By Iyan Hafiz Bin Mohamed Faizel

Purpose

وَ مَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَ ٱلإْ ِنسَ إِلاَّ لِیَعْبُدُونِ

“I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me”
Quran 51:56

When you go to sleep, you wake up in your bed. Now, imagine finding yourself on a train instead of your bed when you wake up. What would be the first thing that you asked yourself? Maybe you would ask: How did I get here? Who put me here? Where is this train going?

If you woke up on a train and saw people living life, you would just start following suit. And yet, you had all these questions now suppressed. What would you say to someone who suppressed this question? Is this person critical or uncritical in their existential being? Is it justified to be uncritical in this manner?

We woke up to a life and to becoming beings here. We see now that we live in a society where we shouldn’t be thinking about these ultimate questions. “YOLO (You Only Live Once). Just go with the flow.”

We’re on the train of life: we do not know where we’re headed, but we know we’re going to die. We wake up and get distracted by everything around us. But the questions that are fundamental to existence are not being asked and answered.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

”Your Lord Almighty said, Son of Adam, be free for my worship. I will fill your heart with richness and fill your hands with provisions. Son of Adam, do not distance yourself from me, or else I will fill your heart with poverty and fill your hands with worthless distractions.”
Al-Mu’jam Al-Kabir

How do you answer? How did you get here? Islam provides me with a satisfactory answer: Well, don’t worry about it. Don’t think about it. Well, you make your own purpose, my friend. It doesn’t seem logical, and if you’re on the train, I don’t think you’d accept this answer.

Does it make sense to say that the answer to the question “How did you get here?” is that you were created by an all-knowing entity? The answer to the question “What are you doing here?” is that this entity has assigned and fixed a purpose for you. This purpose will extend to your after-death experience. No matter where you go in life, you are still going to die and there is something that’s going to happen after death: Heaven and hell.

There was a time when some claimed we could only experience what we could empirically see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. I disagree. Dreaming is something that most humans experience without having any sensual reactions. You don’t open your eyes, but you still see. You don’t need to try and hear someone physically speak, but you still hear. Dreaming is an interesting human experience. This shows us that even when we’re in a state of unconsciousness, we can still have reality.

Sleep is a reenactment of death. Take it as if you are a corpse wrapping yourself in your cosy blanket, preparing for your jenazah.

Dreaming is an example of that reality, which extends beyond the five senses. What I am saying is this: When you lose consciousness, or when you’re dead, it won’t be a case where things will stop. We say that there will be a reality that you will experience, something more real than a dream and something more prolonged than just a dream.

That experience will be a metaphysical reality that this entity that we have discussed before that created you will assign to you, will create for you, and allow you to have. This is the whole idea of a day of judgement, a heaven, and a hell. These realities do not depend on the existential five senses.

Mission

رَضِيتُ باللهِ رَبَّاً، وَبِالْإِسْلَامِ دِيناً، وَبِمُحَمَّدٍ صَلَى اللهُ عَلِيهِ وَسَلَّمَ نَبِيَّاً

Raditu Billahi Rabban wa bil Islami dinan wa bi Muhammadin sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallama Nabiyyan.

I am content with Allah as my Lord, with Islam as my religion, and with Muhammad ﷺ as my Prophet.

Remind ourselves of these three things:

Whatever it is, I am happy
Family problem, no problem. Money is not enough; it is not a problem. The only problem is if Allah ﷻ sees me as a problem
Follow the script of a director, He is the Best Fashioner.

If you have these three things, you will have more than what this world has to offer.

Test

Why am I being tested? Why is God testing me? Rather, what are my blessings?

The amount of goodness we receive is always greater than the pain and suffering that we experience. It is at your lowest that you think of God. so why not think of him all the time? Same concept as “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Today I ate from Your Rizq, but I failed to notice you in Your Rizq.

These are the things that will be used to raise our ranks in Heaven. Allah ﷻ will give you the dunya if that is what you need or want, but Allah ﷻ is also so kind to give us hardships sometimes because He wants us to attain a certain rank in Jannah or Akhirat that He knows we cannot attain with our deeds alone. So He sends us trials to raise our ranks.

However, sometimes the test is not to raise our ranks but rather to not forget our shortcomings. For instance, illness is an expiation of sins.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“Nothing afflicts a Muslim of hardship, nor illness, nor anxiety, nor sorrow, nor harm, nor distress, nor even the pricking of a thorn, but that Allah will expiate his sins by it.”
Sahih Bukhari

Humans are the best of creations. We are all unique. We could have been created as a dog or a cat, but we were not.

أَيَحْسَبُ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ أَلَّن نَّجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُۥ

بَلَىٰ قَـٰدِرِينَ عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّسَوِّىَ بَنَانَهُۥ

“Does a man (a disbeliever) think that We shall not assemble his bones? Yes, We are able to put together a perfect order the tips of his fingers.”
Quran 75:3–4

Seeking Knowledge

The purpose of our knowledge is to improve our Deen. Knowledge that makes you more conscious of Allah ﷻ is beneficial knowledge.

THE EASIEST WAY TO BE DEPENDENT ON ALLAH ﷻ IS BY SEEKING KNOWLEDGE. THE HARDER WAY IS TO BE TESTED AND BROKEN BY THIS WORLD. TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT AND LEARN INSTEAD.

Knowledge must be transformed into practise. When you learn something, put it immediately into practise. Exchange your bad deeds for good deeds whenever you seek knowledge and come to class.

Make time for the One who gave you time. While enjoying the needs, don’t forget the Fulfiller of Needs.

Teachers are needed for reminders, so understand their intentions. They are not there to dilute religion: A is A, and B is B. Islam is a fair balance of hope and fear. Be careful of feel-good content that makes you think that you are good enough as-is or what we are doing is sufficient.

The nafs want us to run away from our teacher, but don’t disregard them. You should feel indebted to them for life for having taught you, even the one who taught you Alif.

Sometimes, when you get a true teacher, your ego will be bruised because their job is to uncover all these weeds.

Teachers are like a torch in a dark cave.