“St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that:

‘three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe, to know what he ought to desire, and to know what he ought to do.’

'Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.'

'Beware the man of one book'

'To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.'

'To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.'

Reality Check,
Thanks for the thoughtful post.

garra, my quotes of text was in answer to two questions put foward by Fellow_Human: Saturday, July 02, 2005 9:56:23 AM.
He said, "For those who think..stay tuned.." I am still tuned waiting for his reply to my answers on his two Bible quotes. Perhaps he is still thinking! Perhaps he thought the better of Irfan's concern.

Anyway your quotes added a break to any tensions.

A good man died, and we ask what has been the contribution he has made to our lives. We have dishonoured his memory, and trampled on his blood, and been indifferent of his contribution and work for mankind. A good man died and we say it is of little consequence to our lives. Perhaps he was a word from God. (Compare Sura 3: 45) For those who do not know of the importance of his work we need to be educated.
Blessings

Dear Irfan Yousuf:

I am a great admirer of Martin Lings whom you justifiably call the Shayakh.
In your piece you had observed that –“all of these writers, scholars and artists, including Shaykh Martin Lings, are proof that the modern Muslim mind has allowed itself to be open to influences from all cultures.”
Human beings per se are capable of inculcating a modern mind but it is the religious dogma of comes in the way. Though to start with the Hindus, the Jews, the Christians et al were mentally constrained by their respective religious upbringing, the changing times in their communes brought about by the questioning few among them have tended embrace modernism, which itself is relative in its perception and practice. Sadly, this did not happen in case of the Muslim societies that besides allowing them to be chained by the Quranic precepts swear by what Muhmmad said and did.
Ironically, in spite of what prophet himself is quoted as saying: "Knowledge is the lost property of the believer. Let him take possession of it regardless of where it is found", the Quranic stress on believing what was revealed to the prophet, makes contemporary ideas the lost property of the Muslims ever.

If only any Muslim can go through the Shayakh’s biography of Muhammad after removing his Islamic glasses tinted with Muhammad’s enamour, he would see how all his actions and utterances had a sub-context in the overall context of his ambition in his life and times. Going back to the modern minded Muslim authors, they were mostly converts who had imbibed secular education and cultivated rational thinking. When the umma believes that the Quran is the be all and end all of all knowledge and the Hadith bears the last words on worldly wisdom, the Islamic scholarship would be akin to the learning of a frog in the well. Muslims would do well to remember that modernity is a product of persistent questioning and not the phenomenon of unquestioning belief.

BS Murthy