The meaning of the life from point of view of Quran

Undoubtedly the conflicts of our time are not considered as an issue that remains hidden from the view of visionary thinkers; however the public may be unaware of it. With the advent of modern western civilization that was formed with the purpose of overcoming the religious culture of Christianity, its founders sought to overcome the other civilization to globalize their own civilizations. The main feature of the modern western culture and civilization is the separation of a western individual’s thoughts from religion and religious teachings. According to this approach of thinking, material worldview was formed. However, the outcomes of this kind of civilization are great material welfare, new lifestyles, new methods of producing wealth and consuming it, leaving out moral values and in short, creating the modern world in accordance with secular thinking.
After the stabilization of the secular civilization in the west, since it did not use to accept any other unsecular civilizations, the aggression and colonization of the countries which more or less enjoyed religious civilization was started and therefore, at the beginning of the nineteenth century the unfair attacks of the new civilization began in the form of military, economic and cultural attacks to Islamic countries.
Gradually the idea of “Western Progress” was developed among Muslims and except a few groups, all the people considered the west as developed and considered themselves as undeveloped; therefore it’s been the beginning of a calamity which has impeded the progress of Muslims up to the present time and has led to devastating consequences for them. One of the most important consequences is cultural alienation and the loss of genuine and indigenous civilization, especially the change in the life style and social behavior of the Muslim community.
The vigilant Leader of the Islamic Revolution in the face of this western cultural attack, considers the blind imitation of the western civilization as the reason of dissipation in Islamic civilization and by defining the road map, he introduces the revival of Islamic civilization depending on a kind of comprehensive and multi-dimensional progress. One of the aspects of progress with the Islamic concept, is the lifestyle and social behavior that is involved in the reproduction of Islamic civilization as a software element.
Lifestyle can be one of the main parts of civilization which include things that forms the real nature of life, such as the issues like family, the style of marriage, the type of housing, the type of clothing, consumption pattern, entertainment, the issue of business, the type of behavior in the workplace, universities, school, political activities, the way of treating parents, the police, manager, friend, enemy and etc. Certainly the instrumental or hardware element of the Islamic civilization which includes science, industry, economy, political and military authority and the like must not be neglected; but it is important that progress in Islamic lifestyle should be in line with the progress in the means of living, otherwise the existence of progress only in material manifestations and aspects of life itself cannot lead to salvation, security and mental peace, as it has not been realized in the west as well; so it’s necessary to transfer the lifestyle to the new generation by relying on the teachings of the Quran and Ahl-lul Bayt 'A.S.' so that they can reach peace and eventually salvation by acting according to it.
One of the approaches to the Islamic lifestyle is the Jihadi and revolutionary approach that still no coherent set that clarifies its components and indicators is codified after three decades since the Islamic revolution. Given that one of the requirements of changing and guiding the revolutionary and value forces of the society towards the Islamic lifestyle is using the influential patterns and the leading forces and the elite are considered as the contributing factors of training value forces; therefore explaining “Islamic, Jihadi and revolutionary lifestyle” is one of the crucial needs that we try to deal with it in the present book and discuss it in five pivotal chapters as follows:
Chapter two: The basics and principles of Islamic, Jihadi-revolutionary lifestyle.
Chapter three: Indicators and references to Islamic, Jihadi-revolutionary lifestyle in connection with God.
At the end, I am very thankful for the efforts of the respected scientific supervisor his Excellency Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Abdullah Haji Sadeqi and the head of the Imam Sadiq research institute Dr. Ali Arabpur and the respected authors Mr. Ibrahim Nasrullahpur Alamdari, Muhammad Shabdini Pashaki and Ali Karimi Khushhal and the cooperation of the commander Abulfazl Shekarchi, Hujjat al-Islam Samad ‘Aali Nezhad and Dr. Abulghasim Bakhshiyan.
The concept of lifestyle is among the concepts that is used in the fields of social science, sociology and cultural studies to explain some cultural realities and the scope of its use has become widespread in the media.
This term is formed from the two words of “style” and “life” that we’ll explain each of them.
Style
This word means "smelting and casting gold and silver". Today, in the Arabic language the equivalent of “Uslub (أُسْلُوب )” is used to clarify the meaning of style. In general, we can consider the following meanings for this word.
Type, method, manner and method and the way of doing something, fashion, habits and customs.
The suggested meanings in the dictionaries mostly refer to the use of this word in literary and artistic stylistics that gradually have been used in other fields. Perhaps because of the fact that where they wanted to separate the “form” from “content”, they have been used in this way that according to it the meaning of “style” and “form” has been close to each other.
