Philosophy

Reason and Rationality in the Quran (Cont'd)

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7. Reason, Heart and the Human Conscience

This is comparable to the unitary experience of reality like a moving landscape rather than a particular frame taken out of it for dissection. The Qur'an identifies the heart (al-qalb) as the proper locus of the unitary experience of reality. This is where perceptual experience, conceptual thinking and moral judgment blend together. Given the sentimentalization of the ‘heart' since the Cartesian turn in Western philosophy, it should be noted that the Qur'an assigns a clearly epistemic and intellectual function to the heart. The verses that mention the heart refer to our deep conscience by which we see reality as a whole. It combines rational thinking and moral judgment. The heart, when clean and properly guided, presides over other epistemic faculties and enlightens them about the truth. Heart and reason function as a conduit for gaining insight into the reality of things and how we should relate ourselves to it. It is in this context that the Arabic linguists have identified ‘aql and qalb as being synonymous [21].

The goal of thinking through ‘aql and qalb is to disclose and inhabit the intelligible order from which particular beings in the universe derive their meaning. Muslim thinkers see no contradiction between reason and heart, rational thinking and contemplation, logic and transcendence. One of the major figures of the Kalam tradition, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi begins his famous work al-Muqabasat with a prayer to God to grant him "through His Grace and Generosity the spirit of the heart through the light of the intellect (ruh al-qalb bi-nur al-‘aql)" [22].

This is not surprising if we understand how our empirical and conceptual engagement with things works. Possessing sense organs is no guarantee for perceiving things properly because the senses are subsumed under a higher epistemic principle. After all, it is our reason that makes sense of what our sense organs perceive as a raw experience. We may have an eye with which to see but may see things in a distorted manner because of, say, a nervous breakdown [23].

We may have two ears but may fail to hear because we may deliberately chose not to hear certain things. We may have a sharp mind but may not arrive at the right conclusion in, say, a legal dispute because our desire to win the case may take over our judgment. Our sensate faculties thus function within a larger context of conceptual, emotional and moral conditions. The process of arriving at the truth of something entails a unitary experience and involves sensate, cognitive, psychological and moral principles and considerations. Al-Ghazali, following the tradition before him and basing his analysis on the Hadith, describes sense organs as "the soldiers of the heart" and says that "the heart is like the king and the soldiers are like its servants and aids" [24]. Even the physically sound functioning of the sense organs depends on the soundness and cleanliness of the heart.

The human person is endowed with reason and thus can have access to the reality of things. But his reason and judgment can be clouded by his ego and carnal desires. He may thus lose his ability for discernment and can delude himself into thinking that he knows and forgets the stubborn and commanding nature of the ego. Against this, the Qur'an warns:

Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be a guardian over him? {43} Or do you think that most of them hear or reason? They are only like cattle; nay, they are even farther astray from the Path. {44} (al-Furqan 25:43–44).

Animals serve the purpose for which they have been created. But those who have been created to worship God take their own ego as their master and worship themselves even though they have been given clear signs. This is where their ‘hearing' and ‘reasoning' comes to no avail [25]. The Qur'an goes further and challenges those who claim to see and hear when in fact their conscience has been blinded:

And among them are those who listen to you. But can you cause the deaf to hear, although they will not use reason? {42} And among them are those who look at you. But can you guide the blind although they will not [attempt to] see? {43} Indeed, God does not wrong the people at all, but it is the people who are wronging themselves. {44} (Yunus 10:42–44).

And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless. {179} (al-A'raf 7:179).

This suggests that having sense organs is no guarantee to perceive the truth. Empirical knowledge by itself cannot reveal the truth of things. The heart and the sense organs, which are the "soldiers of the heart", must all be sound:

We made for them hearing and vision and hearts. But their hearing and vision and hearts availed them not from anything [of the punishment] when they were [continually] rejecting God's signs; and they were enveloped by what they used to ridicule." {26} (al-Ahqaf 46:26).

The failure of seeing, hearing, etc., does not stem from a biological imperfection but from the closure of the mind and the heart to the truth. According to Ibn Kathir, this is a result of the fact that one does not " benefit from these organs which God has created as a cause for guidance" [26]. In some respects, this is comparable to the vain effort to explain colors to the blind. The ontological disconnect that separates the visually blind from the experience of colors makes the discourse about colors impossible. But a greater illness is the illusion that we think we see things because we have eyes when in fact we do not see [27]. The Qur'an insists that ‘seeing' as witnessing the truth requires a higher principle of intelligibility than bodily hearing and seeing:

Indeed, you will not make the dead hear, nor will you make the deaf hear the call when they have turned their backs retreating. {80} Nor can you lead the blind out of their error, you can only make to hear those who believe in Our proofs/signs, and those who have submitted [themselves to God]. {81} (al-Naml 27:80–81).

