There is no God But Him

The essence of Islam is to know of the existence of God, and to understand that there is no god but Him. To practice Islam is to allow this truth to manifest itself in every aspect of one's life. According to the Qur'an:

Your God is One God. There is no god but Him, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. (Sura al-Baqara: 163)

Most people think that matter, the underlying substance of the universe, has an absolute existence, and regard God as but an abstract idea. (God is truly beyond what they ascribe to Him) The truth is, however, only God truly exists, and the rest is merely His creation.
The entire universe and everything in it was created by God. Before the creation of the universe, nothing existed, in the material sense. It was all non-existence. At the moment when the universe was created, the Al-Awwal (The First) and Al-Akhir (The Last) God, Who is unbounded by time and space, created time, matter and space. The Qur'an relates this matter as follows:

The Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is. (Sura al-Baqara: 117)

Contrary to the perceived wisdom, God did not create matter and then leave it on its own. Everything happening, even at this very instant, is ordained by God. Every raindrop, each child that opens its eyes to the world, the process of photosynthesis in plants, all the bodily functions of living things, the courses of stars in far remote galaxies, each seed sprouting forth, or any other event that we might think of, or fail to think of, are all ordained by God. It is God Who creates all things. Every event occurs within His command:

It is God Who created the seven heavens and of the earth the same number, the Command descending down through all of them, so that you might know that God has power over all things and that God encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Sura at-Talaq: 12)

He Who originates creation and then regenerates it and provides for you from out of heaven and earth. Is there another god besides God? Say: "Bring your proof if you are being truthful." (Sura an-Naml: 64)


Were the universe left to its own will, it would become disordered, scattered and corrupted. However, the perfect equilibrium in all things, from the cells of a living organism, to the stars in deep outer space, all reveal the existence of something that is controlling them at every moment, with the same perfection as their original creation. In any corner of the universe, one will always come to recognize a flawless plan:

He Who created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again—do you see any gaps? Then look again and again. Your sight will return to you dazzled and exhausted! (Sura al-Mulk: 3-4)

Denying that God is the Creator, and attributing divinity to that which He created, despite the abundance of proof to the contrary, is as nonsensical as claiming that a skyscraper was not built by construction workers, but came into being by the free will of bricks, or the placement of one on top of the other by pure coincidence.
The perfect order in the universe, and the supreme design of living things, reveals to us that they must have all been created by a single Creator. If there were other gods, that is, others capable of similarly ordaining their will, disorder and confusion would prevail. That there is no god but Him, and that no other being in the universe has any similar power, is related in a verse of the Qur'an as follows:

God has no son and there is no other god accompanying Him, for then each god would have gone off with what he created and one of them would have been exalted above the other. Glory be to God above what they describe. (Sura al-Muminun: 91)

In the supplication below, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) stressed that there is no deity but God and a believer has to turn to Him in all matters:
None has the right to be worshipped but God, the Majestic, the Most Forbearing. None has the right to be worshipped but God, the Lord of the Tremendous Throne. None has the right to be worshipped but God, the Lord of the Heavens and the Lord of the Honourable Throne. (Al-Bukhari)
As stressed above, there is no other god beside Him. He has no son. He is above such human attributes. We clearly understand from the verse below that those religions claiming that God has a "son" are misguided. The Oneness of God is further emphasized in the Qur'an as follows:

Say: "He is God, Absolute Oneness, God, the Everlasting Sustainer of all. He has not given birth and was not born. And no one is comparable to Him." (Sura al-Ikhlas: 1-4)

God Encompasses Eveything

Some people think that God is found in a certain place. The belief that God is up in the sky, in a remote corner of the universe, is held by many people. The fact is, however, that God is anywhere, encompassing everything. He is the actual and the only absolute being, to Whom all beings are subjected:

God, there is no god but Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them but they cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills. His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Sura al-Baqara: 255)

God has everything within His grasp at any given moment. There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock. He has power over all things and is exalted high above any weakness or inability.

God is Near to Man

Many people think God is far away. However, as stated in the Qur'an, "...Surely your Lord encompasses the people with His knowledge..." (Sura al-Isra': 60), He is very near. He sees and knows every aspect of a human being, and hears every word he utters. He is knowledgeable of even one's inner thoughts. This is related in the Qur'an as follows:

We created man and We know what his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Sura Qaf: 16)

God is so near to man that He hears the prayer of everyone—even if he prays inwardly—and it is He Who answers it:

If My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided. (Sura alBaqara: 186)

God knows what a person harbours in his heart. He knows whether he engages in a deed to earn His consent, or to satisfy his own lower soul. God reminds us that He knows our inner thoughts:

...Know that God knows what is in your selves, so beware of Him! And know that God is Ever-Forgiving, All-Forbearing. (Sura al-Baqara: 235)


Though you speak out loud, He knows your secrets and what is even more concealed. (Sura Ta Ha: 7)

God's Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) also reminded Muslims when they prayed that God is very close to them by saying, "You are calling a Hearer, One very close by; The One Who you are calling is closer to each one of you."(Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
As He is with you at every moment, God is with you as you are reading this book; He sees what you are doing and knows what you are thinking. This fact is related in the Qur'an as follows:

Do you not see that God knows what is in the heavens and on the earth? Three men cannot confer together secretly without Him being the fourth of them, or five without Him being the sixth of them, or fewer than that or more without Him being with them wherever they are. Then He will inform them on the Day of Rising of what they did. God has knowledge of all things. (Sura al-Mujadala: 7)

God Created Everything According to a Fixed Decree

We have created all things according to a fixed decree. (Sura al-Qamar: 49)

Destiny is part of God's perfect creation and all events, past and future, are known to Him as in a timeless "single moment."
It is God Who created matter. What we call time is the motion of matter. Time is a dimension which is relative only to man. Only man perceives the passage of time; a human being can recognize his own existence only as it exists in time. God, however, is not bound by time, for it is He Who created it. In other words, God is independent of the flow of time; God does not need to wait to see what will happen in the future. God is truly exalted above all such deficiencies. God knows of a future event (future for us) before it happens, because God, the First and the Last, is not bound by time, and because He is the Absolute and the Infinite. Not bound by time, God is aware of an event which, from our perspective, will take place thousands of years later. In fact, it is He Who willed, determined and created it. This truth is revealed in a verse as follows:

Nothing occurs, either in the earth or in yourselves, without its being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for God. (Sura al-Hadid: 22)

God has Power Over Everything

God, the Creator of everything, is the sole possessor of all beings. It is God Who heaps up the heavy clouds, heats and brightens the earth, varies the direction of the winds, holds birds suspended up in the sky, splits the seed, makes a man's heart beat, ordains photosynthesis in plants, and keeps planets in their separate orbits. People generally surmise that such phenomena occur according to "the laws of physics," "gravity," "aerodynamics," or other physical factors; however, there is one point these people ignore: all such physical laws were created by God. In fact, the only possessor of power in the universe is God.
God rules all the systems in the universe, regardless of whether we are aware of them, or if we are asleep, sitting, walking. Each of the myriad of processes in the universe, all essential to our existence, is under God's control. Even our ability to just take a small step forward depends on countless minutely predetermined details, including earth's force of gravity, the structure of the human skeleton, the nervous system and muscular system, the brain, the heart, and even the rotation speed of the earth.
Attributing the existence of the world and of the entire universe to sheer coincidence is complete delusion. The exquisite order of the earth and the universe completely contradicts the possibility of formation through coincidence, and is, rather, a clear sign of God's infinite might. For instance, the earth's orbit around the sun deviates only 2.8 mm in every 29 kms from the right path. If this deviation were 0.3 mm longer or shorter, then living beings all over the earth would either freeze or be scorched. While it is virtually impossible for even a marble to revolve in the same orbit without any deviation, the earth accomplishes such a course despite its gigantic mass. As stated in the Qur'an, "...God has appointed a measure for all things..." (Sura at-Talaq: 3). In effect, the splendid order in the universe is maintained as a result of fantastic systems that depend on highly delicate equilibriums.
Many hold the perverted belief that God "created everything and then left them on their own." However, any event, taking place in any area of the universe, occurs solely by God's Will, and under His control. The Qur'an states the following:

Do you not know that God knows everything in heaven and earth? That is in a Book. That is easy for God. (Sura al-Hajj: 70)

