ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Learnings of the Glorious Quran The Objective of Creation in the Qur'an In the previous discussion, with the help of both rational analysis and Qur'anic statements, we concluded that the creation of the world, as a whole, has an objective, and that the materialistic realms, besides their final objective, have middle objectives which altogether aim at obtaining perfection.

Now we intend to refer to the Qur'anic ayahs which explain the divine acts and the reason, the wisdom and the management of the creation, the world and man. We shall read what is said in the Qur'an about the middle objectives which are in the world and man: "And He it is who created the heavens and the earth in six days - and His throne was upon the water-that He might try you, which one of you is best in conduct."[^161] There are in this ayah expressions that need to be explained.

Some are directly connected to our topic, and some will be explained in their more suitable places. Stages of Creation The heavens and the earth, which the Qur'an refers to, mean, as obtained from context indications that the whole world is material. Sometimes this is confirmed by saying: "and what is between them",[^162] [the heavens and the earth]. Thus the total of the heavens and the earth denote the world of matter. Here a question may arise about the meaning of "day" in the ayah.

It is clear that it is not the day which appears as a result of the rotation of the earth. Before the creation of earth there were no day and night as known to us now. They appeared after the creation of the earth and its rotation. The Arabic term "yawm", meaning "a day", denotes "a period of time", with no definite length of time. The ayah itself does not make it clear, either.

As to the narratives known to us, no definite conclusion can be derived from them, although there are some possibilities which may further be enforced. But to say positively what definitely is meant by those "six days" is quite doubtful and no decisive explanation can be offered. The phrase under our consideration is, however, "...that He might try you, which one of you is best in conduct.". Undoubtedly, this ayah tells what the purpose, or the objective, of the creation is.

Allah had created the heavens, the earth, the world, the nature, in general, with the objective of trying the human beings in order to make known those who behave more piously.