Episode 16: Utilizing our Minds

 

We have now reached the last episode of the first stage of this program.  The aim of that stage was to untie our shackles.  Thus far, we have untied ten shackles.  Before starting on another one, I would like to remind you of last week’s project, ‘The Fruitful Week,’ which will continue throughout this week as well.  Our aim for ‘The Fruitful Week’ was to maintain four things each day: one for the well-being of your soul, one for your mind, one for your body, and one for your family.  We have agreed that the four things are: work (or study), worship, exercise and social activity.  I shall briefly recap over what we said in last week’s episode.

Work:

You must aim to have six net hours of work or study each day. 
We have emphasized that the project is inspired by the Prophet (SAWS[1]) and the way he spent his day.  All of our previous projects have been based on action to benefit society in general.   I want to use this project to show you that it is possible to reform yourself from the inside; having already succeeded in reforming what is around you. 

Worship:

We want to worship Allah (SWT) the same way the Prophet (SAWS) did.  At least, we can try to do the four main acts of worship for their great reward.  They are among the key ways for coming closer to Allah (SWT).  They are:

 

• Qiyam al-Lail (night prayer): even if only two quick raka’as (units of prayer) after the Isha (night) prayer.
• Dua’a (supplication): even if only for one minute after the prayer.
• Dhikr (remembering Allah (SWT)): even if only for five minutes on your way to work.
• Reciting Qur’an: even if only one page during the Qiyam al-Lail.

 
To those who have already put ‘The Fruitful Week’ project into practice; I am certain that you have felt closer to Allah (SWT) by now.   We suggested an easy way to practice that worship: wake up half an hour before Fajr (Dawn) to pray Qiyam al-Lail for ten minutes, while reading from the Qur’an during your prayer.  Then, for five minutes before Fajr, make Dua’a (supplication) during one of the best times in which Allah (SWT) answers our prayers.  Afterwards, pray Fajr and do the morning Dhikr (remembrance of Allah (SWT)), then go to sleep.   This way, you have done all of the worship we have asked for in a short period of time, and other than that you only have to do the regular daily prayers. 

 

 

 

Exercise:

Do at least half an hour of exercise each day.   We took the Prophet (SAWS), with his fitness and strength, and the Companions, with their agility, as examples for us to follow. 

Social activity:

Each day, for half an hour, you must ask about your relatives, sit with your parents or your wife and children, or spend some time with your neighbours.  Contact your family, even if only by phone. 

 

Allah (SWT) willing, some of you might have already accomplished ‘The Fruitful Week’ and the angels will write down that you have followed the Prophet’s footsteps.  ‘The Fruitful Week’ project is still ongoing, and today, as an extension to it, we will remove the restraint of ‘inactivity of the mind.’ 

Our problem as Muslims is that we do not want to think.  We have the idea that the process of thinking is a tiring process.  Each of us is looking for someone else to do the thinking for them.  Many of the youth believe that thinking is for grown-ups, and that they themselves are too young to think.  The result is that we do not produce anything.  What is the final product that we, as Muslims, present for humanity? Can anyone tell me we what we have added to humanity in the last 100 years? Why don’t we have any Nobel prizes in Medicine or Engineering? It is not a conspiracy against us, as many of you may say, but the truth is that none of us has produced a valuable product that deserves such a prize.  Where do the international theories in economics and politics originate? All of these come from the West.  Where are our artistic innovations? Even our video clips; we take them, as they are, from the West.  Where are our own inventions that are appropriate for us? Even the sports and game tactics all come from abroad.  This is how we live; we live from the results of other people’s thinking.  They invent the car, we ride it, and the same applies to the camera, cell phones, and everything else.  We are nothing but consumers, because we don’t think.  I know that these are harsh words, but unfortunately they are true.

 
By the way, today’s restraint is difficult to break, and unlike previous projects which large numbers had carried out.  That is why I would like to say that the aim of today’s episode is to identify the problem and feel it.  We will try our hardest to achieve a result, but we may not be able to yet. 

