By: Dr. T.O. SHANAVAS. MD

(Dr. Shanavas is the author of “Islamic Theory of evolution of Evolution the Missing Link between Darwin and The Origin of Species.” Co-author of the book, And God Said, “Let There Be Evolution!” Reconciling the Book of Genesis, The Qur’an, And the Theory of Evolution. Edited by Prof. Charles M. Wynn and Prof. Arthur W. Wiggins.)

In the life of devout Muslims, not a day passes without the Arabic phrase Inshah Allah (God So Willing) being uttered at the end of any conversation about future events. Without a realistic understanding of the meaning of this phrase, or the purpose, structure, and workings of the universe, we cannot begin to comprehend the process of creation, God’s omniscience in harmony with human freewill, theodicy, or divine response to human supplication. Nor too can we offer a rational, internally consistent refutation of atheists’ exclusion of God in the evolution of life and the universe.

Materialists among scientists posit that biological evolution is an “inherently mindless, purposeless process.”¹ They presume that impersonal laws rule the universe and that atoms are at work in the workings of life. Biologist Richard Dawkins, a hardcore atheist, has upheld that contingency and natural selection, taking place over a long period of time, account for evolution. By this, Dawkins assumes that the blind forces of physics, chemistry, and natural selection are sufficient to explain the origin and expansion of life.^2&3 He claims that the unfolding of life as the result of genes’ selfish desire to increase their opportunities for survival and reproduction. Similar opinions prevail among some scientists who advocate that there is no reason to include God in the evolution of life. One extremist fulminated that “materialism is absolute [and] we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”⁴

The passionate exclusion of God from the conversation on the origin of the universe by some scientists stems from an unshakable, unwavering faith in the law of causality which most people acknowledge and which states that a given cause always produces the same effect. Gravity always pulls an apple down to the earth; snow melts in spring; drought brings the destruction of crops. Chemical reactions in any organism, whether amoeba or human, are explainable by the same laws of physics and chemistry that govern the universe.

Based on the law of causality scientists uphold that the future is predetermined and can be predicted through accurate knowledge of past causes. The laws of nature, they argue, are invariant, and scientific observation reveals the past as the product of those laws. Any natural event that departs from the anticipated effect of a uniform cause is classified as an “accident.” However, scientists’ predictions based on their observation of matter and the invariant laws of nature are limited by their own earlier conclusions and experiences. To gather data, scientists peer into nature—from atoms to stars, amoebas to humankind, fungi to maple trees—and phenomena within our universe. Science has collected and categorized data into disciplines such as paleontology, comparative anatomy, biogeography, embryology, molecular genetics, and so on. The materialists’ claim that the unfolding of life is a “purposeless, mindless process” is based upon inferences from catalogued past experiences. John F. Haught, professor of theology at Georgetown University, labelled the materialistic rationalism based on past experiences with the phrase “the metaphysics of the past.”⁵

Contrary to a purposeless universe of science, Jews, Christian, Muslims, and other theists believe in cosmic purpose. The Prophet Muhammad (s) explained the purpose of creation as follows: “Allah said: I was a hidden treasure. I wanted to be known, so I created the world.”⁶ The purpose of creation, according to the Qur’an, is: “And We did not create the heaven and the earth and that is between them aimlessly. That is the assumption of those who disbelieve, so woe unto those who disbelieve from the Fire” (38:27) and “I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me” (51:56). Therefore, the universe is only a testing station where humans are appraised for their devotion to their creator based on their conduct on earth as per the rules of divine revelations. Testing is not possible without the examinee encountering challenges across a wide spectrum from goodness to evil. Thus, the Qur’an rhetorically questions: “Or did you suppose you should enter Paradise without God know who of you have struggled and who are patient?” (3:142); “Do people think they will not be tested because they say, ‘We have faith?’ And certainly, We tried those before them, so Allah will certainly know those who are true and He will certainly know the liars” (29:2-3); “and know that your wealth and your children are a trial, and that with God is a mighty wage” (8:28); and “And We shall test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth, lives and crops. Yet give good ridings to the patients” (2:155-157). Evidently, according to the Prophet (s) and the Qur’an, the purpose of human creation is to serve God, and the material world serves as the hardware and software to rate humans’ devotion to their creator prior to their final adjudication on the Day of Judgement.

The God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims is omniscient and omnipotent who gifted free will to humans. The sacred book of Islam indirectly upholds the conscientious application of human free will: “Say, ‘Truth comes from your Lord. Let people have faith or disbelieve as they chose.’ For the unjust We have prepared a fire which will engulf them with its (flames)…” (Quran 18:29). The concurrency of divine omniscience and human freewill has troubled theologians and philosophers. At least an elementary grasp of the structure, organization, and workings of the universe is essential to unravel the mystery of the consonance of God’s omniscience with human freewill and to understand how God invisibly responds to human supplications without the violating the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology.

According to the Qur’an, the universe and its micro and macro components—the animate and inanimate in human vocabulary—are alive and have an independent existence; they are organisms with faculties of self, subjectivity, and consciousness. The following verse reveals the existence of these faculties in “inanimate” creations such as the wind, fire, earth, galaxies, etc.: “And the thunder extols His praise, and the angels are in of awe of Him …” (Qur’an 13:13). A verse relating to Solomon reads: “So We subjected the wind to him [Solomon]; it ran softly at his command to wherever he pleased” (Qur’an 38:36). The presence of self and subjectivity in the heavens, the earth, and mountain is covered in the following verse:  “Verily, We did offer the trust [of reason and volition] to the heavens, and the earth, and the mountains: but they refused to bear it because they were afraid of it. Yet man took it up—for, verily, he has always been prone to be most wicked, most foolish” (Qur’an 33:72). The component part of a whole has its own independent existence and its own characteristic faculties of self, subjectivity, and consciousness. This is reflected in the verse on the Day of Judgment: “their ears and their eyes and their skins will testify against them as to what they used to do. And they say unto their skins: Why ye testify against us? They say: God hath given us speech, who giveth speech to all things, and who created you at the first, onto whom ye are returned” (Qur’an 41:20-21). The verse pertaining to the beginning of creation (The Big Bang) enlightens that the elementary particles are alive with its own psyche and individuality:  “Then He directed Himself to the heaven and it is a vapor, so He said to it and to the earth: Come both, willingly or unwillingly. They both said: We come willingly.”  (Qur’an 41:11). According to the last verse quoted, the vapor (a plenum of elementary particles such as quarks, z particles, etc., after the Big Bang) has also self and subjectivity. The self, subjectivity, and potential to act of the lower order of creation may be minimal or hard to detect for humans: “The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein praise Him, and there is not a thing but hymneth His praise; but ye understand not their praise. Lo! He is ever Clement, Forgiving” (17:44). As God created higher orders of being, He carefully gifted each of them with a higher level of subjectivity and potential so that they can understand more complex messages from God and react to complex matters in the outside world. Moreover, the entire universe as one piece and its parts, for example ears and skin, have assigned duties and responsibilities. As the Qur’an 41:12 states: “He assigned to each heaven its duty and command …” Thus, our incredible live universe and its individual parts act and react, give and take, reward and retribute, etc. just as a living organism. For science, the events emerging from the activities of the live universe and its parts are described natural events that can be explained by the laws of nature. From the Qur’anic perspective, the universe is like a human body: human body is a host of hundreds of billions of bacteria and cells, yet we assume it to be a single organism. In short, all that exist and its individual potential came from God:  “He is Allah, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of forms (or colors)…” (Qur’an 59:24).

The universe is not only a living organism but also works as a supercomputer with programs installed at its creation. Thus, the universe and its individual parts with self, subjectivity, and consciousness know what they can and cannot do and what God wants them to do. Every situation, circumstance, or ambiance that a human encounter in life emerges from the self-driven independent or collective actions, reactions, and interactions of the components of the entire universe based on its gifted potential. The universe is an all-in-one perfect machine, a computerized organism, that is automatized to perform its duties and functions without constant monitoring and intervention by its designer. God is perfect, and His process of creation and its products are impeccable, so that whatever He created has the potentiality to do whatever He intended them to execute. A perfect machine functions by itself without its inventor’s constant supervision and intervention; only then is a product optimally perfect and its creator distinguishes himself/herself as perfect. The Qur’an vouches for this: “Who has created the seven heavens one above another, you can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent. Then look again: ‘Can you see any rifts?’” (67:3) and “[such is] the artistry of Allah, who disposes of all things in perfect order: for he is well acquainted with all that ye do” (27:88). God created an automatized universe with mind-blogging precision so that it would carry out all its duties and operate without constant divine supervision to function as a testing station for human.

Between the Big Bang and the Big Crunch, God created a network of interconnected roads, highways, and byways of future that the universe and its components can drive through. The automatized universe is programmed also with the potential to run zillions of event trains and zillions of crossing junctions from zillions of chosen actions of micro and macro components of the universe. God knows what every micro and macro creations can do and cannot do in any given circumstance or situation. Within the divinely installed program, the circumstances, situations, environments, and ambiance emerge from the independent actions, interactions, and reactions of individual components or many components together. The programmed potentialities become actualized into material world realities at the discretion of the creations.  God programmed the universe to self-generate its future out of multiple available futures between the Big Bang (the beginning of universe) and the Big Crunch (the end of the universe). God, being the programmer, knows about the potential of every component as well as every circumstance, situation, environment, and ambiance that would emerge from all activities. God does not intrude into the operations of the universe and its components. For humans, God’s prophets have conveyed the divine guidance on the preferred choice of action in every situation and unpreferred act and activities. Human is appraised based on their chosen response to situations emerging from the activities and interactions of the entire world of creation.

There is wisdom behind the creation of our automatized live universe with self and subjectivity. God with His indefinite generosity divested to the universe and its components the task of producing future situations and circumstances for humans to manage or resolve. God rhetorically ask: “Is not God the justest of judges?” (Qur’an 95:8). The divine self-divestiture upholds Him as “the justest of judges” so that no human can implicate God with predestination for their sin. The Qur’an states plainly that “Indeed, Allah does not wrong people in the least, but it is people who wrong themselves” (10:44). The conceptualization of the universe as a flawless, autonomous, computerized, and perfect organism with the faculty of self, subjectivity, and consciousness lays the framework for the consonance of divine omniscience and human free will. The perfect automatized live universe vindicates the divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil (theodicy) because the good and the evil emerge from the interplay of the components of the universe. What God programmed was the potentiality for the emergence of the good and the evil from the activities of the entire world of creation. Christian theologian and biochemist Arthur Peacocke described the universe as an unfinished movie wherein actors (God’s creatures, including humans) in their individual hierarchical ranks freely choose their roles in the emerging scenarios from the interplay of other components of the universe. Chance and unpredictability are inevitable and are, in fact, built into such a scenario. The Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi described this universe as a battlefield where atom struggles with atom such as faith against infidelity. In this struggle, some benefit and others suffer.

Unlike “the metaphysics of the past” (the past creating the future) of science, God “creates everything” (Qur’an).  In the framework of the universe at its onset, God introduced in the potential to materialize a thing or an event through the acts of human and other components of the universe. So, without the potential nothing could be actualized.  Thus, God is the creator of everything. In the Islamic context, time is a conveyor belt. The experienced past is irretrievable, while the present is only a fleeting moment that we cannot hold on to. On the other hand, we experience the continuous coming of the future. The future in the material world does not exist until it is created by the actions, interactions, and reactions of an entire world of creation. The Islamic creed regarding the coming of future events is grounded in the phrase Inshah Allah and the verse “And never say about anything, ‘Behold, I shall do this tomorrow,’ without [adding] ‘if God so wills’” (Qur’an 18:23). Muslims say Inshah Allah after every statement pertaining to the future, even for simple tasks such as meeting a friend at 4 p.m. tomorrow. The future is not simply born without cause. Future, for humans, is unpredictable and emerges from the activity of an entire world of creation or one of its creations. The emerging future circumstances, situations, conditions, scenes, events, dilemmas, predicaments, crises, etc. are where humans are challenged and probed for their submission to God. The divine messages demand that humans act morally, ethically, justly, and compassionately in every situation that they face with every arriving moment of the future. Thus, God judges humans based upon their logical, ethical, just, exemplary, compassionate, and truthful management of emerging situations/events, or otherwise. To label the above exposition of verse 18:23 in the Qur’an, we shall borrow John F. Haught’s phrase the “metaphysics of the future”⁵ and modify it to read the “Islamic metaphysics of the future.” An unfortunate and horrendous event in Muslim history would explain the concept of the coming future through choices. Events following the prophethood of Muhammad (s) presented a choice for Hind bint Utba, one of the foremost enemies of the Prophet (s), to join the distinguished companions of the Prophet (s) such as Humza, Ummar, etc or go against them. Hind bint Utba decided to actualize the bad choice of cannibalizing Hamzah. Of course, she will be judged based on her action.

For those who do not comprehend the concept of the metaphysics of the future and the automatized universe, a good illustration is that of a computer game. When the programmer sets up the parameters of a game, he/she gives the players multiple options for each moment of play. The players are responsible for the outcome of each move that they make, no matter whether the choice is right or wrong. The programmer knows what the result of each choice can be, and what must be done to complete the game. Moreover, a good programmer will include events that are outside the direct control of the players. Similarly, God is the ultimate source of all that occurs in the universe because He created and programmed the universe. But as in the case of computer game, it does not preclude human from having real and meaningful choices in our lives. God, being the creator and the programmer of the universe, knows anything and everything within it and what will happen for every action as well as its reaction, and this is truly what is meant by Qdar of Allah (the concept of divine destiny in Islam). In such a universe there is consonance of divine omniscience and human freewill.

For some, libertarianism is incompatible with the sovereignty of God. Of course, God can dictate every action and decision of everything in creation if He chooses so. God can also make the opposite choice of abstaining from enforcing His absolute power, leaving the ultimate decision to humans and other creatures to uphold His attribute of “the justest of judges.”

In mandatory daily prayers, Muslims recite the opening chapter of the Quran, al-Fatihah. “Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is straight, the path of those You have blessed, not of those who have earned Your anger, nor of those who have gone astray.” These verses imply to many Muslim and non-Muslim minds that God does lead some of us astray. Based upon the Islamic metaphysics of the future, educed from the verse 18:23 in the Qur’an, God, the software engineer as described above, is the source of all potential possibilities and choices in the coming future. When humans and other creatures transcribe the selected option into visible material realty, it becomes the worldly monument of divine creation. God does not intrude into the human process of selection from the available options of the coming future. Therefore, based upon the Islamic metaphysics of the future, the phrases “God misled” and “God guided” refer to the good and bad choices in the coming future from the activities of components of the universe.

According to the Qur’an, God will answer our prayers: “‘Call upon Me and I will answer you…’” (40:60). How does God respond to prayer without violating the laws of nature? The underpinning for the answer to the question is in the following verse. “Say [Muhammad to your people]: ‘Travel through the earth and see how Allah did originate creation; so will Allah produce a later creation: for Allah has power over all things” (Quran: 29:20). If it is humanly inconceivable to discover and explain God’s process of creation, all-knowing God would not have decreed to research and learn “how Allah did originate creation … will produce a later creation.” Moreover, the verse voices also that all tools are necessary to learn the process of creation available on the earth (“travel through the earth and see how …”). Although Almighty God’s means to act is infinite, based on the above verse, whatever method God applies to respond to supplications is discoverable by humans. The mystery of the divine process of creation is buried in the structure, organization, and operation of universe, and specifically in the quantum mechanical process.

Classical physics and chemistry, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum theory, describe the nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale. But classical physics and chemistry alone are not sufficient for describing the nature at small (atomic and subatomic) scale. Thus, Max Plank initially explained the photoelectric effect (old quantum theory), and later Neil Bohr, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born advanced into fully developed quantum theory or quantum mechanics. The fundamental feature of the theory is that humans cannot predict with certainty what will happen at the atomic and subatomic level, but they only can give probabilities or averages.

According to quantum theory, the behavior of matter at atomic and subatomic level is unpredictable. No one can say, for example, that a particle was in a specific position in the past or that it will occupy a specific place at some time in the future. Physicist Paul Davis explained it that “A particle such as an electron does not appear to follow a meaningful, well-defined trajectory at all. One moment it is found here, the next there. Not only electron but also all known subatomic particles—even whole atom– cannot be pinned down to a specific motion.”⁷ The more accurately we measure the momentum of a particle, the less we can calculate its position. The more we know about the particle’s position, the less we can say about its momentum. Our partial information about the position of a particle only yields the probability that it is within a certain distance of a particular point. The most famous part of the uncertainty principle states that no matter how a quantum particle is prepared or an experiment upon it arranged, it is impossible to precisely predict its position and at the same time its momentum. For example, it is not possible to predict when a radioactive atom will decay. In a uranium (²³⁸U) sample, the sudden decay of a specific atom into thorium (²³⁴Th) through the emission of alpha particles can only be computed as a probable occurrence. We are unable to explain why a particular uranium sample has decayed while another identical uranium atom next to it has not. We may calculate a certain chance that the decay will take place within the next ten seconds. The probability exists that the remaining atoms may decay over a period of ten thousand years. But no one can give a definite answer regarding the sequence and time of decay.⁸

If no one can ascertain what is occurring with atoms and subatomic particles—the basic building blocks of the universe and all DNA-based life—how can it be possible to precisely predict the future of human beings or anything else in the universe? This scientific paradox of unpredictability in quantum theory bothered even Einstein, who said: “God does not play dice.” Niels Bohr responded by saying: “Einstein, stop telling God what to do?”⁹ There is a reason for God to create matter that is not precisely predictable at the atomic and subatomic level.

God did not want to place all of His creations in the same spiritual reality. Therefore, He created matter to be the building block of the universe and governed its macrolevel operation through an immutable system of physical, chemical, biological laws within which it functions in unpredictable ways. With the installation of stubborn chemical and physical laws to function in a uniform and repetitive fashion at the level of larger components of the universe, God made the larger components of the universe comprehensible to the minds of humans, the best of His creations, so that at macrolevel they could build the things that are needed for daily life. God did not intend the same laws of classical physics and chemistry to work as a programmed machine all the way down to the atomic and subatomic levels. If such absolute knowledge on the atomic and subatomic level possible, human can predict every future events. Then the phrase, Insha Allah, becomes redundant. By the creation of unpredictable atomic and subatomic world, God can respond to human supplications with macrolevel visible responses by generating small fluctuations (jump of a quantum of energy) in the quantum mechanical process.¹⁰ God’s response to His faithful will be invisible to atheists, while the faithful are thankful for their divine gift.

Quantum theory gave birth to a new chemistry that explained how atoms are bonded together to form molecules. When two atoms that are initially separated are brought together in a chemical reaction, the electrons in their outermost shell (electrons the farthest from the nucleus) share one orbit. Such sharing in a chemical reaction is called a covalent bond (Figure 1). In covalent bonding, atoms share electrons to form all molecules, including ordinary substances such as water, methane, and so forth. In some cases, covalent bonding can lead to the formation of huge, extended macromolecules such as polymers. One example of such a polymer is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the basic building block of life.

