GOD AND MAN
Discover Your Creator
MAN has never fully understood himself, let alone trying to understand the Almighty. He visualises God in his image and vice versa. Human history is the story of this mistake and its consequences.
To think of God to be like man is to try to bring God to the human level. All forms of theism and polytheism are a product of this mistake. Both are different names for making assumptions about God based on wrong analogies between man and God.
We come into this world through biological parents. It was assumed that God, too, must have parents, that there must have been someone before God, who brought God into being. Man denied His existence because the eternal God is not physically visible. Observing himself, reflecting on the fact that he himself is a creation, should have led man to acknowledge the existence of the Creator. But given this analogy that man drew between humans and God, he was not ready to accept Him.
To think of God to be like man is to try to bring God to the human level.
Those who accepted God have also erred. To get things done, it is common practice to carry recommendation from people with access to power and authority. Accordingly, they assumed that God too, had some special people, who were very close to Him, who had great influence in His court and whose recommendation God accepted.
Human beings are swayed by emotions. Decisions taken in an emotional state ignore facts and tend to be flawed. People believed that God had a special link with members of a special group or community, and that His relations with them were altogether different from His relations with the rest of humanity.
All such beliefs are a negation of God’s divinity. But people often cling to such baseless thoughts and imaginary beliefs.
To consider oneself to be like God is to imagine that one is the master of one’s destiny, and completely free to do or to abstain from whatever one wants to. It leads to devising the principles of life as per wishes and To think of God to be like man is to try to bring God to the human level. 22 Spirit of Islam Issue 30 June 2015 to determine what is permissible and what is forbidden through one’s own reasoning.
Success affects people in many ways, at times to the extent that they believe they have God-like powers. This is tantamount to putting oneself in God’s place, attributing to oneself a right that is actually God’s alone. Man is a creation of God and how can the creation be equated with the Supreme Creator?
The universe mirrors God’s attributes through His innumerable creatures. There is ample evidence of the existence, power and greatness of the Creator who brought this realm into being. If your sensitivity is alive, you can find God all around you, you can see God everywhere. This is living proof of God.
Observing himself and reflecting on the fact that
he himself is a created being, should have led
man to acknowledge the existence of the Creator.
The various forms and activities of living beings are a clear announcement that the Creator of this universe is a living, and not a lifeless Being.When the sun appears in the morning and things that have been covered by the darkness of night become visible once again; when a river rushes forth, tumbling down from the mountains, it loudly declares that the Creator of this universe is a living, active Being. When a tiger pounces on and grabs its prey and brings it under its control, it announces, as it were, that its Creator is a Being who has everything under His control. The astounding expansiveness of space tells us that the Creator is an unlimited Being.
While this is sure to bring faith in Him, it raises questions that are not easy to answer. If God is, then why does He not directly reveal Himself? Why do evil and suffering exist? Evil and oppression are rampant. People are always at each other’s throats. Why doesn’t God stand up for the oppressed?
The answers to these questions can be understood only when You understand God’s creation plan, the scheme that the Creator has devised for His creatures. This world is temporary and life here is short-lived. We are here to be tested. This world is a field where different plants have been given the chance to grow and turn into fine trees or ugly weeds. The fine trees will be presented with several fine opportunities to flourish, while the weeds will be uprooted.