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ISLAM & SCIENCE
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AISHA HYDER, 20
W
ho are the “strangers” we know?
A white-bearded elderly man, wearing a bucket hat and glasses almost as large as his face, who walks the streets holding a brown leather briefcase? A professor whose tie seems too loose and hair too wild, whose voice booms across the auditorium, and whose pacing is sudden and weird? A student at the bus stop with earphones plugged in, grooving side to side—hips swaying and feet tapping—to a beat we only wish we could hear? Or can we hear it? That beat. Can its lub dub be heard inside all of us? That beat is our strangeness. There is a quiet and gentle yearning in all of us, asking us to embrace our strangeness—to sway our hips and tap our feet to it. This yearning is a seed, and what we nurture is what grows. Like a plant that blooms when Allah tends to it with sunlight and rainwater, those of us who are attentive to our yearning to be strange can wholly grow into creative thinkers. What does it mean to be a creative thinker and what is its connection with our strangeness? Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist who advanced our understanding of the universe, especially
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with his work with black holes, said, “I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.” Einstein, who shaped our ideas about space and time, said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” A creative thinker is someone who, like a child, uses their imagination to understand the world. Their approach to living life involves asking questions, not out of wanting to get “from A to B,” but rather out of wonder and curiosity, with hope and determination that maybe—just maybe—they might understand the world a little more than they did yesterday. Often, we* only want an answer to a question so that we can mark off an With so many item on our to-do list, like expectations, it is memorizing the answer to a question for an upcoming hard not to become exam. Children, however, overwhelmed and do not ask “How?” and feel drained, no “Why?” because they are longer curious, going to be tested. Sitting naively wishing you in the dirt inspecting their will find your way by hands and the creatures around them, they ask following the crowd.
There is a quiet and gentle yearning in all of us, asking us to embrace our strangeness—to sway our hips and tap our feet to it.
they are able to see with the help of their imagination. In a creative thinker’s pursuit, wonder leads to insight and further wonder leads to further insight. Answers are not the end; they are found along the way. Well, what about the rest of us? Where does this curiosity and wonder go, and does it truly go away? As a child becomes accustomed to norms, their wonder—the widened-eyes and squealing-voice kind of wonder—seems to fade. Expectations cloud their mind: “That is embarrassing,” but, “This is cool,” “No one does that,” but, “Everyone is doing this,” “This is going to pay the bills,” but, “You’ll end up fricken poor doing that.” With so many expectations, it is hard not to become overwhelmed and feel drained, no longer curious, naively wishing you will find your way by following the crowd. But, no, you cannot fool yourself. Even amid the crowd, you feel lost, knowing you have not found your way. Listen closely. You can still hear this yearning—this yearning to loosen yourself from all the norms. Your heart beats—lub dub—as this yearning reminds you of your strangeness. “No, I don’t want to be normal,” it gently cries. “I long to be strange, like I used to be when I was a child.” People will try bringing you back—bringing you back to normal. They will say, “No, don’t study at that
university or college.” They might say, “No, you won’t be successful.” But if you can hear your beat, then trust that you must go on, full of wonder, and forgive those others, for perhaps they have forgotten how to dance to the beat of their strangeness. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Islam began as something strange and will return to being something strange just as it was in the beginning, so glad tidings to the strangers (Muslim).” Allah has given us, human beings, free will so that we may choose either what is strange or what is normal. So embrace your beat, and make your choice well.
*We = Here, “we” refers to the magazine’s target audience (who might generally consider themselves teenagers or adults), however, the author is not unaware that some children choose to read this magazine. The author welcomes these children and thanks them with love, for filling our lives with wondrous colour.
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