THE ROLE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN ISLAM

NAME : ZAINANI BINTI MOHD ZADI
MATRIC NO. : G 1814356
COURSE : EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
COURSE TITLE : ADVANCE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF
ISLAMIC EDUCATION.
COURSE CODE : EDU 7003

AL-QURAN AND
HADITH ON

PHILOPSOPHIZING

THE ROLE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN ISLAM

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LEARNING 01 Explain the meaning of critical thinking
OUTCOMES: 02 Importance of Critical Thinking
03 Critical Thinking in Islamic Perspective
04 Compare thinking and critical thinking,

also western and Islam critical thinking

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?

To understand is to A critique aims to give
find reasons why new and different
things are the way meaning to life

they are

Dr. Yedullah Kazmi: to Involves the process Critical thinking needs
be critical is to try to of coding and freedom
understand the world
decoding of meaning

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‘’Critical thinking is
skilled and active
interpretation and
evaluation of observations
and communications,
information and
argumentation”

-shiva shrestha-

“critical thinking is
the art of analysing

and evaluating
thinking with a view

to improving it”

- DR. RICHARD PAUL -

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?

the ability to analyze, critic and
advocate ideas.
to reach factual or judgemental
conclusion.

As a guide to belief and action

Part of educational process

A skill that has to be developed in order to
make it becomes a habits

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what
to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.

Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following :

understand the solve problems
logical connections systematically

between ideas

identify, construct identify the
and evaluate relevance and
arguments importance of ideas

detect reflect on the justification
inconsistencies and of one's own beliefs and
common mistakes
values
in reasoning

THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL THINKING

is a domain-general promotes
thinking skill creativity

is very important is crucial for self-
in the new reflection
knowledge
economy. Good critical thinking is
the foundation of
enhances language
and presentation science and democracy
skills.

CRITICAL THINKING IN ISLAMIC
PERSPECTIVE

In ARABIC, the word 01
‘THINK’ refers to the

word TAFAKKUR

AL-FIKR and AL- 02 03 AL-Jauhari defined
TAFAKKUR mean ‘TAFAKKUR’ as being
the same. silent while in a deep
thought.

THREE PHASES OF TAFAKKUR

Give the concept of 01
an idea or information

(critical thinking)

Concentrating and 03 Bring to think of ALLAH as
the CREATOR of the
02forming new ideas of Supreme Court and
resulted
information (creative
thinking)

MEANING OF ‘THINKING’ IN AL-QURAN

Tafakkur Ta’akul Ta’abbur Tazakkur Tadabbur

to think to use the to observe to take to
(critical and brain (critical carefully lesson evaluate
and creative (creative (critical (critical
creative thinking) thinking) thinking)
thinking) thinking)

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS?

Asking Examining
01 questions 03 evidence

Defining a Analyzing
02 problem 04 assumptions

and biases

CONT……

Avoiding emotional
05 reasoning

Considering other

07 interpretations

Considering other interpretations

06 Avoiding

oversimplification
Tolerating

08 ambiguity

Critical
thinking
skills
explained

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

1. Using brain -
(8:22) – thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

a) To compare and differentiate
- (Al-An’am:50) – critical thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

b) To create category - (Al-
Baqarah:1-5) – creative thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

c) To explain why - (Al-Baqarah:219)
– critical thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

d) To specify a trusted source - (Al-
Hujuraat:6) – critical thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

e) To create analogies and
methapors
(An-Nahl:75) – creative thinking

ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL AND
CREATIVE THINKING
IN ALQURAN

f) To make decision - (Al-Imraan:159)
– critical thinking

COMPARISON

Thinking Critical Thinking

Can be classified as an Can be said to be a skill
action

Can be spontaneous Used with caution

Thinker may base their A critical thinker is able
belief solely on faith or to identify the main
personal opinion contention in an issue,
look for evidence that
supports or opposes
that contention, and
assess the strength of
the reasoning

COMPARISON

WESTERN ISLAMIC CRITICAL

CRITICAL THINKING

THINKING

A critique is how Value of knowledge

successful it is in must bring human

bringing about the closer to Allah

desire result.

Development and Development and

growth of intellectual growth of intellectual

and spiritual (belief)

WESTERN CRITICAL THINKING

• In the Western critical thought, the
success of a critique is judged purely on

pragmatic and utilitarian grounds.
• Critique is entirely a this-worldy-affair, to

bring changes in the world for the
purpose of this world.

ISLAMIC CRITICAL THINKING

• To engage in critical thought is a moral commitment and
to be judged on its moral worth independent of its
success or failure in this world.

• To act morally but the success or failure of our actions is
entirely in Allah’s hand.

