Introduction
The universe is like a vast book that is spread out before us. But it is such a unique ‘book’ that in none of its ‘pages’ is its topic or the name of its author clearly mentioned. This leaves us wondering what this ‘book’ is all about, why it was ‘written’, and who ‘wrote’ it.
When a person reflects on the fact that he is standing in the midst of the unimaginably vast universe, naturally, some questions arise in his mind, such as:
· ‘Who am I?’
· ‘What is this universe?’
· ‘Who made the universe?’
and
· ‘What is life and death?’
He becomes desperate to understand himself and the universe. He tries to use his intelligence to read the signs that are embedded in his own being and in his surroundings in the hope of getting some clue. He seeks to discover the real causes of the conditions he is faced with in the world that he finds himself in. In other words, a great many questions arise in his mind. They drive him to seek to find their answers, but he does not know where to find them.
These existential questions that arise in man’s mind are not some mere philosophical sort of queries. Rather, they are the natural result of man’s very nature and the conditions that he faces as a result of being in this world. These are questions that almost every person who comes into this world asks, at least once in their lifetime. And these are such questions that if someone does not find the right answers, they could well lose their sanity or waste away their life in wretchedness or lose themselves in hedonistic pleasures or feverish activity in order to escape from the resulting mental agony. By keeping themselves occupied with things that they can obtain, they may try to forget that which they failed to obtain.
We can express these existential questions that man desperately seeks answers to in the form of a single phrase: ‘Man’s Search for Reality’. This phrase can be broken down in the form of a number of sub-headings, as follows:
1. Man’s Search for the Origins of the Universe.
2. Man’s Search for His Lord.
3. Man’s Search for His Ultimate End.
‘Man’s Search for Reality’ is actually a search to find answers to these three basic issues: the origins of the universe, man’s Lord, and man’s ultimate end, after his brief stay on Earth is over. It is under these three headings that the answers to man’s search for Reality can be put together.
On the face of it, these are issues that we human beings appear to know nothing about at all. The answers to the questions that these issues give rise to are not written down in stone somewhere, visible to all to see. To answer them, man needs to set out on a search or quest.
Man’s Search for the Origins of the Universe
The first question that strikes us when we reflect on the universe is, ‘How did it come into being? Who is its creator? Who is administering this vast expanse?’
In earlier times, many people used to think that numerous invisible powers controlled the universe. Some people may have believed that working under the direction of a Big God, numerous little gods or godlings were running it. Even now some people may still have such beliefs. But in the intellectual world generally, this view has been totally abandoned. Today, it is not a worldview with many serious takers. People who call themselves ‘progressive’ and consider themselves ‘modern’ are often advocates of atheism, rather than of polytheism. They believe that the universe is not the creation of any conscious being, but, rather, that it is the result of an accident or chance. They argue that whenever an event occurs, then, because of it, some other event or events will also come about. In this way, a long chain of cause and effect is established, and it is this chain of cause and effect, they say, that caused the universe and is now running it. This explanation of the universe is based on two things: chance, and the law of cause-and-effect.
According to this explanation, at one time, the universe did not exist. Then, all of a sudden, through mere chance, around 13.8 billion years ago, a ‘Big Bang’ happened, which caused the universe to come into being. Matter kept expanding, which later turned into stars and planets.
This is a ‘scientific’ explanation of the origin of the universe that is presented by several atheists. Detailed versions of this theory might highlight very important facts, but on one score they are all wrong: the cause of the origin of the universe. The claim that the ‘Big Bang’ that is said to mark the origin of the universe happened simply by mere chance is simply unbelievable. If even a cup of tea cannot come into being by mere chance, and nor can what has been written in this essay, is it at all conceivable that this vast universe, which is so intricately designed, came into being by mere chance?
The question is that if nothing was present before the ‘Big Bang’, as atheists might aver, from where did this strange ‘chance’ that they invoke come about that supposedly caused the ‘Big Bang’? Invoking chance to explain the origins of the universe is also a contradiction of the argument that posits that there must be a prior cause for every event. If the universe did not exist before the ‘Big Bang’, then it is obvious that it was some Being or Force beyond the universe and that existed prior to it that caused the ‘Big Bang’ to happen (presuming that the ‘Big Bang’ did actually happen). Mere ‘chance’ is not at all a satisfying answer except perhaps for some hardened atheists who are bent on denying the obvious fact of the transcendent Creator of the universe.
