It is generally believed in
our religious circles that the teachings and directives of Islam only appeal
to our emotions and sentiments; they do not address our intellect and as
such they have to be accepted and obeyed without being inquisitive into the
logic and philosophy behind them. The Asharites, the largest school of
Muslim dialectics, also hold this view.
This view seems to
contradict the Qur’ān. The Qur’ān explicitly states that all Islamic beliefs
and directives have sound reasons behind their inception. Consequently,
whenever the Qur’ān urges man to accept certain dogmas, it cites arguments
to substantiate its claims. It warns those who evade and ignore its call to
use their faculty of reasoning instead of being slaves to emotions like hate
and prejudice. In fact, a little deliberation shows that the Qur’ān wants us
to obey certain religious commandments precisely because the Almighty has
blessed us with the faculty of reasoning. Thus, a perfectly healthy person
who is mentally insane has been relieved from all religious responsibilities
in Islam. In spite of being fit in all other respects, he has not been asked
to say his prayer or fast, nor is he liable to punishment for any crime he
commits.
An important point which
must be understood in this regard is that we are required to accept certain
realities without observing them because their existence can be logically
deduced. For example, we are not able to see God, the Day of Judgment too is
as yet concealed from our eyes, nor have we witnessed Gabriel revealing the
Divine Message to the Prophet (sws). Yet, we believe in all these because
present in the Qur’ān, in our own intuition and in the various phenomenon of
nature are signs which testify that these realities are rationally proven
facts. It is highly irrational on the part of man to demand a visual display
of realities which, though unseen, can be understood rationally. It is his
misfortune that on the one hand when he delves deep in the domains of
science, he accepts certain realities which cannot be observed but the
existence of which can be proven by other means, and on the other hand, he
adopts a completely different attitude when he comes across certain
metaphysical realities of life.
In other words, some
realities upon which the Qur’ān asks us to believe are certainly beyond the
perception of senses but not beyond the perception of reason. Just as
footsteps on sand testify beyond doubt that someone has traveled past,
likewise writ large on every matter of this universe is that someone has
just gone past and left an indelible expression of his own existence.
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