There are two potent faculties in human beings. The first is passion; the second reason. Often, they are thought to be in conflict with one another; and most men favour one at the cost of the other, depending upon their temperaments. The fact of the matter is, both are indispensable in that either has a distinct (and crucial) role to play in life.
Reason or rationality has traditionally received much bad press; from antiquity at the hands of Sufis and mystics, and more recently under the influence of Romanticism. These groups have always looked down upon reason, and have championed passion instead.
Passion, no doubt, has a role to play in life, and a vital one at that. But passion, though a useful driving force to achieve one’s ends, cannot be relied upon to decide what those ends ought to be in the first place. It requires objectivity to distinguish true from false, right from wrong, worthy from worthless, and good from evil. That is strictly reason’s province.
As opposed to the mystic religions, the revealed religions put great stress on reason. This is less obvious than it should be because very few individuals bother to read their religious texts with their eyes open. This owes to various factors: plain indifference, the tendency of blind following, unhealthy amounts of reverence for ancestors, and plain intellectual laziness. Whatever the underlying cause, it manifests in an acute aversion to subjecting their beliefs and actions to any sort of scrutiny.
So it is that far too many otherwise well-meaning, religious individuals are apt to justify their unquestioning, uncritical following of the beliefs and practices of their elders on grounds that religion is supposed to be for everybody, and not just for the intellectuals and academicians; and therefore, reason cannot possibly have much to do with it. This is a ranked non-sequitur because while the premise (religion is for simple souls as well as the sophisticated types) is unassailable, it does not lead to the stated (or implied) conclusion. For, while understanding one’s religion does require the use of the brain (like anything else worth understanding), it is by no means rocket-science which only a handful of mortals can wrap their heads around. Of course, there are levels to somebody’s understanding of religion: as a result of pondering on his religion, a simple man may very well get simpler answers to his questions than a more sophisticated man, but then his questions are that much simpler too.
In nine cases out of ten, these men are no simpletons, anyway – in fact, they are quite sharp, as evidenced by their general conduct in everyday life. Like anything else in life, passing the test of consistency is crucial here. More often than not, this test is failed, giving the lie to the individual’s stated position on the issue.
Another common apology for not using reason in religious matters is that human beings are prone to making errors and therefore reason can lead one astray. This is scarcely better than the first excuse because while it is true that a man can err while reasoning, the way out of the error also happens to be reason alone; and certainly not blind following.
Criticism of those who justify their silly beliefs and practices on ‘grounds’ that they are merely following their forefathers, is one of the key themes of the Quran.
Both the Quran and the Bible put great stress on the need for men to ponder on their own selves, on the universe, and on history. The Quran keeps exhorting its readers to use their eyes, ears and intellects; and goes as far as declaring those who fail to do that as no better than beasts; in fact, even worse than them. Consider:
“They have hearts that they do not understand with; and eyes they do not see with; and ears they do not hear with. They are like livestock; in fact, they are even further off track. They are heedless!” [8:22] and,
“The worst of beasts in God’s sight are the deaf and the dumb, who do not reason.” [7:179]
In the same vein, Isaiah 1:18 reads:
Come, let us reason together,
saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.
The road to ultimate success is a long and arduous one. It requires lots and lots of perseverance, for which passion is indispensable. But the journey starts when a man decides to shun all sources of prejudice and employ the reason at his disposal to arrive at the truth. This is how salvation is earned.
