Implications of Tawhid on Thought

What is thought? The definition of thought can be viewed from different angles of analysis which it can be understood as the process of thinking, the idea that pop up in the mind or a foundation or a concept of a discipline.

Thought is an inner self communication within the man himself, through the agents of inner communication, which are heart and the faculty of reason (mind). However, in western perspective, they tend to exclude the heart as the agent of inner communication due to the skepticism among their society. Thus, thought is generally invisible until it is expresses verbally by man, as narrated by Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, “Allah has forgiven my followers the evil thoughts that occur to their minds, as long as such thoughts are not put into action or uttered.” And Qatada said, “If someone divorces his wife just in his mind, such an unuttered divorce has no effect.                  

Sahih Bukhari: Book 7: Volume 63: Hadith194

Essentially, thought comes into existence when man is pondering into something. He raises questions to himself and searching for the answer. Thought can be influenced by external and internal factor and can influence the conduct of man. It also has two possible outcomes, whether remains as an inner interaction within a man or becoming a habit of man in their day to day interactions in society level.

Among the factors that can directly as well as indirectly influencing the process of thinking of a man are the environment he is living in, the level of education he received, the background, the desires (al-nafsu), reading materials, our religion and experiences.

Thus, thought is basically the idea created or act of questioning self using a person’s heart and faculty of reason (mind) due to observation of his environment, experiences, out of curiosity, and reflection of certain situations that has happened. The thought later developed into several phases. The first phase is perspective, second phase is theory, third phase is model and lastly a framework or it might end up as a paradigm. However, the phase may be differs according to which definition of thought we viewed. The abovementioned phases can be an outcome is we viewed thought as a foundation or concept. Whereas, if we viewed thought of act of thinking, it may later develop into perspective, paradigm and end up as part of our behavior.

Thought is inseparable with our daily life. Sometimes, our life is driven by our thought of what have happened yesterday, what we want it to be tomorrow and what we can do if today is the last day. Hence, thought plays an important role in shaping our daily life without we realize it and consequently, we are automatically leading our life by our thought. 

Accordingly, man’s thought undeniably affected man’s daily life through shaping man’s behavior, created a paradigm, the way man’s interact with others and also affect the inner condition of a man which we can refer to the hadith of the Prophet:

It is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) observed: The Satan comes to every one of you and says: Who created this and that? Till he questions: Who created your Lord? When he comes to that, one should seek refuge in Allah and keep away (from such idle thoughts)

Sahih Muslim: Book 1: Hadith 244

Narratted Umar ibn Al- Khattab:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to seek refuge in Allah from five things; cowardliness, niggardliness, the evil of old age (love for world and incessant hope ), evil thoughts and punishment in the grave.

Abu Dawud: Book 8: Hadith 1534

As a Muslim, the concept of tawhid should be embedded in our daily life and thought is not an exception. Analyzing the abovementioned definition, factors and effects of thought, we will discuss the implications of tawhid on thought. Everyday man faces suffering, happiness, being tested, and so on. These situations is indirectly affected the way they think, either their perceived it positively or negatively because the choice lies in the hand of man himself.  

A man, as individual are among of the creations that created by the Creator. Man and animal shared the same characteristics as animal; yet, compared to animal, man has been endowed with the faculty of reason which may help him to understand the revelation, i.e, Quran and As-Sunnah. This faculty of reason might function in accordance of its purposes of creation or might functioning opposite from what it has told to do. In order for the faculty of reason to functioning as it is ordained by the Creator, the heart and the reason should be working interdependently. Thus, for the heart to be a companion of the mind, it first has to grasp the concept of Tawhid as the heart is the king of the human body.

In order to have a clear view on the implications of tawhid on thought, we will relate thought with one of the article of Iman that is, the belief on Qada and Qadar and the concept of Islam focusing on the concept of Tawhid itself and the revelations. These things seem to be a simple model on explaining the implication of tawhid on the thought.

#####(however, i am unable to construct the model since, it needs a thorough reading, analysis and focus.)

This is an extract(my part) of the group asignment for the Islamic Aqidah. The references for this asignmnt is Hadith and Quran, various books such as implications of tawhid on human life and thought by Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi and other books i cant recall becoz i read it long time ago and i would say that i wrote this asgnment based on my experiences and pondering over the lectures in all classes, especially, International Relations. yet, this part is still incomplete and need further touch, maybe from others...######