A study of the
Quran provides, or ought to provide the sincere reader, with a certain Cosmic
View from which can be derived (a) principles of thought (b) motives and (c)
actions. In this article some of these principles will be applied in order to
create at least the beginnings of a system of thought.
The purpose of
Islam is (a) the spiritual development of man (91:7-10). It is also to create
(b) a social system on earth that will serve this aim (3:103-104). But
obviously as we live in this world and are dependent on its materials for life,
Islam is also concerned with (c) the order and welfare of the environment
(7:57), and this is affected by the collective action of mankind. Man was made
as a vicegerent on earth (2:30) and has a function with respect to it. This
function can be fulfilled the better the more spiritually (psychologically)
developed man is. There is, therefore, interdependence between these three
purposes.
The Universe is
a single system in which all parts are inter-dependent. Each part is itself a
system of which all its parts are inter-dependent. It also interacts with, and
is inter-dependent with, the greater system of which it is part. Man is a part
of this planet and ultimately of the Universe. He interacts with his
environment, modifies it and is modified by it. The evolution of intelligence
and consciousness and of man is, therefore, part of the evolution of the
Universe itself. Evolution means that the Universe is itself becoming more
intelligent, conscious, self-conscious, and self-regulating. And human beings
are an element in this process. As the Prophet said,
Allah said: I was a hidden treasure and I
wished to be known. Therefore, I created the Universe.
Man, and
correspondingly, the Universe can be thought of as having three inter-dependent
aspects:- the physical, the mental and the spiritual. The physical refers to
the materials; the mental refers to the energy, the behaviour or processes; and
the spiritual refers to the order and sensitivity. This can be divided into
consciousness, conscience and will cognitive, processing and motor
capabilities.
In so far as
Human beings, like other things, interact and are inter-dependent with their
environment, the greater system to which they belong, can be regarded as having
three interdependent Life Aspects (LA):- (a) LA-T - A function TOWARDS the
greater system. (b) LA-F - Certain needs or wants for themselves FROM the
greater system. (c) LA-W - Certain processes and states of order WITHIN
themselves, which also process and coordinate the other two. The evolution or
deterioration of the organism depends on this processing. It is the state of
the organism which also determines its function and needs. These are
inter-dependent. The higher the degree of consciousness the more
self-controlled and responsible the organism is and we can then speak of its
duties towards the greater system.
Currently, human
beings are concerned mostly with LA-F, though LA-T is gradually being
recognized. LA-W is usually recognized only in religion. LA-F has three
aspects:- The Economic, the Social and the Spiritual (or Psychological).
The order of
priority according to values is that the economic system should be in harmony
with the environment and that it should serve the social system. The social
system, in its turn should serve the spiritual system, which should be in
harmony with the Cosmic purposes of Allah. But the order according to the
urgency of needs, according to fact, is the reverse of the above. It is
necessary to supply the basic economic needs before any social advantages can
be thought of, and it is necessary to provide certain social needs before
spiritual progress can be made. We must have enough to eat, some shelter and
security of life, and then be left with sufficient spare time, energy and
resources after the business of making a living, which one can devote to
family, social and cultural matters. In addition, we must have time, energy and
knowledge left to devote it to educational, psychological, spiritual and cosmic
matters.
Human beings
have in-built drives or urges corresponding to these Life Aspects. The
self-preservative urge must be satisfied before the socio-sexual urge can
operate, and that must be satisfied before the self-extensive urge can operate.
It is necessary that the life of the individual be preserved before he can
reproduce and create a society, but the life of the individual has little value
except in terms of what happens to the species. From the point of view of
Biology, the purpose of the individual is to reproduce and to have a role with
respect to the community. But the society or species itself must have some
purpose, because if it does not then the individual cannot have one either.
This purpose appears to be connected with Evolution.
