Quran and the associative mind

This past week has been an eye opener for me. I am glad that I still find wonder in my mind at the creations of Allah, even as we pass through these bleak times of injustice and pain in the world. This past week Reagan died. That brought back a flood of memories for me of the first few years of my marriage. That's when he was president.

But what is more important in my thinking this past week has been the Memory Optimizer course that I started listening to in the car. This is absolutely fascinating course that triggers the memories and the creative thinking processes. According to this course and the more recent scientific studies upon which it is based, the mind is an incredible constructive and associative machine. All activities of the brain tend to trigger associative thoughts and ideas to other experiences in life. The richer and more actively we push our minds, in a very brain friendly way, the more creative we are and the easier recall we will have.

Among the tools that the course teaches is the Knowledge ABCs. In the process of learning about them I was struck by the beauty of the Quran and its construction and how the human mind is made to understand it. When you read through the Quran there are a lot of associative threads all over that you can refer from one section to the next. It helps in the recall of the Quran, since the human mind is constructed in a fashion to trigger this associative thinking.

What's more, is that when we strengthen our associative thinking and building of our biographical history, we will tend to have stronger minds into our old age. How many times have each of us heard that staunch readers and memorizers of the Quran possess very active minds into their advanced years?

Allah is merciful and forgiving. I thank Him for the bounties that abound in our lives, as grateful or not as we are. I thank Him for giving us these minds that wonder in amazement at His creations and for giving us the beautiful revelation of the Quran that encourages us to do precisely that, wonder in amazement and in the process build up our associative thinking skills. Even more, that we may want to use these skills for worldly gain, when He gives us these powerful capabilities for the gain of His pleasure and the attainment of Paradise.

لك الحمد يا الله على ما انعمت به علينا واوليت انت الغني ونحن الفقراء اليك