Contents

Chapter V

The Rationality of Islam

Before the advent of Islam, prophets used to be sent to their peoples inviting them -as did Muhammad (peace be upon him)- to worship God alone, and they regularly met strong opposition from many within their communities. Then God would come to their aid by enabling them to work miracles and observable extraordinary feats, so that their opponents may be overpowered and possibly led to heed the call of the messengers. However, the opponents usually obstinately persisted in their erroneous ways. God reminds us in Sura 17 (Al-Isra’) that He had sent Moses to the Pharaoh and the Children of Israel with nine clear signs and miracles of incontrovertible import. These miraculous signs were mentioned in detail in Sura 7 (Al-A’raf), verses 107, 108, 130, 133 and 134. These included Moses’ turning of the rod into a snake, that swallowed up that which the Egyptian magicians faked, and causing his hand to turn “white for onlookers” when drawn out from his clothes, with astounding impact on observers. There was also the drought and famine which affected the Pharaoh and his people. God also mentions five other miracles: “So We sent (plagues) on the: Floods, Locusts, Lice, Frogs and Blood.” The flood referred to here was severe flooding of the Nile waters, destroying crops, while the locusts are insects which consume tree leaves, plants and crops. The lice mentioned here are a kind of flea which sucks the blood of animals, and is different from the regular lice which infect humans. As for the blood(1). The ninth miracle was a plague referred to in the Quran as al-Rijz. When this affliction hit them, they turned to Moses and said to him if you lift this plague from us, we will believe in you and release the Children of Israel to go with you. So Moses prayed to the Lord to lift the plague. But when this happened, they went back on their promise and refused to let the Children of Israel go, leading Moses to flee with his people secretly at night. When the Pharaoh learned about their escape, he chased them at the head of his army. Moses had by then arrived with his people at the northern end of the Red Sea, where God then parted the water to enable Moses and his people to escape. The Pharaoh and his soldiers attempted to follow them and were all drowned in the sea for refusing to believe in the miracles which God had given to Moses, and for rejecting his call to believe in the One True God.

God had also sent Salih to his people, Thamud, who lived in the town of al-Hijr in Northern Arabia (known today as Mada’in Salih). His story has been given in detail in Suras 7 (Al-A’raf), 11 (Hud), 26 (Al-Shu’ra’) and 27 (Al-Naml), relating how, whenever he invited them to worship God and fear him, they became more obstinate and arrogant, except for a few who believed. In vain did the messenger try to draw their attention to blessings God had bestowed upon them, and how He had turned the land for them into beautiful gardens and farms, and enabled them to carve homes into the mountains, all of which were blessings that demanded they repay them with gratitude to God and belief in Him. But they refused, and continued to resist and oppose him, requesting him to produce a miracle to prove his veracity. The miracle they kept demanding was for him to produce a she-camel that would emerge from a rock they had pointed out to him, so that they might see it with their own eyes and touch it with their hands. Their prophet, Salih, then made them promise that if God did answer his prayers, then they would believe. He consequently prayed to God to answer their request, on which the rock split and the she-camel came out. Salih then told his people that this was God’s she-camel, which they should permit to graze in the land freely and allow to have an agreed share of water to drink. But they maintained their position of unbelief, in spite of his warnings to them not touch the camel. A group among them plotted to kill Salih, and they persuaded an individual from among them named Qodar to kill the she-camel, which he did. In some verses of the Quran, God blames them all for killing the she-camel, because the man who killed it did so on their insistence and with their acquiescence. Salih warned them that they will have God’s punishment visited on them after three days from the time of killing the camel. God then destroyed the whole lot of them by an earthquake, from which only Salih and those who believed in him were saved.

