Reason and Revelation

American economist Robert Samuelson recently made an interesting observation about American society in his Newsweek column: “America’s glories and evils are tightly fused together.” Quoting sociologist Seymour Lipset, he asserts that America’s economic vitality and progress come from the same source as do crime, family breakdown, inequality, and vulgarity. Freedom and individualism have fired economic advance, yet have also inhibited social control. But why should the qualities that bring the best in a nation should also bring the worst in it? Is humanity doomed by having its vices and virtues so intricately mixed?

Samuelson does not probe the issue. Instead he seems to be happily resigned to it. “We are burdened as well as blessed by our beliefs,” he says. Economics, we may be reminded, is the dismal science. Actually the world is not doomed by design. Samuelson comes very close to the truth but he confuses approaches or tools with attributes. A tool that works great in one area is also being used in another for which it was never designed. The problem lies with the user who keeps on insisting on its use in the second area citing its success in the first. To put matters simply, it’s the free use of reason and intellect that is behind most of America’s (and West’s in general) phenomenal scientific and material progress. It’s the use of the same tool in moral, and religious life that has caused its equally phenomenal moral degeneration!

Every tool has a designated area of application. Outside, it will fail to work. A 4 bit computer is good for some elementary math involving whole numbers. It may multiply 2 by 20 and give the correct answer instantly. But burdened with complex calculations involving several decimal digits, it will give the WRONG answers. Similarly, a weighing scale meant for gold will not work for iron, and vice versa. Their resolution and capacity are inappropriate for those applications.

Same with the tools we use for learning about the world. Our senses and intellect are wonderful things. Science and technology are all about their use. Certainly it was free inquiry driven by reason that led to so many of the discoveries of science. It happened at an accelerated pace during the past four centuries and the results are everywhere around us to be seen. But a tool that is so great in one area may be totally useless, even dangerous, in another. Pure reason, uninformed by Divine Guidance, is a defective tool for deciding the purpose of life or suggesting its values.

What is Right and what is Wrong? These questions require knowledge beyond what we can acquire by using our senses and reasoned analysis. As a direct result, everyone’s reasoning is different. That is why philosophers have never been able to agree upon what should be the goal of life. Happiness? Survival? Pleasure? Love? Self-fulfilment? You name it. In addition, it is impossible for us to separate our reasoning in these matters from our feelings. Pure or uninformed reason becomes just a tool to justify what we desire.

Today the West’s problem is that it has accepted the wrong tool for developing its moral compass. Probably the majority of its people abhor many forms of immorality that are polluting their society. They may believe that they are an abomination and evil. Yet today such indecencies are getting legal sanction, and they are helpless in trying to stop its advances.  Why? Because they cannot argue that it is wrong based on pure reason. It is easier to make a case against smoking in public places, than against the worst forms of immorality. Such is the result when pure reason becomes the accepted arbiter of right and wrong.

There is nothing modern about this either. Several centuries ago, Obaidullah Hasan Qirwani, a leader of the renegade baatini cult declared it foolish for a brother to marry his beautiful sister to a total stranger, while trying to be content with a less qualified wife - another stranger. She would be much more suited to be the wife of her own brother, with whom she may be a lot more compatible, he argued. His argument is, no doubt, sickening, but is there a counter argument based on pure reason?

Certainly mankind needs a superior tool for determining the values and purpose of life. A source of guidance that is based on certain knowledge, not conjecture. One that can inform our desires rather than being subservient to them. This is what all of God’s Prophets, peace be upon them all, came with. They had access to the higher source of knowledge, the Divine Revelation. Those who accepted them used reason and observation to verify their authenticity and character, but they accepted Divine Revelation as a SUPERIOR source of knowledge! That is why a son can tell his father: “O my father! To me has come knowledge that had not reached you. So follow me. I will guide you to a Way that is even and straight”. (Qur’an, 19:43)

All this is obvious, except in implications. We accept this is Right and that is Wrong because the Revelation told us. What is wrong with usury? Gambling? Pork? Alcohol? Revelation told us that they were wrong. Why is hijab necessary? Because God Almighty instructed it. What are the rights of men and women? Those given to them by God and His Messengers. The attribute of the true believers is that they “listened and followed”. (Qur’an, 2:285)

It is not that they listened and questioned, and argued, and investigated and then if they felt like it, they followed. [Of course, they verified the authenticity of the Messenger first]. That is also the message of Prophet Ibrahim’s sacrifice, a defining event of history. For the Qur’an describes the moment when the father and son were ready for the ultimate sacrifice by saying: “When they surrendered”. (37:103)

For pure reason could have raised a million questions about the command for that sacrifice. Normally it is difficult for us to say “I don’t know.” It is even more difficult for nations to admit a weakness in their celebrated tools of inquiry. That is the dilemma of the modern world, which sees so much wrong with itself but cannot bring itself to admitting the problem with its basic approach. But a true believer is the person who has both the wisdom and the

courage to surrender before the higher source of knowledge and guidance. For him Revelation informs his reason and his reason controls his emotions. Such is the person who is blessed, but not burdened, by his belief.