And, if the universe indeed came into being through mere chance, did the subsequent events in the evolution of the universe necessarily have to happen and take the course and direction that they did? Could anything else have happened instead, again by ‘chance’? Might it not have been possible that by ‘chance’, the stars that came into being could have crashed into each other and thereby could have finished themselves off? Was it by mere ‘chance’ that this did not happen? Was it by mere ‘chance’ that after the universe began, its evolutionary unfoldment led it to take the amazing form that it has today? To attribute all of these to chance seems very foolish.
What, then, was it that caused the stars and planets that were formed after the universe began to spread out across the boundless space, in exceeding order and precision? What was it that brought into existence our own solar system in a distant corner of the universe? What was it that caused the amazing transformations that occurred on our planet, Earth, due to which life became possible here, transformations the likes of which we have not been able to discover so far in any other part of the universe? What was it that at a later stage, led living creatures to appear on Earth? What was it that made sure that all the things and conditions to support life in general, and human life in particular, be arranged for on Earth (and is still arranging for this even today), and in the most beautiful way? Will any sensible person ever say that all this happened by mere chance?
All of this suggests that the universe and all that it contains came into being by the conscious decision of an infinitely powerful Being Who existed before the universe. This Being is called by various names, and here we shall call ‘Him’ as ‘God’.
This, then, is the answer to the question that perplexes man when he finds himself in the universe and reflects on how it came into being.
Now, let us turn to the next of our questions: ‘Who is my Lord?’
Man’s Search for His Lord
We human beings experience a very distinct vacuum in our lives, although often we deny this or seek to cover it up. We have no idea how to fill this aching hollowness that exists at the core of our being. This feeling of hollowness is linked to the question of man’s search for his Lord, or the Divine, Who alone can address it.
When we reflect on our own self and also on the immense world around us, among the feelings that can well up from deep inside us are gratitude, on the one hand, and weakness or powerlessness, on the other. Wherever we turn, we see that we are surrounded by things that are not of our making but which we have access to and use. If we are sensitive enough to this reality, this can lead to a sense of immense thankfulness for these blessings. We can then be impelled by a desire to offer our noblest feelings for our Benefactor, Who has made all of these things possible. The search for the Source of the blessings we are surrounded by is not some philosophical sort of quest. Rather, it is deeply rooted in our psyche, an inner thirst.
The fact of the matter is that we are present in this universe in the form of individual entities, and for this phenomenon we, as far as we know, played no role at all. We find ourselves inhabiting a body that possesses great abilities, for obtaining which we did not do anything ourselves, as far as we are aware. We find ourselves possessing a mind, which has immense powers, to obtain which we made no effort, as far as we know. Our very existence, then, is not of our own making. Rather, it is a gift. Who has given this gift is a question that man seeks to know so that he can express his immense gratitude for it.
Human and other living beings take birth in a world where we have nothing which we have ourselves made and, at the same time, where we have a great many needs, which we cannot fulfill by ourselves. We are entirely dependent on the Earth’s bounties for meeting our needs, from water to food to means of entertainment. We see that in this world, all the arrangements have been made, in a really mindboggling manner, to fulfill our needs—be they physical or intellectual, emotional or spiritual. It seems as if the universe, with all that it contains, is just waiting for living beings to be born and then get about serving them.
For instance, consider the case of sound, through which we communicate with others. How was it made possible that first, thoughts take birth in our mind, then these thoughts are expressed by our tongue, and, after that, the sound that the tongue makes arrives at another person’s ear and he hears it in an understandable form? For this, various arrangements have been made, both inside of us and outside of us, one among which is air. The words we speak travel in the air, in the form of waves, in the same way as waves are produced on the surface of the water in a pond. For the sound that has emerged from my mouth to reach you, it is necessary that air be present in between. If the air is somehow removed, then you will not be able to hear me. You will see my lips move but you will not hear my voice. Now, who is it but our Benefactor that has arranged for air to be present and available, which is so necessary for verbal communications in this way?
This is just one example of the vast number of arrangements that our Benefactor has blessed us with. It would be humanly impossible to recount all His blessings. One may fill millions of pages with descriptions of God’s blessings and yet will not be able to mention all of them.
Now, man seeks to know who it is who has made possible all these blessings, which at every moment he is continuously receiving and without which one cannot conceive of human life and civilization on Earth. Man seeks to express his gratitude to the Giver of these blessings, to place himself at His feet, to offer Him a place in his heart and to present Him with his loftiest emotions. This is one aspect of man’s search for his Lord.
