The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam — Page 189
183 out the Surah Takāthur again. We have set out all this already and we refer our listeners and readers to that exposition. It should be known that the source of the first type of knowledge, that is to say knowledge by the certainty of inference, is reason and information. God Almighty sets out in the Holy Quran that the dwellers of hell will affirm: 224 وَقَالُوا لَوكُنَّا نَسْمَعُ اَوْ نَعْقِلُ مَا كُنَّا فِي أَصْحُبِ السَّعِيرِ That is, those who go to hell will say if they had exercised their reason and had approached the consideration of religion and doctrine sensibly, or had listened to and read with attention the speeches and writings of the wise and the scholars, they would not have been condemned to hell. This is in accord with another verse where Allah, the Exalted, says: لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا 225 That is, to say, God Almighty does not require human beings to accept anything that is beyond their intellectual capacity, and only sets forth such doctrines as are comprehensible by men, so that His directives 224. And they will say, ‘If we had but listened or possessed sense, we should not have been among the inmates of the blazing Fire. ' (The Holy Quran, al- Mulk 67:11) 225. Allāh burdens not any soul beyond its capacity. (The Holy Quran, al- Baqarah 2:287)