What’s The Purpose of Life
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Channel: Tom Facchine
File Size: 7.15MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of understanding oneself and one's purpose in order to overcome potentialities is emphasized in Islam. It is a hierarchy of potentialities, and gratitude is transferable to everything. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being grateful to Allah for creating a better world and creating a successor or stewardship, as it is crucial to achieving spiritual success.AI Generated Transcript ©
So Al Arab al Suhani leaves us hanging
with this kind of idea of, okay, you
need to know Allah and you need to
know yourselves and you need to know what's
your capacity, what's your nature, but also what's
your purpose. So the first thing he's got
he tackles is, okay, what is the purpose?
And if you ask, you know, the the
average Muslim what's the purpose of life? Why
are we here? They're going to give you
kind of the the Sunday school answer. Well,
we're here to worship Allah. Okay.
Technically true. Right? Sort of that, yeah. So
then Allah says that he only created us
to worship us. True.
But that's not the only reason we're here
And the Uragu al Asfihani
goes into the Quran
to extract other
purposes.
Why Allah placed us here in the in
the first place? Why are we created and
why are we created like this? Right? Not
just why do we exist, which is one
question, but why do we exist as we
are
or why don't we have an original sin
to overcome?
Why
do we have to do good works? Why
do we have to believe? Why do we
have why are we created as almost like
a clean slate with all these sort of
potentialities,
that aren't realized, that require development? What's the
point?
And so,
Arag al Sohani, he identifies 3 main purposes
to human life and they're they exist in
a hierarchy.
Right? So there's, kind of, like, your
beginner level
training wheels,
purpose to life and then there's kind of
an intermediate level and there's an advanced level
for the elite
who are able and willing to get there.
So the first purpose and the the beginner
level purpose of human life is 'imara',
which has to do with just
settling on earth. Right? Your your needs, your
livelihood,
you know, family, you got your kids, you
got your friends, you got your job, you
got your car, your house, your electricity bill,
all the sorts of things that you need
to just barely survive and to have a
decent life. And this is something universally recognized,
but it is a purpose of our lives.
Right? It's not,
we're not here
solely for spiritual existential purposes. We're also here
for some material purposes and that's a pretty
foundational one. But that's not enough.
Right? You can't
just get,
if a human being comes as a somewhat
of a clean slate and is mostly potential
or capacity,
for somebody to get stuck at level 1
is is embarrassing,
because there's
higher levels decline. And so the second second
level is exactly kind of the the Sunday
school answer, which is worshiping Allah. Ibad.
Worshipping Allah. Why? Why is that a higher
order
purpose than simply Imara? Because people can have
any
intention
when it comes to
establishing their livelihood. You can have the most
righteous person on earth. He is
going to work for the sake of Allah
and he's making money for the sake of
Allah and everything he does is halal and
he's just, like, absolutely exemplary in his interactions
and transactions with other people. People are, you
know, accepting Islam at his hands and by
his example, like, in droves. Right? That's like
best case scenario.
And then you have the dude who, you
know, he opens up,
you know, a casino
and he sells drugs and he'd whatever. Both
of them are taking care of their livelihood.
Okay. One of them has an intention to
please their creator and the other person doesn't
have any intention like that whatsoever. They're just
about the money. What's the bottom line? What's
my number? What's my profit?
The second level are a bad that has
to do with gratitude.
Okay. So the difference between level 1 and
level 2 is that now we're not just
talking about livelihood, we're talking about gratitude. You
come into this world and there's 2 types
of people. There are people that come into
the world and they see the fact that
they are in debt
and there's other people who don't recognize that
they're in debt, which is why Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala in the Quran, he compares
obedience to parents
with obedience to Allah or if he doesn't
compare it per se, he puts them right
next to each other
Because there's a transferable
spiritual skill that's going on there. You come
into this world. You didn't choose to be
born.
You didn't choose to have your parents. You
didn't ask them to change your diapers. That
you didn't ask them to spoon feed you
or to wipe up your vomit or to,
you know, nurse you to stay up with
you all night when you were crying because
you're having teething pain. They did it and
you didn't have a choice.
It's very against today's society. You want everything
that I chose, I chose, I chose. I'm
gonna choose everything about myself. No. You have
a debt to pay to your parents because
they did things and you couldn't even consent.
They did good for you and you couldn't
even consent. So to be grateful to your
parents
or to, is to try to pay off
that debt is to recognize that debt. That's
a virtue. First of all, to recognize the
debt at all is a virtue and then
to strive to pay it back or at
least to
be grateful for it if we can't pay
it back is a second virtue. And so
that's completely transferable to to Allah, Right? In
not in in degree, but in kind. Right?
The amount that we're in debt to Allah
is it can't be calculated.
We come into this world that we've got
fruit
hanging on branches towards us. All you have
to do is pluck it off. We've got
food
growing up under our feet.
Right? The Earth is easy to walk on.
The water is pure. Everything is made just
well. It's like, it's like sitting down to
a table and the tables already set for
you.
Are you gonna be grateful?
That's the second level, Ibadah, to be grateful.
Recognizing, first of all, that there's a debt
to pay. 2nd of all, even if we
can never repay the debt, to at least
be grateful
and thankful for this situation that we didn't
ask for, but we've been given. It fell
into our laps. But there's a level even
beyond that. There's a level beyond Ibadah and
that is khirafa.
And this is also from from the Quran.
Various parts. Obviously, Allah says in Surat Al
Baqarah when he's talking to the angels that
we're going to feel audi Khalifa. That he
tells them, like, I'm going to place on
earth a Khalifa.
So there's our purpose right there or one
of our purposes is to be
a Khalifa. Is to be a
well, how can we translate it, a successor
or a steward or a guardian
or somebody who comes after somebody else to
manage things, to take care of things, to
make sure that things are as they should
be according to the one who kind of
put you in that position.
Hey, that's the highest level.
Because gratitude
is about
expressing something for yourself.
It doesn't necessarily
transfer to others.
Okay. If you're grateful to Allah for creating
this world and the way he did for
you recognize the debt and you try to
be thankful, that's good. It's going to be
transformational for you, but it's not necessarily gonna
help the guy next to you. It might,
but it might not.
Whereas, once somebody realizes their role as a
Khalifa
and that human purpose, the highest purpose for
human beings is khilafa,
is stewardship, is doing the work of Allah
in creation,
doing what pleases Allah in creation, managing the
creation
in a way that pleases Allah.
That's the highest level. Now you're not just
expressing gratitude for yourself. Now you're taking care
of everybody.
Right? The fish are safe because of you.
You're the Khalifa.
The air is pure because you're the Khalifa.
The water is cleaned because you're the khalifa.
Every single creature, every single,
part of creation
is grateful first to Allah and then towards
you, because you are affecting and establishing a
society, a just society, a righteous society, where
purpose of a human being.
purpose of a human being.