Islam and West: Averting War and Fostering Peace

By Leslie Terebessy

Existence requires making decisions. Every decision entails making a choice. It is essential to make the right decisions, as we prosper or suffer depending on the decisions we make or fail to make. Right choices bring prosperity, while wrong choices bring adversity. To make the right choices, we require the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. Making the right choice requires analysis. Persons that refrain from thinking cannot be expected to make good choices. In fact, persons bereft of reason are generally confined in asylums. But reason is limited. Unassisted reason is not equipped to furnish us with all-inclusive knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. For that we require to "connect" with revelation. Revelation provides knowledge that is all-encompassing and reliable. But attaining knowledge of revelation requires the right way of approaching it. Attaining knowledge requires the engagement of reason. Retaining knowledge requires establishing a proper relationship between reason and revelation. The relationship between revelation and reason is established in different ways in different parts of the world. Education and culture affect decision-making. As a result, access to revelation takes place in different ways in different parts of the world. A problematic integration of reason and revelation, regrettably, corrupted knowledge. The corruption of knowledge in turn brought a partial estrangement of people from religion. East and West became estranged from revelation, each in its way. In the East, access to the knowledge of revelation was hampered by the repression of reason. Revelation was subordinated to tradition. The repression of reason allowed hearsay to taint knowledge. It also enabled the proliferation of problematic rulings. In the West, access to revelation was restricted by the emergence of rationalism and empiricism, which teaches that "seeing is believing." Accepting exclusively empirically verifiable phenomena as real reduces access to knowledge. The "unseen" becomes remote. At the root of the corruption of the knowledge of revelation is the perception that reason and revelation are "adversaries" rather than allies. This perception played a key part in the repression of reason in the East and the privatization of religiosity in the West. What would it take to rectify it? What would it take to balance revelation and reason? Reducing the tension between reason and revelation requires rethinking the relationship between reason and revelation. Renewal requires rethinking epistemology. This requires rehabilitation of reason in the East, and the rehabilitation of revelation in the West. Thinkers endeavor to grasp the riddles of existence, to know reality and experience spirituality. For existence extends beyond physical reality. Philosophers struggled to unravel the enigma of being. Poets and storytellers also do. Researchers do it in different ways. People seek the right approach to reach the truth. But who brought a wide-ranging explanation of reality and existence? We find an exposition in revelation, which refers to this life and the afterlife. Regrettably, the written records of sacred scriptures were tampered with. The result was a misunderstanding of revelation. The relationship between reason and revelation was affected. But Allah sent prophets to restore the balance. Revelations confirm the prior revelations and correct a range of misconceptions that emerged regarding them. Balance is important. This applies not just to bank balances, the balance of the ecosystem, or a balanced analysis in research. We also require retaining "mental balance," to remain sane. How do we do that? Are we irrational in a few ways? What precisely is the meaning of "rational"? The West takes pride in the supposed rationality of its civilization. But is it really as rational as they would like us to believe? Or is there a touch of irrationality lurking beneath the surface?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09GZPLCX2
• ISBN13: 9798483639510
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"