Purpose

Articulating a compassionate and intelligent case for Islam in a post-secular society is quite difficult. Due to an increase in materialism, the value of religion has diminished. One way of starting a conversation is to get people thinking about the implications of their ideas about man, life and the universe. Once it can be shown that there are some absurd consequences and unpalatable logical implications, it can create fertile ground to have rational discussions about why Islam is true. A popular view about life is that it is “just a game”. We have one life (YOLO) and we should make the most of it. However, is life just a game? This belief ignores or denies the supernatural and any form of Divine accountability. Why would there be? When you play a game you either win or lose, and then you move on to the next game, and then you eventually die. The formula is simple; believing life is just a game equals no ultimate purpose and value. Not only does it make life ludicrous but it also represents a very bleak outlook on our existence. As this article is going to explain, this conclusion is a result of thinking rationally and logically about the implications of thinking that life is just for frivolous play. “And We created not the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, for mere play.” The Qur’an, Chapter 44, Verse 38 No Purpose Is it reasonable to believe? To help us try and answer this question, let us take the following into consideration: You are probably reading this article sitting on your chair, and wearing some clothes. Have you ever asked yourself the question: for what purpose? Why are you wearing the clothes, and what purpose does the chair have? The answers to these questions are obvious. The chair’s purpose is to allow us to sit down by supporting our weight, and our clothes fulfil the purpose of keeping us warm, hiding our nakedness, and of course making us look good. Our clothes and the chair are lifeless objects with no emotional and mental abilities, and we attribute purpose to these. Yet, some of us do not believe we have a purpose for our own existence. Naturally, this seems absurd and counter intuitive. Having a purpose for our lives implies that there is a reason for our existence, in other words some kind of intention and objective. Without a purpose we have no reason to exist, and we do not really have a deep, profound meaning for our lives. This is the implication of believing life is just a game. If we take the logical conclusion of this indifferent view on our existence, we are essentially on a sinking ship. This metaphorical ship is our planet, because according to scientists this planet is heading towards its inevitable demise, and will suffer what they call a “heat death”, where the Sun will eventually destroy the earth.[1] Therefore, if this ship is going to sink, then what is the point of reshuffling the deck chairs or giving a glass of milk to the old lady? The Qur’an represents humanity’s intuitive stance on this issue, “Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose” The Qur’an, Chapter 3, Verse 90 Islam’s view on the purpose of our lives is empowering. It elevates our existence from being a mere product of matter and time, to recognising us as conscious beings that freely choose to have a relationship with the One that created us. Under the belief that life is just a game, there is no ultimate purpose for our existence. We are just based on blind, random, non-rational, physical processes. And they say, “There is none but our worldly life, and we will not be resurrected.” If you could but see when they will be made to stand before their Lord. He will say, “Is this not the truth?” They will say, “Yes, by our Lord.” He will [then] say, “So taste the punishment because you used to disbelieve.” The Qur’an, Chapter 6, Verses 29 to 30 No Value What is the difference between a human and a chocolate bunny? This is a serious question. According to the belief that life is just a game with no afterlife, everything that exists is essentially a rearrangement of matter. Everything is a result of prior physical causes and processes. If this is true, then does it really matter? If I were to pick up a hammer, smash a chocolate bunny, and then I did the same to myself, according to this perspective there would be no real difference. The pieces of chocolate and the pieces of my skull would just be rearrangements of the same stuff; cold, lifeless matter. The typical response to this argument includes the following statements: “we have feelings”, “we are alive”, “we feel pain”, “we have an identity” and “we’re human!” These responses are quite intuitive, but not all intuitions are true. According to this perspective, these responses are just neuro-chemical occurrences in one’s brain. In reality, everything we feel, say or do can be reduced to the basic constituents of matter. Therefore, this sentimentalism is unjustified if one adopts this worldview, because everything, including feelings, emotions or even the sense of value, is just based on matter and cold physical processes and causes. Coming back to our original question: what is the difference between a human being and a chocolate bunny? The answer according to the life is just a game perspective; there is no real difference. Any difference is just an illusion – there is no ultimate value. If everything is based on matter and prior physical causes and processes, then nothing has real value. Unless, of course, one argues that what matters is matter itself. Even if that were true, how could we appreciate the difference between one arrangement of matter and another? Could one argue that the more complex something is the more value it has? But why would that be of any value? Remember,

Most of us want to be happy. We want to be content, live in ease, enjoy the company of our friends and family, and not be bogged down with the stresses and strains of daily living. This is why if you were to ask the average person why they want to get a good job, they would probably reply, ‘to earn enough to live comfortably’. If you questioned them further and asked why they want to live comfortably, they would say – just like the rest of us – ‘because I want to be happy’. Happiness is an end, not a means. It is the final destination, not the journey. We all want to be happy, and we seek ways to ensure that we achieve a happy state. What makes people happy varies from one person to the next: some work away for years to add degrees and career credentials to their names; some work night and day to achieve that perfect figure; some want the comforting love of a spouse or bustle of a family; some go wild with friends every weekend after a tough week at work; some devour lifestyle magazines to get a home looking up to standard; the list is endless. Whether it’s through money, status, other people or just a good time – everybody is involved in trying to ‘get happy’, live happy, and eventually just BE happy. Which begs the question, what is true happiness? If it exists, where does it lie and how do we get there? To answer these questions consider the following. Imagine that while reading this you have been sedated against your will. Suddenly you wake up and find yourself on a plane. You are in first class. You have your own cabin. The food is heavenly. The seat is a flatbed, designed for a luxurious comfortable experience. The entertainment is limitless. The service is out of this world. You start to enjoy all of the facilities. Think for a moment, and ask yourself this question: am I happy? How can you be… you need some questions answered first. How did you even get on the plane? Where is it headed to? If these questions remain unanswered, how can you ever be happy? Even if you started to enjoy all of the luxuries at your disposal, you would never achieve true happiness. Would that frothy Belgian chocolate mousse on your dessert tray be enough to drown out the questions? It would be a delusion, a fake type of happiness, only achievable by deliberately ignoring and suspending these critical questions. Apply this to your life. Now ask yourself, am I happy? Our coming into existence is no different to being sedated and thrown on a plane. We never chose our birth. Yet some of us do not ask the questions or search for the answers that will help us achieve our ultimate goal: happiness.

To the average person death is by no means a pleasant subject or topic for discussion. It is something dismal and oppressive a veritable kill-joy, a topic fit for a funeral house only. The average person, immersed as they are is in the self, ever seeking after the pleasurable, ever pursuing that which excites and gratifies the senses, refuses to pause and ponder seriously that these very objects of pleasure and gratification will someday reach their end. If wise counsel does not prevail and urge us to consider seriously that death can knock at our door also, it is only the shock of a bereavement under our own roof, the sudden and untimely death of a parent, wife or child that will rouse us up from our delirious round of sense-gratification and rudely awaken us to the hard facts of life. Then only will our eyes open, then only will we begin to ask ourselves why there is such a phenomenon as death. Why is it inevitable? Why are there these painful partings which rob life of its joys? To most of us, at some moment or another, the spectacle of death must have given rise to the deepest of thoughts and profoundest of questions. What is life worth, if able bodies that once performed great deeds now lie flat and cold, senseless and lifeless? What is life worth, if eyes that once sparkled with joy, eyes that once beamed with love are now closed forever, bereft of movement, bereft of life? Thoughts such as these are not to be repressed. It is just these inquiring thoughts, if wisely pursued, that will ultimately unfold the potentialities inherent in the human mind to receive the highest truths. According to the Islamic way of thinking, death, far from being a subject to be shunned and avoided, should be reflected upon and should bring about a positive change in us. The Quran which is the book of the Muslims says on the topic: “Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and good, and to Us you will be returned.” The Qur’an, Chapter 21 Verse 35 Reflecting upon death makes one think of their purpose in life.

Imagine you went to a football game and you saw there is no goal posts on the pitch. Would there be any point in playing a game in which there is no goals? In the same way it is meaningless to live life without a Goal! I want you to imagine you wake up in front of you are a bunch of guys running around kicking a ball. No goals, No lines, No rules! What would you think? But is that your life? Surely every sport has its goal every game has its end, it has its objective it has its rules. How about life? How about our life? Isn’t there a goal to life? Isn’t there a purpose, an objective that we have to reach? We think so! The Qur’an tell us that we exist in order to worship God and worshipping God means knowing God. Worship though is not some narrow small thing. It’s wide its vast, it encompasses everything that the human being does everything that you do, everything that you think, everything that you feel can be done thought, said, felt in a way that is either pleasing or displeasing to God. The purpose of life is to try and do everything in a way that God loves and God is pleased with. And that is your goal!

Are You Grateful? There is something in your life that you did not earn and do not own, yet it is given to you all the time. This thing is this moment, and the next moment and all of the moments of your existence. There are no good reasons to show that you own these moments of your existence. You did not create the world and the life that it contains – including your own. Also, there are no good reasons to show that you have earned these moments, or that you deserve another moment in your life. Such a blessing can never be acquired or repaid by someone who doesn’t even have the power to create a single fly, and is a being that is dependent and needy. Therefore, if someone has given you something that you haven’t earned and something that you don’t own, then that should instil an immense sense of gratitude in your heart. Who should you be grateful to? That’s simple. The One who created life and and gave it to you – God. Gratitude in Islam is a form of worship. So do not be like the one who was given £100 pounds a day, and after a year he started thanking the £100 and not the One who gave it to him. Being ungrateful to God is irrational as well as a form of spiritual and intellectual malaise. God reminds us, Truly, Allah is full of Bounty to mankind, but most of them are ungrateful. The Qur’an 10:60 And be grateful for the Graces of Allah, if it is He Whom you worship. The Qur’an 16:114