GUIDANCE FOR LIFE IN ISLAM

signs when they observe God’s creation. In this way, their awakened minds derive spiritual learning from their study and observation of the natural world. This intellectual process develops in them, what is called in the Quran, “a purified personality”. (20: 76) For example, consider a person who goes to bed after his long day’s work. This is the time when he begins to introspect over what happened during the day. He reflects over his actions and tries to figure out whether they were proper or improper. When he thinks of a good deed that he may have done, he is filled with thankfulness to God, but if he realizes that he made a mistake somewhere, he feels repentant. So before going to sleep, he would pray to God to forgive him for his wrong actions and make a promise not to commit the same mistake in the future. This is how the person ends his day. Now when he wakes up in the morning, he observes the morning prayer and then leaves for office. Here he faces several kinds of situations. In every situation, he tries to extract spiritual food for himself. For example, when he converses with someone over the phone while in office, experience of being able to instantly communicate with people who are at great distance from him makes him profoundly grateful to God. He realizes that long distance communication is possible only because God has made nature in such a manner that human beings can utilize it as a tool for their various activities. When such a person sits outside his room in the balcony, he observes various natural phenomena—the sun shining brightly, the air supplying him oxygen, the clouds raining down freshwater after the entire process of desalinating seawater, the soil providing different essential nutrients, and much more. His mind gets triggered when he beholds the spectacle of nature before him. Then he sees that there are also several cars continually going up and down on the roads. Since these cars represent human planning and management at work behind them, the numerous meaningful activities happening in nature must also surely have a mind behind at work. Thinking in this manner, he comes to the conclusion that the world of nature has a Super Mind which is perfectly controlling all its affairs. This thought makes him recognize the Creator and gives him conviction in His existence. The above illustration helps explain in what sense Islam is a complete religion. Islam is complete not in the restrictive sense of a manual. The truth is that Islam is the name of high thinking based on discovery of the Creator. Such kind of intellectual activity provides spiritual food to a believer in every circumstance throughout his life. o