Having sound sensate organs is then not enough; they need to be guided by intelligence and wisdom. As Plato says in Phaedrus 250, "sight is the most piercing of our bodily senses; though not by that is wisdom seen". The heart must be uncorrupted and untainted in order to function properly. Quoting the Qur'an and the Prophet of Islam, al-Tirmidhi (d. 910) concludes, in an important work on the heart attributed to him, that the "soundness of sensate organs is possible through the soundness of heart; their corruption comes with the corruption of the heart" [28]. Thus al-sadr ("the chest"), al-qalb ("the heart), al-fu'ad ("the inner heart"), and al-lubb ("the innermost intellect"), which al-Tirmidhi analyzes with great perspicacity, do not function as separate organs but rather provide a cognitive and spiritual context for our experience of the truth. A famous saying of the Prophet of Islam sums up this view of the heart and its relation to other faculties and sense organs: "Verily, there is in the body a small piece of flesh; if it is good, the whole body is good and if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted. It is the heart." As the proper locus of tasdiq, ‘confirmation' or ‘corroboration', the heart gathers together sensate and conceptual knowledge and provides a unitary experience of reality.

The Qur'an thus insists on the total soundness and integrity of our sensate, psychological and mental faculties in order for us to know, and advices us to "travel on earth". Travelling or journeying means to look at the entire landscape of existence and history in order to put things in perspective:

So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts." {46} (al-Hajj 22:46)

Once the heart is blinded, all else is skewed and darkened. A similar danger is to act on zann, subjective opinion or conjecture, without sound evidence and firm foundation. Reason cannot accept conjecture as truth. Whether we conduct a scientific research or investigate the grounds of religious faith, we need more than conjecture on which to build our truth-claims. The same principle applies to human relations and moral attitude (see al-hujurat 49:12). Truth, not conjecture must be the basis of justification for faith:

Say, "Are there of your ‘partners' any who guides to the truth?" Say, "God guides to the truth. So is He who guides to the truth more worthy to be followed or he who guides not unless he is guided? Then what is [wrong] with you -how do you judge? {35} And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Certainly, conjecture can be of no avail against the truth. Surely, God is All-Aware of what they do." {36} (Yunus 10:35–36; also al-An'am 6:116).

As the presiding principle of sensate and cognitive faculties, the heart provides ‘evidence' (al-burhan) and gives ‘certainty' (al-yaqin). But this is contingent upon keeping the heart functioning properly in conjunction with reason and the soul to ensure certainty, integrity and tranquility "in the kingdom of the corporeal body of the human person" (mamlakat al-badan al-insan) [29]. According to the spiritual anthropology of the Qur'an, one must constantly work on his heart, mind and conscience, and guard himself against falsehood. When a person persistently mistakes falsehood for truth and bases his judgment on pure conjecture and selfish desires, then he develops a certain habit of mind and loses his ability to distinguish between truth and error. When this happens, which is not rare given the enormous power of desires on reason, his heart becomes "sealed" and loses his conscience. Thus the phrase "God has sealed their hearts" should be understood not in a fatalistic manner whereby God has already ordained certain people to disbelief. This interpretation would go against the thrust of the Qur'anic message. Rather, when one keeps committing the same intellectual and moral mistake and does not repent, he develops a certain habit of misusing his reason, and God leaves those who deliberately persist on wrongdoing. A number of verses describe this closure of the heart/mind/conscience as a total loss of direction in both the intellectual and moral senses of the term:

Indeed, those who disbelieve - it is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them - they will not believe. {6} God has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing , and over their vision is a veil. And for them is a great punishment. {7} (al-Baqara 2:6–7).

And among them are those who listen to you, but We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears deafness. And if they should see every sign, they will not believe in it. Even when they come to you arguing with you, those who disbelieve say, "This is not but legends of the former peoples." {25} (al-An'am 6:25).