All this can be
represented graphically (G) by three growing connected columns such that each
succeeding one begins when the previous one has reached a certain size. There
is a line, above which we have positive growth and below which there is
negative growth or deterioration. A fourth column may be added which represents
the condition of the environment. Its quality may deteriorate when it is
over-exploited owing to poverty or excessive greed or lack of intelligent
management. A fifth column could represent the influence of Cosmic factors -
Cosmic rays, radiation of the sun etc. In fact, the conditions on earth are
controlled by three factors :- (a) the Cosmic forces, (b) the nature of the
Planet, our environment which absorbs and transforms and re-radiates forces
coming from the Cosmos, and (c) Humanity which has transformed the planet
through mining, farming, city and road building etc. Humanity is represented by
the economic, social and psychological factors, and these are inter-dependent.
This also
implies that the psychological or spiritual state must reach a certain state of
development in order that a certain state of social development is reached
(13:11), and this will determine the state of economic development. The
physical state is subject to degeneration and to accidental changes owing to
external factors. This applies also to man in so far as he is a physical
creature of habit, social conditioning, convention, mental fixations,
addictions etc. All new achievements of any kind require conscious thought and
efforts that are based on conscious motives, value systems and goals. It is an
integral part of the teaching of Islam, which can be and have been confirmed
independently, that human beings have "fallen" from this higher state
of consciousness to the lower one owing to social conditioning (95:4-6). Therefore,
Psychological energy must be channeled and given a common direction through a
comprehensive discipline if it is to be constructive and not to be squandered
in a chaos of purposeless self-contradictions. This is provided by religion,
which must not only maintain the psychological state but also create a social
system, which creates a reconciling bridge between the psychological values and
the physical facts.
Evolution takes
place because of the interaction between the organisms and their communities as
well as with the material environment. Evolution is an increase in order owing
to the entry of forces into a system from higher levels (65:12). In particular
Cosmic and solar forces enter the earth and increase the order or negentropy in
it. This takes place in three ways: -
(a) Extensively
- an increase in the number of organisms. There is a pressure due to population
expansion.
(b) Intensively
- an increase in the internal order or complexity of organisms from simple
cells to man.
(c) Cotensively
- the association of organisms into cooperative groups, and into higher
organisms - e.g. single cells into multi-cellular organisms, animals into
herds, tribes into nations etc. But many species also cooperate symbiotically
and form systems with specialization and interdependence.
The relationship
between these factors may be such that an increase or decrease in one is
inversely related to the increase and decrease in the others. Thus population
growth may decrease if the order or negentropy within the society is increased
or the psychological development of the people is increased. On the other hand
disorders, riots and wars may be connected with increase in population either
of human beings or other organisms e.g. rodents; or with increases in social
law and order which become oppressive; or increases in manufactured goods,
cities and the rest of the environment; or an increase in the amounts of
ordered knowledge. The increase and decrease of able and highly developed human
beings in one place may be connected with the reverse in another place. All
this and more will be the case if there is only a certain fixed total amount of
order on the planet at a particular time and this order grows at a particular rate.
This is the case, unless my reading of the Quran is wrong (13:8, 13:38, 7:87,
10:49, 11:3 etc.).
The creativity
of Allah through the process of evolution has brought forth human beings, who
have produced a culture which affects their development to an increasing
extent. Human beings have organized into families, tribes, nations and this
process of increasing size through unification may continue. The internal
organization of these units also becomes progressively more complex. It is
possible that humanity will become a single organism with its own brain and
mind. They differentiated from a single soul (4:1, 31:28) and will become one
again. There is an interaction between three forces, the psychological (or
spiritual) S, social (or communal) C and material (or physical) P. Social and
environmental conditions affect their psychology but human beings can modify
their physical and social environments according to their psychological state
and this will affect their psychology. They can also change their psychology
more directly according to the efforts that they make based on the teaching
which they follow.
These
psychological forces can (a) act naturally (b) be enhanced (c) or be corrupted.
It is possible, for instance that (i) fixations can be formed so that people
want more than what is necessary for their needs at a particular level as in
the case of greed, addiction, habit and obsession. or (ii) perversions of
natural desires and instincts can occur as in sadism or masochism or (iii)
suppression of some impulses can be done so that there is willingness to
sacrifice at one level in order to gain at another. Greed certainly causes
people to want more of the material goods than required. But material goods may
or may not be wanted because they serve some social or spiritual purpose. Many
people are willing to sacrifice their personal material welfare in order to
fulfill some social or political aim. Others are willing to sacrifice the
welfare of their families or remain celibate in order to pursue knowledge or achieve
some spiritual goal. Others do the reverse and sacrifice spiritual,
psychological as well as social welfare in order to accumulate material wealth
or achieve power or prestige. All these will cause the relationship between the
columns in G to alter.
