Thursday, July 26, 2007
Benefit of Akhlaq in Daily Living (2)
at 12:34 AM
3. Memorising and ThinkingThings captured by the senses (sensation) is changed into information (perception) and stored in memory. Memory is a highly structured system that enables organisms to record facts of the world and uses them to guide their behaviours. One of man’s advantages is his ability to store a huge amount of information for a long time and to recall them back.
Memorising works through three phases: (a) Recording: information from perception is recorded through the nervous system, (b) Storing: the information is stored in a certain form, a certain place, and a certain time. Information in the memory may increase and may also develop itself, (c) Recalling: the stored information can be recalled back, flashing into one’s mind or indeed intentionally recalled back in detail since the information is needed. Everyone has a different memory capacity. For example, a person always remembers in detail things he experienced decades ago, while the second person tends to forget things quickly. Meanwhile, the third person tends to forget the older information after recording the new one. A male student of Institute of Al Quran Sciences, who has to recite Al Quran from memory as her task, forgets the first juz (chapter) of Al Quran after reciting the second juz and passing the test. When reciting the third juz, she begins to forget the second juz and so on.
Thinking is an activity involving the using of various concepts and symbols to replace objects and occurrences. Thinking is manipulating or organising environmental elements by using various symbols so there’s no need to do visible activities. Thinking is the fourth process, after sensing, perceiving, and memorising, that affect interpretation of stimuli, In thinking one involves sensing, perceiving, and memorising at the same time.
In daily living, thinking is required to: (a) solving problem, (b) making decision, and (c) creating new things. In solving problems, some people think realistically, some other think unrealistically. Realistic thinking, or reasoning, consists of two thinking methods: deductive and inductive methods. Deductive thinking is taking a particular conclusion from general premises. On the contrary, inductive thinking is taking general conclusion from particular instances.
In addition, there is an additional method that is evaluative method of thinking or critical thinking through sorting problems, making distinctions, and valuing whether a thing good or not, appropriate or not.
Although critical thinking and using the thinking methods are characters of one’s intellectuality, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that every intellectual person always thinking logically. In daily living, thinking logically may cause difficulties; on the contrary in certain circumstances, thinking illogically is sometimes more practical and more secure. Above the logical thinking, creative thinking is also known.
Solving dilemmatic problems requires creative thinking. Creative thinking is thinking by using a new method, a new concept, a new finding, a new paradigm, and a new art. Creative thinking is urgent not due to its newness but due its relevance in solving problems. Due to its newness and unconventionality, creative people often can’t be understood by other people in general, they even may be regarded as strange or “crazy” (thinking “crazily”). If these thinking methods are connected with categorisations of leaderships, we may observe that there is a leader that is born in correct time. There is also a leader who is born in a time but since he rules too long, his thinkings becomes obsolete, and still there is another leader who is born “preceding his time”. The last type of leader has very creative thinkings so that people of his time do not understand him. It often happens that only after this kind of leader has passed away, people realise that the various thinkings of the controversial leader were advanced and correct.
Characters of people who are able to thinking creatively is (a) having intelligence above those of average people or very intelligent, (b) open-minded, and (c) free, autonomous, and self-confident.
In addition to thinking, tafakkur (contemplating) is also known, According to Asfibani, thinking is a potential that can connect concepts of science with objects, meanwhile contemplating is the potential’s wandering follows its mind capacity. In Al Quran, people having a mind capacity strong enough to contemplate in a correct way are called ulul albab (Q: 2: 79 and 197)
People with honourable akhlaq have perceptions and thinkings that are consistent in straightening, appreciating, or constructing things. Therefore, people with honourable akhlaq are not influenced by prejudices when perceiving things, they think constructively in creating things and they are proportionally just in straightening up (correcting) certain things. Their consistencies will make ease their thinkings since their memories neatly store information so that they won’t experience any inner conflict.
Interpersonal Communication System
In social life, people need each other, in terms of individual or group, and it is inevitable that transactional relations happen among them. Quality of one’s relations with other depends on his/her image. If one has a good image in others’ eyes then his interpersonal relations must be good, and these good interpersonal relations determine success in negotiating, promoting, and transacting. Therefore, image is a very important asset in communicating with others.
Image is others’ strong impression on a person, a group of persons, or an institution. One consistently shows good behaviours and outstanding achievement for a long time will build his society’s impression on him that he is a good and excellent figure. On the contrary, if he shows inconsistent behaviours for a long time, his society will build bad impression on him.
