Muslims need to enrich themselves with the timeless knowledge and values of Islam first, because empty, hollow, disoriented and clueless individuals can produce nothing, nor contribute anything to their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. As another proverb asserts that ‘an empty gun cannot fire or harm’, irrespective of how beautiful, awesome and deadly it may look like.

Muslims need to realize that the ages of extraordinary miracles are over. The Quran as an everlasting and greatest miracle, and at the same time the source of all authentic knowledge, goodness and virtue, is right there and with them.

They are to hold in one hand the power and guidance of the Quran (revelation), and in the other the strength and valor of reason, creativity and knowledge, and with such an integrated approach, they are to generate cultural, scientific and civilizational revolutions and miracles. The Quran will do nothing on its own.

Such is its divine disposition that it gives only as much as sincerely asked by honest guidance and knowledge-seekers. Muslims’ call is to be civilizational miracle makers, to be leaders and so, shuhada’ ‘ala al-nas (witnesses over, or before, humankind).

In other words, there is no genuine Islamic civilization without the Islamic truth, knowledge, ideas and values. There is no Islamic civilization, furthermore, without total Islam and comprehensively true Muslims. Islam is the cause; Islamic civilization is the effect.

In the same vein, there is no Islamic civilization without the crystalized Islamic concepts of man, God, the world, the universe, life and death, metaphysics, society, the environment, etc., which will be integrated into the daily enterprises of Muslims. Muslim personalities and characters will have to become an embodiment of such ideas and their entailed values. So will the elements of Islamic civilization become the unmistaken manifestations of the same.

This is perhaps one of the most formidable Islamic principles, extending into the domain of pure worship as well.

For example, a person is not to pray if he is devoid of the real concept, or idea, of prayer: what, how and why, of himself as prayer-performer, and of Almighty Allah as the One to Whom and for Whom prayer is performed. If, however, prayer is performed without those ideas onboard, or with their inappropriate substitutes, prayer may be categorized as defective and so, unaccepted.

Indeed, prayer – just like everything else in Islam – cannot be reduced to mere mechanical and unconscious movements, or to a meaningless ritual lacking any profound spiritual meaning and purpose.

The same goes to all other fundamentals of Islam: fasting, zakat, hajj (pilgrimage), dhikr (remembering Allah), reading the Quran, ethics, morality, etc.

Thus, when Islam is promoted, preached and taught, the first and perhaps most attention should be given to the world of ideas and values, that is, the Islamic worldview (iman or faith in its broadest sense).

For example, when teaching prayer, the most important thing to teach is the meaning and importance of prayer, the need for it, the concept of man (the one who needs to, and will, pray), the overall idea of life so that prayer becomes consistent with the rest of life activities, supporting them and, at the same time, benefiting from them, and finally, the idea of God, Who is the Object of prayer.

Asking a person to pray, without instilling the above ideas and meanings in his mind and heart first, will be a time-wasting exercise, for he will always ask – and understandably so — why exactly he should pray. He will see no purpose in it, nor will he feel that he needs to pray. Likewise, to him, there will be nobody or nothing transcendent to whose will and authority he will feel he should submit.