لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Realistic
Conception of the World
Islam is a realistic religion. The word "Islam" means submission. This
indicates that the first condition of being a Muslim is to submit to the
realities and truths. Islam rejects every kind of obduracy, stubbornness,
prejudice, blind imitation, bias and selfishness, and regards all of them
as contrary to realism and realistic approach to truth. From the point
of view of Islam a man who seeks truth, but fails in his efforts may be
excused, but the acceptance of truth by virtue of imitation or heredity
by a man who is otherwise stubborn and arrogant has no value. A true Muslim,
whether a male or a female, eagerly accepts truth wherever he or she may
find it. As far as the acquisition of knowledge is concerned, a Muslim
shows no bias. He may go even to the farthest corner of the world for acquiring
knowledge. His efforts to gain knowledge and to find truth are not confined
to any particular period of his life nor to any territorial region. Nor
does he insist to acquire knowledge from any particular person. The Holy
Prophet has said that to seek knowledge is the duty of every Muslim, whether
a man or a woman. He has also asked the Muslims to receive it even from
an idolater.
There is another saying of the Holy Prophet which exhorts the Muslims
to seek it even if they have to go to China for that purpose. He is also
reported to have said: "Continue to seek knowledge from the cradle to
the grave". Superficial and partial notions of the problems, blind
imitation of the forefathers and submission to the absurd hereditary traditions,
being contrary to the spirit of submission to truth, are censured by Islam
and regarded as misleading.
Allah is Absolute Reality and Source of Life
Man is a realistic being. A new-born human child from the very first
moments of its life, while looking for its mother's breast, seeks it as
a reality. Gradually the body and the mind of the infant develop to the
extent that it can distinguish between itself and other things. Though
the new-born child's contact with other things is established through a
series of its thoughts, it knows that the reality of the things is distinct
from that of the thoughts which it entertains and uses as a medium only.
Integral Characteristics of the World
The realities which man can perceive through his senses and which we
call the world, have the following integral characteristics:
(i) Limitation
Everything perceptible, from the smallest particle to the biggest star
has spatial and temporal limitations. Nothing can exist outside a particular
space and a particular period of time.
Certain things occupy a bigger space and last longer while some others
occupy a smaller space and last comparatively for a shorter time. But in
the final analysis they are all limited to a particular portion of place
and a particular period of time.
(ii) Change
Everything is subject to a change and is indurable. Nothing perceptible
in the world is in a standstill state. It is either growing or decaying.
A material and perceptible being throughout the period of its existence
passes through a constant course of change as a part of its reality. It
either gives something or takes something or gives as well as takes. In
other words, it either takes something out of the reality of other things
and adds it to its own reality or gives something out of its reality or
performs both the actions. In any case, there is nothing that remains static.
This characteristic also is common to all things existing in this world.
(iii) Attachment
Another characteristic of the perceptible things is their attachment.
We find that they all are conditional. In other words the existence of
each one of them is attached to and , conditional on the existence of one
or more other things. None of them can exist if those other things do not
exist. If we look deeply into the reality of the material and perceptible
things, we will find that many 'ifs' are attached to their existence. We
do not find a single perceptible thing which may be existing unconditionally
and independently. The existence of everything is conditional on the existence
of something else, and the existence of that something else in its turn
is also conditional on the existence of something else, and so on.
(iv) Dependence
The existence of all our perceptible things depends on the fulfilment
of the numerous conditions attached to it. The existence of each of these
conditions again depends on the fulfilment of a series of some other conditions.
There is no perceptible thing which may exist independently, i.e. in the
absence of the conditions on which its existence depends. Thus dependence
pervades all existing things.
(v) Relativeness
All perceptible things are relative as regards to their existence a
well as to their qualities. When we attribute to them greatness, power,
beauty, antiquity and even existence, we say so in comparison to other
things. When we say, for example, that the sun is very large, we mean that
it is larger than the earth and other planets of our solar system. Otherwise
this very sun is smaller than many other stars. Similarly when we say that
such and such ship or such and such animal is powerful, we compare it with
man or something weaker than man. Even the existence of a thing is comparative.
Whenever we speak of any existence, perfection, wisdom, beauty, power or
grandeur, we take into consideration a lower degree of that quality. We
can always visualize a higher degree of it also and then a further higher
degree. Each quality as compared to its higher degree is changed into its
opposite. Existence becomes non-existence, perfection is changed into defectiveness.
Similarly wisdom, beauty, greatness and grandeur are changed respectively
into ignorance, ugliness and despicability.
The thinking power of man, the scope of which, contrary to that of the
senses, is not confined to the exterior features, but also penetrates what
is behind the screen of existence, tells us that existence is in no way
confined to these perceptible things which are limited, changing, relative
and dependent.
The scenery of existence which we observe appears on the whole to be
self-existing and self-dependent. Hence there must be an everlasting, unconditional
and ever-present absolute and infinite truth behind it on which everything
must depend. Otherwise this scenery of existence could not stand so firmly.
In other words nothing would have existed at all.
The Holy Qur'an describes Allah as Self-existing and Self-dependent,
and thus reminds us that all existing things, being conditional and relative,
are in need of a Self-existing truth to support and sustain them. Allah
is Self-dependent because everything else depends on Him. He is Perfect,
for everything else is hollow from within and needs a Truth which may fill
it with existence.
The Holy Qur'an describes the perceptible things as 'signs'. In other
words everything in its turn is a sign of an Infinite Being and His knowledge,
power and will. From the viewpoint of the Holy Qur'an the world is like
a book composed by a wise and sagacious being, every line and every word
of which is a sign of the wisdom and sagacity of its author. From the point
of view of the Holy Qur'an, the more a man comes to know the reality of
the things, the more he gets acquainted with Divine wisdom, power and blessings.
From one angle every natural science is a branch of cosmology. From
another angle and from a deeper way of looking at things, it is a branch
of the knowledge (recognition) of Allah.
To elucidate the Qur'anic point of view in this respect we quote here
just one verse of the Holy Qur'an out of so many similar verses: "Surely
in the creation of the heavens and the alternation of night and day, the
ships which sail on the sea with (cargoes) beneficial to man, the water
that Allah sends down from heaven with which He revives the earth after
it is dead and replenishes it with all kinds of animal life, in the movement
of the winds and in the clouds held between the sky and the earth, there
are signs for the people who have sense."s
