Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
One Serious Fallacy
P
eople use reason extensively in their worldly matters. They think a lot and make thorough plans, but in the matter of religion they take a totally different path. Here, they think: let us go to some saint, ask him to pray for us, go to some dargah, visit some elder or holy man, count out some words on the rosary, or do some rituals; and then they imagine they will have discharged their religious obligations. But this is applying double standards and is wholly insubstantial. One is not going to benefit from any of these courses of action in any way.
The truth is that, just as a person uses his reason in worldly matters so also shall he have to use his reason in matters of religion. He shall have to be entirely logical, without which no one can be a religious person in the real sense or be held deserving of Paradise.
The process of becoming a religious person in the full sense is a conscious act. For every man and woman, it is necessary to discover religion at a conscious level. A person should make his religiosity a conscious matter rather than just ritual obeisance. He should make his religion a fundamental part of his mind and heart. He should make his religious life a life of awareness just as he has made his worldly life a conscious experience. There is absolutely no exception to this rule. The greatest things that God has given a human being are his reason and his awareness. Those who do not find religion at this level and do not adopt religion in this sense will be held to be irreligious in the eyes of God, whether or not they are religious at the ritual level, that is whether or not they perform all the necessary rituals. Religiosity is a conscious act rather than the observance of a set of rituals.