The importance of
independent thinking & grasping the culture
The following is a transcript of a
session delivered by a brother.
It is possible that sometimes there is
a deficiency in some of the Da’wah carriers. This weakness is in understanding
the culture and the way we study in the Halaqaat and also the general reading
and discussions, these results in problems in the Da’wah.
When the general culture level of the
Da’wah carriers becomes weak, it creates a number of problems and has dangerous
consequences.
When the Halaqat are not given in the
same level as originally intended by the pioneers of the Da’wah and when the
cultural level is weak, each resulting Halaqah will create a new halaqah of a
new generation of Da’wah carriers that are culturally weaker that its
predecessor, the thoughts and culture become watered down and diluted losing
the original pure taste of the concepts.
Although activity of the Da’wah is
essential, it is important to understand that our Da’wah is not
‘activity-driven’ rather it should be driven by a productive and independent
thinking based on a strong mentality and strong all-round culture.
Sometimes, we are extremely busy in
organising activities and doing a lot of running around. So we use our time in
organising events and programmes and then we often busy meeting people to
invite them to the events we organise. However, sometimes whilst we are
planning and organising these events, weather looking for venues or the like,
we do not question the objectives of the activity that we are busy organising.
So we become labourers for the Da’wah rather than carriers of the Da’wah. Where
we have no time to develop our thinking and deepen our cultural level.
As a result, the activities of Da’wah
would slow down after the energy our zeal depletes and we would have not achieved
results in the Da’wah.
Whereas, on the opposite hand, if we
build ourselves with deeper culture and strong independent thinking that we
strongly believe in rather than borrowing from others, this will build the
Da’wah carriers to be strong in their mentalities and result in more productive
activities that driven by concepts rather than enthusiasm and zeal.
This does not mean we incline to the
other extreme where we only think and culture ourselves without any result. So
on the other hand, there may be those who would be the first to criticise
styles even though they could see the apparent achievement of results from
them. This mentality would make the adherents of it comparable to the one who
continuously ponders about battle and reads the books of war but never engages
in the battle himself and is thus defeated by the enemy.
It would make us intellectuals rather
than Da’wah carriers, thinkers rather than politicians, the drive for the
Da’wah would slowly become eroded and the passion to rid the world of evil
would weaken.
We must realise that the issue of the
Da’wah is one of urgency and one that requires for us to move from sensing the
problems, thinking about the best solution for it in relation to the styles and
then to apply that solution. Even if that solution is not one that we can
definitely say is the purest or definitely the best out of hundreds of possible
styles.
However that style would be the best
one we could think of and one we can see affecting the reality which we face in
a positive way.
This does not mean that we leave
thinking, rather it means we think in deeply about achieving the result in the
best way without allowing that thought to continue for centuries before even
considering action.
In order for us to explain the
importance and significance of this subject, I shall start by asking you a few
questions:
What is the meaning of Revival without
answering intellectual elevation?
Someone may ask why are we not
concentrating all of our efforts Da’wah to non-Muslims? As they may argue that
RasulAllah’s (saw) method of establishing Dar al Islam in Makkan Era was by
converting people to Islam?
What is the meaning of Sunnah? Does it
mean we must follow the Prophet (saw) in the way we dress, the length of our
beards etc?
Sometimes we may not be able to answer
questions that we have never faced before for example; we say the Quran has
four possibilities of origin-Arab, Non-Arab, Mohammed (saw) or Allah (swt).
What if someone came and suggested that they be lived Shaytan is another
possibility and he wrote the Quran? How many of us would know how to answer
that?
If any of us are hesitant in answering
these questions, then this subject is absolutely vital for us to address.
In order to create a strong affect in
the Da’wah that will create change in people and not to fall into weakness. It
is important to understand the different types of thought and to build
independent thinking at least.
The types of thinking:
1. Dependent thought
2. Independent thought
3. Creative thought
Three types of thinking exist amongst
people: independent, creative and dependent. The Da’wah carrier must possess
independent thinking at least and the leaders should have creative thinking.
Dependent thinking is when people
imitate others thoughts and adopt them without questioning deeply.
Dependent thinking exists in the person
of low intellect who imitates others and mimics and borrows their thought. So a
dependent thinker would have no original thought but sheer dependency on the
one he has adopted from.
In reality the dependent thinker adopts
concepts on this basis rather than realising their truth and conformity with
the reality or the shari’ah texts.
This type of thinking becomes exposed
when the individual is confronted with questions or realities that necessitate
a reply or the application of the concept. When questioned by others on a
concept he has imitated, he often gets stuck not knowing what to say if
questions are slightly deeper or unexpected. In this case the dependent thinker
would be unable to answer questions related to the concept independently unless
he borrowed the answers from someone else.