Oxygen

Water Molecule with covalent bond

Figure 1. FORMATION OF A COVALENT BOND

The formation and maintenance of the structure of compounds such as DNA is ultimately the result of a quantum mechanical process in which the behavior of atoms remains predictable only as a statistical average. The best calculations that modern science can offer are only the averaged probabilities of thousands of quantum events.

Chemists have discovered that all components of the physical universe, including genes, are made of atoms arranged in different fashions. Genes are made of DNA. DNA is a collection of nucleotides. Phosphate, sugar, and four amino acids (thymine, cytosine, adenine, guanine) are chemically connected with covalent chemical bonds to form nucleotides. A genetic mutation can produce a major effect on the outward physical features of an organism. Alternatively, a mutation may lead to disease such cancer, and reverse mutation can cure the disease. Mutations depend on changes in individual molecules due to the breaking of specific atomic covalent bonds that involve quantum mechanical processes. The physicist-theologian Robert J. Russell pointed out that “this is ultimately a quantum process at the atomic level initiated by the breaking of a single hydrogen bond.”¹¹ In other words, God built life around the chemistry that provides “the amplifying mechanism for quantum events.”¹² The physicist William Pollard remarked that if chemistry is the physical appearance of an organism (phenotype), the quantum fluctuation is the driving force (genotype). The construction of understandable chemistry coupled with unpredictable quantum physics is the ingenious, intelligent design of the all-knowing and all-powerful God. The indeterminism at atomic level (quantum mechanical process) is the intrinsic characteristic of our material universe. Everything or anything that we experience through our five senses is the amplification of the imperceptible quantum mechanical process. Therefore, God, by acting at the indeterminate quantum mechanical process, can transparently respond to prayers without violating any classical laws of physics and chemistry. In such a design of the universe, God has the freedom to create any being or substance, living or nonliving, without disturbing any laws of classical physics and chemistry through quantum events in the atomic and subatomic world. In this material universe, therefore, God does play dice between the Big Bang and the Big Crunch at atomic and subatomic level.

When God prompts a small quantum fluctuation (jump of a quantum of energy) in the atomic or subatomic world to make or break a gene’s covalent chemical bond or bonds, materialists may see a mutation, the accidental birth of a species, or an unexplained cure for an incurable disease. For atheists, it is only a random or accidental event with no known cause. For the faithful, however, the unexplained resolution of his/her uncurable disease from the divine act in the quantum mechanical process and is God’s an acknowledgement of his/her prayer.

Another characteristic of the world that we live in is the amazing harmony of our freewill with the omniscience of the Almighty. Human experiences are linked to time and space. To integrate God’s omniscience with human experiences of the past, the present, and the future, God created time with an elastic property. God enlightened us on this relative characteristic of time centuries before Albert Einstein did:  “but lo! A day is like one thousand years of what you reckon” Qur’an 22:47; “On a Day when He will call you, and you will answer by praising Him, thinking all the while that you tarried (on earth) but a little while” (Qur’an 17:52); “And on the Day when He will gather them, [it will be] as if they had not remained [in the world] but an hour of the day” (Qur’an 10:45). Thus, time can shrink to a freezing halt, as in the case of God or on the Day of Resurrection, or expand for the rest of creation in the universe, depending on its space, speed of motion, gravity, etc. Hence, human experience of yesterday, today, and tomorrow is a concurrent event for God, who is outside time and space. Therefore, in this automatized universe, there is freedom, free will, and randomness for the human species without infringement on God’s omniscience.

The universe from the Big Bang to the Big Crunch is maze. At both ends, the matter and the four forces (gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak forces) are crushed into a mathematical point known as singularity. The maze is fabricated out of alleys, roads, highways, and byways that lead to different futures for the universe until it meets the Big Crunch (the Last Day, or end of the universe; see Figure 2). God already mapped out (created) multiple futures for the components of the universe. But it is still up to humans and other components of the universe—day by day or moment by moment—to decide for themselves which alley or road to step into. God the merciful does not interfere or force humans into making the choice. God voluntarily limits His absolute omnipotence as stated in the Qur’an: “And had your Lord willed, whoever in the earth would have believed altogether. Will you then coerce the people to become believers?” (10:99). God knows that human freewill would be nonexistent without voluntary limitation of His omniscience. Therefore, al-Rahman (the most beneficent) and al-Rahim (the most merciful) set a voluntary limitation of His omniscience as reflected in the verse. The self-imposed limitation being voluntary, it does not imply any inherent limitation in God’s ultimate power and

Figure 2. Maze of the Evolving universe. In this maze there are 4 potential routes that the universe can navigate from the beginning of creation (the Big Bang to the Big) to the Last Day (the Big Crunch)

 

omniscience. At the same time, humans are free to choose their future, but a human future is limited by a predetermined maze and the situations and circumstances emerging from the activity of the entire world of creation. In other words, God, being the programmer automatized universe, knows all available futures, and God, being the most merciful and the most benevolent, has voluntarily opted not to know which future path His creatures would choose to step into until the Day of Judgement. And He assigned two angels to record the life and activities of every human being to present on the Day of Judgement: “Behold, two (guardian angels) appointed to learn (his doings) learn (and noted them), one sitting on the right and one on the left.” (Qur’an: 50:17). By His indefinite generosity of Self-limitation of His omniscience to create human freewill and His divesture to the two angels the task of monitor and documentation of human conduct in the universe, God distinguish Himself as the “the justest of judges” (Qur’an 95:8). Based on the theory of relativity and the Quran 22:47 and other verses there is no one universal past, present and future. So, there is consonance of omniscience of God with human freewill because God is not space-time bound or His time is frozen so that there is no a past or future but only an eternal present. Human past, present and future are concurrent present event. The evil is generated by live units of the universe with self and subjectivity. So, the divine goodness and providence vindicated in view of the existence of evil (theodicy).

 

Notes

1. Barbour, Ian G. Religion and Science. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. p. 81.
2. Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986.
3. Dawkins, Richard. River out of Eden. New York: Basic Books, 1995.
4. From Richard Lewontin’s review of Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon & Haunted World:

Science as a Cradle in the Dark, in the New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997.

5 Haught, John F. God After Darwin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999, pp. 83-88.

6. Nasr, Seyyed H. Islamic Spirituality Foundation. New York: The Crossroad Publishing

Company, 1991.

7. Davis, Paul. God and the New Physics, pp 101-102.
8. Russell, Robert J. “Special Providence and Genetic Mutation: A New Defense of Theistic

Evolution,” Evolutionary and Molecular Biology, p. 202.

9. https://tildesites.bowdoin.edu/~naculich/3140scans/dice.pdf
10. Alston, P. William. Divine Action, Human Freedom, And The Laws of Nature. Quantum

Cosmology And The Laws of Nature, Scientific Perspectives on Human Action. Robert John

Russell, Nancy Murphy, and C.J. Ishan. Editors. 1999.

11. Russell, Robert J. “Theistic Evolution: Does God really Act in Nature?” Center for Theology

and the Natural Science Bulletin, 15.1, 1995.

12. Miller, Kenneth. Finding Darwin’s God. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1999 p.

206.

Reconstruction of a Technological Culture in Islam – Part 2

Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed

What is Time?

A familiarity with the theories, assumptions and beliefs about the nature of time is a pre-requite to understanding the disputes between the philosophers and the theologians and bringing about a reconciliation between the positions of al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. Accordingly, we survey the insights about time provided in the Qur’an and also examine the modern perspectives on the subject.

Time as revealed in the Qur’an

Time is a mystery within an enigma within a riddle. It is a secret that no one has been able to fathom. Yet, it forms the very basis of knowledge and of changes in the cosmos. Philosophy, logic, science and history are all based on fundamental assumptions about time.

The mystery of time deepens as we study the various contexts in which it is revealed in the Qur’an:

• Counted time

The days are counted;
Then, whoever among you is ill, or is traveling,
May complete his fasts later, (Quran, 2:184)

• Relative time

The Angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a moment,
Whose measure is fifty thousand years. (70: 4)

• Timeless time

Has there transpired upon humankind a time
From (the oceans of timeless) Time (ad Dha’r)
When he was not even a thing mentioned? (76:1)

• Time as a moment

There is a term decreed for every spiritual community.
When the decreed time arrives,
they cannot hold it back one moment
or move it forward (one moment). (7:34)

• Time as a sequence of changes

O humankind! If you are in doubt about resurrection,
Then (consider this): We did indeed create you from the earth,
Then from a sperm,
Then from an impregnated egg,
Then from a piece of flesh—
With features and without features—
So that We may convey to you (Our Message);
And We establish a pregnancy for a period fixed, as We will,
Then We bring you forth as a baby,
Then, (sustain you) so that you reach the fullness of youth. (22:5)

• The passage of time (al Asr)

By (the passage of) time,

Verily, humankind is indeed at a loss,

Except such as those who have certainty of faith,
And perform righteous deeds,
And enjoin upon one another Justice (Truth),
And enjoin upon one another Patience (Constancy and Perseverance). (103:1-3)

• Perceived time

And We struck their ears (made them asleep) in the cave for many years.

Then We woke them up to see which of the two groups remembered

long they had stayed (in the cave). (18:11-12)

• Time after death -Eternal time

Hearken! Of a certainty, the transgressors shall be in eternal punishment! 42:45

• Indeterminate time

Every Nafs shall have a taste of death
And it is not until the Judgment Day
That you shall reap the full recompense (for your deeds). (3:185)

• Prayer time

Establish prayer at the sun’s decline till the onset of the night (17:78)

• Fasting time

And eat and drink
Until the white thread of dawn
Becomes distinguishable against the darkness (of night).
Then keep your fasts until nightfall. (2: 187)

• Time for Haj and Umrah

And whoever desires to combine the Umrah with the Hajj,
And cannot find (a suitable gift),
Let him fast for three days during Hajj
And seven days after he returns (from Hajj).
This makes it ten altogether. (2:196)

• Ageing time

He it is who created you from clay,
Then from a seminal fluid,
Then from an embryo,
Then He brings you forth as a baby,
Then (He sustains you) so that you reach the fullness (of youth)
Then (He sustains you) so that you reach old age,
And among you some die before it,
And (He sustains you) so that you attain an age determined,
And learn wisdom. (40:67)

• The Day of the Sovereign

Sovereign of the Day of Judgment (1:4)

• The Judgment Day

So, Allah will decide between them on the Judgment Day.  (4: 141)

• The Day of Gathering

Allah is He, there is no god but He.
Then He will indeed gather you all together on the Judgment Day

About it there is no doubt. (4: 87)

There can be no doubt that Allah will gather you all together

On the Judgment Day. (6:12)

• The Day of Self Evaluation

And make us not be ashamed on the Judgment Day.
Indeed, You do not compromise on Your promise.” (3:194)

• The uncertainty of time

And what conjecture do they have –
They who ascribe a falsehood to Allah –
About the Day of Judgment? (10:60)

• Time in Hadith e Qudsi

“O son of Adam! Do not abase Time. I am Time (ad Dhahr)”

Modern Concepts of time

What are the modern concepts of time? Do they help us resolve the disputes between medieval Islamic philosophers and theologians?

• Clock time

Whereas the ancients measured time by sunrise, sunset and the sundial, modern man uses digital clocks and atomic clocks that are accurate to 10^-22 seconds. However, the idea is the same: time is an entity that is measured by the relative movement between two other entities: the earth around the sun; the moon around the earth; the earth around its own axis; electrons around a nucleus, and so on. The old yardsticks were days, months and years. In modern astronomy, the distances between stars and galaxies are measured in light years, namely, the time light takes to travel from one entity to another.

• Relativistic time

Thanks to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and its popularization in fiction and movies such as Star Wars, even a child today is familiar with the idea of relative time. Time compresses as you approach the velocity of light. An astronaut who is travelling at very high speeds would experience time-compression and sense time very differently from someone left behind on earth. Travelling near the speed of time, our astronaut may visit several distant worlds and return to earth in a year (by his reckoning) only to find that all the people he knows had passed away centuries ago.  If you travel at the speed of light, time stands still. If you travel at speeds greater than the speed of light, then it is theoretically possible to travel back in space-time.

• Absolute time or Newtonian time

According to Newton, “time exists independently of any perceiver, progresses at a consistent pace throughout the universe, is measurable but imperceptible, and can only be truly understood mathematically”. It is also called Newtonian time or “empty-space” time. Although the ideas of relativistic time have shadowed the ideas of absolute time, Newtonian time is a good enough approximation for most physical observations on earth.

• Biological time

Biological clocks regulate the rhythm of body functions in most mammals. In the human, the brain’s circadian clock regulates the rhythm of sleep. Although such rhythms are not precise and deterministic, the jet lag experienced by long-distance travelers confirms the influence of circadian rhythms.                     

• Time Perception

Time seems to dilate and spread out when you are bored or when you are uncomfortable such as in a hot room. Similarly, time seems to move fast when you are happy such as when you are in the company of someone you love.

• Time and the Big Bang

The Big Bang theory is a consequence of the observation that the universe is expanding. Mathematically, an expanding universe collapses to a single point (a singularity) at its origin. It is estimated that our known universe is approximately 14 billion years old. The question is this: Is the Big Bang the origin of time? The answer is bound to be unsatisfactory because it fails to answer the follow-on question: What was there before the Big Bang? This line of enquiry fails to answer the question whether time is “endless” and “eternal” or is finite and has itself an origin “in time”.

A Resolution – Modern views

Having taken a brief survey of the classical as well as modern ideas of time, we are in a position to to revisit the dialectic about cause and effect and the nature of time between two of the greatest minds who graced Islamic history, namely, al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. The controversies had a lasting impact on the development of natural sciences in the Islamic world.   

First, it must be observed that the debate took place in the deductive, “if” “then” paradigm of medieval philosophy. This paradigm has its own built-in assumptions and its own inherent limitations.

Second, the position taken by each of these sages is valid within the assumptions that he makes. The positions break down only when they are examined through the lens of modern empirical and inductive science.

Consequently, a critique of the positions taken by al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd and a reconciliation between them must focus on the assumptions that underlie their positions rather than the positions themselves.

Is Time “eternal”? 

Ibn Rushd, following the logic of Aristotle, held time to be eternal. Al Ghazzali held that time was finite and created. Which position is supported by modern science?

Classical mechanics looks only at marginal, linear changes in time. A pursuit of the origin of time leads us to the Big Bang where space-time become a singularity. Modern science does not answer the question: What was there “before” the Big Bang?

The theory of relativity regards time as flexible and malleable that can be bent and stretched.  The position of quantum mechanics is more subtle. While it regards time as universal and absolute, it postulates that the change in an entity from one state to another is due to the shifting of successive positions of atoms (or subatomic entities).

Both al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd quote from the Qur’an to support their positions. The guidance from the Qur’an is that Allah created the cosmos and He will fold it up on the Day of Judgment.  This suggests that time, as we perceive it, is “finite” and is not “eternal”.

The assumption of the “eternity” of time sets up a trap because such an assumption extends the domain of human reason to all domains that are “not God”. This was the trap that the Mu’tazalies fell into. They were staunch Muwahids with an unflinching faith that God is “Ahad” and there is “none like unto Him”. So, they said that the Qur’an cannot be co-extent with God and placed it in “time”, meaning that it was “created” by Allah. This was repugnant to the ulema. As was pointed out earlier, it proved to be the undoing of the Mu’tazalites. The trap was of their own making. They overextended the reach of human reason to heavenly domains that are beyond space-time (la makan). The lesson from history is that reason, noble and sublime as it is, has its limits and breaks down in heavenly domains.  

Cause and effect in nature

Al Ghazzali held that cause and effect were not a necessary consequence of the one from the other. His accepted the Ash’ari view that time moved in discrete, atomistic steps and at each discrete step the will of God intervened as the cause for an effect.  He held that only God was the efficient cause and He caused all events either through direct intervention or through intermediaries (angels).

Al Ghazzali went one step further and advanced his own theory of heat transfer. He postulated when cotton is brought into contact with fire, the application of fire and the change of cotton from fiber to ashes take place “side by side”. This was a masterful philosophical statement; however, it was unsupported by empirical evidence.

According to our current scientific understanding, the heat transfer from the fire (hot gases) to the cotton (cellulose matter) is the cause of the “burning” (a phase change from cellulose matter to ash). Obviously, the philosophers and the theologians of the day were unaware of the concepts of energy and heat transfer. They were unaware that fire was energy that can be transferred to physical bodies forcing a change in their structure. Note that the modern position does not compromise the omnipotence of God since the fire, as the agent of burning, and the cotton, as the object that is burned, are both created to be so by God. God is Musabbib al Asbab (the cause for all causes, or, the ultimate cause).

The cause-and-effect philosophy, as formulated by al Ghazzali, made it impossible to formulate theories of natural phenomenon based on observation and experiment (“habit” as al Ghazzali termed it). The pursuit of natural science suffered. If one were to accept Al Ghazzali’s theory, airplanes cannot fly, automobiles cannot run, carts cannot move, electricity cannot be generated, transistors stop. In other words, it is impossible to acquire any positivistic knowledge which is built on cause and effect, logic and reason.

In contrast, Ibn Rushd held that cause and effect constituted a basic aspect of the natural law and formed the foundation of human reason. He held that events take place in accordance with cause and effect and that the will of God was axiomatic and built into the laws of cause and effect.

Islamic civilization made an error in misunderstanding the teachings of Al Ghazzali. His denial of (the necessity of) causality and his position that events happen according to their taqdeer was misunderstood by Muslims as pre-destination. This interpretation side-lined the principle of natural causality which forms the foundation of modern technological civilization and empirical science.  It was a fatal error.

There is no empirical evidence to support the thesis (as al Ash’ari proposed circa 900 CE which was adopted by al Ghazzali) that time is digital, discontinuous and can be divided into atomistic parcels. It is merely a philosophical pre-supposition, a concept, an idea, a theory.

In classical mechanics, time appears as a measure of change that occurs as a result of an action by an entity. Quantum mechanics becomes fuzzy on ideas of time, or more precisely, on the arrow of time. It admits that time can be measured in quanta, perhaps as small as 10^-22 seconds. When a change occurs, the subatomic particles in an ensemble move from one state to another. As to why they move to a new position in a predictable manner is a mystery; statistically, they could have moved to an entirely different configuration (which could result in an entirely different “future”). The quantum model may serve to accommodate the appearance of miracles as events that are nominally a violation of repetitive and predictable outcomes of events but which are statistically possible.

Classical mechanics, which forms the basis of modern technological civilization, is built on assumptions of natural cause and effect. Empirical evidence, reason, algorithms, logic and extrapolation form the accepted chain-links in the advancement of modern science and technology.

