In the Name of Allâh,
the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Khaalid Yaaseen
All praise be to Allah and peace be upon His messenger,
Muhammad.
The information which I wish to share with you may seen a bit
extensive, but when you consider the capacity of the human brain and the
capacity that it can store, I am sure that a few pages in tonight's talk will
not overburden you.
I am honored to have this opportunity and I would like to begin
by saying that all of you have an equal responsibility. That responsibility is
to listen with an open heart and an open mind. In a world filled with prejudice
and cultural conditioning, it is very hard to be able to find people to take a
moment to think about life objectively and try to arrive at the truth about
this world and the real purpose of our lives.
Unfortunately, when you ask most people the question: "What
is the purpose of life?" (such a fundamental and important question), they
will not tell you what they have concluded through observation or analytical
reasoning. Rather, in most cases, they will simply tell you what someone else
said, or they will tell you what is "commonly presumed" by others,
i.e., What my father said purpose of life is, what the minister of my church
said the purpose of life is, what my teacher in school said, what my friend
said, etc. If I ask anyone about the purpose of eating or why do we eat,
everyone will say [in one word or another] that it is for nutritional purposes,
because nutrition sustains life. If I ask anyone why they work, they will say
because it's a necessity in order to support themselves and to provide for the
needs of their families. If I ask anyone why they sleep, why they wash, why
they dress, etc., they will answer with appropriate answers, for these are
common necessities for all human beings. We can follow this line of questioning
with a hundred questions and receive the same or similar answers from anyone in
any language from any place in the world. Then I ask you the question: Why,
when we ask the question, "What is the goal and purpose of life?" that we get many
different answers? It is because people are confused; they don't really know.
They are stumbling in the dark, and rather than say, "I don't know";
they just offer any answer they have been programmed to give. Think about it.
Is our purpose in this world simply to eat, sleep, dress, work, acquire some
material things and enjoy ourselves? Is this our purpose? Why are we born? What
is the object of our existence? What is the wisdom behind the creation of man
and this tremendous universe? Think about those questions. Some people argue
that there is no proof of any diving origin; no proof that there is a god and
there is no proof that this universe has come about through any divine purpose.
There are people who argue this way, and they say that perhaps this world came
about by chance. A big bang, and this great world [with all its orchestration]
just came together. They argue that life doesn't have any definite purpose, and
that there is nothing that can prove [either through logic or science] that
there is a god, or a purpose or any divine reason behind this world.
Here I would like to mention a few verses from the Holy Quran
that address this subject. We seek the protection of Allah from every evil
thing. Allah mentions to us in the Holy Quran, "And to Allah belongs the
dominion of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is over all things competent.
Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the
night and the day are signs for those of understanding-Who remember Allah while
standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation
of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this
aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the
punishment of the Fire." Surah 3: Ayahs 189-191
Now here in these verses, Allah draws our attention to the
creation of the heavens and earth, the alternation of the night and the day,
the creation of the universe. HE calls our attention to their creation and
their precision, and mentions those who contemplate the wonders of creation and
realize that this was not created for any foolish purpose, [that Allah is
exalted above doing such a thing] and they seek refuge with Allah from the
punishment of Hell. Truly, when you see the design of all that Allah created,
you realize it is very powerful and very precise. Something very powerful and
very precise; something beyond your own calculation and imagination, cannot be
foolish. It cannot be just "thrown together".
There are many examples of things that happen by chance. Let me
offer one situation. If you took ten colored marbles, then numbered them one to
ten and you put them inside a bag. Next, you shook that bag to mix them up.
Then, closing your eyes and reaching into the bag, you tried to pull out the
marbles in order-1 to 10. What is the chance of pulling out the marbles in
order? Do you know what the chances are? It is twenty six million to one
(26,000,000 to 1). And this is something within our ability to do. So now I ask
you, what is the chance that the heavens and the earth just came together as
they are [with the exact precision and orchestration in their existence]?
