Yes - there is even Islamic “thinking”!

Bissmillaah. Wa-s solaatu wa-s salaamu ‘alaa rasoowl Allaahu. Wa b’ad:

This article reflects on the issues of thinking in Islam, knowledge in Islam, the sources of
knowledge in Islam and the nature of scholars in Islam. It is intended mainly for those
people who have doubts about trusting the scholars of Islam and prefer to use their own
thinking with which to worship Allah as a supposed safer option. It does, though, also
provide a useful reminder for the rest of us.

Can we really get things wrong?

This is a good place to start the discussion. Human nature being what it is, this is not
something we generally think about asking or are generally trained to ask. Humans
always seem to be led to thinking somehow that they always know best. For this reason,
humans make a great many mistakes and suffer a great deal as a result of not asking if
they have got things wrong, or misunderstood. I will not give any examples here of what
comes as a result of humans thinking they know best, as they are many and numerous,
and a quick glance into any newspaper or at a television news programme will probably
provide enough examples, for you to come to this conclusion on your own.

Allah says on this point:

“…and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it
may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows,
while you do not know…” 2:216

Here, Allah is saying that we may have the idea that something is good, but it might not
actually be good. But after everything, Allah will always know what is right for us. This
is an important point to make, as many people – even Muslims – get the idea that they
can somehow use their thinking to work out what is good and bad.

A good example of this is living in the modern age. Some people believe that we needed
the laws of Islam a long time ago, because people were barbaric and acted like animals,
but now, they say we are “more cultured” and don’t need these old laws any more: in fact,
the laws should be updated! The above-mentioned ayah shows this opinion to be a false
way of thinking. Note, the thinking behind this provides no evidence from Islam itself to
support its claim. The result of allowing such thinking is that Allah is effectively removed
from any affair we might require guidance on. This type of thinking is also declaring that
Allah is stupid (we seek protection with Allah from believing that). I am sure that
everyone agrees that forgetting our Creator in any situation is bound to lead us to
destruction. Even some of the thinkers, who think as we have just discussed may agree
with this. As we see, finally, in the verse above, the Creator (Allah) himself is telling us
that He knows and we do not know, and we should take heed of this.
Reflective practice

From a purely secular viewpoint, people have started to become aware that this problem
of people “thinking they know” can be curbed in some ways. Now, some university
courses have started to come complete with modules in “Reflective Practice”, which
enable students to reflect on their performance on a continual basis, to detect and correct
in problems with their ongoing practices in the field of their study.

This shows us that indeed, thinking about what we are doing is crucial for a successful
beginning, middle and ending in everything we do.

Is Islam, thinking is mentioned too – hence, the title of this article. Thinking in Islam, like
everything else, has its place. The following verse should demonstrate this:

“…Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their
sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our
Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain! Glory be to Thee; save us then
from the chastisement of the fire…” 3:191

“…Do they not then meditate on the Quran? And if it were from any
other than Allah, they would have found in it many a discrepancy…”
4:82

“…Then to eat of all the produce (of the earth), and find with skill the
spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink
of varying colours, wherein is healing for men: verily in this is a Sign for
those who give thought….” 16:69

“…Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled, (without

purpose)?…” 75:36

There is a pattern: the verse that mention the use of our faculty to think or reflect in a
positive sense, relate only to the signs of Allah and his creation, with the intent that this
thinking will lead a person towards recognising just who Allah is, and then being able to
effectively worship him, as a result of knowing him. There are no verses about thinking
which ask us to think what a certain verse of the Quran means or about how to make a
law, for example. It should also be stated here, that interestingly, there are many more
verses in the Quran that address the issue of negative thinking than address the issue
positive thinking, and the content in some cases, gives a thinker reason to be concerned
about their thinking. Make of note of the people with whom negative thinking is
associated and reflect whether you would like to be classed as being among those people
in this life and the next. The verses were selected at random:

“…The Hypocrites - they think they are over-reaching Allah, but He will
over-reach them: When they stand up to prayer, they stand without
 earnestness, to be seen of men, but little do they hold Allah in
remembrance…” 4:142

“…He it is Who enable you to traverse through land and sea; so that ye
even board ships;- they sail with them with a favourable wind, and they
rejoice thereat; then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to
them from all sides, and they think they are being overwhelmed: they
cry unto Allah, sincerely offering (their) duty unto Him saying, ‘If thou
dost deliver us from this, we shall truly show our gratitude!’…" 10:22

“…Those who brought forward the lie [of accusing Aisha, the mother of
the believers of adultery] are a body among yourselves: think it not to
be an evil to you; On the contrary it is good for you: to every man
among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned, and
to him who took on himself the lead among them, will be a penalty
grievous…” 24:11

“…Pharaoh said: ‘O Chiefs! No god do I know for you but myself:

therefore, O Haman! Light me a (kiln to bake bricks) out of clay, and
build me a lofty palace, that I may mount up to the god of Moses: but
as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!..’" 28:38

Which leads us to another point: thinking can be flawed. Thinking is only a human
quality; however, Allah, as we know, is not like us and does not think – he knows.
Thinking implies that there is a point where we do not have any opinions about
something and we have to go through a process to arrive at some ideas, based on ideas or
information we already have. Let us say that Allah has always known everything and
therefore does not need to go through any processes to arrive at conclusions about how to
do a particular thing, because he already knows how to do everything (befitting his
Majesty, of course) perfectly. This brings us neatly onto the next subject:

What is the source of “knowing” in Islam?

Allah says:

“…Have knowledge that there is nothing worthy of worship except

Allah, then ask forgiveness for your sins…” 47:19

So, here, the very first command from Allah is for us to have knowledge. For example,
Allah didn’t say, “think” or “feel” – he said, “know!”. The only way to “know” in Islam
is through the Quran and whatever that directs us to.

Allah says:

“…This Quran is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on

the contrary it is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and
 a fuller explanation of the Book - wherein there is no doubt - from the
Lord of the worlds…” 10:37

The Quran is the first source of information we have from Allah. It is, therefore, the only
way of knowing anything about what Allah orders us to do or not to do. What we have be
sure of is the perfection of the Quran: is it what it says it is, i.e. free from contradictions,
errors and other mistakes?

Is the Quran 100% the word of Allah?

We have to take all of Allah’s orders from the Quran, so we must be sure it is 100% from
Allah. How do we know this for sure? Perhaps someone could have written it or changed
parts of it. But - no. Allah says:

“…Indeed, we have revealed the Quran and it is we who are going to

protect it…”

Allah also sets us many challenges in the Quran, to prove to us that it is in fact 100%
:from Him. I will give one example here, which is

“…And if you are in doubt as to that which We have revealed to Our

servant, then produce a chapter like it and call on your witnesses
besides Allah if you are truthful…” 2:23

To this day, nobody has been able to produce anything like even a single verse of the
Quran! So, we can be sure from this that the Quran we have today is definitely the Quran
that was given to our messenger over 1,400 years ago. It has not changed at all, unlike
any other publication produced before or at the same time (for example, another holy
scripture): all have undergone changes or some sort or another, but not the Quran! Dot-
for-dot, letter for letter, the Quran has remained unchanged for over fourteen centuries,
and is memorized the world over by millions of people every year, who do not, in many
cases understand the meaning of the Quran.

There are other verses placed throughout the Quran, which were revealed to challenge the
various people at the time of the prophet Muhammad who doubted the origin of the
Quran. These verses form a series, starting from asking questioners to produce the like of
the whole Quran, to ten chapters, to one chapter (shown above), to ten verses, to finally,
just one single verse! Note, that the shortest verse in the Quran is only five letters long!
But from those five letters upwards, the Quran has remained unchanged in any way for
over fourteen centuries. This is a miracle. Here are the other verses:

“…Let them then produce a Quran like unto it,- If (it be) they speak the
truth!…” 52:34
 “…Or, do they say: He has forged it. Say: Then bring ten forged
chapters like it and call upon whom you can besides Allah, if you are
truthful…” 11:13

“…And if you are in doubt as to that which We have revealed to Our

servant, then produce a chapter like it and call on your witnesses
besides Allah if you are truthful…” 2:23

Chilling warning

“…And who is more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah, or
says: It has been revealed to me; while nothing has been revealed to
him, and he who says: I can reveal the like of what Allah has revealed?
And if you had seen when the unjust shall be in the agonies of death
and the angels shall spread forth their hands: Give up your souls; today
shall you be recompensed with an ignominious chastisement because
you spoke against Allah other than the truth and (because) you showed
pride against His communications…” 6:93

From this verse, we learn of the terrible fate of chastisement that awaits someone who
claims that they know what Allah knows. In the context of the verse, the verse is actually
talking about revelation of verses. But the actual meanings of the Quran were revealed to
the Prophet Muhammad also:

“…With clear arguments and scriptures; and We have revealed to you

the Reminder that you may make clear to men what has been revealed
to them, and that haply they may reflect…” 16:44

So, by extension, this verse, also refers to a person who claims he knows what a verse
means, without having checked with the prophet as to its meaning. We learn from this
verse that it is not permissible for anyone – apart from the prophet to try to explain any
verse, even if that meaning were to be lost. We are also reminded that the prophet is the
first point of call for understanding, meaning, until you have consulted with him, you
cannot say you understand what any verse in the Quran means. Until you have asked the
prophet about any verse, you are in a position of ignorance, regardless of whether or not,
the meaning of a verse appears clear to you. And we find that with the last point, there are
a great many number of verses whose meaning appears to be clear, yet, when we look
into the explanation given by the prophet of those verses, it is as if we had not known at
all what those verses meant.

Now, there are many people today who claim that we can no longer trust the ahadith
collected from the prophet, down through the centuries, as they were remembered and
collected by men, who, by their nature, are prone to corruption. As this essay is not
directed towards the science of ahadith collection, we will mention a few points here,
which should clear this issue.
The first point is that Allah says:

“…And We did not send before you any but men to whom We sent
revelation-- so ask the followers of the Reminder if you do not know…”
16:43

So, here we are being told that if you do not understand what the Quran means (which is
clear, from what has just been mentioned above, on the subject of being in always being
in an original state of ignorance, when approaching any verse of the Quran for the first
time), go and ask the “followers” of the scripture. The verse here is talking about the
previous scriptures (e.g. the Torah, the Gospel), but the verse can also be applied to the
Quran. The principle “followers” will always be the prophets and then those who first
received the meanings from the prophets (i.e. the scholars), and so on, as the message is
disseminated down to the people. In other translations, the words “people of knowledge”
are sometimes used. The original text reads, “ahla-th thikr” (i.e. “The People of the
Reminder”), which means the rabbis and priests and such like.

The principle that we take from this verse is that we are ordered by Allah to take the
understanding of the verses of the Quran entirely from the scholars. So, it is not for any
person today to claim that because the scholars are corrupt (according to a word without
any evidence, and completely generally for all the scholars) that I will now interpret the
Quran myself. No – the scholars must always be consulted as to the meanings of the
verses of the Quran, as Allah did not lay any condition of how “corrupt” we considered
them to be as a criterion for deciding whether or not to go to a scholar and ask them for
advice. In fact, this verse is a general proof that scholars by definition are not corrupt, for
if they were, Allah would not have advised us to ask them for advice regarding the
meanings of the Quran.

A story from the Quran about thinking

Chapter 18 (Soowrat-ul Kahf – The chapter of the cave) of the Quran contains several
short stories, each of which has its own moral to tell. The Prophet Muhammad
encouraged us to read the whole chapter, each and every Friday, as it would provide a
light for us between that Friday and the next Friday. Of particular interest to this article is
the that story in the chapter about two individuals, of whom, at least was a prophet (some
believe that both were prophets, but that is not the issue we wish to make here. For the
purposes of this article, we will assume that only one was a prophet).

So, the story starts before the prophet meets the other significant person in the story. This
prophet’s people ask him, “Who is the most knowledgeable?” to which the prophet
replies, “I am”. As soon as he says that, Allah reminds him that he should have said that
Allah is the Most Knowledgeable.
Then Allah tells that prophet to go on a journey and when such-and-such thing happens,
there he will meet a man who knows things which Allah has taught the man, but which
the prophet does not know.

When the prophet meets the other man, the prophet is eager to travel with the man and
learn the things that Allah has taught to the man. The man, however replies, “You will not
be able to remain patient with me, because how can you remain patient about something
that you don’t know about?” Anyway, the prophet says that, indeed, he will be able to
remain patient with the man. So the man says, “Okay – but don’t ask me about anything
that I do, until I myself tell you why I have done it.”

So, the man does three things which the prophet thinks are either terrible or an injustice.
Each time, the man explains, “I told you – you would not be able to remain patient with
me”, and each time, (ending with the third outburst from the prophet), the man replies
with the same reply. On the third occasion of the prophet being shocked at the behaviour
of the man, the man explains why he did each of the three things, and then the two part
ways.

The prophet in the story is our Prophet Moses, while the man, as you may know is called
“Khidr” (whom, some people believe was also a prophet).

As we have said, each short story in Soowratu-l Kahf has a moral attached to it. As the
final scene of the story, which has just related, draws to a close, the moral arrives to
complete the final act.

What moral lessons do we learn from the story? There are many, but here are the main
ones, selected for purposes of ending this article.

Firstly, we learn that the people look to the prophets to provide them with guidance; in
the story, the people ask the prophet who is the most knowledgeable. Secondly, we learn
that men –prophets included – do not have absolute knowledge. Thirdly, we learn that
Allah is the one who knows everything and teaches us what we know. Fourthly, we learn
that a quality of people is their tendency to use their knowledge in matters where they
have been expressly been told not to use them: people do use their limited understanding
beyond its scope to explain – rightly or wrongly – to explain things, with the result that
they are not always right.

From all that has been presented here, it should be clear now that thinking is a gift which
Allah has given us to draw us closer to him, by reflecting on his signs in the heavens and
on the Earth. Thinking is often used as a replacement for thinking – when we do not
know the answer to something – because knowledge is important to use for our well
being and we generally need good results quickly in life, to solve the constant
emergencies created for us.

We have also learnt that we can only get knowledge from “the people who know”, which
for us is the scholars and that using our thinking as a replacement for the scholars will
only allow us to depart from Allah and travel into the Fire. With this, and having proven a
valid point, I will end here with the translation of the meanings of yet another verse from
the Quran:

“…If ye invoke them, they will not listen to your call, and if they were
to listen, they cannot answer your (prayer). On the Day of Judgment
they will reject your "Partnership". And none, (O man!) can tell thee
(the Truth) like the One Who is acquainted with all things…” 35:14