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The Criterion of Growth and Foolishness

God Almighty has mentioned five attributes for the people of growth, two of which are affirmative and three are negative. The affirmative attributes of growth are:

  1. Love and affection for religion and faith, to the extent that they consider it an honor, not a burden.

  2. Considering religion as their adornment and acknowledging that their heart is adorned with religion.

The negative attributes are:

  1. Aversion to disbelief

  2. Disgust for immorality

  3. Abhorrence of disobedience: “…but God has endeared faith to you and has made it pleasing in your hearts and has made hateful to you disbelief, defiance and disobedience. Those are the rightly guided.”(210)

Based on this, growth is not exclusive to Abraham, although he is the foremost among the rightly guided and the exemplar of the mature.

The Qur’an describes Abraham as mature and indicates his signs of maturity as calling to monotheism, fighting against polytheism, breaking idols, and his patience in the face of threats of being thrown into fire and the like(211). After introducing Abraham’s knowledge and actions and describing part of his instructive way of life, it establishes his nation and religion as the standard and measure of reason and maturity. The secret to this is that God granted him maturity: “And We had certainly given Abraham his sound judgement before”(212). Therefore, the way of the mature Abraham is the way of maturity, and since turning away from maturity is foolishness, anyone who turns away from the character, tradition, and religion of Abraham, the Friend of the Most Merciful, is foolish. Just as Pharaoh, with all his claims, was foolish, not mature: “And the command of Pharaoh was not [at all] discerning”(213). To make the point clear, it is mentioned with a rhetorical question. How can one turn away from the cradle of reason, the essence of maturity, and pure wisdom, except in a state of foolishness?

The secret of this point is that the foolish person is opposite to the wise, and intellect, as defined in some hadiths, is that by which God Almighty is worshipped and Paradise is attained: “[Intellect] is that by which the Most Merciful is worshipped and by which Paradise is attained.”(214)

What serves as the contrapositive of this hadith is: That by which the Most Merciful is not worshipped and by which Paradise is not attained is not intellect, and its explanation will come(215). Therefore, foolishness is when someone does not have this light to worship God and attain Paradise with it. Hence, if someone distances themselves from the religion of Abraham (a.s.), which is the means of worshipping God Almighty and attaining Paradise through adherence to it, they are foolish, not wise.

According to the criterion established for growth, turning away from it is foolishness, as there is nothing opposite to growth except foolishness, just as there is nothing opposite to truth except misguidance: “So what is there after truth except error?”(216) This is because the opposition between truth and falsehood is of the nature of negation and affirmation, not the opposition of contraries which have a third option, as one is the path and the other is the wrong way; the path is that which leads to the goal. If the end of a journey is not the goal and the traveler gets lost, it becomes clear that what was traversed was not the path. Therefore, if in some cases the “wrong way” is referred to as a “path” (sabīl), or when God Almighty says: “And We guided him to the two ways”(217), it does not mean that the way and path of misguidance is also a path like the way and path of guidance. Rather, such expressions are used because some people are on that wrong path, and it is clear that merely going somewhere does not prove it to be a path.

Note: The foolishness of those who turn away from the religion of Abraham (a.s.) is both preceded and followed by evidence. Previously, leadership, the construction of the Kaaba, the vision of the rites of Hajj, the request for complete submission to the divine presence, and the request for the sending of a prophet who would combine the perfections of recitation, teaching, and purification were established for Abraham, all of which are evidence of the necessity of inclining towards him. Later, the process of Abraham’s being chosen and his righteousness was recounted, each with special emphasis, particularly regarding the hereafter which is hidden from current perception, all of which are evidence of the necessity of following him. In summary, God chose Abraham, and the foolish turn away from him.

Just as it is said about the brightness of the sun: “Whoever does not see it is blind,” it is also said about the rationality of Abraham’s religion: “Whoever does not accept it is foolish.” A similar statement is found in the words of the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.): “Indeed, God sent a guiding messenger with a speaking book and an established command. None perish by it except those destined for destruction”(218). This means that the truth of the religion of Islam is so evident that no one is harmed by it, except for those who accept nothing but destruction.