Growing, learning, evolving…. Why am I here on earth, what should be my goal and what is the purpose of life.
With the name of Allah most Beneficient ever Merciful.
Islam teaches us that after we die and become dust Allah Subhanatallah will bring us back to life again. Our bodies will be restored just as it was in this life before we died and we will be able to remember whatever we did to the minutest of detail.
“Does a human being think that We cannot assemble his bones? Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers. Al Quran 75:3.
It is only very recently that humanity has learnt that everyone has a different finger prints and Allah Subhanatallah so wisely revealed this verse long before humanity knew about this showing that this Quran is definitely a revelation from our all-knowing Creator and what it says will therefore come to pass.
Allah Subhanatallah uses many other logical and scientific arguments in the holy Quran to prove that it is easy for Him to bring us back to life again.
“…Just as We started the process of the first creation so shall We reproduce it”. Al Quran 21:104.
If we build a car then it is easy for us to build another car like the first. Allah Subhanatallah made the entire universe and us so it is easy for Him to do it again?
Allah Subhanatallah then gives us the example of the dead land which comes to life again when it gets water.
“And Allah is He Who sends the winds so that they raise up clouds and We drive them (the clouds) to a land which has no sign of life and revive the barren land with it. That is how the resurrection (of the dead shall come to pass).” Al Quran 35:9
Even in this verse we would notice that the Holy Quran is discussing the scientific way in which water evaporates and then comes down as rain. This is knowledge that humanity has learnt about, showing that the Holy Quran is indeed revealed from an all knowing, superior God.
A seed was once living but this seed can remain dormant for years. When it gets into contact with water again it would start to live again. The intervertebral disc (specifically the annulus fibrosus protects our DNA long after our deaths and even through fires and perhaps, it is from this DNA that we could be resurrected again.
As it is we, the human race, can already clone a sheep just by using its DNA so we today should find it easier to accept that Allah Subhanatallah is going to resurrect us.
“if the world to you appears vast and bottomless, know that to Omnipotence it is not (so much) as an atom.” This world indeed, is the prison of your souls: Oh, go in that direction, for there lies your open country. This world is finite, and truly that (other) is infinite: image and form are a barrier to that reality. Matanawi 1:524
According to science all matter whether living or dead, comprise of atoms and the smallest particle that they know of is an electron. The question arises: What is that made off? The smallest part of an entire book of writing is a point and points together make lines and lines go to make words, sentences and paragraphs.
Although our world is vast and it is made up of varying materials, myriads of colors and vibrancy of life, it actually originates from one common point just like the way we come from one minute point in our mother’s womb.
That one point in our mother’s womb gives rise to so many different materials and organs. This material world is indeed a barrier to reality and we must not be mesmerized by it.
There will be a difference from our present life to the life of the hereafter. Unlike this life, the afterlife will be for eternity i.e., we will live forever.
For those that are good in this world, they would not face the toil and struggle that they face at present such as working, hunger, sickness, aging, death etc. but instead they would be at peace and they would get everything that they desire without having to strive for it. It would be a perfect, endless, beautiful life.
As for those that did not believe in Allah and therefore did not strive to perfect themselves, they would suffer all sorts of punishments in hell for eternity. For Allah Subhanatallah to make a perfect, endless world without decay is all too easy for He is all powerful, all wise.
The Holy Quran refers to this subject time and time again showing that it is important. It is important for us to realise that as human beings we go through different stages.
Our souls were created first and then our bodies were formed in our mother’s wombs. Just as we cannot remember our stay in our mother’s womb, so too would we not remember our spiritual state.
What happens in those stages of our lives is completely different to what we experience in this present state.
When we were born into this world then our spirits entered our physical body to be united as one. “…that you shall invariably pass on from one stage to another.” Al Quran 84:19
This is our stage of trial where our bodies (carnal desires) will attract us towards the material world and our souls will attract us towards spirituality.
If we succumb to our physical bodies then we would lose but if we develop ourselves spiritually then we would evolve into that which is called the best of creation. So this world is an opportunity to master our physical needs instead of being slaves to our passions.
