Creation belies Absurdity

Do those who commit evil deeds suppose that We will make them equal, in life and death, with those who believe and do good deeds – how bad a judgement! God created the heavens and the earth with truth and with a view to awarding every soul according to what it earns, and none of them will be wronged. (45:21-22)

There are people who believe that good and evil are destined to come to the same end. The universe in which we live is careless if not callously apathetic to what we believe and how we act. There are others who do not own such a belief in clear terms but live life in a way which confirms their commitment to such a view.

The Quran, in the verses quoted above, and repeatedly in different contexts, tells us that creation in all its forms and manifestations clearly negates this belief. First human nature does not accept it. Man, at the individual and collective level, in his practical life rejects this view. Each one of us has a natural sense of revulsion against falsehood, injustice and tyranny. Similarly we feel involuntarily drawn to what is good, true and just and appreciate it wholeheartedly. In history we revere the great prophets and saints and those who have laid down their lives for noble causes. Similarly we hate those who are known for tyranny, bloodshed and exploitation. In the collective sphere we have, and have always had, a system of reward and punishment in place. We have a law and order machinery, a police force and a network of courts to apprehend and penalise crime. What does all this mean? – good and evil are alike!

The Quran also tells us that the universe of creation, as a whole, rejects the proposition that good and evil are destined to end in fiasco. Fiasco is absurdity and absurdity is absolutely out of tune with the temperament of the universe. The universe is not a chaos but a cosmos, held together by a unity, a law that uniformly inheres everywhere so that a spaceship designed on the earth can reach the Mars and perform that for which it is designed. More importantly, nothing in this universe is meaningless and without a purpose. Everything that happens here is in accord with this purpose. Nothing is amiss and, to borrow Shakespeare’s language, “ripeness is all” and “there is a divinity that shapes our ends” and there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.” Above all, says the Quran, the universe is finite and time-bound and every bit of it speaks of it. To quote another Quranic verse:

And We did not create the heavens and the earth except for a true purpose and for an appointed term. (46: 3)

Once its appointed term (which is also man’s probation) is over, it will be replaced by a new and perfect order in which good will be rewarded and evil punished.