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Islam

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
What is the Purpose of our Life?

In a world full of prejudice and cultural conditioning, it is very hard to find people that are able to take a moment to think about life objectively. And try to arrive at the truth about this world and the real purpose of our life. Unfortunately, when you ask most people the question what is the purpose of our life, such a fundamental and important question, they will not tell you what they have concluded through observation or analytical reasoning. Rather, in most cases, they will simply tell you what someone else said. Or they will tell you what is commonly presumed by others; what my father says the purpose of life is, what the minister of my Church says the purpose of life is, what my teachers says, what my friends says etc. If I ask anyone about the purpose of eating, why do we eat? Everyone will say in one word or another, its for nutrition because it sustains life. If I ask anyone why they work, they will say because it’s a necessity in order to support themselves and to provide the needs of the family. If I ask anyone why they sleep, why they wash etc. They will answer this is a common necessity for all human beings. We can follow this line of questioning with 100 questions and get same or similar answer from anyone in any language in any place in the world. Simple!

Then I ask you the question, why is it, that when we ask the question, what is the goal and the purpose of life, that we get so many different answers? That’s because people are confused, they don’t really know. They are stumbling in the dark. And rather than to say I don’t know, they just fall for any answer that they have been programmed to answer. Well think about it tonight!

Is our purpose in this world simply to eat, sleep, dress, work, acquire some materials things and enjoy ourselves? Is this our purpose? Why are we born? What is the object of our existence? And what is the wisdom behind the creation of men and this tremendous universe? Think about that question.

Some persons argue that there is no prove of any divine origin, there is no prove that there is a God, there is no proves that this universe has come about for any divine purpose; there are people who argue this way. And they say that perhaps this world came about by chance. A big bang and this whole great world, with all its orchestration just came together. And they argue that life does not have any definite purpose and that there is nothing that can be proven through by the logic or science that there is a God or purpose or any divine reason behind this world.

In the Qur’an it’s mentioned:

To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and Allah has power over everything. Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding, men who celebrates the praises of Allah standing, sitting and lying down on their side and they contemplate the wonders of the creation in the heavens and the earth with the thought, “Our Lord, not for any foolish purpose has thou created all of these. Glory be to thee, give us salvation from the penalty of the hellfire.

Now here in these verses, Allah has mentioned very clearly to us by first drawing our attention to the creation of ourselves, the different postures of the human body, the different attitude of the human psychology. He draws our attention to the heaven, the alternation of the night and the day, the firmament, the stars, the constellation and then He says to us, “He has not created all of these for any foolish purpose”. Because when you see the design of it, you know it that the design of it is very powerful and very precise. And something very powerful and very precise that is beyond your own calculation and imagination, it cannot foolish. It cannot be just thrown together.


If you took 10 marbles and number them 1 to 10 and all of them with different colours and you put them inside of a bag and shook the bag and then closing your eyes reached inside that bag, and I told you, pull out marble number 1 and then marble number 2 and then pull out marble number 3 in order. What’s the chance of your pulling out of these 10 marbles in order? Do you know the chances are? Its 26 millions to 1. So what’s the chance of the heavens and the earth being thrown in a big bang and orchestrated like they are. What’s the chance of that?

My dear respected fellow humans we have to ask ourselves a further question. When you see a bridge, a building or an automobile, you automatically consider the person or the company that constructed it. When you see a plane or a rocket, a satellite or a large ship, you also think about how incredible of a vehicle that it is. When you see a nuclear plant in orbiting space stations or a super international airport, you have to thoroughly impressed with the engineering dynamics that are involved.

Yet, these are just things that are manufactured by human beings. Then what about the human body; with its massive and intricate control system? Think about it.

Think about the brains; how it thinks, how it functions, how it analysis, sort information, retrieves information, distinguishes and categorizes information in a millionth of a second! And does it constantly. Think about the brain for a moment. This is the brain that made the automobile, the rocket. Think about the brain and who made that. Think about the heart how it pumps continuously for 60 or 70 years, in taking and discharging blood throughout the body and maintaining that steady precision throughout the life of that person. Think about it.

Think about the kidney and what kind of functions that they carry – the purifying instrument of the body, which performs hundreds of chemicals analysis simultaneously and also controls the levels of toxicity in the content of the body. And it does this automatically.

