Faith a rational outcome

“I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith” Immanuel Kantwrites in the Preface to the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787).  Kant is a German philosopher (1724 –1804) considered as one of the greatest and most influential thinkers of modern Europe and the last major philosopher of the “Enlightenment” age. He who is considered as one of the leading intellectual think-tank in the history of mankind is concluding a supposition which is an antithesis to the unscathed Philosophy of monotheism. The fundamental concept of monotheistic religion dictates that knowledge and intellection is deeply rooted in faith whereas the world reviews it separately. We would like to examine the account of such unpropitious separation of knowledge and religion and the theories which leveraged. The early middle age was the genesis of religious bigotry which marks the beginning of the period of repudiating rationalization in religion.
Edward Gibbons (1737-1794) the most influential historian of the world said in his book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that the Dark Ages of Europe was a result of the corruption of a counterfeit Christianity. The Dark Ages (450-1500 AD) of Europe began when the Barbarian inspired by the Roman Empire adopted "Christianity" to rule Europe and dogmatic regime of the Catholic Church emerged. The church opposed freedom of thought and pressured scientists and academics. People could be punished for holding different believes or ideas than what the churched preached and their books were burnt and they were punished. The period of Dark ages was due to the separation of sciences from the domain of religion for 900 years, hence in the following generations to come man considered religion as an obstacle to knowledge. But whoever made such assertion had to go to a greater length of suppositions to justify their claim and time to time their suppositions were negated by the results of scientific discoveries foretold by religion. But the ramification of such theories led the man to think that truth is “subjective” and should not be sought in the realm of empirical science and unanswerable & unaccountable freedom is necessary for human being’s existence! This philosophical doctrine proposed by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was based on the study of human experience in which considerations of objective reality are not taken into account. Another philosophical doctrine branched out from Husserl’s doctrine was by a French philosopher John Paul Sartre who said in his book Existentialism is a Humanism “Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world - and defines himself afterwards”, he further asserts that human character, nature, goals and actions are unaccountable, there is nothing (divine rule) which can dictate the action of mankind. Later Sartre doctrine of existentialism was criticized by theory of rationalism or the rationalist movement which asserts that truth cannot be discovered by faith or any religious teaching but only by rationalism or reasoning.
Hence from period of Dark Ages of Christianity where knowledge and scientific discoveries were separated from religion for a theocratic objective – to the period of Enlightenment where religion is not considered as a dictate to human conduct – and from the period enlightenment – to the current period of rationalism (rationalists like Steve Dawkins) where faith is an impediment to knowing the truth – there is strong common ground in all the above doctrines and that is they are all opposite to the method of deliberation proposed by Qur’an.  It is a fact that the world has not recognized the wisdom/Hikmah of Qur’an instead man struggled to reach reality by standing in the bank of ignorance and stubbornness. People like Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl or John Paul Sartre were decorated as intellectuals due to their philosophies and so were Socrates , Plato, Aristotle or Avicenna, but the fundamental flaw of manmade philosophy that its foundation is based on prognosis! The foundation of philosophy is on uncertainty hence when one philosopher establishes a notion, a second philosopher finds an exception to that notion and then a third philosopher will doubt the notion and another exception gets created, those who read or write philosophy get immersed in finding exceptions to the extent that they become dubious of everything. If man has defined philosophy as wisdom then the wisdom of Qur’an cannot be synonymous to manmade wisdom, hence we call it Hikmah.
Hikmah is a decisive knowledge which is divinely granted/ilm-e-ladunni., Imam Ali (as) said: He who base his faith on the hearsays there is no dawn in his darkness, “Man dakhala fi’diin bey kitabillahi wa sunnatey rasooley”, and he who enter the religion with The book of Allah (swt) and sayings & practices of The Apostle (saw), “Tazuulul jibaal falam yazall”, mountains may shake but he will be steadfast (in faith), “Wa man dakhala fidiin bey afwaahi rijaal”, and he who enter the religion just on the hearsays of men, the same hearsays of men will lead him astray out of religion. This is not an assertion rather it is an invitation of Islam to all the intellectuals and philosophers of the world to the words of Qur’an and Prophet (saw) and the Imams of Ahlul Bayt (as) because they are the source of decisive knowledge and no man can dare to annul their wisdom and the words of Qur’an.
