Striving in the path of Allah

We as Muslims believe in dogma. But ours is a strange believe unlike any other religion. We do believe but what we are really taught in the Holy Qur'an is a belief solidly based on revelation supplemented by faculties of sense and reason. Most other religions base their belief on blind faith only.
In Qur'an chapter 3 verse 190 Allah says:

اِنَّ فِیۡ خَلۡقِ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ وَ اخۡتِلَافِ الَّیۡلِ وَ النَّہَارِ لَاٰیٰتٍ لِّاُولِی الۡاَلۡبَابِ

 "Surely, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for the people of wisdom"

Similarly in Chapter 88 of the Holy Qur'an:

اَفَلَا یَنۡظُرُوۡنَ اِلَی الۡاِبِلِ کَیۡفَ خُلِقَتۡ0 وَ اِلَی السَّمَآءِ کَیۡفَ رُفِعَتۡ 0وَ اِلَی الۡجِبَالِ کَیۡفَ نُصِبَتۡ 0وَ اِلَی الۡاَرۡضِ کَیۡفَ سُطِحَتۡ 0فَذَکِّرۡ ۟ؕ اِنَّمَاۤ اَنۡتَ مُذَکِّرٌ

  "So, do they not look at the camels how they are created,and at the sky, how it is raised high,and at the mountains, how they are installed,and at the earth, how it is spread out?So, (O Prophet,) keep on preaching; you are only a preacher."

 And there are many many other verses in the Holy Qur'an asking mankind to think,to see and to hear what is inside and around them.

" In the earth, there are signs for those who (seek truth to) believe,And in the heavens, there is your sustenance and all that you have been promised.So, by the Lord of the heavens and the earth, it is a reality, as sure as the fact that you (can) speak"(51,20-23)

What Qur'an teaches us is the reasoning that leads to divine knowledge and to Allah in the guidance of Qur'an and Hadith.Allah asks us to see this world with wonder as His creation and to find His reflection in His own creation.

But the path from the realms of sense and reason to Allah is full of danger and peril. Many who seek this path are lost and perished and many return more disoriented then before and with a weakened belief. Allah says:

 "By this Qur'an He lets many go astray and many find guidance. But He does not let anyone go astray thereby except those who are transgressors"(2,26)

The most common mistake that people make in seeking Allah is their uncompromising belief in reason which stops them from going beyond a certain point. There is no doubt that Qur'an teaches us to think and to reason but there are many things of vital importance that are part of faith and must be believed in uncompromisingly without any reason. This is not to say that we are encouraged to believe in things blindly. What we are taught is that many important things in our faith are above reason. Reason cannot comprehend and reach them. Allah says in Qur'an:

"Believers are those who believe in the unseen"(2,3)

Allah,angels,judgement day and fate etc. are the unseen which are to be believed. What we need here is Love. A strong attraction towards the divine. You can call it a spiritual feeling, a feeling unlike any other that man experience in his whole life. It cannot be described. It can be just felt.

But the question arises that love is not something like reason inherent in our mental makeup. It is related to our hearts and comes and goes uninvited. No doubt, it comes and goes uninvited but there are some acts which attract this 'Love'. When you live your life according to the norms of shariah(Way of the Prophet[SAW]),when you keep wondering and thinking about Allah and His creations and when you constantly make du'a to Allah for guidance Love may open its arms for you and embrace you.

Some people may ask why this hard and long striving for a thing you already know? Why this difficult journey? Why not just blindly believe and be done with it?

In order to live this life in a real way as a Muslim we have to open our minds for knowledge.We have to open ourselves to questions. We have to seek true and justified answers. We have to purge and clean all the doubts roaming in our hearts. We can not achieve all this by blind belief. We cannot taste the true sweetness of faith by blind belief.So we need to strive and we need to find the truth to be a better Muslims.