Knowledge accidents | Sasana

Bismillah.

Heard a couple of exciting things at a conference yesterday. One presenter who stirred my interest and captured my heart, quoted Dave Snowden as per my notes below:

That describes the loss of content and context that happens as knowledge travels from the head, to mouth (speaking it), to the hand (writing it down). 

How true, but let's also consider the other 'knowledge route' from an Islamic point of view. About knowledge being stored in the heart and being transmitted from heart to heart. And when sharing involves two hearts, it tends to be more lasting and meaningful bi-iznillah.

One buzzword the presenter mentioned was 'knowledge accidents'. "We need to have more knowledge accidents", he said. A quick googling pointed to this definition, that it happens "when people run into each other at places like this [conference] or at the water cooler, exchange information, and realize an opportunity for collaboration and a synergy between the projects they're working on." - Al Zollar

Another new word I learned from him was sasana. Oh, did you know that there's a new cool place in KL we should visit. It belongs to the Malaysian Central Bank. It's meant to be their centre of excellence in knowledge and learning, but it's also open to public. They have got a museum, an art gallery and cafes for the rest of us who have got nothing to do with the banking industry. I mean, not directly. 

The place is called Sasana Kijang. According to the presenter, at Sasana Kijang there are also plenty of seating areas conducive to 'doing nothing'. "Doing nothing is an option", he said. Doing nothing means we are either reflecting or thinking, which in Islam is  an important activity because contemplation (taffakur) as narrated in a hadith, could be better than a night's worship.

Sasana Kijang
"Think, Discover and Inspire"

Sasana is actually a Sanskrit word meaning a site or place where village communities gather for informal meetings, where leaders share knowledge for the common good of the community.

I would like to think that a blog is also a kind of sasana where people casually meet to share knowledge. However, as a blogger I sincerely hope that we don't suffer from too much loss of content and context. As a self appointed recorder/transmitter of what have been said by shuyukh, I truly hope that it will always be a 'heart-to-heart' transmission and not a 'head-to mouth-to hand' kind of thing.

May Allah increase us in knowledge and grant us understanding. Rabbi zidni 'ilma warzuqni fahma.