Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh = may peace, blessings and mercy of Almighty God Allah (SWT) be unto you all
What is the purpose of my life? What is the purpose of your life? What is the purpose of our lives? Such questions occur frequently to thingking people.
People answer these questions in different ways. Some people believe the purpose of life is getting wealthy. But these people what their purpose be after they have collected millions of dollars. So What? And then What? What will be their purpose after they get these millions of dollars? If the purpose of life is to become wealthy, there will be no purpose after becoming wealthy. And in fact, here comes the problem of some disbelievers or misbelievers. In some stages of their life. When they are collecting money is the target of life. When they collected the money which they have dreamt of, their life losses purpose and they live in tension and restlessness and suffer from the panic of nothingness.
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 is this: can aiming at wealth bring happiness to the individual? In most cases the answer is NO. Is the purpose of collecting wealth is a standing purpose? As we know, the child of five years does not look for wealth: he prepares a toy to a million dollars. The adolescent of eighteen does not dream of wealth because he is busy with more important things. The old man of ninety years does not care for 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 a little to bring happiness to a disbeliever, because a disbeliever is not sure about his end or 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 surely loses himself.
Worshipping Allah as an Aim
On the contrary, faith in Allah gives the believer the purpose of life 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 meaning especially with 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 first life and the second life are by the death stage, which is a transitory stage of the second life. The type of the second life 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.
موضوع: Islam and the aim of life 
2007-06-16, 7:20 pm
