Meaningful Life

Meaningful Life

1991 1 January 3 Meaningful Life (287) Dr. Garaudy was born to a Christian family in France in 1913. The Great Depression of 1933 affected his mind so much that he joined the French communist party. He could not, however, find mental solace either in the existing form of Christianity or in communism. Later on he studied Islam and’ accepted the faith in 1982.

Dr. Garaudy was given the prestigious Shah Faisal award for service to Islam by the Shah Faisal Foundation in 1986. A function was organized on this occasion at which Dr. Garaudy made a speech giving a detailed account of his life. He made this speech in French, the complete Arabic version being published in the Saudi Arabian journal Al-Riyadh, on March 12, 1986.

When Dr. Garaudy became disillusioned with communism, he was inclined towards religion. First of all he studied Christianity, but it failed to satisfy him, so he began studying Islam. In this he received full mental satisfaction and accepted the faith. While describing his intellectual journey, he stated that he had done so in order, in the words of Kierkegaard, to invest his life with meaning.

The search for meaning in life is a natural urge. Everyone has it from birth. Man seeks all around him for ways to satisfy it. But all the things available to him either have no answer, or they supply the answer only in part. As such, man is not fully satisfied; he does not feel that he has found the correct and complete answer to his search.

This is because the correct and complete answer to his search lies only in Islam – the preserved religion of God. This distinctive quality of Islam is the greatest guarantee of the success of Islamic daw‘ah.