The importance of Intelligence in Shia narrations – 3
“In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful”
The importance of Intelligence in Shia narrations – 3
H 3, Ch. 1, h 3
Ahmad ibn ‘Idris has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Jabbar, from certain persons of our people in a Marfu’ (It means that the chain of citation is not available, but some Shia scholars have narrated it in the age of Sheikh Kulayni, which himself was during the time of short occultation of Imam Mahdi (A)) manner, who have ascribed it to Abu ‘Abdallah (A) who has said the following.
The narrator has said, “I asked Abu ‘Abdallah, “What is Intelligence?” He replied, ‘It is a fact with whose help one worships Allah, the Merciful, and attains paradise.’ I then asked, “What was the thing with Mu’awiyah?” ‘It was shrewdness. Mischief is similar to Intelligence but not Intelligence.’ The Imam replied”[1].
Explanation
This is like the previous narration in meaning. The “Intellect” is a truth that, on the one hand, pays attention to its creator and, on the other hand, pays attention to its inferior. One of our Imam said, “Our expressions are scattered, but your beauty is one thing”. Maulana said, “The container changes, but look inside the container to see what is in it. Wine is wine in whatever it is poured. Sometimes they pour it into a glass; sometimes, they pour it into a cup; sometimes, they pour it into a tank; the man is the one who takes the inside of the cup! There are different expressions, but the word is the same thing.
Intelligence is different from literacy. Someone may not be literate, but he has intelligence. Sometimes this literacy and this knowledge help the intellect and make the intellect flourish. But sometimes, the other party is just a storehouse of terms and arguments; all of these are lost when you die. What remains is that which has been transformed into intellect, i.e., converted into faith. These are skins, but in the hereafter, they will buy the brain of knowledge from you. “We will proceed to the works they did and will turn them into scattered dust”[2] (Al-Furqn:23). Worship is the same; this prayer is a shell and has a brain. Its brain is what makes your life. Don’t consider that I went to Hajj ten times, and I am in a high rank, see what effect this Hajj has left on your life! They don’t calculate the rewards based on quantity but on quality. Someone might have gone to Hajj ten times, finished the Qur’an fifteen times, and prayed twenty-five times at night. This is not the case. What effect did these have on his life? What is the impact of prayer, dhikr, worship, etc., on his soul? Imam Sadiq (A) says, “Sometimes a person prays for fifty years, but even two rak’ats are not accepted” because it has not left any sign in his life.
Mischief is animal intelligence. It is a consciousness that is superior to animals, but it is about worldly life. A wise poet says, “You are very precise in the world and calculate every aspect of your business’s economy, but why do you have backwardness the stupidity for the Hereafter”. It is narrated that the believer is smart. The sign of his cleverness is that he remembers death. Remember the end of this life! How long do we live? sixty, seventy, or eighty. Forty years of our lives are gone, up to sixty years if we stay! Let’s not have an accident, let’s not have an earthquake, let’s not get a flood, let’s not get cancer, let’s not have a stroke. There are twenty more years left until the age of sixty. Who are you building a skyscraper for? You have to go in twenty years! The intellect understands this, but the people of worldly life do not understand this. He is 70 years old, his hand is shaking, and he walks with a cane. He runs into his business first thing in the morning; he comes out at eleven at night! It does not make sense to do these things. But the believer is wise and clever. The sign of his cleverness is that he remembers death. Thinking of death makes a person wise. There will be a time when they tell us that your time in this world is over. There is no one left here that we want to stay with; we have to leave this world too. One person earlier and one later! Whatever money and gold you collect, it remains here; no one can take money and gold to the Hereafter because it is different from this world. What you take with you are faith and wisdom. Don’t worry much about your children either; They have nothing to do with you in the Hereafter. “When the Horn is blown, no relations between them will exist on that Day, and they will not ask after one another”[3] (Al-Mu’minun:101). Do not say, This is my father, my son, or my daughter, and this is my brother and sister! God is kinder and more protective than you, your kindness granted by Him to you. They also have God; they have solid sustenance. Collecting and not collecting will neither increase nor decrease their sustenance because their life and sustenance have been determined.
The absolute intellect in this world is the “Imam of the Time” (AJ). Imam Asr, Imam Mahdi (AJ) is the mine of intellect, the abundance of faith; all the intellects of the wise are a ray of his intellect. Let’s go to his house to beg for wisdom. We ask the Lord to give us faith. Let’s say, sir, we beg you to provide us with intellect and trust in God! Did you see many people look their faces toward Imam and say that we are sick and in need? Not a single person says, Sir, I want faith and intellect from you, wisdom from you, knowledge from you. I want monotheistic knowledge from you.
Muhammad Mahdi Me’marian
All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.
[1]– رَفَعَهُ إِلَى أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ، قَالَ: قُلْتُ لَهُ: مَا الْعَقْلُ؟ قَالَ: « مَا عُبِدَ بِهِ الرَّحْمنُ، وَ اكْتُسِبَ بِهِ الْجِنَانُ». قَالَ: قُلْتُ: فَالَّذِي كَانَ فِي مُعَاوِيَةَ؟ فَقَالَ: «تِلْكَ النَّكْرَاءُ، تِلْكَ الشَّيْطَنَةُ، وَ هِيَ شَبِيهَةٌ بِالْعَقْلِ وَ لَيْسَتْ بِالْعَقْلِ».
[2]– وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَىٰ مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاءً مَّنثُورًا
[3]– فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَلَا أَنسَابَ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَلَا يَتَسَاءَلُونَ