دیدگاه اسلامی خلاقیت : مدلی برای معلمان مطالعات اجتماعی به عنوان رهبران

This paper aims at identifying the main features of creativity from an Islamic perspective. To achieve this aim, the researchers used a content analysis approach. The Qur’anic verses were the source of the analysis. In accordance with this perspective, a model for teachers of social studies as leaders is suggested. It is an attempt to contribute to the development and understanding of creativity in the social studies classrooms. The study highlighted the Qur’anic methodology that enhances creativity among people. Moreover, the study looked at the objectives of creativity in Islam as part of fulfilling the duty of vicegerency on earth, strengthening one's relationship with Allah, finding the truth and serving the society. The paper also managed to highlight the main fundamentals of creativity from an Islamic perspective such as sincerity, conformity with the shari’ah, beneficial products, usage of lawful means, the ethical and moral system, ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) and rejection of imitation. The study ended with conclusions and recommendations.

Although some contemporary Muslim scholars have highlighted the necessity of studying creativity from an Islamic perspective, studying creativity from an Islamic context has not received a great deal of consideration by scholars or writers. They have tried to examine the subject from within an Islamic framework. However, only very few have managed to address creativity in a reliable scientific manner that could give a clear understanding of the theory of creativity in the Islamic thought. First of all, in terms of Islamic perspective of creativity, it is considered necessary to explain the conceptual meanings of this concept and its development in the Islamic heritage. The Arabic dictionary Al-Mo’jam Al-Waseet defines the verb “to create” as “to bring something into being in a way that was not before” (Mustafa et al. 1989:150). Therefore, creativity is producing something that was not in existence before or has nothing similar to it. Likewise, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, to create is “to cause to exist; bring into being; originate.” (Morris, 1981: 311). Creativity therefore means “having the ability or power to create things.” (Ibid). On this basis, the writers of the present paper somewhat agree with Yousif (1999: 137) when she defines creativity as, “the process of realizing, applying or elaborating Divine Principles and Ideals at any given time or place, to meet the challenges that arise, in all spheres of life.” furthermore, it can be inferred that creativity is a special condition, attitude or state of being that reflects passion for work, independence, goal setting, originality, flexibility, a wide range of interests, average or above-average intelligence and motivation (Goertz 1991: 3). Yousif (1999:137), as stated above, emphasized that creativity should aim at applying the Divine Principles to all aspects of life. In this case, those who are dealing with creativity should ensure that their works or inventions do not contradict Islamic principles. At the same time, they should feel a responsibility to raise Islamic societies to a higher level, allowing them to face future challenges creatively and successfully. Also, Al-Mazeidy (1993) has added a new dimension to the definition of creativity. He defined it as “the ability of designing new forms that are beneficial for humanity and are in accordance with the Islamic shari’ah and principles.” (p. 306). In his definition, Al-Mazeidy emphasized that the newly created things should be useful and helpful to human beings in their life. He emphasized also that the new things should follow Islamic foundations and principles. Creative Muslims in this case, will be distinguished from others by following the divine guidance from Allah (s.w.t.). They will consider the approval of the Islamic shari’ah before creating anything. However, Islam is creative by nature; It came with new and unique principles that rejected the prevailing practices of the Arab society in terms of worshiping God. It was very different from the beliefs of the people at that time. It came for the purpose of change for the better. This kind of change was a shift from a system based on mere imitation of the old generation to a new and unique model based on thinking, realizing and understanding the mission of people on earth. The Qur’an itself contains great and creative ideas including a complete system of guidance for life, enabling people to live in accordance with Islamic foundations. The Qur’an was revealed as a miracle to the Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h.). It challenged all people to produce a few verses like the Qur’an but they failed. It is a sign of divine creativity to reveal an inimitable book that is unique and relevant to all people in all places and times. Furthermore, the Prophet Mohammad’s (p.b.u.h.) role was also creative. He was able to create and build a Muslim