THE AIM OF LIFE!

[Guest guest]

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