Fundamental Assumptions
Before any thought can begin 3 Fundamental Assumptions are required and these require no proof:-
(1) The first is: Reality is
(2) The second is: Consciousness is. If Reality did not exist then there would be no consciousness. But if there were no consciousness we would not know reality.
(3) The third is: The contents of consciousness exist.- these contents describe the world we see i.e. Creation. There are three types: (a) sensations can give us the notion of materiality. (b) feelings and (c) thoughts. These 3 correspond to the 3 Fundamental Assumptions.
The Fundamental Assumptions correspond to the following:-
(1) Islam being "Surrender to Allah" is based and centred on Allah - He is the Real. This, in Arabic has three letters, ALH. These sometimes are taken as referring to the beginning, the middle and the end or the transcendental, the imminent and the personal. At this level Allah himself is the Knower, the Known and the Knowing.
(2) In the Shahadah, the Confession of Faith, the first part "la ilaha il-allah" (There is no god but Allah), in Arabic contains no letters that are not contained in Allah. It is elaboration of the word "Allah". It makes the following relationship, a triad corresponding to the 3 letters of Allah:-
"no-god" - except - Allah.
Here "no-god" refers to the created universe, "except" both excludes and relates Allah with it.
The Shahadah itself refers to consciousness - It is a statement about a perception. This can only happen when a separation has occurred between knower and known.
(3) The second part of the Shahadah states "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah". It creates the following relationship, also a triad.
Muhammad - Messenger - Allah
If we compare (2) and (3) then Muhammad corresponds to no-god and the Universe i.e. Muhammad represents Creation. He was sent to all creation. Or the purpose of creation is incorporated in his mission.
Messenger connects Creation with Allah, the Creator, and negates the exclusion "except" in (2). A Messenger carries the Word of God and that is what connects the Universe with Allah.
Note that not only do these three stages (1), (2), (3) correspond to the 3 Fundamental Assumptions but the third Assumption also contains 3 parts that correspond to them. i.e. Allah = Reality, Messenger = Consciousness, Muhammad = Creation
This is not mysterious because the Contents of consciousness are of three types correspond to the 3 Assumptions, otherwise we could not know them.
However if the reasoning here is not understood, do not worry.
Question:-
Descartes started with the assumption "cogito ergo sum": "I think, therefore I exist". Is the thesis above like saying: Reality (thoughts) exist, therefore I think, therefore I exist? And by that improving on Descartes' cogito ergo sum and showing that there was a basic assumption before "I think".
Comment:-
Yes there is a basic assumption before "I think". But no, it is not like saying Reality (thoughts) exist.
There is a distinction between the Real R, the experience of it E and the description D -. three different things. Thought (human thought) refers to the third, the description. Allah is the Real and gives reality to other things that He has created. An experience is true if it corresponds to the reality and a description is true if it corresponds to the experience that corresponds to the Reality.
It has also been stated that the third assumption is that the contents of consciousness exist. There are three types that we recognise as external or material, as feelings and as thoughts. The "I" is an experience within consciousness.
But as Allah is the Aware and surrounds all things, it could be said (symbolically as we do not know how things in Reality are) that the Universe and all things in it are in the mind of Allah - they are ultimately Divine thoughts. We experience them as material in so far as they have inertia and offer resistance to our thoughts.
In this connection consider the following:-
A person P1 experiences an object O1 as O(E1) and describes it as O(D1). Note that the object, the experience and the description are all real things but of different kinds. He also experiences himself as P1(E1) another person P2 as P2(E1).
The person P2 experiences the object O1 as O(E2) and describes it as O(D2). He experiences himself as P2(E2) and P2 as P2(E2.
P1 and P2 cannot know anything that is not an experience to them. That is, the World is within their experience and not outside it.
But P1 experiences the object O1 as outside P2 and P2 experiences O1 as outside P1. If we draw a circle representing the experiences of P1, then we can draw smaller circles in it representing these objects P1, P2 and O1.
In so far as P1 perceives that P1 is like P2 he infers that O1 is outside himself. This is confirmed by communication between P1 and P2. This requires that each translate his experience into descriptions D, transmit it to the other who deciphers it back into an experience. This can only convey truth if the language is common to both. (The complex relationship between all these factors has been given elsewhere and is left here for readers to work out.)
He also infers that the other person possesses consciousness and that the person P2 transcends his consciousness which transcends the objects within his consciousness. He can draw a circle representing the real person, which contains a smaller circle representing his consciousness. This contains a still smaller circle containing the objects experienced. Because P1 has many such experiences he can generalise to say that these circles represent the structure of existence.
Another, less complex way of establishing that there is an external world is the fact that events come into and go out of our experience without our control. There is, therefore, a greater circle W, representing the world, that contains the smaller circle of our experiences E. We also learn that there is an interaction between E and W and that we are dependent on W.
Question:-
Dara gives an interesting insight into faith and says knowing God is like knowing that love or beauty exist. In other words the mind can not explain what the heart knows. That reminds me of the 3 ground values (first described by Plato I think): Truth, Beauty and Goodness which are grounded in human beings. Maybe profane science and deductive reasoning falls into the category of truth while arts fall into the category of Beauty and ethics in the category of Goodness. While knowledge of the ultimate Reality is a combination of all three. What do you think of this?
Comment:-
There are four values - Truth, Goodness, Power and Beauty. They are the Attributes of Allah. (Never mind Plato). Allah is said to have 99 attributes, but these can be classified into these four categories.
They all derive from the notion of Unity e.g. consistency, harmony, usefulness, appropriateness, co-operation etc.
From the above attributes we also derive the four values:-
(1) The scientific (truth, facts),
(2) The Ethical (virtue, goodness),
(3) The Economic (useful) and
(4) The Aesthetic (beautiful).
But science, ethics, art, economics, each of them as all things have the same four aspects.
The Economic refers to the bridge between fact and value, between the scientific and the ethical. While Beauty refers to the overall harmony between the other three. ("To Allah belong the most beautiful names." Quran 7:180).
What we get is three levels:-
(1) There is an original fundamental undifferentiated unity an Absolute before the created world of Relativity.
(2) Relativity implies that there are three basic factors :- the two relata and the relating factor, say ABC. Thus One gives rise to 3. Note that the notion of Trinity cannot refer to Allah.
(3) From the interaction of these three comes the 7.
If X is the original and we see the three as being either active, passive or mediating with respect to each other then we have:-
X, ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, CBA
These are also fundamental categories but at the third level.
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