Dear Rafi Raza Sahib,

You are expressing your frustrations about the human behavior leading to all the pain and sufferings that we see all around us. You are not alone to feel that way. The sufferings and the tragedies have always been a part of human life and by the looks of it will remain that way, perhaps for ever to the last Day.

The angels were not wrong when they commented that humans would cause much trouble and bloodshed. But, the angels knew not what God knew about the overall grand plan. Not only He created us but also our ʽfree willʼ. We have the choices to make and decisions to take. This is the privilege that He has given us that others living things including the angels do not have. This is His way to give us an opportunity to develop ourselves spiritually to elevate and ascend ourselves such that we could be better than the angels in spite of all our inherent weaknesses that the angels do not have.

The last Day, the Day of Judgment, is not merely a day of destruction. Most importantly, it will be the Day of transition of the conventional life into a spiritual one to last for ever. The creation of earth is only a small component of a very large universe which was created as a part of Godʼs project of human life. Like all the other heavenly bodies in the universe, the earth has its finite life and has to come to an end one day. The Quran has not specified the date of the last day, but the cosmologists tell us we still have about 5 billion more years before the sun is going to run out of its fuel, expand and engulf our tiny earth.  

Regarding your wish for peace all over the earth, there is only one way to achieve that fully or partially.  What we ought to do is, we should look at our obligations before we claim our rights. It does not control others. We will not have to control others as long as we make ourselves strong enough such that we can stand up for our convictions and defend them successfully. As long as we are in a position to defend ourselves, we will not need to be offensive and chances are that we will not be challenged to defend ourselves either.

Javed I. Chaudry