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What is the purpose of creating mankind and the world?

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purpose

In order to find the answer to this question, a few things need to be cleared up:
1) Allah’s reason for creating the universe:
Paying attention to some points helps us in finding out what His motives are:
Because of Allah (swt) being of necessary existence and independent in it, He is of no limitation, and possesses all perfection.
2- One of the high virtues that His Excellency possesses is His never-ending grace and generosity. In the holy Quran, Allah (swt) says: “…and the bounty of your Lord is not confined.”[1]. Allah (swt) has no limitations on His behalf when it comes to granting and giving, thus if He ever doesn’t grant anything, that means that the person or object that was supposed to receive from Him wasn’t of the required capacity to receive what His Excellency wished to grant. So it is the one to receive who has limitations, not the one who wants to grant.
3- All goodness and virtues arise from existence (wujud), and all imperfections come from nonexistence (‘adam). For instance, knowledge is something that exists, while ignorance is the lack of knowledge. The same goes for strength and weakness.
4- Taken into consideration the third introduction, one can conclude that God’s grace and generosity manifests in Him creating, therefore being the All-Graceful necessitates creation.
In other words, if something ever deserves to be created yet God refuses to create it, it means that God has refused a good thing, because as was said before, all goodnesses and virtues somehow are related to creation. This means that God is being miserly while it is impossible for God to be miserly. Here we conclude that if anyone asks why Allah (swt) created, the answer is that God’s being the All-Graceful is the main cause.
5- God’s qualities and virtues aren’t things added to His essence (there is an argument about God’s qualities and virtues and if they are part of His essence or not; the Shia say that they are part of His essence, yet not causing multiplicity in it unlike some of the Sunnis [Mu’tazilah] who say that they are part of His essence but cause multiplicity, and unlike other Sunnis [‘Asha’irah] who say that they aren’t part of His essence at all but at the same time these virtues are eternal and pre-existent like Allah Himself), while in other objects, they aren’t part of their essence. For instance, the apple has an essence, and it also has some characteristics such as redness and sweetness. Redness and sweetness are all out of the apple’s essence because it can also be green and sour and still be an apple (have the essence of an apple).
The argument of God’s virtues being part of His essence or not is a deep theistic one which can be read about in the chapter on the oneness of God’s virtues and essence in theistic books.
What is important here is that being All-Graceful, is part of His essence (the more accurate way of putting it is to say that this and other qualities and virtues of God are all exactly His essence, not part of His essence, because it isn’t that God’s essence is made up of different parts in which one of them is His being All-Graceful), not outside of His essence. So if it is asked why God created, the answer is that because God is God. So the true reason for Him creating is Himself.
What is important is that although Allah (swt) doesn’t create in order to fulfill His own needs or to make up for His deficiencies because of His self-sufficience and has no deficiencies and is perfect, but His actions surely have a reason behind them because He is the All-wise and the wise one never does vain acts. The system of creation is a system that follows the high goals of Allah (swt) and no signs of disorder can be found in it.
According to Quranic verses, the creator of all things didn’t create them in vain nor for amusement, His creation is on the basis of the truth, and even the smallest particles in this world follow high goals and none of them have been created in vain.
Of course, one mustn’t forget that the final goal for creating the universe was for man to come into existence and in other words, Allah (swt) created the universe in order to create man because he is the highest of all creatures as his creator is the highest of all creators that the universe has never seen. It has been reported that Allah (swt) has said: “Oh son of Adam (pbuh), I have created everything for you, and have created you for myself.”[2]
2) God’s purpose for creation:
What was said till now was all about creation itself, but regarding the creation of man, one must say that the specific virtue that God wanted to achieve by creating man, is the goal of creating man.
The inevitable result of God being All-Graceful, is to create all possible virtues (meaning that His grace calls for Him to create all virtues that can be created). Before the creation of man, He had created other creatures called the angels who possessed all virtues that was possible for them from the beginning of their creation instead of acquiring them like man. Hence, they aren’t capable of achieving any new virtues and they don’t perfect any further. Allah quotes them saying: “For every one of us there is a determined place and position; And verily, we are all ranged in ranks to carry out Allah’s commands; And verily, we are those who perpetually celebrate Allah’s attributes”.[3]
Now that we have spoken of these two issues, it is time to start the main discussion. No matter what the purpose of creation is, its benefit is for man himself because Allah (swt) is of no need and self-sufficient and it is man who is in true need. Allah (swt) says in the Quran: “O mankind! You are the ones who stand in need of Allah, and Allah He is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable.”[4] Prophet Musa (pbuh) says to Bani-Israel: “Should you be faithless you and everyone on the earth all together [it doesn’t make a difference because] indeed Allah is all-sufficient, all-laudable”.[5]
In the famous sermon known as “the sermon of Hamam”, Imam Ali states regarding this matter: “Allah (swt) created mankind while being in no need of their obedience and servitude towards Him, and (also) being safe from their disobedience because the disobedience of sinners does Him no harm and the obedience of His servants has no benefit for Him (the only reason He has demanded His servants to obey Him and prohibited them from disobedience, is for their own prosperity).[6]
The purpose for creating man has been spoken of in different ways in the Quran. In reality, each of these explanations is pointing to one of the dimensions of the purpose of his creation. Some of those verses are as follows: “I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may obey Me”[7], “He, who created death and life that He may test you (to see) which of you is better in their deeds”[8], “Had your Lord wished, He would have made mankind one community; but they continue to differ, except those on whom your Lord has mercy and that is why He created them (receiving mercy and reaching perfection as a result)”[9]. As you can see, all of these different assertions are in reality following one goal, and that is the development, perfection and guidance of man. As a result, we can conclude that the main and final goal for creating man is for him to reach perfection and eternal prosperity and the highest virtues and human values, and all of these goals can be accomplished through the obedience and servitude of Allah (swt).
Imam Sadiq (as) says that Imam Husein (as) came before his companions saying: “Allah (swt) has created His servants solely for them to know Him, when they know Him, they worship Him, and when they worship Him, they no longer have any need to worship other than Him.”[10]

