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REASON AND FAITH IN ISLAM
By Prof. Abdul Ali
The Our'an is believed by
Muslims to be the Book revealed
by Allah to the unschooled
Prophet Muhammad as well as kept
preserved in its original form
for all times to come.
Obviously, faith is an important
element of the religion of
Islam. Initially, it insists on
a few basic articles of faith
such as Unity of Allah,
Prophethood of Muhammad, divine
origin of the Qur'an, life after
death, accountability of the
individual for his deeds, etc.
Beyond these articles of faith
it leaves the mind of Muslims
free to observe, contemplate,
assimilate and draw inferences.
Moreover, the faith the Our'an
builds in men is not at
all blind or arbitrary. It is
rather sought to be
substantiated by the dictates of
reason and intellect. From this
particular point of view the
Our'an itself is a unique blend
of faith and reason, religion
and philosophy. Consider, for
example, the following verse:
The Qur'an was revealed in the
month of Ramadan as a guidance
for mankind along with clear
proofs in support of its being
the guidance as well as the
criterion of right and wrong.1
It is evident from the above
that when we approach the Our'an
with our faith in it as a source
of guidance, we are in the realm
of faith. But when we
investigate in it the proofs of
its being the guidance, we deal
with reason, philosophy and
science. That is the main reason
why the matter of relationship
between reason and faith has
always been an important issue
in the intellectual history of
Islam.
It is with the explicit purpose
of instilling in man the spirit
of worshipping Allah with full
awareness of His existence that
Islam has put the greatest
possible emphasis on the pursuit
of knowledge and learning. It is
described as one of the
unavoidable injunctions of Allah
that are incumbent upon man.
That is the main reason why
cultivation of knowledge is
described as a sacred act of
worship to Allah. Both the
Qur'an and Traditions of Prophet
Muhammad, the two main sources
of Islamic thought, are fu11 of
such expressions as emphasize
the importance of knowledge and
intellectual thought in the life
of man on the one hand and
stimulate him to cultivate it on
the other.
A careful study of the Qur'an
reveals that it has taken
various measures to enable man
to promote his critical acumen
and intellectual capacity for
the constructive purpose of not
only understanding his position
vis-à-vis the universe and its
Creator, but also doing good to
humanity by advancing the cause
of knowledge and learning.
First, it seeks to purge the
human mind of all sorts of
superstitions, delusions and
prejudices that kill its
vitality. It has denounced conj
ecture, illusion and empty
guesswork
in
the following words:
(And they have no knowledge
thereof. They follow but a
guess, and lo! a guess can never
take the place of the truth).2
(And they say: If the Beneficent
One had so willed, we should not
have worshipped them. They have
no knowledge of whatsoever of
that. They do but guess).3
It is clear from the above
verses that the Qur’an does not
permit blind imitation of
unhealthy practices and
traditions irrespective of
whether they have been inherited
from one’s own parents and
forefathers or from others.
Secondly, man is repeatedly
asked in the Qur'an to assert
his reason and intellect to
attain knowledge. This is
evident from the fact that the
word ilm and its derivatives
have occurred 805 times; the
word albab (minds) 16
times; and the word aql and its
derivatives 49 times in the
Qur'an.4
Thirdly, the Qur'an exhorts man
time and again to observe and
investigate natural phenomena
with a view to getting
acquainted with the laws of
nature operating in the
universe. There are about 750
verses in the Qur'an - about
one-eighth of the Book- that not
only emphasize ref lection on
natural phenomena, but also
contain scientific signs which
are becoming more and more
manifest with the advancement of
science. Consider, for example,
the following verses:
Do they not look?
At the sky above them?
How we made it
And adorned it,
And there are no flaws in it?
And the earth -
We have spread it out
And set thereon mountains
Standing firm, and produced
Therein every kind of
Beautiful growth (in pairs).
To be observed and commemorated
By every devotee Turning (to
God). 5
Do they not look at the camels?
How they are made?-
And at the Sky,
How it is raised high?
And the mountains,
How they are fixed firm?
And at the Earth,
How it is spread out …? 6
Obviously, the call for
observing the natural phenomena
as maintained in the above and
like verses does not mean mere
casting a superficial look at
them, but rather it is implied
that man should try to
understand and ascertain the
universal laws of nature
operating in them by developing
and applying the exp e raiment I
method of research based on the
faculties of reason and
perception, with which he has
been endowed by Allah.
By referring to various objects
of nature and natural phenomena,
the Qur'an not only stirred
man's intellectual curiosity,
but also greatly advanced his
scientific knowledge. There are
a number of passages in the
Qur'an that catapulted man to
the utmost heights of scientific
knowledge by disclosing some
secrets of nature which science
has taken hundreds of years to
verify and establish. Thanks to
the discoveries and inventions
of modern science, the
intellectual and rational
foundations of the Qur'en may
now be adequately illustrated
with examples drawn from such
diverse branches of knowledge as
cosmology, physics, biology, and
medicine.
A few such illustrations are
mentioned below.
I n the following verse the
Qur’an teaches man pure science
by alluding to the rotation of
the earth and other celestial
bodies at a time when all kinds
of superstitions had been
dominant upon the minds of the
people about this vital
scientific fact:
And He (Allah) it is Who created
the night and the day, and the
sun and the moon. They swim,
each in an orbit.7
Another startling scientific
discovery made in the recent
past regarding the comets of ice
clearly brings to light the
scientific significance of the
information contained in the
following Qur'anic verse:
He sends down from the sky
mountains wherein is hail… 8
It is clear from the above verse
that mountains of ice or comets
of ice are being sent down
regularly from the sky (space).
towards the earth. Scientists
were totally ignorant of this
phenomenon until 1986. It was
scientifically confirmed only in
1988. According to this
discovery, heavy snowballs or
comets of ice weighing about
100
tons each and measuring about 30
feet across are constantly
falling from unknown places in
the space into the earth’s
atmosphere at the rate of 10
million a year. Finally, they
break into hail due to tidal
waves in the atmosphere, end
join the earth's water cycle. 9
The Qur'an is full of such
scientific miracles. A few more
instances of the miraculous
nature of the Book from the
modern scientific viewpoint are
given below with a view to
further highlighting the
rational and intellectual
foundations of the Qur'an.