The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts [God] by His praise, but you do not understand their [way of ] exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving. {44} And when you recite the Quran, We put between you and those who believe not in the Hereafter, an invisible veil. {45} And We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears deafness. And when you mention your Lord alone in the Qur'an, they turn back in aversion. {46} (al-Isra' 17:44–46).

When the hypocrites come to you, [O Muhammad], they say, "We testify that you are the Messenger of God." And God knows that you are His Messenger, and God testifies that the hypocrites are liars. {1} They have taken their oaths as a cover, so they averted [people] from the way of God. Indeed, it was evil that they were doing. {2} That is because they believed, and then they disbelieved; so their hearts were sealed over, and they do not understand. {3} (al-Munafiqun 63:1–3).

By contrast, those whose heart and conscience have been illuminated with the light of faith find peace and repose in the remembrance of God. This ‘finding' is not something sentimental or imaginative; it touches the core of our existence and links us to God on the one hand, and to the reality of things on the other. It guides our thinking and acting in the world and saturates our lives with meaning. Thus the Qur'an says:

Those who believe and whose hearts find repose in the remembrance of God, verily, in the remembrance of do hearts find rest. {28} (al-Ra'd 13:28).

It is He who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their [present] faith. And to God belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth, and ever is God Knowing and Wise. {4} (al-Fath 48:4).

In short, our conscience must be in the right place in order for our reason to function properly.

8. Reason, Existence and the Universe

The wholesale encounter with reality is a key component of the Quranic vocabulary of thinking and stems from the essential relationship between reason and existence. The word existence (al-wujud) is not used in the Qur'an. But the conceptual framework within which the world of creation is presented points to an order of existence in which God's creative act is disclosed. As the ground of all that exists, existence is a gift of Divine creation and derives its sustenance from God. In this sense, existence is the face of the Divine looking to the world of creation (‘alam al-khalq). The created order displays various modalities of existence, which discloses and particularizes itself into specific forms. While these forms or ‘shares of existence' possess different qualities, they are united by the underlying reality of existence. The Qur'anic phrase kull, "everything" and "all", frequently used in the cosmological verses, refers to this aspect of existence: everything is interrelated to one another by virtue of the fact that they are created by the same God who, as we mentioned, is al-muhit, the ‘one who encompasses everything'.

It is in this context that reason finds its proper relationship with existence. Existence is intrinsically intelligible because God creates optimally and what He creates has meaning, purpose and intelligibility built into it [30]. The following verse combines the purpose of creation, thinking and praying:

Do they not contemplate within themselves? God has not created the heavens and the earth and what is between them except in truth and for a specified term. And indeed, many of the people, in [the matter of] the meeting with their Lord, are disbelievers. {8} Have they not traveled through the earth and observed how was the end of those before them? They were greater than them in power, and they plowed the earth and built it up more than they have built it up, and their messengers came to them with clear evidences. And God would not ever have wronged them, but they were wronging themselves. {9} (al-Rum 30:8–9).

God creates with wisdom (hikmah), purpose (ghayah) and Providence (‘inayah). As the ultimate source of all existence and intelligibility, God bestows these qualities on His creation and saturates the order of creation with meaning and purpose. The celebrated saying that "the first thing God has created is intellect (al-‘aql)" should be understood in this context. The ‘intellect' here refers to the universal principles of truth, order and intelligibility which God has built into the nature of things. The intellect is the first thing God has created because God creates things according to a certain order and principle. Thus "the intellect is the closest thing to the Divine" [31]. In contrast to modern subjectivism, meaning is not simply a property of the mind. Just as knowledge cannot be reduced to the internal workings of the mind, as is the case with Descartes, meaning cannot be written off, a la Galileo, as a ‘secondary quality' superimposed by the mind upon things either. Since meaning is not created but articulated and appropriated by the mind, its essence lies outside my mental constructions of it.

The moral import of this premise is clear: having a meaning and purpose in a non-subjective manner entails a tremendous sense of responsibility. Admitting that we, like the universe, have been created for a purpose means accepting a moral responsibility beyond ourselves. The Qur'an addresses the human person directly to make this point:

Do you then think that We have created you without a purpose and that you will not be returned to Us? The True Sovereign is too exalted above that. {115} (Al-Mu'minun 23:115)

Does man think that he will be left wandering [at his own whim]? {36} (al-Qiyama 75:36)

As far as the universe is concerned, God creates things and the laws by which they exist. These laws, called sunnat Allah, the "wants of God", sustain the principles of order, harmony and continuity in the universe. It is the function of the human reason to discover these universal principles and intrinsic qualities. By applying itself to these principles, the intellect participates in the intelligible order of existence. Reason is able to discover these intrinsic modes of intelligibility because they are the intelligible principles built into the nature of reality. We can rationally and scientifically analyze the physical universe because it lends itself to such investigation in the first place. The Qur'an finds no contradiction between studying the universe as a natural phenomenon and seeing it as the supreme miracle of God.

