The Role of Critical Thinking in Islam

Critique is a necessary exercise when attempting to view the world critically and asking
questions in relation to ‘why’ the world functions in a particular manner. It is impossible to be critical
without utopian imagination. Utopian We can identified here, as the ideal world that we want to have
or to get; or the world that we supposed to happen. Then, to imagine how things can be otherwise. Al
Qur’an has gave so many description of utopian society, including the description of how paradise look
like. We have given a way of looking beyond what is to what could be, but is not. Furthermore, a
critique is predicated on the freedom that the dialectical tension between is and is not. Between what
has come to be and what is possible, necessarily creates.
When we try to understand why the world not happen like our utopian dream then we are able
making efforts to solve the problem, with the critical thinking, based on our lived reality. The notion
of “lived reality” refers to the concrete reality in which we find ourself situated, includes such things as
the level of our understanding, our interests, and motives and reasons or understanding and acting in
the world. The level of our understanding furthermore has a direct correlation with the scope of our
lived reality. In other words, the structure of meaning while making it possible for us to understand
anything also defines the horizon of our lived reality. With every act understanding something new
horizon of lived reality is enlarged.
With critical thinking, human can create knowledge to solve the problem. These refer to the
simple line of the Qur’an “He who taught (the use of) the Pen”. The ability to use the pen is the ability
to write. The true meaning of the ability to write lies in the direction of being able to write what has
not been written before and to rewrite. In other words, many scholars moslem interpret these as “create
knowledge”. We try to understand why the things like the way they are, not like our utopian
dream. Then, we are making efforts to solve many problems with the knowledge that we create . How
we find a way to solve problem and create knowledge, Allah SWT gives us a guidance with The
Qur’an.
The light of the Quran illuminates our current lived experiences. By attempting to understand
the verses of the Quran, we use the words of Allah SWT as a lens in which we interpret the world
around us, allowing it to be reflective of our lived reality. The author uses an analogy of a soccer
game. In the same manner that a soccer game has a set of rules that must be followed in order, likewise,
the Quran is to be understood within the permitted laws outlined by scholars of the Quran (i.e. within
the prescribed exogenesis). When interpreting the Quran, there should be a clear distinction between
interpreting the verses based on our current circumstances and interpreting it to fit a narrative that falls
beyond the accepted understanding. If there is no rules in soccer game, it is not a game anymore. But
what happen in the game nobody knows. We are thrilled watching the particular instance of the game
only if the players make something new happen in the playing of the game. The Quran is, in other
words, like a precious mine of precious metal that has to be worked by every generations to make it
yield its valuable one.
The Qur’an repeatedly provokes and challenges the reader to think and to contemplate the signs
of Allah in order human can understand. The signs that reflected in surah or verses in the Quran; and
also everything in that happen in the universe itself. The Act of understanding is not a simple a
relatively passive act of grasping a meaning which is out there, like reaching out and grasping an object
with your hand. Rather, to understand the meaning of a sign is a critical and creative art.
The effort to understand the meaning of sign, in other words, is a hermeneutical. Hermeneutical
here refers to the methods of interpretation. The activity where the meaning of sign is understood in
the context of the meaning of the whole of which it is a part and the meaning of the whole is understood
with reference to the meaning of a particular sign. This is a continuous and an unending process which,
in the movement from particular to the general and Back. It is in the nature of the hermeneutical circle
performs to go on exploring new meanings and in the process deconstructing the old settled meaning.
Hence, reading of the Quran is not merely an act of piety undertaken to enhance one’s
spiritual. It is an intellectual exercise engaged in to understand the Qur’an. The use of critical thinking
in the reading Quran is not aimed at establishing the truth or the falsehood of the verses but rather at
reaching an appropriate understanding of them. It involves searching for that configuration of meaning
that helps me makes sense of the verses in the context our lived reality.
The Irony of the human situation is a reflection of human beings finitude. While free to choose
we can make wrong choice, while free to think and reflect, we can make error in thinking. But not to
think for fear making mistake is to give up learning and developing. The refusal to think for fear of
making a mistake is also to ignore Allah’s constant reminder in the Qur’an that he is forgiving and kind
to those who learning from the mistakes. Fear of making a mistake in understanding the signs of Allah
is not only Refuse Allah’s blessing of forgiveness, but also can block human in critical and creative
thinking. Western scholar thought, recognizing human finitude decrees that human mind is unable to
know the truth. In Islam the recognition of human finitude is a necessary condition for our openness to
Allah. With human finitude, Human can learn from the mistakes, and make better new meaning than
the old meaning.
Being critical is to bridge the gap of the existing knowledge in making new meanings. Then,
our knowledge enlarge. The role of critical thinking in Islam is to enlarge our knowledge; or to create
new knowledge. With knowledge, we try to solve our problem based on our lived reality. Solve the
problem not only in the scope of private life but also in the scope of social life. The knowledge that
human have, should have strengthen the faith to Allah SWT and in the same time made better good to
the surrounding. It’s the implementation of our Tawhid and Taqwa, as a moslem. We can have good
relationship to Allah (habluminallah) by maintain good relationship with other human beings
(habluminannas). There is no good in the relation to Allah if we have not make good relation to the
others. In Islam, private life and social life, is the two entity that connect each other that can make
human control the world. This is the reason why Allah choose human as the vicegerent. Allah does
not need to be praised all the time. But Allah needs the creature that can make world in better
shape. The faculty of critical thinking and freedom that human have, can make human act wisely; or
the opposite.