# Is morality innate? Language acquisition, divine command, and insecurity in faith

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zbya7rqfyru/s/5/
- Date: 2016-03-15 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan & Mufti Abu Layth - A Discussion on Contemporary Issues (17:23–23:55)
- Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyA7rqfyRU&t=1043s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zbya7rqfyru/

**Topics:** Reason and revelation; Philosophy and ideas; Guest conversations

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The speakers hold that the Quran treats humans as having an innate moral sense, compared to an innate capacity for language, and say faith should not depend on silencing those who question it.

## Longer summary

One speaker concludes the previous point: the discourse should ask what the Quran, the Sunnah and the Companions held, looking at the comprehensive picture rather than dismissing a view with a label. He then says the Quran insists that man is a moral being, and draws an analogy with the debate over whether babies pick up language or are pre-wired for it, describing research on migrant communities whose pidgin was turned into a creole by their children, on deaf and blind children, and the idea of a universal grammar, a raw base structure one is built for; he believes a comparable base of moral sense is what the Quran speaks of. He contrasts two traditional theological positions, that the intellect can always discern right and wrong and that everything is divine command so that nothing is wrong except because it is forbidden, and the other speaker says this discussion is distant from the Quranic text, asking where the figure who regretted a killing learnt that it was wrong [?]. One speaker says he definitely believes in innate morality at a base level, apart from the intricacies of the shari'ah, and that Muslims should listen to non-Muslim thinkers who speak sense, as the early Muslims of the golden era embraced foreign knowledge while distancing what clashed with Islam and did not become insecure. He ties this back to apostasy: wanting to kill the one who questions is a way of consolidating one's own faith, which should instead be solid and not depend on others' validation. He adds that the Quran speaks mostly of other prophets, whose legacies form a consistent river of which the Prophet is the culmination, and that much current discourse goes upstream against their concern for humanity.

## Sources and names cited

- Nouman Ali Khan

## Transcript (machine tier, 17:23–23:55)

[17:19] says he wanted his not to be incomplete that meaning like this is who this is the student of the prophet it's not just anybody you know it's not so but by this but by this standard people would just say oh that's and this is my point that you see we don't have that discourse we have a discourse we Bas it on is the was this the understanding in the Quran was it in the Sunnah was this what the sah do they have this and they may have had a difference it's not about just because it sounds easier let's dismiss it by putting a label on it and just taking it out the you know just knock it off the table because we just

[17:58] take a label to so this this is my point of when I was trying to say that these kind of values today we look at them we look at our tradition we look at the understanding that these people have CU there may have been some sahab who were more maybe or some Sal who may have been slightly more harsh than others but we have to look at the comprehensive picture and the most important thing what did the Quran and Sunnah itself also one thing the Quran seem to insists on that man is this moral being you know using as we you know do babies pick it up or is it pre- and he obviously leads the school on it's pre so this is the n of this kind of

[18:38] school as opposed to saying the empiricist school that babies get exposed to language and therefore pick it up and they've you know they've all presented their research and he's presented Some solid very interesting research on communities that um um that were like migrant different communities this is one sample but I mean as an example different uh communities that live together that made a patched up language to survive like between themselves it wasn't a complete like so they would call it a pigeon language so we just speak you go you know like this miss out uh propositions miss out but the children turned it into a

[19:17] Creon and I think it was in Hawaii or somewhere who uses the case study they actually completed the whole structure like as in and that's an interesting of the the inherent ability and also things like uh deaf D and blind children and how and plural children as well and other things that they've looked at how they've developed language but the point anyway I'm trying to get out is they speak of that that we have this language acquisition which maybe Raw it's not like you know you're built for Chinese or you're built for English but there's a universal grammar like a very raw base structure which you are built for this

[19:55] hard wiy and you grasp and you know you absorb language around you in a similar way I believe that the thing of is talking about this this kind of Base because the other thing the general understanding that the have had is that and the thing is that look this is because the general understanding have is either you have the absolute let's say traditionally or you might have had the or you might have that you must be able to discern right and wrong all the time or what what they

[20:34] call that you can bu your intellect just like I can tell ly is I can tell this okay on some things like murder you can tell but some things you can't always tell okay and then you have people traditionally you had the vast majority of you had the um the understanding was everything is just Divine commandment so there is no good so for example there's nothing wrong with murder so speak because it's been forbidden it's now considered so they say you know the Divine command is ex um like is it forbid like is it this this this kind of discussion is so distant from the

[21:11] quranic text yeah exactly yeah exactly where did he learn that it's wrong he just felt bad after he did it it's done it's inherently in your nature exactly and and this is one of at a base level I believe definitely uh I mean not intricacies I mean not like obviously in the Sharia you may have intricacies of is this permissible is that permissible these are interest of law but at a base level of morality and I really I was actually this is what I mean and I really listening to people like people like TR or just other who ain't even unfortunately Muslim but they

[21:50] speak sometimes so much sense and just listening to different people just hearing okay what do you have to say what do you have to say what and just reflecting it's not always about I think a sense of sometimes arrogance of thinking somebody isn't a Muslim we're not going to listen to anything they have to say we're not going to that wasn't the the message that the prophet Ali wasam B it wasn't the message of the Quran it wasn't the message of it wasn't even the early Muslim communities when they embraced look at the Golden Era they embraced foreign knowledge but then they they they didn't just blindly embrace it but they they saw all these kind of things like they saw these things

[22:29] they actually became Champion things that weren't Islamic they felt was a clash they distance that from themselves but they didn't become insecure see we have this thing that we become insecure like oh like if you question me about something oh my God like you know what that and I think this tying in with our discussion on apostasy is the problem that people are insecure when one person questions his name it's like just kill or he deserves whether we kill him he deserves this because it's a way of consolidating your own faith really that should never be the case

[23:09] your faith should be built should be cement it should be solid it shouldn't be something that kind of depends on the validation of other people the other thing that I feel very strongly about the Quran mostly speaks of other prophets and it's a very consistent like it's almost as though if each of them are a drop it forms a river and it flows a certain way right and the prophet is supposed to be a culmination and a continuation really a Perfection of that same and a lot of this discourse seems to be going Upstream like it it contradicts the legacies of prophets

[23:49] their moral like they're messing the concern for Humanity they didn't come to torture people or kill them or like it's not it's like that you see there's been an immense ritualization of the dean which has then unfortunately fil I like I like that filiz because they made so anent comes up with a conclusion then it gets edged and stone you can't questioning that is know I don't even like to name certain individual Scholars that are landmarks in our history but if you say something against what x said you might

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment zbyA7rqfyRU/s/5. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zbya7rqfyru/s/5/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.