(Original article: More to Life Magazine, Edition 64, October 2023, p52)
Nassir H. Sabah
What gives meaning to life is continual self-development – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually – driving toward a target state of sublime serenity and self-fulfillment. This self-development is the practical outcome of spirituality and is the prerequisite for the ultimate reward – eternal bliss in Heaven.
The short answer to the question in the title is simply to address the most important existential question: what is the purpose and meaning of life?
In my career at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, I taught for more than 35 years courses on neuroengineering, biomedical engineering, electronics, and electric circuits, have published more than 100 technical publications, mainly in neurophysiology, biophysics, and biomedical instrumentation, and have authored four books on electric circuits, electronics, and neuroscience. The administrative positions I held at the university allowed me to introduce several academic programs that opened up new career paths for thousands of young men and women. That was highly gratifying but always left the nagging thought that it was not enough. Our students labored for four years preparing for their professional careers, but for what purpose in life? Is it to make money, live affluently – a luxurious house, expensive cars, fancy clothing, ostentatious life-style – achieve recognition and fame, be happy, raise a beautiful family, cherish social bonds of love and friendship, serve one’s community, or what? Most people set their own goals early in life and strive to pursue them, convinced of their worthiness. As a long-time educator, I felt I had to promulgate in simple language the answers that I find most persuasive and satisfying as to the purpose and meaning of life. The natural consequence of this urge was to write the book Spirituality Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment.1
One might ask: should there be a purpose or meaning to our existence in the first place? Are we not just the result of a chance encounter between a sperm cell and an egg cell in a narrow, dark abdominal tube (the Fallopian tube)? Isn’t our destiny simply to be born, live our lives, enjoy what our circumstances allow, achieve what we able to achieve, then end up as lifeless corpses to be disposed of one way or another? Is human life, at the bottom of it, not just a matter of biological continuation of the species? Like human, like dog, or like rat? Does this make sense?
The fact of the matter is, no, this most definitely does not make sense. The result of the encounter between the sperm cell and the egg cell is a wondrous human being endowed with astonishing mental capacities such as the ability to probe into the mysteries of physical phenomena to make astounding scientific discoveries; the intellectual prowess of imagination, abstract thinking, and logical reasoning; the creativity to produce indescribably beautiful works of art and the sense to appreciate the beauty in these works and in what is around us; the propensity to discern good from evil, what is moral from what is not; the free will to at least try and shape our own lives; a mysterious, fathomless consciousness; the gift to form human bonds of exquisite love and faithful friendship; and last but not least, the spiritual dimension that is uniquely human. Do not the exalted human sensibilities and intellect deserve a more sublime purpose? The answer is emphatically in the affirmative. Denying a more sublime purpose for our existence is tantamount to forsaking our humanness and relegating humans to being merely selfish, cunning, devious, and exploitative higher animals who eventually suffer the same fate of death as lower animals. The mere fact that humans are endowed with attributes that are stupendously beyond those of our closest biological kin, the chimpanzee, means that these attributes are there for a purpose.
In other words, humans were purposefully gifted with these mental attributes. The human brain grew in size over a span of some two million years, despite its relatively heavy energy demand, at the expense of other high-energy consuming organs of the body, mainly muscle and intestines, and with only meager returns for a long time, just some primitive tools such as pointed sticks and sharp stone. What was the drive for larger brains for this long time? No one really knows. Humans then developed some new thinking and communication abilities between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago in what has been dubbed the Cognitive Revolution,2 which led in a short span of some tens of thousands of years to their becoming the undisputed masters of planet Earth and to the sprouting of an amazing diversity of cultures and civilizations. How did all this come about? Ostensibly by some “chance” mutation in the brain. Needless to say, such a “non-explanation” stretches credibility beyond the breaking point.
On the other hand, to say that these mental abilities were purposefully created presupposes a creator, so the linchpin here is the belief in the divine being, The Almighty who is The Creator of the universe and all that’s in it and is its Sustainer and Guide. But this brings in a whole lot of questions. How do we know that The Almighty exists? Is there objective evidence of this existence, rather than philosophical, theological, or morality-based arguments? How does science figure in all this? As far as I am aware, direct, objective, and incontrovertible evidence for the existence of The Almighty is best provided by the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam. Irrespective of any preconceptions about the Quran, intellectual honesty demands that the Quran should at least be regarded as a stand-alone text that should be appraised on its own merits without prejudice or bias. In this assessment, it may come as a complete surprise to many that the Quran cannot possibly be of human origin. The argument for this non-human origin is primarily based on: (i) numerous, unmistakably clear references to physical phenomena that were discovered or understood by science many centuries later, such as pulsars, rose-like planetary nebulas, origin of the universe, its evolution and its continuing expansion, the cosmic web, the protective atmosphere, the recycling of the Earth’s crust, seamounts and their dampening of earthquakes, roots of mountains, motion of the Earth, internal ocean waves, and the physiology of milk production, and (ii) an intricate web of numerical relations involving letters, verses, and chapters of the Quran, and which could not possibly be all coincidental or of human origin3. Moreover, more of these numerical relations continue to be discovered all the time. It is as if these relations were intended as a recurring miracle – a miracle that keeps on giving, unlike a one-off miracle. More importantly, these numerical relations are completely objective and clear-cut; they do not depend on any linguistic, philosophical, or theological interpretations of verses, just simple arithmetic and consistent rules of counting Arabic letters and words. It should be mentioned in this connection that the only Quranic text that is officially recognized by Islamic authorities all over the world is the original Arabic text. No translation of the Quran to any language is recognized as official because a translation only reflects the meaning of verses as understood by the translator.