There are two types of resources: natural (water, oil, etc) and human (most importantly time and mind).   There is an ongoing debate in our countries on the continuously increasing number of Muslims: are they a burden or a benefit? I am sorry to say it, but they seem to be a burden, because the piling up of people who lack any contribution to society can only be a burden.  Listen to some examples from the Prophet’s life:

 

• The Prophet (SAWS) said the following about Muslims, “The Muslim is like rain.  Wherever he goes, he is of benefit.”
• Amr Ibnul-Aas asked Abu-Bakr (RA) for a thousand men (soldiers) during a campaign.  He sent him one man, al-Qaaqaa Ibn-Amr.  With his mind and soul, he was equivalent to a thousand men.  How then can you accept to be a Muslim who is only a burden on others?
• The Prophet (SAWS) said, “I will be proud of your numbers amongst all the other nations on the Day of Judgment.” Is this by quantity or by quality? Where is our mental contribution?

What I want from you today is thought.  Our neural brain cells have started to rust because we are not using them. 

Japan is a country with few natural resources, but one of its important resources is the Japanese mind.  The whole country was destroyed in World War II: the houses, the factories, and the infrastructure, but the Japanese mind was not destroyed.  There is a funny statement, which is unfortunately true.  What do you think would happen if we moved the Japanese people to one of our countries and vice versa? After one year we will see construction, production, and manufacturing in our countries, whereas in Japan nothing will remain but chickens running free and sewage flowing in the streets.  The idea here is not of money or resources, but of the person who can choose whether to build or to destroy. 

I want to pose a question: why did we become like this? Why aren’t there any new ideas?  Based on my research, I found four reasons:

Education: Education is based only on receiving information

 

Education in our countries is based on learning and cramming our brains with information.  The mind is turned into a storage bin, with no place for innovation.  In the West, however, they do not learn in this way.  They propose a subject for discussion, and suggest where and how they can research it.  Based on their research, they then build up their opinions and ideas.  There can be three or four points of view for the same topic.  The mind gets used to dealing with alternatives.  The result of our system is that the student sees a topic from a very narrow point of view.  If he falls upon a different point of view, he is unable to understand it or find alternatives and the brain stops.  Another result of this is that the student in our system studies much more than those in the West, nevertheless the results are much less.  There is a study that suggests that the Egyptian child is the smartest child in the world until he reaches the age of five, and begins to go to an Egyptian school. 

Home: Unjustified decisions

 

In many homes the child has to obey without understanding the reason behind it.  He sees the parents taking all the decisions.  There was a study on a group of families in our countries that found that during childhood, parents use the word ‘No’ an average of 148,000 times with no apparent reason, but they use the word ‘Yes’ an average of only 40,000 times.  Consequently the child’s mental abilities start to shrink.  To avoid this, decisions have to be justified.  There must be an opportunity for discussion with the child, considering them as a grown-up, and consulting with them, in order to encourage their maturity.

 

Also, the type of toys they play with is important.  Choose toys that help to develop your children’s minds.  Did you know that Europe has cancelled all taxes on toys because they nourish the mind?

 

Media: Unselective viewing

 

The media has both good aspects and bad ones, but unfortunately we are not selective.  We choose to view bad programs, even though there are other programs that increase our knowledge and improve minds.  Nobody wants to watch them. 

Misunderstanding religion: Only a few of us realise that thinking is an act of worship

 

Thinking is an Islamic obligation; we are committing a sin if we do not think, did you know that? An example: do you know why you have to recite al-Fatiha in prayer seventeen times a day (at least)? Even in acts of worship we do not bother to think.  Due to the four reasons mentioned above, generations of youth, who do not know how to think, have emerged.  The mind is like another muscle in our body.  Use it, or lose it.  That is a scientific fact. 

Thinking and brain cells:

 
Scientists found that brain cells, of which there are 140 billion in the brain, each develop connections around themselves that help to do more thinking.  They increase in number when you think, and they die if they are unused.  The thinking I talk of is not the day-to-day thinking, but the mature kind of thinking that may help solve our nation’s problems. 