• It is the principle of tawhid which is very important in
Muslims’ life.

• To preserve the principle of tawhid in history as to avoid
the utopian flavor in Muslim thought.

THE ROLE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN ISLAM

9 ROLE :

1. To try to understand the world.
• to find reasons why things are the
way they are.
• involves the process of coding and
decoding of meaning.

2. To give new and different meaning to
life (critique).

3. To understand the signs of Allah.

4. To develop the understanding of the
Qur’an.

CONT….

Important for a Muslim’s

spiritual growth and 6
development.

To created tools of social 5
critism in order to realize
social justice on this earth.

To avoid the utopian 8
flavor in Muslim
Essential for a Muslim to thought Muslims should be trained to think
grow intellectually and
spiritually. 7 critically based on tawhid and take the 9
challenge to understand the Qur’an in order

to succeed in this world and the hereafter.

• Infographic Style • Ijtihad is a representative for Higher -

IJTIHAD AS A Order Thinking Skill that might be
PRINCIPLE OF
CRITICAL THINKING reflects to the Tawhid of Allah.
• As a critical thinking modality in

Islamic Education.
• Great combination of – Tadabbur,

Tafkih, Tafakkur, Ta’qil and

Tadhakkur - is central to Critical

Thinking
• The Quran encourages us over and

over again to think, reflect, ponder,

understand and analyse.
• Avoid the regime of taqlid or blind

imitation.

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Tazzakur

“Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the
earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are
indeed Signs for men of understanding. Men who
celebrate the praises of God, standing, sitting and
lying down on their sides, and contemplate the
(wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth,
(with thought): “Our Lord! Not for naught have you
created (all) this! Glory to Allah! Give us salvation
from the penalty of the fire”

(Surah Ali Imran 3: 190-191)

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Ta’qil

“Do you enjoin right conduct on the
people, and forget (to practice it) yourselves,
and yet you study the Scripture? Will you not
understand?”

(Surah al-Baqarah 2 : 44)

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Tafakkur

“And it is Who spread out the earth, and
set thereon mountains standing firm and
(flowing) rivers: and fruit of every kind He
made in pairs, two and two: He draw 6the night
as a veil over the Day. Behold, verily in these
things there are Signs for those who consider”

(Surah ar-Ra’d 13 : 3)

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Tafqih

“Many are Jinns and men we have made
for Hell: They have hearts where with they
understand not, eyes wherewith they see not,
and ears wherewith they hear not. Thay are
like cattle, nay more misguided: for thay are
heedless (of warning).

(Surah al-A’raf 7: 179)

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Tadabbur

“Do they not consider the Quran (with
care)? Had in been from other than God,
they would surely have found therein
much discrepancy”

(Surah an-Nisa 4: 82)

IJTIHAD AS A • Ijtihad means to make an effort either
PRINCIPLE OF physically or mentally on a particular
CRITICAL THINKING issue.

• to the ability of independent reasoning
where after thoroughly examining an
argument and comparing it with previous
parallel arguments, one comes to a
solution.

• someone who wants to employ critical
thinking would go through these
motions.

• Similar to ijtihad is the concept
of qiyas which denotes analogical
reasoning and is mainly used on Islamic
legal matters (Young and Sharma, 2004)

Q I YA S • qiyas (and ijtihad) allow for jurists
to create new laws based on the
changing times of the world as the
culture of daily life changes
though these new laws are based
on previously settled analogous
claims.

• a layman can do qiyas on their
own yet on smaller matters such
as determining which direction
one faces when praying when
they don’t have an official guide to
help them out.

TAFAKKUR • the word tafakkur is cited multiple times
throughout the Quran.

• Tafakkur means to (intellectually) contemplate

• One of the places in the Quran
where tafakkur is mentioned is in Surah
(chapter) Al-Imran, verse 191, “Who
remember[s] Allah while standing or sitting or
[lying] on their sides and give thought to the
creation of the heavens and the earth,
[saying], ‘Our Lord, You did not create this
aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a
thing]; then protect us from the punishment of
the Fire.’

• Tafakkur is such an important concept that
one of the greatest Imams in history, Imam
Shafi’i, said that ‘Tafakkur sharpens one’s
intelligence.’

CONCLUSION • There are many verse in the Al-Quran that
describe thinking and encourage thinking

• Islam sets out to think on the basis of
customary law, mind law and syariah law.
But many western thinking are based with
customary law only

• Although Islam encourages its followers to
think, but Islam also restrict people from
thinking about the substance of Allah. In
fact, Allah has always commanded his
people to think about the creation of man
and the universe in order to know Allah

THANK YOU