Article: The Creative Leadership of the Intellect on the Path to Success

The article (The Creative Leadership of the Intellect on the Path to Success) by Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi, published by al-Huda magazine in its issue for the month of Shaʿban 1433 AH, number

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The Creative Leadership of the Intellect on the Paths to Success

Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi

When speaking about success, accomplishing achievements and the ways of reaching the summit, one cannot overlook speaking about the intellect (ʿaql). Discussion of the intellect has occupied a distinguished place among the scholars who specialized in the field of psychology in the past and in the field of human success in modern times. After great development in the Western sphere of this science, psychology took a direction in many of its studies toward strengthening the standing of the intellect little by little. After psychology had been living in great confusion, it made its way to some better studies. From their confusion we see that defining psychology became one of the difficulties; some of them defined it as “the studies that psychologists engage in,” that is, they lost control over the unifying subject matter and the aim of this science. The origin of this wandering is their ignorance of the soul and their ignorance of the intellect, for studies of the intellect came to be pursued in the fields of psychology after they had been the preserve of the field of philosophy.

After they had spent a long time searching for an explanation of the intellect from an organic standpoint in order to discover the quiddity of the intellect, and had delved deep in this direction, psychology turned toward knowing the intellect through its functions, as “the concern of the functionalist school, in psychology, was focused on understanding the functions of the intellect rather than arriving at a rigid description of its contents; they believe that its most important function is helping the individual to adapt to the environment. That is, their concern was centered on its functions and usefulness rather than on concern with its essence or its composition”[1]. This direction is considered a development and an approach toward innate nature (fiṭra) in knowing realities, since it is impossible for a human being to encompass the realities of things from all their aspects; therefore he must be humble before the realities and strive to discover them through the sources of knowledge derived from Allah the Exalted, and He is the Creator of things, or through tracing the effects.

As a result of that development, scientists discovered the enormous mental capacity of the human being: “In 1980 CE, scientists believed that we use five percent of our mental potential. By the end of the decade, many scientists said that the proportion used does not exceed one percent. Today, many believe that the proportion of our mental potential that we use is less than one percent!”[2].

The Intellect and Illuminating the Path

The notion of the intellect has spread enormously, and many scholars and specialists have begun pointing to it as one of the most important drivers toward success; indeed, it is the leader in climbing to the summit. This fact is true, but we must make use of the intellect correctly, and that is possible through becoming acquainted with the tasks of the intellect and its role in the process of reaching success. In the process of success, what is it that a person needs from his intellect? He will need it to illuminate the path and to give him insight into his correct steps toward reaching the goals, just as he needs it in determining the best kind of goal; this part will be discussed under the topic of “values,” which we will take up subsequently.

The intellect, as Sayed al-Modarresi indicates, “is that light by which we distinguish good from evil and the beautiful from the ugly. When it recedes from us at times of overwhelming anger and lust, we commit ugly deeds, and then we blame ourselves when it returns. It is what we find lacking in small children, the insane and fools, so we see a great deficiency in them; and it is on its basis that people hold one another to account and by it hold them responsible for their actions. Thus Islam describes the intellect by its attributes, which become manifest in rational people.”[3]

It has come in the Glorious Book of Allah: “So give good news to My servants who listen to the word [of Allah] and follow the best [interpretation] of it. They are the ones whom Allah has guided, and it is they who possess intellect.” (Qurʾan 39:17–18)[4]. Allah the Exalted has described those who possess intellect (ulu al-albab), who are the people of intellects, as those who, when they receive speech, opinions and ideas, are guided by their intellect to follow the best and most excellent. It may be said that this is a given, and that everyone can choose the best, not only those who put their intellects to work on things. But if we observed reality, we would discover the opposite: many people determine their choices not on the principle of the best and most excellent, but on the principle of pleasure and desire springing from the power of appetite. You see some proceed to eat food that they know is harmful to them; you see another abandon learning and prefer to remain in the swamp of ignorance; and you see some prefer to trade in what destroys society, such as the drug trade and the sex trade, which are among the largest trades in the world. And so it is in behavior in dealing with people: why, one wonders, do some affect arrogance, or deliberately insult others, or steal from them or wrong them, and so on? All of that is because this person did not take the guidance of the intellect.

The intellect illuminates the path, and the more a person relies on his pure intellectual power and on the intellect with which Allah the Exalted endowed him by nature, the more mature you will find his choices. Some may understand that people's choices and behavior are merely an inevitable result of their heredity or their surroundings. Although the environment has an effect and heredity has an effect, if we adhere to the guidance of the intellect, it will prevail over the various effects that contribute to determining a person's choices. For example, one of the psychologists says, dismissing the importance of the intellect: “We consider people ‘centers from which behavior emerges,’ whereas it is more accurate to consider people the final product of the world's influence on them and of their reactions toward the world. We do not need to know a person's mental state, his feelings, his personality, what he is planning, or his goal in order to study his behavior. ‘Skinner’ says that if we want to know the reason why people behave the way they behave, all we need to know are the circumstances that made them behave in this way”[5]. Perhaps his adopting this view is due to his reliance on observing reality, which, by force of time and place, points to this fact, as it is prevalent in it. But by returning to the realities, we will discover that we must search for what ought to be, not search for what is in one society or another; and what ought to be is the necessity of returning to the intellect and handing it the leadership of the self so that it takes its best path.

