With respect, Hasan, I don't think that answers jusaskin's question.  It is your duty to acknowledge, worship and serve; but is that why God created you? What is the purpose of your worship from His point of view?   In other words, why does God care whether you worship Him or not?

 

I'm curious about this myself, because in another discussion recently I mentioned that God is the only Being who can legitimately be proud.  All the things for which we might be tempted to feel pride ought rightly to be attributed to God; but God Himself can claim credit and can be proud of His works.

 

I have always taken it for granted that the reason God created us (as Christians would argue, anyway) was to have others with whom to share His creation.  Yes, I think God was quite literally "showing off" when He made some of the more spectacular aspects of the universe, and I think we worship and serve God whenever we marvel at them or seek to understand them through science.  I think by doing so we fulfill God's purpose even if we do not acknowledge His existence.

 

Thanks for the reply! 51:56 is getting about as close to what I'm asking as any of the verses I found in a Noble Quran seach. I thought 45:22 might contain something, "And All�h has created the heavens and the earth with truth, in order that each person may be recompensed what he has earned, and they will not be wronged.", but that deals more with the creation of heaven and earth rather than people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would be interested in hearing your answer to each of the proposed questions individually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leland .... no such thing as right/wrong, OK/not OK ..... I was just interested in what you would say to your own questions. Thanks for sharing!

 

Joe

 

I appreciate your reply, but "why not?" isn't exactly what I was hoping for ..... unless that's what Allah says in the Quran. I'm asking what your holy book tells you plainly about why mankind was created. Of course, since we are here we are to obey, but why did God produce His creation and put us on planet earth in the first place? If He doesn't tell us, that's fine! I just wondered if He told us in the Quran and I missed it.

 

Joe

 

I have been going over this verse in several English translations and see that the terms "worship" and "serve" are alternately used by the various translators. In your reference, "know me" has been included in addition to "worship".

 

Being very interested in this verse, I'm wondering if you can explain a few things? I assume that the brackets around "know me" indicate an addition to the original for clarification purposes. The Noble Quran seems to be full of these kinds of additions. Since "serve" and "worship", although related, are not exactly the same ..... is there some particular difficulty finding the right English term/terms for the Arabic words in the original message? Are you familiar enough with the original Arabic language to explain, even if it requires a paragraph, what that original word means in English? If not, please do not speculate. In that case perhaps you can recommend a way for me to pursue this (short of learning Arabic myself ).

 

Joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salam,

It is the best way to look upto Qur�an, the direct guidance of Allah. I agree with this but in order to explain what is in my mind let me make an anology. To prepare for an exam you several choices/needs.

1.    Attending class and to memorize

2.    Attending class and to learn

3.    Attending class and to understand

OR

4.    Cheating

Since we are attending classes, we hopefully deserve salvation. Even if we will not answer any of the questions, even if we give the blank paper, we still pass the exam because attending classess has a still meanning in this examination and not to fail will be just the Qanaat of Allah for us. Alhamdulillah. However, there should be something more if we attend all the classes. I mean we should contribute something too by ourselves as human beings. We are still expected to write down something and give some answers to the questions in other words value addition is expected from us because we are clever creatures who have a mind. Now, in the exam, if we prepare to exam by memorizing, we can just reply the questions of what we memorized. And, if we prepare to exam by learnning, we can catch the logic and we can solve the questions of what we dont know the answers exactly too beside what we know. However, when you understand, you can get bonus questions to answer too.

The fail or pass depends on the situation where we are in, too. If you are rich and you dont make charity, this might be a fail in terms of religion. But, if you are poor and do not make charity, this cannot be a fail. So I think value addition is important. And, for each additional value, there is always value additon tax. The VAT of memorizing the life might be different from VAT of learnning or Understanding.. And people realise that VAT during or after the exam. Thats why, the Imaan/faith gets fluctuating/rise or fall so there can be a deviation since they learn they pay that tax. This deviation means a person goes out of from his/her way but still  on the same direction just there is happened a space between the person and his/her path. I wonder how that person can drive this car again to the his path. To read Qur�an to pray are right and ok but dont you think that we as clever creatures should do something too to get  the car to the right way again...

