Thinking Styles in the Qur'an

In the name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful

Prof Jamal Badi and Mustapha Tajdin have listed 15 thinking styles in the Qur'an.  I select only 4 thinking styles.

Hypothetical Thinking
The aim is to provoke the intellect to accept the truth for the truth is clear.  It is also used for exploring the truth and as a impetus to engage in deep thinking in order to understand.

"Have they themselves been created without anything that have caused the creation or were perchance their own Creator" (al-Tur: 35-36).

Rational Thinking
It is correct reasoning and sound judgment which aims at

• minimizing fuzziness and imprecision; 
• striving for consistency and avoiding contradiction; 
• questioning, doubting, criticizing, justifying, to find truth; 
• avoiding conjecture; striving for achievable goals; 
• practicality in using means to help attain goals.

Rational thinking in the Qur'an is to

• prove and affirm the existence of Allah, His oneness, His attributes; 
• to prove and affirm the Day of Judgment; 
• and to attack faulty reasoning of those who deny the existence of Allah, and to refute their arguments and misconceptions.

"Had there been gods besides Allah, then verily both would have been ruined.  Glorified is Allah, the Lord of the Throne, above all that evil they associate with HIM" (al-Anbiya': 22).

Metaphorical Thinking

"a figure of speech or analogy for understanding something by seeing something in terms of something else."

It is also called a parable.  Parables in the Qur'an can be described as penetrative diction, closer to reality, motivational forces, preventive measure, and as a source of enlightenment.  Purpose of using parables in the Qur'an:

• Stressing and affirming the Oneness of God (al-Zumar: 29)
• Proving something which is beyond the reach of human mind such as resurrection (Fussilat: 39)
• Encouraging and promoting good deeds (al-Baqarah: 261)
• Discouraging evil acts by making them appear ugly in the sight of human kind (al-Ankabut: 41)
• Warning us not to be misled by our life's materialistic temptations (al-Hadid: 20)
• Comparing the status of those who are guided with those who are misguided (al-An'am: 122)
• Glorifying Allah and His Attributes (al-Nur: 35)

Conceptual Thinking

Two types of conceptual thinking:

1. Conceptual expansion - constructing, stretching, extending, modifying, and refining concepts to fit new situations and thus creating new meaning - for example, concept of worship is stretched to include all halal things which are done to achieve Allah's pleasure
2. Conceptual combination - combining two concepts together to produce new ideas or meaning where a non-existent concept is brought into being - example, the rope of Allah (Habl Allah) which refers to Islam or the Qur'an