Deep Thinking

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Chapter 1

Deep Thinking

Most people think that in order to "think deeply", one needs to put one's head between one's hands, withdraw to an empty room, and isolate oneself from all other people and affairs. Indeed, they make such a big thing of "thinking deeply" that they find it too difficult, and conclude that it is a quality exclusive to "philosophers".

However, as we stated in the introduction, Allah summons people to reflect and says that He has revealed the Qur'an for people to reflect on it: "It is a book We have sent down to you, full of blessing, so let people of intelligence ponder its signs and take heed." (Surah Sad: 29) What is important is one's sincerely improving one's ability to think and going deeper in thinking.

On the other hand, people who do not spend effort to that end continue their lives in deep "heedlessness". The word heedlessness has connotations like "neglectfulness without forgetting, abandoning, being mistaken, disregarding, being careless". The heedless state of those who do not reflect is a consequence of forgetting or deliberately disregarding the purpose of their creation and of the realities which religion teaches. Yet, this is an extremely dangerous course that may lead to hell. Correspondingly, Allah has warned people against being among the heedless:



Remember your Lord in yourself humbly and fearfully, without loudness of voice, morning and evening. Do not be of the heedless ones. (Surat al-A'raf: 205)

Warn them of the day of bitter regret when the affair will be resolved. But they take no notice and they do not believe. (Surah Maryam: 39)

In the Qur'an, Allah refers to people who reflect and who, after reflecting conscientiously, see the truth and therefore fear Him. Allah says that those who blindly follow their fathers without thinking, out of tradition, are wrong. When asked, these people say that they are religious and believe in Allah, yet, since they do not think, they do not amend their conduct from fear of Allah. In the following verses, the mentality of these people is clearly laid out:

Say: "To whom does the earth belong, and everyone in it, if you have any knowledge?"
They will say: "To Allah." Say: "So will you not pay heed?"
Say: "Who is the Lord of the Seven Heavens and the Lord of the Mighty Throne?"
They will say: "Allah." Say: "So will you not have taqwa?"

(Taqwa: Awe or fear of Allah, which inspires a person to be on guard against wrong action and eager for actions which please Him.)

Say: "In whose hand is the dominion over everything, He who gives protection and from whom no protection can be given, if you have any knowledge?"
They will say: "Allah's." Say: "So how have you been bewitched?"
The fact is that We have given them the truth and they are liars. (Surat al-Muminun: 84-90

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Thinking Removes the Spell on People

In the above verse, Allah asks people, "So how have you been bewitched?" The word "bewitched" in the verse implies a state of mental numbness that takes control of people as a whole. An unthinking person's mind is benumbed, his sight becomes fuzzy, he acts as if he does not see the facts before his eyes, and his faculty of judgement weakens. He becomes incapable of grasping even a plain truth. He cannot be fully conscious of extraordinary events taking place right beside him. He does not notice the intricate details of events. The reason for people's leading heedless lives for thousands of years and their staying away from thought as a whole, as if it is merely a cultural heritage, is actually this mental numbness.

We can explain one of the outcomes of this collective spell with an example:

Beneath the earth's surface lies a "boiling stratum" called magma. The crust of the earth is very thin, which implies that this blaze is very close to us, almost under our feet. In order to have a better understanding of how thin the earth's crust is we can make a comparison: the thickness of the earth's crust in proportion to the whole earth can be compared to the thickness of apple peel in proportion to the whole apple.

Everyone knows that there is a stratum boiling at very high temperatures right beneath the earth's surface, but does not think much about it. This is because their parents, brothers, relatives, friends, neighbours, the journalists of the newspapers they read, TV programme producers and their university professors do not think about it either.

Let us try to make you think over this a little. Let us assume that a person, having lost his memory, tries to learn about his surroundings by asking questions of everyone around him. This person would first ask where he is. What would he think if he was told that beneath the ground he stands on lies a globe of boiling fire and that these flames could gush out of the earth's surface in the event of a strong earthquake or a volcanic eruption? Let us go further and suppose that this person was told that this world is simply a small planet and it floats in an infinite dark void called space and that space contains even greater dangers than the substratum of the earth. For example, meteors weighing tons freely move around in it. There is no reason why they should not alter their courses, perhaps because of some gravitational influence from another planet, and collide with the earth.

Surely, that person would not be able to forget, even for a moment, the risky situation he is in. He would investigate how people lead their lives in such an environment to which they hang on by the skin of their teeth. He would realise that a flawless system has been brought into being. The inside of the planet on which he lives contains great danger, yet very delicate balances prevent this danger from harming people, except in unusual circumstances. The person who realises this understands that the earth and all creatures on it live and continue their existence in safety only by the will of Allah, owing to the flawless balance He has created.

This example is only one of millions, even billions of examples upon which people need to ponder. Giving another example will be useful to help us understand how heedlessness affects people's faculty of thought and restrains their intellectual capacity.

People know that the life of this world passes away and ends very rapidly, yet still, they behave as if they will never leave this world. They act as if there is no death in the world. This, indeed, is a kind of "spell" carried over from generation to generation. This has such a strong effect that when someone talks about death, people immediately close the subject for fear of breaking the spell on them and facing the realities. People who have spent their entire lives in order to buy fine houses, summer residences and cars, and to send their children to good colleges, do not want to think that one day they will die and that they will not be able to take their cars, their houses, or children with them. Consequently, rather than beginning to do something for the real life after death, they choose not to think.

However, everyone, sooner or later, will definitely die and after one dies, whether one believes it or not, the eternal life will begin for everyone. Whether this eternal life will be spent in paradise or in hell depends on what one has done in the short life of this world. While such is the plain truth, the only reason why people behave as if death does not exist is this spell that has covered them up because they do not think.

Those who cannot, by thinking, save themselves from this spell and therefore from a heedless state, will understand the facts by seeing them with their eyes after they die. Allah communicates this fact in the Qur'an:

You were heedless of this, so We have stripped you of your covering and today your sight is sharp. (Surah Qaf: 22)

As Allah says in the verse, the sight which here is blurred because of not thinking, will be "sharp" at the time when the person gives account in the hereafter after death.

It should be pointed out that people deliberately impose on themselves such a spell. They suppose that by doing so they will live restful and relaxed lives. However, it is very easy for anyone to make a decision and shake off this mental numbness, and begin to live with a clear consciousness. Allah has presented the solution to people; people who reflect can dispel this enchantment while they are in the world. They thus come to understand that all events have a purpose and an inner meaning, and are able to see wisdom in the events that Allah creates at every instant

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One can Think at Anytime and Anywhere

There is no time, place or condition necessary for thought. Anyone may think while walking on the street, going to the office, driving a car, working at the computer, attending a friend's gathering, watching TV or having lunch.

While driving a car, for example, it is possible to see hundreds of people outdoors. He who looks at these people can think about many different things. It may come to his mind that the physical appearances of these hundreds of people are completely different. None of these people look like one another. It is astonishing that, although these people share basically similar organs such as eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, hands, arms, legs, mouths and noses, they all look so different from one another. Thinking a little further, one remembers the following:

Allah has created billions of people over thousands of years all different from one another. This certainly is a piece of evidence of what a superior and mighty Creator Allah is.

The person watching all these people rushing may be occupied by many different thoughts. At first glance, each one of these people seems like a "distinct" individual. Every one of them has his own world, wishes, plans, ways of living, topics that make him happy or unhappy, and tastes. Yet these differences are misleading. In general, every human being is born, grows up, goes to school, looks for a job, works, marries, has children, sends the children to school, marries them off, ages, becomes a grandmother or grandfather and finally passes away. From this point of view, there are no big differences between people's lives. Whether one lives in a neighbourhood in Istanbul or in a Mexican city does not change anything at all. All of these people will definitely die one day. A century later, perhaps not even one of these people will be alive. The person who realises all this, carries on thinking and asks himself the following questions: "Since all of us will die one day, why do everybody act as if they will never depart from this world? While a person, whose death is certain, ought to strive for his life after death, how is it that almost all people behave as if their lives in this world will never end?"

Such a person is one who thinks and reaches a very crucial conclusion from what he thinks.

