Why was Man Created? What Should Be His Purpose and Goal?
'For what purpose has man been created is the most frequent question that we are asked. Asking ourselves or others such a question is a great divine blessing for us. To be more precise, neither did the sun ask itself that question nor was another star able to ask the sun that question. Furthermore, a sheep or a bee is unable to ask each other that question. That is, mankind, looking for the answer to it, is left free to use his body in whatever area he wishes, and is subjected to trial and testing for it.
The only solution to be successful in this trial is to learn the correct answer to the question from the One creating us. Whoever reaches this point knocks the door of the truth. And they are provided with the reply through the tongue of the Revealed Quran and the Prophet.
I have only created Jinn and men, that they may serve Me The Winds that Scatter (Az-Záriyát :51 ;56).
According to the Risale-i Nur Collection (the Treatise of Light), the meaning of worship is knowledge. Many of our interpreters of the Quran agree with that interpretation. The worships such as prayers and fasting are the outcomes of this knowledge. That is to say, man, first of all, should comprehend that bounties requires offering thanks to Allah so that he can offer thanks and praise to Allah.
Before anything else, man should know that the divine miracles filling the universe necessitate deep thinking and wonder so that he will fulfill his duty of glorifying and exalting Allah
Having come to the conclusion that he should have mercy on the other people, he can proceed to the path of giving charity alms (zakat).
All of them are the fruit of faith and knowledge, in other words believing in Allah and knowing Him.
A lesson of knowledge from Risale-i Nur Collection: "O man! In the face of manifestations of Dominicality, the elevated purpose of the universe is man's universal worship and submission to God. (Sözler - Words)
Dominicality means educating and training. This act manifests itself in a different form, beauty, and perfection in each realm of this universe. And we proclaim our awareness of this various education to God, the Sustainer of All of the Worlds when we recite the Fatiha during each prayer.
It is Allah that educates the world of lights, and eyes too. And by offering thanks to our Almighty God we fulfill our duty of worship for the manifestation of the dominicality through the contemplation that the sun is raised in a way that it gives light and our eyes can benefit from it.
Taking into account that the foodstuff is grown to be edible so that our mouth, tongue and stomach can enjoy them and accepting Gods infinite bounties in deep wonderment and glorification, we again respond with worship to that dominicality.
The universe was created for the sake of man and man was created to worship Allah. Two words here draw our attention; elevated and universality. These two words indicate that apart from us, there are other beings performing those services. The point to be emphasized here is that man is capable of carrying out the duty of worship better and more universally than them. Those beings that we mention are angels and jinn.
While thinking carefully about a fruit, an angel observes in wonder that the shapeless, uncolored elements of the past have turned to beautiful beings today and hard trees have yielded fruit. However, it cannot think about the taste, vitamin, and calorie of it on the grounds that his capacity is not suitable for it.
At this point, human race has been granted an absolutely different talent. Thanks to his mind and imagination faculty, he is able to think not only what is present but also many things invisible at that time and even to contemplate about the past and future. Thus, his mind, idea, understanding and prosperity become more universal. When he eats a fruit, he can think that almost infinite members of more than one million animate beings are provided with sustenance, and he is one of those benefiting from that divine sustenance and by this means, he will be able to think deeply about the name of Sustainer of the Almighty God.
If he wishes, he takes his mind to the past and future. With the help of his imagination, he ponders all sorts of bounties and those utilizing them throughout all the times; and his contemplation gets deeper.
We can say similar things about the manifestations of all His Divine Names.
While the verse You alone do we worship is explained in the Treatise of Light, our attention is called to the subtleness of using We instead of I; in fact, three different groups are suggested by this utterance. One of them is all the believers, the others are all our organs, cells and senses that are functioning differently inside our bodies and engaged in a different worship peculiar to each other. The last group is the entire beings.
That means man is capable enough to declare You alone do we worship on behalf of all other beings. Even if he prays alone, the man eluding from individuality and submitting the worship of all other beings to His Lord can perform a universal glorification.
