The MOTIVE

There is a natural hierarchy to the questions that we can ask about the Cosmos, and our place within it, that is given by those very questions themselves. 

And when we think deeply about it the study of Science, whilst talking the talk of trying to explain all things, only really scratches the surface to get to the How of Things: the mechanism and not the Purpose, the Hows and not the Whys. 

MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH CONTEMPLATION 

Off course, Materialists will argue that the Whys only relate to the actions of cogent beings, like ourselves, that have and can exert free will. 

So for example when it is asked as to why we should be just, “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself” is a sufficient answer that clearly rings true. 

But that when we talk of the purpose of anything other than ourselves (or other cogent sentient beings), it is a reflection of an age old anthropomorphism that sees man as being at the centre of the Cosmos. 

A better word for this is personification, that we see ourselves in the other objects, and subjects, that populate our World.  

That they do not have a purpose, nor a moral compass and do not know neither truth nor falsehood. For there is no motive to their being, and nothing that drives them onwards. 

However in the Islamic Worldview, all things have a purpose. 

Indeed in the Qu’ran, God informs us that He created all things, in (with and from) Truth. And that therefore all things do testify to His existence, by their very existence. 

And then God also says in the Qur’an that He made the Sun and the Moon subservient to us. *1

Now that is a thing to deliberate. 

For sure the Sun and the Moon are distant to us, independent of us, and we cannot reach them nor harness their full power, nor turn them to our will. 

Some Mufasir will say that the Moon is made subservient to us by it’s phases, through which we know the count of time and the flow of years. Others that it is the sun’s energy that is harnessed by the plants that in turn we harness, through networks of energy flowing, for our benefit. 

But there is some deeper significance here that needs deliberating. 

And I suggest you do so without my input, for it is in contemplation that benefit lies. 

So look now away from my thoughts on the matter, and return back to my argument after the hashed lines. 

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The greatest purpose of man is to know God. For in a Hadith Qudsi we learn that God said that I created that I might be known. 

And that is how the Sun and the Moon provide the greatest utility to us. 

For in the contemplation of both, and how we are protected from the radiation and power that emanates from the Sun. And how the Moon provides for our tides, and allows us to count the passage of time. 

Therein are signs for Men, and Women, of Understanding. 

And in God’s saying that the Sun and Moon are subservient to us, there is itself, within that argument, a great boon. 

For through this we know that our greatest purpose is to come to know God, His Majesty and Grace, through His creations- both the Sun and the Moon and all else that are nourished through them. 

That those objects themselves have been made with a purpose, and have a motive. 

And that purpose is for them to be signs of contemplation that point to ONE Creator, full of majesty, mercy and grace. 

And this purpose is fully evident through the whole of creation, with it’s perfection. 

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And so we come to what is the main reason for the revelation of the Qur’an, and it’s main purpose. 

On the day of Arafat, in the final year of the Messenger’s life, on the plains of Hajj he (saw) received these words:

 الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

This day have I perfected your deen for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your way of life. (al Maedah v3). 

The completion of God’s favour upon the whole of Mankind, was the creation of Muslim society, and a people who would uphold it and strive towards it being ever present. 

And then it should be clear that Muslim’s know that their society has a purpose, as do all things. 

And that purpose is to bring people, both Muslim and non-Muslim closer to God, closer to appreciating His Majesty and the perfection of His creation. 

And towards this end Muslim society strives to remove oppression, that which one men visits on another, or that which a state visits upon a citizen. 

So that all men, and women, are free. 

Free to believe. Free to contemplate creation. Free to draw closer to God. 

And thus the creation of a fully just Muslim society. Where men’s souls are not oppressed by imprisonment. But when they err, face the hudood and then afterwards are free to partake fully in Muslim society without fear of discrimination, without fear of class division. *2

For God informs us in the Qur’an that there is life in it. 

Men’s souls need freedom. 

And Muslim society is there to help them stay free from oppression. *3

So that they, and it, may fulfil each it’s purpose. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not through talks and lectures, nor this above.