The life of Jesus, who had been sent by God as a messenger to the Israelites, was two continuous series of miracles. His immaculate conception and birth from a virgin mother was a great miracle, while his speech while still a baby was another great miracle. If the story about his turning water into wine at the wedding in Qana in Galilee is accurate, then that would be an additional miracle. Verse 49 of Sura 3 (Al-Imran) mentions five miracles performed by him. The first is that he would fashion birds out of clay and then blow into them, turning them into live birds, “with God’s permission.” (This proviso is emphasised and repeated after the mention of each miracle, so that he would not harbour the illusion that he was God’s equal or His partner, and to make it known that he only performs these miracles with God’s Will and Power, not his own.) The second miracle was his ability to cure persons who have been born blind and to make them see. His third miracle was to cure lepers, whom modern medicine could still not cure, but Jesus did with God’s power and permission. The fourth miracle is his raising the dead back to life, with God’s permission, i.e., by appealing to God and His Power. The fifth was his ability to tell any person from among the Israelites what that person had eaten or what he had stored in his home in anticipation of future of need.

All these miracles, which God caused to be wrought at Jesus’s hands to convince the Israelites, did not have any effect on them. On the contrary, they made them more stubborn and determined to reject his message, just as Thamud had rejected the miracle Salih had performed when he brought to them a camel which they could all see with their own eyes, and just as the Pharaoh rejected Moses’ message and the nine miracles he worked, arguing that those works were sheer magic. All these missions (those of Jesus, Salih and Moses) relied clearly on miracles which were material in nature, directed to the senses and perceptible through them. The Prophet’s main opponents from amongst the chiefs of Quraysh demanded from him comparable miracles to prove his veracity. As related in verses 90-93 from Sura 17 (Al-Isra’), they had said to the Prophet that they will not believe him unless he could cause water to spring forth from the desert to create a spring like the famous Zamzam spring in Makkah; alternatively God could create for him a garden of vines and palms with running water; he could, they argued, cause chunks of the sky to fall upon the heads of the unbelievers [to show God’s displeasure with them]; he could summon God and His angels so that the Makkans could see them; or he could ascend to heaven and bring back a book for his critics to read.

God affirms repeatedly in the Quran that, had He chosen to support His Messenger with miracles like those demanded by his people, then they would have still refused to believe him just as previous communities had refused to believe their messengers; they would have argued that what the Prophet did was magic or something like it. God -glory be to Him- says in Sura 6 (Al-An’am: 7): “If We had sent unto thee a written (message) on parchment, so that they could touch it with their hands, the unbelievers would have been sure to say: this is nothing but obvious magic.” The Almighty also says in the same Sura, addressing His Prophet: “Even if We did send unto them angels, and the dead did speak unto them, and We gathered together all things before their very eyes, they are not the one’s to believe, unless it is in Allah’s Plan” (Al-An’am: 111). This is why God has elected for the message of His final Prophet, Muhammad, not to rely in its force of conviction on material miracles and the logic of the senses, but to depend largely on reason and its logic for its appeal.

God called on mankind tens of times in the Quran to accept the jurisdiction of reason, and make it the arbiter in the question of belief in Him and His oneness. He commands of people to believe in Him not on the basis of blind submission, but on the basis of reason and judicious reflection on the universe, which would then guide them to the existence of God and His unity. The Quran reiterates this exhortation scores, if not hundreds, of times in its various sura’s. One example of this is this verse from Sura 2 (Al-Baqarah): “And your God is One God, there is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Behold! In the creation of the heavens (al-samawat) and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the ships through the Ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies (al-sama’), and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth- (here) indeed are signs for people who are wise” (Al-Baqarah: 163-64).

In this verse, God affirms that He is the only deity, and marshals as proof of this, the universal signs which include the creation of heavens and earth and the creatures he had disseminated in them. When the term “heaven” (sama’) is used in the singular, as does occur in this verse, it refers to the “sky”, or the atmosphere above us, but when used in the plural (samawat), then it refers to the celestial bodies (planets, stars, galaxies, etc.). Some commentators believe that the “seven heavens” mentioned repeatedly in the Quran are the seven known planets (in the ancient world). God calls on people to reflect on His creation: the heavens and the planets which move according to a perfect pattern, and the earth and its varied creatures. The phenomena thus delineated do indicate to reason that there is a great Maker of this universe, who is God. Similarly the succession of night and day, with the darkness of night for rest and quiet, and the light of day for work and living. If either dark or light would last forever, then the whole order of human life on earth would be disrupted.

