Why We Were Created

Islam gives a clear answer to the question of life's purpose. Allah says: ﴿وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ﴾ (“I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me”) (51:56). Allah does not need our worship; it is we who need Him: ﴿يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ﴾ (“O people, you are the ones in need of Allah, and Allah is the Free of all need, the Praiseworthy”) (35:15).

Worship (ibadah) in Islam is much wider than prayer alone. Scholars explain that it covers everything Allah loves when it is done for His sake: prayer and fasting, but also honesty, kindness to parents, earning a lawful living and caring for a family. The Prophet ﷺ told Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas that he would be rewarded for whatever he spent seeking Allah's pleasure, even the food he put in his wife's mouth (Sahih al-Bukhari 56). The Qur'an puts it this way: ﴿قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِى وَنُسُكِى وَمَحْيَاىَ وَمَمَاتِى لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ﴾ (“Say, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds”) (6:162).

This life is also a test, a short time in which each person's deeds are tried: ﴿ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلْمَوْتَ وَٱلْحَيَوٰةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا﴾ (“He who created death and life to test you, which of you is best in deeds”) (67:2). The Prophet ﷺ said that the believer's affair is all good: when something pleasing comes to him he is grateful, and when hardship strikes he is patient, and both are good for him (Sahih Muslim 2999).