{"id":56,"date":"2014-04-29T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/?p=56"},"modified":"2020-06-28T10:52:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T15:52:02","slug":"what-is-the-purpose-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/what-is-the-purpose-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the purpose of life?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The most important question in life is \u2018<em>Why are we here<\/em>?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Well, why are we here?\u00a0 To amass fame and fortune?\u00a0 To make music and babies?\u00a0 To be the richest man or woman in the graveyard for, as we are jokingly told, \u201cHe who dies with the most toys wins?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No, there must be more to life than that, so let\u2019s think about this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7d16CpWp-ok?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>To begin with, look around you. Unless you live in a cave, you are surrounded by things we humans have made with our own hands.\u00a0 Now, why did we make those things?\u00a0 The answer, of course, is that we make things to perform some specific function for us.\u00a0 In short, we make things to serve us.\u00a0 So by extension, why did God make us, if not to serve Him?<\/p>\n<p>If we acknowledge our Creator, and that He created humankind to serve Him, the next question is, \u201cHow? How do we serve Him?\u201d\u00a0 No doubt, this question is best answered by the One who made us.\u00a0 If He created us to serve Him, then He expects us to function in a particular manner, if we are to achieve our purpose.\u00a0 But how can we know what that manner is? How can we know what God expects from us?<\/p>\n<p>Well, consider this: God gave us light, by which we can find our way.\u00a0 Even at night, we have the moon for light and the stars for navigation. God gave other animals guidance systems best suited for their conditions and needs.\u00a0 Migrating birds can navigate, even on overcast days, by how light is polarized as it passes through the clouds.\u00a0 Whales migrate by \u201creading\u201d the Earth\u2019s magnetic fields.\u00a0 Salmon return from the open ocean to spawn at the exact spot of their birth by smell, if that can be imagined.\u00a0 Fish sense distant movements through pressure receptors that line their bodies.\u00a0 Bats and blind river dolphins \u201csee\u201d by sonar.\u00a0 Certain marine organisms (the electric eel being a high-voltage example) generate and \u201cread\u201d magnetic fields, allowing them to \u201csee\u201d in muddy waters, or in the blackness of ocean depths.\u00a0 Insects communicate by pheromones.\u00a0 Plants sense sunlight and grow towards it (phototrophism); their roots sense gravity and grow into the earth (geotrophism).\u00a0 In short, God has gifted every element of His creation with guidance.\u00a0 Can we seriously believe he would not give us guidance on the one most important aspect of our existence, namely our raison d\u2019etre our reason for being? That he would not give us the tools by which to achieve salvation?<\/p>\n<p>So what does the Creator, God, tell us about our purpose in life? God states in the Quran that He created the human to be His trustee on earth. Mankind\u2019s basic trust, our responsibility, is to believe in and worship God:<\/p>\n<p><strong>And I create the jinn and humankind except to worship Me\u2026\u00a0 [Quran 51:56-58]<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Very simple! The purpose for man\u2019s creation is to worship the Creator.\u00a0 The Islamic understanding of worship allows the whole of one\u2019s life to be an act of worship, as long as the objective of that life is the pleasure of God, which is achieved by doing good and refraining from evil. A person can turn everyday activities into acts of worship by purifying his or her intention and sincerely seeking God\u2019s pleasure through these activities. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:<strong>Greeting a person is charity. Acting justly is charity. Helping a man with his steed is charity. A good word is charity. Every step taken on the way to performing prayers is charity. Removing an obstacle from the road is charity.<\/strong>Worship provides the believers with many benefits that contribute to both their spiritual and worldly well-being. The human body needs material resources for its existence, like food, drink, and a means of reproduction. As for the soul, its needs cannot be fulfilled except through nearness to God by means of faith and obedience, which can only be achieved through worship.God should be worshipped in times of hardship and times of prosperity and only through his remembrance can the human being find inner peace:<\/p>\n<p><strong>We truly know how your heart is distressed by what they say. So celebrate the praises of your Lord and be of those who prostrate themselves and worship your Lord until the sure hour (of death). [Quran 15:99] those who have faith and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of God- truly it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace [Quran 13:28] <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>God further states that He made this life in order to test man so that every person may be recompensed after death for what he has earned:<\/p>\n<p><strong>[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed \u2013 and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving. [Quran, 67:2]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But in order to worship Him, we have to know Him well otherwise we may form a distorted concept of Him and then go astray. In the Quran, God tells humankind what He is and what He is not. For example, in response to a question about God that was posed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), God says:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Say (O Muhammad): He is God [Who is] One, God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.