Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 22
ISLAMIC SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT. Quranic verses supported by human logic. They went so far as to totally deny any figurative interpretation of the Holy. Quran. Imam Áshárī himself was a skilled logician. The arguments he forwarded against the use of rationality were, interestingly, themselves based on rationality. One of his famous public debates against his own teacher, ‘Allāmah. Al-Jubbai, highlights this point. 'What is your opinion about the salvation of three brothers: a believer, a non-believer and a child?” Áshárī questioned Al-Jubbai. 'The believer will go to heaven, the non-believer will go to hell, but the child will neither go to heaven nor to hell, because none of his acts are worthy of reward or punishment', Jubbãi replied. Áshárī commented, 'The child could argue with God, "If You had given me some time, I would have done some good deeds. So why should I be deprived of heaven?" ,. Jubbai retorted, 'God could reply, "I knew that if you had grown older you would do bad deeds. Thus your death at this early age is really a favour, because you have been saved from hell. ' " " Áshárī replied, ‘At this stage the non-believer will interrupt and will blame God for not granting him death at the same age as the child so that he could be saved from bad deeds. '. It is worthy of note that Áshárī while arguing against rationality was himself employing all the weaponry of the rationalists. Thus it is not correct to say that he was totally against rationality. The followers of this school of thought, such as Imam Ghazāli and Imam Rāzi, relied heavily on rational arguments to resolve their problems and establish their beliefs. Possibly the excessive reaction against reliance on rationality was due to was due to a fear that new philosophies, which were being introduced to the realm of 22