The Messengers' Struggle

People choose various teachers to guide them through life. For many, the most important teachers are their family, friends, and societies. They form their value judgments and general impressions of what is right and wrong from their society. Some individuals look to ideologies for guidance in the belief that the founder of their personal ideology is a superior person whose teachings can reveal the truth to them. Other individuals profess no ideology, preferring to be guided by their own intuitive intelligence.

However, all of these ideas rest on a common falsehood. Those who claim society as their teacher and adopt some "superior" individual or their own intelligence as their guide are rejecting or ignoring an essential truth: Human beings are created and therefore are indebted to their Creator, Allah, for everything they possess. Those who consider their own body and surroundings, the sky, and everything else that exists will clearly see that Allah created them.

Allah created human beings, and there is certainly a purpose for this creation. The Qur'an reveals this truth: "We did not create heaven and Earth and everything in between them as a game" (Surat al-Anbiya', 16). Another verse also reveals this purpose: "I only created jinn and humanity to worship Me" (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 56).

Humanity was created solely to serve Allah. But we must be careful not to misunderstand: This does not mean that human beings have to continuously engage in certain acts of worship throughout their lives.Indeed, prayer and all other acts of worship related in the Qur'an are binding upon all believers, and every believer is obliged to do these things in accordance with the Qur'an's teachings. But being Allah's servant, which encompasses every aspect of life, primarily means coming to know Allah by being close to Him and living one's life according to His words. People who live such a life enjoy the best, the most content, and the happiest life possible. All of Allah's rules are very easy, for He created humanity in such a way that it is part of human nature to take pleasure from serving Him:

So set your face firmly towards the Religion as a pure natural believer, Allah's natural pattern on which He made humanity. There is no changing Allah's creation. That is the true Religion, but most people do not know it. (Surat ar-Rum, 30)

The information revealed in this verse is very important, for it reveals that human beings were created only to serve Allah. In other words, serving Him is their nature. Allah "breathed His Spirit" into them and created them out of nothing, and then molded them into human form from "a drop of water" (sperm) and sent them to this world for a short time. Human beings must know that they are Allah's creatures and constantly thank Him for this. Once they understand this truth, they will live in this transient world according to His purpose: to mature and prepare themselves for their real home, the Hereafter. This manner of living accords with human nature.

It is revealed in Surat ar-Rum 30 that humanity's only purpose is to serve Allah, yet most people are unaware of this great truth. Another verse tells us that a person's self causes him to forget that he is one of Allah's creations and the clear truth that Allah exists. For this reason, most people need someone else to guide them to the awareness of Allah's existence, to show them that they were created, and therefore are responsible to our Creator:

Does not humanity see that We created him from a drop? Yet there he is, an open antagonist! He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own creation, asking: "Who will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say: "He Who made them in the first place will bring them back to life. He has total knowledge of each created thing." (Surah Ya Sin, 77-79)

One's self often forgets that human beings are created by Allah. When people forget this, selfish ambition and passions begin to present them with new false deities to serve, whether animate or inanimate, besides the Creator Who "fashioned [him] into a man" (Surat al-Kahf, 37). They seek to please those deities, look to them for assistance, and start to love and fear them. However, these self-made deities are actually weak and powerless "servants," just like the people who created them. Unable to see this truth, they follow them and turn their backs on Allah. The Qur'an describes this total lack of gratitude:

Curse humanity for his ingratitude! From what thing did He create him? From a drop of sperm He created him and proportioned him. (Surah 'Abasa , 17-19)

Naturally, a society made up of such individuals is totally cut off from true religion and regards Allah as "something to cast disdainfully" behind its backs (Surah Hud, 92). Such a society develops a "herd psychology"that strengthens the already existing rejection of Allah. Since it knows nothing about Allah and the Hereafter, the Qur'an calls it an "ignorant society." No matter how many brilliant people it has in physics, history, biology, and other similar sciences, they do not have the conscious intelligence to recognize Allah.

Moreover, members of such a society adopt false guides. Not knowing Allah properly, they follow other paths and gradually become dependent on other powerless servants like themselves, follow their examples, and accept their words and actions as the truth.

Finally, such a society adopts a system that gradually blinds it to reality and blocks its intelligence and conscience. As a result, it cannot save itself. Its members cannot understand that Allah exists and will hold them accountable on the Day of Judgment. This closed system will last until Allah sends a guide to lead them to the truth:

The People of the Book who do not believe and the idolaters will not be cut off until the Clear Sign came to them: A messenger from Allah reciting purified texts. (Surat al-Bayyina, 1-2)