"The first thing created by God was the Intellect" (Prophetic hadith FROM aL-KAFI)In the following discussion on the place of intellect in Islam, the analogy of a computer may help clarify some of the points made. This is an analogy used only to provoke some thought and is not meant to be carried too far. There is, after all, no such thing as a perfect analogy. A perfect analogy would, in fact, BE the thing described.Imagine that the computer screen and all activity on the screen represents the world of material existence. The screen is considered as the horizontal dimension of the computer. A program is running that simulates a small universe complete with simulated beings (with senses that let them interact with other objects on the screen) and simulated laws (much like some computer games) - the attempts of the beings to understand the environment (on the screen) represents science and all its branches (physics, chemistry etc.). This science can give these simulated beings an understanding and control over this HORIZONTAL (screen) dimension of their simulated universe - just as our science and technology gives us control over the material world.Now in order to create this onscreen world, complex processes are occuring within the computer. The images on the screen are generated by rays tracing pixel by pixel across the screen. There is a program (or perhaps many interacting programs) running in the RAM. At another level there are patterns of electricity (of information) flowing and tracing complex paths through the chips on the motherboard. There is the static storage of the uninitialized program stored on a disk. All these represent levels of realities (the Universe on the screen exists on all these levels). The projection on the screen is the visual (material) manifestation of these other levels of existence. These other levels of existence are the foundation, or the substratum of the universe on the screen. They represent the VERTICAL dimension of the simulated universe. A creature in the simulated universe relying upon the senses given to it by the program could achieve a good understanding of the simulated universe, but it would not necessarily be even aware of the huge edifice which exists as a support to its very existence (the program itself, the patterns of electricity flowing through chips, the RAM, the actual hardware which supports the software, etc.). It would be restricted to understanding the horizontal world - the world on the screen. All the other planes of its existence would be invisible to it, they would be "unseen" levels.Using this analogy only as a starting point, let us briefly examine the concept of intellect in Islam.Science is a horizontal undertaking since it expands our knowledge outwards. It brodens our understanding but does not necessarily deepen it. Science is unstable from a theoretical view point - it is based on hypotheses, experiment, and discovery, not on self-evident principles.Science can provide a model of the world as it is (albeit an ever changing model), it describes aspects of the world for us but it cannot tell us anything about the foundations or the underpinnings of the world and of the purposes behind it. It describes our horizontal existence and gives us a power over this aspect of our existence but is incapable (at least in the currently dominant form) of telling us anything about our vertical existence.Science and reason have width and length but lack depth. They are missing this third dimension so that those who see the world only through the glass of science are like a one-eyed man. He perceives the world in great detail, but it is a flat uni-dimensional world having vast extent and breadth, but no depth, no firm solidity.If humanity is shaped predominantly by science, the result is a humankind with vast horizontal knowledge, a large body of knowledge about the workings of the physical universe but little comprehension of what the purpose(s) of it is - the "why" of existence. It is like understanding exactly how a car works, "how all the parts mesh together, how to drive it in an efficient manner, But having no place, no destination to drive to." Science can shape a humanity "with capacity, but no attainment". (Mutahhari, "Fundamentals of Islamic Thought", Mizan Press). It can give man an "instrumental power and ability", a power that is dependent on man's will and command.
Man has an end in view when he uses these instruments. "Man is animal by nature and human by acquisition." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) He must strive to realise his 'human' potential, otherwise by nature "...he moves towards his natural, animal, individual, material, self-interested ends...." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) and uses the instruments given to him by science to achieve these ends. Through science he can subjugate the horizontal world. But he only attains his humanity when he becomes aware of the vertical aspect of existence. A complete understanding is only attained when one's knowledge encompasses both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of knowledge. ("Faith, without the light of reason and science, degenerates into mere superstition.")
There is a modern tendency to attach the word Islamic to existing secular ideologies (whether conservative or liberal ideologies). The wholesale adoption of these secular ideologies or methodologies (and all their cultural adjuncts) is justified by making cosmetic Islamic changes to them. This is perhaps done in order to demonstrate Islam's relevance to in the modern political/cultural context and power structures and to make Islam seem "up-to-date" and appealing to secularized Muslims or palatable to the proponents of secular ideologies. (The extreme side of this is that some relegate the Islamic aspect to an essentially inconsequential position in that they speak of a secular Islam or secular Muslims) What actually happens is that Islam is reduced to the status of an adjective modifying a noun (i.e. rationalism, secularism etc.). It can no longer be seen as a total body of principles from which can emerge a comprehensive and unique system (Syyed Hossein Nasr, Living Sufism) - a system which may well (if it emerges) display parallels to many of the compelling and invaluable traits found in the modern world, but which achieves its total structure through an emergent process which is suffused throughout with a unity of the vertical and horizontal aspects of existence - a unity born of fidelity to the core Islamic concept of Tauhid. Instead, the presently existing (but ever mutating and changing) secular systems become the acknowledged systems, and Islam is implicitly seen as an adjunct, a subculture, a subsystem that is no longer a comprehensive way of life (deen), no longer the path of unity, but merely a historical artifact which is subordinate to the secular culture. As the secular system changes and morphs over time, such a subordinate version of Islam will be forced into an ever changing dance of adaptation - a dance that will, over time, only demonstrate the growing irrelevancy of such a vision of Islam. (The other equally unpalatable end of this spectrum is an extremist political interpretation of Islam in which the politics of conflict results in the subversion of Islamic ethics, theology, and Qur'anic interpretation). In the end the Islam that remains will perhaps be such a faded and faint shadow of its original self that whether one remains a Muslim or not in such a system will be of little or no consequence.
Making reason or the scientific method the sole means of attaining knowledge and the only criterion of truth and of right and wrong was a tendency of the modernistic outlook. "This outlook had its origins in Descarte's philosophical formulations.... For Descartes the ultimate criterion of reality was the human ego.... His 'cogito ergo sum' - I think therefore I am - places a limitation on human knowledge by binding it to the level of individual reason and to the consciousness of the individual ego." (Nasr, Living Sufism). Rationalistic trends sought to define all reality, but instead they limited understanding of reality. And the post-modern outlook (at least in the political arena) has even put aside Descartes' reason and logic and reduced the criterion of right and wrong simply to the desires and demands of the ego (not the individual ego, but the national ego, the corporate ego, or the politics of state power - although this in the end is likely to filter down to the individual level). This is not an ego that struggles and seeks to understand it's own existence like the ego that formulated Descarte's 'cogito ergo sum' - rather it is one that has no wish to understand it's own nature, which purposely turns away from self-reflection and taking stock of it's own self. Reason, logic, the scientific method - all become subservient to this ego and so lose their tinge of truthfullness. They mutate instead, into a delusional propaganda designed to limit opposition and interference, to maximize power and profit, and to allow this national, political ego to fulfill its appetites, no matter how voracious these appetites may be.In Islam "...logic is an aspect of truth and Truth (Al-Haqq) is a name of God." (Nasr, Living Sufism). The use of logic is like the use of a rung in a ladder - properly used it can help man move upward along the vertical axis of his being. Reason is an innate ability within man which encompasses logic and which can propel him rapidly upwards along the vertical dimension. But in order to do this reason must be free of the taint of man's animal, material propensities. Otherwise reason can be subverted to provide suprious justification for man to attain his desires in whatever realm his desires may fall. Reason and correct knowledge must go hand in hand. "....one who has no reason secures no success. He who has no (correct) knowledge has no (correct) reasoning....A person devoid of reason cannot be conceived of except as a corpse." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance)
Aql (Intellect) in Islam is something which exists at two levels, on two planes of existence. There is the level of "reason and logic" which is available as an instrument to all mankind, and there is the level of the "universal intellect" to which only a few have reached. It exists at a higher level than the material world and encompasses and comprehends the lower worlds. Aql is that which connects man to the truth, not the evolving truths of science but the truth that flows from God and provides the key to all knowledge and all truth.So the intellect (Aql) is the highest plane of man - it is the noblest part of man - it encompasses reason and logic and it stands above the ego. The Qur'an equates those who go astray with those who cannot (or will not) use their intellect - it uses the phrase 'wa la ya'qilun' (they do not use their intellect) or the phrase 'la yafaqahun' (they comprehend not). Those who do not use their intellect are those who have denied themselves access to one of the highest aspects of their humanity.Reason is an aspect or reflection of the universal intellect on the psyche of the individual. Reason on the level of individual conciousness is not, however, free of the passions or the ego. It can be an instrument or means to attaining the universal intellect or it can be a veil (when mixed with the passions) that hides one from the Divine truths.Revelation provides a guiding and regulating framework within which reason and logic can find firm footholds to convey man up to the plane of the universal intellect. The verses of the Qur'an become doors to this intellect, and once this intellect is accessed the knowledge of the "Mother of the Book" can be achieved. The storehouses of this knowledge are opened in varying degrees. The person who rises to this level has made the vertical journey and attained to the level of the pure universal intellect and can then become a guide to the people. This level of intellect is addressed in the following hadith: "....God created Intellect out of His own Light...and it was the first creation among the spirits. After its creation Almighty God commanded it to go back (to this world) the Intellect obeyed the order. Then God commanded it to come forward (towards) Him. The Intellect did accordingly. Upon this, God addressed it with the words, I have created you in all your glory and bestowed upon you honour and preference over all My creatures." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance).Note: This hadith makes it clear that the Universal intellect is not to be confused with God (as some have done) as it is a creation of God, albeit his noblest creation.
