God's Ultimate Goal - Creation of an Eternal World?
Question:
1. How does Mr. Ghamidi know that primarily God's goal was to create an everlasting world (Jannah).
2. If that was or is the ultimate goal of God then why did He not just create the people, separate them based on His knowledge and send some to Jannah and the others to Jahanam. God already knows who among his creation will behave and who will not. Based on that knowledge God could have sent the people to Jannah or Jahanam rather than go through the exercise of this "Test".
3. The idea of "Test" does not suit the entity that is the ultimate creator, the most powerful so why would God engage in Jaza and Saza? I can dig up some more such references as stated above. But, please take my word for it.
I have a lot of respect for Mr. Ghamidi. I think he is the foremost scholar today and I have learned a lot from his lectures. I am not trying to challenge him or prove him wrong. Simply trying to understand.
Answer:
1. I think what Mr. Ghamidi means is that the ultimate plan of the Almighty is to have those who deserve it living in the heaven for ever (with His blessing).
This is nothing new, we all know based on the Qur’an that human being is created to be challenged in this world and to then go to heaven if he deserves it with the blessing of the Almighty. Accordingly I don’t think it is wrong to say that from this perspective, God’s objective was to send those who deserve it (with His blessing) to stay in the heaven for ever.
To be more technical on this:
We know that the reason that human being was created was only to worship God (51:56).
We also know that worshiping God and being His true servant is closely related to purification of the soul (Tazkiya), (87:14, 15).
We also know that the one who is in the path of purification is going to be successful in the hereafter and will enter heaven (87:14, 91:9).
If you connect between the dots, you will see that it is not incorrect to say that the everlasting life in the hereafter is the ultimate goal of the project of creation of human being. After all, the objective of our creation (worshiping God) leads to our destiny in the hereafter.
2. The heaven is a place for those who were free to do bad but decided to do well in their life. The element of ‘being free’ therefore is the essential ingredient for this process. God knowing what we do is not in conflict with Him allowing us to do what we want to do (1).
3. I have never been comfortable with the word Test that is often used for the Arabic word “Ibtila”. I think the word 'Test' can easily create some misunderstandings or questions about the relationship between God and the human beings. Misunderstandings and questions that should have not even emerged if a more accurate translation was made for the word Ibtila.
We read in the book al-Tahqeeq fi Kalamat al-Qur’an al-Karim (1:335):
أنّ الأصل الواحد فيها هو إيجاد التحوّل، أى التقلب و التحويل لتحصيل نتيجة منظورة
“The common principle in it (with all the meanings) is to make a change, that is altering and changing to reach the intended outcome.”
The author then explains that all the meanings of this word are based on this root/original meaning and as an example interprets the famous verse of the Qur’an about Ibtila (18:7) لِنَبْلُوَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلا as follows:
أى نوجد تحوّلات في امور معاشهم، و في نظم امور حياتهم، حتّى يظهر الّذى هو أحسن عملا
“means we make changes in the affairs of their livelihood and in the routine of their life affairs so the one that does the best (reaction to these changes) emerges.”
As you can see it is not really about ‘testing’ to ‘realise’ who is good. It is about making human beings facing challenges in their life so that they can show their potentials and as the result the strong becomes distinguished from the weak.
On this basis I prefer to use the translation of “Challenge” for the word Ibtila rather than “Test”. Accordingly I would translate the verse 18:7 (mentioned above) as follows:
“We will surely put you in challenge (so that it emerges that) which of them does the best”
I think the above translation of the word Ibtila removes some of the misunderstandings that may occur due to using of the word ‘test’ as the translation.
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1. From a more philosophical perspective, have you ever thought that even statements like “God knows what we want to do” are statements that are tailored for our limited humanly cognition? The fact is that God is not limited by the dimension of time. He in fact has created the dimension of time Himself. Therefore the statements like “He knows the future”, although are correct from our perspective, do not give the full picture of God’s domination.