God clarifies this rational argument proving His existence and oneness, saying: “Say: See ye? if Allah were to make the Night perpetual over you to the Day of Judgement, what god is there other than Allah who can give you enlightenment? Will ye not then hearken? Say: if Allah were to make the Day perpetual over you to the Day of Judgement, what god is there other than Allah who can give you a Night in which you can rest? Will ye not then see?” (Al-Qasas: 71-72). In these verses, God calls on people to reflect rationally on the ships which ply the seas for the benefit of humanity, since this phenomenon involves several wonders: the creation of the sea on which the ships run; God’s inspiration for man to make ships which navigate the waters; the wonder of the winds which God has fashioned to propel the ships to wherever men wanted them to, carrying goods and trade, or taking people on journeys to visits far away places, to wage war, or perform pilgrimage. God calls on people to reflect on the water which He brings down from the sky. He -exalted be His name- ascribes the bringing down of rain to Himself, since He is the originator and the source of perfection for the causes which bring it down. It is He who had caused sea water to evaporate and condense again as sweet water to form clouds. Water from these clouds then falls on earth, creating rivers and springs, to water the earth and bring it back to life after having been barren, and causes its plants to grow and bear crops, as God says in Sura 36 (Ya-Sin): “A sign for them is the earth that is dead; We do give it life and produce grain therefrom, of which they do eat” (Ya-Sin: 33).

God mentions that He had propagated all sorts of creatures on the face of the earth for people to enjoy looking at this variety and benefit from it for food or transport. God Almighty says in Sura 11 (Hud: 6): “There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance depends on Allah; He knows the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit.” God also invites people to reflect on the movement of the wind and its distribution, as it blows or keeps still, moves gently in a breeze, or violently in a storm or tornado, cold or hot, dry or humid. God also invites reflection on the formation of clouds from the rising water vapours from the sea, which God then causes to condense and gather to become clouds. He also guides them from place to place, causing water to fall from them and give life to plants and crops as a great blessing to people. God concludes all the preceding exhortations to reflect by affirming that the wonders referred to above are signs “for people who understand”, or those who use their reason (ya’qilun), meaning they are clear signs and proofs for God’s unity which had been affirmed in the preceding verse. This amazing cosmological order and the laws of nature prevailing within it, symbolised by the succession of night and day; the fashioning of the seas so that man could run ships on them; the way rainwater was made to fall down from heaven to bring the earth back to life and propagate plants and crops in it; God’s way of taking care of the life of every creature; His undertaking to provide its sustenance and His awareness of its abode, and His control over the winds and His guiding the clouds- all these present clear indications to reason that this universe has a god who governs and oversees its order and maintains its laws. God invites people to use their reason and reflect on the organisation of the kingdom of heaven and earth, so that they may believe, in full awareness, that this universe has a Creator who had created and perfected it according to laws that hold it together for ever and ever.

The Almighty says in Sura 36 (Ya-Sin): “And a sign for them is the Night: we withdraw (naslakh) therefrom the Day, and behold they are plunged in darkness. And the Sun runs its course for a period determined for it (Li mustaqarrin laha); that is the decree of Him, the exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the moon- We have measured for it Mansions (to traverse) till it returns like the old (and withered) lower part of the date stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day; each (just) swims in (its own) orbit (according to Law)” (Ya-Sin: 37-40).