Societies are so
arranged that some people, U obtain greater leisure and resources beyond their
needs at the expense of others L , who fall below the level of welfare. They
usually work through another middle or mediating group of people M. The upper
or controlling class U may use this leisure and resources in three ways:- (a)
to stimulate or obtain the knowledge and create the ideas, organizations and
techniques by which civilization advances and humanity evolves. In which case
the sacrifice of the others has a purpose. Or (b) they may waste them. Or (c)
they can use them to increase their own power, wealth and prestige by
suppressing and exploiting others. By depriving and debilitating them, the
entire community suffers, including, of course, the tyrants themselves. Their
position and power is dependent on the state of those over whom they have
power.
Human beings
work to produce a result, and the result is some kind of satisfaction or
fulfillment F. Work constitutes an expenditure E of energy, a sacrifice which
we make to gain the satisfaction. This expenditure must be replaced or else we
become progressively more depleted, suffer and die. It is this expenditure that
produces needs, which must be satisfied. Thus F and E are interdependent.
Individuals exchange F and E directly by making their own judgment J about
values V. But societies have invented money Vm by which the sacrifice can be
exchanged for satisfaction. This means that F and E are understood in terms of
Vm. Estimated E is then called Supply and expected F is called Demand. It is
not difficult to see that estimated E (Em) is not the same as E, and expected F
(Fm) is not the same as F. As money can accumulate in the hands of the few who
control it, the relationship between E and F is no longer straight forward and
coordinated. Vm is not the same as V, but replaces it. Something artificial and
limited has displaced natural judgments. In fact, it is used as commodity and
can be rented out for money. But unlike goods the use of it does not wear it out.
The rent is
called Interest and stands for no kind of production or expenditure E at all
and yet produces F, which must be taken away from others. It simply distorts
values, disrupts the economy and diminishes the utility of work. It is only
when it is invested that it starts to produce. This requires that there is some
new invention the production of which will require the invention. These days it
is the computer and the information technology that has rescued the economy.
Thus, there arises a pressure to continually expand the economy. This may
involve reducing the durability of goods so that they have to be replaced,
causing changes in fashion, pressure salesmanship and so on. This increases the
pressure on the resources of the planet, becomes increasingly more difficult,
and causes disruption in the balance of nature.
A profit P is
made when F is greater than E and this requires the use of Intelligence I. But
again when this is measured in money terms Pm then it is not the same as P. However,
F, E and J are not the same for all. F depends partly on E. Much depends on
inherent differences ID, environmental differences ED and differences in values
and efforts VD. It is, therefore, an illusion to define wealth in terms of
quantity of goods. A great pile of goods that produce no satisfaction cannot be
wealth. Large incomes may not be wealth. People might be willing to sacrifice
these in order to have better conditions of work, environments, social life or
spiritual states. It is also true that the greater the quantity of something
the less value does each item have. One money unit is worth more to someone who
has 10 than it is to someone who has 100 or 1000. Thus the transfer of money
from the rich to the poor increases the value of it and also prevents wastage
by the rich. It reduces demand for luxury goods, thereby transferring labour to
the more essential things. This increases their production, makes them cheaper
and more affordable.
Thus we
distinguish between apparent wealth AW and real wealth W.
Consider two
communities C1 and C2. Suppose they start from a position of equal prosperity.
This implies that there is a balance between three variable factors, which have
some independence but also some interdependence: -
(a) The
population density and its health and capacity to work, L. This creates needs
as well as providing the work force. Populations do increase and put pressure
on resources. But its capabilities may change owing to disease, unbalanced food
or an increase in the proportion of children and the elderly or of criminals
and neurotics.