The fact that man is the fruit of this universe brings about this result. Should we fancy that all the units of a tree are conscious, the fruit will be the one making the most universal contemplation. It is because the kernel of the fruit contains the ability to represent all the worship and contemplation of the tree.
Those performing this universal glorification in the most advanced way are prophets and particularly Our Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be upon Him), who are the most beautiful fruits of the tree of the universe.
There is a close connection between the elevated purpose and universal worship and the following Divine Hadith: If it were not for you, I would not create the universe.
There are plenty of subjects discussing the responsibility of the man in the Light Collection. We would like to submit some of them as a summary:
-Using your knowledge, willpower, seeing and hearing that your soul have been equipped with as a Divine gift as a means of knowing the attributes of Allah. Taking advantage of these knowledge windows opened inside your soul to recognize the Divine attributes.
-Employing the power of reasoning in the sphere of wisdom, the power of passion in the way of chasteness, and the power of anger as a means of sacred courage.
-Giving your love only to Allah, and loving the creatures in His name and because they are the mirrors to His Names, His Perfection, and His Beauty.
-By having the consciousness that he has been created with a nature capable of performing every sort of worship, trying to benefit from every sort of worship at the utmost level.
-Turning the face of your heart, sense of secret, spirit, mind, even the power of imagination and other senses towards the eternal life and thus engaging them in their particular worships.
-Unlocking the infinite treasures of Compassion by each sense, making use of them and offering universal thanks.
-Contemplating the Power of Allah compared to your weakness, the Mercy of Him by looking at your deprivation, the Perfection of Him by reasoning your deficiencies. Knowing that your Creator has the endless perfection, compassion and power, but that your soul has unending needs, poverty and deficiency.
-Coming to the presence of Allah by keeping your spirit away from sins, and your body away from all sort of dirtiness.
- Presenting yourself to the looks of the angels and spirit beings in that you are the most excellent work of God.
So, man has been created for sublime goals like those. However, unfortunately many people have forgotten themselves and they strive to live comfortably only in their worldly life being completely ignorant of those elevated purposes. Although man has the capacity to represent the worship of the entire universe, he merely aims to gain the favor of the people around him and tries to seem pleasant to them.
After a while, he also passes away just like the other people and all his objectives and he himself disappear when buried under the ground.
The only solution to be successful in this trial is to learn the correct answer to the question from the One creating us. Whoever reaches this point knocks the door of the truth. And they are provided with the reply through the tongue of the Revealed Quran and the Prophet.
I have only created Jinn and men, that they may serve Me The Winds that Scatter (Az-Záriyát :51 ;56).
According to the Risale-i Nur Collection (the Treatise of Light), the meaning of worship is knowledge. Many of our interpreters of the Quran agree with that interpretation. The worships such as prayers and fasting are the outcomes of this knowledge. That is to say, man, first of all, should comprehend that bounties requires offering thanks to Allah so that he can offer thanks and praise to Allah.
Before anything else, man should know that the divine miracles filling the universe necessitate deep thinking and wonder so that he will fulfill his duty of glorifying and exalting Allah
Having come to the conclusion that he should have mercy on the other people, he can proceed to the path of giving charity alms (zakat).
All of them are the fruit of faith and knowledge, in other words believing in Allah and knowing Him.
A lesson of knowledge from Risale-i Nur Collection: "O man! In the face of manifestations of Dominicality, the elevated purpose of the universe is man's universal worship and submission to God. (Sözler - Words)
Dominicality means educating and training. This act manifests itself in a different form, beauty, and perfection in each realm of this universe. And we proclaim our awareness of this various education to God, the Sustainer of All of the Worlds when we recite the Fatiha during each prayer.
It is Allah that educates the world of lights, and eyes too. And by offering thanks to our Almighty God we fulfill our duty of worship for the manifestation of the dominicality through the contemplation that the sun is raised in a way that it gives light and our eyes can benefit from it.
Taking into account that the foodstuff is grown to be edible so that our mouth, tongue and stomach can enjoy them and accepting Gods infinite bounties in deep wonderment and glorification, we again respond with worship to that dominicality.
