|
|
|
|
|
|
The Purpose of Life (part 1 of 3): Reason and Revelation
|
  
Description: Is “Reason” a sufficient source in the search for the purpose of life?
By IslamReligion.com
- Published on 20 Mar 2006 - Last modified on 19 Feb 2008
Viewed: 6810 - Rating: 4 from 5 - Rated by: 4
Printed: 418 - Emailed: 7 - Commented on: 0
Category: Articles
> Beliefs of Islam
> The Purpose of Life
|
Introduction
_-_Reason_and_Revelation_001.jpg) ‘What is the meaning and purpose of life?’ This is,
perhaps, the most important question that has ever been asked. Throughout the
ages, philosophers have considered it to be the most fundamental question. Scientists,
historians, philosophers, writers, psychologists and the common man all wrestle
with the question at some point in their lives.
Is Reason a Sufficient Guide?
‘Why do we eat?’ ‘Why do we sleep?’ ‘Why do we work?’ The
answers we would get to these questions would be similar. ‘I eat to live.’ ‘I
sleep to rest.’ ‘I work to support myself and my family.’ But when it comes
to what the purpose of life is, people are confused. We see their confusion by
the type of answers we receive. Youths may say, “I live for booze and bikinis.”
The middle aged professional might say, “I live to save enough for a
comfortable retirement.” The old man would probably say, “I’ve been asking why
I’m here most of my life. If there’s a purpose, I don’t care anymore.” And
perhaps the most common answer will be, “I really don’t know!”
How, then, do you discover the purpose of life? We
basically have two options. The first is to let ‘human reason’ - the
celebrated achievement of the Enlightenment - guide us. After all, the Enlightenment
gave us modern science based on careful observation of the natural world. But
have post-Enlightenment philosophers figured it out? Camus described life as “absurd”;
Sartre spoke of “anguish, abandonment and despair.” To these Existentialists,
life has no meaning. Darwinians thought the meaning of life was to reproduce.
Will Durant, capturing the predicament of postmodern man, wrote, “Faith and
hope disappear; doubt and despair are the order of the day… it is not our homes
and our treasuries that are empty, it is our ‘hearts’.” When it comes to
meaning of life, even the wisest philosophers are just guessing. Will Durant,
the most noted philosopher of the last century, and Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a
philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University, both wrote separate
books titled ‘The Meaning of Life.’ They wrote to
the best-known philosophers, scientists, writers, politicians, and
intellectuals of their time in the world, asking them, “What is the meaning of
life?” Then they published their responses. Some offered their best guesses,
some admitted that they just made up a purpose for life, and others were honest
enough to say they were clueless. In fact, a number of famous intellectuals
asked the authors to write back and tell them if the purpose of life was
discovered!
Let the Heavens “Speak”
If the philosopher has no definitive answer, perhaps the
answer can be found within the heart and mind that we ourselves possess. Have
you ever looked at the open sky on a clear night? You will see an incalculable
number of stars. Look through a telescope and you will see gigantic spiral
galaxies, beautiful nebula where new stars are being formed, the remnants of
ancient supernova explosion created in a star’s final death throes, the
magnificent rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. Is it possible not to be
moved by the sight of these countless stars in the night sky shining like
diamond dust on a bed of black velvet? Multitudes of stars beyond stars,
stretching back; becoming so dense that they appear to merge into delicate
wisps of sparkling mist. The grandeur humbles us, thrills us, inspires a
craving for investigation, and calls for our contemplation. How did it come
into being? How are we related to it, and what is our place in it? Can we hear
the heavens “speak” to us?
