
absolute authority are redeemed
(26:89).
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