The entire universe is an ayah, a "sign" for man from God and points to something beyond itself. The Qur'an uses the same word, ayah, to refer to its verses as well as "God's signs" (ayat Allah) in the universe, which can be compared to what the Latins have called vestigia Dei. The multiple meanings of ayah confirm the profound connections between God's verses in the scripture and His signs in the world of creation: both come from God; both are sacred; both are to be treated with utmost care; both require commitment. God's signs in the two senses are directly related to reason and rationality because they are addressed to the human reason so that man can understand the reality of things (theoretical reason) and pursue virtue and happiness (practical reason). Such a basic and ‘material' fact as counting years and keeping time is indeed a "sign" for those who ponder over the order and regularity of the universe:

It is He who made the sun a shining light and the moon a light [ for you] and determined for it phases – that you may know the number of years and account [of time]. God has not created this except in truth. He details the signs (ayat) for a people who know. {5} Indeed, in the alternation of the night and the day and [in] what God has created in the heavens and the earth are signs for a people who fear God. {6} (Yunus 10:5–6).

God presents these signs to humans so that they can use their reason and derive the logical conclusion from them, which is to believe in God. Every sign in the Qur'an and the universe invites a response from the side of the human being. As Izutsu points out, humans can read these signs properly and "confirm" (tasdiq) their truth. Or, they fail to use their reason, succumb to their desires and thus "reject" (takdhib) their truth. While the first response leads to sincere faith with certainty, the second lands us in disbelief (kufr) and denial [32]. Misreading God's "clear signs" disconnects us from the reality, and can imperil salvation: "And they will say: ‘Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not have been among the dwellers of the blazing Fire!' " (al-Mulk 67:10). Only those who can really use their reason can understand the true meaning of "signs" and act accordingly: "We have made clear to you the signs if you shall use your reason", the Qur'an says (Aal imran 3:118).

Those who use their reason can begin to decipher the non-linguistic language of the universe and understand how it submits to God. This deeper wisdom helps us see the difference between the one who is blind and the one who sees. The Qur'an is forceful in asserting that denying God and taking partners unto Him goes against the nature of things and violates the principle of reason:

And unto God Alone falls in prostration whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons. {15} Say: "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "(It is) God." Say: "Have you then taken (for worship) protectors other than Him, such as have no power either for benefit or for harm to themselves?" Say: "Is the blind equal to the one who sees? Or darkness equal to light? Or do they assign to God partners who created the like of His creation, so that the creation (which they made and His creation) seemed alike to them." Say: "God is the Creator of all things, He is the One, the Irresistible". {16} (al-Ra'd 13:15–16)

Once this is clarified, observation, logical analysis, contemplation and praying join together:

And to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and God is over all things competent. {189} 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. {190} Who remember God 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 in vain; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire. {191} Our Lord, indeed whoever You admit to the Fire – You have disgraced him, and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers. {192} Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith, [saying ], ‘Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed. Our Lord, so forgive us our sins and remove from us our misdeeds and cause us to die with the righteous. {193} Our Lord, and grant us what You promised us through Your messengers and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, You do not fail in [Your] promise." {194} (Aal Imran 3:189–194).

According to the Qur'an, the creation of the universe by God is so reasonable and self-evident that reason, unhindered by irrational causes, immediately recognizes it. This grasping of the truth through intuition (hads) underlies much of our empirical and conceptual knowledge. Those who recognize the truth when they see it do in fact use their reason in the most proper way. The Qur'an uses the phrase ulu-'l-albab, "those who have deep understanding of things" to distinguish them from those who are merely interested in being smart. Albab, plural of lubb, meaning the essence and core of something, refers to a deeper perception of the reality of things which we understand through our reason. According to Ibn Kathir, ulu-'l-albab refers to those "complete and perspicacious intellects which perceive the reality of things in their apparent reality" [33]. Qurtubi describes them as those who "use their reason in contemplating proofs" [34]. Once reason is put to proper use, it obtains new degrees of understanding, and the categorical distinctions between reasoning, contemplating and praying evaporate. This is when one begins to obtain certainty (al-yaqin), which leaves no doubt about the truth of something standing before us. At this point, the Qur'an puts so much emphasis on the self-evident and clear nature of the truth that it forbids forcing people into converting to Islam. Instead, they should be able to see the truth by themselves:

There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in God, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And God is All-Hearer, All-Knower. {256} (Al-Baqarah 2:256).

