A meandering on purpose

Through my childhood and adolescence, I have come to truly love and pursue three disciplines all of which have bought a unique perspective to my outlook on life.

The first is my current understanding of religion and its role in the world.

The second is my passion for sports and physical health.

The third, is my inherent longing to enhance the former and latter, without of which no true progress can be made.

There is no doubt that we are beings who have evolved for the sole purpose of the development of our physical, moral and spiritual faculties. 

This is a trend we see across the entire observable universe from the formation of galaxies to the spindling of a spiders web. All of creation is never stagnant but forever moving forwards towards a higher purpose.

Even a reader pursuing knowledge has to traverse an intellectual length in order to arrive to a more perfect gnosis.

The question thus arises, with all the complexities of creation can one define a universal purpose in one word or even phrase that would unify the purpose of life?

The answer is written in the Holy Qur'an in verse 22 of Al-Baqarah: "I have not created the Jinn and Man but that they worship me."

This is a common translation however it doesn't do justice to what Islam says about the purpose of creation. To find that answer we must divulge into the etymology of the verse itself and specifically the word translated as "worship"

In Arabic lexicon the root verb used here to describe mans purpose is a-ba-da which means to become a slave, a servant, or to become resigned to the will of another. However this verb has much deeper meanings, pondering of which will bring a great depth to this verse. And in such translation we can begin to see a number of things that we must do as human beings of intellect:

1) An acceptance that we are resigned to natural law... Such as gravity etc. which are unchanging

2) An understanding that we are influenced by our surroundings, however imperceptible they may be.

3) A realisation that we have the inherent capacity to live out what we were biologically, mentally and spiritually capable of and also that we can influence our surroundings through the correct channels.  

The verb a-ba-da is also translated as "to love" 

In essence love can be described as the coming together of two things. The law of attraction exists at every level of the chemistry of the universe. From two atoms coming together to form bonds, to the cohesion of a community to the collective attraction between man and woman.

The way the Holy Qur'an has so concisely given such a comprehensive analogy through the use of the Arabic language is a great sign for me for the existence of an intelligent creator.

In my disciplines of religion and sport, I have found that as long as I keep on pursuing a better understanding or performance, I will increase in every way. The key is extolled throughout nature and the wisdom of it we must learn to comprehend. Only then when we walk outside  we can see the world as we never have seen it before and start to use our vision in a different way so we see a reflection of our creator wherever we look.

The universe is full of divine footprints and while we make our own in this world, we must always remember to strive towards our natural goal which is never  stagnant.

May the forces that be drive us on to develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of words and the wisdoms contained therein, amin.