God has bestowed to man the power of thought ,
so just as we should know God , we shoulk know his gift. This essay is going to
reach this goal and has considered it just on an ordinary level. We hope it can
gain the desirable result.
Introduction:
wisdom is the gift of God to man which makes
him superior to the other creatures. By profiting from wisdom , man can domain
the whole universe and by lack of its utilization , he can be meaner than
animals. What do we know about wisdom ? is it the same as thought? How can be
make advancements in the field of thought and mind to prove our supriority to
the other creatures ? this essay aims at replying the above-mentioned question.
In this text , we consider the following topics. The difference between thought
and wisdom and thought from historical point of view , study of raising the mind
according to Islamic morals. In this essay , library method has been applied and
process of the subject is limited. We hope in the next text, this issue can be
discussed more comprehensively and generally.
The difference between thought
& wisdom :
Allameh Jafari in his book : intellect in
Masnavi , introduces wisdom as follows : “ the mind activity abstracts on raw
materials taken from world of nature , man and their relationship ,
discriminates the details from the general facts and makes conclusion out of the
preliminaries and selects the goal and complies the rules and principles
obtained with its own cases.”
This effort and activity belongs to the mind
and is on fact the materialistic dimension of man which comprises his as a means
of his thought. Intellect and thought make
the non-materialistic parts of man
and uses a mean named brain to discover the unknown.wisdom is an expanded
bedding , containing soul of man , utilizing will and power , making the brain
active. In this activities , the power of thought has been utilized and will
make activities about whatever is concerned by the will and power , it
discriminates the right form the wrong. It studies the differeces and
similarities. And finally by joining whatever he calls man , it discovers the
unknown parts. In the science of logics , movement of mind of man towards the
known , arrangement of them and discovery of the unknown is called thought. Just
as it was mentioned , this effort and movement goes towards the wisdom , so
thought is a movement and wisdom is the place and situation where thought moves.
Wisdom at different psychological terms has been introduced by energy , mind ,
comprehension , understanding , conscience , memory and intellect , while in
fact all such terms reach a joint point which
is the non-materialistic part of
man , manifested in diferent forms. Wisdom is able to regulate the realities
which wisdom has come from metaphysical world , so it won’t make a mistake if it
is not polluted with imaginations and it can gain the reality of creatures.
Study of wisdom in collection of verses and
narrations :
it has been narrated that “ the first creature
of God is intellect”1
Sama Ibn Mehran says: " I asked imam Sadegh :
my dearest! Please introduce me to
intellect. Because I don’t know anything
except your instructions." He stated : " almighty God created intellect which is
the first spiritual creature , having been created from right side of the
creatures." By intellect in the aforesaid narrations or the other similar verses
, we find wisdom in general wisdom is a divine spiritual light influencing on
the universe out of which the other types of wisdom have been created , known as
partial wisdoms . partial wisdom is used in comprehension of partial affair and
land affairs , while general wisdom considers metaphysics and heart witnesses.
Basis of creation is general wisdom , thus in the narrations of genral wisdom
they contribute it to the sacred existence of prophet and five of his close
relatives. By considering carefully the verses we will be able to classify it as
follows:
1.the verses which make
the man think directly : like :verses : 72,144,164,sura: Baghareh, 80-sura:
Momenoon, 1 to 4-sura: Jasieh are samples of this kind." And God made night and
day , sun and moon domain on you and all the space planets are under his
command. This regulation bears
reasons to those who think."2
2.
the criminal say in
the iternal agony : if we had heard the truth and if we had though , we wouldn’t
be in the fire."3
3.
from the verses
reproaching the people who were wise , but they concealed the truth : " they
hear word of God , then they deviate ot thought they had thought."4
4.
the verses reproaching
the people not paying attention to wisdom : " do you command the people to
observe goodness and forget yourselves? Or do you recite book of God ? don’t you
think: "5
5.
from the verses which
reproach the people who enjoy wisdom. But they do not think : verse:
76/Baghareh, 65/Alemran, 32/Anam, 169/Araf, 16/Younes, 51/Hood, 109/Yousef,
67/Anbia,80/Momenoon, 61/Noor. Another sample of this category is as follows:
Moses (p.b.u.h) replied to pharaoh : my God is
the creator of the east and the west of the world and whatever is between them ,
if you are wise ."6
6.from among the verses introducing the men
far from wisdom and make you mean animals : " the worst animals with God are
those people who are dumb and deaf , don’t hear , don’t talk , and don’t think."7
7.from among the verses introducing filth and
objection as the results of lack of wisdom : " and filth has been considered for
those who don’t think."8
8.from among the verses repoarching blind
imitation of the family and ancestors and being dependant on past superstitions
, lacking any intellect:
" but , we follow whatever our fathers were observing. Tell them : will you
follow your father , though they were not thoughtful and they were not
regenerated?9
According to the above –mentioned verses, the
way of salvation of man is to think and whoever is far from it , will fell into
materialistic and spiritual abjection. His abjection is materialistic because he
is captured by the world affairs and will think about the method of life and
complete following of his instinctive desires instead of thinking about high
things. He might appear to be a successful man , but he is dissatisfied at
privacy. If he enters trick or satanic intellect10 and seeks like
Amroas the ways to obtain power and superiority and let intellect dominated by
Satan. He will be worried to reach a better materialistic rank until he dies.