Think about your eye – The human camera that adjust, focus, interpret, evaluate, and applies colour automatically; the natural inspective and adjustment to light and distance. All automatic, think about it!

Who created that? Who has mastered that? Who plans that? And who regulates that? Human beings themselves? No of course not.

What about this universe? Think about this. This earth is ONE planet in our solar system. And our solar system is one of the systems in the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is one of the constellations in this galaxy. And there are millions of galaxies like the Milky Way. Think about that and they are all in order. They are all precise. They are not colliding with each other. They are not conflicting with each other and they are swimming along in an orbit that has been SET for them. Have human beings set that into motions? And are those human beings maintaining that precision? No of course NOT!

Source: missionislam.com
 
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Peace

Quran & Sunnah
Think about the ocean, the fish, the insects, the birds, the plants, bacteria, and the chemical elements that have not been discovered and cannot be defected even with the most sophisticated instruments. Yet each one of them has a law that they follow.

Did all of these sequence, balance, harmony, variation, design, maintenance, operation and infinite numeration, did this happen by chance? And also do these things functions perpetually and perfectly by chance? And do they reproducing themselves and maintaining themselves also by chance? No of course not.

That would be totally illogical and foolish to think and in the least, it will indicate that however it came to be, it is totally outside of the realm of human capability. We will all agree to that.


The being, the all mighty power, God, the creator who has the knowledge to design, to proportion, who has created all of these and is responsible for maintaining all of these, is the only one that is deserving our praise and gratitude.

If you are given a $100 for no reasons, you would at least say thank you. What about your eyes, your kidney, your brain, your life, your birth, your children – what about that? Who gave you that? Is He not worthy of praise and thanks? Is He not worthy of your worship and recognition?

That in a nutshell is the purpose and the goal of this life.

Allah the all mighty said to us in the Qur’an: “I have not created the Jinn (the spirit) nor the human beings for any other purpose except to worship me”. This what the almighty says. So our purpose of this life is to recognize the creator, to be grateful to the creator, to worship the creator, to surrender ourselves to the creator and to obey the laws that He decided for us.


In a nutshell it means worship. This is our purpose on this life. And whatever we do in the course of that worship, that system, the eating, the drinking, the dressing, the working; all of these are just consequential but we have been created to worship.


That’s the purpose of our life. I don’t think that anyone who is scientific or analytical, they won’t have much argument with that purpose. They may have some other purpose within themselves. But that’s something they have to deal with between themselves and all mighty God.
 

Sajdah

Al-Aqsa Is In My Heart.
Masha'Allah, that's very wonderful sister Peace. Jazaki Allahu Khayran :)


If we just give ourselves a chance to read the book of universe, and contemplate it very well. We will realize our purpose of our life...
 

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
I have a question:
Why does Allah create the spirit for the purpose of being worshipped? Why does He feel the need to be worshipped? Is He not happy otherwise? And why did He place us in this world, far away from Him if He want worship?
Please explain further, I am sure there is a deeper meaning to the verse.
 

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
Masha'Allah, that's very wonderful sister Peace. Jazaki Allahu Khayran :)


If we just give ourselves a chance to read the book of universe, and contemplate it very well. We will realize our purpose of our life...


Thank you! Wa anti min ahli al jazaa' dear sis :)
 

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
I have a question:.

You are welcome anytime :)

Why does Allah create the spirit for the purpose of being worshipped? Why does He feel the need to be worshipped?
Allah is free from all needs and He is independent unlike us who are dependent on Him. This is clear from the following verse:

{To Allah belong all things in heaven and earth: verily Allah is He (that is) free of all wants, worthy of all praise.}* (Luqman 31:26)
http://www.readingislam.com/servlet...kAboutIslamE/AskAboutIslamE&cid=1203759226133Allah created us because one of His names is the Creator. It is part of His creative plan to create us, human beings so as to worship Him and in order to test us. Since we are His creatures we should obey Him. And because we are His creatures He is the only One who knows what's good for us and what's bad for us. Thus obediance and submission to His will is the best way for us and the ultmate goal.

*{He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days—and His Throne was over the waters—that He might try you, which of you is best in conduct...}* (Hud 11:7)

And why did He place us in this world, far away from Him if He want worship?

Allah is close to us than our Juglar veins. He is with us wherever we are and at any time. He is so close to us than we can even imagine. This universe that we live in is His and He is the One who created it.
 

