By Alperen Ozalp

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• By Alperen Ozalp

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Outline

• Introduction
• What is the purpose of life?
• To Know God
• Reason, Knowledge and Salvation
• Surrendering to God
• To receive and Experience Attributes of God
• Is this life a test?
• Is this life a struggle?
• Learning in Test and Struggle
• Forgiveness

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Introduction

• Is purpose of life restricted to
  following the good life according to the
  requisites of civilization?
  
• Is the sole aim of the feelings and senses
  included in
  
• the machine of your
  life is restricted to
  
• satisfying the low
  desires of the soul in
  
• this fleeting life?

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What is the purpose of life?

• There are two aims
• 1st to recognize the True Bestower, and
• offer God thanks and worship.
• 2nd is to know and experience the Divine
  Attributes of God in the world, and by
  experiencing them, to believe in them.
  
• Through these two basic aims, human
• becomes a true human being.

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TO KNOW GOD

• The wonders of creation, such as the gestation of
  
  
• animals, the movements of the heavenly
  bodies,
  
• atmospheric phenomena, the variety of animal
  and
  
• vegetable life so marvelously well adopted to
  human
  
• needs. All those things are signs for those
  of insight (3190)
  
• (553-58, 102-103
  1042-43 2245-46 5914)
  
• (2166-171
  2544-46)
  
• He who
  created the eye of the mosquito
  
• is
  the one who created the sun.

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A challenge to Reason and Knowledge

• Muslims believe that
  religion must make sense,
  
• that must be wisdom
  and rationale behind
  
• everyone of its
  elements.
  
• While admitting the limitations of human thought,
  nonetheless
  
• give reason a vital role. The source of this
  
  
• insistence is undoubtedly Quran.

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REASON Quran asks almost incredulously

• Do they not travel through the land, so that
• their hearts may thus learn wisdom? (267)
• Do they not travel through the land, so that
• their hearts may thus learn wisdom? (2244)
• Do they not examine
  the earth? (267)
  
• Do they not look at
  the sky above them? (506)
  
• (8817), (5663),
  (2269), (2942-43), (399)

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KNOWLEDGE First command READ

• The very first revelation
• Read, in the name of your Lord, who created
  created human from tiny thing that clings. Read,
  for your Lord is the Most Bountiful, who taught
  the use of the pen, taught human what he did not
  know. (961-5)
• The use of pen KNOWLEDGE

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SALVATION is obtained through

• Quran enjoins us to study critically our
• behavior and beliefs.
• Salvation is
  obtained
  
• through searching
  out and
  
• surrendering to
  GOD.
  
• We will show them our signs in the farthest
• reaches and within themselves until it is
  clear
  
• to them that it is the truth. (4153)

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SURRENDERING TO GOD

• Belief in God requires reflection on the
  creation, together with knowledge of God and
  worship of God, and results truthful acts and
  harmonious behaviors.
• We grow in
• Virtue
• Wisdom
• Justice
• Mercy
• Forgiveness
• Righteousness
• Concern and love
• Compassion, patience and generosity

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To receive and experience God's attributes

• We are to pursue them not only to make the world
  a better place,
  
• When I
  have fashioned human, breathed
  
• 
  into him of My Spirit. (1529)
  
• We grow in
  our ability to receive and
  
• 
  experience Gods mercy, forgiveness,
  
• compassion,
  justice, righteousness and love.
  
• We build a strong
  personal relationship with God
  

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To receive and experience God's attributes

• The aims of the Quran are to provide a barrier
  against the appetites of man thus encouraging him
  to engage in higher pursuits, giving satisfaction
  to his higher aspirations and directing him
  towards the achievements of human perfection.
• (Beziuzzaman Said Nursi)

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Why were we not created with these qualities from
the start?

• Quran emphasizes three essential
• components of humans
• moral spiritual evolution
• Free will,
• ability to choose
• Intellect,
• learning from ones choices
• Struggle

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Why do we have to experience this life?

• Quran insists
  that, in the design of
  
• God, our
  earthly life is a necessary
  
• stage in
  human existence
  
• Those (are
  believers) who remember
  
• God standing and sitting and lying down, and
  reflect upon
  
• the creation of the heavens and the earth
  (saying) Our
  
• Lord, you did not create all this in vain.
  (3191)

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Why do we have to experience this life?

• And We did not create the heaven and the earth
  and whatever is between them as a game. If we
  wished to take a pastime, We would have taken it
  by Ourselves, if We were to do that at all!
  (2116-17)
• Do you think that We created you for nothing and
  that you will not be returned to Us? The true
  Sovereign is too exalted above that. (23115-116)

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Why do we have to experience this life?