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[1] Isra:20.

[2] یابن آدم خلقت الاشیاء لأجلک و خلقتک لأجلی al-Manhajul-Qawiyy, vol. 5, pg. 516, ‘Ilmul-Yaqin, vol. 1, pg. 381.
[3] Saffat:164 and 166.
[4] یا ایها الناس انتم الفقراء الی الله و الله هو الغنی الحمید (Fatir:15).
[5] و قال موسی ان تکفروا انتم و من فی الارض جمیعاً فإن الله لغنی حمید (Ibrahim:8).
[6] اما بعد ، فإن الله سبحانه و تعالی خلق الخلق حین خلقهم غنیاً عن طاعتهم ، آمناً من معصیتهم ، لأنه لاتضره معصیة من عصاه ، و لاتنفعه طاعة من أطاعه (Nahjul-Balaghah of Faydh, pg. 11, the sermon of Hammam.
[7] و ما خلقت الجن و الانس الا لیعبدون (Dhariyat:56).
[8] الذی خلق الموت و الحیاة لیبلوکم ایکم احسن عملاً (Mulk:2).
[9] و لایزالون مختلفین الا من رحم ربک ولذالک خلقهم (Hud:118-119).
[10] ان الله عزوجل ما خلق العباد الا لیعرفوه، فإذا عرفوه عبدوه، فإذا عبدوه استغنوا بعبادته عن عبادة من سواه (‘Ilalul-Shara’i’ of Saduq, according to what al-Mizan has quoted.

What is the purpose of mankind’s creation?

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LIFE-GENDER

It is rare to find someone who has not asked himself or others the question: “What is the purpose of our creation?” A group of people continuously come into this world while another group leave it, becoming extinguished for ever – what is the idea behind this coming and going?

If we humans had not been living on this planet, what difference would it have made? Is it necessary for us to know why we have come and why we shall go? If we discover the reason, do we have the ability to acquire this objective? Subsequent to this question, numerous other questions loom, plaguing man’s mind and thoughts.

Whenever the materialists ask themselves this question, they apparently cannot answer it since matter does not possess perception and intellect for it to pursue an objective. Hence, they have put themselves at ease in this regard by convincing themselves of the insignificance of man’s creation!