Modern science does not insist on mechanical causality. It only affirms that on a statistical basis, a cause produces an effect with a probability so high that it can be considered a near certainty. 

The question of miracles

Miracles are events that contradict the expected outcomes based on cause ad effect.

Al Ghazzali held that the occurrence of miracles can be accommodated only if the necessity of cause and effect is discarded. This position needs to be modified in the light of our advanced knowledge of physics and statistics. Modern approaches of statistical mechanics may offer a possible way to explain miracles. In this approach, an event is an ensemble of zillions upon zillions of mini-events that are happening in the cosmos. It is conceptually possible to admit that the nett outcome of these seemingly unlimited number of concurrent events could be one that is contrary to its expected value, and that would be a miracle. The occurrence of a miracle can be accommodated in classical mechanics by adding “inshallah” to an expected event. Such a position is in accordance with the guidance from the Qur’an.

Classical mechanics deals only with questions of when and how (space-time) of marginal changes in nature; it does not concern itself with questions of who and why, or the primal origins of time. These questions are important.  Indeed, they form the core of our search as human beings as to who we are and why we are here. However, they are beyond the capabilities of reason and are left to other modes of acquiring knowledge and other disciplines such as Tasawwuf, theosophy and faith. As an example, no amount of rational argumentation can explain what love is, whereas the heart can grasp it with immediacy.

The distinctive character of positivistic knowledge is that it opens up avenues for the human to attain his potential through an exercise of reason. It enhances material welfare through innovation, shields the human from debilitating poverty, protects life by enabling effective means of defence, provides a bulwark against disease and hunger through medical research and agricultural advancement. Indeed, it opens up the possibility (just a possibility) of heaven on earth. It is a fulfilment of God’s promise to the human: “And We have subjected to you all that is between the heavens and the earth”. Science is not just a nice appendage to a society; it is essential for the very survival of a society.

Is the human the “Architect” of his/her own “fate”?

The aforesaid discussions enable us to answer the question: Is the human the “architect” of his/her own fortune? The Qur’an asserts: “We have fastened the fate of every human around his own neck”. This Ayah would suggests that indeed, the human is responsible for what he becomes. How can this be accommodated in the overarching omnipotence of God?

The reasoning is complex and involves an interplay between theology, faith, science and mathematics. To make our reasoning understandable, we have illustrated it with a diagram.

Illustration: “Allah has fastened the fate of every human around his own neck”, The Qur’an

Life is a construct of events and choices. Let us consider a moment in the life of an individual. In the diagram, the tip of the arrow A represents a moment. At each moment, the individual is faced with making choice. Each of these choices is offered to the individual by divine decree. In the illustration, the individual concerned has choices B,C,D,E,F,G and H. Each of these choices creates a new future and takes the individual in a different direction.

In this illustration, the individual makes choice F. The tip of the arrow F is his “fate” that he has discovered.

In the new situation, represented by point F, the individual is again offered multiple choices. Each of these choices is a divine decree. Of all these choices, he choose alternative J. The tip of the arrow J determines the second point in the “fate” of the individual.

One can see that the human, through his choices offered to him among an infinite number of choices offered by divine decree, “creates” his own future. However, the outcome of each choice is a moment of divine intercession.

One can, therefore, plot the sequence of operations that result in an action and the sequence of actions that result in the flow of life: intent, choice, will, action, outcome of an action. It does indeed resemble the movement of a fish in the ocean.

“Time is like the movement of a fish in the ocean”, Grand Shaikh Abdullah Daghestani (d 1972, Russia). Chain of Transmission: Grand Shaikh Mohammed Nazim al Haqqani al Qibrisi (Turkey and Cypress, d 2012)

The human is responsible for his/her intent, choice, will and action and he faces divine judgement for the intent in his heart, the will in his mind and his “a’mal” (actions). However, the choices that are offered to him as well as the outcome of actions are not under his control; they are in God’s hands. Man proposes; God disposes. You can sow a seed but whether it grows into a mighty tree or withers out and becomes dust is the will of God. There is cause and effect in nature but it is not deterministic and mechanical; it is statistical and probabilistic. That is why the Qur’an emphasizes that when we assert something relating to the future, we end it with the “inshallah”(if It is the will of God).

This explanation satisfies the criteria for man’s freedom to choose and action, his limited free will as well as God’s omnipresence and omnipotent. Yes, man is the architect of his own fortune but that fortune is one among countless number of fortunes that Allah offered him. The individual chose but one of those fortunes and “discovered” his own destiny that was in the “mansha’” of God.. 

Why did the Islamic civilization choose al Ghazzali over ibn Rushd?

Several reasons may be advanced as to why the Islamic civilization chose al Ghazzali over ibn Rushd.

• Al Ghazzali was on the winning side of a long debate between theology and philosophy in Islam. The theologians (usuli ulema) had triumphed over the philosophers (the Mu’tazalites) at the Abbasid courts in Baghdad in 846 CE. Thereafter, philosophy had continued as a peripheral intellectual activity to the central core of theology. Great philosophers did emerge but the Muslim body politic continued to look askance at their work and they did not find the same level of acceptance or veneration as the greats of theology. The triumph did not insulate the theologians from the continued challenge of philosophy and they continued to innovate and defend their positions using the same rational methods that the philosophers used. The contribution of al Ash’ari must be looked at from this perspective. He advanced his theory of atomistic time to explain how God’s will interjected itself at every moment to determine the outcome of an event. Al Ghazzali rode on the shoulders of al Ash’ari and delivered a severe blow to the pursuit of philosophy going so far as to accuse the philosophers of blasphemy and kufr for some of their views.  

• Al Ghazzali wrote the Tahaffuz al Falasafa under the patronage of the mighty Seljuk sultans. He continued to enjoy their goodwill throughout his life. By contrast, ibn Rushd’s relations with the al Mohad Emirs in Cordoba, Spain had a bumpy ride. He was patronized by the Almohad Emir Abu Yaqub (d 1184) but later fell out of favour with the Cordova court.

• The teachings of Al Ghazzali were spread far and wide through the string of colleges and madrassas established by the Seljuk grand vizier Nizamul Mulk, who was himself an admirer of al’Ash’ari.  A truncated Nizamiya syllabus is taught in some of madrassas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan even to this day. Ibn Rushd had no such good fortune. Under pressure from the ulema, he was tried in a tribunal for his views, his books were burned and he was banished from the Andalus for a while.

• The bulk of Spain was lost to the crusaders soon after the death of Ibn Rushd (d 1198). By 1248, Cordoba as well as Seville were under Christian control. By contrast, the vastness of Asia protected much of it from the onslaught of the Crusaders upon Palestine and Syria. Al Ghazzali passed away in 1111 CE. For more than a hundred years, the madrasas in Nishapur, Esfahan, Samarqand, Bukhara, Ghazna and Kabul continued to thrive and spread al Ghazzali’s teachings until the Mongol invasions in 1219.

• The Islam that emerged after the Mongol devastations (1219-1301) was a Sufi Islam, more inward looking, focused on inner reformation and purification. The teachings of al Ghazzali were more in tune with this esoteric, inward-looking Islam than the exoteric, reason-based teachings of ibn-Rushd. Indeed, al Ghazzali was a master of Tasawwuf and is credited as the scholar who gave a respectable position to Sufism within orthodox Islam.

• Lastly, it was the sheer power of al-Ghazzali’s dialectic and his scholarship that won the day. He was not only a great scholar, a theologian par excellence, he was also a master of the school of kalam which emerged after the Mu’tazalite period.

In summary, history and geography both favoured al-Ghazzali. When he wrote his Tahaffuz al Falasafa in 1095, the dialectic between theology and philosophy in Islam was already three hundred years old and it had been won by the theologians. Al Ghazzali’s work was the summation of that dialectic and its last chapter.

Why did Europe choose ibn Rushd?

Europe came upon Greek rational philosophy in the thirteenth century through a translation of classical Greek works from Arabic into Latin. There was no convulsive confrontation between theology and philosophy in Europe as there was between the Muta’zalites and the usuli ulema in the Islamic world in the eighth-ninth centuries. The writings of Thomas Aquinas (1274) scuttled the debate by separating church dogma from rational philosophy. The result was that Europe embarked on a secular path. Science, technology, sociology and history were separated from religion. Matters of faith were confined to the walls of the church. This separation continues to this day. As a consequence, modern man, having internalized the assumptions that underlie western civilization, finds himself in a soulless, godless world. God was taken out at the first gambit. Modern man cannot put Him back in the end game.   

Construction of a Technological Culture in the Islamic world

History is like tarnished silver. It needs constant scrubbing to bring out the polish and remind us how beautiful its nascent shine can be.

The construction of a technological culture in the Islamic world must begin with a deconstruction of historical narratives and a fresh start based on the primal source, namely, the Qur’an.

Present day Muslims stand on the shoulders of giants. Great were the personages who graced Islamic history since that sublime moment when the Light of Muhammed (pbuh) illuminated the world. Their legacy continues to guide us.

However, it must be remembered that those who came before us struggled in the context of their times. Their contributions, great in their impact, were nonetheless limited by their knowledge of the physical and the assumptions they made in developing their cosmology. While they created giant footsteps on the sands of time, they also left behind a good deal of dust that needs clearing up. 

Consider the Shia-Sunni split. It has its basis in history. The Suhaba disagreed on how to carry forward the legacy of the prophet after his death. The result was a wide chasm which continues to divide the global Islamic community even to this day. Does the Shia-Sunni schism have its sanction in the Qur’an? No. It ought to be relegated to the pages of history so that the community can reaffirm the brotherhood established by the Prophet.

Similar is the case with kalam and philosophy. In the eighth-ninth centuries Islamic theology had a broadside encounter with Greek philosophy. It was a brutal confrontation. Theology won the contest and philosophy was sidelined. But the tailwinds of the clash continued to haunt the Islamic intellectual landscape. Empirical science appeared as a sequel to philosophy and made its mark on world history. But its practitioners, giants like al Khwarizmi, ibn Sina, al Razi did not gain the kind of acceptance in the Islamic body politic as did theologians like al Ash’ari and al Ghazali.

It is in this context that we have to examine the dialectic between al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. While their positions were valid within the paradigms they assumed, there are fundamental problems with some of their assumptions.

A Deconstruction

• The Mu’tazalites assumed that time was eternal. There is no evidence to support this position. Our current knowledge takes us only to the Big Bang and the origin of the known universe, which is about 14 billion years old. The universe has a determined life span; everything in it does.
• The Ash’arites assumed that time was discrete, digital, discontinuous, atomistic. There is no evidence to support this position. We simply do not know what time is. We can make assumptions about it and each assumption leads to its own world-view.
• Al Ghazzali postulated that cause and effect take place “side by side”. There is no evidence to support this lofty but vague philosophical assertion. It is contrary to the laws of mechanics and the laws of energy transfer.
• Al Ghazzali also postulated that fire was a “dead body”. Far from it. Fire is energy and it is energy that propels the universe.

A deconstruction of historical narratives is therefore essential before a construction of an alternate vision of natural science and technology is constructed. The basis for this reconstruction is guidance from the Qur’an. It requires discarding the assumptions of “eternal time”, “atomistic time”, “side by side” as applied to cause and effect, even if such assumptions were held by the giants of Islamic history like al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. History is a teacher. History is not a tyrant. The Islamic psyche must be unshackled from the tyranny of history. 

The Islamic body politic, which is now held in ransom by shackles of history, must be freed to follow the Qur’an and the Seerah of the Prophet. The Qur’an offers a lofty vision of the human who is endowed with a body and a mind to interact with nature, a heart to feel divine presence and a soul to sift through right and wrong.

Reconstruction of a Science and Technology Culture in Muslim Societies

As we undertake a reconstruction of a science and technology culture in Muslim societies, we must be aware of the assumptions we made and enumerate those that we discard.

We discard the following assumptions that were made by the medieval philosophers:

• Time is eternal
• Time moves in discrete steps
• Cause and effect are not necessary. They occur “side by side”
• The human has no free will and is not responsible for his actions
• The human has unfettered free will and is autonomous.

Positions we accept, consistent with guidance from the Qur’an:

• God is the sole Creator. He creates from nothing. He is the First and the Last. His Grace pervades all creation and is not absent from it for a single moment.
• He has created the vast and majestic cosmos for a purpose and that purpose is to know, serve and worship Him. Serving God connotes serving His creation.
• The cosmos has a dynamic balance which is reflected in a dynamic balance and justice on earth.
• Every atom in the universe obeys His laws “willingly”. These are the natural laws.
• God repeats His creation and establishes patterns therein so that it becomes comprehensible.
• Every entity in the universe is endowed with attributes (properties) with which it is known and recognized and which determine its behavior.
• Cause and effect are ubiquitous in nature.
• The immediate cause and effect we observe in nature do not violate the doctrinal statement that God is musabbib al asbab (the Ultimate Cause of all causes).
• The cosmos has a beginning and an end.
• Change is continuous.
• Time is only a measure of change.

Regarding the human, we accept the following assumptions that are consistent with the guidance from the Qur’an:

• The human, as the khalifa of God on earth, is endowed with the sublime faculty of reason.
• Nature opens up its secrets to reason and is subservient to it. 
• The human is gifted with a heart, a Nafs ( soul) and a Ruh (spirit).
• The human is a knower and has a propensity to know. He was taught “the names” of all entities at his creation.
• The human has the freedom (iqtiar) in his intent, choice and action and is responsible for his intent, choice and act.
• The outcome of an action follows God’s laws and is not necessarily under human control.
• God has sent divine guidance through His Messengers to guide the human make the right choices.

The following inferences follow from our assumptions:

• Reason is the key that unlocks the secrets of nature. 
• The human “discovers” his future through his own choice.
• His choices mark the limit of his free will.
• The choices offered to a human at any moment are limitless and are created by God.

Empirical science and technology are based on observation, experimentation and reason.

The laws upon which science and technology are based are the laws of nature which constitute the Sunnah of Allah. Nature obeys divine laws based on God’s wisdom and justice and is amenable to understanding through reason. Divine grace is never absent from these laws. This self-evident truth needs no confirmation by philosophical discourse.

The Qur’an affirms again and again the primacy of reason in the created world, urging the human to witness, reflect and apply reason to understand nature (science), use the knowledge so acquired for human welfare (technology) and discharge his heavenly mandate as khalifa on earth to serve God (theology) and His creation (environment and ecology).

To enable him to discharge this mandate, God has bestowed upon the human faculties in addition to reason, namely, a heart to perceive the unseen world, a soul to sift through right and wrong and a spirit to connect him with Divine presence.  The Qur’an thus offers guidance to the human through the body, the mind, the heart, the soul and the spirit. The knowledge acquired through these means constitute the totality of human knowledge, ilm ul ibara (knowledge that can be taught), ilm ul ishara (knowledge that can be alluded to but cannot be taught) and ilm al ladduni (revealed knowledge that comes down through the Prophets).

Natural science is implicit and explicit in the Qur’an. The human is urged again and again to know God (that is, to know His Names and attributes) through the Signs in His creation.

Let us illustrate how cause and effect unfold in nature and how they form the basis of science.

An Example: The Wonder of Flight

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَافَّاتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلاَّ الرَّحْمَنُ إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ بَصِيرٌ

Do you not observe the birds
With their wings spread above them,
And (birds with wings) folded up?
None can hold them up (in dynamic equilibrium) except the Most Compassionate;
Indeed, He is the Seer of all things.   Surah al-Mulk, (67:19)

The wonder and awe of nature defies description. No matter which direction you turn, there are Signs for the majesty of the Creator. 

An appreciation of the subtleties of this Ayah requires a mastery of several disciplines: aerodynamics; ornithology; structural mechanics; oxygenation; energy transfer; guidance, navigation and control, to name but a few. There are wondrous Signs in nature, if only we knew how to look and how to ask the right questions.

We present the bar-tailed godwit as an illustration for the tafseer of this Ayah. It is a tiny bird that migrates every year from Alaska, northwest of Canada, to New Zealand, deep in the southern Pacific Ocean. It flies about 7000 miles (11000 kilometers) without stopping anywhere. Sometimes, it flies West to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and then south to New Zealand. At other times it takes an alternate route South to the Pacific Islands and then further South to New Zealand.

How can a small bird fly 7000 miles without stopping anywhere? How does it navigate and find its destination when there are no landmarks? How does it fly at night? Where does it get its in-flight food and sustenance from? How does it keep warm when the outside temperature is close to zero?

We offer three alternative approaches that may be used to develop answers to these questions: (1) by a believing scientist (2) by a secular scientist (3) a fatalist.

A believing scientist would start with Bismillah. He would recognize that an understanding of the flight of a bar-tiled godwit bird requires a mastery of several disciplines: aerodynamics; ornithology; structural mechanics; oxygenation; energy transfer; guidance, navigation and control, to name but a few. There are four known forces in nature: gravitation, electromagnetic, weak atomic and strong atomic. The first two are relevant in this case. The last two are not. The scientist would study in detail the air currents, temperatures, pressures, moisture, electrical storms and other weather conditions along the flight trajectory. He would also study the physical characteristics of the bird: weight, size, shape, flight feathers and control feathers. He would experiment and know something about the neural networks and sensors in the bird and their electromagnetic characteristics. He would write algorithms and equations, with clearly articulated assumptions, for the dynamics of flight of this tiny bird. He would analyze and obtain some insights to the questions raised. For many of the questions, there may be no answers with our limited current knowledge base. The believing scientist would table such questions for continued research. At each stage of his research, he would marvel at God’s creation with awe and wonder and cry out: Subhan Allah! The experience would reinforce his faith and take him closer to God who created this tiny bird that has so much to teach the human.

A secular scientist would go through the same process and arrive at the same conclusions except that he would not start with Bismillah nor would he end with Subhan Allah. His experience would be like a ladder that dangles in the air, neither firmly grounded on earth nor reaching up to heaven, but suspended in doubt and dissatisfaction.

A fatalist would not ask any of these questions. He would simply say: it is the work of God and go to sleep.

Muslim scientists in the classical era of Islam fell into the first category. They were guided by the light of the Qur’an, witnessed God’s creation in all its splendor and learned from the Signs they saw therein. Modern day Muslims fall into the third category. Having lost their way through the labyrinth of history, they turn their backs on science and circle around in orbits of fatalism.

Moving Forward

“Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves”. The development of a scientific and technological culture in Islam, must come from within. Elements of this transformation include:

• Discard Historical prejudices. Apply the Qur’an.

Discard notions that are a product of history but have no basis in the Qur’an or the Sunnah of the Prophet. A cup must be empty before milk is poured into it. Specifically, assumptions about time, cause and effect which have accrued as a result of the clash between philosophy and theology in medieval times must be discarded.

• Train the clergy

So pervasive is the influence of the clergy in the Islamic world that no reformation can succeed without their support. The Shaikhs, Mullahs and Molvis have a hold on the masses which can only be the envy of even the most successful political leader.