It is now fully established by
science that everything exists
in pairs as male and female
including the rock crystals and
electricity. The same fact was
revealed in the Qur'an in the
following words.
Praise be to Him Who created all
things in pairs, of that which
the earth grows, and of their
own kind, and of kinds which
they know not. 10
Secondly, now it is a firmly
established scientific fact that
ever since its creation the
universe has been expanding at
an accelerating rate, with
galaxies zooming away from each
other. The same phenomenon is
almost literally described in
the Our'an as follows;
We have built the firmament with
might, and we are certainly
expanding it.11
Similarly, modern astronomical
researches clearly point not
only to the birth and death of
the sun and the solar system,
but also to the vanishing away
of the existing firmaments. It
is indeed amazing to know that
these science-based vaguely
described possibilities and
conclusions have got a clear
mention in the following verses
which talk of the said
possibilities as predestined
realities with the full vigor of
certainty:
When the sun is folded up; and
when the stars fall, losing
their lusture.12
The Day that We roll up the
heavens like a scroll rolled up
for books. Even, as We produced
the first creation, so shall We
produce a new one: a promise We
have undertaken; truly shall We
fulfill it.13
The above observations are only
a few specimens of the
intellectual and rational
foundations of the Qur'an. As
rightly held by the
distinguished French surgeon and
scholar Maurice Bacilli in his
book The Bible, the Our'an and
Science, there is not even a
single statement in the Qur'an
which may be assailable from a
modern scientific point of view.
The rational and intellectual
approach adopted by the Qur'an
revealed to the unschooled
Prophet over fourteen hundred
years ago in the age of
superstitions and blind faith,
need to be studied more
seriously with the aid of
science as an effective tool of
study and research with a view
to further sharpening and aiding
man’s understanding of the
letter and spirit of the Book.
It is worthy of mention in this
context that so long as the
followers of Islam were inspired
by these and like Qur'anic
verses, they were not only
filled with the spirit of
scientific enquiry, but also
developed a keen sense of
intellectua1 curiosity and a
voracious appetite for learning.
They also travelled far and wide
in search of knowledge, and
contributed a great deal to
human thought and progress by
pursuing and patronizing study
and research in all branches of
learning_ As a result, they soon
became in possession of the
philosophical, medical and
mathematical works of Greek,
Persian and Indian scholars. In
this way they assimilated in a
remarkably short span of time
what had taken the ancient
civilized world centuries to
develop. Arabic now became the
language of natural sciences,
medicine and philosophy, while
the Arabic-speaking peoples
served as the main bearers of
the torch of culture and
civilization across the world.
They not only preserved the
ancient sciences and
intellectual legacies of
Greece, Iran and India, but also
enriched and transmitted the
same to the West, which made
possible the renaissance of
Western Europe.
On the contrary when the later
followers of Islam stopped
asserting their rational
faculties, they became
lethargic, dogmatic and
backward. It is not at all
surprising to know that their
downfall coincided with the
predominance of narrow
traditiona1ism over enlightened
rationalism in them, following
which the intellectual
leadership of the world shifted
from the East to the West. This
phenomenon in turn made the
spiritually starved
materialistic West power-drunk
with dangerous consequences for
the entire globe, as it is bent
upon maintaining their
domination over the world by
hook or by crook by throwing to
the winds all norms of
democratic and human values.
In summing up it may fairly be
said that in Islam both reason
and faith or rationalism and
traditionalism are interlinked
and interdependent. They are
also found to be supportive of
each other. None of the two can
be separated from the other
without causing untold suffering
to humanity. It was mainly
because of this balanced
combination that Islam as an
educational force not only
inspired Muslims to cultivate
knowledge and learning, but also
infused in them the spirit of
scientific enquiry which is the
very life and soul, of modern
sciences. Their lofty
achievements in various branches
of knowledge as well as their
concept and practice of
enlightened moderation are the
results of their having been
closer to the spirit of Islam.
Finally, Islam as a religion and
civilization is fully in
agreement with the opinion
expressed by the renowned
scientist Albert Einstein
"Religion without science is
blind; while science without
religion is lame".
REFERENCES
1. The Qur’an, 11:185
2. The Qur’an, LIII:28 (
tr. By M.M. Pickthell)
3. The Qur'an, XLIII:20
(tr. M.M. Pickthall)
4. Prof. Darwesh
Mustafa:"Terikh al-'Ulum
f-il-Hadaret al-Islamiyah"
in the Journal Manar
al-islam January, 1977,
p.87
5. The Qur'an, L:6-8
(tr. by A. Yusuf Ali)
6. The
Qur'an,LXXXVIII:17-20 (tr. by A.
Yusuf Ali)
7. The Qur'an,
XXI:33 (tr. by M.M.Pickthall)
8. The Qur'an,
XXIV:43
9. Ibrahim Bin Syed:
"The Qur'anic Revelations on
Comets of Ice" in The
Muslim World League Journal,
Saudi Arabia, Vol. XVI, Nos.1&2,
pp.10-11
10. The Qur'an,
XXXVI:36
11. The Qur'an, LI:47
12. The Qur'an, LXXXI:1-2
(tr. by A. Yusuf Ali)
13. The Qur'an, XXI:104
(tr. by A. Yusuf Ali) |