This concept is interpreted as “Sirah (tradition)” in Islamic sciences terminology. “Sirah” in the Arabic language is formed from the entry «سِير» and has the metre of «فِعْلَهْْ» which indicates the type. The term «سير» means movement, going, walking and “Sirah. سيره” means the type of walking and behavior
Based on this, the figurative meaning of style is the specific type and the way of doing something and regarding the lexical meaning of the word style in the Arabic language which is smelting and casting gold and silver and with regards to semantic relation of “style” and “form” maybe it is possible to define style as form and consider that human behaviours are like gold and silver which need to be smelted and analyzed and finally poured in a mold to have a special shape and therefore that kind of human personality is developed and man can move towards his goals in the path of growth and development and reach perfection.
Life
One of the concepts that has a central role in the issues related to lifestyle is the concept of “life”. The importance of this issue can be understood from the emphasis of Imam Khamenei on the definition of lifestyle that states:
Social behavior and lifestyle depends on our interpretation of life: What is the purpose of life? Any kind of goal that we determine and plan for life normally suggests a specific kind of lifestyle according to it.
This term lexically is the synonym of the words living, livelihood and life and it is the opposite of death. There are the two words of “life” and “living” among them that is used in the Holy Quran to clarify the existence of living organisms including human being.
In addition to the term “Ma’ash معاش” the term “Ma’ishah مَعِيشَةً” is also used in the Holy Quran. These two terms has been originated from the stem “Aysh” which is a plan that an individual chooses for some activities such as food, clothing, housing, job, sleeping and his moods. “Hayat (life) is also one of the human attributes that is related to the issue of being.
The term “Hayat” is lexically created from the stem “Hay” which is the opposite of “al-Mamat (death)” and the effects of it are movement, a sense of being and the harmony between them. “That those who perished [through disbelief] would perish upon evidence and those who lived [in faith] would live upon evidence” Surat Al-Anfal [verse 42]. “And indeed, it is We who give life and cause death” Surat Al-Hijr [verse 23].
The word “Hayat” has a general meaning that in addition to the existence of God which is the sheer existence includes the life of plants “And brings to life the earth after its lifelessness” Surat Ar-Rum [verse 19], the life of animals "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead." Surat Al-Baqarah [verse 260], the human life “And He is the one who gave you life” Surat Al-Haj [verse 66], the spiritual life “We will surely cause him to live a good life” Surat An-Nahl [verse 97] and the life in the hereafter “And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the [eternal] life” Surat Al-'Ankabut [verse 64].
The idiomatic meaning of the word “Hayat” also depends on determining the scope of life for each creature based on our definition of that creature which is defined based on the real life of every creature in accordance with its dignity and status. As it is defined, the horizon of human life will be very clear.
The definition that has been presented of man so far refers to the point that man has a physical dimension and another dimension which is mentioned as emotions and feelings. The physical dimension deals with the material existence of man and includes issues like nutrition, growth and development. This dimension of human is common with other creatures and is also called “vegetative life” and it is that dimension of human life which is interpreted by the Holy Quran as “’Aysh''.
The other dimension considers the emotions, love and hatred, lust, anger, ambition and in short instinct which is called “animal life” too. It is true about those who enjoy this kind of life that have moved forward towards a higher level of life but since they have used all of their utmost efforts just up to this level have been reprimanded from the viewpoint of the Holy Quran “Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless”. Surat Al-A'raf [verse 179].
So far the definition of man was presented as “animal rationale”; but based on the Qur’anic sciences man has another dimension that is interpreted as “spiritual dimension” and it is superior to other existential dimensions of man. To clarify this dimension, we consider the soul which was breathed into his body by God after his creation and made him worthy of being worshipped by the angels “And when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My [created] soul, then fall down to him in prostration.” Surat Al-Hijr [verse 29] and this is the noble dimension of man that man is defined as “Hayy Mute’alleh (the alive worshipper)”; this kind of life is called “Divine life''.
The Holy Quran in the verse “To warn whoever is alive and justify the word against the disbelievers” Surat Ya-Sin [verse 70], by distinguishing an alive person from a disbeliever clarifies that being alive means enjoying the light of divine guidance: “And is one who was dead and We gave him life and made for him light by which to walk among the people like one who is in darkness, never to emerge therefrom? Thus it has been made pleasing to the disbelievers that which they were doing” Surat Al-An'am [verse 122].
Thus, based on the verses of the Holy Quran, the criterion is the divine life not just living; and the truth of the human life is believing in God and getting familiar with resurrection, divine sciences and teaching that it is mentioned as “a good life”: “Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life” Surat An-Nahl [verse 97] and the Commander of the Faithful, Amir al-Mu'minin says: “Monotheism is the life of self''.
As in explaining the characteristics of wrong doers like the dead people who walk among the alive ones: “His shape is that of a man, but his heart is that of a beast... These are living dead bodies''.
In order to achieve this kind of life, in addition to the necessity of becoming familiar and knowing his real dignity which we’ve already discussed it, man must have a clear view of the goal of his life and understand the true concept of happiness and felicity. If he doesn’t consider the meaning of happiness limited to this world and believe that it is beyond the borders of it, he will try to do righteous deeds in the light of such belief and an ideal life will be prepared for him which is called “a good life” in the Holy Quran.