وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًۭ

Al-Qur’an 17:36

Do not follow what you do not know; for the ear and the eye and the heart shall all be called to account

We are not built to give ourselves wholeheartedly to something that is not whole in our hearts

The fear of questioning the authority sometimes pushes even the wise to accept status quo without honest enquiry. Fear of being ridiculed or abandoned by the very society that helped us evolve in life. For some, it is also the lack of composure given a confrontational social setting, that keeps them from satisfying the thirst for reasoning. However, it is important to remember that we are not built to give ourselves wholeheartedly to something that is not whole in our hearts. On the other hand, life does not always give us all the answers. The more we know, the more questions we have. Learning is a journey without a destination. So its important to strike a balance between knowledge and contentment to be successful in our lives. Contentment comes from practicing humility.

For instance, lets look at the dynamic of a husband and wife relationship. It is one of the most important relationships in our lives. Humanity would not be possible without it. One of the basic rules of a successful marriage is to suspend logic and reason when required. Too much logic on the part of either spouse leads to arguments. Too many arguments lead to failed relationships. There is a simple reason for this, as an intelligent being, we know many things, but our knowledge is limited to our own comprehension capacity. In other words, knowledge is unlimited but our comprehension is limited. And our knowledge is the basis of our logical reasoning. So we can only be as logical as the limit of our comprehension allows. It is a fallacy to believe that each and every one of us can comprehend every single thing presented to us, by way of reason. This is arrogance by definition. It fails us when faced with life’s tough challenges.

Without reasoning we will not be satisfied in our heart, and without faith our heart will not be satisfied

Arrogance is not our friend but our enemy. It is the capacity of a human being to be humble even when believed to be in the right, that can save them. This is true for a marriage and any other successful relationship. What we need is a fine balance between logical reasoning, faith and trust in the other being. Without this we are bound to fail in relationships, including the most important of them all, the relationship between the creation and its Creator. Without reasoning we will not be satisfied in our heart, and without faith our heart will not be satisfied. So, success in life is rooted in the balance between reasoning and faith. Being able to differentiate and classify the moments of reasoning and moments that require faith and trust. This task is handled much better with our Creator on our side. Asking Allahﷻ for guidance on a regular basis regardless of where we are in our life. This was the way of the most successful individuals in human history, the way of Prophets of Allahﷺ.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى مَنْ هُوَ كَـٰذِبٌۭ كَفَّارٌۭ

Al-Qur`an 39:3

Surely God guides not him who is a liar, ungrateful

It is very important to be kind to others when there are disagreements. Prophet Muhammadﷺ was the kindest, most humble, and honest individual

To prevail in reasoning we have to be honest with ourselves and have a clear objective in our heart before embarking on this quest for truth. If there are hidden agendas in our heart, known or unknown, the destination of our journey will most likely be dark and harmful to our well-being. This isn’t the goal when someone starts their journey, but along the way we get tricked by our own selves, our ego, and of course, Satan. When we have a clear mind and a crystal heart, our Creator will be on our side. Allahﷻ encourages us to question, experience, and wonder about His creation. The deeper we dig, the solid our foundation of faith. A sincere human being on their quest for truth should have no fear in seeking the answers to their query. And when we get those answers, sought or unsought, regardless of the conveying authority, before believing or practicing, we have a responsibility to verify the authenticity and sources of the subject matter. Allahﷻ commands every Muslim to abandon blind faith, except in His trusted articles –

• Qur`an
• Authentic (Sahih) hadeeth of Prophet Muhammadﷺ

Every matter should be confirmed according to above criteria. When there is no match or no clear proof of such, it is best to respectfully ignore such things. Life cannot not be led wholeheartedly based on unverified stories and anecdotes. Although this doesn’t happen intentionally. We often start out skeptical and verify sources of the message and trustworthiness of the conveying party in the beginning. However, overtime our association moves from the message to the conveyor of the message. The admiration for the conveying party now begins to cloud our judgement. This is one of the major pitfalls in the quest for truth. Allahﷻ has clearly let it be known that the only trustworthy sources are Qur`an and the life of Prophet Muhammadﷺ. This is our baseline to weed out everything else. The moment a message starts to drift away from these sources, that is when we need to drift away from that message and that individual. No other being is error-proof. Allahﷻ has not taken guarantees about anybody else unlike His book Qur`an, His prophets, and the rightly guided companions of Our prophetﷺ.

Our objective should always be to seek the truth and associate with truth only. If the matter pertains to Islamic law (shariah), the sources have to be examined even more thoroughly. We can walk away and ignore unconfirmed things, especially if it’s not a mandatory (fard) element of shariah. As our Creator will not question us regarding these matters. It is very important to be kind to others when there are disagreements. Prophet Muhammadﷺ was the kindest, most humble, and honest individual. It wouldn’t make much sense to abandon his sunnah and be rude to others, and ridicule them in disagreements, in the name of defending his sunnah. This approach is an oxymoron at best.