The purpose of life
- From: "ªk½ü¤jªk¦n" <Islam-will-replace-collapsing-Amerikan-empire@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 15:38:05 -0400
The purpose of life
Kamal Badr
The purpose of man's existence in life: Why was he created? Then one can
extract from this another issue: Allah's divine schemes. That's, what are
the reasons that underline His actions.
Ok, He created mankind. But why? If you say, just to worship Him, another
question comes up: Why to worship Him? What does He want to do with worship
anyway? Someone may say to know Him, i.e. we worship Him to know Him. I'd
say, it should be the other way around: We must know Allah in order to
worship Him. This has been confirmed by many
Qur'anic verses, one of them is the following:
Know, therefore, that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness for thy
fault, ...
Surah 47 Verse 19
You see here that knowledge is highly stressed upon, for man to know about
his Lord. Allah also says:
There is no god but He: That is the witness of God, His angels, and those
endued with knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no god but He, the
Exalted in Power, the Wise.
Surah 3 Verse 18
So, you see, knowledge gives rise to strong faith and true awareness about
the Divine Entity.
A question thrown by a child to his mother: "Mum, why do you happen to be my
mother?" "Because I gave birth to you," the mother replied. "But why did you
give birth to me?" The child went further. "Because I needed a good and
pretty child like you, and God answered my prayer," the confused mother
replied. However, the child, who would not be convinced with such simple
answers, said to his mother: "Please mum. Just one more question! Why did
you need a child?" Responding to this, the mother snapped back: "I needed a
child to play my role in life as a good mother, and for you to obey me. Now
would you please stop this nonsense?!"
Now you see, There are some areas that man's mortal mind cannot reach in his
quest for knowledge. He will just be asking and asking endless questions,
which may further increase his confusion. That's why we Muslims are urged
not to give free rein to our thoughts as not make ourselves easy prey for
Satan, for Satan waits for man at the end of this chain of question to
entrap him. Nothing more. So the shield of a Muslim in this mental struggle
is 'iman (faith). He is not prevented from thinking and reflecting. Rather,
he is constantly urged by the
Qur'an to think and to meditate; he should let his mind traverse the whole
universe, contemplating on the secrets of the universe in order to draw near
to conviction about his creator, about himself and others.
Still, he is not to be left alone in this crucial journey. Islam sets for
him guidelines to accompany him. When he asks himself about why he is
created, the answer is there for him in the Qur'an:
I have only created Jinns and men, that they may worship (or serve) Me.
Surah 51 Verse 56
Now here you are! So does it mean that our main purpose of existence is to
worship God? Not exactly! When we say that man was created to worship Allah,
this does not mean that Allah needs his/her worship.
Almighty Allah is Ever-Rich, and He does not need our worship. He says in a
divine hadith (hadith kudsi):
"If all of you, jinn and mankind, were to worship like the most righteous
amongst you, it would not increase the dominion of Allah in any way, shape
or form ..."
If so, then why did He order us to worship Him? This is part of His
tremendous mercy and kindness. Allah tells you to worship Him just for your
own sake. He wants to bless you, to shower you with His mercy, to stand
besides you and guide you to success and salvation.
How do you earn all this? It's just through one thing, i.e. worship your
God.
Just like that? Yes, just like that. Your worship implies your faith in Him,
your showing acknowledgment of Him. Allah says in another Divine hadith:
"My servants, I didn't create you just to keep Me company or for you to help
Me accomplish a certain task, nor did I create you to acquire a benefit or
to be spared a harm. I did create you for you to offer Me incessant worship,
to remember always and to glorify Me day and night."
All that we are required to do here is just for own benefit. Let me ask you
a question: If a very rich person in your neighborhood asks you to recognize
him as a wealthy person, and says that if you do that he will
fill your house with dollars, sterling pounds...etc. And you are in need.
Won't you do that? Just a simple job! Do I hear you saying "Of course I'd do
it right away?" So! Why can't we do it for God, despite that we know that He
owns everything, including you and that rich man? By this, our worship
reflects our love to God, and this is what makes Him happy. He says in the
Qur'an:
Say: "If ye do love God, Follow me: God will love you and forgive you your
sins: For God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
Surah 3 Verse 31
He is the Loving God, and His great love manifests in everything: in the way
He created you, in how He takes care of you since your infancy, and promises
to do so till your death, even if you don't worship Him.
Though He will call you into account when you meet Him on the Judgment Day
and ask you why did you fail to love Him and to show gratitude for all His
blessings.
So, we should know that all what Allah creates is a sign of His love and
mercy. It's also a sign of His Divine Will, which draws us always to the
fact that our God is Most Powerful. He creates, not just because He needs to
create. Rather, because He wants to create. He can dispense with all what He
created, even angels and prophets. Thereby, we have to know that there's a
divine wisdom in all what Allah creates.
Our renowned scholars have unanimity on this fact. For instance, in one his
statements on the wisdom behind man's creation, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
says: "He who ponders over the planet we are living in will find out that
every object exists and functions for another. As we
see, water is for the land, the land is for the plant, the plant is for
animals. Animals are for man. And man for whom? This is the question which
answer lies in man's instinct that he is for nothing but Allah, to know Him,
to worship Him and to serve Him alone."
Even in some of the things we mortals find strange, due to our limited
faculty, there lies divine wisdom. Why should a child die young? This also
shows how very Kind and Merciful our God is. Muslim scholars have
maintained that Muslim children who die young will be in Paradise in the
Hereafter; they are unanimous on that. As for the children of unbelievers,
Muslim scholars differ on this, but some of them say that those children
will be in Paradise, citing as evidence the hadith reported by Imam Bukhari
that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, saw the children of
Muslims and children of polytheists with Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim), peace
and blessings be upon him. (Sahih Bukhari 6640). So all in all behind every
act of God there is divine wisdom.
Mr. Lamaan Ball, editor of Ask About Islam, adds:
Let me try to distill some short answers for you to give to your relatives:
Why does God want to judge us? So that we have the benefit of being able to
achieve good things.
Why create people of different religions? So that we can learn and discover
the truth from the falsehood and hence achieve a good thing.
Why do so many people die not knowing Allah? They do know Allah. But they
have not applied its implications well. We are all given an innate knowledge
that existence is for a good purpose and that we are morally responsible for
our actions. God is our necessary moral judge which we all must know in some
way as part of this human innate knowledge. Even babies know Allah in some
sense.
Allah has provided us with guidance as to how to fulfill His purpose for us.
Following that guidance is our worship and service of Allah.
.
- Prev by Date: Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert
- Next by Date: There is nothing like Islam on earth
- Previous by thread: Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert
- Next by thread: Islam the fastest growing religion in the United States and in the world
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