The historical record of Islamic clergy is less than illustrious on questions relating to science and technology. While the sordid story of Galileo and the Latin church is well known, that of the Islamic religious establishment is glossed over.  At critical moments in Islamic history, it was the religious establishment that put the brakes on scientific and technological progress. Here are a few glaring examples:

• After the Caliph al Mustansir disowned the Mu’tazalites (746 CE), the usuli ulema applied the whip to ensure that any vestiges of Mu’tazalite influence were wiped out. The pursuit of philosophy continued thereafter but only as a peripheral activity to the religious center.
  • Secondly, it was the ulema who opposed the introduction of the printing press into the Islamic world (1460 CE), a decision that was directly responsible for the educational backwardness of the Islamic world. It was not until 1728 that the printing press was introduced into the Ottoman empire. It was introduced into the Mughal empire even later.
  • Lastly, it was the ulema who forced the Ottoman Caliph Murad III to demolish the newly constructed Taqiuddin Astronomical Observatory (1575) in Istanbul because they suspected that the work of the observatory was against Islamic teachings.

A suspicion of science as a secular pursuit that takes the human away from God persists to this day among a significant section of Muslim religious establishment. The shaikhs, mullahs and molvis simply do not understand science or technology. What they do not understand, they suspect and oppose, unless that technology personally benefits them.

The Islamic world would benefit a great deal if training centers are established to teach the shaikhs and mullahs in the basics of science and technology. The goal is to mitigate the suspicion and opposition of the clergy to science and technology by exposing them to the assumptions, processes and benefits that underlie the natural sciences and show that their pursuit i consistent the guidance from the Qur’an.

• Impart Mass Education

There exists a vast network of schools and madrassas purporting to teach religion (Deeni Ta’leem as it is called). India alone is estimated to have 30,000 madrasas. Pakistan has half as many. Primary instruction in these institutions is through rote learning. Secondary education includes memorization and hadith. At the advanced grades, the curriculum is a hangover of the Nizamiya syllabus from the twelfth century and includes a study of Fiqh, a history of the early Caliphs and rudiments of medieval philosophy.

With a minimal effort, these institutions can be transformed into agents of change towards a scientific and technological culture. In addition to the sciences of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, a basic exposure to science, math and technology would pay rich dividends. A change in syllabus is long overdue.

• Develop critical thinking as it applies to questions in natural science and technology.

God created the universe and gave its key to the human. That key is reason. Nature yields what you demand from it. A critical, questioning attitude towards nature is required for this process. The Muslim scientists in the classical era excelled in their questioning and unlocked the secrets of the heavens (astronomy), elements (chemistry), plants (agronomy), cures for diseases (medicine) and natural structures (geometry). Such an attitude is a part of Ijtehad ordained by God. It was only in the later centuries that the clergy limited Ijtehad to personal minutia (such as whether a moustache is halal or haram) or totally abandoned it in favor of taqleed.

• Experiment

Cultivate a passion for experimentation in science and technology, coupled with an acceptance of results that are consistent even if they refute established and entrenched dogma.

As ibn al Arabi said: “Feehi ma feehi”. A thing is what it is. If a baseball that is hit shatters a brittle glass panel, we must have the integrity to say that the efficient (immediate) cause of the shattered glass is the momentum from the baseball. Cracks propagate because of stress. Earthquakes are caused by movement of geological plates. Airplanes fly because of airfoil design and fall because of wind shear.  These statements in no way compromise the omnipotence of God who is musabbib al asbab. It is understood that man’s innovative capabilities are bestowed by God. The scientist’s quest is a search for the Sunnah of Allah in nature. He asks the questions: How? What? He marvels at his discoveries and he uses them for the benefit of man and to serve God and His crreation.  (wa Saqqara lakum ma fis samawati wal ard- And I have subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and the earth).

• Political will and commitment

Revolutions require political will and commitment. The influential strata of society, the governments, the clergy, the intelligentsia, the industrialists and bankers need to make a commitment for such a positive transformation. A change in mindset is a pre-requisite. The economies of Muslim countries need to shift from resource base (oil, gas, agriculture, minerals, gems) to knowledge base. Technological and scientific education is the key. A single silicon chip is more valuable than a hundred barrels of oil.

Some Concluding Words

What moves the modern world is technology. It influences the way we do our work, how we relate to each other and to nature. It is the modulator of human behavior, art, philosophy, economics, politics and culture.

As we move forward, the world is increasingly segregated into two segments: those who have access to technology and those who do not. The first group will rule the world. The second group will serve the first group.

Technology is not just a nice thing to have. It is not just to have mobile phones, TV, cars and airplanes. It is not just for national defense although technology has a major impact on defense. Technology is necessary for the very survival of a civilization.

Islamic civilization is at a cross roads. One road leads to security and prosperity based on science and technology. This is the road that the Shariah commands the human to take and for which the Qur’an provides guidance. The other road is one of ignorance, poverty, servitude and ultimately, extinction.

Islamic civilization has locked itself in a self-made prison and has shackled itself in chains of misconceptions about the human and the universe that he lives in. These misconceptions arise from a burden of history.

It is time the Islamic civilization unshackled itself. Ash’arite philosophy, assumptions about mysteries of time, rejection of causation are burdens of the past. A scientific and technological culture unshackles these burdens. The keys to unlock these shackles are in God-given Aql (reason). However, unlike secular man who has left God in the church and assumes that his reason is autonomous, the Muslim scientist exercises his reason as a divine gift to which the God’s creation opens its doors. The keys are in the Qur’an, which beckons the mind towards Signs of Allah, shows the broad, open highways to the physical (seeing, hearing, touching, speaking), ennobles the heart with the Light of Divine Names and guides the soul to avoid the pitfalls of disbelief.  How marvelous a world that is! Subhan Allah!

Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed

Summary

This article achieves two things: It reconciles taqdeer with tadbir and it reconciles al Ghazzali with Ibn Rushd. This has seldom been attempted before.

History can be a teacher or a tyrant. In 1095 CE, Imam Al Ghazzali, one of the most influential theologians in Islamic history, wrote in his treatise Tahaffuz al Falasafa (Repudiation of the Philosophers): “The connection (iqtirân) between what is habitually believed to be a cause and what is habitually believed to be an effect is not necessary (darûrî), according to us…(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Historians have long contended that this apparent refutation of cause and effect served as an effective force field blocking the advancement of science and technology in the Islamic world. Al Ghazzali’s position was challenged by Ibn Rushd (d 1198) who emphasized that cause and effect were the very basis of reason that held together the edifice of human knowledge.

Islamic civilization chose al Ghazzali over Ibn Rushd, while Europe chose Ibn Rushd over al Ghazali. As a result, Europe moved ahead in science and technology. The Islamic world, which at one time led the world in the natural sciences, lost its advantage and became subservient to Europe.

In this essay, we examine the historical context of this epic debate and offer a reconciliation of  the two positions.  Our approach is based on guidance from the Qur’an. Such a reconciliation is essential for creating a scientific and technological culture in the Islamic world.

Nothing less than the survival of Islamic civilization in an increasingly technological world hinges on such a reconciliation.

The discussion involves a confluence of philosophy, theology, kalam, empirical science, quantum physics, statistics and history and at times becomes highly cerebral. We have attempted to simplify the concepts and document our observations for those who come after us.  It will also be available on www.historyofislam.com.

The distinctive character of positivistic knowledge is that it opens up avenues for the human to attain his potential through an exercise of reason. It enhances material welfare through innovation, shields the human from abject and debilitating poverty, protects life by enabling effective means of defense, provides a bulwark against disease through medical research and mitigates hunger and starvation through agricultural advancement. Indeed, it opens up a possibility (just a possibility) of heaven on earth.

Introduction

We live in extraordinary times. These are times when humankind has conquered space and searches for life on other planets. Giant telescopes seek to unlock the very origin of the known universe. Terms such as space travel, the Theory of Relativity and the Big Bang have entered into common discourse. Machine learning and robotics drive the cutting edge of technology and seek to replace human reasoning with artificial intelligence. Nano-technology unlocks the secrets of cellular biology and beckons us to a world of engineered DNA. Indeed, we are now headed into a post-human world in which the very essence of being human is challenged.

While technology drives human civilization, the Islamic world is bogged down with pointless disputes about beards, clothes and coverings. By every yardstick, be it primary education or the number of scientific papers published in respectable journals, the Islamic world lags behind the technologically advanced world. What is more significant is that the gap between Muslim societies and the technologically advanced societies is increasing at an alarming rate. The result is illiteracy, ignorance, abject poverty, cultural bankruptcy, social stagnation, technological marginalization, political and military impotence.

How did this happen? How did a civilization that led the world in science and technology for five hundred years fall so far behind? In my writings, I have highlighted several factors that contributed to this decline: the Mongol deluge (1219-1258), the Crusades (1096-1250), the loss of Spain (1236-1492), the rise of tasawwuf with its emphasis on the esoteric (thirteenth century), the opposition to the printing press (fifteenth century), neglect of naval technology (seventeenth century), loss of international trade (eighteenth century), colonization and dismantling of the traditional education systems (nineteenth century). Underlying these factors was a distancing from rational thought that grew out of the titanic collision between the philosophers and the theologians in the eighth-ninth centuries. The dialectic between al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd was the cutting edge of that debate. Unless the Islamic civilization shakes off the hangover from that debate, it cannot expect to work its way out of technological backwardness.

This article takes a fresh look at that critical moment in history when philosophy collided with theology. More than eight hundred years have elapsed since that great debate. Empirical science, which was in its infancy in the eighth century is now a full-grown adult and it offers fresh perspectives on the issues that divided the two camps. We apply the modern understanding of classical mechanics and quantum physics and attempt to bridge the gap between philosophy, religion and science so that the Islamic civilization can move forward with confidence on the road to a technological renaissance.

The Historical Context

In the seventh century, the Islamic domains expanded and stretched from the Indus River in Pakistan to the Pyrenees mountains in France. This vast empire connected and welded together Asia, Africa and Europe, facilitating the movement of goods and ideas. The early Muslims, impelled by injunctions from the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet were enthusiastic and keen learners. They learned from the east and west, from India and China, Greece and Persia, moulded what they had learned in an Islamic crucible and added their own stamp to the reservoir of human knowledge through new fields of learning. The Abbasid Caliph al Mansur (d 775) invited scholars from around the world to come to the capital city of Baghdad and soon the city became a magnet for men of learning. Al Mansur established an academy called Baitul Hikmah (the House of Wisdom) where scholarly books from around the world were translated into Arabic. From India came the astronomy of Aryabhatta, from Greece came the works of Aristotle, Plato and Hippocrates, from China came the technology for manufacturing porcelain and papermaking and from Iran the art of constructing windmills. Baitul Hikmah was a cosmopolitan academy. Among the scholars who worked there were Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. The Muslims learned the sciences of other civilizations and made their own contributions inventing the fields of algebra, chemistry, perfecting the methods of empirical science and adding to the fields of medicine, surgery, astronomy, art, music, history, geography, agriculture, engineering and philosophy.

Of all the sciences that the Muslims came in contact with, it was Greek rational thought that caught their fancy and they fell in love with its rigor and its precision. Aristotle became their hero and reason their guide. The Caliph al Mansur adopted and promoted Greek philosophy (the philosophy of the ancients as it was called) as court dogma. Muslim scholars set out to apply rational methods to physical phenomenon as well as social, cultural and religious issues with excitement and enthusiasm. These scholars were called the Mu’tazalites.

It was the heyday for rational sciences in Islam. It was the age of Harun al Rashid and Mamum, of Shehrezad and the Arabian Nights, of al Khwarizmi and al Kindi. The Mu’tazalites amalgamated the rational methods of the Greeks, the mathematics of the Indians and the technology of the Chinese, laid the foundation for empirical sciences, invented new disciplines and became torch bearers for the advancement of human civilization.

The application of classical Greek rational thought in an Islamic paradigm was not without its challenge. Of particular concern were the assumptions that the Greeks made about the nature of time and the questions surrounding cause and effect. These assumptions when applied to theological issues presented profound and fundamental doctrinal challenges to Muslim scholars.

The Greeks assumed that time was “eternal”. However, from an Islamic perspective, the acceptance of time as “eternal” would make it co-extent with God who is “wahid”, “self-subsisting” and “eternal”. This was unacceptable to the theologians. In addition, if time is eternal, then everything “other than God” was “created” in time. Specifically, was the Qur’an “created” in time? The Mu’tazalites, who were staunch Muwahids fell into a trap on this issue. They wanted to preserve the transcendence of God. Everything, “other than God”, had to be “created” “in time”. When they applied this logic to the Qur’an, they fell flat on their face. They concluded that the Qur’an was “created” by God “in time”. Needless to say, this position was unacceptable to the theologians. Resistance set in.

A second issue was cause and effect in nature. The Mu’tazalites affirmed that cause and effect were ubiquitous in nature. This position also had theological implications. If cause and effect followed one from the other mechanistically, then, how does the will of God operate in nature? Isn’t God the “doer” of all actions? Here again, the theologians took the Mu’tazalites to task and opposed them.

There were other issues of disagreement as well, namely, human free will (ikhtiar) and man’s responsibility for his actions. However, we will limit our discussion in this essay to only those issues that dealt with the phenomenon of nature and man’s interaction with it.

The position that the Qur’an was “created” “in time” caused great commotion in the Muslim body politic. The resistance to this position was led by the usuli ulema, spearheaded by Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal. The Mu’tazalites were not tolerant of dissent. Imam Ahmed was publicly flogged for his opposition and was imprisoned. However, with each oppressive measure, the voices of protest grew louder. Faced with mounting public pressure, the later Abbasid Caliphs relented. In 846 CE, the Caliph al Mutawakkil disavowed the Mu’tazalites and banished them from his court. In turn, when the anti-Mu’tazalites won the favor of the Caliphs, they instituted a Mehna (inquisition) against the Mu’tazalites; many were punished for their views and their books were burned.

The triumph of the usuli ulema over the Mu’tazalites in 846 marks a benchmark in Islamic history. Four significant aspects of the epic confrontation between philosophy and theology in Islam stand out. First, a critique of the speculative deductions of the philosophers did not come from within; it came from the usuli ulema. Second, when a critique did emerge from the ulema, the Mu’tazalites showed an inability to stomach the critique; they increasingly turned the whip on the protesters. Third, when the tables turned and the theologians triumphed, they in turn conducted an inquisition against the Mu’tazalite and persecuted them. Fourth, in the aftermath of the confrontation, the orthodox vision of Islam came to occupy the center while philosophy was pushed to the periphery. Henceforth, the philosophers would be compelled to be reticent in their work and look over their shoulders for any broadside from the theologians.

Philosophy had lost its official patronage in the courts of Baghdad but even as it had lost, it forced theology to defend itself. A new discipline emerged, combining theology with discursive philosophy with the dual purpose of safeguarding the theological fortress from the onslaught of philosophy while at the same time making theology palatable and accessible to the masses. This new discipline was called “kalam”. The practitioners of kalam were called the “mutakallimun”.

The triumph of theology over philosophy did not relieve the ulema of the burden of justifying their positions in a rational paradigm. For instance, if cause and effect do not follow one from the other as the philosophers maintained, how do actions and reactions follow one another? Fifty years after the Mu’tazalites were discredited in Baghdad, a noted scholar al Ash’ari rose to the challenge. He advanced the theory that “time” was not continuous, that it consisted of a series of digital, discontinuous, “atomistic” increments. At each increment, the will of God intervened in accordance with His predetermined plan to make things happen. Thus, the omnipotence of God was preserved.   This explanation was easy to understand and it found broad acceptance in the Islamic world. Among those who accepted the Ash’arite cosmology were some of the greatest thinkers in Islamic history, including, the Seljuk Grand Vizier Nizam ul Mulk (d 1092) and Imam al Ghazzali (d 1111).

Al Ghazzali and the Geopolitical context of his works

Al Ghazzali (1056 -1111 CE) appeared on the canvas of history when the Islamic world was at the height of its political power but was riven asunder by internal ideological conflicts. In the latter part of the tenth century, the Fatimids stormed out of North Africa, capturing Egypt in 969 CE and extending their sway over Hijaz and Syria. Circa 1000 CE, their influence extended as far as Multan in Pakistan. The loss of Egypt meant that the Sunni Caliphs in Baghdad were cut off from trade routes that connected India with the trading city states of Venice, Milan and Genoa. The Fatimids in Cairo thrived even as the Abbasids in Baghdad struggled with shrinking revenues.

In the eleventh century (1040-1092), the Seljuk Turks descended from the Steppes of Central Asia, conquered most of West and Central Asia and established a vast and powerful empire stretching from Kashgar (China) to Damascus (Syria). 

                                                   The Seljuk Empire circa 1092

As Sunni Muslims, the Turks became champions and protectors of the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad. A test of arms between the Fatimids and the Seljuks was inevitable. They fought over control of Syria and Palestine in which the Seljuks were victorious. The response of the Fatimids was a deadly, clandestine war against their foes. The Assassins, a shadowy, disgruntled extremist group broke off from the Fatimids and waged an asymmetrical cloak and dagger war for over a hundred years against the Seljuks and other Sunni powers of Asia.

The intellectual landscape was equally turbulent. The Fatimid challenge to Sunni Islam was not just political-military, it was also doctrinal. The Fatimids believed that their version of Islam with its emphasis on the Imamate was the true Islam. They set upon converting the Sunni world to their faith, establishing schools and colleges to train the daees (proselytizers). The renowned Al Azhar university in Cairo was established in 969  CE by the Fatimid Caliph al Muiz not just as a higher citadel of learning but also as a propaganda center for Fatimid Islam. The well-trained daees spread out throughout the Islamic world, inviting the believers to shift over to the view that the first seven Imams were the true inheritors of the spiritual legacy of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). Their esoteric ideas, often couched in secretive language, were a source of confusion in the Islamic body politic.

The Seljuks were patrons of art, architecture, poetry, education, astronomy and the mathematical sciences and their capital Esfahan became a magnet for theologians, philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, poets and architects.  The celebrated mathematician-poet Omar Khayyam, who compiled the precise Jalalian calendar worked at the magnificent court of Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah (d 1092).  The great vizier Nizam ul Mulk (d 1092) was himself a writer and author of Siasat Nama, a masterpiece of political science. He established universities in Esfehan, Baghdad, Nishapur, Merv, Samarqand and Bokhara and built madrasas throughout the empire.

Al Ghazzali, arguably the most influential theologians in Islamic history, was born in Tabaran-Tus (Iran) in 1057. He received his early education in Tus and then proceeded to Nishapur where he studied under the well-known Ash’arite scholar al Juwayni. Upon the death of his teacher, he moved to Baghdad (1089) which was at the time the premier center of learning in the world.  Al Gazzali’s erudition and sharp wit attracted the attention of the grand vizier Nizamul Mulk, who appointed him Professor at the prestigious Nizamiya college in Baghdad.

