The nature of religious truth: The relation between religious text and reason.
When revealed text and rational thinking are combined together, religious truth is fully understood. Revealed text is of no benefit to one who has no reason, and reason on its own is of no help to one who has no knowledge of revelation.
The nature of religious truth: The relation between religious text and reason.
When revealed text and rational thinking are combined together, religious truth is fully understood. Revealed text is of no benefit to one who has no reason, and reason on its own is of no help to one who has no knowledge of revelation. When either of these is missing knowledge of the truth is deficient. Should they superficially contradict each other revealed text is given precedence, because it comes from God’s perfect knowledge while reason is derived from the knowledge of creatures, which is imperfect.
Reason is like the ‘seeing sense’ while the revealed text is like light. No one benefits by having two eyes when he is in pitch black darkness, just like a rational person benefits nothing by his reason without revelations. The better the light, the better the vision. Similarly, the more text is revealed the better reason is guided. When religious text and reason complement each other perfectly full guidance and insight are at their optimum, just like vision is at its best at mid-day. God says:
‘Is he who was dead and whom We have raised to life and for whom We set up a light to see his way among men to be compared to one who is in deep darkness out of which he cannot emerge?’ (6: 122)
A rational person benefits by reason in his life just like flying and walking animals benefit by their instincts. They migrate and settle at certain times, they know each other, find their way to their areas, make their own nests and recognize their predators.
However, man cannot find sufficient guidance from reason to know his Lord in full unless he benefits by what He has revealed to His messenger. Man simply cannot reach out to his Lord without the benefit of divine revelations, because without them he is in darkness:
‘God is the patron of the believers. He leads them out of darkness into the light. As for the unbelievers, their patrons are false deities who lead them out of light into darkness. Those are the people destined for the Fire, therein to abide’. (2: 257)
We note that God says that He ‘leads them’, because without Him they will remain in darkness. Light is the same even though it may be of different types, such as fire and brightness. Likewise, revelation is the same even though it may be in different forms, such as the Qur’an and the Sunnah. God says:
‘Believers, obey God and obey the messenger’. (4: 59)
A person who says that he will know God through his reason, without need of revelation, is the same as one who claims to find the right way using only his eyes, without the need for light. Both deny what is definitely necessary: the
first has no religion and the second has no life.
God describes His revelations as light that gives guidance to all mankind:
‘Those, therefore, who believe in him, honour and support him, and follow the light that has been bestowed from on high through him shall indeed be successful’. (7: 157)
His revelations provide guidance to prophets and to their followers.
We accept what God has commanded and prohibited and we believe in what He has told us. If we know the reason for any particular thing we believe in it, but if we do not know it we still believe and submit. Reason does not necessarily comprehend every reasonable thing. How can it comprehend what is incomprehensible and how can all minds agree to it?
The one who says that he accepts those of God’s laws and rulings that reason comprehends but disbelieves what is incomprehensible puts reason ahead of divine revelations. If our mind cannot comprehend something this does not mean it does not exist. It only means that it lies beyond our faculties of comprehension. The human mind has a limit beyond which it cannot go, just like eyesight has a limit. The furthest one can see does not represent the end of the universe or existence. Likewise, hearing has a limit but this does not mean the end of sound. An ant makes a sound that we cannot hear and similarly there are atmospheres, planets and stars in the universe that are invisible to us.