(b) The
resources of the environment, R - The resources are regarded as variable not
only because geophysical factors may change things - e.g. changes in weather
may cause crop failure or abundance. But also because technology can make use
of materials which were useless before e.g. coal, oil etc. The resources
include materials, energy and also conditions such as rivers, mountains,
animals, plants, the ecological balance etc.
(c) The
Ingenuity or Intelligence of the people I. This has four aspects :- (i) the
organization (ii) the education in its broadest sense, self-discipline and
training - the knowledge (and awareness), values (or virtues), talents (or
abilities). (iii) the technology which utilizes energy sources other than human
and the methods and techniques of doing things. (iv) inherent factors which may
include, leadership and enterprise, drive, vigour etc. These may be suppressed,
enhanced and channeled by the kind of social system and culture which has been
set up.
There are
obstructions or barriers B to the operation of intelligence. These may be of
three kinds:- (a) Environmental - things which compel one to unintelligent
actions or prevent intelligent ones - famines due to droughts, earthquakes, storms,
floods epidemics. (b) Social - due to conventions, politics, law, class
divisions, mass hysteria, oppression etc., (c) Psychological - e.g. ignorance,
habit, obsession, prejudice, greed, addiction, fixations, compulsions.
These factors
could change as a result of some cause so that they affect C1 positively and C2
negatively. Population growth, for instance, is a natural pressure. They may
increase the productivity of C1 and diminish that of C2. This means that on the
average each person in C1 may be able to produce X times as much as each person
in C2 working for the same amount of time. This gives them:-
(a) Greater
leisure in which they can think and play and invent.
(b) If they work
the same length of time then the increased production increases their
consumption. But not necessarily their fulfilment F. They become more
apparently prosperous or wealthy AW, but this may not correspond to W. This
implies that the ratio of price to income, R is reduced (either prices fall or
earnings increase or both). They may also waste their resources, energy, or
ingenuity.
(c) Or if they
still work the same length of time it gives them a surplus which can be used as
investment capital to create things which are not themselves consumed or
directly beneficial, but which produce the machinery, organization, and
research which will produce such things. Obviously, this is profitable if the
end result is an increase of productivity greater than the capital spent.
Suppose now that
there is trade between C1 and C2. Then because the goods produced by C1 are
cheaper, the people of C2 will purchase them for the sake of their own
increased welfare. This means a transfer of resources in the form of money from
C2 to C1. C2 is, thereby, impoverished. That is, those people in C2 who used to
produce those goods cannot sell their goods unless they lower their price to
the same level. They will have to work even harder per unit of income they get.
It is not
difficult to see that in a system where people interact and are interdependent
the more progress one set of people makes the worse do the others fare unless
there is also some increase in Ingenuity. But because of increased poverty
there will also be increased ill-health and less education, less research and
less money for investment. This in turn will cause increasing impoverishment.
The environment will also be over-exploited and deteriorate. The graph G will
shrink. The community is trapped in a spiral of degeneration. There is less
freedom to manoeuvre to get out of this vicious circle. It becomes inevitable
that coercive, repressive and tyrannical measures will be used to transfer
resources to the few at the expense of the many so that Capital becomes
available for development. But this would be entirely useless if these few do not
have the Intelligence to use the resources wisely. In fact, they would cause a
revolt that they would have to suppress by the use of more force. Great amounts
of resources, efforts, time, energy and ingenuity will be wasted in mutual
opposition and conflict. This increases the degeneration. But though the need
is for the Intelligent to take control, the very conditions that make this
necessary are the ones that prevent an intelligent group from arising. This is
why some external impulse is always needed to produce changes. This could be
some environmental factor such as climatic change or discovery of new
territories, collision between nations, invasion or dominance by foreign
cultures or a new discovery, inflow of genes owing to migration or some new spiritual
movement that causes psychological transformation.
If the World
were free of all humanly constructed barriers then people would tend to migrate
from places where they had less satisfaction to places where they obtained
greater satisfaction. This would create a more uniform world of satisfaction.