The Qur'an states that God taught the names (all of them) to Adam - that is the names or realities of all things. This knowledge was placed within Adam and, by extension, within all human beings. Those who practise 'irfan' speak of an inward journey through which the mystic uncovers the knowledge of some of these names.Mulla Sadra speaks of this inward journey as being one through which one can break through to the true 'outside'. (Using the analogy of a computer, it is as if a being on the screen is able to find a key parameter within its own subroutine that would give it access to the governing program that controls and regulates the universe on the computer screen - with all the attendant possibilities implicit in that access. A complete understanding of the basis and workings of its own subroutine, and its place and function within the overall program could then be achieved).In order to have access to the true depth of existence, in order to make the vertical journey (the "ascent of Islam"), in order to achieve understanding of the realities of existence (of all things) one goes inward and thus reaches a plane outside of and above the material plane. (In the computer analogy, they become aware of all the levels of processing which comprise their true existence and which make possible their projected existence on the level of the computer screen.) The human intellect is a microcosmic reflection of the universal intellect. When man attains to proper use of his own intellect he is able to move from the level of his own individual intellect to swim in the ocean of the universal (macrocosmic) intellect. Through going inward, He is conveyed upwards and outwards to dizzying heights.
Intellect and ego"Obedience to Him can only be performed by means of knowledge, and knowledge is a matter of acquisition, and this acquisition is through reason and intellect...(no person) can ever discharge his obligations to God unless he comprehends them consciously. All the worshippers taken together cannot reach that height of excellence in their devotion to God as the man of pure, unsullied intellect does." (hadith)"O Ali, Since mankind seeks to come near to their Creator through all kinds of piety, bring yourself close to Him through activities of the intellect, so that you may arrive there before all of them." (hadith)"The great scholars of the age have gained total knowledge and complete mastery of things that have nothing to do with them. But that which is important and closer to him than anything else, namely his own self, this he does not know.... Wretched humanity! Not knowing his own self, man has come from a high estate and fallen into lowliness!" (Rumi)"The dog of the ego has bared its teeth and nipped the spirit's foot. Since your ego predominates you are a beast. Your properties are determined by that which predominates, oh self-worshipper! This ego...it drinks down the seven seas. It makes a morsel out of a world and gulps it down. Its belly keeps shouting, 'Is there any more?' This ego will swallow down the seeds of your worldly designs, and once you have planted them, they will surely grow." (Rumi)
INTELLECT IN ISLAMICPSYCHOLOGY"Each and every part of the world is a snare for the fool and a means of deliverance for the wise." (Rumi)Man prays for evil as he prays for good, and man was ever hasty (impatient)...And every man's augury have we fastened on his neck; and we will bring forth for him on the day of resurrection a book offered to him wide open. 'Read your book, you are accountant enough against yourself today.'....He who accepts guidance, accepts it only for his own soul: and he who errs, errs only against it...." (Qur'an - sura 17:11,13)
"They deny what their knowledge does not encompass" (Qur'an 10:39)
"What they were busy acquiring has taken posession of their hearts...on that day they shall surely be veiled from their Lord" (Qur'an Sura 83:14,15)Sura 11, verse 5 reads as follows:"Now surely they fold up their breasts that they may conceal (their enmity) from Him; now surely, when they use their garments as a covering, He knows what they conceal and what they make public; surely He knows what is in the hearts. (Qur'an 11:5)
This verse addressed the hypocrites (and those who harbored a secret hostility to the Prophet) who sought, through veiled words and actions and through insinuation and suggestion, to undermine the Prophet's authority and the authority of the revelation. Their attempts to conceal the nature and extent of their hostility from the Prophet and the believers was like trying to conceal their enmity from God.
Their pulling their garments over themselves is a manifestation, an external symbol of this inner concealment. Since they carry antagonism and rancor in their mind's heart this inner state generates in them an extreme tension. Fearful of betraying through glance, gesture, or word some fractional indication of the intensity of their malice, they draw their garments over themselves, hoping the draped fabric will conceal any accidental bodily betrayal and make opaque the dark intentions which turn within their inner self. They have already folded their hearts around the core of their discontent, not in order to weaken and shut down the discontent but to protect and nurse it. It smolders within them fanned by the heated movement of contemptuous and mocking thoughts, causing them to fear that others will discern in their aspect and mannerisms its embers - the precursors to malevolent flames. And so they conceal and hide with every artifice available to them, enclosing themselves in "...darkness upon darkness..." (Qur'an 24:40) - closing their hearts, feigning with their outward expressions, deceiving with their physical form and appearance. They dissemble to disguise the turmoil that grips their thoughts, while they remain ignorant of a fundamental reality - that all existence, down to the innermost secrets of the heart, is utterly transparent to God.
Veils and barriers exist for us, not for God, the creator of veils Who "knows the secret, and what is yet more hidden" (Qur'an 20:7) "He knows the stealthy looks and that which the breasts conceal." (Qur'an 40:19) "...And there falls not a leaf but He knows it, nor a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything green nor dry but (it is all) in a clear book." (Qur'an 6:59) The understanding of God's knowledge and position compared to human knowledge and the human situation is entirely absent in the hypocrites. A verse like this is an awakening for us as well - to the fact that everything in existence is utterly open to Him, including our innermost deliberation and intentions. Competing strains of thought, stirrings and desires on the threshold of consciousness, tendencies of personality on the fringes of our awareness, the blurred mixture of knowledge, reflexivity, and habit that color our intentions and our actions and which impinges on every aspect of our understanding - all are translucent before God. "He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot comprehend anything out of His knowledge except what He pleases...." (Qur'an 2:255) This is one reason for consistently engaging in " astagfir allah" - as a corrective and healing action on our innermost selves - as a simultaneous recognition of the vagaries, conflicts, and immense complexity within our own mental world and as a supplication (dua) for guidance from the One who understands this complexity better than we know our own selves.
There is a prophetic hadith that says that we should worship and behave as if we "see" God, because, even if we do not see Him, He sees us. The knowledge that our thoughts and inner motions are transparently observed allows us to become aware of those very thoughts and inner stirrings. It is like that moment of startlement, of self-awareness, or of self-consciousness that arises when you suddenly realize that something you thought you were doing in privacy actually has an audience. There is an instantaneous toggling of self-consciousness from a dormant or low-level awareness to an intensely active and self-aware state. When this awareness arises from being cognizant that God has placed "watchers" over each of us, it can allow us to move away from being led by nearly subconscious processes of decision making that are powered by the reflexive reactions of our lower nafs (nafs amarra).
"And certainly We created man, and We know what his mind suggests to him, and We are nearer to him than his life-vein. When the two receivers (recorders) receive, sitting on the right and on the left. He utters not a word but there is by him a watcher at hand....And every soul shall have with it a driver and a witness." (Qur'an 50:16-18)
Technology can provide some generous, if severely limited, pointers and analogies to religious concepts. If we look at some of the computer worlds in which our children play, we can see a crude and feeble mechanistic parallel to some religious concepts - such as the transparency of our minds before God. In programs that create a simulacra of aspects of reality, such as some of the popular simulation games, the player is given various tasks such as constructing, administrating, and acting within a miniature world - one inhabited by sim-people. These tiny iconic characters act according to various computer generated traits, inclinations, and behaviours. Select a sim-person and you can glimpse their simple algorithmically-generated thoughts, desires, and motivations. Because everything occurs within the software generated simulacra, every detail and aspect of the generated world and its inhabitants can be monitored - everything is recorded and known - their movements, their inner states in terms of their simulated wants, desires, or dislikes (designed to add spice to the simulation) - everything private or public is visible to the person playing the game. In the games this is done to provide information to the player so he can adjust the game environment based on the desires, motivations, and actions of the sim people. As well, the software records everything that happens in the game in such a manner that the player can replay and watch, from a myriad different angles and viewpoints, anything that happens in different parts of the simulated world.
If a character in that simulated world was conscious, their reality and their sensory perception would be limited to the simulated world they inhabit. They would be completely oblivious to the fact that their innermost thoughts are transparently visible, and they would have no idea that all that they say or do is recorded, down to the minutest detail as the recording mechanism is built subtly and invisibly into the fabric that underlies, supports, and generates the computer universe in which they dwell. This is analogous to the verse "All is recorded in a clear book....On the day when Allah will raise them up all together, then inform them of what they did: Allah has recorded it while they have forgotten it" (Qur'an 78:29 and 58:6) The sim-people's simulated senses can only perceive the simulated world in which they live and not the invisible mechanisms which underlie it and support it - their awareness is limited to perceiving the reality depicted on the screen. If another simulated character were to come and inform them that in fact their innermost thoughts are transparent and that everything they think or do is recorded it would be a difficult thing to believe. When you dwell in a closed system, ordinary perception cannot move beyond the enclosing system.
Note: If they were further told that after their sim-life ends they could be brought back again, their skepticism would likely increase. Their situation would be like that of the people spoken of in the last part of verse 11:7: "Yet, if you, O Muhammad, tell them: 'You will be raised again after death', those who disbelieve will surely say: This is nothing but open superstition." (Qur'an 11:7) While the Qur'an repeatedly and powerfully emphasizes the transparency of all existence before God, it makes it clear that this type and level of knowledge is reserved for God. God's knowledge being complete, there is no possibility of misunderstanding - He will take into account all perspectives, all contingencies, all conditions, all circumstances when dealing with His creation. Humans can never encompass all perspectives and cicumstances, so the possibility of injustice, bias, and misinterpretation accompanies all unnecessary uncovering of private personal matters. For human society there are rules, principles, boundaries, and guidelines by which the society may encourage order and maintain a peaceful and harmonious existence, but the Qur'an and the hadith place definite limits on the manner in which these boundaries are to be monitored and enforced. A surveillance society, one which not only monitors its citizens but seeks to penetrate or remove their privacy, is seen as one which has sought to appropriate for its government a disproportionate leverage over its citizens. While God has placed penetrating watchers over each human soul ( "there is by him a watcher at hand"), he has not permitted those in positions of authority to exercise such surveillance over the people of their society. "We have not sent you as a watcher over them...." (Qur'an 42:48)
A society that uses technology allied with the organs of governmental power to impose an authoritative and intrusive scrutiny in order to bend its citizens into acquiescent conformity will devolve irresistably into tyranny, and away from mercy. "And when you impose control over men, you control like tyrants....If you controlled the treasures of the mercy of my Lord, then you would withhold (them) because of greed...." (Qur'an 26:130 and 17.100) Such a society seeks to take upon itself a mantle of godlike power and so immediately begins a fall away from God and towards arrogance and a rulership based on suspicion. "O you who believe, avoid suspicion...and do not spy on one another, nor let some of you disparage or denounce others...." (Qur'an 49:12)
In a technocratic future it may become possible to cast a technological net of surveillance that is so wide and so efficient in its ability to penetrate human privacy that its effectiveness approaches the levels of scrutiny available to the players of some simulation games. While the Qur'an points out that existence is absolutely transparent before God it also points out that God has drawn many veils over his creation and that some of these veils are veils of privacy placed as a mercy and as a token of dignity and respect between people. These are veils which it is an injustice and a violation to remove - levels of privacy and ethical behavior which are to be upheld. "You should not enter the houses (secretly) at their backs...." (Qur'an 2:189) The Prophet and the Imams had a persipicacity and insight deeper and more penetrating than the knowledge available to us with all our technology. Yet they respected the limits, the barriers, and the boundaries with which God graced human relations and interactions - they allowed to remain veiled that which should be veiled. They only "entered houses by their doors...." (Qur'an 2:189) respecting, protecting, and guarding the privacy of those over whom they had authority.
"For people possess faults, which the ruler more than anyone else should conceal. So do not uncover those of them which are hidden from you - it is only incumbent upon you to remedy what appears before you. God will judge what is hidden from you. So veil imperfection to the extent you are able....And loose from men the knot of every resentment...." (Imam Ali - letter to Malik al-Ashtar)
Man has an end in view when he uses these instruments. "Man is animal by nature and human by acquisition." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) He must strive to realise his 'human' potential, otherwise by nature "...he moves towards his natural, animal, individual, material, self-interested ends...." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) and uses the instruments given to him by science to achieve these ends. Through science he can subjugate the horizontal world. But he only attains his humanity when he becomes aware of the vertical aspect of existence. A complete understanding is only attained when one's knowledge encompasses both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of knowledge. ("Faith, without the light of reason and science, degenerates into mere superstition.")
There is a modern tendency to attach the word Islamic to existing secular ideologies (whether conservative or liberal ideologies). The wholesale adoption of these secular ideologies or methodologies (and all their cultural adjuncts) is justified by making cosmetic Islamic changes to them. This is perhaps done in order to demonstrate Islam's relevance to in the modern political/cultural context and power structures and to make Islam seem "up-to-date" and appealing to secularized Muslims or palatable to the proponents of secular ideologies. (The extreme side of this is that some relegate the Islamic aspect to an essentially inconsequential position in that they speak of a secular Islam or secular Muslims) What actually happens is that Islam is reduced to the status of an adjective modifying a noun (i.e. rationalism, secularism etc.). It can no longer be seen as a total body of principles from which can emerge a comprehensive and unique system (Syyed Hossein Nasr, Living Sufism) - a system which may well (if it emerges) display parallels to many of the compelling and invaluable traits found in the modern world, but which achieves its total structure through an emergent process which is suffused throughout with a unity of the vertical and horizontal aspects of existence - a unity born of fidelity to the core Islamic concept of Tauhid. Instead, the presently existing (but ever mutating and changing) secular systems become the acknowledged systems, and Islam is implicitly seen as an adjunct, a subculture, a subsystem that is no longer a comprehensive way of life (deen), no longer the path of unity, but merely a historical artifact which is subordinate to the secular culture. As the secular system changes and morphs over time, such a subordinate version of Islam will be forced into an ever changing dance of adaptation - a dance that will, over time, only demonstrate the growing irrelevancy of such a vision of Islam. (The other equally unpalatable end of this spectrum is an extremist political interpretation of Islam in which the politics of conflict results in the subversion of Islamic ethics, theology, and Qur'anic interpretation). In the end the Islam that remains will perhaps be such a faded and faint shadow of its original self that whether one remains a Muslim or not in such a system will be of little or no consequence.
