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REVELATION AND REASON
Habeebie Saif,
We often insist on our particularity. We love the idea of being unique. We imagine that we are the only
people who have ever tasted suffering. We fantasize that only we understand spirituality or that only
we have a historic purpose. We denigrate others and elevate our own pain above all else. And so
when we have questions, we insist that these questions are specific and unique to our situation. We
believe that no one else can begin to comprehend our situation, let alone offer a solution.
You will find, as I have, that we Muslims are no different from those of other faiths in this inwardlooking
approach. We know that Allah revealed his final message for humanity to our Prophet
Mohammed, and we pride ourselves on this fact.
There is a debate that took place about a thousand years ago that has had the effect of locking us
Muslims into the position of particularity rather than universality.
As in the period immediately after the Prophet’s passing, the early Muslims engaged in collecting
the various verses of the Quran into a single manuscript and began producing copies. They also spent
time and energy collecting the sayings of the Prophet. With the expansion of Islam through
proselytization and wars of conquest, the early Muslims came into contact with non-Muslims of
various faiths. They also came across different traditions of knowledge. In particular, they came
across Christians who were well versed in the works of the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle
in particular.
In engaging with these new subjects, and in many cases, with these new entrants to Islam, the early
Arab Muslims came across many new ideas.
Islam developed by posing questions that arose from within the Islamic faith, but crucially, it also
developed by responding to the questions posed by non-Muslims and the greats of Greek philosophy.
How did this come about? The early Muslims realized that non-Muslim subjects were able to
challenge the call of Islam with very sophisticated arguments. So in order to persuade these non-
Muslims to accept Islam, the early Muslims had to become acquainted with the logic and debating
methods of other cultures.
What were some of the questions? Do they have any relevance to our lives as Muslims today?
Well, a basic question arose due to the recognition of the early Muslims that the Quran and the sayings