This does not, however, mean that all places would be qualitatively the same
because people differ in what they want. Intelligence implies sufficient
flexibility and adaptability. Adaptation is a harmony between three factor -
(a) an inner condition, (b) the outer conditions and (c) the relationship
between the two. It is possible, for instance, to change desires, e.g. from one
kind of food or nutrition N1 to another N2 if the environment will not provide
N1. Or it is possible to change the environment and grow N1. Or human
relationship with the environment is changed e.g. farming methods and
techniques.
Consider two
groups C1 and C2 within a nation. If the productivity of C1 is improved by
mechanization, but that of C2 cannot be improved much because it is labour
intensive such as nursing or teaching, then the prosperity of C1 would
increase, and the work force would migrate from C2 to C1, provided, of course,
there were no barriers B. But if the work of C2 is essential then the scarcity
of labour would increase the amount which people would be willing to pay. And,
they could pay more because of the increase in Relative Income. Thus prices and
income distribute themselves according to relative perceived value RPV. This
may be far from or near real value RV, which ought to be calculated in
objective terms. Obviously, if something has less RV than RPV then this
constitutes wasted effort or expenditure that could have been used more
usefully. This effort requires energy that constitutes a need. The need is
frustrated and causes debility. It would, therefore, be profitable to bring RPV
closer to RV. This can be done by the educational system. Education has
economic value. Ignorance, inner compulsions, prejudices, habits, phobias,
obsessions, all these constitute inner barriers to the free flow and
flexibility that is required for adjustment.
There are also
several kinds of other barriers constructed by man:- There are all kinds of
Industrial and Political secrets which prevent the free flow of information.
Organization could be such that there are only a small number of positions
which can be occupied - e.g. at the top of hierarchies or within commercial
companies. There are separate job descriptions that prevent persons engaged in
one kind of work from doing another. Jobs have fixed number of hours for fixed
wages and this bears no relationship to needs. Thus some people may work too
much or accumulate too much money while others have no work and no income.
Money may accumulate uselessly in Banks, while goods accumulate in shops and
the labour force is idle on the unemployment heap. The unity of the economic
system disintegrates into a trinity between which there is no coordination. If
people could work only as much as they required, things would be much more
flexible. The individual would coordinate these three factors. But this does
not happen in a Society that has a class structure, a master-slave or
employer-employee relationship. In this the majority of people exist as means
to serve the interest of another smaller group of people. This is because the
employer wants to extract the maximum of money profit out of the employee and
throws him out when there is no profit. Though the need for the goods is still
there, the production stops and the income to buy them disappears. This is a
Slave economy. Slavery has not been abolished.
As technology
advances and factories are automated and computerized an ever decreasing work
force will be required. And as amalgamations and takeovers continue things will
fall into the control of fewer and fewer people. Firms will become
international, ever larger and more powerful and by pass all national
democratic controls. These Companies will take their factories away from
Nations that have governments that do not conform to their interests, and place
them in countries where governments will conform. A new worldwide Oligarchy is
in the making, which will control every aspect of life including bodies, minds
and motives.
There is a
warning and counter-measures to all this. But are there a sufficient number of
people who will heed?
It is also
necessary to understand that man is an interdependent part of the Cosmos
interacts with it and must adjust to it. He does so through his faculties and
the techniques of using them. There is, therefore, an interdependent basic
triad that governs life :- (a) human nature (b) his faculties for thinking,
feeling and action and the associated techniques such as language, Logic,
scientific procedures, educational, ethical and value systems, organizations,
engineering etc. (c) the nature of the Cosmos.
Three kinds of
interactions occur:- (a) The Cosmos affects him directly and he affects the
Cosmos and the society he lives in directly by his reactions and radiation. (b)
The individual also has an inner life. He thinks about his surroundings and
creates an image in his mind about himself, the society and the cosmos that
also determines his interactions. (b) The individual human being arises in and
from a community that has a culture and civilization created over many
generations and affected by other communities. It contains its arts, sciences,
technologies and organizations. These also affects him and controls his
thoughts, motives and actions to various extents.
The faculties
man uses can be classified as (a) S, the Spiritual consciousness, conscience
and will which allows a degree of control. (b) M, the Mental intellect,
feeling and action. (c) P, the Physical the senses, the drives and motor
capabilities. These sub-divisions correspond to each other because they refer
to the three processes of (i) input from the environment, (ii) inner processing
and (iii) output into the environment. Human beings like everything else are
transforming instruments or organs of the Cosmos.
Humanity, like
everything else, has developed through stages. In the past human behaviour was
dominated by his physical aspect and we can regard that as Stage P. The present
is dominated to a large extent by the Mental aspect and may be regarded as
Stage M. In the future it is likely to be controlled by the Spiritual and that
can be called Stage S. This planet is developing through the same stages:-
There was first the material stage and then living things came into existence
and finally came man with his inner life.
The world we see
depends on our sensations, thinking and consciousness. The capacity for
thinking is called the intellect and the intellectual faculty is called reason.
But because human thinking has been found to be defective, various formal
systems of the Logic have been developed to overcome these defects. But reason
is much more than logic. And though logic is a powerful tool it has
limitations. It is based on the use of words that consists of symbols referring
in the main to concepts that are abstraction from experience. It is not the
same thing as the objects or events or the experience of them. Nor is it based
on how people actually think. But words are also experiences. They are
different from the experience of objects, and understood differently by
different people according to their experiences. It creates dichotomies such as
"Either A or not-A" and "Not both A and not-A" whereas in
the experienced world there are gradations of mixtures - there are a range of
grays between white and black. These Axioms are instructions about using words
not truths. Human beings have faculties that give them only a limited access to
Reality and even within this limit different people have different kinds and
quantities of knowledge. Their beliefs depend on partial knowledge.
They then
select, evaluate, associate and organize the data of experience differently
according to their different assumptions and motives. People also have and
choose and go to different environments which produce different kinds of data.
And their actions elicit reactions from the surroundings, which also provide
data. Therefore, what people come to believe depends on their actions as well
as their assumptions and motives. These are affected by their personality type
and by fantasies, addictions, fixations, obsessions, fears, superstitions,
desires, prejudices, self-interest, tradition, social conditioning, habits,
suggestibility and hypnosis.
Knowledge
requires receptivity. Logical argumentation is an activity. All activities,
unless they are automatism, habits or mechanical reactions, are driven by
motives. They select the terms and premises required to reach the conclusion
required. The conclusion required is a solution to a problem. A problem
consists of a contradiction or conflict between two things, which might be
wholly external to the person, or within himself, or between an inner and outer
factor. For example, some idea is put forward by someone that conflicts with
his beliefs and this constitutes a problem for him, a stimulus that arouses
adrenaline and the fight/defence/flight mechanism. Logic is a problem solving
technique.
Logic is meant
to be a technique for thinking correctly. Correct thinking implies that the
result of these thoughts should correspond to experiences that should
correspond to reality. If it does not then we are in trouble. The purpose of
human activity, motive and thinking should be to adjust to Reality - in
religious terms, to adjust to Allah, who is the ultimate Reality. Logic is,
therefore, a technology and ought to be based on Science, which is based on
observation, deliberate gathering of data and confirmation by further
observation or experiment. Logic should be based on scientific Psychology and
not on speculation.
In particular,
correct thinking requires the development of the human capacity for correct
thinking. But human beings are an integrated system such that all parts are
interdependent to a large extent. It usually requires an appropriate and
comprehensive discipline. But it is not the quantity or intensity of the effort
made that is effective, but rather the nature of the inner technique, which may
be too subtle to be easily grasped. Some people, as in all other things, are
inherently more advanced and require little of this discipline.
It can be argued
that if we do not distinguish between "A and not-A" etc. we will be
overwhelmed with a great number of contradictions and conflicts. Logic allows
us to progressively prevent these and construct a self-consistent system. This
is compatible with the Islamic notion of Unity (Tawhid). Allah, the Ultimate
Reality is Unity, and as Muslims seek Allah, they seek Unity. But this is a
comprehensive Unity - It refers to thought, feeling and action. It refers to a
state of being, and to inner psychological integration as well as social
harmony and harmony with existence.
Eastern systems
such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, it said, are not Unitarian but dualistic and
admit contradictions in nature. They distinguish between Ying and Yang as the
basic realities. But these are not contradictions in their system of thought.
