Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #12 Reason
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AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Along the faculties that we have as human
beings, there is one faculty that is central
in anything which has to do with us
receiving the revelation and trying to understand it.
But at the same time, it's a very
dangerous faculty if we don't know how to
deal with it, and it's the faculty of
reason.
Reason is essential. And this is why, for
example, when there is a text coming to
us, the very meaning of revelation
is for us to read.
Read in the name of your lord who
has created. So,
our reason is essential to get the book.
But at the same time, even the book
itself is telling us be careful not to
go with your reason, which is trying to
understand
to your reason being arrogant with what it
understood.
So this is why you have in the
Quran,
So the beginning of, Surat Al Baqarah, what
we have is alif lamim,
this book within which there is no
doubt. There is no doubt in the book,
but the starting point is 3 letters, and
you don't know the meaning of them. So
rationally, understanding
the book, which is a guidance,
starts with understanding that there are letters that
are not within
your apprehension, your understanding. It's beyond your knowledge.
So rationally
understanding
that reason has limits.
So this is also something which is part
of our understanding of the very message of
Islam when it comes to the way you
understand. You you don't only understand with your
mind. So there are things that are beyond
your reason, and there are things that are
not to be,
rich with your reason. When for example, he
just said,
There are things that are coming with you.
So it's not only your eyes that are
blind. Your hearts could be blind because you
don't get the very meaning of things. So
faith is not only an intellectual,
statement. It's not an intellectual,
reach. It has to do with your heart,
and this is why in the Quran, you
have
They have heart, and they don't understand with
the heart. And we know in our daily
life that you can't, in rational terms, explain
why you love and why you don't.
So this is also
the way for us in our spiritual journey
to avoid
intellectual arrogance and to reach something which is
part of our way of dealing with God,
which is intellectual humility.
Intellectual humility is what all the the scholars
are saying when we,
give a fatwa and say,
god knows best. Meaning, I tried my best.
This is where what I,
reach and in the way this is my
conclusion, but it might be right. It might
be wrong. So intellectual humility is part of
this journey. This is where,
we need as Muslims understand
the very,
essence of reason. We need it. It's essential
for our spiritual life, but it it has
to be controlled. It has to remain
under control
and to understand that,
the wrong way of dealing with reason is
arrogance.
The right way of dealing with reasons
is intellectual humility.
Remember, tell the people you love that you
love them, life is fragile.