The Seljuks were under doctrinal pressure from the Fatimids. The Batini Assassins were wreaking havoc on the body-politic. The arguments of the philosophers were causing confusion in the minds of the people. Encouraged by Nizamul Mulk, Al Ghazzali took on the defense of Sunni orthodoxy and turned his powerful dialectic against the esoteric doctrines of the Fatimids as well as the endless argumentations of the philosophers. A theologian by training, he dived deep into the tenets of philosophy and turned its arguments against its practitioners. His Tahaffuz al Falasafa (Repudiation of the Philosophers) was a masterful thrust at the philosophers. While maintaining the importance of reason in the implementation of the Shariah, Al Ghazzali denounced the philosophers for their beliefs in the eternity of time and cause and effect in nature, going so far as to suggest that philosophers like ibn Sina were Takfireen (disbelievers).

Al Ghazzali’s Repudiation of the Philosophers

The string of madrassas and colleges established by Nizamul Mulk in the vast Seljuk empire served as vehicles for dissemination of Al Ghazzali’s ideas. The Nizamiya syllabus that was introduced into these madrassas reflected the Ash’arite positions on philosophy. It was this syllabus, with some modifications, which was used in throughout Islamic world until the nineteenth century. Some madrasas in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh use a stripped-down version of the Nizamiya syllabus even to this day.

Al Ghazzali’s knowledge was encyclopedic covering theology, kalam, philosophy, ethics, Shariah, tasawwuf and his influence was global. He wrote more than 70 books, only one of which, namely, Tahaffuz al Falasafa, is under discussion here. In this book, Al Ghazzali examines twenty of the assumptions and beliefs held by the philosophers of the day. We limit ourselves only to two of the twenty issues Al Ghazzali examines, namely, his views on the nature of time (issue 1 in Tahaffuz al Falasafa) and his position on cause and effect (issue 17 in the book).

Al Ghazzali was an Ash’arite. Like al Ash’ari, Al Ghazzali accepted the atomistic theory of time, namely, that time can be digitized and divided into miniscule, discrete packets. This position led him to claim that there was no cause and effect in nature, only “habits”. It was God who was the efficient, direct, immediate agent for all events; He caused these events either directly or through intermediaries.  Al Ghazali wrote: “The connection between what is habitually believed to be a cause and what is habitually believed to be an effect is not necessary, according to us. For any two things, it is not necessary that the existence or the nonexistence of one follows necessarily from the existence or the nonexistence of the other. Their connection is due to the prior decision of God, who creates them side by side, not to its being necessary by itself, incapable of separation” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Citing the example of the burning of cotton by fire, he observed: “….We say that the efficient cause of the combustion through the creation of blackness in the cotton and through causing the separation of its parts and turning it into coal or ashes is God—either through the mediation of the angels or without mediation. For fire is a dead body which has no action, and what is the proof that it is the agent?”

Al Ghazzali was concerned that the acceptance of cause and effect would preclude the possibility of miracles. He wrote: “On its negation (of natural causality) depends the possibility of affirming the existence of miracles which interrupt the usual course of nature . . . and those who consider the ordinary course of nature a logical necessity regard all this as impossible.” The philosophers maintained that there was cause and effect in nature. If cause and effect mechanistically and deterministically follow one from the other, where is the need for the intercession of God? This position, argued al Ghazzali, would contradict the omnipotence of God.

Ibn Rushd and his defense of the philosophers

Al Ghazzali’s position did not go unchallenged. The Spanish jurist and philosopher Ibn Rushd (d 1198) rose to the defense of the philosophers.

Ibn Rushd was born into a prominent family of jurists in Cordoba, Spain in 1126. His grandfather was an influential scholar at the Almoravid courts. Ibn Rushd received his early education in Cordoba and Seville and mastered the fields of jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, mathematics and astronomy. The Almohads (1147-1214) seized North Africa and Andalus (southern Spain) from the Almoravids and established their own Caliphate. Ibn Rushd found favor with the Almohad courts and worked for them in various capacities in Marrakesh, Seville and Cordoba. In 1171 he was appointed the chief Kazi of Cordoba, the most prestigious judiciary position in the kingdom. Encouraged by the second Almohad Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf (1163-84), Ibn Rushd wrote his celebrated commentaries on Aristotle, which had a profound impact on the development of philosophy and science in Europe. We would like to point out here that Ibn Rushd was a contemporary of the well-known physician-philosopher Ibn Tufayl (1105-1185) and the Sufi master (honorably referred to as Shaikh al Akbar – the great shaikh),  Ibn al Arabi (1165-1240). Ibn Rushd had a collegial relationship with Ibn Tufayl and worked with him while there are only anecdotal descriptions of his meetings with Ibn al Arabi.

Ibn Rushd wrote more than 100 books covering theology, jurisprudence, philosophy and mathematics. However, it is for his book, Tahaffuz al Tahaffuz, a critique of Al Ghazzali’s Tahaffuz al Falasafa that Ibn Rushd is best known in the Islamic world. His defense of the philosophers was forceful and comprehensive. We will focus here only on two issues from his Tahaffuz al Tahaffuz that are relevant to modern science, namely, his views on the nature of time and cause and effect.

Al Ghazzali questioned the necessity of cause and effect in nature. He held that only God was the efficient cause and that events happened one after the other according to their taqdeer (Divine decree). This was the Ash’arite position based on a discontinuous, atomistic view of time.  This assumption about time was introduced by al Ash’ari to explain the possibility of miracles, namely, phenomenon that do not follow the accepted norms of cause and effect. Al Ghazzali wrote: “On the negation (of natural causality) depends the possibility of affirming the existence of miracles which interrupt the usual course of nature . . . and those who consider the ordinary course of nature a logical necessity regard all this as impossible.”

Ibn Rushd took issues with this position as contrary to reason. He wrote: ““……. Intelligence is nothing but the perception of things with their causes, and in this it distinguishes itself from all the other faculties of apprehension, and he who denies causes must deny the intellect. Logic implies the existence of causes and effects, and knowledge of these effects can only be rendered perfect through knowledge of their causes. Denial of cause implies the denial of knowledge, and denial of knowledge implies that nothing in this world can be really known, and that what is supposed to be known is nothing but opinion, that neither proof nor definition exist, and that the essential attributes which compose definitions are void. The man who denies the necessity of any item of knowledge must admit that even this, his own affirmation, is not necessary knowledge.”

Ibn Rushd was sensitive to the criticism of the theologians and took pains to explain that the philosophers were staunch believers: “The learned among the philosophers do not permit discussion or disputation about the principles of religion, and he who does such a thing, according to them, needs a severe lesson … Of religious principles it must be said that they are divine things which surpass human understanding, but must be acknowledged although their causes are unknown.”. On creation, he wrote: “Creation is an act of God. He created the world providentially, not by chance. The world is well ordered and is in a state of the most perfect regularity, which proves the existence of a wise Creator. Causality is presupposed”

Both Al Ghazzali the theologian, and Ibn Rushd the Jurist-Philosopher, supported their positions with quotes from the Qur’an. To al Ghazzali, the omnipotence of God was paramount. Like al Ash’ari, he postulated a discrete time so that he could conceptually accommodate the intervention of divine will in every action. However, in the process he relegated the truth of observation to “habit” and went on to propose, without evidence, his own theory of cause and effect as events that happened “side by side”.

To Ibn Rushd, time was continuous and eternal. To the theologian’s objection that this would make time co-extent with God, Ibn Rushd would reposit that the infinity of time collapses before the infinity of God, thereby preserving the sanctity of God’s primal creation of nature including time itself. To Ibn Rushd, cause and effect were confirmed by observation. Without a causal relationship, reason itself made no sense and the world would become unintelligible.

Ibn Sina, Necessary Agent and Contingent Agent

Ibn Sina (d 1037), one of the most distinguished scientists in the Islamic golden age, understood the futility of deciphering time and described physical phenomenon in terms of change rather than time. In his cosmology, time becomes a tool for measurement of change, much as it does in the cosmology of modern science. Regarding the issue of cause and effect, Ibn Sina differentiated between a “necessary” agent of change and a “contingent” agent of change. God was the “necessary” agent of change. It was He who is primal origin of all causes. The contingent agents are intermediate or apparent agents. For instance, if a house is destroyed in an earthquake, the earthquake is the “contingent” agent, God is the “necessary” agent. Ibn Sina was thus able to retain the causality in nature while safeguarding the tenet that God is the ultimate cause of all causes.

The Maturidi (d 944) Compromise

Shaikh al Maturidi, in his book Kitab al Tauhid, advanced a position that was a compromise between the Ash’ari and Mu’tazila positions. The Mutazilites had maintained that man had both a free will (Iqtiar) and freedom to choose (iktisab). It was their view that cause and effect were deterministic and necessarily followed one from the other. Shaikh al Ash’ari had taken the opposite view. Postulating that time was discrete, he maintained that only God had the free will and freedom to choose and that events happened at every moment in accordance with His predetermined will, either through angels or through direct intervention.

Shaikh al Maturidi took issues with both the Asharites and the Mu’tazalites. He maintained that a merciful God, in His wisdom and justice, created alternate outcomes for every event. He provided guidance through His revealed books and His messengers as to which of the alternate outcomes were “good” and which were “evil”. The human was endowed with reason (aql) to discern and choose between the alternative courses of action created by God and presented to man. Thus, al Maturdi accepted the free will and choice of the human while maintaining that the creator of those choices and of alternate courses of action was God. In al Maturdi’s cosmology both the free will and choice of the human and the omniscience and omnipotence were preserved.

Similarly, in a natural phenomenon, each event has an infinite number of outcomes, each of which is prescribed by the Will of God. That an event repeats and is predictable is the Sunnah of Allah. As the Qur’an states: “Allah creates and repeats His creation”. This repetition and the predictable patterns they create make it possible to capture natural phenomenon through equations, algorithms, mathematical representations and geometry and build the tree of scientific and technological knowledge.

 

Al Maturidi’s position is remarkably similar to some of the modern views of space-time. In this view, there is no one single pre-determined future but an infinite number of possible “futures”. The choice of any one course of action in space-time determines “the future” that we experience. The arrow of time is not just “forward” and “backward” as most philosophers argue, but it vectors in infinite number of directions, all of them within the “mansha” or conception of God. This  cosmology opens up the possibility of an infinite number of possible futures depending on a choice that one makes at a given moment. Each further choice, in turn, takes us in a different direction. The creator of all choices is God; The human is the medium that exercises his choice using his limited free will. His omnipotence is thus preserved. The possibilities are illustrated in the diagram above.

In the diagram, action A leads to choices B,C,D,E,F,G all of which are within the “mansha” (will, plan, conception) of God. You choose outcome F. That is your “fate”. The choice of action F leads to further possibilities of which you choose action J. Once again, that is your “fate”. Then onto K,L,M,N,O,P and so on. Thus, “a human is the architect of his own fortune” but this fortune is within the mansha of God. A profound insight indeed that preserves the omnipotence of God and the choice of the human.

Al Maturidi’s compromise cosmology was popular in the eastern Islamic world. The Sunni, Hanafi Ottomans and the great Moguls of India adopted it as court dogma. In the recent past, Allama Iqbal (d 1938) used it in his articulation of human free will.

The Maturidi school was overshadowed by the more fatalistic Ash’ari cosmology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the Ottoman and Mughal empires vaned and Europe increasingly dominated the world putting the Muslims on the defensive.

A Sufi perspective on time

In the spiritual Sufi perspectives, supported by the Qur’an, there are layers of reality separating human perception from the Ultimate Reality. In this perspective, the assumed “eternity” of time in philosophy is only figurative in as much as physical time collapses to nothingness before the eternity of God.

I asked a venerated Sufi Shaikh from Turkey to throw some light on this question. He said: “I heard from my Shaikh that time is like a fish in an ocean”.  The Shaikh made a sinewy motion with his right hand to show the movement of a fish.

Time is like the fish that was lost by the companion of Moses at the junction of the two seas. Al Ghazzali, the theologian, stood at the shores of the sea and saw time as an atom. Ibn Rushd, the jurist and philosopher, rode on the back of the fish and saw time as movement in an endless ocean. The perspectives were different.

In the cosmology of Shihabuddin Suhrawardy (d 1191), there are heavenly domains that separate the human from the earthly domains. There are four identified heavenly domians: Ahad, Wahed, Wahdaniyet, Arwah.  These domains are independent of space-time (la-makan in the Urdu language).The created world (alam e khalq) is separated from the heavenly domains and is the domain of apparent space-time. In this world, reason, logic, mathematics, language, cause and effect apply. The interface between the created world and the heavenly realms defines the limit of human reason.

The Core of the Controversies

At the core of the dialectic between the theologians and the philosophers was the nature of time and cause and effect. To the philosophers, time was continuous and eternal. In a structured, ordered universe, cause and effect were confirmed by observation. This position was unacceptable to the theologians. If cause and effect followed one from the other mechanistically, there is no room for the intervention of God. In that case, how do you explain the occurrence of miracles? Therefore, they advanced a theory of discrete time in which the will of God intervened at each discrete moment and ensured that the outcome of an event is according to God’s decree (taqdeer).

A second issue was the origin of time itself. Was time eternal, or, did it have a finite beginning and an end? The philosophers, following the lead of Aristotle, believed that time was eternal. Controversies emerged when this assumption was applied to the Qur’an. The philosophers were strict monotheists (Mowahhids). The assumption of eternal time led them into a trap of their own making. The Qur’an declares: “God is One. He is Self Sufficient. He does not beget nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him”. To preserve the sanctity of Tawhid (“there is none like unto Him), they could not make God’s Word co-extent with His essence. Therefore, they postulated that the Qur’an was “created” (by God) “in time”. This was unacceptable to the theologians and the two positions collided. The debate had a profound impact on developments in Islamic civilization.

RECONSTRUCTION OF A TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE IN ISLAM – PART 2

Reconstruction of a Technological Culture in Islam – Part 2

Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed

What is Time?

A familiarity with the theories, assumptions and beliefs about the nature of time is a pre-requite to understanding the disputes between the philosophers and the theologians and bringing about a reconciliation between the positions of al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. Accordingly, we survey the insights about time provided in the Qur’an and also examine the modern perspectives on the subject.

Time as revealed in the Qur’an

Time is a mystery within an enigma within a riddle. It is a secret that no one has been able to fathom. Yet, it forms the very basis of knowledge and of changes in the cosmos. Philosophy, logic, science and history are all based on fundamental assumptions about time.

The mystery of time deepens as we study the various contexts in which it is revealed in the Qur’an:

The days are counted;
Then, whoever among you is ill, or is traveling,
May complete his fasts later, (Quran, 2:184)

The Angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a moment,
Whose measure is fifty thousand years. (70: 4)

Has there transpired upon humankind a time
From (the oceans of timeless) Time (ad Dha’r)
When he was not even a thing mentioned? (76:1)

There is a term decreed for every spiritual community.
When the decreed time arrives,
they cannot hold it back one moment
or move it forward (one moment). (7:34)

O humankind! If you are in doubt about resurrection,
Then (consider this): We did indeed create you from the earth,
Then from a sperm,
Then from an impregnated egg,
Then from a piece of flesh—
With features and without features—
So that We may convey to you (Our Message);
And We establish a pregnancy for a period fixed, as We will,
Then We bring you forth as a baby,
Then, (sustain you) so that you reach the fullness of youth. (22:5)

By (the passage of) time,

Verily, humankind is indeed at a loss,

Except such as those who have certainty of faith,
And perform righteous deeds,
And enjoin upon one another Justice (Truth),
And enjoin upon one another Patience (Constancy and Perseverance). (103:1-3)

And We struck their ears (made them asleep) in the cave for many years.

Then We woke them up to see which of the two groups remembered

long they had stayed (in the cave). (18:11-12)

Hearken! Of a certainty, the transgressors shall be in eternal punishment! 42:45

Every Nafs shall have a taste of death
And it is not until the Judgment Day
That you shall reap the full recompense (for your deeds). (3:185)

Establish prayer at the sun’s decline till the onset of the night (17:78)

And eat and drink
Until the white thread of dawn
Becomes distinguishable against the darkness (of night).
Then keep your fasts until nightfall. (2: 187)

And whoever desires to combine the Umrah with the Hajj,
And cannot find (a suitable gift),
Let him fast for three days during Hajj
And seven days after he returns (from Hajj).
This makes it ten altogether. (2:196)

He it is who created you from clay,
Then from a seminal fluid,
Then from an embryo,
Then He brings you forth as a baby,
Then (He sustains you) so that you reach the fullness (of youth)
Then (He sustains you) so that you reach old age,
And among you some die before it,
And (He sustains you) so that you attain an age determined,
And learn wisdom. (40:67)

Sovereign of the Day of Judgment (1:4)

So, Allah will decide between them on the Judgment Day.  (4: 141)

Allah is He, there is no god but He.
Then He will indeed gather you all together on the Judgment Day

About it there is no doubt. (4: 87)

There can be no doubt that Allah will gather you all together

On the Judgment Day. (6:12)

And make us not be ashamed on the Judgment Day.
Indeed, You do not compromise on Your promise.” (3:194)

And what conjecture do they have –
They who ascribe a falsehood to Allah –
About the Day of Judgment? (10:60)

“O son of Adam! Do not abase time. I am Time (ad Dhahr)”

Modern Concepts of time

What are the modern concepts of time? Do they help us resolve the disputes between medieval Islamic philosophers and theologians?

Whereas the ancients measured time by sunrise, sunset and the sundial, modern man uses digital clocks and atomic clocks that are accurate to 10^-22 seconds. However, the idea is the same: time is an entity that is measured by the relative movement between two other entities: the earth around the sun; the moon around the earth; the earth around its own axis; electrons around a nucleus, and so on. The old yardsticks were days, months and years. In modern astronomy, the distances between stars and galaxies are measured in light years, namely, the time light takes to travel from one entity to another.

Thanks to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and its popularization in fiction and movies such as Star Wars, even a child today is familiar with the idea of relative time. Time compresses as you approach the velocity of light. An astronaut who is travelling at very high speeds would experience time-compression and sense time very differently from someone left behind on earth. Travelling near the speed of time, our astronaut may visit several distant worlds and return to earth in a year (by his reckoning) only to find that all the people he knows had passed away centuries ago.  If you travel at the speed of light, time stands still. If you travel at speeds greater than the speed of light, then it is theoretically possible to travel back in space-time.

According to Newton, “time exists independently of any perceiver, progresses at a consistent pace throughout the universe, is measurable but imperceptible, and can only be truly understood mathematically”. It is also called Newtonian time or “empty-space” time. Although the ideas of relativistic time have shadowed the ideas of absolute time, Newtonian time is a good enough approximation for most physical observations on earth.

