How to Pursue Dreams

The miracle of the Prophet (SWAS) was that there were no miracles. He became the most successful man ever by rational strategy to achieve his goals. The Sunnah is intelligent strategy so if we want to become successful, we should deliberately plan to achieve our dreams.

If we adopt the right methodology to pursue our dreams, we will be pulled to our goals rather having to push ourselves towards them. Even when we are tired we would be motivated to keep working towards them. What if we are automatically pulled towards every good thing we decide to achieve?

When we adopt this methodology everyone around us gets influenced including family, colleagues and community. When we work on one area of our life (e.g. career) all other areas of the life get affected, e.g. family, health, religion, relationships, etc. These are the different hats we wear.

We start off by trying to pursue our dreams in one or two areas of life. This pursuit is a journey. It needs to be strategically planned and monitored stage by stage. The Prophet (SWAS) excelled in all areas of life.

The heart of this methodology is the identity. When we decide to pursue a dream, wearing a specific hat, we take on an identity that is characteristic for that hat, e.g. someone wanting to perfect tajweed might take the identity of Abdul Basit Abdus Samad. When we take an identity, it psychologically conditions us to successfully achieve that dream.

The identity is enhanced by habits. When we adopt the habits, they enable us to believe in the identity which leads to our dreams thus success boils down to habits. Habits should be defined to be at a specific location and specific time. They should be of two minutes or less in duration.

Who we become during the journey - the identity - may be more important than the dream. The journey transforms us. If we are only focused on the dream we will be miserable after we get there. We might feel a sense of euphoria on reaching the goal, but nothing more. We must learn to enjoy the journey otherwise the journey will seem to us as an obstacle or something we hate which will discourage us to fulfill our dreams. We must love the journey in order to accomplish our dreams.

To live a good life throughout the journey, we should have faith and do good deeds. We can be happy, emphatic, loving, satisfied, etc. at any moment in the journey, not necessarily after we get to the destination.

We need to try to quantify the progress of the journey and try to measure it to see how we are doing at different stages.

There is some vital behavior which leads to the success of this methodology and needs to be determined scientifically through hypothesis testing. If we get the vital behavior right on a daily basis everything in the methodology can work out. It can be as simple as going to bed at the same time every night.

Knowing What to Know

Modern theory of knowledge is baffled by discovering a foolproof systematic method of differentiating true knowledge from false. Without knowing what to know and what to reject we will be overwhelmed in our age of massive volumes of information. Determining the truth from falsehood is essential to guide global human society to holistic success. Yet, without resolving this fundamental philosophical question, the modern world feels lost.

Classical epistemology states that to have knowledge of a proposition like “the earth is round” requires that the statement is true by our belief of it based on some justification. Since we believe that the earth is round based on observation from space, we can classify this as knowledge.

Unfortunately, the classical theory breaks down when we consider the problem the philosopher Gettier uncovered. He showed that even if we believe that a proposition is justified as true it might have just been true by luck. In fact, such statements should not be classified as knowledge. As an example, consider a stopped clock that shows the correct time of the day by chance that a person looks at it at the right time. The proposition that the “clock shows that it is 10 O’clock” is believed to be true by the person justified on his observation. The fact that it is indeed true does not mean that can be classified as being knowledge as you cannot get to tell the time by looking at a stopped clock. It was just by chance that the person looked at the clock at 10”.

How can philosophers decide if information can be classified as true knowing that there exists information out there that can be justified and believed to be true whereas it was only true by chance when it was being observed? This has confused philosophers as to what exactly is knowledge. They do not have a general theory of knowledge which they can apply universally to classify information as true knowledge.