“In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the
alternation of the night and the day, there are surely signs for all who are
endowed with insight, who remember God when they stand, and when they sit, and
when they lie down to sleep, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the
earth: “O our Lord, You have not created this without meaning and purpose. Limitless
art You in Your glory…” (Quran 3:190-191)
When we read a book, we accept that an author exists. When
we see a house, we accept that a builder exists. Both of these things were
made with a purpose by those who made them. The design, order, and complexity
of the universe as well as the world around us are evidence of the existence of
a supreme intelligence, a perfect designer. All the heavenly bodies are
controlled by precise laws of physics. Can there be laws without a lawmaker? Rocket
scientist Dr. von Braun said: “The natural laws of the universe are so precise
that we have no difficulty building a spaceship to fly to the moon and can time
the flight with the precision of a fraction of a second. These laws must have
been set by somebody.” Paul Davies, a professor of physics, concludes that man’s
existence is not a mere quirk of fate. He states: “We are truly meant to be
here.” And he says regarding the universe: “Through my scientific work, I have
come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put
together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a
brute fact. There must, it seems to me, be a deeper level of explanation.” The
universe, the earth, and living things on the earth all give silent testimony
to an intelligent, powerful Creator.
_-_Reason_and_Revelation_002.jpg)
Figure 2 Central region of the Trifid Nebula taken by the
Gemini Telescope on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, June 5, 2002. Located
in the constellation of Sagittarius, the beautiful nebula is a
much-photographed, dynamic cloud of gas and dust where stars are being born. One
of the massive stars at the nebula’s center was born approximately 100,000
years ago. The nebula’s distance from the Solar System is generally agreed to
be somewhere between 2,200 to 9,000 light years away.
Image courtesy of Gemini Observatory Image/GMOS
Commissioning Team.
If we were made by a Creator, then surely that Creator must
have had a reason, a purpose, in creating us. Thus, it is important that seek to
know God’s purpose for our existence. After coming to the realization of this
purpose, we can choose whether we want to live in harmony with it. But is it
possible to know what is expected from us left to our own devices without any communication
from the Creator? It is natural that God Himself would inform us of this
purpose, especially if we are expected to fulfill it..
Alternative to Speculation: Ask God
This brings us to the second option: the alternative to
speculation about the meaning and purpose of life is revelation. The easiest
way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the inventor. To
discover the purpose of your life, ask God.
|
The Purpose of Life (part 2 of 3): The Islamic Viewpoint
|
Description: The explanation Islam gives to the meaning of life, and a short discussion on the meaning of worship
By IslamReligion.com
- Published on 20 Mar 2006 - Last modified on 19 Feb 2008
Viewed: 6265 - Rating: 3.8 from 5 - Rated by: 4
Printed: 334 - Emailed: 6 - Commented on: 0
Category: Articles
> Beliefs of Islam
> The Purpose of Life
|
Can Christianity Answer the Question?
In Christianity, the meaning of life is rooted in faith
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, in finding Jesus as Savior. “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life.” However, the proposition is not without
serious problems. First, if this is the purpose of creation and the precondition
for eternal life, why was it not taught by the prophets to all the nations of
the world? Second, had God turned into man close to the time of Adam all
mankind would have had an equal chance to eternal life, unless those before the
time of Jesus had another purpose for their existence! Third, how can people
today who have not heard of Jesus fulfill the Christian purpose of creation? Naturally,
such a purpose is too narrow and goes against divine justice.
The Answer
Islam is the response to humanity’s search for meaning.
The purpose of creation for all men and women for all times has been one: to know
and worship God.
The Quran teaches us that every human being is born
conscious of God,
“(Remember) when your Lord extracted from the loins of Adam’s
children their descendants and made them testify [saying]: ‘Am I not your Lord?’
They said: ‘Yes, we testify to it.’ (This was) in case you say on the Day of
Judgment: ‘We were unaware of this.’ Or you say: ‘It was our ancestors who
worshipped others besides God and we are only their descendants. Will you then
destroy us for what those liars did?’”(Quran 7:172-173)
The Prophet of Islam teaches us that God created this
primordial need in human nature at the time Adam was made. God took a covenant
from Adam when He created him. God extracted all of Adam’s descendants who were
yet to be born, generation after generation, spread them out, and took a
covenant from them. He addressed their souls directly, making them bear
witness that He was their Lord. Since God made all human beings swear to His Lordship
when He created Adam, this oath is imprinted on the human soul even before it
enters the fetus, and so a child is born with a natural belief in the Oneness
of God. This natural belief is called fitra in Arabic. Consequently, every
person carries the seed of belief in the Oneness of God that lies deeply buried
under layers of negligence and dampened by social conditioning. If the child
were left alone, it would grow up conscious of God - a single Creator - but all
children are affected by their environment. The Prophet of God said,
“Each child is born in a state of ‘fitra’, but his
parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It is like the way an animal gives
birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any young born mutilated before
you mutilate them?”
