When a Muslim, indeed any believer, is faced with the choice of leaving her/his faith, the first question that strikes her/him is what is the point of living---particularly living a good life, being good---if there is nothing to look forward at its end? Dr. Ali Sina has some excellent advice for such doubters...
Ali Sina,
I have been reading what you’ve been writing for a long time now. And I do agree with the majority of what you say, especially about logic. Lately I have become a very reason oriented person (this is in general and not due to your site). For about a year now, I have been out of college and been working for a year now. I’m finding out that everything I have been told is a lie. Not all religions are good. Women don’t really want nice guys. An Education won’t necessarily make your life any better. Good doesn’t always conquer evil.
Life is pain. Everything that you love, just goes away. And good things that’ll come to you in the future will go away too. If there is no god, then what’s the point? The logical thing to do is to just end your life and save yourself from pain that is to come. What’s the point? Honestly, I don’t see it. I just want to hear your take on it.
Thanks
M.
Dear M.
Upon reflecting on what you wrote I ended up agreeing with you. What is the point indeed? I go even one step further than you and say:
- What is the point of finding love when all relationships end, either in death or they break up?
- What is the point in bringing to the world a child when eventually they will die?
- What is the point in planting anything when one day they will whiter?
- What is the point in building a house when one day it has to be demolished?
- What is the point of taking a bath when you’re going to be dirty again?
- What is the point of eating, when you’ll get hungry a few hours later?
- In fact what is the point of this universe when it too will one day come to an end?
Yes what is the point? And yet, despite all these pointlessnesses, life goes on, people fall in love, children are born, trees are planted, houses are built, people eat and wash…. and guess what? They also find time to dream, to laugh, to sing, to play, to produce art and to be merry.
Maybe that is what life is all about? Maybe life is a journey without destination. The only certainty about life’s destination is death. So why hurry? Why go so fast? Why not go through the road of life ambling, enjoy the sceneries, behold the flowers, befriend the fellow travelers, joke with them, have fun and give a hand to those who are tired and limping and make their journey pleasant too?
Yes, most of the things we were told are proven to be lies. Every day we discover new things and realize what we knew before was a lie. Up and down, east and west, truth and falsehood, good and bad, are all illusions. Your up is down to someone else. Your east is west to another person, your truth is falsehood to your neighbor and what is good for you can be bad for the next guy. But there is one thing that is not an illusion and that is the fact that we exist. You and I are real.
Descartes concluded that if he can think, he must exist. But we also exist because we love. Love is real and if we can love, it follows that we exist.
Doubt is good. Doubt everything and particularly the commonly held truths. Doubt your senses, doubt your beliefs, doubt science and doubt even God. But there are some things that are beyond doubt. You cannot doubt love.
If you have ever loved you know that love is real – just like thought. Thoughts are real, even though their content may not be. Love is real too, even though its object may not be.
You feel alive when you love. Love is what makes life meaningful. It encompasses everyone and everything. The object of your love can be real, like people; lofty, like knowledge and service to humanity; mundane, like power, fame and wealth; or imagined, like God and religion. It is not the object of love that matters; it is its exercise that makes you feel alive.
To make life meaningful you have to find the love of your life.
One of the most inspiring lives is that of Professor Steven Hawking. He is a theoretical physicist known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking was a professor of mathematics for thirty years. He retired on October 1, 2009.
Professor Hawking has a neuromuscular dystrophy – a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralyzed.
But Hawking loves life. Why? Because he is passionate about his work! His mind is busy decoding the mysteries of the universe. Consequently, he has no time to dwell on his infirmity. He is not just happy, he is productive and he is perhaps the greatest mind alive.
And yet, there are so many healthy bodied people who find no meaning in life, give in to depression and despair, and often at a young age, end their lives.
What sets Hawking apart? What makes a man condemned to wheelchair that needs assistance for everything including for his bodily functions; that cannot use even his vocal cords to speak and communicates through a voice simulator, so alive? And why some healthy people are so worn out and so depleted of life?
The difference is in love. Hawking has a great love in his life. He loves knowledge. He is passionate about learning and discovering the secrets of the universe. This is what makes life meaningful for him. He wants to live in order to discover and to share his findings with others.
Hawking lives for and thanks to his passion. But he is not an exception. Everyone can find his or her passion and feel the same vitality and zest for life.
