Our God — Page 194
194 peoples’ own doings and God bears no responsibility for this. No sensible person can argue against the existence of God on account of sin. What God has ordained is sheer and absolute mercy. The one who fails to benefit from this mercy is accountable for his own deeds. One may ask: why did God not frame the Shariah law such that it was not possible to break it and everyone would be com- pelled to adhere to this? In this case, they maintain, there would be no sin and everyone would be pious and virtuous. The answer to this question is that under such circumstances, the very pur- pose of man’s creation would have been lost. The purpose is that man should make progress through his own efforts and, through his righteous deeds, qualify to become a recipient of God’s favours and honours—ultimately, gaining His nearness. If every- one was forced to conform to the Divinely revealed Shariah, all the doors of progress would be closed on man. No one would merit favours and honours, and all effort and struggle would be in vain. It has to be understood that, to merit favours, man must be free to choose between good and evil of his own free will. If man was under compulsion to adopt a certain path, then there would be no distinction between those who love righteousness and those who do not; those who follow the right path and those who do not; those who exercise self-control and those who do not; those who hold steadfast and those who do not; those who work hard and those who do not. No difference would exist between a doer of good and an evil-doer. Likewise, the progress that can be achieved, through competition to excel one another in acts of goodness, would come to a standstill. There would be no motivation to make progress. Man would freeze in a static