Can you conclusively answer any of the questions below without divine messengership:
1. Who is my Creator? What is His nature and attributes? The Arabs of Makkah wanted to know if He (SWT) was made of gold, silver or iron. Christians believe God has a son. Hindus think God can take many forms- male, female or both. They also believe that in order to communicate with God, idols are needed, a purpose served by dead ancestors in some African cultures. Who is right? While we can rationally perceive the existence of Allah through his creation, Allah’s being is beyond what our senses can perceive and so beyond the reach of human reason. It is only through the messengers that we are able to know the nature and attributes of Allah ta’aala
2. Is there a purpose to my existence? or is life purposeless? are we here to eat, work, mate, sleep, repeat? or is life all about the pursuit of pleasure and happiness? or is the purpose the pursuit of wealth and security? How can I know with any degree of satisfaction why I exist? Without communication from the Creator, Allah ta’aala, we could argue and counter argue the purpose of our existence endlessly, without reaching a definite conclusion.
3. How do I worship the Creator? Each one of us is born with the religion instinct. It has been programmed within us to sanctify and worship.The Christians sing hymns. Hasidic Jews see dance as prayer and communicate with God through ecstatic dancing meant to induce a mystical state. Every morning Hindus awaken their idol by lighting a diva, and then proceed to wash, dress, garland, and make offerings of food to their idol. Some seek closeness to God by adopting an ascetic lifestyle, giving up material possessions and physical pleasures to purify the soul. Which way is correct? It is not possible for humans, relying on their intellect, to know the correct manner of worship. A fact Zaid bin Amr bin Nufail, who lived in Makkah before the advent of Islam, but who rejected idol worship, recognised. He would say,
‘O Allah! Only if I knew Your desired way of worship so that I could worship you in that manner. However, I am unaware of it.’
4. What happens to me after I die? ‘When we die and become dust and bones, shall we then indeed be raised up again?’ (56:47) Will our actions be judged? Is there a Day of Judgement? Do Heaven and Hell exist? The human mind is limited and cannot perceive what lies beyond the senses. Thus, man cannot grasp with any certainty the afterlife . Only Allah (SWT) through the messengers can provide us with this knowledge.
5. Who decides the correct manner of satisfying our organic needs and instincts? The Creator has created humans with specific organic needs and instincts. He (SWT) has also inspired us to act to satisfy these needs and instincts. We can see that when man uses his intellect to come up with a system to regulate these needs and instincts, it leads to misery. In the West, cohabitation, rising divorce rates, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, rise in single parent households, same sex marriages are all due to the fact that there is an incorrect system in place to satisfy the procreation instinct. Not only is misery the outcome, but the laws framed by man to satisfy these organic needs and instincts are prone to bias, contradictions and inconsistencies. So today, homosexuality and cohabitation are legal, but not so long ago these were criminal offences. What’s changed? Who decides?
Only Allah (SWT) who has created us with these organic needs and instincts can provide us with a correct system for their satisfaction: a system free from bias and contradictions, and one not influenced by changing trends and the environment. Only the messengers can transmit to us this knowledge from Allah ta’aala.
6. Who decides what is good or bad, right or wrong? Do we give certain individuals this right? We can see that setting ethical boundaries is entirely subjective, influenced by any number of things such as gender, nationality, race, education, environment. Man is unable to agree on what should be praised and shunned, what should be legal and illegal. In fact any viewpoint can be justified. Today as the West acknowledges institutional racism and with homosexuality being rammed down our throats, it begs the question, does man have the capability to decide what is good or bad?
Only Allah ta’aala is the unquestionable authority that can provide us with the knowledge of right and wrong; a guidance free from bias and contradictions.
Clearly, man with his limitations is unable to provide conclusive answers to these questions, only Allah ta’aala can. The answers make evident that only Allah (SWT) can provide a correct system to organise man’s relationship with Him and to regulate his life affairs. Allah (SWT) chose to communicate with us and guide us through the messengers,
‘And We have indeed sent a Messenger to every Ummah (community, nation)…’ (16:36)
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