The World as a Test

[Stempy]

Hi everyone,

One of the answers given to the question of the purpose of the world is that it is a temporary testing place for human beings before the afterlife: those who pass the test go to Jannah, and those who fail go to Jahannam. But why does Allah test mankind? The point of a test is to find out what the consequences will be, yet Allah already knows who will pass and who will fail. A related question is "Why does Allah create people who will fail anyway?" After all, He knows what their outcome will be, and what is the value of people suffering in the afterlife? In short, what is the point of the whole process of testing and assigning rewards and punishments?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my questions.

[Abu-Abdullah]

Hi Stempy!

Allah [swt] wanted to create the best of creations, which is man with free will who worship Allah without seeing Him, but only seeing his signs and whilst surrounded with all sorts of temptations, and it it this creation which ALlah wants to keep 'in His presence' in the garden of heaven to enjoy for all eternity

And the above process takes 'weeding out' the good from the bad, hence the test on earth; Allah's foreknowledge is no reason not to go ahead with a perfect creation and the suffering in the afterlife is only Allah implementing one of His attributes of perfection; Justice.

Aslo Allah created this creation for mankind to know Him and by way of this test, Allah's attributes will be manifest is i.e, in this test Allah, according to what people earn through their actions, elevates in honour, rewards, disgraces, punishes, etc, etc, and thus all of His attributes become manifest to the creation

hope this helps

Peace :)

[selsebil]

Hi Brother,

Like every possessor of beauty and perfection wants to see and display his own beauty and perfection, Allah SWT wanted to open up an exhibition and set out displays within it in order to make manifest and display in the view of the people the majesty of His rule, His glittering wealth, the wonders of His art, and the marvels of His knowledge, and so that he could behold his beauty and perfection in two respects:
The First Respect: so that He Himself could behold them with His own discerning eye.
The Other: so that He could look through the view of others.

This is explained in details at 11 th word of Risale-i Nur.I can't give the link.Sorry!

[IAmZamzam]

The purpose of the test is not for God to gain information, it's for us to prove ourselves.

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[aadil77]

Hi everyone,

One of the answers given to the question of the purpose of the world is that it is a temporary testing place for human beings before the afterlife: those who pass the test go to Jannah, and those who fail go to Jahannam. But why does Allah test mankind? The point of a test is to find out what the consequences will be, yet Allah already knows who will pass and who will fail. A related question is "Why does Allah create people who will fail anyway?" After all, He knows what their outcome will be, and what is the value of people suffering in the afterlife? In short, what is the point of the whole process of testing and assigning rewards and punishments?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my questions.

Your question raises the issue of free will and predestination in islam. Although Allah is All-Knowing (thats a quality of god) and He knows what we're gonna do before we even do it, that does not mean we have don't have free will, we still have the chance to prove ourselves and make ammends.

Regarding 'what is the point..?': well what is the point of anything in this world? Whats the point in creating human beings, angels, planets, animals etc? Its all down to His will, we can't question it and we do not know what He knows.

[selsebil]

Hi Brother,
1. Why does Allah test mankind? A: Like every possessor of beauty and perfection wants to see and display his own beauty and perfection, Allah wanted to open up an exhibition and set out displays within it in order to make manifest and display in the view of the people the majesty of his rule, his glittering wealth, the wonders of his art, and the marvels of his knowledge, and so that he could behold his beauty and perfection in two respects:
The First Respect: so that he himself could behold them with his own discerning eye.
The Other: so that he could look through the view of others.
Man resembles a seed. This seed has been given significant immaterial members by Divine power and a subtle, valuable programme by Divine Determining, so that it may work beneath the ground, and emerging from that narrow world, enter the broad world of the air, and asking its Creator with the tongue of its disposition to be a tree, find a perfection worthy of it. If, due to bad temperament, the seed uses the immaterial members given it in attracting certain harmful substances under the ground, in a short time it will rot and decay in that narrow place without benefit.Similarly, significant members and valuable programmes have been deposited in man’s nature by Divine power and determining. If man uses those immaterial members on the desires of his soul and on minor pleasures under the soil of worldly life in the narrow confines of this earthly world, he will decay and decompose in the midst of difficulties in a brief life in a constricted place like the rotted seed, and load the responsibility on his unfortunate spirit, then depart from this world.

2.Why does Allah create people who will fail anyway? A: The knowledge of Allah (We say Kadar) is pre-eternal and post-eternal.Divine Determining is a sort of knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on the thing known. That is, it knows it as it is. The thing known is not dependent on knowledge. That is, the principles of knowledge are not fundamental so that the knowledge directs the thing known with regard to its external existence. Because the essence of the thing known and its external existence look to will and are based on power.Therefore Allah knows that some people will fail.But they will NOT fail because of this knowledge!

[IAmZamzam]

Why does Allah create people who will fail anyway? A: The knowledge of Allah (We say Kadar) is pre-eternal and post-eternal.Divine Determining is a sort of knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on the thing known. That is, it knows it as it is. The thing known is not dependent on knowledge. That is, the principles of knowledge are not fundamental so that the knowledge directs the thing known with regard to its external existence. Because the essence of the thing known and its external existence look to will and are based on power.Therefore Allah knows that some people will fail.But they will NOT fail because of this knowledge!

This is true but I don't know how many people will find it easy to understand.