Islam and
religion in general are often opposed and rejected by Atheists and others on
rational grounds. It is assumed that reason is the only faculty by which truth
can be established, but this assumption is not a rational one. It is based on
faith. A great number of the religious, philosophical, political and other
controversies appear to be based on misunderstandings, not only between
contestants about their assumptions, intentions and the meaning of the words
they use, but also about the nature of evidence and proof.
Originally,
before thinking became necessary and complex, things were much simpler as they
are to animals. They have certain experiences within their environments and the
memory so formed modifies their inherited nervous mechanisms and this affects
their behaviour. This is generally known as conditioned reflexes and requires
no consciousness. Their fate is determined by how they adjust to their
environment. Thinking appears to be the result of the fact that the environment
has been partially but progressively internalized in man in the form of images
which he can now manipulate mentally before producing an output in behaviour.
Man has an inner world and becomes partially conscious of his inner life. A
further step was provided by language so that abstract concepts could be formed
and tokens (words, signs) could be used instead of the images. We now have a
World created by language. The Word, then becomes the symbol of Universal
Creativity and Control already in ancient Greece. This also became
incorporated into Christianity and to some extent Islam.
But there
appears to be a third stage of development that goes beyond language. It
recognizes the existence of a reality, which can give rise to multiple worlds
and world views. Whereas in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, which
predates Greek civilization, we are told:- "In the beginning God created
the Heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), the New Testament tells us:-
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." (John 1:1). The Word was identified with Jesus, a man. The
Quran, however, tells us:-
"The Originator of the heavens and the
earth; When He decrees a thing, He saith unto it only Be! And it is." Quran
2:117
"Is not He who created the Heavens and the
earth able to create the like of them? Aye, that He is! For He is the All wise
Creator. But His command when He intends a thing, is only that He saith unto
it: Be! And it is. Therefore glory be to Him in Whose hand is the dominion over
all things! Unto Him will ye return." 36:80-81
"Allah produces creation, then reproduces
it. How then are ye misled." 10:35
"We created not the heavens and the earth,
and all that is between them, save with truth, and for a term appointed."
46:3
"Hast thou not see that Allah hath created
the heavens and the earth with truth? If He will He can remove you and bring
some new creation." 14:19
"And of His signs is the creation of the
heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. Lo!
Herein indeed are signs for men of knowledge." 30:22
"And We never sent a messenger save with
the language of his folk that he might make the message clear for them."
14:4
"Lo! Those who disbelieve in Allah and His
messengers, and seek to make distinction between Allah and His messengers and
say: We believe in some and disbelieve in others, and seek to choose a way in
between, such are disbelievers in truth; for disbelievers We prepare a shameful
doom. But those who believe in Allah and His messengers and make no distinction
between any of them, unto them Allah will give their wages." 4:150-152
There does not
appear to be a beginning at all, unlike the Old and New Testaments, but, as
also in Genesis, there is no separate creative Word. Allah is the Aware, the
Truth, the ultimate Reality. What He creates has at first a Spiritual existence
and then gradually actualizes. The Universe is the manifestation of His
Attributes, and Adam is the Vicegerent who was taught all the Names (2:31). The
emphasis has shifted to the awareness of underlying principles of existence,
which are also within man. This awareness requires the cultivation of a higher
self-consciousness. The Truth is distinct from the Word. The Quran recognizes a
number of messengers, carriers of the Word from God, and the validity of many
different points of view and paradigms of thought. It is as if the truth
consists of a number of bricks but we can build numerous different objects with
them for different purposes and conditions. These objects or systems appear to
be mutually exclusive and contradictory and yet consist of the same bricks or
different selections of bricks. The Quran itself is an illustration how the
same subject can be presented from many different angles and how the same thing
can be said in many different ways. It is itself unsystematised but several
systems of thought have been built on it, and conflicts exists between them.
This is owing to the rigidity of the mind and a kind of idolatry, an attachment
or fixation to something relatively superficial. Yet it seems an integral
aspect of Islam that this higher, freer form of thinking has been introduced
into the world.
