Previously, we discussed the Purpose of Creation from the perspective of Almighty God that what was the purpose of Almighty God for creating us. An important question often asked is that if Almight God has already destined everything then if I commit murder or rape or any other sins then God is responsible? And it is a very logical question. To answer this we must understand the conception of Destiny or Predestination correctly.
Certain things are fixed. Such as, where will you born, which family will you be born in, when and where will you die? These things are fixed.
Almighty God has Ilm-e-Gayb. Almighty God has perfect and infallable knowledge of the future. Almighty God knows in advance what you will do in the future out of your own will and choice. So Almighty God writes it down in advance that you will do it. So It is not because God has written it down that you do it. But it is because you will be doing it out of your own free-will that God has already written it down.
Let me explain it with an example of a classroom. Suppose the teacher has taught the class for the whole term and exams are approaching and the teacher makes some predictions in the classroom. The teachers says that Student A will come first in the class and Student B will fail in the exams. And after the exams when the results are declared, Student A comes first and Student B fails exactly as the teacher had predicted before the exams. Now Student B can not blame the teacher that she predicted that he will fail and that is why he has failed. Because the teacher had taught the class and had knew that Student A is a hard working student and will come first, but Student B does not study and plays all the time, hangs out with his friend and obiviously because of all this he will fail. So the teacher had knowledge of all this and with the help of her knowledge she made correct predictions. So Almighty God has perfect knowledge of the future, which never fails and thus Almighty God knows in advance what people will do and He writes it down in advance.
For instance, if in your life you come at a crossroad and there are three roads. Road 1, road 2 and road 3. You are free to chose whichever way you want and you chose you take road 2. Almighty God already knows in advance that you will choose road 2 out of your own will and that is why He has already written it down in your destiny. Or suppose if you choose road 2, but after walking a few steps you change your mind, get back and choose road 3. Almighty God already knows in advance that you will first choose road 2, but after a few steps you will change your mind and choose 3. So it is not that Almighty God has already written it down that you are choosing this road, but it because you will out of your own free-will choose this road and Almighty God knows it and He has written it down.
Lets try to answer the question of creation from the perspective of the creation, the human beings. That why Allah created us human beings. Allah says in the Glorious Qur'an Sura al Araaf Chapter 7 Verses 172 & 173 that He will bring out from the lions of the children of Adam (may peace be upon him) all the desendants and will ask them am I your Lord and all will say that we testify that you are our Lord lest on the day of judgement they may say that we were unaware that you are our Lord or that our ancestors worshiped somebody else and we just followed them so they should be punished not us. So before we were sent into this world Allah brought all the Children of Adam and asked them who is their Lord and they all testified that there is one Allah and He is our Lord and now is our test in this world.
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an Sura al Zariaat Chapter 51 Verse 56, "We have created the men and the Jinn not but to worship Me." The English word "Worship" according the Webster's Encylopedia Dictionary means 'acts of devotion honoring the Diety.' The Arabic word for 'worship' is "Ibada" derived from the root word "Abd", which means 'a slave'. It is the duty of the slave to be obidient to all the wishes and will of his master. So 'Ibada' means 'total submission to the will of the Creator, Almighty Allah.'
One of the forms of worship is Glorification of the Creator, Almighty Allah. Allah says in the Holy Qur'an Sura an Nasr Chapter 110 Verse 3 , "Glorify the praises of thy Lord." One may ask why does Allah require us human beings to glorify Him? Is Allah dependent on the praises of human beings? Even if all the human beings praise Allah, it will not make Him greater and if nobody praises Him, yet it will not diminish Him. He is the same. If you say 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the Greatest) a hundred times it will not make Him superior or if you do not say 'Allahu Akbar', it will not make Him less. He is the Greatest and He will remain the Greatest. Allah says in the Qur'an Sura Anfal Chapter 8 that Allah does not require us. It is we who require Him and He is worthy of all praises. So the question remains that why does Allah then require us to praise Him? In fact it is for our own benefit because it is human tendency that if we praise a person or a person is famous, we tend to follow his advice. For instance, if your mother is suffering from a heart disease and you have two options. One is the best doctor in the world and the other is a plain MBBS doctor and both are giving free treatement. Whom would you go to? Of course, you will go to the best doctor in the world and whatever advice he gives you, you will act upon it with your eyes closed because you accept him to be world famous, the best. That is the reason when we praise Allah and call Him the Greatest, the Most Merciful so the moment we praise Him, we tend to follow His advice, the Glorious Qur'an and the advice that He revealed to His Messengers including the final prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). For instance, when you agree that He is the Most Wise, then Allah, the Most Wise tells you not to have alcohol then stop having alcohol. Allah tells you not to rob then do not rob. So it is not for the benefit of Allah that we praise Him, it's for our own benefit because when we praise Him, it is human tendency that we will follow His advice.
That is why Allah says in the Holy Qur'an Sura at Taha Chapter 20 Verse 14 that Verily I am Allah and there is no God besides Me, so remember Me regularly and offer (Salaah) prayer regularly. Allah is advising us to offer Salaah (prayer) regularly because there is so much evil around us that we tend to deviate at times and this Salaah (prayer) is a programing towards righteousness and we are getting programed. As a doctor say that we require 3 meals a day for a healthy body in the same way we require a minimum 5 times daily Salaah (prayer) for a healthy soul. So all forms of worship are beneficial for us.
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an Sura al Baqara Chapter 2 Verse 183 that fasting has been prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those, who came before you so that you may learn self restraint. So when we fast we learn self restraint. We learn to control our desires. Today psychologists tell us that if we control our hunger, we can control all our desires. When we fast, we abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset and when control our hunger, we learn to control almost all our desires. So who is benefitting we or Allah? Of course, we are benefitting; we are learning self restraint.
