Sheikh Abd al-Azîz b. `Alî al-Suwayd
on Mind Control or Taqlid
Have they not traveled in the land so that they should have hearts with which to
feel and ears with which to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind – but
it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind. [ Sûrah al-Hajj : 46]This verse of the Qur’ân tells us that there is a blindness more pervasive and more
subtle than the blindness of the eyes. There is deafness more insidious than that of
the ears. It is the blindness and deafness of the heart and mind – born of
heedlessness, thoughtlessness, and the rote following of others. What brings about
this pervasive though unnoticed blindness? It is the result of what we might call
social hypnosis – a state of being where the individual’s intellect is lulled into
acquiescence to whatever society dictates to him or suggests to him, though he feels
himself to be a free and independent agent. It is society which brings about this
hypnotic state, placing the people into such a deep oblivion that they succumb to its
every suggestion day after day, encumbered by its influence from the cradle to the
grave.
We are lulled into a state of intellectual slumber by the unquestioning acceptance of
customs, traditions, standards, and conventional wisdoms that we are simply too
familiar with to think twice about. The customs and traditions of a society and the
unquestioned assumptions that society upholds act as a sedative upon the intellect.
Only a few people succeed in shrugging it off. This societal sedation has a paralyzing
effect on intellectual development. Those who come under its sway cannot formulate
any idea outside of the confines of what society suggests to them.
Society – either through its control of the media, its pervasive cultural presence, its
web of values, its accumulated parables, or the authority of its customs, habits, and
traditions – has the power to close the mind and stand as an obstacle to independent
thinking. This prevents people from being able to ascertain the truth about the world
around them and about God. This is a kind of heedlessness that people in society fall
into. You see them walking about, driving their cars, holding conversations, eating,
drinking, and engaging in all sorts of activities. Yet, they are like intellectual
sleepwalkers or people under hypnosis. Their perception is blunted. The influences
of their environment and cultural norms direct their life routines, their responses,
their feelings, even their innermost worries, as if they are under remote control.