Why do I exist?

Have you been wondering why you exist. Are you at a point in life where your purpose is more important than you career. Are you seeking fulfillment in life? You may have been around enough to see your career flourish. You may have attained the job title that you once dreamed of. You may even be married with a spouse and children. You have it all. A house, a spouse and children, and wealth. But something inside you wants more. You are unhappy. You are not content with your life. It's not because of what you have, but maybe because you lack something you don't know what it is. You have a void you seek to fill but do not know how. Maybe you are seeking inner peace which only comes from God.

Many of us live to make ends meet. We are not fortunate enough to be born under wealthy parents, or inherit a large fortune. We have to struggle with basic living essentials every day. Our lives are consumed with struggle and hard work most of the time. We don't have time to dedicate to research and education to enlighten ourselves. We have to deal with what's most important now; our survival. Therefore, we become goal oriented and our mission is to succeed and rise above poverty. We know what it's like to be poor and powerless, not able to pursue our dreams. It's not an ideal situation to be in. We wish to flee this misery forever and be amongst the rich and happy. We thus work hard in attaining wealth and living a better life.

Sometimes our mission is so wealth centered that we get consumed with the idea of worldly success. We forget why we exist in the first place. We lose track of our purpose as human beings. We see the glamour of paradise that the media broadcasts in our faces everyday. They advertise big houses by the beach and cars that everyone should have. We become believers and want the same joy and happiness that they advertise to us. We thus dedicate a lot of our time in attaining a successful career, chasing happiness that is not real. We go to the extreme. Instead of gradually working towards a better life, we dedicate all our energy towards wealth. We thus may end up wealthy and unhappy.

Don't get me wrong. Wealth is good. It enables us to live our lives better and be more productive. It opens opportunities which would not be possible if we were poor. It makes life easier. It enables us to experience things which are not possible without wealth. But wealth is not necessary happiness, and it sure is not our purpose of life. Wealth is only an enabler to living a better life. It gives us the resources to succeed and pursue our dreams. But even with resources, success is only possible when we have passion. A striving to do something that we feel alive. A striving in which our hearts are at peace and we are content with what we are doing.

We have to remind ourselves that we exist as a noble creation of God. We have been planned and fashioned into the creation we are. We did not create ourselves, nor did we fashion ourselves. We have been created, shaped, and evolved for a very specific purpose. Our purpose cannot be to attain wealth. If the purpose of life is to become wealthy, there would be no purpose after becoming wealthy. Your purpose has to be something greater or eternal, meaning something that is more than your life. The fact is that when people approach their purpose here in this life from the aspect of only gaining wealth, after collecting the money they have dreamed of, their lives lose purpose and then they live in restless tension suffering from a feeling of worthlessness. Wealth and its accumulation as a purpose would be doomed to a temporary success at best and in the end it would only spell out self destruction.

A child of 5 years would obviously prefer a new toy to a deposit slip for a million dollars. A teenager does not consider millions of dollars in the bank a substitute for movies, videos, pizza and hanging out with his friends. A person in their 80s or 90s would never consider holding on to their wealth in place of spending it to hold on to or regain their health. This proves that money is not the main purpose at all the stages of one's life and thus cannot be our greater purpose.

To attain inner peace, you have to find out what you were created to do. It cannot be to serve you only. It cannot be to serve our desires only. There has to be more than us in the picture. Each one of us has been gifted with a unique ability to contribute to the world. Just like everything that exists helps the environment, we thus exist to make a difference to the environment and our fellow human beings. God has called mankind as the Representatives of earth. We have been given responsibility to look out after this planet. We must seek a responsibility that is fulfilling and a difference maker to this planet. It may be that whenever we find our passion, we have found our purpose of life. We may be at peace with what we are doing. You will know when you are doing what you were created to do. You will feel like you are making a difference and are helping others.

Don't confuse our worldly purpose with our humanly purpose. Our humanly purpose has to be bigger than our mission in this life. Think of our wordly purpose as our smaller purpose as to why we exist in this world. Our purpose is not just of this world though. That is just one part of the equation. We were created for a greater purpose as well. In anything that is created, we must ask three basic questions. Why was it created in the first place. What purpose will it serve. What happens after it stops existing, meaning it has fulfilled its worldly purpose?

We know that anything that exists has a purpose. Truly, nothing exists without it. Therefore the purpose of existence is you are. You have been created for a particular mission on this life. Your task is to find out what you are good at. You need to identify the unique gifts and abilities you have and put them to use. Be a difference maker.

Your purpose has to be more than a short worldly life with non-existence afterwards. Who would want to struggle if this world was it. It has to be something more, something eternal where struggle is non-existent. Fortunately, we have been created not for this world, but for the life hereafter. That is our greater purpose. A life where the creator himself has promised eternal happiness for his righteous and obedient creation. The creator himself has revealed our greater purpose in the glorious Qur'an. He has made it very clear to all mankind why we were created. God said: "I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. (Qur'an 51:56)"

Thus, the greater purpose of life is to get to know God. It is to worship him alone. At first, this may seem like something not beneficial or logical. The very word worship has a negative connotation. It calls for surrender and prostration. If we look further and study the meaning of the word worship, we come to find out that it actually has a different meaning. The word worship comes from the word worth. Its meaning is to acknowledge that something is worthy of worship and we must be obedient to them in all matters. When we are in a state of worship, we humble ourselves and recognize that we are created, not the creator and we become righteous and aware of whom we are to answer to.

The Qur'an calls mankind to recognize that God is the creator, sustainer, fashioner of everything. God is inviting us to recognize Him as our creator. He is informing us why we were created and what we must do to be happy. He is calling us to be obedient to His commandments. God is revealing to us that He created us to acknowledge him. To get to know him. To obey Him. To be thankful to Him. To seek and praise Him. To strive and be with Him in paradise, in the life to come.

God goes on to explain further as to why we exist in this world. He first created us to acknowledge Him as the creator of all, the only being worthy of admiration and authority. He calls onto His creation for complete obedience. God creates what He wills, and instructs the created what purpose they were created for. In that purpose, God promises fulfilment if we obey Him. 

God has willed that the destination of mankind is to have eternal life in the hereafter with Him. In this world, God says that the human beings were created to be tested as to which of us is best in deeds. The beauty of testing is that we often find out what we are made out of. We find out what we are capable of. Testing allows our character to develop. Testing prepares us for things to come.

God has created a fair system in life, where our deeds will be our evidence of what God will give us in the next life. Our deeds will justify our destination. God says: "We created them not except with truth (i.e. to examine and test those who are obedient and those who are disobedient and then reward the obedient ones and punish the disobedient ones), but most of them know not” [Qur'an 44:38]"

In conclusion, God created us to worship Him alone. To be obedient to him. To recognize Him as the only being worthy of worship and admiration. To know him before the next life. In the next life disease, temptation, trials and tribulation will not exist. Violence will not exist. Evil will not exist. In the next life there won't be a need for forgiveness. We are already forgiven and awarded with paradise, however in this life when we sin, we will come to know God's mercy countless times. The meaning of "most-merciful" will be a living word not just an attribute. So this life serves mankind as an opportunity to know the living God.

God has given us free will; the ability to chose right from wrong. If we obey God's commandments and become believers, we will inherit the kingdom of God, eternally with Him. Thus, inner peace and contentment comes from recognizing the truth. Embrace it God-Willing!

- F.D