The quartets of making creatives

In the opening of his programme 'Al-Mubdi'un' (The Creatives), Tareq al-Suwaidan presents a methodology he distilled from studying and analysing the lives of the greats of Islamic history in the light of management and human-development science: four stages of four elements each, which he names 'the quartets of making creatives' or 'the secrets of the greats', holding that greatness is neither accident nor fixed circumstance but a method that can be extracted and taught ^{1 2 3}. He qualifies it: exceptions exist and it does not apply one hundred per cent to every figure ⁴.

The first stage's elements are mostly beyond a person's control: intelligence and sharpness — the gifted have a greater chance of becoming creative, and he calls for testing children's intelligence and focusing on the high scorers — a special talent — he holds that every human has a talent but the greats discovered and invested theirs, an example being the prodigious memory that many scholars exploit — special circumstances, most famously the loss of one's father, which gives early responsibility and independence, 'for the follower neither creates nor leads', with advice to parents to leave their children a space of freedom and decision instead of domination — and he says the children of scholarly, leading, and commercial families have greater chances, luxury and laxity affecting no more than ten per cent of them (needs_source) — and distinguished early education — then special care, most often from a mother, or a sheikh or educator who notices the talent ^{5 6 7 8 9 10 11}.

The second stage has four elements: identifying the desire — no specialisation the children do not love is forced on them, for one who works in what he does not love may produce but will not create — then defining a single field, then focus without dispersal among fields, then setting the vision and ambition — he faults the youth whose ambition is a job or a department head or even a ministry; the greats he speaks of rank above rulers and ministers, being those whose mark lasted centuries ^{12 13 14 15}.

The third stage, which he calls 'the stage of taking', lasts in his estimate until about the age of thirty: seeking knowledge and honing the talent in one's field to the highest degree of learning; contact with the great specialists of the field; a mighty will that neither despairs nor yields; and continuous training, presenting one's work to the greats for correction ^{16 17 18}.

The fourth stage: one who takes and does not give leaves no mark; its elements are great successive achievements, each higher than the last; a persistence that overcomes obstacles and general circumstances like political turmoil; students and followers — for one who leaves no students is not immortalised; and balance in life between the field and religious duties, family, body and soul ^{19 20 3}. He states that the ummah needs only two per cent of creatives and greats, and the rest will follow — a pattern he says is evident in history ^{21 22}.