Not a human being has run through this busy life without asking these basic questions: For what? From where and to where am I going? What is the point of this short life which is filled with pain and calamities and then followed by death?
These are very simple but critical questions. The answers are found inside us yet many fail to remove the veil from their hearts and cheat themselves with excuses such as, “our life is short and we live only once so let’s makes it perfect and enjoy our time instead of researching such metaphysical topics”.
Yet, any attempt to make this life perfect and pain-free would fail! It may actually even result in the opposite. We find many examples of people who tried to make their life perfect by working hard to succeed in business and making money. However, at the end they end up having a miserable life. When stupor of death comes, a moment that you can’t avoid, they will realize the truth that time has “consumed” them without giving them the space to look for the point of this life.
You may have tried to find the answer to “why did God create us?“ from faithful followers of the monotheistic religions and received replies like the following:
God creates us in love. He loves us and gives us, out of his love, with provision…
But yet, if He loves us, why are we facing pain and suffering here on earth?
They will answer, “God creates us to test us, whom doing well will go to Paradise and whom doing evil will go to Hell”.
But yet, isn’t God omniscient? That means he already knows the outcome of this test. So again, what is the point of this test? How could a Merciful and Compassion God create a Hell to punish the people that he loves?
They would answer, “Actually God created us for Paradise without the purpose of being suffered or punished in the Hell but we are here because of Adam’s sin.
But yet, isn’t God just and fair? Why would He punish us for Adam’s sin which is not our fault? A fair God should grant each one of us a perfect pain free life and let only the sinners suffer!
They would answer, “It’s not the main point. He actually created us so we would worship him and do what he commands us”.
But yet, what is the point of worshipping God? Isn’t God perfect and neither needs us nor gets benefits from our worshipping or prayers? Why does He command us to do good deeds, give to charity and feed the poor while He can provide them from his grace? Isn’t he the provider?
There are many books that discuss the topics surrounding the purpose of creation and the relationship between human and the Divine. I will refer to some of these books throughout this article. I will quote from the work of Ibn Arabi and the work of Prof. Jeffrey Lang and will provide concise answers from the religion of Abraham. The message that started as a covenant to Adam, defined as religion by Abraham, enhanced with life laws by Moses, renovated by Jesus and lastly, perfected by Muhammad peace be upon all of them.
In the famous divine saying hadith, God said: “I was a hidden treasure; I loved to be known. Hence I created the world so that I would be known. ”
Ibn Arabi (the words for prof. William C. Chittick) elaborates this by focusing upon Wujûd, that is, being, existence, or that which is found. Wujûd is the Real (al-haqq), which is another name for God. In itself, wujûd is concealed. In other words, it is the Hidden Treasure. However, wujûd loved to be known, so it created the universe in order to be known. Those who know wujûd in a full sense are true human beings, or Perfect Man. But people cannot know wujûd unless wujûd makes itself known to them. It makes itself known by manifesting itself in three basic ways: through the universe, through the self, and through scripture. Scripture, the Qur'an in particular, is the key that opens the door to the universe and the self. Unless Muslims have recourse to the Qur'an, they cannot know the universe and themselves. And unless they know themselves, they cannot know God. Ibn Arabi frequently reminds us of the Prophet's words, 'He who knows himself knows his Lord.' It follows that he who does not know himself does not know his Lord. Some scholars refer to the relationship between the Prophet, the Quran and the universe in the say: The universe is a silent Qur'an , and the Qur'an is a speaking universe and the Prophet is a walking Qur'an!.
Looking at the Qur'an, we find that one of the most significant realities for understanding the nature of human beings, and therefore the reality of God Himself, is love.
Love has many similarities with wujûd. For example, like wujûd, it cannot be defined. A person recognizes love when it abides within him and when it is his own attribute. He does not know what it is, but he does not deny its existence.
Ibn Arabi calls love 'a knowledge of tasting', which is to say that people cannot know love until they have tasted it and experienced it in themselves. But, even then, they cannot explain it to others. As he says, 'he who defines love has not known it, and he who has not tasted it by drinking it down has not known it'
Ibn Arabi often states that the world was originated from absolute mercy and to mercy it shall return; any pain or wretchedness is therefore temporal and apparent.
