What Is The Position And Importance Of Reason In Religion, And In Islam?
By Dr Nazir Ahmad
Zargar
October 30,
2020,
This
article discusses three questions: what is faith, or religion? Is it
appropriate to call Islam a faith, or religion? What is the position and
importance of reason in religion, and Islam?
I base my
answers to each of these questions on either the common understanding of these
terms as the experts define and explain them or the Qur’an, the Book which
claims to be the last revealed literal world of God. [In the Islamic tradition
the name of God is Allah. It is without derivation and no plural can be formed
from it. It has no feminine also. The English word God can hardly be even an
approximate substitute]
What Is A Religion?
The word
‘religion’ refers to the relationship which binds man to what he regards as
sacred and divine. There are certain religions which do not believe in God. Yet
many others believe in gods and goddesses. Religion is mainly about peoples’
concerns about death and after death. The secular world has today relegated the
religion to the private sphere. These people insist that religion should not
define our whole identity. It should rather be one of the components of a
person’s over all identity, if at all he believes in a religion. Atheist Sam
Harris asserts “the days of our religious identities are clearly numbered.” By
this way religion has been confined to a very tight space. While in the past it
was said that religion is opium of the people, it is now argued that “religion
poisons everything.” (Christopher Hitchens)
Is Islam A Religion?
The
scholars of Islam hold that it is inadequate to call Islam a religion in the
common understanding. The Qur’an calls the primordial religion or in the words
of Ismail Raji, meta-religion, as al-Din, which means ‘way of life.’ In the
classical Arabic various meanings of the word Deen include: Jaza (recompense),
Ta‘ah (obedience), Dhillah (humility). Hence Islam is
generally defined as obeying and submitting to Allah in humility. As Din, not
religion, Islam requires the Muslims to live their lives in such a way that
their submission to Allah is reflected in every aspect of life; from personal
to the political. This clearly differentiates Din from ‘religion’ which
pertains to a very minute part of a person’s whole identity. So the English
word ‘religion’ cannot convey the sense that is conveyed by the Qur’anic word
Din.
What Is Faith?
Faith is
defined as ‘belief without evidence.’ Hence it is now understood by many not to
be grounded in reason. Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most popular of the new
atheists, insists that ‘religious faith does not depend on rational
justification.’ So it is generally held that while science is about facts and
proofs, faith is about mere inclination to believe without sufficient evidence.
This is where many people declare faith to be unscientific and contrary to
reason. It might be in this backdrop that for quite some time now some people
have been using a new term ‘post-monotheism’ pointing to the claim that after
monotheistic ‘faith’ there is now reason and only reason to replace religion.
Faith in Islam
Like Din
instead of ‘religion’, the right word in the Qur’an is Iman rather than
‘faith’. While faith can be without evidence, Iman is “reasoned reflection”
where every believer is asked to think before he accepts. The Qur’an constantly
urges us to employ intelligence before we believe. Here are a few instances:
When the
deniers of truth will face punishment as natural consequence, they will say:
“had we listened or reflected.” So we are invited to think on both the sources
of Iman, the revelation, to listen to and the creation, to use our intelligence
for ‘apart from glittering light of Revelation, there are in all nature around
us and in our own conscience enough manifest signs of God and His Unity.’ This
is how the Qur’an invites us to realize God in our very being without
perceiving Him with our bodily eyes.
Iman is
technically defined as to affirm as true all that the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu
Alayhi Wa Sallam) was sent with. But even this unconditional trust in the
Prophet is not blind. See how lovingly and convincingly The Qur’an encourages
the people to think before they trust the Prophet: “Say (O! Prophet) I but exhort you to one thing; that you stand, for
Allah’s sake, by twos and singly, and then ponder, in your companion (the
Prophet) there is no madness. He is not but a warner to you of a severe torment.”
(34:46)
The prophet
of Islam was not conversant with the art of reading and writing. Then how could
he produce such a miraculous Book which ‘in the surpassing excellence of its
contents, in the grandeur of its language and style, and most of all in the
completeness and all-sufficient of its teachings’ has ever been unchallenged.
Given this the Qur’an very justifiably then asks the deniers: “And if you are in doubt concerning what We
have sent down upon Our bondman then bring a chapter like it, and call upon
your witness besides Allah, if you are truthful.” (2:23)
Not only
the immutable and miraculous Qur’an is produced as proof of the Prophet’s
claim, his own life is presented to his deniers as the convincing evidence of
this truthfulness. It is surely for the
first time in the whole human history that any human produces his own character
as proof for his truthfulness as this is so bold a claim that nobody among the
great reformers could dare about even think of it for every human being is
fallible. His enemies can anytime target his character in order to let down his
claim no matter how truthful he is. But not the Prophet himself but it is God
Who produces of the strongest rational evidences in support of Iman in this
form: “Say O! Prophet…. Of a surety I
have remained with you a life-time before it. Would you not then reflect?”
(11:16)
So what is
this? The Prophet is addressing their intelligence; he is challenging their
conscience: ‘Have I not all this time been renowned for my veracity? Have you
all these years ever suspected me of lying? How is it then that the moment I
begin to preach the Unity of God and to denounce your idolatry, you begin to
call me a liar?
The Qur’an
always invites people to use reason in order to attain Iman. While inviting
people to the truth of Islam, it does not tell them close all the windows of
you mind and believe blindly but it urges them to reflect: “do they not ponder
the Qur’an or are their locks upon their hearts?” (26:24). Why don’t they read
the Qur’an whose teachings are so clear or the case is something else that they
have become impervious to every argument and evidence?
Similarly,
the Qur’an produces the beautiful objects of nature like the sky, earth, the
Sun, the moon etc. which strike awe and wonder and excite the human mind as
evidences of the unique handiwork of their Creator. And when humans are asked
to believe in Him, their intellect is addressed in this way: “Surely in the
creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, and
the ships that sail upon the ocean laden with what profits mankind; and in what
Allah sends down of water from the heavens and revives the earth thereby after
its death, and scatters in it of all sorts of moving creatures, and in the
veering of winds and the clouds subjected for service between heavens and
earth; in these are signs to a people who understand” (2:164)
An
intellectually insolvent person when asking for evidence wants Din to show him
God. The purpose of Din in this world is not to see God for that will end all
intellectual faculties of man. When you see the Sun directly with a naked eye,
what else can you see then? Further, you cannot see the Sun directly but you
can through a pond of fresh water. God unravels to you His mysteries and
activates your intelligence through His revelation. Will you then think?
----
Dr Nazir Ahmad Zargar is Assistant Professor, Department of Religious
Studies, Central University of Kashmir
Original Headline: Religion, Revelation and
Reason
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/position-importance-reason-religion,-islam/d/123459
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