Excellent Means To Develop One’s Mind

                           “So, set your face to the Faith uprightly, this

                         (faith) being the natural disposition designed

                          by God on which He has created mankind. There

                          is no changing God’s creation. That is the

                          upright Faith, but most people do not know”.

                                                                                         (Qur’an, 30:30)

Uprightness for human being is devoting one’s self to God, because – according to the Qur’an – this being, bestowed with the mastery on earth, is by the same token burdened with big responsibility. He is given the capability of doing good or bad, then will be questioned in the Hereafter on what he did during his life. For that, God has given every human being certain capacity for work or vigorous activity. “He (= God) has taught him the capacity to understand clearly and the capacity to express his thought” (Qur’an, 55:4).

Scientists today discovered that the human mind is developing and can be cultivated (brain plasticity): “The sciences give us many views of how the mind functions, providing in-depth but distinct perspectives on human experience. For example, neuroscience can inform us about how the brain gives rise to mental processes such as memory and perception. Developmental psychology offers us a view of how children’s minds grow within families across time. Anthropology gives us insights into how relational experiences and communication patterns within different cultures directly shape the development of the mind” (Dr. Daniel Siegel in his book “The Developing Mind”, Guilford, New York, 2012).

Prophet Muhammad (peace and God’s blessings upon him) said: “Every child born in the natural disposition, then his parents (=social influence) turn him into a Jew, or a Christian, or a Magian” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim in their compilations of Hadith). This statement of  the Prophet (peace and God’s blessings upon him) is similar with what scientists today are saying: “Energy and information flow is what is shared among people within a culture, and this flow is what is measured in subjects within a brain scanner”, says Dr. Daniel Siegel. In the social sciences it is also known that culture is a constructed matter. As St Augustine has said: “We are but what was imparted to us.”

Every one of us has two complementary parts: the physical body is made up of cells; and their “dynamo” is the non-physical element that drives them. Cells also have a nucleus. This is the cell’s control center. Cells continually divide to make more cells for growth and repair in the body. Another important part of a cell is the mitochondrion. This is the part of the cell where food and oxygen combine to make energy. If we ponder deeply we could understand that all activities of the physical body cannot function without the soul, which is non physical. This soul commands the intellectual, sensorial and emotional elements: the hearing, the sight and the heart/mind.

After certain ordinances given to each believer, God says in the Qur’an: “And do not concern yourself with anything of which you have no knowledge: verily, your hearing and sight and heart/mind – all of them – will be called to account for it (on Judgment Day)” (17:36). This verse of the Qur’an indicates that the human mind is developing through both the sensorial and the spiritual “instruments” that were given and that the human’s responsibility is to bear witness only to the knowledge that was gained, and not beyond.

For that purpose every faithful Muslim has his/her individual program to be observed, not only to express his/her devotion, but also to cultivate his/her mindful skills. That is by practicing certain rituals: prayers in regular times and with certain reciting full of significance flowing human minds with a lot of wisdom and awareness of his/her function in life, fasting, and many other rituals to be observed. God says: “..Verily, for all believers prayer is indeed a sacred duty linked to particular times (a day)” (4:103).

And if the human mind is to be developed, then every one of us has to be careful about how best to foster one’s skill development. Even according to scientists, the ability to be mindful has to be cultivated by training and practice.

The Qur’an which is recommended to be recited and contemplated, some of it also during regular prayer, is meant to cultivate human minds: “…He it is who has sent unto the unlettered people a messenger from among themselves, to convey unto them His messages, and to cause them to grow in purity, and to impart unto them the divine writ as well as wisdom …” (62:2). The aim is “tazkiyah”(= the purification and growth), which means to cultivate and develop one’s mindfulness.

To conclude I would say, that the excellent means to develop one’s mind is to be in devotion to God in all domains of one’s life, as commanded by God who created us of course for a certain purpose: “Say: Behold, my prayer, and (all) my acts of worship, and my living and my dying are for God (alone), the Lord of all worlds, in whose divinity none has a share: for thus have I been bidden – and I shall (always) be foremost among those who surrender themselves unto Him” (6:162-163). To be is to be for Him, for our own sake!