Reasoning and faith in God

God has reminded us in His book, "Have you not ponder...", "Have you not forgotten...", "Don't you think of..." and more.

These words of Allah, He wants us to think, think for ourselves, use our aqal and reason.

In yesterday's class, my lecturer taught us about a poet, Marmaduke Pickthall, which reverted to Islam and even translated the Qur'an. His writing was thoughtful and intriguing. Among the points I agree the most during the lecture was about the use of free thought/reasoning and faith in God, they are compatible.

The society argues that we most follow the Qur'an, Sunnah and Ulama'. Yes, I agree with that. But the thing I disagree is that they want us to blindly follow without a room to discuss other possibilities of solutions we might come out with.

Qur'an is very general, so Sunnah is there to explain it. However, as time passes, a lot of new things happen, changes occur. Hence, there are things that we need to think of our own solution but still based on these two sources of knowledge. I agree with that. And Ulama' are the one responsible to think of Islamic solutions to un-Islamic things.

Now, are not Ulama' humans? Their decision, are not they based on reasoning and faith in God to come out with fatwas?

Understand me, I'm not against Ulama', I'm just against people who want us to follow Ulama' blindly without giving a chance for us to reason ourselves. Yes, we might not be as knowledgeable as the Ulama', but in the end, who's going to put us through hell and heaven? Ulama' is it? NO!

"Wei, mana  boleh kau buat macam ni! Ustaz XXX dah cakap yang ni salah. Kita kena ikut  ustaz ni cakap!"

Everybody has different situations, one rule cannot be applied to everyone. We always say that Islam is a religion of peace, Islam does not burden its followers, then why are you burdening Muslims with your man-made rules?

No, I'm not against Ulama'. Again, I'm against people who force others to practice blind imitation.

Reasoning and faith in God is compatible, they blend.