Stimulating the Intelligence
Throughout his mission the Prophet, peace be upon him, sought his Companion's advice, encouraging them to express their opinions and paying them careful attention. Furthermore, the Prophet had evolved a genuine teaching method through which he allowed the Muslims to develop their critical faculties, express their talents, and mature in his presence. He would often ask questions on various subjects and give the answers only after his Companions had thought by themselves and expressed different conjectures. Sometimes, more subtly, he would utter a judgment in a paradoxical form, thereby prompting his listeners to consider the matter more deeply. For example, he once said: "A strong man is not a man who overcomes his enemy!" The Companions mulled this over among themselves, then asked him: "Then who is a strong man?" The Prophet surprised his audience and led them to a deeper understanding of the question with his answer: "A strong man is a man who controls himself when he is angry!" He would sometimes speak figuratively: "Wealth does not lie in the riches you possess!" After the Companions pondered this, Muhammad would elaborate: "True wealth is the wealth of the soul." On occasion the Prophet's statement appeared to contradict common sense or ethics: "Help your brother, whether he is just or unjust!" The Companions could not but wonder about the nature of the help they were to give an unjust brother: how could that be? The Prophet, inverting the perspective, would add: "Prevent him [the unjust brother] from acting unjustly, such is the way for you to help him!"
Both by asking questions and by formulating paradoxical or seemingly contradictory statements, the Prophet stimulated his Companions' critical sense and their ability to go beyond mere blind obedience or mechanical mind-destroying imitation. This method developed the intellectual capacities necessary for consultations to be effective. By stimulating their intelligence and giving them opportunities to speak, he exercised a type of leadership that made it possible for his Companions to learn to assert themselves and take initiative.