Leadership Belongs to the Intellect, Not to Vain Desire

Not everything that issues from within a person is the product of the intellect; among a person's faculties there is something that opposes the intellect: it is vain desire (hawā). Scholars of ethics have explained that a person's inner faculties are multiple: among them is the intellectual faculty and among them is the appetitive faculty, and these two faculties struggle with each other, each seeking to overpower the other. Here are some texts reported from Imam ʿAli (a) depicting the relationship between the intellect and vain desire. He (a) says: “The bane of the intellect is vain desire”[6]; for what diminishes the intellect and rational decisions is following vain desire.

And he (a) says: “Vain desire is the enemy of the intellect”[7]; the decisions of vain desire are opposed to the decisions of the intellect, hostile to it, and contrary to its path.

And he (a) says: “Obeying vain desire corrupts the intellect”[8]; when a person hands the leadership over to his vain desire, he works to corrupt his intellect, such that it becomes difficult for him to benefit from it afterward.

And he (a) says: “Whoever makes his intellect prevail over his vain desire has prospered”[9]; whoever hands the leadership to his intellect has done the right thing, and it has led him to the path of prosperity and success.

How Do We Avoid the Decisions of Vain Desire?

In order to avoid vain desire's dominance over the intellect, we must become acquainted with the movement of the forces and desires within us. Allah the Exalted created the human being and placed in him a set of fundamental forces, each with its own name and its own tendencies. This is something that Western psychologists did not discover or know, and that the success experts who spoke about the role of the intellect in the process of success did not grasp, except for a small amount, most of it in generalities. These forces are (the soul, the spirit, the body). Let us come to these items to see how they work and how we can manage them so that all of a person's forces push along the path of his success.

1/ The body: It is the physical frame of the human being, and it is a vessel for a person's innate needs. These needs make a person always incline toward what satisfies them: the need for food, the need for sex, rest and sleep, and all the pleasures that branch out from them. The body and its forces look only to satisfaction, without regard to how that satisfaction takes place or by what the satisfaction is achieved; that is, the body has natural needs and is in constant inclination toward satisfying them.

These satisfactions are in reality something natural and innate, for every creature needs that. You need nourishment, so Allah the Exalted placed in you the sensation of hunger; you need water, and so you feel thirst when that need is lacking; likewise, all people need sex, and they feel that need. The feeling that springs from the body contributes to the formation of the human being, to the growth of the human being, and indeed to the happiness of the human being, on condition that it is regulated and all desires are fulfilled in the right way and in the right quantity.

The Exalted said about the body: “So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him.” (Qurʾan 15:29)

The body is not characterized by good or evil except according to the kind of movement of its forces within it.

2/ The spirit: The spirit is the secret of human life; it is what the body encompasses, but we do not know its essence, as the Exalted said: “They question you concerning the Spirit. Say, ‘The Spirit is of the command of my Lord, and you have not been given of the knowledge except a few [of you].’” (Qurʾan 17:85)

This indicates that we should not burden ourselves with knowing the reality of the spirit; rather, we must know its attributes and its effects and how we should deal with it.

It is of the command of Allah the Exalted, meaning that it is pure in its clarity; it represents the divine outpourings and pure goodness upon the human being. The more a person draws provision from it, the more his standing rises and is elevated, and his course goes in the right direction. Just as the body is drawn to that from which it was created, namely dust, so the spirit is drawn to Allah the Exalted. That is why we find that a person reaches levels of intimacy through the remembrance of Allah and through worship, and is happy when he helps others or offers a service to his society; and we see some devote themselves completely to building their society and teaching people in order to push the wheel of society toward righteousness and goodness.

The spirit and the body are the two fundamental parts of the human being; each of them has its attractions and its particularity, but they are merged, as has been reported from Imam ʿAli (a): “The spirit in the body is like meaning in the word.” If you imagine a spoken word without meaning, it is as though you are looking at a lifeless corpse without a spirit.

3/ The soul: The soul (nafs) has come in the Holy Qurʾan under many names, such as the soul that prompts to evil, the self-critical soul and the soul at peace. All of these names are for a single entity, not multiple entities, and the difference in its names goes back to the difference in its states. The state of the soul that prompts [to evil], about which our Lord Almighty said: “‘Yet I do not absolve my [own carnal] soul, for the [carnal] soul indeed prompts [men] to evil, except inasmuch as my Lord has mercy. Indeed my Lord is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’” (Qurʾan 12:53), is that it commands evil, domineers over the person and calls him to commit evils, like one who makes a profession of theft or of deceiving people, or one who founds a group, an institution or a media outlet to mislead people and corrupt them. The souls of such people have become prompters to evil, and they strive to achieve their goals in this evil domain.