Love is the elixir of life. The secret of happiness is that you find the love of your life. “Find your own Calcutta,” as Mother Teresa responded to a woman who wanted to join her in ministering to one of India’s most crowded cities.
In the road of life, there are thorns and thistles. There are cliffs and precipices. There are hardships to overcome. And at times, the journey can become tiresome. But there are also flowers that grow alongside the road. There are beautiful sceneries to see, interesting people to meet and good companions to cherish. The journey can become joyous when you walk in good company, and when you are surrounded by people that you love and who love you. It is also joyous when you have a purpose to live for.
We are in this road without asking to be here. We don’t know wherefrom we come and whither we go. Since there is no way of knowing, there is no point in asking. It is also foolhardy to believe in fantastic tales of religions whose own origins and credibility are dubious, and whose outlandish claims are unproven.
Maybe there is nothing but the road! Maybe the journey is all there is. We know that the journey is real. Its origin and destination may not be. So what is the rush? Why to overrun others? Where do you think you are going so fast? What if the road of life is nowhere? Why inflict so much pain to ourselves and to others for nothing or for a fantasy? Why not enjoy the journey instead and make it pleasant for our fellow travelers too?
Each one of us can find the love of our life – something that excites us and kindles our passion, that makes us feel alive, and gives purpose to our existence.
The purpose of life is in living it, not in ending it. Those who tell you otherwise are charlatans and liars. These conmen promised an afterlife and disdained the one we have. They eulogized death and disparaged life. They said this life is a testing ground. No! This life is the living ground. What test? Test of blind faith? Test of stupidity? Everything they said is proven to be a lie. Their understanding of the physical world is shown to be bogus. If they were so ignorant of this world, why should we believe in what they said about the next?
The difference between great people and losers is not in their talents or their intellects, but in their loves. Great people are great lovers. It is the greatness of their love, their passion and their dedication that makes them great. Not only these people live a life full of joy, they spread joy, and they leave joy behind.
Yes great people die too. But their lives are not pointless. They are immortalized in what they leave behind.
Sure, not all women want the nice guy, but many do. Education won’t necessarily make your life any better, but it improves the odds drastically. Good does not always conquer evil, but evil prevails when good people do nothing. Life becomes a pain if you have nothing to live for. If you find the love of your life, ‘your own Calcutta,’ life can be full of joy.
Life is what you want it to be. You are the architect of your destiny, the designer of your own life. It is up to you to find the point of your life and give it meaning. Find your Calcuta and experience a life full of joy.
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written by Muhammad Islam , November 05, 2009
Unfortunately, when you ask most people the question: "What is the purpose of life?" (such a fundamental and important question), they will not tell you what they have concluded through observation or analytical reasoning. Rather, in most cases, they will simply tell you what someone else said, or they will tell you what is "commonly presumed" by others, i.e., What my father said purpose of life is, what the minister of my church said the purpose of life is, what my teacher in school said, what my friend said, etc. If I ask anyone about the purpose of eating or why do we eat, everyone will say [in one word or another] that it is for nutritional purposes, because nutrition sustains life. If I ask anyone why they work, they will say because it's a necessity in order to support themselves and to provide for the needs of their families. If I ask anyone why they sleep, why they wash, why they dress, etc., they will answer with appropriate answers, for these are common necessities for all human beings. We can follow this line of questioning with a hundred questions and receive the same or similar answers from anyone in any language from any place in the world.
Then I ask you the question: Why, when we ask the question, "What is the goal and purpose of life?" that we get many different answers? It is because people are confused; they don't really know. They are stumbling in the dark, and rather than say, "I don't know"; they just offer any answer they have been programmed to give. Think about it. Is our purpose in this world simply to eat, sleep, dress, work, acquire some material things and enjoy ourselves? Is this our purpose? Why are we born? What is the object of our existence? What is the wisdom behind the creation of man and this tremendous universe? Think about those questions.
Here I would like to mention a few verses from the Holy Quran that address this subject. We seek the protection of Allah from every evil thing. Allah mentions to us in the Holy Quran, "And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is over all things competent. Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding-Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire." Surah 3: Ayahs 189-191
Now here in these verses, Allah draws our attention to the creation of the heavens and earth, the alternation of the night and the day, the creation of the universe. HE calls our attention to their creation and their precision, and mentions those who contemplate the wonders of creation and realize that this was not created for any foolish purpose, [that Allah is exalted above doing such a thing] and they seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of Hell. Truly, when you see the design of all that Allah created, you realize it is very powerful and very precise. Something very powerful and very precise; something beyond your own calculation and imagination, cannot be foolish.
