(Original article: Mystic Living Today, May 2023)
Nassir H. Sabah
Surely, this ranks as the most important existential question that one should ask. Yet, how many people get to ask this question; and of those who do, how many feel they have a rational, convincing, and satisfying answer?
Why should there be a purpose to life 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 are 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 the book, Spirituality Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment⁕, the purpose of life is identified as the attainment of eternal bliss in heaven, subject to the will, judgement, and mercy of The Almighty, the creator of the universe and the guide and sustainer of everything in it. The advocated spirituality is the prerequisite for this eternal bliss and is concomitantly the foundation for continual, immensely beneficial, and comprehensive self-development – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually – driving toward a target state of supreme serenity and self-fulfillment. It is this self-development that is a most worthy humanistic endeavor that gives meaning to life.
⁕ Additional information about the book is available at: https://nassirsabah.com
