SPIRIT OF ISLAM NOVEMBER 2019

7 Spirit of Islam Issue 83 November 2019 PURPOSE OF MAN'S CREATION: According to a Hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad), God said: “I was a hidden treasure. Then I wanted to be known and I created human beings.” It is a fact that the capacity for conceptual thinking is the special quality of human beings. So God created man for this purpose. It is required that human beings discover God’s existence and realize His presence. Once man realizes God, he is showered with divine blessings. Then he offers thanks to his Sustainer. In Islam, thanksgiving is the greatest form of worship. THE RELIGION OF ISLAM & SCIENCE: As far as the relationship between science and religion is concerned, it could be referred to as a very well-established principle of Islam which is known as al-Maruf (the good). It means that anything proved to be good for humankind would also be regarded as good in Islam. Here is a very relevant Hadith which throws light on this matter. The Prophet of Islam was born in Makkah, a desert city where he lived for fifty-three years. Then he migrated to Madinah which was built on fertile land, with soil especially suitable for date plantation. There were many date orchards in the city. As a matter of ancient custom, the Madinans used to pollinate the date plants artificially. Prophet was not familiar with this custom. One day when he passed by some people who had climbed up to the top of date palms, he enquired as to what they were doing. He was told that they were pollinating the trees in order to fertilize them. The Prophet said, ‘I don’t think this will benefit them.’ When people learned of the Prophet’s comment, they stopped the practice of pollination. This led to a very low yield that year. When the Prophet came to know of this, he said, “If they benefit from pollination, they should continue with this practice. It was only an opinion.” Then the Prophet told the date growers to adhere to their own methods, and said, “You know better about your worldly affairs” ( Sahih Muslim ). According to this teaching, worldly affairs like horticulture, agriculture, engineering, architecture, and irrigation and, of course, all the disciplines dealing with life sciences fall into the category of al- Maruf . In terms of scientific research and experience, whatever proves to be good for humankind will also be regarded as good in Islam. So It is required that human beings discover God’s existence and realize His presence. Once man realizes God, he is showered with divine blessings.