In the name of God, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. We read in the Scripture, the proven word of God, that God is love, that God is peace, that He is the most compassionate, the most merciful. Yet, when we look around us in this world, we see a lot of misery, a lot of war, oppression. The vast majority of people in the world are suffering from poverty, diseases, starvation, cancer. And the question, the inevitable question that arises is why? If God is loving, compassionate, and merciful, as we read in the Scripture, if God is in full control, why do we see all these problems, the earthquakes, the miseries? Why so? As you see, we are dealing with some very heavy material. When we look around us all over the world, we see a lot of misery, a lot of famine, starvation, poverty, accidents, earthquakes, problems, diseases, cancer. The world is full of problems. The vast majority of the world is under dictatorship, oppression, and poverty. So the inevitable question that pops up in our minds, justifiably so, is: If God is full of love and compassion and mercy, why all these problems? Why does God permit this famine, starvation, accidents, and misery? It’s a legitimate question, and this article deals with this question.
In order to answer the question, “Why are we here, and what is the purpose of our lives?” we have to go back in time to where there was God and nothing else.
Then, God created the angels to perform functions where the existence of God is not necessary or simply devastating, as we will learn later on in the article.
The angels had to possess immense powers, and just to give you an idea, today the angels have to travel billions of light years in only a few of our hours. They have to possess immense powers, and God gave the angels immense powers. We have heard in the last few years about questions like, “How many angels can dance on the tip of a pin?”—this kind of silly question—but the exact opposite is true. Just to give you an idea, one angel can hold the planet Earth in one hand. We know these things now after the discovery of the mathematical code and the mathematically proven statements in the scriptures. One of the angels became infatuated with his God-given powers. He had so much power that he thought he could be a god in his own right. That angel’s name was Lucifer, or Satan, or the Devil, or El Diablo. He has many names. Let us call him Satan for the purposes of this article. You can imagine Satan flying in the universe and saying to himself, “I can be a god in my own right. I can rule part of this universe by myself.” That was all in his head, and of course, his fellow angels had no idea what Satan was thinking. But God knew about Satan’s super serious thoughts deep in his head. God knew those thoughts, and there were two alternatives. Either God could simply wipe out Satan, and in this case, the angels would wonder; they would be perplexed. Why did God do this to Satan? Satan didn’t do anything wrong. The other alternative was to expose Satan first. And to do this, God decided to create a tiny, minute creature from a lowly material—mud. You can imagine the size of the human being compared to the size of an angel who can hold the planet Earth in his hand. So God created a tiny creature from mud, then God ordered the angels to bow down before Adam, this tiny creature. They all did, except, you know who, Satan. And thus, Satan was exposed as a rebel. Now, the angels see for themselves that Satan is a rebel who deserves to be banished from God’s kingdom. That was the first reason for creating the human race. It was mercy from God that He decided to expose Satan first by creating the tiny creature from mud, then ordering the angels to fall prostrate, bow down before Adam.
The other reason for creating the human race is a bit more complicated to understand. This second reason, we have to go back to the time when Satan was infatuated with his power and saying, “I can rule part of this universe by myself. I can be a god in my own right.” God said to himself, when he knew about Satan’s super serious thoughts, “Alright, you want to be a god? I will make you a god and see how good you are. There is much more to godhood than you think.” This is what God thought to himself, and this is where the second reason for creating us comes in.
In order to make Satan a god temporarily, God decided to give Satan a dominion and constituents. In order to be a god or a king, you have to have a dominion and constituents. To give Satan a dominion, God went out of his way to show Satan that the dominion God is giving to Satan is really tiny, minute. God created this vast universe, the seven universes that I described to you, and in this vast universe, God told Satan, “I’m giving you this tiny, tiny planet Earth. This is your dominion.” So, now that Satan has his dominion, where will he get his constituents?
That’s right, the human race. God created the human beings and gave them the freedom of choice. God told us, you and me and everyone of us, that if we choose Satan’s kingdom, we belong in Satan’s kingdom, and if we choose God’s kingdom, then we belong in God’s kingdom. Now, this choice depends on siding with Satan’s point of view or God’s point of view. God’s point of view is that God alone is Lord of the universes. He has no partners, no other gods besides Him. This is God’s point of view, and when you agree with this point of view, you will belong in God’s kingdom.