Is it not strange that these people envision precise aims and plan systematic programs for the minute details of life such as education, job, work, treatment, medication and sports, but, when they view life as a whole, they considers it to be aimless?

Thus, it is not astonishing that when a group from amongst such people reflect upon these issues, they become discontented by this vain and purposeless life and consequently resort to suicide.

However, when a God-worshipping person asks himself this question, he never finds himself in despair. Primarily, he knows that the Creator of this world is Wise and therefore His act of creation is undoubtedly based on wisdom – although some men might not be aware of it; secondly, viewing every part of himself, he observes that each one possesses an objective. Not only the brain, heart, blood vessels and the nerves, but even the nails, eyelashes, fingerprints, the depressions in the palms and the feet; each has a philosophy attached to its presence which has been identified and proven today.

How naïvely we reflect when we consider all of these to individually possess a purpose but to collectively lack an objective!

What kind of absurd judgment it is that identifies an objective for the construction of each building within a city, yet denies the existence of any purpose for the city itself!

Is it conceivable that an engineer constructs a great building in which all the rooms, passages, doors, hatches, ponds, gardens and the décors have been meticulously built with a particular purpose in mind, whilst the building itself has been constructed without any objective?

These are the points which provide conviction to a believing person that this creation pursues a great objective, which he should strive to comprehend by means of his intellect.

Furthermore, it is amazing that when the advocates of the purposelessness of creation venture into the fields of physical sciences, they relentlessly endeavor to uncover the aim of various phenomena which they happen come across; so much so that they are unwilling to consider the insignificance of even one small gland situated in a corner of the body – experimenting for years to uncover the reason behind its existence. However, when it comes to the creation of man, they unequivocally claim it to be without an objective! What a bizarre contradiction!

In any event, belief in the Wisdom of Allah (s.w.t.) and attention towards the purpose of the various parts of man, imparts a firm conviction to us that there exists a great significance behind the creation of man.

Having comprehended this, we ought to strive to understand this purpose and, to the best of our abilities, set off towards achieving it.

Attention towards one fundamental point might serve to illuminate our path and thereby make our journey easier:

All of our actions are always motivated by an objective; and this goal usually involves combating our flaws and fulfilling our requirements. Even acts such as serving someone, helping a person in distress or practicing self-sacrifice; each serve to do away with shortcomings and fulfill our spiritual needs.

Accordingly, in contemplating the attributes and acts of Allah (s.w.t.) we usually blunder by comparing them with ours, often asking: What flaws and shortcomings did Allah (s.w.t.) possess that could possibly be eliminated by creating us? Or, when we read in the Qur’an, which states that the purpose of man’s creation is worshipping Allah (s.w.t.), we ask: Why does He need our worship? We do not realize that these thoughts stem from an erroneous comparison of the attributes of the Creator with the created.

Man indeed is a limited and confined entity which strives to do away shortcomings and hence concentrates its efforts towards achieving this objective. However, this concept is meaningless with respect to an Entity that is unlimited and infinite, and hence we ought to seek the objective and purpose of His acts in entities other than Him.

He is an abundant overflowing spring and the bounty-creating Originator who, having taken the entire creation within the canopy of His support, nourishes and fosters them, leading them from imperfection towards perfection. This is the actual purpose of our servitude (towards Allah (s.w.t.) ) and this is the philosophy of our worship and prayers, which are indeed training classes for leading us towards perfection.

Consequently we conclude that the purpose of our creation is the (achievement) of perfection of our selves.

Basically, the actual act of creation – that is to move from non-existence into existence, from a non-entity into an entity, from zero to a figure – is a huge step towards perfection, subsequent to which start the other phases that lead towards this goal, including the entire religious set-up which emphasizes this objective.1
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1. Tafsir-e-Namuna, vol. 22, pg. 389

What purpose does Islam seek to achieve by Jihad?

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The Islamic Jihad can be classified into three categories.