If faced with a reality that required
the application of the concept he would be unable to apply it and would
inevitably resort to seeking assistance or attempt avoiding the issue.
In this situation, the individual will
adopt already-existing ideas established by others when faced with any case or
issue that requires any type of original thought or research. Whether in
political, legal or any other issues, such a person will turn to others to
provide him with the answers and after taking the answer or opinion from
others, he will defend and justify this opinion as if it was his own without
researching the related evidences, only because of his trust in the one who
established the opinion.
Can be in issues related to
understanding reality and text shari’ah matters.
So for example; the role of the mind,
Existence of Creator, proof of Qur’an or Shari’ah textual matters like method
of re-restablishing Khilafah, understanding of Usul (Ijtihad and Taqleed),
Qat’I and Dhan’i matters.
There are many consequences of having
dependent or borrowed thinking. These could be weakness in our discussions with
different sections of the Ummah – whether general people, Ulema, intellectuals,
students and people from other groups. The culture that we have gone through
and studied is acquired to a basic level that has no depth. This often leads to
some of us to get stuck in our arguments and this slows down the Da’wah, where
we may need to depend on others to discuss on our behalf.
Because of the imitation, dependency
and the lack of thinking and creativity, sometimes our thinking was reduced to
a personalized type of thinking that became connected with personalities and
not ideas.
Unfortunately, nowadays the idea
carries no value unless it is connected to a well-established or high-ranking
personality such as a Scholar or Intellectual and any existing research in this
case will focus on the person and not the thought so the discussion will
emphasize "Who said what" rather than "What is being
said". Any person who opposes the opinions of such personalities will
be attacked severely.
At the end, the individual will view
the correct idea as the idea that comes from a personality that he respects and
the wrong idea is the idea that comes from a person that he does not respect and
the only way to explain the fallacy of any idea in this context will be to
focus the discussion on the personalities.
Such an approach indicates the lack of
thinking among Muslims. When the Muslims had a high level of understanding,
they would evaluate the personalities based on the ideas they carried and not vice
versa. Ali (ra) used to say: "Recognize the truth first; then, you will
be able to recognize the people who adhere to the truth.”
So even amongst ourselves, we live in a
society that is dominated by imitating personalities and dependent thinking and
borrowing thoughts and concepts from people.
Therefore we must be careful not fall
into the trap, but break free from this in society and Da’wah. So we should not
accept everything just because it was written by this Sheikh or that Sheikh,
but rather we should try to question the ideas as much as possible, so we truly
become the master of the concept.
Therefore, the entire discussion should
focus on the issues and the ideas where the evidence and not a personality,
serves as the reference. Only through independent thinking and encouraging the
sound and original research can we break free of this imitation.
Independent thinking is adopting
concepts on their basis rather than adopting on the basis of trust in another
person culture or thought.
An Independent thinker is someone who
will not adopt a thought unless he questions it and debates it, then he adopts
it. Once he adopts it, he believes in his thought like he is the owner and
originator of the thought. So he will be confident to discuss and carry it,
debate it and be ready to apply his thoughts on multiple realities weather old
or new.
An independent thinker would not get
stuck often when he discusses with people in the Da’wah, whether the person who
he discusses with those who will challenge his thinking, whether the person is
a Sheikh, Alim, Ph.d, member of other group or lecturer and if he were to get
stuck or he comes across something new, the independent thinker would recognise
gaps in some aspects of his culture, after discussion, questioning, reading, he
would work to fill these gaps.
How does someone acquire and develop
Independent thinking?
A da’wah carrier who wishes to become
independent in his thinking would not be satisfied with just going to a weekly
Halaqah and listening to the mushrif for a few hours without questioning him
deeply in the concepts he discusses. Sometimes, we may understand what the
brother explains to us at the time, but as soon as the halaqah has ended we
would not be able to explain the concepts we discussed, so we have not digested
the culture and not adopted it independently.
The independent thinker would not stop
and be satisfied to move on to the next paragraph unless he understands the
idea like his own. Questioning until all possibilities are clarified in order
to make someone the owner of the thought rather borrowing the thought.
Practical steps that could be implemented
amongst the brothers in order to generate Da’wah carrier with Independent
thinking.
It is important that the Mushrifeen
push the Dariseen in their level of thinking. The Da’wah carriers should
question each other and the mode of doing an action or accepting a thought
because a senior brother says so should be dispelled. Rather, the Da’wah
carriers should engage in cultural discussions among themselves and debate
among each other to produce an atmosphere of culture and independent thinking
whether on intellectual, political or legislative matters.
Reading and studying, discussing and
self-scrutinising from sources such as the adopted books of the group you are
working with is essential. However, that is not enough to develop deep culture.