Satan’s point of view, on the other hand, is that God alone is not enough. There can be or there must be another god or gods besides Him, and Satan wanted to be that other god. So the human beings have the freedom of choice, and those among them who side with Satan’s point of view become Satan’s constituents. So now Satan has his dominion, the planet Earth, and his constituents, the human beings who side with his point of view. And Satan is being tested as a god. The results are all around us. Now you know why the famine, the starvation, the misery, the accidents, the cancer.
Satan’s kingdom is plagued with these problems. On the other hand, these problems do not exist in God’s kingdom. When you side with God’s point of view, that is, decide that God alone is Lord of the universes without any other idols in your life, you belong in God’s kingdom. And God’s kingdom has no cancer, no accidents, no headaches, no problems. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect peace, perfect happiness.
This might sound unbelievable, but it’s true. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, perfect happiness, and joy. When you choose God’s point of view, you will belong in God’s kingdom, and you will have no headaches, no problems, no traffic tickets. You will forget what headaches are. You will have no financial problems, no health problems. God runs the universes, and this is His law. If you belong in God’s kingdom, there will be no accidents in your life, no misery, no marital problems, no problems of any kind.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people have sided with Satan’s point of view that God alone is not enough. They do this by idolizing, setting up idols like Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or San Francisco or the boss or the dollar. They set up all kinds of idols, and when they do this, they uphold Satan’s point of view, and automatically they become Satan’s constituents.
Don’t get me wrong, Satan is trying very hard to make his kingdom the planet Earth and his constituents the people who choose him and his point of view. He is trying very hard to make his kingdom a perfect kingdom. He wants very badly for his constituents to enjoy perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect peace and happiness. But he just can’t, and this is the whole idea. Satan is being put to the test with a dominion and constituents, and his incompetence as a god has been proven. And this is the whole idea of our existence.
And here, we are not talking about some kingdom to come after life or something like that, but we are talking about now. You and I. And some of you may ask, “I didn’t want to be in this test. Why am I here involuntarily?” And this is a wrong question because we learn from the scripture that is proven by mathematical code, by physical evidence, to be God’s message to the world. We learn that you and I and every human being was asked whether we want the freedom of choice or not. We met God before the creation of the heavens and the earth, and we bore witness that He alone is our Lord. But this knowledge is obscured with this body. We cannot remember it now. We will remember it when we get rid of this body, this garment, and become free again. What we are talking about here is that every human being, you see, is either a constituent of God or a constituent of Satan. And as said earlier, constituents of God enjoy perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect happiness and joy now in this world.
Satan’s constituents are plagued with problems: financial, marital, health. They have all kinds of problems. And we have to emphasize that these statements are proven by physical evidence, by the mathematical code of the Quran. It is very important to realize that we are not talking from the top of our head, that this is proven material by physical evidence that anyone can examine and verify. When you are in God’s kingdom, when you side with God’s point of view, that God alone is Lord, without any idols, without Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or the saints or the boss or the dollar, you belong in God’s kingdom, and you enjoy a perfect life.
When you side with Satan’s point of view here in this world, you suffer the consequences. What you see around the world is the consequence of Satan’s incompetence as a god. God gave him this planet Earth and gave us the freedom to choose him and become his constituents.
The scripture tells us that if God wins, He can make all the people believers, which is true. If God wills, He can make all the people on Earth believers. The question is, why doesn’t He? And the answer in the scriptures is, if God made all the people believers, where will Satan get his constituents to prove Satan’s incompetence as a god?
See, we are here to provide Satan with constituents, those among us with our freedom of choice who chooses Satan becomes his constituents. By their choice, this is happening here and now. Any human being you look at belongs either in God’s kingdom or in Satan’s kingdom, whether they know it or not. There is no other choice. You either belong in God’s kingdom or in Satan’s kingdom. How can you tell?
If you have any problems whatsoever – if you have headaches, financial problems, health problems, marital problems, any kind of problems – this will be your hint that you have made the choice to side with Satan’s kingdom. Somehow, you will have to examine your own life.
