Spirit of Islam · RIGHT THINKING

RIGHT THINKING

Spirit of Islam, Jan 2013, p. 30

By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.

LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE Another important principle of right thinking concerns our ability to control our minds. This enables us to derive lessons from the various incidents we experience. The readiness to learn lessons from our experiences, and those of others, helps us in intellectual development and saves us from unnecessary loss. Life is a series of experiences. If our eyes and ears are open, and receptive, we can always derive useful lessons from them. These lessons enable us to construct our lives better. Acquire a receptive and open mind, and develop the ability to learn from experience, both your own, and that of others. DISTINGUISH An important aspect of the art of thinking is to be able to distinguish between things which, on the surface, appear to be similar, but on a deeper level, are radically different. There are a number of things in this world which fall into this category, and our failure to understand the difference often results in great loss. At every point in our lives, we are faced with a choice—between courses of action; between opinions; between ideas. This can be related to all matters in our daily life. We must refrain from forming opinions due to apparent or partial similarities. We must clearly analyse the difference between things and then form our own opinions. Anyone who fails to comprehend this wisdom is like a driver who fails to differentiate between an empty street and a street full of traffic. ADJUST We are all born idealists. We constantly seek higher ideals, the highest and best in all spheres. This idealistic approach sounds good in theory, but is Avoid all friction by ignoring obvious provocation, for trouble avoided is trouble averted.

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