Intelligence & Persistence

Moshe Feldenkrais's article, Awareness Through Movement fascinate me. It wrote "Animal instinct is phylogenetic learning, or the learning of the species; human learning is ontogenetic - i.e., it needs personal experience. In short, learning is to the human nervous system what instinct is to animals. Dogs, for instance, learn spontaneously all canine languages, and a Chinese dog can communicate with an American dog as well as with a Persian one. But a human nervous system “wired in” through personal, individual experience can speak only one language. The remaining two thousand or so tongues will remain forever foreign unless the individual engages in new learning."

The article reminds me of Zayd bin Tsabit, a 'sahabah' famously known as the personal 'writer' to prophet Muhammad s.aw. He hold the role of recording holy messages revealed to the prophet Muhammad s.a.w which were later compiled into Quran. It was reported the prophet s.a.w had asked him to learn Hebrew and Syriac languages when he was only 13 or so. Amazingly, he mastered both languages in 32 days! I am not sure if this is a reliable fact, but if this is true, Zayd bin Tsabit must posessed indisputable gift and skill. Intelligence and persistence. Neither which I have. ~"~

I remembered a lecturer once told us in his class, "You already earned 30% out of the total marks in this subject if you are gifted (I guess the 'gift' would refer to brain power), but if you are not blessed with this gift, work hard and practise, insya-Allah, you'll get 70% out of the total marks." Somehow this proved that a person needs both intelligence and persistence to become perfect in any field.

Nevertheless, I cannot deny that knowledge is a gift from God to His servants. "He giveth wisdom unto whom He will, and he unto whom wisdom is given, he truly hath received abundant good." (Al-Baqarah:269)