Living The Quran
From Issue: 634 [Read full issue]
Intellectual Faculties
Yunus (Jonah) - Chapter 10: Verse 100
"And it is not for a soul to believe except by permission of God , and He will place defilement upon those who will not use reason."
All of God's bounties are solely at His disposal and one can neither have access to any of these without His leave, nor can one confer them on others. The bounty of having faith and being directed to the right path is also fully contingent upon God's leave which is based on whether or not people's intellectual faculties are alive. Those who do not use their intellectual faculties or those who use them in improper ways, are devoid of God's leave to believe.
The Quran attaches great importance to the intellectual activities or faculties, all of which it relates to the "heart;" these faculties are reflection, using reason, considering, knowledge, insight, "hearing," etc. It regards anyone who is devoid of these as being dead. Even if we relate all these to the heart, or each to a different faculty, the way to keep these alive is to refrain from being pre-conditioned, and to avoid prejudices, incorrect viewpoints, evil intentions, sins, wrongdoing, arrogance, and selfishness. These are the vices which prevent one from believing.
Compiled From:
"The Quran: Annotated Interpretation in Modern English" - Ali Unal, pp. 444
"Towards Understanding the Quran" - Syed Abul Ala Maududi, Vol. 4, p. 69