The most desirable thing in Islam is the purification of the individual. In other words, the intellectual or spiritual development of the individual is in accordance with God’s creation plan. Understanding and following the Quran and Hadith are the means for such intellectual or spiritual development. The more one contemplates these sources, the stronger one’s intellectual foundations for inner spiritual purification become. We must remember a ‘psychological aspect’ of purification or intellectual development.
The Prophet said that every child is born according to nature. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1292) Then he gets conditioned in the environment he lives in. There are different kinds of pressures in the environment which influence his personality. In modern terms, this influence is called conditioning. In time, this conditioning can be so intense as to suppress a man’s true personality. He then deviates from the original nature that he is born with. However, man possesses willpower. His independent willpower is a part of his personality even after superficial conditioning. That is why it is always possible for a man to de-condition and return to the original nature he was born with. The Quran uses the word Tazkiyah, purification of the self, to refer to this process of intellectual and spiritual development. One removes the superficial conditioning to reveal man’s true nature through tazkiyah, purification. The Quran gives the good news that “Paradise is for those who purify themselves”. (20:76)
Tazkiyah is the way to intellectually and spiritually develop oneself through introspection. One who is desirous of tazkiyah must be careful about his speech and actions at every moment. With total objectivity, he must repeatedly engage in self-reappraisal. In this way, we can develop intellectually and spiritually.
This present world – a testing ground – has been created by the Creator in such a way that at every moment man is beset by trials. Repeatedly faced with the demands of the self, satanic temptations may lead him to do something undesirable; it may cause him to fall prey to evil influences. All such failings run counter to tazkiyah.
Man should be so sensitive in this matter that, on each such occasion of temptation, he immediately becomes alert to the immanent dangers. One purifies oneself and then does one’s utmost to re-purify oneself. Re-purifying oneself on such occasions is tazkiyah. But without introspection, no one can become a purified personality. Introspection leads to intellectual development, which is a guarantee that the process of tazkiyah will continue to take place.
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If you discover the value of well-wishing and decide to live as a well-wisher for all mankind, then you are one who engages in applied spirituality. Likewise, if you have a bad experience with your neighbours, but avoid treating this as a departure from normalcy and face those neighbours with a smile, then that too is an example of applied spirituality. Spirituality comprises a set of values. And, applied spirituality means practicing these values in conjunction with your fellow men in society.
Applied spirituality is ostensibly a matter of giving. But, every instance of giving is paralleled by an instance of receiving. That is a law of nature. According to this law, the giver is not simply a giver. The giver is also the receiver of many things – appreciation, goodwill, better relations, and peace – from those who are the objects of his generosity.
Spirituality, moreover, being an inner quality, has to be applied if its external actualization is to take place. Applied spirituality means living in society as a spiritual giver. Just as the cow is the giver of milk, which is good for physical health, one who has the capacity to apply his spirituality is the giver of such assistance as will be good for intellectual health.
Source: Leading a Spiritual Life
Man has a dual personality—physical and spiritual. In physical terms, a person’s body most often has its limitations in terms of height, girth, health, muscularity, athleticism, and so on. Due to these limitations, a person frequently becomes dissatisfied as far as his physical prowess is concerned. On the contrary, his spiritual or intellectual being has no limits to it. The realm in which the mind travels is vast and eternal, like the space stretching throughout the cosmos. The mind travels by thinking, and there are no boundaries to the thinking process. Traversing all kinds of frontiers, it continues unhindered on its journey.
Let us consider the activities of a businessman. These are confined to the material world. Due to the narrowness of his field of action, he is very likely to become prey to boredom. The American business magnate Bill Gates once rightly said: “Once you get beyond a million dollars, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.”
Scientific pursuit is an example of traveling in the intellectual domain. This is why scientists seldom suffer from the businessman’s ennui. For example, Newton said about himself toward the end of his life: “I was like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Such was the feeling of the great scientific thinker, Albert Einstein when he said: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
Greater even than scientific pursuit is the spiritual quest. According to the creation plan, the scope for material fulfillment in this world is very limited, while the scope for spiritual fulfillment or intellectual development is so vast that only the word ‘unbounded’ can describe its scope.
Source: Leading a Spiritual Life
People generally know the power of fighting but a wise person will tell you that the power of positive behaviour is more effective. At the time of a controversy, if you choose to fight, you will need arms but when you opt for the spiritual method, you don’t need any arms. As the conscience is greater than the power of the ego, the power of positive behaviour can triumph over the power of negativity, while the power of negativity cannot win anything—it can only lead to destruction.
This kind of ability to conquer is not the monopoly of extraordinary people. Any ordinary person also can win the hearts and minds of people, provided he knows the law of nature and can avail of it by the power known as the power of spirituality. According to the creation plan of God, all human beings, both men and women, have two quite different qualities—the ego and the conscience. The ego symbolizes arrogance, while the conscience symbolizes modesty.
With such extraordinary inherent qualities, one can become a master of all situations. Such individuals can, when they come to a gathering, win the hearts and minds of people simply by appearing there. There is a saying about such persons: They came, they saw, they conquered.
Spirituality is a science, the science of mind. It nourishes positive thinking, positive tastes, positive habits, and positive behaviour. A positive person is a blessing for his home, his society, and his nation. In secular terms, spirituality is positive thinking. In religious terms, it is divine discipline.
Source: Leading a Spiritual Life
