What is the purpose of life?

My master writes: “The real purpose of all the external and internal limbs and faculties that have been bestowed on man is understanding and worship and love of God. That is why, despite a thousand occupations, man does not find his true well being except in God Almighty. Having acquired great wealth, or achieved high office, or having become a great merchant, or having acquired governing authority, or become a great philosopher, he departs in the end from these worldly involvements with a sense of frustration. His heart rebukes him all the time about his deep concern with the world and his conscience never approves his wiles and deceits and wrongful actions. This problem can be appreciated in another way. The purpose of the creation of a thing is determined by its highest achievement beyond which its faculties cannot rise. For instance, the highest a bullock is capable of is ploughing, or irrigation, or transportation, and therefore these are the purpose of its life and it cannot rise above them. But when we take stock of man’s faculties and powers to discover his highest capacity, we find that he is invested with the faculty of seeking after God so much so that he desires that he should become so devoted to God’s love that he should have nothing of his own and that everything should become God’s. He shares his natural needs like food and drink and rest with other animates, and in industry some animals are ahead of him; for instance, the bees produce such excellent honey from every type of flower that man has so far not been able to compete with them. It is clear, therefore, that the highest capacity of man is meeting with God Almighty and thus the true purpose of his life is that the window of his heart should open towards God.” (The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam)

He writes:

“…I had to undergo the severest hardships. I flung myself into the fire of love and was wholly consumed. My heart bled and I was ground to dust. It was then that He revealed to me His radiant face and I got not only revelation but also true wisdom.” 

He writes in Noah’s Ark:

In Surah Al-Faatihah God has taught that the door to every single blessing of the past has been opened for you. Why then do you refuse to accept them? Thirst for this fountain and water will spring forth itself. Weep for these blessings in the way a child wails for the milk of its mother—then will milk be given to you. Become worthy of compassion so that you may be shown mercy. Be restless so that you may be put to ease. Be ceaseless in your fervent entreaties so that a hand may come to your aid. The path of God is difficult. But, it is made easy for those who throw themselves into this deep abyss, without fear for their lives. In their hearts, they choose fire for themselves and decide to set themselves ablaze for the sake of their Beloved. They cast themselves in fire only to discover that it is paradise.” (Noah’s Ark, pg. 40)

 

”What avail are the spring and flowers to me? 
I am ever in the garden contemplating Thy Face.

Would I care for anyone who can teach?
I have received tuition from my Lord and Protector.

The eternal benevolence has drawn so near to me,
That the Voice of the Lord reaches me from the farthest nook and corner.”

(The Promised Messiah a.s – Poems)

 

What is Spirituality?

Spirituality means: Recognizing one’s primordial nature

Spirituality means: Knowing one’s origin

Spirituality means: Understanding the meaning of life

Spirituality means: Asking why one has an undefinable pain of longing for something greater than oneself, others, and anything of this world

Spirituality means: Feeling homesick

Spirituality means: Commitment to truth

Spirituality means: Self-mortification, Self-control

Spirituality means: Living with moral integrity

Spirituality means: Annihilating one’s own will and replacing it with the will of the Beloved

Spirituality means: Giving up the immediate pleasures of temporal existence for the supreme pleasure of the Creator

Spirituality means: Purity

Spirituality means: Striving spiritually – Mujahidat

Spirituality means: Adopting the attributes of the Creator

Spirituality means: Ascending from mundane to the sublime realities

Spirituality means: Staying exclusively faithful to the inner light

Spirituality means: Gnosis

Spirituality means: Journey from wisdom to vision

Spirituality means: Moving from darkness to light

Spirituality means: Liberation after restraint

Spirituality means: Progressing through various spiritual states

Spirituality means: Delight of meeting the Creator

Spirituality means: Annihilation in the Creator

Spirituality means: Living with the presence of the Creator

Spirituality means: Bliss & Real Happiness

Spirituality means: Embracing paradoxes

Spirituality means: Gaining immortality

Spirituality means: Living in the kingdom of joy

Learn and Observe Spiritual Laws:

“Reaching for the moon with outstretched arms will never bring that luminous satellite within man’s grasp. Great laws of nature have to be understood and mastered before a spacecraft can be built, launched and ejected into the depths of outer space on its speedy and silent journey to the moon bearing with it its load of scientific instruments and crew of astronauts for bringing that orb within the dominion of man.

God is not prepared to fulfill the desires and dreams of man by miraculously transporting him in the twinkling of an eye from the fertile landscape of the earth to the barren surface of the moon. He has, however, gifted man with intelligence and enabled him through diligent study, observation and experiment to discover and comprehend certain scientific laws, enabling him, thereby, to achieve his goal – the conquest of the moon.

There are also spiritual laws which if recognized and observed can transport man from this mundane world to the blissful realm of heaven; but man must take the initiative if he wishes to succeed in this spiritual conquest, bearing in mind that God helps those who help themselves. Just as the successful flight of the spacecraft is dependent upon the control centre which directs its multifarious operations, so does the spiritual flight of man depend upon that inner quality—self-control.” (Life Supreme, p. 41)