Thinking Skills: A Comparative Study/ By: Sultan Interino

Lesson: ONE

Main Topics/Issues/ Points

- The concept of Thinking
- Thinking Styles in Islamic and Western Perspectives
- The Importance of Thinking
- Barriers of Thinking
- Comprehensive Questions

Learning Outcome

By the end of this session, the student will be able to:
1) Identify the concept of Thinking and its important role in Ijtihad.
2) Realize that thinking helps the person to understand his relationship to Allah and other creations.
3) Understand factors that prevent person to think.

Discussions: Main Ideas

Concept of Thinking
• Think: means to exercise the mental faculties to form ideas to arrive at conclusions. Thinking: is the action of one who thinks or the result of such action (Neufeldt, Victoria. Webster’s New World Dictionary (New York: Prentice Hall, 1994).
• Tafakkur: is the Arabic term for thinking.
Al-Fayruzabadi defined al-fikr (tought) as reflection upon something. (Al-Fayruzabadi, al-Qamus al-Muhit (Beirut: Muassasat al-Risalah, 1996).
Al-Manzur says Tafakkur is the noun of Tafkir means pondering and contemplating.
Professor Malik Badri says Tafakkur is deeper and broader than Tafkir. Tafakkur bridges perceptions and conceptions from this life to the Hereafter and from creations to its Creators (I’tibar). Tafkir is confine to solving problems of our present life where emotions may not involve. (Al-Tafakkur min al-Mushahadah ila al-Shuhud (Herndon: IIIT publication, Va., 1993), p4).

Synonymous Qur’anic Terms of Thinking

1. Nazar (To consider):
See: (Yunus: 101)
2. Tabassur (Insight):
(Yusuf: 108)
3. Tadabbur (Pondering):
(Muhammad: 24)
4. Tafaqquh (To fully understand):
(Al-Ana ‘am: 65).
5. Tadhakkur (To bear in mind or to take into heart):
(Al-Baqarah: 221).
6. I’tibar (To learn, to take a lesson from the history of other nations and not to repeat the same faults they have done):
(al-‘Imran: 13).
7. Ta’aqqul (To use ones mind in the right way):
(Al-Hajj: 46).
8. Tawassum (To contemplate or reflect):
(Al-Hijr: 75)

Thinking Styles in Islamic and Western Perspectives

Thinking Styles in Islamic Perspectives
1. Inquisitive Thinking Style (Asking questions)
2. Objective Thinking Style (Means that expressing claims and judgments should be based on truth by giving proofs and evidences)
3. Positive Thinking Style (The Qur’an, in many verses, arguing believers not to loss hope in Allah.
4. Hypothetical Thinking (This style of thinking aims at increasing human intellect by exposing it to truth. There are verses telling us how Allah challenges the unbelievers. See: (Al-Tur: 35-36) See also (Yusuf: 26-27).
5. Rational Thinking (To think rationally about the creations and oneself in order to understand and affirm the existence of Allah, His oneness, His attributes and that He is the only one that deserves to be worshiped
6. Reflective/ Contemplative Thinking (Means to contemplate and reflect upon the message of the Qur’an. (See: Sad: 29).
7. Visual Thinking (The Qur’an tells us the story of what will happen in the Day of Judgment to visualize it in our mind that this fact will happen as Allah described. (Al-Hajj: 1-2).
8. Metaphorical Thinking (Metaphor is a device for seeing something in terms of something else). (Al-Zumar: 29).
9. Analogical Thinking (Can be in the way of comparing two things. In the Qur’an, Allah compares between Good words and bad ones for believers to analyze what is better for them. ((Ibrahim: 24-25).
10. Emotional Thinking (This thinking style can be found in many places in the Qur’an, where expression is used to touch the heart of the readers or listeners). (Al-Nisa: 27) See also (Al-Baqarah: 186).
11. Wishful Thinking (The Qur’an uses this style of thinking when describing other people who wish to live longer (i.e. Jews) more than others). (See: Al-Baqarah: 96).

Thinking Styles in Western Perspectives (De Bono's Six Hats)

White hat (Blank sheet): Information & reports, facts and figures (objective)
Red hat (Fire): Intuition, opinion & emotion, feelings (subjective)
Yellow hat (Sun): Praise, positive aspects, why it will work (objective)
Black hat (Judge's robe): Criticism, judgment, negative aspects, modus tollens (objective)
Green hat (Plant): Alternatives, new approaches & 'everything goes', idea generation & provocations (speculative/creative)
Blue hat (Sky): "Big Picture," "Conductor hat," "Meta hat," "thinking about thinking", overall process (overview)

