Reason and Submission in Islam: Harmony, Not Contradiction. A Scientific Response to the Objection: “Islam Calls for Blind Submission That Cancels…
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Lord of all worlds, and may blessings and peace be upon the noblest of all messengers.
Among the objections raised by some skeptics about Islam is their claim that the religion promotes a form of blind submission that eliminates or marginalizes the role of reason. They argue:
“Islam requires Muslims to submit completely to Allah and His Messenger without discussion or reflection. This submission implies accepting everything in the religion blindly—even if it contradicts reason or appears incomprehensible. This, they say, diminishes the intellect and undermines its value.”
This objection reflects a fundamentally flawed understanding of the nature of reason, its function, the meaning of submission (taslīm) in Islam, and the harmonious relationship between human reason and divine revelation. It is therefore appropriate to examine this topic thoroughly and scientifically, to clarify the truth on this important matter.
Understanding the Nature of Reason and the Human Means of Acquiring Knowledge
Defining Reason and Its Function
Reason (ʿaql) is the faculty by which a human being thinks, understands, distinguishes right from wrong, analyzes information, and makes sound judgments. But reason does not operate in a vacuum. It depends on three essential means through which it receives the information that it evaluates and judges.
The Three Pathways of Human Perception
1. The Five Senses: Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—these are the primary windows through which human beings engage with the external world. Everything we know about colors, sounds, scents, flavors, textures, temperature, and physical sensations comes through these senses. Without them, a person would not be able to know or interact with his surroundings.
2. The Intellect: The intellect processes the information gathered by the senses. It connects, compares, evaluates, and draws conclusions. When you see fire and feel its heat, it is your intellect that links these observations and concludes that fire burns and that approaching it is harmful and painful.
3. Reliable Information From Trustworthy Sources: This refers to knowledge transmitted to you by sources you trust—people known for honesty, authenticated scientific works, or verified accounts of others’ experiences. You know that the continent of Australia exists not because you have personally seen it but because numerous trustworthy sources affirm its existence.
These three pathways work together in a complementary way to form human knowledge. The intellect coordinates them, evaluates their input, and judges the reliability of the information they provide.
The Difference Between Sensory Perception and Intellectual Perception
The Nature of Sensory Perception
The senses perceive objects that are actually present and directly observable. The eyes see the tree before them, the ears hear the sound that is occurring, and the hand touches the stone physically present. The senses deal with tangible, present realities—things that can be directly seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted.
The Nature of Intellectual Perception
The intellect, however, has a broader capability. It can perceive realities the senses cannot grasp directly by drawing conclusions through reasoning, analysis, and cause-and-effect relationships.
When you hear knocking at the door, your senses perceive only the sound—but your intellect perceives that there is a person behind the door, even though you do not see or touch him.
When you see footprints on the sand, your intellect concludes that someone has recently walked there—even though your eyes did not witness the person or the act of walking.
Therefore, the Difference Can Be Summarized as:
• The Senses: perceive tangible realities directly.
• The Intellect: perceives non-visible realities through inference and reasoning.
When you see smoke rising from a distant house:
• Your eyes perceive the smoke (a visible effect accessible to the senses).
• Your intellect concludes the presence of fire inside the house (a non-visible cause inferred by reason).
The senses provide the observed effect.
The intellect discovers the unseen cause.
The senses are limited to what they observe in the present moment.The intellect goes beyond this, perceiving what is behind sensory appearances, as well as inferring past and future realities.
The Natural Limits of the Intellect
The Intellect Can Perceive Existence, but Not the Full Reality of Things
Although the intellect possesses remarkable abilities that surpass the senses, it remains limited and unable to grasp many aspects of reality.
The example of the “knocking at the door,” mentioned earlier, illustrates this limitation clearly:
When you hear knocking, your intellect can certainly conclude that someone is behind the door. But your intellect is completely unable to determine numerous details about that person, such as:
• Who is knocking—man or woman? Child or adult?
• What is their exact age, height, appearance, or weight?
• Why did they come? What do they want from you?
• When will they leave? Where will they go after that?
• What is their emotional state—happy, sad, anxious, calm?
• What are they carrying? What is in their pockets?
• What are their thoughts about you? What do they think of your home?
This simple example reveals a profound truth:
The intellect can affirm the existence of many things with certainty, yet it is incapable of knowing their full reality or all their details as they truly are.
If this is the state of the intellect regarding a simple, everyday event like someone knocking at the door, then how much more limited must it be regarding matters infinitely more profound—such as the reality of Allah’s nature and attributes, the details of Paradise and Hellfire, or the mysteries of creation and the universe?
