Have you ever asked yourself,
"Why am I here?"
"What is my purpose in life?"
"Is life worth more than just a brief span of time on earth?"
Such questions have even baffled the greatest thinkers and philosophers down through the centuries. Living, in itself, is not enough. And life, in itself, is not the goal.
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How would we justify the importance of life? |
Most of us are so busy and caught up in day-to-day existence that we do not have time to think about our own purpose of living. It seems that our lives revolve around daily routines and worldly demands rather than striving for the ultimate blessing from our Creator.
Religions do preach about the true purpose of living. While we mortals just try to live from day-to-day, the eternal purpose of life might still eludes us around. All of our intensive pondering, state-of-the-art technology and sophistication still haven't solved the fundamental riddle posed by two indelible facts of human existence - of life and death.
By holding the title of being a Muslim, do we really realise on what and who we shall serve for? What about we refresh our heart in having a pure and sincere intention in each of our actions, so that all of the congenial deeds that we have done previously, will be valued as an ibadah by Allah S.W.T. This means, the daily work duties that we are working on, can possibly turn out to be the ‘elevator’ that bound straight to Allah’s heaven.
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Every minute of our life in duniya is precious.
We must utilise it to win the unseen treasures of akhirat. |
Based on the Islamic theologian and logician, Ibnu Taimiya, ibadat is defined as anything that being loved and blessed by Allah, including good words being spoken, good deeds being done and good intentions being intended, projected from both outward and inward sides of us. That’s really serve as the comprehensive and firm action of performing our Ibadah for the only One.
At the start of each day, don’t ever engulf yourself by going to the school/college/workplace with the foul souls and lazy spirit. Just discard away all of your sickening negative vibes and kick-off your day with a convivial atmosphere in and around. Furthermore, make your step and move around with a serious, fully-motivated and optimistic vision. Let’s make this condition to be exactly same as when we are about to perform our prayers.
Besides, the famed Muslim thinker, Muhammad Qutb also explained that,
“Even prospering the earth, building life and taking control of the wasilah (roads) for the revival and the progress of civilisation, are becoming the fardhu kifayah that all of the Muslims need to carry the duty for. That also include all sorts of strength input that being ordered by Allah S.W.T to His believers, for nurturing the substantial bonds among the fellow Muslims.”
As Allah S.W.T’s firman of :
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[al-Anfaal 8 : 60] |
Those matter also serves as one of the demand to all of the mankind who act as the khalifah in this world. All sorts of things that we have done daily, as long as they are being intended solely for Allah in granting for His blessings, will surely fill in the gap that might existed between us and our Creator.
Also let’s look up on the way how Prophet Muhammad PBUH tie the knot between the world and akhirat’s life through this hadith :
"When the kiamat comes, while in the hand of the people among you who own a seed, then if he is capable, do not get up until he planted the seed; he need to plant the seed "
(HR Bukhari)
So what exactly the things that being hope for, when the kiamat is about to happen?
The mahfum of the hadith above tell us that, when the kiamat is on the verge to happen, Prophet Muhammad PBUH does not order us to seek for the repent from Allah, doing good deeds or forget about the world and its content; but in contrast, Prophet Muhammad PBUH ordered us to prosperous the earth by planting seeds.
Wait….By planting seeds? For real?
To make this understandable, let’s take an example of the seeds of dates fruit. The trees will not be able to produce dates, unless after taking several years of healthy growth and proper care. Actually, what Prophet Muhammad really means that, “The path heading to akhirat must pass through the world path first”. This also means that in order to be rewarded with Allah’s paradise during the life in hereafter, it take years of constant amount of ibadah that need to be performed while we are given the chance to live in this world.
Will it possible for us to enjoy the dates only after we planted the seeds a week before? Obviously not. Then so does the akhirat’s life turn out to be. There’s simply no shortcut in placing yourself in Allah’s heaven.
For sure, the life of duniya and akhirat cannot just stand solely on its own, as the allocation of the path to akhirat is called as ibadah and the path to duniya is called as work. Both of the paths are not in separation, but it is indeed in crossing vector with each order.
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How does the significance of these path reflecting on us? |
The truth is, the path is actually being just a single path that originated from the world and the end will be concluded on the akhirat. This is the path that cannot separate the work from ibadah, or the ibadah from the work. Both of these aspects, must be consistently connected and moving in a parallel motion.
From here, we can comprehend on how to live our life under the protection of Allah S.W.T. This also being mentioned through His firman of :
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[al-An’am 6 : 162] |
It will be illogical for the typical human to spend the whole time of their life only to perform thousands upon thousands rakaat of prayers, reading hundreds upon hundreds pages of the Quran, for the sake to embrace ourself solely just for Him.
As an example, Prophet Muhammad did perform fasting, but he still break his fast during Maghrib. He also performed prayers, but still allocate the time for sleeping and also getting married, just like any other humans. Obviously we are not being programmed like the robots, in doing the exact same things on repeating basis.
This simply justify that a mukmin need to gather and make use both of their world and akhirat responsibilities and duties, by converging both of the aspects into a single path, in order to wholly embrace their brief and fragile life solely to Allah S.W.T.
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Life is like a canvas. It begins blank and
everyday is like another brush stroke |
When we already have the full grasp on the definition of the ibadah, for sure we will comprehend on how the Muslims nowadays would easily bow down and surrender to the ruthless control and power of the enemies. This is simply due to the conflicting issues being raised by the two groups; the one that too focused on the duniya’s life while slipping the akhirat’s demand and the one that too focused on akhirat’s life and completely neglecting the importance of duniya’s life.
As for some of them, the life in this world is not initially targeted to quest for His ultimate blessing, but only limited for self-contentment and lustful need, that proven to be cataclysmic for themselves in the end.
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We all have one life; it soon will be past; what we
do for Allah is all that will last |
The solution for this issue? Place your duniya and akhirat priorities, stable and sturdy on the balance. Let’s strive ourself and support the person around us along, to always make and refresh a good intention whenever we are about to perform our daily routines; let it be to attend lectures, completing assigned works and doing house chores, to be wholly counted as performing an ibadah to Allah S.W.T.
By this way, the works that we are working on will become beneficial, and thus it will bring a lot of significance to this world that we are currently living in and the hereafter life that will invite us really soon.
And lastly, do remember. The duniya was made for you, but you were made to the hereafter.
By : Inche Songkok Hitam