In these verses, God presents mankind with amazing signs of his creative power, evident in the universe and the perfect and immaculate order which He had caused to inhere in the succession of night and day, and in the sun and the moon. He started by the succession of day and night, stating that He “sloughs off” (naslakh) the “skin” of daylight from the night, causing darkness to descend when the light of day recedes from the horizon. Thus night and day, and dark and light, alternate, the one leaving as the other arrives: a superb divine disposition. The sun moves at great speed towards a predetermined “resting point” (Li mustaqarrin laha), spatially and temporally. This could mean that it hurtles towards the place and time of its daily setting; others say the meaning of this verse is that the sun keeps moving and traversing the points of the zodiac in its annual movement. Yet others say the reference is to the sun’s final resting place on the Day of Judgement. However, the first sense is the correct and more obvious one. God informs us that this is the planning and work of the Mighty, to whom the sun is subordinate, the All-Knowing, who is fully knowledgeable about its perfect and superb system. He also tells us that he had ordained for the moon a perfect path, prescribing for it stations, which number twenty eight divided along the twelve zodiac points. Both the sun and the moon follow regular orbits, as the Almighty affirms: “And He had put the sun and the moon at your service, both diligently pursuing their courses”(2) (Ibrahim: 33). The moon rises on the first night of the lunar month wan and thin, becoming brighter the following night, and continues to increase in brightness until it becomes a full moon on the fourteenth night. Then it starts to wane again, until it comes to resemble “an old date palm stalk.” God also informs us that each of the sun and the moon has its own orbit, so they never collide even though they may appear close. Neither the sun can overtake the moon, and catch up with it, thus appearing at night, nor can night precede and outpace day, but the two must follow and succeed each other. Each swims in “its own orbit,” never departing from its prescribed course.

All the phenomena man observes, like the alternation of day and night, or the movements of the sun and the moon, proceed according to a precise pattern which, if reflected upon, would lead man to the belief that this universe has a Wise Maker who had perfected its creation and laid down its order. God thus presents human reason with his universal signs, so that man may give a rational testimony that these signs and superb order must be the work of a god who created them and laid down their order. God invites people repeatedly, as in the above-cited verse from Sura 2 (Al-Baqarah) to employ reason in reflecting on the phenomena of the universe and to contemplate them, so that they may attain to faith on the basis of clear insight and rational evidence. He censures the polytheists who shut off their minds and did not employ them to comprehend God’s signs in the universe, in order to find in them guidance which could lead them to knowledge of the Creator of these phenomena and to belief in Him based on certain proofs. He says: “They have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle, nay more misguided; for they are heedless (of warning)” (Al-A’raf: 179). Hearts here refers to minds. God is here informing us that these people had minds, but they had shut them off and did not make use of them, so they were unable to grasp what could be of benefit to them or what could guide them to salvation. They also have eyes, but they left these idle so they were unable to perceive the great wonders of the universe, and they have ears, but they have shut them off, unprepared to listen to the great Quran and the guidance it contained. God thus chastises them for becoming mindless, like animals, “and even more misguided” than beasts, since God had endowed these with instincts which protect them from danger, while to men God has given reason, which these people did not make use of. They have blocked their minds from achieving insight through reflection on the phenomena of the universe to protect themselves from polytheism which exposes them to the danger of Hell.

God -exalted be His name- urges the Prophet and the believers repeatedly to use their reason, not only to attain faith, but also when inviting people to the true religion, indicating the rational proofs upon which the call to Islam must be based; “Invite all to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best” (Al-Nahl: 125). The “way of God” referred to in this verse is the True Religion. God instructs the Prophet and the Muslims to resort to three approaches when inviting the polytheists to Islam: wisdom, considerate preaching, and exemplary argument. God Himself employs all these methods in urging the polytheists to embrace the True Religion. Wisdom in this verse means powerful rational proofs, like the one God marshals in Sura 23 (Al-Mu’minun) to prove that He was the One True God: “Nor is there any god along with Him; (if there were many gods), behold, each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others! Glory to Allah! (He is free) from the (sort of) things they attribute to Him” (Al-Mu’minun: 91). This is a compelling divine argument, disproving the possibility of God having partners in His godhead, for were there to be other gods beside Him, then they would all be equal in their divine attributes. And if that is the case, then each would take full control of his own creation, permitting none of the others to interfere in his domain. This would imply that all of them would be powerless to act in some spheres, which would contradict the essence of godhead. This is a rational proof supporting God’s oneness. Another argument in the verse is that if the gods were many, then each would have his own creation, and they would try to dominate each other, leading to a struggle which would end in victory for some over others. Such a conflict would put the whole universe in jeopardy. But none of this happened, and the universe continues to be in perfect order, which rationally proves that God is the only deity.