The ‘language of the universe' is revealed to human reason in the form of strict orders, laws, principles, patterns but also powerful symbols, parables and metaphors. The Qur'an sees no contradiction between strict rules of logic, which come from nothing but God's own Nature, and the symbolism of creation. The Qur'an invites us to discover the perfect order God has created in the universe. The order and regularity that come with this is a proof for the existence of an intelligent Creator. But we are also expected to grasp the symbolic language of the universe and how it praises God at every moment.

The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts Him by His praise, but you do not understand (tafqahuna) their [way of] exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving. {44} (al-Isra' 17:44) [35].

A reductionist and rationalist approach, which dwarfs our cognitive capacities and atrophies our imaginative powers, prevents us from understanding the non-discursive language of the universe. The world of creation has a constant conversation with its Creator because it is a ‘Muslim' (Al-Imran 3:83), i.e., that which surrenders to God. The humans share this quality with nature with one fundamental difference: they have free will (iradah) and must chose faith over disbelief, truth over falsehood, and virtue over vice [36].

A person who has perfected his sense of discernment can intuit and grasp the universe praising God. This intuitive and ‘imaginative' thinking is not outside the ken of reason because reason, as I have been arguing, can accommodate non-formal articulations of the truth and understand the non-discursive insights we gain in our encounter with reality.

9. Rationality and Morality

The same intuitive thinking is at work in our moral choices. Since moral principles are self-evident in most cases, we know how we need to act in such situations. But is it enough to have a self-evident argument to be able to act virtuously?

Given the driving force of human emotions, even the correct use of reason alone cannot be sufficient to always make the right moral choices. The reason is that we have to combine reason and will, the two distinguishing features of being human, in order to act on what we believe. In contrast to Descartes who called the human person a "machine who thinks", we are also beings who will. Here ‘will' does not simply designate choosing one option or the other. It refers to our ability to make a choice from among available possibilities. But in an axiological sense, it means choosing truth over falsehood and good over evil. Reason and rationality in the broad sense discussed above guide our choices and form the content of our moral behavior. Rationality and morality thus go hand in hand because we are rational animals and moral beings at the same time.

In the Qur'an, this point is registered in the relationship between using reason and having a moral and spiritual awareness of God. The word taqwa, usually translated as consciousness and fear of God, literally means to protect and guard oneself against danger. In the Tradition, it refers to "protecting the soul from what afflicts it" [37]. As explained in the Hadith, taqwa means having the majestic presence of God in one's heart by which to protect oneself against everything false, evil and ugly. In this sense, the conceptual meanings of ‘aql and taqwa converge: they both refer to our conscious effort to protect ourselves against the inhuman and immoral consequences of evildoing, injustice and oppression. Thus "the intelligent person is the one who has consciousness (taqwa) of his Lord and who reckons with his soul" [38].

This principle underlies the rational basis of choosing goodness over evil and virtue over vice. Reason has no problem with accepting ‘consciousness of God' (taqwa) as a moral and spiritual principle because it guides our moral choices. It is only by combining intelligibility, meaning and will that we fulfill our humanity as ‘rational animals'. Moral choices make sense not because simply they are our free choices but because they let us participate in the intelligible order of existence and thus enable us to go beyond ourselves and reach out to a larger reality.

According to the Islamic ethical tradition, upholding justice makes sense because justice (‘adl) means "putting things in their proper place". Likewise, opposing injustice is reasonable because injustice (zulm) means "putting things out of their place", i.e., destroying the order which gives meaning to things. An act is rational when it conforms to the reality of something and pays due attention to its proper place. It then makes perfect sense to protect oneself against the destructive forces of selfishness and evil-doing; acting otherwise contradicts the basis of our humanity. Summing up these points, Ibn Miskawayh says: "… since justice consists indeed giving to the right person what ought to be given in the right way, it would be inconceivable that men should not owe God, exalted is He, who granted us all these immense goods, an obligation which they should fulfill" [39].

