عقل
ʿAqala
To reason, and by reasoning to arrive at knowledge (ʿilm).
What it means
ʿAqala is the verb of reasoning. In Faruqi’s account it names the act of the mind that ties evidence together and so reaches knowledge, which is ʿilm. The root originally pictured tying a camel’s leg, and the sense of holding the mind back from error and tying one thing to another has stayed with it. The Quran uses forms of this verb dozens of times, and it does not use the noun ʿaql. Its question “Will you not reason?” (afalā taʿqilūn, as in 2:44) invites the listener to weigh the evidence before him. Revelation here appeals to the mind and does not bypass it.
Often misunderstood as
That Islam sets faith against reason, when the Quran repeatedly calls on people to reason.
What the sources say
The Quran ends many verses with the thought that signs are for “a people who reason” (yaʿqilūn). Muslim scholars took this as a duty to use the mind within what revelation teaches.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 40, listed as ʿAQALA. The definition is restated here.