Part 2: Have you ever changed your own interpretation of Hazar Imam's guidance after hearing someone else's point of view? | Ignition Question #5b

nonickname ⋅ August 27, 2019

In Part 1, of this two-part Ignition Question, we highlighted remarks from Imams that advise us that we may indeed make mistakes in our own, personal interpretations of our faith. However, knowing we may be mistaken, in theory, is one thing. Admitting we are wrong, and changing a deeply held position or belief or worldview on some issue, is quite another. Here, in Part 2, we introduce a new perspective on open-mindness and see what "abandoning false conceptions" about faith, as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah advises us to do, actually looks like in practice.

About Ignition Questions

Ignition Questions offer forward looking questions, related to our community, for the Jamat to reflect over, first individually and then with a few friends, over coffee, in an effort to find innovative answers which we hope they will share with the community.

Some Ignition Questions may highlight what we feel might be unrecognized challenges or issues and offer our opinions, ideas or alternative perspectives (in a sense, just thought experiments), however, we do not insist on either our opinions over the challenges or our alternative perspectives. Although we merely float them all for everyone's consideration, some may find our opinions helpful. Nevertheless, we hope the new and alternative perspectives will spark others to build upon them.

Ignition Questions are inspired by Mawlana Hazar Imam's 1986 guidance:

In dealing with the issues that lie ahead of us, we will look at them straight in the face, we will ask the hard questions. If we cannot find immediate answers, we will go on asking the same questions until In'sh'allah, we are inspired to find the answers, but we will not give up. We will not go back to an obscurantism, to a form of intellectual retreat into something which is neither beneficial for the present and certainly not constructive for the future.... And we must have the courage to ask the questions and to seek the answers.

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Background Context

For some Ignition Questions, the background context we set out, to help properly frame the issue, are detailed and long while others, are brief and short.

Misunderstanding Mawlana Hazar Imam

As we know, Mawlana Hazar Imam interprets the faith for us. However, that does not mean we will all understand or interpret what he says correctly or in the same way. Indeed, the mere fact there we often have strong disagreements over our understandings of what he says is, itself, proof we interpret his words differently. These differences are inevitable and expected. All our interpretations and understandings -- of everything, even Hazar Imam's guidance -- will always be coloured by our individual and unique insights, knowledge and life experiences. We all start from different places.

And if you feel the idea that "there are no wrong interpretations about faith" is not correct -- because, as explained by the Imams in Part 1 of this Ignition Question, our interpretations about faith can be mistaken -- then we can also be mistaken in our interpretation and understanding of even what Hazar Imam says.

As we know, Mawlana Hazar Imam interprets the faith for us. However, that does not mean we will all understand or interpret what he says correctly or in the same way.... We can also be mistaken in our interpretation and understanding of what Hazar Imam says.

Even if we have the correct interpretation about an issue Hazar Imam has explained, we can never know, for sure, it is correct because our knowledge is limited. As Hazrat Ali said "The greater part of knowledge consists of what you do not know." In other words, we never have absolute certainty about our interpretations of even what Hazar Imam says.

As we explained in Ignition Question 3, No Black & White Answers, or Absolute Proof or Intellectual Satisfaction. Where Does the Ismaili Tariqah Stand?, as limited humans, absolute certainty about anything is impossible. Only a level of intellectual satisfaction is. As Imam Jafar al-Sadiq reportedly said: "Certainty is ever-increasing and remains so throughout eternity."

This is the same dilemma scientists face: they have a theory that fits the data, but they never have 100% certainty their theory is correct because they don't know if a new discovery will disprove their theory tomorrow. So they gather more data to bolster their certainty or refine their theory. Sometimes new data forces them to abandon their theory altogether in favour of a better one.

We need to keep exposing ourselves to more and more interpretations, perspectives, insights to increase our level of certainty (i.e. intellectual satisfaction) or refine our interpretation to be less wrong. We may even encounter a new interpretation that may force us to abandon our interpretation altogether in favour of a better one, like scientists who encounter new data that forces them to abandon their theory in favour of a better one.

