Brief Research about the Purpose of life in both modern and traditional perspactive

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Purpose of life both in modern and traditional view
Alina Baber
10B-046-BS
Abstract— All of us wonder what our meaning, function, and
objective of life is. People today are commonly quite curious.
All of us understand that there's anything much more to
existence. We want to know what the purpose of our lives on
this world is. This topic is indeed of a very significant nature
for; the various issues that exert a great influence upon life on
this planet are actually founded on the fundamental question
of the purpose of our lives.
This paper is about purpose of our lives in modern view
and also the traditional view, where we try to analysis our lives
purpose in both perspectives. This paper is meant for every
sound-mindedand logical human being irrespective of religion
or ideology.
I. INTRODUCTION
o understand the basic purpose or object of life , first
we must know about the basic concept of life.
According to Philosophers & Scholars, The basic concept
of life is deeply mixed with the philosophical and religious
conceptions ofexistence, consciousness,and happiness,and
touches on many other issues, such as symbolic meaning,
ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will,
conceptions of Allah, the existence of Allah, the soul and
the afterlife. This means that when we talk about life we do
not only talk about to come in this world and left it after a
time period, this means that we are created and sent to this
world for some purpose. As Allah says in Quran Surah Al-
Mu’minun [23:115]:
“Then did you think that We created you uselessly
(without any purpose) and that to Us you would not be
returned?”
Life is a precious asset from Allah Without knowing the
purpose of life, life becomes aimless without any final goal,
and we can’t live our lives in a right way.
The purpose of life is often determined with all the
missions, we have in our lives. If we want to know that
what is our objective and why we come to this world, we
might reconsider our missions in existence.
II. BASIC CONCEPT
The initial concept of purpose can be found in our
everyday world. It is actually ordinarily determined by the
concepts, believes culture and expectation of people around
us, such as parents, teachers and bosses etc. In short, our
mission and objective is established through the expectations
with the people around us. For example, our parents could
count on us to aid other people. At some point in our life, we
all try out to fulfill to the expectations of some others. But
this is external mission.
The other type concept of mission is additionally a
consequence from our each day lifestyle deeds. It is not
established through the people around us, but rather by our
suggestions of how we want to reside our life. It really is
connected to others even though.
Purpose in life may possibly seem to bring about good
results. You will still ask the question “What is my
purpose?”. The actual purpose of life and correct happiness
comes from within us. This mission is internal and its
objective is spiritual. It's essential to turn to your heart and
reflect your feelings to learn that ‘what is the basic
objective you had been born to do.
III. IN TRADIONAL ASPECT
Life is not purposeless but is highly purposeful,
everything has a purpose & Life too has a deep and
significant purpose and if everything around us has a purpose
then the great asset of life cannot be purposeless. According
to traditional views the basic concept and objective of life
belongs to our spirits.
Spirituality includes believing in the sacredness of life,
seeking out opportunities to grow spiritually, and believing
that we are all spiritual beings. Spiritual Quest reflects interest
in the meaning/ purpose of life, finding answers to the
mysteries of life, and developing a meaningful philosophy of
life which involves the religious concepts and believes. When
we talk about the religious concepts it includes the Religious
Skepticism, Struggle, Religious Commitment, Religious
Engagement and Religious/Social Conservatism. Religious
Skepticism includes beliefs such as “the universe arose by
chance” and “in the future, science will be able to explain
every- thing,” and disbelief in the notion of life after death.
Religious Struggle indicates feeling unsettled about religious
matters, feeling distant from God, and questioning religious
beliefs. Religious Commitment includes following religious
teachings in everyday life, finding religion to be personally
helpful, and gaining personal strength by trusting in a higher
power. Religious Engagement involves attending religious
services, praying, and reading sacred texts and
Religious/Social Conservatism reflects opposition to such
things as casual sexand abortion, the use of prayer to receive
forgiveness, and the belief that people who don’t believe in
God will be punished.
This means religion is the best way to know about the
Purpose of Life. Religion gives the right way to spend life
with right goals and objectives. There are many religions
which are followed by the people in this world. All religions
have different concept and objective of life. For example, In
Hinduism, the concept and purpose of life is belongs to Cycle
of Birth & Rebirth, Judaism is almost silent on purpose of
life, consist of just poetry & History, the concept of
Christianity is Original Sin, St. Paul, Crucifixion, The concept
of Zoroastrianism is Ahura Mazda & Ahriman, Paganism, in
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Buddhism & Jainism the purpose of life renouncing the world
to get salvation and but only Islam have a complete concept
and objective of life.
In Islam, the purpose of life consists of:
I. To acquire knowledge in order to understand our
status in life,
II. Man is Dignified Being and Representative (Khalifa)
of Allah on Earth (2:30),
III. Man has to manifest divine attributes into himself,
IV. Allah created us in order to worship Him,
“And I did not create the Jinn and Mankind
except to worship Me.”
