ISLAMIC POSTS: June 2013

Wednesday 26 June 2013

What is the Quran? How can it be defined?

The Qur’an is an eternal translation of the great book of the universe and the everlasting translator of the various ‘languages’ in which Divine laws of the creation and operation of the universe are ‘inscribed’; the interpreter of the books of the visible, material world and the world of the Unseen; the discloser of the immaterial treasuries of the Divine Names hidden on the earth and in the heavens; the key to the truths which lie beneath the lines of events; the tongue of the Unseen world in the visible, material one; the treasury of the favors of the All-Merciful One and the eternal addresses of the All-Glorified One coming from the world of the Unseen beyond the veil of this visible world; the sun of the spiritual and intellectual world of Islam and its foundation and plan; the sacred map of the worlds of the Hereafter; the expounder, the lucid interpreter, articulate proof, and clear translator of the Divine Essence, Attributes, Names and acts; the educator and trainer of the world of humanity and the water and light of Islam, which is the true and greatest humanity; the true wisdom of humankind and their true guide leading them to happiness; and for human beings it is both a book of law, a book of prayer, a book of wisdom, a book of worship and servanthood to God, and a book of commands and invitation, a book of invocation, and a book of mediation, a holy book containing books for all the spiritual needs of mankind, and a heavenly book which, like a sacred library, contains numerous booklets from which all the saints and the eminently truthful, and all the purified and discerning scholars and saints of different temperaments have derived their ways peculiar to each, and which illuminate each of these ways and answer the needs of all those with different tastes and temperaments who follow them.
Having come from the Supreme Throne of God, and originated in His Greatest Name, and issued forth from the most comprehensive rank of each Name, and as is explained in The Twelfth Word, the Qur’an is both the word of God as regards His being the Lord of the worlds, and His decree in respect of His having the title of the Deity of all creatures, and a discourse in the name of the Creator of all the heavens and earth, and a speech from the perspective of the absolute Divine Lordship, and an eternal sermon on behalf of the universal Sovereignty of the All-Glorified One, and a register of the favors of the Most Merciful One from the viewpoint of the all-embracing Mercy, and a collection of messages some of which begin with a cipher, and a holy book which, having descended from the surrounding circle of the Divine Greatest Name, looks over and surveys the circle surrounded by the Supreme Throne of God.
It is because of all these that the title of Word of God has been, and will always be, given to the Qur’an most deservedly. After the Qur’an come the Scriptures and Pages which were sent to some other Prophets. As for the other countless Divine words, some of them are conversations in the form of inspirations coming as the particular manifestations of a particular aspect of Divine Mercy, Sovereignty, and Lordship under a particular title with particular regard. The inspirations coming to angels, human beings and animals vary greatly with regard to their universality or particularity.
The Qur’an is a heavenly book, which contains in brief the Scriptures revealed to the previous Prophets in different ages, and the content of the treatises of all the saints with different temperaments, and the works of all the purified scholars each following a way particular to himself; the six sides of which are bright and absolutely free of the darkness of doubts and whimsical thoughts; whose point of support is with certainty Divine Revelation and the Divine eternal word, whose aim is manifestly eternal happiness, and whose inside is manifestly pure guidance. And it is surrounded and supported: from above by the lights of faith, from below by proof and evidence, from the right by the submission of the heart and the conscience, and from the left by the admission of reason and other intellectual faculties. Its fruit is with absolute certainty the mercy of the Most Merciful One, and Paradise; and it has been accepted and promoted by angels and innumerable men and jinn through the centuries.
All these qualities mentioned so far to define the Qur’an either have been proved in other places or will be done so in the following pages. None of this is mere assertion on our part; rather, whatever we claim is based on clear arguments.

What is the Quran? How can it be defined?

What is the Qur'an? How can it be defined?

What is Prophet Muhammad’s basic message?

And what was his message?

