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I feel like philosophy is important to understand the truth to religion or the basis of different religions.

Often when researching one’s own religion there may tend to be a bias towards it I believe especially if it’s something you’ve grown up with/were taught at a young age about.

For example, a Christian may always search X proof of resurrection or miracles of Jesus etc etc but not proof for other religions.

If you are trying to find the one true religion or whether there even is on or even more I feel philosophy is important to understand that.

However, I don’t understand why it’s haram to study philosophy or the philosophy of other religions, my basic understanding is that it may cause someone to lose faith but I feel it’s important for one to understand their religion and not just blindly follow what they were taught from birth.

To put this in to perspective, let’s just say you tell a Christian not to study philosophy and information on other religions and we presuppose Islam is the one true religion. By telling them not to study you are preventing them from following the true religion or learning about the truth of religion and just telling them to blindly follow something just because it may cause them to lose faith in a belief that is already false.

Why is it haram?

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It is not haram to study philosophy.

Some scholars are critical to it because of the danger of losing faith which may put it in the makruh class.

https://islamqa.org/hanafi/seekersguidance-hanafi/167126/is-it-permissible-to-take-philosophy-classes/

https://islamqa.org/hanafi/seekersguidance-hanafi/85797/studying-philosophy-in-a-secular-university/

Of course, any study of thought that is not Islamic may challenge your belief; on the other side, philosophy can also deepen your understanding; Ibn Rushd is a pioneer of this path. He was a philosopher, exchanged with other religions without giving up his faith and he is still a reference Ulema in Maliki fiqh.

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It is haraam because philosophy places logic, reasoning and intelligence over divine revelation. While Islam requires you to place divine revelation over Aql(Intelligence) because divine revelation is error free and perfect while human intelligence can err and is limited. If you study philosophy you might end up rejecting parts of faith which your intelligence cannot comprehend. For example there are some muslims who reject the existence of Yajooj Majooj. And some reject the coming of one-eyed dajjal.

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    You are right in that it is haram to place reason over revelation. Rather it should complement it. But reason is not haram; it is even necessary because revelation has been completed but our situation is changing.
    – Jeschu
    Jun 30, 2022 at 18:41

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