Living The Quran
From Issue: 1002 [Read full issue]
Knowledge and Reason
Al-Jathiya (The Kneeling) Sura 45: Verse 5
"In the alternation of night and day, in the rain God provides, sending it down from the sky and reviving the dead earth with it, and in His shifting of winds there are signs for those who use their reason."
The Quran is generously sprinkled with references to learning, education, observation and the use of reason. Indeed, reason, after revelation, is the second most important source for discovering and delineating the 'signs of God'. The cosmos is presented as a 'text' that can be read, explored and understood with the use of reason. Thus, reason is a path to salvation; it is not something you set aside to have faith, it is the means to attaining faith, a tool of discovery and an instrument for getting close to God.
The Quranic notion of reason, however, is much more than simple logical deduction. Reasoning per se can become instrumental and lead to oppression. By simply focusing on the most rational and efficient way of doing things, instrumental reasoning, as critical theorists and social philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas have pointed out, can lead to all sorts of social, economic and political problems. By concentrating on 'how' a goal is to be achieved, we often overlook 'why' the goal is sought in the first place, and whether it 'ought' to be pursued at all.
The Quran often uses 'reason' in juxtaposition with 'listening.' Every reasoned argument has a counter-argument. While understanding comes from reasoning, it does not come with reasoning alone. We are also required to listen to the counter-argument and take it into consideration in our reasoning process. We reason, according to the Quran, not just with our minds but also through listening and seeing; true comprehension is reached when all the faculties, including the heart, come into play. Blind followers are not necessarily irrational, they simply stick to the paradigm they know and trust: the ways of their forefathers (43:22-3), the traditions of Great Men long dead (43:22), the ideas that 'they do not know to be true' (17:36) which have passed their 'use by' date. True knowledge, the Quran tells us, is produced through arguing and listening to the arguments of others, through criticism, self-criticism and counter-criticism.
So the elitist idea that faith can only be explained and taught by scholars cannot be justified using the Quran. Knowledge, the Quran makes clear, is not the domain of a chosen few. Rather, every individual should seek knowledge as a religious duty.
Compiled From:
"Reading the Qur'an: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of Islam" - Ziauddin Sardar, pp. 251, 252