Onkara

Well-Known Member
You are welcome anytime :)


Allah is free from all needs and He is independent unlike us who are dependent on Him. This is clear from the following verse:

{To Allah belong all things in heaven and earth: verily Allah is He (that is) free of all wants, worthy of all praise.}* (Luqman 31:26)
Allah created us because one of His names is the Creator. It is part of His creative plan to create us, human beings so as to worship Him and in order to test us. Since we are His creatures we should obey Him. And because we are His creatures He is the only One who knows what's good for us and what's bad for us. Thus obediance and submission to His will is the best way for us and the ultmate goal.

*{He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days—and His Throne was over the waters—that He might try you, which of you is best in conduct...}* (Hud 11:7)



Allah is close to us than our Juglar veins. He is with us wherever we are and at any time. He is so close to us than we can even imagine. This universe that we live in is His and He is the One who created it.
Why does Allah need to test us?
Respectufully,
Onkarah
 

TashaN

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Why does Allah need to test us?
Respectufully,
Onkarah

You see, this is the biggest misconception people have about God. They think that Allah *need* something from us, but he doesn't. He can get rid of us in one second if he want that.

He doesn't need to do something but he just want to do it. When he decide to do something, he will just do it whether there was a purpose behind it or not, whether we knew that a certain wisdom exist or not.

Allah just want to see how a free soul would behave. Angels, unlike us don't have the freedom to sin, but for us, we have the choice, freedom. So, if we followed his light, we will succeed in this life and the hereafter.
 

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
Why does Allah need to test us?
Respectufully,
Onkarah


Allah doesn't have needs; He needs nothing so the question of why He needs to test us doesn't make sense. When we act we are driven by needs but Allah's acts are not because He has non. Allah doesn't benefit from our worship and our disobediance doesn't harm Him.
When we say that Allah created us to worship Him and to be tested doesn't mean that He needs our worship or He needs to test us. He created us with the capability to worship by giving us the freedom to choose what we want.
Hope this makes sense if not please let me know so to make more clarifications.

All the best,
Peace
 

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
Allah doesn't have needs; He needs nothing so the question of why He needs to test us doesn't make sense. When we act we are driven by needs but Allah's acts are not because He has non. Allah doesn't benefit from our worship and our disobediance doesn't harm Him.
When we say that Allah created us to worship Him and to be tested doesn't mean that He needs our worship or He needs to test us. He created us with the capability to worship by giving us the freedom to choose what we want.
Hope this makes sense if not please let me know so to make more clarifications.

All the best,
Peace

An addendum to what I have said, Allah has certain attributes and names. He creates because He is the Creator. He shows mercy and forgives because He is the Merciful. He gives and pardons because He is the Generous. He provides because He is the Provider. He protects because He is the Protecter. Thus, Allah's attributes manifest themselves clearly to us.
 

Onkara

Well-Known Member
Thank you
Why is freewill/free choice necessary? Why did Allah will it into existance?
Please can you explain. :)
 

Peace

Quran & Sunnah
Thank you
Why is freewill/free choice necessary? Why did Allah will it into existance?
Please can you explain. :)

Because Allah is Just and that's one of His many attributes. And because Allah is just He has given us the free will to choose what we want to believe. There is no compulsion in religion. Allah has created good and evil in everyone of us and He gave us the free will to choose the path we want. If we follow the good side then our reward will be the best abode, Paradise. However, if we follow evil and we disobey the One who created us then there is no one to blame but ourselves since we are the one who chose the path that leads to Hell.
 

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
Because Allah is Just and that's one of His many attributes. And because Allah is just He has given us the free will to choose what we want to believe. There is no compulsion in religion. Allah has created good and evil in everyone of us and He gave us the free will to choose the path we want. If we follow the good side then our reward will be the best abode, Paradise. However, if we follow evil and we disobey the One who created us then there is no one to blame but ourselves since we are the one who chose the path that leads to Hell.

I do not understand why He would willingly create evil inside us, as things like selfishness and sense gratification are far more tempting than leading an austere life in servitude. Why would he make the temptations for 'evil' so powerful? It almost takes away our free will when we can hardly help ourselves. That's why the Christians have htis idea of 'faith alone' because they know they are constantly sinning and cannot seem to help it (not that I agree with this either).

