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Knowledge and Muslim Masculinity…

The key to completing Muslim Masculinity is having the knowledge of self. The Prophet (s) said that "No man knows himself better than he does." The next level of knowledge is having the knowledge to some degree of the tangible and physical created things. The next level of knowledge is when there is knowledge of the metaphysical and the unseen created things, which brings you to the last level of knowledge which is the knowledge of God, Allah, who created and defined masculinity for all men on earth.

I have recently become spritually infatuated with the Quran. You ever had a taste for something, and on top of having the taste for a certain thing, you were also hungry? The different thing about the Quran and myself is that even when I get a taste of it, the thirst and hunger are not quenched. There is something that I am not getting enough of. I wonder if in this life, I will ever experience that. For now, I do not know the answer. This is where the knowledge of the self is essential. There are things that we experience in life within ourselves that we do not have the knowledge to classify, interpret, or categorize.

For example, if I had little to no knowledge about the effects of the Quran on myself both on a (meta)physical level, then I would classify this sensation that is experieinced as something completely different than what the reality is. What sensation do I speak of? There is a feeling of anxiety, anguish, tension, physical lethargy, and sometimes slight headaches when I do not recite the Quran or read from the book. These sensations (I have found through knowledge) are rectified when I read the Quran and pray.

If there was no knowledge or what is worse such as inaccurate knowledge, then different and usually detrimental actions would be taken towards ridding undesirable sensations. The scary thing about corrupt knowledge is that there are usually excuses about why a certain path towards development does not work, which sends one deeper down a path of inaccuracies.

This is why principles are the hallmark of the initial path to Muslim Masculinity. Principles are doorways that Allah gives towards knowledge of the self. Allah, God possesses the manual for making the greatest product in creation, the Human Being, work effectively and as intended. Those principles are laid out so that we are aware of our souls and ourselves. The best thing about the principle knowledge of self is the universality and flexibility. The constructs are universal, yet the application and context differ on an infinite spectrum while still maintaining the intial contructs of "Respect women", "Guard your chastity", "Be the best to your families." These are basic objective principles, yet can be applied in an infinite amount of ways, which shows the beauty of God, the beauty of his system or principles, Islam. Thus, this can show us the potential of beauty in makind when the principles are followed. This opens doorways to know ourselves and then we begin to feel and experience what we need to in order to further develop our Muslim Masculinity into the next phase.... Fortitude.

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