 So one of the things that came out time and time again on our podcast was the difference between textual evidences and using the akal, the intellect. And the questioner has asked, to what extent are we allowed to use akal in the religion? Are we allowed to use the intellect in the religion? First of all, we have to understand the akal according to Ahlul Sunnahi wal Jama'a has a very high station. And we in Ahlul Sunnah, inshaAllah, may Allah make us from Ahlul Sunnah. We believe, inshaAllah, that the akal has a manzila rafi' at a high level. For example, if you look at the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he speaks about who is, you know, commanded to do acts of worship. Who's manotun bittaklif? Who do we say, you have to fast? You have to pray? Or you have to go hajj? Is a person who has, you know, akal right sanity? Yeah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, al-Rufi' al-Qalamu an-Thalati, that the pen has been lifted from three. Al-Sabiha hatta yahtalim, and the one who is, you know, the child who has reached age of puberty. And last but not least, and the one who is insane until he gains sanity. So you can see it's given an importance to him. That's, that the shara has made manatul teklif upon the akal. Also, the Qur'an in the sunnah, when you look at it, it urges us to think and ponder and analyze and, you know, critique. We're being told to do all of that. If you look at the concept of tadabbur and tafakkur and tadakkur, all of those are referring to people to use the akal. Also, Allah, He praised the people who have, you know, great minds. Allah praised them. Smart people, the clever people, the ones who use their brain, they're the ones who are going to take reminders from all of this. Allah praised them. Also, Allah, He spoke against those people who dismiss using their akal in its right place. So, Allah spoke about the people who basically, when they are told to follow the dhalil and they're told to follow the proofs and the evidences, the response is, we will follow that which we found from our forefathers. They're telling you things that are insane. Are you going to still follow them? Are you going to do it? Also, then Allah, He speaks about the people who basically call onto the dead, who can't hear them, you can't speak to them and they just call onto them. And then Allah, He said, So, this shows you that the importance that the akal has. Also, Allah, He mentions that So, we kind of touched on this issue of akal and the text. We made a whole entire podcast on this particular issue. We spoke about it in great detail. But what I do want the people to listen to is that the concept of akal, there has to be a middle part that we take regarding it. We don't go extreme exaggeration and we don't go extreme negligence regarding the akal. We have two groups. One group of people who've given the akal unrestricted boundaries, do what you want, question everything, critique everything, analyze everything and think that the akal hasn't got boundaries, it hasn't got limitations. Those people have gone extreme in the concept of the akal. And we have another group of people who dismiss the usage of the akal and they don't care about the akal and they're the Sufya, they don't care about the akal and they tell you things that are absurd and an illogical absurdity. You're like, are you sure? You're saying like, some people like that. And another group of people like the Mu'tazil or Mannah and those who take their path, the akal is the source and it's the evidence and the proof. And we need to be in the middle when it comes to that. We don't go extreme like these people and we don't go extreme in this one. How can we be in that middle path? What we have to understand is the akal, it has a great station in our religion. I already mentioned that and I gave some evidences for it. But Allah did say in the Qur'an, Allah created the human beings weak. In other words, the brain is part of those weak parts of your body. Just like you can see and Mashallah, your eyes are good and 10 out of 10, your sight is good. You can drive, Mashallah. But your eyesight is restricted. The brain is a part of you that's also restricted. And there are things that the akal cannot really speak about. For example, you have to understand, your akal has You can't speak about the unseen because the akal really speaks about that which it has seen. Akal compares. If I asked you right now, draw for me an animal that does not resemble any animal on the face of this earth. That won't be up to you. You would have been able to. You're going to make the wing, it's a bird's wing. You're going to take the whiskers from a cat. You're going to take characteristics from animals you've seen. You can't bring something to the table you haven't seen. So the akal cannot really speak about the unseen. His brain is, it's not like that. Second thing is, the akal independently cannot know the detailed matters of guidance. That's why Allah Almighty said in the Qur'an, وَلَقَدْ مَكْنَّا هُمْ فِيهِ وَلَقَدْ مَكْنَّا هُمْ فِي مَا إِمْ مَكْنَّا هُمْ فِيهِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ سَمْعًا وَأَبَصَارًا وَأَفْئِدًا فَمَا أَغْنَا عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُمْ وَلَأَبَصَارُمْ وَلَأَفْئِدَتُهُمْ مِنْ شَيْءِ He can read a lot of the verses that Allah has revealed in the Qur'an. And He mentioned in the Qur'an, the guidance, the guidance of Allah, Allah has guides. Allah says, وَإِنْهْتَدَيتُ فَبِمَا يُحِي إِلَيَّ رَبِّي وَإِنْهْتَدَيتُ إِفَا بِقَمْ قَيْدِرْ فَبِمَا يُحِي إِلَيَّ رَبِّي Is the revelation I came to be from Allah alone? And Allah says, وَإِنْهْتَدْ اُوَحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ رُوحًا من أمرنا So you just give a translation of that verse? Allah says, وَأَوْحَيْنَا اُوْحَيْنَا اُوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ رُوحًا من أمرنا ما كنت تدري مَلْكِتَابُ وَلَلْ إِمَانُو You didn't know this. None of this. ما كنت تدري مَلْكِتَابُ وَلَلْ إِمَانُو You didn't know the detailed issues of Iman. You didn't know the details issues of the religion. You didn't. But Allah gave it to you. So this shows you that the guidance is in whose hands. Allah can bring you to the general concept of guidance but he can't bring you to the detailed matters of guidance. Last but not least, the Akal cannot speak about يعني او the عقل لا يستقلوا بالفصيب بين الناس إذا فيما تنازعوا فيه If two people argue on a matter, okay? And a third person comes. Let's say these two are very smart people. They have a conflict. If a third person comes who's smart as well can he distinguish between the two of them? No. He just becomes a third problem. Yeah. Just another insight to add to the original two. والذلك ابن القيم رحم الله In his lines of poetry he says So the person has to understand that the عقل is like the eyesight. It's like other parts of your body. Yeah. It has restrictions and limitations. And that's when you say, I believe Allah and his messenger. What they say hasn't got those limitations because Allah speaks about the unseen as much as you can speak about that which is seen to us. Subhanahu wa ta'ala Because we have the pixel and Allah has the whole jigsaw.