The True Nature Of Piety Is Not Ignorance — But A Fully Engaged Intellect That Is Disciplined In The Path Of God:

Of all the Religions of the world — there is one Religion that sanctified the role of the Intellect. There is so much in our Islamic tradition that honors and elevates the role of the Intellect in human affairs.

The True nature of piety is not ignorance or obliviousness, but a Fully engaged intellect that is disciplined in the path of God, wrestles with the challenges that thinking poses to human beings, and employs the gifts of the Intellect in a relationship with God.

It is easy to be dumb and pious — You can keep yourself ignorant and claim that you are the most pious person in the world, but your Faith and piety are empty because they are based on absolutely nothing.

The Intellect, as important and valuable as it is, is therefore not the only capacity with which the human can perceive Truth. It alone can never reach true experiential knowledge of the Divine.

However, it is still an indispensable tool For human success in worldly affairs, as well as an aid in the human pursuit of the Divine — This is because the very First step in one’s spiritual journey to reach Divine pleasure is to learn what He has ordained For us in His revealed Sacred Law. This knowledge is acquired by the Intellect. Yet to apply that knowledge in one’s life, in a state of submission and contentment, is a task For the spiritual heart, not the Intellect.

Critical Thought must be put aside For the heart to thrive. In Islamic cosmology, the most symbolic physical manifestation of human submission to the Divine is prostration, which the Prophet Muhammad (saw) described as a position in which the servant is closest to his Lord.

It is interesting to note that in that position — the brain is physically lower than the heart. With one’s Forehead on the ground, the Intellect is made to submit while the heart is elevated to its appropriate place of superiority.

The Intellect is the gift that God gave to Adam. The Intellect is the very reason God commanded angels and jinn to bow before human beings in the story of creation. It is the Intellect that makes human beings the inheritors of God on earth. It is the intellect that makes human beings worthy of carrying the covenant as God’s representatives on earth.

Point is,how much of our own tradition Muslims are not aware of, and how much of the Islam that is often made available to Muslims is engineered so that it is stripped of its soul — the soul that, at one time in history, inspired Muslims to create a civilization in the world that was unlike any other at its time.

The Prophet (saw) is reported to have told one of his honored companions: “To everything, there is a central motor that allows it work and allows it to be. And the true motor of the Believer is the intellect. And to everything there is a Foundation, and the Foundation of a Believer is the intellect.

And to everything, there is a pillar upon which it stands, and the pillar upon which Islam itself stands is the intellect. And to every person, there ought to be an objective. And the objective of the True Believer is the intellect.

And to every merchant, there is a commodity, and the commodity of diligent, striving Muslims is the intellect. And to every home, there are people that are responsible and accountable, and in the homes of the true Believers, it is the Intellect that holds everyone to account and that holds to which responsibility is owed.

And to each people, there is a lineage and a genealogy, and For the True Believers, their true lineage and genealogy is the intellect. And For every journey, there is a purpose, and the true purpose of the journey of a Believer is the Intellect.”

So,the point is that — Intellect is also a Blessing From Allah. A person who does not obey the Lord by contemplating the signs of his Creator. He who does not use the Blessings of his Creator according to His command is Ignorant and misguided in the sight of his Lord.

May Allah(swt) make us grateful For His blessings.(Ameen).

JazakAllah (May Allah Reward You [with] Goodness)For Reading.

https://sanahawan.medium.com/subscribe

Kindly Follow & subscribe to receive the latest insightful stories by email.