Justus For All

Islamica Magazine - Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI

All the eight schools of thought and jurisprudence in Islam are represented by the signatories, including a woman scholar. In this respect the letter is unique in the history of interfaith relations.

It is certainly well worth clicking on through and reading the entire letter.  It contains strong renounciations of violence and affirms that for a true Muslim, attacking innocents or forcing convervion are absolutely forbidden.  I expect that Benedict is quite pleased with this response.

As the focus of Benedict’s talk was on the importance of reason, I think it appropriate to highlight the section of the letter that deals specifically with this topic:

The Use of Reason
The Islamic tradition is rich in its explorations of the nature of human intelligence and its relation to God’s Nature and HisWill, including questions of what is self-evident and what is not. However, the dichotomy between “reason” on one hand and “faith” on the other does not exist in precisely the same form in Islamic thought. Rather, Muslims have come to terms with the power and limits of human intelligence in their own way, acknowledging a hierarchy of knowledge of which reason is a crucial part.There are two extremes which the Islamic intellectual tradition has generally managed to avoid: one is to make the analytical mind the ultimate arbiter of truth, and the other is to deny the power of human understanding to address ultimate questions. More importantly, in their most mature and mainstream forms the intellectual explorations of Muslims through the ages have maintained a consonance between the truths of the Quranic revelation and the demands of human intelligence, without sacrificing one for the other. God says, We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves until it is clear to them that it is the truth (Fussilat :). Reason itself is one among the many signs within us, which God invites us to contemplate, and to contemplate with, as a way of knowing the truth.

Quite similar of course to the focus of Benedict’s speech.

(via Riding Sun comments)