- What is Outer/external life?
What is Inner/internal life?
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Outer life and Inner life
Outer life and Inner life:
From the perspective of Islamic religion, life flows in two external and internal dimensions. In the external life, man breathes through his physical powers, with the tools of the five senses, the function of his internal and external organs, and continues to live an animal life. But in the inner life, it is not a sign of internal and external organs, but the inner life is attributed to the spiritual dimension of man. In fact, the signs of inner life are different from outer life.
In the Holy Qur'an, God Almighty has mentioned the external and internal life and refers to the internal life as the good life: “Whoever does a good deed, whether he is a man or a woman, while he is a believer, he will surely be blessed with good life. We will forgive and reward them according to the best deeds they used to do”.[1]
Two positive and negative things can be obtained from the content of the holy verse of the Qur'an:
Positive content: True life is formed in the human body if there are continuous righteous deeds and the realization of true faith. In this case, a person transcends the dimensions of limited material life, obtains the inner life and understands the facts.
Negative content: In case of not doing righteous deeds and committing harams, man will be far away from his existential nature and will stop understanding the facts. From the point of view of the Holy Qur'an, such a person, although he has eyes, ears, heart and language, but he is deprived of the eyes of the heart with which he can understand the facts. As God Almighty says in the Holy Quran: “Certainly, We created a large group of jinn and humans for Hell; they have hearts [intellects] with which they do not think, and they do not understand; and eyes with which they do not see; and ears with which they do not hear it; they are like cattle; rather, they are heedless because they have the opportunity to be guided and do not benefit from it.”[2]
In order to understand the good life and in other words, the real life, you should go beyond the limits of physicality, not be satisfied with the physical powers and the limits of matter. You must close the eyes of the material things, so that in the context of practicing the rules of Islam and divine piety, the eyes of the heart will be opened, and the believing man benefit spiritually.
[1] Quran [16–97]
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
[2] Quran [7–179]
وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيرًا مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ ۖ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْغَافِلُونَ