which He has given us.
We can now proceed to the consideration of another important
aspect of the question. In practical life, reason helps us in two ways.
Firstly, it tells us which of the things we desire are good and useful
and which are bad and harmful. It judges things by the standard of
self-interest. Things which contribute to self-preservation and the
enhancement of life are certified as good, whereas things which are
detrimental to life and diminish man's enjoyment of life and impair
his capacity for development are declared to be undesirable, or not
good. But reason does not merely pronounce its judgment on
things. It throws its weight on the side of things judged to be good,
and induces man to choose them, even though his inclination and
appetite favours the harmful things. When the choice is between
useful and harmful things, a man who is guided by reason seldom
fails to make the right choice. Science has placed at our disposal the
requisite knowledge of the properties of material things and of
their effects on man's health. On the basis of this knowledge, reason
finds it easy to answer questions about which things are desirable
and which are undesirable. In other words, so far as the physical self
of man is concerned we are seldom left in doubt as to what things
are beneficial and what not. But, as we have seen, man possesses a
real self too, and we have only imperfect and fragmentary
knowledge of this self. We cannot comprehend the real self, as it
transcends human reason. The nature of the real self is unknown to
us. It may even be impossible to know. We catch fleeting glimpses of
it in value experience and in the consciousness of moral effort. All
that we can say about it with certainty is that it is free, that it
possesses unlimited capacity for development and that the urge to
self-expression and self-development is inherent in it. We feel in our
bones that a grand destiny awaits the self in us which constitutes the
core of our being. But when our reason makes the effort to set a
clear conception of our final goal, it recoils baffled and perplexed.
All we can say is that we can attain the goal provided we live in
accord with the eternal verities. These verities are hidden from our
view and transcend our reason. We have to be content with the
tantalizing glimpses we catch of them. No wonder that our reason,
groping in the dark, longs for the light which would illuminate the
furthermost reaches of life. This light is vouchsafed to us in the
The Role of Reason in Deen 129