How can humanity be sure what to believe? How can we be protected from delusions of the information deluge of our age? Can there be a general theory of knowledge? The Islamic paradigm provides answers to such elusive questions. In the Islamic paradigm, there are two sources of knowledge – this world and that world (the unseen world). Absolute knowledge comes from divine revelations. They provide natural basic principles which are universally at work in both the worlds. When we observe phenomena in our environment, we observe cause and effect rationally, guided by the principles of revelation, e.g. the fact that the revelations say that every man shall taste death, makes us exclude research into immortality as it is based on false knowledge that “man can live forever”.

To be classified as knowledge a proposition should be believed to be true when justified by universal principles either directly from revelations or by rational observation guided by such principles. If rational observation shows that something is true while revelation shows something is false, we believe it is false e.g. even if our previous knowledge that the divine command instructed dipping a fallen fly in a drink might seem irrational, we accept is as true knowledge. Rational observation can help take us to the truth but rational observation is not infallible. It cannot sit in judgement of the truth. This removes classifications of delusions like those into the realm of knowledge which is the problem with coming up with a universal theory of knowledge in modern philosophy.

Thus, we can attempt to improve the general theory of knowledge with the help of the Islamic paradigm. A proposition is believed to be true if it can be justified through rational observations in the light of divine revelations or by divine revelations alone. Islam acknowledges mankind’s ignorance with only Allah being All Knowing. Even with this theory, there might be propositions which cannot be completely classified not by the weakness of the theory but by human deficiency to find the justification. With this improved epistemology, humanity can be more confident as to what is true and false increasing them in conviction and avoiding delusions. This would result in better guidance of our global society which has lost the capability to judge right from wrong.

How to Develop Thought

Perhaps thought inspired on sound principles has become the rarest commodity in the 21st century. It is increasingly difficult to reason independently based on reality due to the dominance of global thought rife in its philosophical paradoxes. Think tanks with vested interests make political, academic, social, cultural, economic and moral policies globally. They set the agenda of governments, media, university research, social policy, religious control and economic reforms through international organizations. Media has almost 24/7 grip on humanity's thoughts. Unless one completely isolates oneself, one cannot protect oneself from the influence of their delusional thoughts. At the same time, one cannot develop correct thought to analyze a world which one is isolated from. The strategy to develop inspired thinking for the 21st century needs effort, sacrifice, patience and wisdom.

Bad intentions result in corrupt thinking which results in bad actions which result in bad consequences. Whereas, good intentions result in sound thinking which results in good actions which result in good consequences. To have sound thought we must have "good" intentions. Who defines "good"? our parents? our primary school teacher? our employer? our government? Good intentions are based on a deep understanding of the principles of Islam. Thus, to have sound thought, we must constantly be immersed in the Islamic paradigm by studying it from its sources, in a world which constantly streams ideas counter to it. To think properly we need to critically filter our culture, our social trends, our national trends, our media, globally promoted ideas and initiatives, ideas of deviant groups and ideas taught in educational institutes. We need to be global citizens having independent minds rather than minds tainted by nationalism.

By studying with and listening to a genuine Islamic scholars we reinforce our understanding. We must learn Islam academically in courses rather than just practice what our forefathers used to do. By doing this, we can glean principles of reality from it the same way we glean the laws of motion from the academic study of physics. Just like physics has natural principles which help us study aspects of the physical world from an internally valid systematic framework, Islam has natural principles which help us study reality of this and the unseen world. Whereas, western philosophy cuts off the stream of knowledge gleaned from the unseen realm, Islam uses that knowledge to guide intuitive reasoning to understand things more comprehensively. The vision of secular thought is monocular, that of Islamic thought is stereoscopic - using knowledge of both the seen and unseen universe to form it.

Intentions can be kept pure by living fully immersed in the Islamic paradigm and controlling exposure and influence of mainstream ideas which oppose it. This is possible by constantly studying Islam formally, thinking about it, implementing it and teaching it to others. The home environment can be kept pure when all family members have the same aspirations, living without a TV, controlling what is seen , heard and read on digital devices; keeping healthy and loving relations with family members. The more we implement and teach Islam, the deeper our thought becomes. When thought is not juxtaposed among Islamic, cultural and secular worldviews it will not be confused. It will be possible to just continue building everything on the Islamic foundation as one learns new subjects of knowledge.