From this present state we would die and our souls will depart from our bodies once again and our final, eternal state will be when we will be resurrected again with our bodies and souls just as we are now.
All other stages prior to this final state are all processes in our creation, just like a butterfly that goes through an egg, lava and pupa state before reaching its ultimate state. Just as our stay in the womb was for our physical development, our stay on this earth is for a purpose.
“Every soul is bound to taste of death; and We test you with evil and by good, by way of trial. And you shall be made to return to Us.” Al Quran 21:35
Becoming a spiritually aware person is the ultimate purpose of our creation and being entrapped by this fleeting world, being slaves to our desires is indeed the worst of destinies.The present life is for the purpose of facing trial so that we may develop spiritually.
“A diamond is cut and polished many times before it is fit to be on the ring.” Similarly, the trials of this life are for purification and self realization so that we could reach perfection.
“Truly he succeeds who purifies it (soul) and he fails who corrupts it. Al Quran 91:9
Therefore how we develop the spiritual aspect of our present lives will determine our future abode. Unlike the foetus, we are capable of thinking, we have guidance and we have experiences from which we could draw from to realise that the life of the hereafter is true.
Piety and righteousness is not so much about praying only but it comprises of far more such as believing in the future life which Allah Subhanatallah has been teaching us through His Messengers and Books and once we have firm belief in this then we would know that it makes perfect sense to sacrifice the glitter of this temporal life and to strive towards an eternal life of bliss.
“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the east or the west, but righteousness is that one should believe in Allah and the last day and the angels, and the books and the Prophets…” 2:177
“And for such as entertained the fear of standing before their Lord’s (tribunal) and had restrained (their) souls from low (evil) desires (in this world), then (the) Garden (of bliss) shall surely be (their permanent) abode.” Al Quran 79:40
Pause and think about this. If we have doubts about being resurrected then we have serious faith issues. A Muslim should have no doubts about the hereafter because the Holy Quran refers to this subject time and time again.
If we do have doubts then it is because we are failing in the trial by being worldly and we simply cannot give up this attachment to the world and our vices.
“(His denial of Resurrection is because) a human being likes to continue in his evil ways in (the life) that is before him (without fearing the consequences of his deeds).” Al Quran 75:5
The Prophet’s ﷺ message is simple. We have two choices–this fleeting, material world or that permanent hereafter “The Prophet ﷺ said: Whoever loves this world injures his hereafter and whoever loves his hereafter injures his world. So prefer what will last forever to what will perish.” Al Hadith 2:24:1:398
A description of a man that has chosen this world as found in the Mathnawi volume 5 verse 977 onwards. This man clung on to the world thinking it his.
“and he who hath not that (light) is an orchard without fruit, which the autumn brings to ruin… O God I wonder what fault did that orchid commit, that these beautiful robes be stripped from it. It paid regard to itself, and self-regard is a deadly poison. “Beware! Thou who art put to trial!“….The crime is that he put on a borrowed adornment and pretended that these robes were his own property.”
As for the man that passes the trial–he regains his position of glory that his forefather had–his position of best of creation where even angels bow down to him.
Once Hazrath Moosa (AS) asked Allah why he created us and then destroyed us. Allah Subhanatallah asked him to plant corn in order to learn the answer. Hazrath Moosa (AS) did this and when the crop began to bear fruit he cut the plants. Allah Subhanatallah then asked him why he did this. He replied that he wanted to separate the corn from the rest of the plant because the one was useful and the other not.
When he was asked about how he learnt this wisdom then he replied: “Thou O God gave me discrimination.” He, God said: “Then how should I not have discrimination.”Amongst the created beings are pure spirits: there are also spirits dark and muddy(evil) Matnawi 4:3024
Let’s be discriminating and chose the higher goals of instead of following our carnal desires.
End.
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi 2014.
Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi was founded by Dr/Hakim Hazrath Khwaja Sayed Shareef Ahmed Ali Shah RA, (lovingly known as Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saib RA).
Author: Mahomed Hassan Gaffoor WhatsApp: +27 84 910 1486
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