The Purpose of Existence

﷽

The Purpose of Existence

In the name of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful

“Praise be to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light. Yet those who reject faith hold (others) as equal with their Guardian Lord. He it is who created you from clay and then decreed a stated term (for you) and there is in His presence another determined term. Yet ye doubt within yourselves And He is Allah ﷻ in the heavens and on earth. He knoweth what ye hide, and what ye reveal, and He knoweth the (recompense) which ye earn (by your deeds)”

(Al-An’am:1-3)

Peace be upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ son of Abdullah, the heir of goodness who received the last message from Allah ﷻ and was the tongue of truth who conveyed – on behalf of Allah ﷻ the selected system of life for all of mankind. He began the prophecy of His final Messenger with the word «Read» followed by

"Arise and deliver the warning, and thy Lord do thou magnify."
(Al-Muddathir: 2-3)

May Allah ﷻ recompense him with the best reward for carrying out his duty according to the commandments of Allah ﷻ without any mistake or the slightest misinterpretation. He ﷺ explained the religion of Allah by the Will of Allah ﷻ.

"That is because Allah -He is the Reality: and those beside Him whom they invoke. They are but vain falsehoods. Verily Allah is He Most High, Most Great"
(Al-Hajj: 62)

This verse demonstrates that Allah ﷻ is the only abiding reality; all else is like shadows that will vanish. Our vain imagination, baseless doubts, foolish subtleties, and false worship should all be replaced by trust and faith in the One and only reality.

This is the first question -question of existence -which the human mind should be engaged with. I say the human mind, not only the mind of believers, because the believers' minds have already found the answer and believe in this absolute reality. Mankind should search carefully in the universe and find out his position in this world. If one does not know his position in this world, that means he does not know himself, and if so, that means he misused his mind and spoiled his life. I do not mean that he should know his name and age and height and so on, but, what everyone should ask himself and should try to know is - Why do you know some things and not know so many other things? Why am I able to do some things and unable to do others? Why do I have a choice in some cases and am obliged in others? Why and Why and Why? It seems the answer is not very easy, and mankind is a rather complicated instrument. He is a mystery to himself and to others who do not know him.

If we look in our deeds, what makes us know and ignore, what makes us able and unable, what gives us the option and forces us?

If we are by our nature qualified to know, we might get the whole knowledge, if we are by our nature qualified to be almighty, we must not be conquered, and so on…

There are two cases, knowledge and ignorance, ability and disability, choice and obligation, and these things do not come by themselves. Someone is giving them and directing them, I should say - grants them. But who? As long as we are not commanding these things, and these things are not commanding themselves, it must be a tremendous and a bigger power that is controlling them and giving them to us. This power is Allah ﷻ. Once we know this, we should not hesitate in strengthening the relationship with Him because He is the Most Great and Most High. He is the Lord of the Universe, and by that we know our position which is the position of His servants who should know how to serve and how to worship. If one does not know this reality and does not try to know it, he is not making use of his mind, and his life has no value. What is the value of one who does not know himself or his position in life rather than his duty?

The Muslim knows his stand and his duty. He knows the purpose of his being in this world; because he realizes Allah ﷻ the Creator, and he has to worship Him -in other words to fulfill his duty in this life. That is the duty which has been given by Allah ﷻ who says in the Holy Qur’an:

"I have only created Jinns and men that they may serve me. No substance do I require of them nor do I require that they should feed me, For Allah is He who gives (all) substance, Lord of powers steadfast."

(At-Dhariyat: 56-58)

The Quran is telling us that we were not created for idle sport or play. Allah ﷻ has a serious purpose and even in our imperfect states we can only realize our goal with the help of Allah ﷻ. Allah ﷻ is the source and center of all power and all goodness and our progress depends upon our putting ourselves into accord with His will. We are in His service, it is not of any benefit to Him, it is for our own benefit. Allah ﷻ is independent of all needs and He ﷻ commands all powers, therefore, any power we seek must be from Him ﷻ and His ﷻ help is always sure because His ﷻ power is steadfast, the same today as yesterday and forever. His ﷻ guidance and His ﷻ mercy are very near and comprehensive for everything.

Let us deal with the matter in another way. If one wants to locate his position in this world scientifically, he will know that the universe according to the ideas of the materialists and scientists consists of:

1. Minerals, or inorganic substances.

2. Vegetable Kingdom.

3. Animal Kingdom.

4. Mankind.
   

Each of these has a task, but at the same time each one of them surpasses the other in characteristics and in duties. The lowest of them is the mineral or the inorganic substance. If Allah ﷻ - the Originator - gives the peculiarity of the nature of growing to any element of this sort, it becomes something else: it becomes a plant - change to another sort -vegetable. If Allah ﷻ the Almighty gives this sort the peculiarity and nature of feeling it becomes a new sort, it becomes an animal. After that it becomes another kind ~ with a collection of peculiarities of the mineral, the vegetable and the animal, besides the peculiarity of sense and the ability of understanding - and that is mankind, that is you and me. Therefore, mankind surpasses all the other creations in this world because he has a mind. But what is the duty of his intellect? Its duty is to choose between the substitutes. It has no duty if there is no substitution. All other sorts have no choice; they are created for certain duties. One may ask this question: Who gave mankind the choice and gave the other sorts the obligation? Who gave mankind the right to use these sorts, which sometimes he is unable to reach? For instance, we benefited by using the sun without reaching it, and so many other things.

