Received 13. 07. 2008 -- 20:50 from
fromhallo
مختصر المطوية
الإسلام والهدف من الحياة
تتحدث المطوية عن أهداف الناس في حياتهم واختلاف تلك الأهداف باختلافهم فمن
باحث عن الثروة ومن باحث عن اللذات وغير ذلك، ثم تذكر أن الهدف الرئيس في
الإسلام هو عبادة الله وعن بساطة تعاليم الإسلام وعدم تعقيدها وعن لذة
العبادة و أن الحياة الأولى هي للامتحان والابتلاء وعبادة الرحمن والجزاء في
الآخرة دار الخلود
ISLAM and the AIM of LIFE
What is your purpose in life? What is the rationale behind our life?
Why do we live in this life? These questions frequently intrigue
people who try to find accurate answers.
People provide different answers to these questions. Some people
believe the purpose of life is to accumulate wealth. But one may
wonder: What is the purpose of life after one has collected colossal
amounts of money? What then? What will the purpose be once money is
gathered? If the purpose of life is to gain money, there will be no
purpose after becoming wealthy. And in fact, here lies the problem
of some disbelievers or misbelievers at some stage of their life,
when collecting money is the target of their life. When they have
collected the money they dreamt of, their life loses its purpose.
They suffer from the panic of nothingness and they live in tension
and restlessness.
Can Wealth Be an Aim?
We often hear of a millionaire committing suicide, sometimes, not
the millionaire himself but his wife, son, or daughter. The question
that poses itself is: Can wealth bring happiness to one's life? In
most cases the answer is NO. Is the purpose of collecting wealth a
standing purpose? As we know, the five-year old child does not look
for wealth: a toy for him is equal to a million dollars. The
eighteen-year old adolescent does not dream of wealth because he is
busy with more important things. The ninety-year old man does not
care about money; he is worried more about his health. This proves
that wealth cannot be a standing purpose in all the stages of the
individual's life.
Wealth can do little to bring happiness to a disbeliever, because
he/she is not sure about his fate. A disbeliever does not know the
purpose of life. And if he has a purpose, this purpose is doomed to
be temporary or self destructive.
What is the use of wealth to a disbeliever if he feels scared of the
end and skeptical of everything. A disbeliever may gain a lot of
money, but will surely lose himself.
Worshipping Allah as an Aim
On the contrary, faith in Allah gives the believer the purpose of
life that he needs. In Islam, the purpose of life is to worship
Allah. The term "Worship" covers all acts of obedience to Allah.
The Islamic purpose of life is a standing purpose. The true Muslim
sticks to this purpose throughout all the stages of his life,
whether he is a child, adolescent, adult, or an old man.
Worshipping Allah makes life purposeful and meaningful, especially
within the framework of Islam. According to Islam this worldly life
is just a short stage of our life. Then there is the other life. The
boundary between the first and second life is the death stage, which
is a transitory stage to the second life. The type of life in the
second stage a person deserves depends on his deeds in the first
life. At the end of the death stage comes the day of judgment. On
this day, Allah rewards or punishes people according to their deeds
in the first life.
The First Life as an Examination
So, Islam looks at the first life as an examination of man. The
death stage is similar to a rest period after the test, i. e. after
the first life. The Day of Judgment is similar to the day of
announcing the results of the examinees. The second life is the time
when each examinee enjoys or suffers from the outcome of his
behavior during the test period.
In Islam, the line of life is clear, simple, and logical: the first
life, death, the Day of Judgment, and then the second life. With
this clear line of life, the Muslim has a clear purpose in life. The
Muslim knows he is created by Allah. Muslims know they are going to
spend some years in this first life, during which they have to obey
God, because God will question them and hold them responsible for
their public or private deeds, because Allah knows about all the
deeds of all people. The Muslim knows that his deeds in the first
life will determine the type of second life they will live in. The
Muslim knows that this first life is a very short one, one hundred
years, more or less, whereas the second life is an eternal one.
The Eternity of the Second Life
The concept of the eternity of the second life has a tremendous
effect on a Muslims during their first life, because Muslims believe
that their first life determines the shape of their second life. In
addition, this determines the shape of their second life and this
determination will be through the Judgment of Allah, the All just
and Almighty.
With this belief in the second life and the Day of Judgment, the
Muslim's life becomes purposeful and meaningful. Moreover, the
Muslim's standing purpose is to go to Paradise in the second life.
In other words, the Muslim's permanent purpose is to obey Allah, to
submit to Allah, to carry out His orders, and to keep in continues
contact with Him through prayers (five times a day), through fasting
(one month a year), through charity (as often as possible), and
through pilgrimage (once in one's life).
The Need for a Permanent Purpose
Disbelievers have purposes in their lives such as collecting money
and property, indulging in sex, eating, and dancing. But all these
purposes are transient and passing ones. All these purposes come and
go, go up and down. Money comes and goes. Health comes and goes.
Sexual activities cannot continue forever. All these lusts for
money, food and sex cannot answer the individual's questions: so
what? Then What?
However, Islam saves Muslims from the trouble of asking the
question, because Islam makes it clear, from the very beginning,
that the permanent purpose of the Muslim in this life is to obey
Allah in order to go to Paradise in the second life.
We should know that the only way for our salvation in this life and
in the hereafter is to know our Lord who created us, believe in Him,
and worship Him alone.
We should also know our Prophet whom Allah had sent to all mankind,
believe in Him and follow Him. We should, know the religion of truth
which our Lord has commanded us to believe in, and practice it …
Those in search of truth
Who have an open mind and heart,
Islamic Education Foundation
Welcome You.
Objectives: -
To Convey the message of Islam
To Educate Muslims about Islam
To keep in close contact with new Muslims.
Activities:
Offering Courses and presenting lectures about Islam in several
languages.
Teaching Islam and Arabic.
Teaching new Muslims to receive the Holy Quran.
Helping Non- Muslims embrace Islam and complete the required
procedures
------------------------------------