Humans cannot live without a general ideal image, they either have one and strive to reach it or are looking for one and will not rest until they find it. In all societies and cultures people have ideal images that give them energy and enthusiasm. By ideal image I mean a perfect and flawless image. Some have an ideal image of religious figures or an ideal image of their country, city, tribe, race etc. The more the image is clear and pure the more a person becomes energetic and enthusiastic. That's why people often need to prevent whatever might disrupt their ideal image. And the more that image is narrow and defective the more it causes fanaticism and intolerance.

The ideal image is a primary emotional need that takes up much of our thinking, and from that need stems the need for the role model. The search for a role model is a search for someone who can provide us with the ideal image we are looking for.

One hole in that perfect ideal image, if not repaired, is enough to gradually spoil it. That's why defense is crucial in fanaticism in order to protect the perfection of the image. When someone finds a flaw in their ideal image, they'll start looking for another ideal image, and if they didn’t find one they'll build their own ideal image by assembling parts of different ideal images. This assembled image will make them weak because it contains contradictions.

This utterly perfect image covers all areas of life including material ones, making the person supposes perfection and excellence even in material objects that are shared by everyone. For instance, if someone is attracted and polarized toward a culture different than theirs, they'll view this culture as totally ideal, even their soil is better than theirs, their air is better, their language, their skin, their names, their farming tools, their art, their literature, their animals, their garbage, and everything in them, around them, above them and below them is better!        

This is a state of total polarization (extreme attraction), and there exists a state of partial polarization. Fanaticism and polarization happens only when the ideal image is formed in the person's mind and imagination. The ideal image causes the state of emotional and mental polarization. The polarized individual toward a society different that their own, be that society in the past or the present, is a clear representation of the effect of the ideal image that every human needs. They search for it motivated by the feeling that naturally seeks its creator and His perfect ideal path. The Quran said: " O man, you are striving unto your Lord and you will meet Him", every human is striving to God.  

That's why Plato wasn’t totally unrealistic, as materialists claim, when he spoke of utopia, he was motivated by a natural human need. Humans can't work except when they have an ideal image or when they're searching for one. A person who has two or more contradicting ideal images will be weak and shaky, while a person who has one ideal image will be strong, active and confident.        

Whenever you find enthusiasm and fanaticism be sure that there is an ideal image behind it, whether true or false, and whether it exists in reality or trying to make it a reality, what matters is that they view it as ideal. Idealism supplies people with energy and determination. Thus, we can call humans : "idealistic creatures" at least in terms of motivation. The reason behind over enthusiasm is concentrating on one ideal image. A fanatic to their ideology sees it as perfectly flawless, and also sees no perfection in other ideologies else they wouldn't be fanatic. However, who wobbles between several contradicting ideal images is weak, and the weakest of all is one who has no ideal image and can't create one, this may lead them to feel that life is absurd and even think of suicide.     

Having multiple ideal images is what causes the surprising total change in some people, like when someone who's been living a materialistic life suddenly shifts to a strong religious adherence. The reason is that the religious ideal image was pressuring them. We might also find a religious person who has an ideal image of the materialistic secular life, which might make them change suddenly from religious to secular or even atheistic lifestyle, due to the pressure of the secular ideal image they have.     

People who have a defective ideal image often resort to isolation, because interaction with people with different ideal images exposes the flaws in their partial ideal image. The ideal image is very sensitive to criticism, that's why they resort to isolation or even attempt to forcefully silence the different opinion. Criticizing the ideal image of someone is very painful to them, for when you make people question their ideal image you're now crushing their source of enthusiasm, hopes and zest for life.

However, we should always follow the truth. In fact, following the truth is part of true idealism, even we if had to sacrifice an image we're used to. All the ideal images that are based on isolation will be affected, for the world now is a small village. Hence, complete isolation is impossible. Only the true ideal image will stand, which respects all the human feelings. This true ideal image is God's straight path. The strongest ideal image is the one most open to criticism and welcomes questioning. It is the one that's capable of convincing both the mind and the feeling not one without the other, and that's what human-made ideologies don't have.       





  
      The human feeling strongly hates who tries to advocate virtue with vice, like who forcefully imposes virtue on others. The first requirement of virtue is that it has to be freely chosen. Who imposes virtue on others doesn’t give them a chance to choose good. The strong hatred we feel toward who forces virtue denotes that good should be practiced with our own free will. No good comes from good which comes through evil means, and crushing someone's free will is evil. The whole world glorifies the word "freedom" in a psychological reaction against coercion.    

Some people think that without coercion and authority people will all turn evil, and that's an illusion. There are two kinds of people: good and bad, not all them are evil.  Who advocates virtue and respects others' free choice will be more influential than who forcefully compels them. This proves the fact that fear from people becoming evil if not forced to be virtuous is a false idea inspired by the devil.     

Unlike what many people think, the more you recognize someone's free will the more are able influence them. That's why you can wish that God guides the person you're calling to God's path but you shouldn’t express that wish lest you pressure their freedom. Freedom is a huge responsibility, hence who feels free will realize that they're responsible for all their decisions even every word they say. And when a person feels this responsibility they will start relying on their own thinking .Your mind will not work unless it's in a free environment.

The human feeling struggles to live in a free environment in order for us to choose freely, because our feeling knows that God only accepts what we choose freely. That's why you will not feel satisfied with yourself until you freely choose to be good and surrender your life to God. The Quran addresses that idea in many verses, like : " There is no compulsion at all in religion", "For you is your religion, and for me is my religion", " will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?!", "can we force you to believe when you do not want to?!", " Say to them, "Everyone acts in his own way, and your Lord knows best who is rightly guided."".

God ordered His prophet to advise people and remind them of the truth in the best manner, He said in the Quran: "Call them to the path of your Lord with wisdom and words of good advice; and reason with them in the best way possible". God also said: " So remind; you are only a reminder, you are not a controller over them" and He said after that: " However, he who turns away and disbelieves, God will punish him the greatest punishment", God is the one who punishes them not us. The Quran's condemnation for coercing people to be virtuous proves that imposing virtue on who doesn't want it is a vice.  
        
We can't understand religion correctly without bearing in mind that it centers around a person's intentions and free choice, and that life is test of everyone's intentions which can only be made freely.    






    Understanding is based on correct bricks (concepts) which form our mental structure. The accurate and quick connection between concepts (bricks of understanding) is what what's called intelligence. The more accurate, inclusive, logical and quick we link between those concepts the more intelligent we become. Thus, everyone needs to know the correct concepts, like the concept of friendship, love, justice, religion, morality or any other concept. Agreement on concepts leads to amity and mutual understanding among people, people will not have mutual understanding if they have different concepts. 

A person's mind and creativity are formed after knowing the true and natural concepts not before them. The accuracy and strength of concepts is what gives the mind its strength and stability. We can clearly see the skill of a builder, for instance, when we give him good bricks and tools, only then we can see his accuracy and speed in his profession. This is the only way to be genius. Geniality isn't an extraordinary gift as many people say. 

Those immaterial concepts are far more important to humans than material things, a person might sacrifice his/her life for an idea. That's why one must have true and correct concepts and understanding, they are like the map that shows us the way.