God (Allah) said in the Holy Quran :
… I only created jinn and man to worship Me. (Surat adh-Dhariyat: 56)
"Why does Allah want us to worship Him?"
Now if we are to look initially into revelation, to determine why was man created, there is a deeper question that we should be asking before that: "Why did God create?". This before we even get to man because man is not the greatest act of creation. Allah says:
"The creation of the Heavens and the Earth is indeed greater then the creation of mankind; yet, most of mankind know not." [Surah Ghafir, verse 57]
Man is not the greatest act of creation, this universe is far more complex and far more magnificent than man. So the issue of creation should then go to, "Why did God create?", as opposed to simply, "Why create man?".
Human beings don’t really create, they manipulate, because they can only "create" what already exists. When we make a chair or a table, we didn’t create the wood, we had to take it from a tree, we didn’t create the ****l, which makes the screws etc, we had to melt down rocks and take the ****l out. So we are not creating from nothing. We are manipulating things which Allah has already created in to different shapes and forms which are useful to us. We call it "creation" but the real act of creation, is creation from nothing, and this is unique to Allah alone.
There is another aspect, besides the fact that the creation exists because Allah is the creator. We can also see from what prophet Mohammad pbuh has informed us, that in the creation there is manifestation of Allah’s attributes of mercy, forgiveness, kindness etc etc. Allah created man in paradise, they disobeyed Allah, but Allah had taught them how to repent, how to turn back to him and seek his forgiveness, then he would forgive them. Having done that, they were forgiven, Adam became the first prophet, and mankind was absolved of that sin. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of human existence. Human beings are given a consciousness of Allah. When Allah created all human beings, as he states in the Qur'an, he took from Adam (Adam) all of his descendents, and made them all bear witness that Allah is their Lord. So we are all born with that consciousness. He has also given us a consciousness of what is right and what is wrong.
we were created in a means or a way in which Allah has chosen to manifest his attributes of creation, mercy, grace etc and he could have chosen another one. But relative to us as human beings, we know that our purpose is to worship Allah. Allah does not need our worship, a Allah didn’t need to create. When he created us to worship him, he didn’t create us, out of a need for our worship, because Allah has no needs. In a famous hadith qudsi in which Allah says;
If all of you, jinn and mankind, were to worship like the most righteous amongst you, it would not increase the dominion of Allah in any way shape or form. And if all of us, jinn and mankind ...
Therefore when we look for the purpose of worship, we have to look into man. Allah created us to worship him, because we need to worship him. It is something he has given us as a means of benefiting ourselves. We are the ones who benefit from it. Worship has been established, fundamentally for the growth, the spiritual growth of man. This growth takes place through the remembrance of Allah. When you look at all the different aspects of worship, you will see the core of it is focused on the remembrance of Allah.
"Establish the prayer for My remembrance."
Allah has said that he has created us to test us, to see which of us is best in deeds. He is not testing us to know, in the sense that he doesn’t already know, but this world is a test for us in order again that we can grow spiritually.
We cannot develop this spiritual characteristic of generosity unless some of us have more then others and then we are required to give of the wealth we have. When we give, we grow. Similarly, if we were not in a position where others had more then us then we wouldn’t have the ability to develop the higher spiritual quality of *******ment, patience, satisfaction in what Allah has given us.
So it is all there in order to bring out the higher spiritual qualities, which enable us to attain the state, which makes us suitable and eligible to return to paradise. The paradise from which we were created, we were created in paradise and for paradise. Through our choices we have left, in this life, a field of testing, where we can grow to a state where we deserve paradise.