If we go a little further, the duties of the mineral and inorganic substance are to feed the vegetable, the vegetable’s duties are to feed the animals and mankind, the animal's duties are to serve mankind who can use all Allah's ﷻ creations for his need. What about the duties of the human being? If human beings have no duty in this life that means all of the other sorts are better than him. But I think his being in this world is more important than this and because he has a mind his duties should be bigger and greater. As I have shown, each lower sort is serving the higher, therefore the human being should serve something superior to him otherwise he is the insignificant being in the universe. But I have shown previously, that the human is the master of the other species, therefore he has duties, and his duty is to serve the power which controls all of these other creations. This power is nothing but Allah ﷻ, The Greatest, and The Originator of everything.

We cannot go beyond this in using our minds and substantials to examine and to touch and to infer. If one tries to act without the guidance and help of Allah ﷻ, he may miss the way. That is why Allah ﷻ sent the messengers. As He says in the Holy Qur’an:

"We send the Apostles only to give good news and to warn. Who believe and mend (their lives) upon them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve"

(Al-An’am: 48)

This means that Apostles are not sent to cancel man’s limited free will. Instead, they are sent to preach and teach - to preach hope to the repentant “good news” and to warn the rebellious of the wrath to come, and of course to explain to the people the unique reality and the unique religion, to show the people and to guide them along the way of Allah ﷻ.

So, if you hear a propagator telling you about the Almighty Allah ﷻ- it is the responsibility of every Muslim; to convey the Islamic call - you have to listen to him and to follow him to connect yourself with the biggest and greatest power in the universe, otherwise you are wasting your present life and you may lose the hereafter. I am not saying to follow anyone, or to accept any call, but the right end the truth are evident and clear and anyone who suppresses his desires and works seriously for his true purpose, Allah ﷻ will guide Him to the straight way.

In the Holy Qur’an Allah ﷻ says:

"Seest thou not, that to Allah,bow down in worship all things that are in the heavens and on earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the hills, the trees, the animals and a great number among mankind? But a great number are (also) such as are fit for punishment: and such as Allah shall disgrace, None can rise to honour, for Allah carries out all that He wills."
(Al-Hajj:18)

This means that all created things, animate and inanimate, depend on Allah ﷻ for their existence, and this dependence can be construed as their bowing down in worship. Their very existence proclaims their dependence. How can they be objects of worship? But if we look at this (Ayat) we discover…

1. Things are in the heavens and on earth pointing to Angels and Jinns - unseen.

2. The sun, the moon, the stars, the hills pointing to inorganic substances.

3. Trees pointing to the vegetable kingdom.

4. Animals.

5. Great numbers among mankind (not all of them).

Why? Because Allah ﷻ gave them the ability of choice without determinism or compulsion. Only He ﷻ shows them by the messengers the righteousness and the unrighteous, what they have to do if they want to glorify Allah ﷻ, and their deeds if they neglect etc. If mankind uses his mind properly he will not go astray, but sometimes he misuses it and commits evil. That happens when the soul's desires overcome the mind and screen it from seeing the truth. By that time, the mind ceases to lead the person and curb his desires. His desires start to control and lead him. He comes to always preferring the immediate gains regardless of how he achieves them. In other words, preferring anything in this life without looking to the hereafter. That is always the problem when the unqualified receive leadership. This does not mean we should make illicit everything in this life. It means we should avoid evil, wickedness, harm to one's self and others. Someone may say that religion limits our amusement in this life and puts many restrictions - and I say, this is not true, the religion means system and discipline and the system is to put everything in order, to organize the relations between Allah ﷻ and the people and among them.

The religion of Islam does not deal with the soul only, but it controls all sides of life, actually it is the way of life for that it consists of three aspects.

1. Faith (Iman) which means to believe in Allah ﷻ and His Prophets, His Angels, His scriptures, the Last Day, fate and destiny. These come as commandments from Allah ﷻ through his Messengers, without any diligence and we have to accept it as a self-evident truth. Islam means surrender.

2. Worship or devotion (Islam) which is directed by Allah ﷻ and the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ explained and practiced it. We have only to follow what we were taught in order to worship of Allah ﷻ according to His Prophet ﷺ. No one has the right to change or to add to worship what was not given to us by our Prophet ﷺ.

   1. Salah (Prayers) at least five times a day and should be done in the same way which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ established in his Sunnah.

   2. Zakat (Charity) in particular system at least 2.5% annually of our savings.

   3. Siyam (Fasting) during the 9th month of the Islamic year month of Ramadan.

   4. Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca at least once in the life if one can afford it.

   5. Jihad to propagate Islam to reach the whole world by suitable means, but not to force anyone to be Muslim. Our duty is to let him know what Islam is, not only this, but to show the Islamic conduct.