The kind of exhortation which God recommended to His Prophet and the Muslims when preaching to the polytheists is abundantly demonstrated in the Quran, figuring within two broad themes. The first theme is the stories of earlier prophets and the opposition they had faced from their peoples, resulting in severe punishment for the unbelievers. Those who refused to heed the divine message were punished by floods, earthquakes or piercing cries from heaven that destroyed them. The form these punishments took was presented to the polytheists as a warning against disbelieving the Prophet and as an exhortation to follow him. The second theme of exhortation is the warning to the polytheists who reject the Prophet -peace be upon him- of punishment in Hell, the chastisement decreed for those among them who die without believing in God and abjuring any partners with Him. Scarcely a Sura in the Quran is devoid of the images of this severe chastisement.

God also instructs Muslims to resort to considerate and sensitive argument with the polytheists as we have seen in the verse just cited. The same attitude is also urged when dealing with followers of earlier revelations, as in the verse: “And dispute ye not with the People of the Book except with means better” (Al-‘Ankabut: 46). Good argument is where a gentle and considerate approach is adopted, on the model of what God had instructed Moses and Aaron to follow when He sent them to the Pharaoh saying: “But speak to him mildly, perchance he may take warning or fear (Allah)” (Ta Ha: 44). God also reports some of the Prophet’s own conversations and arguments with the polytheists in Makkah, where he used to argue with them reasonably and, when they persisted in their disputations, to say to them as in Sura 46 (Al-Ahqaf): “He knows best of that whereof ye talk” (Al-Ahqaf: 8), meaning that God knows best the value of their claims that this Quran was magic or a fabrication not authorised by Him. The Prophet never resorted to acrimonious arguments with his opponents, and God instructs him to turn away from bitter disputations, as when he tells him in Sura 22 (Al-Hajj): “If they do wrangle with thee, say Allah knows best what it is ye are doing” (Al-Hajj: 68). God’s kindness towards the Prophet and the polytheists in Makkah reaches such a level that He had instructed His Prophet to answer his detractors, when they bombard him with bitter arguments, by saying: “and certain it is that either we or ye are on right guidance or manifest error” (Saba’: 24). This is the utmost divine kindness, since God teaches His Prophet to say to the polytheists that the two sides could not be both right or wrong, but one has of necessity to be right, the other in error [without explicitly naming the right side].

It is thus that God has called on the Prophet and the Muslims to use their intellect when preaching Islam, adopting the approach of gentle, considerate, rational arguments, and inclining to the use of effective exhortation based on compelling rational proofs and clear signs. God also invited all people to believe in Him on the authority of reason, through the reflection on God’s wondrous signs in the universe and His perfect laws governing it, so that they may be guided, through this reflection, to believe in God, the Creator and Maker of the universe.

In the same way, God, who had decreed reason to be an arbiter in matters of faith and in preaching Islam, also made it the arbiter in matters of Shari’a, the Islamic law. He says to His Prophet: “We have sent down to thee the Book in truth, that thou mightest judge between men as guided by Allah (bi ma araka Allah)”(3) (An-Nisa’: 105). Exhortations addressed to the Prophet are, by impli-cation, also addressed to his community, as shown in many verses in the Quran. In this verse, God is informing His Prophet and the Muslims that he had revealed His book to the Prophet so that they may judge between people in their disputes according to the right methods to which reason guides them. Al-Shafi’i and other Muslim leaders regarded this verse as endorsing the legitimacy of resort to rational ijtihad, or derivation of new rules, by the Prophet and Muslims in matters of Islamic law. Ijtihad was thus regarded by jurists as the fourth source of legislation in Islam, following, Quran, the Prophet’s example or sunna and the consensus of the Muslim community (ijma’).