But man accentuated his own notions ceaselessly ignoring the words of true wisdom, rejecting religion and declaring himself independent of The Creator. Hence man embraced the idea of random creation of the universe and constant existence of universe. The reason of such display of ignorance by scientists and scholarly individuals was nothing but tenacious perseverance of their theories which blinded them of any new ideas. These manmade notion of immunity, unaccountability and obscurity of morality aspired many monarchs and dictators to seize and exploit weaker societies, they eliminated religious policies of human equality and hasten them to embrace Darwin’s theory of ‘struggle for survival’ and the ‘Race theory’ in which Darwin said that some races evolved more than others he also considered some races are still like apes, hence some are very advance than others. He further declared that ‘there has always been a fierce conflict and bloody struggle which pervaded the natural world and the struggle against the weak and only thus ensure development‘
These theories emerged due to separating religion and science, the equality of mankind and other higher moral values established by religion were replaced by ruthless yet justified theories of ‘inculpable freedom’ to promote imperialism through colonization. When man experienced the ramification of the manmade theories which spun-off into Nazism, Socialism and Communism the man remained speechless succumbing to his mistakes.
The progress and advancement in last five decades have led the idea of ‘exploitation’ to stream down from sovereign leaders to individuals, in this age of progress every individual is aspiring to be rich, famous and powerful, this reaction is due to boundless economic freedom of today which led to a struggle among individuals and enterprises to profit from each other. In his work ‘critique of Marxist philosophy’  martyred Baqir al-Sadr says ‘Unlimited economic freedom permits a handful of capitalists to dominate the majority of people and to usurp their freedoms and rights’, he argues that higher human values like love, mercy, self-denial perishes in this society, cut-throat business attitude eliminates morality and consideration for common man. We have examples of industrial fraud where civilized men and women cheated the commoners in their greed for money which left many without jobs and retirement savings. The result of capitalistic society makes man so materialistic that he cannot find time to halt and think about his actions of exploitation of others, but why would he if the concept of today’s capitalism branched out from Sartre’s theory existentialism that there is no (divine rule) to dictate the actions of mankind! Materialism makes man oblivious to reality of his actions, his beginning and his eternal destination.
The parable of a materialistic man is a man hanging of a tree branch drawing honey from a honeycomb while enduring the stings of the bees and totally oblivious to two black and white beavers rupturing that branch, while a wild beast is waiting under the tree to prey on the man as soon as he falls. This is not dissipation this is a decisive reality which exposes the circumstances of today’s man, the rupturing of the branch by a black beaver and white beaver illustrates passing of time by the turn of night and day, the stings of bees are the deception and exploitation of the people of this world, the honey from the honeycomb illustrates the seeking of materialistic desires and the wild beast waiting under the tree to make the man its prey is a parable of the grave (the final resting place), today’s man is heedless to the passing of time, he is oblivious of his final journey, he is ignorant of the purpose of his life.
When man encounters the topic of religion he wants to either abdicate religion conclusively or assimilate religion to the extent of his convenience, in other words if religion goes over the bounds of materialism the principles of religion is either altered or rejected. Today’s man is convinced that religious beliefs are the ideology of the down trodden uneducated societies. The reason of such ignorance is due to the delusional idea of Self-sufficiency where man thinks that there was never a need of any divine intervention to sustain life because man is self sufficient hence we don’t need religion.
However the truth always emerged from the obscurity of ignorance and it is it is a indisputable reality, those who made scientific assertions that universe is randomly created or universe existed constantly were exposed of their false hypothesis, like in the case of Einstein when he refuted that the Universe was not expanding  or universe is stagnant significant scientific evidence were countered by his critics but he sustained his theory further by introducing a constant value to his equation which further brought damage to his hypothesis [The God hypothesis by Michael Moore], later on in his life he admitted that the stance he took was his biggest mistake.  The time has changed, today’s scientists react differently with their extensive knowledge like the American physicist Hugh Ross who said in his book ‘The creator and the cosmos’, 'if we need an atheist for a debate I’ll go to the philosophy department, the physics department isn't much use'. If man employs his intellect with the scientific knowledge at hand without bigotry then knowledge of science will relentlessly lead to the source of creation. The holy Quran demonstrates that knowledge is rooted in Islam in the following words ‘He Who has made for you the fire (to burn) from the green tree’ [36:80], it is a thought provoking indication of scientific phenomena which was discovered by man recently similarly there are many scientific indicators which testify the relation between science and religion. Islam introduced the concept morality from its beginning while today’s society has learned to signify higher human values in the last century. Religion introduced the concepts of human rights and responsibilities of man, the rights of poor and destitute, widow and orphans, neighbors and travelers, employers and employees, master and servant and etc are few examples of human rights defined by religion.