A great majority of people do not think about these issues. If they are suddenly asked, "what are you thinking at the moment?" it will be seen that they think extremely unnecessary things that will not be of much use to them. However, man is able to"think" "meaningful", "wise" and "important" subjects every moment from the time he wakes up until he sleeps, and derive conclusions from what he thinks.

In the Qur'an, Allah informs us that in all circumstances the believers reflect and derive beneficial conclusions from their thinking.

In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people with intelligence: those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Surat Al ‘Imran: 190-191)

As we are also informed in the verse, because believers are people who reflect, they are able to see the miraculous side of the creation and exalt the power, knowledge and wisdom of Allah

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Thinking Sincerely by Turning Towards Allah

In order for contemplation to benefit a person and lead him to the right conclusion, he should always think positively. For instance, a person who - seeing someone far more handsome than himself - feels inferior because of his physical inadequacy by thinking about the other person's good looks or who becomes jealous of this person, is thinking a thought of which Allah does not approve. Yet, a person who aims to earn the approval of Allah considers the good looks of the other person as a manifestation of Allah's perfect creation. Since he looks at this person as a beauty Allah has created, he derives great pleasure from it. He asks Allah to enhance the beauty of this person in the hereafter. As for himself, he also asks Allah for true and eternal beauty in the hereafter. He realises that man can never be perfect in this world, because the world has been created with imperfections as a part of a test. His craving for paradise increases. This is certainly only one example of sincere thought. Throughout life, man encounters many instances like this. He is tested to see whether he displays good manners and a way of thought with which Allah will be pleased.

His being successful in the test and his contemplation bringing favour to him in the hereafter depend on his deriving lessons and warnings from the things on which he reflects. For this, it is imperative that one thinks truthfully continually. Allah states in the Qur'an:

It is He Who shows you His signs, and sends down provision to you out of heaven. But none pay heed save those who turn unto Him repentant. (Surah Ghafir: 13

[كونزيت]

We always try to run away from thinking in the reality of this life....but sometimes we are forced to face this reality

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المشاركة الأصلية بواسطة كونزيت

We always try to run away from thinking in the reality of this life....but sometimes we are forced to face this reality

It happens to meet someone who truely believes as much as you do ..

thanks my sister for supporting this wonderful book ..

we really need to bring its contents and thoughts to our real life ..

thanks again

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Chapter 2

What Do People Usually Think About

In previous chapters, we mentioned that people do not think as they ought and do not develop their faculty of thinking. Yet here there is an important point that needs to be clarified. Surely certain things cross one's mind every moment of one's life. There is almost no moment, save at times of sleep, that the human mind is utterly blank. However, a great many of these are useless, "futile" and "unnecessary" thoughts that are of no avail in one's hereafter, that lead nowhere, and serve one no good.

If someone tries to remember what he thought during the day and notes it down, then looks over it at the end of the day, he would see how futile are most of his thoughts. Even if he were to find some of it useful, he would most likely be mistaken. For, on the whole, thoughts that seem correct may not be of any use in the hereafter.

Just as people waste time dealing with futile things in their daily lives, equally they spend time in vain carried away with futile thoughts. In the verse "Successful indeed are the believers…who keep aloof from what is vain…" (Surat al-Muminun: 3), Allah advises people to be strong-willed in this area. Surely, this command of Allah holds true for people's thoughts as well. This is because thoughts, unless we control them consciously, continuously flow through our minds. One unconsciously jumps from one thought to another. While thinking about the shopping one will purchase on one's way home, all of a sudden one finds oneself thinking about the things a friend told one two years ago. This uncontrolled and useless thinking may go on uninterruptedly throughout the day.

Yet controlling thought is possible. Everyone possesses the ability to think things that will improve him, his faith, mind, courtesy and his surroundings.

In this chapter, we will mention what sorts of things heedless people tend to think about in general. The reason these subjects are told in detail is so that people who read this book may realise immediately, when something similar to what is mentioned here crosses their minds as they go to work or school or while doing something casual, that they are thinking something useless. Therefore they might take their thoughts under control and think things that are truly useful for them

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Useless Worries

When one fails to control one's thoughts and direct them towards achieving a good end, one may often feel apprehension or treat events that have not happened as if they have occurred and become led astray by grief, distress, worry and fear.

