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| The Dangers of
Narrow-Mindedness Ahmad as-Sowayyan Editor-in-chief, Al-Bayan Magazine Narrow-mindedness is
defined as lacking tolerance or not having the mental faculty to see
beyond the superficial and recognize the underlying truth.
Currently, this tendency appears to be widespread in all segments of
Muslim communities. The primary reason
for this deplorable condition is ignorance, the inability to recognize
this deficiency and to take corrective action. This situation is
further aggravated if the ignorant person considers himself to be the
epitome of wisdom, and if, he is in a leadership or a highly visible
position, he can cause unnecessary harm to a family, a community or a an
entire nation. Absence of insight can also result in
narrow-mindedness by having a negative effect on one’s thought
processes. Insight is a rare virtue, and quite different from ignorance. A
person who lacks insight may possess some knowledge, but derives no
benefit from it due to a lack of analytical skills, while someone with
insight assesses his or her knowledge of a situation and then selects and
uses its relevant parts. Through insight, they are able to see what others
may not. Ibn ul Qayyim, the famous Islamic scholar and author, said:
"One person may read a text and learn one or two lessons from it,
while another may learn one or two hundred." A rigidly traditional individual’s
perceptivity, like that of a captive frog in a deep well, is able to
function only within narrow parameters. He does not realize that there are
boundless vistas of knowledge beyond the scope of the well, therefore, his
mental and intellectual evolution remains stunted. He is unable to take
advantage of the knowledge available beyond his limited horizon. Blind imitation creates another obstacle to
one’s intellectual growth. The two world wars of the past century are
the perfect examples of this disability that can allow ruthless political
or religious leaders to manipulate the minds of people who are unable to
form their own objective view. Some individuals habitually look at things
from one angle and accept them as actual facts without thinking that there
may be a different side to the issue, or that reality may actually be
quite different from appearance. In the following verse, Allah points out
that the appearance of the hypocrites may not be a true indication of
their reality: "And when you see them, you like their appearance, but
when they speak and you listen to them, they seem worthless" … and
then He goes on to give this warning: "They are the enemy, so be
warned of them. The curse of Allah be upon them, how they are
perverted." [63:4] Furthermore, some people are impressed by
quantity at the expense of quality. Referring to the battle of Hunain,
Allah says: "On the day of Hunain, your numbers impressed you but did
not benefit you." But, "If there be amongst you twenty who show
fortitude, they will defeat two hundred." This does not, of course,
mean that appearances are to be completely disregarded or that quantity is
totally irrelevant. These fundamentals should not be valued in isolation,
but should be understood through insight and common sense. A failure to prioritize or differentiate wrong from right often leads people to lose sight of the broader picture. Often people will focus on the immediate and disregard the potential disastrous effects of an action further down the road. Along with ignorance, narrow-mindedness and, of course, a lack of insight, these gaps usually prove detrimental to that individual’s future.
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