 
When the foundation of a religion is not based on knowledge & rationale and the structure of faith is raised on such foundation then that faith is vulnerable to dilemmas and ambiguities and cannot stand firm to a logical discourses. An analytical mind requires a decisive argument in order to admit to the unseen divinity of the Creator and submit to His will unconditionally. The continuous progress in the modern scientific world and degradation of the moral echelon of society creates audacity to assert unbelief by those who are ignorant of decisive knowledge of Qur’an and Ahlul Bayt (as). But he who reaps the benefits of the absolute knowledge attains the stage of unswerving certainty in the matter of faith. The conviction of the faithful is such that his feet is firmly bolted on the straight path and on one hand and he is constantly engaged in counteracting the disbelief/Kufr in the society affected by the scientific advances and on the other hand he is reconciling scientific advances with his faith with the help of Qur’an and Ahlul Bayt (as).

If the outset of man’s deliberations is based on knowledge/Ilm and justice/Adl, then the mind of the faithful searches the ultimate cause of the pre-existence phenomenon and evaluates the probability of a random creation of the cosmos supports a complex life system. If man continues his search for answers in scientific realm with sense of fairness to admit the truth then he will be destined to reach the reality and witness the ultimate cause of creation, and Qur’an affirms this condition in the following verse “Allah bears witness that there is no god but He, and (so do) the angels and those possessed of knowledge, maintaining His creation with justice; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise. [03:18]”
As oppose to all the prevailing religions the distinctiveness of Islam is that if a rationale mind is employed without bigotry then Islam is still an invincible source of uncontaminated divine knowledge which is unified with scientific realm. The tenets of Islam are based on pure reasoning and if mankind is in search of answers to the doubts created by existentialists, rationalists, atheists then Qur’an is constantly invitation of to deliberate on its divine message is ready to resolve the doubts.
Sean Sayers in his book ‘Reality and Reason’ answers questions like ‘Can truth be objective, or is it socially constructed and relative?’ One can argue whether truth is an outcome of the society and it is a relative term (which means truth to you can be falsehood to me). The law of causality (The principle of or relationship between cause and effect) of truth is free of relativity and social definitions, in other words the logical outcome of a cause/effect analysis always concludes in reality/truth. Islam says that truth is embedded in human being’s mind and the truth is testified by human being most innate quality of the mind. There is a narration of an event relating to the definition of the intellect in Usul-e-Kafi, There was a historian and a scholar by the name Ibn-e-Sikkit, his agnomen was Abu Ishaq once came in the presence of the revered Imam Ali Hadi al Naqi (as) and said “O the Son of Prophet (as), what is the decisive-proof between the Creation and the Creator”  Imam (as) replied, “Intellect”, Ibn-e-Sikkit said “please expound the meaning of intellect”, Imam (as) said “It is the Intellect through which it is known who is telling the truth and the intellect reassures the truth, and it is the intellect through which it is known who is lying and the intellect blasphemes the lie”

It is in the innate tendency of man and the default inclination of mind towards the universal truth that man can free himself from the ongoing influence of his ego and the constant doubts designed by the rebellious society. To comprehend and pursue the path of the truth requires general civility in nature, to be able to release the significance of giving back to others what is rightfully due, if man commits to give his life for his nation as a gesture of giving back what is rightfully belonged to the nation, then man must also realize who is the giver of this life, the grantor of his health, the giver of his children from his grace, the giver of wealth from his benevolence, the giver of peace from his mercy and so and so forth and then man must realize what he must give back to Him who gave uncountable favors and blessings, a nation might demand life but the giver of life doesn’t demand life but rather the Creator poses a questions Fabiayyi alai rabbikuma tukaththiban ? Which of your lord’s blessing you will deny?