Zujaja Khan, London
In his book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth (1998), His Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad gave an in-depth analysis of the philosophical debates surrounding the subjects of religion and rationality, spanning a diverse range of contexts and concepts. His Holiness’s work probed an age-old question; does revelation hold greater power over rationality in revealing the true meaning of our world, or is rationality alone enough to attain this knowledge?
Every civilisation has grappled with this question, and employed tools to answer it. His Holiness examined different modes of philosophy, explaining that some of these theories interpret the advent of religion as a developing rationality amongst humans, as we gained the faculties to comprehend the world around us. However, he pointed out this belief denied the Divine origin of religion and revelation. Religion didn’t arrive in our philosophical consciousness because man became more developed; man became more developed because of religion.
“We know for certain that whatever is considered rational in one age may not necessarily be considered rational in another. We know, without doubt, that the faculty of reason has been progressively developing and maturing ever since man emerged from the domain of the animal kingdom into the world of humans.”[1]
Rationality is developed from ever-changing philosophical schools of thought, which are borne from shifting attitudes in our world; rationality alone cannot be sufficient as a guiding principle. It is said that although we can use reason and logic to interpret the natural world, these tools are useful only when the information or data to which they are applied is itself reliable. And information can be assumed reliable only when its source is reliable.Therefore, if the baseline is not static, logic alone cannot be used to understand what we see around us.
His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad the current worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, highlighted this perceived conflict between religion and reason during his Friday Sermon in 2018. His Holiness emphasised that both concepts needed to exist together – without reason, religious absolutism goes unchecked and violence spreads like a cancer. We lose compassion for one another and besmirch Allah’s name in the process. On the other hand, without religion we pursue worldly objects and lose our connection to Allah. The separation of religion and rationality can cause the divide between societies to widen; we see this in the 21st century, through the deepening tensions between the Western world and for example, the Middle East.
In this day and age, rationality is associated with science, and religion as its antithesis. But as Ahmadi Muslims we know this simply isn’t true. Dr Abdus Salam is the perfect modern example of the harmony that exists between science and religion. A renowned theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, he was the first Ahmadi and the first Muslim, to win the prize. He was always clear that his Islamic faith and love for science went hand-in-hand:
“[T]hat is the way we consider the universe created by God, with ideas of beauty and symmetry and harmony, with regularity and without chaos. The [Qur’an] places a lot of emphasis on natural law. Thus Islam plays a large role in my view of science; we are trying to discover what the Lord thought; of course we miserably fail most of the time but sometimes there is great satisfaction in seeing a little bit of the truth.”[2]
Pursuit of knowledge is an integral part of one’s Islamic duty and Dr Salam’s study of the Holy Qur’an elucidated his scientific study, and that it “speaks of the eternal wonder I have personally discovered in my own Science”.[3]
In his seminal work Barahin e Ahmadiyya Part I , the Promised Messiah founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (on whom be peace) explained:
“Divine revelation can be described as open in the sense that it casts its influence on the hearts of all. Every type of temperament is benefited by it and every type of seeker derives help from it. That is the reason why many people have been guided through Divine revelation and very few, indeed almost none, through reason alone.”[4]
As Muslims we have knowledge of divine revelation as shown in the Holy Qur’an, the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him), and through our Khalifas. We have also been blessed with free will – Allah has given us the opportunity to navigate His teachings and pursue enlightenment in order to gain closeness to Him. Here, the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) reminds us that there is no greater unifying presence than Allah’s guidance, and that exercising our rational faculties should help, not hinder, this great personal journey.
[1] Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (ra), Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth (1998), p.7
[2] ‘An Interview with Dr Abdus Salam’, New Scientist (1976) https://www.alislam.org/articles/interview-dr-abdus-salam/
[3] Dr Abdus Salam, ‘Islam and Science – Concordance or Conflict?’ (1979) https://www.alislam.org/library/articles/Islam-and-Science-Concordance-or-Conflict.pdf
[4] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), The Essence of Islam – Volume 2, p.116 (2007 edition) https://www.alislam.org/books/Essence-2.pdf
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