God is indispensable to man. His life is incomplete
without God. A philosopher has aptly remarked
that had there been no God, we would have had
to invent one. Fortunately, God exists in reality.
We can believe in God with conviction, not as a
supposition, but as a fact. And we can accord
Him the place He deserves in our lives. It is
essential that man should have within his reach,
a super formula for life’s management. God
provides just such a formula—a complete
principle for life’s management.
Human beings are not like machines controlled
by a mechanical system, nor are they like animals
that are governed by their instincts. Human
beings enjoy freedom. They take decisions about
their actions of their own free will. Now the
question arises as to how to keep man on the
right course, how to make him consistently
disciplined in his behaviour. History shows the
ineffectiveness of all worldly measures in this
connection, whether—social pressures,
enforcement of the law of the land or the appeals
of reformers.
Experience shows that the pressure of society
is limited, if not totally ineffective. There are so
many loopholes in the law that it is not difficult
for wrongdoers to find a way out. The
reformers’ bid to reform people are nothing but
appeals and appeals alone cannot bring about a
revolution in human life.
The truth is that for the attainment of
disciplined behaviour, it is essential for one to
be convinced of the existence of a power far
superior to himself, a Being who is aware of
man’s activities at every moment; who can
reward and punish man, and from whom it is
impossible to escape.
There can be only one being of this nature
and that is God. Belief in God functions at two
levels at the same time. On the one hand, man
finds in God a guardian who is aware of all his
activities and who has unlimited power to
chastise him. It is not possible for man to escape
God’s chastisement. Belief in God compels man
to steadfastly adopt a proper attitude in all
situations, privately as well as publicly. Only then
can he save himself from the wrath of God.
Another point is that belief in God is a
storehouse of limitless hope. Man can lead his
life in this world with the conviction that if he
incurs any loss because of treading the path of
truth, or if he suffers from any other adversity,
he will be able manfully to endure it. For if he
adheres to the path of truth, God will grant him
a reward in the form of eternal paradise, and
there can be no reward greater than this. It is
not possible for man on his own to bind himself
to moral values or adhere to justice. This is
possible only when he is convinced of the fact
that he is under a super power—a super power
who observes justice to the extent of perfection;
for whom it is fully possible to guide man to the
true path and also punish those who deviate from
this true path. This present, limited world is
totally inadequate for punishing a criminal.
Similarly, this world is also inadequate for
granting great rewards for one’s good deeds.
The concept of God tells us that God can create
a far better world free from all the limitations of
the present world, where reward and punishment
both can be satisfactorily awarded.
The concept of a living and powerful God is
necessarily accompanied by the concept of
accountability. And the concept of accountability
guarantees right thinking and right actions on
the part of man. It makes man cautious by
reminding him of God’s chastisement. Moreover,
this gives him the conviction of receiving God’s
reward if he adheres to the right path at all costs
and in all situations.
The concept of God provides man with an
ideology in which loss is turned to gain and in
which adversity brings with it good tidings.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - Reality of Life )
