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THE BALANCE...
One of the key philosophical concepts of Islam
is that of the balance. Allah has created everything in
perfect balance, but over time this balance is lost as a
result of our collective actions. The task for humanity,
and first and foremost the believers, is to re-establish
the balance. Islam thus avoids excesses and extremism and
has in the Qur'an been described as the middle way
belonging to a moderate community. The history of Muslim
societies shows various movements which arose as
counter-balance and in response to the particular
direction society was going at a given time in history.
It is therefore short-sighted to claim that one or the
other train of thought is the only legitimate one. They
are facets of a mosaic, and each of them had an important
contribution to make as interpretations of a given set of
prevalent circumstances. As we progress through human
history, the accumulated wealth of the answers humanity
found to the problems it faced should enable us to learn
from past experiences and fine-tune our future responses
to human dilemmas.
REWARD, PUNISHMENT AND
JUDGMENT...
We share our world with countless contemporaries
with whom we interact, yet essentially we face our
destiny alone. Our actions may have an immediate effect,
but often we do not see the fruits of our work within our
own lifespan. In the scheme of creation we are not judged
by our results, but by our intentions. We have no choice
in the situations we are faced with, we do not determine
our time and place of birth, nor the majority of events
which we witness through our lifetime, and we have no say
in the time and place of our death. But during each
situation we encounter we are given the choice of our own
reaction and contribution. Upon return to Allah, having
left the material world behind, we are judged on the
basis of the motivation of these actions of ours. Where
we acted in order to serve Allah and benefit our
surroundings, we will be rewarded with Allah's pleasure
and acceptance, and where we rebelled against Him and
harmed our surroundings, we will be punished with His
anger and rejection.
The descriptions of paradise and hell in (he
Qur'an are vivid, using a language which we can
understand based on our own experiences. Ultimately,
however, no amount of imagination of ours will enable us
to pre-empt the rewards and punishments of the hereafter.
What matters is the knowledge that our life after death
is eternal and the state in which we enter it - as a
trusting believer or as a rebelling disbeliever - will
last forever. We will not be given a second chance. Our
afterlife depends on our conduct in this world and
whether we aim to get closer to Allah or loose sight of
His presence.
TIME AND SPACE / HISTORY - PRESENT AND
FUTURE...
For Allah, the barriers of time and space do not
exist. Due to the limitation of our senses and knowledge,
we can only perceive a partial truth and can only measure
analytically by singling out some processes from others.
We can never have a complete overview coupled with
detailed knowledge of all existence. From the Creator's
perspective, the created world exists in a time-space
continuum. For Him the past is as transparent as the
present and the future. He knows what we are still to
discover.
From a simplistic mechanical view of the
universe, via quantum physics, science is gradually
moving to an understanding called the "many worlds
theory", which is more akin to the Islamic concept of the
worlds created by the Lord of the Worlds. There can be
only one origin and destination, Allah. Everything else
is in motion, be it the cycle of life or the planetary
orbits, which is expressed through the circular movement
of pilgrims around the Ka' bah. Only Allah's view of the
world is complete, that of any of His creatures is
relative depending on their position. For Allah the
creation of the worlds is accomplished and the destiny of
everything decided.
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