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March 2013
1. How does Mr. Ghamidi know that primarily God's goal was to create an everlasting world (Jannah).
2. If that was or is the ultimate goal of God then why did He not just create the people, separate them based on His knowledge and send some to Jannah and the others to Jahanam. God already knows who among his creation will behave and who will not. Based on that knowledge God could have sent the people to Jannah or Jahanam rather than go through the exercise of this "Test".
3. The idea of "Test" does not suit the entity that is the ultimate creator, the most powerful so why would God engage in Jaza and Saza? I can dig up some more such references as stated above. But, please take my word for it.
I have a lot of respect for Mr. Ghamidi. I think he is the foremost scholar today and I have learned a lot from his lectures. I am not trying to challenge him or prove him wrong. Simply trying to understand.
Answer:
1. I think what Mr. Ghamidi means is that the ultimate plan of the Almighty is to have those who deserve it living in the heaven for ever (with His blessing).
This is nothing new, we all know based on the Qur’an that human being is created to be challenged in this world and to then go to heaven if he deserves it with the blessing of the Almighty. Accordingly I don’t think it is wrong to say that from this perspective, God’s objective was to send those who deserve it (with His blessing) to stay in the heaven for ever.
To be more technical on this:
We know that the reason that human being was created was only to worship God (51:56).
We also know that worshiping God and being His true servant is closely related to purification of the soul (Tazkiya), (87:14, 15).
We also know that the one who is in the path of purification is going to be successful in the hereafter and will enter heaven (87:14, 91:9).
If you connect between the dots, you will see that it is not incorrect to say that the everlasting life in the hereafter is the ultimate goal of the project of creation of human being. After all, the objective of our creation (worshiping God) leads to our destiny in the hereafter.
2. The heaven is a place for those who were free to do bad but decided to do well in their life. The element of ‘being free’ therefore is the essential ingredient for this process. God knowing what we do is not in conflict with Him allowing us to do what we want to do (1).
3. I have never been comfortable with the word Test that is often used for the Arabic word “Ibtila”. I think the word 'Test' can easily create some misunderstandings or questions about the relationship between God and the human beings. Misunderstandings and questions that should have not even emerged if a more accurate translation was made for the word Ibtila.
We read in the book al-Tahqeeq fi Kalamat al-Qur’an al-Karim (1:335):
أنّ الأصل الواحد فيها هو إيجاد التحوّل، أى التقلب و التحويل لتحصيل نتيجة منظورة
“The common principle in it (with all the meanings) is to make a change, that is altering and changing to reach the intended outcome.”
The author then explains that all the meanings of this word are based on this root/original meaning and as an example interprets the famous verse of the Qur’an about Ibtila (18:7) لِنَبْلُوَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلا as follows:
أى نوجد تحوّلات في امور معاشهم، و في نظم امور حياتهم، حتّى يظهر الّذى هو أحسن عملا
“means we make changes in the affairs of their livelihood and in the routine of their life affairs so the one that does the best (reaction to these changes) emerges.”
As you can see it is not really about ‘testing’ to ‘realise’ who is good. It is about making human beings facing challenges in their life so that they can show their potentials and as the result the strong becomes distinguished from the weak.
On this basis I prefer to use the translation of “Challenge” for the word Ibtila rather than “Test”. Accordingly I would translate the verse 18:7 (mentioned above) as follows:
“We will surely put you in challenge (so that it emerges that) which of them does the best”
I think the above translation of the word Ibtila removes some of the misunderstandings that may occur due to using of the word ‘test’ as the translation.
------------------
1. From a more philosophical perspective, have you ever thought that even statements like “God knows what we want to do” are statements that are tailored for our limited humanly cognition? The fact is that God is not limited by the dimension of time. He in fact has created the dimension of time Himself. Therefore the statements like “He knows the future”, although are correct from our perspective, do not give the full picture of God’s domination.
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March 2013
