The Value of Silence

We must set our goals in life in terms of intellectual achievement and not in terms of material achievement. The intellectual world is so vast that there is no end to intellectual activity. The intellectual journey can go beyond space and time, while material activities cannot.

The present situation is a blessing from God. It is God’s will that man should adopt the principle of contentment as regards material things. But as far as intellectual achievement is concerned, there is no limit at all. God Almighty wants to see every man and woman as a super achiever—but in terms of intellectual goals and not in terms of material goals.

If you travel westward across the Atlantic and start your journey from the African coast, the American coast will be the limit. But if you try to discover the laws of the universe, then there is no limit. The world of facts has no limits, so you can continue your journey in it forever.

If you want to have a peaceful mind, adopt the formula—simple living, high thinking.

Mission and Profession

The Book of God is a book of guidance. It gives people the kind of guidelines that make them able to receive the blessings of God when they follow them in letter and spirit. But in the latter days the divine book has become the central symbol of a religious community. With this second phase, a new dimension has been added to the divine book, that is, the commercial factor.

For the generation of latter times, the Book of God has become a source of pride—a kind of market commodity, an easy device by which to secure the respect of others. In the first period the Book of God was strictly a book of guidance but, in the later period, it became a book of material interest.

Taking the Book of God in its first sense then is a mission. It means that you do not attach any material interest to the Book of God and do not want to derive any commercial benefit from it. You have involved yourself with the divine book for the sake of God and not for the sake of anything else. This kind of involvement with the Book of God is a mission. It will bring you great reward from God Almighty.

But if your main concern is your own agenda, you have not studied the book sincerely to find out what the Quran really requires, and are simply following what is in your mind and doing so in the name of the Book of God, then it is a profession. It is like commercializing the Book of God. It is like making the divine book a trading commodity rather than taking it as a source of true guidance.

The Book of God is a book of guidance. It gives people the kind of guidelines that make them able to receive the blessings of God when they follow them in letter and spirit.