Me and you come from a class that has been bombarded with knowledge, things we see every day. We are highly influenced by everything we see. How do I make sense of all the knowledge, information I have collected? When you talk about deen e Islam (Islamic way of life), you find there is a big, huge misfit, we fail and struggle to understand Islam. This is something that holds us back.
How does Islam enter into the Western thought. How do you explain Islam to someone who doesn't believe. There are certain knowables. Rationalism is associated with aql (rationality). Islam does not condemn that part. Yes, there are certain things you will find out through rationality. Second source of information is science. Scientism>>Islam is fine with most of the things in science. Third>>Empiricism>>the things you can see in daily life. Western secular knowledge stops here. It believes that these three cover all knowledge. Problem is, there is no wahy (revelation) involved there. Imam Ghazali explained, "experiencial knowledge", teachings of Quran and Prophet s.a.w. Allah says in Quran that the peace of hearts lies in the zikr (remembrance) of Allah. Imam Ghazali says, try it yourself and see. This is experiencial knowledge. If the claim is true, hypothesis is true, then the source is true.
The intention of saying this is that even if we understand wahy and deen of Islam through aql, the problem is greater. The problem is for the people who want to follow deen, the basic problem is>>Allah gave us a heart. Spiritual heart i.e. "qalb". Can you give your heart to Allah or not? For a worldly love for human, a person leaves rationality behind. So then why do you insist on loving Allah on rational terms?
(Lecture by Shaykh Arsalan Ahmed, 2015).
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