Abjection of such a man is spritual , since he has not used correctly the divine
gifts and has not discriminated the right way , so he is fallen in impurity and
is meaner than animal. We witness the sample of such a filth among the people ,
when they pay attention to lust and escape intellect , so that they suffer from
decadence to the extend that the animals are superior to them.
Study of wisdom & thought from historical point of view :
according to the history of science of logic and philosophy , whose basis of
work relies on power of thought and intellect of man , the history of
encouragement to knowledge goes back to sophists( about 3000 years before christ
) and pythagoras , the Greed mathematician.they were seeking comprehension and
began to increase their awareness in science of mathematics and geometry. When
wisdom fell among the sophists , socrates emerged and stood against them and
began to re-new the life of thought. He shouted : know theyself though he was
convited to making endeavors to prove ignorance and to motivate the people to
gain knowledge. But , his student , Plato , and then Aristotle compiled his
instractions and established logics , considering power of logics , language ,
and conception.
Since many philosophers and the knowing (for
example some philosophers of ancient Greece) considered him as a prophet , the
roots of thought can be searched among the prophets. When God created Adam
(p.b.u.h.) he granted to him power of thought , so he prohibited him to taste the
forbidden fruit at paradise , while he was wise and thoughtful. What did it mean
to prohibit the forbidden fruit? If he lacked ability of discrimination like the
animals , why was he prohibited? So , when he neglected , he was cheated and was
punished. It all was due to power of discrimination and thought. In the history
of prophets , befor the last prophet , there are some situations and events
requiring the need to making decision out of thought , by applying correct will
and power. They were tested in different ways by God so that the extent of their
faith and thought would be estimated and this indicates to domination of thought
on desire and passion. For example : when Younes , the prophet makes a decision
based on his emotions , he is separated from his nation and is captivated into
stomach of a whale and states :" You should have told me about your decision and
you should have consulted with me! You shouldn't make a hasty decision! " so the
command of intellect is so near to the command of God. For the same reason ,
intellect was the first creature of God ( narration ) and its creation goes back
to the time befor the world was created.
Study of raising intellect according to Islamic morals :
according to ethics in Islam , man holds four inner powers :
1.Lust : this includes
the instincts and all the affairs hold in common with animals.
2.
Wrath : this serves as
a disagreement and contrast. Wrath is an inner force in contrast with the
opponents. In fact , wrath and lust seek survival of body and removal of outer
harms.
3.
Hallucination : this
power makes imaginations to make busy mind of man and to use in a way movement
of soul to reach spritual salvation for itself. For instance , almost most of us
fear the dead , while our intellect makes sure that a dead won't be dangerous.
So , our fear has been caused by our hallucination.
4.
Wisdom : it is
responsible for control of three powers which should be beside each other to
make the soul promoted. Though in general , these three stand against
intelligence and are dominated by Satan and change the self to sin. We made the
conclusion that wisdom and order of God are of the same origin. The prophets ,
if they refer to wisdom in their affairs , will reach the same result prescribed
by the divine inspiration. So God equipped man with wisdom as a weapon against
Satan. The best way to preserve this weapon is to make it accompany the
religion. Satanic temptations , are cheating and man likes the diversity. The
colorful world makes man deviated. The divine self goes to rebel , it is
surrendered by Satan and covers wisdom like a curtain and man deviates. Just as
man violates , this curtain goes away and intellect works. For the same reason ,
self will be reproaching. So the best means to preserve wisdom is to accompany
religion. In this case , there would be no need to blame the self. So we relate
to command of intellect and religion and finally we will fulfill it.
An instraction of religion is to create the
proper conditions for control of three powers of intellect. This is done by
ethics.11 In ethical commands , Quran and the innocent familly of
prophet have been considered. Growth of man and his approaching God has been
considered.this will not reached without removing the
greedy and create and strengthening the virtues.
If man is caliph of God on the earth , so he shall be God like and
being God like won't be fulfilled except by gaining the properties of God. Such
a man sall set aside all the non God affairs to be wholly divine. Wisdom has a
duty to pay attention to this important fact under the command of religion and
in this case , he will reach its divine and real rank.
Finally , the complete man is one who has
reached the highest ranks in wisdom and action and this won't be fulfilled
except by purifying the soul , by making meditation and jihad by strengthening
moral graces and by destroying fouls. But , what is the foul and what is the
piety and how each property can be deal with. This is what moral discourses
will discuss and can't make the sub title of this essay.
Respects to the Pious Creatures of God
1. Mind in
Masnavi/Allameh Jafari , page : 75
2. Sura : Nahl , verse :
12
3.
Sura : malek , verse :
10
4.
Sura : Baghareh ,
verse : 71
5.
Sura : Baghareh ,
verse : 42
6.
Sura : Shoara , verse
: 28
7. Sura : Anfal , verse ,
23
8.
Sura : Younes , verse
: 100
9.
Sura : Baghareh ,
verse : 170
10. replying to this
question : " If you are pure mind , so Amro As is wiser than you , because he
defeated you in Sefin fight , by using his thought " , Imam Ali prescribed : "
He had a satanic thought (wile) not a divine thought. "
11. Merajolsa'adah ,
Molla Mohammad Naraghi , 2nd chapter.