Recordings › The Role Of Reason In Religion - Mufti Abu Layth · 9 Apr 2018 › Segment 1 of 19
What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it?
salah salaah namaz prayer salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat haj pilgrimage hadj muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice jahannam jahanam jahannum koran quraan al-quran sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat madinah medina al-madinah madeenah yathrib umma ummat in sha allah inshallah in shaa allah insha allah inshaa allah alhamdulilah al-hamdu lillah alhumdulillah alhamdulillaah hamdulillah as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaam salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greeting barakah barakat barkat baraqah blessing deen al-din ad-deen ad-dinOpening: the verse of Surah al-Hajj and what reason means
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This segment0:00 to 5:13 · 5 min 13 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenReason is the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements based on practical facts, broader than formal logic; Mufti Abu Layth takes the Surah al-Hajj verse that the hearts, not the eyes, are blind as the backdrop of the talk.
In more detail
After the opening praise and thanks to the organisers for the chance to speak on something he says is desperately needed in our times, the role of reason in religion, Mufti Abu Layth reads the verse from Surah al-Hajj asking whether people do not travel the earth so as to have hearts with which to reason and ears with which to hear, for it is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts, which he takes as the backdrop of the talk. He says the word 'reason' is surprisingly contentious among Muslims, perhaps the only community in which 'rational' and 'intellectual' are used as slurs. Asking the audience what reason means, and distinguishing it from formal logic with its Greek baggage and fixed premises, he defines reason as the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements, especially on the basis of practical facts, a definition broader and more inclusive than logic, which practical facts such as quantum physics can outrun. He notes that the verse encourages people to go out, perceive things and so acquire faculties of reason.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says reason is the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements based on practical facts, broader than formal logic, and that the Quran in Surah al-Hajj urges people to travel and perceive so as to gain hearts that reason.
“reason is the ability of a healthy mind to to think and make judgment especially based on practical facts that is what reason is”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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in alhamdulillah wa kafa or salat wa salam o allah rasool mustafa Allegretti Ladino Tavo oman be ho de ho master or be a 30 al madina tava or bad right so salam ala he awakened people shukran Baraka la fille come for arranging this opportunity to speak on something which we so desperately need to speak about in our times the role of reason in religion I want to begin first of all before anything I thought
actually there was going to be some till our but I want to begin bring our attention to a verse in the Quran where Allah subhana Allah says that Allah meeya zero feel oddly for younger all that do they not go traverse in the earth and see Fattah Khun Ella whom - Lubin yaki Luna be Hara fat hakuna this far as a consequence they will have hearts or cognitive faculties by which yaki Luna be heard they will have reason
well are then we yes my ona be her and perhaps ears by which they can listen for in her letter Milaap saw it is not that these people are blind were like in Tamil absurdity miss adore but it is the the Faculty of insight that is blind that's a verse from the Quran in surah al-hajj that is the inspiration the kind of backdrop to what I want to talk about insha'Allah reason right before anything
well what what does reason mean when we say reason because this this becomes surprisingly this becomes contentious this is the shocking thing I mean I'll speak for Muslims and religion as a whole as well but Muslims it's we we have a culture we would like let's say the rational rational reason intellectual these kind of terms innovative I know that's gonna carry a whole different connotation but these
this circle Islamic circle is one of the only circles with this these words are so demonized like in the modern world with it were amongst the only perhaps communities that say things like oh my god do you want to use your upper this person is using is after and that's that's that's a curse for somebody that they don't know what the hell this person is using is a colles is relying on reason so when we say reason what are we talking about let's any ideas what does reason mean people what does reason mean there are
any people of reason okay you see logic is is interesting because hmm ah right okay so you don't mean logic as in the science logic okay like the term that is used commonly like people will use terms like logic although logic has a whole different it has so much baggage with it because logic is to do with you know I mean originating with the Greeks and it comes to with certain principles like you have to have certain things these are the logical premise and the logical
result but reason is the reason is much more simpler than that and much more inclusive reason is the ability of a healthy mind to to think and make judgment especially based on practical facts that is what reason is so it's the ability of a healthy mind so we're gonna take out all of our somewhat you know some take out some gifted and talented people from from our ummah and the other
people were so excusing them of a healthy mind to just think and to make judgments especially based on practical fact this is where it would slightly differ with logic the technical logical low logic is part of this but then logic doesn't go into all fields like logic will have certain principles which today practical facts would allow us to think differently especially things like quantum physics and stuff like that don't want to just get into that but yeah so that is the definition of Reason
people now the first we said Allah is saying that do people not go out and travel do they not see things do they not perceive things then they will have faculties of reason to reason by so I was encouraging us to to do this now the question is what's the big deal what's the big deal about you know all of these about religion having reason like wow you know we've got Quran or Sunnah has come or let's say hopefully the Quran is but what is okay let's say the Quran and Sunnah Lissa's take that
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-04-09-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, April 9). What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it? [Video, segment 2018-04-09-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it?" Video, segment 2018-04-09-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 9, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-04-09-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it?}}, year = {2018}, month = {4}, date = {2018-04-09}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-04-09-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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