Dr Ibrahim Kalin - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre

Subsuming reason within a larger context of existence
goes against the main thrust of modern rationalism. Ever
since the European Enlightenment adapted its ‘baptism of
reason’ against the alleged irrationality of the Middle Ages,
reason has declared its independence and developed a view
of itself as the ultimate arche and ens realissimum of reality.
In an age in which rationality is measured by quantifiable
properties and computerized decisions, the ontological
foundations of reason have radically changed, and highly
idealized and eventually inhuman forms of rationality have
been identified as the basis of human intelligence. In contrast
to the notion of rationality as computerization, however,
our most unique human quality called reason, the
very quality that distinguishes us from the rest of creation
and clearly privileges us over them (Al-Isra', 17:70), functions
essentially and primarily in a qualitative and axiological
context. Charges of ‘irrationality’ and dogmatism have
been launched against Islam in part because the concept of
rationality as developed in the Islamic intellectual tradition
contravenes the main thrust of modern and postmodern notions
of rationality that have arisen in the West since the 17th
and 18th centuries.
Motivated by religious zeal, most medieval Christians
considered Islam to be against reason and saw it as grounded
in blind faith, ignorance, violence and worldly pleasures.
The Muslim faith attracted many followers, it was argued,
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