[Surah Adh Dhariyath, 51: 56]
V. Life is a test to Man, He will be rewarded according
in the Aakhirah and Man is the Best of the Creation.
“He who created death and life to test you (as to)
which of you is best in deed, and He is the exalted
in Might, the Forgiving.”
[Surah Al Mulk, 61: 2]
VI. Islam also describe the way to Human that how we
spend ourlive by utilising our skills which are gifted
to us by Allah and how to be successful.
VII. Islam also describe the responsibilities and practices
that how to treat people around us and how to be
socialized which are necessary forthe life.
VIII. Islam also describe the difference between the good
way and the bad way to us,by which we can easily
choice our way of life, decision, objectives,habits
and goals.
IX. Even Allah sent His many Prophets to us whom gave
use great examples and actual path to follow. Such
as Hazrat Mohammad (SAW) , his ways and
practices are complete and great examples for us to
follow.
Except Islam, in all other religions and philosophies, the
purpose of life is incomplete, or defected, or impractical or
not moderate. Only Islam provides the complete code of life
& only Islam is the universal religion belonging to all
humanity and the moment when we realize our purpose in
life, our status gets exalted till Allah mentions us as the best
evolved people:
“You are the best of Peoples, evolved for mankind,
enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and
believing in Allah.”
IV. IN MODERN ASPECT
As the times are going on, the ideologies, needs,thinking and
culture of people of world also modified time by time, these
changes also change their purposes and goals of life.
According to modern view, Purpose of Life is not only
wishing for hilling the good frombest things in life or spends
life and left world without doing something. The purpose of
life is:
i. To Share Your Love, Love everyone, but start with
those closest to you, if you truly pursue this
purpose, all the others will follow naturally.
ii. To Give to Others, We are born to serve others and
not live only for ourselves. Make a difference in the
world. Increase in Light; Increase your light bearing
capacity by following the truth you know because
our spirits and bodies can literally flow with light.
iii. To Learn Wisdom, learn all you can. Pursue
wisdom not as an end in itself, but to better serve
others with your increased knowledge and talents.
iv. To Accept Yourself Flow with whom you are. Your
birth, parents, and country all have a reason. Accept
your purpose and your inclinations. Feel and flow
with your emotions.
v. To Enjoy the Mystery Wonder at the beauty of life.
Don't try to figure everything out intellectually.
Accept the world.
vi. To Create Your Reality In this sphere, you can
choose what you do. Be bold and decide what you
really want.
vii. To Move toward your dreams with vision and
power, follow the Spirit Trust that inner voice that
leads and prompts you. As you listen, you will gain
greater inspiration in all daily activities.
viii. To revel in the Present, Find joy and engagement in
every activity. Recognize your point of power in
present action! Come to know the illusion of time.
ix. To Experience Joy, the ultimate purpose of life is
happiness, but happiness comes easier when
pursued directly. As said by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“All life is an experiment.”
People of modern world are more socialized and ambitious
and active abut thee lives to make it better and successful.
V. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Life is really a precious asset from Allah
without knowing the purpose of life; we cannot spend the life
in a good way.
Our Religion is the best way to guide us and show
differences of the right and wrong by which we can easily,
believe on Allah by Heart who is the only one who shows a
right path to human to spend his/her life in a proper way with
goals and objectives, a believer lives to worship Allah and
finding only his pleasure.
Life is to given to live only for ourselves Life is a name
to serve for other too. Life is not for wasting and passing the
time in world, life is given to learn wisdom, do something
and utilize your skills and talent which is gifted by Allah.
Life is to discover the world and nature.
Love and respect the people creators which are created by
Allah. Purpose Life is that to do struggle to make our dreams
true and to make a name and good position in this world and
also in after. Just like that after going from this world the
world must remember our name and achievements in good
words.
VI. RESPONSIBILITY/RECOMMENDATION
To spend ourlives in a right way with happiness and joy we
must implement following objectives and purposes:
– Worship the creator and know Him.
– Follow the Great Men Sent by Allah for our
guidance to the right way and path to spend the life.
– Believe that present life is a test.
– Believe in Recompense with certainty.

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– Love and give respect to the people and creature
which are created by Allah means whole universe is
created by Allah.
– Struggle to discover the world and learn must as we
can and utilize your skills and talent because Allah
gave it to utilize and do something.
Purpose in life may possibly seem to bring about good
results, the satisfaction and feeling of happiness.
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yaqeen –ul-Haq Ahmad Sikander . “The True purpose of
Life” New Dehli. Edition 2009.
Warren, Rick (2002). “The Purpose Driven Life”. Michigan:
Zondervan.
VIII. REFERENCES
1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/life-meaning/.
2. http://www.al-islam.org/articles/an-introduction-to-
islam-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi
3. http://www.islam-guide.com/purpose-of-life.htm
4. http://www.scionofzion.com/pdl.htm
5. http://www.iep.utm.edu/mean-ana/
Alina Baber
Student, Dept BS Computer Science,
Usman Institute of technology,
Karachi Pakistan.
alinababer@live.com