7. BEWARE OF YOUR INTELLECT OTHERWISE IT WILL RUIN YOU
I was once asked about the intended meaning of the statement mentioned by some wise men, ‘Whoever does not beware of his intellect, his intellect will ruin him.’
I spent a period of time thinking of what it meant without being able to figure it out. I then realised the meaning to be: if you asked your intellect to give you knowledge about the Creator, it will rush to your senses and so it will make you fall in likening Him with His creation; so being wary of an intellect used is to observe and reflect, that will make him understand that He can neither be an object nor similar to anything.
When the intelligent one observes the Action of the Lord, Exalted be He, will realise that some of His Actions are beyond one’s reasoning and capacity such as the creation of pain, slaughtering of animals, giving enemies the power over His supporters though He is able to prevent it, inflicting the righteous with hunger, punishing for a little mistake after one is detached from the Lord, and so forth. The intellect perceives in the context of human norms and so cannot realise the wisdom behind them.
In such cases, to beware of the intellect using one’s intellect happens when you address your intellect saying: ‘Did you not confirm as a fact that He is the All-Sovereign and Most Wise and so He never does something without a reason?’ It will answer: ‘Yes.’
Then you say to it: ‘This is why we avoid your second reasoning based on what you have confirmed in the beginning; hence it becomes evident that you just happen not to realise the wisdom of His actions, therefore you must submit since you know He is the most Wise.’
Many people investigate based on the first type of reasoning; so they objected to the point that the layperson would complain, ‘Why did He decree a bad end for me?
Why did He not give me enough provision?
What wisdom is there in inflicting me with all these calamities?’
If he remembers that He is All-Sovereign and Most Wise, he will simply submit and understand that it is him who cannot see the wisdom.
There were a group of arrogant people who relied on their intellect; the first one was Shaytan who considered fire more superior to clay therefore he objected.
And I have seen a group of people who were attributed to knowledge and also fell in this trap— they objected and thought that there is no wisdom in some of His actions. All this happened merely because they relied on their intellect in measuring the habits, norms and using the actions of the creation as the basis of their analogy when thinking of the Actions of the Lord.
However, if they could dig out the knowledge of the subtle intellect, that the Creator is confirmed to be the Most Perfect and above contradictions. That He is Most Wise and none of His Actions are without reason, the mind will submit afterwards to what it does not comprehend.
Take the story of [Prophet] Musa (‘alayhi as-salam) with Al-Khidr as an example to reflect on. When Al-Khidr did things that are not within the norms of mankind, [Prophet] Musa (‘alayhi as-salam) objected and forgot that he informed him that he knew the consequences of actions that you are unaware of.
If the wisdom of some actions performed by the created were hidden from [Prophet] Musa (‘alayhi as-salam) then it befits more to understand that there are plenty of wisdoms of the Most Wise that are hidden from us!
This is a fundamental principle that if a person does not hold fast to it. It will make one object and settle in the zone of disbelief (kufr). On the other hand, if one holds fast to it he will be at ease whenever a trial befalls him.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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