أفلا يعقلون؟ & أفلا تعقلون؟

Using our Aql and reflecting on Allah’s creations

BISMILLAHIR RAHMANIR RAHEEM

Rabb-ishrah li sadri, wa yassir li 'amri, wah-lul 'uqdatam-min-li-sani, yaf-qahu qawli.

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

We have a serious problem that’s affecting not just Muslim youth, but this entire generation of young people. Absentmindedness, lack of consciousness, and sleepwalking through life. And I’ve written about this before, but it’s a topic we should never grow tired of addressing.

Allah asks in several Ayahs in the Quran, do they not think? do they not ponder? do they not reflect? (4:82, 23:68, 7:184, 22:46…)

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for people of understanding — those who remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth (saying), ‘Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You!’...”
Surah Āli ʿImrān (3:190–191)

Indeed, the worst of creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb who do not use reason (ʿaql).
Surah al-Anfāl (8:22)

Allah doesn’t want blind followers. He wants thinking, awakened believers who reflect, ask, and act with insight.

It’s time we start thinking again, truly thinking.
Not just drifting through routines, but using our Aql — the reason, insight, and understanding Allah gifted us.

Our Aql is what sets us apart from animals. It’s what allows us to reflect, ask and be curious.

But SubhanaLlah, we don’t ask questions anymore. We’re no longer curious. Like the device you’re using to read this newsletter right now, have you ever paused to ask how and why it works? Where electricity even comes from, or how mobile data and social media are functioning behind the scenes?

And SubhanaLlah, we live in an age where access to knowledge is easier than ever, with Google, AI, YouTube, and more at our fingertips.
Yet we’ve stopped being curious.

We aren’t even curious about our own bodies anymore. Like why do we need food and what happens to it after we eat it? (i.e. how do the cells in our body utilize it?) Or how you're even able to see and read this newsletter right now (i.e. how your brain and eyes are working together to make this possible. SubhanaLlah.)

Using our Aql and reflecting on Allah’s creations, around and within us, helps strengthen our faith, increases our gratitude and awe of Allah, and most importantly, makes us love Him and want to know Him more deeply. Because if you don’t reflect and use your Aql then how can you say SubhanaLlah and truly mean it? Or Allahu Akbar and truly feel it? When we glorify Allah, we’re not meant to just repeat words but feel it in our hearts. We need to be in awe of Him and for that we need to be conscious and not absentminded.

In my quest to strive for Khushoo in Salah, I realized that one of the main reasons many of us lack it, as mentioned in a hadith¹ of the Prophet ﷺ, is our absentmindedness.

We rush through Fatihah and do not reflect on Allah’s response. (do we even realize we’re conversing with Allah?²)

Salah is dhikr³, a form of remembering and glorifying Allah, yet we often go through it without reflecting or feeling its meaning in our hearts. To truly reflect on every dhikr and dua we recite, we must be in awe of Allah and that awe begins with mindfulness.

And it’s not just in salah, it’s in every act of worship. Which is why these hadiths hit hard every time I hear them:

The Prophet ﷺ said:

"A man may return from his prayer, and nothing of it is recorded for him except one tenth of it, one ninth, one eighth, one seventh, one sixth, one fifth, one quarter, one third, or half."
— Abū Dāwūd 796

There are people who fast and get nothing from their fasting except hunger and thirst. And there are those who stand (in night prayer) and get nothing from their standing except sleeplessness."
— Sunan Ibn Mājah 1690

For the betterment of our deen, we need to relearn mindfulness and revive our sense of curiosity.

I leave you with this dua:

اللَّهُمَّ إني أعوذ بك من قلبٍ لا يخشع، وعينٍ لا تدمع، ونفسٍ لا تشبع، ودعاءٍ لا يُسمع، وعقلٍ لا يهتدي.

Translation:

O Allah, I seek refuge in You from a heart that does not humble, an eye that does not weep, a soul that is never satisfied, a duʿā’ that is not heard, and a mind that does not find guidance.

1. The Prophet ﷺ said:

"The first thing to be lifted from this Ummah will be khushūʿ, until you will not see anyone with it."
— Reported by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr, and authenticated by al-Albānī in al-Silsilah al-Ṣaḥīḥah (no. 2008)

2. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“Allah said: I have divided the prayer (i.e., al-Fātiḥah) between Me and My servant in two halves, and My servant shall have what he asks for.
When the servant says:
▸ Al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbil-ʿālamīn
Allah says: ‘My servant has praised Me.’

▸ Ar-Raḥmāni’r-Raḥīm
Allah says: ‘My servant has extolled Me.’

▸ Māliki yawmi’d-dīn
Allah says: ‘My servant has glorified Me.’

▸ Iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn
Allah says: ‘This is between Me and My servant, and My servant shall have what he asks for.’

▸ Ihdina’ṣ-ṣirāṭa’l-mustaqīm...
Allah says: ‘This is for My servant, and My servant shall have what he asks for.’”

— Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (395)

3. Allāhu Akbar – Allah is the Greatest (we say “Allahu Akbar” 18 times in a 4-rakʿah Salah)

Sūrah al-Fātiḥah – Praising and supplicating Allah

Subḥāna Rabbiyal-ʿAẓīm – Glorifying Allah in rukūʿ

Subḥāna Rabbiyal-Aʿlā – Glorifying Allah in Sujood