Biological clocks regulate the rhythm of body functions in most mammals. In the human, the brain’s circadian clock regulates the rhythm of sleep. Although such rhythms are not precise and deterministic, the jet lag experienced by long-distance travelers confirms the influence of circadian rhythms.                     

Time seems to dilate and spread out when you are bored or when you are uncomfortable such as in a hot room. Similarly, time seems to move fast when you are happy such as when you are in the company of someone you love.

The Big Bang theory is a consequence of the observation that the universe is expanding. Mathematically, an expanding universe collapses to a single point (a singularity) at its origin. It is estimated that our known universe is approximately 14 billion years old. The question is this: Is the Big Bang the origin of time? The answer is bound to be unsatisfactory because it fails to answer the follow-on question: What was there before the Big Bang? This line of enquiry fails to answer the question whether time is “endless” and “eternal” or is finite and has itself an origin “in time”.

A Resolution – Modern views

Having taken a brief survey of the classical as well as modern ideas of time, we are in a position to to revisit the dialectic about cause and effect and the nature of time between two of the greatest minds who graced Islamic history, namely, al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. The controversies had a lasting impact on the development of natural sciences in the Islamic world.   

First, it must be observed that the debate took place in the deductive, “if” “then” paradigm of medieval philosophy. This paradigm has its own built-in assumptions and its own inherent limitations.

Second, the position taken by each of these sages is valid within the assumptions that he makes. The positions break down only when they are examined through the lens of modern empirical and inductive science.

Consequently, a critique of the positions taken by al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd and a reconciliation between them must focus on the assumptions that underlie their positions rather than the positions themselves.

Is Time “eternal”? 

Ibn Rushd, following the logic of Aristotle, held time to be eternal. Al Ghazzali held that time was finite and created. Which position is supported by modern science?

Classical mechanics looks only at marginal, linear changes in time. A pursuit of the origin of time leads us to the Big Bang where space-time become a singularity. Modern science does not answer the question: What was there “before” the Big Bang?

The theory of relativity regards time as flexible and malleable that can be bent and stretched.  The position of quantum mechanics is more subtle. While it regards time as universal and absolute, it postulates that the change in an entity from one state to another is due to the shifting of successive positions of atoms (or subatomic entities).

Both al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd quote from the Qur’an to support their positions. The guidance from the Qur’an is that Allah created the cosmos and He will fold it up on the Day of Judgment.  This suggests that time, as we perceive it, is “finite” and is not “eternal”.

The assumption of the “eternity” of time sets up a trap because such an assumption extends the domain of human reason to all domains that are “not God”. This was the trap that the Mu’tazalies fell into. They were staunch Muwahids with an unflinching faith that God is “Ahad” and there is “none like unto Him”. So, they said that the Qur’an cannot be co-extent with God and placed it in “time”, meaning that it was “created” by Allah. This was repugnant to the ulema. As was pointed out earlier, it proved to be the undoing of the Mu’tazalites. The trap was of their own making. They overextended the reach of human reason to heavenly domains that are beyond space-time (la makan). The lesson from history is that reason, noble and sublime as it is, has its limits and breaks down in heavenly domains.   

Cause and effect in nature

Al Ghazzali held that cause and effect were not a necessary consequence of the one from the other. His accepted the Ash’ari view that time moved in discrete, atomistic steps and at each discrete step the will of God intervened as the cause for an effect.  He held that only God was the efficient cause and He caused all events either through direct intervention or through intermediaries (angels).

Al Ghazzali went one step further and advanced his own theory of heat transfer. He postulated when cotton is brought into contact with fire, the application of fire and the change of cotton from fiber to ashes take place “side by side”. This was a masterful philosophical statement; however, it was unsupported by empirical evidence.

According to our current scientific understanding, the heat transfer from the fire (hot gases) to the cotton (cellulose matter) is the cause of the “burning” (a phase change from cellulose matter to ash). Obviously, the philosophers and the theologians of the day were unaware of the concepts of energy and heat transfer. They were unaware that fire was energy that can be transferred to physical bodies forcing a change in their structure. Note that the modern position does not compromise the omnipotence of God since the fire, as the agent of burning, and the cotton, as the object that is burned, are both created to be so by God. God is Musabbib al Asbab (the cause for all causes, or, the ultimate cause).

The cause-and-effect philosophy, as formulated by al Ghazzali, made it impossible to formulate theories of natural phenomenon based on observation and experiment (“habit” as al Ghazzali termed it). The pursuit of natural science suffered. If one were to accept Al Ghazzali’s theory, airplanes cannot fly, automobiles cannot run, carts cannot move, electricity cannot be generated, transistors stop. In other words, it is impossible to acquire any positivistic knowledge which is built on cause and effect, logic and reason.

In contrast, Ibn Rushd held that cause and effect constituted a basic aspect of the natural law and formed the foundation of human reason. He held that events take place in accordance with cause and effect and that the will of God was axiomatic and built into the laws of cause and effect.

Islamic civilization made an error in misunderstanding the teachings of Al Ghazzali. His denial of (the necessity of) causality and his position that events happen according to their taqdeer was misunderstood by Muslims as predestination. This interpretation side-lined the principle of natural causality which forms the foundation of modern technological civilization and empirical science.  It was a fatal error.

There is no empirical evidence to support the thesis (as al Ash’ari proposed circa 900 CE which was adopted by al Ghazzali) that time is digital, discontinuous and can be divided into atomistic parcels. It is merely a philosophical pre-supposition, a concept, an idea, a theory.

In classical mechanics, time appears as a measure of change that occurs as a result of an action by an entity. Quantum mechanics becomes fuzzy on ideas of time, or more precisely, on the arrow of time. It admits that time can be measured in quanta, perhaps as small as 10^-22 seconds. When a change occurs, the subatomic particles in an ensemble move from one state to another. As to why they move to a new position in a predictable manner is a mystery; statistically, they could have moved to an entirely different configuration (which could result in an entirely different “future”). The quantum model may serve to accommodate the appearance of miracles as events that are nominally a violation of repetitive and predictable outcomes of events but which are statistically possible.

Classical mechanics, which forms the basis of modern technological civilization, is built on assumptions of natural cause and effect. Empirical evidence, reason, algorithms, logic and extrapolation form the accepted chain-links in the advancement of modern science and technology.

Modern science does not insist on mechanical causality. It only affirms that on a statistical basis, a cause produces an effect with a probability so high that it can be considered a near certainty. 

The question of miracles

Miracles are events that contradict the expected outcomes based on cause ad effect.

Al Ghazzali held that the occurrence of miracles can be accommodated only if the necessity of cause and effect is discarded. This position needs to be modified in the light of our advanced knowledge of physics and statistics. Modern approaches of statistical mechanics may offer a possible way to explain miracles. In this approach, an event is an ensemble of zillions upon zillions of mini-events that are happening in the cosmos. It is conceptually possible to admit that the nett outcome of these seemingly unlimited number of concurrent events could be one that is contrary to its expected value, and that would be a miracle. The occurrence of a miracle can be accommodated in classical mechanics by adding “inshallah” to an expected event. Such a position is in accordance with the guidance from the Qur’an.

Classical mechanics deals only with questions of when and how (space-time) of marginal changes in nature; it does not concern itself with questions of who and why, or the primal origins of time. These questions are important.  Indeed, they form the core of our search as human beings as to who we are and why we are here. However, they are beyond the capabilities of reason and are left to other modes of acquiring knowledge and other disciplines such as Tasawwuf, theosophy and faith. As an example, no amount of rational argumentation can explain what love is, whereas the heart can grasp it with immediacy.

The distinctive character of positivistic knowledge is that it opens up avenues for the human to attain his potential through an exercise of reason. It enhances material welfare through innovation, shields the human from debilitating poverty, protects life by enabling effective means of defence, provides a bulwark against disease and hunger through medical research and agricultural advancement. Indeed, it opens up the possibility (just a possibility) of heaven on earth. It is a fulfilment of God’s promise to the human: “And We have subjected to you all that is between the heavens and the earth”. Science is not just a nice appendage to a society; it is essential for the very survival of a society.

Why did the Islamic civilization choose al Ghazzali over ibn Rushd?

Several reasons may be advanced as to why the Islamic civilization chose al Ghazzali over ibn Rushd.

In summary, history and geography both favoured al-Ghazzali. When he wrote his Tahaffuz al Falasafa in 1095, the dialectic between theology and philosophy in Islam was already three hundred years old and it had been won by the theologians. Al Ghazzali’s work was the summation of that dialectic and its last chapter.

Why did Europe choose ibn Rushd?

Europe came upon Greek rational philosophy in the thirteenth century through a translation of classical Greek works from Arabic into Latin. There was no convulsive confrontation between theology and philosophy in Europe as there was between the Muta’zalites and the usuli ulema in the Islamic world in the eighth-ninth centuries. The writings of Thomas Aquinas (1274) scuttled the debate by separating church dogma from rational philosophy. The result was that Europe embarked on a secular path. Science, technology, sociology and history were separated from religion. Matters of faith were confined to the walls of the church. This separation continues to this day. As a consequence, modern man, having internalized the assumptions that underlie western civilization, finds himself in a soulless, godless world. God was taken out at the first gambit. Modern man cannot put Him back in the end game.    

Construction of a Technological Culture in the Islamic world

History is like tarnished silver. It needs constant scrubbing to bring out the polish and remind us how beautiful its nascent shine can be.

The construction of a technological culture in the Islamic world must begin with a deconstruction of historical narratives and a fresh start based on the primal source, namely, the Qur’an.

Present day Muslims stand on the shoulders of giants. Great were the personages who graced Islamic history since that sublime moment when the Light of Muhammed (pbuh) illuminated the world. Their legacy continues to guide us.

However, it must be remembered that those who came before us struggled in the context of their times. Their contributions, great in their impact, were nonetheless limited by their knowledge of the physical and the assumptions they made in developing their cosmology. While they created giant footsteps on the sands of time, they also left behind a good deal of dust that needs clearing up. 

Consider the Shia-Sunni split. It has its basis in history. The Suhaba disagreed on how to carry forward the legacy of the prophet after his death. The result was a wide chasm which continues to divide the global Islamic community even to this day. Does the Shia-Sunni schism have its sanction in the Qur’an? No. It ought to be relegated to the pages of history so that the community can reaffirm the brotherhood established by the Prophet.

Similar is the case with kalam and philosophy. In the eighth-ninth centuries Islamic theology had a broadside encounter with Greek philosophy. It was a brutal confrontation. Theology won the contest and philosophy was sidelined. But the tailwinds of the clash continued to haunt the Islamic intellectual landscape. Empirical science appeared as a sequel to philosophy and made its mark on world history. But its practitioners, giants like al Khwarizmi, ibn Sina, al Razi did not gain the kind of acceptance in the Islamic body politic as did theologians like al Ash’ari and al Ghazali.

It is in this context that we have to examine the dialectic between al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. While their positions were valid within the paradigms they assumed, there are fundamental problems with some of their assumptions.

A Deconstruction

A deconstruction of historical narratives is therefore essential before a construction of an alternate vision of natural science and technology is constructed. The basis for this reconstruction is guidance from the Qur’an. It requires discarding the assumptions of “eternal time”, “atomistic time”, “side by side” as applied to cause and effect, even if such assumptions were held by the giants of Islamic history like al Ghazzali and ibn Rushd. History is a teacher. History is not a tyrant. The Islamic psyche must be unshackled from the tyranny of history. 

The Islamic body politic, which is now held in ransom by shackles of history, must be freed to follow the Qur’an and the Seerah of the Prophet. The Qur’an offers a lofty vision of the human who is endowed with a body and a mind to interact with nature, a heart to feel divine presence and a soul to sift through right and wrong.

Reconstruction of a Science and Technology Culture in Muslim Societies

As we undertake a reconstruction of a science and technology culture in Muslim societies, we must be aware of the assumptions we made and enumerate those that we discard.

We discard the following assumptions that were made by the medieval philosophers:

Positions we accept, consistent with guidance from the Qur’an:

Regarding the human, we accept the following assumptions that are consistent with the guidance from the Qur’an:

The following inferences follow from our assumptions:

Empirical science and technology are based on observation, experimentation and reason.

The laws upon which science and technology are based are the laws of nature which constitute the Sunnah of Allah. Nature obeys divine laws based on God’s wisdom and justice and is amenable to understanding through reason. Divine grace is never absent from these laws. This self-evident truth needs no confirmation by philosophical discourse.

The Qur’an affirms again and again the primacy of reason in the created world, urging the human to witness, reflect and apply reason to understand nature (science), use the knowledge so acquired for human welfare (technology) and discharge his heavenly mandate as khalifa on earth to serve God (theology) and His creation (environment and ecology).

To enable him to discharge this mandate, God has bestowed upon the human faculties in addition to reason, namely, a heart to perceive the unseen world, a soul to sift through right and wrong and a spirit to connect him with Divine presence.  The Qur’an thus offers guidance to the human through the body, the mind, the heart, the soul and the spirit. The knowledge acquired through these means constitute the totality of human knowledge, ilm ul ibara (knowledge that can be taught), ilm ul ishara (knowledge that can be alluded to but cannot be taught) and ilm al ladduni (revealed knowledge that comes down through the Prophets).

Natural science is implicit and explicit in the Qur’an. The human is urged again and again to know God (that is, to know His Names and attributes) through the Signs in His creation.

Let us illustrate how cause and effect unfold in nature and how they form the basis of science.

An Example: The Wonder of Flight

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَافَّاتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلاَّ الرَّحْمَنُ إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ بَصِيرٌ

Do you not observe the birds
With their wings spread above them,
And (birds with wings) folded up?
None can hold them up (in dynamic equilibrium) except the Most Compassionate;
Indeed, He is the Seer of all things.   Surah al-Mulk, (67:19)

The wonder and awe of nature defies description. No matter which direction you turn, there are Signs for the majesty of the Creator. 

An appreciation of the subtleties of this Ayah requires a mastery of several disciplines: aerodynamics; ornithology; structural mechanics; oxygenation; energy transfer; guidance, navigation and control, to name but a few. There are wondrous Signs in nature, if only we knew how to look and how to ask the right questions.

We present the bar-tailed godwit as an illustration for the tafseer of this Ayah. It is a tiny bird that migrates every year from Alaska, northwest of Canada, to New Zealand, deep in the southern Pacific Ocean. It flies about 7000 miles (11000 kilometers) without stopping anywhere. Sometimes, it flies West to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and then south to New Zealand. At other times it takes an alternate route South to the Pacific Islands and then further South to New Zealand.

How can a small bird fly 7000 miles without stopping anywhere? How does it navigate and find its destination when there are no landmarks? How does it fly at night? Where does it get its in-flight food and sustenance from? How does it keep warm when the outside temperature is close to zero?

We offer three alternative approaches that may be used to develop answers to these questions: (1) by a believing scientist (2) by a secular scientist (3) a fatalist.

A believing scientist would start with Bismillah. He would recognize that an understanding of the flight of a bar-tiled godwit bird requires a mastery of several disciplines: aerodynamics; ornithology; structural mechanics; oxygenation; energy transfer; guidance, navigation and control, to name but a few. There are four known forces in nature: gravitation, electromagnetic, weak atomic and strong atomic. The first two are relevant in this case. The last two are not. The scientist would study in detail the air currents, temperatures, pressures, moisture, electrical storms and other weather conditions along the flight trajectory. He would also study the physical characteristics of the bird: weight, size, shape, flight feathers and control feathers. He would experiment and know something about the neural networks and sensors in the bird and their electromagnetic characteristics. He would write algorithms and equations, with clearly articulated assumptions, for the dynamics of flight of this tiny bird. He would analyze and obtain some insights to the questions raised. For many of the questions, there may be no answers with our limited current knowledge base. The believing scientist would table such questions for continued research. At each stage of his research, he would marvel at God’s creation with awe and wonder and cry out: Subhan Allah! The experience would reinforce his faith and take him closer to God who created this tiny bird that has so much to teach the human.

A secular scientist would go through the same process and arrive at the same conclusions except that he would not start with Bismillah nor would he end with Subhan Allah. His experience would be like a ladder that dangles in the air, neither firmly grounded on earth nor reaching up to heaven, but suspended in doubt and dissatisfaction.

A fatalist would not ask any of these questions. He would simply say: it is the work of God and go to sleep.

Muslim scientists in the classical era of Islam fell into the first category. They were guided by the light of the Qur’an, witnessed God’s creation in all its splendor and learned from the Signs they saw therein. Modern day Muslims fall into the third category. Having lost their way through the labyrinth of history, they turn their backs on science and circle around in orbits of fatalism.

Moving Forward

“Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves”. The development of a scientific and technological culture in Islam, must come from within. Elements of this transformation include:

Discard notions that are a product of history but have no basis in the Qur’an or the Sunnah of the Prophet. A cup must be empty before milk is poured into it. Specifically, assumptions about time, cause and effect which have accrued as a result of the clash between philosophy and theology in medieval times must be discarded.

So pervasive is the influence of the clergy in the Islamic world that no reformation can succeed without their support. The Shaikhs, Mullahs and Molvis have a hold on the masses which can only be the envy of even the most successful political leader.

The historical record of Islamic clergy is less than illustrious on questions relating to science and technology. While the sordid story of Galileo and the Latin church is well known, that of the Islamic religious establishment is glossed over.  At critical moments in Islamic history, it was the religious establishment that put the brakes on scientific and technological progress. Here are a few glaring examples:

A suspicion of science as a secular pursuit that takes the human away from God persists to this day among a significant section of Muslim religious establishment. The shaikhs, mullahs and molvis simply do not understand science or technology. What they do not understand, they suspect and oppose, unless that technology personally benefits them.

The Islamic world would benefit a great deal if training centers are established to teach the shaikhs and mullahs in the basics of science and technology. The goal is to mitigate the suspicion and opposition of the clergy to science and technology by exposing them to the assumptions, processes and benefits that underlie the natural sciences and show that their pursuit i consistent the guidance from the Qur’an.

There exists a vast network of schools and madrassas purporting to teach religion (Deeni Ta’leem as it is called). India alone is estimated to have 30,000 madrasas. Pakistan has half as many. Primary instruction in these institutions is through rote learning. Secondary education includes memorization and hadith. At the advanced grades, the curriculum is a hangover of the Nizamiya syllabus from the twelfth century and includes a study of Fiqh, a history of the early Caliphs and rudiments of medieval philosophy.

With a minimal effort, these institutions can be transformed into agents of change towards a scientific and technological culture. In addition to the sciences of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, a basic exposure to science, math and technology would pay rich dividends. A change in syllabus is long overdue.

God created the universe and gave its key to the human. That key is reason. Nature yields what you demand from it. A critical, questioning attitude towards nature is required for this process. The Muslim scientists in the classical era excelled in their questioning and unlocked the secrets of the heavens (astronomy), elements (chemistry), plants (agronomy), cures for diseases (medicine) and natural structures (geometry). Such an attitude is a part of Ijtehad ordained by God. It was only in the later centuries that the clergy limited Ijtehad to personal minutia (such as whether a moustache is halal or haram) or totally abandoned it in favor of taqleed.