Similarly, our personal interpretations of Hazar Imam's guidance are really just theories, our imperfect, best guesses about what we think Hazar Imam means. And so we too need to keep exposing ourselves to more and more interpretations, perspectives, insights to increase our level of certainty (i.e. intellectual satisfaction) or refine our current interpretation to be less wrong, exactly as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah advised we should do in his seminal 1899 Usul-e Din (The Essence of Religion) farman:

The essence of religion is to abandon false conceptions. (1899, Dar es Salam)

We may even encounter a new interpretation that forces us to abandon our current interpretation altogether in favour of a better one, just as scientists who encounter new data that forces them to abandon their theory in favour of a better one. Constantly exposing ourselves to new knowledge and reevaluating what we think we know is exactly the mindset Hazar Imam says we must always keep:

A wise observer once said, it's not so much what we don't know that hurts us, but also all those things that we are sure we know -- but which are just not so. (2007, Kenya)

[K]nowledge is constantly changing, must ever be challenged and extended. (1989, Pakistan)

[We must] constantly review and revise and renew what we think we know. (2006, Pakistan)

This is also known as Bayesian thinking:

After you've been steeped in Bayes' Rule for a little while, it starts to produce some fundamental changes to your thinking. You become much more aware that ... you have levels of confidence in your beliefs about how the world works that are less than 100% but greater than 0%. And even more importantly, as you go through the world and encounter new ideas and new evidence, that level of confidence fluctuates as you encounter evidence for and against your beliefs....

So the implicit question [people should] ask themselves, as they go through the world, is "When I see new evidence, can this be explained with my theory?" And if yes, then we [usually] stop there. But, after you've got some familiarity with Bayes' Rule what you start doing is instead of stopping after asking yourself "Can this evidence be explained with my own pet theory?" you also ask well, "Would it be explained better with some other theory or maybe just as well with some other theory. Is this actually evidence for my theory?"

-- Julia Galef: Think Rationally via Bayes' Rule

A simple test to not just see if you are open-minded and enough to change your positions about what Hazar Imam has said, but if you actually do it

As explained in Part 1 of this Ignition Question, and above, by definition, as fallible human beings, we are not perfect and so even all our cherished interpretations and understandings about the faith, or of what Hazar Imam has explained, cannot all be correct. It is a fact that we will, sometimes, be mistaken on important issues -- whether about our interpretations of faith, our worldview, or any other knowledge -- no matter how deeply we cherish our belief or position. There is no escape from this.

Think of it this way. Our belief is that Allah has "vested the knowledge of ... everything in the manifest Imam." By definition, we do not have "knoweldge of everything" so will always have mistakes in some of our interpretations of the hundreds and hundreds of explaintions, insights, positions and perspectives Hazar Imam has given on faith, life, values, tenets, ethics, expectations, society, education, his worldview, etc..

Think of it this way. Our belief is that Allah has "vested the knowledge of ... everything in the manifest Imam." By definition, we do not have "knoweldge of everything" so will always have mistakes in some of our interpretations of the hundreds and hundreds of explaintions, insights, positions and perspectives Hazar Imam has given on faith, life, values, tenets, ethics, expectations, society, education, his worldview, etc.. This is an inescapable fact.

So assuming we wish to correct ourselves, can we?

Or are we too afraid to give up our most revered beliefs? We all like to think we're "open-minded," but do we have the courage and intellectual humility to really be open minded?

Does just hearing another person's view make us open-minded if, every time we hear them out, we never actually change our view on anything important -- like our understanding of what Hazar Imam has said or his worldview? In other words, are we so sure of ourselves, that we're always right, so never change our minds on our deeply held beliefs?

Are you really open minded if you never end up changing your mind on anything important to you? The other side of this coin is respect: that is, are you really respecting other people's views if you never change your own?

Or from another perspective, are you really open minded if you never end up changing your mind on anything important to you?

