Life as a Test
Why did God create the human race?
In both the Bible and the Qur’an, we find the idea of a day of judgment. Both Scriptures teach that it is part of the divine plan that all humans will be resurrected from the dead and rewarded with either paradise or hell on judgment day, depending on how they have lived during their lives as human beings.
Those who haven’t read these Scriptures are prone to look at human life in a materialistic way; they may strive to acquire wealth, seek after status, or try to find fulfillment in the desires of the flesh. But the religious person has an entirely different set of motivations; their perspective is always on trading the desires of this life for the greater enjoyment of eternal happiness in the life to come.
The perspective that our human life is all there is can contribute to a kind of self-centredness, which can in turn cause us to do harm to others. If we are not concerned that there are repercussions for our actions on Earth, then we may not feel there is a problem with behaving in a way that could be detrimental to the happiness and flourishing of others.
If, on the other hand, we live with the resurrection of the dead and day of judgment in mind, we will always strive to do our best to please God by following His commandments, the chief of which (according to Jesus) are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbour as ourself. The religious person always tries to act in a loving way with Scriptural warnings about divine justice in mind.
The curious thing is, we are only able to live in a way that pleases God if it is His will that we do so. God is fully in control of every aspect of our lives. We may feel an inclination to pray to God that He guides us towards good moral conduct and a life that is pleasing to Him, and even a prayer such as this is dependent upon His grace to be uttered.
The whole of creation is a manifestation brought about by the sovereign power and will of God, and the reason for our existence may seem mysterious until He guides us to read the Scriptures which can in turn lead us towards an understanding of His purposes in creation. The opening of Surah Al-Fatihah comes to mind, which includes the petition to God to “Guide us to the straight path: the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and have not gone astray.”
Whether the bipolar fates of paradise and hell truly reflect God’s plan for the human race is a matter that only He knows with certainty. The complete free will of God means that He can unfold the story of creation in any way He pleases. But in the Qur’an He describes the day of judgment as His ‘binding promise’, so if it is not the case that this will take place, it would be a significant departure from the teaching of both the Bible and the Qur’an.