Running life with disregard to the maker’s instructions
1. The value will only come when the manual is followed completely and consistently.
2. Similar to the warnings found in user’s manuals cautioning against failure to read and follow the information and instructions given, humans are also warned in the Qur’an not to neglect reading and following their Creator’s Book, which says:
“And whoever turns away from My remembrance (My Book) - indeed, they will have a depressed life.”
(Qur’an 20:124)
3. Operating according to the maker’s design and plan is the correct and best way to function. Everything in God’s creation is designed to function according to its God-assigned purpose, with a view to its specific end, and has a particular and proper use and a particular prohibited use. Humans are no exception.
4. Humans can only become the person God created them to be and live life to its best and fullest meaning when they apply the rules and standards their Maker has set out for them in His Book. It, alone, can bring them to the purest and highest state of being and give them the best possible direction, as indicated in the Qur’anic verse:
“Indeed, this Qur’an guides to that which is most just and right.”
(Qur’an 17:9)
God was purposeful and intentional in everything He created, which the Qur’an repeatedly asserts in the clearest, plainest, and most unequivocal manner:
“We (God) did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them without purpose! Such is the assumption of those who disbelieve.”
(Qur’an 38:27)
“We (God) did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in play.”
(Qur’an 21:16)
“We (God) did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them except with truth (for a just cause), and for an appointed term. But those who disbelieve turn away from that of which they are warned.”
(Qur’an 46:3)
Every Human Is an Honorable Being with a Purpose from God
“Mention (O Muhammad) When Your Lord Said to the Angels, ‘I Am Placing a Vicegerent on Earth.’”
(Qur’an 2:30)
• Like humans, much of what animals do throughout their lives centers around one purpose: to stay alive. Like humans, they breathe, eat, sleep, reproduce, build homes, and protect their young. They carry on all the necessary functions of life but one, which is the highest: they do not search for or pursue an ultimate purpose to life, which they intensely desire and earnestly and perseveringly seek to achieve.
• Basically, a human being is a creature in search of a meaning and purpose to life. Humans realize that they are alive and the world around them exists, and they seek the reason and purpose for that existence.
• In Islam, the purpose of creation lies with the Creator. Humans were designed to be different, unlike any other creature. Their ability to communicate, learn and understand, feel and express emotions, think rationally, have self-awareness, and act responsibly shows that they are created for a purpose: to have a relationship with God. This purposeful relationship is clearly defined in the Qur’an as worship:
“I (God) have not created the jinn and humankind except to worship Me.”
(Qur’an 51: 56)
• Everything in the heavens or on the earth is created for humankind, as the Qur’an states:
“See you not (O humankind) that God has subjected to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and has amply bestowed upon you His favors, (both) apparent and hidden?”
(Qur’an 31:20)
Humans are created for God; to know Him, worship Him, and act as His vicegerents on earth by building up life, improving it, and populating it; and by showing kindness to all creatures; and by establishing and maintaining righteousness and justice on earth.
