obmar
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Signs for Those Who Use Their IntelligenceSigns for Those Who Use Their Intelligence
Truly, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth,
and the succession of night and day:
and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man:
and in the waters which God sends down from the sky,
giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless,
and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon:
and in the change of the winds,
and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth:
these are messages indeed for people who use their intelligence.
[ Sürah al-Baqarah 2:164]
This passage is one of the many in which the Qur°än appeals to those who use their intelligence ( yaªqil ün ) to observe and reflect upon the wonders of nature, including the evidence of man's own ingenuity ( the ships that speed through the sea ), as so many indications of a conscious, creative Power pervading the universe. Everywhere there are signs that call us to wake up and notice how miraculous this life is. People with intelligence can have their hearts filled with awe and thus be led to what is essentially a religious consciousness. Faith and intelligence can serve each other. (The Book of Revelations, p. 26)
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The Inquisitor
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Very interesting passage, obmar.
One of the great beauties of man in nature is our ability to be able to reflect on subsets and individual parts of the picture. Intelligence isn't the ability to know many different things, but the ability to understand the things that surround us. Beauty is as much in the image of one color as it is in the most complicated Picasso masterpieces.
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