Therefore, according to this perspective, image can be built. One who intends to have a good image in his family or in his environment should consistently shows that he is a good person. Image or impression is built through interpersonal communication process in which others perceive us and vice versa. Problems on image usually have something to do with ones having socially prominent positions. Not all behaviours, however, are perceived correctly, since perceptions are influenced by many factors.
1. Psychological Bases of Interpersonal Relations
Good interpersonal relations among individuals, or among institutions are not built automatically but are based on psychological bases. Good relations between two parties are enabled if there are three following factors between them:
1.1 Trust. If others respect us since they trust our moral credibility, then our interpersonal relations must be good, and transactional relations with other parties will run smoothly or even very smoothly. The problems are how to develop the trust and how to maintain it. A person may try hard to built his image but always fails, while another person’s image suddenly falls due to a seemingly minor occasion, but there is still another person who experiences a big occasion or faces a big problem but his good image is not badly influenced. Consistency is one of factors that may build good image, while inconsistency may damage image, but consistent inconsistency for a long time is a distinctive image.
1.2 Attitude of Helping Each Other. Attitude is a tendency to behave, perceive, think, and feel in facing an object, idea, situation, or value. Attitude is not behaviour but is tendency to behave to a certain object. We can understand one’s attitude in helping others through consistency in his attitude to certain objects for a long time. If we are known for having attitude of tending to help others, not intercepting or pretending to help others, then our relations with others will run smoothly, and in turn will make ease our transactional relations. Attitude tends to stay in one’s self, doesn’t change easily but it indeed can be changed since attitude basically is built from experiences and learning process.
1.3 Open-mindedness. Open-mindedness has a very significant impact in developing good relations. An open-minded person is a person who has self-confidence and honesty. He is not worry that his opinions, advice, and offers will be refused since he has a positive self-concept. He doesn’t have any hidden (and bad) agenda behind ideas and advice he propose openly, since he has honesty. A creative-thinking person is usually also an open-minded person, although behind his open-mindedness there is a hidden agenda of positive social engineering that he thinks is necessary. We should distinguish open-mindedness from thinking naturally and plainly, since the former has a positive connotation while the latter has a slightly negative connotation
Factors Affecting Perception
In building images, both individual images and institutional images, we should consider various factors affecting perception, since we not only can wrongly sense something but also wrongly perceive something. When others perceiving us, there are at least two things affecting their perceptions: situational factors and personal factors.
Situational Factors that may affect Others’ Perception on Us:
2.1. How our characters are introduced. If we are introduced as persons with a few of knowledge but a lot of good deeds, then others will perceive us as good persons (positive), but if others introduce us as persons with a lot of good deeds but without knowledge, then the image built is negative.
2.2. Distances: physical distance, intimacy distance, social distance, and thinking distance. People who interact well with ulamas are usually perceived as religion experts, people who often communicate with the president are usually regarded as important people, and persons who often talk about Marxism are often regarded as communists, and so on
2.3. Body gestures. Putting hands on the hips and elbows turned outwards and showing pride are often regarded as indicating arrogance. Bowing one’s head are often perceived as showing politeness and modesty. Raising one’s face is perceived as showing courageous and sitting with one chin in his/her hands is often perceived as indicating sadness.
2.4. Facial Expression. Face is the mirror of the soul. Shining face is perceived as indicating happiness or sincerity. Messy face indicates stress. One’s feeling is indeed can be known through his facial expression, although a sweet face of one with evil character and fierce face of one with good character may cheat us.
2.5 Ways of uttering verbal symbols. Sweet words uttered by an angry person tend to have deeper meaning than rude words uttered by someone with happy face
2.6 Appearance. Physical appearance, clothes, vehicles, and houses one has may indicate his/her image, but physical appearance of one with proven credibility of akhlaq will not change or influence his/her image. When it comes to a person whose nobility of akhlaq is widely known, people put stress on who wear the clothes, not the clothes themselves.
Meanwhile, personal factors affecting others perception on us and vice versa is life experience and self-concept. One that had lived with us wouldn’t believe any negative rumour on us if we have been consistently living by doing good deeds. On the contrary, if during our long life we had done much bad behaviours that are known by many people, then people would not trust us if one day we act and behave like pious people.
Self-concept also has a very big impact in communication. Self-concept is one’s view and feeling about his/her own self. Self-concept may be psychological, physical, and social. One with positive self-concept is self-confident in communicating with others so that it strengthens the good image he has, meanwhile one with negative/bad negative self-concept tends to overly calculate others’ responds so that his credibility is unseen.
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