Rational Thinking

وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِّرُوا بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِمْ لَمْ يَخِرُّوا عَلَيْهَا صُمًّا وَعُمْيَانًا

Surah Al Furqaan 25 Ayah 73: These people are not swayed by emotions and they take every step after a lot of deliberation (34:76), so much so that even when the Divine Laws are presented to them, they do not submit to these by ignoring their intellect, wisdom, rationale and reason. Also, they do not respond to them as if they were deaf and blind. They adopt the Divine Laws only after careful consideration

Rational vs Emotioanl Thinking

Rational Thinking

Rational thinking refers to logical or reasoning being involved in the thought process. Logic is always based on facts rather than preconceived notions. It refers to providing reasons, realities and observations behind thoughts or ideas. It adds an element of calculation and planning in thoughts rather then basing them on emotions or personal opinion. It is an objective process of thinking and an analytic approach to any problem.

All people are capable of thinking rationally, but when the people talk about religion, the people tend to cloud this ability because of emotions, prejudices or illiteracy.

Emotional thinking

فَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّـهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ غِشَاوَةً فَمَن يَهْدِيهِ مِن بَعْدِ اللَّـهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ

Sura Al Jasia 45 Ayah 23. But have you not come across a person who takes his own feelings and emotions as his ‘Ilaha’ and then does whatever his desires dictate? Have you not seen how, in spite of possessing knowledge and intellect, he treads the wrong path? His emotions overpower him, as if his hearing and heart have been sealed and his eyes covered with a veil. He can neither hear nor see anything and he does not comprehend anything. When a person is so overwhelmed by his emotions who else can provide him guidance, except Divine Revelation? Can you not ponder over this reality?

Opposite to the rational thinking, emotional thinking is based on passions. Emotional thinking will often involve very basic thought processes that are normally based on things that are already known, experiences, and events in life.
In the timeline of human age, a child works most of the time with emotions. Emotional control is considered emotional maturity at mid age and is desired state of a balanced Muslim character.

Emotions and feelings are even though not logical, but it doesn’t mean they are bad. On the contrary, they are what make the world beautiful. Without them, we will lose music, paintings, sculptures, poems, and all wonderful creative work derived from the sensitive part of our mind. There is simply no way to argue without some sort of emotional bias.

Emotions can be a great motivator for everything that happens in life.
However, the emotional thinking style, unlike the logical thinking style, is often not based on a great deal of facts and it often requires very little thinking. Since Quran is based upon logic and wisdom, emotional thinking has to be set aside while pondering on Quran. The main thinking in poetry is emotional thinking that is why Quran say the no parallel should be drawn between Quran and poetry. There is nothing in common.

Example: Poetry, Art, Love feeling, dogmas

Distinguish: Is it word of God or word of preacher?

Tunnel Thinking
(Vertical thinking / closed minds)

إِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّـهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا ۗ أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ ﴿١٧٠﴾ وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لَا يَسْمَعُ إِلَّا دُعَاءً وَنِدَاءً ۚصُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ

Surat 2 Ayah 170-171 When it is said to them, “Follow the Commands that Allah has sent down,” they reply, “We will follow only what we found our forefathers practising., Well, will they go on following their forefathers even though they did not use common sense and did not find the right way? (170) The mental condition of those who rejected the way of Allah may be likened to that of the cattle whom the shepherd calls but they hear nothing except the sound of shouts and cries. They are deaf, they are dumb, they are blind; therefore they do not understand anything. (171)

It is a traditional way of thinking where views and approach of forefather is invoked to validate current or any new situation. Pondering is not involved. New developments are mostly resisted. For example the call for prayer in loud speakers has been resisted for a long time. Everything is looked if it conform the past practice or ideas. Great resistance to the prophet was due to ancestor worshipping another name of tunnel thinking.

Example: dogmas, sects

Passive non thinking audience will say

وَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّا أَطَعْنَا سَادَتَنَا وَكُبَرَاءَنَا فَأَضَلُّونَا السَّبِيلَا
33/67 At that time they will also say, “O our Rabb! Verily we obeyed our leaders who had assumed a higher role for themselves; and they misled us from the right path.

Out-of-The-Box-Thinking

(Lateral thinking / pondering)

قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَعِظُكُم بِوَاحِدَةٍ ۖ أَن تَقُومُوا لِلَّـهِ مَثْنَىٰ وَفُرَادَىٰ ثُمَّ تَتَفَكَّرُوا ۚ

Surat SABA 34/ Ayah 46. Tell them (O Rasool!), all I ask you is just one thing; you stop for a while, for God sake, in two by two or one by one and then think (Ponder)

The thinker come out of the past setup and reassesses the situation with the current realities and developments. It involves analytical thinking in which each phenomenon is evaluated on its own stand alone merits. False link to the situation are severed. In its advanced form it is called pondering. All of the developments occur through lateral thinking.

5% to 10% of the time in out of the box thinking is enough for rational thinking. Developments in the out of the box thinking are put in common use by existing and tested knowledge developed in the past.

Lateral thinking is helpful to remain at forefront of the changing world of developments.

Example: Technological developments, innovations, scientific research and discoveries, Real scholars etc