It is very important to grasp this fact for someone who strives to come near to God. The prayer of Prophet Muhammad (saas) quoted below is a very good example of this:
“O God: All the Praises are for You: You are the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. All the Praises are for You; You are the Maintainer of the Heaven and the Earth and whatever is in them. All the Praises are for You; You are the Light of the Heavens and the Earth. Your Word is the Truth, and Your Promise is the Truth, and the Meeting with You is the Truth, and Paradise is the Truth, and the (Hell) Fire is the Truth, and the Hour is the Truth. O God! I surrender myself to You, and I believe in You and I depend upon You, and I repent to You and with You (Your evidences) I stand against my opponents, and to you I leave the judgment (for those who refuse my message). O God! Forgive me my sins that I did in the past or will do in the future, and also the sins I did in secret or in public. You are my only God (Whom I worship) and there is no other God for me (i.e. I worship none but You)”. (Al-Bukhari)
Elaborate processes taking place in the bodies of living things are impressive examples that help us to grasp God's might. For instance, at every moment, your kidneys filter your blood and extricate those harmful molecules to be excreted from the body. This screening and elimination process, which can be carried out by a single kidney cell, can only be accomplished by a giant haemodialyser (artificial kidney). A haemodialyser was consciously designed by scientists. A kidney, however, does not sense, or have a decision-making centre, nor the faculty of thought. In other words, an unconscious kidney cell can accomplish tasks that otherwise demand an elaborate thinking process.
It is possible to encounter millions of such examples in living beings. Molecules, composed of unconscious matter, perform tasks so remarkable they would otherwise suggest consciousness. The consciousness apparent in these cases though is, of course, of God's infinite wisdom and knowledge. It is God Who designed the kidney cells, as well as the molecules discussed, and Who orders them to accomplish their respective tasks. In the Qur'an, God informs us that He constantly sends down "commands" to the beings He created:

It is God Who created the seven heavens and of the earth the same number, the Command descending down through all of them, so that you might know that God has power over all things and that God encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Sura at-Talaq: 12)

Clearly, God, Who created everything in the universe, is surely able to bring the dead to life. Of this fact, God states the following:

Do they not see that God—He Who created the heavens and the earth and was not wearied by creating them—has the power to bring the dead to life? Yes indeed! He has power over all things. (Sura al-Ahqaf: 33)

God Sees and Knows Everything

People cannot see God—unless He wills—, being the main reason why so many often falsely presume that God cannot see them (truly, God is far above that which they ascribe to Him). God sees and knows all things, down to the minutest detail, as indicated in a verse of the Qur'an as follows:

Eyesight cannot perceive Him but He perceives eyesight. He is the All-Penetrating, the All-Aware. (Sura al-An'am: 103)

Wherever a person may be, God is surely with him. Right at this moment, as you are reading these lines, God sees you and knows exactly what crosses your mind. Wherever you go, or whatever you do, this is always the case. As the Qur'an explains:

You do not engage in any matter or recite any of the Qur'an or do any action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied with it. Not even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven. Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a Clear Book. (Sura Yunus: 61)

It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then established Himself firmly on the Throne. He knows what goes into the earth and what comes out of it, what comes down from heaven and what goes up into it. He is with you wherever you are—God sees what you do. (Sura al-Hadid: 4)

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) also reminded believers to keep this in mind when he said, "God is above the Throne and nothing is hidden from God of your deeds."
Aware of this fact, a believer submits himself to his Lord, seeks refuge in Him, and fears nothing but Him. God's command to Prophet Moses, and Aaron, who hesitated in going to Pharaoh to summon him to Islam, is a lesson for all believers:

He said, "Have no fear. I will be with you, All-Hearing and All-Seeing." (Sura Ta Ha: 46)

All Beings are Subjected to God

All beings in the universe, either living or non-living, are under God's command. They can act only if He wills. They can only perform those tasks which He wills. For example, honeybees, who produce more honey than their actual need, could not possibly know that honey is beneficial to humans; nor could they be aware of the precise chemical composition that makes it so useful and delicious. In fact, in addition to not knowing why they produce an abundance of much honey, nor could they possess the intelligence to construct the orderly hexagonal honeycombs, each of which is a miracle of design and mathematics. It is God, to Whom all beings are subjected, that causes bees accomplish these feats. That bees act in compliance with God's command is related in the Qur'an as follows:

Your Lord revealed to the bees: "Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow" From inside them comes a drink of varying colours, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Sura an-Nahl: 68-69)

Bees' compliance with God's commands in the manner in which they conduct themselves is not an anomaly. God provides us with this example to allow us to understand that all beings, including man, act by His Will. The Qur'an indicates that this is a sign for those who reflect. All beings are entirely subjected to His command:

Everyone in the heavens and earth belongs to Him. All are submissive to Him. (Sura ar-Rum: 26)

Some religions consider Satan to be a being apart from and independent of God. Some attribute individual power to Satan. However, both opinions are incorrect. Satan, as well as the disbelievers who follow him, are subjected to God's Will. God created Satan to put man to test, and endowed him with the ability and authority to call mankind to disbelief. God's address to Satan is related in the Qur'an:

He (God) said, "Get out! you are accursed!
My curse is upon you until the Day of Reckoning."
He (Satan) said, "My Lord, grant me a reprieve until the Day they are raised again." He said, "You are among the reprieved until the Day whose time is known."
He said, "By Your might, I will mislead all of them
except for Your chosen servants among them."
He said, "By the truth—and I speak the truth—
I will fill up Hell with you and every one of them who follows you." (Sura Sâd: 77-85)

Just as man is, Satan is also entirely under God's control, and subjected to His Will. He is not a being possessing a will apart from and independent of God; he can neither make such decisions nor carry them out. In the trial set for human beings in this life, he is merely a being that is expected to distinguish the righteous from the corrupt.

False Beliefs About God

The Torah and the Gospel, the earlier revelations from God, have lost their original authenticity, since the words and interpolations of man have been incorporated into them. This is one of the reasons for which the Qur'an was sent. That the holy books preceded the Qur'an were distorted by man is related by God as follows:

Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say "This is from God" to sell it for a paltry price. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for what they earn! (Surat Al-Baqara: 79)

Among them is a group who distort the Book with their tongues so that you think it is from the Book when it is not from the Book. They say, "It is from God," but it is not from God. They tell a lie against God and they know it. (Sura Al 'Imran: 78)

Distortion of the Torah and the New Testament led proliferation of false beliefs among their adherents. These holy books include beliefs and ideas that derive from outside of God's true religion. This manifests itself in the distortion of the true revelation, and the depiction of God as a being with weaknesses and imperfections peculiar to human beings. (Truly, God is above what they ascribe to Him).
In the corrupted Torah, for instance, a story has been fabricated in which God is depicted as a being who was defeated in wrestling bout with the Prophet Jacob (as). Similarly, in another tale, it is claimed that having created the world in six days, God became weary and rested on the seventh day. However, God, being exalted far above any imperfections, cannot become weary or in need of rest. This is related in the Qur'an as follows:

We created the heavens and the earth, and everything between them, in six days and We were not affected by fatigue. (Sura Qaf: 38)

Do they not see that God—He Who created the heavens and the earth and was not wearied by creating them—has the power to bring the dead to life? Yes indeed! He has power over all things. (Sura al-Ahqaf: 33)

This reveals that the adherents of these books have swerved from the straight path, and have not had an accurate understanding of God and His attributes.
The Qur'an, on the other hand, is under God's protection, and is the only book revealed by God to have survived intact. The Qur'an is the book of Islam, the only true religion:

It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will preserve it. (Sura al-Hijr: 9)

If anyone desires anything other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he will be among the losers. (Sura Al 'Imran: 85)

The Qur'an refers to the erroneous beliefs adopted by Christians and Jews, and makes known the correct belief. For instance, their saying, "God has a son (Jesus)," which is one of the tenets of Christianity, is said to be merely an irrational belief and a lie said against God:

They say, "God has a son." Glory be to Him! No, everything in the heavens and earth belongs to Him. Everything is obedient to Him, the Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is. (Sura al-Baqara: 116-117)

Some other verses related to this matter are as follows:

People of the Book! Do not go to excess in your religion. Say nothing but the truth about God. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God and His Word, which He cast into Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His Messengers. Do not say, "Three." It is better that you stop. God is only One God. He is too Glorious to have a son! Everything in the heavens and in the earth belongs to Him. God suffices as a Guardian. (Surat An-Nisa': 171)

He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He has no wife? He created all things and He has knowledge of all things. (Sura al-An'am: 101)

Christian belief maintains that God created the universe and then left it to its own. Yet, as stated earlier, God commands Will over the universe at every single moment; it is constantly within His control. Nothing can happen without His Will and control:

He Who originates creation and then regenerates it and provides for you from out of heaven and earth. Is there another god besides God? Say: "Bring your proof if you are being truthful." (Sura an-Naml: 64)

God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving. (Sura Fatir: 41)

To counter these false notions, and many others not mentioned here, God gives His sublime attributes for us in the Qur'an. This is in order to, not only answer these erroneous claims, but also to guide those guilty of them to the true religion of God.
Everyone must acknowledge that God is One, and that nothing is comparable to Him; He is free of any weaknesses. He encompasses everything, He exercises His command over creation at every moment, He is near to man, He has the power to do anything, He is the Most Merciful, He is the Just, He is the King of the Day of Judgement, He sees and hears everything, and is the most sublime in attributes.

Faith in God Free of Idolatry

Have you seen him who has taken his whims and desires to be his god? Will you then be his guardian? (Sura al-Furqan: 43)

"Shirk," the word used for idolatry in Arabic means "partnership/association." In the Qur'an, it refers to ascribing associates to God, or deeming someone or something, called idols or false-gods, worthy of worship beside or in addition to God. Idolatry, though, is not limited to worshipping totems or non-living beings. Because man's responsibility is to serve his Creator, and to strive to earn His good pleasure alone, his pursuit of any other goal is to ascribe worship to something other than God. For instance, a person would be guilty of idolatry if he were to seek the pleasure of people instead of God's. Likewise, it would again be ascribing associates to God if one's purpose in life is to satisfy his whims and desires rather than to earn God's good pleasure. Many people ascribe divinity to things like money, status, wealth and so on.
The Qur'an refers to idolaters of Arab society, who set aside a portion of their crops and cattle for their idols, as follows:

They assign to God a share of the crops and livestock He has created, saying, "This is for God,"—as they allege—"and this is for our idols." Their idols' share does not reach God whereas God's share reaches their idols! What an evil judgement they make! (Sura al-An'am: 136)

As is mentioned in the verse above, idolaters assign a part of their wealth to God, and another part to their idols. This is characteristic of the delusion of idolaters.
Loving a being more than God or loving him/it as one ought to love God is again a form of idolatry. Similarly, someone who fears a being as he should fear God, idolizes it, since he assumes that that being possesses a might apart from and independent of God.
Muslims, however, firmly believe that everything is created by God, that all affairs are regulated by Him, that causes do not have any power to produce a result independently, that every event is predetermined and created by God, that God is the possessor of the ultimate will and judgement. This is the kind of belief system that God reveals to us in the Qur'an. Deviation from these tenets, believing that everything occurs spontaneously, as the result of coincidences, attributing the power to create to some other causes, are all forms of ascribing associates to God. God does not forgive idolatry:

God does not forgive anything being associated with Him but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that. Anyone who associates something with God has gone very far astray. (Sura an-Nisa': 116)

When God's Messenger (saas) was asked, "What is the biggest sin in the sight of God?", he also said, "To set up rivals unto God although He alone created you." (Al-Bukhari)

Assessing God with a Just Assessment

They do not measure God with His true measure. God is All-Strong, Almighty. (Surat Al-Hajj: 74)

God manifests His infinite might and knowledge in everywhere. The perfection of every part of the human body, the knowledge in the design of a flower, the beauty in its colour and scent, the glory in the heavens and the universe, the order in the orbits of the planets, the fish in the depths of oceans, and the intricate design in everything you see around you, are all clear manifestations of God's infiniteness and power. Some disbelievers, despite perceiving God's existence and His infinite might, deny Him out of arrogance. They do not acknowledge God's true greatness. Because they lack wisdom, they fail to see the evident signs of God's existence and of His greatness manifested in all beings. The inattention of these people is expressed in a verse as follows:

How many Signs there are in the heavens and earth! Yet they pass them by, turning away from them. (Sura Yusuf: 105)

Only those who reflect on the purpose of the creation around them, who have a clear faculty of discernment, who apply their minds and use their conscience, can recognize the truth that which these signs imply. They are those who believe. One of the primary attributes of a believer is his ability to be perceptive. Believers, who are capable of exercising their minds, unencumbered by false motives, come to recognize God's artistry and power through His creation, and thus have a full appreciation of His greatness and glory. A verse of the Qur'an relates that those who are able to think clearly see God's signs wherever they turn:

In the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and day, and the ships which sail the seas to people's benefit, and the water which God sends down from the sky—by which He brings the earth to life when it was dead and scatters about in it creatures of every kind—and the varying direction of the winds, and the clouds subservient between heaven and earth, there are Signs for people who use their intellect. (Sura al-Baqara: 164)

A person so disposed recognizes the signs of God's existence everywhere he looks, perceiving Him for His true might. Believers keep their minds continually occupied with remembrance of God, while the majority of humanity spend their lives without a thought to these facts. In a verse of the Qur'an, the ideal behaviour of a Muslim is related as follows:

...those who remember God, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Sura Al 'Imran: 191)

God's Infinite Greatness and Power

God created the order of the universe in superb detail to allow man to grasp His greatness. A verse referring to this order reads, "...so that you might know that God has power over all things and that God encompasses all things in His knowledge." (Sura at-Talaq: 12). Faced with the sublimity of the details of this order, man becomes in awe, recognizing that God's wisdom, knowledge and might is infinite.
So expansive is God's knowledge that what for us is "infinite" is in His sight already ended. Every event that has taken place since the creation of time, until deep into eternity, was predetermined and ended in God's sight. (See Timelessness and The Reality of Fate, by Harun Yahya) This is related in the Qur'an as follows:

We have created all things in due measure. Our command is only one word, like the blinking of an eye. We destroyed those of your kind in the past. But is there any rememberer there? Everything they did is in the Books. Everything is recorded, big or small. (Sura al-Qamar: 49-53)

Man must seek to appreciate the extent of God's knowledge, and reflect to comprehend His greatness.

Billions of people have appeared on earth since time immemorial. Therefore, God created billions of pairs of eyes, billions of different fingerprints, billions of different eye tissues, billions of different types of humans... If He so willed, He could also create billions more. As stated in the Qur'an, "...He adds to creation in any way He wills. God has power over all things." (Sura Fatir: 1)

God also possesses the power to create many other things beyond our limited imagination. The entire extent of the treasures God has bestowed in this world for His servants is all within His sight. He sends down to us only that which He wills, all within a measure predetermined:

There is nothing that does not have its stores with Us and We only send it down in a known measure. (Sura al-Hijr: 21)

