THE MEANING OF LIFE

We humans, from the moment we are born, try to find the meaning of life, to understand it and to put it in a logical framework for us. Of course, these are not the kind of things we can do by reading from an article or hearing from others. The reason for this is that each person has a different perspective on life, emotions and thoughts, as well as having a unique personality. Due to our nature, some of us are soft-hearted, some of us are cold-hearted; some of us are talented in singing, some of us are talented in playing football; some of us are logical, some of us are impulsive. Under these circumstances, finding the meaning of life turns into everyone's own journey. Therefore, as human beings, we question ourselves and life from the moment we are aware of our consciousness.

Of course, I've asked similar questions since I was little. I remember that it all began with thinking about my homework.

“I have to do my homework, but why?” Well that was easy, “To get good grades" then,

“Why do I need to get good grades?”

“To get into a good high school and university” “So why do I need to get into a good university?” “To have a good job”

“What will I gain by having a good job?” “Money and social status”

“So why is it too important to have them?”

That's where I got stuck because I couldn't find an answer to the question of why we go to great lengths to make more money once we have enough money to live on. This taught me that the purpose in life should not be money. So, what is our life purpose if not money, fame, and social status?

I thought of something else that might be important to people. The knowledge. After all, even people with money are sometimes judged for their ignorance, right? On top of that, I did a lot of research over the years in different fields. Especially because of my interest in positive sciences, I have learned many theories on physics. But I saw that even though we have come a long way as humans, the number of things we know about the universe is nothing compared to what we don't

know. That's when I realized that no matter how hard we try, no matter how many years pass, we will not be able to fully analyze this universe. Because universe is beyond us.

Furthermore, the magnificent order of the universe and explaining this order with mathematics was unique. Theories completing each other like a puzzle’s pieces, numbers dancing in harmony, even we sometimes calculate wrong, the facts always stand there. It is definitely a marvelous engineering made by someone beyond the human brain. The meaning of life; which led me to look outside with questions like these, "Don't you see?", "don't you think?", The Unchanged Word Quran and clearly written by beyond human being, would be the result of this process.

Whereas giving a cognitive meaning to my life didn't stop me from asking other questions. “Why am I here? What would change if I had never come here? Why was I created?”

I understood from my readings that God had created angels before us and they obeyed God and worshiped for him. When the angels asked a similar question on this subject, “Will you create someone there who will cause mischief and shed blood?” Allah replied "I know what you don't know." [Baqara, 2:30]. In another verse Allah says “I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me.” [Dhariyat, 51:56]. Indeed, Allah does not need our worship. The actual aim of worshiping is only for our goodness. Even if we deny him, nothing will decrease from Allah. On the other hand, being a slave to Him and obeying Him will bring joy and support of Him to our lives. In the end, in a society everyone is worshiping to something whether material objects like money or people like authorities, who is worthier to be worshiped other than the sole creator?

Then, we cannot draw a clear conclusion from these verses except the fact that we are the creation of Allah and we must follow Him. Because the answer to this question has not been clearly given to us by Allah. Also, when I look at the history of humanity, this question has been asked for years, even sometimes it causes many people’s deviation from right path. That is why I think it is a test that the answer to this question is not given to people. It shows that even though it is beyond the human's capacity to understand, it is necessary to take refuge in Allah and show complete surrender, knowing his current existence. What I mean is the answer of the question can only occur with faith in our hearts this time, not with logic.

This obscurity, which we cannot solve with our logic, only makes life meaningful to us when we are connected with a creator who is the most Merciful and Provider and who is always within our reach through our prayers and the Quran.