Reason Vs Religion! A False Dichotomy? -Mufti Abu Layth

this is a really good question from Mubarak or from blaming him alone so this question scholars have Muslims and non-muslims in their own religion have grappled with for centuries one could argue that religionists have grappled with for millennia that reason if the scripture apparently at face value goes against reason where do you lean do you

lean in towards the scripture and deny reason do you lean in towards reason and deny Scripture as would you reject hadith because it clashes with your own intellect as a really good question what makes the question even more interesting is the fact that it gives a at the same time it gives a false impression not an impression 8 the right word it gives a kind of experience to the person who's thinking about it that it's a question

of loyalty that way does my loyalty lie is it with Allah or is it with my own intellect it gives this false experience at the same time so people grapple with hmm shouldn't my loyalty be with Allah as opposed to it mine telling that's what makes this question even more interesting I would say first of all that's a a false experience that when a person you know this loyalty dilemma is not true because as people like even a roost highlighted that look your uncle

your reason has been given to you by Allah he's the one who told you to use it you are not going against God by using what he gifted you with you are in fact utilizing what he gave you now when you look at let's say something in the scripture at face value clashes with reality as you know it so let's say it appears anti-scientific or it appears unethical or it appears there's a problem with a Hadi hadith more so I think the Quran is less examples of

things like this but with the hadith more so we find things like a hadith we think what the hell was this hadith about and then we think well shouldn't my loyalty lie here or there I would say it is impossible that Allah has given us a reason the ability by which we can come to learn of him come to appreciate him to worship Him to know the truth through him that he is the truth and this is the true Word of God and then he will tell us to do something that goes against that reason because that doesn't

make any sense now so there must be a problem here then we have to see you know what they call epistemology like how do you know something to be something like a complicated word but all it basically means is if I say to you how do you know that apart from saying I just do any other answer leans in on epistemology how do we know things especially historical things how do I know this actually happened well I read it in a book could that be a mistake well five people wrote it hmm what if the source was just one like questioning

how did things actually this is epistemology now paddy is amazing it provides a great insight and it's a part of Islam hadith provides a Sunnah the Sunna of the Prophet which is a part of Islam it is where we take our teachings from our guidance from but it's and the preservation of hadith has been an excellent job that Muslims have done however it would be wrong to say it was a an infallible job that there were never any mistakes there were there were mistakes as well that they crept in but that margin of error is

quite small considering the whole thing so when you take let's take mihari as an example if you're going to look at 8,000 Hadees even if 50 have a problem with them even if you stretched it and said 100 out of 8,000 that's not actually that many when you're looking at the percentage so I would say that it becomes you see when we do something counter reason we actually do I feel a disservice to Allah and His Messenger because we're portraying that Allah is commanding us to do unreasonable things and we have to

remember that the Quran or the Sun now was never trying to teach us science or teachers you know it wasn't trying to do these things so for example Allah says in the Quran about he's created us in pairs xoJane in two peers yet you'll find some species that are single gender species they exist certain lizards and other kind of creatures to exist around a single gender does that mean oh Allah got it wrong it doesn't mean a lager it means that when Allah was addressing people it was generically the word was generically speaking was just general it wasn't

trying to say okay people sit down we're gonna do zoology today I'm gonna teach you taxonomy all of us I'm trying to say that so we today want to learn science through the Quran it's not gonna work like we need to learn science through science like how these great Muslims don't hate them did it arguably the father of the scientific method came from in in our recent time from the Muslim world so who actually say is in his teachings you must question everything you must if it comes to you like this question do this do this so I don't think it's a disloyalty I think it's a loyalty because they say

there's an amazing hadith that look at this hadith or nascaro volume to speak to people on the level of the reasoning and intellect after him when you cut the below or a solo do you wish that Allah and His Messenger should be denied because if I tell somebody something that they perceive to be counter like they will that's just another reason to deny what you're saying it doesn't make any sense like if first of all the Quran doesn't say I'm just as an example that the earth is flat but I'm just saying imagine people so I saying oh it's in

the Quran that the earth is flat now that's another reason that people would does not look at the Quran then say well this book is just nonsense then if that's what it's pushing so this is why I think it's a two-layered question it's a very interesting question because it makes people think that people that are leaning in towards reason or let's say modernists or they are disloyal to the Quran and Sunnah the flip side of that coin is that role or are they just engaging a through a meaning of the puranas from now because people are

getting caught up in certain details that maybe it don't mean them and and I like the example of I've quoted this before like Mohammed al-ameen Ashanti who was Mauritania my Leakey but leaning into its Elif II kind of thought and lived in Saudi as well and and when the moon landing situation happened and they asked him that is this true that do you accept this because going to the Quran he says well I'm Rafi him not that the moon is in the skies and the heavens you can't reach it so they said you believe that the Americans have landed thee so he said look there's two ways to go from here

one that no because this is what the Quran says and therefore they must be lying or two maybe we've not understood their verse properly and we need to revisit our understanding of this verse I'm just saying I think sometimes a lot of our battles today are unnecessary battles like I don't see the big deal like what's the big deal behind I understand once it hinges on the loyalty issue a big deal because we're being seen as we're against these people are saying the Apple is great I think God nobody is trying to say that but they're trying to say that looks a lot gifted us with the

aqua let me give you an example yeah you see we accept means on something I was speaking to somebody asked me a question yeah hey woman who wanted to undertake an abortion in the early stages and I do believe that it is permissible to take an abortion in Islam if the person wants to for whatever reasons they've got and that is the understanding of generally the Hanafy school in the humbly school as well and some may be marquees here or there right so now this this this lady said look I really want this abortion

but she said that the truth is that this this this baby this fetus this baby is from God a lost evening so I said true said yeah but you see so really I I really do want this over the abortion it wasn't because she's gonna die or critical like that but it was because things were perhaps very complicated now I said okay so you want to keep the babe that's fine I mean absolutely I'm you she was just asking if she could have an abortion and she said no no that's not it you see I want the abortion I really I feel I kind of

need it but the issue is the babies from God and Allah gives babies but abortion I want a lot to choose the abortion so I said well I don't understand like how does that work so she said well because I don't want to choose I don't want to be the one that God chose the baby and I chose God chose life and I chose death I said yeah but alas what do you mean by God you know God chose the baby just yeah because look babies come from God I said no babies come from humans she

says no no they come from Allah I was a virgin birth like was this like out there did they become so like no no no obviously not I was like well you could both them why are you blaming everything on God I'll tell you but oh yeah you know got pregnant God's fault again God why do you do these things I didn't do that you obviously did it so the point is that look god yes ultimately if you're gonna say everything comes from Allah ultimately

then yes you chose to engage in making a baby and now you've had a baby let's say and Allah is giving you the alcohol to choose abortion if you if you need it sorry yes so this choice is you could say look I said a lot you know I'm not saying you should have the I'm not saying you should it's obviously your core to keep the baby that's that's a great thing but if you were saying your life is that complicated with all these issues that you needed to know this Islam say it's permissible Islam does say it's permissible under a my understanding under these circumstances

but what I would not say is you're not gonna get a divine message from God not gonna be like your phone's gonna ring notes it's me God and you know it's not gonna happen like that you're not gonna get a text message or and if you do then that's more stranger than the so that's my point