Take an unemployed young man, for example, who sends his CV to many companies, but does not even think of another solution to his unemployment problem, be it more training or more experience, which may get him a job.  Another example is a man who applies for a job requiring twelve years experience.  After the interview, he is told that he is not fit for the job, because he has only one year of useful work experience, while the other eleven years are merely a repetition of what he learned in his first year. 

What is amazing is that our religion is the one that talks the most about using the mind. 

• The Prophet (SAWS) says “Allah didn’t create a creation more honourable than the mind.”
• The Prophet (SAWS) saw the Companions praising a Muslim who had passed away for his worship.  He said, “How was your friend’s mind?” They said, “Messenger of Allah, we are telling you about his worship, and you are asking us about his mind?” He said, “On the Day of Judgment people are shown to Allah based only on their minds.”
• It is reported by Lady Aisha that she said, “Messenger of Allah, what elevates people in this life?” He replied, “The mind.”  She said, “Messenger, and what elevates them in the afterlife?” He replied, “The mind.”  She said, “Messenger of Allah, where then is the judgment by deeds?” He replied, “They only do (deeds) according to their minds.”
• The Prophet (SAWS) says, “Allah created the mind and said, ‘(I swear) by My dignity and My holiness (that) I have not created any creation more honourable to Me than you (mankind).  According to you (your deeds) I give, I take, I reward and I punish.’”
• The Prophet (SAWS) says, “O Abu al-Dardaa, if people come closer to Allah with their good deeds and work, you must come closer to Allah by your mind (because the mind is the one that encourages the good deeds and worship).

Evidence for the use of the mind in the Qur’an:

Now consider the words that refer to ‘thinking’ in the Qur’an:

• The word ‘insight’ is mentioned 54 times in the Qur’an.
• The word ‘perception’ is mentioned 48 times in the Qur’an.
• The word ‘consider’ is mentioned 48 times in the Qur’an.
• The word ‘contemplate’ is mentioned 122 times in the Qur’an.
• The word ‘remember’ is mentioned 210 times in the Qur’an.
• The word ‘wisdom’ is mentioned 20 times in the Qur’an.

Also, words like ‘see’ and phrases like ‘does he then not see’ imply analysis and understanding in the Qur’anic context.  By the way, it has been proven that a great percentage of intelligence can be acquired through exercise and attempts.  The Qur’an is the holy book that urges us to use our mind, to the extent that we even have an act of worship that is totally based on exercising the mind.  It is the sort of worship that Prophets performed and that leads to knowing Allah (SWT) very well.  It is the worship of contemplating Allah’s creation.

Prophets and contemplation:

Ten years prior to his prophecy, the Prophet (SAWS) used to meditate in the Cave of Hiraa’.   Meditation was also Prophet Abraham’s way to prophecy.  Allah says in one of the Qur’anic ayahs what can be translated as, “And thus we show Ibrahim the dominion of the heavens and the earth, that he may be of the ones (who have) certitude.” (TMQ, 6:75)[2].

Words about contemplation:

• Al-Hassan said, “An hour of contemplation is better than a year of worship.”
• Omar Ibn-Abdul-Aziz said, “Meditation is the best act of worship.”

Contemplation is a worship that can be performed through training, but is very seldom practiced.  Let us then practice it together:

Contemplate the beginning of creation:

Allah (SWT) says in one of the Qur’anic ayahs what can be translated as, “Say: travel in (the) earth, then look at how He began creation...” (TMQ, 29:20).

A delegation came to the Prophet (SAWS) asking him, “O Messenger of Allah, how did it all start?” He answered, “At first Allah was all alone, nothing else existed.”  Take a moment to think about this.  Consider your size compared to the All-Encompassing Might of Allah (SWT).   In this way you will find many ideas emerging from this fact.

Think about how everything will end.  Allah says what can be translated as, “And the trumpet is blown, then whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is in the earth shall (get) stunned.” (TMQ, 39:68).  The universe started with a single blow, and will end in the same manner.  Allah also says in one of the Qur’anic ayahs what can be translated as, “(that will be) The Day when we shall fold the heaven as the recorder’s folding of the books.” (TMQ, 21:104).  Consider this ayah and reflect on how insignificant we are, and how much we are in need of Allah’s help.  If you just contemplated this fact for half an hour, you would never disobey Him.  Moreover, you would love Him and appreciate Him.

