Beginning With the Basics: Perception

Assalamwalaikum,
Perception is the act of perceiving, which is defined by Dictionary.com, is; "1)To become aware of directly through any of the senses, especially sight or hearing. 2)To achieve understanding of; apprehend." (www.dictionary.com) Perception is a very key part of Islam, and I believe that it is something that some, if not the majority of people, overlook. From the two definitions given above, definition #1 is definitely applicapable to the context of Islam and perception, however I think that the main aspect of perception that I am going to focus on for this entry is definition #2. The understanding of our ideas, the way we classify reality, which for this topic we are dealing with our world view, and also the interaction between humans are some of the things that can be extremely tainted with and become negative if our perceptions of life aren't realistic and in focus. This topic is such a broad topic that has many subdivisions within itself...however, I was having a hard time deciding where to begin this blog. Okay...the most basic example/concept that I will start with is the question of why we were put on this earth. Some Christian doctorines of thought (I'm not sure if all Christians believe this, so please inform me about who it is that believes this, and please correct me if I am incorrect regarding anything) believe that all men are born sinners. It is known as the concept of original sin. The belief is that no matter who the child is born to, what religious affiliation his/her parents, regardless of any factor, all human beings are born sinners. They believe that the will of any and every human being is to be evil and wicked. Now whether this belief is right or wrong is not an issue that I am going to discuss. The fact of the matter is that your perceptions shape your actions. Whatever you percieve of something, that is exactly how you think of it in your mind, and that is what you are going to convey to others, and that is going to be shown through your actions. One huge part of perception in Islam is optimism versus pessimism, and this is something that I will cover in a different post insh'Allah. Anyways, the perception aspect leads me to refer to a verse from the Holy Qur'an. It goes "I (Allah) am whatever my slave thinks I am" (I'm really sorry I couldn't find the exact verse, if I can't find it I will remove...once again if someone knows the verse, please inform me and correct me if it is wrong). This is very profound, for the reason that many people eventually reject Allah (Astaghfirullah/Nauzhubillah) because of the plain and simple fact that they have incorrect perceptions of God and the world. For this reason, perception is an extremely important factor of life, and there very many different offshoots that I will cover insh'Allah.

Jazakullah-khairun--If I have said something wrong or offensive I ask forAllah's forgiveness...also please add input to these postings insh'Allah.

Assalamwalaium