The other side of this coin is respect: that is, are you really respecting other people's views if you never change your own? Sahil Badruddin pointed this out in his TEDx talk, Disagreement: An Innate Part of Pluralism

We often think letting someone speak, and hearing them out, is respect. But if we're not sincerely interested in changing our position, based on what we hear, then it's not really respect. All we're doing is being polite and humouring the person because, actually, we've already decided our position is more valid, legitimate, or correct than theirs even before they've said anything.

So, to test if you really are open-minded, just ask yourself:

Have I ever given up any of my deeply held convictions -- about any of Hazar Imam's positions and perspectives on the faith, values, society, his worldview or any of the hundreds and hundreds of other matters he has guided us on -- after being explained an alternative explanation on some matter I was sure I was correct about?
That is, have you ever accepted any of your deeply held convictions about the faith, values, etc. were "false conceptions" and then abandoned them, as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah advises?
In other words, have you ever accepted you were mistaken and then actually changed your mind, your position, on important issues no matter how deeply held or cherished your beliefs were?

And if you have accepted a new interpretation of Hazar Imam's guidance, and changed your position, remember you will never be perfect, so you will still be mistaken, to some degree, in some way, and the cycle begins again, as we all continuously try and be a little less wrong. In fact, because you don't have "knowledge of everything," you'll always be mistaken about everything, to some degree and perpetually have "false conceptions" that need to be abandonded.

Wisdom on being open-minded

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

The [Aga Khan] Academies curriculum seeks to instil a habit of intellectual humility which constantly opens young minds to what it is that they do not know, and which sends them on a wide and rigorous search for new knowledge.

-- Mawlana Hazar Imam (2007, Kenya)

Specialised expertise, pragmatic temperament, mental resourcefulness -- these are increasingly the keys to effective leadership -- along with a capacity for intellectual humility which keeps one's mind constantly open to a variety of viewpoints ...

-- Mawlana Hazar Imam (2006, India)

'For decades academics have argued in circles about the definition of open-mindedness, and what might make a person become less or more open-minded ... The breakthrough happened when researchers started playing with a concept from religion called "intellectual humility."' (Harvard)

For decades academics have argued in circles about the definition of open-mindedness, and what might make a person become less or more open-minded ... The breakthrough happened when researchers started playing with a concept from religion called "intellectual humility." Philosophers had been studying why some people stubbornly cling to spiritual beliefs even when presented with evidence that they should abandon them, and why others will instead quickly adopt new beliefs. Intellectual humility, the philosophers said, is the virtue that sits between those two excesses; it's the willingness to change, plus the wisdom to know when you shouldn't.

-- A New Way to Become More Open-Minded (Harvard)

People who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. [Jeff Bezos] doesn't think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It's perfectly healthy -- encouraged, even -- to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

People who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking. (As Jeff Bezos sees it)

He's observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary.

What trait signified someone who was wrong a lot of the time? Someone obsessed with details that only support one point of view. If someone can't climb out of the details, and see the bigger picture from multiple angles, they're often wrong most of the time.

-- Jeff Bezos on Why People that Are Often Right Change Their Minds Often

All facts have a half-life. What is advised with confidence this year can be reversed the next. The history of science, as Chris Kresser says, "is the history of most scientists being wrong about most things most of the time." We were certain about each of these facts -- until we were not. "One mark of a great mind," as Walter Isaacson puts it, "is the willingness to change it." When the world around you changes, the ability to change with the world confers an extraordinary advantage.... The question is this: Is your mind nimble enough to keep pace when the facts change?

-- This is the mark of a great mind

If Berkshire has made modest progress, a good deal of it is because Warren [Buffet] and I are very good at destroying our own best-loved ideas. Any year that you don't destroy one of your best-loved ideas is probably a wasted year.

-- Warren Buffett's long time business partner, Charlie Munger

I learned the importance of always fearing being wrong, no matter how confident I am that I'm right. As a result, I began seeking out the smartest people I could find who disagreed with me so that I could understand their reasoning. Only after I fully grasped their points of view could I decide to reject or accept them. By doing this again and again over the years, not only have I increased my chances of being right, but I have also learned a huge amount. There's an art to this process of seeking out thoughtful disagreement.

