The Philosophy of Life

"Search of truth is the ultimate aim of intellect. Applying truth in every action is called justice. Search for truth begins with oneself, try to know who, what, why you are? This is the first and most vital step. Then comes the long process of doing good for the greater happiness of greater number."

A few years back, upon asking my teacher about the aim of intellect and philosophy of life, he gave me this comprehensive and splendid answer. I was amazed at the coherence of the message of the intellectual and its practicality. In those days, I was seeking, and still am, 'the secrets of self'. Now I need to stop and self-examine a bit. And i shall be brief. From the early teenage days, when my faculties of discernment were flourishing, I dreamed of knowing the Quran so much so that I'd be able to decode the philosophy of life. What I failed to do was to take the necessary steps to achieve such a monumental task, i.e., I did not only failed to learn how to properly recite it, I didn't also give any attention to know its meaning. This is a precise sorrow, regretful glimpse of my past. What now I am going to do about? Now i am acting on the advice of my 12-year old friend! He, Raees Jamal, said to me,"You should learn Quran, and I believe you can, the way a molvi (traditional scholar) did. Well, he took 8 years to learn up one surah of Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah. He used to learn one ayat daily, and after knowing its translation he acted upon it and then moved forward. This is how he learned the whole surah." I appreciated his zeal, and decided to use this knowledge. Just to correct secondary details that this man was none other than Hazrat Abdullah, son of the second Calip hazrat Umar, who himself learned the same chapter of Quran in 12 years. Curiously, he had a mastery over Arabic, he witnessed the events of Revelation, yet he exhausted 8 years to learn a single chapter of 286 verses? It was because, as Mufti Taqi explains, he had to learn and master all the relevant sciences to know the meaning of Quran. (See The Quranic Sciences of Quran, by Mufti Taqi Usmani.) That's the best thing I can do.