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In search of another God

By Fahad Iqbal
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Humans have been gifted with great abilities and distinct advantage over rest of the creation. In spite of innumerable favors bestowed upon them by Allah سبحانه و تعالى, humans are ever ungrateful. Not content with what they had or in search of an escape from their agonies, they turned to others whom they assumed could help. Not pleased with their Creator, they supplicated to prophets, angels, pious, dead and even animals - hoping that they may be able to intervene in the decree of Allah or if not, at least intercede with Him سبحانه و تعالى on their behalf. To please these gods and gain their favor, they worshiped them, while they never deserved worship. However, Allah - The Most Merciful - did not withdraw His blessings from humans nor did He destroy them altogether, which is easy for Him جل جلاله. Quite contrary to that, He continued to bestow upon them more favors; but very few show gratitude.

يآ أيها الإنسان ما غرّك بربك الكريم؟ الذي خلقك فسواك فعدلك. في أيِّ صورة ما شآء ركَّبك
O Mankind! What has deceived you regarding your Lord? One Who created you, fashioned you and balanced you. In whatever form He willed, assembled you.
(Al-Qur'an 82 : 6 - 8)

Recent years have seen humans flooded with blessings - likes of which, no other generation before has experienced or imagined possible. The industrial revolution, electricity, internet, computers, biological breakthroughs and on and on... all of these in a relatively very short span of time! Humans claimed that it's all due to human intelligence and it increased them further in arrogance, ingratitude and hatred - so much so, that they refused to even acknowledge the existence of their Creator and sought independence from Him. They agreed to and spent great deal of effort to keep their Lord out of their life, work and school. Increasingly, to believe in God or even utter His name was scorned upon.

The challenge to them was, that the existence of creation needed an explanation. No one with a sound mind could accept that the world with all it's complexities had no Creator. In an effort to remove Creator from the equation, they came up with a set of ideas and explanations, where they confused - themselves and others, between cause and effect. For example, instead of saying "Animals can chew because they have teeth", they would say "Animals got teeth because they needed to chew". Put plainly, the second statement is stupidity at it's best, but they decorated it with fanciful jargon and clothed it with gown of science, and propagated it as an established fact beyond doubt.

قُتل الإنسان ما أكفره! من أيِّ شيءٍ خلقه؟ من نطفةٍ خلقه فقدره. ثمّ السبيل يسَّره. ثمَّ أماته فأقبره. ثُمَّ إذا شآء أنشره
Cursed is mankind, how ungrateful they are!? From what did He create them? From a fluid He created them and set them in due proportions. Then made their path easy. Then made them to die and put them in grave. Then when He wills, will raise them again.
(Al-Qur'an 80 : 17 - 22)

With all their arrogance, they themselves were not convinced with their idea of no Creator - how can anyone be? Haunted by their own ideas, they invoked Nature as their new god and put forward as an explanation of creation. This new god of theirs, was loved and accepted by many, because it was deaf, dumb, blind and dead. It promised them not to guide them to the straight path, nor to legislate any laws for them, nor to raise them back to life for judgement between them, nor to hold them accountable for their deeds in this life. In this they saw freedom to live as they liked, to make their own rules, to justify their wrongs and abolish the right. Left with none to guide them, they took their desires as their guides; with no role model to tread on their footsteps, they walked in the footsteps of animals - reducing themselves lower than the least.

و التينِ و الزيتونِ و طور سنين و هذا البلد الأمين. لقد خلقنا الإنسان في أحسن تقويم. ثمَّ رددناه أسفل سافلين. إلا الذين آمنوا و عملوا الصٰلحات فلهم أجر غير ممنون. فما يُكذِّبك بعد بالدين؟ أ ليس الله بأحكم الحاكمين!؟
By the fig and the olive. By the Mount Sinai. By this secure city (Makkah). Surely, We have created mankind in best mold. Then We reduced them to lower than the least. Except for those who believed and did good deeds; for them is unending reward. Then what makes you deny the judgment day? Is not Allah, best of all judges?!
(Al-Qur'an 95)
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