What is the meaning of life in Islam?

Religious knowledge becomes lived responsibility when it does not remain at the level of words but joins examined understanding with responsible action.

Paraphrase: Qur’an 17:36 warns against following a claim without knowledge and connects hearing, sight and understanding with responsibility. In Qur’an 31:17, Luqman advises his son to pray, do good, resist wrongdoing and remain patient.

Contemporary reflection: This can mean checking a religious statement before passing it on and beginning with justice, patience and reliability in one’s own conduct. The verses do not provide a complete staged theory of religious education, guarantee an outcome or permit judgement of a particular person’s faith.

Trust in God differs from passivity in that it does not abandon appropriate means.

Interpretation by Said Nursi: In the Twenty-third Word, Nursi explains that trusting God does not mean setting practical means aside. He describes striving through suitable means as a form of active prayer.

Contemporary reflection: Trust can therefore be combined with a concrete next step, professional help and patient action. This interpretation guarantees no success, does not prescribe the same course for every situation and does not replace medical, psychological, legal or practical support.

Livelihood, benefit to others and personal boundaries cannot be balanced by a single number of working hours. A responsible balance considers duties, available means, health and individual capacity.

Paraphrase: Qur’an 28:77 connects seeking the Hereafter with not forgetting one’s share of this world, doing good to others and refusing corruption. Qur’an 2:286 connects responsibility with a person’s capacity.

As a contemporary application, this can mean working fairly and usefully, making room for rest and addressing overload early. These verses provide no working-time model and do not replace labour law or medical advice. Qur’an 2:286 must not be used to deny overload or pressure people into self-sacrifice.

Technical progress is not automatically human progress. It expands what can be done; whether it serves people also depends on its aims, standards and consequences.

Interpretation by Said Nursi: In the Twenty-third Word, Nursi describes ‘true progress’ as the development of heart, spirit and intellect in view of lasting duties. He contrasts this with a way of life that directs human capacities chiefly toward transient worldly pleasure.

As a contemporary application, technology should therefore not be measured only by performance and convenience. We should also ask whether it strengthens judgement, responsibility and meaningful action or narrows human attention and capacities. The passage does not discuss artificial intelligence or provide a ready-made technology policy. This connection is explicitly a present-day reflection, not a prediction attributed to Nursi.