By Sikandar Azam
The way of life one adopts affects his life. It does not happen that you adopt a particular way of life and you reap the result contrary to it. For example, if you step out to go to a place of worship, this is unlikely that you eventually will reach a wine shop. Likewise, if you practise virtues and do good deeds, you will enjoy peace of mind and earn respect from fellow beings. This cannot be the situation with a person who practises vices and commits bad deeds. So, no amount of experience or research can change this undeniable fact.
Now let’s see what happens when a person adopts monotheism and maintains his life in strict accordance with it. And, what happens when another person adopts polytheism and lives accordingly. The end of life of both the persons cannot be the same. Monotheism leads man to a life free from contradictions, conflagration and conflict of interests. While polytheism leads him to a life full of conflicts and contradictions. This is so because God is One and Alone; He has no partners. If a person obeys His commands, He guides him at every step in his life. And a person who leads his life under Divine Guidance eventually enjoys His pleasures and wins ultimate success both here and in the hereafter.
The Qur’ān (38:40), in one single sentence nay in a part thereof, draws a picture of all stages of human life – from creation to the transmigration of his soul from this ephemeral world to the Hereafter. “It is God who has created you, and then has provided you with sustenance, and then will cause you to die, and then will bring you to life again….” Here we see how the Lord Creator and Sustainer creates man, provides him with sustenance and provisions of life during his stay on earth, then causes him to die, and then bring him to life once again in the Day of Resurrection. Then, in the same breath, the Qur’ān throws a challenge which completely shatters the myth of polytheism: “Can any of those whom you associate as partners with Him do any of these things?”
Of course, none other than God can create man; no one other than Him provides us with sustenance and provisions of life – it is with the wisdom and strength provided by God that we earn our livelihood; no one can cause death to a person if God does not will; and it is He Who will resurrect us in the Day of Resurrection. No deity, no god or goddess can claim to have done any of these Divine Acts. Thus, we can safely conclude that it is monotheism that promises success here in this world and also in the world to come.