The universe was created for the sake of man and man was created to worship Allah. Two words here draw our attention; elevated and universality. These two words indicate that apart from us, there are other beings performing those services. The point to be emphasized here is that man is capable of carrying out the duty of worship better and more universally than them. Those beings that we mention are angels and jinn.
While thinking carefully about a fruit, an angel observes in wonder that the shapeless, uncolored elements of the past have turned to beautiful beings today and hard trees have yielded fruit. However, it cannot think about the taste, vitamin, and calorie of it on the grounds that his capacity is not suitable for it.
At this point, human race has been granted an absolutely different talent. Thanks to his mind and imagination faculty, he is able to think not only what is present but also many things invisible at that time and even to contemplate about the past and future. Thus, his mind, idea, understanding and prosperity become more universal. When he eats a fruit, he can think that almost infinite members of more than one million animate beings are provided with sustenance, and he is one of those benefiting from that divine sustenance and by this means, he will be able to think deeply about the name of Sustainer of the Almighty God.
If he wishes, he takes his mind to the past and future. With the help of his imagination, he ponders all sorts of bounties and those utilizing them throughout all the times; and his contemplation gets deeper.
We can say similar things about the manifestations of all His Divine Names.
While the verse You alone do we worship is explained in the Treatise of Light, our attention is called to the subtleness of using We instead of I; in fact, three different groups are suggested by this utterance. One of them is all the believers, the others are all our organs, cells and senses that are functioning differently inside our bodies and engaged in a different worship peculiar to each other. The last group is the entire beings.
That means man is capable enough to declare You alone do we worship on behalf of all other beings. Even if he prays alone, the man eluding from individuality and submitting the worship of all other beings to His Lord can perform a universal glorification.
The fact that man is the fruit of this universe brings about this result. Should we fancy that all the units of a tree are conscious, the fruit will be the one making the most universal contemplation. It is because the kernel of the fruit contains the ability to represent all the worship and contemplation of the tree.
Those performing this universal glorification in the most advanced way are prophets and particularly Our Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be upon Him), who are the most beautiful fruits of the tree of the universe.
There is a close connection between the elevated purpose and universal worship and the following Divine Hadith: If it were not for you, I would not create the universe.
There are plenty of subjects discussing the responsibility of the man in the Light Collection. We would like to submit some of them as a summary:
-Using your knowledge, willpower, seeing and hearing that your soul have been equipped with as a Divine gift as a means of knowing the attributes of Allah. Taking advantage of these knowledge windows opened inside your soul to recognize the Divine attributes.
-Employing the power of reasoning in the sphere of wisdom, the power of passion in the way of chasteness, and the power of anger as a means of sacred courage.
-Giving your love only to Allah, and loving the creatures in His name and because they are the mirrors to His Names, His Perfection, and His Beauty.
-By having the consciousness that he has been created with a nature capable of performing every sort of worship, trying to benefit from every sort of worship at the utmost level.
-Turning the face of your heart, sense of secret, spirit, mind, even the power of imagination and other senses towards the eternal life and thus engaging them in their particular worships.
-Unlocking the infinite treasures of Compassion by each sense, making use of them and offering universal thanks.
-Contemplating the Power of Allah compared to your weakness, the Mercy of Him by looking at your deprivation, the Perfection of Him by reasoning your deficiencies. Knowing that your Creator has the endless perfection, compassion and power, but that your soul has unending needs, poverty and deficiency.
-Coming to the presence of Allah by keeping your spirit away from sins, and your body away from all sort of dirtiness.
- Presenting yourself to the looks of the angels and spirit beings in that you are the most excellent work of God.
So, man has been created for sublime goals like those. However, unfortunately many people have forgotten themselves and they strive to live comfortably only in their worldly life being completely ignorant of those elevated purposes. Although man has the capacity to represent the worship of the entire universe, he merely aims to gain the favor of the people around him and tries to seem pleasant to them.
After a while, he also passes away just like the other people and all his objectives and he himself disappear when buried under the ground.
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