ISLAM and the AIM of LIFE
What is your purpose in life? What is the rationale behind
our life? Why do we live in this life? These questions frequently
intrigue people who try to find accurate answers.
People provide different answers to these questions. Some
people believe the purpose of life is to accumulate wealth. But one may
wonder: What is the purpose of life after one has collected colossal
amounts of money? What then? What will the purpose be once money is
gathered? If the purpose of life is to gain money, there will be no
purpose after becoming wealthy. And in fact, here lies the problem of
some disbelievers or misbelievers at some stage of their life, when
collecting money is the target of their life. When they have collected
the money they dreamt of, their life loses its purpose. They suffer from
the panic of nothingness and they live in tension and restlessness.
Can Wealth Be an Aim?
We often hear of a millionaire committing suicide,
sometimes, not the millionaire himself but his wife, son, or daughter.
The question that poses itself is: Can wealth bring happiness to one’s
life? In most cases the answer is NO. Is the purpose of collecting
wealth a standing purpose? As we know, the five-year old child does not
look for wealth: a toy for him is equal to a million dollars. The
eighteen-year old adolescent does not dream of wealth because he is busy
with more important things. The ninety-year old man does not care about
money; he is worried more about his health. This proves that wealth
cannot be a standing purpose in all the stages of the individual's life.
Wealth can do little to bring happiness to a disbeliever,
because he/she is not sure about his fate. A disbeliever does not know
the purpose of life. And if he has a purpose, this purpose is doomed to
be temporary or self destructive.
What is the use of wealth to a disbeliever if he feels
scared of the end and skeptical of everything. A disbeliever may gain a
lot of money, but will surely lose himself.
Worshipping Allah as an Aim
On the contrary, faith in Allah gives the believer the
purpose of life that he needs. In Islam, the purpose of life is to
worship Allah. The term "Worship" covers all acts of obedience to Allah.
The Islamic purpose of life is a standing purpose. The true
Muslim sticks to this purpose throughout all the stages of his life,
whether he is a child, adolescent, adult, or an old man.
Worshipping Allah makes life purposeful and meaningful,
especially within the framework of Islam. According to Islam this
worldly life is just a short stage of our life. Then there is the other
life. The boundary between the first and second life is the death stage,
which is a transitory stage to the second life. The type of life in the
second stage a person deserves depends on his deeds in the first life.
At the end of the death stage comes the day of judgment. On this day,
Allah rewards or punishes people according to their deeds in the first
life.
The First Life as an Examination
So, Islam looks at the first life as an examination of man.
The death stage is similar to a rest period after the test, i. e. after
the first life. The Day of Judgment is similar to the day of announcing
the results of the examinees. The second life is the time when each
examinee enjoys or suffers from the outcome of his behavior during the
test period.
In Islam, the line of life is clear, simple, and logical:
the first life, death, the Day of Judgment, and then the second life.
With this clear line of life, the Muslim has a clear purpose in life.
The Muslim knows he is created by Allah. Muslims know they are going to
spend some years in this first life, during which they have to obey God,
because God will question them and hold them responsible for their
public or private deeds, because Allah knows about all the deeds of all
people. The Muslim knows that his deeds in the first life will determine
the type of second life they will live in. The Muslim knows that this
first life is a very short one, one hundred years, more or less, whereas
the second life is an eternal one.
The Eternity of the Second Life
The concept of the eternity of the second life has a
tremendous effect on a Muslims during their first life, because Muslims
believe that their first life determines the shape of their second life.
In addition, this determines the shape of their second life and this
determination will be through the Judgment of Allah, the All just and
Almighty.
With this belief in the second life and the Day of
Judgment, the Muslim's life becomes purposeful and meaningful. Moreover,
the Muslim's standing purpose is to go to Paradise in the second life.
In other words, the Muslim's permanent purpose is to obey
Allah, to submit to Allah, to carry out His orders, and to keep in
continues contact with Him through prayers (five times a day), through
fasting (one month a year), through charity (as often as possible), and
through pilgrimage (once in one's life).
The Need for a Permanent Purpose
Disbelievers have purposes in their lives such as
collecting money and property, indulging in sex, eating, and dancing.
But all these purposes are transient and passing ones. All these
purposes come and go, go up and down. Money comes and goes. Health comes
and goes. Sexual activities cannot continue forever. All these lusts for
money, food and sex cannot answer the individual's questions: so what?
Then What?
However, Islam saves Muslims from the trouble of asking the
question, because Islam makes it clear, from the very beginning, that
the permanent purpose of the Muslim in this life is to obey Allah in
order to go to Paradise in the second life.
We should know that the only way for our salvation in this
life and in the hereafter is to know our Lord who created us, believe in
Him, and worship Him alone.
We should also know our Prophet whom Allah had sent to all
mankind, believe in Him and follow Him. We should, know the religion of
truth which our Lord has commanded us to believe in, and practice it …
Those in search of truth
Who have an open mind and heart,
Islamic Education Foundation
Welcome You.
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To Convey the message of Islam
To Educate Muslims about Islam
To keep in close contact with new Muslims.
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Offering Courses and presenting lectures about Islam in
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Teaching Islam and Arabic.
Teaching new Muslims to receive the Holy Quran.
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