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Lesson: 23 Self-acquaintance or Self-awareness
After we saw
some of the attributes that cause the degradation of human status, now let us
proceed to observe the virtues that ensure the perfection of human development
and are the cause of human maturity and perfection.
But before
beginning this discussion we invite your attention to two essential introductions.
A - Necessity
of Self-awareness
For a creature
that naturally loves itself, it is absolutely instinctive to try to know its
abilities and to try for their perfection. From this angle the emphasis put
by Divine religions as well as religious leaders and scholars on self-awareness
and self-acquaintance is for awakening the human nature.
So the Holy
Quran asserts: We will soon show them Our signs in the Universe and in their
own souls, until it will become quite clear to them that it is the truth.
And He has
made subservient for you the night and the day and the sun and the moon, and
the stars are made subservient by His commandment; most surely there are signs
in this for a people who ponder; And what He has created in the earth of varied
hues most surely there is a sign in this for a people who are mindful.
The Holy Prophet
(s.a.w.s.) too has given extraordinary importance to self-awareness and has
introduced it as a way for knowing God. He says: One who knew himself has known
God.
The following
narrations are from Amirul Mo-mineen (a.s.):
1. Self-awareness
is the most profitable knowledge. 2. I wonder about the one who is searching the missing thing whereas he himself
is missing and yet is not searching. 3. It makes me wonder that a man does not know himself. How can he wish to know
God? 4. The climax of knowledge is self-acquaintance? 5. The biggest success is for the one who succeeds in knowing himself. 6. Do you think that you are an insignificant being whereas a great world is
concealed in you
Question: Why
so much emphasis has been put on self-awareness in these verses and narrations?
Answer: It
is because the one who understands himself knows God, thereafter he sees nothing
but Him and thereby is endowed with Divine virtues.
Hence it is
narrated from Imam Baqir (a.s.) that, as per a Qudsi Hadith: The Lord Almighty
has said: There is no slave of mine who, through whatever I have made obligatory
for him, attains nearness to me. Indeed my slave also, through, voluntary non-obligatory
good deeds, comes so near to me that I like him and since I like him I become
his ear through which he hears and I become his eye through which he sees and
his tongue through which he speaks and his hand by which he attacks My and his
enemies, the wrong doers. If he calls Me, I give answer to him and if he wants
something from Me, I give it to him.
In Munaajaate
Shaabaaniyah we read: Enlighten the eye of my hear, through which I observe
Thee, by they Radiance until the eye of wisdom tears through the curtains of
light and joins thy Great Light, and connect our souls with the sacred status
of thy Greatness. O my Lord Make me one of those who answer Your Call when you
call them and when you attend to them they, due to your lustre and grandeur,
become unconscious.
As a conclusion,
from the viewpoint of the teachings of Quran and the Family of divine Revelation,
man possesses such a high status that by becoming aware of it he can reach to
such spiritual heights. By studying the events of those men of God who, as a
result of self-build-up, reached the high stages of human dignity upto perfection
and who ruled over the physical world, you will be able to understand this fact.
B - Vies of
World-famous Philosophers
1 - The enjoyment
of human perfection is more pleasing than material fruits and for gaining it,
man must make use of the tool of knowledge and technique of natural resources
so that he may live a life of comfort and happiness.
This view is
bases on the originality of matter, and genuineness of tast and the nobility
of man.
2 - Human perfection
is attainable by collective utilization of the gifts of nature. For attaining
it, efforts should be made for common welfare.
This view is
based on the originality of community.
3 - Human perfection
lies in both material and spiritual progress which can be attained through self-discipline
and by fighting against material pleasures.
This view corresponds
with the views mentioned earlier.
4 - Human perfection
is in intellectual progress that is attainable through knowledge and philosophy
or logic.
5 - Human perfection
is the rational and moral maturity that can be reached by learning knowledge
and acquiring a graceful character.
And the last
two views also are incompatible with materialism.
After these
two preliminaries have been clarified, we should understand that one virtue
can make man perfect like the virtue of Faith can, as it is the faith in the
Lord of the universe and in His commandments that lifts man unto the heights
of perfection. From this angle, all of our efforts should be to adore ourselves
with this virtue. We must dig out the pearl of humanity from the mine of nature.
Of course, this work is very difficult as:
