What is mankind's purpose on earth?

Bismi Allah Arrahman Arrahim.



Man's attraction, struggle, and fight against evil is the first topic on mankind's agenda, and the first lesson to be learned since creation, yet most of us exit the stage of life time after time, without ever exploring the subject. Warnings about distraction have been issued us during the onset of our adventure, yet the one thing most us lack desperately is the ability to focus.
How can a being so centered on itself be subject to such controversies and such a split in personality?
Can any of us claim to be perfectly in control of anything, at any given time?

Man has fought with, and about, everything outside of himself, but hardly ever led the fight within, to conquer his own demons.

The unanswered questions of the saints, the mystics, and the scholars about the essence of man and his legitimate purpose in this scheme are beckoning to us once more on the count of the current state of affairs of the world. My opinion is, until we, at least, start thinking about these two primordial questions (what are we made out of) and (why we are here), we are no closer to the truth than were Cain and Abel, and Adam and Eve.


The world is tearing itself apart. Brothers are murdering their brothers. But none seem to comprehend what is taking place behind the scene. Though to most, it all seems clear, and justified.
Every time I watch the News my heart aches with an unbearable pain. Why God? Why does it have to be this way?
Though I never received a direct answer from God, nor did I see a vision, deep in my heart was the answer to my questions. It was just a matter of time, and of lessons, before they became crystals edged in my whole being.
What are we all arguing about?
Where does our strife against one another, and confrontational attitude come from?

The Story of mankind in general is quite simple, and as peculiar as takes place in every day life of every day people. Every morning we wake up to a new stage, but the scene is basically, the same, one of struggle; nothing is absolute any more.

At the beginning of the story of mankind, (as I understand from the Qur'an) Adam is unconscious. God and the angels are standing around him.
"Bow to Adam." God told the Angels.
They all did, except Satan. His pride, self-absorbance, and self-centeredness caused him to refuse and say:
"Why should I? I am better than he. Out of fire I was created, and out of dust, you created him."

What happened next? We don't know for sure, but if we use logic, we can safely assume that Satan would have wanted to take his anger on us.

In my opinion, based on the fact that we are inherently selfish, self-absorbed, and self-centered, Adam's DNA was contaminated by Satan somehow.

God could have easily destroyed Adam, since he was now contaminated, and created another one. But would any parent deliberately destroy their new born child because she has an abnormality, or a down syndrome?

The Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an, all tell us that God warned Adam and Eve about the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But with their predisposition to sin, combined with their child like ignorance, temptation took over. And since to every act there a consequence, the consequence of their act was to engage in the struggle between the Good and Evil inside themselves. I believe, we, each and every human being, are but extenssions of Adam and Eve.

Thousands if not millions of years, have passed since the beginning of that story, during which we, human beings, were supposed to have learned only one thing, the difference between Good and Evil, but we forgot the purpose of our presence in this realm, when we focused on making our stay here more pleasant and comfortable. We evolved from the state of total ignorance of a child about his surroundings, to our present day mastery of science and technology, but very few in fact, have evolved inwardly.
We have created space shuttles, hydrogen, and nuclear bombs, we have cloned animals, and are about to start manufacturing human-like beings, but are still ignorant of the very purpose for which we are here.

To remind myself of my purpose on earth, I look upon my life and take inventory of my deeds.
For every deed, I make two columns. I title one Good, and the other one, Evil. I count the number of those involved by my deed. If I am the only beneficiary, I mark it as Evil.

In my little exercise I noticed that up until the time I surrendered to God, most of my deeds were
centered on me, and their rewards never lasted but a moment. But from the time I chose Him as my guide and the handler of my affairs, I saw those moments multiply. A simple smile to brighten someone's day, or a kind word to a neighbor or a stranger on my way, brings to my heart a happiness, and a joy, that lasts all day, and sometimes even longer.
I measure the progress of my knowlegde of good and evil, every day, by the number of people I have affected either way.

Satan on the other hand puts millions of distractions in our way to prevent us from noticing one another, and inhibits our ability for compassion, and empathy.

Lastly, I want to remind all my brothers and my sisters, that our journey in this earth is to overcome the Ego-Self in us, that part that is inherently Evil.

God permits this battle of good and evil to go on, as a parent would permit their child to make a mistake in order to learn. But no loving parent would permit a mistake that would put the whole household in jeopardy.