Why Was I born? What Is the Purpose of My Creation?
Most of us are usually preoccupied with questions like, “Why was I born?” “What is the purpose of my creation?” But before answering these questions, it is worth asking ourselves why such questions occur to us? Why do we not ever question the purpose of God in creating water?
It seems far-fetched to even hear this question because the answer becomes practically clear to us as soon as we feel thirsty. Even though the first humans must have had many questions in their minds, they may never have thought about such a question. We are familiar with water; we know its properties and its importance for our body, plants, and the universe. Although the specific properties of hydrogen bonding in water molecules are not fully known to us, our limited knowledge of the nature of water and its importance in our lives is enough to prevent such questions from coming to our minds.
But it is not so easy to answer the questions “Why was I born” and “What is purpose of my creation?” We do not truly know our “self,” and as a result, we question the reason for the human being’s existence and fall into the illusion. We have tried to answer these questions with our limited knowledge of our “self,” relying on human knowledge and intellect. We have presented many theories in this regard, but none of them have provided us with a definite solution. These questions are rooted in our point of view and self-knowledge, so if we are faced with such questions, we had better refer back to the first and second courses of the School of Humanology.
Love, the Source of Every Move
‘Love’ is the source of every move and action in the universe. As we mentioned before, what pulls us towards achieving perfection is the desire or wish for it, the desire to obtain things that are our internal and external assets; therefore, the unlimited and infinity-seeking part of us goes out of its way to achieve them. If we do not love beauty, wealth, knowledge, etc., we will not make any effort to achieve them. In fact, without the love and motivation to reach a specific goal, no one will engage in producing, discovering, and inventing things. Are we willing to endure countless hardships in search of the beloveds of the dimensions of existence without having the desire? So the most important event in the universe, i.e. the creation of the human being, followed by our efforts in the world, cannot be exempt from this rule.
A teacher desires to share all his knowledge with his students, a sports coach wants to teach all his sports and martial arts skills to his players. The human being is the only full-length mirror that can reflect all the perfections and attributes of God, who is our Teacher and Instructor.
Out of His infinite love and generosity, God who is the Absolute Perfect, has given us the capacity, ability, and worthiness to achieve His own perfections. This way he has given us the blessings and opportunity to reach the best possible positions. Therefore, as beings capable of receiving such a great gift, we had to step into this world to choose the path of perfection or descent by free will. This worthiness only brings us happiness when we realize that God has deemed us worthy of this maturity. Perhaps now we are getting a little closer to the answer to “Why was I born?”
The Highest Goal
We stated that God, who is infinite in all His attributes and perfections, has deemed us worthy of developing and manifesting all His perfections. This is why we seek infinity, strive to achieve anything that is deemed as perfection, and never cease efforts for a moment in this path. Surely you remember that our true beloved is none other than the beloved of our true self, i.e. “Allah.” He is that very Being who satisfies our desire for infinity and fills us with peace, happiness, and love. Hence we can decisively state that all our efforts in this world aim to reach this beloved. As infinity-seeking beings, we seek the beloved who is infinite although sometimes, we mistakenly seek peace, happiness, and love in wealth, power, low desires, fame, knowledge, etc.
In fact, God’s purpose of our creation is that we find love, reach the Absolute Perfect, and become like Him (manifest His names and attributes). It is the clearest answer we can give to the question, “Why was I born?”
We love the Absolute Perfect, and this desire is fitri. But if we feel intense love for someone or something else, or if we constantly pursue various perfections, it is because we do not recognize the true source of these perfections and seek them in beings other than God; we do not know that except for the Absolute and Infinite God, there is no other perfection in the universe.
Since God has breathed His spirit into us, we are infinite in essence and are inclined towards infinity and greatness. The ultimate goal set for us is to possess all perfections like “Allah,” otherwise we will not find peace. So we must actualize all the infinite potentials that God has given us out of His grace and kindness and manifest more and more of His names and attributes day by day.
The Role of Our True beloved in Life
When we say that the purpose of our creation or the reason why we were born is to become like God, we mean that our main goal is not to become a parent, a rich or famous person, a scientist, a doctor, an engineer, a cleric, a philosopher, a writer, etc. These are just tools that help us to achieve a greater goal. Our goal is to be a human and stay a human; we live based on what our true beloved desires for us so that we can live a life full of peace, happiness, and love in this world, and we can also attain eternal bliss and happiness.
Therefore, it is our True Beloved who should guide all our activities and direct our actions and behaviors. We should take care of our Pure Beloved Spirit, just like a mother who is concerned about her child’s growth and development. No matter what we do, we should behave in the most correct way, so that day by day we get closer to our True Beloved and become more like Him.
In this article, we realized that we were not created in vain, but rather there is a beautiful purpose like love behind the question of “Why was I born?” and there is a heavy duty on our shoulders. In fact, among all the beings in this universe, we are the only ones to whom God has given the eligibility and worthiness to be like Him. Therefore, we should be grateful for such a gift and strive to fulfil our duty and not get caught up in earthly distractions that hold us in bondage.