Why Was the Hall Furnished?

And the question that comes before every question: why was this earth fitted out with all this beauty? Why does the mountain have awe, and the river its murmur, and the fruit its colours, and money its pleasure, and a child a sweetness that takes hold of the heart? If this world were nothing but an examination, the hall would be bare. But it was furnished on purpose, and this is the finest point in the matter:

So the furnishing is not a flaw in the design; it is the design. The earth with its brightness and its mountains and its rivers, and everything set upon it of tempting ornament and appetite, all of this is the fitting-out of the hall, the teaching materials, the test matter placed before the one being examined so that he may be tested by it. And money in the hands of two men is two entirely different things: for one of them it is a question paper, for the other it is furniture to live with.

The owner of the hall did not hide His purpose. He said plainly that death and life were made only so that it might be seen “which of you is best in conduct” (Al-Mulk 67:2, Pickthall). Then He stated that the creation of man himself was for this same end:

And there is a mercy in the furnishing of the hall that is not often noticed. If the earth were stripped of its beauty, doing right would be compulsion and not choice, and there would be no difference between a man who leaves an appetite while it lies within his reach and a man who leaves it because he never found it. The furnishing is what gives obedience a price, and endurance a meaning, and choice a value. That is why the first verse is followed by the news of what becomes of this furnishing itself: the décor that kept people from the examination will be taken away, and the paper will remain.