It is absolutely essential that the Da’wah carriers refer to other sources
including the general Islamic culture, such as the books of tafseer, ulum al
hadith, Usul, aqeedah etc. Also follow political matters as our Da’wah is
purely political and other such fields.
Thinking about possibilities to
challenge the concept which a da’wah carrier adopts to gain overall and complete
strength in what he carries.
Natural discussions with people in the
Da’wah, this will naturally push us to think independently and once we discuss,
if we feel our discussion is weak, we should try to go back stronger and alone
to challenge, not just to take someone who we believe can be better to discuss,
as long as this does not harm the Da’wah.
Question your mushrifeen as much as
possible until the concept becomes absolutely crystal and your understanding
has depth.
Questioning how and why is the way to
attain depth
It is absolutely essential that we
build our Aqliya strongly.
Aqliya is the fundamental basis were we
rewire all our thoughts to. This should only be one basis and that is the basis
of the Islamic Aqeedah, none of our thoughts should be rewired to a number of
bases, rather a single basis only.
For example, someone who believes that
Democracy should be a way forward or believes that there should exist
Nation-States, but also believes selling alcohol is Haram or praying 5 times a
day is Fard. This person is rewiring his thoughts on these matters to an
Islamic Basis on some matters and to other matters a non Islamic basis. He does
not possess the Islamic Aqliya, it is incorrect and contradictory to our deen.
Whereas the person who watches the news
and sees the occupation of Palestine and believes the solution is not peace
with Israel, but the establishment of an Islamic Khilafah and he believes that
Salah if Fard like Fasting and believe alcohol is forbidden and believe the way
Men and women come together is by contract of Nikah and all of his other
thoughts have a single basis and reference point, then this person has an
Islamic Aqliya.
Therefore we must possess an Islamic
Aqliya, thereby refering each and every single one of our thoughts to a single
basis-the Islamic Aqeeda and nothing more.
However, what we wish to address today
is the aspects of the Aqliya.
The Aqliya is one basis, which is the
Islamic Aqeedah and we as Islamic personalities do use any other basis to refer
our concepts back to.
However, from this Islamic ‘Aqliya, we
face many realities in our Da’wah and daily lives which requires us to use different
aspects of the Aqliya.
Aspects of the Aqliya – Intellectual,
legislative, political and structural – need to develop on all areas to be
all-round Da’wah carriers.
The intellectual aspect of the Aqliya
deals with matters related to ration aspect we face in the Da’wah and our
lives, like the deep thoughts of our culture, the definitions and applications
of these concepts in real life. Why people think in a certain way, why people
judge and hold certain ideas, why people behave in a certain manner and the
like. This is a critical aspect to have in our mentality.
The political aspect of the Aqliya is
used when we look at local, regional and international events and we conclude
and make analysis based on these events with the knowledge and previous
information we have gained from the culture to be able to deal with societal
and political problems in the world and give solutions for these and mould the
Ummah, so we look after their affairs. How would it be possible for the one who
wishes to take care of the affairs of the Ummah to not have a Political aspect
to his Islamic Aqliya?
The Legislative aspect of the mentality
is knowing the Ahkam Shari’ah on most matters we deal with whether they are
rituals, social, economic, political, judicial matters and to always refer to
the Shari’ah texts to conclude whether the action is Fard, Mandoob, Mubah,
makrooh or Haram. It also includes understanding the daleel and usuli
principles related to the ahkam. It is necessary for to convey the ahkam
together with the evidence especially for our adopted thoughts which are
necessary to revive the Ummah. Without having a legislative aspect in our
Islamic Aqliya, we would not be able to seek the pleasure of Allah without
being dependent on others to give their opinions on these legislative issues.
The Structural aspect of the
personality – is about Da’wah, which includes ourselves, the party or group we
are with and the work with the Ummah – it defines that we wish to progress in
the field of Da’wah with a clear objective with the desire to succeed for the
pleasure of Allah (swt), so we may not fail or become lazy or incompetent or to
be walking books and intellectual philosophers. This is the most important
aspect from all the aspects of the Islamic mentality as without the structural
aspect, there would be no goal, no objectives and no vision to create change in
the Ummah. Without the structural aspect of the Islamic aqliya, we could all
possess good ability to do political analysis or know definitions of concepts
and even to know all the details of Fiqh and its usul, tafseer and Ahadith, but
it would lead the Da’wah carrier nowhere as he would have no vision and
objective and he would just end up becoming a good writer, thinker, philosopher
or sheikh, but not a Da’wah carrier.
Therefore it is important that we as
Da’wah carriers, try our best to become all-rounder and develop strong aspects
to our Islamic Aqliya, become Independent thinkers and possess strong culture,
this would lead us to become valuable Da’wah carriers and to achieve better
results.
Abu Sa'd
al-Babari & Abu Ismael