The intentions to acquire beneficial knowledge continuously should be for our higher spiritual development - to develop the light of understanding by which we can see things as they really are so that we positively impact the world. Care should be exercised that the world does not distract us from this mission for the hereafter. We should not covet by it praise,wealth, status, fame and honor. Lives full of meaning might be more enriching than meaningless ostentatious lives.

To understand the 21st century world one needs to understand modern knowledge. It is relatively easy to acquire empirical and analytical knowledge like that of the natural sciences, engineering, computer sciences, mathematics, etc. because they are based on observed/measurable phenomenon of this world and do not conflict much with Islamic principles. We should not try studying the humanities without first studying Islam well. Nevertheless, after studying Islam significantly, we should study the social sciences by using Islamic principles as a criteria to judge the knowledge before we decide to incorporate it in our framework of personal knowledge. Thus knowledge streams from a variety of disciplines can constantly be acquired by such self-learning.

Pure intention and correct knowledge are insufficient by themselves in developing sound thought. They need to be supplemented with good life experiences and keen observation of the phenomenon we experience with our senses. Thought is developed by practicing thinking about one's observations in the context knowledge and life experiences. To enrich thought, one needs to increase variety and depth of one's knowledge and experiences, Thus living in different societies, learning different languages, working in different industries and having a diverse social network is essential for rich thought.

The more one thinks at a meta level about things, the more one's thought develops. Thinking is a muscle which needs to be exercised daily. Writing one's thoughts allows one to think about them systematically and deliberately. One train of thought leads to another connected one. As the thought network develops, one can see trends and patterns of deep realization like it is done artificially in data mining these days. This is the beginning of wisdom. With time, one can develop discerning insight (firasa) which is sudden intuitive understanding.

To see reality as reality, thought must be pure. Pure thought is thought based on the right intentions, correct knowledge, positive assumptions, good character, good speech, good morals, good deeds and good living. Constant effort is needed to keep thought pure by studying and implementing Islam genuinely. Impure thought results in distorted concept of reality causing one to suffer from delusions about aspects of reality. Modern thought lacks such a basis, diminishing humanity's ability to understand reality for what it is.

When most of humanity will be immersed in virtual worlds, sound deep thinking will become increasingly rare. The masses will have reptilian brains that instinctively react immediately to stimuli. They will be controlled by few social architects who see humans as animals and will decide when and what global populations will think and do. The masses will constantly be concerned with personal physical survival. People will become like machines and machines like people.

Among all peoples of the world, only Muslims have the sources and methodology of sound thought development which can restore humanity to humans. Rather than rushing to adopt Western thinking, should not Muslims take the means to reform their own and then teach how to think to the world? 

"Nasiha" for 21st Century Muslim Students

Dear Son/Daughter of Islam,

The mindset of success needed to succeed holistically in the future will be significantly different form what was needed for our generation. The challenges of a one-world globalized world that you will inherit are bigger and more complicated than those we faced. At the same time, this period is very interesting and full of potential for the rightly motivated student.

The Quran indicates that normally people attain religious satisfaction and the right understanding of reality (wisdom) at age 40.  Until then, a Muslim needs to exert serious efforts to seek knowledge, keep themselves pure - mentally, spiritually and physically, learn skills, develop personal independence while serving others, become satisfied with being alone and search for meaning.

The first thing that the 21st century Muslim student needs is a worthy intention - not to get a high GPA, a good job, a perfect spouse, wealth or fame. The intention should rather be something higher - to understand reality and willingly submit oneself to excel in the part they will play in the universe. A person who is driven to discover and play out their natural destiny to the fullest will get their share of worldly success and they will be satisfied with it. In contrast, someone who chases the world might not get it and they will unsatisfactorily be chasing elusive goals throughout their lives.

With the right intention, the modern Muslim student must love all useful knowledge - worldly and Islamic, seeking to quench their thirst from all pure sources of it while always contemplating about their deeper meanings. The pursuit of knowledge should not be limited to just one's major but rather knowledge should be gleaned from a wide range of disciplines. A Muslim is not just a doctor, engineer, computer scientist, financial analyst, manager, lawyer, etc. A Muslim is a Muslim in the full sense of the word and a Muslim thinks holistically from the paradigm of Islam about all disciplines. They do not differentiate social sciences from physical sciences nor theoretical sciences from applied sciences. To a Muslim all knowledge is based on the universal divine principles in the sources of Islam and need to be studied in as a holistic fabric of knowledge to get to know reality. It is such pursuit of knowledge which is considered worship in Islam and was practiced by the Muslim scientists/thinkers of Islam's Golden Age.

The Muslim student needs to protect themselves in the world full of sins and distractions. Purity of intentions, thoughts, goals and actions are vital in a world which is based on a dysfunctional model of reality. In such a world, it is praiseworthy to exclusively desire fame, wealth and status; to waste precious time in never ending frivolous games and entertainment; to glorify sinful living; to have girl friend / boy friend; to have bad manners and to have selfish goals. By repeatedly reminding themselves of their higher intentions, Muslim students can become like guided smart missiles, which are focused on their target while not being effected by their environment.

The Muslim student needs to implement Islamic practice little by little in their lives - always growing in it. Islam is the natural way of life of all creation. In our youth, we get to appreciate different aspects of it in parts as we are not trained to see the whole picture due to our lack of knowledge, life experiences, understanding and attention span. Nevertheless, it is important to implement what little we learn and make it part of us as it is when we are immersed in it the more intense our understanding and appreciation of it becomes.

The Muslim student needs to lean useful skills that will be needed in our tech-driven world. Focus should be on those human attributes that cannot easily be replicated by machines - human creativity and human compassion. Students should learn to think holistically, debate meaningfully, speak publicly, read voraciously, write eloquently and give compassionately while practicing impeccable morality. Such higher human abilities are more important to learn than skills which are taught in assembly-line fashion such as technology which is changing very fast and can be mastered by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Muslim students should try and learn languages including their mother tongue, a global European language (French, Spanish, etc.), a global Asian language (Chinese, Hindi, etc.) while paying close attention to mastering Arabic and English. Languages are windows in perceiving the worldview of the reality of the universe and it is only by meticulously combining and analyzing inspirational thoughts from different global communities do we get to appreciate aspects of the ultimate Truth.

By learning to live independently, the Muslim of the future will increase their learning exponentially. This is essential as a Muslim must find satisfaction is being alone. Learning to be content without necessarily finding stimulation from constant face-to-face or virtual interaction, builds character, thought and abilities. Living alone is not recommended for long periods.

When they feel the need, they should get married to someone keeping excellence, knowledge and practice of Islam as their criteria of selecting their life partner. To some marriage might be recommended early considering the flirtatious nature of the 21st century world. The right life partner is indispensable to the Muslim student's higher intention as they will help them achieve their goals while providing them satisfaction in so many ways. Living with someone who does not have the same intentions, will only make things more difficult. Thus, commitment and formal knowledge of Islam are indispensable for marriage.

No matter what stage of education a Muslim is in, they can try to always implement the knowledge they learn by applying it to serve others. This gives deep insights into the knowledge, while developing the habit and outlook of helping, as it provides feedback and thus an opportunity to improve one's understanding. It prepares us for our careers but most importantly it rewards us in the hereafter if we have that intention. I person with such an attitude should not have to ask people to find them a job, they will naturally know what they want to do and opportunities in their career will seek them out.

A lifetime of effort in seeking knowledge, skills, understanding and experiences will prepare the Muslim student of the 21st century to enjoy the ultimate pleasure of this life - not eating at the best restaurant, being with the best spouse, getting the best professional position or being honored globally. No. We get our ultimate pleasure from spending our mundane lives in deep ecstasy that comes from living our part fully in the divine natural scheme of things - having the ability to understand and deeply think about our role in context; to ponder on different aspects of the world from the right frame of thought and to use these abilities to positively change the world. 

Islam and Western Moral Philosophy

Western moral philosophy's area of meta-ethics tries to answer the question of how can we decide if something is moral or not. Passing moral judgement like "lying is bad only if you get caught" is not as universally accepted as empirical judgement like "the earth moves around the sun". If there is no universal consensus as to what is moral and what is immoral how can our global society make moral progress which is vital for humanity?

Western philosophy does not have the answer. As the Scottish philosopher, David Hume rightly observed the realm of philosophy is limited to the cause and effect of phenomenon experienced in the world of the philosopher. They are incapable of penetrating the infinite worlds beyond as that is where the realm of philosophy ends. The extreme corruption in the church doctrine of the Middle Ages which they take to be Christianity through whose lens they judge all religions, resulted in Western philosophers to reject divine teachings as a source of practical thought in the Renaissance. Thus, without rational religious principles to guide them, today's Western Philosopher is utterly confused about such issues as morality.

Western philosophers categorize moral judgement in three main categories: objective moral judgement, relative moral judgement and emotive moral judgement. People who believe that moral judgement is objective believe that it is as true as empirical judgement, e.g. "genocide is bad" as true universally as "I am less than 6 ft. tall". Such people fail to explain the magnitude of differences in moral opinion that exists in humanity. People who believe that moral judgement is relative believe that a judgement is dependent on the individual, their background and their culture. It might be true in one society and false in another society, e.g. "bank interest is harmful to global society". People who believe that moral judgement is emotive do not reason and think about morality but rather depend on their emotions to decide if something is morally good or bad, e.g. "polygamy is bad". Meta-ethics is a very active field of research in western philosophy university departments. They are trying to come up with a unified theory that tries to tie together all these three positions on moral judgement. Without a true religion, they find it excessively elusive.

Islam has the solution to this as well as perhaps most modern philosophical conundrums because the sources of research are not only the observable world (as is for philosophy) but also the unseen. A believer is engrossed in research by observing the causes and effects of this world (i.e. to make empirical judgments) in the light of divine revelations in the Quran and what was revealed to us from the unseen by Prophet Muhammad (SWAS) (i.e.to make moral judgments).

The Western mind, automatically relates this to Christian moral philosophy and rejects Islam's explanation to the meta-ethics conundrum as as simplistic and insufficient as Christianity's religious morality. Whereas the moral principles are developed by Christian philosophers after the formation of Church doctrine, Islamic moral principles are directly from the divine - the words of Allah, either in the Quran or as reported in authentic ahadith. The authenticity of both these sources are empirically well established - the Quranic scriptures being studied to be unchanged almost from the century of its revelation and the hadith having a meticulously scientific methodology of classifying the authenticity of hadith. 

The Muslim philosopher works with these divine building blocks using the Prophetic methodology rather than man made constructs from the church clergy. These moral principles are part of a holistic reality, violating which disturbs the whole fabric of the universe. Thus, empirical principles and moral principles are both universal principles from the one divine source - Allah.  Just as not watering plants caused them to whiter and die, lying causes us to become self-deluded. Just as empirically stating "grass is green" is not always universally true, saying "lying is bad" is not always true. Islamic morality is as sophisticated as the depth of its sources. These divine words are pregnant with deep meaning, fine detail and a multitude of implications. There are so many exceptions to the general principles e.g. in the case of lying, a Muslim is allowed to lie to make their spouse happy, they can lie in times of war and lie to reconcile between people.