In the first Sura of the Quran, Allah begins by saying: 'In the name of Allah, the all-Merciful, the ever-Merciful, Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the all-Merciful, the ever-Merciful'. Commenting on this verse Ibn Arabi affirms that since Allah mentioned His two names the all-Merciful and the ever-Merciful (ar-Rahmān, ar-Rahīm) before and after mentioning the worlds, this certainly implies that the worlds, or the creation, emanated from His Mercy and will also conclude with His Mercy. And elsewhere in the Quran, Allah says “My Mercy has indeed covered everything” (7:156).
The difference between ar-Rahmān and ar-Rahīm, the all-Merciful and the ever-Merciful, is not very clear, and these terms are normally translated in various ways, such as the Compassionate, the Beneficent, the Gracious and the Merciful. Ibn Arabi says that the mercy of the ever-Merciful (ar-Rahīm) is a pure mercy, whereas the mercy of the all-Merciful (ar-Rahmān) may incorporate some pain or suffering, just like the medicine that may have a bitter taste but brings benefit to the one who takes it so as to cure some disease. Wrath or anger is also out of His love and mercy. If His love or mercy did not exist, He would not care at all. It is like a father who becomes angry with his son when he does something wrong, because he has care and concern for his son and his entire family, because he wants his son to correct his behavior and set a lesson for other children not to copy that wrong act.
Conditional and unconditional divine love
Although God loves human beings unconditionally, He also loves them conditionally. In the first case, He loves everyone without exception and, in fact, He loves everything in the universe, because He created everything beautiful, and He loves beauty. God certainly does love you, but this gives you no advantage over rocks and toads, because He loves everything. Advantage and disadvantage, gain and loss, happiness and misery – these enter the picture only in terms of the second sort of love, which depends on your own recognition of your love for God. As long as you think you love others, you will not be able to actualize true love and true happiness.
The door to God's conditional love can open up only when people have understood the principle of divine unity, the fact that there is no beloved but God. At this point they need to focus on the real object of their love. Achieving focus is not possible without the assistance of the almighty Beloved; for He is far beyond human ability to comprehend what He wants without His explicit instructions. Hence people must have recourse to the help that He has given in the form of prophecy and scripture. In other words, the road to actualize love for God and make oneself worthy for His conditional love is to follow His guidance. The connection between love and following is made explicit in the commonly cited Quranic verse about love: 'Say [O Muhammad!]: "If you love God, follow me; God will love you"' (3:31).
When we put this verse aside with "He loves them, and they love Him" (5:54) the picture is clear: God loves you unconditionally, and the fruit of His love for you is that you exist and you love Him. Your existence, however, does not guarantee the ultimate well-being of your soul, for He loves those in hell just as He loves those in paradise. You need to acknowledge and realize your actual situation as a lover. You must accept what is expected of any lover, which is to submit to the wishes of your beloved. What God wants from you is defined by the Sunna of the Prophet. That's why the religion of God is called "Islam", which is the Arabic word of submission, and the name Abraham gives to the believers. 2:132 Abraham exhorted his sons, and Jacob, "O my sons, God has chosen this religion for you, so do not die unless you have submitted” ( the Arabic translation is “unless you become Muslims”).
The essential role of the Prophet as intermediary explains the literature on love, whom Ibn Arabi describes as the greatest beloved of God and the greatest lover of God.
In one passage, Ibn Arabi summarizes the difference between God's unconditional and conditional love in terms of the human reception of divine blessings. These blessings come in the form of existence and all that it entails. He points out that God bestows blessings in two ways: in an unqualified manner, that is, without anything expected from His creatures in return; and in a qualified way, that is, on condition that people follow divine guidance. He warns the seeker not to accept whatever God offers by way of creation, only what comes by the intermediary of the Prophet.
How this world serves the purpose to experience the Divine love?
In his lecture, Dr Lang who turned to atheism after failing to find satisfying answers for the purpose of this world speaks about his own experience of reading the Qur'an. He derived the answer to “Why would a merciful, almighty God, who needs nothing, create us and cause us to suffer and yet commands us to worship him especially, since He has angels who do so and they do so flawlessly?”. What makes this lecture unique is that it isn’t based on deep metaphysics or knowledge of taste like the works of Ibn Arabi, but based on logic. As a professor of mathematics, he has the logic of his trade. His story is honest, at times painful, and one of the most gratifying explanations of why we are here.
