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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 </blockquote>