Created to know God
I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.
Quran 51:56
Worship in Islam is much wider than prayer. Anything good done sincerely for God counts: working honestly, caring for your parents, feeding your family, even smiling at someone. The Prophet ﷺ said that moving something harmful out of people's way is charity.
Muslims believe every person is born with a natural sense of God, called the fitrah. The restlessness people feel when they chase money, status or pleasure is that sense looking for what it was made for.
Surely in the remembrance of God, hearts find rest.
Quran 13:28
Life is a test
He created death and life to test which of you is best in deeds. He is the Mighty, the Forgiving.
Quran 67:2
Good times and hard times are both part of the test. Wealth tests whether we'll be grateful and generous. Hardship tests whether we'll be patient and keep trusting God.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “How wonderful is the case of the believer! Everything is good for him. If something good happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he is patient, and that is good for him.”
Sahih Muslim
What comes after
Death isn't the end. Muslims believe that on the Day of Judgment, everyone will be brought back to life and shown everything they did. Every wrong that went unpunished in this world will finally be put right.
Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it.
Quran 99:7–8
The Quran describes Paradise as gardens with rivers flowing beneath them, fruit that never runs out, and peace without fear or sadness. The Prophet ﷺ said God has prepared for His righteous servants “what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no heart has ever imagined.”
Above everything is God's mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said that no one enters Paradise by their deeds alone, only by God's mercy, and that God is more merciful to His servants than a mother to her child. So Muslims live between hope and awe: doing our best, and trusting Him.
Signs all around us
The Quran keeps asking its readers to look at the world: the sky, the rain, the way a seed splits open. Even the fruit at this market:
It is He who sends down water from the sky, and with it We bring out every kind of plant: green shoots, grain in rows, clusters of dates hanging low from the palm, and gardens of grapes, olives and pomegranates, alike yet different. Look at their fruit as it grows and ripens. In this there are signs for people who believe.
Quran 6:99
Quran quotes are English translations of the meaning, adapted from Saheeh International and M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. Tap a reference to read the verse in Arabic with other translations.