Aslam

First Meaning. It is an attribute for which man can be distinguished from other animals. It shows the path to theoretical learnings on mastering the abstract disciplines. Hares-b-Asad said in defining intellect that it is a natural attribute by which theoretical sciences are grasped and understood. It is like a light which falls in to the heart and helps it to understand things. He who denies this meaning and limits intellect to understand only the necessary sciences is wrong, as he who is indifferent to the sciences and he who is asleep are both classed by him in the same rank. They have got this instinct though they are not learned. Just as life in them helps them to move their bodies at sweet will, so also intellect is so much intermingled with some men that it helps them towards acquisition of theoretical learnings. Had it been possible that the natural intellect, sensation and power of understanding of a man and an ass are equal with no difference, then it would have been possible that an ass and a lifeless thing are equal regarding life with no difference. Just as according to natural law, an ass has been helped with life, so according to natural law, a man and a beast have been differentiated in the matter of theoretical learnings by intellect. Intellect is like a mirror which can be differentiated from other things having bodies by their special attribute regarding form and colour. This special attribute is a polisher. Forehead can he differentiated from eye as it has not been given the special quality of sight as in case of eye. As there is connection of eye with sight, so also there is the connection of this natural quality of intellect with learning. Just there is connection of sun's rays with sight, so there is connection of Shariat with intellect with a view to express and spread learning.

Second Meaning: According to this meaning, intellect is

wisdom which appears even in childhood, as a body knows by

instinct that two is greater than one, that and individual cannot

remain in two different place* at the same time and that a lawful

thing is not the same as an unlawful thing.

V Third Meaning: Intellect means according to this knowledge

acquired through experience. Thus he who is laugh by

experience and schooled by time is called a man of intellect and

he who lacks these qualifications is called ignorant.

96 THE BOOK OF WORSHIP Vol-I

Fourth Meaning: When the natural power of a man reaches such point by which he can know th result of actions and for which the present pleasure of sexual passion is controlled, it is said that he has got intellect. Such a man is called an intelligent man. Such a man acts not by dictates of passion but by the ultimate result of an action.