لطفا منتظر باشید ...
peninsula, into a steadfast nation of committed believers, who could grapple
with the greatest powers of the age and overthrow them.
The Muslims did not merely view the Qur'an as a book of moral advice
and instruction alone, but also, as a spiritual and ideological tonic.
They recited the Qur'an with devotion of heart during their intimate nightly
supplications, and during the day, they derived from it the strength to
attack the unbelievers like roaring lions. The Qur'an had just such an
expectation of those who had found their faith. Addressing the Prophet,
it says:
Obey not the unbelievers, but struggle against them with
it [the Qur'an] striving mightily. (25:52)
The Qur'an advises the Prophet (S) not to pay heed to the words of the
infidels and to stand firmly against them equipped with the weapon of the
Qur'an. It assures him that the ultimate victory shall be his. The life
of the Prophet (S) itself is a positive proof of this assurance. He stood
all alone against enemies without any support except the Qur'an, and the
same Qur'an meant everything to him. It produced warriors for him, furnished
arms and forces, until, ultimately, the enemies were totally subdued. The
Qur'an drew towards him individuals from the enemy's camp, and caused them
to submit before the Messenger of God. In this way the Divine pledge was
fulfilled.
When the Qur'an calls its language "the language of the heart," it means
the heart which it seeks to purify, enlighten and stimulate. This language
is other than the language of music that occasionally arouses sensual feelings.
It is also different from the language of martial music that arouses the
spirit of heroism in the hearts of soldiers and strengthens and enhances
their enthusiasm. Rather, it is the language which converted the Arab Bedouins
into inspired mujahidin, for whom it was said:
They carried their visions on their swords.
Those people carried their vision, their ideology, their religion and spiritual
discoveries on their swords, and used them in the defence of those ideals
and ideas. The notions of private and personal interest were alien to them.
Though they were not innocent and infallible, and they did commit mistakes,
yet they were those who rightly fitted the description:
Standing in prayer during nights,
fasting during daytime.
Every moment of day and night, they were in contact with the depths of
Being. Their nights were passed in worship, and days in jihad.
It is on account of this characteristic, that the Qur'an is a book of
the heart and the soul. Its appeal overwhelms the soul and brings tears
flowing from the eyes and makes the heart tremble. It stresses this point
and considers it true even of the "People of the Book":
Those to whom We gave the Book before this believe in it,
and, when it is recited to them, they say, 'We believe in it; surely it
is the Truth from our Lord; even before it we were of those who surrender.
(28:52-53)
It describes a group of people who undergo a state of veneration and awe
when the Qur'an is recited before them. They affirm faith in all the contents
of the Book, declare everything in it to be nothing but truth and their
veneration of it continues to increase. In another verse, the Qur'an affirms
that among the Ahl al-Kitab (The People of the Book), the Christians are
closer to the Muslims than the idolaters and Jews. Then a group of Christians
who believed and became Muslims on hearing the Qur'an are described in
these words:
And when they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger,
thou seest their eyes overflow with tears, because of the truth they recognize.
They say, "Our Lord we believe; so do Thou write us down among the witnesses."
(5:83)
In another place, while describing the believers, the Qur'an says:
God has sent down the fairest discourse as a book, consimilar
in its oft repeated parts, whereat shiver the skins of those who fear their
Lord; then their skins and their hearts soften to the remembrance of God
... (39:23)
In these, as well as in many other verses (such as 19:58, 61:1, etc.),
the Qur'an tells us that it is not merely a book of knowledge and analysis;
but at the same time that it makes use of logical arguments that appeal
to the intellect, it also speaks to the finer sensibilities of the human
soul.
The Qur'an's Addressees:
Another point that has to be inferred from the Qur'anic text during its
analytical study, is to determine the identity of those who are addressed
by it. There are certain expressions like "guidance for the God fearing,"
"guidance and good tiding for the believers," "to admonish and caution
him who is alive," which often recur in the Qur'an. Here the question may
arise: Of what need is guidance for those who are already guided, the pious
and the righteous? Moreover, we see that the Qur'an describes itself in
these words:
It is but a reminder unto all beings, and you shall surely
know its tiding, after a while. (38:87-88)
Then, is this book meant for all the people of the world, or is it for
the believers alone? In another verse addressing the Prophet, God the Most
Exalted, says:
We have not sent thee, save as a mercy unto all beings.
(21:107)
A more detailed explanation of this matter would be undertaken during the
course of later discussion regarding the historical aspect of the Qur'an.
Here it is just sufficient to mention that the Qur'an is addressed to all
the people of the world. It does not single out any particular nation or
group. Everyone who accepts the invitation of the Qur'an is assured of
spiritual salvation. However, the verses which mention the Qur'an as the
book of guidance for the believers and the God-fearing (mu'minun and muttaqun),
clearly specify the kind of people who will be attracted towards it and
others who will turn away from it. The Qur'an never names any particular
nation or tribe as being its devotees. It does not take sides with a specially
chosen people. Unlike other religions, the Qur'an never associates itself
with the interests of any specific class. It does not say, for example,
that it has come to safeguard the interests of the workers or the peasants.
