Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 265
DIVINE REVELATION AND RATIONALITY recipient of that knowledge may fail to benefit from it if he lacks the quality of inner truth. . If we replace the idea of God with that of rationality, for the convenience of the non-believer, the statement would read as follows:. That which is absolutely rational cannot lead anyone to the truth except those who possess a quality of righteousness or inner truth within them. This provides the most essential prerequisite for the attainment of reliable knowledge, be it religious or secular. Both the source of information and the recipient of information must be true. . S. O FAR SO GOOD, but this is not the end of the road. In fact it is from here that the more difficult part of the journey begins. Who can adjudge the quality of another person's inner truth? Everyone has a right to claim that he is absolutely true in his inner bearing. Hence whatever he believes is true. How does the Quran resolve this problem, is the question. Merely by pronouncing that 'Allah knows best', this problem cannot be resolved at the human level. But this is not the solution which the Quran proposes. According to the Quran the measure and quality of anyone's inner truth can be reliably adjudged by reference to his visible conduct in everyday life. If he is habitually true in his ordinary daily bearing then his inner invisible self can also be adjudged as true. By the same criterion the truth of prophets is also judged. Although it is not impossible for a habitual liar to be occasionally true, both in his expressed word and unexpressed intentions, it is next to impossible for him to be consistently true. Hence it is absolutely rational for the prophets to argue that a society which could never blame them, prior to their claim, for even a semblance of a lie, had no justification whatsoever in blaming them for fabricating lies against God and calling it revelation. 259