A second aspect of man’s search for his Lord has to do with man’s feeling of utter helplessness. The conditions that man faces in this world demand that there be some support for him. We humans are actually exceedingly powerless in the face of the vast universe, whose size we simply cannot fathom. We as individuals are really tiny compared to the Earth; the Earth is really tiny compared to our solar system; our solar system is really tiny compared to our galaxy; and our galaxy is really tiny compared to the whole of the universe.
Our life is completely at the mercy of immensely powerful forces over which we have no control. The arrangements that have been made for human life, and without which human life simply could not exist, are being done at an exceedingly high level and require immense power and precision that are way beyond the ability of human beings. Man sees that if he does not align himself with these extraordinary forces and be in harmony with them, he cannot survive for even a moment on the face of the Earth, leave alone build a civilized existence on it.
When inside such a universe, man notices and reflects upon how infinitesimally small he is, he begins to feel even more helpless than an ant tossed about amidst the roaring waves of the sea struggling to save itself. Being so utterly powerless, man wants that there be someone who can be his support in this vast universe. He wants to seek the refuge of such a being who is superior to the forces at work in the universe, in whose shelter he can consider himself safe and secure.
These are two emotions that underlie man’s search for his Lord. This search, the quest for such a Being Who can become the focal-point for man’s love, faith and trust, stems from man’s innate nature. In present times, ideologies, entities and collectivities based on identity markers that divide human beings into narrow categories and man-made constructs have been presented as the answer to this quest of man. They are projected as the ideal centre for one’s deepest emotions and as one’s ultimate support. These things are, generally, not presented in the name of the Divine, but in actuality, they are given the sort of position of the Divine. But to give these things the place of the Divine is like giving someone who is in need of a life companion a slab of stone. It is obvious that the roots of man’s quest for his Lord are deeply rooted inside the human psyche and that he is in search of a Being Who controls and encompasses the entire universe. The answer to this quest cannot be obtained in the form of a small geographical tract or a human collectivity based on this or that marker of identity. These things can at most be of some help in building a society, but they cannot be the means to satisfy man’s search for the Divine. For this purpose, nothing less than a universal Being will do. For the focal-point of his noblest emotions, man needs the being Who has created him, the Earth and the rest of the vast universe. Man is in search of such a power for support who is the Ruler over the entire universe. As long as man does not find such a Being, the vacuum that exists deep inside him will remain. Nothing else can fill the hollowness inside.
Man’s Search for His Ultimate End
The third component of the search for Reality is man’s search for his ultimate end—that is to say, the search for the reality of what happens to man after death. Man seeks to know not only where he has come from, but also where he will go after he dies. Also, he finds inside himself numerous desires and aspirations. He wants to find out how they can be fulfilled. He wants, in comparison to the present limited life of his, an eternal life of unsullied peace and joy, but he does not know where he can obtain it. In his mind the question arises if he will at all be able to obtain his ideal world.
It is said that human beings have been in existence on the Earth for some 200,000 years. In contrast to this, the age of the Earth is much more—maybe some 4.5 billion years. Initially, the Earth was in the form of a giant ball of fire. But then, it began to cool down. This process took several million years. Gradually, the Earth began to develop new features. The heat of the sun impacting on the Earth caused vapour to rise, which led to rain, and the Earth was filled with water. Although the surface of the Earth had become cool, deep inside it was still exceedingly hot, as a result of which the land began to compress. This resulted in pressure being put on hot gases present inside the Earth. Every now and then, the Earth would crack, resulting in the creation of massive splits. Centuries passed while the Earth witnessed storms, fierce earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Earthquakes caused some portions of the Earth to be pushed upwards—which assumed the form of the continents—and others to be pushed downwards, which assumed the form of the seas. Massive mountains also came into being.
Geologists estimate that the first form of life appeared on Earth some 4 billion years ago. Thereafter, various species of creatures kept coming into being and dying out. Then, after a very long time, when conditions were conducive to support human life, man appeared on Earth.