Contemplate the creation of the sun:

The energy of the sun is produced from the fusion of 650 million tons of helium and 650 million tons of hydrogen, which takes place more than 13 million miles away from earth.  The distance it travels in its movement in one second exceeds the distance man can travel on foot in 500 years. 

Now think about what Allah (SWT) says in the following Qur'anic ayah which can be translated as, “And the sun runs its course for a period determined for it: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing.” (TMQ, 36:38).   The potential of the sun is very great, and it is there for us to use.  The West uses it and they carry out research on solar energy, even though the climate of our countries is naturally hotter than theirs, and we receive a greater amount of solar energy than them.  We are supposed to be the ones who carry out such research, but unfortunately we are not.

Contemplate the solar system:

Think about the number of planets that evolve around the centre of the Milk Way, which includes more than 200 million stars, of which our sun is only one.  This galaxy is only one of tens of millions of galaxies which are considered in turn as just a speck in the first heaven.  The Prophet (SAWS) says, “The first heaven is only a grain of sand in a desert when compared to the second heaven, and the second heaven is only a grain of sand in a desert when compared to the third heaven and the same goes for the forth and the fifth, etc until the seventh.  Just contemplate this kingdom, in order to use your mind and take advantage of it.  You, amidst this kingdom, are nothing but a speck, yet you are the most valuable to Allah (SWT) by virtue of your ability to reason.

Contemplate your body:

Allah (SWT) made many systems in your body operate in an involuntary manner so that you have enough time to contemplate.  Take for example the lung; it operates 20,000 times per day and the heart beats 72 times per minute.  They all work involuntarily with no effort exerted on your part.

Muslim scientists and contemplation:

Muslim scientists invented trigonometry, algebra, logarithms and the concept of zero (as the digit zero was not used before).  They also discovered the anatomy of the eye and the anatomy of the body.  Moreover, they could diagnose many diseases such as measles and smallpox.  We, as Muslims, were the first to carry out operations to remove tonsils and stones, as well as the operations of the urinary passages, and the first to discover germs and microbes with no microscope.  Muslims also had the initiative to discover the spheroid shape of the earth and draw relief maps.  We were the first to find the basis of sociology and grammar, whereas the role of the West was confined to developing these sciences.  Now, however, because the West is the producer, it has the upper hand, while we have the lower because we are merely consumers.  The most important human product is the idea.  Consider the following:

• The idea of digging a trench that was suggested by Salman al-Farsi and accepted by the Prophet (SAWS).
• The Prophet (SAWS) was the first to use the idea of mines during his siege of al-Taif, when one of the Companions suggested that they put spikes in the ground to prevent the advance of the enemies’ horses.
• Al-Hassan Ibnul-Haytham laid the basis of optics and accounted for the phenomenon of light refraction and reflection.  He called it the Qamara (cabin) theory, from which the English word ‘camera’ is derived.  He used to write the following phrase in the foreword to all his books, “As long as I live I shall exert my effort, use my mind and utilize my potential to achieve three purposes:

1. Benefiting those who are after knowledge, during my life and after my death.
2. Making it a sort of religious supply for me in the grave and on the Day of Judgment.
3. Enhancing the superiority of Muslims.”

