What is the purpose of life? That’s what people came to discuss at the Henry
Ford Community College Rosenau boardroom on Monday, April 8, hosted by the
Muslim Student Association. The nearly packed house included Muslims and
a couple of non-Muslims. The event was aimed to spark simple, but complex
questions in the audience's mind…why are we here? Why were we created?

The first speaker of the night was Brother Mohammad Hakeem, a Muslim
computer engineer. His entire discussion was an analogy between a person's
life on earth to the 6 Pillars of Faith titled “Passengers on a Plane.” He had an
audience member draw a plane and carried on step-by-step explanations on
what our purpose in life is, through a Muslim's perspective.

The first pillar of faith is the belief that one God created humans in this world for
a purpose.  With that, the speaker said God put every individual on an airplane,
some flights longer than others, but we all have the same destination. The
second comparison was the belief in angels. The angels are outside of the plane,
however, they are still helping us passengers reach our destination. The third
comparison was to the belief in the Prophets of God. The Prophets are present
on the plane. Some people get to see them and some don’t, but everyone should
accept the message. The fourth comparison was to the Muslim Holy book: the
Quran. On a plane, there are rules and regulations that have to be followed. The
fifth comparison is to Predestination in Islam. The passenger decides where he/
she ends up, but God knows where each individual is going. The sixth and final
comparison is to the Day of Judgment. That is the passengers’ final destination.
This creative comparison was a definite crowd pleaser.

Dr. Hakeem ended and Brother Khalid Saleem took the stand. Saleem, who is
an ex-Baptist, began with a few verses of the Quran about a human's purpose
in life. He talked about the different attributes of God and how they differ from
man. Saleem also went on to say that he loves Jesus more now than when he
was a Baptist. He also played off of Dr. Hakeem’s’ airplane analogy when he
was talking about the duration of time on planet Earth. He stated that instead
of us being in an airplane we are in a “Supersonic Jet.” At the end of his lecture
he encouraged the non-Muslim attendees to believe in something, if they do not
already. He also encouraged the Muslim attendees to learn more about Islam.
There was a Q&A session and afterwards everyone was welcome to eat from the

dinner that was provided. Donations of clothes, shoes, and toys were also being
accepted.