Philosophical
thought is purely verbal and logical. This means that we create and select premises
and draw conclusions that are already contained in these premises. Even
supposing that no logical mistakes are made, and this is not guaranteed, no new
knowledge can be gained and the conclusions depend entirely on which premises
we select. We can select any set to prove any pre-determined conclusion
whatever. It is the nature of the mind to seek solutions to inner or
interactive problems and to aim for a goal. The goal or the conclusion that we
select depends on the perception of our interests or advantages, or on
prejudices, conditioning, habit, fixations etc. The choice is not a logical
process. Most people are quite unconscious of these. Rational thinking is a
problem-solving device. It is an activity.
The premises
must ultimately be obtained from experience. This is why science replaced
Philosophy. It deliberately seeks experiences (observation and experiment), and
nothing is proved unless nature itself (ultimately Allah) proves it. This
brings us up against the limits of our sensory apparatus, its sensitivity,
range and accuracy. But man has managed to enhance these to some extent by
inventing suitable instruments that depend on motives and previous knowledge.
We must also translate these experiences into words.
Sensations must
be translated into data e.g. frequencies of light into colours. Sensory data
has to be processed and interpreted and given a meaning, and that to various
levels. There are no facts that have not been interpreted. When we see a table,
for instance, the raw data simply consists of sensations which are only seen as
a table by association with past experiences of similar kinds as well as
association with other things and with ourselves - how we use the object i.e.
to place things on it, sit on chairs to eat food from it, and so on. The object
acquires meaning from a whole context of experiences. The nature and size of
this context of experience differs between people. Within the same area or
culture there will be some similarity of context. Within a particular school, a
laboratory, or social class there will be greater similarities than in a nation
consisting of many. Most of this interpretation is done sub-consciously.
Difference of opinion may arise because of the differences in the size and
comprehensiveness of the context.
The human mind
also abstracts common elements from experiences to form concepts. It is
possible to use different sets of experiences to make such abstractions. These
concepts, themselves will have meaning within particular contexts of a whole
set or system of concepts. It is perfectly possible that the same area of
experiences or of the world can be described by numerous systems that may be
mutually exclusive or may overlap to various degrees. Some may be more
comprehensive than others and contain others as sub-systems.
We are not
passive with respect to the world we live in, but interact with it and
participate in its processes. We select facts, but also re-arrange and create
facts through our imagination. This enables us to lie as well as to write
fiction, create works of art, and invent new ideas and objects. A scientific
theory is a work of art, created for a purpose, usually to enable us to
manipulate nature, to make a profit or give power. It may be an explanatory
device, one of several possible ones, which describe certain aspects of things
but not others. It is not to be mistaken for the whole truth or to be
interpreted beyond the immediate purposes for which it was constructed.
It should be
obvious that we are then dealing not with the world as it is (A), nor with the
world as experienced (E) which is only a small part of the real world, A, but
the world of thought (T) which is itself a small part of the world of
experience, E. It is a world twice removed from Reality (which we define as the
World of Allah). A >
E > T. Islam requires that E should progressively correspond to A, and T
should then progressively correspond to E. This can, to an extent, be
facilitated by making T correspond to A - that is, the verbal world is not
formal and rigid but points to an essential dynamic, creative world.
People
communicate with each other through words and this allows a transfer of
experience because the word (sound or signs) is associated with certain
experiences. However, this association will vary between people for the same
reasons as above. The lingual system forms a system separate from that of
experiences, which is separate from the real world system. People can react
directly to the forces of the world, or to experiences or to words. Slogans,
for instance, cause reactions to the sounds, not their meanings. A word
possesses meaning only when it stands for some experience. An experience has
meaning only when it refers to some real event (i.e. in the World of Allah),
but we are not conscious of all the factors which affect us.
Words will have
different meanings for different people. The degree of similarity will depend
on the social circles in which people operate. It is not only the case that
different societies and classes will have different languages, but also
different professions. The notion of man or of the world, for instance, will
differ according to the person who looks at him, whether he is a friend,
lawyer, politician, economist, artist, psychologist, sociologist, biologist,
chemist, physicist, philosopher, and theologian. Even within these there may
well be several paradigms at the same time or changing with time. One is
reminded of the pictures known to psychologists which when seen in one way
appear to depict a vase, but when seen in another way appear as two faces in
profile facing each other. It is not possible to see both at once and some
people can see one and not the other. Some cannot see anything but formless
blobs of colour. Suggestions from others can cause them to see what is
suggested.