My dear respected brothers and sisters, we have to ask ourselves
a further question. When you see a bridge, a building or an automobile, you
automatically consider the person or company that constructed it. When you see
a large ship, an airplane, a rocket, a satellite; you also think about how
incredible it is. [You know by its design who the maker is.] When you see a
super international airport, nuclear plant or an orbiting space station you
have to be thoroughly impressed with the engineering dynamics that are
involved. Yet, these are just things that are manufactured by human beings. So
what about the human body with its massive and intricate control systems? Think
about it. Think about the brain: how it thinks, functions, analyzes, retrieves
and stores information, as well as distinguishes and categorizes information in
a millionth of a second, all of this constantly. Think about the brain for a
moment. (And don't forget the fact that you are using your brain to consider
itself!) This is the brain that made the automobile, the rocket ships, the
boats, and so on. Think about the brain and who made that! Think about the
heart. Think about how it pumps continuously for sixty or seventy years [taking
in and discharging blood throughout the body] maintaining steady precision
throughout the life of the person. Think about the kidneys and the liver and
the various functions they perform. The purifying instruments of the body that
perform hundreds of chemical analyses simultaneously and also controls the
level of toxicity in the content of the body. All of these are done
automatically. Think about your eyes, the human cameras, that adjust, focus,
interpret, evaluate, discern color automatically, naturally receiving and
adjusting to light and distance. Think about it-Who created them? Who has
mastered their design and function? Who plans and regulates their function?
Human beings do this? No, of course not. What about this universe? Think about
this. This earth is one planet in our solar system, and our solar system is one [of possible many] solar
systems. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is one of the galaxies. There are ONE
HUNDRED MILLION GALAXIES in the universe. They are all in order and they are
all precise. They are not colliding with each other. They are not conflicting
with on another. They are swimming along in an orbit that has been set for
them. Did human beings set that into motion and are human beings maintaining
that precision? No, of course not. Think about the oceans, the fish, the insects,
the birds, the plants, bacteria, and chemical elements that have not yet been
discovered and cannot be detected even with the most sophisticated instruments.
Yet each of them has a law that they follow. Did all of this synchronization,
balance, harmony, variation, design, maintenance, operation and infinite
numeration happen all by chance? Do these things function perfectly and
perpetually also by chance? No, of course not. That would be totally illogical
and foolish. In the least, it indicates that however it came to exist-it exists
beyond the realm of human capability. We will all agree to that. The Being, The
Almighty Power, God, The Creator who has the knowledge to design and proportion
crated all of this and is responsible for maintaining it. HE is the only one
that deserves praise and gratitude.
If I were to give each one of you one hundred dollars for no
reason, you would at least say thank you. What about your eyes, your kidneys,
your brain, your children, and your life: Who gave you all of that? Is He not
worthy of praise and thanks? Is He not worthy of your worship and recognition?
My brothers and sisters, in a nutshell, this is the goal and
purpose of this life. Allah said to us in the Holy Quran: "And I did not
create the jinn* and mankind except to worship Me." [Surah 51: Ayah 56]
this is what the Almighty said. Our purpose in this life is to recognize The
Creator, to be grateful to Him, to worship Him, to surrender ourselves to Him
and to obey the laws that He has determined for us. It means worship is our
purpose in life. Whatever we do in the course of that worship, [i.e., the
eating, the sleeping, the dressing, the working, the enjoying,] between birth
and death is consequential and subject to His orders. But the main reason for
our creation is worship. I don't think anyone who is analytical or scientific
will have much of an argument with that purpose. They may have some other
reason with themselves-but that is something they have to deal with between
themselves and Almighty God.
Khalid
Yasin Lecture in Jeddah K.S.A.
*Jinn are one of the creations of Allah, as are people and
angels. While people were created from clay, angels from light, the jinn are
created from fire. Like angels, they are not seen by humans.
Courtesy Of: al-Haramayn Islaamic Foundation
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