The Importance of Thinking

Thinking is considered as “Ibadah” which mean worshiping to Allah. The person who thinks the creations around him/her appreciates and acknowledges the power of its Creator, the Almighty Allah with full of sincerity “Ikhlas”, good intention and good purposes; this will be rewarded by Allah. Abbas Al-‘Aqad, considers “Tafkir” or thinking as an Islamic obligation. (Bakkar, Abdul Karim: (Al-Tafkir Faridhatun Islamiyyah).
To overcome the challenges facing by the Ummah thinking is important, because there are sunan or divine principles, which govern the human life, which only through thinking could be explored and discovered.
Thinking or Ijtihad is also necessary for Islamic values to be put in practice, such as the following:
Shurah or Mutual Consultation:
Since life is becoming more complicated there is a great need now to think to improve and enhance the ways of implementing Shurah and to crystallize this great value in new organized forms in order to be relevant to contemporary issues.
The Unity of the Ummah:
The Ummah needs continues thinking and discussion on the causes of the existing Muslims disunity in order to avoid it. Also we should think about suitable frames of Unity which fit the complicated conditions that we are facing.
Helping the Needy:
Helping the needy is on of the great Islamic values, which is encouraged by the Qur’an and Sunnah. Allah says: (And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind) (Al-Ma’idah: 32). Because of the desire to get reward, this value lasted in practice in the Muslim society. But contemporary challenges such as wars, flood, earthquakes, drought, poverty… etc. necessitates more effective and organized efforts in order to overcome those challenges. Thinking is the keyword again.

Barriers of Thinking

There are many factors that hinder people from thinking. These hindrances may detain a person from thinking and seeing the truth. In this respect, it is important that everyone identify the factors that affect them negatively, and be rid of them. Otherwise, one cannot see the real face of the life of this world, and that might bring great loss in the hereafter. In the Qur’an, Allah tells us the situation of those people who are accustomed to think superficially: (They know an outward aspect of the life of this world but are heedless of the hereafter. Have they not reflected within themselves? Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except with truth and for a fixed term. Yet many people reject the meeting with their Lord) (Al-Rum: 7-8). These are some reasons that prevent thought:

1. Following the Majority Causes Mental Numbness:

According to Harun Yahya in his book “Deep Thinking”, one of the issues that mislead people most of their belief that what the “majority” does is right. Man is usually inclined to accept what he is taught by the people around him, rather finding the truth by thinking. (p.27).
In logic, this is called appeal to people which is considered a fallacy in reasoning. In Islam, Allah has denounced any attempt to hold a view only because others hold it as well. Allah says: (Meaning: And if you obey most of those on earth, they will mislead you far away from Allah’s path. They follow nothing but conjectures, and they do nothing but lie) (Al-An’Am: 116). The concept of Ijma’ (consensus) in Islamic Law is quite different from this blind adherence to what others believe in. Ijma’ is based on hard evidence from general understanding of the Qur’an and Sunnah which pushes considerable number of scholars to adopt the same view on the matter at hand.

2. Mental Indolence:

Mental indolence is another factor that keeps the majority of the people from thinking. Because of mental indolence, people do everything the way they have always seen and to which they are used. To give an example from our daily lives, the way housewives do the cleaning is just how they have seen their mothers do it. They generally do not think, “How could things be done in a cleaner and more practical way” nor try to find new methods of cleaning.

3. Conditioned Response that “Thinking Too Much is Not Good”:

There is convection prevalent in society that deep thought is not good. People warn one another saying “doesn’t think so much, you will lose your mind”. This is surely nothing but superstition invented by people who are remote from religion. People should not avoid thinking Harun Hahya argued.

4. Avoiding the Responsibility that Thinking Brings:

Most people think that they might be able to evade various responsibility by avoiding thinking and setting their brain to work on certain issues. By doing so in the world, they succeed in holding themselves aloof from many subjects. One of the greatest ways in which people are deceived, however, is in their supposition that they can escape their responsibility to their Lord by not thinking. This is the main reason according to Harun Yahya why people do not think about death and life after death. If man thinks, he adds, that he will die one day and remembers that there is an eternal life after death; he will necessarily have to strive strenuously for his life after death. Without thinking about the existence of the here hereafter is a great self-deception, and if a man does not attain truth in this world by thinking, he will understand, with death, that there is no escape for him. Allah says: (The stupor of death will come in truth. (And it is said unto him): That is what you were trying to evade! The trumpet is blown. That is the day of the threat) (Qaf: 19-20).

5. Shortage of Time:

Majority of the people spend their whole live in a “rush”. When they reach a certain age, they have to work and look after themselves and their families. They call this “the struggle of life” and complain that they have no time for anything as they have to rush around in this struggle. In this so-called “shortage of time”, thinking is one of the things for which they cannot spare any time. Therefore, they are swept away wherever the flow of their daily lives takes them. In this way of life, they become insensitive to events taking place around them. Finally this “shortage of time” hinder them thinking of their final destination, the Hereafter.

Comprehension Questions

1) Define the concept of Thinking.
2) What is the difference between Tafkir and Tafakkur?
3) Give at least five synonyms of thinking that used by the Qur’an.
4) Why thinking is important in Islam?
5) Why Yellow Hat Thinking is important to the leader?
6) Green Hat Thinking is said to be good for the researcher. Why? Give the Reason,
7) Why emotion can affect our thinking? Give the three reasons “under Red Hat Thinking”.
8) Do some Green Hat Thinking on: Creating a new television series.
9) What are some reasons prevent us from thinking? And why we need to get rid of them in our lives?
10) Give your comment on the importance if Ijtihad for the Ummah?

Selected Readings:

· Dr. Jamal Badi. Creative Thinking: An Islamic Perspective. Kuala Lumpur: Research Center, IIUM, 2nd Edit., 2005.
· Harun Yahya. Deep Thinking. U.K: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd, Fist Edition, 2000.
· Webster’s New Dictionary. 2nd College Edition, 1986.