There is more to
the real world than we know through our senses (we see only through a narrow
spectrum within a much greater range) and we are not often aware of the
thoughts and ideas that occur in our own minds and how they were formed.
Consciousness, awareness, is, therefore, something distinct from thought.
Consciousness varies in three ways:-
(a) In intensity
- from sleep to reverie, to wakefulness to concentrated attention,
self-consciousness and other states can be cultivated through meditation.
(b) It varies in
the amount of the data it can hold at the same time, and therefore, in the
capacity to see the whole picture and its patterns instead of parts. On this
depends also how great the power of analysis and synthesis is, and to what
level of abstraction it can reach.
(c) It varies in
the stability of its focus - a distractible attention cannot compare things
owing to the lack of a stable point or centre of reference.
(d) The
phenomenon of hypnosis is also well known. This appears to be a state in which
consciousness become narrowed down and fixed on something which then controls
the person including his perception, motivation and action. Fixations,
complexes, conditioning, automatisms, obsessions are variations of this. They
are forms of Idolatry. They are a very common phenomena because self-controlled
consciousness is a difficult thing to sustain. Human beings are still primitive
in this respect, though it seems that they already possess the physiological
mechanisms in the frontal lobe of the brain to function at a much higher level.
Man was made perfect, we are told in most scriptures, but has fallen to a lower
level and failed to ascend (95:4-6, 90:10-11). The ability for self-controlled
objective and creative thinking, therefore, remains a possibility and religious
disciplines have been provided to facilitate their actualization.
Nothing can be
known which is not an effect on our consciousness. It follows that what we see
depends on our capacity to see it. There are as many levels of the world as
there are levels of consciousness. It is not possible to say that something is
proved or not unless we also state to whom it is proved, what his state and
level of consciousness is. The Theory of Relativity, for instance, cannot be
proved to a schoolboy in the lower grades or to someone with low intelligence
or one who has not studied mathematics. To know the Absolute truth of something
we must know it in the context of the whole of everything. Since we attribute
the whole of knowledge to Allah, then things are absolutely true only with
respect to Allah. Everything else is relatively true with respect to some
limited context, World of Discourse or Sphere, S. S is part of T. It is
necessary to know which world we are speaking about. Something may be true in
one World and not in another. Some things are true in poetry or in science but
not in both. What is true in religion is not necessarily true in science or
vice versa. It may be possible to translate something stated in one world so
that it becomes true in another - certain translation principles will be
required.
Nor, of course,
can we prove anything to someone who will not look at the proof or insists on
giving the words used a different meaning from those that they have in the
proof. What we see and accept depends to a large extent on:- (a) our
assumptions, conceptual system or frameworks of reference; (b) on our motives
and interests which direct our attention and drive the search, selection,
interpretation, organization and application of data; (c) on what we do because
this elicits reactions from the environment and this constitutes our data; (d)
on our capacities which we inherit, or may be accidentally modified by
circumstances, or which we can develop through an educational system or a
religious discipline. The combination of these we will call the Human World, H.
Though we are mostly unconscious of it, it does not only control what we see,
but because it determines our motives and actions it transforms our material
and social environment, which then affects and modifies us.
We modify
ourselves not only directly by every action we do (e.g. each action makes a
similar action easier and its opposite more difficult and becomes a basis for
other experiences and abilities), but also indirectly by the reactions to our
actions of things and people in our environment. We will call the World so
constructed, M. We are not wholly conscious of this world. The part we are
conscious of is World, C, and what we describe is D. Thus:-
H creates M and M modifies H; M is part of A; C
is part of E; D is part of T.
