Blind Faith? Never In The History Of Religion Has Allah Ever Demanded Blind Faith
By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
16 May 2022
Every Prophet Came With Distinct Signs
From Allah Which Were Sufficient To Convince The People That The Messenger Was
Truly A Messenger Of Allah
Main Points:
1.
Those
people who tried to annihilate the prophet and the believers were destroyed by
an act of God.
2.
To
follow the moral code voluntarily and enthusiastically requires an
understanding of why it is the best course to follow.
3.
People
of faith including the prophets never understood everything and, therefore,
even the prophets were asked to pray.
-----
Does Allah demand blind faith? Never in the
history of religion has Allah ever demanded blind faith. Every prophet came
with distinct signs from Allah which were sufficient to convince the people
that the Messenger was truly a Messenger of Allah. We know the stories of these
prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Lut Moses, Jesus etc.(peace be on all the
prophets).
Not that everyone believed despite the
unmistakable and convincing signs. The fact is that very few believed. In the
case of several of the prophets such as Noah, Lut, Saleh, Hud, and Shoaib,
their people who rejected belief were destroyed by an act of God. In the case
of Moses, the pharaoh and his army who followed Moses and his people with an
intention to kill them were drowned. From the stories of the prophets, we
understand that only those people who tried to annihilate the prophet and the
believers and/or taunted that the calamity threatened in the Message to be
brought on if the prophet was speaking the truth, were destroyed by an act of
God. There are stories of several other prophets whose people also did not
accept faith but were not destroyed. This was because their rejection was not
haughty and violent, and they did not taunt and challenge the prophet to bring
on the calamity if he was speaking the truth. Their rejection was benign and
such people were not destroyed by an act of God.
The distinct signs providing unmistakable
proof of Allah, therefore, formed the initial basis of faith. Thereafter, the
believer is asked to repose complete faith in Allah and His Messenger. This was
necessary since Allah’s Deen or the moral way of living is counterintuitive and
wouldn’t have made any sense to the people. To follow the moral code
voluntarily and enthusiastically requires an understanding of why it is the
best course to follow. This understanding came only after thousands of years of
practicing the code as a religious duty. This process is covered in my article:
We, therefore, find in the Bible,
Proverbs 9:10,
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy
One is understanding.”
Psalm 111:10
The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich
understanding.
However, while
“the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7)
It was necessary to first practice His
precepts to gain an understanding of the wisdom behind those precepts. So, how
can people be made to practice anything if the wisdom behind the practice is
unknown? From the fear of the lawgiver. The fear of the Lord was therefore the
beginning of the process of acquiring wisdom and knowledge of the nature of
God.
We, therefore, find that every Messenger to
whom the law was revealed, was also a ruler, who could lay down the law, as
well as ensure that it was obeyed from the fear of the punishment in this
world, prescribed for transgressions.
The Situation When The Quran Was
Revealed
After practicing Allah’s Deen for thousands
of years, the moral rules permeated civilized society. The wisdom behind each
rule was being discussed by the philosophers and there was no one who questioned
these rules, and these had become the law of the land. The believers followed
the rules based on their religious beliefs and the disbelievers from the fear
of the consequences of breaking the law of the land and from the fear of the
risk of reputation in society. This situation remains unchanged and continues
till today.
It is therefore no longer necessary to
invoke the fear of God because the rules now make good empirical sense. You
will, therefore, not find in the Quran anything like the proverbs cited above.
The Quran goes a step further and declares:
(256) Let
there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever
rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold,
that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.
The above cannot be construed as a license
to disregard the religion because there are consequences in the Hereafter for
those who deviate from the religion of Allah. In this world, however, there is
no longer any need for compulsion because ‘Truth now stands out clear from
Error’.
From the above discussion, it must be
clear, why unquestioning faith was necessary, to follow what did not make
sense, but such faith was not demanded without a sign from Allah, appropriate
for those times, that was sufficient to convince the people that they were
reposing faith in an entity worthy of their trust.
The situation stands unchanged. Even today,
there are many who may not understand the wisdom behind every verse of the
Quran. People of faith including the prophets never understood everything and,
therefore, even the prophets were asked to pray:
20:114
"O my Lord! advance me in knowledge."
People of faith seek Allah’s help to
understand what may initially not make sense to them and are sure to find an
answer provided they shed all their pre-conceived notions formed from every
other source and repose their complete faith in the Quran and on Allah’s
guidance. This is for those verses that they find disturbing and not for verses
whose lack of understanding does not shake up their faith. There are many
verses in the Quran that are signs for our times but not for those of the
bygone ages as these could not have made any sense to the prophet or to the
people until their truth was confirmed by science such as the verses on the
creation of the universe and on procreation discussed in my article:
Al Furqan
Prevails As It Must.
These verses are sufficient proof that the
Quran is the word of Allah and a firm basis for reposing faith in the Book.
These verses are also proof that the Quran is not outdated because it was
revealed 1400 years ago. Clearly, the Book is ageless, when it has verses that
make sense only today because it took us 1400 years to acquire the necessary
knowledge from the pursuit of science to understand them.
Dealing With Doubt
For those verses that a reader finds
disturbing, he should seek Allah’s help with patient perseverance and if he
does that, he is sure to find the answer that will satisfy him.
There are certain qualities of head and
heart which make some people repose such faith and there are flaws of character
that make such faith difficult. The guidance is for the people of Taqwa
as per verse 2:2 and Taqwa in this context is persevering patiently and
in good faith fully expecting Allah’s help in finding an answer.
(47:17) But
to those who receive Guidance, He increases the (light of) Guidance, and
bestows on them their Piety and Restraint (from evil).
Those with a flaw in their character will
never cease to doubt unless they first identify and work on their flaw with a
prayer to Allah seeking help. The doubting Thomas’s who exult and enjoy
debating with the believers trying to make doubters out of them will never
return to the correct path. It is about such people that Allah says:
(2:10) In
their hearts is a disease; and Allah has increased their disease: And grievous
is the penalty they (incur), because they are false (to themselves).
Effect Of The Ayats On The People Of
Faith And The Disbelievers
(9:124)
Whenever there cometh down a sura, some of them say: "Which of you has had
His faith increased by it?" Yea, those who believe,- their faith is
increased and they do rejoice.
(125) But
those in whose hearts is a disease,- it will add doubt to their doubt, and they
will die in a state of Unbelief.
(126) See
they not that they are tried every year once or twice? Yet they turn not in
repentance, and they take no heed.
(127)
Whenever there cometh down a Sura, they look at each other, (saying),
"Doth anyone see you?" Then they turn aside: Allah hath turned their
hearts (from the light); for they are a people that understand not.
(128) Now
hath come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that ye
should perish: ardently anxious is he over you: to the Believers is he most
kind and merciful.
(129) But if
they turn away, Say: "Allah sufficeth me: there is no god but He: On Him
is my trust,- He the Lord of the Throne (of Glory) Supreme!"
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A frequent contributor to
NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is
an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private
sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years
studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/blind-faith-religion-allah-distinct-signs/d/127018
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