Submission (Taslīm) Is a Rational Principle in Daily Life
Submission is not something strange, irrational, or contradictory. On the contrary, every sane human being practices it constantly in daily life without feeling any conflict or discomfort. Examples from ordinary life are countless:
When you go to a doctor because of pain or illness, you submit to him in many matters you do not understand, such as:
• You take the medication he prescribes without understanding its complex chemical composition or reading specialized scientific research about it.
• You accept his diagnosis even though you do not understand the details of the medical tests.
• You may even agree to an intricate surgery and hand over your body while unconscious—simply because you know he holds a medical degree and has expertise.
And similar examples abound in daily life:
• Your trust in the pilot to fly the airplane despite knowing nothing about aviation science.• Your trust in the engineer designing your home without studying engineering.
• Your trust in the teacher explaining a lesson you did not master beforehand.
• Your trust in the judge issuing a ruling without being a legal expert yourself.
Why Do We Submit? Rational Reasons
Why do we accept and follow the judgment of these experts? The reasons are fully rational:
First: The intellect recognizes that there are people more knowledgeable than us in specific specialized fields.
Second: The intellect acknowledges that no person can learn everything in all fields—life is short and knowledge is vast.
Third: Experience consistently proves the reliability and accuracy of these experts’ professional judgments in most cases.
The Logical Result
Thus, submitting to those who know more is a rational, wise, and intellectually sound position—one that the intellect itself affirms, not rejects.
If this is true in dealings between human beings—each with limited knowledge and the potential to err—then what about submission to Allah, the Creator of perfect knowledge and absolute wisdom, who neither errs, nor forgets, nor is overcome by ignorance?
A Challenge to Those Who Reject All Submission
Anyone who rejects submission categorically must, by that logic, verify every piece of knowledge himself. More plainly:
He must learn all sciences and fields in order to dispense with every expert in every field.
How could that ever be possible, when human life is limited and the realms of knowledge never end?
Reason Itself Requires That Revelation Contain Matters Beyond Human Comprehension
Reason Can Determine the Authenticity of Revelation
The sound intellect can easily determine that true revelation comes from the Creator, based on clear rational proofs. Among them:
Proof One: A claimant to prophethood is either truthful or lying—no third option exists. If truthful, then Allah’s wisdom requires choosing the most honest and morally upright person for this mission.
If lying, then such a liar must maintain a lifetime of severe, continuous falsehood against Allah and humanity—something only the most reckless of liars could do. Yet history records no case of a man claiming prophethood who later retracted and admitted, “I lied.”
Proof Two: Humans are capable of detecting falsehood in claims far smaller than prophethood. Therefore, it is even easier to judge truthfulness or falsehood in the greatest claim of all.
Proof Three: The perfection of the Creator—affirmed by reason and innate disposition—requires distinguishing a true prophet from a false one.
Divine justice demands that the proof be established upon humanity, and this proof only stands if people are able to identify the true messenger.
Reason Requires That Revelation Contain Unseen Matters
Once the intellect acknowledges that the revelation brought by a true messenger comes from the All-Knowing, All-Wise Creator, then the intellect itself logically requires that such revelation contains matters the human mind cannot reach on its own.
If everything in revelation were already fully knowable through ordinary human intellect, then:
• There would be no need for revelation.
• The revelation would offer no added knowledge.
• And it would not reflect divine knowledge superior to human capacity.
An Important Reverse Proof
In fact, if revelation contained nothing beyond human comprehension, this would be strong evidence that it is not from Allah.
People would then object: “If this were truly divine revelation, it would necessarily contain matters beyond the reach of human reason, for Allah’s knowledge far surpasses ours. But since everything in it is completely understandable to us, this proves it is from a human source rather than from Allah.”
Thus, the presence of matters beyond full rational comprehension is not a flaw of revelation—it is a sign of its divine origin.
The Necessary Logical Conclusion
The intellect, after affirming that revelation comes from the One whose knowledge is absolute, cannot logically object to the existence of matters in revelation that lie beyond its full grasp.
Rather, the intellect requires and demands that such matters exist.
Therefore: Submitting the intellect to revelation in matters it cannot independently know is not the cancellation of intellect, nor neglecting it—it is the highest, purest, and most rational use of the intellect.
The Intellect Is Not Fit to Be an Absolute Judge
Agreement of Human Intellects Only in Self-Evident Truths
Human intellects agree completely on necessary, self-evident rational truths—such as the impossibility of two contradictory propositions being true at the same time, that the whole is greater than the part, and that a single thing cannot be both existent and nonexistent in the same moment and place.
These basic, innate truths are universally acknowledged by all rational people, in every era and every society, because they are as clear as the sun and require no proof. They form the foundation of sound logical reasoning for all human beings.