Someone who has a young person studying for a university exam, for example, may make up scenarios before the exam takes place of what might happen in the case that his child fails the exam. "If, in the future, my son cannot find a good job and earn enough money, he will not be able to marry. Even if he marries, how will he be able to afford the expenses of a wedding? If he fails the exam, all the money spent on the preparatory courses will have been wasted and, moreover, we will be disgraced in the eyes of people. What if my best friend's son passes and my own son fails…?"

These misapprehensions go on and on. This person's son, however, has not even taken the examination yet. Throughout his life, someone who is distant from the religion cannot resist such useless worries. There is surely a reason for it. In the Qur'an, it has been related that the reason why people cannot be relieved of useless anxieties is their lending ear to the whisperings of satan:

(Satan)
"Most certainly I will lead them astray and excite in them vain desires…" (Surat an-Nisa: 119)

As seen in the above verse, he who is occupied with futile anxieties, who forgets Allah and does not think clearly, is always open to the whisperings of satan. In other words, if man, deceived by the life of the world, does not exercise his will-power and act conscientiously and if he lets himself drift in the course of events, he comes completely under the control of satan. One of the most crucial patterns of behaviour of satan is his giving people anxieties. Therefore, all misapprehensions, pessimism and anxieties such as "what will I do if such-and-such happens" contrived in the mind are caused by the whisperings of satan.

Allah shows people the way to save themselves from this situation. In the Qur'an, Allah advises people that when an evil impulse from satan provokes them, they should seek refuge in Allah and remember Him:

As for those who have taqwa, when they are bothered by visitors from Satan, they remember and immediately see clearly. But as for their brothers, the visitors lead them further into error. And they do not stop at that! (Surat al-A'raf: 201-202)

As stated in the verse, someone who reflects sees what is right, and someone who does not goes wherever satan drags him.

The important thing is to know that these thoughts will be of no use to the person and will, on the contrary, hamper him from thinking the truth, reflecting on important matters, and therefore purifying the mind from these useless thoughts. Man can think properly only if he frees his mind from futile thoughts. In this way, he "keeps aloof from what is vain" as Allah commands in the Qur'an

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Chapter 3

What are the Reasons that Prevent Thought

here are many factors that hinder people from thinking. A single one, or a number, or all of them may detain a person from thinking and seeing the truth. In this respect, it is necessary that everyone identify the factors that affect them negatively, and be rid of them. Otherwise, one cannot see the real face of the life of this world, and that might bring great loss in the hereafter.

In the Qur'an, Allah tells us the situation of those people who are accustomed to think superficially:

They know an outward aspect of the life of this world but are heedless of the hereafter. Have they not reflected within themselves? Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except with truth and for a fixed term. Yet many people reject the meeting with their Lord.
(Surat ar-Rum: 7-8

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Following the Majority Causes
Mental Numbness

One of the issues that mislead people most is their belief that what the "majority" does is right. Man is usually inclined to accept what he is taught by the people around him, rather than finding the truth by thinking. He sees that things that seem odd to him at first sight are most of the time considered ordinary by people, and moreover are not even noticed by them, and after a while, he too begins to become accustomed to them.

For instance, a great part of the people in his circle does not acknowledge that they will die one day. They do not even let anybody talk about this topic in order not to remember death. Seeing this, the person looks around him and says, "Since everybody is like that, there must be nothing wrong with my behaving the same way" and begins to live without remembering death at all. If, however, the people around him had acted with fear of Allah and struggled with due struggle for the hereafter, most probably this person too would have changed his attitude.

As another example, on TVs and magazines, hundreds of news items of disasters, unfairness, injustice, oppression, suicide, homicide, theft and swindle are covered, and thousands of needy people are mentioned everyday. Yet many people who read these news items turn the pages of the newspaper or switch the TV channels with inner calm. In general, people do not think why there are so many of these kind of news items, or what has to be done and what kind of precautions have to be taken in order to stop them, or what they themselves can do about these problems. Neither do people around them think over those problems. Most people hold others responsible for these problems, employing such logic as "is it up to me to save the world