They are contradictions only in the bipolar systems of Western Logic. There
are, throughout nature, a pair of opposite forces:- positive and negative,
active and passive, male and female. We have matter and anti-matter, electrons
and positrons, electronegative and electropositive elements. In living
organisms we have catabolism and anabolism and every process, such as sugar
metabolism or heat maintenance is controlled by opposite processes. Our
movements are controlled by opposite pairs of muscles. In technology, in the
construction of cars for instance, we not only need driving engines but also
breaks. All phenomena in the Universe consist of various states of balance
between these opposite forces. In religion we have good and evil, the Prophets
and Satan.
The Quran also
tells us:- "And of all things have
We created pairs, that you may reflect (or receive instruction). Therefore flee
unto Allah, surely I am a plain Warner to you from Him." 51:49-50
This can be
interpreted as meaning that we should transcend the pair. But if we do then, it
is claimed, everything becomes uniform and we cannot distinguish between
things. This provides no knowledge. It seems to be compatible with mysticism
and withdrawal from the world, not with living in this world. It cannot apply
to most of humanity. But Islam frowns on withdrawal from the world, requires
the seeking of knowledge, and the fulfilment of a function with respect to the
world as vicegerents. But the Islamic view is more comprehensive than that. One
could think of each entity or state of balance as a Unity, a part of the
Ultimate Unity and derived from it. Allah creates these Unities. They are more
than the sum of the parts and transcend them.
We are told by
the Quran that Allah created 7 heavens and 7 earths and that the Command of
Allah descends slowly through these stages (65:12) and everything is according
to measure and proportion and in harmony. Things belong to Systems, in which
the parts are interdependent and form a whole that is more than the sum of the
parts owing to the organization. The opposite processes and their balance have
meaning within the system. There are numerous feedback mechanisms within
systems that cause these balances to occur. These systems require receptivity
and activity and some kind of ordered relationship between these. They require
input, processing and output. Cognition, motivation and action are integral to
them.
The parts are
also systems and so on, arise because they have a function with respect to the
system and they have to adjust to the system they belong to. We can, therefore,
see existence to consist of a series of systems A B C D E F G H, where each
successive system is a small part of the previous greater system, and the
impulse descends from Allah downwards. It also differentiates as it moves
downwards from Unity to maximum multiplicity.
Each lower
system receives influences from all the levels above it, not just from the
system it belongs to as part. Each system may, therefore, be regarded as being
a part of a system at every level above it and itself has several levels. We
can, for instance see a person as belonging to a community, humanity, the
biosphere, the planet and so on. We can see him as a biological organism, as a
system of chemicals, an electronic system, an electromagnetic system, a quantum
field. At each of these levels he interacts with and is part of a greater
field.
And each system
and subsystem has a degree of autonomy and flexibility to various degrees.
Things are not deterministic in the mechanical sense. It is a dynamic Universe
which does not come to a static equilibrium. It is an integral part of the
Quranic teaching that Allah can do anything He likes but that He also works
through Laws. He has not only created the Universe, but also maintains it and
He is constantly creating and recreating.
But it is not
only dynamic, it is also the case that the Quran also requires development and
growth? Man is to return to the Paradise
(nearness to Allah) whence he was expelled. The Quran tells us that not only
are there descending forces, but there are also ascending forces. (32:5,
70:3-4). The scenario that emerges appears to be as follows:-
A descending
impulse comes from a higher source "A" and acts on a lower receptive
system "C" to produce an intermediate condition or system
"B1", which is lower than "A" but higher than
"C". There is therefore, an ascent from "C" to
"B1".
"B1"
acts the same way on "C" to produce another intermediate system
"B2" and so on to "B3", "B4" etc. But
"A" acts on "B1" to produce the intermediate system
"B0", and so on to "B-1", "B-2" etc.
Note that
"B1" has the same relation to "C" at a lower level as
"A" has to "C". But "B1" has the same relation to
"A" at a higher level as "B2" has to "B1". The
same applies to the various relationships between A, B0, B-1, C etc.
There are reflections so that some relations can be used as similitudes for
others. As above so below and vice versa.
