Spiritual and Intellectual Development
Learning from Everyone
The Quran lays great importance on learning, for it is learning that promotes and sustains the process of intellectual development. A verse of the Quran in the chapter Maryam (Mary) gives a notable example of this in a conversation the Prophet Abraham had with his father:
Father, I have been given some knowledge which has not come to you, so follow me: I shall guide you along a straight path. (19:43)
Obviously, Abraham’s father, who was called Azar, was Abraham’s senior. So he could have been reluctant to take advice from someone who was very much his junior. But in the matter of learning, senior and junior have no meaning, for words of wisdom should be heeded, even if the speaker is a much younger person.
If you want to be an intellectually developed person, adopt the habit of acquiring knowledge from all and sundry. The universe of knowledge and wisdom is so vast that it cannot be encompassed by any single mind. The only thing that can help you to gain more and more knowledge is the spirit mentioned in the Quran. Everyone must develop an insatiable intellectual thirst for the gaining of knowledge from many different quarters – every day and every night.
There are several ways of acquiring knowledge, one of them being through discussion or dialogue. Discussion or dialogue is not just a debating practice; it is an intellectual exchange.
Books are a great source of knowledge. But the study of books is not simply reading. It is establishing contact and consulting with other thinkers and scholars. It is like a global discussion, if the reader has the true spirit, and has the ability to acquire knowledge from universal sources. The library is the place for this, for it is like a global conference room. A library makes it possible for you to reach all the world’s minds.
The Prophet of Islam once said that you should acquire wisdom, even if you have to go to the ends of the earth. All men and women should become imbued with this spirit.
There are several ways of acquiring knowledge, one of them being through discussion or dialogue. Discussion or dialogue is not just a debating practice; it is an intellectual exchange.
The Art of Dematerialization
Rain is a unique and natural phenomenon, which is referred to several times in the Quran. One such reference is given in the chapter Qaf; its translation is as follows:
And We have sent down from the sky blessed water with which We have brought forth gardens and grain to be harvested. (50:9)
‘Blessed water’ in this verse means fresh water. This is purified water that comes down as rain, giving vital nourishment to all the greenery on the surface of the earth. Without rain all the land surface becomes like a vast desert.
Purified water means desalinated water. The original source of this water is the salt water stored in the seas and oceans that are spread over three-fourths of the earth’s surface. This stored water is saline, nature having mixed 3.5 percent of salt in this water as a preservative. However, salt water is useful neither for man nor for agriculture.
It is nature that initiates a global process of desalination. It is desalinated water thatrises in the form of vapour and forms clouds. Then from the clouds there is a downpour of fresh water. It is this blessed water, or desalinated water, that descends and fulfils the needs of humans and agriculture.
It is a demonstration by nature of how we can purify ourselves. By following this natural pattern, we have to process things around us through contemplation, and then make this serve as a tool for the purification of the soul (tazkiya).
Nature’s reservoir of water has a certain salt content. But nature separates the water content from the salt content and thus makes the water useful for humans and for agriculture. This is true of all other things. Everything around us, big or small, has material content as well as spiritual content. We have to dematerialize these things in order to extract the spiritual content. And then we take the spiritual content as food for our souls. We receive water by a natural process, but spiritual food can only be obtained through an intellectual process. Without this process, we will certainly face spiritual starvation and finally spiritual death.
For example, everyone can speak. Yet the verbal exchange of dialogue is a rare phenomenon peculiar to human beings: no other creature of this world shares this capacity with us. Speech apparently is a physical phenomenon, but it also has spiritual content, in that it reminds us of the special blessing we have been endowed with by God.
And this discovery enables us to acknowledge God in elevated language – something that cannot be done by any other creature in the physical world.
Self-Correcting Mechanism
It is said that once a man came to the Prophet and after some discussion the Prophet said to him: “Stay with Ali ibn Abi Talib – one of his companions – for your further training.”
A few days later, the Prophet asked Ali about the man who had come to him. He replied that he had stayed with him for a while and then he had gone away, and that now he had no knowledge of his whereabouts. The Prophet said: “Anyone who meets him, bring him to me.” After a few days the Prophet was able to meet him again. The Prophet said to him: “I asked you to stay with Ali for your further training. Then why did you leave him?” He replied: “You asked me to take training from him. I did so and then I went away.” Replying to a further question, he said that Ali had taught him chapter Al-Zalzalah of the Quran, which says:
“Whoever has done the smallest particle of good will see it; while whoever has done the smallest particle of evil will see it.” (99:7-8)
A person is accountable to God and every deed of his, big or small, will be evaluated by God.
Quoting these verses of the Quran, the man said that from these verses, he had found the complete message; so there was no need to stay on any longer with Ali. The Prophet asked: “How did you find the complete message in these verses?” He replied: “These verses tell us that a person is accountable to God and every deed of his, big or small, will be evaluated by God. Now I always keep this in mind. I always do what seems good to me and I always refrain from what seems bad to me.”
This story explains very beautifully how the Quran develops a self-correcting mechanism in every man and woman. The Quran wants everyone to be on his or her guard all the time. This concept is bound to make a person conduct himself properly. It is at the basis of character-building.
Spiritual Partners
The Quran gives great importance to the institution of marriage. According to the Quran, the home is the first unit of any society, and is the primary source of all kinds of valuable experiences. If the home is good, then the whole of society will automatically emerge as a good society.
In the chapter Al-Rum (The Romans) the Quran gives basic guidelines in this regard. The translation of one of these verses is as follows:
Another of His signs is that He created for you from among yourselves spouses, so that you might find repose in them, and He created between you affection and kindness. Truly there are signs in this for people who reflect. (30:21)
In these verses, the Quran reveals an important law of nature, that is, that a man and a woman are the counterparts of each other. According to a saying of the Prophet, men and women are two equal halves of a single unit. A man and a woman as a pair can fulfil the real purpose of human life.
According to this, man and woman are spiritual partners to each other. Mutual love and affection are the binding forces for both. Starting life as a pair enables them to have experiences of an elevated nature. In their daily meetings, they can share spiritual experiences and through discussion they can plan their lives on a spiritual basis. They can find time for joint study. They can together embark on discovering broader areas of the spiritual world.
Both men and women are like cogwheels. One cog cannot move the wheel: the wheel of life can be moved only with the joint effort of both.
But there is a price to be paid for this. This price, in a single word, is none other than adjustment. The fact is that in spite of all their similarities, both have been born with differences. There is no uniformity in the scheme of things in nature. So, we have no option but to learn the art of difference management.
One’s failure in this regard is tantamount to failure in life itself. If you want to develop your spirituality, try to adjust with your spouse. Spirituality is the highest goal one can aim to achieve. Without spirituality, both man and woman are incomplete. Spirituality gives you wisdom and strength. And both are necessary to have a successful life.
