Allah The Exalted — Page 120
1 repentance, man can be much better than angels for an- gels cannot make progress in goodness. Human sins are forgiven through repentance. Divine wisdom leaves some individuals free to commit sins so that thereby they should become aware of their weakness and may be for- given through repentance. This is the law that is appointed for man and it is suited to man's nature. Error and forgetfulness are characteristics of human na- ture and they are not characteristics of angels. Therefore, the law that regulates angels cannot be put in force in respect of men. It is an error to attribute any weakness to God Almighty. It is the consequences of the operation of law that are manifested upon the earth. Is God so weak that His kingdom and power and glory are limited to heaven or is it that there is some other god who is in ad- verse possession of the earth? The Christians should not emphasise that God's kingdom operates only in heaven and is not yet in operation on the earth, for they hold that heaven is nothing. If heaven, where God's kingdom should operate, is nothing and God's kingdom has not yet arrived upon earth, this would mean that God's kingdom does not rule anywhere. Whereas we observe with our own eyes that God's kingdom is in operation on the earth. According to His law, our lives come to an end and our conditions change continuously. We experience hundreds of types of comfort and pain. Thousands of people die by God's command and thousands are born, prayers are ac- cepted, signs are displayed and the earth produces thousands of types of vegetables, fruits and flowers by His command. Then is all this happening without the kingdom of God? Heavenly bodies seem to continue in one condition and no outward change is felt with regard to them, which should indicate the existence of a Being