Yet, the connection between the deed and the doer is a bit vague.

Yet, the connection between the deed and the doer is a bit vague. How can the world be created so that man may be tried? What connection is there between creation and trying man? Brevity in speech is a style of eloquance which is frequently used in the Qur'an. That is, when the subject is obvious, a lot of phrases are omitted from the speech, as long as it can be understood from the context, and there would be no need to express it openly, especially when the situation requires conciseness.

This conciseness is used in the Qur'an in many instances, especially when relating stories. Looking into the stories of the Qur'an, we realize what an amazing style of brevity is used. From among the stories one sentence is selected from hundreds of sentences which should have been said and singled out, because there had been a reason for selecting it, and disregarding the rest.

This style had also been used in other instances, including the ayah being discussed, where instead of saying: "We had created the heavens and the earth as preliminaries for the appearance of man, then We created man in order to have the purpose of his creation (trying him) fulfuilled." The sentences before and after are discarded and omitted, while the stress is put on the purpose for which man was created: "We created the world to try you".

At the time of creating the heavens and the earth no human being had been created as yet to be tried. So what relation is there between the creation of the heavens and the earth with man? By considering the style of brevity we find out that, at least, one sentence had been omitted, that is, the heavens and the earth had been created in preparation for the creation of man, who was to be later created in order to be tried to find out whose conduct was better.

Trying Man Finally, the gist of this ayah is that the Qur'an regards trying man as one of the objectives of creation. What does trying man mean? Actually this is an elaborate subject which is handled in anthropological topics as well as in Divine laws of managing man. Generally speaking, trying, or examining is to arrange the grounds for bringing a potentiality to actuality, or implementing a potential matter.

A scientist, in his laboratory, moves around, arranges certain materials, gives them particular shapes, etc., until a new phenomenon appears. Why does he do this? In some instances the scientist locks knowledge.