Critical thinking and Islam..Critical thinking vs religion..these have been by far the most talked about topics in the C.T classes. I tried looking for evidences to support my argument that being a critical thinker and a religious person could be possible at the same time. In fact religion encourages critical thinking.Here's what I would like to add to this debate.
The Qur'an repeatedly provokes and challenges the reader to think and contemplate the signs of Allah so that she/he can understand. Human destiny is not to be passive like the angels but to be creative for which she/he has been given the most sublime gift of all, the mind. There is a dynamic relationship that exists in Islam between faith and reflective thought. And has not the Qur'an said, "(Here is), a Book which We have sent down unto thee, full of blessings, that they may meditate on its Signs, and that men of understanding may receive admonition." (Surah, Al-Sad, 38: 29). In another verse it is said: And do not follow (blindly) any information of which you have no (direct) knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception, you must verify it for yourself. (In the Court of your Lord,) you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning."[17:36]In fact, "verily in that are Signs for those who reflect "(Surah, Al-Rum, 30: 21) is a constant theme throughout the Qur'an, which, among other things, underscores the point that meanings of the sign of Allah cannot be read just off the face of the signs but require thinking and reflection.
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http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/tafakkur.htm
(i found this link to be very helpful)
This is superb Fatima!
ReplyDeleteTo add to this wonderful contribution by Fatima, my favorite example of stories around people going to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with 'questions' about Islam & about being a muslim. He encouraged it!
Regards,
Faheem
I completely agree with you Fatima. And i am still confused at rthe people who tried to say that religion and CT do not coincide, because at times onefeels that religion actually provokes humans to 'rethink' and 'reflect'
ReplyDeleteTell these are my questions regarding this issues.
ReplyDelete1. I posted the question previously 'Engineering Human thought', My argument was Critical thinking and certain Social Scientists claims that Human behavior can be predicted, there exists a pattern by which we behave, act, and think...if that pattern is discovered through any scientific methodology, we can engineer ideal society for ourself...
So you see, we are moving to the progression of human mind by relying on our own capacity and I think, this is something against the sovereignty of God..theologians argue that God controls everything, and we have to live and die according to the script which is already written (destiny)...there exists a conflict..what is more important...Divine Sovereignty or Individualism ??
As your argument states above, that we need to respect the Divine's sovereignty, does this mean there's nothing we can do ? What is the limit of our will power...
I think it is the blind-faith sort of thing, without any argument. What is so difficult about it, We do we need to think critically to believe something..Its purely the matter of personal choice..experience counts..and miracles..
ReplyDeleteAgreed. But then again, we'll always have the road block of never having seen God and God's refusal to give us access to the answers on the basis of not having the mental capacity. I'm not saying I don't believe in God, but i'm saying that these are some things that have been left to Blind Faith aren't they. Predestination, Life After Death, they make sense(maybe) but how can we know for sure they exist. How can we argue for them??
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sarmad and Hussain. Do we have to critically think about religion? Why can't religion be out of the realm of critical thinking? However, that does not mean that religion and critical thinking cannot co-exist. Because they can. Many people can critically convince themselves about the existence of God. I think the problem lies in convincing others. Religion and God are sensitive and personal topics and individuals use their own logic, reasoning and feelings for them. For my own part, I feel that the Quran is filled with indications and reasonings that prove the existence of God. Thousands of people join the folds of Islam every year, as its logic and facts speak to me. I think the reason why most of us feel a dis-association with critical thinking and our religion is because we were born as followers of our particular religion. It is almost like the religion chose us rather than we choosing the religion. Most of us have taken the concept of God and religion for granted without ever questioning it or researching about it and now after studying critical thinking a lot of questions have arisen inside us.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. but dont you think religion and CT gives rise to atheism? because there are some dark corners we dont think about and applying CT there is a bit dangerous.
ReplyDeletei m here going to DISAGREE with title or the topic of the post,when you are talking about how islam promotes critical thinking then why are you focusing only on religion? (confused? yes that is my point),lets clear it out...
ReplyDeletewhat is religion? this is the question to be asnwered first, according to oxford dictionary it is a "belief in superhuman controlling power, esp. in personal God or gods to obedience; system of faith and worship". in arabic, religion literally is translated as 'madhbab', and this word has not been used in quran for islam, the word used in quran for islam is 'deen' which is translated as 'a way of life', islam is a system which covers different aspects of society and individuals' lives, including religion but not soley or only religion. this system of islam is what the Creator has prescribed the creation to follow covering all the aspects of one's life or the society, whether being political, social, economical, enviromental,psychological even religious and so on. islam is not merely a 'religion' but islam is like a tree which has several branches, religion being one of the branch and economical other and so on.
hence as hussain said that there are several reasons why our intellect cant understand certain religious issues like existence of God, etc, evethough this can be mathematically and logically be proven by some but disagreed by others too, so lets for the sake of argument keep aside the religion branch of islam (as islam also doesnt force its religious aspect on any individual and it is a matter of personal belief or faith) and then consider islam as a whole or any other branch of islam and see if critical thinking is required there or not.also because something like beliefs which are intangable and unmmeasurable (only comprising in the religious aspect of islam) we can't be sure of it,but when we can focus on the political, econimical,psychological, social and other braches how they require crtical thinking before implementation. if they are implemented without crticially thought of before then the true essence or even the purpose of those aspests or systems are lost. and how each aspect or branch (which i wasnt even been able to list all)reqiures critical thinking is a huge topic and could be explained by the experts in the field only as they are the ones who have studied them critically:).