Making reason or the scientific method the sole means of attaining knowledge and the only criterion of truth and of right and wrong was a tendency of the modernistic outlook. "This outlook had its origins in Descarte's philosophical formulations.... For Descartes the ultimate criterion of reality was the human ego.... His 'cogito ergo sum' - I think therefore I am - places a limitation on human knowledge by binding it to the level of individual reason and to the consciousness of the individual ego." (Nasr, Living Sufism). Rationalistic trends sought to define all reality, but instead they limited understanding of reality. And the post-modern outlook (at least in the political arena) has even put aside Descartes' reason and logic and reduced the criterion of right and wrong simply to the desires and demands of the ego (not the individual ego, but the national ego, the corporate ego, or the politics of state power - although this in the end is likely to filter down to the individual level). This is not an ego that struggles and seeks to understand it's own existence like the ego that formulated Descarte's 'cogito ergo sum' - rather it is one that has no wish to understand it's own nature, which purposely turns away from self-reflection and taking stock of it's own self. Reason, logic, the scientific method - all become subservient to this ego and so lose their tinge of truthfullness. They mutate instead, into a delusional propaganda designed to limit opposition and interference, to maximize power and profit, and to allow this national, political ego to fulfill its appetites, no matter how voracious these appetites may be.In Islam "...logic is an aspect of truth and Truth (Al-Haqq) is a name of God." (Nasr, Living Sufism). The use of logic is like the use of a rung in a ladder - properly used it can help man move upward along the vertical axis of his being. Reason is an innate ability within man which encompasses logic and which can propel him rapidly upwards along the vertical dimension. But in order to do this reason must be free of the taint of man's animal, material propensities. Otherwise reason can be subverted to provide suprious justification for man to attain his desires in whatever realm his desires may fall. Reason and correct knowledge must go hand in hand. "....one who has no reason secures no success. He who has no (correct) knowledge has no (correct) reasoning....A person devoid of reason cannot be conceived of except as a corpse." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance)
Aql (Intellect) in Islam is something which exists at two levels, on two planes of existence. There is the level of "reason and logic" which is available as an instrument to all mankind, and there is the level of the "universal intellect" to which only a few have reached. It exists at a higher level than the material world and encompasses and comprehends the lower worlds. Aql is that which connects man to the truth, not the evolving truths of science but the truth that flows from God and provides the key to all knowledge and all truth.So the intellect (Aql) is the highest plane of man - it is the noblest part of man - it encompasses reason and logic and it stands above the ego. The Qur'an equates those who go astray with those who cannot (or will not) use their intellect - it uses the phrase 'wa la ya'qilun' (they do not use their intellect) or the phrase 'la yafaqahun' (they comprehend not). Those who do not use their intellect are those who have denied themselves access to one of the highest aspects of their humanity.Reason is an aspect or reflection of the universal intellect on the psyche of the individual. Reason on the level of individual conciousness is not, however, free of the passions or the ego. It can be an instrument or means to attaining the universal intellect or it can be a veil (when mixed with the passions) that hides one from the Divine truths.Revelation provides a guiding and regulating framework within which reason and logic can find firm footholds to convey man up to the plane of the universal intellect. The verses of the Qur'an become doors to this intellect, and once this intellect is accessed the knowledge of the "Mother of the Book" can be achieved. The storehouses of this knowledge are opened in varying degrees. The person who rises to this level has made the vertical journey and attained to the level of the pure universal intellect and can then become a guide to the people. This level of intellect is addressed in the following hadith: "....God created Intellect out of His own Light...and it was the first creation among the spirits. After its creation Almighty God commanded it to go back (to this world) the Intellect obeyed the order. Then God commanded it to come forward (towards) Him. The Intellect did accordingly. Upon this, God addressed it with the words, I have created you in all your glory and bestowed upon you honour and preference over all My creatures." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance).Note: This hadith makes it clear that the Universal intellect is not to be confused with God (as some have done) as it is a creation of God, albeit his noblest creation.
The Qur'an states that God taught the names (all of them) to Adam - that is the names or realities of all things. This knowledge was placed within Adam and, by extension, within all human beings. Those who practise 'irfan' speak of an inward journey through which the mystic uncovers the knowledge of some of these names.Mulla Sadra speaks of this inward journey as being one through which one can break through to the true 'outside'. (Using the analogy of a computer, it is as if a being on the screen is able to find a key parameter within its own subroutine that would give it access to the governing program that controls and regulates the universe on the computer screen - with all the attendant possibilities implicit in that access. A complete understanding of the basis and workings of its own subroutine, and its place and function within the overall program could then be achieved).In order to have access to the true depth of existence, in order to make the vertical journey (the "ascent of Islam"), in order to achieve understanding of the realities of existence (of all things) one goes inward and thus reaches a plane outside of and above the material plane. (In the computer analogy, they become aware of all the levels of processing which comprise their true existence and which make possible their projected existence on the level of the computer screen.) The human intellect is a microcosmic reflection of the universal intellect. When man attains to proper use of his own intellect he is able to move from the level of his own individual intellect to swim in the ocean of the universal (macrocosmic) intellect. Through going inward, He is conveyed upwards and outwards to dizzying heights.
Intellect and ego"Obedience to Him can only be performed by means of knowledge, and knowledge is a matter of acquisition, and this acquisition is through reason and intellect...(no person) can ever discharge his obligations to God unless he comprehends them consciously. All the worshippers taken together cannot reach that height of excellence in their devotion to God as the man of pure, unsullied intellect does." (hadith)"O Ali, Since mankind seeks to come near to their Creator through all kinds of piety, bring yourself close to Him through activities of the intellect, so that you may arrive there before all of them." (hadith)"The great scholars of the age have gained total knowledge and complete mastery of things that have nothing to do with them. But that which is important and closer to him than anything else, namely his own self, this he does not know.... Wretched humanity! Not knowing his own self, man has come from a high estate and fallen into lowliness!" (Rumi)"The dog of the ego has bared its teeth and nipped the spirit's foot. Since your ego predominates you are a beast. Your properties are determined by that which predominates, oh self-worshipper! This ego...it drinks down the seven seas. It makes a morsel out of a world and gulps it down. Its belly keeps shouting, 'Is there any more?' This ego will swallow down the seeds of your worldly designs, and once you have planted them, they will surely grow." (Rumi)
INTELLECT IN ISLAMICPSYCHOLOGY"Each and every part of the world is a snare for the fool and a means of deliverance for the wise." (Rumi)Man prays for evil as he prays for good, and man was ever hasty (impatient)...And every man's augury have we fastened on his neck; and we will bring forth for him on the day of resurrection a book offered to him wide open. 'Read your book, you are accountant enough against yourself today.'....He who accepts guidance, accepts it only for his own soul: and he who errs, errs only against it...." (Qur'an - sura 17:11,13)
"They deny what their knowledge does not encompass" (Qur'an 10:39)
"What they were busy acquiring has taken posession of their hearts...on that day they shall surely be veiled from their Lord" (Qur'an Sura 83:14,15)Sura 11, verse 5 reads as follows:"Now surely they fold up their breasts that they may conceal (their enmity) from Him; now surely, when they use their garments as a covering, He knows what they conceal and what they make public; surely He knows what is in the hearts. (Qur'an 11:5)
This verse addressed the hypocrites (and those who harbored a secret hostility to the Prophet) who sought, through veiled words and actions and through insinuation and suggestion, to undermine the Prophet's authority and the authority of the revelation. Their attempts to conceal the nature and extent of their hostility from the Prophet and the believers was like trying to conceal their enmity from God.
Their pulling their garments over themselves is a manifestation, an external symbol of this inner concealment. Since they carry antagonism and rancor in their mind's heart this inner state generates in them an extreme tension. Fearful of betraying through glance, gesture, or word some fractional indication of the intensity of their malice, they draw their garments over themselves, hoping the draped fabric will conceal any accidental bodily betrayal and make opaque the dark intentions which turn within their inner self. They have already folded their hearts around the core of their discontent, not in order to weaken and shut down the discontent but to protect and nurse it. It smolders within them fanned by the heated movement of contemptuous and mocking thoughts, causing them to fear that others will discern in their aspect and mannerisms its embers - the precursors to malevolent flames. And so they conceal and hide with every artifice available to them, enclosing themselves in "...darkness upon darkness..." (Qur'an 24:40) - closing their hearts, feigning with their outward expressions, deceiving with their physical form and appearance. They dissemble to disguise the turmoil that grips their thoughts, while they remain ignorant of a fundamental reality - that all existence, down to the innermost secrets of the heart, is utterly transparent to God.
