Page 272 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Action Before Action

Islamic practice. It gives one a prepared mind and makes one
a prepared personality: only a prepared mind or a prepared
personality can practice Islam in its true spirit. One who does
not have a prepared mind, or is not a prepared personality, will
not be fully competent to perform Islamic duties.
When it is said that Mr. So and So is a practicing Muslim, this
statement tells only part of the truth. Before becoming a practicing
Muslim, one should be a realized person. It is realization of divine
truth that makes one able to become a practicing Muslim in the
true sense. Before realization, being a ‘practicing Muslim’ is a
mere formality. A Muslim who is one only in form, is not a true
Muslim. First of all, one should make oneself a realized person
and only then can one truly be called a practicing Muslim.

Intellectual development on Quranic lines comes first,
then comes the time when one can say that one is
capable of adopting the Islamic way of life.

A preparatory course is a mind building process. First of all,
we have to know what kind of mind the Quran tries to build.
After understanding this, one should mould one’s thinking along
Quranic lines. This is a process of intellectual development, after
which one should proceed towards the goal set by Islam. In other
words, intellectual development on Quranic lines comes first,
then comes the time when one can say that one is capable of
adopting the Islamic way of life.
It is the mind that governs the body and not vice versa. The
same is true of the religion of Islam; Islamic practices are an
external manifestation of internal realization. First comes the
Islamization of the mind, then it becomes possible to Islamize
the body or one’s physical existence. Islam begins from within
and then finds its expression without.

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