Think even before you think!
By: Mir Bilal
Thinking process occupies an important place in an individual’s personality and in his/her life overall. In fact only four to five thought processing traits (Cognitive Traits) will help us to determine and detect the kind of personality an individual is possessing. It is thinking and reasoning ability of humans that differentiates them from all other creations of Almighty Allah, it is mainly because of this reason they have been recognised as best creation (Ashraful Makhlookat) among all the creation of Allah.
Most of the philosophers and sociologists have treated man as a social animal who is born with some animal instincts (S. Frend uses the concept of Id to define this), it is the thinking process that largely helps this social animal to become a social man. This thinking process of cognitive abilities makes the man a real and responsible creature.
Earlier as I mentioned that humans are recognised as the best creation of all because of their ability to think and reason well –to put it otherwise, if humans keep mind idle and do not make proper use of their thinking process, in the process of socialisation such category of individuals tend to remain social animals, instead of becoming social man.
Most of the modern social and personal conflicts that have braced us today both socially and individually are basically products of poor thinking process. To get rid of all these conflicts, the only way out is to make our thought processes clear, liquid and productive. It is the only way a humane, productive and peaceful society can be created. To quote E. Einstein “The World We Have Created Is The Process Of Our Thinking And It Can’t Be Changed Without Changing Our Thinking”.
To make an intellectual society and a place where new and novel ideas can be produced , the youth have to play an all important role . The major role of youth in our context is to stop keeping the mind idle and to get rid of pessimist thoughts. Another huge role of our young generation is to learn to make use of their cognitive powers effectively. As I have come across a number of such individuals who in spite of having academic scores and degrees make very limited use of their thinking process. One disadvantage of this is that in spite of having huge degrees , the process of indoctrination and brain washing is very easy in them,such individuals very easily become victims of hero worship which is main cause many problems in our context today. Actually the problem starts from the very grass root level, from the very beginning of the education of our child; we put more emphasis on cramming and memorisation and largely ignore their thinking process development. As a result the society we produce is more dogmatised and less intellectual.
Anyways talking about the role of youth in the intellectual society transformation, they must also learn to think. They must learn to produce such ideas which are novel and productive and socially desirable all the way through. Learning to think also includes that the young must learn to appreciate the thought process and point of view of others and not try to force their own thinking on others; psychologically it is called as meta-cognition.
So we must think before we think as our own thinking can change not only us individually but it can also affect people around us. Our thoughts become our ideas-ideas induce action and our actions determine our personality and us, so we must take care our thoughts, it in return will take care of our personality and individuality .
To conclude I, would love to quote the words of Santosh Kalwar who said “We Are Addicted To Our Thoughts. We Can’t Change Anything, If We Can’t Change Our Thinking”.