Veils and barriers exist for us, not for God, the creator of veils Who "knows the secret, and what is yet more hidden" (Qur'an 20:7) "He knows the stealthy looks and that which the breasts conceal." (Qur'an 40:19) "...And there falls not a leaf but He knows it, nor a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything green nor dry but (it is all) in a clear book." (Qur'an 6:59) The understanding of God's knowledge and position compared to human knowledge and the human situation is entirely absent in the hypocrites. A verse like this is an awakening for us as well - to the fact that everything in existence is utterly open to Him, including our innermost deliberation and intentions. Competing strains of thought, stirrings and desires on the threshold of consciousness, tendencies of personality on the fringes of our awareness, the blurred mixture of knowledge, reflexivity, and habit that color our intentions and our actions and which impinges on every aspect of our understanding - all are translucent before God. "He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot comprehend anything out of His knowledge except what He pleases...." (Qur'an 2:255) This is one reason for consistently engaging in " astagfir allah" - as a corrective and healing action on our innermost selves - as a simultaneous recognition of the vagaries, conflicts, and immense complexity within our own mental world and as a supplication (dua) for guidance from the One who understands this complexity better than we know our own selves.
There is a prophetic hadith that says that we should worship and behave as if we "see" God, because, even if we do not see Him, He sees us. The knowledge that our thoughts and inner motions are transparently observed allows us to become aware of those very thoughts and inner stirrings. It is like that moment of startlement, of self-awareness, or of self-consciousness that arises when you suddenly realize that something you thought you were doing in privacy actually has an audience. There is an instantaneous toggling of self-consciousness from a dormant or low-level awareness to an intensely active and self-aware state. When this awareness arises from being cognizant that God has placed "watchers" over each of us, it can allow us to move away from being led by nearly subconscious processes of decision making that are powered by the reflexive reactions of our lower nafs (nafs amarra).
"And certainly We created man, and We know what his mind suggests to him, and We are nearer to him than his life-vein. When the two receivers (recorders) receive, sitting on the right and on the left. He utters not a word but there is by him a watcher at hand....And every soul shall have with it a driver and a witness." (Qur'an 50:16-18)
Technology can provide some generous, if severely limited, pointers and analogies to religious concepts. If we look at some of the computer worlds in which our children play, we can see a crude and feeble mechanistic parallel to some religious concepts - such as the transparency of our minds before God. In programs that create a simulacra of aspects of reality, such as some of the popular simulation games, the player is given various tasks such as constructing, administrating, and acting within a miniature world - one inhabited by sim-people. These tiny iconic characters act according to various computer generated traits, inclinations, and behaviours. Select a sim-person and you can glimpse their simple algorithmically-generated thoughts, desires, and motivations. Because everything occurs within the software generated simulacra, every detail and aspect of the generated world and its inhabitants can be monitored - everything is recorded and known - their movements, their inner states in terms of their simulated wants, desires, or dislikes (designed to add spice to the simulation) - everything private or public is visible to the person playing the game. In the games this is done to provide information to the player so he can adjust the game environment based on the desires, motivations, and actions of the sim people. As well, the software records everything that happens in the game in such a manner that the player can replay and watch, from a myriad different angles and viewpoints, anything that happens in different parts of the simulated world.
If a character in that simulated world was conscious, their reality and their sensory perception would be limited to the simulated world they inhabit. They would be completely oblivious to the fact that their innermost thoughts are transparently visible, and they would have no idea that all that they say or do is recorded, down to the minutest detail as the recording mechanism is built subtly and invisibly into the fabric that underlies, supports, and generates the computer universe in which they dwell. This is analogous to the verse "All is recorded in a clear book....On the day when Allah will raise them up all together, then inform them of what they did: Allah has recorded it while they have forgotten it" (Qur'an 78:29 and 58:6) The sim-people's simulated senses can only perceive the simulated world in which they live and not the invisible mechanisms which underlie it and support it - their awareness is limited to perceiving the reality depicted on the screen. If another simulated character were to come and inform them that in fact their innermost thoughts are transparent and that everything they think or do is recorded it would be a difficult thing to believe. When you dwell in a closed system, ordinary perception cannot move beyond the enclosing system.
Note: If they were further told that after their sim-life ends they could be brought back again, their skepticism would likely increase. Their situation would be like that of the people spoken of in the last part of verse 11:7: "Yet, if you, O Muhammad, tell them: 'You will be raised again after death', those who disbelieve will surely say: This is nothing but open superstition." (Qur'an 11:7) While the Qur'an repeatedly and powerfully emphasizes the transparency of all existence before God, it makes it clear that this type and level of knowledge is reserved for God. God's knowledge being complete, there is no possibility of misunderstanding - He will take into account all perspectives, all contingencies, all conditions, all circumstances when dealing with His creation. Humans can never encompass all perspectives and cicumstances, so the possibility of injustice, bias, and misinterpretation accompanies all unnecessary uncovering of private personal matters. For human society there are rules, principles, boundaries, and guidelines by which the society may encourage order and maintain a peaceful and harmonious existence, but the Qur'an and the hadith place definite limits on the manner in which these boundaries are to be monitored and enforced. A surveillance society, one which not only monitors its citizens but seeks to penetrate or remove their privacy, is seen as one which has sought to appropriate for its government a disproportionate leverage over its citizens. While God has placed penetrating watchers over each human soul ( "there is by him a watcher at hand"), he has not permitted those in positions of authority to exercise such surveillance over the people of their society. "We have not sent you as a watcher over them...." (Qur'an 42:48)
A society that uses technology allied with the organs of governmental power to impose an authoritative and intrusive scrutiny in order to bend its citizens into acquiescent conformity will devolve irresistably into tyranny, and away from mercy. "And when you impose control over men, you control like tyrants....If you controlled the treasures of the mercy of my Lord, then you would withhold (them) because of greed...." (Qur'an 26:130 and 17.100) Such a society seeks to take upon itself a mantle of godlike power and so immediately begins a fall away from God and towards arrogance and a rulership based on suspicion. "O you who believe, avoid suspicion...and do not spy on one another, nor let some of you disparage or denounce others...." (Qur'an 49:12)
In a technocratic future it may become possible to cast a technological net of surveillance that is so wide and so efficient in its ability to penetrate human privacy that its effectiveness approaches the levels of scrutiny available to the players of some simulation games. While the Qur'an points out that existence is absolutely transparent before God it also points out that God has drawn many veils over his creation and that some of these veils are veils of privacy placed as a mercy and as a token of dignity and respect between people. These are veils which it is an injustice and a violation to remove - levels of privacy and ethical behavior which are to be upheld. "You should not enter the houses (secretly) at their backs...." (Qur'an 2:189) The Prophet and the Imams had a persipicacity and insight deeper and more penetrating than the knowledge available to us with all our technology. Yet they respected the limits, the barriers, and the boundaries with which God graced human relations and interactions - they allowed to remain veiled that which should be veiled. They only "entered houses by their doors...." (Qur'an 2:189) respecting, protecting, and guarding the privacy of those over whom they had authority.
