Creating Vs Predetermined Life Purpose | Mufti Abu Layth

must we create our own purpose in life or is our purpose already predetermined [Laughter] sir amazing question you see when you say um when you say that must we create our purpose in life I think we as human beings oh

we intrinsically see purpose in things we find meanings we ascribe values we have a very teleological ontology an Essence that sees a purpose in things and purpose doesn't have to be a grandiose it can be but it does so for example I'm going to help humanity is a huge but it doesn't have to be that and I feel one of the problems challenges let me say of this age

is this this little this bedazzlement this confusion of purpose in life because I was having this conversation with um um a client a client on uh or a a session on patreon actually that and I've spoken of it as well on on other occasions and it's that look

laughs purpose in life doesn't have to it can be something amazing but it could be just understanding a role in life so in certain studies done in happiness researchers they study different parts of the world and they actually found that poor countries people were actually in devastating circumstances not absolutely

on the verge of death not those sure though but very impoverished societies people living just just about struggling with daily poverty but they but they had something to eat they had something so they weren't starving not that Society but where there was a lack of opportunity and absolutely uh what we would consider abysmal circumstances and we would assume people there are very depressed but it turns out they weren't and so a lot of these studies that are cross-cultural they they found that hmm

one of the fundamental thing was meaning in life and this comes back to purpose so they found in some of the studies they looked at Bangladesh actually and they looked at Bangladesh Peru Thailand and countries like this which they at the time there was certain flooding and things like this in Bangladesh and but they found that so that people so in this certain case uh this case study this lady her meaning in life was that she was a mother and raising her children

this gave her a sense this was a a goal this was it wasn't just a goal it was a meaning to life that she took care of her husband that her husband went out and he did farming or whatever he did but she she did this she she made sure she took care of the home she had that she saw her children took care of them nourished them this was her her purpose in life she was a mother she was a wife

she was a uh like these things were the goal they were the destination they were the journey that I think we have become confused about and it's an interesting discussion actually this thing on uh wife for example because there was a clip I saw recent this was the I saw recently I think it was an Australian clip well it's some kind of breakfast show when some woman uh on there she she is saying

that she's describing her life and she says well uh I wake up in the morning so she's a housewife and she has some kids I can't remember maybe two or and she says well look I wake up in the morning I make breakfast for my husband he wakes up I make a pack lunch for him you know I get the kids ready I send him off he comes back I you know I'm at home I do this I get the dinner ready for it I wait for my husband when he comes home and and she was uh she was white Australian um so and and she wasn't like some kind of cult or anything she seemed just as as

very normal as any normal uh person her her kind of counterpart the the the hosts are mocking her and they're saying well and there's a man and woman so it's some kind of like a breakfast show and they're saying well she makes food from what what is he disabled what what's why can't he cook his own food why can't he oh she wakes up and oh is oh my God talk about going back 50 years talk about doing this and it's actually very disparaging like and you think well you see why are they knocking these

values like what if a person finds meaning why is it why were they are they trying to demonize a person's meaning and they say well oh you know this is she must be oppressed she clearly wasn't oppressed I mean she was as modern as modern could be she wasn't like just to be clear that's why I said she was white Australian it wasn't a religious thing she wasn't she was very modern she was but she was just taking pride in this but we are in an age where people would say oh my God you do this for your husband like that's

um that's oppressive and many women shame women on this and that's a different thing to discuss on another day but it leads to a huge crisis because you you think well why does it because it makes people very self now now a person doing that becomes very self-conscious not to do it or they feel awkward now doing it and this comes back to daily it comes back to goals in life or purposes or your your life now people are being told that you these things are not enough meaning for you

you can't have a meaning like this this is in fact an oppression this is mundane this is you need to find meaning in grandiose things and that's great that's great sure you know if you can become a great artist if you can become somebody who conquers uh great obstacles if you can become somebody that sets up huge entrepreneurial companies and corporations you know more power to you but let's face it that's if not even going to be one percent of humanity or one percent at most that will be these massively

successful uh you know overcome these great things most people won't are not going to have that kind of talent they're not going to Just One Day become a singer or one day become an artist or one day become a writer or just set up a company and it becomes a success most people are not going to and what Society has done it's shifted it's removed what people what people found meaning in everyday life which everybody had it's removed those brackets and almost demonized that that oh you're a loser what would you find meaning in in just being a mother

or you find meaning in just doing this this that's ah yeah sure but but you need meaning in something else and the problem is many people will not be able to reach that elitist bracket of life there's nothing wrong I think that Elite is if you can exceptional bracket that's awesome if you can do things like that but let's face it your common person is not going to be able to pull off Ventures like that in life not with a huge success anyway maybe they will and it'll be okay but it won't be exceptionally extravagant so

thereby they feel a sense of failure in life and this is all it ties in with today's theme of what if or if only I'd done this if only but it's about no and show empowering for the future but also finding meaning in your everyday thing somebody could find meaning in just reading poetry it's a great meaning great meaning in just observing the natural landscape you see so but when we say is there a purpose a goal in life the Gold's purpose is a spectrum it's

all a purpose somebody could find a purpose in being a father being a husband and being a wife in Being a mother in being a friend in being a human for Humanity in being an observer Allah says swears by the one just observing so these are important points I think they can't really be overstated