   6. Enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil, as it is clearly evident in the Holy Qur’an and Prophet's ﷺ instruction. These and some others are the duties, ordinances and still there are the volunteering worships as they are detailed in the Islamic books.

3. Treatment or interactions in ife. In this aspect, Allah ﷻ Almighty described the main principles and gave details for the fixed relations which do not change and in fact, has left very good opportunity for the people themselves to arrange according to their needs within the main fundamentals which forbid transgression and injustice, and promote relations among people. So that Islam is suitable for all times and all places. Therefore, anyone who breaks these rule, maltreats himself or others, and of course, those who keep themselves steadfast to the commandments of Allah ﷻ, are doing better particularly for themselves, because regardless of how long one lives, and regardless of how much unlawful enjoyment he gets, it will be very little compared with the reward and the happiness in the paradise of Allah ﷻ in the hereafter. So that Allah ﷻ says

"Successful indeed are the believers."
(Al-Mu’minun: 1)

This means that prosperity, success, achieving our aims, or obtaining salvation from sorrow and all evil is through belief in Allah ﷻ and His Prophet ﷺ.

Let us conclude. We have established that Allah ﷻ is the only reality, the Creator, the Ruler and the Lord of the Universe. He created mankind, provided them with temporary stations in this part of His vast Kingdom (Universe) which is known as the earth. He has endowed mankind with faculties of thinking and understanding and has given him the power to distinguish right from wrong. Mankind has also been invested with freedom of will and choice and power to use the resources of the world in any manner he likes, he has been given a sort of autonomy while being appointed God's vicegerent on the earth.

We know that Allah ﷻ is the Sustainer and the Deity and mankind should follow His Guidance and His commands in all walks of life because they are going to be judged. One will get success in this world and in the next. In this world by having a life of peace, and in the hereafter one will qualify himself for paradise if he follows the course of piety and Godliness, otherwise his life will be one of corruption, disruption and frustration in this world and he will meet misfortune in the life to come, abode of pain misery - Hell. In both courses, he is free to choose and follow.

But someone may ask Who is Allah ﷻ? Where is he? What does he look like? Many questions of this type. It is not difficult to answer these questions but before that I have to draw your attention to some facts: -

1. We cannot touch Allah ﷻ Almighty but we can perceive Him with our minds and our minds only.

2. We cannot find anything unless we start searching for it.

3. If one does not know something, it does not mean that thing does not exist.

Therefore, we can only find Allah ﷻ when we start to look for Him with our minds, our spiritual sense, which distinguishes us from lower forms of creation, and qualify us to engage directly with Allah ﷻ the Superior, Who describes Himself in the Holy Qur’an:

"Allah there is no God but He, The Living, the Self-subsisting Eternal, no slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His is all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there that can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they encompass aught of his knowledge except as He willeth; His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them, for He is the Most High, The Supreme in (glory)."

(Al-Baqarah: 255)

In fact, the meaning of these verses is superior to anything that words can express. But we must know that the attributes of Allah ﷻ are so different from anything we know in our present world, that we have to be content with understanding that the only fit word by which we can name Him is HE - the pronoun standing for His name ALLAH ﷻ.

He lives but His life is self-subsisting and eternal, it does not depend upon other beings and it is not limited to time and space. Perhaps the attribute of “Qayyum” includes not only the idea of “self-subsisting” but also the idea of maintaining all of life. His life being the source and constant support for all derived forms of life. Perfect life is perfect activity, in contrast to the imperfect life which we see around us. His activity, like His life, is perfect. There is no need for rest or sleep. His life is absolute life, His being is absolute being. He is the absolute reality.... He is everything. Allah's ﷻ knowledge is absolute, and is not contained by time or space. Everything is working from Allah's ﷻ power and will and authority, everything including spiritual things as well as things of sense.

Now I come to answer the title questions which I have asked before in a few words. It is beyond the capacity of our five senses to find Him ﷻ, but if we use our minds and our feelings we will realize that He ﷻ is very close to us. Exactly like our breath and our feeling which we cannot see, but without which we cannot live.

Allah ﷻ says:

"No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. He is above all comprehension Yet He is acquainted with all things. Now have come to you from your Lord proofs (to open your eyes). If any will see it will be for (the good of) his own soul. If any will be blind, it will be to his own (harm) I am not (here) to watch over your doings."

(Al-An’am: 103-104)

I say this and I seek guidance and ask forgiveness from Allah ﷻ for me and you. May He bless us.

Note: This Lecture was given by Ustadh Ahmad Ehwas in Guyana, on Sunday 22nd May 1977, at the Queenstown Jama Masjid in Georgetown. Ustadh Ahmad would usually print multiple copies of his talks and give them to the brothers whom he believed would benefit from them. Faisal Baksh held onto the hard copy that was given to him. He scanned it and Nazim Baksh edited it to help readers appreciate and perhaps benefit from the ideas and concepts that Ustadh Ahmad introduced to the Muslim community in Guyana.