This process can
be seen for instance in the descent of solar energy from the sun onto the
earth. It causes evolution of life. Vegetation "eats" minerals and
with the help of solar energy converts it into plant material. This is eaten by
animals, which with the help of solar energy, convert it into animal matter. We
eat food, which being vegetable or animal is lower than us, but we convert it
into something that functions like human beings and creates thoughts, cultures
and civilizations. We transform the planet. The evolution of the planet is the
function of man as vicegerent.
Human beings are
systems that have a particular position in the Universal Chain and their
function like that of everything else is to process the descending energy and
to be a point of balance between the ascending and descending forces. They can
take advantage of this for their own development.
Essentially,
man, the human spirit, comes from Heaven and must ascends to it. This has been
known from ancient times. Some ancient Egyptians and Indians knew this.
In so far as man
is part of the Biosphere, an organ of it, and of the planet and ultimately of
the Universe, then the development of consciousness in him implies that the
planet and the Universe are becoming conscious. And this accords with the
Hadith Qudsi:-
"Allah says: I was a hidden treasure and
wished to be known. Therefore I created the Universe that I might be
known."
One could say
that if the evolution of consciousness towards Unity continues, then this ought
to make humanity into a single organism, which like the multi-cellular
organisms and the human brain made of millions of cells, produces a single
collective consciousness. However man may continue to go astray and may then be
replaced:-
"Do you not see that Allah created the
heavens and the earth in Truth? If He please He can remove you and replace you
with a new creation; that is for Allah no great matter." 14:19
"Thy Lord is the Absolute, the Lord of
Mercy. If He will, He can remove you and can cause what He will to follow after
you, even as He raised you from the seed of other folk. Lo! That which you are
promised will surely come to pass, and you cannot escape. " 6:134-136
Life, we see,
has a function with respect to existence as a whole. We must adjust to Reality,
to Allah, or suffer. The function of suffering is to repel from maladjustment,
because maladjustment is conflict, contradiction and disharmony, which causes
suffering. We have arisen by the forces, laws and processes of the world and in
progressive adjustment to it. We are also a Unity, such that all parts and
faculties are inter-dependent. This means that we separate and isolate
thinking, feeling and action at our own peril. The purpose of life, even when
purpose is defined in purely human rather than cosmic terms, cannot be simply
to think, or to feel or act.
We also possess
consciousness, which as the word itself implies is the unity of awareness, and
arises in a person in proportion to the degree of his inner integration. It
allows us to control our lives deliberately and purposefully.
Religion arises
as part of the Cosmic process. It refers to a conscious comprehensive
self-consistent way of life as opposed to an accidental automatic one. It is,
therefore, the translation of the Creative or Evolutional process into human
understanding. It is evolution becoming conscious of itself.
"This Quran is naught else but a reminder
unto creation unto whoever of you wills to walk straight. And you will not,
unless Allah wills, the Lord of Creation." 81:27-29
Logical thinking
even when accurate and true is an intellectual exercise. This though driven by
motives does not itself make any difference to motives. Unless of course one
thinks about one's motives and the motive is the desire for Truth. But one also
needs awareness of one's inner state, motives and thoughts and this is not
provided by logic either. It cannot provide insight and awareness, though it
depends on these. Nor can it provide the abilities and skills required to act
and behave correctly and beneficially. The cultivation of awareness, self-awareness,
capabilities and desire for truth require special techniques.
But reasoning
and even Logic (which is not the same thing as reason, but a small part of it),
certainly has its uses as do the other human faculties. This is not denied. But
it must not be made into a god. Religion is concerned with adjustment to
Reality, Surrender to Allah. This is much more than science and this involves a
change of being and requires more than reason.
"Nay, but it (the Quran) is a clear
revelation in the hearts of those who are endowed with knowledge, and none deny
Our revelations save the wrongdoers (or unjust)." 29:24
"O ye who believe! Respond unto Allah and
His Messenger when He calls you to that which quickens you; and know that Allah
comes in between a man and his own heart; and that He it is unto Whom ye shall
be gathered." 8:24
But as always,
Allah knows best.