The Sources of Truth Within Islamic Thought
Qur’an – Muslims believe it is the very word of God or Allah. The very sounds and letters and words are divinely revealed and sacred and particularly sacred when spoke. This is the most sacred reality in the religious universe.
There is no Islamic tradition in critiquing the Quran, you can’t as a believing Muslim do that. It is the word of God revealed at a particular point in history. It is revealed to a specific context and people and speaks in a way that the people at that time held as normative.
The question is how do the eternal and the historical come together?
There are vast traditions of commentary on the Qur’an. The Qur’an is very authoritative and to the point yet it still leaves a lot of ideas open to interpretation and it says so itself. Revelation in Islam is held in higher esteem than in other traditions. For example, The Gospel is recognized to be written by human beings, which means it could be treated differently than the Qur’an is with Muslims.
Tradition (Sunnah) – The first three generations of Muslims (mid-eighth century) are the people that translated those teachings of the prophet into defined religious culture, the definition of sharia.
The Qur’an is revealed towards the end of Muhammad’s life on how to deal with certain aspects in the community at that time. We can’t understand all verses without understanding the context. When this group of Muslims put together rules and ethics of warfare they didn’t just look at the Qur’an but they looked at what Muhammad did. They came up with a list of rules. Each act of terrorism breaks at least six of these rules, Irhab is the crime that is punished most severely. The Qur’an is clear that the Muslims fight all together and if they don’t fight all together something isn’t right.
Reason/Human Intelligence – The Qur’an often appeals to human reason, it is rational. The Qur’an says that wine causes hostility between people. The Qur’an tells people to use their intellect and intelligence. The Qur’an has many stories where prophets go to their people and tell them to worship one god and don’t worship idols, and they say their fathers worshiped these idols; the Qur’an’s response is you have to think for yourself.
In Islam you have to use your own intelligence when it comes to fundamental matters in religion. You have a moral responsibility to do this.
Reason is primary to revelation some Muslims believe.
What is the relationship to revelation and reason?
Do people have an innate sense of what is right and wrong?
When they are taught a religion it either accords or doesn’t accord with this innate reasoning.
Ayat are signs, they are pointers that tell you to go in a particular direction. The signs do no good without a reader, the reader has to read it and think about it.
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