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We are in this world because we committed a
horrendous crime, and thislife is our chance to redeem ourselves, denounce our
crime, and rejoin God's kingdom.
It all began a few billion years ago when "a feud
arose in the Heavenly Society" (38:69). One of the
high-ranking creatures, Satan, entertained supercilious thoughts that his
God-given powers qualified him to be a god besides God. He thus challenged God's absolute authority. Not only was Satan's idea blasphemous, it was wrong - only
God, and no one else, possesses the qualifications and ability to be a
god. Consequent to Satan's blasphemy, a
division occurred in the Heavenly Society, and all constituents of God's kingdom
became classified into four categories:
1. Angels: Creatures who upheld God's absolute
authority.
2. Animals: Creatures
who rebelled but then accepted God's invitation to repent.
3. Jinns: Creatures who agreed with Satan; that he
is capable of being a "god."
4.
Humans: Creatures who did not make up their minds; they failed to
make a firm stand with God's absolute authority.
The Most Merciful
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The angels
expected God to banish the creatures who did not uphold His absolute
authority (2:30). But God
is Most Merciful; He decided to give us a chance
to denounce our mistake, and informed the angels
that He
knew what they did not know (2:30).
God knew that some
creatures deserved a chance to be redeemed.If you claim the
ability to fly a plane, the best way to test your claim is to
give you a plane and ask you to fly it. This is
precisely what God decided to do in response to Satan's claim.
God created seven vast universes, then informed the angels that He
was (2:30). The
Quranic accounts related to appointing Satan as a temporary "god" (36:60)
confirm the previous scripture.
God's plan called for creating
death (67:1-2),
then bringing the humans and jinns into this world. Thus, they
start over without any biases, and exercise full freedom to
uphold God's absolute authority or Satan's polytheistic theory.
To make this crucial decision, every human being receives
a message from God advocating His absolute
authority, as well as a message from Satan
pushing his polytheistic principles
To give us a headstart,
the Most Merciful gathered all the human beings before Him, prior to
sending us to this world, and we bore witness that He alone
is our Lord and Master (7:172). Thus,
upholding God's absolute authority is a
natural instinct that
is an integral part of every human being.
After
putting the rebels to death, the souls of humans and
jinns were placed in a special depository.
God then created the appropriate bodies to house the souls of jinns and
humans during the test
period. The first jinn body was made
from fire, and Satan was assigned to that body (15:27).
The first human body was created from
earthly material, clay (15:26), and God
assigned thefirst human soul to that body. The divine plan called for the angels
to serve the humans on earth - guard them,
drive the wind and rain for them,
distribute provisions, etc. This
fact is stated in the Quran allegorically: "Your Lord said to the angels,
`Fall prostrate before Adam.'" Satan of
course refused to have anything to do with serving the human race
(2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 20:116). |
You, Lucifer, said in your
heart:
"I will scale the
heavens.
I will set up my throne.
Above the stars of
God.
I will take my seat. on the
Mount of
Congregation,
in the recesses of the
North.
I will ascend above the
tops of the
clouds;
I will be like the Most High!"
[Isaiah
14:13-15]
The devil then
took Jesus
up a very high mountain and displayed
before him
all
the kingdoms of the world in their
magnificence,
promising: "All these will
I bestow on you if you
prostrate yourself in
homage before me."
At this, Jesus said to him,
"Away with you, Satan!
Scripture has
it:
`You shall worship the Lord your
God; Him ALONE
shall you dore.'"
[Matthew 4:8-10]
& [Luke
4:5-8] | |
While Adam's body remained on earth, the real
person, the soul, was admitted into Heaven in the outermost universe.
God gave Adam certain commandments, represented
by the forbidden tree, and Satan was appointed as Adam's companion to deliver to
Adam his satanic message.
The rest is
history.
Every time a human being is born, a human person
is assigned to the new baby from the depository of souls. God assigns the souls
in accordance with His knowledge (28:68).
Every soul deserves to be assigned to a certain
body, and live under certain circumstances. God
alone knows which souls are good and which souls are evil.
Our children are assigned to our homes in accordance with God's
plan.
An independent jinn soul is also assigned to the
new human being to represent Satan's point of view. While the physical body of
any jinn is reproduced from the parent jinns, the jinn soul is that of an
independent individual. Jinns are descendants of Satan (7:27, 18:50).
The assigned jinn remains with the human being
from birth to death, and serves as the main witness on the Day of Judgment
(50:23).
A continuous debate takes place in our heads
between the human soul and the jinn soul until both of them are convinced of one
point of view.
The Original
Sin
Contrary to common belief, the
"Original Sin" was not Adam's violation of God's law when he ate from the
forbidden tree. The original sin was our failure to uphold God's absolute
authority during the Great Feud.
If the human person convinces his or
her jinn companion to denounce that original sin, and uphold God's absolute
authority, both creatures are redeemed to God's eternal kingdom on the Day of
Judgment.
But
if the jinn companion convinces the human being to uphold Satan's idolatrous
views, then both creatures are exiled forever from God's kingdom.
To promote his point of view,
Satan and his representatives advocate the idolization of such powerless
creatures as Muhammad, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Since we are here due to our
polytheistic tendencies, most of us are easy prey for Satan.
Satan's incompetence as a
"god" has already been proven by the prevalence of chaos, disease, accidents,
misery, and war throughout his dominion (36:66).
On the other hand, the human
beings who denounce Satan, uphold God's absolute authority, and refrain from
idolizing powerless and dead creatures like Jesus and Muhammad, are restored to
God's protection - they enjoy a perfect life here in this world and
forever.
Because our life in this world is a series of tests designed to
expose our polytheistic ideas, idol worship is the only unforgivable offense (4:48, 116).
The world is divinely
designed to manifest our decision to uphold either God's absolute authority, or
Satan's idolatrous views (67:1-2). The day and
the night change constantly to test our willingness to uphold God's laws by
observing the Dawn Prayer and fasting during the hottest and longest
days.
Only
those who are totally certain about God's absolute authority are redeemed (26:89).
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