We can then conclude that it is rational to be moral. By the same token, immorality is irrational because it goes against our self-interest and violates the order of things, which, in turn, causes us harm. The Qur'anic treatment of moral choices and how they are made within the larger context of existence establishes rationality as a key component of moral behavior. But the reverse is also true: rationality, carried to its full capacity, results in moral behavior and extends to other human beings, the universe and eventually God. According to the Qur'an, human beings have been granted reason to discern between right and wrong on the one hand, and good and evil on the other. In terms of both true knowledge and moral behavior, we use reason to make the right choices. The famous controversy among Muslim theologians over whether we know things to be true and good because they are intrinsically so or because God has created them in that way is irrelevant here. The key point is that correct thinking and moral behavior complement each other and thus reject any dichotomy between reason, rationality, belief and morality. Thus Ibn Hazm says that "knowledge has a decisive role in the implementation of virtues… knowledge has a share in each and every virtue and ignorance in each and every vice" [40].

In a similar vein, Ibn Miskawayh identifies "the intelligent man" as one who seeks "virtue in his rational soul, examine the imperfections of this soul in particular, and strives to remedy them to the extent of his capacity and effort" [41].

10. Rationality as Coherence

The move from reason and rationality to moral behavior and back is a recurrent theme in the Qur'an and forms the basis of the Islamic ethical tradition. Reason, when properly cultivated, leads to moral action; moral behavior, in turn, nurtures reason. The Qur'an considers this simple syllogism to be self-evident because it is a contradiction to accept something as right and true and then not act accordingly. So is hypocrisy: "Do you order other people to be righteous and forget yourselves while you recite the Scripture? Will you, then, not reason?" (al-Baqara 2:44). The Qur'an condemns hypocrisy as much as disbelief and in some cases more so because hypocrisy, besides being a failure of the human will, breaks the logical connection between reason and morality and thus lands us in incoherence. "O you who have believe, why do you say what you do not do? {2} It is most hateful in the sight of God that you say that which you do not do." {3} (al-Saf 61:2-3).

The same principle of coherence applies to belief in God. The cosmological verses in the Qur'an, which give vivid descriptions of how God has created the universe and the human being, make a strong case for rationality as coherence because all of them without exception speak to the human reason to make the logical connection between a universe so miraculously ordered and well-functioning and the belief in the Creator who created it. Those who take partners unto God, while believing in His existence, contradict themselves. Believing in God and not heeding His guidance presents a clear case of incoherence.

The following verses, while emphasizing God's infinite mercy in creating and caring for the humankind, challenge the internal inconsistency of taking partners unto God (shirk), which is the greatest sin, and declares it to be utter irrationality. Those who think, ponder and use their reason have no difficulty in recognizing God as he deserves to be recognized.

And who other than Him created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you water from the sky, whereby We cause to grow lush orchards; for it is not up to you to cause their threes to grow! Is there, then, a god besides God? Yet these are the people who ascribe partners to Him. {60} And who other than Him made the earth a firm abode [ for you], and set rivers traversing through it, and put firm mountains therein and sealed off one sea from the other? Is there, then, a god besides God? Indeed, most of them do not know. {61} And who other than Him responds to the distressed one when he calls Him and He relieves him of the distress and Who has made you [mankind] His vicegerents on earth? Is there, then, a god besides God? – little do you reflect! {62} And Who other than Him guides you in the darkness of the land and the sea? And who sends forth winds heralding His mercy? Is there, then, a god besides God? Far exalted be He above what they associate with Him! {63} And who other than Him brings forth His creation and then recreates it? And who gives you sustenance from the heaven and the earth? Is there, then, a god besides God? Say [O Muhammad!]: Bring your proof if you are right [in associating others with God]. {64} (Al-Naml 27:60-64).

These verses reveal a strongly argumentative approach and underlie the Qur'an's insistence on coherence as a basis for a proper discourse about the relationship between man and God on the one hand, God and the universe on the other. rationality as coherence means that we draw the correct conclusions from the correct premises. Considering the continuity of our ontological and moral presuppositions, this suggests that our empirical observations about the universe lead to their logical conclusion in a theistic context, i.e., accepting God as God and acting accordingly. The Qur'an makes profuse use of this procedural notion of rationality and applies it to cosmological, theological and legal issues. in its numerous confrontations with the Meccan pagans, the Qur'an challenges them to think for themselves and see if their misguided thinking about God makes any sense. A rationally coherent notion of God and the universe can be obtained through correct thinking if we can use our reason cogently to read the signs in the "visible world".

