folio

Student and teacher do not always see eye to eye, and that’s just fine. We are each shaped by different experiences and conditions. There is no way we can agree on all things, nor are we asked to.

My teacher, mentor and friend is a man steeped in learning, in both religious knowledge and scientific research. He is as at home speaking of cutting edge research into the human genome as he is elucidating the opinions of the polymaths of a thousand years ago.

I value his wisdom and insight, the fruit of decades spent studying with scholars in North Africa and the Levant. I often find myself in awe of his encyclopaedic knowledge of our tradition, reflected in his own vast library of books. Even more so by his deep engagement with the Quran.

Naturally, he would not like me saying any of this, for while many a modern sheikh assigns himself grand titles, he has always shunned such honours, preferring to refer to himself as a humble traveller along the path. But in truth, he is an intellectual, mathematician, deep thinker.

Now as for me: I am not an intellectual by any stretch of the imagination. It seems that I have a visual and practical approach to learning. If I did achieve a higher degree, it was only really as a result of persistence, rather than any kind of academic rigour. What appeals to and stimulates me is creativity; I’m not really a man of books.

It could be said then that we are chalk and cheese, and so perhaps it is only natural that we cannot agree on all things. I was raised in a completely different cultural milieu to him, of a different generation, facing different challenges. Furthermore, I have a different physiology and brain morphology, which profoundly alters my perception of the world.

This applies to my relationship with nearly all I interact with. Having been raised amidst great wealth, I cannot truly appreciate the experience of being poor. As a member of the majority ethnic group of my nation, while I can empathise with those that have experienced a lifetime of systemic racism, I cannot truly fathom their actual experience.

So in life it’s likely that we will all come to our own understanding of events, based on our unconscious biases, personal experiences, perceptions of truth, and of right and wrong. I often filter events through my knowledge of my own self, and what my soul calls me to; thus do I judge the world. Others, though, may filter the same events through the experiences of nations only recently emerged from tyrannical imperialism, still suffocating under the weight of rampant discrimination.

So it is that we each arrive at different conclusions, based on the information available to us. We may each think we are weighing up the evidences equally, but there’s no guarantee either that we have access to all of the data or that our interpretation of the data is sound. I suppose that’s why those of us less learned will often defer to those of greater knowledge and insight. Here, the standard teacher-student relationship.

But sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. Sometimes we just don’t see eye to eye, and so we respectfully agree to disagree. No great schism or conflict required. No proclamations of heresy needed, as decreed by the zealous followers of a particular sheikh, school of thought, tradition or sect. No, it’s okay to disagree. Disagree, and move on.