Question
This is a question for Mr. Ghamidi regarding āzmaish and imtiḥān. I have heard Mr. Ghamidi and others say that God puts man to test. I have never been able to understand the idea of God testing human beings because I think this is a human act unbecoming to the nature of God.
Humans indulge in āzmaish and imtiḥān because they do not have fore-knowledge of the results. For example students are required to take examinations so the teacher can gauge their understanding or scientists conduct tests to prove or disprove a theory or a man will test another man to determine performance and behaviour under certain circumstances.
God is all-knowing. He knows what would be the result. Why would He put his creatures to test? Please explain and thank you for all the work you do. I have learned many things from your TV programs.
M. Ali
Answer
assalām-o-alaykum
There are two ways of thinking about this popular question:
a. Attempting to look at it beyond the domain of human being: God knowing every thing about future does not mean that God, while being bound like us to the dimension of time, knows what will happen further along this dimension. Rather it means that God (as the creator of everything including time) is beyond the dimension of time. For Him, past, present and future is irrelevant. If we appreciate this, then we will see that statements like “God knows whether we will be in heaven or hell” are in fact not very accurate statements because they use past, present and future verbs for God. At the same time these are the only possible words and the closest possible ones that can be used in human language to deliver the true meaning. No doubt it is not possible for us to understand this perspective fully because we are bound to the dimension of time, however we can at least appreciate that questions like this arise because of us being restricted by our own nature.
b. Looking at it from the point of view of human being: The fact that God knows the destiny of every individual does not change the fact that yet, every individual has a free will and a chance to choose between good and evil. We have not been put in test so that God knows what to do with us, rather, we are put in test so that we can have a chance to deserve God’s mercy and receive His reward in the hereafter. This chance can only be materialised if we can practice our free will in this world.
Looking at the above two points, the second one should satisfy the question while the first one tries to explain that the question itself is not a flawless one.
Regards,
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-03-31