Divergence of Intellects Beyond Self-Evident Truths
But outside these necessary first principles, human intellects differ enormously in their judgments, conclusions, and interpretations.
What one intellect perceives as correct, logical, and obvious, another may view as mistaken, unacceptable, and irrational. What a particular culture regards as a firmly established rational truth may be rejected entirely by another culture and considered myth or illusion.
This vast divergence becomes strikingly clear in ethical, social, intellectual, and philosophical matters, where the opinions of even the greatest minds differ dramatically. Plato proposes one view, Aristotle another, Descartes a third, and Kant a fourth—and so on.
The Embarrassing Logical Question
If the human intellect were a universal, absolute standard by which everything can be judged, how do we explain this profound and persistent disagreement between the greatest intellects in history?
If intellects differ so widely in matters beyond the self-evident, then which intellect do we choose as the absolute judge over all others?
Should it be the intellect of Aristotle or Plato?
Kant or Descartes?
Nietzsche or Hegel?
The European or the Asian mind?
The modern or the ancient mind?
The Muslim mind or the non-Muslim mind?
On what rational or scientific grounds can we choose one limited human intellect and elevate it as an absolute criterion over all others?
Arbitrary Preference
Choosing any particular intellect as the ultimate measure of truth is pure arbitrariness without rational or scientific justification. All intellects are limited and influenced by their environments, cultures, times, circumstances, and personal experiences.
If we cannot justify preferring one human intellect over another in ordinary human matters, then how can we justify making any limited, created intellect an absolute judge over the speech of Allah—the very One who created that intellect and brought it from nonexistence into being?
Is it not astonishing that the created seeks to judge the Creator, that the student seeks to judge the teacher, that the ignorant seeks to judge the learned, and that the finite seeks to judge the Infinite?
To make the limited human intellect a supreme judge over divine revelation is like attempting to judge the light of the sun by the glow of a candle, or measure the vast ocean with a small cup of water.
This is not the proper use of reason—it is the greatest insult to reason and the clearest example of misusing it by forcing it beyond its natural limits.
The Complementary Relationship Between Reason and Revelation in Islam
Islam Honors and Elevates the Intellect
Contrary to what skeptics claim, Islam accords the intellect immense honor, elevates its status, and commands its use. The Qurʾān is filled with verses urging reflection, contemplation, and the use of the intellect, such as: “Do they not then reflect upon the Qurʾān?” [Sūrat al-Nisāʾ: 82]
“Indeed, in that are signs for a people who reflect.” [Sūrat al-Raʿd: 3]
“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth … are signs for those of understanding.” [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 190]
Islam does not silence the intellect; it awakens it.
Islam Also Defines the Limits and Proper Domain of the Intellect
At the same time, Islam assigns the intellect its proper boundaries and natural domain. It does not burden intellect with what it cannot bear, nor charge it with what lies beyond its capacity.
The relationship between intellect and revelation in Islam is one of perfect harmony, not contradiction:
• Reason establishes the existence, oneness, and perfection of Allah.
• Reason establishes the possibility and necessity of revelation.
• Reason distinguishes the true messenger from the false claimant.
• Reason grasps the wisdom and overarching aims of divine law.
• Revelation informs reason of details it cannot discover on its own.
• Revelation guides reason in matters where intellects differ or become confused.
• Revelation protects reason from error, deviation, and misguidance.
Conclusion: Wisdom in Complementarity
After understanding these rational and scientific principles, it becomes clear that submission to Allah and His Messenger in Islam is the essence of true intellect and wisdom—not its negation.
A sound intellect knows its limits and does not exceed them. It recognizes its natural incapacity and therefore seeks perfection from a source that is higher, more knowledgeable, and absolutely wise.
Just as a patient submits to a skilled physician, and a student to a specialized scholar, and a passenger to a trained pilot—even in matters they do not fully understand—how much more fitting is it for a wise person to submit to the Creator, whose knowledge and wisdom transcend all creation?
Whoever demands that his limited intellect be the ultimate judge over the words of Allah has imposed upon reason what reason itself rejects, and has demanded from intellect what it cannot bear. This is injustice to intellect before it is ignorance of Allah.
True faith unites two things:
• the proper use of reason within its natural domain,
• and submission to revelation in matters beyond its reach,
with full trust in the wisdom of Allah that surpasses the understanding of limited human minds.
This is the balanced, harmonious system Islam brings—neither excess nor deficiency, neither exaggeration nor neglect.
We ask Allah to grant us sound intellects, correct understanding, and the ability to use our reason in His obedience while submitting to His wisdom in what lies beyond our comprehension.
And Allah knows best. May His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muḥammad, his family, and his companions.