According to some scientific sources, man’s advent on Earth goes back only some 200,000 years ago. Now, if you think of it, this stretch of time is really very short. Compared to the age of the universe and of the Earth itself, the history of humankind on Earth is not even as long as the blink of an eye. And then, against this, if you consider the average age of a human being—who rarely lives beyond the age of 100—you can see how short the lifespan on Earth really is for each of us. Keep this in mind and then reflect on the fact that till now, no creature more evolved than man has so far been found to exist in the universe. After billions of years of the existence of the Earth and after all the many transformations it has gone through, man seems to be the most evolved creature that has come into being. But this man, who is said to be ‘the noblest of all creatures’—his life is not more than a few dozen years or so. Does that not sound really strange? Is it that the material components of our physical bodies remain forever after we die but that we humans, said to be the ‘noblest of all creatures’, are extinguished forever when we leave the body that we had inhabited while we were here? Did all those tumultuous events during the course of billions of years of the history of the Earth happen only so that man could be brought here to stay for a few years at the most and then be snuffed out of existence for good? This does not seem reasonable at all. Is human life, which may be thought to be the summary or crux, as it were, of the entire universe, so unreal actually that it can be finished off forever so easily? Is the grand finale of human life only that man takes birth on Earth, spends a short while here, and then vanishes into non-existence forever? Is it that all human knowledge and all the achievements of human beings are wiped off for good while the universe remains as it was, as if the human species had never come into existence at all?
In this regard, another thing that is very clearly felt is that if our life is just the life of this world, then it is such a life where many of our deepest yearnings and aspirations simply cannot be fulfilled. Almost every person wants to live forever. But every person who takes birth in this world knows that he has to die some day. Man wants to obtain unsullied happiness, and it is almost every person’s desire to lead a life free of sorrow, pain and difficulty. But in the real sense, can anyone obtain such a life in this world? Almost every person wants to get the opportunities to fulfill all his dreams. But in this limited world, this cannot happen. For satisfying all of man’s desire, this universe appears to be a major hurdle. At every few steps, it blocks our path. It supports and goes along with us to a certain extent, but after that, it sends us back dejected, disappointed and unsuccessful.
In the light of all of this, is it, one might ask, that man has by mistake strayed into such a universe that was actually not made for him and that appears to be totally unconcerned with his aspirations? Is it that all our feelings and emotions, thoughts and desires are unreal and that they have no relation with the real world? Is it that all our best dreams are unjust vain desires that the universe firmly rebuts and rejects? Is there no final destination for the deepest longings of humankind? Is it that these longings simply happened to enter into our hearts and minds by chance, for no reason at all, and that there is no way they can ever be fulfilled? Is it that man’s dream of an eternal life of peace and joy is a mere chimera?
In the entire universe, among all creatures, it is only man that has the concept of ‘tomorrow’. It is a feature unique to human beings that he thinks about the future and seeks to better his future conditions. Of course, some creatures collect and store food and build nests, but this action is done unconsciously, through instinct. Their intelligence does not tell these creatures that they should collect food and store it so that it can come of use the next day or that they should build a nest so that it can save them from the difficulties caused by the change of seasons.
For creatures other than man, life is only the life of ‘today’. They have no concept of life’s ‘tomorrow’. Is it that, in the same way, there is no ‘tomorrow’ for human beings after they die? The notion of ‘tomorrow’ that man possesses clearly demands that man’s life be actually much longer (after death) than that which he obtains ‘today’ (in this present world).
When we reflect on the physical universe, it appears to be totally complete, with everything in its right place. It is bound by fixed and determined laws. All developments in this realm are happening according to their determined course. In other words, the physical universe is just as it should be. But the state of the human world is very different. Here, the situation is just the opposite. Here, one person or group of persons oppresses another person or group of persons. Often, the oppressors seem to go scot free and the oppressed seem to be denied justice. Or, someone is a very righteous person and seeks to ensure that everyone gets their due, and as a result this, his life becomes very challenging. On the other hand, someone else deceives others and grabs their possessions and leads a seemingly very comfortable life. Such things happen at more macro-levels, too, in the case of whole communities and entire countries, which are actually large collectivities of individuals.
Now, will the true nature of all these individuals never be revealed even after they die? Is it that they will all finally go to their graves and that this is the end of the whole story? Will the just never be rewarded for their justice and the unjust never punished for their injustice? If there is no life after death, then that would indeed be the case. This clearly suggests that for virtue to be rewarded and for evil to get its due, man must definitely continue to live even after his physical death and his departure from this present world, in a realm where he is judged according to his deeds.
This situation clearly shows that this present world is incomplete. For its completion, it requires such a world where each person will be given their appropriate position, depending on how they had lived during their short sojourn on Earth. This other world is the Hereafter.
