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There are traces of past and present creations everywhere — are they meaningless or living signs of a Creator God?

The Qur’an wonders in what areas and in what ways humans rely on their own strength when they fail to acknowledge God as the Giver, saying: “O humankind! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Most Generous?” (Qur’an 82:6)

All humans, in the Qur’an’s own words, have a god – even if the god is the person himself. “Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire?” (Qur’an 24:43)

You are not more difficult to see than a black ant, scampering over a black rock, under the cover of the darkest of moonless nights.

Islam does not pass off all calamites as ‘trials,' but differentiates between punishments and trials. Trials are tests of character and faith; punishments are consequences of sins and transgressions.

In Islam, one of God’s most emphasized attributes is mercy. All the chapters of the Qur’an except one begin with the statement “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” known as the Basmallah. The Basmallah is also the common statement that Muslims should recite before doing any action. It thus ingrains in them the confidence that God’s ultimate design for creation is one of care and mercy.

Atheism rejects the free will component, arguing that even if it provides a satisfactory explanation for moral evil produced by morally wrong human choices such as murder, adultery, and racism, it fails to address natural evil such as earthquakes, disease, hurricanes, and famines. This is because natural evil arises through no fault of humans, who are completely powerless to prevent it.

Atheism in its reality is a voluntary psychological position (and not a mental one) that a person adopts due to not wishing to imagine that there is a power above man to which he must submit and obey, and before which he will be accountable for his deeds.

"..The concept of moral obligation [is] unintelligible apart from the idea of God. The words remain but their meaning is gone.’” – William Lane Craig.

The entire concept of morality stems from the Islamic belief that humans are significant, that their behavior and actions will count and that the pattern of this entire universe is purposeful and balanced. Humankind is not a ship without a compass in the midst of a great storm, but is secured with a set of unchangeable norms for all possible moral situations.

Personalities are like metals. They need to be further refined into purer forms and fashioned into useful shapes.

All humans, men and women, are descended from one soul: Adam (peace be upon him). From Adam, God created his wife, Eve (peace be upon her), and from them both He created the rest of the human race, which make all human beings equally valuable in His Sight, equally subject to His Sovereignty, equally deserving of His Grace, and equally accountable to Him for their deeds.

Very much at the center of understanding the human being in Islam is the concept of Fitrah. Fitrah is like having an innate inner compass that always points in the direction of what is right, true, and just.

Volition, emotion, and intellect are not free and rational, but entirely chemical.

Free will is a faculty of the reason and soul, by which a human is capable of distinguishing and choosing right from wrong and good from evil.

The minute a human is born, the clock of their life starts ticking down, and it does not stop. “O son of Adam!” Muslim Scholar Hasan Al-Basri explained. “You are but days. Every day that goes by, a part of you goes with it.”

The Qur’anic statement, “To God we belong and to God is our return” (2:156) represents the Islamic map of life. It is an entire way of seeing and responding to the world, where life and every particle of it takes on direction, significance, and purpose when God is the beginning and the end.

Humans can only become the person God created them to be and live life to its best and fullest meaning when they apply the rules and standards their Maker has set out for them in His Book. It, alone, can bring them to the purest and highest state of being and give them the best possible direction, as indicated in the Qur’anic verse: “Indeed, this Qur’an guides to that which is most just and right.” (Qur’an 17:9)

The point of anything designed is to serve a purpose. And when the purpose of a thing is not known and understood, the abuse of that thing becomes inevitable.

Within every human is an innate desire for ultimate meaning and purpose. It cannot be escaped, as it goes to the root of human nature. Deep inside, humans want their lives to count for something much more than mere existence.