Can personal piety justify moral silence? In this lecture, Fadwa Wazwaz examines the divide between isolated monastic retreat and principled, active scholarship—exploring how Tawhid demands individual conscience, ethical agency, and moral accountability.
We act on risk assessment, not certainty; “certainty is earned, not inherited.” To apply a standard of absolute certainty to religious investigation that is never applied to science, medicine, or finance is a violation of basic human logic. In the journey of the soul, ignoring the possibility of accountability is equated to “playing Russian Roulette with existence.” The rational question for the individual is not “Is it certain?” but rather, “Why haven’t I researched it?”