The purpose of this life is the worship of Allah, this life is a test. A test for us, will we worship Allah, or will we forget Him. This is where our focus has to begin
http://cocg.org/eng/faq/index.htm
http://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/surah19.html
http://www.al-basheer.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=0
http://www.imanway1.com/http://sultan.org/
Monday, February 4, 2008
Marriage Versus Fornication
"The Big Chill,?" a specially researched Time magazine cover story of February 16, 1987, startled the world with horrifying details of a new disease - AIDS. Since AIDS is infectious and fatal, it has produced a new breed of untouchables from whom both men and women flee in fear of their very lives. Publicity on the subject has created such a scare that barber' shops in western countries often display signboards bearing the unlikely legend: "No Shaves Here."Government officials have described such a reaction as "AIDS hysteria." Barbers, however, maintain that even the AIDS victims' perspiration, or drops of blood from tiny cuts made during shaving, can transmit the virus and that it was, therefore, necessary to keep away from them.After making detailed investigations, Time's team of experts confirmed that the prime cause of this deadly disease is promiscuity.Since it is transmitted mainly by homosexuals, it has come to be known as the "gay disease." This disease spreads so rapidly that its explosion in the world of today has been geometric. Chilled by the fatality of AIDS, one of its victims exclaimed: "Oh, what will happen in this world, if we have to die when we make love? AIDS is the century's evil." Promiscuity, euphemistically referred to as "free love" in the western world, has brought down a curse upon humanity. It was estimated that by 1991, 270,000 people will have contracted this disease in the U.S., and that doctors will find it impossible to treat such a large number of patients. The situation will be completely beyond control. The government has started an anti- AIDS campaign whose slogan is "Love carefully". This same advice, differently worded, would read: "Love within the bonds of marriage. Stop loving outside them." One of the great influences towards socially "legitimizing" promiscuity was D.H. Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterly's Lover, first published in 1928. At the time of publication this work was considered obscene and almost immediately banned. Then, with a gradual change of moral climate, permission was given to republish it in 1959. Many young people in America were deeply affected by this novel and, a whole spate of similar literature having followed it, promiscuity began to be the rule rather than the exception. Now, once again, there is a public outcry to ban Lady Chatterly's Lover and other such works. Such a complete about-face has been caused by the devastating effects of AIDS. It has forced the west to re-think the whole question of free sex - a development which seems little short of miraculous. "Swingers of all persuasions may sooner or later be faced with the reality of a new era of sexual caution and restraint.People had been delighted at having discovered the key to unlimited enjoyment in freeing themselves from the curbs of religion, for, according to divine law, a sexual relationship between a man and a woman was permitted only within the bonds of marriage. But now the realities of nature are finally forcing man to forsake the path of free love and follow the path of sexual restraint. It has taken the fatalities of the final quarter of the twentieth century to convince people that divine law and the law of nature are one. Too late, it has dawned on "free lovers" that promiscuity could be a killer. Time's cartoon showing a man and a woman encircled by a deadly snake, epitomizes one of today's major human dilemmas. It was not without good reason that the Qur'an commanded that sexual relationships should be confined within the bonds of marriage: "(Lawful to you are), in wedlock, women from among those who believe, and, in wedlock, women from among those who have been given the Book before you - provided that you give them their dowers, taking them in honest wedlock, not in fornication, nor as secret love-companions." (Holy Qur'an, 5:5) This has been interpreted by Qur'anic commentators as a clear injunction to establish sexual relations only through marriage, and that there should be no extra-marital relationships. Experiments have shown that this is the only right and natural way. Marital relationships and fornication are not just matters of approval or disapproval by religious authorities, but matters of life and death. The married state is a blessing for human society; any other is a curse. It is significant that the new education plan released by the U.S. government stresses sexual abstinence as a preventive measure. This public exhortation to observe the rules of old-fashioned morality is a clear indication of the superiority of divine law over man-made law. A believer in divine law, who errs by entering into an illicit sexual relationship, and contracting AIDS in the process, will be considered to have deviated from the principles of divine law. However, one who belongs to western civilization and contracts such a disease as the result of promiscuity will be said to have shown the error of the principle of western civilization itself. The former case proves the error of a man while the latter case proves the error of the principle of a civilization.
نقلاً عن سيف الأخ سيف
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