Quora Answer: Is It Allowed, in Islam, to Have Doubts & Search for Answers?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is it allowed, in Islam, to have doubts and search for answers during our life, or does it condemn us to Hell?” 

The most dangerous person is someone who is so certain who is going to Heaven and who is going to Hell that he is willing to kill for the religion, or kill himself for it.  Such a person has usurped the role of Allah (s.w.t.), and made himself judge, jury and executioner.  That is shirk, polytheism.  Our religious understanding grows because we doubt, we question and we seek those answers.  That is a logical, natural part of spiritual growth.  Even in the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.), the swahabah, the companions, grew by asking questions and seeking answers.  That is what made them the best generation.  They did not sit around and wait for some village mullah with all the answers. 

If people never doubted, and never sought answers, how would they answer that yearning in their heart to seek the Divine and be drowned in that Ocean of Unity?  How would we be seekers if we were easily satisfied with tainted droplets from the well of knowledge?  There is, however, an adab, an etiquette, to seeking knowledge.  We question to learn and seek an understanding.  We do not question to feel clever.  The intent is important.  The next step is to seek a credible source of knowledge and be respectful of it.  One cannot be a student if he thinks himself superior to the teacher.