Page 761 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Harun Yahya

as his inferiors. Then, he has spent his life vainly clambering after an illusory dream world. But one day he
realizes that he has been caught up in illusions and wasting his time, that none of these things has absolute
existence and that only God exists.

In one verse, God calls attention to those who have refused to accept this reality throughout history
and those who have pretended not to know it:
But the actions of those who disbelieve are like a mirage in the desert. A thirsty man thinks it is water but
when he reaches it, he finds it to be nothing at all, but he finds God there. He will pay him his account in

full. God is swift at reckoning. (Surat an-Nur: 39)
As we can see in this verse, God compared the deeds of deniers to a mirage or a phantom. When these

people attach themselves to these phantoms and discover that they cannot expect help from them, they un-
derstand that the phantoms are not real and that God alone is the one absolute reality.
One of the main reasons why people are so afraid of this reality and do not wish to accept it is that they
understand, like the man in the example above, that everything they own, their respect, their wealth will
pass away in one moment. Here we call your attention to one point: we are not saying here that "every-

thing a person owns will stay behind after death and do him no good". By saying that "everything a person
owns is an appearance", that person, in a sense, loses what he owns while still alive. When he sees that
what he has striven for throughout his life, has troubled him and made him sad, and that he has tried to

beat down other people in the process, he realizes that it was all an empty deception. In one verse, the
Qur’an reveals that heedless people live in deception. The greedy attachment of people to property is re-
lated in a verse as follows:

To mankind the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colours: women and children, and heaped-
up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is
merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. The best homecoming is in the presence of God. (Surah Al
'Imran: 14)

In another verse it is revealed that the life of this world is a game, a waste of time and a deception:
Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and ostentation and a cause of boasting

among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children: like the plant-growth after rain
which delights the cultivators, but then it withers and you see it turning yellow, and then it becomes broken
stubble. In the hereafter, there is terrible punishment but also forgiveness from God and His good pleasure.
The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion. (Surat al-Hadid: 20)

When people realize that these appearances they thought they owned during this life are actually an il-
lusion, they understand that they have struggled and worried in vain, and that they have wasted their
time. There are those who jealously guard what they own, and for the sake of these things become angry
and abuse others, get irritated and pound the table with their fist. But when they realize that they have no

connection with the actual material things, they are ashamed and deeply sorry that they are like be some-
one who, in a dream, assaults other people, gets angry and shouts at them. They immediately understand
that they should act in a way that will be pleasing to God, the Origin of all the appearances shown to them.

Those who comprehend this reality, that is, believers say:
Say: "My prayer and my rites, my living and my dying, are for God alone, the Lord of all the world." (Surat
al-An'am: 162)

It is important never to forget this important point: It does not matter at which point in his life a person
comes to understand this reality; it is never too late. He can change his way of looking at life right away
and reorder his way of living according to this principle; he can begin to live not for illusions but for our

Lord, the One Absolute Being. God is always forgiving to His servants.
Those who slyly pretend not to know this reality, and refuse to accept the fact that God is the One
Absolute Being, have fallen into a powerful trap. God describes their state:

... What they achieved here will come to nothing. What they did will prove to be null and void. (Surah Hud:
16)

Adnan Oktar 759