The Purpose of Life

purpose of their creation was their devotion and servitude (‘ibadah) to God. This implies bowing down completely and without any reservation before God and dedicating oneself entirely to Him. The substance of this devotion is deep inner realization of God, or ma‘rifah. (Tafsir ibn Kathir, vol. 7, p. 396). In other words, it is required of a person that God should be a discovery for him. He should recognize God without seeing him. This is essential to Godrealization. The shape which the life of a person takes as a result of this is one of devotion and subservience. Apail, afloat in water, sinks, when filled with water. Similarly, when the time given to a person to perform his life’s work is over, he dies immediately. One who reforms himself before the overflowing of the pail, may save himself, but one who remains careless and negligent till the last moment, faces drowning. If transgressors are not immediately seized upon, they should not imagine that they have been left free to do as they choose. They go free because it is not God’s way to catch hold of human beings in haste. It is certainly not because God has no plan ever to bring them to book. God has not created human beings for the completion of His own being. A human being has rather been given