Intellect And Rationale Are Imperative To Stay on the Righteous Path – An Islamic Point of View
By
Arman Neyazi, New Age Islam
1 June 2021
Understanding
Rationale (the Hikmat) and Intellect (Al-Aql) According to the Commands of
Allah and Exercising it for the Goodness of Humanity
Main
Points:
1. Human beings
are born with the power of intellect and rationale embedded in their soul.
2. Like human
beings, animals too have rational qualities in their characters that are at the
show in their community life.
3. Education,
formal or informal, is a must to understand the qualities, dimensions and
importance of intellect and rationality.
4. The Holy
Quran specifically stresses the use of wisdom and rationality to be on the
right side of the judgement
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All human
beings are born with the power of intellect and rationale embedded in their
soul. Allah, the Most Merciful loves equality, therefore there is no difference
even on a minuscule level among humankind as far as rational and humane
qualities are concerned. Like human beings, animals too have rational qualities
in their characters that are at the show in their community life. The Holy
Quran also says that the birds and animals praise their creator although the
human being is unable to understand them. Consider what Allah, Creator says in
the Holy Quran about animals:
“Seest
thou not that it is Allah Whose praise all beings in the heavens and on earth
do celebrate, and the birds (of the air) with wings outspread? Each one knows
its own (mode of) prayer and praise, and Allah knows well all that they do.” (Quran 24:41)
Giving his
definition of animals, James Alfred Wight alias James Herriot, a British
veterinary surgeon and author says:
"If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of
humans."―James Herriot
What James
Herriot says is hard but true. If a human being does not use his intellect and
rationality he is worst than an animal (with all due respect to them) or in
other words, animals are much better than irrational men.
In Islamic
parlance, the brain is the treasure of intellect and rational feelings and
understanding. The Holy Quran and Hadees traditions command human being to
acquire knowledge so that they can bring their wisdom and intellect to the fore
and create an ability to distinguish between right and wrong. There must be
around 750 Ayaat (verses) that persuade human being to study environment,
science, art and humanity along with the Holy Quran. Education, formal or
informal, is a must to understand the qualities, dimensions and importance of
intellect and rationality. A man that does not take formal or informal
education does not understand the teachings of his religion and his religious
leaders or guides.
A human
being with a thinking mind worships Allah, the Most Gracious, or for that
matter, its god related to any other religion, with much love and sincerity
towards, both his Creator and His Creation.
Understanding
Intellect (Al-Aql)
It is the
intellect that is the axis of everything created by a human being, we witness
in this world. It is the intellect that makes human being ‘Ashraf ul
Makhluqat’, the best of the creation of Allah, the Creator. It is the intellect
that Allah declared the human being His vicegerent. Allah repeatedly commands
His people to think about the signs of God in the universe that introduces man
from His illustrious presence in everything present on planet earth.
S. Kocabas
Professor - Anaesthesiology and Reanimation Department, Ege University Faculty
of Medicine beautifully describes intellect (Al-Aql) in the following lines:
The Arabic concept for the mind is ‘Aql which
appears in the Qur’an about forty-nine times in the form of a verb ‘Aqala,
Ya‘Qilun, ‘Aqalu, Ta‘Qilun, Na‘Qilu And Ya‘Qilu referring to the ‘use of
intellect’. Kocabas believes that the wisdom behind the occurrence of ‘Aql in
the Qur’an in the verb form is because “it has a dynamic application.”
This means that if ‘Aql were to be used in the Qur’an
as a noun it would simply mean ‘intellect’ but its occurrence in the verb form
gives it the meaning of “using the intellect or activating the intellect.”
S.
Kocabas, The Qur'anic Concept of Intellect (The Word Aql in the Qur’an),
London: The Islamic Philosophical Society,1987, p. 3.
Allah, the
Most Gracious has on various occasions commanded His people to use their
intellect rightfully to be on the righteous path otherwise its misuse takes a
man on the path to Kufr and other wrongful acts. Consider following Ayaat:
And they will say, "If only we had been
listening or reasoning, we would not be among the companions of the
Blaze." (Surah
Al-Mulk: 10 - Sahih International
And he had already led astray from among you
much of creation, so did you not use reason? This is the Hellfire which you
were promised.
(Surah Yasin: 62-63) - Sahih International
Above
mentioned Ayaat specifically mention that human being has been endowed with
intellect so that he could distinguish between the good and the bad, that is the
truth – al-Haqq – from falsehood – al-Batil and to study, understand and work
according to the signs of Allah in the nature called Ayaat Kawniyyah (آية
كونية).
Creation of the sky, the earth, the moon etc. is Ayaat Kawniyyah, signs which are not in revelation but
creation. The revelation is called Ayaat Sharī’ah. Consider the following Ayat:
Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the
earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of
understanding. Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their
sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying],
"Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such
a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire. (Surah Ali `Imran: 190-191) - Sahih
International
Understanding
Rationale or Philosophy (the Hikmat)
To
understand what rationality or reasoning is we should consider how Sadr al-Din
Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Yahya Qawami Shirazi the most revered Islamic philosopher
after Avicenna famously known as Mulla Sadra, defines it:
Hikmah (also Hikmat, Arabic: حكمة, Hikma, literally wisdom, philosophy;
rationale, underlying reason,) is a concept in Islamic philosophy and law.
Mulla Sadra defined Hikmah as "coming to know the essence of beings as
they are" or as "a man's becoming an intellectual world corresponding
to the objective world". (Hikmah/ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia)
Hikmah or
rationality is used every day by the Honourable Judges of the courts and the administrative
heads of all kinds of organisation to reach a conclusion that is based on the
understanding of the case or the problem, as the case may be. The Holy Quran
specifically stresses the use of wisdom and rationality to be on the right side
of the judgement or the decisions. Allah, the Most Gracious, graciously
explains what role wisdom (Hikmah) plays and how it was used in the creation of
the universe. The Holy Quran has the word Hikmah twenty times in it and out of
these twenty, it is used ten times just before the word ‘Kitab’ that is the
divine scriptures, the Quran and other Abrahamic Holy Books. Consider the
following Ayaat:
And He will teach him the Book, the Wisdom, the
Torah, the Gospel,
(Surah Ali 'Imran:48)
He grants wisdom to those whom He wills, and
whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted much good.309 Yet none except
people of understanding take heed. (Surah Al-Baqarah-269)
To Err
is Human, To Correct Is Divine
Taking into
account the deplorable condition of the humanity all over the world countries
be it because of any reason, we will reach to the conclusion that human being
has either not used its intellect, wisdom and rationality of judgement or has
misused the powers bestowed upon him by Allah, the Almighty. Who can deny the fact
that the world nature is the amalgam of the natural wealth of every kind,
irrigation, chemical or atomic? Had all this wealth been used in the welfare of
humankind using the rightful judgement of equality and love, the earth would
have been heaven. In that case, it would not have been written for Kashmir but
the whole world, ‘If there is a heaven on earth it is here, it is here, it is
here.
Following
verses from the Holy Quran should act as an eye-opener, as it is said, ‘it is
never too late or ‘better late than never. Following verses command us to think
before we act and most importantly, we should not speak on the subject, problem
or matter that we do not know of. And this is what most of us are busy doing,
day in and day out. It creates devastating consequences, like the ones we are
facing right now. The Quranic verses for us to ponder:
And do not pursue that of which you do not
know. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will
be questioned.
(Surat Al-'Isra':36) - Sahih International
Thus do We explain the Ayat (proofs, evidences,
verses, lessons, signs, revelations, laws, etc.) in detail for the people who
reflect. (Quran,
10:24)
Did you think that We had created you in play
(without any purpose) and that you would not be brought back to Us? (Quran, 23:115)
Do they not think deeply (in their ownselves)
about themselves (how Allah created them from nothing, and similarly He will
resurrect them)? Allah has created not the heavens and the earth, and all that
is between them, except with truth and for an appointed term. And indeed many
of mankind deny the Meeting with their Lord. (Quran, 30:8)
And
Allah knows the best.
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Arman
Neyazi is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/intellect-rationale-righteous/d/124916