Think outside the box

Imagine you wake up in a huge factory that you have never been in before. You see thousands of people working away. All the doors and windows are sealed off. What would your first thoughts be in such a situation?

Would you think to yourself ‘Since I’m already here, I might as well join along with these people’ or would your first thoughts be,

‘Who put me here? Why am I here? What will happen next?’

This example is just like our existence on earth. We human beings have been thrown into existence without any conscious choice, so the question follows; who are we? And what is our purpose?

Do you have Goal?

Imagine you went to a football game and you saw there is no goal posts on the pitch. Would there be any point in playing a game? Imagine you find bunch of guys running around kicking a ball. No goals, No lines, No rules! Surely every sport has its goal every game has its end, it has its objective it has its rules.

In the same way isn't it meaningless to live a life without a Goal? What would you think? Is that your life?

Isn’t there a goal to our life? Isn’t there a purpose, an objective that we have to reach? We think so!

Why don’t we question?

The question of why mankind came into existence has been contemplated by every civilization since the beginning of times.

However, in this age of science and technology we do not give much thought to these questions. From the cradle to the grave we strive to obtain the material goals that the society has set for us.

No longer do we have the time or are we encouraged to ponder about the questions of life for ourselves. Instead, we place our trust in scientists and theologians or even the ‘think tanks’ to know the answers for us.

The nature of the universe

A good place to start is by looking at the world around us – the ‘factory’ that we found ourselves in.

The nature of the world, when reflected on, shows an arrangement and order exhibited everywhere from the water cycle to the movement of the earth around the sun. In fact, every cell in our own body is in itself a factory!!

Commenting on the order of the universe, Stephen Hawking the physicist said:

‘The overwhelming impression is one of order. The more we discover about the universe the more we find that it is governed by rational laws.’

Since the universe obeys the laws of science, the question arises:

Where does this order come from?

Can something come from nothing?

Have we ever seen a car, mobile phone, airplane or even a building/ a house ever assembled or come together by chance? Everything that has order and arrangement, we know there to be an organiser behind it. The cause and effect reasoning.

Now looking at the order and arrangement present in the universe; would it not be logical to say that it too has an organiser?

Our natural disposition

Many children across various cultures display the natural inclination to believe in God, or a Greater Being.

Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind states:

‘The preponderance (majority) of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children’s minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose…’

Belief in God is not just an intellectual position but rooted in our innate nature, in-built. Universally, all heart’s desire help from the Supernatural (which is God), in desperation. God clarifies this in the final instruction manual to humanity, The Qur’an:

"And whatever you have in favor - it is from God. Then when adversity touches you, to Him you cry for help. Then when He removes the adversity from you, at once some of you associates others with their Lord." (The Qur'an 16:53-54)

This is the same reason why majority of people in history have always had a belief in some concept of a Creator, although they each referred to it by different names and explanations.

Are we Self-Sufficient?

We mortals are finite beings with finite faculties, limited in scope and nature- for example our limited hearing or seeing capability. Our very existence and our ability to function is dependent on almost an infinite number of things, things that we cannot control and have no power over. We were dependent on our parents or caretakers when we were born and could not feed, clothe or clean ourselves. We are dependent on family, parents, friends, health care system, doctors, nurses, domestics, economic systems, banks, oxygen, water, food, farmers, plants, animals, buildings, construction companies, builders and much more- the list is endless. This should make us mindful that we cannot sustain ourselves even if some of us are deluded to think so.

All of these creations in and around us are ultimately dependent on the Creator of everything seen and unseen. Since God created us and all those mentioned above, our very existence is primarily dependent on Him. We have a responsibility to look after each other and His creations. We have to concede to this bare fact with humility, rather than ego or arrogance.

Our Quest for purpose

Belief in God goes in line with the human quest for purpose. Everything around us has a purpose, a reason for its being, so it would make sense for us, to have one too. We are naturally purpose-driven creatures. In fact, we do everything for a purpose, from brushing our teeth to buying a car. Rejecting the fact that our lives have no purpose is absurd and counter-intuitive.

Attributing ‘made-up purposes’ to our lives by following desires is, by definition, self-delusion and pretention. It is like children pretend play doctors and nurses or police and robbers, but later grow to face the truth, that life is not a game or a drama.

The Quran, the final instruction manual of God’s speech to humanity, asks us profound questions about our existence:

God, by definition is worthy of worship by virtue of who He is. He owns, creates, provides and sustains everything known and unknown to us. Worship is an innate tendency just like our need to eat, drink and breathe. From this perspective, we are natural-born worshipers, because that is who we are and it is our Divinely given purpose.

God is essentially telling us that if we do not worship Him, we will eventually end up worshiping something else- money, power, fame, position- no matter what! These will in turn, enslave us and become our masters. Thus, without God, we will have many other ‘masters’, and will be ‘at odds with each other’, thus end us up in a state of misery, confusion and unhappiness.

We have a Choice

Since God Almighty owns, creates, provides and sustains everything that exists, we owe obedience to Him exclusively and we are indebted with a sense of awe and gratitude towards Him. However, God is in no need of our obedience or worship. God is perfectly good, All Loving, desires each one of us to consciously choose to believe, follow His guidance and be grateful, to attain the eternal bliss with Him in Paradise. God by nature is independent of all, whilst all are dependent on Him. To deny or mock this, is height of ingratitude, arrogance and heedlessness.

Our choice of obedience and worship of One True God, will fill our heart with awe and love of God, feel at peace and experience tranquility, a serenity that is undisturbed by any trials or calamities.

The Qur’an tell us that we exist here, in order to worship God and worshiping God means knowing God.

"I did not create the Jinn (Spirit world) and Humans except to worship me" (The Qur'an, Chapter 51, Verse 56)

Worship in Islam, encompasses everything that a human being does rather than mere set of rituals. Everything that you do, everything that you think, everything that you feel can be done, thought, said, felt in a way that is either pleasing or displeasing to God.

The purpose of this temporary life is to strive our best and do everything in a way that God loves and God is pleased with, so as to inherit the final eternal bliss. That should be your goal!

It’s our free choice to accept the fact that God is the only deity worthy of worship and that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His final messenger, follow the final guidance for humanity (The Qur’an), to attain an eternal blissful life after this ephemeral life.