Dr Lang starts by showing the 3 basic principles that the Qur'an emphasizes on human being from the story of Adam’s sin: The intellect, the choice and the suffering. He explains in great detail how these three things play an essential role in the development of the human being to gain and develop the essential characteristics required to be able to experience the divine love. The love that angels, who don’t possess intellect or freedom of choice, would ever experience.He concludes that this worldly life is simply another stage among other stages started before and will continue towards the al-insān al-kāmil (the perfect man) as Ibn Arabi described in his book “The Seals of Wisdom”.
He points out that in order for a relationship to develop, the two parties must have some common ground. The greater the common ground, the stronger will be the resulting bond and relationship. Describing different levels of relationship, he offers the example of his own relationship with his goldfish, his dog and his daughter. With increasing common ground at each higher level, the bond gets stronger. The primitive goldfish won’t be able to enjoy her owner’s love and compassion as his dog, and surely his daughter is more capable to experience that of his dog. The more you “develop” a common ground with God, the more you will be able to know Him and experience His closeness and Love. The only possibility of such common ground, between humans and God, lies in the moral dimension i.e. the adjectival nouns or attributes of God, e.g. mercy, truth, care, compassion, benevolence, guidance, peace, love, etc (the ~99 most beautiful names of God mentioned in the Qur’an). By cultivating these attributes in our own personalities, we can bring ourselves closer to God. Thus, according to Dr. Lang, we are placed here on earth to grow in our moral dimension. We are not finished products yet, but are rather work-in-progress creatures. In that sense, we can more appropriately be called human-becomings rather than human-beings. Once developed, this moral dimension will be the necessary common ground between God and us, for an eternal relationship of love and friendship. The final product of this process would be the best of the creatures – al-insān al-kāmil (the perfect man)
In his talk, he spoke about his personal experience as an atheist who read the Quran trying to figure out the link between humans and God and why humans and not angels. He starts by stating the things that God likes and how they correlate with the 3 concepts of intellect, freedom of choice and suffering. He goes further by talking about the point of God’s commands to be merciful, forgiving, charitable and doing good deeds. As previously stated, developing characteristics that God attributes to him will make you feel more close to God whom you have “something” in common with. When you possess these attributes, you actually “share” with God some of the attributes that he is the infinite source of. God describes himself as “the ever-merciful, ever-forgiving, ever-provider, and ever generous. Add to that, doing good deeds makes you miss the meeting with God and wait for it in joy. You are going to meet God, whether you want to or not or whether you believe in Him or not. God liked to meet you, even before you were born, as he breathed something from his spirit into you as the Qur'an tells us. But, He also wants you to be well-equipped for that meeting and to look forward to meet him and to rush into him with love and happiness. Take the example of two kids where one succeeded and the other failed a final exam. The one who succeeded will run to his home in excitement to meet his family because he knows he achieved something his parents will like. The child who failed, on the other hand, will try to avoid the meeting with his parents.
By the end of his talk, Dr. Lang states how our life in this world serves the purpose to develop to the level being able to experience the Divine love. Why didn’t God simply create us like the Angels? Or, why didn’t He create us merciful, forgiving and able to do good deeds only? He states that these 3 things: the Intellect, freedom of choice and suffering are a must to develop these qualities! You can’t be truly merciful or truthful if you haven’t the freedom of choice. We can’t say the X-ray machine is merciful because it can diagnose diseases, or this computer is truthful! without freedom of choice you can’t be merciful or truthful simply because you are programmed to be so. The intellect and freedom of choice is what truly makes the mankind “supreme”, even to angels, who could never experience the divine love and closeness as a mankind can! Only in the presence of these three necessary ingredients, we have a chance of moral growth. That makes suffering, at least in theory, an opportunity rather than a nuisance. The quantity of suffering one is subjected to, however, depends upon many different factors, not all of which we can understand completely. But like a good teacher, who wants the student to learn and grow, always gives assignments, just above the current caliber of the student – enough to challenge but not too much to frustrate – the extremely difficult lives of the chosen messengers and prophets of God, like Muhammad, Jesus, Abraham, Job, Joseph, etc, makes perfect sense.
So, the question now becomes: Is this the best of the worlds that God could create to its purpose? Most people, who think that this world is not the best of the worlds that all-loving all-powerful God could create, mistakenly presume that the purpose of this world is for us to be comfortable and have fun. That is confusing earth with heaven – we’re not there yet. But if we understand the purpose of this world to be a learning academy – a place where we can grow, morally and intellectually – then the verdict might be different. We humans learn from our experiences, and the choices we make and make this learning experience positive or negative.