This matter, manifested everywhere in God's superb creation, holds true for both that which we know as well as that which we do not. To this, God draws attention in the verse, "...and He creates other things you do not know." (Sura an-Nahl: 8), He creates many other things of which we are entirely unaware.
God has created many worlds and beings which we cannot see. To better understand the possibility of the existence of other worlds, we should consider the following: a picture is two dimensional—width and length. The world in which we live, however, is 3 dimensional—width, length and depth—(time can be considered as the 4th dimension). The rest is beyond our comprehension. However, in the sight of God, there are other dimensions. Angels, for instance, are beings that live in another dimension. According to the Qur'an, angels can see and hear us from the dimension and space in which they exist. Furthermore, the two angels, seated on our either shoulder, each, and at every moment, is recording every word we speak and every deed we do. Yet, we do not see them. Jinn are also beings of another dimension, as we are informed by the Qur'an. They, like us human beings, are also tested, all through their lives, and will ultimately be brought before judgement by God. However, they are possessed of completely different attributes than humans; their existence is dependent upon an entirely different system of cause and effect.
These are all facts that deserve careful consideration in order to attain a better grasp of God's splendid creation. It is within God's power to create innumerable new worlds, beings and situations. Furthermore, each is He able to create with a limitless degree of differentiation. Indeed, in a nature unknown to us, God will create Paradise and Hell. While systems left to their own in this world tend to age, become corrupted, and eventually expire, in Paradise, unaffected by the passage of time, nothing will deteriorate; "rivers of milk whose taste will never change" is an example to elucidate this feature of Paradise. The human body too will not degenerate; nor will anything ever age. According to the Qur'an, everyone in Paradise will be of like age, will live together for all eternity, in the best condition, and without growing older or losing their beauty. God also informs us in the Qur'an that in it will be bursting springs for us from which to drink. Hell, on the other hand, will be utterly different; in it, God will create unimaginable torment. No one will be able to conceive the pain of such torment until he experiences it.
On everything in this world, God has placed a limit. Everything has a finite existence. This being the case, in order to comprehend "eternity," and God's infinite might, we need to exercise our minds and compare these ideas with something that is familiar. We can only come to know to the extent that God permits us. God, however, is infinite in knowledge. Let us consider the following example, God has created 7 basic colours. It is impossible for us to visualize another colour. (The case is similar to describing the colour red to someone who is blind by birth; no description would be adequate.) However, God is able to create more than these basic colours. Although, unless He so wills, we will never be able to have a grasp that which is beyond what He has willed for us to know.
All that we have just mentioned belongs to that knowledge that God has allotted us in this world. But, one point deserves particular attention; because God's power and might is infinite, anything can happen, and at any time, by His will. God's Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) also referred to the eternal power of God when he said, "The seven heavens and the seven earths are no more in God's Hand than a mustard seed in the hand of one of you." God explains the infiniteness of His knowledge in the Qur'an as follows:

If all the trees on earth were pens and all the sea, with seven more seas besides, was ink God's words still would not run dry. God is Almighty, All-Wise. (Sura Luqman: 27)

In brief, no matter how hard we strive to do so, we cannot possibly come to grasp the extent of God's knowledge, because it is unlimited. We can comprehend it only as far as God permits us to do so:

God, there is no god but Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them but they cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills. His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Sura al-Baqara: 255)

Love of God and Fear of God

God says, "Do not take two gods. He is only One God. So dread Me alone." (Sura an-Nahl: 51)

Fear of God is one of the essential attributes of a believer. Because, it is fear of God that draws a person nearer to God, makes him attain a deeper faith, enables him to conduct himself responsibly towards God every moment of his life, and nurtures his dedication to values of the Qur'an. The fact that the good morals God expects from His servants come with the fear of God is reaffirmed by the Prophet Muhammad (saas) in these words:
Fear God wherever you are; if you follow an evil deed with a good one you will obliterate it; and deal with people with a good disposition. (At-Tirmidhi)
Failure to understand the real meaning of fear of God causes some to confuse it with other kinds of mundane fears. However, fear of God differs greatly from all other type of fear.
The Arabic word used in the original text of the Qur'an (khashyat) expresses overwhelming respect. On the other hand, the Arabic word used in the Qur'an to refer to worldly fears (hawf) expresses a simple kind of fear, as in the fear one feels when faces with a wild animal.
A consideration of the attributes of God leads to a better understanding of these two kinds of fear, both expressed by different words in Arabic. Worldly fears are usually caused by a potential threat. For example, one may fear being murdered. However, God is the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful and the Most Just. Therefore, fear of God implies showing respect to Him, the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful and the Most Just, and avoiding exceeding His limits, rebelling Him and being of those who deserve His punishment.
The consequences that a fear of God has on people make this difference apparent. Faced with a deadly danger, a person panics; seized with hopelessness and desperation, he fails to exercise his reason and discover a solution. Fear of God, however, actuates wisdom and adherence to one's conscience. Through fear of God, a person is motivated to avoid that which is evil, corruptive, and likely to cause either physical or mental harm to him. Fear of God fosters wisdom and insight. In a verse of the Qur'an, God informs us that it is through fear of God that wisdom and understanding is acquired:

You who believe! If you have fear of God, He will give you a criterion (by which to judge between right and wrong) and erase your bad actions from you and forgive you. God's favour is indeed immense. (Sura al-Anfal: 29)

Worldly fears cause man anxiety. Fear of God, however, not only gives rise to increased spiritual strength, but also to peace of mind.
It is through fear of God that man avoids those evil actions displeasing God. A verse of the Qur'an states, "...God does not love anyone vain or boastful." (Sura an-Nisa': 36). A God-fearing person strives diligently to abstain from boasting, and to engage rather in actions to earn God's love. For that reason, fear of God and love of God are mutually exclusive.
Fear of God, in fact, removes the obstacles to drawing nearer to God and earning His love. Foremost of these obstacles is one's lower self. From the Qur'an, we learn that there are two aspects of the soul; the one inspiring evil and mischief, and the other, guarding against every inclination to evil.
...the self and what proportioned it and inspired it with depravity and a fear of God, he who purifies it has succeeded, he who covers it up has failed. (Sura ash-Shams: 7-10)

Struggling against this evil, and not giving in it, requires spiritual strength. This strength derives from fear of God. A God-fearing person is not enslaved by the selfishness of his soul. The awe he feels for God draws him away from thoughts and deeds unworthy of His pleasure. A verse of the Qur'an informs us that only those who fear God will take heed of the warnings imparted to them:

You can only warn those who act on the Reminder and fear the All-Merciful in the Unseen. Give them the good news of forgiveness and a generous reward. (Sura Ya Sin: 11)

Man's striving must be to feel a more profound fear of God. To effect this noble sentiment, he must reflect upon God's creation and recognize the supreme artistry and power represented in its every detail. His thinking must enable him to attain a better grasp of His grandeur and add to his awe. Indeed, God commands us:

You who have fear! Have fear of God with the fear due to Him and do not die except as Muslims. (Sura Al 'Imran: 102)

So have fear of God, as much as you are able to, and listen and obey and spend for your own benefit. It is the people who are safe-guarded from the avarice of their own selves who are successful. (Sura at-Taghabun: 16)

The more a believer fears God, the more loving he becomes. He better acknowledges the beauty of God's creation. He acquires the ability to recognize the multitude of people, nature, animals, and in everything around him, as reflections of God's sublime attributes. Consequently, he comes to feel a deeper love for such blessings, as well as for God, their Creator.
A person who grasps this secret also knows what love of God is. He loves God, over and above anything else, and understands that all beings are the work of His creation. he loves them in accordance with God's pleasure. He loves believers who are submissive to Him, but feels aversion for those who are rebellious towards Him.
The true love that makes man happy, brings him joy and peace, is love of God. Other forms of love, felt for beings other than God, are, in the words of the Qur'an, love peculiar to idolaters, and consistently leads to anguish, sorrow, melancholy and anxiety. The idolaters' love and the love believers feel for God are compared in a verse as follows:

Some people set up equals to God, loving them as they should love God. But those who believe have greater love for God... (Sura al-Baqara: 165)

The Qur'an is a Guide

THE QUR'AN IS A GUIDE

That is the Book, without any doubt. It contains guidance for those who have fear of God (Sura al-Baqara: 2)

The Qur'an is the word of God. God has revealed the Qur'an to introduce Himself, to communicate people the purpose of their existence, inform them of the nature of this life, the basis of the test put to them in this world, and their responsibilities towards their Creator, to give them the good news of the hereafter, and describe what constitutes good morals. The Qur'an was revealed by Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad (saas). Immune to any possible distortion, it is a Book by which people will be held to account on the Day of Judgement. In one verse, God informs us that the Qur'an is under His protection:

It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will preserve it. (Sura al-Hijr: 9)

The unique style of the Qur'an, and the supreme wisdom of its teachings, is clear evidence of its being the word of God. This aside, the Qur'an has many miraculous attributes, certifying that it is the revelation of God. A number of scientific discoveries, that could only be attained in the 20th and 21st centuries, were declared in the Qur'an 1400 years ago. This information, that was impossible to verify scientifically at the time of the Qur'an's revelation, has proved once again that it is the word of God.
Another important characteristic of the Qur'an is that—contrary to the Torah and the Gospel—it contains no contradiction whatsoever. This is yet further evidence that it is the word of God. God reminds humanity of this fact as follows:

