THE FUTURE in Islam means opportunities. Every Muslim is to look at the future for greater opportunities to improve oneself and society in all aspects of human living, including economic betterment.
They should plan and try to shape a viable future. This can be achieved by being more creative in searching for new ways of doing things in line with spiritual requirement.
Thus, future betterment can be achieved if the culture of creativity can be nurtured in society.
There is a saying that creativity is like height, weight and strength. People vary considerably in these dimensions, but everybody has some height, some weight and some strength.
Likewise, there is a certain amount of creativity in all of us, but some of us are obviously more creative than others.
This implies that creativity in an individual can be nurtured and developed but it cannot be implanted or transformed. Islam believes the inherent human potential can be developed and refined for higher creativity.
It regards man as the best of all creations. Allah says: “We have indeed created man in the best of moulds”. This positive attitude towards the nature of human potential is the starting point for man to achieve success. In fact, every Muslim is required to be productive with righteous deeds and to continuously improve these deeds with high creativity.
Allah provides a positive outlook for men to be productive and creative. The Quran says: “It is God who hath created the heavens and the earth and sendeth down rain wherewith to feed you.
“It is He who hath made the ships subject to you that they may sail through the sea by His command.
“And the rivers also hath He made subject to you. And He hath made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses, and the night and the day hath He (also) made subject to you.
“And He giveth you of all that ye ask for. But if ye count the favours of God, never will ye be able to number them. “Verily, man is given up to injustice and ingratitude” (14:32-34)
This positive pronouncement by God provides a clear perspective for individuals to continuously explore all possibilities to improve their standard of living through quality creative performance.
Islam insists all individuals take stock of their situation, learning from the past, and planning to direct change for further improvement to the desired end.
They are absolutely necessities of survival and better quality living. Indeed the religion has reminded man that he can only improve if he decides to take the lead to improve himself.
Allah says: “Allah will not change the fate of a people until they change what is in themselves”. (13:11)
Understanding the above religious view on the need for creativity, one can search for ways to motivate creatives in an organisation. Wiston Fleether is of the view that managers must provide the right environment.
There are many simple rules which can help managers win support and enthusiasm for creativity. Among them are: Absorb their risks–managers who encourage creativity must willingly and publicly take their share of the blame if things go wrong.
Stretch organisational regulations–though managers should not normally disregard rules and policies, they must know when these need to be more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
Be comfortable with half-developed ideas–it should not be necessary for every “t” to be crossed and every “i” to be dotted before an idea is given consideration; and the creative must have confidence that the manager can really understand and appreciate ideas at an early stage of gestation.
Make quick decisions–managers who ho-hum and sit on the fence when shown creative ideas soon stop being shown creative ideas. Don’t dwell on mistakes–mistakes are an inherent part of the creative process. Managers should ensure the creative learn from experience, but not make them wallow in it. “I told you so” is a particularly unappealing phrase to the creative.
Be a good listener–creative people generally love to talk about their work, and managers have to love (or learn to love) to listen. Provide lots of feedback–creative people are always eager for evaluation of their work, and since real results are often long delayed (and even then not necessarily precise) the manager must provide as much encouraging data along the way as possible.
Accept trivial foibles–we have already seen that creative people are not quite the same as everyone else; allowing them a few innocent quirks will stress your acceptance of non-conformity.
Defend them against attackers–in all creative businesses, creative people are subject to frequent and, often unjustified, criticism: the manager must speak up, and be heard to speak up, loudly and boldly on their behalf.
These positive ways to encourage creativity can be considered seriously by our present organisation leadership to ensure creativity among individuals in an organisation can be achieved at the highest possible level at any one time.
From the Islamic point of view, the effort towards higher creativity is a religious requirement and it can be considered as jihad or religious struggle. By subscribing to this view, there will be great interest for Muslims to give serious effort towards higher creativity in their works.