By Sheikh Khalid al-Ghamdi – 15 Safar 1437

His Eminence Sheikh Khalid al-Ghamdi –May Allah protect him– delivered this Friday khutbah titled “The Merits and Advantages of the Mind” in which he talked about the mind –one of the greatest bounties Allah has bestowed upon His servants after faith in Him, may he be exalted– and explained its importance, merits and advantages. Finally, he mentioned its misuses by some people.

Praise be to Allah! We thank Him, ask for His help and seek His forgiveness! We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and our sinful deeds. He whom Allah –May He be exalted– chooses to guide no one can cause to go astray, and he whom Allah chooses not to, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah alone with no associate, and I bear witness that Muhammad ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ is His Servant and Messenger. May Allah Almighty send His profuse Salat (Graces, Honours, Mercy) upon him, his pure and immaculate family, wives, and progeny, his righteous and pure Companions, and the tabi’in (the contemporaries of the Companions of the Prophet [May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him] after his death) who followed in their footsteps till the Day of Judgement!

Now then,

I exhort you –O Servants of Allah– and myself to observe taqwa (fear of disobeying Allah) both in public and in private. Taqwa is a sublime honour entrusted by Allah to the early and succeeding generations. He assured those who observe it that they would never be misguided or feel wretched and that they would feel neither fear nor grief.

O Muslims!

After faith, mind is the greatest divine favour bestowed upon mankind. It is a divine bounty and one of the greatest creations of Allah Who Has perfected everything. Facts, indicative signs and tangible evidence all corroborate the fact that when Prophet Muhammad ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him and his family‒ delivered this perfect and guiding religion, all mankind witnessed the unequivocal concord between, on the one hand, Allah’s Path and His Revelation (the Holy Qur’an) and, on the other hand, the human mind.

Religious texts which stress the necessity of using one’s intellect are abundant. They urge the use of the intellect in thinking, remembering, observing, meditating, taking heed, seeking knowledge of Allah and worshiping Him as the One and only deity. They urge Allah’s servants to use their intellect in discovering the secrets of tashari’ (Islamic legislation), creation, the universe, the wonders of Allah’s decrees and wisdom. They urge them to benefit from all of these in their religion, their herein and their hereafter.

Sharia made takleef 1 contingent on being of sound mind. It called for the necessity of protecting the mind from corruption, alteration, and suppression. It made it one of ‘the five essentials’2 indispensable for sustaining and protecting life. The integration of the human mind with divine Revelation has become the epitome of sharia: there is no conflict between the authentic manqool (or naql)3 and the authentic ma’qool (or ‘aql)4, i.e. sound mind (or reasoning).

O Muslim Ummah!

Sound mind is man’s tool against misfortunes, his shelter from calamities, and his guide to doing good deeds and avoiding harm both in the present and in the future. A sound mind makes all things sound; a corrupt mind leads all affairs to neglect5. A sound mind makes life beautiful and living peaceful. It helps man tread the road leading to pertinence and righteousness and avoid that leading to sin and misguidance.

Mind and religion are inseparable twins. A man’s religion cannot be complete unless it is backed by a sound mind. Similarly, a mind without religion is tantamount to misguidance, delinquency and temptation. Religiosity without mind is conducive to erroneous understanding, shameful behaviour and narrow-mindedness. This implies self-inflicted harm, and distortion of the purity and clarity of Islam.

Whenever al-Hassan al-Basri was told that someone was righteous, he would ask: “What about his mind? Religiosity is never perfect without a perfect mind.” This is corroborated by the Words of Allah ‒Blessed be He and raise far above:

“and He will put the wrath on those who are heedless.” [Yunus: 100]

The mind is one of the greatest bounties bestowed by Allah upon His servants. The more perfect the mind of a servant is, the more benefits he will get from the admonitions of the Qur’an and divine Revelation. He would be able to have the key to civilization and progress, and to use the wealth of the earth to lead a prosperous and dignified life.

“Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts wherewith to understand and ears wherewith to hear? Verily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind.” [Al-Hajj: 46]

“Verily, therein is indeed a reminder for him who has a heart or gives ear while he is heedful.” [Qaf: 37]

Allah ‒To Whom be ascribed all Perfection and Majesty‒ has explained this in His tangible, abstract and insightful verses: “… that you might reason,” “… that you might give thought,” “… that you might remember.”

(Sheikh al-Ghamdi recited two lines of poetry that may be rendered as follows):

The best gift Allah has bestowed upon man is his mind
None of the other favours is comparable to it.
If Al-Rahman (Allah) granted man a perfect mind,
His aims and morals will be perfect too.

“What is the best favour a man is given?” Ibn al-Mubarak was asked. “A sound mind,” he answered. “What if he does not have it?” they asked him. “Good manners,” he answered. “What if he does not have them?” they asked him. “Then a righteous brother to consult with,” he answered. “What if he has none?” they asked. “A prolonged reticence,” he answered. “What if this is not the case?” “A swift death,” he concluded.