These are some of the issues related to what we have called ‘Man’s Search For His Final End’. When a person observes the reality of human life, he is stricken with distress. Deep inside, he agonizingly asks, ‘If this short stay of mine on Earth is all that my life is, if my life is simply what is presently visible, then what a totally absurd life it is!’ On the one hand, he sees the grand arrangements that have been made in the universe, as if all of these have been made for man. And on the other hand, he sees that his life on Earth is so short and so limited that he simply cannot understand why he was brought into being.
Now, with regard to this question, today, many people are inclined to say, ‘Why get into all these complicated issues at all? These are all philosophical conundrums. Be realistic instead. Instead of thinking about life and what might come after it, focus on the span of time that you have now, in this world, and try to make it happy. There is no need to worry about what might happen afterwards.’
The least that can be said about this response is that those who think in this manner have probably not truly realized the reality of the human condition. They take appearance to be reality. Some basic facts of the human condition are calling out to them to try to discover the secret of eternal life, but they have become content with the life of this world of only a few days. It is a demand of the human psyche to search for a vast world beyond this present world, where man can fulfill his hopes and aspirations in a manner not possible here. But these people seem content to live in the shadows than choosing to step out into the open sunshine. The universe is beckoning us, saying, ‘This world is incomplete for you. Set out and discover another, complete, world.’ But these people have decided that they want to construct the edifice of their life in this incomplete world alone and say that they have no need for the ‘complete’ world, even though evidence suggests that there must certainly be such a world, in the Hereafter. These people look only the initial portion of life—the life in this present world—and have shut their eyes firmly to the succeeding portion of life—life in the Hereafter—just like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand. If life really has some final outcome after death, then it will certainly come to be, and a person’s choosing to be heedless of it will not stop it from happening. However, it can deliver a decision of failure to such people. The fact is that to consider the present life as the whole life or the totality of all that there is to our life and to make one’s purpose of life the pursuit of pleasure in one’s ‘today’ is foolishness. If man ponders just a little bit on his life and on the universe, the absurdity of this position will at once be made clear to him. Only such a person can make this sort of decision who has chosen to shut his eyes to reality and chooses not to use his intelligence with regard to a matter of immense significance to himself.
These are some issues that emerge, with great intensity, inside us when we reflect on our place in the universe. There simply has to be a Creator of this universe, but we seem to know nothing about Him. There must certainly be someone who is administrating the universe and maintaining it, but we do not know who He is. We are surrounded by blessings on all sides, given by someone, for which we should feel grateful. We wish to find that Being, in front of whom we can pour out our deepest feelings of devotion and loyalty, but we see no such Being with our physical eyes. In this universe, we are in a state of extreme helplessness and powerlessness. We are in quest of such a Refuge, finding whom we can feel protected, but no such Refuge is visible to us.
When we reflect on our own life and our times, these contradictions of the universe seems totally incomprehensible to us—that the universe is billions of years old, whereas man, who is the crux, as it were, of the universe, apparently lives for only a few years; and that man harbours so many hopes, aspirations and dreams, but in this world, the means to satisfy all of them do not exist. And then, the most serious contradiction has to do with the nature of the physical world versus the nature of the human world. The physical world is totally complete. No vacuum exists in it. But there is an enormous vacuum deep inside human beings. The case of what is called the ‘most noble of creatures’ appears to be worse than that of all other creatures.
Limits of the Human Intelligence & Need for Divine Communication
So, these are some of the existential questions that surround us on all four sides. They simmer deep inside our being too. But we do not know their answers, although it is an issue of finding out something of immense importance to us—the reality of life. It would be utterly absurd if having received life, we were not informed about its reality.
This predicament suggests that there must definitely be some way that we can discover the reality of life and of the universe.
When we turn to our intellect or our reason and experience to try to discover this reality on our own, we find that it is beyond our capacity. The opinions that we had established in this regard so far through our own reasoning have no greater reality than a mere guess. Just as our range of vision is limited by the capacity of our eyes, so that we cannot see something that is smaller than a certain size or that is located further than a certain distance, the capacity of our intellect too is limited, so that we cannot fathom certain truths that are beyond its capacity. That means that the knowledge that we can acquire about the universe through our experience and reason is limited and we know—and can know—nothing at all beyond this. Our humanly-acquired knowledge of the universe is necessarily incomplete. Our five senses are limited, and so we cannot comprehend the entirety of Reality through them.