So far we have discussed what links us to God, what the purpose of creating mankind was and what the point of obeying God’s commands are. But, if all is about love then what is the point of reward and punishment, and what is the point of creating Paradise and Hell?
Dr Lang has answered the question of why God created Paradise and Hell and why He frequently states a terrific description of life in hell (fire) and the wonderful description of life at paradise (Janna) at the conclusion of his talk, but here I want to give a different perspective of it.
God refers to the Qur'an as “guidance to all mankind”. For that purpose, the Qur'an talks to all types of people with a message to motivate them not to stray from the right path. God said: “God intends to redeem you, but those who follow their desires want you to turn away utterly. God intends to lighten your burden, for the human being was created weak” (4:27, 28). Mankind in general is weak and requires motivation especially in the first steps to God’s path. Different people get motivated by different things. Almost everything we do in life is motivated by fear, love or to gain something.
One could pursue academic studies because of fear from poverty and being jobless without a degree. Others could be motivated by the social status of an academic degree and others may be motivated simply because of the love of studying.
The Quran provides us with a terrifying image of Hell and a wonderful description of Paradise. In addition, a “transcript” of a conversation between the people of Paradise and those in Hell that the Qur'an states are all serving as motivation in terms of “fear” and “gain”.
We can also see in the Qur'an a “threat” for people doing bad deeds that their punishment would be that God won’t talk to them! This is for the person who is motivated by love since only those people will feel how painful it is to be “filtered” by your beloved who refuses to talk to you. People who got motivated by fear or by gain would not even consider this as a punishment but those motivated by love would consider that God turned away from them as a severe punishment, one that is worse than abiding in Hell. But God wants His redemption to reach all kinds of people, not just the honorable ones.
These 3 concepts are repeated in Qur'an in many commands or alerts of doing some deeds. For example, the Quran says “Those who conceal what God revealed in the Book, and exchange it for a small price-those swallow nothing but fire into their bellies. And God will not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them, and they will have a painful punishment. It is they who exchange guidance for error, and forgiveness for punishment. But why do they insist on the Fire?” (2:174).
For those who get motivated by love will find that God will not speak to them. This is the motivation to not disobey God’s commands to reveal his Book to all. Those who are motivated by gain will consider the loss of being purified as the motivation, and the people who get motivated by fear will find having a painful punishment as the motivation.
These three types of motivations will accompany you throughout your entire journey to God. In a moment of weakness or laziness, gain and fear will motivate you to do the deeds God commands you to do and to avoid what God forbids so eventually you will develop the complete love relationship with God, which is the real purpose.
It is important not to get attached to Paradise and consider it as the destination of your journey. God is the destination, and the paradise is a gift from Him. Imagine a king who gives gifts to all his visitors and afterwards he sees that one of them is getting too attached to that gift to the level that he is unaware of the presence of the king or the meeting with the king.
Yes, the paradise is a great reward. God describes it as “I have prepared for My pious servants which no eye (has ever) seen, no ear has (ever) heard and no human heart has ever perceived”.
Lets look at another verse which promises even more:
“For those who have done good is the best (reward, i.e. Paradise) and even more” (10:26).
Scholars say that "and even more" is to look at the Honorable Face of Allah referring to the verse that confirms that “Some faces that Day shall be radiant. Looking towards their Lord. And other faces on that Day will be gloomy”. (75: 22 - 24).
The path to Ihsan
If you were to obey most of those on earth, they would divert you from God's path. They follow nothing but assumptions, and they only conjecture. (6:116)
Nowadays stray ideologies and power people who benefit from spreading corruption and blasphemy are commonplace. add to that many stray schools inside the religious groups themselves that distort God's message and teach the opposite, hate and enmity instead of love and peace. But still as long as you possess intellect, you have no excuse to follow anyone without examination and investigation, In the Quran God has repeatedly condemns blind following without knowledge and examination, For example:
2:166-170 Those who were followed will then disown those who followed them, and they will see the retribution, and ties between them will be severed. 167. Those who followed will say, "If only we can have another chance, we will disown them, as they disowned us." Thus God will show them their deeds, as regrets to them, and they will not come out of the Fire. 168. O people! Eat of what is lawful and good on earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. He is to you an open enemy. 169. He commands you to do evil and vice, and to say about God what you do not know. 170. And when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We will follow what we found our ancestors following." Even if their ancestors understood nothing, and were not guided?
