The real purpose of a man’s life is to be included among the...

The real purpose of a man’s life is to be included among the favourites of God and to acquire as much knowledge of the divine springs of Power as is consistent with human limitations. Therefore, to realise this purpose, human beings rely on the saints and the virtuous people because they not only themselves have cultivated divine consciousness but also develop it in those who are closely associated with them.

This is the reason we find Ibrāhīm*(Peace Be Upon Him)* praying to God to include him among His favourites so that he could persuade his followers to pursue a similar goal: O my Lord! Make me perfect in knowledge and conduct and include me among those whom You have rewarded with Your nearness. [1] Here, the word hukman means the acme of human capacity for knowledge and conduct.

Qādī Thanā’ullāh Pānīpatī says: That is, to bring knowledge and conduct to such a climactic point that one develops the complete ability to represent the sublime office of divinity and to provide unflawed guidance and political leadership to humanity.

[2] Imām Rāzī writes: “When acquisition of knowledge as the meaning of hukman has been established, it is equally established at the same time that he (the Prophet Ibrāhīm) prayed to Allāh for the kind of knowledge that guaranteed his total absorption in the divine qualities and attributes, a knowledge whose purity serves as a self-adjusting filter to drive out all impurities.” He further comments: And this knowledge proves that the divine knowledge or consciousness develops in the heart of a creature by Allāh’s will and Ibrāhīm’s supplication - and include me among those whom You have rewarded with Your nearness - is a pointer to the fact that for a creature to be saintly or virtuous is exclusively the outcome of Allāh’s will.

[3] Therefore, the acquisition of divine knowledge is made possible only by means of the virtuous and pious people. To be associated with them and to acquire divine knowledge through their mediation has been the practice of the prophets. And any creature who desires the favour of Allāh through the means of the pious and the saintly people, never feels frustrated and his prayer is invariably granted, and he is included among the virtuous people.

Then he attains divine consciousness as is declared by Allāh: And surely (even) in the Hereafter, they will be in the ranks of the righteous.