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Why am I in this world?

dua help mercy questions why

Why is the Purpose of Life?

Only read if you have enough Religious knowledge to answer. I have a Very huge Confusion kindly help me to sort it out.

We all know that the purpose of life is the total submission to Allah's WILL. And all those who dont submit to his WILL shall be sent to hell, and the person who submits to his will shall be sent to heaven. Since we believe the fact that Allah has the full knowledge of what will happen till the end of time. Which in turn implies that he knows the people who will go to hell and the people who will go to heaven. Then what is the need for all this life and death?

Don't reply that he has to do justice. Since one only needs to do justice if the he is answerable to someone and I STRONGLY believe that Allah is not answerable to anyone. The theme of the question is, Allah Knows Who will Go To Hell and Who Will Go To Heaven then why send people to this World? Why not Just Send the Righteous ones to Heaven and Throw the Rest in Hell?

The root of all these problems is; I dont think my life has any purpose left, Since i am pretty sure that i cant enter heaven, i dont have any doubt in the Forgiveness of Allah Subhan Wa Talla. However i know myself that i dont have a strong enough heart/Faith to live my life as per his Requirement. Since all this is known to him then why not just give me death. Since obviously he has forbidden suicide so that is out of question as well.

Or perhaps i shall ask him for patience and Forgiveness and strength of Faith.

Anyone's help shall be highly appreciated. Kindly dont tell me what to do, answer the questions if you can.

AssalamUAlaikum


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12 Responses »

  1. Salaams,

    From the looks of it, you are trying to use philosophy and the religious tenets in Islam to understand your personal dilemma. You don't have a philosophical problem, nor do you have a problem with the structure of judgment by Allah. You have a problem with your personal level of faith.

    I was a devout Christian for 11 years before reverting to Islam. Even though I adopted Islam and believed in the basic elements, I still had a lot of "theories" to work out within myself. For about the first two years of Islam, I spent a lot of time trying to deliberate within myself what made Islam "right" and Christianity "wrong". I pored over arguments and apologies for both sides, trying to get to some overall consensus. In the end Allah finally revealed the heart of the matter: it wasn't about what was "right" or "wrong" for all of humanity or all of reality, it was about what was right or wrong for me. Allah was guiding me, and where He guided me to was Islam. Whatever that meant for others or religions as whole, it was all irrelevant to my personal life, my personal journey with and to Him.

    I know you are not struggling with that in particular, but it sounds very similar to me. You are looking at the hereafter and how Allah judges "everyone" as far as going to Hell or Paradise, and trying to apply it to yourself from outside in. I see you have spent so much time weeding through these issues that you have already come to the conclusion that you know your fate! Despite the fact that a believer may go to Hell initially, even those have hope that they will be reprieved from it based on many hadith. One of my favorites:

    Anas then said, "Muhammad talked to us saying, ‘On the Day of Resurrection the people will surge with each other like waves, and then they will come to Adam and say, ‘Please intercede for us with your Lord.’… They would come to me and I would say, ‘I am for that.’ Then I will ask for my Lord's permission, and it will be given, and then He will inspire me to praise Him with such praises as I do not know now. So I will praise Him with those praises and will fall down, prostrate before Him. Then it will be said, ‘O Muhammad, raise your head and speak, for you will be listened to; and ask, for your will be granted (your request); and intercede, for your intercession will be accepted.’ I will say, ‘O Lord, my followers! My followers!’ And then it will be said, ‘Go and take out of Hell (Fire) all those who have faith in their hearts, equal to the weight of a barley grain.’ … Anas told me the same as he told you and said that the prophet added, "I then return for a fourth time and praise Him similarly and prostrate before Him. He asks me the same as he did, ‘O Muhammad, raise your head and speak, for you will be listened to; and ask, for you will be granted (your request): and intercede, for your intercession will be accepted.’ I will say, ‘O Lord, allow me to intercede for whoever said, "None has the right to be worshiped except Allah." Then Allah will say, ‘By my Power, and my Majesty, and by My Supremacy, and by My Greatness, I will take out of Hell (Fire) whoever said: 'None has the right to be worshipped except Allah.’" (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 93, Number 601)

    Let's get to the root matter. You are feeling hopeless and purposeless, because you feel you can never meet the standard Allah set for you. Let me tell you something, none of us can! None of us are perfect people like Prophet Muhammad (saws) was. We are all striving, and we are all falling short. However, that's OK because Allah wants us to be sinful and needy of His forgiveness.

    Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “I swear by Him in whose hand is my soul, if you were a people who did not commit sin, Allah would take you away and replace you with a people who would sin and then seek Allah’s forgiveness so He could forgive them.” [Sahīh Muslim (2687)]

    Somewhere along the line, you got mixed up and thought your purpose in this life was to be on a level that's impossible to attain or maintain. That was never your purpose, my purpose, or anyone elses. All any of us can do is work on making progress, passing our respective tests, and making the most of the measures that Allah has given to each of us in portion. When we fail, we repent and ask forgiveness...and when we're sincere in that we try to believe that Allah is forgiving us and that we are equally eligible for mercy as judgment. Truly, while we are focusing on judgment and righteousness and justice, we forget mercy. Mercy is the wildcard that Allah uses, as He likes, to show us dimensions beyond the black and white (wrong and right) world we've come to exist in.

    For you, for me, for anyone...the best thing we can do is chase Allah's mercy. We will never catch perfection of deed and action...we will never arrive on the pedestal of completion. If we strive for mercy, in this life and the next, we soon find that it is so very easy to attain:

    If the servant draws near to Me a hand span, I draw near to him an arm’s length; and if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running. Narrated by Al-Bukhari.

    Take each day at a time, making the most of that day and being the best you that you can. At the end of the day, bring your failures and mistakes to Allah Ar-Raheem, knowing that he is near you and ready and willing to forgive and remove the barriers that keep you from Him. Believe me, before you know it you will begin to see a greater purpose and meaning for your life begin to take shape.

    -Amy
    IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  2. First, in the hadith of qudsi, Allah said he has made one thing haram (forbidden) for Himself and thus He Has made it haram to His creatures (humans), and this one thing is injustice... If you read the koran, you will come across phrase like 'ALLAH IS JUST' 'ALLAH WILL JUDGE BETWEEN THE CREATURES IN TRUTH (ie with justice)' 'AND HE (allah) WOULD JUSTLY JUDGE BETWEEN THEM (the creatures)' 'AND WHOSOEVER BRINGS A GOOD DEED, SHALL RECEIVE THE REWARD TEN TIMES THEREOF, AND WHOSOEVER BRINGS A BAD DEED, SHALL HAVE THE LIKE THEREOF (in his account) AND THEY SHALL NOT BE WRONGED (ie no injustice)'. . You said, why didnt Allah sent the humans to paradise and hell, since he fully knows the destination of everybody.... The life of this world is just a temporary life and a testing place... The kind of life you leave in this world would determine the kind of life you would leave in the hereafter..... Its true that Allah knows what would happen to everyone in the future and he knows the inhabitant of paradise and the dwellers of hell fire... Let me relate to you a story that one of my islamic schoolers told me... He told me that the very first time Allah created the heavens, the paradise, hell, earth, and Allah created the souls of all the mankind and jiinkind that would ever leave in this world... Allah already knows that if He send this particular souls to the world, they would still disobey His orders and they would be the dwellers of hell fire.. So since He knows this future, He ordered those souls to go to the hell fire, and ordered the remaining souls to go to the paradise... So when those souls destined for hell when near to the hell fire, the felt the heat and they couldnt withstand it, and they asked Allah what have they done that He is sending them to this torment and awful place.. Upon hearing this, Allah ordered all the souls (both those going to paradise and those going to hell) to come back. And he ordered the souls to start swallowing each other. So this soul will swallow 10 and it self would be swallowed by another, the other would swallow 2 and so on . . The last soul remaining (which is that of adam as) swallowed the remaining.. So the number of souls swallowed would be the number of children he/she would give birth to... Then Allah cast the adams soul into his (adam) body and created his wife (eve) from his (adam) ribs.. And finally finally Allah sent them to this world and through them, He created generations after generations of humankind... AND HE sent prophets and massangers to bring HIS GUARDIANS TO HUMANKIND.. Whoever follows this guardiance would enter paradise and who ever reject or didnt follow the guardiance shall be the dwellers of hell fire... The free will have been given to humans, it for them to choose where they want to belong. Whoever wishes to enter paradise should follow the commandment of Allah and do righteous good deeds whilst he/she is a beleiver (ie muslim) ... And whoever wishes to enter hell fire should reject the religion of Allah (islam) and do evil deeds...