• Man came to this world to be perfected by means
  of knowledge and supplication. In regard to his
  nature and abilities everything is tied to
  knowledge. And the foundation, source, light, and
  spirit of all true knowledge is knowledge of God,
  and its essence and basis is belief in God.
• (Bediuzzaman Said Nursi)

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Is this life a test?

• We are tested in this world
• so that we may become
• clarified,
• purified
• attain virtue and perfection
• through our choice (free will)
• We find trials and tests in every aspect of our
  lives.

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Is this life a struggle?

• To remember the lifes ultimate purpose in
  difficult times.
  
• Assuredly we will try you with
• something of danger and hunger
• and loss of some worldly goods,
• and of lives and the fruits of your
• labor. But give glad tidings to those
• who are patient in adversity,- those
• who, when calamity befalls them,
• say, Truly, to God we belong and, truly, to
  Him we shall
  
• return. (2155-156)

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Is this life a struggle? - 2

• You will certainly be tried in
• your possessions and
• yourselves. (3186)
• Oh you who believe! Be patient in adversity, and
  vie with one another in perseverance, and be ever
  ready, and remain conscious of God, so that you
  may attain success. (3200)

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LEARNING IN TEST STRUGGLE

• It is by learning from ones own mistakes,
• Rising above our mistakes,
• that we learn and progress to
• higher levels of goodness.
• Excepting the one who repents and believes and
  does righteous deeds- then for those, God will
  change their evil deeds into good deeds, for God
  is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. (2570)

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God is responsive to those who seek Him

• And if my servants call on Me, surely I am near.
  I heed the call of every caller. So let them with
  a call unto Me and let them believe in Me, in
  order that they may be guided aright. (2186)
• When you approach God by an arms length, He
  approaches you by two, and if you come to Him
  walking, He comes to you running. (Hadith, saying
  of Muhammed)

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Sin as self destruction, rebellion against ones
true nature.

• Evidence have come to you from your Lord. Then
  the one who sees does so for his own soul, and
  the one who is blind, it is upon himself.
  (6104)
• We have revealed to you the Book for mankind with
  the truth. Then the one who is guided, it is for
  his own soul, the one who strays, his straying is
  only upon himself. (3941)
• They did not do injustice to Us,
• but rather they wronged
• their own souls. (7160)

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Forgiveness

• O My servants who have sinned against yourselves,
  never despair of Gods mercy. Surely God forgives
  all sins. He is the Most forgiving the Most
  Merciful. (3953)
• In reality we are doing injustice
• and violence to ourselves by
• oppressing and robbing ourselves
• of our spiritual ascent.

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Summary

• The purpose of our creation is to reach our
  utmost goals of belief, knowledge, and
  spirituality to reflect on God.
  
• This worldly realm is the field of testing and
  learning that we may experience God attributes
  and believe in them.

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Backup Slides-1

• The purpose of our creation is obvious to reach
  our utmost goals of belief, knowledge, and
  spirituality to reflect on the universe,
  humanity, and God, and thus prove our value as
  human beings. Fulfilling this ideal is possible
  only through systematic thinking and systematic
  behavior. Thought will provoke action, and
  thereby start a "prosperous cycle." This cycle
  will produce more complex cycles, generating
  between the heart's spirituality and the brain's
  knowledge, and thereby develop ever-more complex
  ideas and produce larger projects.

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Backup Slides-2

• To reach this goal, we must use our willpower, a
  voice heard by the All-Powerful One, and develop
  our abilities and skills to their furthest
  extent, thus proving ourselves to be willful
  beings. Our duty is to reflect upon our place in
  life, our responsibilities, and our relationship
  with this vast universe. We should use our inner
  thoughts to explore creation's hidden side. As we
  do so, we will begin to feel a deeper sense of
  our selves, see things differently, witness that
  events are not what they seem, and realize that
  events are trying to communicate something to us.

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Backup Slides-3

• The wisdom of it concerns the charging of duties
  Adam was sent charged with such a duty that the
  unfolding of all mankind's spiritual progress and
  the revealing of all mankind's potentialities and
  man's essential nature being a comprehensive
  mirror to all the Divine Names, are the results
  of it. If Adam had remained in Paradise, his rank
  would have been fixed like that of the angels
  man's potentialities would not have unfolded. In
  any case, the angels, whose ranks are unchanging,
  are numerous, and there is no need for man to
  perform that sort of worship. Indeed, since
  Divine wisdom required a realm of accountability
  appropriate to the potentialities of man, who
  would traverse infinite degrees, he was expelled
  from Paradise for his well-known sin, sin being
  the requirement of man's nature and contrary to
  that of the angels. That is to say, just as Adam
  being expelled from Paradise was pure wisdom and
  pure mercy.