A strong indication that rational ijtihad in matters of Islamic law had been decreed for the community -since the Prophet’s own lifetime- is found in the story related by Mu’adh ibn Jabal, whom the Prophet had appointed a judge in Yemen. On his departure, the Prophet asked him: “On what [grounds] are you going to base your rulings?” Mu’adh answered: “On God’s Book [the Quran].” The Prophet asked: “And if you could not find [guidance therein]?” He replied: “I rule with what God’s Messenger had done.” The Prophet asked: “And if you did not find [relevant precedents]?” Mu’adh replied: “I strive as hard as I can [to reach the correct judgement] based on my opinion.” The Prophet then said: “Praise be to God who had guided the envoy of God’s Messenger to what pleases God’s Messenger.”

The Righteous caliphs who succeeded the Prophet continued to use their judgement in all matters which presented themselves to the community. The first serious problem which confronted the first caliph, Abu Bakr, at the start of his reign was the refusal of many Arab tribes to pay zakah (the mandatory contribution decreed by God for the poor) to him. He therefore accused them of apostasy and urged the Companions to fight them. However, leaders of the community expressed reluctance to do so, with Omar ibn al-Khattab saying: “How could we fight these people when the Prophet -peace be upon him- had said: ‘I had been commanded to fight people until they say: “There is no deity but God.” If they say it, they protect their lives and possessions from me except for a rightful claim.’” Abu Bakr replied: “Did he not say: ‘except for a rightful claim?’ The performance of prayer and the payment of zakah are indeed rightful claims. I swear by God that if they were to hold back from a me so much as a [camel’s] hobbling cord which they used to deliver the Prophet -peace be upon him- I will fight them for it. And if all people were to desert me, I would fight them by myself.” Then Omar and all the Companions deferred to Abu Bakr, and fought with him the apostates who withheld zakah and brought them back to the fold. This was a great achievement, since he had restored Islamic unity to the Arab Peninsula, and mobilised the community for the conquests of Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Abu-Bakr was succeeded by Omar, who had been the most outstanding among the caliphs and Companions in his resort to ijtihad in matters of Shari’a. One example of his use of rational judgement was his suspension of the penalty of hand amputation for theft during a year of drought and famine which hit Arabia in his reign. This in spite of a clear Quranic verse instructing: “And to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands; a punishment by way of example, from Allah for their crime; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom” (Al-Ma’idah: 38). For Omar judged that people who resorted to stealing under those circumstances had probably no choice if they were to survive. The temporary suspension of a clear ruling like this is a bold exercise of judgement indeed.

Omar also made another major modification to Islamic law. God had decreed in Sura 9 (Al-Tawbah) that zakah was payable to eight categories: “Alms are for the poor and the needy, and those employed to administer (the funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to the Truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer; (thus is it) ordained by Allah” (Al-Tawbah: 60). The category of those “whose hearts have been reconciled referred to some prominent Arab leaders whom God has included among the beneficiaries of zakah to win them over and as an incentive to them to embrace Islam. When the Prophet -peace be upon him- divided the booty from the battle of Hunayn, he gave some prominent figures from Quraysh and others a hundred camels each, while he gave others a smaller number. Among those benefiting were al-Aqra’ ibn Habis, chief of the tribe of Tamim, and ‘Uyaynah ibn Hisn of Fazarah. The two men later came to Abu-Bakr and asked for their share of zakah, and Abu-Bakr sent them with a letter to his adviser, Omar, asking him to satisfy them. Omar said to the two men: “God has made Islam strong and has no need of you any more. You either embrace Islam or it is war between you and us.” Omar removed this category from among the beneficiaries of zakah and treated them like any other Muslim. Abu-Bakr endorsed Omar’s judgement, and from that time, this category of zakah beneficiaries did not exist, just as the category of slaves seeking to gain their liberty ceased to exist after the abolition of slavery all over the world. The category of fighters in the way of God continued to be provided for, as did that of heavily indebted persons and the wayfarers who do not have enough money to support them while away from home. Omar also exercised his own judgement on the issue of temporary marriage, in which a couple would contract to marry for a limited period agreed between them. This type of marriage was said to have been permitted in early Islam, although there are conflicting reports about whether the Prophet -peace be upon him- did approve of it. However, Omar banned it completely when he assumed the caliphate.

