Question
Here are my questions:
1. What is the purpose of my life, why I am here? What am I suppose to do during my stay on this planet earth or during this phase of my life?
2. Can we eat the food which is sent to us by the People of Book especially meat e.g Kosher or animal killed by Christen standards?
3. What you think about the interest which we pay on our house mortgages, is that wrong or ok to pay because every family needs at least one home to live in.
Answer
1. According to the Qu’ran we are created to be servants of God and to worship Him (Qur’an 51:56).
According to the Qur’an the world is created as place for us to be tested (Qur’an 67:2).
According to the Qur’an those who purify their heart will reach salvation in the hereafter (Quran 91:9).
According to the Qur’an we can purify our heart by following the religion that the Almighty has revealed for us through his Prophet (sws) (Qur’an: 3:164).
According to the Qur’an those who by believing in God and doing righteous deeds reach salvation in the hereafter will meet their Lord and will have an ever lasting pleasure of living under His full satisfaction (with them) (e.g. Qur’an 10:7-10, 89:27-30).
Therefore we understand that we are created to be God’s servants and to worship Him, which is such a high level position that can only be achieved by believing in God and doing righteous deeds in order to purify our heart. World around us is created as a testing platform to bring us appropriate challenges in order to facilitate this endeavour. God has given us the religion of Islam through His prophets to help us with this challenge. Success in this challenge will result in meeting the Lord and living under His direct merciful attention for ever in the hereafter.
2. If the food is prepared according to the Sharia (religious rules) of Jews or Christians (which is very much the same as the Sharia brought by our Prophet – sws) then there is no problem in consuming it. Kosher satisfies this criteria.
3. Giving interest is not directly condemned in the Qur’an and we cannot say it is haram. However, in certain circumstances giving interest can be seen as contributing to what is forbidden.
In the interest based economy that we are living in just now, some times we have no way of avoiding being involved in interest based transactions if we want to meet the essentials of life. Every human being is entitled to have a place to comfortably live. Therefore, if a person needs to buy a house in order to have a reasonably comfortable life, then under God’s mercy this person may get use of mortgage if other feasible routes are not an option.
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-02-19
