Haste is the first enemy of thinking

Someone comes up with an idea and another one opposes his idea. Do the latter have enough information or facts about this idea that enables him to object the first one with confidence? The answer is (NO). It is haste for sure according to the apparent divine reality (man is prone to be hasty).

Hence, I stress on things which represent, in my opinion, imbalance in the pattern of thinking.

• Haste in interrupting the speaker before he completes his idea, although the simplest phrases that you do not hear may carry important details, and this was confirmed by Mohammed Alangemish in his book “listen to Make People Love You” in which he introduced an attempt to convert the forgotten virtue of listening to an effective tool in the dealings of everyday life.

• Haste in judging new ideas; we are very hasty in judging things around us before auditing and searching for truth.

• I was holding two books one for a western and the other is for a Muslim and I entered on a group of friends. Then some of them asked me what are you carrying in your hands? I raised the books pointing at their covers. So they looked at them and judged it directly and it was unfair judgment.

The surprise was that the judgment was directed to the book of the Muslim. I was really surprised and it was a dramatic scene; I told them without hesitation: how strange you are! You didn’t criticize the western book though its author isn’t Muslim and on the other hand you did criticize the book of the Arab Muslim.

As a happy ending to the chapters of this story I finished reading the book of the Arab Muslim and I found it distinguished and full of culture, thought and knowledge. This was my judgment which I made and told them so.

• Haste in interacting with any idea without regard if it is right or wrong. This is what we say in our dialect "flying the omelets”. Let us be transparent with ourselves; how many ideas we interacted with and the consequences were lamentable and the effects were withdrawal. It is surprisingly wondrous that we move forward to achieve fuzzy ideas enthusiastically and with determination while we step forward once and backward again in achieving clear ideas. I think many of us claimed the title of (hasty man) worthily, and in my opinion, this is the origin of disease and backwardness.

• Hast in interacting with everyday life... I will show here some images and aspects in order to get closer to reality.

1. Haste in making relationships.

2. Haste in solving our problems.

3. Haste in giving promises.

4. Haste in mistrust and slowness in overcoming it.

5. Haste in the non survival of the feelings of happiness with those close to us.

6. Haste in criticizing on non-objective basis.

If I asked us all why are we hasty?

I think I cannot find a convincing answer. There were concepts and beliefs surrounded our thought which we embrace believing that we understood life… Now we have to say that the matter is not like that and we have to differentiate between two existent mentalities on real life which are (hasty mentality) and (careful mentality).

In my opinion I think we all agree that we desperately need, under such severe life conflicts, to be closer to the second mentality as it is the only alley of success and the key to every achievement.

Prophet Mohammed -peace be upon him- said: “Carefulness is from God and haste is from Devil.”

Society and frank pause

I think our Arab communities don’t encourage the culture of thinking and the efforts are not enough to spread this culture. This is apparent through some evidences.

• The cultural scene; the most prominent phenomenon is that we don’t read.

• The social environment; the reduction of energy and talents.

• Do/Don’t …is the slow death of the talent of thinking.

• The cultural facilities; did they play their role?

• Our societies and their adoration of making “No” although most of them do not contradict with Islamic standards.

• Hence, as an inevitable result of the emergence of such phenomena, we have the right to wonder: do we live in cultural alienation today?

Before the end

What did we do? What are we going to do?

And the most important question is what are we working on now?

I think like all do that the development of thinking is an accumulative process involving several factors; the experiences and experiments which our mind underwent play a role.

Also culture and reading play another role. And I remember what Stephen R Covey said, “Nothing elevates culture and thought like reading”. All that is related to two important things; firstly the desire to change, and Secondly asking God for help to provide us with the correct thought and to help us in this mission (but the achievement of my aim depends on God alone).

Two important recommendations

I put in your hands two important recommendations of intellectual elite to be incentive for us to exercise thinking and to re-discover it again.

(Man can do sports to improve his fitness; he can also improve his thinking by ways on top of which: dialogue, reading, and avoiding the pitfalls of thinking)

Dr. Ahmed Albraa’ Alamiry

(Mind does not develop except by three things: continuity of thinking, reading the books of thinkers and attentiveness to life experiences).

Mostafa Alsebaay

I read the autobiography of Malcolm X and what attracted me was that he kept an open mind to life experiences and things around him. He said, “I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."

At the end of the day

Our conversation will be useless and does not carry any value unless there is a procedural action of changing our ways of thinking and the methods of our culture. We are not talking here about a supernatural effort as it is to take a step forward and a serious determination to be better. And by experience, if you start, you'll be surprised with a tremendous success on its way to you.

Christian D. Larson said “That a man can change himself….and master his own destiny is the conclusion of every mind that is wide awake to the power of right thought.”