That is the difference between Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is characterized by perfect health, perfect wealth, and peace of mind.
If you look into your life and find that your life is full of problems or has some problems, if you come to the conclusion that you have been victimized by Satan or duped by Satan into joining his kingdom, what is the way out? How can you join God’s kingdom? How can I join God’s kingdom? This is a very easy matter. At the same time, it is not so easy for the reasons that I’m going to explain to you.
First of all, you have to come to a solid, unshakable conclusion that God alone is the Lord of the universe, that no one besides God can help you or harm you. You have to come to this solid conclusion. So let us say you claim that you came to this conclusion, that you believe that God alone is the Lord of the universe. The scripture tells us in the Quran, Chapter 29, Verse 2. I’m going to quote it now: “Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ without being put to the test? We will surely put them to the test to distinguish those who are telling the truth from the liars.”
Therefore, when you make this claim that you believe that God alone is the Lord of the universe, you will have to be put to the test to show that you’re not just offering lip service, that this is a deep, solid, unshakable conviction.
We read in the Bible that Job was put to the test. Satan inflicted a lot of harm upon Job, and this is my chance to tell you that any problems, any diseases, any accidents, any misery, is inflicted only by Satan. God does not inflict any harm on His creation.
There are four kinds of disasters. The first kind is the admission tests. What I call admission tests when you or I claim that we believe that God alone is Lord of the universe without any idols, we must be put to the test. These admission tests are designed to show that we uphold this conviction solidly, unshakably, under all circumstances—rich or poor, health or sickness. Admission tests are characterized by the fact that they do not leave permanent damage. They test you thoroughly, and then you are admitted into God’s kingdom. That is the first kind of disaster.
The second kind of disaster is called an educational disaster. This is designed to bring us back into God’s kingdom if we sway out of God’s kingdom, if we make a mistake and step out of God’s kingdom. This is exactly what happens: you step out of God’s kingdom, and Satan captures you, smites you, gives you a problem, a disaster, and this will be your attention-getter. You will be alerted that you have stepped out of God’s kingdom, and you will come back fast. That is called an educational disaster. And as you see, admission tests and educational disasters are inflicted by Satan.
The third kind is called blessings in disguise, and these appear to be disasters. But when they are passed, you look back on them and you discover that they were actually good for you. You go apply for a job or something, and you don’t get it. You flunk in the interview, and you’re very upset because you wanted that job. But later on, you discover that with time, you obtained a better job, and that had you succeeded in getting that job, it would have been much worse for you. So that is a blessing in disguise.
The fourth kind of disaster is retributive disaster, and it happens when a society or an individual reaches the point of corruption where there is no reform, the point of no reform. A good example in the Bible and the Quran, in the scriptures, is Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were corrupted beyond reform. They became hopelessly trapped in their corruption, and God decided to inflict the retributive disaster that they deserved. And this is the only kind that you may attribute to God, but actually, it is the end of their life. It was the final blow, and death is a fact of life, as you know—everyone dies. So it is not really a disaster since it is the final act. Death is a fact of life; we all die, and that is not a disaster. So these are the four kinds of disasters.
You might have heard a story that was told by a famous preacher about two men. One believed in God, and the other did not. The man who believed in God was telling his friend, “Well, listen, if you don’t believe in God, then if there is a day of judgment, you will be in deep trouble. But if you believe in God and there is no day of judgment and there is no God, you’ve got nothing to lose.” Now, this argument, the preacher said, makes sense. It makes sense that you believe in God. But actually, it doesn’t quite work like that. You cannot believe in God just in case there is a God. The only way is to reach deep, solid, unshakable conviction about God—not only that God exists but also that God is the only Lord of the universe, that there is no idol, no other God besides Him. And as I told you, it is very easy to make the switch from Satan’s kingdom to God’s kingdom. All you need to do is to reach this deep conviction. You have many years to study, look around, research, think, reflect, and make a decision. And if you are fortunate to make a decision to join God’s kingdom by believing that God alone is Lord of the universe, then you would be put to the test to show that you mean it, that it is not only lip service or just in case, as in that story.