Just to give an idea about these numerical relations, consider the reference in the Quran to the development of the human embryo, which is in verse 13 and the first part of verse 14 of Chapter 23 (The Believers). In Arabic, this passage consists of 23 words and uses 23 letters of the Arabic alphabet of 28 letters. Remarkably, humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. So, the reference to the development of the human embryo is in Chapter 23, using 23 words and 23 unrepeated letters. Coincidence? Then consider the mention of bees in the Quran, which occurs only in verse 68, Chapter 16 (The Bees). In Arabic, the verse consists of 16 words and uses 16 letters of the Arabic alphabet. The first part of the verse up to and including the word bees consists of a total of 16 letters. The number of verses in Chapter 16 is 128, a multiple of 16 (8×16), and the number of words is 2080, a multiple of 16 (130×16). The number of words from the beginning of the chapter until the word bees is encountered is 992, a multiple of 16 (62×16), and the number of words including the word bees and till the end of the chapter is 1088, a multiple of 16 (68×16), where 68 is the verse number where bees are mentioned. Female bees (workers) have 16 pairs of chromosomes, whereas male bees (drones) have 16 unpaired chromosomes. All coincidences? Not likely.
Belief in the divine origin of the Quran entails belief in the existence of The Almighty, in His Nature and Attributes mentioned in the Quran, in Heaven and Hell in the afterlife, and in the truth of the Quranic revelations. What one infers from these is that The Almighty has created humans for a purpose, which, out of His infinite Mercy and Love, is for them to have eternal bliss in Heaven. In His Omniscience and Wisdom, He created them with a wondrous conscious self having the propensity for both virtuousness and wickedness and a free will that allows humans to choose between the right path that leads to eternal bliss in Heaven and the wrong path that leads to suffering in Hell. The right path is that of Serving Him.
What does Serving Him exactly mean, bearing in mind that He is The Self-Sufficient, not needing anything or anyone in the universe? Serving The Almighty is to receive His Mercy and submit to His Will, just like the servant who serves his master and submits to his will to please him and earn his beneficial treatment. But since The Almighty does not need this service nor does He benefit from it, the benefits of Serving Him are therefore directed at the servant and for his own good.
How would one serve The Almighty and therefore benefit from this service? It is through virtuous conduct in the form of good deeds, words, and treatment of others. This conduct is the outward manifestation of a sequence of:
- Foundational beliefs: Existence of The Almighty, contemplation of His Essence and Nature, the Afterlife.
- Engendered feelings: Deep humility, submission to His Will.
- Occupying thoughts: Frequent remembrance of The Almighty through glorification, gratitude, supplication, and mystical forms.
- Formative attitudes: Reliance on The Almighty, deference to His Will, and profound appraisal of the real worth material possessions, of life’s frivolity and its pleasures and rewards.
This sequence of building blocks and the conduct that embodies them are in fact the manifestations of a spirituality that is a quality of being predicated on a sense of closeness and connectedness to The Almighty. The practical outcome of this spirituality is continual self-development – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually – driving toward a target state of sublime serenity and self-fulfillment.
It is seen that progress along the right path of Serving Him is through this comprehensive self-development and that it is this self-development that is the benefit of Serving Him. It is this self-development that is a sublime expression of our humanness, is what gives meaning to life, and is a prerequisite for eternal bliss in the afterlife, contingent on His Will, Grace, Mercy, and Judgement. The test for this comprehensive self-development is the answer to the simple question: “Am I a better person today – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually – than I was yesterday?”
The immensely beneficial impact of this self-development is in: (i) conquering negative feelings, such as envy and anger, (ii) alleviation of anxiety and stress, with their detrimental effects on health and well-being, (iii) fostering positive feelings and attitudes in promoting tolerance, understanding, and compassion toward all in contrast to ruthless competition, mindless materialism, and all forms of injustice, oppression, corruption, and exploitation, (iv) experiencing the joy of living without craving and greed, without excessive indulgence or anxiety about the ending of life’s pleasures, and with a liberating awareness of what is really important in life and what is vain, superfluous, and illusory, and (v) an elating spirituality that is reflected in an intense feeling of closeness and connectedness to The Almighty.
In summary, the purpose of life is the attainment of eternal bliss in Heaven, which is the greatest reward that one can wish for. The prerequisite in this worldly existence is comprehensive self-development – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually – which gives meaning to life. It should be borne in mind that had The Almighty wished, He could have made all human beings believers and angel-like, living in perfect peace and harmony. But life would then have no meaning because everyone would have eternal bliss in Heaven. Humans have to earn the reward of eternal bliss through their conduct in this life, which has therefore been made a trial for them. It is a trial that one must be prepared for and endure. Its outcome is the ultimate measure of success in life.
Nassir Sabah is a neuroscientist/biophysicist and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He has over 100 technical publications, mainly in neurophysiology, biophysics, and biomedical instrumentation and has authored four books on electric circuits, electronics, and neuroscience. This article is adapted from his most recent book Spirituality Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment (2023). He could be reached at his website nassirsabah.com.
Notes and References
- Sabah, N. H. (2023) Spirituality Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment, London and Washington, O-Books, John Hunt Publishing (In Press).
- Harari, Y. N. (2015) Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, London, Vintage, pp. 22-44.
- Some examples of miraculous verses and numerical relations of the Quran are presented in Spirituality Rekindled and in the references cited therein.
