Khutba: The Intellect.

Praise be to Allah, who created and taught man what he did not know.
Who gave him the kalam and the intellect to reflect.
Who guides him in the misdirection.
His are the praises in heaven and on earth, His is power and knowledge.
He knows the manifest and the hidden.
I testify that there is no god but Allah, unique and without associates, and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
The unlettered prophet to whom He taught all He knew and who gave us the guidance so that we would know how to worship Him and how to lead our lives in this world.
Peace and blessings be upon him, his family, and his companions, the first to follow guidance and to be people of intellect.
Allah’s blessings upon His servants are many, Allah says in the Qur’an:

“If you were to try to count the graces of Allah you would not be able to enumerate them. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”

Among these blessings, one of the highest is Intellect.
Allah has endowed man with the faculty of reflection and reason to use them, and He has placed signs in creation for us to reflect on.
It says in the Qur’an:  

“Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the succession of night and day, the ship that sails the sea for the benefit of men, the water that Allah brings down from the heavens, to revive with it the barren land, in which He scattered all kinds of creatures, and in the variation of the winds and clouds that are between heaven and earth there are signs for those who reason” (The Cow, 2:164)

Intellect, reason, the ability to reflect and recognize the signs of Allah in creation, what we know as Aql, is the fundamental characteristic that separates us from the rest of creation.
Allah says:

“Verily, we have created many geniuses and men who will go to the Fire [por sus obras].
These have hearts but cannot understand, eyes but cannot see, and ears but cannot hear.
They are like cattle that do not reason, or worse.
These are the ones who behave with indifference [a Nuestros signos].” (The Dividing Wall, 179)

Those who do not see the signs of Allah, who do not listen to the words of the people of knowledge who guide them to the right path, those whose hearts are closed to the understanding of the existence of this world, these are like herd animals or even worse.
They behave with indifference because they do not reflect.
The ability that Allah has given us to reflect, to observe the signs in creation and to have discernment in this life, the intellect, brings us numerous benefits.
It is through the intellect that we can know the truth of Divine Revelation and the teachings of the prophets.
Allah says in the Qur’an:

“Verily, We have revealed to you a Book through which you will be honored. Do you not reflect?” (The Prophets, 20:10)

It is through reason that we recognize what is right and what is wrong as Allah states in the Qur’an and is recognized by the innate nature (fitrah) that Allah has placed in every human being.

An-Nawwas ibn Sam’an said: “I asked the Messenger of Allah about what is right and about the faults. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “What is right is good character and what is wrong is what is stirred in your heart and you hate it when people find out about it.”
(Saheeh Muslim, 2553)

In another narration the Prophet said:

“Ask yourself, ask your heart.”

Sufyan ibn Ujaina, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

“The reasonable person is not one who simply recognizes right and wrong. But the reasonable person is the one who when he sees the good follows it and when he sees the evil he avoids it.”
(Hilyat al-Awliya, 12893)

It is through the intellect that we can understand the signs of Allah and follow His guidance, and it is through the intellect that we discern right from wrong.
But the intellect is also the foundation of the Muslim’s character and the pillar on which the firmness of his Deen rests.
Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“A man’s foundation is his intellect, his honour in his Deen (his way of life according to what Allah has commanded) and chivalry in his character” (Adab al-Dunya wal-Deen 17).

The intellect is also the source from which knowledge emerges: Al-Ghazali wrote:

Reason is the source and origin of knowledge, as well as its foundation.
Knowledge emerges from it as the fruit of the tree does, as light does from the sun, as vision does from the eye.
How then could that which is the source of happiness in this life and in the next not be considered the most honorable?
Or how could it be doubted?
(Iḥyāʼ Ulūm al-Dīn 1/83)

The intellect is what guides man to recognize the signs of Allah in creation, to accept Revelation and the Prophets, to discern what is right and what is wrong, it is the pillar of righteous disposition and the source of knowledge.
It is also what leads us to understand the phenomena of the nature of this world and what leads human beings to understand the nature of creation.
The intellect is what leads us to seek good company and what makes us distance ourselves from the company that harms us.
It is what makes us strengthen the ties between us and maintain blood relations. Allah says in the Qur’an:

Is he who recognizes that what your Lord revealed to you is the Truth equal to the blind man?
Surely only those endowed with intellect will remember it, (13:19)

And then Allah describes who are the ones endowed with intellect:

Those who fulfill the commitment they made and do not break it, do not break the family ties that Allah commanded to be respected, they fear their Lord and His terrible punishment.
Those who are persevering in longing for the face of their Lord, practice the prescribed prayer, do charity with part of what We have provided for them, both privately and publicly, and if they are mistreated they respond with a good attitude, they will be rewarded with a beautiful dwelling.
(13:20-22)

This is the description that Allah, may He be exalted, gives of one who has intellect.
And we ask Allah to make us of these people, of those who when the signs are shown to them know how to recognize the essential and who use the intellect to separate truth from falsehood.
We have talked about the importance of the intellect and what it is useful to human beings for, but we have to be careful not to confuse what the intellect is and we have to be grateful for it and cultivate it. Allah says in the Qur’an:

Your Lord tells you that if you thank Him, He will increase your sustenance; and know that if you are ungrateful His punishment will be severe.
(14:7)

The first thing is that we should be thankful for this blessing that Allah has given us.
For if we are grateful, Allah will increase it for us.
And we are thankful by putting our intellect at the service of what He has commanded us and using it in what He has entrusted to us, and which we have seen in the first Khutbah.
But we also have to apply the intellect to understand the world around us, the world in which Allah has placed us, and to act according to the most correct way.

Sufyan ibn Abdullah al-Thaqafi once addressed the Messenger of Allah and said: “O Messenger of Allah, tell me something about Islam and may I not have to ask anyone else about it.”
SAWS said, “Say, I believe in Allah, and then act righteously.”

The intellect helps us to discern those who are to believe and to act righteously.
When we act righteously we are using the intellect and therefore being grateful for it.
And acting righteously means that we pay attention to what is happening around us, that we seek to understand the society in which we live, and that we seek the best way to act according to what Allah and His Messenger have taught us at all times.
And we must not think that the intelligence that leads many people to unbelief is intellect, nor be deceived by the dazzling of their ideas.
The first thing that the intellect of the human being has to do is to recognize its Creator, and, from this, everything else arises.
Advances in science and technology are important, but they are useless if we do not know how to conduct our lives.
The function of the intellect is to teach us how to lead our lives. Allah says in the Qur’an:

Verily, the worst creatures for Allah are the deaf [que no quieren oír la Verdad] and the dumb [que no quieren reconocerla], and verily they do not reason.
(The Boots, 8:22)

Hudhaifa narrated that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

Do not allow yourselves to become blind followers, saying that if people are good, then we will be good, and if they are unjust, then we will be unjust.
But if people are right and good, then be right, and if they are unjust and wicked, then don’t be righteous.
(Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2007)

What Allah and His Messenger are telling us is that we are to use the intellect to conduct our lives at the time and place that Allah has not put in the best possible way according to the Deen, in a way that Islam shines on those who are not Muslims and that it is a source of pride and brotherhood among Muslims.
Khutba in Seville, Hafiz Luqman Nieto.