INDEED ALL PRAISE AND THANKS ARE DUE TO ALLAH, WE PRAISE HIM, WE SEEK HIS ASSISTANCE, WE SEEK HIS FORGIVENESS, AND WE SEEK HIS GUIDANCE.
Islām is the final religion, revealed to us by the Creator. The path to belief in Islam is not through blind faith or emotions, rather it is through the intellect.
Indeed in the world, there are only three possible paths to belief. The first is the so-called belief of old, also known as imitation or blind faith. This is the belief of the majority of the world today, as well as the majority of the belief of old. Ibrahīm (as), when he asked his people why they worshipped idols,
“They replied, ‘No, but this is what we saw our fathers doing.’”
— Surah Ash-Shu’ara: 74
The people of Ibrahīm’s blind faith in their fathers, is the same as the people’s blind faith in democracy, LGBT and human rights. The people do not believe in these concepts and principles through using their minds and thinking, but they do so because the majority of people do so.
“And if you obey most of those on earth, they will mislead you far away from Allah’s Path.”
— Surah Al-An’am: 116
Allāh (swt) has rebuked and censured those who believe without thinking, i.e. they believe based on blind faith or because it was the norm.
“And when it is said to them, “Follow what Allāh has revealed,” they say, “Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing.” Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?”
— Surah al-Baqarah: 169
Therefore Muslims should not predicate their belief in Islām on the fact that their fathers are Muslim or that they were born into a Muslim family. Ask yourself, if you were born into a Christian or Hindu family, would you follow your fathers in their kufr?
The second type of ‘belief’ is that which is based upon emotion. Many of the born-again Christians have this kind of belief. “I saw Jesus in a dream and he told me he is the light” or “Jesus entered my heart” or “The feeling I got at the Church convinced me”. This belief is not rational, nor is it solid. It is a weak belief based on fleeting emotions that change continuously.
The atheist, the one who hides behind his ‘intellect’ and his ‘scientific mind’, is in reality an emotional believer, not a rational one. This is because their ‘lack of belief’ in a Creator is actually their hate for Him. They have had bad experiences of life, with death or suffering and they take out their rage on the Creator. This is why the main argument they purport is the ‘problem of evil’, stating that a Creator doesn’t exist because evil exists.
This emotional belief is wrong, because it can bend and change, and many times lead to shirk and superstition.
“Can those believers who stand on clear proof from their Lord be like those whose evil deeds are made appealing to them and ˹only˺ follow their desires?”
— Surah Muhammad: 14
The third belief is the rational belief, which agrees with the reality and the natural inclination, or fitrah, of the human. Indeed this is none except the Islāmic ‘aqīdah, which is the only rational doctrine that agrees with the heart, mind and the reality.
Allāh (swt) has requested man to use his mind, to think, ponder and reflect deeply upon life and the universe and to base his belief on thought.
“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding.”
— Surah Ali’ Imran: 190
“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the [great] ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what Allah has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [His] directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason.”
— Surah al-Baqarah: 163
“Will you not reason? ”
— Surah al-Baqarah: 75
These and other countless verses request us to base our belief in Islām as a result of reason, thought and reflection. Allāh (swt) has filled the Qur’ān with many examples to stimulate our minds and make us think.
“Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’ān, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?”
— Surah Muhammad: 25
The belief that results from thought and study, which agrees with the emotions and fitrah, and which is grounded in reality is the only correct belief. That is Islām.