society from scratch. He transformed people from worshipping idols to worshipping one God and from fighting one another to building a strong solidarity and brotherhood among all. The Prophet was the door through which a completely new system of behavior for human beings was displayed. The first Islamic society established by the Prophet was creative in nature in the sense of newness and uniqueness, and that small society was to be the base of the great Islamic civilization to follow. It is in such situations that the religion, the Qur’an, the Prophet and the Muslim society are creative in nature, and many Muslim scholars were able to produce creatively. The four great jurists of the new jurisprudence schools or mathahibs; Abu Hanifa al-No’man, Malik Bin Anas, Mohammad Idris al-Shafi’I and Ahmad Bin Hanbal are excellent examples. Each was able to establish a unique school in Islamic Fiqh. Each scholar had his own school using a different methodology. They had their own students who continued the development of their respective schools. Regarding the related literature, the writers found several studies dealing with the subject of creativity from an Islamic perspective. The best study among those is titled, Creativity in Islamic Thought: A Comparative Analysis by Wahida Yousif. The author conducted a comparative study between the Islamic and Western perspectives of creativity. She investigated Islamic thought on creativity in depth, and in a very systematic manner. She explained the main characteristics of the Islamic concept of creativity such as its multi-faceted nature, as well as dealing with concrete issues and problems (Yousif, 1999: 117- 123). The author has derived a methodology of creativity in Islamic thought by studying Islamic sources; the Qur’an in particular. She further elaborated on the sources of inspiration, tools and techniques as a help to understanding creativity from an Islamic perspective. Another good book that is found in the field of creativity from an Islamic perspective is Moqaddimah fi Manhaj Al-Ibda’: Ro’yah Islamiyyah [An Introduction to the Methodology of Creativity: An Islamic Point of View] by Zuheir Mansour al- Mazeidy. The author investigated creativity systematically and addressed the subject in an attempt to come up with an Islamic methodology of understanding creativity. He started with examining the Qur’anic verses and the Prophetic traditions related to the methodologies of sight, sound and dialogue as means towards “better understanding of the world around us.” as he stated (al-Mazeidy, 1993: 32). He then elaborated on the Muslim pioneers who lived creatively. Finally, the author presented some conditions for practising creativity in Islam. Al-Hammadi, in his book Shararat Al-Ibda’ [The Spark of Creativity] has very briefly examined the term of creativity in the Qur’an. He examined the word in four verses of Qur’an. Two of them are related to the Almighty Allah and mean the Creator and the Originator. The other two verses mentioned the term in the meaning of bringing some thing new from nothing (al-Hammadi, 1996: 5). He has quoted several definitions of creativity but most of them are from a western perspective (Ibid.: 15- 19). In their book Mabadi’ Al-Ibda’ [Principles of Creativity], Sweidan and Adlouni have examined the term creativity in the Qur’an very briefly. In the same way, they mentioned the Qur’anic verse which stated that Allah is the wonderful Originator of everything in this world (Sweidan and Adlouni, 2002: 15). The authors offered some new ideas in defining the term of creativity (Ibid.: 16). Their methodology in the book was based on the Western literature with an interesting way of presenting the ideas. Eisawi, in his book titled Saikolojiyyat Al-Ibda’: Dirasah fi Tanmiyat Al-Simat Al-Ibda’iyyah [Psychology of Creativity: A Study in the Development of Traits of Creativity], investigated some of the Qur’anic verses in an attempt to understand the Qur’anic way of enhancing creativity in Muslim life. The author stressed the importance of thinking in enhancing creativity, as is emphasized in the Qur’an. He also looked at the role of knowledge in creativity (Eisawi, 1990: 55- 57). Except for this, he relied heavily on Western literature on creativity. Following the same methodology, al-Safi in his book Al-Tafkeer Al-Ibda’I Baina Al-Nathariyyah wa Al-Tatbeeq [Creative Thinking: A Theory and Practice] examined the term creativity from a Qur’anic perspective, and concerned his study with the Muslim pioneers who have left many creative products throughout Islamic history (al- Safi, 1997: 20-25). The review of literature showed that some studies in the field of creativity from an Islamic perspective have addressed creativity from a Qur’anic perspective to highlight that creativity has its bases in the Qur’an without relating the verses to certain methodologies or framework. Other writers viewed the issue from a historical perspective in which they investigated the creative Muslims of the early years of Islam. Others studied the issue from a