THE GOAL OF LIFE

The Goal of Life ~ 60 ~ THE GOAL OF LIFE I only created mankind and the jinn that they might worship Me. I demand no livelihood of them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me. God alone is the Munificent Giver, the Mighty One, the Invincible. The lot of the wrongdoers will be like that of their predecessors. Let them not challenge Me to hurry it on. Woe then to the unbelievers when the threatened day arrives! (The Qur’an 51:56-60) God has power of His own in all matters. However, He has created angels in order to manage His vast empire. But the situation of human beings is different. They have not been created to fulfill any personal or managerial requirement of God. Their sole purpose is the worship of God. Worship means surrendering before the Almighty in the full sense of the word. According to Ibn Jurayh worship, in essence, is realisation (ma’rifah) of God (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir). It is desired of man that he should make his own discovery of God. He