Islam is the name of wisdom, foresight and vision. This saying tells something great: faith urges a person to make wisdom his concern. If you find wisdom anywhere, run to seek it. Generally, people have a culture, tradition and rituals. They don’t know anything outside of this cell. They think they have to live in this manner: 'This is our religion and our universe.' But this thinking is not Islamic. Islam is not the name of living in a closed ritualistic cell. Islam is to live in open air and with a universal mind. Islam is to live in an open intellectual environment. Such a person will live like a scientist. A scientist's mind is not closed. A scientist has a universal mind. Wherever he finds scientific truth, he runs to accept it. Similarly, a believer is a scientific person. He has great desire and eagerness to search for wisdom and adopt it.
According to a hadith: الْكَلِمَةُ الْحِكْمَةُ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ، حَيْثُمَا وَجَدَهَا فَهُوَ أَحَقُّ بِهَا. Hikmat here means wisdom. "Wisdom is the lost property of a believer. Wherever he finds it, he is most deserving of it." (Sunan Ibn Majah 4169) This hadith gives a great lesson. People take Islam in the limited sense as a religion or a religious tradition. In international conferences, the term tradition is used for religion. Someone might ask you: "Which tradition do you belong to?"
You may respond that you belong to the Islamic tradition. Islam or any other religion is looked upon as a tradition. Tradition means something that has been going on since centuries. Tradition is a collection of rituals, customs and beliefs. They take religion as a tradition. In international circles, the word tradition is used for religion. Tradition includes beliefs which are not understandable and spiritless rituals which give mysterious benefit. People take religion in a very limited sense. This is how Islam is also understood. The Prophet said: الْكَلِمَةُ الْحِكْمَةُ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ، حَيْثُمَا وَجَدَهَا فَهُوَ أَحَقُّ بِهَا. This means Islam is the name of wisdom, foresight and vision. This saying tells something great: faith urges a person to make wisdom his concern. If you find wisdom anywhere, run to seek it.
Generally, people have a culture, tradition and rituals. They don’t know anything outside of this cell. They think they have to live in this manner: 'This is our religion and our universe.' But this thinking is not Islamic. Islam is not the name of living in a closed ritualistic cell. Islam is to live in open air and with a universal mind. Islam is to live in an open intellectual environment. Such a person will live like a scientist. A scientist's mind is not closed. A scientist has a universal mind. Wherever he finds scientific truth, he runs to accept it. Similarly, a believer is a scientific person. He has great desire and eagerness to search for wisdom and adopt it. A believer is unbiased. He does not have biased thinking. He does not have subjective thinking. He does not believe in 'we and they' concept. A believer has a universal mind. He thinks by taking entire humanity into consideration.
