Need for an Intellectual explanation of Deen:
God has chosen to create in certain men and women a type of intelligence which, by inner necessity, asks far-reaching questions about the nature of reality. This is a divine gift, though not without its dangers, as is the case with all gifts; it has, therefore, certain rights, including the right to receive answers to the questions which arise spontaneously within it.
In a sense these questions are posed by God Himself so that He may answer them and thereby enrich our understanding, and we are assured that He never gives us a genuine need without providing for its satisfaction.
Questioning minds may always and everywhere be in a mirtonity, but it is
precisely these- the questioners- who are the ultimate formers of opinion.
What the intellectuals doubt today will eventually be doubted by simple
people.
Ideas which, on their first appearance, seem most abstract and farthest removed from the affairs of ordinary men and women have a way of percolating through the whole fabric of society, though they often suffer distortion in the process.
Given the very nature of modern civilization (and the nature of its origins), the ideas current in our time are destructive of
religious faith unless this faith is protected by an intellectual armour- and intellectual weapons suited to the conditions of the late twéntieth century.
The traditional arguments in support of faith are no longer entirely effective, and it no longer seems 'natural' to believe in God and to believe in states of being beyond this present life.
Since the Quran addresses itself specifically to 'those who think' and who 'meditate' and, in effect, commands us to make full use of our mental faculties, Muslims are under an obligation to deepen and develop the intellectual bases of their faith and have no excuse for relying on unthinking obedience and emotional fervour to protect it against the searching questions of our time.
Charles Le Gai Eaton in 'Islam and the Destiny of Man'.
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