Do Muslims believe faith and reasoned are compatible?

[PadraigPearce]

A key belief in Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, is that faith and reason can never contradict each other. Based on some discussions I’ve had with Muslim posters and posts I’ve read, I was wondering what the Muslim belief is on this? Islam seems to abhor anything approaching a philosophical study of the koran, the way Christianity adopted Neo-Platonism and later Aristotellianism. So, do Muslims believe we can use our intellects to approach God, or is everything based on blind faith?

 

[hamba2han]

All that is true comes only from God and since there is only One God, therefore there can be only One Truth.

Faith cannot be blind and it has to be substantiated by actual proof.

The proof of the existence of the Creator are the creations themselves and the proof of the truth of Islam is the veracity of the Qur’an itself.

By comparison, what is the actual proof of the truth of other faiths other than the blind faith of their followers?

Blind faith is just not acceptable in Islam and there is indeed a way to test and ascertain the truth of Islam.

Is it difficult to identify a play by Shakespeare… or a musical composition by Mozart… or a painting by Picasso?

I do not think that it would be very difficult for a connoisseur of the arts to do this because every one of these great master craftsmen of their respective trades would leave a distinctive mark in all of their masterpieces which would be identifiable as coming only from them and no one else.

Similarly, is it difficult at all to identify the work of the greatest ‘Master’ there is?

The following are all the relevant posts from the thread for anyone wishing to determine for themselves the truth of the Qur’an:

1, 13, 34, 65, 126, 131, [136](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php? p=2105491&postcount=136), 144, 147, 162, 191, 238, 253, 258, 260, 263, 278, 301, 302, 319, 323, 336, 351, 352, 356, 361, 369

And from other threads: 1, 2

 

[PadraigPearce]

That doesn’t answer my question at all. I was asking if there was anything in Islam like the marriage of scripture and philosophy that exists in Christianity, and the answer you give me is that the koran is the ultimate proof for Islam. I don’t want to go through every single post you cited, but the gist seems to be that Islam is true because the koran is true, and no further confirmation is needed. Multiple inconsistencies in the koran were shown, but were brushed off as misunderstandings. I’m going to leave this topic alone because I’m obviously looking at it through a western, Christian mindset and not properly understanding the Muslim mindet. I don’t want to get into a flame war because obviously we’re looking at this in completely different ways.

Have a blessed day
Paddy

 

[hamba2han]

Actually, I was really replying to your post in another thread:

I’ve been trying to get one point across in three or four separate posts, but I keep being misunderstood by our Muslim friends. Ultimately the whole religion of Islam comes down to Muhammed’s word alone. When I asked why Muhammed was believed to be credible, that answer was that he’s from God. When I asked how someone can be sure of this, the answer was basically that he seemed to be a credible person. I don’t want to flog a dead horse here, but I still don’t have an answer as to why Muhammed should be believed. He may have had 144,000 people at his last sermon, but so what? Lot’s of leaders have had large followings.

The answer is that Islam does NOT come down to Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) word alone.

There were also the thousands of his companions who witnessed his many miracles and vouched for his credentials as a true Messenger of God throughout the 23-year period of his prophet-hood and also told about his character even before he received the first revelation in the cave.

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

Islamic law and theology are founded on four sources:

These are the Qur’an, **the Sunna **(esp. the Hadith, the saying, doings, and silent afirmations of Muhammad the prophet), ijma or consensus, and qiyas or analogical reasoning.

This is roughly analogous to our use of Scripture, Reason and Tradition. We, of course, also have consensus of the ecumenical councils.

Averroes, 1126 – 1198 was one of many distinguished Muslim philosphers whose use of Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle, was admired in the Christian west. He lived in Spain. That faith and reason are compatible is a belief that undergirds his whole work.
I believe that Thomas Aquinas built upon his work.

There is much more to say about Islamic philosophy and theology. It should not be disparraged.

Interestingly, it was often the Jews of Muslim Spain who brought works of Islamic philosophy to Christian Europe.

See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes and

newadvent.org/cathen/02150c.htm