11. Conclusion: Is Return to Reason Still Possible?

As I have argued so far, rationality as intelligibility moves us beyond the internal workings of a single, disengaged mind and places us within a larger context of ontological significance. The metaphysics of creation establishes the Qur'anic notion of substantive rationality derived from the intrinsic intelligibility of the realm of existence. Knowledge as the disclosure of the inherent order and structure of things rejects instrumentalist and subjectivist rationality and instead sets up a context of intelligibility in which our reason and thinking function as a response to the call of reality. The ontological ground of reason enables it to participate in the intelligible order of existence and thus makes it a situated and contextualized reality. Furthermore, reason is also an inter-subjective principle and does not function in a solipsistic environment.

As a book of revelation and guidance, the Qur'an treats human reason and thinking in this larger context of the created order of existence. While having full confidence in uncorrupted reason, it warns against ontological reductionism, epistemological hubris and moral egotism. Reason is a God-given gift with which we access the reality of things. But it is unreasonable to claim that reason alone can give us meaning and freedom. One also needs spiritual guidance through which reason is to be illuminated. The heart as our deep conscience guarantees that procedural rationality, which we employ in our daily dealings, does not trump other types of reasoning and thinking. Reason nourished by faith gains a deeper insight into the reality of things because it can set its own limits and finds its proper place in the "circle of existence" (da'irat al-wujud). Faith articulated by reason and communicated through language can bring about certainty (al-yaqin), which the Qur'an deems essential for our mental and spiritual integrity (al-An'am 6:75; al-Takathur 102:5–7). Recovering the Qur'anic path of thinking and the traditional meaning of ‘aql is an urgent task for the contemporary Muslim world. This is a task that extends to such diverse fields as law, education, art, science and politics and certainly not limited to the interests and aspirations of Muslim nations alone. The erosion of the principle of reason in late modernity has hurt human aspirations globally to create a world based on reason, justice and equality. The vacuum created by the failure of the enlightenment reason has been filled with the new forces of global hyper-capitalism, culture of nihilism and narcissism, and scientistic hubris. As the main terms of reference of the new global order, productivity, profit and efficiency now define what it means to live a rational life both individually and communally. The current world order creates new definitions of rationality and reasonableness through an increasingly sophisticated system of public discourse, mass education, technological innovation, instant communication and the hourly creation of countless virtual worlds, all of which give the appearance that our search for meaning has ended and that we as rational and free human beings have finally created a purely human world free from unjustified beliefs and transcendent illusions.

Philosophically speaking, the inherent contradiction of rationalism is that it assumes its own ontological ground and reproduces reality in such a way as to justify a self-referential notion of human reason. Neither reality nor reason, however, warrants a self-grounding reason. Reason by nature and function operates with terms and tools both within and outside itself. As a principle of ‘tying together', ‘gathering' and ‘protecting', reason always reaches out beyond itself and connects us with the larger reality of existence and human language. Pure rationalism ends up in radical solipsism and thus contradicts reason.

Reason as a self-grounded principle cannot move us beyond the current state of humanity; it only reinforces and reproduces its metaphysical fallacies. A humanity so deeply enclosed upon itself to be the master of the universe while not taking the moral responsibility that comes with such a claim has created a world in which the principle of reason has disappeared, subjective consciousness has been absolutized, and a profound alienation between the human person and his work has set in. The more we reduce everything to utility and maximize the use-value of whatever happens to be around us, the more we lose the chance to retain the meaning of logos as connecting different orders of reality and protecting ourselves from error.

A new concept of reason is thus needed to recover the meaning of the human person as a ‘being who thinks' (haywan natiq), i.e., who sees, hears, listens, encounters, responds, reacts, contemplates, and engages in other acts of human intelligence and will and never loses sight of the larger reality of which he/she is a part. Such a recovery is possible but it requires a re-assessment of the key notions and values with which we operate today. Reason as tying together, connecting and protecting will re-emerge only when we remember that reason is not about the human person or his interests or even his reasoning but rather about existence and beings, their meaning, relations and connections, and about the ways in which we respond to the call of reality.

Say: [Know] then, that the final evidence [of all truth] rests with God alone. {149} (al-An'am 6:149).

End Notes

[21] Ibn al-Manzur, Lisan al-'Arab, entries on ‘aql and qalb (Beirut: no date) Vol. I. p. 687 and Vol. XI, pp. 458–9.

