SENSE OF INCOMPLETENESS
Find the Divine Scheme
AN Italian writer, Luzia A Costa, penned an article titled: The Feeling of Incompleteness and Inability to be Happy. In this article, he refers to the fact that man always lives with lack of satisfaction. He says that human beings by their very nature suffer from a feeling of incompleteness.
The Italian writer rightly alluded to this nature of man. But he failed to give a rational explanation of this phenomenon. The right answer is given in the Quran in these words: “Those who believe and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of God — surely in the remembrance of God, hearts can find comfort.” (THE QURAN 13: 28)
Being unaware of the creation plan of God makes one dissatisfied, and awareness of the plan instantly makes one satisfied.
It means that those who have discovered God have also discovered the creation plan of God. This discovery gives them the right explanation of nature. And when they realize this right explanation, automatically they become satisfied. Being unaware of the explanation makes one dissatisfied, and awareness of the explanation instantly makes one satisfied.
It is a fact that everything in the universe except for man lives in satisfaction. The material world and the plant and animal kingdoms all live in a state of satisfaction. It is strictly a human phenomenon that man lives with the sense of dissatisfaction or incompleteness.
The reason is that man is born as an idealist or perfectionist. This is the nature of every man and woman, but the world in which we live is imperfect or less than ideal. It fails to fulfil the requirements of human nature. Every human being lives with this sense of incompleteness, and in a very short while, dies without experiencing the fulfilment which had been his cherished goal.
This sense of incompleteness was not created by man himself. Rather it is a creation of God. When we observe that, except man, all creatures of the universe are living with a sense of completeness, we realize that this phenomenon is not any sort of defect in creation. It gives us a clue to the fact that, the divine scheme of things regarding man, is different from that for other components of the universe. That is, all other creatures of the universe are born with their complements for fulfilment. However, man lacks this complement in this world and hence is unable to find fulfilment.
Every man and woman is born as an idealist or perfectionist, but the world in which we live is imperfect and less than ideal.
The Quran tells us that man’s complement was also created by God just as He created it for other things, but in the case of man, this gift requires eternity. That, is, man’s complement for fulfillment exists in the eternal world of the Hereafter and not in this limited world. The Quran says that when man shall enter into Paradise, the angels will announce: “Rejoice in the [good news of the] Garden that you have been promised.” (THE QURAN 41: 30)
Here, the word “promise” includes the natural urge of human beings. The natural urge in this regard is a silent promise made by God: ‘Wait for some time and you will be provided with all those things that you want. God has created a world, that is, Paradise, where you will find total fulfilment.’
This fact has been mentioned in the Quran in these words: “Therein you shall have all that your souls desire, and therein you shall have all that you ask for.” (THE QURAN 41: 31)
The sense of incompleteness in human nature is in itself a good tiding. It tells us that a day will come when man will surely enjoy the experience of completeness, that is, in eternal Paradise.