from various directions, reason began to totter on its throne. Men
were disillusioned with reason and looked for guidance to irrational
elements in human nature, such as will, emotion, instinct, intuition
and mystical experience. It is high time we realised that the reaction
has gone too far and we must redress the balance between reason
and passion. Bertrand Russell wisely remarks: "It is not a conflict in
which we ought to side wholly with either party.”(2)
In defending the cause of reason, we must bear in mind that it is
no longer possible to restore to it that position of absolute
supremacy which was accorded to it by the rationalists. There is a
great deal of truth in the criticism to which it was subjected. Prof.
Joad's remarks deserve careful consideration:
Reason tends to be exhibited as a mere tool or hand-maid of desire. Its
function is to secure the ends which we unconsciously set ourselves, by
inventing excuses for what we instinctively want to do, and arguments
which we instinctively want to believe ... Reason is the power of
deceiving ourselves into believing that what we want to think true, is in
fact true.(3)
In another place he says: "A man's thought follows his desire
much as the feet of a hungry dog follow his nose.”(4)
The Qur'an too has made pointed reference to how a man
deceives himself when he is under the domination of a base
passion:
Hast thou seen him who chooseth for his god his own baser passion.
Wouldst thou then be guardian over him. Or deemest thou that most
of them hear or understand? (25:43-44).
These are the people who have permitted their reason to be
perverted by base passions:
Hast thou seen him who maketh his baser desire his god, The result is
that Allah's Law of Retribution sends him astray, not withstanding his
knowledge, and seals up his hearing and his heart and puts on his sight
a covering (45:23).
It cannot be denied that reason may often be enlisted in the
service of selfish desires and base passions. In such a case, reason,
instead of guiding man to the right path, leads him further astray till
disaster overtakes him. The Qur'an says:
(Their fate) is manifest unto you from their (ruined and deserted)
dwellings .... as they followed their base passions, although they were
keen-sighted (29:38).
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 126