How we can make ourselves better?

This presentation aimed to explore Quran’s guidance and suggestion about how we can make

ourselves better. It mainly focused on social aspects of our daily lives and our interaction with

people around us. It further aimed to emphasise that we all have certain responsibilities to people

around us and the society we are living in.

Quran outlines 7 stages of soul development. However before discovering these stages it should be

noted that these stages are very complicated and have sophisticated philosophical roots. Moreover

different schools of thoughts have a different perspective about these stages. For the purpose of this

presentation, these stages will be briefly reviewed in relation to attain righteousness. There are 7

stages of soul development as following:

1- The inciting soul: In this stage we are at our lower self and act purely on the basis of our

instincts. In this stage we do whatever our ego wants us to do and we have no moral

justification for our actions.

2- The Self-blaming: In this stage our conscience is awakened and the soul blames the self for

listening to the ego. We start to feel guilty for our wrongdoings.

3- The wise soul: In this stage in addition to the feeling of guilt and blaming the self, now the

self also starts to think and reason about self’s actions and everything else. The soul begins

to look for guidance of how to be a better self!

4- The inspired soul: In this stage the soul has become so pure that can be inspired. The soul

has become really firm in listening to the conscious and so, the wise self begins to

understand true goodness and therefore acting upon it.

5- The soul at peace: In this stage the soul is sure that the right path is chosen and it will never

go back to the lower stages. As the name suggests in this stage the soul is at peace. It has

left all the bad manners behind and has reached pure goodness.

6- The pleased soul: In this stage the soul is pleased with the self and the path chosen. The self

is pleased with self’s growth and goodness. The self is pleased with the connection that has

been made between the self and God.

7- The pleasing self: This is the highest stage that can be achieved where the beloved, God, is

pleased with the soul.

Not every soul can achieve these 7 stages of the soul development. But there is the expectation that

in order to be a good person we at least need to achieve the first few stages of the soul

development. And God is not expecting us to go beyond our ability as in chapter Al-Ana’am verse

152 he says “we do not impose on any soul a duty except to the extent of its ability”. Surely the least

we can do, and I am sure that every soul has the capacity to do so, is to be a better person in our

everyday life and in relation to the people around us. As I said earlier there is a clear guidance in

Quran about how to be a better person

Following are some quotes from Quran including suggestions about the better ways of living our

everyday life and interacting with people around us. These quotes are only a sample from Quran.

Every of these actions mentioned in these verses are explained in details in Quran but due to time

limitation in this presentation I am going to only give some quotes to just get the idea across. The

quotes are:

Chapter “The Cow” verse 177:

“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the east and the west (when you pray), but

righteousness is this that one should believe in God and the day of judgment and the angels and the

book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans

and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and

keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a

promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts-- these are they who are

true (to themselves) and these are they who guard (against evil).”

Chapter Al-Imran verse 92:

“By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend (benevolently) out of what you love;

and whatever thing you spend, God surely knows it.”

Chapter Al-Ahzab verse 35:

“For men and women who have surrendered, believing men and women; obedient men and women;

truthful men and women, patient men and women, humble men and women, men and women who

give charity, men and women who fast, men and women who guard their private parts, men and

women who remember God in abundance, for them God has prepared forgiveness and a mighty

wag.”

Chapter Al-Isra verses 23-24:

“Your lord has ordered you to worship none except him, and to be good to your parents. if either or

both of them attain old age with you, do not say: "fie on you", nor rebuke them, but speak to them

with words of respect. And lower to them the wing of humbleness out of mercy and say: 'my lord, be

merciful to them, as they raised me since i was little.”

Chapter Al-Shura verse 38:

“And those who respond to their lord and keep up prayer, and their rule is to take counsel among

themselves, and who spend out of what we have given them.”

These are just a few examples of Quran’s suggestion about how to behave towards other people

around us and within the society. However I would like to finish my presentation with the most

important and crucial suggestion of Quran for being a better person… and that is “Thinking”. There is

no use of employing these guidance and also other suggestions from other sources about improving

ourselves without thinking about them and actually understanding their nature.

Indeed there are numerous verses in Quran which encourage people to think. Many verses end with

this question “Will you not think?” The following sentence also is repeated numerous times in

Quran: “There are signs for people who think.” So Quran is strongly emphasising on thinking. And if

you remember one of the very early stages of soul development was the stage in which the soul

starts to think. The prophet also strongly emphasised on thinking as he says:

“Thinking for one hour is better than praying and worshipping for seventy years”.

Asra Gholami.