Discussion
A Muslim:-
I was wondering what your group thinks of this ongoing conversation/argument in our local Muslim Student Association about whether we should discuss things freely and come to our own conclusions - or do we have to 'ask scholars'.
Answer:-
This appears to be a silly controversy.
Muslims are required to follow the truth whether it is revealed or arrived at by experience or by reason or from books or through discussion.
Certainly Islam requires mutual consultation (42:38).
In Islam, each person is responsible for his own soul and its development. This can only be done if he seeks appropriate knowledge and applies it whether through his own researches or consultations with those who have knowledge.
"O you who believe! You have charge of (or guardianship of ) your own souls; he who errs can do you no hurt if you are rightly guided: unto Allah will you all return, and He will declare to you the truth of that which you did." 5:105
"Say: O mankind! There has come to you the Truth from your Lord, and he who is guided by it, his guidance is only for his own soul; and he who errs, errs only against it; and I am not a warder over you." 10:109
"He who accepts guidance (or does right), accepts it only for his own soul: and he who errs, errs only against it; nor shall one burdened soul bear the burden of another. Nor would We punish until we had sent a Messenger (with warnings)." 17:15
Students should know that they are such because they go to colleges where they learn from lectures by experts or from textbooks also written by experts and above all through exercises that develop their faculties.
But these experts have themselves learnt in the same way i.e. by learning from past experts and from their own researches after undergoing an appropriate discipline.
The advice is often given: Consult your conscious or your heart or use your God given faculties. But these have not yet developed or have been damaged by addictions, greed, habits, conditioning, self-interest, fantasy etc. They need to be developed and purified by a suitable discipline.
Experts are not necessarily right about everything, even within their own expertise, but they are more likely to be right in their own sphere than others. But knowledge does increase and understanding does deepen with study and time and what was regarded as true or false at one time comes to be regarded as the opposite. So those who seek knowledge must hold their opinions tentatively.
The same assertion can be understood differently by different people and will, therefore, be true for one and false for another even if they themselves believe or disbelieve it.
So, we can conclude that discussion is useful as long as it is based on knowledge and previous study, thought and meditation. We learn from the exchange of ideas, as we do from the expansion of experience and application of reason.
But if it is merely argumentation, an exercise in ego-boosting, scoring points attempts at indoctrination, silly games or it consists merely of expressing prejudices, fantasies, speculation, or guesswork it is not only useless but also harmful for all concerned.
However, it is possible to make suggestions which when thrown open to discussion can produce enlightening results. But
"Then exalted be Allah, the True King! And hasten not with the Qur'an ere its revelation has been perfected unto thee, and say: My Lord! Increase me in knowledge. 20:114
"And follow (or pursue) not that of which you have no knowledge; verily, the hearing, the sight, and the heart, of all of these it shall be asked (to give an account)." 17:36
"But most of them follow naught but conjecture (suspicion, fancy, guesswork, speculation); verily, conjecture can by no means take the place of (or avail against) truth. Verily, Allah is Aware of what they do." Quran 10:37
"Say: Are those who know and those who do not know alike? But only the men of understanding are mindful." 39:9
"Now has insight (or proof) come unto you from your Lord, and he who sees therewith it is for his own good; but he who is blind thereto, it is against his own soul. And I am not your keeper. Thus do We expound Our Signs in various ways, that they may say: Thou hast studied, and that We may make clear to those who have knowledge." 6:105-106
"Restrain thyself with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, desiring His countenance (or nearness and intimacy), and let not thine eyes be turned from them, desiring the adornment (and pomp) of the life of this world; and obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, and who follows his own lusts (prejudices, fantasies, superstitions), and whose affair has been abandoned." 18:29
"O you who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger and those in authority amongst you; and if you dispute (quarrel or argue) about anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you (in truth) believe in Allah and the Last Day; that is better and fairer in the end." 4:59
"When you see those who plunge deeply into vain discussion of Our Signs, turn away from them until they discuss another topic; It may be that Satan makes thee forget, but sit not, after you have remembered, with the congregation of the faithless (or unjust or wrong-doers). Those who fear (or avoid evil, the righteous) are not accountable for them at all, but remind them that haply they may learn to fear (Allah). Leave alone those who have taken their religion for a play and a sport (jest, amusement), whom the life of the world has deceived, and remind them hereby lest a soul be destroyed by what it has earned. It has, beside Allah, no patron or intercessor; and though it should offer every compensation it will not be accepted. Those are they who perish by their own deserts. For them is (the similitude of) a drink of boiling water, and grievous woe because they persisted in their misbelief." 6:68-70
Critic:-
No matter what happens - if a scholar tells you that 'the sun rises from the west' will you believe him? I'm sure some us may - but please do not expect everyone to do so.
Comment:-
What kind of a scholar would tell you that?
Obviously, if you do not believe him he could not be a scholar in your eyes. You obviously have to discriminate. It is not impossible to identify a person who knows more about something than you do. But one does not trust someone who one finds to be a liar or person of low intelligence, awareness, conscience and self-control. It is necessary that the person one accepts is one that has three superior qualities:- knowledge, ability and virtue.
But ultimately a Muslim surrenders only to Allah and obeys others only in so far as this is a means to that end.
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