SPIRIT OF ISLAM AUGUST 2O13

27 Spirit of Islam Issue 8 August 2013 ON MARRIAGE T HE coming together of a man and a woman in marriage is one of the most unique events in the universe. All the things created in the universe are created in pairs, but the compatibility that exists between a man and a woman cannot be found in any other created thing. When a man and a woman come together as partners for life, it is evident that they have been made for each other through a conscious plan. Marriage is not simply a social institution. In Islam, it has an importance far greater than this. According to the Islamic concept of life, God Almighty created an ideal world, Paradise. Paradise is a perfect and eternal world. God wants to select those women and men who may qualify to settle in this highly refined colony of Paradise. So God created men and women for the purpose of this selection or test, and settled them on Earth. Men and women are two equal halves of a single unit. Marriage is directly linked to this scheme of creation. Men and women are both born with great capabilities. It is their duty to turn these capabilities, this potential, into reality. Our present life offers us an opportunity for this purpose. This present world is like a ground where we live for a short time only for the purpose of preparing ourselves for the next world. We have to strive to develop our personality in such a way that we may qualify for our entry into Paradise. This process is called Tazkia , or the purification of the soul in the Quran. This purification or preparation is a lifelong process. Only through study, contemplation, introspection, and learning can we develop this kind of personality. In developing our personality, the most important thing for us is to broaden our mind by awakening our consciousness. To awaken our consciousness, we require three things—study, observation and intellectual exchange with other people. Books are the greatest source of knowledge we can study that we have, the world of nature is the greatest source of knowledge that we can observe, and in the matter of intellectual learning, it is essential for us to form the habit of learning from others, and continue in this learning process. A spouse is an