The ‘Initiating’ and ‘Liberating’ Jihad

Allah has prescribed a set of orders and chalked out programmes for the development, freedom, comfort, happiness and prosperity of man, and has entrusted unto His prophets the responsibility of communicating these to the people. Now, if an individual or a group of individuals regard the communication of these orders detrimental to their personal lowly interests and endeavour to obstruct the prophets in fulfilling their divine responsibilities, the prophets possess the right to remove the obstructions lying in their path, initially by utilizing peaceful means and if not possible, then by use of force, in order to acquire for themselves the freedom to propagate (the commandments of Allah).

In other words, in every society, people have the right to listen to those who invite them towards the path of Truth, and possess freedom to accept their invitation. But if some individuals deprive them of their legitimate right and inhibit them from hearing the truth and becoming freed from their mental and social captivity and slavery, the followers of these divine programmes possess the right to utilize every means at their disposal in order to achieve this freedom. It is here that the necessity of the Initiating Jihad in Islam and other divine religions becomes manifest.
Similarly, if some individuals were to compel the believers to revert to their original religion, every means could be employed for repelling such compulsions too.

The ‘Defensive’ Jihad

At times it so happens that a battle is imposed upon an individual or a group such that they find themselves as the object of a calculated and/or a surprise attack. In such an instance, all divine and man-made laws permit the persons attacked to defend themselves and employ every available means to protect themselves. This kind of Jihad is referred to as the defensive Jihad; the battles of Ahzab, Uhud, Mutah, Tabuk, Hunain and some other Islamic battles are examples of this category of Jihad which were defensive in nature.

Jihad for the ‘Eradication of Polytheism and Idolatry’

Although Islam invites the people to select this religion – the last and the most exalted of all religions – nonetheless, it also respects the freedom of belief and it is for this reason that it grants the communities, which possess divine books, sufficient opportunity so that, after study and reflection, they may accept the religion of Islam. But if they do not do so it looks upon them as a confederate and by placing some specific conditions, which are neither intricate nor difficult, endeavours to have a peaceful co-existence with them.

However, the issue of polytheism is different since it is neither a religion nor a doctrine and so it cannot be looked upon with respect and esteem – rather, it is a kind of superstition, deviation and foolishness. In reality, it is a kind of mental and moral sickness, which ought to be uprooted.

The use of the terms ‘freedom’ and ‘respect’, in connection with the views of others, is applicable if the views or the beliefs are at least based upon a foundation. However, deviation, superstition and sickness are not something that can be treated as respectable, and it is due to this that Islam has ordered idolatry to be uprooted from the human society, even at the cost of warfare; if idol temples and their evil influences cannot be brought down and destroyed by peaceful means, then they should be uprooted by means of force.

From what has been mentioned above, the answer to the venomous propaganda of the Church becomes plainly evident since a sentence more explicit than:

لاَ إِكرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ

“There is no compulsion in (acceptance) of the religion.”

which appears in the Qur`an, cannot be found in this regard.

Of course, for the purpose of distortion, these people focus their attention upon the battles of Islam; however, a study of these battles clearly reveal that while some of these were purely defensive in nature, others – that belonged to the category of initiating Jihad – were not initiated with the objective of conquering lands and forcing the people into the religion of Islam but instead, for overturning incorrect and oppressive regimes, and providing opportunity to the people to freely study and review the religion and modes of social lifestyle.

Islamic history is a living testimony to the above, since it has been observed repeatedly that when the Muslims conquered cities they would grant freedom to the followers of other religions (just as they would do to the Muslims) and these people even performed their acts of worship and observed their religious ceremonies unhindered. If a limited tax, by the name of Jizyah, was taken from them, it was for the purpose of providing social security and covering the expenses of the security forces, since their lives, properties and womenfolk were under the protection of Islam.

Those people who deal with the history of Islam, are aware of this reality and even the Christians, who have written books on Islam, have acknowledged this issue. For example, in the book La Civilisation des Arabes we read: “The Muslims were so lenient towards the other communities that the religious leaders of these communities had the permission to organize their own religious gatherings.”

In some historical accounts it has been reported that a group of Christians, who had arrived in the presence of the Noble Prophet for the purpose of research and investigation, performed their religious ceremonies in the Mosque of the Noble Prophet (s.a.w) in the city of Madinah – freely and unchecked!