It is not
difficult to see that given another framework of thought, other motives or
value systems and other forms of action and behaviour, H', the world we see
will be quite different from the one which is ordinarily seen or from one where
these four inter-dependent epistemological determining factors derive from
science. Indeed, the history of civilisation is connected with the changes in
these paradigms. But not only this, since perception informs motives and action
and these together produce our experiences which modify us, then the
development of the individual himself depends on what system of thought,
motives and action he lives by. The Paradigm can cause better adjustment or
maladjustment, disease or health and destroy or create a person.
One system may
be designed to deal with the immediate environment, another may be designed to
give us power to control or to understand the world. The religious one is
designed to enable one to live in increasing adjustment and harmony to Reality
(to Allah). There is a distinction between knowing, knowing about, and knowing
of, something. When we interact with a person, this is not the same as studying
him scientifically and analyzing him, and neither are the same as having a
description and remote information. Within the last two systems, it is
impossible to prove that there is a conscious person, an "I" behind
the physical and psychological manifestation. They are the results of the
attitude of the world H. Nor is it possible to prove that any of these
different worlds H is invalid. They are all part and parcel of existence.
Human behaviour
and opinions tend to be formed by three things :- (a) inherent, genetic
factors, (b) the experiences they have in the physical, social and cultural
environment, and (c) the kind and direction of efforts they make to learn.
Research shows that opinions tend to differ according to inherent personality
differences. This is because the attitude interests, actions as well as modes
of perceptions and interpretation differ according to personality. But they
differ also because people differ in the amount and kind of data experience has
provided them with, and the amount and quality of data processing (thinking)
they have done. This thinking consists of analysis, relating, synthesis and
assimilation.
There are also
such things as illusions (with respect to the senses) and delusions (with
respect to thought processes), and hallucinations (with respect to conscious
states). Illusions tend to be misinterpretations of experiences owing to
insufficient data, mis-arrangement of the data and additions by the
imagination, which makes patterns, abhors gaps and tries to fill them.
Hallucinations are images produced by one part of the mind but misinterpreted
by another as being something external. These, like the other sources of error,
cause maladaptation to Reality (ultimately Allah). It is, however, necessary to
point out, that the mind does not create images without causes, and there may
well be outer and inner causes which have been interpreted in various ways,
give rise to visions etc., do not lead to maladjustment, but enhance life.
These experiences may be regarded as coming from the usually dormant or
unconscious higher mind. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that, therefore,
they must be purely subjective states. The higher mind is much more sensitive
to subtle external factors and it also has much greater powers of data
processing. It must also interpret what it perceives just as the ordinary mind
converts the various electromagnetic frequencies into the experience of
colours. However, when ideas descend into the normal mind they may have to be
re-interpreted. Delusions consist of ideas that have been systematized so that
all parts of it are inter-connected and support each other. They are kept
separate from other such systems by means of “barriers” or censors so that
contradictions are avoided and the integrity of the systems are maintained.
Illusions,
delusions and hallucinations can affect whole communities. The test of reality,
therefore, ultimately turns out to be whether or not, and how well people are
adjusted to Reality. Reality itself (ultimately, Allah) determines whether
they, and the ideas they cling to, survive or are destroyed. It is necessary,
therefore, that experiences and ideas should be based on increasing amounts of
data, objectively arranged and form a self-consistent unified system supporting
each other, and consistent also with the rest of existence (ultimately with
Allah). This requires also a high degree of consciousness (closeness to Allah).
In so far as human knowledge is a progressive thing, there is no time at which
it can be said that it is absolutely true. There are degrees of certainty.
Therefore, we admit our limitations and say "Allah knows best".
Repeatability is
often regarded as confirmation of truth. But many events take place only once.
Indeed, most things may be regarded as unique, but it is our habit of
classifying things by ignoring small differences, which gives us the illusion
of repetition. Nor is it always the case that the greater the number of times
something is repeated the more certain it is. The sun has risen and set many
millions of times, but this does not mean that the certainty of it rising and
setting tomorrow increases. It could well be decreasing because it is
approaching its death. Factors as yet unknown can always change certainties.
Within the same underlying conditions two or more things may always be linked,
but not when the conditions change. That which is thought to be true and
possible today was certainly not thought so a few centuries ago before the
discovery of electronics and electro-magnetism, and this may change again in
the future.
