Article appeared Friday, September 23rd, 2011 in The News Today, Bangladesh

The Revelation (196)

yousuf mahbubul Islam, PhD

When does a product please its manufacturer? Is it when the product carries out its designed purpose properly? If the product fails to perform, what is the manufacturer likely to do? For example, if the product is made of glass, and the product fails to fulfill its designed purpose, what might the manufacturer do? If we are created, we are carefully designed individual products with a personality, intelligence, potential abilities and a free-will to choose between created options! With this gift of unique existence and choice, should it be important to attempt to fulfill our designed purpose and please the Creator (our Manufacturer) using our free-will? To please our Creator, the first step is to find out our designed purpose. Verse 2.21 in the most recent Revelation, the Quran, clearly tells us why we were created: O you people! Adore your Guardian-Lord who created you and those who came before you that you may have the chance to learn righteousness. [2.21] So we have been created to provide an opportunity to adore our Creator the one who has given us existence and all that we have as well as it is an opportunity to learn to be righteous. To utilise this opportunity, we have to know what adoration and righteousness are. To understand adoration, let us first turn to previous Revelations. In the Contemporary English Version (CEV), Psalm 147:11 reads The LORD is pleased only with those who worship him and trust his love. {1} However, in Isaiah 29:13 (NIV) our Creator complains about rituals that are performed without thinking about the meaning of the words that we say in our worship, rote prayers, insincere praise, empty words. The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. {2} The same warning is repeated in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7 {2}. Verse 13.14 in the Quran confirms: For Him (alone) is prayer in Truth: any others that they call upon besides Him hear them no more than if they were to stretch forth their hands for water to reach their mouth but it reaches them not: for the prayer of those without Faith is nothing but (futile) wandering (in the mind). [13.14] How do we call upon others besides Him? Analysing our contemporary day priorities, Warren {3} tries to explain the same concept by focusing on the meaning of surrender given in Romans 6:13 (TEV) of the Bible: ...Surrender your whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes. Quoting from page 82 {3}: Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone. If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego. You were designed to worship God-and if you fail to worship him, you will create other things (idols) to give your life to. You are free to choose what you surrender to, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice. Further, he adds: Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live. Nothing else works. All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment, and self-destruction. The King James Version calls surrender "your reasonable service." Another version translates it

"the most sensible way to serve God." Surrendering your life is not a foolish emotional impulse but a rational, intelligent act, the most responsible and sensible thing you can do with your life. Surrendering to the purpose for which we have been created is demonstrating belief and is thereby righteousness.

4.57 But those who believe and do deeds of righteousness We shall soon admit them to gardens with rivers flowing beneath their eternal home: therein shall they have companions pure and holy: We shall admit them to shades cool and ever deepening.
In the subsequent verse Allah explains duties of the righteous:

4.58 Allah commands you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due; and when you judge between man and man that you judge with justice: verily how excellent is the teaching which He gives you! For Allah is He who hears and sees all things.
The purpose of all apostles throughout the ages has been simply to deliver the message of surrendering to the Creator by unquestioning obedience to revelation without seeking excuses.

4.59 O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything among yourselves refer it to Allah and His Apostle if you do believe in Allah and the Last Day: that is best and most suitable for final determination.
The Last Day or Day of Judgment is where we will individually face our Creator who will alone judge whether we have surrendered to Him and lived our lives righteously. All previous revelations have said the same thing and warn of the same consequences. There are many among those who claim to be Muslims who verbally profess to believe in the Quran and previous Revelations, however, Allah warns of lurking hypocrisy:

4.60 Have you not turned your vision to those who declare that they believe in the Revelations that have come to you (Muhammad pbuh) and to those (apostles) before you? Their (real) wish is to resort together for judgment (in their disputes) to the Evil One though they were ordered to reject him. But Satan's wish is to lead them astray far away (from the Right).
When entering the faith, Muslims declare belief in the Quran and all previous Revelations. After doing so, however, when asked to analyse Revelation (Verses from the Quran and Bible) and apply the meaning to their lives, many look for excuses:

4.61 When it is said to them: "Come to what Allah has Revealed and to the Apostle": you will see the Hypocrites avert their faces from you in disgust.
It is only when misfortune seizes such people, that they seek company of those who believe.
4.62 How

then, when they are seized by misfortune because of the deeds which their hands have sent forth, then they come to you swearing by Allah: "We meant no more than good-will and conciliation!"
4.63 Those

men Allah knows what is in their hearts; so keep clear of them but admonish them and speak to them a word to reach their very souls.
---{Notes}: {1} http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+147%3A11&version=CEV {2} http://bible.cc/isaiah/29-13.htm {3} Warren, R. (2002). The Purpose-Driven Life: What on earth am I here for? Zondervan