Authorship
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Reviewing
Muhammad AbdulRaoof
Short Description
Discusses the question of why Allah created, and why Allah created humans
Part One
Introduction
The purpose of creation is a topic that puzzles every human being at some point in his or
her lifetime Everybody at some time or another asks themselves the question :
Why do I exist?" or “For what purpose am I here on earth"?
The variety and complexity of the intricate systems which constitute the fabric of both human beings and the world in which they exist indicate that there must have been a Supreme Being who created them. Design indicates a designer
When human beings come across footprints on a beach, they immediately conclude that a human being had walked by there some time previously. No one imagines that the waves from the sea settled in the sand and by chance produced a depression looking exactly like human footprints
Nor do humans instinctively conclude that they were brought into existence without a purpose. Since purposeful action is a natural product of human intelligence, humans conclude that the Supreme Intelligent Being who created them must have done so for a specific purpose
her lifetime Everybody at some time or another asks themselves the question :
Why do I exist?" or “For what purpose am I here on earth"?
The variety and complexity of the intricate systems which constitute the fabric of both human beings and the world in which they exist indicate that there must have been a Supreme Being who created them. Design indicates a designer
When human beings come across footprints on a beach, they immediately conclude that a human being had walked by there some time previously. No one imagines that the waves from the sea settled in the sand and by chance produced a depression looking exactly like human footprints
Nor do humans instinctively conclude that they were brought into existence without a purpose. Since purposeful action is a natural product of human intelligence, humans conclude that the Supreme Intelligent Being who created them must have done so for a specific purpose
Therefore, human beings need to know the purpose for their existence in order to make sense of this life and to do what is ultimately beneficial for them .
Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God.
Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements.
Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man*?” had and still has no answer.
According to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast majority of humankind over the ages have believed and continue to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a purpose. For them it was, and still is, important to know about the Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings .
Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God.
Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements.
Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man*?” had and still has no answer.
According to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast majority of humankind over the ages have believed and continue to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a purpose. For them it was, and still is, important to know about the Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings .
Therefore,
human beings need to know the purpose for their existence in order to
make sense of this life and to do what is ultimately beneficial for them
.
Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God.
Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements.
Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man*?” had and still has no answer.
According
to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast
majority of humankind over the ages have believed and continue to
believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a
purpose. For them it was, and still is, important to know about the
Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings .
The Answer
To answer the question “Why did God create man?” it must first be determined from which perspective the question is being asked.
From the point of view of God it would mean, “What caused God to create human beings?”
while from the human point of view it would mean “For what purpose did God create humans?” Both points of view represent aspects of the intriguing question “Why do I exist?”
In the following pages, both aspects of the question will be explored based on the clear picture painted by divine revelation. This is not a topic for human speculation, because human guesswork cannot possibly produce the whole truth in this matter.
How can human beings intellectually deduce the reality of their existence when they can hardly understand how their own brain or its higher entity, the mind, functions?
Consequently, the many philosophers who have speculated on this question down through the ages have come up with innumerable answers, all of which are based on assumptions which cannot .
be proven. Questions on this topic have even led a number of philosophers to claim that we do not really exist and that the whole world is imaginary.
For example, the Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) argued that the everyday world of changeable things, which man comes to know by the use of his senses, is not the primary reality, but is a shadow world of appearances {This view was expressed in his book The Republic through his well known metaphor of the cave, where the changing physical world is compared to shadows cast on the wall of a cave by graven images (T/jp New Encyclopaedia Britannica. vol. 25. p. 552 })
Many others, as was previously mentioned, claimed and continue to claim that there is no purpose for the creation of humans at all. According to them, Human existence is merely a product of chance. There can be no purpose if life evolved from inanimate matter which only became animate by pure luck.
Humankind’s supposed '’cousins,’the monkey and apes are not bothered with questions of existence, so why should human beings be bothered with them ?
Although most people put the question of why we are created aside after occasional brief reflection, it is extremely critical for human beings to know the answer.
Without knowledge of the correct answer, human beings become indistinguishable from the other animals around them. The animal necessities and desires of eating, drinking and pro-creating become the purpose of human existence by default, and human effort is then focused in this limited sphere.