"For people possess faults, which the ruler more than anyone else should conceal. So do not uncover those of them which are hidden from you - it is only incumbent upon you to remedy what appears before you. God will judge what is hidden from you. So veil imperfection to the extent you are able....And loose from men the knot of every resentment...." (Imam Ali - letter to Malik al-Ashtar)
Sura 11: verse 6
"And there is no animal (creature) in the earth but on Allah is the sustenance of it, and He knows its resting place (mustaqarr) and its depository (mustawada)...." (Qur'an 11:6) Mustaqarr refers to the final place of rest, the final abode or dwelling place of a thing. Mustawada refers to the temporary dwelling place (and all the necessary means of sustenance that involves), limited in time. So mustawada is said to likely refer to the life of this world and mustaqarr to the hereafter. When God creates, He creates in completeness and in balance. So with each creature created, He has also evolved the entire system necessary for its sustenance and support, and He has created this system with balance, a fine-tuning, and a resilience such that all creatures within that system will find their needs met, and sustained. When the system is thrown out of balance, as with human-manufactured interference or cataclysmic and disruptive natural events the system will search, experiment, and self-seek new points of balance. Even natural disasters are often the result of portions of a system seeking to relieve stress, tension, and overflows built up or caused by interactions with other systems or portions of a larger system. In this way, systems jostle and bump and nudge and interact with each other - each system naturally and perpetually seeking points of balance but never coming completely to rest since an endless number of systems interact and impact each other. In this way creativity is ceaselessly engendered within creation and chaos avoided as the individual systems constantly attempt to self-regulate into balance. Because of the reference to the final dwelling place of all creatures, according to some commentators, this verse is perhaps an indication that there will be a resurrection for animals as well as for humans. The verse that reads: "And when the wild beasts are gathered up" (Qur'an 81:5) is also sometimes interpreted in this way. Mulla Sadra indicates that every living thing has a resurrection (though not necessarily a judgement) and after death will be gathered into one of the intermediate worlds. The manner and the place of its resurrection will vary depending on the level of its consciousness, awareness, and its level of independence of action.Anyone who reads the Qur'an is likely to be struck by the unique nature of its construction, its unusual and constantly shifting rhythms and the sudden transmutations and displacements in its subject matter. At first this ever changing literary terrain seems an obstacle to understanding, but the more time one spends with this book, the more organic, the more natural the flow of its words feel. It is almost like flying over an ever-changing landscape - rolling valleys punctuated by jagged rocks, forests and plains giving way to upthrust mountains, high plateaus broken by deep lakes, deserts sprinkled with oasis' and cleft by canyons. Despite the variety of the forms, despite the startling contrast of adjacent features, a complex organic beauty underlies and unites all the various elements. These "tafsirs" emerged from numerous brief scattered notes made while reading the qur'an (along with numerous commentaries and the works of various scholars whose profound analyses strongly effected my views) and reflecting on its content. As well, for a number of years I have participated in a hallakha, a qur'anic study circle, and many of the tafsirs presented here were originally researched for presentation at that forum.
Shards of Knowledge
Knowledge shapes and defines - it lays some limits and demolishes others - it provides a template, an unfolding genome from which both individual understandings and societal forms emerge. We as individuals have control over knowledge, but so also does knowledge have a powerful control over us - impacting our consciousness and unconsciousness, affecting us both overtly and subtly. Our knowledge is not a thing apart from our selves but rather a complex ocean of interactions in motion within us - simultaneously defined by us and defining us. Information enters into us in so many diverse ways - education, friends, culture, media, family, thoughts, anxieties, fears, hopes, aspirations, beliefs - in this way the sum total of what we encounter and of how we process that information leaves its imprints upon us - it mixes within us in ways that are often below the threshold of conscious deliberation. Information is both internal and external - we receive input from the outside world - through the senses - we take in facts and opinions on myriad issues and process this to form views on the world around us - and we receive input from the internal world, from internal senses and impulses - hunger, thirst, anxiety, fears, hopes, desires, loves, ambitions, thoughts, fantasies, moods - the internal and the external mix and meld to produce a complex interaction which creates an ever shifting world of knowledge within. This in turn affects how we act and react, how we interact with the society and world around us - it shapes and defines our personalities and character. This is key - the information we take into ourselves, the information that surrounds us and which becomes part of our internal world of knowledge, shapes us - it profoundly impacts what we become. Knowledge, in this sense, is the "familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience - it is the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned." Our knowledge creates the patterns which delineate our actions and reactions - it becomes the filter through which we accept, reject, and judge - it becomes the lens through which we view the world and through which we project our own image upon the world. We are demarcated and circumscribed by it. So the types of knowledge we seek out and imbibe, and the quality of the sources of knowledge is important since, whether we intend it or not, it is our knowledge that shapes us - we are not separate from it. To the extent that we surround and open ourselves to base knowledge, to degraded modes of behavior, actions and interactions, images, and philosophies, we are in danger of becoming complacent towards and comfortable with a diluted and diminished view of the world. A shrunken, inferior reality becomes the acceptable, convenient, desirable norm and the character, form, and substance of society dwindles to fit the deformed contours of an incapacious, deflated, attenuated humanity.
The knowledge to which we attach ourselves is key. Since the Prophets received knowledge from elevated sources, so also their character and their personalities were elevated, so that they simultaneously transcended and powerfully impacted the mundane world in which they lived. They brought a deeper/higher knowledge which reshaped, reordered, and guided the worldly knowledges of their time. The source and the types of knowledge one plugs into, the quality and character of the source of that knowledge, and the caliber of the derived, received, and imbibed knowledge has a profound impact on the essence of the individual personality and such an individual can have a profound effect on the world around them. We are not Prophets and we have no revelation except the Qur'an brought by our Prophet - but this revelation has a profound interior, a penetrating ability to awaken those who are receptive and not averse to what it contains. "We reveal of the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to the believers, but it adds only to the perdition of the unjust." (Qur'an 17:82) Among the unjust are those who give their mundane knowledge, desires, and ambitions priority, precedence, and dominance over revelatory knowledge, while the believers are said to be those who shepherd and safeguard the value of the mundane through the guidance of the higher knowledges and through using that knowledge as a corrective guide for their own souls. Without this hierarchy of priority, knowledge will fail - even as it conveys worldly benefits it will lower human stature. "Have you then considered him who takes his mundane desire for his god, and Allah has made him err having knowledge and has set a seal upon his ear and his heart and put a covering upon his eye." (Qur'an 45:23) The sources which we draw upon for our fundamental knowledges are of crucial importance.
The knowledge to which we attach ourselves is key. Since the Prophets received knowledge from elevated sources, so also their character and their personalities were elevated, so that they simultaneously transcended and powerfully impacted the mundane world in which they lived. They brought a deeper/higher knowledge which reshaped, reordered, and guided the worldly knowledges of their time. The source and the types of knowledge one plugs into, the quality and character of the source of that knowledge, and the caliber of the derived, received, and imbibed knowledge has a profound impact on the essence of the individual personality and such an individual can have a profound effect on the world around them. We are not Prophets and we have no revelation except the Qur'an brought by our Prophet - but this revelation has a profound interior, a penetrating ability to awaken those who are receptive and not averse to what it contains. "We reveal of the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to the believers, but it adds only to the perdition of the unjust." (Qur'an 17:82) Among the unjust are those who give their mundane knowledge, desires, and ambitions priority, precedence, and dominance over revelatory knowledge, while the believers are said to be those who shepherd and safeguard the value of the mundane through the guidance of the higher knowledges and through using that knowledge as a corrective guide for their own souls. Without this hierarchy of priority, knowledge will fail - even as it conveys worldly benefits it will lower human stature. "Have you then considered him who takes his mundane desire for his god, and Allah has made him err having knowledge and has set a seal upon his ear and his heart and put a covering upon his eye." (Qur'an 45:23) The sources which we draw upon for our fundamental knowledges are of crucial importance.
When God created Adam He wove into his being knowledge of the names of all things. "And He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels; then He said: Tell me the names of those if you are right. They said: Glory be to Thee! we have no knowledge but that which Thou hast taught us; surely Thou art the Knowing, the Wise. He said: O Adam! inform them of the names. Then when he had informed them of the names, He said: Did I not say to you that I surely know what is ghaib [hidden] in the heavens and the earth and (that) I know what you manifest and what you hide?" (Qur'an 2:31-33) God created Adam in a very high station - so elevated that the Angels prostrated before Adam - then he sent man down to a low station "Then We sent him to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:5) The sending down was a veil, a concealment of the potential stature residing within man. Adam's stature derives in part from his knowledge and ability - the angels are asked to name the names but they can't and Adam can. Then they are asked to prostrate before Adam. His superiority was in the realm of the knowledge which was etched within his being, within his makeup. In our time, our potential superiority is in our ability to awaken, even if only to a small extent, that nature which is now cloaked and concealed by a lower, mundane nature. The higher nature never vanished or disappeared - "we created him of a high stature" - it became shrouded and concealed by other lower aspects - "then we reduced him to the lowest of the low". Adam contained etched within himself the template of the names - a pure and high form of knowledge and ability. Like a laser-etched holographic image, that knowledge was burned into his nature. Adam's descendants are shards and slivers created from his original image - they are his seed scattered across time and space, across history. If you break the glass plate on which a holographic image is etched, each resultant piece contains the entire image since a hologram is a way of recording information in such a way that each component of the hologram contains the image of the entire system. Each component has the possibility of reflecting the whole and information about the original image is accessible by studying just a shard or sliver of the original. Adam's descendants are like those shards and slivers. The Qur'an is a light which, through the illuminating power of its knowledge, can reveal the beauty of the original image concealed within the shards of a fragmented and scattered humanity.