Will they not ponder the Qur'an? If it had been from other than God, they would have found many inconsistencies in it. (Sura an-Nisa': 82)

The Qur'an is guidance for mankind. It is also the definitive criterion by which to distinguish right from wrong, for which reason another name of the Qur'an is "Furqan," that is "Discrimination":

...He has sent down the Furqan (the Standard by which to discern the true from the false). Those who reject God's Signs will have a terrible punishment... (Sura Al 'Imran: 4)

The Qur'an is a book that admonishes humanity:

This is a communication to be transmitted to mankind so that they may be warned by it and so that they will know that He is One God and so that the wise will pay heed. (Sura Ibrahim: 52)

The Qur'an is the final revelation from God, and will remain until the Day of Judgement. Although the Torah and the Gospel were true scriptures at the time they were revealed, they have lost the quality of their authenticity, because of the reasons explained earlier. God informs us that, in His sight, Islam is the only religion:

If anyone desires anything other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he will be among the losers. (Sura Al 'Imran: 85)

Belief in the Books Revealed by God and Belief in His Messengers

Since the time the Prophet Adam (as) was sent to the earth, God has sent messengers to every nation, to communicate to them the existence of God and the hereafter, and to convey the divine message. Some of these messengers are those prophets whose names are mentioned in the Qur'an and to whom books were revealed. A Muslim must not discriminate between them, but respect them all equally, since they were all prophets of the true religion. God commands Muslims to believe in all the prophets, without making distinction:

Say, "We believe in God and what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and what Moses and Jesus were given, and what all the Prophets were given by their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them. We are Muslims submitted to Him." (Sura al-Baqara: 136)

The only book by which humanity is responsible in our time is the Qur'an, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (saas). Because, as the Qur'an informs, the earlier books, which were originally revealed to communicate the truth to mankind, were later altered through additions and deletions:

Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say "This is from God" to sell it for a paltry price. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for what they earn! (Sura al-Baqara: 79)

For this reason, Islam was revealed by God as the final religion. God, in a verse of the Qur'an, commands as follows:

...Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My blessing upon you and I am pleased with Islam as a religion for you... (Sura al-Ma'ida: 3)

The Qur'an also informs us that the Prophet Muhammad (saas) is the last prophet:

Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but the Messenger of God and the Final Seal of the Prophets. God has knowledge of all things. (Sura al-Ahzab: 40)

Consequently, the only true religion for all times, since the era of the Prophet Muhammad (saas), until the Day of Resurrection, is Islam, and its source, the Qur'an.

Faith in the Angels

Angels, as the Qur'an informs us, are the servants of God, who carry out His commands. God has assigned them different duties. Gabriel, for instance, delivers the divine revelation to prophets. There are the angels on each side of a man, writing down whatever he does; angels welcoming people to Paradise, and those angels who are the guardians of the Hell; the angels that take back the souls of men, the angels who assist the believers, the angels who communicate to the messengers who among their rebellious people will receive God's punishment, the angels who give the good news of a newborn to the messengers. Angels are obedient beings, who are never arrogant, but who continually glorify God:

Everything in the heavens and every creature on the earth prostrates to God, as do the angels. They are not puffed up with pride. (Sura an-Nahl: 49)

Throughout history, angels have delivered God's messages to mankind. Angels appeared to many prophets, and, in some cases, to sincere believers, such as Mary, and communicated to them the commands and the divine wisdom of God. God informs us about faith in angels in the Qur'an, making it a prerequisite of faith in the Qur'an for Islam. In a verse of the Qur'an, it is stated that faith in angels is an attribute of a believer:

The Messenger has faith in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. Each one has faith in God and His angels and His Books and His Messengers. We do not differentiate between any of His Messengers. They say, 'We hear and we obey. Forgive us, our Lord! You are our journey's end.' (Sura al-Baqara: 285)

The Temporary Nature of the Life of This World

The life of this world is a trial for humanity. Though God has created countless allurements for man in this world, He has also warned him against becoming overly concerned by them, and forgetting God and His religion. In a verse of the Qur'an, God states that the ostentation of this world is temporary, and that the real pleasure is Paradise, as reward for God's contentment:

We made everything on the earth adornment for it so that We could test them to see whose actions are the best. (Sura al-Kahf: 7)

Know that the life of the world is merely a game and a diversion and ostentation and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children: like the plant-growth after rain which delights the cultivators,but then it withers and you see it turning yellow, and then it becomes broken stubble. In the hereafter there is terrible punishment but also forgiveness from God and His good pleasure. The life of the world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion. (Sura al-Hadid: 20)

While the believer also enjoys those blessings that are described as the pleasures of this world, unlike the disbeliever, he does not consider them the purpose of his life. He may desire to possesses them, but only for the purpose of giving thanks to God, and to use them to earn God's consent. He does not pursue out of greed. Because, he knows that that which is of this world is short-lived, just as is his own life. He knows that, after his death, such things will be of no benefit to him. Furthermore, he knows that if he pursues only worldly things, at the expense of nobler goals, for them he sacrifices his hereafter. In a verse of the Qur'an, this important truth is related as follows:

To mankind the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colours: women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is merely the enjoyment of the life of the world. The best homecoming is in the presence of God. (Sura Al 'Imran: 14)

The allure of the things of this world is an essential factor in the test placed upon man in this world. The Satan resorts relentlessly to allurements in his attempts to deceive man. Believers, however, are those people who, though they may be attracted to such allurement, are aware of their true worth. Cognizant that these are the temporary blessings of this world, and that by them they are being tested, the deceptive attraction of these things does not delude them. For this reason, they are not deceived by the Satan, and are able to save themselves from eternal torment. In the Qur'an, God warns mankind as follows:

Mankind! God's promise is true. Do not let the life of the world delude you and do not let the Deluder delude you about God. (Sura Fatir: 5)

On the other hand, those who are without faith, and thus are bereft of wisdom, feel an inner inclination to this world. Under Satan's influence, they make the attainment of the temporary goods of this world the ultimate purpose of their lives. The condition of such people is stated as follows:

No indeed! But you love this fleeting world and you disregard the hereafter. (Sura al-Qiyama: 20-21)

Man is being Tested

God has created everything according to His divine wisdom, and has rendered many things to man's service. Clearly, many things in the universe, from the solar system to the ratio of oxygen in the atmosphere, from the animals that provide us meat and milk to water, have been created to serve man. If this fact is recognized to be evident, it follows that it is illogical to think this life has no purpose. Definitely, there is a purpose to this life, explained by God as follows:

I only created jinn and man to worship Me. (Sura adh-Dhariyat: 56)

Only a minority of humanity understand this purpose of creation and lead their lives thereby. God has granted us life on earth to test whether or not we will conform to this very purpose. Those who sincerely serve God, and those who rebel against Him, will be distinguished from one another in this world. All those blessings (his body, senses, property...) given to man in this world, are a means by which God tests him. In a verse of the Qur'an, God relates the following:

We created man from a mingled drop to test him, and We made him hearing and seeing. (Sura al-Insan: 2)

Man's duty in this world is to have faith in God and the hereafter, to conduct himself in compliance with the commands of the Qur'an, to observe the limits set by God, and to try to earn His good pleasure. The continuing trials of this life over time reveal those people who are committed to accomplish these tasks. Because God demands a true and sincere faith,—which is the kind of faith that is not attainable only by saying "I believe"—man must demonstrate that he has true faith in God and His religion, and that he will not swerve from the right path despite the cunnings of Satan. Similarly, he must demonstrate that he will not follow the disbelievers, nor prefer the desires of his own self over God's pleasure. His response to the events in his life will reveal all these qualities. God will create certain hardships, during which man must show patience, in order to expose the degree of his dedication to faith in God. This fact is stated in the Qur'an as follows:

Do people imagine that they will be left to say, "We believe," and will not be tested? (Sura al-'Ankabut: 2)

In another verse, God states that those who say, "We believe" will be tested:

Or did you imagine that you were going to enter Paradise without God knowing those among you who had struggled and knowing the steadfast? (Sura Al 'Imran: 142)

This being the case, disappointment in the face of difficulties would not be the right response to allow oneself to have. Such difficulties may be great ordeals or just trivial daily problems. A believer must consider all such circumstances as part of the trial placed upon him, place his trust in God, and conduct himself in compliance with His pleasure. In a verse of the Qur'an, those difficulties placed upon the believers are related as follows:

We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and life and crops. But give good news to the steadfast (Sura al-Baqara: 155)

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) also reminded the believers of this, by saying, "Whoever accepted it [God's trial], will enjoy God's Pleasure and whoever is displeased with it, will incur God's Displeasure." (At-Tirmidhi)
Not only will difficulties, but also blessings in this world serve to test man. God tries man with every benefit He bestows upon man, to see whether or not he will be thankful. As well, God creates many circumstances through which man adopt a certain attitude. In the midst of these trials, man may formulate a decision, either in compliance with God's pleasure, or his own soul. If he recognizes such an incident to be a trial from God, and conforms his conduct accordingly to earn God's pleasure, then he succeeds in his test. However, if his decision is in accordance to the dictates of his own soul, it will both be a sin, which he will greatly regret in the hereafter, and a source of anxiety in this world, as it troubles his conscience.
Indeed, God creates everything that happens in this world as a trial. Those events considered to be mere "coincidence" or "bad luck" by the ignorant, are actually circumstances created according to the great subtleties of a divine plan. Of this, God gives the example of Jews who broke the Sabbath, tempted by an abundance of fish:

Ask them about the town which was by the sea when they broke the Sabbath—when their fish came to them near the surface on their Sabbath day but did not come on the days which were not their Sabbath. In this way We put them to the test because they were deviators. (Sura al-A'raf: 163)

The Jews may have thought that the fish came forth to them on a Saturday by "coincidence," but, the event was predetermined as a trial for them by God. As this case makes clear, there is a divine purpose and a test in every occurrence in life. All that befalls a believer has been determined in order that he keep this notion in mind, and that he try to succeed at his test, and adopt a form of behaviour that is in compliance with the consent of God.

Death is not the End

Every self will taste death. We test you with both good and evil as a trial. And you will be returned to Us. (Sura al-Anbiya': 35)

Death, which is certain to happen to all of us, is a very important fact in one's life. We can never know exactly what we will experience in an hour or even in the next moment. This being the case, it is obvious how wrong it would be to plan our lives based on events that may never happen. Death, on the other hand, is the only thing that is certain to happen. Only the recognition of this basic truth makes us understand that we must found our lives according to it. Death is also a part of the trial of man. God informs us in the Qur'an that He created death and life to try man:

He Who created death and life to test which of you is best in action. He is the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving. (Sura al-Mulk: 2)

Death is the end of merely the life of this world—thus the end of the trial—and the beginning of the next life. For this reason, believers have no fear of death. The thought of death does not distress them, because, every moment of their lives is spent in the pursuit of good deeds as preparation for the hereafter. For disbelievers, however, fear causes them great distress, because they consider it a complete annihilation. Thus, they avoid all thought of death. But it is futile. No soul can escape death when the predetermined time for it has come. This, in a verse, is stressed as follows:

Wherever you are, death will catch up with you, even if you are in impregnable fortresses...(Sura an-Nisa': 78)

To avoid the thought of death is to avoid the truth. As death will eventually catch up with man sooner or later, it is wise to conduct oneself with a mind busy with the thought of death. This is the rational disposition by which believers abide. Until death comes upon them, they engage in good deeds, as God commands us in the Qur'an:

And worship your Lord until what is Certain comes to you. (Sura al-Hijr: 99)

Thinking about death strengthens one's spirit and will. It prevents one's lower soul from leading him astray, by being lured through the false temptations of this world. It instils him with the resolve and determination to avoid all forms of behaviour unpleasing to God. It is for this reason that a believer must often think about death, never forgetting that all people, including himself, will someday die.
From the Qur'an, we learn what really happens to someone who dies, and what he or she actually experiences and feels. When we see someone dying, we only observe his "biological death." The truth is, however, the dying person, though in a totally different dimension, confronts the angels of death. If he is a disbeliever, his death causes him great pain. The angels of death, after extracting his soul, beat and torment him. A disbeliever's trauma is described as follows:

...If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying, "Disgorge your own selves! Today you will be repaid with the punishment of humiliation for saying something other than the truth about God, and being arrogant about His Signs." (Sura al-An'am: 93)

How will it be when the angels take them in death, beating their faces and their backs? That is because they followed what angers God and hated what is pleasing to Him. So He made their actions come to nothing. (Sura Muhammad: 27-28)

On the contrary, death promises great joy and bliss for the believers. Contrary to disbelievers, whose souls are torn from them violently, the souls of believers are drawn from them gently. (Sura an-Nazi'at: 2) This experience is similar to the case of the soul in sleep, which leaves the body and moves into a different dimension (Sura az-Zumar: 42).

Gardens of Eden which they enter, with rivers flowing under them, where they have whatever they desire. That is how God repays those who have fear for Him: those the angels take in a virtuous state. They say, "Peace be upon you! Enter Paradise for what you did."(Sura an-Nahl: 31-32)

Belief in the Hereafter

The life of the world is nothing but a game and a diversion. The abode of the hereafter—that is truly Life if they only knew. (Sura al-'Ankabut: 64)

Either reward or punishment awaits man at the end of the trial that is the life of this world. Those who engage in good deeds, and have faith in God, earn the good pleasure of God, and are rewarded with an eternal Paradise. The wicked, those who deny God and transgress His limits, however, deserve Hell, where they will encounter eternal punishment.
Man never actually disappears. From the very moment we are created, our eternal life begins. That is, we have already started our eternal life. Once our trial has ended, and immediately following the moment of transition, which we call death, we will live on into eternity. Whether that time will be spent in torment or in bliss depends on one's commitment to the Word of God, the Qur'an, and his fastidiousness in observing His limits. This entire system, the universe, the world, human beings, and everything created for human beings, have been designed for an ultimate purpose; the life in the hereafter. God informs us that man's existence in this world is not without a purpose and that, in the hereafter, after his short life in this world, man will have to offer an account of his deeds:

Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us? (Sura al-Muminun: 115)

Eternal life is an enormous blessing in comparison to the very short life of the present, which is no more than a "moment". It is truly a great mercy that, in return for following those basic inclinations that are natural to a human being—such as having faith and seeking God's approval—, God bestows upon him the reward of eternal life in Paradise:

As for those who believe and do right actions, We will lodge them in lofty chambers in Paradise, with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever. How excellent is the reward of those who act. (Sura al-'Ankabut: 58)

The life of the hereafter is important in the sense that it represents the manifestation of God's infinite justice, as well as the provision of His infinite blessings. The hereafter will be the place where everything a man does in this world will be repaid, where justice and compassion will prevail. The absolute justice of the hereafter is described in a verse as follows:

...Say, "The enjoyment of the world is very brief. The hereafter is better for those who have fear. You will not be wronged by so much as the smallest speck." (Sura an-Nisa': 77)

God, Who possesses the might to create everything, can surely create the hereafter:

Does He Who created the heavens and earth not have the power to create the same again? Yes indeed! He is the Creator, the All-Knowing. (Sura Ya Sin: 81)

Faith in the Day of Judgement

"And the Hour is coming without any doubt and God will raise up all those in the graves." (Sura al-Hajj: 7)

The Day of Judgement is the day the duration predestined for this universe comes to an end. That day, the trial placed upon humanity will come to an end, and this world, the arena of this trial, will reduce to nothing. This is the end promised by God in the Qur'an. That the physical life of the universe will come to an end is a fact confirmed by scientific observation. In the Qur'an, a number of verses that depict the Day of Judgement are as follows:

So when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and crushed with a single blow, On that Day, the Occurrence will occur and Heaven will be split apart, for that Day it will be very frail. (Sura al-Haqqa: 13-16)

On the Day of Judgement, God will raise all people who have died:

Then on the Day of Rising you will be raised again. (Sura al-Muminun: 16)

On that day, God will gather the people and raise them all:

God, there is no god but Him. He will gather you to the Day of Rising about which there is no doubt. And whose speech could be truer than God's? (Sura an-Nisa': 87)

The Day of Rising is the day when each one will stand in God's presence, and every single deed each engaged in will be disclosed:

On that Day you will be exposed—no concealed act you did will stay concealed. (Sura al-Haqqa: 18)

That day, everyone will receive the reward for their deeds, and God will carry out His infinite justice:

We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Rising and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner. (Sura al-Anbiya': 47)

The Day of Resurrection is that time when God will bring an end to the physical existence of the universe, the earth and everything in it. In that moment, God, the Creator of all such laws, will render all physical laws ineffective, unleashing a chain of unprecedented disasters beyond one's imagination.
A series of very delicate equilibriums make life possible for us in this world. The distance of the world to the sun, and the speed at which it spins on its axis, are perfectly determined for the sake of man's survival on this planet. The gravitational force, the atmosphere that serves as a ceiling to protect the earth against celestial bodies that may destruct it, and many other similar systems have been all been specifically created. It is God, the Lord of all the worlds, Who created these finely tuned equilibriums in order to make life possible, before even man existed. It is God Who sustains the universe at every moment:

God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving. (Sura Fatir: 41)

At that moment when God will disrupt the functioning of these varied delicate equilibriums, everything will perish. That moment will be the Day of Judgement. People whose souls will go through the Day of Judgement will be terrified by the horror of that day:

Mankind, have fear of your Lord! The quaking of the Hour is a terrible thing. On the day they see it, every nursing woman will be oblivious of the baby at her breast, and every pregnant woman will abort the contents of her womb, and you will think people drunk when they are not drunk; it is just that the punishment of God is so severe. (Sura al-Hajj: 1-2)

How will you safeguard yourselves, if you are disbelievers, against a Day which will turn children grey? (Sura al-Muzzammil: 17)

God informs us what other things will happen on the Day of Judgement:
When the sun is compacted in blackness,
when the stars fall in rapid succession,
when the mountains are set in motion,
when the camels in foal are neglected,
when the wild beasts are all herded together,
when the oceans surge into each other,
when the selves are arranged into classes,
when the baby girl buried alive is asked
for what crime she was killed,
when the Pages are opened up,
when the Heaven is peeled away,
when the Fire is set ablaze,
when Paradise is brought up close:
then each self will know what it has done. (Sura at-Takwir: 1-14)

The Resurrection

He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own creation, saying, "Who will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say "He Who made them in the first place will bring them back to life." (Sura Ya Sin: 78-79)

The resurrection is a re-creation of life after death. Death is not the cessation of existence. The world, which God has created to put man to test, will serve to determine his lot in the afterlife. After death, every soul will be re-created in a new body, and begin its life in the hereafter, where God will place him either in Hell or Paradise, depending on his deeds in the world. The resurrection of humanity is easy to accomplish for God. In a verse, the rising of the people all together on the Day of Judgement is described as follows:

It is We Who give life and cause to die and We are their final destination. The Day the earth splits open all around them as they come rushing forth, that is a gathering, easy for Us to accomplish. (Sura Qaf: 43-44)

Some people doubt that God could raise man from the dead. However, it is God Who first created man out of nothing, and therefore, certainly has the power to bring him back to life again. God informs us of this fact in the Qur'an:

Mankind! If you are in any doubt about the Rising, know that We created you from dust then from a drop of sperm then from a clot of blood then from a lump of flesh, formed yet unformed, so We may make things clear to you. We make whatever We want stay in the womb until a specified time and then We bring you out as children so that you can reach your full maturity. Some of you die and some of you revert to the lowest form of life so that, after having knowledge, they then know nothing at all. And you see the earth dead and barren; then when We send down water onto it it quivers and swells and sprouts with luxuriant plants of every kind. That is because God is the Real and gives life to the dead and has power over all things. (Sura al-Hajj: 5-6)

To make an example of this re-creation, God draws our attention to natural phenomena around us. After rainfall, God revives dead, barren soil where nothing could grow so that it becomes productive again. Similarly, bringing man back to life after his death is easy for God:

It He is Who sends out the winds, bringing advance news of His mercy, so that when they have lifted up the heavy clouds, We dispatch them to a dead land and send down water to it, by means of which We bring forth all kinds of fruit. In the same way We will bring forth the dead, so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Sura al-A'raf: 57)

Everything is easy for God. The Qur'an states that the creation or resurrection of humanity is like that of a single person:

Your creation and rising is only like that of a single self. God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Sura Luqman: 28)

The Day of Judgement

Asking, "When is the Day of Judgement?" (Sura adh-Dhariyat: 12)

What you are promised is certainly true—the Judgement will certainly take place! (Sura adh-Dhariyat: 5-6)

God holds man responsible for his deeds. Every person, who has been tested in this world, will be called to account of his deeds on the Day of Judgement. On that day, he will witness that nothing was kept hidden from God, and his every good or evil deed will be disclosed:

The Day when they will issue forth and when not one thing about them will be hidden from God. "To whom does the kingdom belong today? To God, the One, the Conqueror! Every self will be repaid today for what it earned. Today there will be no injustice. God is swift at reckoning." (Sura Ghafir: 16-17)

Man does not always receive the punishment he deserves in this world. God grants a time to some, though He informs us that He will pay them in full for all their evil deeds in the hereafter. This being the case, it is unwise that those who commit illicit acts should assume they have evaded punishment, simply because they have escaped the law and thus were not punished in this world. On the Day of Judgement, they will see that man can keep nothing hidden from God. By His name "al Hafiz" (He Who preserves all things in detail), God knows man's every deed and commands His angels keep their record. God informs us of this fact in the Qur'an:

When the two Receivers receive (him), seated on the right hand and on the left, He uttered no word but there is with him an observer ready. (Sura Qaf: 17-18)

God, Who knows all things down to their minutest details, Who witnesses every moment of a man's life, whether he utters a word aloud or keeps it in his heart, will judge man justly on the Day of Reckoning, when the attribute of God's justice will be fully known:

We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Rising and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner. (Sura al-Anbiya': 47)

God, the Just, is infinitely merciful and kind towards His servants. God promises that he who does a good deed will receive ten like it, while he who does evil will be awarded only with what he deserves:

Those who produce a good action will receive ten like it. But those who produce a bad action will only be repaid with its equivalent and they will not be wronged. (Sura al-An'am: 160)

At the time of reckoning, people will be led to either Paradise or Hell, depending on the side from which they receive their books:

As for him who is given his Book in his right hand, he will be given an easy reckoning and return to his family joyfully. But as for him who is given his Book behind his back, he will cry out for destruction but will be roasted in a Searing Blaze. He used to be joyful in his family. He thought that he was never going to return. But in fact his Lord was always watching him! (Sura al-Inshiqaq: 7-15)

Paradise and Hell

The Companions of the Fire and the Companions of Paradise are not the same. It is the Companions of Paradise who are the victors. (Sura al-Hashr: 20)

When God created the Prophet Adam (as), the first man on earth, and his wife, He placed them in Paradise. However, as we are informed by the Qur'an, in Paradise, Adam and his wife were tempted to evil and transgressed God's prohibition.
This story allows us to recognize that a human tends to appreciate the beauty and value of something good if he can compare it to something evil. He grasps the wickedness of evil if he knows that which is good. The value of something can be appreciated by comparison. Having been placed in Paradise first, the Prophet Adam (as) and his wife had never been to a place that could be compared to Paradise, and thus failed to appreciate the difference. Therefore, people who would otherwise fail to value the blessings and perfection of Paradise, are given the chance to compare by being first created in this world, a place where good and evil exist simultaneously.
For the purpose of better comparison, on the Day of Judgement, when everyone will be raised, God will gather all people around Hell and then save those people of faith who were attentive in their observance of His limits. Someone who sees Hell with his own eyes will certainly understand, from his own experience, that Paradise is a great salvation and blessing:

By your Lord, We will collect them and the evils together. Then We will assemble them around Hell on their knees. Then We will drag out from every sect the one among them most insolent towards the All-Merciful. Then it is We Who will know best those most deserving to roast in it. There is not one of you who will not come to it. That is the final decision of your Lord. Then We will rescue those who had fear of God and We will leave the wrongdoers in it on their knees. (Sura Maryam: 68-72)

In this world, God promises Paradise, a life of infinite beauty, to those who can appreciate this truth:

But as for those who believe and do right actions, We will admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever and ever. God's promise is true. Whose speech could be truer than God's? (Sura an-Nisa': 122)

