From Ideals and realities Of Islam by Syed Hossein Nasr

[Adeel Riaz]

"Islam asks what intelligence is and what its real nature is. The real nature of intelligence is ultimately to come to realize that La ilaha illaLlah, that is to come to know that in the end there is only one Absolute Reality. It is to realize the absolute nature of Allah and the relativity of all else that is other than He. Moreover, it is only this truth which the intelligence can know in an absolute sense.
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No god but God is the biggest truth a man can contemplate about and utter from his tongue.

 

[Adeel Riaz]

"What is the nature of the will? It is to be able to choose, to choose freely between two alternatives, between the Real and the unreal, between the True and the false, between the Absolute and the relative. Were man not to be free, religion would have no real meaning. Free will is necessary to the religious conception of man and this is as much true of Islam as of any other religion."

Free Will is choosing to bear that burden which even mountains refused to carry.

 

[Adeel Riaz]

WHY REVELATION IS NECESSARY?
"Without the aid of God man cannot discover by himself the way of salvation, the "Straight Path." Man needs revelation because, although a theomorphic being, he is by nature negligent and forgetful; he is by nature imperfect. Therefore, he needs to be reminded. Adam, the first man, was also the first of prophets. Prophecy is thus necessary for mankind and begins with the first man himself. As Adam needed prophecy so do all men who are his progeny. Man cannot alone uplift himself spiritually. He must be awake.ned from the dream of negligence by one who is already awake. Man is thus in need of a message from Heaven and must follow a revelation in order to realize the full potentiality of his being and have the obstacles which bar the correct functioning of his intelligence removed. Intelligence does lead to God provided it is wholesome and healthy (sal'tm ), and it is precisely revelation, this objective manifestation of the Intellect, that guarantees this wholesomeness and permits the intelligence to function correctly and not be impeded by the passions.
The most profound reason for the need of revelation is the presence of obstacles before the intelligence which prevent its correct functioning, or more directly, the fact that although man is made in the "image of God" and has a theomorphic being, he is always in the process of forgetting it.

 

[Adeel Riaz]

WHAT ISLAM ACTUALLY MEANS?
To accept the Divine covenant brings up the question of living according to the Divine Will. The very name of Islam is intimately connected with this cardinal idea. The root salama in Arabic, from which Islam is derived, has two meanings, one peace and the other surrender. He who surrenders himself to the Divine Will gains peace. The central idea of Islam is that on the basis of the use of intelligence, which discerns between the Absolute and the relative, one should come to surrender to the Will of the Absolute. This is the meaning of the term muslim: one who has accepted through free choice to conform his will to the Divine Will.