What is the Purpose of Life?

HP_TECH

What is is the Purpose of Life as per the Quran-only?

What are the specific verses from the Quran that support 'What is the Purpose of Life' for the individual?

Peace,

Abada/Worship/Serve your Master
I believe you have cited the exact Verse in your linguistic thread

Wakas

Analogy
https//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=12389.msg97190#msg97190

HP_TECH

Analogy
https//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=12389.msg97190#msg97190

I say this not to antagonize you, but when I read your simile of a machine, I thought to myself
How can a believer compare Allah to a machine??
Simultaneously these Verses popped up in my mind

1674
So (do) not put forth for Allah the similitude. Indeed, Allah knows and you (do) not know.
Fala tadriboo lillahi al-amthala inna Allaha yaAAlamu waantum la taAAlamoona

1965
Lord (of) the heavens and the earth and whatever (is) between both of them, so worship Him and be constant in His worship. Do you know for Him any similarity?
Rabbu alssamawati waal-ardi wama baynahuma faoAAbudhu waistabir liAAibadatihi hal taAAlamu lahu samiyyan

I might argue with you about FE and stuff but I genuinely care about believers so beware and please refrain in the future from making such similitudes

Nonetheless

Peace,

Abada/Worship/Serve your Master
I believe you have cited the exact Verse in your linguistic thread

Yes, but there is a linguistic issue for me on this matter.

5156

Wama khalaqtu aljinna waal-insa illa liyaAAbudooni
And not I have created the jinn and the mankind except that they worship Me.

If we quote from 5156 say,
the purpose of life is to worship Allah .

How can we justify the above interpretation of the meaning?
What are the linguistic principles that justified the meanings are the same when we interpret from

"And not I have created the jinn and the mankind except that they worship Me."
to;
"The purpose of life for a human being created by Allah is to worship Allah .

If any one has any detailed linguistic explanations please do so in this thread;
https//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9609219.0
I intend to contact some Arabic Linguist experts to get their views on this.
Any one has emails of any linguist experts, a friend may be or you have come across.

OK, linguistic principles aside, let say we agree;

5156

Wama khalaqtu aljinna waal-insa illa liyaAAbudooni
And not I have created the jinn and the mankind except that they worship Me.
can be interpreted as;

"The purpose of life for a human being created by Allah is to worship Allah .

One thing to notice in the phrase there is no ibadat nor abada but ya'budu.
Ya'budu is distinctively different from ibadat or abada.
Replacing ya'budu with 'ibadat' may even tantamount to corruption, deception and rhetoric especially where linguistic precision matters.

One will note ibadat is reference mostly to other than Allah, i.e. to deities, idols and others.
When referring the Allah, the Quran use the term 'ya'budu'.
I believe ya'budu has a very distinct and addition features from 'ibadat'.

Beside using the English term 'worship' can be very misleading as this tend to veer the mind to 'salat' glorifying, praising, and the likes to Allah, thus can be misleading. This give the wrong impression that salat is the most critical deed, thus the overly concern on contact prayers by certain groups.
The English term 'serving' can also be misleading and it can veer towards serving as servant.

Ya'budu is a very all encompassing term.
Thus what ya'budu meant need to be understood very clearly since this is the overriding purpose humans were created for.
Infact the term 'ya'budu' should be kept intact and not translated at all but only with a note to explain what this all encompassing term entails.

HP_TECH

How would you explain this all encompassing term?

hansolo

It varies a lot. Ask a pro football player, Hell most probably tell you it is playing football. Ask a businessman, Hell most probably tell you it is making profit. For some its just fishing. We all different.

However, Im sure all of this things are just distractions from the real purpose. We are stuck in a maze. We dont even know for sure what the sky is. What are the stars? Recently, I was outside looking at the night sky, and I can tell you the sky looked like a planetarium. It looked so in the face, as if the sky is not that far away. There are so many stiff we dont know about this place, however Im sure if we crack the code we will be able to understand everything.

good_logic

Peace All.
There is a more important question to ask before we can ask "what is the purpose of life"?.
The question is id we exist before this life?
Then we follow by "Why have we been created as humans? This hopefully will give us the purpose?

