How To Find Your Life Purpose: 2-minute Experiment! - Towards Eternity
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This is my 14,809th day on this planet. I have reached 176 centimeters of height, and 84 kilograms of weight since I was born. In terms of the elements in my body, my value is approximately $2,500. But what if we determined my value not from the sale of the chemical elements, but from the number of atoms in me? I have 8.3 octillion atoms. This really is a huge number. One octillion means 1000 times a trillion times a trillion. In the observable universe there are 100 octillion stars and in Ahmet that you can see there are 8.3 octillion atoms. There are huge spaces between these atoms.
If we could somehow squeeze all of them until they touch each other, I'd be too small for you to see me, as small as a single red blood cell in the blood coursing through your veins. Let's talk about cells, then. Assume that this point is all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. There are about 30 times as many trees in the world. I have red blood cells ten times that number. If I could somehow line them side by side, it would be about 234,090 kilometers long. I have enough red blood cells to cover almost 63% of the way from Earth to the Moon. Many parts of my body are renewed periodically. For instance, because skin cells just live 27 days.
If someone says to me, "You have changed, you are not your old self," I would say, "Yes I have, many times." But is that all I am? A lot of numbers that I forget a few seconds after I uttered them? We can count many more, but how much can they mean on their own? I mean, can we truly understand their values in this way? It looks a bit like this. Imagine a professor. He writes a book that contains extremely important information. There are a lot of messages, meanings in his book that he wants to deliver to its readers. He creates a marvelous work of art, and he gifts his book to two of his students with an assignment.
The assignment is, they are going to write about the importance and meanings of the book. They both take the book and start reading. One of the students starts reading carefully, focusing on what the sentences are written for, what they tell with what kind of art. He writes a beautiful assignment that expresses his admiration for the author's talent, the beauty of the book, and the significance of the meanings in it. Well, that's something that would be expected from him. We would expect something similar from the other student as well, right? However he does something very different. he examines the physical features of the book, instead of the meanings it contains.
Yes, he literally focuses on the size of the letters, on how many words in sentences there are, and the number of punctuations. His assignment is full of information like this. The length of the book is such and such. The width is such and such. There are this many number of pages. The font color is this, etc.. Now let's ask this question: How would the teacher react when it is time to hand in the assignment? It is obvious that he would appreciate the first student. Think about the second student's assignment. You write a book to deliver a message, but he never focuses on the meanings, but instead he gets stuck on the physical features of the book.
Wouldn't it be a very disrespectful act towards the teacher? Just like in this example, Allah subhanehu wa ta'ala expresses meanings by creating works of art in the universe that we cannot even count. He introduces Himself to us and shows us His attributes and names. He exhibits different works of art. He gives us so many blessings. For instance, He could have given us only potatoes with all the nutrients in it, so to say, and we would be surviving. But instead He gave us thousands of fruits, vegetables, foods with different tastes. This shows us that He is generous. He wants us to enjoy these countless beautiful tastes. It shows that He loves us. He cares for us.
If you look at these foods only in a scientific way, focus just on the nutritional facts or calories, etc., and not pay attention to the message that is being given with these blessings, wouldn't we be offending our Creator? Let's try to understand the meanings being expressed a little more. He brings together countless pieces scattered all over the world and creates us, molds us. Remember what we said before? 60 different elements. Eight octillion atoms, trillions of cells working like a factory, organs that are constantly renewed, DNA, etc. All these different things are brought together and a unique masterpiece emerges.
Don't these things show that all these cannot happen by nature or mere coincidence? An incredible value and honor have been given to human beings. Do you think that all these have been given so that a person can live according to his or her own will in a short life, die, and then perish? Is that all? Don't you think Allah has something more to expect from humans that He created with such amazing qualities? Imagine someone builds a house spending billions of dollars that is magnificent with many art pieces and fine details. Do you think this effort would have been made just for a guest to come, stay a few minutes, and then the builder would demolish the house?
What I mean here is, countless expenses have been made, and the utmost importance is given to mankind. Doesn't it show that death is not nonexistence and that the lives of human beings will continue endlessly in an everlasting realm, in a way that befits all this importance? I mean, what is the point of all existence, if we will cease to exist after death? The universe and mankind are exactly like the book in the previous example. Allah, with all these arts, expresses many meanings like these, and for us to decipher all these meanings, He sent the Qur'an. Yes, we understand these meanings through the Qur'an.
When we say Bismillah, that is, when we look at the universe by saying "In the name of Allah". One last example. I said, "My heart has beaten 1.5 billion times". When I say bismillah, and look at this fact in the name of Allah, I arrive at this conclusion: I needed my heart to beat that many times, and even if it was my only duty, I couldn't have done it. It even beats while I'm sleeping. When I look at my countless needs that are taken care of for my life to continue, I draw conclusions such as; Allah takes care of my countless needs every single moment. He has a magnificent order. He helps His servants, which means He cares about me. So, I don't get stuck with the letters in the book.
