The Purpose of Life
God has created man and placed him on earth to prove himself to be a true servant of God, so that he may be held deserving of the eternal blessings in the Hereafter.
Chapter 51 of the Quran states: “I created the jinn and mankind only so that they might worship Me: I seek no sustenance from them, nor do I want them to feed Me—it is God who is the great Sustainer, the Mighty One, the Invincible. The wrongdoers will meet the same fate as their predecessors—let them not ask Me to hasten on [the punishment]—woe, then, to those who are bent on denying the truth, when the Day arrives which they have been promised.” (51:56-60)
God Himself possesses all kinds of powers. However, He has created the angels to effect the administration of His vast domain. But, the case of human beings is different. Human beings were not created to fulfil any administrative or other needs of God. The sole purpose of their creation was their devotion and servitude (‘ibadah) to God. This implies bowing down completely and without any reservation before God and dedicating oneself entirely to Him.
The substance of this devotion is deep inner realization of God, or ma‘rifah. (Tafsir ibn Kathir, vol. 7, p. 396). In other words, it is required of a person that God should be a discovery for him. He should recognize God without seeing him. This is essential to God-realization. The shape which the life of a person takes as a result of this is one of devotion and subservience.
A pail, afloat in water, sinks, when filled with water. Similarly, when the time given to a person to perform his life’s work is over, he dies immediately. One who reforms himself before the overflowing of the pail, may save himself, but one who remains careless and negligent till the last moment, faces drowning.
If transgressors are not immediately seized upon, they should not imagine that they have been left free to do as they choose. They go free because it is not God’s way to catch hold of human beings in haste. It is certainly not because God has no plan ever to bring them to book.
God has not created human beings for the completion of His own being. A human being has rather been given an opportunity to prove himself to be a true servant of God in this present world of trial, so that he may be held deserving of the eternal blessings of God.
