Let me share a foundational principle with you that can greatly help address doubts in Islam in this day and age.

This is a principle that unfortunately very few understand, even despite having an extensive background in studying the secular sciences and even the Islamic sciences traditionally.

The principle is this: Not everything that people speak of as being real is, in fact, real.

Think about this for a second. How could large numbers of people speak about and presume that something is real when, in fact, that something is just a figment of their imagination?

Well, there are many ways for this to be the case and history has borne this out in countless examples. The most obvious example is religion. Obviously, entire societies and civilizations have been devoted to gods that don’t exist. Entire religions have been established on the premise that these gods exist, yet those gods are based on nothing but supposition and misguided whims.

Another instructive example is found outside the domain of religion. This is in the empirical sciences. Consider the scientific and empirical theories that were held as absolute and unquestionable fact one day but disregarded the next. There are so many examples from very recent history in the “hard sciences” like physics, chemistry, and biology. Have you heard of the ether? Or phlogiston? Or corpuscles? These were empirical entities which were assumed to exist and were theorized about and seemingly verified experimentally by the scientific community but were later rejected as nonexistent. How can that be? How could the scientific community have agreed that something is real based on empirical evidence and rational analysis yet that something turn out to have been nothing but a figment of its collective imagination?

We don’t need to delve into the details of how this can happen for the purposes of this chapter. We just need to be aware that it can and does happen with surprising frequency in history, even in the scientific, “rational,” “empirical” world.

Now let’s apply that insight. In discussing politics and ethics and justice, there are presumed “moral realities.” These are values that large groups of people believe to be true and real. Now think about it—if a large group of people can be wrong about something as seemingly solid as empirical reality, how more liable are they to be wrong about something like morality? In our situation today, Islam is being attacked left and right on the basis of it not conforming to certain alleged moral realities. Islam does not respect freedom of conscience! Islam does not acknowledge democracy! Islam does not recognize religious liberty! Islam does not respect sexual autonomy! Islam does not acknowledge gender nonconformity! And on and on.

But what if these concepts have no basis in reality, i.e., have no moral weight? What if they’re figments of the collective imagination of modern people under the overwhelming influence of Western academic and intellectual hegemony?

If you can ask yourself this question and start from this skeptical posture, then this is the first step to resolving so many tensions and doubts that plague the minds of contemporary Muslims.

But unfortunately, many Muslim intellectuals and scholars completely bypass this skepticism. They just accept the moral reality of these concepts and values. This is an unmitigated disaster.

Because the obvious question is: If something like, for example, “freedom of conscience” is real, why is it not found in revelation? “But it is found in revelation!” these intellectuals exclaim. And to prove this, they scan the Quran, hadith, and classical scholarly tradition to find anything and everything that can conceivably be construed as expressing the concept or value they adamantly insist to be real. But their methodology is fundamentally flawed because for everything they cite as an example of that value in the texts, there are 10 examples that contradict it. But of course, those 10 examples don’t see the light of day in their research.

This is not always because the scholar or intellectual is trying to conceal anything or is being dishonest. Sometimes they honestly do not see the counterexamples because they have been conditioned to read and understand the texts with a lens that is inexorably colored by the same concepts and values they are trying to discover in the texts. This creates a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle that often proves to be impossibly difficult to break out of.

The final point to make is to address the obvious counterargument: Well, why can’t this skepticism be applied to Islam and Islamic values (whatever you may believe those to be)? Why should we believe those concepts and values have a basis in reality?

The simple answer is: We don’t just assume this. We investigate. We analyze. We reflect. We ground ourselves in valid intellectual sources—i.e., Quran, Sunnah, and the classical scholarly tradition—cautious not to smuggle in any illegitimate biases. Of course, that is only the beginning. You also have to experience, feel, and taste. This comes through everything that Islam prescribes in terms of ibadah, dhikr, tilawa, etc. This is a comprehensive life program that allows one to arrive at reality and haqq empirically, rationally, and spiritually (since all these epistemic sources are interconnected).

But there is another important step. Clearly those who are entrenched in the modern worldview also claim that they “taste” the truth of their concepts and values. This is apparent from the passion and, at times, violence and animosity with which they advocate for those values. So what grounds do we have to deny the truth of those views?

You simply deconstruct those theories of value. You point out their inconsistencies. You systematically pick them apart until it is clear to all involved that those ideas are vacuous and not worthy of respect or acceptance. Obviously one might be less or more skilled in doing this. And the exemplar of this method is none other than our beloved prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon him (Quran 6:74-83).

In any case, if you understand this method, you will immediately recognize what’s contrary to it, i.e., apologetics, i.e., work that takes for granted modernist concepts and values and tries to justify them by appeal to selective citations from the Quran, Sunnah, and classical scholarly tradition. And then you will inshaAllah recognize how uncompelling and generally unappealing apologetics are until you can’t stand them. May Allah make us sincere seekers of truth.