• Ali Ibn-Abu-Taleb was only 10 years old when the Prophet (SAWS) invited him to Islam.  He asked the Prophet (SAWS) to give him a chance to think about it until the next day.  He then returned to the Prophet (SAWS) and asked him to repeat the same thing he had told him the day before, and only when the Prophet (SAWS) did that did Ali say his Shahadah (Declaration of faith).
• One day, the Prophet (SAWS) met Rabi’a Ibn Ka’b al-Aslamy.  Rabi’a had done a good deed, and the Prophet (SAWS) was so pleased with him that he told him, “Rabi’a, ask me for whatever you wish and I shall fulfil it.” Rabi’a answered, “O Messenger of Allah, this is a great matter.  Let me think about it.”  The Prophet (SAWS) agreed and smiled.  The next day he returned to the Prophet (SAWS) who asked him, “Did you think about it Rabi’a?” Rabi’a answered, “I think if I asked for a worldly matter it would soon vanish, and thus I want to ask to accompany you in paradise.”  The Prophet (SAWS) asked him whether he would ask for something else.  Rabi’a answered, “No.  I have already made up my mind (Meaning that he had considered the matter thoroughly).”
• On the day of the battle of al-Qadisiyal the Muslims’ horses were terrified at the sight of the enemies’ elephants.  One of the Companions came up with the idea of making an elephant figure out of mud to let his horse get used to the sight of elephants.  This strange idea actually worked and the Muslims’ horses were no longer afraid of the elephants.  This little trick was the key to the Muslims’ victory in this battle.
• Take the war of October 1973 as an example.  At that time, Israel had established the Barlev defence-line that was considered the greatest and strongest insurmountable barrier to date.  It consisted of heavily defended posts in front of which stood a sand barrier 22 meters high (which equals the height of an eight-storey building), along the Suez Canal.  The Russian experts suggested two solutions to destroy this fortified barrier, either to bomb it with an atomic bomb or to drop 100,000 soldiers by parachute from the air right behind it (which would need 4,000 aircrafts to accomplish).  In other words, it was an impossible mission, but then a junior officer came up with a solution.  It was a simple idea that was taken lightly at first and even mocked.  His idea was to direct water pumps towards the sand barrier and let the force of the water destroy it.  The idea was put into action and became a huge success, for in one day they destroyed 3,000,000 m² of the barrier through 81 holes made in the sand by the sheer force of water.

The assignment of the week:

There are several points, which are recommended by specialists that I would like you to write in order to develop your thinking ability.  They include the following:

1.      Find a goal in life (that will help you to get your mind working).

2.      Develop a passion for reading to benefit from the experiences of the authors of these publications.  We will help you by recommending valuable books in different fields on our site www.amrkhaled.net, and always remember that the first word of the divine inspiration endowed to our nation was ‘read.’  A study carried out on the most creative people found that they read an average of 50 books a year.  I think that this is a reasonable rate and that it is not beyond our reach.  Always keep a piece of paper and a pen near by when you read, so that you can write down your comments and think about what you read.  I am sure you will find lots of ideas, and you can be certain that six months later your mind will work in a totally different way.

3.      Mix with others, either through travelling or working during the summer season.  It was found that most people who were able to attain success had been working since they were students in preparatory school.  It was also discovered that 90% of intelligence is acquired through experience, not by locking oneself up and wishing to develop his/her intellect.

4.      Help your mind to produce good ideas by providing it with valuable inputs, for if you provide your mind with songs, chat and dances, the output will be the same kind of nonsense, whereas, if you provide your mind with knowledge, religion and Qur’an, the output will always be great.

5.      Be selective in what you introduce to your mind and minimize the volume of the trivial things that you keep in your mind, in order to help enlarge the capacity of your memory.  al-Bukhari managed to memorize a million Ahadith.  When he was asked how he was able to memorize them he answered, “I do not preoccupy my mind with anything but Hadith.”

6.      Use your imagination! Imagine that you are the head of the board of directors in your company or the headmaster.  You will surely come up with great ideas.

7.      Think with a team of others who help to activate your mind, and help you to produce fabulous ideas.

In the following part I would like to give you some advice:

·        Develop a habit of walking alone or spending some time alone, and thinking, even for 10 minutes.

·        Use a notebook to write down your thoughts.

·        Change your routine once a week.

·        Travel somewhere new, even if only for a short time.

We are still continuing with the project of ‘The Fruitful Week’ so that the Prophet (SAWS) will be proud of us on the Day of Judgment.  With this episode we conclude the first stage of our program.  May peace and blessings of Allah (SWT) be upon you .