Voices of faith: Where lies the final word, with faith or reason?

Voices of faith: Where lies the final word, with faith or reason?

Rushdy El-Ghussein, former president of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City: Muslims are told repeatedly in the Quran to believe in God and his message and to work righteousness, so faith comes first and last. But some people think that faith has to be built on blind belief without reason. I beg to differ.

True religion will encourage reason and thinking. Sometimes religion will dictate things that we do not fully understand, but to strive to understand means to reason and question. In Islam, we have been challenged to think and reason.

Many verses of the Quran encourage reasoning and logic in matters of both faith and the world. It is interesting to note that the first verse of the Quran to be revealed emphasizes knowledge. “Read! In the name of Thy Lord and Cherisher, who created. Created man, out of a mere clot of congealed blood. Read! And Thy Lord is Most Bountiful — He who taught by the pen — Taught man that which he knows not.” (96: 1-5).

Early Muslims were not afraid to study other philosophies and traditions. It was the early Muslim who helped to translate and preserve the writings of earlier civilizations.

Sometimes issues arise that are not directly covered in the scripture. These are solved by Muslim scholars of various disciplines who study new issues’ similarities to earlier precedents and then develop a consensus of opinion to fit the situation.

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