Is This A Nice World?

By Imam Abdullah El-Amin, TMO

“By the Fig and the olive, 2) and the Mount Sinai, 3) and this city of security, 4) We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, 5) Then do We abase him to be the lowest of the low, 6) except such as believe and do righteous deeds; for they shall have a reward unfailing……….”

Holy Qur’an 95:1-7

In my role as an imam and a leader, I talk to and counsel many people and I thank Almighty ALLAH for allowing me to be used in this manner.

Recently, in a conversation with a young man, he told me he doesn’t think he wants to father any children into this world.  When he made that statement I was taken aback a little bit.  Why would a young, supposedly virile young man elect not have any children?

When I asked him why, he said the world is “not a nice place’.  Besides, there are many children who could be adopted,” he said.  While it is a noble gesture to desire to give a home to a child who doesn’t have one, I didn’t think his reason was a good one.

Is this a nice world?  You bet it is.  ALLAH tells us over and over again of the wonders of His creation.  He constantly reminds us of how the rain sprouts new life from a barren earth and fills our lives with vibrant color and food for our sustenance.  All you need do is take a walk and feast your eyes on the birds chirping in the trees, the beautiful flowers and plants, the squirrels and chipmunks, the gently flowing streams of water, and other such nuggets of beautiful perfection of creation, and you will marvel at the beneficence of ALLAH.

But this young man was speaking more to the creation of man rather than the world of vegetation and animal.  He was speaking of the mankind that has been abased to be the lowest of the low.  He was speaking of man’s inhumanity to man.  He was speaking of the things some people do to try and not make this world a nice place.  He was thinking of the ugliness that we see on the 6:00 News everyday; and in that vein, he is right.  There is a lot of ugliness in the world today.

But there is another side to the creation of man that makes us have hope and faith and allows us to enjoy our brief stay in this world.  ALLAH says, “We have indeed created man in the best of moulds.”  There are beautiful people in this world.  Imagine what this world would be like if a cruel mentality ruled the land.  There would be no order at all in our lives because people would have no fear of reprisals in the next life.  There would no cheerful nurses in the hospital to help speed our recovery from illnesses.  There would be no kindness, no please and thank you; and, quite frankly, it would be unlivable.

If we want to live in a nice world, we have to seek that nice world out.  We have to choose to focus on the positive rather than the negative.  Because both a nice world and an evil world exist, we must choose to live in the nice world.  We must surround ourselves with good, positive thinking people in order think positively ourselves.  We must reflect on ALLAH’S creation and our (Adam’s) purpose for being created in the first place – which is as Khalifa of the creation.

Everything ALLAH created is good for us.  Is this a nice world?  Yes it is.  You just be a nice person and interact with nice people and you will have a nice life.

As Salaam alaikum
(Al Hajj) Imam Abdullah El-Amin