"He is the One who perfected everything He created. [...]" As-Sajdah, 7

Recently, while thinking about mediocrity again, I wrote the following on Twitter:

"I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm making a claim. Researching it, testing it, costs nothing. Pick any sector. Buttons, porcelain, shoelaces, plastic, dry goods, semiconductors, chips, oil, tomography, digital injectors, newspapers, books, universities, production companies, digital marketing, x, y, z, a, b, c... Doesn't matter. I claim that you can pick any sector, look at the biggest players on a global scale, and you won't find a single one where there isn't a Jew at the top or behind the money, among the top 3, or at most the top 5.
These people have a population of 5-10 million and hold sway over 5-10 billion people. Why and how do they do this? Why and how can't we?
We have to transcend mediocrity — first in our own inner world of thought and our own lives, and then in our surroundings — abandon our stopgap, get-through-the-day plans, and start thinking in terms of 100 years. I'll write a long blog post about this at some point, God willing. Let this be my first promise on that."

Let this piece be the fulfillment of that promise.

In my tweet, I referenced my mediocrity-themed pieces. The tweet's core claim is this:

You, who are mediocre at everything you do; while unable to stand out in any field, how could you possibly become a world giant, how could you possibly establish new balances of power on a global scale — never mind that, how could you possibly first bandage, and then avenge, the blood of the thousands massacred in Gaza?

You can't. Because, as thousands of people have written and illustrated hundreds of thousands of times before me, you can't stand up to superpowers without being a superpower yourself. A missile next to a sling-stone is beautiful in poetry. Nowhere else.

In the other pieces of the mediocrity series (see benmbs.blog/tag/vasatlik), I tried to approach the subject from various angles. My core claim in those pieces was that we're surrounded by a circle of mediocrity, that this circle forms the ground on which all our work and action takes place, that virtually nothing we do is aimed at being above average, and that this makes everyday life unlivable. I argued that, because of this dominant culture of mediocrity, real institutionalization never manages to take hold, and that this cultural environment — where cronyism and an "it's-not-my-problem" attitude are the sole ruling culture — is what's suffocating us; and I tried to examine the subject through its various reflections in hobbies, production, commerce, education, and intelligence. For the details, I'd recommend looking at the other pieces in the series.

In this piece, though, I'll interrogate the matter of mediocrity from a different starting point. This time, I'll pick out a couple of examples from the Islamic intellectual tradition and search for a ground on which to push back against mediocrity. Come, let's search together.

Professionalism and Man's Journey Toward Perfection

According to the Ikhwan al-Safa (the Brethren of Purity), "the beginning of philosophy is loving the sciences, its middle is knowing the truths of beings to the extent of human capacity, and its end is speech and action in accordance with this knowledge." (Ikhwan al-Safa, Rasa'il, vol. 1, p. 33). In other words, according to them, philosophy, true to its name, is a passion / love of wisdom, but at the same time it also requires acting upon the knowledge one has acquired.

Philosophy is divided into two: theoretical and practical. Theoretical philosophy can be roughly described as knowing God, and practical philosophy as resembling God. Resembling God, in turn, comes through resembling His acts. God is the best performer of every act; whatever He does, He does it best. And it is man's duty to resemble Him to the extent of his capacity.

Al-Farabi, in his Fusul al-Madani (Aphorisms of the Statesman), touches on an interesting point while describing how the citizens of a virtuous state ought to live. According to him, the citizens of the virtuous state should specialize in, and go deep in, one — and only one — field of knowledge. The citizens of the virtuous state should act on the field of knowledge they've gone deep in, and aim for the best. True peace can only be secured this way. (Al-Farabi, Fusul al-Madani, p. 55-56)

The Rasa'il (Epistles) of the Ikhwan al-Safa also take up this matter, stating that one must be a professional. For God does everything He does in the best way, and He is the Master Craftsman. The superiority of any craftsman's or professional's intellect is known in proportion to the perfection of their craft.

O brother! Know that mastery in any craft means "resembling the true Craftsman," who is the Creator, exalted be His glory. It has been said, "Allah the Exalted loves the skilled and accomplished craftsman." And it has been narrated that the Messenger said: "Allah loves the craftsman who does his craft beautifully and soundly." For this reason, philosophy has also been defined as "resembling God to the extent of human capacity." Here, by "resembling," we mean resemblance in matters of knowledge, craft, and abundantly conveying good to others. The Creator, exalted be His glory, is the most knowing of the knowing, the wisest of the wise, the most masterful of craftsmen, and the most beneficent of the beneficent. Whoever attains a degree of superiority in these matters has thereby increased his nearness to Allah. Indeed, the Exalted Allah, in describing the angels, His sincere servants, has said: "They seek the means [of nearness] to their Lord — [striving as to] which of them would be nearest — and hope for His mercy." (Al-Isra, 57) (Ikhwan al-Safa, Rasa'il, vol. 1, p. 196)

In another passage, the Ikhwan al-Safa express, in their own style, where a person's superiority ought to be sought:

The superiority of every craftsman's and professional's intellect manifests in his own person, and is known in proportion to how soundly he practices his craft and how good his conduct is toward his fellow men — so long as he does not attempt to do things he cannot do well, or things that fall outside the domain of his craft. (Ikhwan al-Safa, Rasa'il, vol. 3, p. 347-348)

In other words, according to the Ikhwan al-Safa, for a person to become the insan-i kamil (the perfect/complete human being), he must do what he is capable of doing well, and refrain from doing what he cannot. To bring this idea into the present: for instance, a geologist not giving lectures on theology, or a hadith scholar not thinking he can render a final verdict on the biological foundations of the theory of evolution — in short, a person not attempting to give lectures on a subject outside his area of expertise. Because behavior of this sort not only obstructs the in-depth discussion of a subject, this very obstruction also drags the level of discourse downward, cutting off the public's access to accurate, high-quality knowledge...

Taking all of this as my basis, I can say: we must seek perfection, we must strive to become kamil (perfect/complete), and we must not forget that the insan-i kamil cannot be mediocre. The insan-i kamil stands at the extreme. I don't mean the extreme of excess or of deficiency, but of being among those who lead the way. We must be among those who lead the way, while staying on a moderate (mu'tadil) line.

I've said this many times in my earlier pieces on mediocrity. We must equip ourselves with deepened interests, or at least with genuine interest itself; we must succeed in treating things as ends rather than instrumentalizing them; and in what we do, we should hope for the manifestation of one of God's names.

As I mentioned in the tweet, rather than day-to-day hit-and-run schemes, we must make 100-year plans, and prepare the land we buy, the company we found, for 100 years from now. Real institutionalization, real power, and transcending mediocrity are only possible this way.

If all of this can be truly grasped and carried out, perhaps we too can have a voice and a say in this world. But for that, we need to do more than "it's-not-my-problem-ism" or "good-enough-ism," and instead seek the good and the beautiful. Maybe we'll elaborate on this part in other pieces, maybe we won't. For now — so long.

Bibliography

  1. Al-Farabi. Fusul al-Madani (Aphorisms of the Statesman): Views on Political Philosophy. Trans. Hanifi Özcan. İzmir: Dokuz Eylül University Press, 1987.
  2. Ikhwan al-Safa. Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Vol. 1. Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing, 2012.
  3. Ikhwan al-Safa. Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Vol. 3. Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing, 2014.

Muhammed Batuhan Şahin

22.06.2024