So according to Qoran, it says this

228
How can you disbelieve in God when you were dead and He gave you life, then He puts you to death, then He brings you back to life, then to Him you ultimately return?

The key word here is " Amwattan" This means we were dead before GOD created us as humans. It is very important to watch the words GOD uses in Qoran. GOD does not err or make mistakes with the choice of His words!!!
Hence we were "Amwatan" can only mean we were alive before that otherwise GOD would have said "You were nothing".
It is not possible to be "Amwatan" if we were not alive before that?
This verse gives two life cycles.
Of course the next questions will be
Why did we become "Amwatan"? What did we exist as? Why were we created as humans?,,,etc.
GOD bless.
Peace.

hansolo

So You mean, Quran doesn't say that we were alive before this life, thus implying reincarnation exist.

But, means that prior to this human/earthly life we were another life form living somewhere else ?

good_logic

Peace hansolo.
What you say here,quote
But, means that prior to this human/earthly life we were another life form living somewhere else ?
This is probably true ,but it does not mean reincarnation. It just means the same soul living as two different types of life.

GOD bless you.
Peace

hansolo

Peace hansolo.
What you say here,quote
But, means that prior to this human/earthly life we were another life form living somewhere else ?
This is probably true ,but it does not mean reincarnation. It just means the same soul living as two different types of life.

GOD bless you.
Peace

Peace Good Logic. So by this Logic we Get only one earthly life? If anyone trusts the Bible. In Bible Jesus is asked why was this man born blind, because he sinned? (As I understand implying that He was a sinner in prior life). However, Jesus answered No!

JOHN 91-3

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ?Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind??

3 ?Neither this man nor his parents sinned,? said Jesus, ?but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him

So yeah as we can see, reincarnation is probably not true.

Man_of_Faith

Peace hansolo.
What you say here,quote
But, means that prior to this human/earthly life we were another life form living somewhere else ?
This is probably true ,but it does not mean reincarnation. It just means the same soul living as two different types of life.

GOD bless you.
Peace

You must be allergic to the word reincarnation. Why not use the word for that?

Same soul living two different types of life is reincarnation.

Be well
Amenuel

Man_of_Faith

Peace Good Logic. So by this Logic we Get only one earthly life? If anyone trusts the Bible. In Bible Jesus is asked why was this man born blind, because he sinned? (As I understand implying that He was a sinner in prior life). However, Jesus answered No!

JOHN 91-3

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ?Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind??

3 ?Neither this man nor his parents sinned,? said Jesus, ?but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him

So yeah as we can see, reincarnation is probably not true.

You draw that conclusion from Jesus words. What if Jesus refers to his previous body?

Personally I think the translation is weak. John is also one of the less reliable in my opinion.

And, in case you have missed it, Jesus does respond "your sins are forgiven" to a lot of people when healing their ails and as far as I can recall it has been those born disabled. You do not tell a person who has not been sinning before being born in this lifetime that your sins are forgiven unless he actually had done something wrong in his past.

And there are a multitude of people in this world born disabled in various ways and then would you say God is giving all of them a fair chance of salvation if they are handicapped?

No, obviously it is inconsistent with applied logic. The true answer is that everyone reaps with this body what they sowed before. And the one who sows anew and does it well is reaping it elsewhere.

Be well
Amenuel

hansolo

You draw that conclusion from Jesus words. What if Jesus refers to his previous body?

Personally I think the translation is weak. John is also one of the less reliable in my opinion.

And, in case you have missed it, Jesus does respond "your sins are forgiven" to a lot of people when healing their ails and as far as I can recall it has been those born disabled. You do not tell a person who has not been sinning before being born in this lifetime that your sins are forgiven unless he actually had done something wrong in his past.

And there are a multitude of people in this world born disabled in various ways and then would you say God is giving all of them a fair chance of salvation if they are handicapped?

No, obviously it is inconsistent with applied logic. The true answer is that everyone reaps with this body what they sowed before. And the one who sows anew and does it well is reaping it elsewhere.

