SECOND EXPULSION

From Earth

BY the end of the 20th century industrial progress was seen as an entirely positive development. But in the 21st century it was found that there was a very damaging aspect of industrial progress — that of carbon emissions.

Industrial progress has brought in its wake industrial pollution, which has resulted in global warming; that is, weather chaos, melting of storehouses of water, the death of fragile animals, the pollution of sea water — in short, the disequilibrium of the life support system itself.


Industrial progress has brought in its wake industrial pollution, which has resulted in global warming.

Maintenance of an extravagant lifestyle is the actual reason for global warming. The present resources of the world permit only using them in accordance with real needs, but man wants to use them to lead a luxurious life. It is this unrealistic goal of man which has produced the grave problem of global warming in modern times.

Global warming is like a proclamation by nature that this target of man is never going to be fulfilled in this present world. This target is at variance with nature and as such, cannot reach the stage of completion in this world.

This is no simple matter, for it is directly linked with the creation plan of God, which has to be properly understood, failing which this matter cannot be rightly analysed. Here man’s plan is clashing with the plan of the Creator of nature, and that is what makes it impossible to successfully implement.

We can understand the above point with the help of the following narrative. God created Adam (the first man) and Eve (the first woman) and settled them in Paradise. God said to Adam:

O Adam! Live with your wife in Paradise and eat freely from it anywhere you may wish. Yet do not approach this tree lest you become wrongdoers.
THE QURAN 2:35

This meant that if they did so, they would be expelled from Paradise. But Adam and Eve chose not to follow God’s guidance. They ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and, as a result, they had to leave Paradise and come to the present earth.

When God settled man in this present world, He again set limits for him, which confined him to taking sustenance from this world solely in terms of need, not greed.

This was indeed a case of overstepping the boundary and resulted in the first expulsion. Today such transgressions are taking place on a far larger scale. When God settled man in this present world, He again set limits for him, which confined him to taking sustenance from this world solely in terms of need, not greed. Moreover, he was not to try to lead a luxurious life.

Prior to the stage of modern industrial progress, man had no option but to observe these limits, but subsequently, with industrial progress, he chose to ignore them, running after a life of comfort and luxury, which culminated in the late 20th century and early twenty-first century.

Now the Creator’s verdict against man has been passed. The shield of the life-support system is being taken away from him. A life of luxury was, for man, like the forbidden tree of Paradise. But man, because of his boundless desires, went beyond all limits.

Now the time has come very close when man will be expelled from this present world, just as Adam was expelled from Heaven. Another name for this second expulsion is Qayamat, or Doomsday.

On Fasting
The aim of fasting is to weaken the material aspect of man
and strengthen the spirituality in him.