2:166-170 Those who were followed will then disown those who followed them, and they will see the retribution, and ties between them will be severed. 167. Those who followed will say, "If only we can have another chance, we will disown them, as they disowned us." Thus God will show them their deeds, as regrets to them, and they will not come out of the Fire. 168. O people! Eat of what is lawful and good on earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. He is to you an open enemy. 169. He commands you to do evil and vice, and to say about God what you do not know. 170. And when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We will follow what we found our ancestors following." Even if their ancestors understood nothing, and were not guided?
As the Prophet said, this religion is divided into 3 dimensions: Islam (submission), Iman (faith) and Ihsan (sincerity) and each of these consist of sha’bs (degrees). The lower level (Islam) is basically about the rituals, in other words the body or the physical worshiping. The higher level (Iman) is the inner worshiping, described by the Prophet as what takes root in the heart and shows in one’s actions. The highest level (Ihsan) is about sincerity and witnessing God, as the prophet defines the level of Ihsan to worship God as if you see him, but if you cannot see him, be sure that he is constantly watching over you. In other words, you always feel His presence! This is the level in which you taste the vicinity heavens of God here on Earth.
There is a big difference between practicing the rituals and being a believer with true faith. We can see this in the example when the Arab tribe came to the prophet which was mentioned in the Quran, “The Desert-Arabs say, "We have believed." Say, "You have not believed; but say, 'We have submitted (become Muslims),' for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. But if you obey God and His Messenger, He will not diminish any of your deeds. God is Forgiving and Merciful" (49:14). “The believers are those who believe in God and His Messenger, and then have not doubted, and strive for God's cause with their wealth and their persons. These are the sincere” (49:15).
The Sufism or the Tariqa is one path to Ihsan, which scholars consider the shortest path. You enjoy an accompanied guide, who spiritually leads you just as the Prophet lead his companions and you will enjoy a company of the Mureeds that will help you pass the first stages which require many struggle and striving. There are many Tariqas but all of them lead to the same target and have the same entry, which is self-control, striving, and being grateful. Restraining your soul from lower desires, such as anger and love of money and striving in the cause of Allah is the essence to get purified and to gain the required qualities we discussed in this article to enter the Hadra of God. These qualities are repeated over and over again in the verses of the Quran, such as:
“And race towards forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous. Those who give in prosperity and adversity, and those who restrain anger, and those who forgive people. God loves the doers of good. And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember God and ask forgiveness for their sins-and who forgives sins except God? And they do not persist in their wrongdoing while they know” (3:133-135).
“Repel evil with good, and the person who was your enemy becomes like an intimate friend. But none will attain it except those who persevere, and none will attain it except the very fortunate. When a temptation from the Devil provokes you, seek refuge in God; He is the Hearer, the Knower” (41:34-36).
Yes, it’s not easy to treat your enemy as he is your intimate friend. You are building the qualities of being merciful and forgiving. Look around and see how God is giving from His grace even to ungrateful people who don’t believe in Him. Remember that the key to enter the Hadra of God and being close to Him is to attain the qualities that He has and urges you to grow.
Almighty God is A’ziz and because of that He accepts only the pure and He reveals his lights and shares His secrets to pure and sincere servants only. The hard striving at the beginning is a must if you want to be purified because those qualities become your routine and you become purified. Once your actions and deeds become out of sincerity and not just striving, then you will actually be on the level of Ihsan. It seems hard, but don’t worry, He won’t leave you alone -
“And those who strive in our (cause) –we will certainly guide them to our paths” (29:96).
Yes, the first step is yours, but the next step is Him. Strive in restraining your desires and let Him purify and guide you to His light, the ultimate truth. He is generous and waiting patiently for you to turn your face to him and to knock on His Hadra’s door and He won’t leave you alone as God says: “Surely, those who say: "Our Lord is God," and then go straight, the angels will descend upon them: "Do not fear, and do not grieve, but rejoice in the news of the Garden which you were promised. We are your allies in this life and in the Hereafter, wherein you will have whatever your souls desire, and you will have therein whatever you call for. As Hospitality from an All-Forgiving, Merciful One" (41:30).
The 7 obstacles faces the wayfarer to God (30 Episodes with English subtitles)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoIHYx0vytqhnmnblm8jgjrsAh5PWQVhG
Rituals of Islam vs the basic needs of mankind - Purpose of Man's Existence
Lesson(01-36):
Lesson (02-36):
