Human Development

1. Mankind have two roles, one as a servant of Allah and one as the vicegerent of Allah on earth.
2. In order that mankind can fulfill his roles in both these responsibilities, a man's humanity will have to be developed.
3. There are four elements in humans that must be understood and developed.

They are:
i. The physique
ii. The mind
iii. The soul (heart)
iv. The nafs (desires)

4. To develop the physical aspects of humans, the following are involved:
i. Food and drinks
ii. Physical cleanliness
iii. Health
iv. Physical training
v. Sleep

4a. Food and drinks:
i. Do not eat excessively
ii. Do not eat too little
iii. Eat moderately
iv. Eat nutritious food
v. Chew food properly before swallowing
vi. Program mealtimes accordingly

4b. Physical cleanliness:
i. Cleanliness from filth (najis)
ii. Cleanliness from dirt
iii.Cleanliness from bodily excretions (fudhul)

4c. Health:
i. Do not eat or drink food and drinks that can be detrimental to health.
ii. Do not eat excessively.
iii. Clean living area.
iv. A comfortable home
v. A clean and safe home
vi. Moderate fulfillment of sexual needs. (jimak)

4d. Physical training:
i. Conduct physical training that is beneficial to the race and nation to include agricultural activities, travelling, doing research, horse riding, swimming and archery.

4e. Sleep
i. Do not sleep excessively or too little.
ii. Sleeping times are before noon (qailulah) and at night after "isya'" prayers.
iii.Do not sleep after "asar" prayers and after dawn (subuh) prayers and immediately after meals.

5. Mental development is achieved:
i. With knowledge
ii.With experience

5a. With knowledge:
i. Knowledge on fardh ain (obligatory on the individual)
ii. Knowledge on fardh kifayah (obligatory on the community)
iii.Permissible knowledge

Knowledge can be obtained from teachers, through reading and through discussions.

5b. With experience
To include all aspects of the community, climate, economy, culture and ceremonies and customs. The way to achieve this is:
i. To travel
ii. To do research
iii.To observe all occurrences and incidents.
iv. To know other people's experiences through reading and listening.

6. Development of the soul (heart) is achieved as follows:
i. With faith. Faith is divided into two categories: the basic and that which helps to flourish it.

ii. To improve the heart by understanding the inborn nature (fitrah) of humans.
iii.After the above is understood, to carry out the exercises/training of the soul (heart).

7. To nurture the nafs (desires)
The nafs is divided into seven categories
i. the evil (ammarah)
ii. the regretful (lawwamah)
iii.the inspired (mulhamah)
iv. the serene (mutmainnah)
v. the submissive (rodhiah)
vi. the accepted (mardhiah)
vii.the perfected (kamilah)

To nurture the nafs (desires), exercises/training of the nafs (riadhatunnafs) must be carried out.

8. To achieve all these, we need a spiritual teacher (mursyid) who has the characteristic of "taqwa" (fear of Allah).

Source: Minda Mujahid