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The first Revelation to God’s Messenger was the command Read! (96:1). As there was hardly anything to read at that time, the intended meaning was that believers should use their intellectual and spiritual faculties to discern God’s acts, as well as His laws related to creating and operating the universe. Doing so will allow believers to purify themselves and their minds of all superstitions and, through observation and contemplation, acquire true knowledge.
We are more than our minds, and thus have many faculties that must be satisfied. While feeding our minds with the Divine signs seen in the universe, we can cleanse our hearts of our sins. Such a balanced life leads to a greater awareness of being seen by God and seeking His forgiveness. This seeking, if sincere and continuous, enables us to break our carnal self’s desire for what is forbidden and to turn it, through prayer, to good deeds. The command Read! thus signifies an action. Being absolutely pure in spirit and without superstition, God’s Messenger understood that he would have to start his mission by reciting the Revelation and explaining God’s signs to his people. Through this process, he would purify their minds of superstition and their hearts of sin. He would enlighten them, intellectually and spiritually, by explaining the Revealed Book of God (the Qur’an) and the Created Book (the universe) to them: We have sent among you, of yourselves, a Messenger who recites to you Our signs, purifies you, and instructs you in the Book and in the Wisdom, and also instructs you in what you know not. (2:151)
All people are like raw minerals to be worked upon by the Prophets, who purify and refine them by opening their hearts, ears, and eyes to the truth. Once enlightened, people can understand the meaning of the Divine laws of nature (signs of God’s Existence and Unity) and penetrate the subtle reality of things and events. Only through such guidance can we attain the high status that God expects us to reach. In addition to teaching the signs, the Prophets also instructed their followers in the Book and in Wisdom. As the Qur’an was the last Revelation to the Last Prophet, God means the Qur’an when He speaks of the Scripture, and the Sunna (the Prophet’s example) when He speaks of Wisdom. Therefore we have to follow these two sources if we want to be rightly guided. The Prophet teaches us how to purify ourselves from sin, and humanity will continue to learn from him until the Day of Judgment. Many great believers became saints in this way, among them ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, who said that his belief in the Unseen and the essentials of Islam was so firm that his certainty would not increase even if the veil of the Unseen were lifted. If God had not ended the line of Prophethood, such great believers as ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Imam Ghazali, Imam Rabbani, Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad, Ibrahim ibn Adham and Bishr al-Khafi might have been endowed with Prophethood. The Prophet’s guidance removed the dark clouds of ignorance from humanity’s intellectual horizon, and the light that he brought from God will cause many more scientific and technological advances to be made. Believers keep their belief vigorous and active by striving in God’s way. Just as a tree keeps its leaves as long as it yields fruit and is fed by the soil, believers can preserve their vigor as long as they struggle. Those who abandon it become hopeless pessimists, while those who pursue it are always enthusiastic and trying to increase the scope of their activities.
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