AN EXPLANATION FOR LIFE

 

Esther Freud (b. 1963) is a British novelist. She is the greatgrand daughter of Sigmund Freud. One of her famous books is Hideous Kinky. In an interview to The Times of India she said:

“The reading world is hungry for experiences of people they’ve never heard from.”

 

This remark about the present reading world is very meaningful. It is not a simple remark. It has a deeper meaning. The fact is that the reading world is living in a state of bewilderment. They want to know the purpose of their life, but they have not found a convincing answer to it yet. They feel that their education, study, job and various activities have failed to provide them with a satisfactory answer to this question. Now, consciously or unconsciously, they try to find that person who probably may have discovered this meaning and can give them an answer in a manner that satisfies them. They seek to know the unknown, but they feel that the book they are searching for has not been written.

 

Every person feels that his inner personality wants to know something which it cannot know on its own. If one ponders over this matter, one will discover that every human being is born as a seeker. Everyone is a seeking being. Every person feels that his inner personality wants to know something which it cannot know on its own. These questions are hidden in every person’s nature: who am I, why am I settled in this world, what is the real purpose of life, what is the central principle through which I can explain all the physical and non-physical world. However, no one knows the answers to these questions. It appears that no known writer has been able to provide a satisfactory answer to these questions.

 

This is a very serious matter. The reason is not the absence of writing, rather the reason is the absence of the right framework among readers by which they can study the available books to discover the truth and adopt it with satisfaction.

 

The problem lies in misguided obsession. People are obsessed with wrong ideas. Under this obsession they have framework. They, consciously or unconsciously, want to find an answer that fits this framework of theirs. When they fail to find such an answer, they say that no such writing exists which can answer their questions.

 

A historical example illustrates this point. During the early history of mankind, people failed to discover the idea now known as the heliocentric theory. Why? Because during mankinds' earlier history, man was obsessed with the geocentric theory, which was based on observations by the naked eye. Everyday people saw the sun rising from the earth and setting in the west of the earth, so they formed the idea that the sun revolved around the planet earth. Only when Copernicus and Galileo refuted this idea, people were able to discover the truth that was hitherto unknown to them.

 

 The fact is that in the library of books there is a book which gives an answer to people’s questions. That book was compiled in the seventh century, and because of the printing press it is now easily available. This book is none other than the Quran. The Quran is a revealed book and its authenticity has been academically established over a period of more than a thousand years. It gives us a clear answer to the question of existence. Anyone who reads this book, will certainly find his answers.

 

But, the fact remains that just like the case of the solar system, here people are obsessed with a misguided notion. This misguided notion is best expressed by the phrase: ‘Right here, right now.’ Due to this obsession, people want an answer which is world-oriented. But, the answer given in the Quran is other-world oriented. It is this difference in outlook between the reader and the book that has created the problem. If people study the Quran objectively, they will certainly discover that the book they wanted is already available to them.

 

Here, one should consider a verse from the Quran, which gives a very relevant message to people in search of answers to their questions: “No one can inform you like the one who is All-knowing.” (THE QURAN 35: 14)