the suspicion that the quran had prevented the muslims from free thinking.

the answer:

there is no verse in the holy quran that banned muslims from thinking or that laid restrictions on the minds of the muslims preventing them from thought.

we find the holy quran full of verses that urge thinking and meditation in the secrets of the universe, the soul, the animal, the plant and the seas “will you not then take thought”.

islam calls for thinking and working of the minds. such truth was proven by many verses in the holy quran. if we were to make a statistical study on the number of verses that urge the use of the mind & criticize him who neglects its use, we would find a big number of verses dealing with such issue. among the collection of verses, that urge the use of thought and encourages the study of the universe are the following:

1)     “surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation (or: differences) of the night and the day-time, and the ships that run in the sea with whatever profits mankind, and whatever water allah sends down from the heaven - so therewith he gives life to the earth after its death and disseminates therein all kinds of beast - and the (constant) turning about of the winds, and the clouds subjected between the heaven and the earth, (these) are indeed signs for people who consider.” (al-baqara :164)

2)     “then have they not traveled in the earth so that they have hearts to consider with or ears to hear with? surely then it is not the beholdings (i.e. the eyes) that (grow) blind, but (it is) the hearts within the breasts that (grow) blind.” (al-hajj : 46)

3)     “and do not pursue what you have no knowledge of; surely hearing and beholding and heart-sight, (or: perception) all of those will be questioned of.” (al-isra’ : 36)

4)     “surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of (or: differences) the night and the daytime there are signs indeed for ones endowed with intellects.”( al-imran : 190)

5)     “and of his signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the differences of your tongues and colors. surely in that are indeed signs for knowledgeable men.” (ar-room : 22)

many verses had presented allah (swt) blessings and his instructions and these verses end with his (swt) saying “do you then not consider” like in (al_baqara : 44, al-imran : 65, al-araf : 169, hud : 51).

in other instances these verses end with “will you not remind yourselves” (al-an’am : 80). muslims had paid special to the mental sciences and their scientific studies had included all kinds of knowledge like (mathematics, algebra, geometry, medicine, pharmacy and astronomy). they had achieved a flourishing scientific boom which never faded except the islamic world was weakened due to its being absorbed by warding off the crusades and the attacks of the mongolians and those of the western imperialism.

in islam there is no contradiction between the mind and the transcript, for the donator of both is allah (swt) and whenever a disagreement occurs between these two it can be referred to either a weakness of the mind or a misinterpretation of the transcript.