The Ontological Ground of Qur'anic Rationality

Wake Up Believers

The Ontological Ground of Qur'anic Rationality

Long before the Greek philosophical texts were translated into Arabic, Muslims had an encounter with the concept of reason/intellect as outlined in the Qur'an

In sharp contrast to the period of the Jahiliyyah, "ignorance", Islam represented the era of faith, knowledge, reason, justice and freedom all at once.

Entering Islam meant leaving the mental and social habits of the age of ignorance, polytheism, injustice and immorality. It meant establishing a new socio-political order based on reason, justice, equality and virtue.

It also required a new ontology of reason to overcome polytheistic logic and moral cynicism.   And this was possible only by introducing a new Weltanschauung and a new mode of thinking.

In order to understand the place of reason and rationality in the Qur'an and the later Islamic intellectual tradition, we thus need to explore the new ontological ground of reason and the mode of thinking which the Qur'an introduced and did so through stories, implorations, deductions, syllogisms, commands, warnings, praises, and promises of reward and punishment.

The rich repertoire of logical deductions and moral exhortations which we find in the Qur'an and the Hadith purport to awaken our conscience so that we can begin to use our sensate and rational faculties in a manner that befits our state of existence.

The Qur'an says: "And indeed We have put forth for men in this Quran every kind of similitude in order that they may remember" al-Zumar 39:27

The mathal, translated here as similitude, refers to metaphors and parables by which a fundamental message is conveyed – a message which may otherwise remain inaccessible to the human mind. But since no parable is devoid of cognitive content, this is an appeal both to reason and imagination so that we may "remember" what is essential.

The path of thinking which we find in the Qur'an is not comprised of assembling of facts; nor is it a pietistic enumeration of commands and prohibitions. Rather, it is a whole-some undertaking that requires setting upon an intellectual, moral and spiritual journey.

It encompasses all of our being and overcomes such dualities as the sensate versus the rational, the material versus the spiritual, the individual versus the universe, nature versus culture, and so on.

The integrated mode of thinking which the Qur'an embodies in its unique style reflects the nature of reality, which is interdependent and multilayered. It urges us to see the interconnectedness of things and how one thing leads to the other in the great chain of being.