_-_The_Islamic_Viewpoint_001.jpg)
Figure 1 The marvel
of life. An unborn fetus sucking its thumb.
So, just as the child’s body submits to physical laws, set
by God in nature, its soul submits naturally to the fact that God is its Lord
and Creator. However, its parents condition it to follow their own way, and
the child is not mentally capable of resisting it. The religion which the
child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing, and God does not hold
it to account for this religion. When a child matures into an adult, he or she
must now follow the religion of knowledge and reason. As adults, people must
now struggle between their natural disposition towards God and their desires in
order to find the correct path. The call of Islam is directed to this
primordial nature, the natural disposition, the imprint of God on the soul, the
fitra, which caused the souls of every living being to agree that He Who
made them was their Lord, even before the heavens and earth were created,
“I did not create the jinn and mankind except for My worship.”
(Quran 51:56)
According to Islam, there has been a basic message which
God has revealed through all prophets, from the time of Adam to the last of the
prophets, Muhammad, may God praise them all. All the prophets sent by God came
with the same essential message:
“Indeed, We have sent a messenger to every nation (saying), ‘Worship
God and avoid false gods...’” (Quran 16:36)
The prophets brought the same answer to mankind’s most
troubling question, an answer that addresses the yearning of the soul for God.
What is Worship?
‘Islam’ means ‘submission’, and worship, in Islam, means
‘obedient submission to the will of God.’
Every created being ‘submits’ to the Creator by
following the physical laws created by God,
“To Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and the earth; all
obey His will.” (Quran 30:26)
They, however, are neither rewarded nor punished for their
‘submission’, for it involves no will. Reward and punishment are for those who
worship God, who submit to the moral and religious Law of God of their own free
will. This worship is the essence of the message of all the prophets sent by
God to mankind. For example, this understanding of worship was emphatically
expressed by Jesus Christ,
“None of those who call me ‘Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
‘Will’ means ‘what God wants human beings to do.’ This ‘Will
of God’ is contained in the divinely revealed laws which the prophets taught
their followers. Consequently, obedience to divine law is the foundation of
worship. Only when human beings worship their God by submitting to His religious
law can they have peace and harmony in their lives and the hope for heaven,
just like the universe runs in harmony by submitting to the physical
laws set by its Lord. When you remove the hope of heaven, you remove the
ultimate value and purpose of life. Otherwise, what difference would it really
make whether we live a life of virtue or vice? Everyone’s fate would be the
same anyway.
|
The Purpose of Life (part 3 of 3): The False Gods of Modernity
|
Description: Modern society has created false gods which it serves, throwing the world into chaos.
By IslamReligion.com
- Published on 20 Mar 2006 - Last modified on 19 Feb 2008
Viewed: 4230 - Rating: 4.2 from 5 - Rated by: 5
Printed: 311 - Emailed: 10 - Commented on: 0
Category: Articles
> Beliefs of Islam
> The Purpose of Life
|
Who Needs Worship?
God is in no need of our worship, it is mankind that
needs to worship God. If no-one were to worship God, it would not take away
from His glory in any way, and if all of mankind were to worship Him, it would
not add to His glory. It is we, who are in need of God:
“I need no provision from them, neither do I need that they
should feed Me for, surely, God Himself is the Provider of all sustenance, the Possessor
of mighty power.” (Quran 51:57-58)
“…But God is Rich, and it is you that are poor...” (Quran 47:38)
How to Worship God: And Why.