The Qur'an repeatedly emphasizes the point that its purpose is to establish
justice. Speaking about the prophets, it says:
And We sent down with them the Book and the Balance so that
men might uphold justice ... (57:25)
The Qur'an advocates justice for all mankind, not merely for this or that
class, tribe or nation. It does not, for example, like Nazism and other
such cults, stir up the passions of prejudice to attract people. Similarly,
it does not, like certain schools of thought like Marxism, base its appeal
upon the human weakness of interest-seeking and enslave-ment to material
motivations to incite people; because the Qur'an believes in the essential
primariness of the rational consciousness of man and his intrinsic conscience.
It believes that it is on the basis of its moral potentialities and its
truth-conscious human nature that mankind is placed firmly on the path
of progress and evolution. This is the reason why its message is not limited
to the working or farming class or exclusively to the oppressed and deprived.
The Qur'an addresses both the oppressors as well as the oppressed, and
calls them to follow the right path. Prophet Moses (A) delivers the message
of God to both Bani Israel and Pharaoh, and asks them to believe in the
Lord and to move in His path. Prophet Muhammad (S) extends his invitation
both to the chieftains of Quraysh and to ordinary persons like Abu Dharr
and 'Ammar. The Qur'an cites numerous examples of an individual's revolt
against his own self and his voluntary return from the path of deviation
to the straight one. But, at the same time, the Qur'an is aware of the
point that the restoration and repentance of those immersed in a life of
luxury and opulence is comparatively more difficult than that of those
familiar with the hardships of life: the oppressed and the deprived, who
are, as a matter of fact, naturally more inclined towards justice; whereas
the rich and wealthy, at the very first step, have to forgo their personal
and class interests and abandon their wishes and aspirations.
The Qur'an declares that its followers are those who have a clear and
pure conscience. They are drawn to it solely by the love of justice and
truth, which is ingrained in the nature of all human beings ---not under
the urge for material interests and worldly desires and allurements.
Conception of Reason in the Qur'an
Heretofore we have discussed briefly the diction of the Qur'an, and said
that, for the purpose of communicating its message, the Qur'an makes use
of two types of languages, namely, the language of rational argument and
the language of feeling. Each of these languages has a specific appeal.
The first type addresses and appeals to the intellect or reason, while
the second one is meant to appeal to the heart. Now we shall examine the
point of view of the Qur'an regarding reason ('aql).
It is to be seen whether or not the Qur'an acknowledges the "authority"
(hajjah) of reason --as the scholars of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence)
and usul put it. This means whether or not we should respect the
judge-ments of reason and act according to them if they happen to be correct
and rightly deduced by it. Moreover, if one acts according to the dictates
of reason and occasionally falls into error, will God exonerate him for
it, or whether He will punish him on account of that error? And, if one
fails to act according to the ruling of reason, does he deserve punishment?
Evidence in Favour of the Authority of Reason
The issue of the authority of reason in Islam is certain. Since the earliest
times until the present, none amongst the Islamic scholars --except for
a very small number-- has ever negated the authority of reason; they have
counted it as one of the four sources of Islamic fiqh.
1. The Qur'an's Emphasis on Rationalism
Since our discussion is about the Qur'an, I think it necessary to produce
arguments concerning the authority of reason from the Qur'an itself. The
Qur'an, in various ways, confirms the authority of reason. About sixty
to seventy verses can be cited --and that, too, for just one of the various
ways, as mentioned-- in which the Qur'an indicates that such and such a
matter has been mentioned for reason to reflect on. In one instance, the
Qur'an refers to this issue in a striking statement:
Surely the worst of beasts in God's sight are those that
are deaf and dumb and do not reason. (8:22)
Of course, it is obvious that the Qur'an does not mean the physically deaf
and dumb, but those who do not want to listen to truth, or those who, when
they hear, do not wish to admit it with their tongues. In the view of the
Qur'an, the ears which are unable to listen to truth and which are only
used for listening to absurd and nonsensical things, are deaf. The tongue
which is merely used to utter nonsense, is dumb. The people who do not
reason, are those who do not make use of their intellect and their faculty
of thought. Such are not fit to be called human beings. The Qur'an includes
them among the beasts. In another verse, while bringing up a subject related
to Divine Unity (al-tawhid), the Qur'an refers to the issue of unity of
Divine Acts, and says:
It is not for any soul to believe, save by the leave of
God... (10:100)
After stating this profound issue --a problem which is not easily comprehensible
to every human mind-- the Qur'an continues the verse like this:
And He lays abomination upon those who do not reason. (10:100)
In these two verses, which I quote here for the sake of example, the Qur'an,
in the terms of logic, invites us to ratiocination. There are many other
verses in the Qur'an which, on the basis of consequential signification,
can be said to accept the authority of reason. In other words, the Qur'an
makes statements which cannot be accepted without accepting the authority
of reason. For instance, an opponent is asked to forward rational argument
in favour of his position:
Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful. (2:111)
This can only be inferred to mean the Qur'an's ratification of the authority
of reason. In another place it uses syllogistic argument to prove the existence
of the Necessary Being (wajib al-wujud):
Were there gods in them [earth and heaven] other than God,
they would surely disintegrate ... (21:22)
In these verses the Qur'an has framed a conditional proposition, which
exempts or excludes the antecedent premise for arriving at a conclusion
which is consequent upon it. Thus the Qur'an aims at emphasizing the role
of reason and refutes the view of some of the religions that faith is alien
to, or, is incompatible with reason, and that to embrace faith one has
to suspend his rational faculty and concentrate upon heart alone, so that
it may absorb the Divine light and become illuminated by it. This view
is totally negated and refuted by the Qur'an.
