Purpose of Life

What is the aim of Allah sending us to this world? When a person does not understand the aim of any work, that work can never be correct. We should therefore understand what is the aim of our life in this world. This world is a foreign place for us while the hereafter is our actual homeland. First listen to the examples of this world being a foreign place. People come from Kashmir, Quetta and different parts of Pakistan to earn a living in Karachi. They earn some money and collect it. When they return to their homeland, that is Kashmir, Quetta, Manserah, Hazarah or wherever they come from, they take the money in cash and live there with splendor. Or they purchase items like a chair, become a chairman and go from here. They are then well respected and people praise them for having earned well in Karachi. Thereafter they are invited everywhere for meals. The teacups of Karachi are used for them. This shows that they understood their aim of going to a foreign place. They did not use their foreign earnings in the foreign place. They did not use their Karachi earnings in Karachi. They took it back to their homeland where they were respected. Had they spent their Karachi earnings in Karachi, they would not have been respected and people would have called them fools.

Three Types of Travelers

People that travel from a foreign place to their homeland in the world are of three types. Some people only take cash because the same currency is used in their homeland as in other parts of the country. This cash can be of use to them there as well. Some people take goods only while others take cash and goods. That is, they take things like chairs, teacups, plates, carpets etc. They take sheets for their visitors. When we go to Kashmir, we find the name Kashmir written on the shawls used in the mountains. Then we also learn that the people have brought along tea cups. These are the three types of travelers in this world. Firstly, those who take cash only, secondly those who take goods instead of cash because they know they will not find these items in the villages. The third category is those who take both cash and kind.

The Goods of This World

From this we understand that when we depart to the hereafter after our visa for the world has expired, what all the different types of people take with them. Does anyone take any currency of this world to the hereafter when his janazah is lowered in the grave? Does anyone take with him plates, cups, mobile telephones, clean sheets, cars etc.? Does anyone take both cash and kind? He neither takes kind nor any cash nor both. When we leave the world and our janazah enters the grave, a poet says: Thanks to those who brought me to the grave. Now we will go alone from this stage onwards. Another poet says: They all pressed me into the grave and left without any dua or salam. What has happened to time in such a short while Those servants who walked to and for serving one, who washed one's clothes, who rubbed oil onto one's body and who massaged one's legs will be throwing sand on the grave and departing.

(Hazrat Hakeem Akhtar R.A)