3. Reason cannot do without revelation

Ibn Taymiyah said, “The prophets brought that which reason could not know; they did not bring that which is known to people of reason to be invalid and false.”

Ibn al-Qayyim said, “How could reason know Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, with His names, attributes and favors, which Allah made known to His slaves on the lips of His Messengers? How could reason know the details of His sharia law and the teachings of Islam that He has prescribed for His slaves? How could reason know the details of what earns His love and pleasure and what incurs His wrath and hatred? How could reason know the details of His reward and punishment, and what He has prepared for His close friends and what He has prepared for His enemies, and the extent of His reward and punishment, and what form the reward and punishment will take and the levels thereof? How could reason know the unseen which Allah has not disclosed to any of His creation except those with whom He is pleased of His Messengers? And there are other teachings that the Messengers brought and conveyed from Allah, which reason has no way of knowing.”

Muhammad Rashid Rida said, “Reason and human knowledge are not sufficient without the guidance of the Messengers… There is a difference between the guidance of the prophets and the wisdom and knowledge of wise men in terms of the source of each of them and the extent to which they can be trusted and accepted, and the way in which they impact all the people to whom they are addressed.”

The role of reason with regard to the knowledge that was revealed from Allah is to study and examine it in order to verify whether it can be soundly attributed to Allah, may He be glorified and exalted. Once it becomes clear that this attribution is sound, then reason must try to understand what the revelation is telling him, and he should use the reason that Allah has given him to understand the revelation and reflect on it, then strive to put it into practice.