Be well
Amenuel

So people who are born with disabilities were big sinners in their prior life? Thus they are paying for their sins in their next life? Ok, But what about the People who are born with Down syndrome? Are they disabled? Sure! However they are known to be extremely kind and peaceful. Wouldn't it be a blessing than rather than a cure? If the whole point of this human life is to die as clean and pure as possible?

Peace

good_logic

Peace hansolo.
MOF s logic has a bit of "arrogance" in it. GOD gave him his faculties and brain and now he is using it unfairly against others.
Is he saying he was "sinless" before?
What about animals? Does he know what kind of bad sin they committed to deserve this life?
In fact he has not got a clue about how GOD assigns the souls and how GOD chooses why and what He creates.
MOF is having wild guesses and he knows it.
As for his kind of reincarnation,does he really think one soul has multiple goes at this life in different bodies?
Does he read the Qoran he claims to believe in? Each soul has only one single go in this life!! No more.
GOD bless you.
Peace

imrankhawaja

our reality ... we exist at this time/place... proven fact
our future ... one day everybody leave this place/time by termination ... proven fact
our past... (consider dreamz, day javu, fear from certain things) not to be proven yet what is the reality of these things ,but dreams still come we still sleep its just a start to understanding human mind...

by defination if u guys claim reincration from time to time with same self... thats problemetic actually.. we can go back to max 14 billion years thens it blank again.. that clear one thing... God alone knows the secrets of heavens and earth... our creation purpose and everything...

How can you disbelieve in God when you were dead and He gave you life, then He puts you to death, then He brings you back to life, then to Him you ultimately return?

first part of the verse the self was dead(offline) before God make it (alive)online
from stages in the womb of mother to the creation of spirit and evolution of body... anything...

second part ... he gave us life(connecting two things self and body) what we call life... theoratically...
this stage is with us right now all the members ... of forum and outside...

third part.. then the system of our life will accomplish the purpose for a predetermined time set for every life by God planning...its better to do that way .. nobody really knows when machinery will offline otherwise the interest of life was long finished... God knows y he plan like that but i know thats a perfect -plan... no body knows or gurantee how long somebody live...
this time he take life back from us... disconnecting self from body....called death theoratically....

fourth part ..then God connect us again for the results of project/task/test/purpose... he wil give us life again....

fifth and final part... God was the master source and he will be the master source forever without the law of time and space...
to him we will return... a start of new exploring to the lord of heavens and earth...

our project is quite huge more than we can imagine and we are just in starting position for that task and i think most of them will get disqualified before the first step of project...

the verse indicates three different dimenshns of life with different purposes its not iincranation its a planning of most high...

sometimes incranation idea we make it by our own wishful thinking most of the times when we really wanted second chance and we get distract again .. life is not about making bank balance, cars , money , women, luxuries... the question for every person eithr poor rich disable ,celebrity is same what did you do with what i provided you....

for poor did you steal the money ? yes wrong choice, no good choice u passed ur exam...
for rich did you spend the money in my cause? yes good choice , you play a character of good care taker of the money what actually belongs to God.... no wrong choice u failed the test

Nonetheless

How would you explain this all encompassing term?

Ya'budu 'ubud] as all encompassing in reference to Allah is not an easy term to explain.

The moment one jump onto the one set of meaning, then one is limiting the meaning of 'ya'budu' to that particular set of meaning.
Leaving the meanings open-ended and interdependent is critical.
Therefore "what is ya'budu" must be approached from many perspectives from the widest to the narrowest.

The widest meaning we can attribute to 'ya'budu' is this;
To ya'budud Allah alone meant to comply and practice 100% with the total 6,236 verses within the Quran only and nothing else with the right state of mind.
When a Muslim ya'budu comply with 100% of the Quran-only, what else more is there to comply.

In compliance with 100% with the Quran we need to consider two important concepts;

The ideal standards of the Quran, say 100%
The provision for a Muslim to do the best of his/her ability.