Admonishing his son, Luqman said, “My son! You should know that the zenith of dominion and honour in the herein and the hereafter is to have a sound mind. A sound mind will gloss over man’s flaws and patch up his demerits.”

“Who are the happiest people?” Qatadah was asked. “Those endowed with the soundest minds,” he answered. “Who are the most knowledgeable people?’ he was asked. “Those endowed with the soundest minds,” he answered. That is why it is said: “Better to have an enemy sane in mind than to have a mindless friend.”

O Muslims!

Sharia lauded the human mind and lifted the one endowed with it to a high position, and the Holy Qur’an urged mankind to use it properly and benefit from its uses in verses like:
“But none remember (will receive admonition) except men of understanding.” [Al-Baqarah: 269]
“Have you then no sense?” [Al-Baqarah: 44]
“Will you not then see?” [Al-Qasas: 72]
“Then take admonition, O you with eyes (to see)” [Al-Hashr: 2]
“will you not then take thought?” [A-An’am: 50], and many more verses.

It is much more than just the instinct-bound mind. It is more than a mere mental instrument. It is the faculty that enables the understanding of Allah and His Messenger ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him and his family‒ that opens the doors to blessings and bounties, makes the beauties of the earth a means to good deeds and success. It helps Allah’s servant do pious deeds and avoid sins and disasters. It is the mind which hobbles man so that he does not commit crimes and atrocities and releases him to gain virtues and noble characters.

It is the mind that takes man away from blemishes of morals, flaws of honour and trivialities and elevates him to sublime morals and noble attributes. It is the mind that sublimates individuals and nations so that they deserve to be vicegerents of Allah on earth and build civilisation and achieve progress and advancement.

This is the mind which the sharia commends and which Allah wants his creatures to acquire and invest in useful purposes. It is the mind which Allah has made conducive to perfection, guidance, success and protection from the spiritual and moral maladies of modern civilisation. Thus Allah will be pleased with the possessor of such merits, bless his life so that he may greatly benefit from this talent and achieve distinction among people.

It was because their ignorance of the reality of the mind as lauded by sharia that the disbelievers said:

“Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not have been among the dwellers of the blazing Fire!” [Al-Mulk: 10]

When Makkah scholar and jurist ‘Ata’ Ibn Abi Rabah ‒May Allah bless his soul‒ was asked about the best bounty Allah may bestow upon his servants, he said: “The use of the mind to understand Allah’s Message.” The use of the mind to understand Allah’s Message and construe His divine discourse and purposes is the biggest gate to obtaining both the good of the herein and that of the hereafter. In fact it is the enablement of the mind to realize its raison d’être.

O Muslims!

Knowing the reality of the sharia-commended mind and the necessity of protecting it in accordance with what satisfies Allah ‒May He be blessed and raised far above‒ would lay to rest a number of misconceptions as to how to use it. Many people have employed their intellectual abilities and their minds in spawning misguided ideas, generating twisted caprices and suspicious thoughts as well as advancing them as arguments to misguide people.

Some have become masters of concocting cunning methods of beguiling and harming others in their lives, property, status and honour. For others, their knowledge of the embellishments and pleasures of worldly life and their competition to gain them outweigh their knowledge of their religion and the hereafter. All such people think that this the real mind par excellence.

Such a mind, which is based on earthly matters and self-interest and which is adopted by some people, is indeed the cause of many civilisational problems as well as a number of psychological, behavioural, educational, and social illnesses. It is also the major excuse of many who sit contented with staying behind exactly like those who refused to march out with the Muslim army (at the time of the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him), so Allah was averse to their being sent forth, so He made them lag behind, and it was said (to them), “Sit you among those who sit (at home)”.

Had they wanted to get rid of their problems and illnesses and to free themselves from civilisational backwardness, they would have then prepared for this what it takes. They would have used this great Divine gift (the mind) in everything that would bring them, their society, and country all good and success. They would have already gotten rid of all the materialistic and non-materialistic lesions and spoilers that eliminate the mind and prevent it from creativity and useful production.

The most harmful of these lesions and spoilers is to get involved with that kind of knowledge which Allah has made proper to Himself and off-limit to human minds, misleading thoughts, destructive whims, superstitions, abhorred imitation, extremism, despised dependency, sins of the heart and those of the senses, wine, drugs, and intoxicants, in addition to other ailments that fetter the mind and creep into it in order to paralyse it and drive it away from what it was created for. These influence the mind and deprive it of its light and blessing. In this respect, Allah ‒Blessed be He and raised far above‒ said:

“And surely, We have created many of the jinns and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). [Al-A’raf: 179]

Imam Ahmad and the two Sheikhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim) narrated that the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him and his family‒ said: “It is said about someone: How nice he is! How sane in mind he is! Yet, he does not have in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of faith.”

May Allah bless you and me by the Great Qur’an, and may He benefit us from what it has of verses and wise remembrance! I say this and ask Allah the Almighty, the Most Magnificent to forgive my sins, yours, and those of all Muslims! Therefore, ask Him for forgiveness, for He is Most-Forgiving, Most Merciful!