Humankind is infinitesimally small compared to the Earth, in the same way as the Earth is less than a drop compared to the rest of the vast universe. This being the case, our speculations about the reality of the universe cannot be said to be anything other than groping about in the dark. Our immense lack of knowledge in this regard immediately becomes evident when we try to even conceive of the immensity of the universe.
If we keep in mind the fact that the sun has been in existence for say 4.6 billion years, that the age of the Earth is perhaps a little less than that, that the first life forms may have appeared on Earth a little after the Earth came into being and that the history of man on Earth may be only some 200,000 years, the reality becomes even more clear to us that the length of man’s presence here during which he has been able to gather whatever information he has been able to is an infinitesimally tiny portion of time that is required to understand even just some of the secrets of the universe. Between the immensely long past of the universe and its unknown future, the human presence on Earth has the status of a mere moment. Our existence is a very tiny sort of blip in the history of the universe, about whose past and future we have little idea. Our intellect has, therefore, to humbly admit that the expanse of the universe is simply beyond our understanding and that to seek to understand its reality, mere human reason and experience are wholly insufficient. We can never comprehend it through our limited human capacities.
Some people say that they will accept as true only that which they can observe, through one or more of the five senses. They might argue that anything that cannot be observed in this way is not true. But can this be really said to be an appropriate position to take if we are serious about the search for Reality? The fact is that man’s powers of observation are extremely limited. There are dimensions of Reality that are simply not possible to be observed by our five senses. That being the case, how can we comprehend metaphysical realities on our own?
In this way, our own knowledge and research takes us up to a certain point and then leaves us there, and we stand in bewilderment. We are at this point faced with the realization that there are realities about the universe and human life that we simply cannot comprehend by ourselves. We are still faced with a great many questions which demand answers, without which human life appears to be utterly absurd, totally useless. But when we get down to thinking about them, we learn that we simply cannot find their answers through our mind. We have not been given the sort of ‘eyes’ through which Reality can be witnessed. And, we do not possess the sort of ‘mind’ that can obtain a direct comprehension of Reality.
This points to the need for Divine communication from the Creator of the universe and ourselves so that we can know from the Source of all that exists the reality of what we have been searching for. This Divine communication alone provides man the answers to all the existential questions that he seeks answers to but cannot obtain through his own efforts—such as ‘What is the reality of this universe?’, ‘Who made this universe and why?’, ‘Who is administering this universe?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Who is my Lord, to Whom I can offer my deepest feelings of gratitude and Who alone I can consider my true Refuge in my distress?’, ‘Why have I come into this universe?’, ‘Now that I am in the universe, what am I supposed to do here?’, ‘What happens after death?’ and ‘How can man obtain an eternal life of peace and joy?” Through individuals He has chosen, God has communicated to humankind the knowledge that answers man’s many questions about the reality of life and the universe which man cannot discover on his own. These chosen individuals were sent to various parts of the world at various times in human history, where they communicated the same truths about the reality of the universe and life to their fellow human beings. By obtaining this knowledge and living according to it, man’s search for Reality finally ends.
These messengers of God, no matter which part of the world they appeared in, no matter which religious or ethnic communities they took birth among, and no matter what language they communicated in, all shared some basic truths, such as the following:
· There is a God of this universe, Who has created all the worlds and Who, through His immense powers, is administering them.
· Whatever we deem that we ‘own’ actually belongs to God. God is the true owner of all things.
· God has power over all things.
· God alone is worthy of our worship. It is He Who is our real support. It is He Who has blessed us with all the blessings that we enjoy. And it is He Who can be our surest refuge in times of distress, when we feel utterly helpless. And so, our noblest feelings must be offered to Him alone.
· The reason that the human world is beset with tumult and evil (which so perplexes many thinking minds) is because God has given man free will, through which man is being tested. Man’s fate in the Hereafter will be decided on the basis of how he employed this free will—for good, or for ill.
· Life does not stop at the death of the body. Rather, it continues even after--eternally. In the Hereafter, the virtuous devotees of God will be given the eternal felicity that they deserve, while the wicked will receive what they deserve for their wickedness. In that way, perfect justice will be established.
· This present life is temporary. Eternal life comes after the death of the body. Our eternal future, in the Hereafter, depends on the sort of life we led while we were here.
Final Words
We started our journey by reflecting on who we are and what the universe is. Many people have tried to answer these questions through their own minds. But these answers do not properly explain Reality, which is beyond unaided human reason. We have seen that it is Divine guidance alone that can provide the right answers to our deepest existential questions about Reality. That being so, it is for each of us to decide what we are going to do about it personally.