Series of Answers by the Eminent Scholar Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah, Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, to the Questions of the Visitors to his Facebook Page “Fikri”
To Abu Abdullah Suleiman
The Question:
As-Salamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,
In the book The Islamic Personality (Ash-Shakhsiyyah al-Islamiyyah) Volume I, under the topic “The Ummah's Need Today for Mufassirin” (lines 9 and 10), it states: “(as a deep-thinking, enlightened intellectual book).” Is the word mustanirah (enlightened) correct?
The Answer:
Wa Alaykum as-Salam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,
The word (mustanirah) is correct. Thought is of three types: shallow, deep, and enlightened. The details of this can be found in the book Thinking (At-Tafkir), pages 86-92, and I will quote for you from it:
[Thinking is either shallow, deep, or enlightened. Shallow thinking is the thinking of the general public. Deep thinking is found among scholars. As for enlightened thinking, it is often the thinking of leaders and the enlightened among scholars and the general public. Shallow thinking is simply the transfer of reality to the brain, without searching for anything else, and without attempting to sense what is connected to it. It involves linking this sensation with the information related to it, without attempting to search for other information related to it, then coming out with a shallow judgment. This is what prevails in groups, among those of low intellectual level, and among uneducated and uncultured intelligent people...
As for deep thought, it is to delve deeply into thinking, meaning to delve deeply into the sensation of reality, and to delve deeply into the information that is linked to this sensation to perceive the reality. It does not settle for mere sensation and primary information to link the sensation, as is the case in shallow thinking. Rather, it revisits the sensation of reality and attempts to sense it more than before, either through experiment or by repeating the sensation. It searches for other information along with the primary information and re-links the information to the reality more than before, either by observation and its repetition or by re-linking once again. From this type of sensation and this type of linking, or this type of information, deep thoughts emerge, whether they are facts or not. By repeating and becoming accustomed to this, deep thinking exists. Thus, deep thinking is not settling for the initial sensation, initial information, and initial linking. It is the second step after shallow thinking. This is the thinking of scholars and thinkers, although it is not necessarily the thinking of the educated. Deep thinking is to delve deeply into the sense, the information, and the linking.
As for enlightened thinking, it is deep thinking itself, plus thinking about what surrounds the reality and what relates to it to reach true results. That is, deep thinking is to delve deeply into the thought itself, but enlightened thinking is that, alongside the depth in thought, there is thinking about what surrounds it and relates to it, for a deliberate goal, which is to reach true results. Therefore, every enlightened thought is deep thinking, and it is impossible for enlightened thinking to come from shallow thinking. However, not every deep thinking is enlightened thinking. For example, a nuclear scientist when researching the splitting of an atom, a chemist when researching the composition of things, and a faqih (jurist) when researching the derivation of rulings and the establishment of laws—when they and their like research things and matters, they research them with depth. Without depth, they would not have reached those brilliant results. But they are not enlightened thinkers, and their thinking is not considered enlightened. Therefore, do not be surprised when you find a nuclear scientist praying to a piece of wood, i.e., to the cross, even though the simplest enlightenment shows that this wood neither benefits nor harms, and it is not something to be worshipped. Do not be surprised when you find a profound legal expert believing in the existence of saints and surrendering himself to a man like him so that his sins may be forgiven. This is because the nuclear scientist, the legal expert, and their like think deeply but not enlightenedly. If their thinking were enlightened, they would not have reached the wood, they would not have believed in the existence of saints, and they would not have sought forgiveness from men like themselves. It is true that a deep thinker is deep in what he has thought about and not in anything else; he might be deep when thinking about splitting the atom or establishing a law, but he may be ridiculous in other matters if he thinks about them. This is true, but a thinker's habit of deep thinking makes him delve deep into most of what he thinks about, especially matters related to the al-uqdah al-kubra (the greatest knot) or the viewpoint in life. However, the absence of enlightenment in his thinking makes him habituated to deep thinking, shallow thinking, and even ridiculous thinking. Therefore, deep thinking alone is not enough to revive man and raise his intellectual level; rather, in order for that to happen, there must be enlightenment in thought so that the elevation in thought occurs...].
If you want more, refer to the mentioned book. May Allah be with you.
Your brother, Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah
05 Sha'ban 1445 AH
Corresponding to 15/02/2024 CE
Link to the answer from the Ameer's page (may Allah protect him) on Facebook