The raging COVID-19 pandemic with its ever emerging variants is devastating like never seen before. People are seeing their near and dear departing at a rate never imagined before.

Life became so unpredictable and insignificant that a person dies so simply, despite all the credentials and testimonials to his/her credit.

Unfortunately, human life is so short that before a person becomes able enough to contribute to society at his/her full potential, death comes knocking at the door announcing the trial time has ended.

This limited time frame of a person’s life makes it much more important, and reason demands there should a purpose to life.

Every individual can decide a purpose for himself/herself in many ways, arbitrarily or based on extremely limited knowledge, vision, understanding or wisdom.

However, the only true purpose if life can only be what the creator has decided, and based on which he has set criteria of success or failure. Any other purpose of life, even if extremely noble in human understanding, but not aligning to and is not the same as what the creator has ordained, will not get the one and only Creator’s approval.

God Almighty defines the purpose of human life explicitly as follows:

I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me. Qur’aan 51:56

The of worship has two dimensions, the first is realization at an intellectual level, and the other is at the gratitude level.

Worshipping the Creator at an intellectual level involves discovering the Unseen Creator by observing and appreciating the wonders of His creativity, feeling the countless blessings he bestowed on his creation, particularly on the human race, His most beloved creation.

Worshiping at the gratitude level involves obedience and total submission to The Creator out of gratitude, love and trust.

This is the Supreme purpose one human can have in his/her life. This is a purpose and a trial as well at the same time to see who amongst human can have such a noble purpose and fulfill that purpose in a given limited lifetime and resources.

In order to live a life of higher order and value let us make a pledge with Our Creator that O God let me live a life which one can be proud of on the day of Judgment. A life which serves the very purpose ordained by God and also serve the humanity in the best possible way. Humanity can be served by showing them the true path of salvation and also alleviating their suffering. The pracital way of being grateful to God Almighty is to show mercy towards fellow human beings.

A true pledge with God Almighty to live a meaningful and purposeful life can increase our lifetime with God’s blessings.

Let us not live a life being a liability and burden on society which is worse than those of animals and insects.

God Almighty says in Quran:

They have hearts they do not understand with, eyes they don’t see with, and ears they do not hear with. They are like cattle. In fact, they are even less guided! Such people are entirely heedless. Quran 7:179

In this Covid-19 crisis, people die in large numbers. In this situation let us pray to God Almighty: O God protect us from this calamity so that we would live a life seeking God Almighty’s pleasure and refraining from the most disliked act of associating partners to God Almighty.

God Almighty says in Quran emphatically:

Indeed, God does not forgive associating others with Him in worship, but forgives anything else of whoever He wills. And whoever associates others with God has indeed committed a grave sin. Quran 4:48

Dr. Sajid Abbasi

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Telangana