The Heart Of Faith Is Not Reason | Mufti Abu Layth

I think the most important thing is to understand that faith is a personal Journey yeah and I do feel that you see I don't think the heart of faith is reason I don't think that I used to think it was I've realized the heart of Faith the

the kind of Kernel the the inner the nectar of Iman is is the sacred and with it is mysterium tremendum this is the at the heart of faith

and it's not necessary that reason will get you there in fact reason does not get you to mysterium tremendum but what reason will do is it will guide you by telling you what is not that and then there will come a point where reason will be suspended and beyond that is mysterium tremendous but when you so that's for Islam at its heart is the holy the sacred

mysterium tremendum that which that the Divine mystery that terrifies in it terrifies in its sense here doesn't mean like Terror it's more almost that which shakes you know he had captivates you

this is it takes you away you know this this whole thing that you the trans it it's like it takes your soul with it that is ultimately what the faith is about so people arrive at that through they arrive at that usually not through reason necessarily but through an experience

but many people may not do that and Islam so this is Iman but then you have Islam which is the practice which is the living tradition which is the now this has things with it it has detail it has stories of this is what happened it has narratives it has so here you are navigating through the world with people

so here the voice of reason is what helps you navigate through the world bypassing other people allowing you to understand these greater narratives how they are anchored what is and there's nothing wrong with believing things that are count of reason or as in even irrational let's let's let's go with irrational I would say there's nothing wrong in if if what that narrative does is simply

empowers and boosts your devotional aspect of the faith so in that case that narrative is not to be confused with informational historicity or informational data it is rather to be understood and navigated through as one does with art as it were that it is to evoke it is wordless seamless formless

structuralist it evokes and experience within you an emotion that connects you with that that profundity that mysterium tremendum that sacred that Holy that is then that is absolutely you are locked that is perfect they it doesn't matter that this is irrational illogical it is because it is not to be misunderstood as data that is the problem when you start conflating these categories

then one needs to clear it or clear it up using the voice of reason no I mean I don't know how much of that is making sense to you when I'm saying that Perhaps it is but I hope yeah that if we can approach religion scripture

in a relationship that is Akin somewhat as it were to a to a person that stands or to a person that no interprets that interprets art

with its overwhelming profound relationship that they have to it that it's not this is what um Karen Armstrong in her book The Art of scripture argues as well that she says that people misunderstood or scripture that they think scripture the relationship to it is the relationship of a student to a textbook but it ought to be the relationship it ought to be more viewed as a art as it is a textbook so it then evokes this this experience this devotion

so I would 100 that that's what I would that's what I would guide people to to understanding scripture why in that dynamic so there in that sense it doesn't matter you don't need to be you see you don't you don't need to be trying to tie things together so it all depends on on how you are approach almost the cap you're wearing to approach something the glasses the

lens by which you are viewing something or yeah or navigating through I guess it's not just lens because it's it's almost like the you are navigating through it's more than just seeing it's hearing it's experiencing it's sensing perception so yeah that's what I would say okay let's move on