BUSHRA—Girls! Let me tell you another attribute of our Most Merciful God. He is the Provider and has provided mankind with different kinds of delicious food. You must be starving by now. Let us go to the dining room and have some food.
[Salma’s mother then placed the Holy Book on the top shelf and they all went to the dining room to have their midday meal.
There was a knock at the door. It was John who had come looking for his sister Barbara.]
JOHN—There you are! I looked everywhere for you. Mother was worried. She didn’t know where you were.
BUSHRA—You should have told your mum. Go and ring her.
Children should always tell their parents as to where they are going and for how long.
You don’t realise how much your parents love you and how worried they become when they do not know where you are.
[Barbara went to the telephone to ring her mother.]
JOHN—What were you discussing today? Has auntie told you another story, which I missed?
SALMA—We were talking about the concept of God.
JOHN—There are many things which I do not understand about God. I wish I could have joined in the discussion too.
BUSHRA—While we are eating, I will try to explain to you anything which you don’t understand about God.
JOHN—God loves us and cares for us. Why are then innocent people including children killed in natural disasters? When there is famine, floods, earthquakes or cyclones, many are killed. Why?
BUSHRA—God has created life, death and everything in between according to a set plan. This plan of things applies to a much wider canvas and if you concentrate on a small point on the canvas ignoring the whole plan of things, you are likely to be confused.
You have to look at the whole scheme in order to appreciate the beauty of the plan and the wisdom of the Creator.
Just as a gardener sometimes uproots vegetation from his garden in order to create a beautiful spot, God also plans and designs things and He is the best Designer of all.
You should also remember that the life which we live in this world, is not an end in itself. The body dies but the soul lives on in a different form. The life to come is eternal and has a much larger span. The present life is like a speck or a dot as compared to the life Hereafter. In a way, therefore, those people, who have their lives shortened, pass through this transitory phase, not into nothingness but into eternal life.
JOHN—Auntie! Please, you haven’t answered my question yet.
BUSHRA—What I was telling you was relevant to your question, even though it doesn’t seem to you as such at the present moment. OK, I will try to give the answer to your question from a different angle. You know that life contains both happiness as well as misery. Both exist simultaneously.
Every child in this scientific age knows that a positive pole cannot exist on its own. There is always a negative pole on the other end. Similarly, the existence of happiness without misery, or vice versa, is unthinkable. They support and compliment each other. We can appreciate happiness only if there is misery around.
Evolution of life cannot take place if there was only happiness. In fact, misery is essential for the progress of life. If you remove the role of misery from the overall scheme, life would become stale and stagnant. It has to be present to push the wheel of progress as we can achieve happiness only by overcoming misery. All scientific achievements were possible due to misery and all creative thoughts were born out of misery.
For example, whenever misery befalls man in the form of a disease, scientists put their heads together and find a cure.
Thus, by successfully overcoming the disease, we progress to a happier state of life. Lack of suffering is called happiness and we know that most of the scientific discoveries have been brought about in order to eradicate human suffering.
Don’t you agree?
JOHN—Yes, I am beginning to understand now.
BUSHRA—Some people, not knowing the plan of things, object to accidents which happen in the world. Accidents are essential in our pursuit of perfection. As we progress through evolution, we become comparatively more perfect.
Accidents can therefore, only be avoided if we reach perfection.
JOHN—Can you give me an example, auntie?
BUSHRA—Yes, of course. Think of a situation when all the drivers in a town are perfect and the pedestrians, cyclists and others who use the roads, are perfectly wise. Suppose also that the car machinery is designed perfectly, and the roads as well as other conditions, are perfect too.
In these circumstances accidents would be very rare. If, on the other hand, there are imperfections, accidents are bound to happen.
These imperfections, not only lead to more caution on the part of the drivers and other people, but also to the making of better models of cars and machines.
That is what I told you earlier. It is misery, which ultimately results in happiness and a better life. This is the scheme of things. Therefore, some people must fall victims to accidents and this has nothing to do with their innocence or wickedness, as accidents are blind and do not discriminate between good and bad people. This is not a punishment to those people. It is a part of the scheme of things and therefore should not be objected to.
JOHN—Yes, I know that good or bad, young or old, all can be victims without any distinction.
BUSHRA—We also know that sometimes people are injured in sports, but no one objects to such incidents as they know that the injuries are a part and parcel of games. Unfortunately, some people fail to appreciate this in everyday life and raise objections to such events.
JOHN—This means that the natural calamities, like many other forms of suffering, have a vital role in our lives.
BUSHRA—Yes, indeed. The global natural phenomena like earthquakes, the sprouting of lava from the volcanic mountains, great climatic changes, and cycles of ice age alternating with warmer climates, are profoundly related to evolution of a wide variety of possibilities, which were essential for the creation and maintenance of life.
Such phenomenon result in many apparent innocent casualties. However, we find that throughout the history of the evolution on earth, this is the price, which has to be paid for the evolution and progress of life on earth. One should also remember that in all schemes of development, an element of sacrifice and wastage is much smaller than their gain and profit. Therefore, instead of looking at the issue in its entirety and reading their message on a wider plane, if you narrow your observations to a tiny spot and illogically localise the results of such universal phenomenon, you will always be misled in your conclusions.
Such phenomena, in their wider sphere always provide evidence of a Benign and Wise God, Whose management of the universe has always been generated by the principle that the interest of the individual will be sacrificed for the society and not vice versa.
As such, earthquakes and eruption of volcanic mountains are found to be much more beneficial to us than they are harmful. They play a vital role, with far reaching consequences in the scheme of things over individualisation and sentimentalism. The question of right and wrong, therefore, does not arise.
I hope that you understand the point.
JOHN—Thanks auntie! The whole topic has become clear to me now. Can I ask another question?
BUSHRA—Yes, you can, but it is getting late now. Your parents may be wondering as to what you are doing?
Moreover, I have to do some shopping and then cook supper for the family. Salma’s dad will probably be home soon.
Let us postpone the rest of the discussion till tomorrow.
[They all agreed and Mary, Barbara and John left for their homes.]