These three episodes involving Omar’s exercise of rational judgement in matters of law indicate that ijtihad had been widely used during early Islam. After the first wave of conquests, the senior Companions dispersed into the new lands, and there existed among them many who exercised ijtihad and advised Muslims about how to react to novel situations. Ijtihad in all branches of religion continued to grow until the main and best known [sunni] juristic schools of law (the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali) developed. Ijtihad continued to flourish until the ninth hijri century, when a period of stagnation descended on Muslim lands, especially under the Ottoman Empire. This lasted until Muhammad Abduh appeared towards the end of the last century, and ijtihad in Islamic law resumed, regaining its vitality among senior ulama.

And just as the place of reason in Islamic Shari’a opened the way for men of great minds to exercise their judgement and derive new laws to cater for new developments in human affairs, it did, by contrast, close the door firmly to all pre-Islamic superstitions among the Arabs and others. The Quran says about the Jews in Sura 2 (Al-Baqarah): “They followed what the evils ones gave out (falsely) against the power of Solomon: the blasphemers were, not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men magic” (Al-Baqarah: 102). A magician is thus branded as an unbeliever according to this verse. The Prophet -peace be upon him- says: “The punishment of the magician is to be killed by the sword.” A magician is someone who tricks people into believing that he could do them harm, claiming to have contacts with the souls of the stars and the souls of jinn. The Messenger of God tells us that believing in omens is tantamount to polytheism. Equally reprehensible are some forms of divination, such as those resorted to by some gypsy women, using pebbles or seashells, and reading indistinct incantations to create the illusion among listeners that their wishes were being granted. Similar also is the work of astrologers or soothsayers, who purport that, through looking at the stars, they could know things about people and future events of which God alone knows. And there were also those pagan priests and soothsayers who claim to have jinn who inform them about the future events or secrets hiding in the hearts of men. Many of these existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, and used to trick those seeking their help by mumbling confusing rhymes claiming that their jinn companions had brought it to them from on high. There are many stories concerning the works of these related by narrators during the pre-Islamic era, but most of these are fabrications. The Prophet -peace be upon him- says: “Whoever goes to a soothsayer or a diviner, this person has disbelieved what had been revealed to Muhammad.” For such a person had denied the Holy Quran and correct rational arguments on which it is based.

Islam, through all that I have indicated above, had made reason the arbiter in attaining belief in God through contemplating His laws governing the Universe, and also made reason the cornerstone of Islamic preaching with its three major methods: rational proofs, good preaching and considerate debating and argument. It also takes reason as a basic principle of Islamic law, through the exercise of rational judgement in matters of law. God and His Messenger have tried to elevate reason by rejecting all superstition, magic and divination. There is no doubt then, that God and His Prophet have built the Shari’a, which is the guide for all mankind, on a firm rational foundation.

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1) It refers to the fact that water would turn to blood whenever the unbelievers wanted to use it.

2) On this occasion, we have slightly diverged from Yusuf Ali’s translation, who renders the term sakhkhara (made subject to you), while we translate it: “put at your service”, since it is clear that the sun and the moon are not subject to man nor under his control. (trans).

3) The subsequent commentary by the author makes better sense if the translation of the phrase “bi ma araka Allah” is rendered : “with what God has shown you”, or “with what God has made evident to you”. (trans.)

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