Your decision to join God’s Kingdom, based on deep, unshakable conviction, must be accompanied by repentance and remorse for the wrong things you have done in the past. You simply say to God, “I’m sorry I did those things. I am sorry I did not side with Your point of view. That I fell into idol worship. I committed certain sins. I will never do them again. I repent to You.” This repentance wipes out all your sins; you become like a newborn baby, no sins whatsoever. Better yet, we learn from the Scripture that all your sins of the past will be transformed into credits. And credits mean growth, development, and strengthening of your soul. So, on the day of judgment, you will be strong and able to withstand the energy of God, being close to God Himself.
A lot of people ask the question, “Why are the children suffering? Why are the innocent children suffering?” In the last few years, we have been watching in our living rooms, on the TV, children starving and dying in Africa.
And a lot of people are justified in asking, “Why are the children suffering?” It is very important to point out that when we side with Satan’s point of view, we move ourselves and our families out of God’s Kingdom into Satan’s Kingdom. We and our families become constituents in Satan’s Kingdom and subject to Satan’s incompetence as a temporary god. This is why the children are suffering. On the other hand, the suffering and death of those children is actually a blessing in disguise. When we study the Scripture carefully, we realize that these children are going straight to Heaven, and it is indeed a blessing for them. They actually do not die; they move on from this life to a much better life. The chances of those children growing up and making the right choice, siding with God’s point of view, the chance is very nil that they will do that. And it is far better for those children to die now and go to Heaven than to suffer for a long time and then end up not making it and ending up in an eternal Hell.
This brings us to a very important issue: the unforgivable sin. At the end of our term in this world, at the time of death, murder is forgivable, adultery is forgivable, stealing is forgivable, lying, cheating, all these are forgivable sins. There is only one unforgivable sin when maintained until the time of death. This one unforgivable sin is idol worship.
We fully appreciate now why idol worship is the only unforgivable offense. Because now we realize that the whole idea behind our existence, the whole idea behind creating us, is to provide Satan with the constituents who agree with his point of view, that God alone is not enough, that there can be other gods, other idols besides God. The grossness of idol worship can be appreciated when you remind yourself that the planet Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun, and it takes light only a few minutes to reach us from the Sun? But from the edge of our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the light takes not minutes, not days, not years, not centuries. It takes thirty thousand years for the light to travel from the planet Earth to the edge of our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. Can you imagine how tiny the planet Earth is in the Milky Way Galaxy? Andmour universe contains 1 billion galaxies like the Milky Way, and distances up to 26 billion light years. So, where is the planet Earth in our universe? It is almost nothing. And our universe is one of seven universes. The other six are much larger universes, if you can imagine that. So, the planet Earth is terribly insignificant. Now, on this tiny, insignificant planet Earth, a man named Muhammad walked for 63 years. All his life, from birth to death, was 63 years. On this tiny, insignificant planet Earth, there was this human being, Muhammad, and millions of people around the world idolize him against his will. Can you imagine the grossness of this idol worship? On this tiny, minute, insignificant planet Earth, a man named Jesus, a creature of God, walked on the Earth for 33 years. So, how significant is he? How significant is Muhammad? And you can imagine, you can appreciate the grossness of idol worship when people idolize creatures of God like Muhammad or Jesus or Mary or the saints who walked on this Earth for a limited period of time. And this planet Earth, as you see, the whole planet Earth is terribly insignificant. So now, with the study of the Scriptures and the physical evidence supporting it, we come to appreciate that the only unforgivable offense is idol worship. God is holding the seven universes in His hand, and we see now that our purpose in life, to be successful, is to side with God’s point of view, that He alone is enough. God describes His greatness in the Scriptures for us to appreciate God and to see that He alone is Lord. And we, and to see and appreciate the grossness of idolizing anyone else. The definition of idol worship, by the way, is that if you believe that anyone other than the one who created you can benefit you, then you have fallen into idol worship. This is the definition of idol worship. If you believe that anyone other than the one true God, the one, the specific one who created you, if you believe that anyone other than God can benefit you, then you have fallen into idol worship.
By: Rashad Khalifa, the Messenger of the Covenant