  3. Purpose of Life - by Brother Bilal Philips

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBDXlkARlc

    SisterZ
    IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  4. Brother Mohd,
    Thats a nice way of putting the initiation of mankind, but is it valid? I mean no offence, I want to know if it has a stable base..

    • I would InshaAllah give the reference when i get in contact with him (the schooler) today, tomorrow or next... He's a very knowledgeble parson as regard the islamic religion...

  5. Well thank you Very Much for responding. I have my very own understanding of the purpose of life and i can describe it in one line, however i wanted to know how exactly to describe it to someone else, since all these questions have been asked to me alot of times by my friends.

    @ Mohd, Can you please give me any reference of this story,
    "Let me relate to you a story that one of my Islamic scholers told me"

    @ Amy, I understand everything the way you explained.

    Now coming to the way i think of it, my understanding is strict maybe thats the reason i feel so hopeless.

    You can read the background with all references on the following link;

    http://en.islamstory.com/prophet-adam.html

    In light of above;

    It is all about selecting the Side and Proving ALLAH (swt) Right and IBLIS Wrong.

    Whosoever proves ALLAH (swt) right (by his own action) goes to Heaven and whosoever proves IBLIS right goes to Hell.

    May ALLAH (swt) give us the strength of faith to follow him to the full extent as per our capacity. May he shower his mercy on us and Guide us in this world in such a way that we can all enter Heaven. Surely ALLAH (swt) has no LIMIT in any Aspect, May it be Mercy, Forgiveness or Justice.

    • Salaams,

      I think I understand what you mean in your nutshell version- that an eternal outcome is based on which is "proven" right, but I guess my question is this: for someone or something to be proven "right", that means that the person or fact is "right" on it's own merit to be proven so? Put another way, we cannot prove something that is fundamentally "wrong" to be right, can we?

      If that first premise is true, then my second question would be, can Shaytan ever be "right"? If he can't, there's no way to prove him right.

      And if something is "right" on it's own merit, then being able to prove it or not doesn't change the fact of that. It's right whether proven or not....yes? In that case, even if no human at any moment "proved" Allah to be right, He still is and always will be right.

      Just some philosophical points to consider based on your statement. To me it all gets too hairy lol, do in my nutshell I would say to anyone trying to get entangled in this kind of thing "take the path of moderation out of your head and back into your heart, where truth shall ever reside".

      -Amy
      IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  6. Salaams

    The Question is,

    Is Ibn ADAM better or worse then IBLIS???

    Humans have a tendency to Be Righteous or Unrighteous. I wont be touching the factors that lead to the definition of Righteousness and Unrighteousness, However for us (Muslims) the definitions are given in our religion.

    Human-beings have the tendency to act as impious as Feroun, Namrood and Abu Jahal etc, or as pious as Abu Bakar, Umer, Usman and Ali etc, it is only upto the individual to decide which side they want to chose. Since the former side proved that Mankind is worse then IBLIS, and the later proved that Mankind is better then IBLIS.

    And No doubt that ALLAH (swt) is and always will be right. But just admitting it with tongue is not required. We have admit it by our hearts as-well (i.e. Proving it by our actions). Otherwise we would be following IBLIS
    (since his action was not doing what ALLAH (swt) asked of him).

    I have been trying to solve this issue in my faith for a long time now (almost 8 years). When these thoughts are too prominent in my mind, i pray to ALLAH to help me stay among the righteous people.

    Ahmed

  7. Salaams,

    " When these thoughts are too prominent in my mind, i pray to ALLAH to help me stay among the righteous people."

    Amin brother. Allah's favor is not something to be gained by coming to intellectual conclusions or having all the right postulates.

    -Amy
    IslamicAnswers.com Editor

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