“contentious in most things.” (Surat al-Kahf, 18:54) In other verses, this criticism is levelled particularly at the unbelievers: “When (Jesus) the son of Mary is held up as an example, behold, your people raise a clamour thereat (in ridicule)! And they say:
'Are our gods best or he?' This they set forth to you, only by way of disputation. Nay! they are a contentious people.”
The reason for this tendency to argue about everything is not to reveal and evaluate different opinions, but to satisfy the urge to quarrel. In the arguments of the ignorant, neither side tries to evaluate the others' ideas or find a correct solution. Beating the other is the one and only aim. This explains the loud voices and the tense attitude during such arguments, and the turning of what should merely be a discussion into a quarrel.
It is most abnormal surely, to argue over things about which neither disputant has any certain knowledge. The most obvious example of this is to be seen in discussions of religion, about which the arguers are generally exceedingly ignorant. The error of such conduct is pointed out in the verse below:
“Verily, you are those who have disputed about that of which you have knowledge. Why do you then dispute concerning that which you have no knowledge? It is Allah Who knows, and you know not.”