Western perspective without giving it any distinguishing Islamic features. It appears that there is a limited literature and research in the field of creativity from an Islamic perspective, which means that there is a need for further studies on Islamic creativity. From such endeavors, Muslims will first understand how early Muslim scholars were pioneers in different fields and specializations. In addition, it will help develop an Islamic methodology of creativity that will enhance the Muslim societies and provide them with an honorable role among other societies and nations. Besides, educationalists could use this methodology in their fields of work e.g. education and classroom instruction and leadership particularly. Creativity from an Islamic perspective could benefit greatly from further investigation of its sources, in particular the Qur’an. This paper therefore, discusses the Islamic thought on creativity; its definition, methodology, objectives, fundamentals and its characteristic tenets. It aims to explore the main features of creativity from an Islamic perspective. In addition, this investigation is viewed as an attempt to contribute to the development and understanding of creativity in the social studies classrooms. It is hoped that it will introduce a different perspective of creativity and provide guidelines for teachers as leaders in their classrooms in order to achieve the objectives of teaching social studies and learning successfully and creatively. Although there is abundant literature on creativity studies, there has been less research associated with teachers’ abilities of running a classroom from an Islamic perspective of creativity. The core concern of this paper is the social studies classroom. The purpose here is to give a better understanding of classrooms’ organizational effectiveness and provide guidelines for social studies teachers to motivate and direct their students toward achieving the objectives of social studies. Furthermore, effective creativity could be considered as valuable characteristics in the selection, training and recruitment of teachers of social studies who are expected to be creative in their capacity to teach and lead their classrooms. Leadership in this paper is perceived as a process of guiding and influencing teachers in the classroom so that they will display initiative and love for the work they do towards achieving the objectives of learning and teaching since that work, from this perspective, is considered an act of worship to Allah. By doing so, teachers as leaders will be able to attain happiness in both worlds. To support this, leadership, based on Vance Packard’s definition is “the art of getting others to want to do something that you are convinced should be done.” (Kouzes and Posner, 1987: 14). This paper is likely to offer guidelines that asset teacher to achieve successful leadership practices. Kouzes and Posner (1988), defined these practices as challenging, inspiring, share vision, enabling o act, modeling the way and encouraging heart. The present paper proposed that the Islamic methodology of creatively is supposed to enable teachers to perform these practices effectively. 1.1. The purpose and questions of the paper The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main features of creativity from an Islamic perspective. It also examined the definition, methodology, objectives, fundamentals and the characteristic tenets of creativity from an Islamic point of view. In addition, it was to formulate a model for creative teachers of social studies as leaders according to the Islamic perspective of creativity. To achieve these aims the following question were addressed: 1. What are the main features of creativity from an Islamic perspective? 2. How can creativity be considered by teachers of social studies as educational leaders?

The study highlighted the Qur’anic methodology that enhances creativity among people. The Qur’an emphasizes four methodologies namely: the methodology of ‘travelling and observation’, the methodology of ‘seeing’, the methodology of ‘hearing’ and the methodology of ‘thinking’. Moreover, the study looked at the objectives of creativity in Islam as fulfilling the duty of vicegerency on earth, strengthening one’s relationship with Allah, finding the truth and serving the society. The study also managed to highlight the main fundamentals of creativity from an Islamic perspective such as sincerity, conformity with the shari’ah, beneficial products, usage of lawful means, the ethical and moral system, ijtihad and rejection of imitation. The study identified the characteristics of Islamic creativity as divine revelation, comprehensiveness, responsibility of viceregency, dealing with the important issues, human limitations and higher reward. By having the creativity traits, social studies teachers will be able to lead their respective classroom in a way that allows them to cope with the daily changes and be ready to face the future and follow the development that is required for any classroom to succeed.