Allah says in the Qur'an in Sura al Maidah Chapter 5 Verse 90, "O you who believe! Verily intoxicants and gambling, dedication of stones (Idol Worship), divination of arrows (Fortune-telling), these are Satan's handywork. Abstain from this handywork, so that you may prosper." And Allah says in the next verse 5:91 that Satan creates enimity and hatred among the human beings through intoxicants and gambling and this takes you away from Allah. So here Allah is guiding us to offer Salaah, fast and not to drink.
Any commandment of Allah that you follow is a form of worship as long as you do it in the right way. Two critera are required. First, any act that you do, you should do it for the pleasure of Allah and not for golory, praise or fame. Second, it should be done the way Allah and His Messenger Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has told us. The way mentioned in the Qur'an and Saheeh Hadith (Authentic Sayings & Traditions of Prophet Muhammad). If you do in any other way it will not be accepted as worship. It is mentioned in Saheeh Muslim Volume 2 Hadith 1885 that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that the worst of all affairs is innovation in the religion. It is a curse and innovation in religion will take you to hell fire. So there is a general rule that all types of worship is prohibited except that mentioned in the Qur'an and Authentic Hadith (sayings & traditions of the prophet).
The purpose of creation of human beings is to worship Allah and when we worship Him, we benefit. It helps us.
It is a misconception that Islam is a new religion and prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is its founder. In fact, Islam is there since time in memorial, since man set foot on the Earth and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is not its founder. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the last and final Messenger of Allah. There have been many other Messengers as well. As Qur'an says that there is not a nation to which a messenger was not sent. There are names of 25 messengers mentioned in the Qur'an. Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Aaron, Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them all) were messengers of God and they were Muslims. The word 'Islam' comes from the root words 'Salam' meaning 'Peace' and Selm' which means 'Submission', so in short Islam means "peace acquired by submitting your will to Allah". Muslim is a person, who acquires peace by submitting his will to Allah. So all these prophets were Muslims, submitting their will to Allah. All the messengers brought the same message and anyone who submits his will to Almighty God, he is a Muslim. Moses was a Muslim. Abraham was a Muslim. Jesus was a Muslim. Since our Creator is one. Human kind is one. So the religion should be one. That is why Allah says in the Qur'an Sura ale Imran Chapter 3 Verse 19, "The only religion acceptable in the sight of Allah is Islam (peace acquired by submitting your will to God)." Allah repeats the message in the Qur'an Sura ale Imran Chapter 3 Verse 85 that if anybody desires any other religion besides Islam, it will never be accepted of him and he will be among losers. All the messengers taught the same message of submitting your will to Allah and worshiping Him alone and no one else.
Allah says in the Qur'an in Sura al Bayinah Chapter 98 Verse 6 that those who have faith do righteous deeds are the best of creation. There are many greater creations than human beings such as the Heavens and the Earth, but Allah calls human beings the best of creation because human beings have a free will of their own. If with this free will we follow the commandments of Allah, we reach the best of creation. We become even better than the angels because angels do not have a free will of their own and if human beings with their free will obey the commandments of Allah, they become superior to the angels. But if you with free will we disobey Allah, then we become the brothers of Satan. So human beings are the best creation of Allah.
The gravest sin mentioned in the Qur'an in Sura an Nisa Chapter 4 Verse 48 that if Allah wills, He will forgive any sin. But the sin of 'Shirk' He will never forgive for anyone, who has done Shirk has strayed far away. Allah repeats the message even in Verse 116 of the Chapter. The gravest sin any human being can do is 'Shirk' means associating partners with Allah and worshipping anyone besides the One true God Allah.
One of the qualities of Allah is Love. Allah loves His creation and that is why because of His Grace He has bestowed us with all the blessings He has given us. The air that we breathe. The water that we drink. For those of us, who follows His commandments, Allah has prepared a place for us in the paradise in the next life out of His love. It is mentioned in Saheeh Muslim Volume 1 Hadith 67 that Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, "that person has tasted the sweetness of faith, who do three things. One, who love Allah and His Messenger more than everyone in the World. Two, they love other people for the sake of Allah. Three, who hate to go back to disbelief from where Allah has saved them and they don't want to go to the hell-fire." Allah commands Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the Qur'an in Sura ale Imran Chapter 3 Verse 31 to say that all those who love Allah, follow me for Allah will love and Allah will forgive you.
If we analyze, we love other people, our mother, father, wife and children because they have done certain favors upon us. For instance, we love our mother because they bore us in her womb for 9 months. She took care of us when we were young. She brought us up. We love our brothers because either they have given something to us or we want something from them. In that context, if we count the favors Allah, the Almighty God has done upon us we won't be able to count them up. As Allah says in the Qur'an in Sura Ibrahim Chapter 14 Verse 34 that if you count the favors of Allah, you will not be able to add them up. Imagine, if we love our parents so much for the few things they have given to us, how much should we love Allah. Love differs. For instance, we love animals but our love for animals on a different level than our love for other human beings. In the same way, our love for Allah is on a much superior level than our love for other human beings.
It is mentioned in the Qur'an in Sura al Fatiha Chapter 1 Verse 5, "Thee alone we worship. Thee alone we ask for help." Allah says in Sura al Ghafir Chapter 40 Verse 60, "You ask me and I will answer your prayer." Allah says in Sura al Baqara Chapter 2 Verse 186, "O Messenger, when they ask you about Me, tell them that I am near to them and I will answer their prayers." So worship should only be done to Allah and no one else. He is the only One, who deserves worship and nobody else.