\u00a0 [Quran, 112]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Islam God is nothing like a human being or like anything that we can imagine and he is the only one worthy of worship. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onereason.org\/islam-unveiled\/how-to-become-muslim\/\">Interested in learning more<\/a>?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most important question in life is \u2018Why are we here?\u2019 Well, why are we here?\u00a0 To amass fame and fortune?\u00a0 To make music and babies?\u00a0 To be the richest man or woman in the graveyard for, as we are jokingly told, \u201cHe who dies with the most toys wins?\u201d No, there must be more &#8230; <a title=\"What is the purpose of life?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/what-is-the-purpose-of-life\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about What is the purpose of life?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48,116],"tags":[53,31,50],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-services","category-purpose-of-life","tag-featured","tag-islam","tag-islam-101"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"gform-image-choice-sm":false,"gform-image-choice-md":false,"gform-image-choice-lg":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Site Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The most important question in life is \u2018Why are we here?\u2019 Well, why are we here?\u00a0 To amass fame and fortune?\u00a0 To make music and babies?\u00a0 To be the richest man or woman in the graveyard for, as we are jokingly told, \u201cHe who dies with the most toys wins?\u201d No, there must be more&hellip;","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcT0IL-U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8590,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/jonathan-abdilla-ex-christ-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":0},"title":"Jonathan Abdilla, Ex-Christ, Canada","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ich f\u00fchle mich geehrt, ein Muslim zu sein\u2026Und so f\u00fchle ich mich aus verschiedenen Gr\u00fcnden. Es gibt viele Normen in der Gesellschaft, in der ich lebe, die genau das Gegenteil dessen sind, wie Muslime es tun. Und als ich zuerst zu dieser Lebensweise kam, wusste ich nicht so genau wie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8672,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/kommentare-der-wissenschaftler-ueber-die-wissenschaftlichen-wunder-im-heiligen-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":1},"title":"Kommentare der Wissenschaftler \u00fcber die wissenschaftlichen Wunder im Heiligen Quran","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Es folgen einige Kommentare von Wissenschaftlern[1] \u00fcber die wissenschaftlichen Wunder im Heiligen Quran. All diese Kommentare wurden von der Videoaufnahme Dies ist die Wahrheit \u00fcbernommen. In dieser Videoaufnahme kann man die Wissenschaftler h\u00f6ren und sehen, die sich folgenderma\u00dfen \u00e4u\u00dferten. (Um das RealPlayer-Video f\u00fcr einen Kommentar zu sehen, klicken Sie auf\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/wissenschaftliche-wunder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8602,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/steinmann-ex-secularist-uk\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":2},"title":"Steinmann, Ex-Secularist, UK","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Keine andere Religion, die von so einer gro\u00dfen Gemeinschaft bezeugt wird, habe ich so verst\u00e4ndlich und ermutigend gefunden. Es scheint keinen besseren Weg zur Seelenruhe und zur Zufriedenheit im Leben zu geben, kein gr\u00f6\u00dferes Versprechen f\u00fcr die Zukunft nach dem Tod. Das menschliche Wesen ist Teil eines Ganzen; der Mensch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8524,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/die-erhaltung-des-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":3},"title":"Die Erhaltung des Quran","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Auswendiglernen Der pr\u00e4chtige Quran, die religi\u00f6se Schrift der Muslime, wurde dem Propheten Muhammad, m\u00f6ge Gott ihn loben, auf arabisch durch den Engel Gabriel offenbart. Die Offenbarung fand St\u00fcck f\u00fcr St\u00fcck \u00fcber einen Zeitraum von 23 Jahren statt, manchmal in kurzen Versen und manchmal in l\u00e4ngeren Abschnitten.[1] Der Quran (\u201clesen\u201d oder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran&quot;","block_context":{"text":"\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/ueber-den-heiligen-quran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8662,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/cat-stevens-ehemaliger-popstar-uk\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":4},"title":"Cat Stevens, ehemaliger Popstar, UK","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(teil 1 von 2) Alles, was ich zu sagen habe, wie ihr bereits wisst, ist zu best\u00e4tigen, dass die Botschaft des Propheten wie Gott sie ihm \u00fcbermittelt hat \u2013 die Religion der Wahrheit ist. Als menschliche Wesen wurde uns Bewusstsein und eine Verpflichtung, die uns an die Spitze der Sch\u00f6pfung\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8584,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/muhammad-nazeeh-khalid-ex-christ-aegypten\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":5},"title":"Muhammad Nazeeh Khalid, Ex-Christ, \u00c4gypten","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ich bin in der Stadt Mansoorah in Arabischen Republik von \u00c4gypten in eine normale christliche Familie hinein geboren worden, in der Religion keine Bedeutung hat. Wir gingen nicht zur Kirche, au\u00dfer zu Festen und Zeremonien. Soweit es uns betraf, hatte Religion nicht mehr Bedeutung als die Riten, an denen wir\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2329,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/2329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/menu-items\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}