The Marvel of Creation
"O God,
as for Adam,
the marvel of Thy creation,
the first made of clay to confess Thy Lordship,
the beginning of Thy argument
against Thy servants and creatures,
the guide to seeking sanctuary in Thy pardon
from Thy punishment,
the opener of the paths of repentance toward Thee,
the giver of the creatures access to knowledge of Thee,
the one concerning whom Thou hast conveyed Thy good pleasure
through Thy kindness and Thy mercy toward him,
the one who turned back and did not persist in disobeying Thee,
the forerunner
among the self-abasers,
who shaved his head in Thy sacred precinct,
and among the seekers of access to Thy pardon,
through obedience after disobedience,
and the father of the prophets,
who were made to suffer for Thy sake
and who strove more than all the earth's inhabitants
in obeying Thee -
bless him, Thou - O All-merciful -
Thy angels
and the inhabitants of Thy heavens
and Thy earth,
just as he magnified Thy inviolable commands
and guided us upon the path of Thy good pleasure,
O Most Merciful of the merciful!" (dua from the fourth Imam - from "The Psalms of Islam" - translated by William Chittick
What do we know?
"O You who are enwrapped in your mantle...." (74:1,2)
Each person carries within themselves their own reality-distortion field - this consists of all the layerings of experience, opinion, tendencies, habits, desires, genetic dispositions, physical structure, psychological structure, societal and parental imprintings, media influences, educational influences, religious background, information and mis-information, knowledge and ignorance, proclivities, traditions, interpretations, encounters, and internalized worldviews that have accumulated within the individual and have over time left their traces and marks and given a shape and contour to that person's outlook - this is their internal landscape and it is one that may shift and change and assume new contours over time as an interactive feedback loop occurs between the individual and all the varying layers and levels active in the societal worlds with which they interact and in the complex interworkings of their internal world. This interaction happens as a matter of course - our internal landscape is an ever-present invisible background which filters, organizes, rearranges and interprets that which reaches us - so our acceptance or rejection, our adoption or casting aside, our understanding of what reaches us is colored by myriad factors. The shimmering wall of our thoughts, our ongoing internal dialogue (of thought, image, emotion, mood) is like a wavefront which creates an interference pattern that simultaneously receives and reshapes, however subtle that re-contouring may be. So each person is, in a sense, a relativity - each contains a unique internal universe, that generates distortions, alterations, and relative re-shapings in understandings of the many relative realities that surround us. The interference pattern generated by the interaction between the individual and the world is that person's self-generated reality - a complex combination of external information and internal state - each acting on the other in a feedback loop that generates our filtered perception. For the most part these filters, these shapers of thought are invisible. Most of them operate on the fringes of, if not below, the threshold of consciousness - subtle but pervasive. How can you know the shape of your thoughts without examining the very thoughts themselves? How can you know how the contents of your mind affect the way you perceive the world through which you move, unless those contents are altered, changed - and then the sudden shift in perception may bring home the extent to which we modify reality as it filters into our minds - even though the shift may simply take us to a new set of filters, an altered interference pattern - a slightly different curtain.That ever-present curtain accompanies us wherever we go, whatever we do - it hangs, heavy, between a person and their experiences. It is wrapped around us, enveloping and cloaking, veiling us from direct perception and direct understanding. We are creatures wrapped in mantles of limitation and boundary.In the external, material world, what we know, we know through the faculties available to us - that is, through the various senses, the ability to think and reason, to discern patterns and connections. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is dependent on the system and laws through which the world operates. Sight is dependant on the existence of light, and vision is limited to a narrow range of the full spectrum of light. All our information derived in this world is severely restricted and incomplete, just as our senses provide us only a limited and incomplete view of the material world we live in and our reason can carry us only so far in overcoming these limitations. Even when we expand the range and sensitivity of these senses through technology, limits apply through the restrictions inherent in the technology and through our ability to use, interpret, and understand the information gathered. We are limitation wrapped in limitation.Knowledge and information in this world is partial knowledge, since as limited beings we are restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites as our perspective is circumscribed by the fact that we ourselves are delimited in so many ways. No one has complete knowledge of anything, and if they were able to gain it, their ability to process and completely and perfectly inter-relate that knowledge would face inherent limits. Total illumination in which there is no error, and in which all seeming opposites are reconciled is only with God. "God embraces all things in knowledge...God is knower of all things...." (6:59, 4:176) Creation only experiences a limited light – it is a night in which created beings stumble about in the darkness of their own boundaries and their own finite knowledge. To the extent that we rely solely upon what we create and what we invent, we will be in error since our inventions, ideologies, and systems are suffused with the same constraints which we have – they are the product and reflection of limited creatures drawing upon their own fenced-in understandings.“...the created things encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He pleases….” God’s knowledge alone is perfect and complete and no one knows a thing in every respect except God “...who encompasses everything….” (65:12).The qur’an says: “Nothing is like Him.” (42:11) After God there is nothing but creation. Since only God is absolute knowledge, everything created, everything at a level other than God, is to some extent, error. "Say...Who encompasses the hearing and the sight....And Who regulates the systems....and what is there after the Real but error...." (10:31, 32)If everything at a level other than God is, to some extent, error, so also does it, to some extent (since the existence and sustenance of all things is from God and so points towards God), direct towards truth. Through virtue of their connection and dependance on God, and inasmuch as they are signs of God, the things of this world can direct towards God. To the extent that things are taken as completely independent and unconnected with anything but this world, they can lead to delusion and error concerning the full depth of reality. The human task is to discern between the two - through means of the two forms of guidance, the two types of guiding signposts, the two forms of error correction provided to humans - the external and the internal guidance. "We shall manifest our signs on the horizons and within the souls, until the truth becomes clear to them...." (41:53)"....surely there will come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve...." (2:38)The curtain between our minds and the world, between our existence and the invisible realities that support our existence, is a cloak, a mantle that limits and conceals. It is also an invitation to recognition of our limitations, a movement toward humility through acknowledgment of them, and a turning towards the possibility of correct guidance from the unlimited Being within Whom all knowledges coincide and unite - the possibility of a partial unwrapping of the cloak which shrouds us."....You who are enwrapped in your mantle...arise." (74:1,2)
Each person carries within themselves their own reality-distortion field - this consists of all the layerings of experience, opinion, tendencies, habits, desires, genetic dispositions, physical structure, psychological structure, societal and parental imprintings, media influences, educational influences, religious background, information and mis-information, knowledge and ignorance, proclivities, traditions, interpretations, encounters, and internalized worldviews that have accumulated within the individual and have over time left their traces and marks and given a shape and contour to that person's outlook - this is their internal landscape and it is one that may shift and change and assume new contours over time as an interactive feedback loop occurs between the individual and all the varying layers and levels active in the societal worlds with which they interact and in the complex interworkings of their internal world. This interaction happens as a matter of course - our internal landscape is an ever-present invisible background which filters, organizes, rearranges and interprets that which reaches us - so our acceptance or rejection, our adoption or casting aside, our understanding of what reaches us is colored by myriad factors. The shimmering wall of our thoughts, our ongoing internal dialogue (of thought, image, emotion, mood) is like a wavefront which creates an interference pattern that simultaneously receives and reshapes, however subtle that re-contouring may be. So each person is, in a sense, a relativity - each contains a unique internal universe, that generates distortions, alterations, and relative re-shapings in understandings of the many relative realities that surround us. The interference pattern generated by the interaction between the individual and the world is that person's self-generated reality - a complex combination of external information and internal state - each acting on the other in a feedback loop that generates our filtered perception. For the most part these filters, these shapers of thought are invisible. Most of them operate on the fringes of, if not below, the threshold of consciousness - subtle but pervasive. How can you know the shape of your thoughts without examining the very thoughts themselves? How can you know how the contents of your mind affect the way you perceive the world through which you move, unless those contents are altered, changed - and then the sudden shift in perception may bring home the extent to which we modify reality as it filters into our minds - even though the shift may simply take us to a new set of filters, an altered interference pattern - a slightly different curtain.That ever-present curtain accompanies us wherever we go, whatever we do - it hangs, heavy, between a person and their experiences. It is wrapped around us, enveloping and cloaking, veiling us from direct perception and direct understanding. We are creatures wrapped in mantles of limitation and boundary.In the external, material world, what we know, we know through the faculties available to us - that is, through the various senses, the ability to think and reason, to discern patterns and connections. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is dependent on the system and laws through which the world operates. Sight is dependant on the existence of light, and vision is limited to a narrow range of the full spectrum of light. All our information derived in this world is severely restricted and incomplete, just as our senses provide us only a limited and incomplete view of the material world we live in and our reason can carry us only so far in overcoming these limitations. Even when we expand the range and sensitivity of these senses through technology, limits apply through the restrictions inherent in the technology and through our ability to use, interpret, and understand the information gathered. We are limitation wrapped in limitation.Knowledge and information in this world is partial knowledge, since as limited beings we are restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites as our perspective is circumscribed by the fact that we ourselves are delimited in so many ways. No one has complete knowledge of anything, and if they were able to gain it, their ability to process and completely and perfectly inter-relate that knowledge would face inherent limits. Total illumination in which there is no error, and in which all seeming opposites are reconciled is only with God. "God embraces all things in knowledge...God is knower of all things...." (6:59, 4:176) Creation only experiences a limited light – it is a night in which created beings stumble about in the darkness of their own boundaries and their own finite knowledge. To the extent that we rely solely upon what we create and what we invent, we will be in error since our inventions, ideologies, and systems are suffused with the same constraints which we have – they are the product and reflection of limited creatures drawing upon their own fenced-in understandings.“...the created things encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He pleases….” God’s knowledge alone is perfect and complete and no one knows a thing in every respect except God “...who encompasses everything….” (65:12).The qur’an says: “Nothing is like Him.” (42:11) After God there is nothing but creation. Since only God is absolute knowledge, everything created, everything at a level other than God, is to some extent, error. "Say...Who encompasses the hearing and the sight....And Who regulates the systems....and what is there after the Real but error...." (10:31, 32)If everything at a level other than God is, to some extent, error, so also does it, to some extent (since the existence and sustenance of all things is from God and so points towards God), direct towards truth. Through virtue of their connection and dependance on God, and inasmuch as they are signs of God, the things of this world can direct towards God. To the extent that things are taken as completely independent and unconnected with anything but this world, they can lead to delusion and error concerning the full depth of reality. The human task is to discern between the two - through means of the two forms of guidance, the two types of guiding signposts, the two forms of error correction provided to humans - the external and the internal guidance. "We shall manifest our signs on the horizons and within the souls, until the truth becomes clear to them...." (41:53)"....surely there will come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve...." (2:38)The curtain between our minds and the world, between our existence and the invisible realities that support our existence, is a cloak, a mantle that limits and conceals. It is also an invitation to recognition of our limitations, a movement toward humility through acknowledgment of them, and a turning towards the possibility of correct guidance from the unlimited Being within Whom all knowledges coincide and unite - the possibility of a partial unwrapping of the cloak which shrouds us."....You who are enwrapped in your mantle...arise." (74:1,2)
Knowledge and limitation
"The Qur’an, which is the instructor of tawhid, holds that the reason for man’s forgetfulness of himself is his forgetfulness of God. It warns man of this by saying, “And be not like those who forgot God, so He made them forget their own souls: these it is that are the transgressors." In a tradition of Imam Baqir (upon him be peace), there is talk of the precedence and priority of the knowledge and awareness of God to the knowledge of the self and even its priority to the awareness of all things. The tradition says, “None can know another but by God”. (taken from Shuja Mirza's translation of "Existence and the Fall.") "Everything that can be known in itself (bi-nafsihi) is fashioned (masnu). All that stands apart from Him is an effect (malul)....and the argument (hujjah) for Him is established by (man's) primordial nature (al-fitrah)." "God's creating of the creatures is a veil between Him and them. His separation (mubayanah) from them is that He is disengaged from their localization (ayniyyah). That He is their origin (ibtida') is proof for them that He has no origin, for none that has an origin can originate others. That He has created them possessing means (of accomplishing things) is proof that He has no means (adah), for means are witness to the poverty of those who use them." "So His names are an expression (tabir), His acts (afal) are (a way) to make (Him) understood (tafhim), and His Essence is Reality (haqiqah). His inmost center (kunh) separates (tafriq) Him from creation, and His otherness (ghuyur) limits (tahdid) what is other than He." (hadith of the eighth Imam - from "A Shi'ite Anthology") Danish cartoons and the sacredThe Danish cartoons which caricatured the Prophet in different ways (including depicting him wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb), has stirred up, not surprisingly, a hornet's nest of controversy. It is yet another (in this case, somewhat silly) manifestation of an ongoing process in which secular society, acting according to an internal impulse, periodically lampoons various sacred icons. The cartoons could have confined themselves to satirizing specific politically motivated actions and still made their point, but instead targeted the principal foundations of the faith (the Prophet and the Qur'an). Reversing the values and meanings traditionally associated with religious iconography, personages, and texts is a common mechanism to deaden the seriousness and sacredness with which a religion's metaphysical connections are viewed. This is done most simply by subverting the language, images, and sacred contexts of religion through mockery, ridicule, and stereotyping. Such a process is a natural byproduct of a world in which religion has largely been undercut, bypassed, or eliminated and its influence rendered innocuous and irrelevant to the political, economic, and social order of society. In such a world, religion belongs primarily to the private sphere and even there anyone who immerses themselves too deeply in it is liable to be considered as eccentric, peculiar, or suspect - and those who try to organize their outward life according to religious dictates are viewed as a danger to secular values.This is the emerging and (currently) dominant Western reality - and any dominant force naturally does what is necessary to secure and solidify its position. In such a situation, the greatest annoyance and danger is from those who have not sufficiently acquiesced to the new state of affairs, and who insist on clinging to "outmoded" paradigms, to ways of thinking that have nothing to do with the "real" (secular) world. One way of counteracting them is to undercut the sacred foundational, metaphysical symbols which are the outward form of an inward belief. Even if this has little impact on the followers of the religion, it is useful domestically in stereotyping and negatively objectifying that which is considered a danger to secular society (thus undermining it's influence). Symbols, texts, iconic personages, and rituals are the architecture, the geometry, the symbolic worldly aspect, the formalized representation of metaphysical realities and of the human connection to these realities. For Muslims, the Prophet is the human representation of the writing of the Divine pen. He is the one on whose heart God wrote His revelation and whose inner being is joined to God's Throne. His inner reality (his form) is representative of an exalted metaphysical architecture. Demolition of a sacred architecture is part of the secular process of discarding the infrastructure of religion. Once this demolition is underway, the refugees are then invited to take shelter instead among the symbols of secular society.
The weakening of the metaphysical symbols is accomplished in part by attempting to turn the traditional meanings connected with the symbols upside down. The Satanic Verses was one case where an entire reverse symbology was applied to the Prophet (in the person of Mahound) and his wives. Whatever the literary merits and critical prowess of the author may be, it is clear that a very debased inversion of meaning was attached to traditionally sacred images, personalities, and iconography. These challenges to traditional religion are thrown out now and then, and the proponents of the challenges believe this is a battle between artistic freedom (or even freedom itself) and a reactionary belief system. Traditional religious art is a sort of visual (or textual) metaphysics, but the art that mocks religion cuts at the metaphysical connections seeking to sever them with a stroke of the pen or brush. In traditional art, the "what" of the art has a greater weight than the "how" and even helps determine the "how". So the aim (the what) and the intention and the spirit underlying any art is of great importance. In the case of art that mocks the Prophet or the sacred texts of Islam, the debased "spirit", aim, and intention that underlies the mockery is clearly apparent to even the most obtuse. So, to the majority of Muslims this is not simply art or visual commentary or even comic caricature but is a provocation and a deliberate expression of rancor towards the foundations of their faith, masquerading, rather feebly, under the guise of artistic and lit
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