Monday 17 October 2011

The Special Properties of the Heart of Man cont..

To continue from the last post:

Imaam Al-Ghazzali says that desire, anger, and external/internal senses exists in the youth potentially – (like a seed planted but needs to grow), but in order to attain them (use them fruitfully) the youth must first pass through two stages:

1)      His heart must comprehend the knowledge and its first principles (the knowledge of possibility and impossibility, rationale judgement, for example it is impossible for Zayd to be in two places at one time..)

2)      He shall gain that knowledge which is acquired by experience and thought (the experiences we have, and reflecting upon these experiences – there is no substitute for experience)
A similtude given:
The status of point 1) in relation to knowledge, is like that of a writer whos knowledge of writing only extends as far as knowing the use of a pen which is dipped into the inkwell which is then used to write letters. But they do not know how to join the letters together to make meaningful words and sentences. – such a person is well on their way to writing, but has not yet achieved it.
(In comparison – is like people who have knowledge of Fiqh, who have memorised the quran, who mastered tajweed, but their knowledge does not extend as far as how to implement it into their life in a meaningful way).
And thus if the youth has passed both point 1) and point 2) is like that of a person who knows how to write – able to form words and sentences meaningfully – a writer. (And in comparison – the person who has much knowledge in Fiqh, Quran, Sunnah, is able to implement it meaningfully and able to make perfectly just decisions based on his knowledge in accordance to his experiences and reflection and maturity which has developed over time).

The potential lies within every youth, like a seed planted but needs to grow
(Picture is of the Blessed Tree in Jordan)

11 comments:

  1. Dear zrh,
    i enjoy reading your posts. i subscribe to the feed as well.
    thank you for the award and i have re-award this beautiful blog in my latest post : liebster award and re-award. my apologies for not being able to create a back link due to mobile upload.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Assalamu Alaikum!
    Firstly let me thank you for visiting my blog and following :).

    Now let me comment on the post at hand. It's excellent! Nicely said. But do you not think there are some people who despite having lots lots and of knowledge are unable to understand it / derive wisdom for it. Yes it is important to learn, but not knowing the meaning of what you have learnt is futile. For example, say someone learns / memorises the Arabic of the Holy Qur'an. But not being a Arabic speaker themselves, they are not able to understand a word of what they have learnt. Would it not therefore be better if they learnt small parts with and the depth of meaning behind it too?

    (^ that may be sooooo off topic) xD

    ReplyDelete
  3. Salams Nia - no worries about the link

    Salam Nas - I can understand your point about memorising the whole Quran without understanding arabic, however I do believe that Allah grants this gift of Haafiz only to special people, whether they understand it or not, it a great achievment and its the start of something great - but like you said, only if they know how to derive the wisdom from it, and here Imaam Al-Ghazzali says the wisdom comes with time, and this is something every Haafiz should be conscious of.

    The path to get closer to Allah is different for every individual, for some the path may start by memorising the whole Quran, and others it may be to learn a small part and then the depth of meaning like you said, (one way doesnt always work for everyone) what we must do is to make dua and ask Allah, to show us our individual path to get closer to him, inshallah

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, this is my first time here and find your blog so inspiring and must followed because it gives us spiritual strength and knowledge. Thanks a lot. INSHALLAH

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sagittarian - alhamdulillah :) im very glad, thanks for following

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a new blog now. Please follow @ http://blogispeak.blogspot.com/.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This was interesting. Glad I found my way here..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Zeba - Im glad you did too, hopefully this has been usefull for you inshallah.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mashallah, i love your blog! check mines out and follow:
    www.the-ideal-teenager.blogspot.com
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete