The “Whole Picture” & “Thinking Differently”

Please allow me to illustrate what I understand by the “whole picture” with the help of two simple examples. A Masjid and a Temple are not the same when they are complete and become “the whole”. In parts, however, there is no difference between the two. The materials used in building the two structures are exactly the same. Even the Cross does not have a material which is essentially different from the Crescent. However, when both the structures – Masjid and Temple – are complete then they assume an extra property / quality which if you again break them into bits and pieces you will not find.

All of us use a language. The letters and words are the same – for all of us. But when we put them together in a certain order then they mean something more. For instance, a ‘word’ means lafz in Urdu. But when you break these four letters – w, o, r & d – then they don’t mean anything. To take this analogy further, I would say that the words don’t mean anything. In fact, the sentences do. The sentences do not mean either. But the paragraph does, in fact. The paragraphs do not mean except in the context of the whole chapter and the entire book, in reality. The book, too, has to be looked at in the overall context of society and humanity.

The same analogy applies to the problems of Muslims. We do not look at the problems of Muslims in its totality. Consequently we don’t see that extra property. Hence, we do not know what our actual problem is and are not able to identify it in a manner that we could see a common link in all our ills and evils. This is why while the prescriptions are plenty the dis-ease persists. We need to consciously make efforts to reach to the heart of our problems – piercing the symptoms – in order to be able to diagnose the solutions.

When some of us say that if we follow Islam everything will be fine, I both agree and disagree with them. I agree because it is the truth. I disagree because this statement is devoid of understanding, relating and applying. It is a statement that is being repeated because this is how it has been heard from the previous generations. It is not the result of one’s own (re)discovery. People don’t question such sentences for obvious reasons.

The problem of the Muslims, however, remains despite the fact that the Muslims are quite observing people as regards the rituals and many other duties enjoined by their Faith. We persist in the same situation because we do not try to see the link between one problem and another and we do not have an answer to the following question: What are we supposed to perform on this earth in this ordinary world – neither beneath it nor above the heaves?

If we ask the above question to ten different persons we will get ten different answers after they all have fumbled. If this is the case then it is obvious that we are NOT heading in ONE direction and we are not making any progress in any respect. Imagine, however, if only five among ten responded with the same answer! It will mean a lot. It will mean that we are heading in a clearly defined direction and we will, hopefully, reach somewhere. And that ‘somewhere’ may not be that far with the clear idea of the destination in the minds of so many.

A deliberation on the need for the ‘whole picture’ is aimed at finding the above desired direction. It is aimed at finding a way forward – utilizing our energies and resources to the optimum level. For the same reason that the Companies devise a vision and align everything accordingly as a precondition of getting the best results. Because of not having the whole picture, we don’t know what to do and how – that clearly. Because of the partial picture while we have an uncountable number of emails, websites and PowerPoint presentations on Ramadan we will forget all of these on the day of ‘Eid al-Fitr.

Because of the partial picture none of the aspects of our collective life are aligned. And we hardly notice it – as we are mired into the details. The details have become a barrier to knwoledge. (I am thankful to Allah the Almighty for not being an expert on ‘minority affairs’.) Because of the partial picture we have numberless people going for ‘Umrah and Hajj and we still don’t ask them what they bring back except Zam Zam water and dates (as lamented by Iqbal). Having mentioned Iqbal I would again argue that let us take dynamism from him and direction from Sir Syed. Both of them are our legacy and both of them make a deadly combination. Both of them converge on the following VISION:

“The students coming out of our Universities should have Qur’an in the right hand, most modern scientific and technological advancements in the left hand and the crown of Laa Ilaah on the forehead. So that the Muslims regain the same glorious status of founders and promoters of science and technology as they did during the ascendance of their civilization.”

Because of not worrying about the “whole picture” we run into self-contradictory situations quite often. We do not take care of any link between our earlier posts and the current ones. It happened to me the day before. I was sitting with a scholar who is the khateeb of a Masjid. We were discussing whether Islam emphasizes more on quality or on quantity. He asserted that it stresses on quality. Then I asked him about the reward of tafakkur in Ramadan and whether it also increases as does the thawaab of all other ‘ibaadaat. He suggested that yes it does. Later I asked him if he ever talked about this ‘ibaadah, too, during his khutbah. He said that he never did and if he does then many will not come to listen to his khutbah. I reminded him that Islam stresses more on quality and less on quantity as he himself stressed a while ago.

Because of not worrying about the whole picture someone among us says: “The need of the hour is to do rather than think. We have already too many people thinking too many things creating a mess. The best way to instigate a “Scientific temper in Muslim Community” is educate Muslims with the right kind of education. So let’s do it” and the same person at another point of time writes: “We need to think in long term. We need to think about the future of the AMU and the Muslim community. It has been discussed time and again that Muslims in our age are lagging far behind others in terms of original contribution (scientific, technological, industrial, etc). How can we bridge this gap? The answer is: through good quality research and innovation by Muslims”.

Thinking differently is the crux and origin of all development that we have noticed and benefited from in the human civilization so far. It unleashes the human potential. Thinking differently is the essence of Qur’an. Qur’an with its emphasis on three sources of knowledge i) the man himself (aayaat al-anfus), ii) the universe (aayaat al-aafaaq - Fussilat, 41: 53) and iii) the ‘Days of Allah’ i.e. history (Ibraaheem, 14: 5) invited the people to think about their environment differently. Imbibing this spirit of Qur’an the Muslims made significant progress in the field of knowledge. The simple observations of Qur’an about time and light, for example, were taken in the right earnest and our earlier scholars researched on the nature of time and light. The fact that the Prophet of Islam said that “for every disease there is a cure” prompted research and the Muslims, benefiting from the Greek fund of knowledge, developed Greco-Arab medicine.

How could we become founders of new sciences and contribute our maximum to the human civilization without reaching out to the unknown and thinking differently? How could we reach out to the unknown without being creative about it? I would submit that if I am asked to explain what “creatively reaching out to the unknown” is then something is gravely mistaken or missing here. To ask anyone to explain about this proposition proves that we are in a habit of requiring readymade answers and even ‘creative’ is mechanical for us. Even the ‘unknown’ is not exciting to us anymore. And the fact that it is, too, a matter-of-fact for us. It shows a disease at a much deeper level – a level which we are not quite aware of.

How could anyone explain and describe in advance that observing the falling apple will lead to some great things? If we are able to do so then it is mechanical and not creative. There will always be an element of ‘unheard of’ and unconventional about creative. Also, everyone’s creative may be different. This is the whole purpose, in fact. Because we want to give full expression to the individuality and uniqueness of individuals. We want them to exist. We want them to think ‘out of the box’ – as they say. What is their ‘out of the box’ we don’t know. And cannot know –probably. We should know our ‘out of the box’, though.

If I am able to write about the “unknown” then it is anything except “unknown”. Again in asking for this explanation there is a deep desire that someone else should cook the food in his kitchen for ALL of us. This is symptomatic of our desire for someone (else) to mysteriously appear from somewhere (else) and fix all our problems. This is indicative of our desire for short-cuts – ignoring the laws of nature and the fact that the longest is the shortest.

We will not have the answers to our questions and will not get any pragmatic solutions unless we deliberately try to fill both the Hands. If one of the Hands is empty and we do not have the Book (the whole of it) in the Right Hand our problems will remain unresolved. If we want our educated to be really educated we will have to come back to the above VISION. We need to do away with the division between deen and dunyaa and the divide between the ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ knowledge. This is our objective. How we do that is for ALL of us to think about.

How we will fill both the Hands is open for debate and discussion. But fill we must. This topic we are avoiding – despite the repeated calls for a road-map and pragmatic solutions. So we want a roadmap and don’t want it. Both at the same time! Having said that, I am provoked to say that yes my purpose is “just to raise questions”. The questions, to me, are more important than the answers. The questions haven’t just taken us “anywhere”. They have taken us to so many places. Cross questions are even better. Our love, however, for readymade answers is a clear indication that we are farther away from the true understanding of the cultural value of the finality of prophethood (khatm an-nubuwwah).

Our ‘Ulama love to answer every question with utmost authority. They – generally speaking – don’t leave enough room for the people to think on their own. This is why we hardly “graduate” from their school. We never wonder how in a very short period of time the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) transformed Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ibn Al Khattab (radi Allaahu ‘anhumaa) into leaders. I find this approach of our ‘Ulama in stark contrast of the methodology of the Prophet (pbuh) who in order to train his people in the art of thinking cross-questioned them many a times and even stopped the Companions from asking questions (Sunan ad-Daarimee, 648 CD). He, instead, threw questions to them (Saheeh al-Bukhaaree, 59 CD). We need to go back to his methodology.