My dear respected brothers and sisters, we have to ask ourselves a further question. When you see a bridge, a building or an automobile, you automatically consider the person or company that constructed it. When you see a large ship, an airplane, a rocket, a satellite; you also think about how incredible it is. [You know by its design who the maker is.] When you see a super international airport, nuclear plant or an orbiting space station you have to be thoroughly impressed with the engineering dynamics that are involved. Yet, these are just things that are manufactured by human beings. So what about the human body with its massive and intricate control systems? Think about it.
Think about the brain: how it thinks, functions, analyzes, retrieves and stores information, as well as distinguishes and categorizes information in a millionth of a second, all of this constantly.
Think about the brain for a moment. (And don't forget the fact that you are using your brain to consider itself!) This is the brain that made the automobile, the rocket ships, the boats, and so on. Think about the brain and who made that!
Think about the heart. Think about how it pumps continuously for sixty or seventy years [taking in and discharging blood throughout the body] maintaining steady precision throughout the life of the person.
Think about the kidneys and the liver and the various functions they perform. The purifying instruments of the body that perform hundreds of chemical analyses simultaneously and also controls the level of toxicity in the content of the body. All of these are done automatically.
Think about your eyes, the human cameras, that adjust, focus, interpret, evaluate, discern color automatically, naturally receiving and adjusting to light and distance.
Think about it-Who created them? Who has mastered their design and function? Who plans and regulates their function? Human beings do this? No, of course not. What about this universe?
Think about this. This earth is one planet in our solar system, and our solar system is one [of possible many] solar systems. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is one of the galaxies. There are ONE HUNDRED MILLION GALAXIES in the universe. They are all in order and they are all precise. They are not colliding with each other. They are not conflicting with on another. They are swimming along in an orbit that has been set for them. Did human beings set that into motion and are human beings maintaining that precision? No, of course not.
Think about the oceans, the fish, the insects, the birds, the plants, bacteria, and chemical elements that have not yet been discovered and cannot be detected even with the most sophisticated instruments. Yet each of them has a law that they follow. Did all of this synchronization, balance, harmony, variation, design, maintenance, operation and infinite numeration happen all by chance? Do these things function perfectly and perpetually also by chance? No, of course not. That would be totally illogical and foolish. In the least, it indicates that however it came to exist-it exists beyond the realm of human capability. We will all agree to that. The Being, The Almighty Power, God, The Creator who has the knowledge to design and proportion created all of this and is responsible for maintaining it. HE is the only one that deserves praise and gratitude.
If I were to give each one of you one hundred dollars for no reason, just for being here, you would at least say thank you. What about your eyes, your kidneys, your brain, your children, and your life: Who gave you all of that? Is He not worthy of praise and thanks? Is He not worthy of your worship and recognition?
My brothers and sisters, that in a nutshell, is the goal and purpose of this life. Allah said to us in the Holy Quran: "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me." [Surah 51: Ayah 56] this is what the Almighty said.
Our purpose in this life is to recognize The Creator, to be grateful to Him, to worship Him, to surrender ourselves to Him and to obey the laws that He has determined for us. It means worship is our purpose in life. Whatever we do in the course of that worship, [i.e., the eating, the sleeping, the dressing, the working, the enjoying,] between birth and death is consequential and subject to His orders. But the main reason for our creation is worship. I don't think anyone who is analytical or scientific will have much of an argument with that purpose. They may have some other reason with themselves-but that is something they have to deal with between themselves and Almighty God.
written by 9-11 Infidel , November 06, 2009
No. The fun part is that Howard Storm and Ian McCormack have medical evidence to back up what they claim as far as their medical condition at time of death is concerned. There is a life
after this life. There is a hell and there is a heaven.And it ain't the Islamic view of heaven
and hell either. These two and other testimonies like them are on YouTube and elsewhere.
All you skeptics can judge for yourselves.
very impressive reply from Dr Ali Sina i would add something
Religions give you only one purpose for life that is "afterlife" once you are out of religion you will find many many reasons to live.
we can only find the real love and truth of our existence when we live the life to the fullest we must explore this universe to reach the truth
OR if u believe in god (not the religious god) then be assured that he has a purpose for creation and he will do justice to you if you will do good in this life
you must reject religions if you want to have a purpose in life.