Why did Allah Almighty create us?

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful

And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of creation, our master Muhammad, and his pure family..

Determining the stage of the question

Before answering the question about the purpose of creation, we should point out a very important fact connected with the method of thinking: namely, that the questions that come to our minds must take into consideration the prior truths that one has come to believe in, and then build the rest of the answers upon them—that is, determining the stage of this question.

This is so:

1/ That a person may move forward when he obtains sufficient answers.

2/ That he may not demolish what he had reached before that, if he does not obtain his sufficient answers.

Thus he remains a seeker, so as to fill the (deficiency) through the new question.

The question of the purpose of creation

The subject of the question—namely, what is the purpose of creation—remains an important subject in that through it a person obtains clear knowledge of his course, so that he strives to reach the goal sought and intended by Allah the Exalted.

That is, the aim of knowing the answer is (submission) to Allah the Exalted, not doubting Him.

The foundation on which we can build this question is:

1/ Our prior knowledge (of the Creator), because every created thing necessarily has a creator.

2/ Our knowledge (of tawḥīd, the divine Oneness) through knowing the order of creation and its harmony.

3/ And our knowledge (of the attributes of Allah) of perfection, which we have discovered through His creation, in His wisdom and His knowledge; and we have discovered through the particulars of creation that every organ has a purpose and a function (as are the organs of a human being in his body).. So this order that operates in the parts indeed operates at the foundation of creation..

So the basic idea of a (purpose) of creation is established with Allah; we believe that Allah the Exalted created us only for a lofty purpose, and we must search for it in order to equip ourselves and fill the deficiency.

There is a difference between two questions:

The first: Is there a divine purpose to creation?

The second: What is the purpose of creation?

The answer to the first question is established through our faith in Allah the Exalted and in His wisdom and knowledge, and it remains for us to arrive at knowing that purpose..

Through this method, the question is a key to more truths, as in the hadith: (Knowledge is treasuries, and its keys are questioning). So progressing step by step in questioning, and knowing which question comes before which, is an important matter.

That is why the Messenger of Allah (s), in his dialogues with the polytheists, relied on this method—that is, he started from the doctrinal foundations that had been established beforehand, in order to build the truth upon them.. And this is the “common word”..

The Exalted said: “Say, ‘O People of the Book! Come to a common word between us and you: that we will worship no one but Allah, that we will not ascribe any partner to Him, and that some of us will not take some others as lords besides Allah.’ But if they turn away, say, ‘Be witnesses that we have submitted [to Allah].’” (Qurʾan 3:64)

Faith in Allah the Exalted and trust in His wisdom motivate us to search for the purpose of creation, so that our striving may be with complete insight, and because the worship of the one who knows (al-ʿārif) is seventy times better than the worship of the worshipper—that is, worship coupled with knowledge has its own special stations in the Hereafter.

What is the purpose of creation?

Through the words of the Exalted:

“I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may worship Me. I desire no provision from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me.” (Qurʾan 51:56–57)

we know that (worship) is the purpose of creation. But does this mean that the goal is for a person to practice certain acts of worship? Or is there a meaning behind that?.

Before answering that, we find, on the other hand, numerous indications in the Holy Qurʾan of other purposes for the creation of man, among them attaining (mercy), in the words of the Exalted: “except those on whom your Lord has mercy—and that is why He created them” (Qurʾan 11:119)

We also find the purpose of trial and testing, in the words of the Exalted: “He, who created death and life that He may test you [to see] which of you is best in conduct. And He is the All-mighty, the All-forgiving.” (Qurʾan 67:2)

But these multiple purposes are not of the nature of the (cause) that is the reason for creation; rather, they are aims and purposes that Allah the Exalted has set so that man may strive toward achieving them. For Allah set for man an (aim), and no cause compelled Him to create creation. That is why, in the verse that spoke of the purpose of worship, came the words of Allah the Exalted: “I desire no provision from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me” (Qurʾan 51:57)—that is, Allah is not in need of creation; rather, the need belongs to man himself..

Therefore we must strive to understand the purposes so that we may attain, through striving, what Allah the Exalted has willed for us. The Exalted said:

“Whoever strives, strives only for his own sake. Indeed Allah has no need of the creatures.” (Qurʾan 29:6)

So worship, which is the purpose of creation, achieves this aim and supports man so that he proceeds in this direction,..

The meaning of worship (ʿibāda) is (the soundness of a thing such that it is ready to be made use of; or, in other words, the absence of anything that prevents benefiting from it. That is why one says “a prepared ship” (safīna muʿabbada); and a road is called “paved” (muʿabbad) only because it is free of gaps and stumbling-blocks.. and a slave is called a servant (ʿabd) only because he does not refuse to obey his master. Thus the root meaning of the word is obedience and submission). Tafsir Min Huda al-Qurʾan, vol. 9, p. 434

So worship, which is submission to the command of Allah the Exalted, in turn leads man to attain the mercy of Allah, which is the other purpose that the Holy Qurʾan mentioned. For Allah created creation in order to have mercy on them, so He made obedience to Him a path to attaining that mercy, and He made (trial) a norm (sunna) by which the mettle of man is refined on his path in life.

In other words: the purpose of creation—which is for our own selves—is man's perfection in journeying toward the mercy of Allah the Exalted through worshipping Him and submitting to Him.

Perhaps the mistake that some fall into is that they think of searching for an answer to the question of (the purpose of creation) as being of the same kind as searching for the (cause) that prompted Allah the Exalted to create. This is a fundamentally mistaken question, because Allah the Exalted “is not questioned concerning what He does, but they are questioned.” (Qurʾan 21:23)

For this question comes later in order than (faith in the Creator), (tawhid), and (knowledge of Allah), upon which knowledge of (the purpose of creation) is built.

We have believed in Allah the Exalted and that He created us for a purpose; it remains for us to ask about it so that we may be perfected and rise through it..

Here is an important insight on the discussion of the purpose of creation, reported from Imam al-Husayn (a), where he says:

(O people, Allah—majestic is His mention—did not create the servants except that they might know Him; and when they know Him, they worship Him; and when they worship Him, they become free, through worship of Him, of need for the worship of anything other than Him. A man said to him: O son of the Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be your ransom, what is knowledge of Allah? He (a) said: The knowledge by the people of every age of their Imam, obedience to whom is obligatory upon them).

Mahmoud Al-Mosawi