The Purpose and Essence of Religion
📌 Most people follow religion without ever questioning its true purpose, often inheriting beliefs from parents or systems without true understanding.
💡 True religion is essential, not just as a path to salvation, but as a way to learn the proven survival strategies inherited from ancestors.
📜 Religion is a merger of intuitive divine teachings and pre-existing local traditions and culture; often the cultural overlay obscures the pure divine message.

The Goal of Religious Practice (Akhlaq)
🎯 Following the Prophet Muhammad's statement, the ultimate purpose of religion is to "glorify character" (memuliakan akhlak).
🔗 Many become trapped in rituals and symbols without connecting to the ultimate goal (good character), reducing practices to meaningless mechanical actions.
⛰️ A local definition describes religion as "basic training to forge oneself" to form propriety and refinement of conscience, culminating in praiseworthy character.

Personal Spiritual Inquiry and Growth
❓ The initial step toward knowing the self is to question the foundations of one's beliefs, distinguishing between genuine truth and mere concepts/dogma inherited from the environment.
✍️ Genuine inquiry is rooted in doubt and genuine curiosity (like a research question for a thesis), not in challenging others to test or humiliate them (which stems from ego).
🔑 Seek guidance from those who have personally experienced the divine (Maha’rifat), rather than those only speaking about the *concept* or *image* of the Divine.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Preserve the sanctity and eternity of your questions; do not rush to accept external answers, as they might be incomplete or lead to new questions.
➡️ The universe will provide answers to sincere questions through various avenues: people, books, or chance events (e.g., finding a relevant book while running an errand).
➡️ Education should prioritize Problem-Based Learning (PBL) over rote memorization, as life fundamentally requires problem-solving, not just recalling facts.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Nov 19, 2025, 08:53 UTC