Islamic philosophy is not really philosophy. It is a way of thinking based on the natural universal principles with all their sophistication that befits modelling the natural reality of existence. Since the complexity of the reality being thought about is so profound, human language is insufficient to express its universal principles – whether empirical or moral. Thus, literal divine words which have been completely preserved since their revelation are gifted to humanity to live a meaningful and moral life in complete harmony with the rest of the natural universe.

Moral principles are universal principles for all humanity and for all times. There is tremendous detail and sophistication to them which allows their relativistic application in different societies and times. Since they are based on natural principles, they directly affect the human psyche resulting in an emotive response. Thus, Islamic paradigm of thought completely and comprehensively solves Western philosophy’s meta-ethics conundrum which is plaguing humanity.

The lack of the basis of morality in our modern global society means that humanity is blindly groping for a means to create a global ethical society. The moral values of humanity are at a all time low and worsening. The meta-ethics of Islam completely satisfies this need. Humanity can progress in morality as far as it has progressed empirically, if it adopts Islamic ethics. 

The Meaning of Being Human in a Post COVID-19 World

A sign of enslaved societies is that they lose the capacity to contemplate on, understand, articulate and act on the principles of their own civilization's philosophy. Enslaved peoples lose their identity. They see and judge themselves from the worldview of their masters. Their master's beliefs become their beliefs. Their master's preferences become their preferences. Their master's aspirations become their aspirations.

In a one-world post-COVID 19 scenario, two essential human attributes might become increasingly rare: creative, independent thought and genuine compassion. As globalization reaches its pinnacle and all people of the world increasingly think the same. The differences among individual nations will be external and insignificant (traditional dress, gourmet food, ancestral language, ancestral religion, national currency, national policy and some cultural vestiges), until those too will diminish and disappear.

Residents of this emerging Orwellian world become like robots - devoid of creativity and compassion -  while machines will be endowed with these and other artificial human characteristics. The potential for chaos and anarchy would increase as people fight to survive in an environment where they are unable to judge right from wrong, truth from falsehood and friend from foe. Without thought, rumors and false news may cause hysteria to spread giving authorities the excuse to use force to further implement their agenda of complete global control.

With global thought controlled by formal news, media, advertisements, social trends, social media, celebrities and popular trends, people will end up following one another - the blind mice following other blind mice. The inability to think would be compounded with nearly 24/7 screen time of content created by others, brainwashing humanity and making them believe, like and do what the global social architects wish. All humanity will think and talk about the same issue at the same time.

The single global digital currency would not only control humanity's financial destinies but would also allow further control on them by using data analytics to study their spending histories. Thus custom advertisements/media content would be streamed to them based on all these trends locking people to their smart devices forever. People will develop reptilian brains by which they could only react by instinct, leaving little room to develop deep, alternate thought patterns.

People of the world would become excessively isolated - not marrying; living without family, let alone an extended family. Thus, they would only be able to practice compassion with animals or machines! Without emotional intelligence, their perception of their predicament would likely be more distorted and they would slide further from intellect and wisdom.

If we examine the philosophy of all the non-Western civilizations in the world, we would realize that although some are very ancient and deep such as the Chinese civilization, the Indian civilization, the Native American civilizations, the Sub-Saharan civilizations, the Aboriginal civilization, etc. they do not have the characteristics that can provide an alternative to this one-world scenario we are entering. At best, they can just add their flavor to the external personal practices and well being of its practitioners in this new world. They cannot challenge the new "reality" or provide a comprehensive, natural, just, practical, methodological and foolproof way of life that can replace the emerging system.

The only liberating philosophy from such a man made system is that of Islam. As our sincere, learned scholars pass away there will be fewer people to carry forward the mantle. People would have to guard and grow in what they know like the early Muslims did in Makkah - learning, safeguarding and teaching in a globally antagonistic world. Nevertheless, Islam will be the only liberating theology par excellance that all conscientious peoples of the world will flock to it restore their humanity. Thus to be a human in the post-COVID 19 world in the full sense of the word, one would have to be a Muslim in the full sense of the word.