God is worshipped by obeying the laws He revealed
through the prophets. For example, in the Bible, Prophet Jesus made obedience
to the divine laws the key to paradise:
“If you want to enter into life, keep the
commandments.” (Matthew 19:17).
Also Prophet Jesus is reported in the Bible to have
insisted on strict obedience to the commandments, saying:
“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these
commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)
Why do human beings need to worship God by obeying the
divinely revealed laws? The answer is simple. Obedience to divine law brings
peace to this life and salvation in the next.
Divine laws provide human beings a clear code to guide every
sphere of human life and interaction. Since the Creator alone knows best what
is best for His creation, His laws protect the human soul, body, and society
from harm. In order for human beings to fulfill their purpose of creation,
they must worship God by obeying His commandments.
The False Gods of Modernity
God is Who gives meaning and orientation to life. On
the other hand, modern life lacks a single center, a single orientation, a
single goal, a single purpose. It has no common principle or guideline.
Since Islam considers a god to be an entity that is
served out of love, deep respect, and anticipation of reward, one can say that the
modern world serves many gods. The gods of modernity give meaning and context
to the life of modern man.
We live in a house of language, and our words and
expressions are the windows through which we look out at the world. Evolution,
nationalism, feminism, socialism, Marxism, and, depending on how they are
employed, democracy, freedom, and equality can be listed among the indefinable
ideologies of modern times. “Plastic words,” to borrow the words of Uwe
Poerksen, a German linguist, have been used to usurp God’s power and authority
to shape and define the goal of society, or even of humanity itself. These
words have connotations with a ‘feel good’ aura. Indefinable words become a
limitless ideal. By making the ideal limitless, unlimited needs are awakened,
and once these needs are awakened, they appear to be ‘self-evident.’
As it is easy to fall into the habit of worshipping
false gods, people then have no protection against the multiplicity of gods
that modern ways of thinking demand that they serve. The “plastic words” give
great power to those ‘prophets’ who speak on their behalf, because they speak
in the name of ‘self-evident’ truths, so other people keep silent. We must
follow their authority; the axiomatic pundits who lay down the Law for our
health, welfare, well-being, and education.
The window of modernity through which we perceive
reality today is marked by cracks, smudges, blind spots, and filters. It
covers the reality. And the reality is that people have no real need except
toward God. But nowadays, these empty ‘idols’ have become the objects of
people’s devotion and worship, as the Quran states:
“Have you not seen the one who takes his desires as his god?...”
(Quran 45:23)
Each of these “plastic words” makes other words appear
primitive and out-of-date. ‘Believers’ in idols of modernity are proud of
worshipping these gods; friends and colleagues consider them enlightened for
doing so. Those who still insist on holding onto the “old” God can cover up
the embarrassment of doing so by worshipping the new ‘modern’ gods along with
Him. Obviously, many people who claim to worship the “old-fashioned” God will twist
His teachings in this event, so that He also seems to be telling us to serve
these “plastic words.”
The worship of false gods entails the corruption not
only of individuals and society, but also of the natural world. When people
refuse to serve and worship God as He has asked them to serve Him, they cannot fulfill
the functions for which He has created them. The result is that our world
becomes ever more chaotic, just as the Quran tells us:
“Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea because of
what the hands of people have earned.” (Quran 30:41)
Islam’s answer to the meaning and purpose of life
fulfills the fundamental human need: a return to God. However, everyone is
going back to God willy-nilly, so the question is not merely going back, but
how one goes back. Will it be in shameful agonizing chains awaiting
punishment, or joyful and grateful humility for that which God has promised? If
you await the latter, then through the Quran and the teachings of Prophet
Muhammad, God guides people back to Him in a manner that will ensure their eternal
happiness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Online daily:
From to
(according to your computer time)
|
| |
Your Favorites |
 |
|
Your favorites list is empty. You may add articles to this list using the article tools. |
| |
Your History |
|
|
Your history list is empty.
|
|
|
