End of the World. I have labels in this almanac (see the label cloud on the right column) called 'end of time', 'Antichrist', 'Dajjal' and 'Armageddon'. Under this vague tags I dumped all postings related to the end of the world (obviously), Armageddon and that sort of flurry of furious activities anticipated by believers to occur when the world ends. There are not many postings, about 5 I think. This is very few considering that I have written 644 postings for 2011.
Something got me thinking... I do not write a lot about the end of the world, because I am kinda busy living. Writing and reading. And in the course of one reading, I have come across this little gem of information. It is of course up to you whether to believe it or not. But being the sort of person that I am, I believe it (and have in fact posted about it earlier in 'God is a Good Book Without End - Adam brought Heaven to Earth' - Click Here)- basically what this nugget of spiritual lore says is that the Earth was a barren world, devoid of life. And it was Adam, who was exiled from Heaven, who brought with him the divine elements of Heaven to Earth, and thus creating on our world, an earthly copy of Heaven. And that got me thinking...
Earth, a barren world. When God says that mankind is suppose to be His representative, His viceregent on Earth, it is not simply a Divine Whim (even though He can do that, of course, being your know... God). It is more importantly because of our common ancestors, Adam and Eve who brought a little bit of Heaven to Earth. It is by their exile and establishment of a new home on Earth, that Earth as we know it now exists. If our grandma Eve did not eat that forbidden fruit, if our grandpa Adam did not chock on it, the Earth would have remained changed. It would still be a barren old brown planet, floating purposeless in the empty void of space. And we would not have been born at all. Not our parents, not our friends... no one.
Divine plan and mortal agency. But as God fated it, the Devil did trick the First Couple, and so triggered the sequence of events leading eons in future to the present. To the right here and now, to me writing this post, and (hopefully) you reading it. It was through the divine plan of God and mortal agency of Adam and Eve that the Earth was recreated, reborn in a beautiful and utterly diverse mirror image of Heaven. The Earth which we have now inherited, the God-given gift for each and every child of humanity.
Ownership is Trusteeship. So I look at the world differently now. I look to the sky and say, it is my inheritance. I look to the earth and the birds and the animals, and proclaim, you are my inheritance. As far as my eye and vision can behold, all of it is my inheritance. But the tiny quirk of inheritance in Islam is that the property is not for your sole use or abuse. In Islam, as how I perceive it, ownership is tantamount to trusteeship, for ownership without the obligation of responsibility and trust for the future generation is not ownership at all - It is theft. Claiming something permanently, when we ourselves are not permanent, for soon we will die. But how many amongst us who still remember this?
O' Believers. Wake up. The Earth needs you to remember your obligations. To be a believer is to be a conservationist. To be a believer is to be sensible about things. Not to take this world for granted, and certainly not to pollute and create great waste and devastation upon this Earth, this Heaven, this Paradise...
The end of the World is coming. But is it coming by Divine Plan alone or through mankind's manifestation of our carelessness, negligence, hubris, greed and selfishness? Have we turned from the House of Trust into a Band of Thieves? And when that day comes, and we stand before the Throne and are asked by the Lord of the Throne -
The Owner questions the Trustees
"O' Mankind. You ask for My Heaven.
But a Fascimile of Heaven was already given to you on your World.
How have you treated the Earth while I left it awhile in your custody and trust?
Did you remember your responsibilities?
Did you remember that you hold the Earth only for the briefest moments that you are alive?
Did you remember to be fair, equitable and just? Or did your rape your own world?
What answers do you have to these questions?
So, now I ask again.
Do you deserve My Heaven at all?
wa min Allah at-taufiq
Hate has no place in Islam
Love will show the Way
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