Also, how is it free will if the person has a constant threat over their head? Is it really free will to choose if somebody has a gun to your head? How is this different from saying you will go to hell?
 

Onkara

Well-Known Member
Hi Madhuri and Peace
Good questions. The way I came to understand this is that selfish behaviour in due to us desiring to satisfy our human will. Likewise what brings us closer to Allah is recognising that His will is greater than our own. This is the freedom of choice and this is how we exercise our free will in the islamic sense. Islam is guiding us to correct behaviour i.e. unselfish desires and the will of Allah.

Man is not divine in Islam, despite being created by Allah. I am not sure how a creation of the Lord can fail to be perfect unless I undestand it purely as behaviour only i.e. selfish behaviour or behaviour that is intiatated due to negative influence and so results negatively.

I am happy for feedback/correction etc. I hope this post isn't moved to debate :)
 
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Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
Hi Madhuri and Peace
Good questions. The way I came to understand this is that selfish behaviour in due to us desiring to satisfy our human will. Likewise what brings us closer to Allah is recognising that His will is greater than our own. This is the freedom of choice and is exercising our free will in the islamic sense. Islam is guiding us to correct behaviour i.e. unselfish desires and the will of Allah.

Man is not divine in Islam, despite being created by Allah. I am not sure how a creation of the Lord can fail to be perfect unless I undestand it purely as behaviour only i.e. selfish behaviour or behaviour that is intiatated due to negative influence and the results negatively.

I am happy for feedback/correction etc. I hope this post isn't moved to debate :)

Thank you Onkara. :)
Your answer is very good. I guess I come from a perspective where I've always questioned why the souls exist under the illusion of Maya which is so strong that it takes so many life times to break through. I used to wonder why god owuld put us through that on purpose until I came to understand that this material world and the souls are a natural part of God and were never deliberately placed here. That is why I find it difficult to understand the Islamic perspective that God has in fact placed us here on purpose to 'test' us. It makes it worse that he purposefully created 'evil' with such an incredible temptation to act 'sinfully'. Free will can opperate without this temptation. It's like giving someone an addictive drug and then telling them they have the free will to choose to take the drug again or not. Of course there is a will but it ain't easy!
 

Tiapan

Grumpy Old Man
What is the Purpose of our Life?

...they will simply tell you what someone else said. ...
Not me, I can tell you what I have determined through my own thinking based on evidence I have seen.

Then I ask you the question, why is it, what is the goal and the purpose of life, ...That’s because people are confused, they don’t really know.


No they are usually just ignorant of the facts

Is our purpose in this world simply to eat, sleep, dress, work, acquire some materials things and enjoy ourselves?


We have a purpose, a biological purpose, most religions consider species to be the same from the beginning including unfortunately islam. We are an evolving species significantly different to our ancestors and our future form.
Eating sleeping breathing breeding are all biological functions whose aim is to breed successfully before we drop dead, thus propagating the species which is subtly changing all the time. Nanotechnology, genetic engineering modern medicine and biological science will rapidly cause significant changes in the human form over next century or so. The opposite of religious dogma. Also the adaption to climate change and other environmental influences will pressure us as a species to change.
In other words we in our current form are only a temporary rendition of our DNA which is changing gradually all the time.
Some persons argue that there is no prove of any divine origin, there is no prove that there is a God, there is no proves that this universe has come about for any divine purpose; there are people who argue this way.

Yep I am one of them
And they say that perhaps this world came about by chance. A big bang and this whole great world, with all its orchestration just came together. And they argue that life does not have any definite purpose and that there is nothing that can be proven through by the logic or science that there is a God or purpose or any divine reason behind this world.
In the Qur’an it’s mentioned:

To Allah belongs the d.... give us salvation from the penalty of the hellfire.

Now here in these verses, Allah has mentioned very clearly to us by first drawing our attention to the creation of ourselves, the different postures of the human body, the different attitude of the human psychology. He draws our attention to the heaven, the alternation of the night and the day, the firmament, the stars, the constellation and then He says to us, “He has not created all of these for any foolish purpose”. Because when you see the design of it, you know it that the design of it is very powerful and very precise. And something very powerful and very precise that is beyond your own calculation and imagination, it cannot foolish. It cannot be just thrown together.
Nonsense, pretty verse, for the naive and gullible, but nonsense all the same.
If you took 10 marbles and number them 1 to 10 and all of them with different colours and you put them inside of a bag and shook the bag and then closing your eyes reached inside that bag, and I told you, pull out marble number 1 and then marble number 2 and then pull out marble number 3 in order. What’s the chance of your pulling out of these 10 marbles in order? Do you know the chances are? Its 26 millions to 1. So what’s the chance of the heavens and the earth being thrown in a big bang and orchestrated like they are. What’s the chance of that?