I also understand the sentence that comes out. In other words, I understand the purpose for which the letter is written. We can come up with many more examples. In short, just like in the example, we are given a book called "The Universe" and the decision to choose which of the two students we want to be was left to us. Will we be someone who reads the letters but cannot go further and doesn't understand the meanings? Someone with a superficial look? Or will we be someone who reads the book to understand its meanings, someone who can see the bigger picture that comes out from the letters?
If we could somehow squeeze all of them until they touch each other, I'd be too small for you to see me, as small as a single red blood cell in the blood coursing through your veins. Let's talk about cells, then. Assume that this point is all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. There are about 30 times as many trees in the world. I have red blood cells ten times that number. If I could somehow line them side by side, it would be about 234,090 kilometers long. I have enough red blood cells to cover almost 63% of the way from Earth to the Moon. Many parts of my body are renewed periodically. For instance, because skin cells just live 27 days.
If someone says to me, "You have changed, you are not your old self," I would say, "Yes I have, many times." But is that all I am? A lot of numbers that I forget a few seconds after I uttered them? We can count many more, but how much can they mean on their own? I mean, can we truly understand their values in this way? It looks a bit like this. Imagine a professor. He writes a book that contains extremely important information. There are a lot of messages, meanings in his book that he wants to deliver to its readers. He creates a marvelous work of art, and he gifts his book to two of his students with an assignment.
The assignment is, they are going to write about the importance and meanings of the book. They both take the book and start reading. One of the students starts reading carefully, focusing on what the sentences are written for, what they tell with what kind of art. He writes a beautiful assignment that expresses his admiration for the author's talent, the beauty of the book, and the significance of the meanings in it. Well, that's something that would be expected from him. We would expect something similar from the other student as well, right? However he does something very different. he examines the physical features of the book, instead of the meanings it contains.
Yes, he literally focuses on the size of the letters, on how many words in sentences there are, and the number of punctuations. His assignment is full of information like this. The length of the book is such and such. The width is such and such. There are this many number of pages. The font color is this, etc.. Now let's ask this question: How would the teacher react when it is time to hand in the assignment? It is obvious that he would appreciate the first student. Think about the second student's assignment. You write a book to deliver a message, but he never focuses on the meanings, but instead he gets stuck on the physical features of the book.
Wouldn't it be a very disrespectful act towards the teacher? Just like in this example, Allah subhanehu wa ta'ala expresses meanings by creating works of art in the universe that we cannot even count. He introduces Himself to us and shows us His attributes and names. He exhibits different works of art. He gives us so many blessings. For instance, He could have given us only potatoes with all the nutrients in it, so to say, and we would be surviving. But instead He gave us thousands of fruits, vegetables, foods with different tastes. This shows us that He is generous. He wants us to enjoy these countless beautiful tastes. It shows that He loves us. He cares for us.
If you look at these foods only in a scientific way, focus just on the nutritional facts or calories, etc., and not pay attention to the message that is being given with these blessings, wouldn't we be offending our Creator? Let's try to understand the meanings being expressed a little more. He brings together countless pieces scattered all over the world and creates us, molds us. Remember what we said before? 60 different elements. Eight octillion atoms, trillions of cells working like a factory, organs that are constantly renewed, DNA, etc. All these different things are brought together and a unique masterpiece emerges.
Don't these things show that all these cannot happen by nature or mere coincidence? An incredible value and honor have been given to human beings. Do you think that all these have been given so that a person can live according to his or her own will in a short life, die, and then perish? Is that all? Don't you think Allah has something more to expect from humans that He created with such amazing qualities? Imagine someone builds a house spending billions of dollars that is magnificent with many art pieces and fine details. Do you think this effort would have been made just for a guest to come, stay a few minutes, and then the builder would demolish the house?
What I mean here is, countless expenses have been made, and the utmost importance is given to mankind. Doesn't it show that death is not nonexistence and that the lives of human beings will continue endlessly in an everlasting realm, in a way that befits all this importance? I mean, what is the point of all existence, if we will cease to exist after death? The universe and mankind are exactly like the book in the previous example. Allah, with all these arts, expresses many meanings like these, and for us to decipher all these meanings, He sent the Qur'an. Yes, we understand these meanings through the Qur'an.
When we say Bismillah, that is, when we look at the universe by saying "In the name of Allah". One last example. I said, "My heart has beaten 1.5 billion times". When I say bismillah, and look at this fact in the name of Allah, I arrive at this conclusion: I needed my heart to beat that many times, and even if it was my only duty, I couldn't have done it. It even beats while I'm sleeping. When I look at my countless needs that are taken care of for my life to continue, I draw conclusions such as; Allah takes care of my countless needs every single moment. He has a magnificent order. He helps His servants, which means He cares about me. So, I don't get stuck with the letters in the book.
I also understand the sentence that comes out. In other words, I understand the purpose for which the letter is written. We can come up with many more examples. In short, just like in the example, we are given a book called "The Universe" and the decision to choose which of the two students we want to be was left to us. Will we be someone who reads the letters but cannot go further and doesn't understand the meanings? Someone with a superficial look? Or will we be someone who reads the book to understand its meanings, someone who can see the bigger picture that comes out from the letters?