Article appeared Friday, October 5th, 2018 in The News Today, Bangladesh

The Revelation (542) yousuf mahbubul Islam, PhD

We generally acknowledge that we have been created by God. Have we, however, worked out
what significance this acknowledgement holds, i.e., have we consciously thought about or
evaluated who He is? For example, as our Creator, what kind of intelligence and power must He
possess to be able to create the Heavens and the Earth, and to be able to create human beings
with the special intelligence that we find ourselves possessing?

Should we think about whether there is a reason for having such analytical abilities? For
example, does the ability allow us to work out the various Qualities of God – to recognize Him
through His qualities and the benefits we derive? For example, we know that He is most
Merciful. What exactly does this mean for us? Can we work out what He does for us from His
Quality of mercy? To answer this, let us step back and examine the picture of the entire creation
first. Let us pose some analogical questions to address this. When we make or craft something
together, is it logical to have a purpose or a motive, i.e., would there be a use for the object that
we have made? For example, if a painter crafts a painting should there be a purpose? If nothing
else, it may simply be to establish the fact that he/she can paint or is a painter. Notice that the
painter chooses the purpose, as the craft belongs to him/her. Likewise, would it be logical for
God to create the Universe without a specific purpose? Could the purpose be for Him to be
recognized and acknowledged as our Creator and Benefactor?

Could the purpose be to benefit from what He has created for us as blessings and thereby
witness/acknowledge and establish the fact that He is our Merciful Benefactor? The Holy
Scriptures speak of some of these benefits and our ingratitude. As an example, in the Al-Qur’an
we find,
“It is He who enables you to traverse on land and sea until, when you are in the ships
they sail with a favorable wind and they rejoice therein…” [10.22a]

So, why are these winds “favorable”? Why do the people on the ship rejoice? One reason is that
the winds are directional. They have promoted travel across the oceans so that “trade” between
continents can take place. As the Wikipedia article on Trade Winds {1} points out,
“Trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world's oceans for
centuries, and enabled colonial expansion into the Americas and trade routes to become
established across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.” {1}

Trade winds have enabled ships to cross the oceans in the right directions for centuries to allow
travel, trade and population movement across continents. Could it be said that this is part of
God’s Mercy to mankind? Benefitting from the blessing, they therefore rejoice. However, most
men do not acknowledge this as God’s specially designed blessing. This demonstrates disbelief.
To remind them of their ingratitude He further tests those (disbelievers) on the ship as the
remaining part of the Verse 10.22 points out.
“…then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to them from all sides and they think
they are being overwhelmed: they (now) cry to God sincerely offering (their) duty to Him
saying, "If You deliver us from this we shall truly show our gratitude!"” [10.22b]

The stormy wind is a reminder of God’s constant Monitoring and Power. Being in trouble, the
people of the ship now approach God to save them while making promises of gratitude. They
inherently know that it is only He that can save them. However, as the subsequent Verse points
out, they immediately break their promise upon being saved by Him.
“But when He saves them, behold, at once they commit injustice upon the earth in
defiance of (what is) right! O mankind, your insolence is against your own souls (being
 merely) the enjoyment of worldly life (for the present). In the end to Us is your return
(when you die) and We shall show you the truth (on the Day of Judgment) of all that you
did.” [10.23]

On earth, if someone saves our life, e.g., pulls us out of trouble, we become eternally grateful to
that person, yet, when God (who, in the example above, has demonstrated His Mercy a second
time) directly saves us, and on top, we have made a promise, we overlook thanking Him. When
safe on land we either credit ourselves for cleverly coming out of trouble, or perhaps feel it was
our right to be saved!! This conclusively proves our ingratitude and disbelief. Accordingly, God
asks mankind to consider/analyze the following.

22.65 “Do you not observe that God has subjected to you whatever is on the
earth, including the ships that sail through the sea by His command? He
withholds the sky (e.g., rainstorm) from falling upon the earth unless by His
permission. Indeed God, is Most Kind and Most Merciful to man.”
Scientists have discovered {2, 3, 4} that the Earth is the only planet in the universe that directly
supports life as we know it. The National Geographic article {4} rather than crediting God [10.4],
calls the investigated life support systems as a “fortuitous set of conditions”! The begging
question is, is it possible for unintelligent objects and systems to know what humans need to
support comfortable living? God therefore points out in the next Verse,

22.66 “And He is the one who gave you life (and) will (also) cause you to die and
will again give you life: truly man is a most ungrateful creature!”
Consider the fact that we acknowledge God to be an eternal Being. If so, would it be logical for
an eternal Being to go through the effort of designing individual DNA {5} for just a short period of
time? Each individual’s DNA contains 3 billion base pairs {5} and when stretched, would be
about twice the diameter of the Solar System {5}. As part of His Mercy, God has appointed
messengers to remind people of His purpose in creating life. Messengers have demonstrated
how gratitude can be shown collectively and individually.

22.67 “To every religion have We appointed rites and ceremonies which they are
to perform. So, (O Muhammad) let them (i.e., the disbelievers) not then dispute
with you over the matter but do invite them to (turn to) your Lord: for you are
upon straight guidance.”
Reverence and gratitude are due to God Almighty alone. This has been the reminder of all
messengers [41.43] selected by God. However,

22.68 “If they dispute with you then say, "God knows best what it is you are
doing."”
God is constantly on the lookout for those who would turn to Him – if not, He closely monitors
[50.16] and records our deepest thoughts and,

22.69 “God will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning that
matters over which you differ.”
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{Notes}:
{1} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds
{2} https://www.livescience.com/31788-why-earth-perfect-for-life.html
{3} https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/ocean-to-ozone-earths-nine-life-support-systems/
{4} https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/one-strange-rock-interactive-earth-
solar-system-milky-way-galaxy/
{5} https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-long-is-your-dna/