2. References to the Law of Causality
The other argument that supports the view that the Qur'an approves of the
ultimate authority of reason, is that it defines various problems in terms
of cause-and-effect relationship. The cause-and-effect relation-ship, or
the law of causation, is the foundation of rational thinking. This law
is honoured by the Qur'an and is also employed by it. The Qur'an speaks
on behalf of God, the Almighty, the Creator of the system of cause and
effect. Despite the fact that His Word transcends the limitations of causality,
the Qur'an is not oblivious of pointing out to the system of causality
operating in the universe; it views all phenomena and events as being subservient
to this system. The following verse supports this view:
God changes not what is in a people, until they change what
is in themselves ... (13:11)
The Qur'an intends to say that, although all destinies depend on the Will
of God, He never imposes upon human beings such fate as is outside and
alien to their determination, will and action. The destinies of societies
also change according to their intrinsic system of functioning. God does
not extravagantly alter the destiny of a nation without any specific reason,
unless they themselves bring about a major change in their system of social
and moral values and their manner of performing their individual duties.
The Qur'an urges Muslims to study the conditions and circumstances of
societies of the past and to take lesson from their history. It is evident
that if the destinies of races and nations were random, or dependent upon
accidents, or were prescribed from above, the advice to study and draw
a lesson would not have any sense. By laying emphasis on it, the Qur'an
intends to remind us that a uniform system of laws governs the destinies
of all the nations of the world. It also reminds us that if the conditions
of a society in which we live, are similar to the conditions prevalent
in a society of the past, the same fate awaits us too. Elsewhere, the Qur'an
says:
How many a city We have destroyed in its evildoing, and
now it is fallen down upon its turrets. How many a ruined well, a tall
palace. What, have they not journeyed in the land so that they have hearts
to understand with, or ear to hear with ... ? (22:45-46)
From this statement, we can infer that the affirmation of the law of causality
and the approval of the cause-and-effect relationship, imply the acceptance
of authority of reason.
3. Rational Basis of Divine Commands
Another argument which proves that the Qur'an believes in the ultimate
authority of reason, is that the Qur'an always explains the rationale behind
its commands, laws and precepts. The scholars of usul al-din (the principles
of the Faith) maintain that the harms and benefits caused by human deeds
are among the reasons behind laws and commands. For example, while at one
place the Qur'an ordains the performance of prayers, in another place it
explains the philosophy of prayer:
Indeed prayer forbids indecency and dishonour ... (29:45)
It mentions the spiritual effects of prayer, and states how the prayer
can edify man. It explains that it is on account of this exaltation that
man can dissociate himself from indecencies. Elsewhere, after laying down
rules for observing the fast, the Qur'an explains the rationale for its
command:
Prescribed for you is the Fast, even as it was prescribed
for those that were before you --haply you will be God-fearing. (2:183)
Similarly, with respect to other commandments like those regarding zakat
(alms) and jihad, the Qur'an clarifies their necessity for individual,
as well as for society. In this way, the Qur'an, not withstanding the transcendental
nature of Divine commandments, clarifies fully their worldly and terrestrial
relevance, and asks men to cogitate upon their rationale until their meaning
becomes explicit, so that it may not be imagined that these laws are based
on a series of occult notions beyond the power of human comprehension.
4. Combating Deviations of Reason
Another evidence in favour of the Qur'an's affirmation of the authority
of reason --which is more conclusive than that mentioned above-- is the
battle it launched against all those agents which obstruct the proper functioning
of reason. For clarification of this point, we are forced to mention certain
things in the way of an introduction.
The human mind can, in many cases, fall into error. This fact is acknowledged
by all of us. However, this danger is not limited to the intellect alone,
but can equally befall the senses, and feelings as well. Just for the sense
of vision, scores of visual errors and optical illusions have been pointed
out. In the case of reason, too, there are times when people frame an argument
and rationale and draw an inference on its basis, but later on they realize
that the basis of their conclusion was erroneous. Here the question arises,
whether the faculty of reason should be suspended on account of its occasional