Cultivate a passion for experimentation in science and technology, coupled with an acceptance of results that are consistent even if they refute established and entrenched dogma.

As ibn al Arabi said: “Feehi ma feehi”. A thing is what it is. If a baseball that is hit shatters a brittle glass panel, we must have the integrity to say that the efficient (immediate) cause of the shattered glass is the momentum from the baseball. Cracks propagate because of stress. Earthquakes are caused by movement of geological plates. Airplanes fly because of airfoil design and fall because of wind shear.  These statements in no way compromise the omnipotence of God who is musabbib al asbab. It is understood that man’s innovative capabilities are bestowed by God. The scientist’s quest is a search for the Sunnah of Allah in nature. He asks the questions: How? What? He marvels at his discoveries and he uses them for the benefit of man and to serve God and His crreation.  (wa Saqqara lakum ma fis samawati wal ard- And I have subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and the earth).

Revolutions require political will and commitment. The influential strata of society, the governments, the clergy, the intelligentsia, the industrialists and bankers need to make a commitment for such a positive transformation. A change in mindset is a pre-requisite. The economies of Muslim countries need to shift from resource base (oil, gas, agriculture, minerals, gems) to knowledge base. Technological and scientific education is the key. A single silicon chip is more valuable than a hundred barrels of oil.

Some Concluding Words

What moves the modern world is technology. It influences the way we do our work, how we relate to each other and to nature. It is the modulator of human behavior, art, philosophy, economics, politics and culture.

As we move forward, the world is increasingly segregated into two segments: those who have access to technology and those who do not. The first group will rule the world. The second group will serve the first group.

Technology is not just a nice thing to have. It is not just to have mobile phones, TV, cars and airplanes. It is not just for national defense although technology has a major impact on defense. Technology is necessary for the very survival of a civilization.

Islamic civilization is at a cross roads. One road leads to security and prosperity based on science and technology. This is the road that the Shariah commands the human to take and for which the Qur’an provides guidance. The other road is one of ignorance, poverty, servitude and ultimately, extinction.

Islamic civilization has locked itself in a self-made prison and has shackled itself in chains of misconceptions about the human and the universe that he lives in. These misconceptions arise from a burden of history.

It is time the Islamic civilization unshackled itself. Ash’arite philosophy, assumptions about mysteries of time, rejection of causation are burdens of the past. A scientific and technological culture unshackles these burdens. The keys to unlock these shackles are in God-given Aql (reason). However, unlike secular man who has left God in the church and assumes that his reason is autonomous, the Muslim scientist exercises his reason as a divine gift to which the God’s creation opens its doors. The keys are in the Qur’an, which beckons the mind towards Signs of Allah, shows the broad, open highways to the physical (seeing, hearing, touching, speaking), ennobles the heart with the Light of Divine Names and guides the soul to avoid the pitfalls of disbelief.  How marvelous a world that is! Subhan Allah!

By Dr. Abdullatif Aljibury, PhD

With continuing advances in science and technology, facts start to emerge that show how we are living in a meticulously designed universe, intricately formed, physically balanced and tuned to its finest detail.

As we carefully read the Quran, we continue to discover many statements that throw light on the finely balanced physical world that we are a part of.

It all started, as science tells us, billions of years ago, with a single event that gave rise to the physical world. We can only imagine the enormity of the events that followed, and be guided by ideas that suffuse our minds with owe and wonder.

As we read and contemplate the verses from the Quran regarding natural phenomena, we find that they are in total agreement with the physical reality that modern science has so far proved as being factual. The topic that is dealt with in this article is the element iron which is one of the elements in the periodic table. The majority of the elements are found naturally, but some are not. The element that we examine in our story in this paper is iron.

The Quran: 57:25 states: “Indeed We sent our Apostles with all evidence of truth and through them we bestowed revelation from on high and thus gave you a balance to weigh right and wrong so that man might behave with equity, And We have brought down, from on high, Iron, in which there is awesome power as well as a source of benefits for mankind.”

God has enabled mankind by revealing the truth to discriminate right from wrong,  which is after all the ultimate goal of His revelation to mankind.  The human is commanded to observe and maintain an equitable balance throughout the natural systems.  He is instructed to convert to his use the natural resources, one example of which is iron.

Iron, as God tells us in the above- mentioned verse, is not native to earth, but has been brought down, from on high, which is what modern -day science confirms.

Although most of the Iron on earth is found in the central core of our planet earth,it was actually brought down from outer space where it was formed. Thedynamics of the process reveals the mightiness of the Creator.

Shortly after the Big Event, there was only the element hydrogen and no otherelement, gas, liquid or solid, in existence. As super giant stars were being made there was a tremendous gravitational force, the elements started to form from hydrogen by the process of fusion.

The hydrogen atoms under such extreme conditions combine to form helium atoms with the evolution of tremendous amount of energy just as in the case of the hydrogen bomb. The reaction will continue until all of the hydrogen atoms are converted to helium atoms. Meanwhile the newly formed helium atoms will themselves fuse together and start their own fusion reaction combining among themselves to form a new product. Now, the product of the fusion reaction of two helium atoms is a carbon atom. This fusion process continues such that two atoms of carbon combine to give an atom of oxygen and so on as shown in the diagram above.

The process of fusion continues until all of the hydrogen is converted to Helium nd from helium to Carbon to oxygen to neon to magnesium to silicon and then all of the silicon atoms in the chain process are converted to iron. By then, all of the fuel, so to speak, is exhausted leaving us with only a mass of iron at the center of the star.  The supernova, under tremendous gravitational force, then explodes and the iron fragments are blasted out into space. Some of this iron found its way to earth millions of years ago.

A massive amount of the iron, being very heavy, found its way through to the core and settled in the center of the earth which is the center of gravity. Less heavier pieces of iron settled at various distances from the center of gravity and distributed in the iron mines and around the crust of the earth as we find them today.

What makes the topic of iron so fascinating is that it is mentioned in chapter 57 of the Holy Quran which opens up, as we shall see shortly, many venues to the role that iron plays in our lives and that of our planet earth.

It is interesting to point out that the name of chapter 57 in the Quran is “The Iron.” This is the only chapter in the Quran that is named after a chemical element. The chapter number 57 is the center chapter of the 114 total chapters of the Quran. This must reflect the fact that iron occupies the center core of our planet and plays a central role in the health maintenance of human beings as well as other biological systems, plants and animals occupying our planet earth.

Verse 57:25, states that iron, which was sent from on high, has awesome power and is, as well, a source of benefits to humankind.

With the ingenuity which God has endowed mankind, this awesome power has been further enhanced by modern research and technology. From weapons of war to airplane carriers to submarines to rockets to more advanced and highly sophisticated and powerful forms use the iron that has been sent from on high. For this reason, God earlier on in the same verse warns us that having been endowed with the command of such powerful industrial and strategic an element,  we need to stop and reflect (about its appropriate use).  

Human beings need to use this awesome power wisely and carefully. They should not feel autonomous and lose harmony with nature and upset the equilibrium of an orderly life. Being conscious and humble must be our guide to live in peace and harmony.  We must distinguish right from wrong and maintain the global balance with equity to be of benefit to all humankind.

In the same verse, it is stated that iron, besides being a source of awesome power, has also many benefits for mankind. The benefits are noticeable in our daily lives. This is made possible with man’s creativity and skill in tool making and other innovations. There is hardly any place where one cannot notice an instrument, a tool or a machine that is made of iron. As a matter of fact, the advent of industrial revolution was made possible only through the use of iron which led to the construction of the railways, automobiles, bridges, cargo ships and so on. The list of material advantages of iron is literally endless. One can hardly miss the advance in transportation, which was hinted at in the Quran 16:5-8, which was made possible because of the use of iron.

We cannot miss the direct necessity of iron to the human body.  Every human body carries about 4 grams of iron in the form of hemoglobin which is so essential to the maintenance of life and sustenance of healthy living. Iron is involved in some essential reactions involving enzymes and other compounds in the human body. We can hardly breath, so to speak, without the help of iron. Besides, and to support our continued healthy existence, iron is also essential for the survival and proper functioning of animals and plants and their supporting ecosystems. Animals need iron in their blood  to breath and carry on with their daily lives, just as do humans. Plants need iron in their system to synthesize chlorophyll, which is essential for the functioning and existence of plants and for the production of oxygen so essential for life on earth.

Without iron, every living matter, from human beings to animals to plants, would cease to function and grow. Iron is a bridge between science and faith

It is worship to fulfill God’s command and to seek knowledge that will ultimately lead to the truth. God has prescribed the means that are available to the human to reason, think and reflect in a quest to understand natural phenomenon and use it to the progress of society and the created world.

God Has given Signs or guide posts to the faithful to follow and reach the desired end. In our continuing effort to seek knowledge, and learn more and more about our universe and beyond, what better means are there than science to facilitate the quest for the truth?

 

Professor  Nazeer Ahmed

Summary

“Love is the remedy for all ills, and it is the remedy of the soul in the two worlds”,  Fareed ud-din Attar (d 1219 CE), Mantiq at tayr (The Conference of the Birds).

Truth is one and indivisible. There cannot be one truth for nature and another truth for faith and a third one for history. This self-evident reality is overlooked by secular man who compartmentalizes science, history and faith.

Science, history and faith are interrelated in their origin as well as their functionality.  The origin of all knowledge is the Divine Name. Humankind is born with an innate capacity to know the Divine Name, and through the Name, know the names and nature of all things.

The function of knowledge is to know God (meaning, His Name) so that humankind may serve and worship Him. This is the grand schema for the existence of the human species.

All that exists springs from God and returns to God. History began when humankind separated itself from Divine presence.  Ever since then it has been engaged in a perpetual struggle to find Him. In this struggle, the body, mind, heart and the intellect are his cohorts. As humankind approaches Divine presence, the awe inspiring panorama of nature and the grandeur of the historical process pale into insignificance, collapse and become mere Signs. These Signs, in turn, point the way back to Divine presence from where humankind originated in the first place.  Thus science and history become a study of Divine Signs. They lose their profane character and take on a sublime character.

The discipline of each – science, history and faith- is a noble and grand enterprise in its own right.  Each one shows the grandeur and majesty of God’s creation and guides man to his noble destiny. Each one has its own assumptions. A man of wisdom is aware of these assumptions so that when he embarks on his discovery of the Truth, he does not confuse what is apparent with the reality that lies hidden behind the manifest.

In what follows, I present a unified vision of knowledge that integrates science, faith and history. The basis of this integration is the wisdom of the Qur’an.

The interrelationship of science, history and faith through a search for al Haqq (The Truth) is a theme that repeats in this collection of essays.

The Origin of Knowledge

Read! In the Name of your Rabb, Who created,

Created the human from that which clings.

Read! By your Rabb, the most bountiful,    

Who taught by the Pen,

Taught humankind what it knew not.

No! The human does indeed transgress,

When he looks upon himself as autonomous.  (The Qur’an 96:1-5)

Knowledge is a treasure. It is gifted through the Spirit which is the source of life.  Whether one is a saint or a scientist one must concede that with birth come life, knowledge and power. A dead man has no life, no power and no knowledge.  It stands to reason that knowledge is a Divine gift that accompanies the Spirit which is infused into a person between conception and birth. It is the Spirit that is the life source. Without the Spirit, there is no life and no knowledge.

Ilm ul Ibara and Ilm ul Ishara

Broadly speaking, knowing is of two kinds:

• Knowledge that can be taught
• Knowledge that cannot be taught but can only be alluded to.
•  

Knowledge that can be taught is called ilm ul ibara. In this category belong science, history, mathematics, geometry, civics  and the languages. Knowledge that cannot be taught but can only be alluded to is termed ilm ul ishara. In this category belong faith, love, honor, valor, courage, beauty, compassion and forgiveness.

There is a third category of knowledge, ilm al Wahi or ilm al ladnuni  that is bestowed only upon the Prophets.

The Qur’an uses parables and similes to convey transcendent ideas that are difficult or impossible to communicate through discursive language. Transcendental ideas such as love, grace, beauty, wisdom and peace are best felt, not expressed.  Accordingly, knowledge can be divided into two categories: ilm ul ishara (knowledge that is allusory and cannot be expressed through language), and ilm ul ibara (knowledge that is descriptive and can be expressed through language). Ilm ul Ibara can be measured and taught in a school. Ilm ul Ishara cannot; it is a Divine gift, a moment of Grace.

Consider, for instance, love which animates creation. Love is the cement that binds the world of man. Human love is but a simile to Divine Love that sustains all creation, like the light of an oil lamp is a simile to the light of the sun. The difference is that while the sun and its light are finite, Divine Love is infinite, boundless, beyond description.  Such is the language of love, the language of the heart, the language of allusion.

The word Ibara has its root in the trilateral Arabic word A-B-R (a-ba-ra) which means to wade, as wading across a river from one shore to the other. In prose, it means a line or a description. Accordingly, any thought or idea that can be described through prose, poetry or mathematical symbols can be classified as ilm-ul-ibara.  Such is the language of the body and the mind.

The Nafs or the Self straddles ilm ul ibara and ilm ul ishara. It receives its inputs from the senses, mind and heart. It is molded and transformed by these inputs. Like the senses, the Nafs measures in space-time. Like the mind it extrapolates. Like the heart it perceives. But it has its own unique characteristics which are not shared with other human attributes. That is its free will.

We illustrate in the diagram below our classification of knowledge.

A CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE QUR’AN

“Soon shall We show them Our Signs on the horizon and within themselves until it is clear to them that it is the Truth)”- (The Qur’an 41:53)

KNOWLEDGE  (A TREASURE THAT IS A DIVINE GIFT )

• ILM UL IBARA (KNOWLEDGE THAT IS PERCEIVED AND CAN BE TAUGHT)
  • SIGNS THAT ARE PERCEIVED BY THE SENSES (INDUCTIVE SCIENCES)
    •  
      •  
        • NATURAL SCIENCES (PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY)
        • HISTORY
        • SOCIOLOGY
        • THE LANGUAGES
        • CIVICS AND GOVERNANCE
        • RITUALS
  • SIGNS THAT ARE PERCEIVED BY THE MIND (DEDUCTIVE SCIENCES)
    • PHILOSOPHY
    • NUMBERS
    • MATHEMATICS
    • GEOMETRY
• SIGNS THAT ARE PERCEIVED BY THE NAFS (SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG; JUSTICE AND BALANCE; ORDER AND PROPORTION)
  •  
    •  
      • NAFS E AMMARA
      • NAFS E MULHAMA
      • NAFS E LAWWAMA
      • NAFS E MUTMAENNA
      • NAFS E RADIYA
      • NAFS E MARDIYA
• ILM UL ISHARA (KNOWLEDGE THAT IS BEYOND PERCEPTION AND CANNOT BE TAUGHT)
  • SIGNS THAT ARE PERCEIVED BY THE HEART
    • KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO THE SADR
    • KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO THE QALB
    • KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO FUAD
    • KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO BIRR
    • KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO THE INTELLECT
• ILM AL WAHI OR ILM AL LADUNI (KNOWLEDGE BESTOWED ONLY UPON THE PROPHETS)
  • REVELATION
  • GUIDANCE FOR HUMANKIND
  • CRITERION FOR RIGHT AND WRONG

AN ALIM IS ONE WHO IS GIVEN THE GIFT OF BOTH ILM UL ISHARA AND ILM UL IBARA AND IS ALSO BLESSED WITH AN UNDERSTANDING OF ILM AL WAHI.

Empirical Knowledge as a Sign

The created world becomes but a simile before the grandeur and majesty of God. This simple truth provides a basis for the integration of the physical and the spiritual. The physical becomes “a Sign” and points the way to Divine presence. So does history. So do the Signs in the heart.

The approach of the Qur’an is inductive.  It builds the awareness of Divine omnipresence through Signs in nature and in history. The quest for the Divine is through the struggle of man on earth; the path lies through science and history. It is a limitless, unceasing effort until man meets God. By contrast, the philosophical approach is deductive. It starts with axioms and theses and deduces inferences from it. If the axiom is flawed, so is the deduction.  In addition, reasoning and the process of deduction itself have inherent limits.

God reveals His majesty and His bounty every moment through nature and through history. Nature is a great teacher. It is an open book with an infinite number of pages. It offers an infinite variety of vistas. Humans try to understand nature and use it for their benefit. The question is: how can the physical and the natural be integrated into a holistic picture which includes not just the inputs from the body and the mind but also the perceptions of the heart?

The Qur’anic perspective integrates the physical, the rational and the emotive by asserting their common origin and their common functionality. Each of these modes of knowing springs from the spirit (the Ruh) and is a Divine gift. Each of these assists humankind in discharging its responsibility to know, serve, praise, adore and worship Him. We will briefly outline here how the senses, the mind and the heart facilitate the perception of Signs of Divine presence and serve to augment faith.

In the secular view there is no interconnectivity between the worldviews of the body, the mind and the heart. The interconnectivity is established when these worldviews are taken as Signs from a Single Source so that man may perceive the presence of the Divine and attain certainty of faith.

Consider the physical. The senses act as windows to the physical in space-time and facilitate the construction of an empirical worldview which forms the basis of science.  This worldview, based on the assumptions of before and after, subject and object, is useful but is deceptive. Here is an example: Consider a rainbow. A physical description of the rainbow would take us in the direction of wavelengths, dispersion, wave propagation, optic nerves, and neurons in the brain. Consider this worldview of wavelengths, dispersion and neurons. Where  in this description is the enchanting beauty of the rainbow as it vaults the sky from horizon to horizon? It is not there. Yet, even the most unlettered human can relate to the beauty of the rainbow and be awed by it. The beauty of the rainbow is not in the physical description because beauty is not in wavelengths, cells and atoms. It is in the Self, the Nafs which is hidden from the physical, but makes its presence felt through interaction with the physical.

The secular man is constantly at war with himself. He cannot circumscribe the heart with his logic. Secular thought would have us believe that there is nothing more to the cosmos than the physical. The materialists go even one step further; they reduce all experience to the physical. In the process they negate the essence of being human which lies in the perceptions of not just the physical but also perceptions of the heart and the Self (Nafs).

This dichotomy between the physical and the Self is removed when the physical is looked upon as a Divine Sign. Such a perspective does not negate the scientific approach which demands its validation in observation and measurement. It merely imparts a transcendent quality to the physical so that the scientist can use the experience of the senses, not as an end in itself but as a Sign to perceive the presence of the Divine and witness the grand panorama of creation from a platform of faith and reason.  Such a view does not negate the processes of science. But it changes the perspective in a profound way.

Every moment Divine grace displays itself in nature, and it does so with majesty. In it there are Signs for the perceptive minds. The study of nature thus becomes mandatory on humans to witness these Signs, use them as occasions to celebrate Divine grace, apply reason, learn from them and use them to create Divine patterns (‘amal us salehat) in the world.

