We need knowledge, yes, but we also need the thinking ability to use knowledge and skill productivity to benefit people. Thinking is important and essential human resource. We need to think to decide what knowledge we should seek and where to look for it. We need to think to make the best use of the knowledge we have by employing decision, choice, planning, designing, and action. We need to think to set up possible ways of putting the knowledge together. We need to think to what extent that knowledge will bring benefit to people. The quality of our present and future lives depends on the quality of our thinking. This is so, not only at the personal level but also at the community and national levels.

A person requires more than just acquiring information, knowledge, and skills to be productive. He should know where to get them and apply them adequately and usefully with a full understanding of their use and implications to his workplace and society. Also, having knowledge and skills is no use of if he is not willing to go that extra mile to use them to make a difference in the service, product, or project he is involved with.

Islam teaches Muslims to exercise their thinking ability and use their reasoning in all matters, worldly as well as spiritual. Our Prophet (SAW) said: “If a person exercises his judgment or reasoning rightly, he receives two rewards, and if he is mistaken he receives one reward.” The Qur’an and the hadith repeatedly lay stress on pondering, thinking, and rationalization. They draw our attention to every aspect of Allah’s creation and encourage us to use our minds in our daily activities.

In this respect, Muslim behavior, attitudes, and personal decisions should be controlled by thinking, reason, and logic in line with Islamic values. This approach will strengthen and influence his faith in Islam and make him carry out his endeavors wholeheartedly and with full confidence.

For a country as a whole to be prosperous, it needs people who can come up with new and innovative ideas, new perspectives, and new ways of doing things and experiment with ways to improve their work. An educated, skillful, and wise person is one who approaches his work with curiosity and creativity and always tries to do a job better, making improvements. Thus, any person, student or worker, who learns new skills or picks up new ideas to enable him to do the job better, is a knowledgeable person.

Those of you who are students, work hard. To study as high as possible, right up to the university level, is ideal and should be the aim of every Muslim student. However, not everyone has that opportunity. So, if you do not possess a university degree, it does not mean that you cannot succeed in life. Education can be acquired informally. What is equally important is wisdom, enterprise, innovation, creativity, and analytical thinking.

Those of you who are working should be effective knowledgeable workers. An effective knowledgeable worker is a person who:

1. Is willing to learn more about what he does,

2. Likes to try out or experiment with new ideas,

3. Learns to use new technologies, like the computer,

4. Uses his knowledge and skills effectively, efficiently, and productively in his work,

5. Is imaginative and creative and comes up with innovative ideas to improve his work,

6. Has a positive attitude to face changes and challenges in his workplace, and

7. Learns new and relevant knowledge to meet the demands of the fast-changing technologies, and quickly adapt to them.

The above values are important for achieving excellence in an endeavor or project. In the field of building construction, poor workmanship, poor design, and poor supervision could cause tiles to fall out, ceilings to give way, and walls to collapse. Such mishaps would cause a waste of money, time, and effort as well as loss of lives or injuries to the workers.

What we need is expertise, relevant knowledge, and imagination among other values. Commitment as well as creative and imaginative thinking are important resources that will enable us to live an active and progressive lifestyle. For a start, you should have an ambition and immediately work towards it – remember, no sweat, no gain, no endeavor, no achievement! Utilize your talents, knowledge, and skills to the best of your ability. Strive to transform the way you see your life and your work.

by Shaikh A. Kadir