[22] Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, al-Muqabasat, ed. H. Sandubo (Tunisia: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1991), p. 7.

[23] Compare this with what Zarathustra says to the people who show no interest in what he has to say: "Must one first shatter their ears to teach them to hear with their eyes?", F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, tr. R. J. Hollingdale (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1961), p. 45.

[24] Al-Ghazali, Rawdat al-talibin wa ‘umdat al-salikin, in Majmu'at Rasa'il al-Imam al-Ghazali (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, 1994), p. 32.

[25] Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-qur'an al-'azim, (Beirut: Dar al-Ma'rifah, 2006), p. 1141.

[26] Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, p. 659.

[27] Cf. Martin Heidegger, What is Called Thinking?, tr. J. G. Gray (New York: Harper Books, 1968), p. 165.

[28] Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, Bayan al-farq bayn al-sadr wa'l-qalb wa'l-fu'ad wa'l-lubb, (Amman: al-Markaz al-Maliki li' l-Buhuth wa' l-Dirasat al-Islamiyyah, 2009), p. 15. For the English translation of al-Tirmidhi's work see Nicholas Heer, trans., "A Treatise on the Heart," in Three Early Sufi Texts, trans. Nicholas Heer et al., Revised Edition (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2009).

[29] This evocative phrase by Shah Waliullah of Delhi (d. 1762), one of the greatest scholars of the sub-continent of India, also sums up the integrative approach of classical Muslim thinkers towards the human person. See his Hujjat al-Allah al-balighah (Cairo: Dar al-Turath, nd.), Vol. II, p. 89.

[30] This premise is also the basis of the argument that this is the best of all possible worlds which God could create. For this version of the "ahsan al-nizam" argument, see my "Mulla Sadra on Theodicy and the Best of All Possible Worlds", Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, 18:2 (2007), pp. 183–201.

[31] Muhammad ‘Ali al-Tahanawi, Kashshaf istilahat al-funun (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah), Vol. 3, Kashshaf, III, p. 307.

[32] Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Qur'an: The Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung (Tokyo: The Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964), pp. 136-7.

[33] Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, p. 334.

[34] Abu Abdallah al-Qurtubi, al-Jami' li-ahkam al-qur'an (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm, 2004), Vol I, p. 780.

[35] This and similar verses underlie the commonly held view in the Islamic tradition that the entire universe is alive and that "everything has soul". See Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, p. 932. Mulla Sadra holds that "all animal, plant and inanimate natures have knowledge and consciousness by themselves, through the necessities of their essences, and their particular effects on account of their partaking of existence because existence is identical with light and manifestation. Existence is therefore united with the qualities of the perfection of existence in knowledge, power, volition, life, and the like."Ajwibat al-masa'il al-kashaniyyah in Majmu'ayi rasa'il-i falsafi-yi Sadr al-Muta'allihin, ed. Hamid Naji Isfahani (Tehran: Intisharat-i Hikmat, AH 1375), p. 137. For more on the ontological vitalism of Islamic cosmology, see my Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy, pp. 229-32.

[36] Quoting a popular saying, Tahanawi describes it as follows: "God has mounted reason in the angels without carnal desire, put desires in the animals without reason, and in the children of Adam both of them. Thus whoever has his reason triumph over his carnal desires, he is better than the angels, and whoever has his carnal desires triumph over his reason, he is lower than the animals". Tahanawi, Kashshaf, Vol. 3, p. 314.

[37] Isfahani, al-Mufradat, p. 833.

[38] Tahanawi, Kashshaf, Vol. 3, p. 314.

[39] Ibn Miskawayh, The Refinement of Character (Tahdhib al-akhlaq), tr. Constantine K. Zurayk (Beirut: The American University of Beirut, 1968), p. 106.

[40] Ibn Hazm, al-Ahklaq wa'l-siyar fi mudawat al-nufus, ed. Tahir Ahmad Makki (Jeddah: Dar al-Manarah, 2007), p. 124.

[41] Ibn Miskawayh, The Refinement of Character, p. 44. Ibn Miskawayh goes on to say that "the proper food of the rational soul is knowledge, the acquisition of intelligibles, the practice of veracity in one's opinions, the acceptance of truth no matter where or with whom it may be, and the shunning of falsehood and lying whatever it may be or whence it may come".

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by: Dr Ibrahim Kalin, Fri 14 September, 2012