Importance of Worldview in Shaping One’s Life
If we do not know who is knocking on the door in the middle of night, we would not open the door. If we do not know what the weather is like in a city we are going to visit, we would not know what kind of clothes we should take. When invited to a party, we should know what kind of party it is so that we can decide what kind of clothes to wear. That is the same with the world. Our worldview affects how we behave and what choices we make.
So our actions are based on our worldview and our worldview originates from how we recognize the world. Humans differ from animals in having cognition. In many verses of the Quran, God invites people to gain cognition and contemplate and criticizes those who do not reflect.
God has ordered us not to follow what we have no knowledge about: “Do not follow what you do not know.” (Surah Al-Isra, Verse 36)
About the importance of cognition, Imam Ali (AS) tells Kumayl: “O Kumayl, you need knowledge in every movement you may make.”
Cognition and knowledge make what we do valuable. In Islam. The level of value attached to what we do depends on our cognition. The more knowledge we have about what we do, the more valuable it is.
The Quran and Hadiths encourage people to gain cognition about God, prophets, Imams, the world, and the religion.
In supplications, we ask God to help us know Him, His prophet and His Wali. Otherwise, we would go astray: “O, God, make known to me yourself, if you don’t make yourself known to me, I won’t get to know your prophet. O, God, make known your prophet to me if you don’t make your prophet known to me I won’t get to know your Imams. O, God, make your Imams known to me, if you don’t make your Imams known to me, I will deviate and thus go astray from my religion.”
There is a Hadith narrated from the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that says anyone who dies without knowing the Imam of the time has died a death of jahiliyah.