-- Ray Dalio: Open-Mindedness And The Power of Not Knowing

Darwin's great success, by his own analysis, owed to his ability to see, note, and learn from objections to his cherished thoughts.

-- How Darwin Thought: The Golden Rule of Thinking

Thoughtful Opinions Held Loosely. How do you respond when you're faced with facts that contradict a sometimes long-held and cherished belief? Do you update your knowledge database with the new facts, or do you flail about and try to rationalize or refute the new facts so as not to upset the status quo? As much as we'd love to consider ourselves open-minded and ever eager to learn, our human nature is to disregard information that could cause us any cognitive dissonance. It requires substantial effort to be firm enough in our convictions that we can be bold in our actions, yet humble enough to leave room to be wrong.

"Thoughtful Opinions Held Loosely. How do you respond when you're faced with facts that contradict a sometimes long-held and cherished belief? Do you update your knowledge database with the new facts, or do you flail about and try to rationalize or refute the new facts so as not to upset the status quo?" (Farnham Street)

None of us have a perfect understanding of the world we live in. As our understanding increases, we must be willing to adapt and change if we are to learn and grow to position ourselves to lead the life we want to live. When we resist that growth, or feel threatened by new information, we intentionally or unintentionally filter out evidence that may clash with our current opinions, thus keeping us safe in our ignorance. We sacrifice being correct for being "right." That, for personal and professional development, is the kiss of death.

-- Farnam Street Principles

Continued from Part 1 of this Ignition Question which asks:

Is the idea that "there are no wrong interpretations about faith" at odds with what the Imams have said about our personal interpretations? (Click here)

In Part 1 we highlight remarks from Mawlana Hazar Imam and Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah that advise us we that we may, indeed, make mistakes in our personal interpretations of faith, and so all interpretations are not automatically correct. We suggest the emotional, spiritual, experiential side of faith (where mistakes can't happen) has been confused with its intellectual side (where mistakes can happen).

Ignition Question(s)

Have you ever given up any of your deeply held convictions -- about any of Hazar Imam's positions and perspectives on the faith, values, society, his worldview or any of the hundreds and hundreds of other matters he has guided us on -- after being explained an alternative explanation on some matter you was sure you were correct about?

That is, have you ever accepted any of your deeply held convictions about the faith, values, etc. were "false conceptions" and then abandoned any of your "false conceptions"them, as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah advised in his 1899 farman when he explained "the essence of religion is to abandon false conceptions"?

In other words, have you ever accepted you were mistaken and then actually changed your mind, your position, on important issues no matter how deeply held or cherished your beliefs were?
If you have never changed your mind about your interpretation of Hazar Imam's guidance, on some deeply cherished belief or understanding of any of Hazar Imam's positions or worldviews, why do you think that is the case?
- Was it because you haven't actually read or seen what Hazar Imam has said and were, perhaps, snared in the Reasonable Person Fallacy? In other words, did you subconsciously think "I'm a reasonable person and I think this. Hazar Imam is also reasonable person, so he must also think the same thing I do"?
- Or, was it that you don't have full set of farmans, at home, to carefully study and reflect over, to better understand what Hazar Imam actually says?
- Or, did it never strike you to think about different interpretations because you thought, or were taught, there are "no wrong interpretations?"
- Or, if you're honest with yourself, whenever you heard another interpretation of Hazar Imam's guidance, on some deeply cherished belief about faith or some worldview, perhaps:
  - you didn't know what to make of it, even if it made sense to you, so every time resolved your dilemma by just telling yourself no one ever really knows what the Imam means (as though, in some way, he leaves us bewildered), or
  - you were afraid to change your deeply held views, so clung to what was familiar, even if you could see it was mistaken in some way, or
  - whenever you heard another interpretation or worldview you disagreed with, you somehow always convinced yourself you were still right (or, at least, more correct) than everyone else, and that, essentially, there was nothing new to learn from anyone else?
- Or, perhaps it was many of these, or other reasons, why you haven't changed your mind about any of your deeply held interpretations of Hazar Imam's guidance?