Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #12 Reason

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.