THE ART OF CLEAR THINKING
Thinking enables people to effectively plan their actions, which is key to achieving success. By learning the art of critical thinking, individuals gain the ability to transform challenges into opportunities (minus into plus).
Thinking, one could say, is man’s greatest action. Right thinking is actually a form of worship. After his death, someone asked the wife of Abu Darda, a Companion of the Prophet, what his greatest deed had been. She replied, “Thinking and drawing lessons.” (Kitab al-Zuhd wa al-Raqa’iq by Ibn al-Mubarak, Hadith No. 286) Likewise, after the death of another Companion of the Prophet, Abu Dharr, someone asked his widow what his special worship had been, and she replied, “The whole day, he would keep thinking.” (Hilyat al-Awliya, Vol. 1, p. 164)
The action of thinking happens at the level of the mind. And it is the mind that is the biggest part of human existence. Thinking is the means for one’s intellectual development. It is through thinking that all great discoveries have been made. Thinking lifts a person from the animalistic level to the higher stage of humanity. It is through thinking that one understands the difference between one thing and another; one discovers solutions to difficulties; one discerns hidden realities. Through thinking, one learns how to convert minus points into plus points. Thinking makes one capable of effectively planning one’s actions, which is key to success.
The ability to think is a quality that all human beings possess by birth itself. But only that person possesses right thinking who makes himself properly prepared for it at the conscious level. For right thinking, it is necessary for a person to have the courage to think by rising above his personal likes and dislikes. He should see things realistically just as they are, not as he would like to see them. He should be free from biased thinking. No matter what the prevailing conditions might be, he should be ready to accept the results of proper thinking, be they in his favour or against him. This is the beginning of right and clear thinking.
