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.
Objectives: -
To Convey the message of Islam
To Educate Muslims about Islam
To keep in close contact with new
Muslims.
Activities:
Offering Courses and presenting
lectures about Islam in several languages.
Teaching Islam and Arabic.
Teaching new Muslims to receive the
Holy Quran.
Helping Non- Muslims embrace Islam
and complete the required procedures