Wishful Thinking

It seems that God, in accordance  with His attributes,  intends  to make a creature that can experience  His being (His mercy, compassion,  love, kind­ ness, beauty,  etc.) in an intensely  personal  way and  at a level higher  than the other  beings  known  to mankind.  The  intellect and  will that  man  has been given, together with the strife and struggle that he will surely face on earth,  somehow   contribute   to  the  development   of  these  individuals,   this subset  of humanity  that will be bound  to God by love.

We  need  to travel  on  and  delve  deeper  in this  direction   in order  to gain greater  insight.  But before we do, we should consider the possibility that we may be deluding ourselves.  By this I mean that we may have been reading   into  the  Qur'an  something   that  is not really  there;  we may have been projecting   onto the scripture  our own personal  conflict,  one that the Qur'an  never insists  on explicitly  nor even intentionally   raises the issue of an ultimate  purpose  behind  the creation  of man.  Yet here again we meet with the persistently   provocative   method of the scripture.  Just  when  we are prepared   to doubt  our  first  impressions   and  to revert  to  the familiar and comforting   comer  of cynicism  from which  we have  come,  the Qur'an reopens  the  topic.

“Those [are believers]  who remember  God standing  and sit­ ting and lying  down  and reflect  upon  the creation  of the heavens  and  the earth [and say]:  Our  Lord,  You  did not create all this in vain.” (Surah Al-‘Imran, 3:191)

“We have not created the heaven and the earth and what­ ever is between them in sport. If We wish  to take a sport, We  could  have  done  it by  Ourselves if  We  were  to do that at all.” (Surah Al-Anbiya’, 21:16-17)

“Do you think that We created you purposely and that you will not be returned to Us?  The true Sovereign is too exalted above that.” (Surah Al-Mu’minun, 23:115-116)

“We did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, in play.”  (Surah Ad-Dukhan, 44:38)

So for us there is no easy escape.  The Qur'an apparently will not back out of the challenge.  It is up to us to either continue on in this search or to resign and avoid a decisive engagement.  Our numbers now are almost surely less than when we started. For those willing to continue, we should consider what would be the next natural step.  Since  the Qur'an  undoubtedly claims  that life has a reason  and since, as we observed,  it has to do with the nurturing   of a certain  relationship  between God  and man,  it would  seem quite  appropriate   to  seek  more  information   about  the nature  of man  and what the Qur'an  requires  of him  as well as about the attributes  of God and how mankind  is affected  by them.