Islam Rediscovered
6. The Creation Plan of God
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God knows those who are truthful and those who
are lying (29:1-3). In a similar vein the Qur’an says:
Did you suppose that you would go to Paradise
untouched by the suffering which was endured by
those before you? Affliction and adversity befell
them; and so battered were they that each apostle,
and those who shared his faith, cried out: ‘When
will the help of God come?’ His help is ever near.
(2:214)
There is another verse to this effect: Did you
suppose that you would enter Paradise before God
has known the men who fought hard and the
steadfast? (3:142). Yet again the Qur’an addresses
Muslims in these words: Did you imagine that you
would be abandoned before God has had time to
know those of you who have fought valiantly and
served none but Him and His Apostle and the
faithful? God is cognizant of all your actions (9.14).
The truth is that in this world what is desirable to
God is not the Ideal Society but the Ideal man. And
as we learn from the Qur’an, such an individual is
produced in conditions of ‘severe affliction,’