When material satisfaction develops into the most important goal in life, human existence becomes even more degraded than that of the lowest of animals.
Human beings will consistently misuse their God - given intelligence when they lack knowledge of their purpose of existence.
The degraded human mind uses its abilities to create drugs and bombs and becomes engrossed in fornication, pornography, homosexuality, fortunetelling, suicide, etc.
Without knowledge of the purpose of life, human existence loses all meaning and is consequently wasted, and the reward of an eternal life of happiness in the hereafter is completely destroyed.
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that human beings correctly answer the question “Why are we here"?
Humans most often turn to other human beings like themselves for the answers.
However, the only place that clear and precise answers to these questions can be found is in the books of divine revelation. It was necessary that God reveal the purpose to man through His prophets, because human beings are incapable of arriving at the correct answers by themselves.
All of the prophets of God taught their followers the answers to the question “Why did God create man"?
Judeo-Christian Scriptures
A survey of the Bible leaves the honest seeker of truth lost. The Old Testament seems more concerned with laws and the history of early man and the Jewish people than with answering the vital question concerning humanity’s creation.
{ In Isaiah the Israelites are created for God’s glory, “'But now thus says the Lord, he who created you. O Jacob, he who formed you. O Israel 6‘1 will say to the north. Give up. and to the south. Do not withhold: bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.7 every one who is called by my name, whom ! created for my glory, whom I formed and made/ " (Revised Standard Version. Isaiah 43:1. 6-7.) }
In Genesis, God creates the world and Adam and Eve in six days and ‘rests’ from His work on the seventh.
{ "2And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. ’So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation." (RSV. Genesis 2:2-3.) }
Adam and Eve disobey God and are punished and their son Cain kills their other son Abel and goes to live in the land of Nod. And God was ‘sorry’ that he had made man! { "And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him to his heart." (RSV. Genesis 6:6.) }
Why are the answers not there in clear and unmistakable terms? Why is so much of the language symbolic, leaving the reader to guess at its meanings?
For example, in Genesis 6:6 it is stated, “When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose.”
Who are these “sons of God”? Each Jewish sect and each of the many Christian sects who followed them have their own explanations.
Which is the correct interpretation? The truth is that the purpose of man’s creation was taught by the prophets - of old, however, some of their followers—in collusion with the devils—later changed the scriptures.
The answers became vague and much of the revelation was hidden in symbolic language.
When God sent Jesus Christ to the Jews, he overturned the tables of those merchants who had set up businesses inside the temple,' and he preached against the ritualistic interpretation of the law practiced by the Jewish rabbis. H& reaffirmed the law of Prophet Moses and revived it. He taught the purpose of life to his disciples and demonstrated how to fulfill it until his last moments in this world.
However, after his departure from this world, his message was also distorted by some who claimed to be among his followers.
The clear truth he brought became vague, like the messages of the prophets before him. Symbolism was introduced, especially through the ‘‘Revelations” of John, and the Gospel which was revealed to Jesus was lost.
Four other gospels composed by men were chosen by Athanasius, a fourth century bishop,{ The New Encyclopaedia Bntanmca, vol. 14. p. 814 .
In the inid-4th century manuscript called Codex Sinaiticus the Letter of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hernias are included as a part of the New Testament. (The New Encyclopaedia Bntanmca, vol. 14. p. 814 .) What may be cited in the King .lames Version as the purpose of creation. Revelation 4:11 'Thou art worth}.
() Lord, lo receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." is retranslated in the Revised Standard Version as: "Worthy art thou, our Lord and God to receive glory and honour and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created. } to replace the lost Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the 23 books of writings of Paul and others included in the New Testament outnumbered even the four versions of the gospel.7 As a result, New Testament readers cannot find precise answers to the question “Why did God create man?”8 And one is forced to blindly follow the contrived dogmas of whatever sect they happen to belong to or adopt. The gospels are interpreted according to each sect’s beliefs, and the seeker of truth is again left wondering, which one is correct
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