Ya'budu is all encompassing in that it overrides submit believe, trust, serve, salaf , praise, glorify, fear, remembrance and every deeds necessary to improve oneself to the best of one's ability till the final destination of the journey.

What is ya'budu from the Quran perspective is the ideal 100% but in reality and practice, with provision from Allah, a Muslim will progress in stages and phases to the highest capacity of ya'budu within the best of his/her abilities.

What is also critical is ya'budu entails a covenant with Allah, either explicitly or implicitly. e.g. like a 'marriage contract' but obviously the 'contractual' bonding with Allah is transcendental and unique.

Other perspectives and questions are 'how to enter into the right state of mind to ya'budu' etc. Notable are terms like fa-ir'habni; RHB raghaban, warahaban

So far I have only discussed from a few perspectives out of the necessary 100++ to understand its all encompassing meaning. The other perspective need to be explored with an open-ended sense of inquiry.

My Question;
Whilst I have not provided the complete picture, given the above lead and clues it is agreeable that 'ya'budu' should be the central theme of Islam?

Nonetheless

Peace All.
There is a more important question to ask before we can ask "what is the purpose of life"?.
The question is Did we exist before this life?
Then we follow by "Why have we been created as humans? This hopefully will give us the purpose?

So according to Qoran, it says this

228
How can you disbelieve in God when you were dead and He gave you life, then He puts you to death, then He brings you back to life, then to Him you ultimately return?

The key word here is " Amwattan" This means we were dead before GOD created us as humans. It is very important to watch the words GOD uses in Qoran. GOD does not err or make mistakes with the choice of His words!!!
Hence we were "Amwatan" can only mean we were alive before that otherwise GOD would have said "You were nothing".
It is not possible to be "Amwatan" if we were not alive before that?
This verse gives two life cycles.
Of course the next questions will be
Why did we become "Amwatan"? What did we exist as? Why were we created as humans?,,,etc.
GOD bless.
Peace.

Many translators translate "Amwatan" as "lifeless" while the "yu'ykum" is 'die' or 'dead'.
Adam was created from clay which is lifeless initially and then God breathed God's spirit into Adam to make him alive.
The same model process and logic can be applied to all humans where at some point in the beginning, the zygote was lifeless and then immediately imbue with 'spirit'.
So there was no dead human before the zygote, only a lifeless zygote made alive.

good_logic

Peace Nonetheless.
Remember me saying GOD chooses His words carefully and exactly.
I disagree with you, "Amwatan" cannot mean any other material. God is talking about the " Person" i.e the "soul"

In another verse ,,Which confirms what I said about GOD choosing His words, GOD is talking about the first creation of us before we were humans
"Awalam Yara Al-Insanu anna khalaknahu "MIN KABLU" wa lam yakun CHAYAN"

Does the human not realise that we created him" before" when he was "nothing".

Key words here are "MIN KABLU" and "Lam yakun CHAYAN".
Unless one comes up with a contradiction of the verses, GOD is reminding us here about our first creation.

Hence confirmation of two lives plus one more to come after the resurrection.

GOD bless you.
Peace.

good_logic

Peace Nonetheless.
Here are the verses numbers to ponder

1966
The human being asks, "After I die, do I come back to life?"

1967
Did the human being forget( does he not remember) that we created him before, and he was nothing?

The ""Yadhkuru" , I translated as "see" in my post before, it should have been "Remember".

GOD bless you.
Peace.

Nonetheless

Peace Nonetheless.
Here are the verses numbers to ponder

1966
The human being asks, "After I die, do I come back to life?"

1967
Did the human being forget( does he not remember) that we created him before, and he was nothing?

The ""Yadhkuru" , I translated as "see" in my post before, it should have been "Remember".

GOD bless you.
Peace.

I believe you are reading to much into the two verses.

What I read in context is, the statement is addressed to individual human , i.e.

Don't you remember what is told in the Quran, you were created before this present time that you were created out of nothing. .

If Allah wanted to introduce the concept of 'reincarnation' into Islam, Allah would have made it a central issue. The overall context of the Quran do not support reincarnation.