REASONING
Highest Mental Faculty
IN answer to a question the Prophet Muhammad said: “Seek the answer from your heart” (Musnad Ahmad). From this answer we learn that the Prophet has guided us towards using common sense for discerning the demands of faith.
Islam is a religion of nature. And so, whatever is in accordance with the demands of nature will also be considered part of Islam. For instance, every person loves his or her parents. They think this is in accordance with religion, although nowhere is it written in words in the Quran and Hadith that one must love one’s parents.
An Islamic scholar during a discussion disagreed about the example of love for parents being not mentioned in the Quran. He cited the following quranic verse to support his disagreement. Your Lord has commanded that you should worship none but Him, and show kindness to your parents. If either or both of them attain old age with you, say no word of contempt to them and do not rebuke them, but always speak gently to them. (17: 23)
Logical reasoning is a way of reasoning that is accepted by both the speaker and the listener, and is not a one-sided hypothetical claim of the speaker.
The above verse does not prove his claim. The commandment that is contained in this verse is not about loving one’s parents, but, rather, about dealing kindly with them, that is, fulfilling all of one’s moral duties towards one’s parents. It is a case of illogical reasoning to derive a commandment of loving one’s parents from a verse that refers to ethical behaviour.
What is logical reasoning? It is but another name for correct reasoning. Reasoning that is based on facts, in which while making an assertion, the distinction between what is relevant and what is not, is clearly made. Logical reasoning is a way of reasoning that is accepted by both the speaker and the listener, and is not a one-sided hypothetical claim of the speaker. Logical reasoning is founded on certainty, not conjecture. It is completely free of emotion-based thinking. It is characterized by completely objective thinking. And it is only logical reasoning that is correct reasoning.
For further understanding of using correct reasoning we need to know two other types of reasoning; academic and speculative.
Academic reasoning is reasoning that is based on some proven fact. For instance, if you say that the goal of Muslims is calling people to God, and that hence what Muslims should do is to bear witness for God’s religion before all mankind, it would be an instance of academic reasoning.
It will be accepted that this statement is based on a genuine foundation, because there are Quranic verses that support this reasoning (2: 143; 12: 108). These verses unambiguously prove this as the goal of Muslims or the Muslim ummah.
Some claims are based on reason, while some others are based on scripture. If a claim is based on reason, in order to prove that it is right, it is necessary to offer a rational proof which, through rational analysis, shows it to be a proven fact. Similarly, if a claim is over something related to scripture, it is necessary that it be unambiguously and clearly derived from the authentic scriptural sources—the Quran and Sunnah.
In speculative reasoning, a point is sought to be proved on the basis of a certain hypothesis. For example, someone makes the claim that the aim of Muslims is to acquire global political rule, and then, on the basis of this claim, launches a movement aiming at this global political rule.
Islam is a religion of nature. And so, whatever is in accordance with the demands of nature will also be considered part of Islam.
This sort of reasoning is speculative reasoning, and because of this, its status is baseless. This is because nowhere in the entire Quran is it mentioned that the goal of Muslims is global political rule and that, therefore, Muslims should seek to acquire global political rule.
This sort of reasoning is utterly baseless. Equally baseless is any movement that is launched based on this reasoning.
A tree is known by its fruit which is the
final phase of the tree's life. Similarly
the pattern of human life will be judged
on what it turns out to be.