In my book The Greatest Need of Man, I have discussed in detail: what is the greatest need of man? I have pinpointed and elaborated various alternative means or methods that man adopts or can adopt by his “free-choice” towards the satisfaction or the fulfilment of his basic needs and natural urges. All the alternative means mislead him to destruction and make him to go astray except the only way that can keep him on the path of righteousness, justice and peace. That is the Divine Guidance that comes to man from his Creator and Sustainer through His appointed Messengers as how to act, live and behave on this earth. The book is available on www.dawahinamericas.com. The reader will be amply benefited to go through it. It will introduce him to the complexities of life and create awareness in him about the inherent weaknesses of different options that man demonstrates through exercising his God-given freewill for the satisfaction of his natural urges
Besides his physical needs and urges, man, after rejecting or denying the Guidance from his Creator and Sustainer, has always been eager to work out and develop a comprehensive system on his own accord to meet his various personal, social, economic, political and international needs for living a peaceful, secured and balanced life in complete harmony with his fellow citizens and the comity of nations. Let us examine what efforts man has made with what consequences? Had he succeeded to deliver the human society a system of life that is free from all kinds of prejudices, exploitations, favouritism and nepotism, giving complete opportunity to each and every human society, both at individual and collective levels, to get its needs fulfilled while fully utilising available equal opportunities to grow the faculties and individual character for rendering benevolent services to self, the community and mankind at large or filled the earth with endless chain of failures?
SURVEY OF HUMAN EFFORTS
In the primitive time and in the old age man’s life was very simple – means were in abundance and wants were limited, hence no collective system could be involved except some tribal customs. But with the growth of time life became complicated, means becoming scares and competition harder, human ingenuity started developing some kind of system to control its collective life, creating in its wake, feudal societies, monarchies and religious dictatorships to deliver justice, peace and security to human abode. However, due to their infighting and wars to possess and control more and more lands and pastures, the natural resources and the means of production, rivalries and competition became harder and harder. Under such a situation, justice, peace and security could not be either delivered or maintained, if any. Only bloodshed, chaos and brutality were rampant throughout this dark period of human history. There was no justice or peace anywhere. Man’s inherent weaknesses like greed and lust for power are found dominant everywhere. Prevailing kingship and monarchies could not deliver any good. None of human problems could be solved by man through the systems developed by him. As such, feudalism, religious hierarchy and monarchies all failed to deliver any good to mankind. His sufferings remained attached to his fate.
MEDIEVAL & MODERN AGES
Human efforts, however, continued to deliver different systems of life to human society at different times in a continuous process in the form of Capitalism, Communism, Democracy, Socialist Democracy, Fascism, Socialist Capitalism, Liberal Democracy and Controlled or Constitutional Monarchy but unfortunately none could solve any of the human problems, including delivering justice, peace and security to human abode in any convincing form. The continued human problems like hunger, peace, clean water, unpolluted air, economic equality and political exploitations, inadmissibility of human rights to all and sundry, violence on account of discrimination and prejudices and absence of security at all strata of human society were and are hardly visible anywhere and in all four corners of the human abode. Human progress is extremely lopsided. Poverty is rampant in every society including the USA where currently about 44 million people are living below poverty level and the rich are getting richer day by day.
These ever-increasing tragedies of human society are only tormenting the mental outlook of man for centuries as all the man-made laws and systems listed above are lopsided, inconclusive and prejudiced to the weak, the oppressed, the have-nots and the ethnic minorities one way or the other. They look sound on paper but oppressive and short-sighted in application. All human rights are well defined and guaranteed on paper but are mostly denied to the poor, the have-nots and the oppressed minorities and political opponents. It has all become farce. These fallacies have resulted in creating injustices in every walk of human life as these man-made systems are not giving due share to each and every citizen of the respective states at par. As such, the list of injustices is soaring and is continuing to inflate further with the passage of time. It is a clear and an undeniable proof of the failure of all these man-made systems. The sooner man gets rid of these false systems, the better it would be for the human society and its abode.
While humanity is crying under the suffocating pressure of man-made systems and no human body or International Human Rights Agency could come forward to mitigate their agonising effects, let us see what alternative we have to give redress to continuous human sufferings for ages? While all the man-made systems have failed, man has now no choice but to look towards his paramount Creator and Sustainer for Guidance and seek help from the System that He has been sending to humans through His appointed Messengers from Adam to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to them) in a continuous process in a chain.
