In the present book entitled The Man Islam Builds, the author Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that the man Islam aims to build is one in whom a two-fold activity is set in motion, one form of activity being internal and the other external. On the one hand, there is a strengthening of the moral fibre by which his personality assumes its permanent shape, and on the other, there is a broadening of his intellectual horizons.
Islam brings man the realization that God Almighty is omnipresent and omniscient and for all his words and deeds, he is accountable before Him after death. Therefore, by his own inner compulsion, the believer becomes a man of character. For him it becomes impossible to be immoral or unjust or dishonest in his conduct to his fellow men.
The external factor which stimulates this kind of intellectual activity from the Islamic perspective is dawah work. The Quran states: “And thus We made you an intermediary nation …” (2:143). As per the Quran, Muslims are intermediary between the Prophet and the nations of the world. It is their essential duty to receive the divine message of the Prophet and convey it to the rest of humanity. Dawah work is supreme intellectual effort which stretches to the utmost the mental capacity of the human being, leading to intellectual development.
