What is Thinking?

In the Name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful

Can those who do not know anything (there is nothing in their mind, no word, no concept, no info) think?  In order to think, we must have some deposit of words and concepts in our mind.  We cannot think in a vacuum.  Meaning, prior knowledge is very important and the necessary prerequisite for thinking to happen.  When I ask you what thinking means, you try very best to make connection between the word 'thinking' and the words and concepts in your mind so that you can make a logical connection between those concepts in your mind  to explain the meaning of thinking.  

Thinking is simply relating and connecting ideas or concepts in our mind in order to understand something or to solve problems.

Through our 5 senses, we load data and information into our mind.  Then our mind processes the data and information by connecting them to the already existing information in our mind to form knowledge.  The process that is done in our mind is thinking process.

NOTE: It very important to understand the meaning of data, information, knowledge and wisdom...I will discuss these concepts in class, inshaAllah.

Tafakkur is an Arabic word for thinking deeply about something; pondering and contemplating which crosses the border from the material world to the spiritual world in order to understand spiritual messages.

A person has to go through three stages of tafakkur before he/she could perceive spiritual messages in the universe.  

1. the collection of data from the universe via sense perception.  
2. the interpreting and understanding of the collected data through rational thinking in order to attain knowledge.  At this stage, the data is observed, investigated and experimented in order to describe and explain scientifically in detail to understand its nature and the benefits and harmfulness it may bring to human, the environment, and other creatures.  This empirical study is an “indispensable stage in” attaining spiritual perception (Iqbal, 2006: 14).  The end results of this thinking process are philosophical and scientific knowledge, theories, laws and their applications.
3. stage is the stage of spiritual insight.  At this stage, man realizes and perceives in knowledge of the universe and human experience that there are messages and evidences of the existence and greatness of Allah. The bridge between rational and spiritual perception is asking philosophical questions such as what are the purposes of existence, how am I to live, can there be life after death.  Reflective thinking on these questions establishes a link between rational and spiritual thought (Iqbal, 2006).  Through spiritual thinking one perceives and concludes that his self, the universe, and human experiences are signs which point towards God which affect him to recognize and acknowledge God's existence and His Attributes.  At the point where one realizes all existences are signs which signify the existence of God and His Attributes, reflective thinking (fikr) is converted to contemplation (zikr) (al-Edrus, 1992).  Ibnu Qayyim (2009) reports that Hasan al-Basri said that knowledgeable people consistently do zikr (remembrance of God) with fikr (thinking).  Ibnu Qayyim asserts that fikr and zikr is seed of knowledge.

NOTE TO READERS:  The explanation of Tafakkur is my own-this is a part of a paper which will be published soon.  Therefore, please do not copy without permission.

Human mind is limited to think of the spiritual world because the unseen cannot give effect to our 5 senses, therefore, we Muslims must think only on the creations of Allah in order to know HIS attributes.  Creations of Allah includes physical things, abstract things which we know through logical thinking and experimentation, and also events that have happened through out history.