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Purpose Of Life
Quran mentions man both as a slave and as a Khalifa of Allah on earth. Is then the purpose of life to journey from being a slave to being a Khalifa of Allah on earth?
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5 Replies
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Purpose Of Life
updated 3 years, 7 months ago
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Replies
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Purpose of life has been clearly addressed in the Quran as worship (ibadah). This is a term that holds a lot of depth. To understand what it means, please watch the two videos in the following thread:
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That was not my question at all. Both the slave and the Khalifa do ibadah (internal and external). It is the journey from being a slave to being a Khalifa that I am asking about. Quran uses both these terms with some reason and purpose
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I’m not sure which verse you might be referring to in reference to khalifa. That word is used several times in the Quran. The reason and purpose can only become clear from reading the verse in context.
Our relationship with God is that of Master and slave. However, collectively He has entrusted the human beings with the matters of this world as His deputy – khalifa. There’s no reason to infer a journey from slave to khalifa – the state of the matters is already as such. Our journey at an individual level is explained by ibadah. The videos that I shared with you above should explain this in detail.
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With great humility every word in the Quran is important; Slave equals servant who does his masters bidding and has no authority but a Khalifa is a representative who does his masters bidding but has a degree of freedom and choice on how the masters command is carried out. The journey I meant is obedience without understanding (slave/servant) and Khalifa obeys with understanding the reasoning behind the command of Allah
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Of course every word in the Quran is important. However, every word must be understood in it’s context the way it was understood by the direct addressees of the Quran. We can’t simply take our own dictionary meanings and place them in the Quran. Also we can’t take unrelated verses of the Quran in order to infer our own philosophical ideas.
What the word slave (abd) refers to in the Quran is explained very well in the videos I shared with you above. You did not share which verse you’re referring to in reference to khalifa, however I suspect that it’s verse 2:30 because that’s the most popular one. In that verse God is informing angles about His scheme for the humanity. It has nothing to do with a journey from being a slave to a khalifa as in your original question.
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