Absolute nonsense do your home work then get your calculator out. Sure there is a degree of randomness in everything,

My dear respected fellow humans we have to ask ourselves a further question. When you see a bridge, a building or an automobile, you automatically consider the person or the company that constructed it. When you see a plane or a rocket, a satellite or a large ship, you also think about how incredible of a vehicle that it is. When you see a nuclear plant in orbiting space stations or a super international airport, you have to thoroughly impressed with the engineering dynamics that are involved.

Yet, these are just things that are manufactured by human beings. Then what about the human body; with its massive and intricate control system? Think about it.



The old "who built the mouse trap argument" again, which of the hundreds of counter arguments do you want me to recite?

Think about the brains; how it thinks, how it functions, how it analysis, sort information, retrieves information, distinguishes and categorizes information in a millionth of a second! And does it constantly. Think about the brain for a moment. This is the brain that made the automobile, the rocket. Think about the brain and who made that. Think about the heart how it pumps continuously for 60 or 70 years, in taking and discharging blood throughout the body and maintaining that steady precision throughout the life of that person. Think about it.

Think about the kidney and what kind of functions that they carry – the purifying instrument of the body, which performs hundreds of chemicals analysis simultaneously and also controls the levels of toxicity in the content of the body. And it does this automatically.

Think about your eye – The human camera that adjust, focus, interpret, evaluate, and applies colour automatically; the natural inspective and adjustment to light and distance. All automatic, think about it!

I am thinking about it and see a completely transparent biological processes that explain it beautifully from an evolutionary basis. What else do you want me to think, that some super guru made me like a watch, wound me up and let me loose on the earth?
Who created that?

Simple a strand of DNA created it, where did the DNA come from? from RNA. Where did the RNA come from? probably from a clay surface that allowed nucleotides to assemble in sequence as demonstrate recently.
Who has mastered that?
No-one the DNA did it
Who plans that?

No-one the DNA did it
And who regulates that?

No-one the DNA did it
Human beings themselves? No of course not.

No-one the DNA did it
[/quote]

Naive nonsense again, do some home work before throwing ignorance about please.
What about this universe? Think about this. This earth is ONE planet in our solar system. And our solar system is one of the systems in the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is one of the constellations in this galaxy. And there are millions of galaxies like the Milky Way. Think about that and they are all in order. They are all precise. They are not colliding with each other. They are not conflicting with each other and they are swimming along in an orbit that has been SET for them. Have human beings set that into motions? And are those human beings maintaining that precision? No of course NOT!

Naive nonsense again, do some home work before throwing ignorance about please.
Source: missionislam.com
 

Sahar

Well-Known Member

Naive nonsense again, do some home work before throwing ignorance about please.

Naive nonsense again, do some home work before throwing ignorance about please.
Why don't YOU do some home work before throwing your naive nonsense and ignorance in the Islam DIR? ;) LOL
 

Tiapan

Grumpy Old Man
Apologies for going off my rocker, I saw the nonsense again and wet ballistic. It would appear I have made several accusations without backing them up so here I add the investigations and conclusions an idependent thinker can derive with out the koran or bible. I get sick of repeating the post so here are the references to address the main naive "Probability" argument.

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/1627045-post227.html
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/1627046-post228.html
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/1627047-post229.html
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/1627048-post230.html

Another conclusion I have drawn is that the universe is cyclic it has no beginning or end therefore does not require a supa-dupa creator.

It seems you have no perception of time, how long a thousand, a million or a billion years really is.
You fail to recognise that even if the probability of an event is small it can happen quiet regularly if enough experiments are conducted simultaneously. (eg lotto 1 in a million chance to win but almost every week there is a winner). The other problem is you generalise that that the process is totally random like drawing numbers form a hat when infact it is almost certain that many of the processes are predictible with high probability using standard physics.

Cheers
 
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