Corroboration
from other people reinforces the evidence since other people also have minds
like our own. Knowledge is not, therefore, independent of the community. But it
may be that particular communities have different kinds of knowledge.
Obviously, all have only partial knowledge. The perception of the whole
requires much greater Consciousness. Human beings do not rely only on their own
direct experience, but also on that of the community as a whole, and the
accumulated experience of past humanity. Indeed, when we speak about a nation
or humanity having knowledge, it may be that this exists in Libraries or in the
collective mind or experiences of many people, not in that of any one person.
We can, therefore, acquire our knowledge unconsciously or consciously, not from
any particular person but from the culture in general. We can also acquire it
not from outside but from within ourselves owing to the fact that we have been
formed by the culture and collective experience of the society in which we are
brought up. We are, of course, also formed by the materials, forces and laws of
the universe and have arisen by an evolutionary history of interaction with the
world. The information or Truth is, therefore, inherent in us. It is accessible
to all of us provided we have the appropriate faculty for recognizing it. But
this Truth of which we are formed continues to manifest as our behaviour
whether or not we are aware of it.
So, the atheist
or agnostic may not have proof of God, but a great number of people,
particularly saints in all religions, do have an experience of God. That is
proof for them. The atheists or agnostics accept the statements of scientists
and experts of all kinds, even politicians and historians without having any
experiential proof of their own. So, it is merely a question of prejudice that
they accept these but rejects the evidence of saints who corroborate each
others experiences.
There appears to
be a misconception about the notion of "Allah" in the minds of
atheists, agnostics and others. It seems that they have acquired a certain idea
of god as an object or person, which they then, themselves, reject. In fact,
"Allah" has little in common with most common ideas of God and gods,
but refers only to that which is described in the Quran. It is perfectly
possible for a Muslim to reject the idea of God as advanced by someone and he
could then be called an Atheist. Or he could be called an Agnostic if a certain
assertion is made about God for which there is no justification in the Quran.
Since the
explanation of one thing is done by relating it to something else, then
obviously there must be something ultimately which cannot be explained in terms
of anything else. It must be self-existent. If science discovers a Unified
Field Theory that explains everything, then that itself remains inexplicable.
Yet everything else flows from it, including consciousness. This may be defined
as God, the ultimate Reality. But this cannot refer to the verbal theory – it
is a description and can cause nothing. It must refer to the Force which is
being defined.
We start with
the assumption that:- Absolute Reality exists. It is also our first certainty,
because if it does not exist nothing would. However, since all our knowledge is
relative (because we rely on comparisons, relationships etc.) then the Absolute
cannot be known by the intellect. However, we exist and we are speaking about
existence not thought. But, for the same reasons, relativity itself cannot be
known except with respect to the Absolute. That is, the existence of knowledge
itself requires the existence of Reality.
The second
certainty is:- Consciousness exists. If it did not, then we could not know
reality. The third certainty is:- the contents of consciousness exist. We can
distinguish between three types - sensation, feeling and thought. We attribute
externality, inertia and materiality to the first; interaction, motion, life to
the second; and internality or spirit to the third. These three correspond to
the three certainties. Note that they are simply three different aspects of
phenomena, which do not refer to the Absolute but to the Relative.
Consciousness, experience or knowledge is a relationship that arises only when
a Unity is divided into parts. This is responsible for Creation. Conversely,
this disintegration of Unity is caused by the process of thinking (analysis).
The return to the ultimate Unity, Allah, involves the annihilation of all. As
the word implies, consciousness is a seeing together - it leads to
re-unification. It is not, therefore, possible to reach Allah through
"thought", but through "consciousness".
Apart from all
this most people agree that the brain is an electrical organ. The mind is
probably something to do with the electromagnetic field. Some people think that
consciousness has something to do with the underlying quantum field where all
events appear to be inter-connected. This planet, solar system, galaxy and the
Universe are also complex electromagnetic fields, and perhaps some absolute
system beyond these and underlying all things, is a Quantum or sub-quantum
field. The existence of a Universal Mind from which ours derives is highly
probable. The various Worlds that might exist in this Universal Mind may be
regarded as different paradigms.