Whatever is in the heavens and the earth ask of Him,

Every moment He (reveals His Signs) with grandeur. (The Qur’an 55:23 )

The physical sciences are a part of ilm ul ibara. They can be described and taught. They are an essential part of the sublime gift of ilm (knowledge) bestowed upon the human.

History as a Sign and a Teacher

History offers a fascinating panorama of human struggle on earth. The rise and fall of civilizations, the making and unmaking of dynasties, the formation and breakup of societies offer endless lessons for the discerning mind. The question is: Is history a part of a grand Divine scheme or is it merely a collection of dates, events, conflicts, triumphs and tragedies?

In the secular paradigm, history has no Grand Purpose. It is like a meandering stream, without a known origin and without a known destiny. It may reveal its secrets to philosophical scrutiny but such scrutiny yields answers that are partial, incomplete and change with the vagaries of time-space.

In the Qur’anic paradigm, history has a beginning and an end. It has a meaning and a purpose. It begins with creation and ends with judgment. Its meaning is to be sought in the perpetual struggle of man to find God:

Verily! O humankind ! You are toiling on toward your Lord! Painfully toiling! And you shall meet Him! (84:6)

The purpose of creation is to know God:

I was a hidden Treasure. I willed that I be known. So I created a creation (that would know Me).  (Hadith e Qudsi)

Man is not separate from nature, or antagonistic to it, as he is in the secular perspective.  The Divine laws that govern the universe govern humankind also:

The Most Compassionate,

Taught the Qur’an,

Created Humankind,

Taught him speech,

The sun and the moon, (rotate in accordance) with mathematics,

And the stars and the trees submit (to His heavenly Laws),

The heavens has He raised high and established dynamic equilibrium therein,

So that you do not violate that equilibrium in your own lives (The Qur’an 55: 1-7)

In the Qur’anic view, history is another Sign, like nature. It is like a mirror that teaches humankind something about itself so that humankind may learn and work towards its ethical journey to find God.

The Noble Station (Maqam) of the Mind

In all of God’s creation, there is nothing as noble as the Mind, except the heart. The Mind is that collection of attributes that sifts through, analyzes, integrates and creates that enormous ocean of knowledge that distinguishes man from the beast. The distinguishing characteristic of the Mind is that it conceives of the possibility of things. It even admits of the possibility of heaven, of the Tablet and the Pen. Logic is its companion, reason its queen. Questioning is its lance. It plays with the concrete and processes what is abstract. When it is set free, it seeks to conquer the heavens and the earth.

Mathematics and Symbols

The Mind is the master of the abstract. Symbols and concepts are its vocabulary. This ability to grasp symbols and concepts, work with them, transform them, integrate them and bring forth new symbols and concepts is a divine gift. It is one of the distinguishing capabilities of the human genre that sets it apart from the beast.  This ability is what has enabled humankind to build the edifice of knowledge. It is a natural ability, inherited at birth by every human.

Mathematics and symbols can be taught just as language, history, sociology, civics, politics and governance can be taught. Hence the study of symbols also falls under ilm ul ibara.

The Mutuality of the Body and Mind

Sublime as it is, the Mind is helpless without the body. It draws upon the inputs from the senses to validate its perceptions. It is for this reason that sometimes one says that the Body and the Mind are one: the Body is an extension of the Mind while the Mind is an extension of the Body. Let us elaborate this subtle idea by an example.

Our knowledge of the cosmos is space-time bound. The senses, i.e., the eyes, the ears, touch, taste and smell, take inputs from this space-time bound world which are then processed by the mind so that we “know” what it is that we have seen, heard, tasted or touched. The mind is like the processor of a computer into which inputs are provided by the senses. For example, a child touches a hot stove. The input from his touch is processed by the mind which tells him that it is hot. Even if we devise an infrared sensor to measure the temperature, the sensor must be read before we know that the stove is hot. Neither the body nor the mind would know anything of the condition of the stove without the help each of the other.

The sublime character of the mind is that it is space-time bound but it can conceive of the possibility of a world that is not bound by space-time and has many more dimensions than space-time. Indeed, it can conceive of the possibility of heaven.

The Position of Philosophy

Philosophy supported by empirical evidence becomes science. Philosophy unsupported by empirical evidence becomes speculation.  Logic and rational thought are its tools. Reason is its companion. Philosophy is deductive science. It starts with a premise and draws conclusions from it.  The limitations of philosophy are in the very assumptions that form its foundation. The errors of the philosophers arise when they forget the assumptions on which their philosophy is based and proceed to apply their methods to issues and concepts that are beyond the domain of philosophy. Let us offer an example.

In the eighth century CE, the Mu’tazalites (Muslim philosophers) adopted Greek philosophy as their own and rose to a position of political dominance. They were enamored of the precision, the logic and apparent cohesiveness of rational thought. In their enthusiasm they proceeded to apply their rational scrutiny to matters of faith forgetting that faith has a transcendental dimension beyond time-space whereas the objects of philosophy are space-time bound.  In the process, they fell flat on their faces. Their positions were rejected following an intellectual revolution led by Imam Hanbali and the Usuli ulema (846 CE) and they were expelled from their position of power and influence.

In summary, ilm ul ibara is knowledge that can be expressed and taught. It includes the knowledge that is acquired through the body and the mind. The disciplines that are a domain of the body include natural science, history, sociology, economics, politics and governance. Knowledge acquired through the body (the senses) depends on observation and measurement and is called inductive knowledge.

The body and the mind work together to form a worldview. They are intertwined with each other to such an extent that oftentimes it is said that the Body and the Mind are one.

Reason is one of the greatest blessings of the Creator upon His creation. It is an attribute of the mind. The mind is a noble faculty. It is the master of logic and reason. It is distinguished by its ability to read symbols and conceive of the possibility of things. Knowledge acquired by the mind can also be taught and hence it is also a part of ilm ul ibara. It includes mathematics, geometry, logic and philosophy.

What is Ilm ul Ishara

Ilm ul Ishara is knowledge that can be alluded to but not expressed through language. It includes the language of the heart and the language of the hidden Self (the soul).  Examples are: love, hate, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, generosity.

The secular worldview recognizes only the empirical and the rational (the Body and the Mind) as sources of knowledge. The secular world is cold, rational, devoid of feelings and emotions. Secular man finds himself alone in this cold world. He does not speak to this world; the world does not speak to him.

What makes us human is not just our Body and our Mind. It is also our heart and our soul.  Feelings and emotions are valid sources of experience. And experience is the basis of knowledge.

How can we deny that we love? Or that we have compassion and mercy? Why does a man want to climb a mountain? Why does a singer sing or a poet compose poetry? Joy and sorrow cannot be measured by instruments nor comprehended by the mind. They are attributes of the heart.  They are attributes of the soul.

The Imperfect Worldview of the Body and the Mind

Secular man who believes only in the material and the rational overlooks the flaws in his worldview. As an illustration, consider the red color of a beautiful rose. Ask a materialist to tell you where the redness in the rose comes from. His description will be something along the following lines: Electromagnetic waves from the sun hit the rose. All waves except those around 0.63 micrometers are absorbed by the rose. When reflected, they travel through space and are received by the eye. They hit the retina, travel along the optic nerve and are recorded in brain cells. Ask yourself: where in this picture is the red color of the rose? It is not there. The red color is neither in the rose nor in the eye. It is somewhere else.  It is in the Self (soul).

The attributes of color, beauty, joy and sorrow that make our world rich and meaningful are absent from a materialist worldview drawn purely on the basis of the empirical and the rational. Such a worldview is flawed and incomplete. It is also deceptive, erroneous and misleading.

The Exalted Station (Maqam) of the Heart

In all of God’s creation, there is nothing as noble, as sublime as the human heart, for it alone is capable of knowing the Name of God. Nothing, not the body, not the mind, measures up to heart in its nobility, its expanse and its heavenly character. Mohammed ibn Ali al Hakim al Tirmidhi, that great Sufi shaikh of the tenth century, in his treatise Bayan al Sadr wa al Qalb wa al Fuad wa al Lubb, compared the heart to the throne of God.  He wrote: “The heart has a nobler position even with respect to the Throne (arsh), for the Throne receives the Grace of God and merely reflects it, whereas the heart receives the Grace of God, reflects it and is aware of it.”  The sublime attribute of the heart is that it is aware; it knows what the angels do not know.

A Hadith e Qudsi (divinely inspired saying of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh)) says: The heavens and the mountains and the earth were not large enough to contain Me. But the heart of the believer was large enough to contain Me.”

The heart as it is used here should not be confused with the physical heart. It should be understood as a collection of attributes. Based upon the terminology of the Qur’an, Imam Tarmidhi, ascribes four ascending stations to the heart, each with its own distinct characteristics.

The Sadr. This is the outermost station of the heart.  It is open to the goodness that comes from the spirit. It is also open to the distractions of the world. It expands with the light of the spirit and contracts with the darkness of evil whispering. In this sense it is like the aperture of a camera. The more it opens, the more it admits light.

The Qalb. This is the heart proper. The word Qalb in Arabic means that which turns. It is like a gimbal in a spacecraft. One face of the heart turns towards the Light of the spirit. The other face turns towards the distractions of the world. The heart that turns towards the spirit receives the light that comes from Divine presence. A heart that turns towards the deceptive appearance of the material world is sealed off from that light.

The Fu’ad. The word Fu’ad comes from the word Fayida which in Arabic means that which is of benefit. It is the kernel of the heart. It is that attribute which enables the heart not only to be aware of the Divine Names but to see the presence of God around it. Hence it is the eye of the heart.

The Birr. This is the essence of the heart. It is like the oil in the lamp, that which gives off light. It is the station wherein are manifest the beauty and majesty of Divine presence. It is the inner sanctum of the heart that gazes in its rapture at the ruh or the spirit and receives the infinite Grace that comes from God’s presence. The word Birr has two letters, b and r. The “b” stands for Baraka (grace). The “r” stands for ra’a, that is to see. The Birr is a perpetual witness to the blessings that accrue from the tajalliyat (manifestations) of  Divine attributes. This is the highest station of the heart, the one that is attained by the sages, the awliya.

What is ilm al laduni?

This is the knowledge that is given only to the Prophets, the Messengers of God. It is Divine wisdom. It contains guidance for humankind and the criterion to separate right from wrong. It provides the framework and the wisdom (hikmah) within which all other knowledge is sorted out. Included in it are the Qur’an, the Injil, the Torah and all the revealed books given to all the prophets through the ages in all parts of the world.

What is the Nafs

The Nafs is a composite term which includes the body, the mind and the heart. Like the heart, it is a collection of attributes and is not to be confused with a specific part of the body. Depending on the context it is translated as “person”, “soul”, or the Self. It is the “I” that remains hidden and yet makes itself felt through the body, the mind and the heart. In the English language it is sometimes incorrectly translated as “the Ego”. The Ego is only one aspect of the Nafs; it does not capture the full, comprehensive meaning of the Nafs.

The secular perspective denies the existence of the Nafs. In its materialist outlook, it confines itself to the concrete and the rational. “What is material is real and what is real is material” is its perspective. Consequently, secular man cannot come to terms with the emotions and the passions that govern the world of man.  In the secular perspective there is no color, only wavelengths. There is no joy and no sorrow only chemical changes in the body. The secular world is cold, rational, devoid of the higher impulses that make us human.

Attributes of the Nafs

The Nafs is distinguished by its attributes, just as are its individual elements, the heart, the mind and the body. Some of the most important attributes of the Nafs are:

1. The Nafs is the seat of cognition and knowledge. The sounds that we hear are “heard” not by the ear but by the Nafs. The sights that we see are “seen” not by the eye but by the Nafs. The “heat” and “cold” that we experience are not experienced by the skin but by the Nafs. The Nafs (soul or the Self) is the cognitive element in a human being.
2. The Nafs is the fountain of speech. The faculty of “bayan” as it is called in Arabic, is not merely the ability to speak a particular language such as English, French, Arabic, Urdu, Swahili or Zulu, but it is that innate human ability to transform sounds and signs into ideas, to dissect, combine and integrate them and build the tree of knowledge that distinguishes the world of man from the world of the beast. Speech is not in the tongue; it is in the Nafs or the soul.

God, Most Gracious,

Taught the Qur’an,

Created the human,

Taught him speech.” (The Qur’an 55:1-4)

3. The Nafs is the owner of intent and free will.

Humankind is distinguished by its free will. “I will, therefore I am”, is the succinct way to state this. Man has the free will to choose and realize his existential potential.  It is this same free will that makes a man climb a mountain, conquer the oceans, ride the waves, and send a rocket to the moon.

4. The Nafs is the knower of beauty, of order and proportion.

And the Nafs

By the sense of order and proportion bestowed upon it. (The Quran 91:7)

The Nafs has a sense of order, proportion and beauty. Every human, man, woman and child is endowed with these attributes. That is how even the most unlettered person can relate to the enchanting beauty of the rainbow or the serene majesty of a mountain.  The Nafs recognizes beauty, order and proportion in the external world and relates to it because the external is a reflection of what is already in the Nafs.   It is like looking in the mirror; the beauty of the image is a reflection of the beauty of that which causes the image.

5. The Nafs is the seat of the Ego.

The Nafs is sometimes mistranslated into English as the Ego. In Arabic, the corresponding term for the Ego would be “Anaya”.  The term “Ego” is a Freudian term used in Western psychology and has its own specific connotations. The Nafs is a broader term than the Ego inasmuch as it includes the hidden attributes of the body, the mind and the heart, and hence connotes the total human being, or simply, the Person.

It is the Ego that incites the human to self-aggrandizement, to rebel against the commandments of God and set himself up as an open adversary to Divine Will and in the process lays the groundwork for his self-destruction:

Nay! But humankind does rebel

In that it considers itself autonomous (self-sufficient);

We will drag him by his forelock,

A lying, sinful forelock! (96: 6-7)

6. The Nafs has a conscience and is the differentiator of good and evil.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of the Nafs is its ability to know right from wrong, good from evil (…And its guidance as to what is wrong and what is right… Qur’an 91:8). The propensity towards evil and its ability to say “no” to that tendency is a uniquely human ability. Humankind is born with “deen ul fitra”, in the natural state with closeness to Divine presence, but through its own actions gets away from the Divine presence and has to be reminded again and again to return to the Divine fold.

The Veil of the Nafs

The susceptibility of the Nafs to evil makes the Nafs the biggest barrier between the Light that comes with the Ruh and its perception. Properly trained, this barrier can be removed and the Nafs can become the carrier of that Light. The progression of the Nafs from an obstructer of Light to a carrier of Light is a continuous process. Four stations of the Nafs are identified in the Qur’an:

Nafs e Ammara: This is the dark side of man, prone to whisperings from the evil one. Nafs e Ammara stands steeped in darkness, cut off from the light emanating from the Spirit.

Nafs e Mulhama: This is the aspiring Nafs, the state when a person starts questioning the evil tendencies of his own Self and tries to rectify them.

Nafs e Lawwama: This is the blaming Nafs, the station from where the Self, having overcome the evil inclinations of the Self, reaches out to a higher station, to find the Light that comes from Divine presence.

Nafs e Mutmainna:

At this station, the Nafs has overcome its Ego and has shunned whisperings of the evil one and has turned with complete surrender to Divine presence. It is the station of satisfaction, tranquility and peace.

Nafs e Radiya

At this station, the Nafs is satisfied with itself.

Nafs e Maradiya

This is the highest station. At this station, the Nafs is satisfied with itself and its Creator is satisfied with it.

Tirmidhi tabulates the stations of the Nafs with respect to the stations of the heart: Nafs e Ammara corresponds to Sadr; Nafs e Mulhama corresponds to the Qalb; Nafs e Lawwama corresponds to the Fu’ad, and Nafs e Mutmainna corresponds to Birr.

The Interconnectivity of Knowledge

Truth is one. Its origin is the Light that comes with the ruh (the Spirit). It is the Spirit that suffuses the heart, the mind and the body to acquire knowledge. It follows that the various categories of knowledge are interconnected.  

The primal origin of knowledge from a divine source establishes the interconnectivity between different forms of knowledge. Ilm ul ibara and ilm ul ishara both have Divine origin. What is learned through the senses springs from the same Source as what is learned through the mind and what is perceived by the heart.  And all of them point like arrows (Signs) towards that divine purpose in creation, namely, to serve and worship Him. Unlike the secular framework where the body and mind stand as antagonists to the heart and to each other, in the Qur’anic paradigm, the body, mind and the heart are partners, each contributing its share to the acquisition of knowledge that enables humankind to discharge its divinely established responsibility to serve and worship.

There is interconnectivity in nature. There is interconnectivity between the perceived world and the world beyond perception. This interconnectivity is through the Creator, who creates everything, every moment, with sublime beauty, complete perfection and supreme majesty.

The Purpose of Creation

The various categories of knowledge are also interconnected through their shared functionality.

Does the universe have a purpose? As opposed to the secular view of a purposeless world, the Qur’anic view holds that there is a moral purpose to creation, that is, to serve and worship God:

I created not the Jinns and Humankind except to serve (worship). The Qur’an (51:56)

The word that is used in the Qur’an to describe this purpose is “‘abd” which may mean worship or unqualified servitude.  Thus humankind and jinns (another form of intelligent creation made of formless energy) are enjoined to acquire knowledge so that they may know God and serve and worship Him.

The fossilization of knowledge

Knowledge is fossilized because of the assumptions made by man about the secular nature of the cosmos. By dissociating the material and the rational from the heart and the soul, secular man ends up in a blind alley where the heart and the Nafs (soul) are absent from his worldview. History, science, philosophy, mathematics, good and evil, passion and emotion each are pigeon-holed into separate compartments with no interconnectivity. Secular man sees no grand purpose in creation. He embarks on a search for the truth using atoms, molecules, neutrons, protons, strings and wavelengths as his props. And what he finds in the end are nothing but atoms, molecules, neutrons, protons, strings and wavelengths.

Summary: I have presented in this paper a vision of knowledge that integrates the empirical, the rational, the intuitive and infusive (science, philosophy, perception and revelation).  Knowledge is a Divine gift. It has a grand purpose, and that is to know, adore and serve Him. The laws of nature and of history are Signs in this quest and serve as stations on the ladders of ascent towards Divine presence.  Humankind must strive to study these Signs so that through them it fulfills its heavenly mandate.  The heart is the seat of awareness, a container of Divine Names. Revelation is Divine guidance so that man may find God. Faith is the most precious jewel in the treasure house of the heart. Science, history and faith are not antagonists; they are complementary Divine gifts and it is through them that man finds God. Each is a sacred path that starts from the Truth and points towards the Truth. This is the essence of the Shariah, the Divine Cannon, the Divine Law which pervades the world seen and the world unseen.

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