Apel  

 

 

"Wama khalaqtu aljinna waal-insa illa liyaAAbudooni" is the transliterated verse according to YaQuB website. Since I don't know Arabic, but would like to examine the words a bit closer, would you explain the last word, if that is the correct term for "liyaAAbudooni"?

 

I understand that classical Arabic is a bit different than modern standard Arabic. Which do you read, or do you read both? Can you tell if the above transliteration is SA or MSA?

 

Something I recently read about Muslims reciting prayers rather startled me ..... that all Muslims must pray in the classical Arabic language. Is that true?

 

 

jusaskin wrote: Can someone tell me if the Quran clearly, and I would emphasize the word "clearly", explains why Allah created mankind?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was thinking about the human race when I used the term "mankind". Does your notion of mankind include the Jinn? If so, and you wish to give a response to the question, please include them.

 

This will be off the subject a bit, but I'd like to follow up on this if I may. Your native language is not Arabic, but you learn from a translator how to identify, and I assume pronounce, the Arabic words of the Quran, the meaning of each being interpreted into your own language? I get the picture of someone speaking in one language (Arabic), but understanding in another (your native language). Is this method commanded in the Quran?

 

If I'm understanding the process, it recalls my youthful days as an American Catholic. We would participate in a religious service called "mass" which was spoken in Latin. We would be taught what the "sounds" meant but never learned the Latin language itself, only the certain words that were spoken at mass. Even though we said the Latin words, we would understand what was being said through our understanding of the English transation of those words. Is that about what you are doing with the Quran?

 

 

Mankind is always understood as human race, and that is the way I undertand it.

 

Jinn today in my understanding is as inseperable beings, although in general they are being understood as seperate beings occupying different space. Also, it is generally understood that Jinns were already exist prior the human existance.

 

Depend on the way each individual understanding here. 

 

If a person believe that Jinn were exist before humans therefore pooling the Jinn in this topic seems off the mark - because Jinn is not part of the plan in this term.

 

But maybe it is already stated in here indirectly?

 

Surely I know that which ye know not. (2:30)

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I can understand how you believe that! Thank you for the explanation.

 

 

 

I would like to thank you too for this topic. I learned few things too. Being a human is like a journey that you must go through it.

I would like to share that I was seeking for something that I need, for months. Last month, I gave up looking for and I decided to buy but It was again difficult to find it and indeed it is expensive. I could not find any shop but finally I could find somebody agreed to give his component to me with an expensive price. I bought it. And, two days ago I found the component my original component in a very simple place at home. Perhaps every day I was looking there but I could have not seen it. I think the reason for that I was not looking there to find the component because I was not thinking that I could find it there, in a very simple place of the room.

I think sometimes it is better to think simply/basically and sometimes it is better to realise/to see rather than to understand deeply.

3:7 He it is who has bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, containing messages that are clear in and by themselves - and these are the essence of the divine writ - as well as others that are allegorical. ^{http://www.islamicity.com/Quransearch/action.lasso.asp?-database=Quran&-Table=tblMasterTranslit&-Response=Sreply1.asp&-Error=SReply1.asp&-MaxRecords=20&-token=Asad||%3cta%3etrue%3c/ta%3e%3ctt%3etrue%3c/tt%3e%3cts%3etrue%3c/ts%3e%3cdc%3etrue%3c/dc%3e%3ctx%3etrue%3c/tx%3e%3cal%3etrue%3c/al%3e&-op=cn&Asad=3:7&-Search - - [6]} which has been expressed in allegory, seeking out [what is bound to create] confusion, ^{http://www.islamicity.com/Quransearch/action.lasso.asp?-database=Quran&-Table=tblMasterTranslit&-Response=Sreply1.asp&-Error=SReply1.asp&-MaxRecords=20&-token=Asad||%3cta%3etrue%3c/ta%3e%3ctt%3etrue%3c/tt%3e%3cts%3etrue%3c/ts%3e%3cdc%3etrue%3c/dc%3e%3ctx%3etrue%3c/tx%3e%3cal%3etrue%3c/al%3e&-op=cn&Asad=3:7&-Search - - [8]} Hence, those who are deeply rooted in knowledge say: "We believe in it; the whole [of the divine writ] is from our Sustainer - albeit none takes this to heart save those who are endowed with insight.

Apel