And the self-critical soul, about which our Lord Almighty said: “And I swear by the self-critical soul!” (Qurʾan 75:2), is higher in standing than the soul that prompts [to evil]. When the soul comes out of the captivity of evil and of unconditional attraction toward errors and evils, and begins to question the worth of that act, blames the person for committing this act or that, and feels remorse, it then becomes self-critical; that is, it carries out the act of monitoring, making the person live the tug between doing good and doing evil, just like one who seeks wealth at the cost of depriving others or wronging them, and then reviews himself and holds himself to account for his deed, so he strives to compensate those he wronged and to apologize for what issued from him. That is, the self-critical soul corrects a person's course whenever it inclines to deviate from what is right and from goodness.

And the soul at peace, about which Allah the Exalted said: “‘O soul at peace! Return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing! Then enter among My servants, and enter My paradise!’” (Qurʾan 89:27–30); it is when the soul is in a state of complete submission to the call of the Lord Almighty and to the goodness and righteousness He calls to, so it does not proceed to do what incurs divine wrath, and consequently it does nothing but the good that returns to it or returns to the society around it.

Let us now reach the answer to the question: How do we avoid the decisions of vain desire?

The answer may lie in depicting the equation of a person's forces as follows: the soul is characterized by the three attributes (prompting to evil – self-critical – at peace), as it is in a tug and movement between (the body), with its forces and desires, on the one hand, and (the spirit) and its attractions on the other. If it draws near to the forces of the body and clings to them to the exclusion of anything else, it becomes a soul that prompts to evil; if it clings to the spirit and responds to it, it will become a soul at peace; and if it remains wavering between the spirit and the body, it is a self-critical soul.

So this process needs management, and it takes shape according to the kind of management it receives. Here specifically comes the role of the intellect, to be the manager of this process: it controls the decisions of the soul to draw it toward every good to which the spirit calls, and it fulfills for the soul its innate desires arising from the attractions of the body. When he feels hunger, the intellect calls him to fulfill that desire in a quantity that does not harm, of a kind that does not harm, and in a manner that is not forbidden; and likewise the intellect calls him to hold to the spirit that calls to goodness, so he helps people and teaches people.

The Exalted has said: “by the soul and Him who fashioned it, and inspired it with [discernment between] its virtues and vices: one who purifies it is felicitous, and one who betrays it fails.” (Qurʾan 91:7–10). Allah the Exalted has made clear to the human being the two paths of good and evil, and the soul that proceeds in the direction of purification and cleansing is the soul that becomes a vessel for goodness and righteousness, and consequently it is the one that proceeds toward success.

All the discussion concerning the soul, its movement and its arrival at its righteousness, even if some of it points to the Hereafter, also covers this world and all personal goals and social goals, as Sayed al-Shirazi (q) says in Fiqh al-Ijtimaʿ: “(Is felicitous) and (fails) in the noble verse are not for the Hereafter only, but for this world as well; for although the focus of the Wise Qurʾan is the Hereafter, and that “the abode of the Hereafter is indeed Life (itself)” (Qurʾan 29:64), it looks upon this world as a bridge. That is why it has come in the Holy Qurʾan: “Seek the abode of the Hereafter by means of what Allah has given you, while not forgetting your share of this world.”[10] (Qurʾan 28:77)

The Practical Mechanism for the Leadership of the Intellect

On the path to achieving success, we need a clear practical mechanism for the working of the intellect, so that it helps us toward attaining success, reveals its path to us, and pushes and urges us to act in accordance with its correct data, far from the influences of the soul and its desires, or its laziness and slackness. Here we will suffice with what Sayed Hadi al-Modarresi mentioned in his valuable book on success. He says:

“The role of the intellect can be summarized in three areas:

First: experiences.

Second: clarifying the path.

Third: prudent management.

In the first area, the intellect draws lessons from the past, so it gives you experience. The noble hadith says: “The intellect is the preservation of experiences,” and “The best of what you have experienced is what admonished you,” because “The rational one is he whom experiences have admonished.”

In the second area, the intellect does indeed clarify the path, but on condition that you consult it, away from vain desire, emotion and preconceived judgments.

Imam ʿAli (a) says: “Reflection is not like witnessing with eyesight; eyes may deceive their owners, but the intellect does not deceive one who seeks its sincere counsel.” And he says: “Sufficient for you of your intellect is what makes clear to you the paths of your error from your right guidance.” And he says: “Seek guidance from the intellect and you will be rightly guided, and do not set it aside, lest you regret.”

In the third area, prudent management and planning are among the most important things entrusted to the intellect.

Imam ʿAli (a) says: “There is no wealth more profitable than the intellect, and no intellect like prudent management”[11].

It appears that the fundamental work of the intellect is clarifying the path, but through benefiting from historical and textual lessons and various realities, in order to make from them a sound and creative plan for the future that pushes a person toward real success with good, righteous and beneficial qualities.