Page 77 - The importance of conscience in the Qur'an

Why Don't People Follow Their Conscience in
Spite of Knowing the Truth? 75

would not have been Companions of the
Blaze.' Then they will acknowledge their
wrong actions. Away with the Companions of
the Blaze! (Surat al-Mulk: 8-11)

'Everyone else does it.'
Following the majority is one of the greatest mistakes in
life. In almost everyone's subconscious lies a belief that what
the majority does is right.
However, the majority may happen to have a very
superficial and distorted understanding of Islam. They may say
that they believe in Allah and the hereafter but they do not
reflect on the meaning of it. They respect religious values 'in
their own understanding', but they express their respect not
practically but verbally. They think that most of the commands
of Islam were binding for the past times, but cannot be binding
for today. According to this understanding, as we have
mentioned before, someone's having a 'pure heart', and not
harming anyone is enough for him to be 'religious', and the rites
of worship can be postponed until old age.
Everyone around a person may have such a distorted
understanding, so it would be nothing but self-deception to
adopt it and not to think with the conscience. There is no
evidence that the majority always holds the right view and
makes the right decision. Contrarily, Allah states in the Qur'an:
If you obeyed most of those on earth, they
would misguide you from Allah's Way. They
follow nothing but conjecture. They are only
guessing. (Surat al-An'am: 116)
Therefore, the only guideline for a person in the way he
lives and practises the Qur'an, must be the conscience.
Someone who acts upon the direction of his conscience never