Our Creator is fully aware of our weaknesses, shortcomings, needs and urges, inclinations, whims, desires and caprices and their way-out to solution. He has been sending the Divine Guidance to man with clear directives as how to live, act and behave on earth; how to deal with other humans and live in peace and complete harmony with them. Whenever man followed this Divine Guidance in toto, the human abode was filled with justice, peace and security all around. The models of Prophet David, Solomon and Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to them), are the perfect examples to follow towards the perfection of human growth.
THE QUR’ĀN
Among all the Guidance that came from God, the Qur’ān is the final, the most updated and the latest version of the Divine Guidance from the Lord of this cosmos now available to mankind to correct our centuries old imbalanced life. It is intact and in its most original form and language. It fulfils the criterion to be the Guidance – “The Only Way of Life” for human society, both at individual and collective levels, for this time and all times to come.
It is clear – free of all ambiguity; it is perfect as it covers the entire spectrum of human life from birth to death, from cradle to grave and from individual to all collective needs of man; it is full of moderation: advocating only the middle path for all the phases of life – in worship [Ibadah], in social contacts [customs, manners and traditions], in economic pursuits, in political manoeuvrings, in dispensing human rights and international relations, in looking after the rights of minorities with no prejudice at all; it compulsorily provides equality before law for all and sundry and establishes its own guaranteed self-sustained Social Welfare System for the poor, the needy, the deprived, the unemployed, the under-employed, the incapacitated and the have-nots.
It is free from any kind of human innovation and finally; it takes care always all of its citizens both for betterment in this world and the life Hereafter, promoting and advocating towards producing the perfect man who constantly struggles for the good of humans and the society in which he lives for the Khair and Falah [success] of man and his abode.
It prepares its citizens for delivering justice to all and in every phase of life. It is the essence of the pattern of life that the Qur’ān envisions, promotes, builds and preserves for the balanced and perfect growth of humans to be in the communion with God ultimately. Will this Qur’ānic life be not a boon for man and his abode? If so, why the humans are averse to it?
This is the ultimate end of man on earth. He is to struggle for the whole of his life on earth towards the attainment of his zenith as illustrated in the Qur’ān through Verses # 27 to 30 of Chapter # 89, Al-FAJR. Man cannot achieve this highest requisite position without adopting the system of life that his Creator and Sustainer had approved for him and sent it through His Last Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) to mankind, presenting the accomplished model of his own life to be followed meticulously by every human being till he/she breathes his last.
Man, unfortunately, has lost millenniums in his pursuit to seek justice, peace, security and in attaining perfection on his own accord but, in return, only he got chaos, confusion, bloodshed, mental anarchy, war, greed, lust for wealth and power and the ever-surmounting craze to go on increasing his standard of living due to his own incompetency and delivering lopsided systems one after the other for self and the human society. In consequence, he stands today totally bewildered and dumb-founded as from where to get justice, peace and security for himself and for human abode. The desperate man has now no choice but to turn his face towards the Qur’ān, the ultimate Guidance that came from his Lord God finally 1400 ago. But he is continuously ignoring it just out of some baseless prejudices whereas it has all the potentials to give him a guarantee to live with justice, peace and security with himself in his family, his people and the human fraternity at large.
That is the ultimate destiny of modern man. If he refuses the Guidance that the Qur’ān contains, just out of ignorance and prejudices, he will continue to fill the human abode with unending chain of injustices in every walk of life as we see today around us and he will be the loser in both the worlds. He will get up “blind” in the Assembly of God on the Day of Resurrection as the Qur’ān foretells that when God commanded both Adam/Eve and Shaitan [the devil] to go down to earth with this warning:
“Down with you all from this [state of innocence – (Paradise)], and be [henceforth] enemies unto one another! Nonetheless, there shall most certainly come unto you Guidance from Me: and he who follows My Guidance will not go astray, and neither will be unhappy. But as for him who shall turn away from remembering Me – he shall be a life of narrow scope; and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him up blind.”
[And so, on Resurrection Day, the sinner] will ask: “O my Sustainer! Why hast Thou raised me up blind, whereas [on earth] I was endowed with sight?”
God will reply: “Thus it is: there came unto thee Our Messages, but thou wert oblivious of them!” and thus shall thou be today consigned to oblivion!” [The Qur’ān – Chapter Taha: Verses # 123 -126]
These are the eye-opening verses of the Qur’ān for entire mankind, especially for the followers of the Abrahamic faith – the Muslims, the Jews and the Christians. They are its direct addressees. Compulsorily, they are to uphold the message of the Qur’ān and invite the humanity to its fold. Only then, they can save their skin from the wrath of their Creator and Sustainer on the Day of Judgment.
May God save all of us from His wrath!