Al-Risala (English), May-June 2001

Man’s greater dignity can be based only on a purpose which emanates from inner desires and pressures of environment. Man’s true purpose in life can only be to seek the pleasure of God. When man seeks the pleasure of his Lord, his human qualities find full manifestation. This is a purpose loftier than the one towards which an animal directs its energies. It distinguishes man from animals. It is the ultimate station of human dignity. To determine the purpose of life is, in short, the effort to make life meaningful. It must surely, therefore, be one which is in accordance with man’s unique status; it must be one which leads man on the path to success and progress in terms of his true nature. □ The Bigger, The Better In his book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, first published in 1948, Dale Carnegie mentions that when he started writing it, he offered a two-hundred-dollar prize for the most helpful and inspiring true story on “How I Conquered Worry.” A story written along these lines was sent in by a Mr. C.R. Boston, one of the most significant parts of which we reproduce below: “I lost my mother when I was nine years old, my father when I was twelve. We were haunted by the fear of being called orphans...Then Mr. and Mrs. Loftin took me to live with them on their farm. Mr. Loftin told me I could stay there ‘as long as I wanted’…I started going to school. The other children picked on me and poked fun at my big nose and said I was dumb and called me an ‘orphan.’ I was hurt so badly that I wanted to fight them, but, Mr. Loftin, the farmer who had taken me in, said to me: ‘Always remember that it takes a