Meaning In Life

Two days back, I had the privilege of attending a workshop at work. One of the subtopics that was covered in the workshop was about 'meaning' in life. The speaker posted a question to all of us, 'What is meaning in life to you?' Each of us was given a paper to pen down his or her thoughts. Almost everyone in my group wrote that it is to enjoy, to be happy, to be positive. I on the other hand, had a different response. At first, I did feel a little relunctant to share my thoughts on meaning in life. But if I did not write what I truly felt, I knew I would have had nothing to write at all. Indeed, I agreed with most of my group members that it is essential to be happy and it is true that every day we wake up, we know have a choice, either to be happy or not be happy. I probably would have thought and written the same thing had this question been posted to me like two years ago from now. But my religious side thugged at me as I prepared to pen down my response.  Meaning in life? I evetually wrote, 'To live for the next.'
'DEEEEEEP!!' was the response I got from my fellow group members. I laughed along. Yes, it is deep. What does it mean then when I wrote 'To live for the next.' What was 'next'? And if so, what does 'next' have in store for me that I live this life, God knows how long I'm gonna live for, only to live for another? Sounds confusing? Not really.

Muslims believe in the afterlife. We are taught that this world is only a stage. Life on this 'stage' is not eternal. Whereas the afterlife, which is life after death, IS eternal. On this 'stage', we are performers who perform our essential duty to the one and only Creator. We are worshippers who bow only to the One God we know. We are servants of our Lord. We live only to earn His love so that we will recieve His rewards as promised to us ever since He had created the first man on earth. Think of this life as a platform for us to earn points from good deeds. The more points we earn, the higher chance of us living in His highest level of Paradise. And in Paradise or Hell, is where eternal life exists. Some of us may think, "Servants?! Worshippers?!". Yah, makes one feel small doesn't it? But what's wrong with feeling small? We SHOULD feel small. We are creations of our Creator after all! Who are we to be cocky? Who are we to question? Who are we to feel that we are so much higher in standard than anyone else in the human race to begin with?? But we are given freewill some might say. Yes. True that. But freewill to do what? Freewill to make the right choice in life, to search for the true meaning in this life. And for me at least, it is to live for the next life, to prepare to achieve true happiness that cannot and will not be taken away from us, to be happy always because we live as if we are going to die anytime to see our Lord, to surrender to be home with Him. He who loves us unconditionally, He who promises us paradise in the afterlife if we only obey His every command, He who forgive us with all His mercy even though every second in our life we make mistakes, we err, we forget ourselves, we forget Him!! Really, why live to achieve the materials in this life when we are promised a million times more in life after death?

To live life, is to be happy.And I have the ability to choose to be happy in this life and to be happier in the next. The meaning in life is to make the right choice because we are given autonomy, we are given freewill. But first, we must know, what IS the right choice. And for someone like me who has wrecked my life for 31 years before realising my true purpose, my meaning in life, I now know what is the right choice. And that is to choose to be happy with my Lord. To do everything only because I know He approves of it, He likes it.  I want to be with Him now and after I die. I want to feel His love enveloping me as I walk along the rivers in His Jannah God-willing! I want Him to love me now and forever. I know that if I manage to earn His love in life, He who has Created everything from the littlest atom to the vast universe, I would never have to worry about anything else anymore. I would have already achieved true happiness and await my judgement for the afterlife without fear but with longing and love of my Creator. I would have fulfilled my meaning in this life.

My meaning in life...is to live for the next. This life? It is only temporary. The afterlife, is where meaning no longer exists. What exists is only what I have only been working for and that is true happiness to keep and to bask in for eternity as promised by my Lord, insyaallah!