What is the point?

As always I find myself on a Friday afternoon absolutely shattered. Having a baby is not as easy as I first thought. I think my wife and I had been riding the confidence and excitement wave for the first 3 months, but now things have taken a turn for the worse. My daughter seemingly never wants to settle down. She is forever waking up in the middle of the night, demanding some attention so that she can get some sleep and it's taking its toll.

Last night, for example, she woke both of us up at 4.30am crying her head off. She would not settle until she had a feed and then would only stop crying if she lay between us in bed. At this point we were both half asleep but instead of sleeping, she decided that now would be a good time to start playing, kicking and making noise - she was wide awake! Naturally being the one who has to go to work in the morning I tried to go back to sleep but I just couldn't. The end result meant that I didn't get to sleep at least until 5.30am and I am experiencing the "thrill of feeling tired!"

Anyway, moving on. In the months I've been away from blogging, the months of Muharrum and Safar have just completed in the Islamic Calendar. I have already blogged awhile back about the importance and significance of Muharrum here, here and here, so I'm not about to repeat myself but nonetheless it will always be a very religious and spiritual time for all Shias across the globe.

During these months, as I attend majalises and continue to gain further knowledge about Islam, the Quran, the Prophet and the Imams I always try to make sure that this Muharrum is more fruitful than the last and that the motivation remains for longer after its conclusion. The basic aim is to keep the motivation going through to Safar and then extending towards Ramadan when I get the next injection of motivation.

To help, I like to employ discussion about a variety of topics with my family and friends. I'm extremely lucky in that I have a group of friends all of similar age, with kids etc who are all Shia and all motivated to explore Islam. One such discussion I had was particularly interesting and I wanted to share it on the blog (don't worry, everyone will remain anonymous).

What is your opinion on the meaning of life? Why are we here? I've often thought what is the point of it all? Why did God create us to lead the life that we do? If you think about it from a very pessimistic/negative point of view you can get caught into thinking that our existence is pretty rudimentary. God has created us on this Earth in order to judge us. Everything we do will be judged as right or wrong and then if we are deemed worthy we will be rewarded by being sent to heaven, otherwise the punishment is hell. Would it not be easier if we didn't exist at all? Why go through all this for such reward whilst at the same time running the risk of severe punishment.

These questions led one person to comment that knowing what they know about God, Day of Judgement, heaven and hell etc, they would rather not be human. Why not be an animal or a plant who doesn't have the same 'burdens of life' instead? Another person went further to say why exist at all? They felt it would be better had they not existed at all because then they wouldn't have to face any of this trail of life. An interesting thought, although incredibly flawed because the person could only have that viewpoint because they existed in the first place. However, it got me thinking that hypothetically if I had a choice, would I want to exist? If say, God had me in heaven and showed me the trials and tribulations of mankind, would I want to join it and face those trials?

As we explored this further, we came to realise that this opinion stems from our understanding on the meaning of life. Are we here simply to achieve the reward of heaven or does our reason for existence lie deeper than that? The answer is the latter. God did not create us as a hobby, he did not place us on this Earth simply to blindly follow him so that we can be rewarded and sent to heaven. Our creation serves a much more important purpose.

The one quality we possess that defines us from all of Gods' creations is 'free will.' Us (and jinns) have the ability to make our own decisions with no outside force from God, shaitan or anyone else. We have the ability to do whatever we want, we have to ability to choose to worship God. Our purpose on this Earth quite clearly is too worship God out of our own volition, God puts in clearly in the Quran: "I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me." (Surah 51, Verse 56). This ability to choose is what separates us and elevates us beyond all of God's creations, even the Angels, as they do not have this choice.

God takes our purpose further when he states: "Say: Lo! my worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the Worlds." (Surah 6, Verse 162). It is clear that we have been created to worship God. We're not here to achieve heaven or avoid hell, we have a greater purpose than that. If we think purely about heaven or hell then we are missing the point. Heaven or hell is our reward/punishment depending on how we go about our worship of God.

An analogy would be to compare it to our career. We study for a qualification in order to achieve a successful career. It's not the other way around. We cannot aim for a career without the relevant qualifications. Similarly, we can't just think that we're here to try to get to heaven and forget to worship God. By worshipping God properly we have a chance of achieving a place in heaven.

By worshipping God, it means we are compelled to follow his commands, his Prophets and his Imams. The worship determines our type of life. It is not good enough to just say we worship but then do nothing to qualify that worship. Every action we take as to reflect on our worship, we must constantly be striving to seek God's pleasure and that is what the trial is all about. We are here to be tested for our worship of God. Being possessed with free will ensures that we have that ability to choose and hence when we choose the right worship and follow God as prescribed by him our reward will inshallah be greater.

Thus, we should not become too preoccupied with the punishment in hell or the rewards of heaven. Instead we should focus our energies in elevating ourselves spiritually and following the legal-moral-ethical guidelines of Islam with certitude and conviction and voluntary submit to God because He is worthy of our submission.

I often feel that atheists are who they are because they're lazy. They can't bring themselves to follow God and his commands and therefore deny his existence. I'm sure that many of them know that God does exist, but purely can't be bothered to acknowledge it because it would mean too much work for them. I'm sure God will 'reward' them appropriately for there laziness.

So, to wrap things up, our purpose on this Earth, our creation on this Earth is for us to worship God. Nothing more, nothing less. If you still have doubts about the point of existing, or harbor secrets desires of being a tree or a bird, I leave you with the words of our first Holy Imam: "O God, I do not worship You out of fear of the hell-fire because this would be the worship of a slave. Nor do I worship You out of desire for the pleasures of paradise because this would be the worship of a merchant. Rather I worship You because You are worthy of worship."

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?