Those who have chosen the way of untruth, although they were warned and guided to the straight path, will be placed in Hell, where an eternal punishment will be inflicted on them. Surely, this is the fulfilment of God's infinite justice:

Those who are disbelievers will be driven to Hell in companies and when they arrive there and its gates are opened its custodians will say to them, "Did Messengers from yourselves not come to you, reciting your Lord's Signs to you and warning you of the meeting on this Day of yours?" They will say, "Indeed they did, but the decree of punishment is justly carried out against disbelievers." (Sura az-Zumar: 71)

The nature of man is inherently disposed to practicing the values and character praised in the Qur'an. This is the model of a believer that pleases God. God makes clear to man what is evil and what is good. In addition, God has given man eyes, ears, a heart and the faculty of judgement, with which to distinguish good from evil. Because, through these qualities, man may easily come to recognize God's existence and greatness, and have faith in Him, it is apparent that those who choose to disbelieve would not deserve to be treated the same as believers. God describes how these two groups will be distinguished in the hereafter as follows:

God calls to the Abode of Peace and He guides whom He wills to a straight path. Those who do good will have the best and more! Neither dust nor debasement will darken their faces. They are the Companions of Paradise, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. But as for those who have earned bad actions—a bad action will be repaid with one the like of it. Debasement will darken them. They will have no one to protect them from God. It is as if their faces were covered by dark patches of the night. Those are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. (Sura Yunus: 25-27)

God gives an account of life in Paradise. He promises this life to those who believe and conduct themselves righteously in this world. This is the good news communicated to the believers:

Those are the Ones Brought Near
in Gardens of Delight.
A large group of the earlier people
but few of the later ones.
On sumptuous woven couches,
reclining on them face to face.
There will circulate among them, ageless youths,
carrying goblets and decanters
and a cup from a flowing spring—
it does not give them any headache
nor does it leave them stupefied.
And any fruit they specify
and any bird-meat they desire.
And dark-eyed maidens
like hidden pearls.
As recompense for what they did.
They will hear no prattling in it
nor any word of wrong.
All that is said is, "Peace! Peace!"
And the Companions of the Right:
what of the Companions of the Right?
Amid thornless lote-trees
and fruit-laden acacias
and wide-spreading shade
and outpouring water
and fruits in abundance
never failing, unrestricted.
And on elevated couches
We have brought maidens into being
and made them purest virgins,
devoted, passionate, of like age,
for the Companions of the Right.
A large group of the earlier people
and a large group of the later ones. (Sura al-Waqi'a: 11-40)

While God gives to believers the good news of Paradise, a place of bliss and salvation, with its bounteous blessings, , He also lets the disbelievers know that they will be sent to Hell. The Qur'an provides an account of Hell, a place of unbearable torment:


And the Companions of the Left:
what of the Companions of the Left?
Amid searing blasts and scalding water
and the murk of thick black smoke,
providing no coolness and no pleasure.
Before that they were living in luxury,
persisting in immense wrongdoing
and saying, "When we are dead
and turned to dust and bones,
shall we then be raised again
or our forefathers, the earlier peoples?"
Say: "The earlier and the later peoples
will certainly all be gathered
to the appointment of a specified Day.
Then you, you misguided, you deniers
will eat from the tree of Zaqqum,
filling your stomachs with it
and drink scalding water on top of it,
slurping like thirst-crazed camels.
This will be their hospitality on the Day of Judgement!" (Sura al-Waqi'a: 41-56)

The Aim Is to Attain the Good Pleasure of God

Say: "I am commanded to worship God, making my religion sincerely His." (Sura az-Zumar: 11)

Once having grasped the extent of God's infinite might, to forget His existence and remain heedless is merely to delude oneself. What God demands from human beings is that they seek to earn His good pleasure as their sole priority in life.
Since it is God Who created man, provided him his sustenance and all other such blessings, and Who promised him eternal life in the hereafter, it would be an act of ingratitude for man to seek the pleasure of others, or the gratification of his own self, as his primary aim. The punishment for such ungratefulness is eternal hellfire.
There are two choices a man can make; he can either found his life on God's good pleasure, and thus earn the reward of His Paradise, or choose the path that leads to Hell. A third option is not available for him. This is clearly expressed in the following verse:

Who is better: someone who founds his building on fear of God and His good pleasure, or someone who founds his building on the brink of a crumbling precipice so that it collapses with him into the Fire of Hell? God does not love wrongdoers. (Sura at-Tawba: 109)

Those values praised in the Qur'an are those founded on purely that which achieves God's pleasure. For example, self-sacrifice, which is pleasing to God, is valid only if the person does not expect anything for it in return, but rather only to attain God's good pleasure. It is related in the Qur'an that believers conduct themselves correctly only to seek God's countenance:

They give food, despite their love for it, to the poor and orphans and captives: "We feed you only out of desire for the Face of God. We do not want any repayment from you or any thanks." (Sura al-Insan: 8-9)

God's Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) also stated in a hadith that God's Pleasure must always be held above man's pleasure:
Whoever seeks God's Pleasure at the expense of men's displeasure, will win God's Pleasure and God will cause men to be pleased with him. And whoever seeks to please men at the expense of God's Displeasure, will win the Displeasure of God and God will cause men to be displeased with him. (narrated by Ibn Hibban in his Saheeh)
The greatest honour and gratification man can ever attain is God's good pleasure. God makes His servants pleased with Him through the multitude of blessings He bestows on them. In a verse of the Qur'an, the reward for believers who are pleased with God, and with whom God is pleased, is related as follows:

Their reward is with their Lord: Gardens of Eden with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever and ever. God is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. That is for those who fear their Lord. (Sura al-Bayyina: 8)

God's good pleasure is not only earned solely by performing certain acts of worship at definite times. God's good pleasure is also earned by conducting oneself correctly throughout one's lifetime. The following verse informs us that a believer's entire life must be oriented towards a single goal:

Say: "My prayer and my rites, my living and my dying, are for God alone, the Lord of all the worlds." (Sura al-An'am: 162)

Sin and Repentance

One of the reasons for people's detachment from the religion is that they consider themselves unforgivable out of the deep distress they feel because of the sins they have committed. Satan attempts repeatedly to instil such despair in human beings. To one who has committed a sin, he stealthily whispers the message, "You are wicked and rebellious against God." If he has committed only a few sins, Satan tempts him to sin still more. Towards his purpose, Satan employs the feeling of embarrassment man feels towards God, but manipulates this feeling in order to draw man further distant from God.
However, like all others, this trick of Satan's is a feeble one. The fact that someone committed a sin does not mean that he has been cursed by God, and that he will never be able to follow the straight path again. Not just one simple sin, but even if he were to commit the greatest sins, over and over again, he will always have the opportunity to repent and turn towards God. God informs us in the Qur'an that He will forgive each person who sincerely repents of his sins, that is, asks for forgiveness and remains firm in not committing the same sin again:

But if anyone repents after his wrongdoing and puts things right, God will turn towards him. God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Sura al-Ma'ida: 39)

God is infinite in mercy. In a verse of the Qur'an, He provides the good news to His servants, "...I am the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful" (Sura al-Baqara: 160). Every individual has the opportunity to repent. God even accepted the repentance of Jews, who went astray and worshipped an idol they made out of gold, after having believed in Him, and forgave them:
And when Moses said to his people, "My people, You wronged yourselves by adopting the Calf so turn towards your Maker and kill your own (guilty) selves. That is the best thing for you in your Maker's sight." And He (God) turned towards you. He is the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. (Sura al-Baqara: 54)
After repentance and asking for God's forgiveness, a person may well again become heedless, committing the same sin again. In fact, this may happen many times over. However, provided that that person repents once and for all, and is committed to not sin again, he may hope for God's mercy.
Nevertheless, as it is in every issue, the important factor is sincerity. An insincere action is unacceptable in God's sight. If one is not resolved to ending his sinning, and says, "I will repent eventually," he is clearly insincere, which is likely to bring sorrow to man. God warns those who hold such rationale as follows:
God only accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and then quickly make repentance after doing it. God turns towards such people. God is All-Knowing, All-Wise. There is no repentance for people who persist in doing evil until death comes to them and who then say, "Now I make repentance," nor for people who die disbeliever. We have prepared for them a painful punishment. (Sura an-Nisa': 17-18)