ISLAM THE
JOURNEY - (A BRIEF GUIDE)
There is only one origin to Whom, equally, all
must return. Life thus becomes a journey, and its measure
of happiness and success is the closeness or distance to
our Creator. Rather than a religion, Islam is a way of
life with its guidance charting the coordinates of the
map by which the return journey to where we came from can
successfully be accomplished.
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE...
We perceive life through our senses and
experience. As such we live in the moment, but the
intellect bestowed upon us compels us to link together
events, search out the past, and project the future. We
know ourselves to be mortal: we have not always been
around and are sure to die. Yet something inside us
refuses the notion that we are just a temporary blip in
the vastness of time.
Darwin's theory of evolution gained currency in
Europe because it helped justify colonial expansion and
exploitation. It replaced the answerability of mankind to
the higher authority of God with the notion of natural
selection, which was free of moral constraints, and the
idea of the survival of the fittest justified the use of
force in subjugating so-called primitive civilisations.
Darwin's highly flawed and speculative theory became the
myth of our time, a secular variety of religious dogma to
explain away all the mysteries of life. The mathematics
of chance does not permit the development of higher life
forms by random mutation processes in the time
space available. As original creation is not a
repeatable event, the theory can never be empirically
proven and cannot lay any claim to greater scientific
validity than the creationist explanations of how life on
earth first started. We start our exploration of Islamic
outlook on life with its account of creation, because
this contains the basic moral principles Islam teaches
and wants us to adhere to.
IN SEARCH OF HUMAN
POTENTIAL...
According to the Qur'an, the revelation
communicated through the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), God
created the heavens (multiple universes! and the earth
with a purpose and allocated the earth as the place for
human habitation. Humanity was not the first creation of
intelligent life; angels, created from pure light, and
jinn, spirits created from the element of fire, preceded
man. In fact, the Creator announces his plan to them
prior to creating the prototype of man, Adam
(AS):
When your Lord said to the angels, 'I am going to place a
representative on earth', they said, 'Are you going to
place someone there who will do mischief and spill blood,
whilst we (already) sing your praise and glorify you?' He
said, 'I know what you don't know.' And He taught Adam
all the names and then presented (things) to the angels
and said; 'tell me the names of these if you are right.'
They said: 'Glory be to you, we have no knowledge except
what You have taught us. You are the knowledgeable and
wise.' He said: 'Oh Adam, tell them their names. 'And
when he told them their names. He said: 'Did I not tell
you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth
and that I know what you let on and what you hide?'
- Qur'an, Surah 2 - al-Baqara
- ayah 30-33.
The key difference between the knowledge given
to the angels and that given to man is that the angels
only know what they have been taught, whereas Adam (AS)
was taught all the names, in other words, he was given
the power of creative thought and speech, being able to
conquer unknown environments in his mind and give a name
to things he never encountered before.
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