The Issue of Mindset
People act according to their bent of mind. If their way of thinking is right, their actions will also be right. The role of the Ulama is to direct the mindset of people towards right thinking.
People act according to their bent of mind. If their mentality is deviant or ungodly, naturally, their actions will reflect the same. Conversely, if their way of thinking is right, their actions will also be right.
Before the advent of Prophet Muhammad, the fundamental problem facing humanity was the dominance of a deviant, ungodly mindset. This mentality stemmed from polytheistic beliefs. This is referred to by the term fitnah in the Quran (8:39). It was only by dint of the Prophet and his Companions’ struggles that this mindset was destroyed. Subsequently, the age of the mindset based on divine guidance dawned. It was founded on Tawheed, the oneness of God. This mindset remained dominant for about a thousand years after that.
With the end of the 18th century, a new phase in human history began. This new age was, once again, based on deviation from the right path. It was based on atheistic ideologies. In the Islamic period, God was the centre of human thought, shaping human activities. However, in the new age, Nature took the place of God and became the new basis of human thought and actions. This fundamental transformation in people’s mindset resulted in a complete change in all practical aspects of human life, so much so that even those people who still believed in God did not remain unaffected by this all-pervasive intellectual storm.
The development of this new mindset took place over a long period, and numerous people played a crucial role in it. The iconic figure of this new age was Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton studied the solar system, including the revolution of the sun, the moon and the planets. He sought to explain these astronomical phenomena through the principles of Mathematics. He pointed out how the movement of these bodies was linked to the Law of Gravity.
In ancient times, it was believed that the movements of the sun and the moon and all other phenomena had supernatural causes. At that time, human beings were unaware that these developments could also be explained using materialistic terminology relating to the Law of Nature.
Newton’s research shook the very foundations of this belief. Further research discovered that all developments on the Earth and in the skies were an expression of such laws of Nature as can be described in the language of Mathematics; the pillars of traditional faith systems were shaken. Modern thinkers declared that if events are due to natural causes; they are not due to supernatural causes.
After Newton, a new group of thinkers emerged who played a crucial role in changing people’s thinking. Charles Darwin (1802-1882) represented this new group. Newton had seen the physical world as moving according to the laws of Nature. Darwin went further and declared that the biological world, too, moved according to the laws of Nature. From the smallest germ to human beings, all forms of life on Earth, he contended, had emerged in a way consistent with the known laws of Nature.
An enormous amount of research was done on Darwin’s thesis after his death. Although some modifications were later made to its original form, the Darwinian Theory of Evolution came to be accepted by almost all modern scientists as accepted fundamental truth. Consequently, whether consciously or unconsciously, it came to be widely believed across the world that the creation of human beings had nothing to do with God, their Creator. This was a vital implication of the Theory of Evolution.
The third group among modern thinkers was represented by Karl Marx (1818-1883). Marx gave a materialistic explanation of human history, which he termed a ‘scientific’ interpretation. He claimed that a continuous class struggle governed history. He termed this as a fundamental law. Class struggle, he opined, determined the present and the future of humankind.
In ancient times, human beings considered history to be determined by fate. They believed in a supreme God who shaped human history. However, the philosophy invented by Marx and later elaborated upon by many scholars in an enormous body of writings influenced the entire world. Thus, people began thinking of history as something that had nothing to do with God—in complete contrast to the past, when they looked at history through the prism of Divine action.
