In the domain of moral upliftment and cultural progress...

In the domain of moral upliftment and cultural progress, Islam exhorts the human community to establish justice and forbids its members from infringing on the rights of each other, while at the same time encouraging them to expand their knowledge and intellectual endeavours with a view to the proper application of knowledge. Detailed Answer Our spirit, from the point of view that it is essentially immaterial, is free from matter and body and the properties of bodies.

The spirit of man has neither length, breadth, height nor depth, nor qualities such as heat, coldness, the six directions and the other attributes of bodies. The spirit is from the world of “command” (‘alam al-amr) and looks towards its own world. The beings of the realm of existence are either in the world of creation and matter or in the world of dominion (malakut) , command, and immateriality.

Above the world of bodies that contains temporal and mutable things, there is another world that contains beings that are not subject to change and do not exist in time. This is the world of command that envelopes, comprehends, and rules over and above the world of creation. Both the command and the creation belong to Allah (awj) as the Noble Qur`an has indicated: “Be aware that the creation and the command belong to Allah, who is High and is the Creator of the World.

”[^1] The descent of the sprit from the world of command to the world of creation means that the human soul is in a certain sense imprisoned in the lower world (dunya) . Yet, it is necessary for man to obtain his acquired perfections by means of this world and it is because of this that this world is considered the cultivation field for the next world. Looking at this world as if it were independent and by itself keeps man away from spiritual wayfaring and journeying to the next world.

It makes him forget about even the possibility of soaring free in the supernatural realms. If man persists in this myopia and grounded behaviour, he begins to think that he will be in this world forever. According to the words of Imam ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (ع), “He who looks at the world with insight, the world will give him wisdom and he who sews his eyes unto the world, the world blinds him.”[^2] The life of this world.

Allah (awj) has described the life of the world as follows: “Verily, the life of this world is sport and vanity.” [^3] Play or sport is an action whose goal is imaginary. Vain actions are those that that make man forget others.