Rational Knowledge and Inner Realization CONTENTS

the command of God. In the process, he realizes that he is not free but has to act at God’s behest and be accountable to Him. Death is not the end of his life, for another life begins after death, where he will stand before God, so that God may declare His final decision about his eternal future. This process of discovery continues until he realizes that the end of his life is going to culminate in the form of either eternal Paradise or eternal Hell. This quest makes him extremely serious about the course his life should take. Now he plans his life anew. Now he redefines everything. If at first all his activities were self-oriented, now they are God-oriented. It is this very lifestyle which is called Islam. One Serious Fallacy P eople use reason extensively in their worldly matters. They think a lot and make thorough plans, but in the matter of religion they take a totally different path. Here, they think: let us go to some saint, ask him to pray for us, go to some dargah, visit some elder or holy man, count out some words on the rosary, or do some rituals; and then they imagine they will have discharged their religious obligations. But this is applying double standards and is wholly insubstantial. One is not going to benefit from any of these courses of action in any way.