Purpose of Man's Existence

“I have not created the jinn and humankind for any other

 purpose except that they should worship me”

(Qur’an 51:56)

The confusion about the basic framework upon which life should be built, and the varying opinions regarding what is right and what is wrong, stem from a primal ignorance about the purpose of Man’s existence. The views about the reason for Man’s being are discrepant, and the two major branches divulging from a single human mind are based upon whether one is religious or not. Many reasons have been formulated, and a certain number of philosophers have spent most of their working lives in pursuit of defining the purpose of existence. The naïve human mind has been convinced that reason suffices. Yet, for the believer, that is not true. Allah did not need to ponder on the reason given by Iblees for his conceit--for his reason to not bow in front of flesh.

Those few things in life that Man, in reality, pursues, are not definable, and can not be proved to exist by names and numbers; truth, happiness and satisfaction, to name the important ones. What Hazrat Inayat Ali said, then, is getting as close as someone can to these entities in words: “Reason is the illusion of reality.” What we do everyday is visible to us, but it in effect, is a pursuit of the hidden, the undefineable. The ultimate desire behind every physical entity, is the acquisition of “reality”: truth, happiness, satisfaction, and the like.

Yet, this is a discussion not about defining Allah or the truth, as it is clear that such an attempt will be in vain and that its results have already been established by Allah’s clairvoyance: “No human vision can encompass Him, whereas He encompasses all human vision: for He alone is unfathomable, all aware.” (Qur’an 6: 103) The second part of the verse, “whereas He encompasses all human vision: for He alone is unfathomable, all aware”, is of paramount significance, and it alone is sufficient to make a person who thinks, realize that his thoughts and actions must be exercised knowing that “the All aware” is uninterupptedly informed. It is not for us to try to perceive how and by what senses Allah accomplishes it.

The purpose of Man’s “creation” is to worship Allah. As soon as the word “creation” is used, it implies that there is a purpose, as is for everything that is “created”, and the grammatical expression “I have not created…except” implies that there can be no other reason whatsoever. Yet, what most of us perceive to be reasons for Man’s creation are not synonymous with this unchangeable reason. We may say it and know that reason, yet that is hypocrisy, as it is not evident in what we end up doing. There is no significance of Allah’s desires in the lives of many of us, and more often than not, our desires stand in blatant contradiction to Allah’s desires. This is due to either ignorance about Allah’s desires or knowingly disregarding them. Either way, the blame lies on Man. It should be simple to only read the above verse that lays down Man’s purpose of existence, and understand it. Yet, the distractions in the world around us make us “know” this verse, but not “realize” what it implies. Realization is required to wake up the ignorant mind, and it is only now that such a distance has been born between us and the words of Allah; understanding “just by reading” His words for the first time and religiously portraying them in our lives is unfounded nowadays. And our desires continue to contradict Allah’s. In fact, the “first time” that the words of Allah are read with an honest attempt by many of us, is as late as spending most of our lives. According to Professor Ahmed Rafiq, most of us strive to satisfy our bosses at work when we are in the prime of our youth, taking extra precautions not to displease them and regard their commands with vehement obsession. And when we have spent most our lives, and the candle starts to flicker with  life drawing near its close, we hold a prayer mat in one hand and rosary in the other and try to seek out the approval of our True Boss. How would that make Him feel? Would he care for us any more than we cared about Him? How often would He pay heed to us if that is how we remembered Him? “Nay, but Man doth transgress all bounds, In that he looketh upon himself as self-sufficient.” (Qur’an 96:6-7)

Trust in Allah emanates from “realization” of the truth, from “realization” of the true purpose of Man’s existence. When a person “begins” to place his desires behind those of Allah’s, he has in effect started his spiritual journey towards Allah. Trust in Allah spells out to Man that any act or thought desired by Allah can only be of advantage to Man himself, for He is not in need of Man, but Man is in need of him. The realization of this truth is what relieves a person from anguish if his yearnings are not materialized. In fact, his whole journey towards his own desires becomes an action done in psychological and spiritual tranquility, and since he has made certain that his desires do not contradict Allah’s and same time fulfilling Allah’s desires first, his whole journey (in pursuit of his own desires) becomes an act of worship. In essence, then, Allah holds his hand and guides him to his desires. But here again, trust in Allah is of vital significance, since any delay in the fulfillment of his wishes or a negation of their completion should only be seen with contentment and a calm disposition. This trust shall spell out to him an incredibly essential conception: “Man can only make choices, the decisions lie in the hands of God.”