On understanding the Muslim mind

I read with great interest Mohammad Elsadi’s reply to my letter of April 11. The Imam corrected me that Islam does not denounce inquiries of scripture and does not consider it an act of blasphemy.

All nature is miraculous and all miracles are natural so inquiries into these acts become blasphemy. The acceptance of cause and effect in the natural world would mean that God acted out of necessity rather than free will. It would vitiate God’s omnipotence and implies polytheism as it allows for a cause other than God. If he is not the only cause, then he is not God, who will have no other causes before him. I understand that this was what al-Ghazali taught. Nothing in nature can act spontaneously and apart from God. He can rule without reason. God is submission, not interrogation.

May I suggest Imam Elsadi has a look at Robert R. Reilly’s book, The Closing Of The Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created The Modern Islamist Crisis (2011, www.isibooks.org). The book is dedicated to the courageous men and women throughout the Islamic world, here nameless for reasons of their own security, who are struggling for a reopening of the Muslim mind. It provides excellent information for anyone interested in understanding and getting along with the Muslim world.