Suddenly a remarkable change came over him. His heart, illuminated with Divine Light, now had the power for which he had yearned. He left the cave’s confinement, went to his people, and addressed them in the following strain:
The idols that you worship are mere shams, so stop worshipping them. No person, star, tree, stone, or spirit deserves your worship. Do not bow your heads before them in worship. The entire universe belongs to God Almighty. He alone is the Creator, Nourisher, Sustainer, and thus the real Sovereign before Whom all should bow down and Who is worthy of your prayers and obedience. So worship Him alone and obey His commands.
The theft and plunder, murder and rapine, injustice and cruelty, and all the vices in which you indulge are sins in God’s eyes. Leave your evil ways. Speak the truth. Be just. Do not kill anyone, for whoever kills a person unjustly is like one who has killed all humanity, and whoever saves a person’s life is like one who has saved all humanity (5:32). Do not rob anyone, but take your lawful share and give that which is due to others in a just manner.
Do not set up other deities with God, or you will be condemned and forsaken. If one or both of your parents reaches old age and lives with you, speak to them only with respect and, out of mercy, be humble with them. Give your relatives their due. Give to the needy and the traveler, and do not be wasteful. Do not kill your children because you fear poverty or for other reasons. Avoid adultery, for it is indecent and evil. Leave the property of orphans and the weak intact.
Fulfill the covenant, because you will be questioned about it. Do not cheat when you measure and weigh items. Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge, for your ears, eyes, and heart will be questioned about this. Do not walk around arrogantly, for you will never tear Earth open or attain the mountains in height. Speak kind words to each other, for Satan uses strong words to cause strife. Do not turn your cheek in scorn and anger toward others or walk with impudence in the land.
God does not love those who boast, so be modest in bearing and subdue your voice. Do not make fun of others, for they may be better than you. Do not find fault with each other or call each other by offensive nicknames. Avoid most suspicion, for some suspicion is a sin. Do not spy on or gossip about each other. Be staunch followers of justice and witnesses for God, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents and relatives, regardless if they are rich or poor. Do not deviate by following caprice. Be steadfast witnesses for God in equity, and do not let your hatred of others seduce you to be unjust toward them.
Restrain your rage and pardon the offenses of others. Good and evil deeds are not alike, so repel the evil deed with a good one so that both of you can overcome your enmity and become loyal friends. The recompense for an intentional evil is a similar evil; but whoever pardons and amends the evildoer with kindness and love will be rewarded by God. Avoid alcohol and games of chance, for God has forbidden them.
You are human beings, and all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. No one is born with the slur of shame on his or her face or the mantle of honor around his or her neck. The only high and honored people are the God-conscious and pious, true in words and deeds. Distinctions of birth and glory of race are no criteria of greatness and honor.
On a day after you die, you will appear before a Supreme Court and account for all your deeds, none of which can be hidden. Your life’s record shall be an open book to God. Your fate shall be determined by your good or bad actions. In the court of the True Judge—the Omniscient God—there can be no unfair recommendation and favoritism. You cannot bribe Him, and your pedigree or parentage will be ignored. True faith and good deeds alone will benefit you at that time. Those who have done them fully shall reside in the Heaven of eternal happiness, while those who did not shall reside in the fire of Hell.

What about the Prophet’s life before his Prophethood?

Muhammad’s life before his Prophethood

This was Prophet Muhammad’s homeland. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was six years old. Consequently, he was deprived of whatever training and upbringing an Arab child of that time received. During his childhood, he tended flocks of sheep and goats with other Bedouin boys. As education never touched him, he remained completely unlettered and unschooled.

The Prophet left the Arabian peninsula only twice. As a youth, he accompanied his uncle Abu Talib on a trade mission to al-Sham (present-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan). The other time was when he led another trade mission to the same region for the widow Khadijah, a wealthy Makkan merchant 15 years his senior. They got married when he was 25, and lived happily together until she died about 20 years later.

Being illiterate, he read no Jewish or Christian religious texts or had any appreciable relationship with them. Makka’s ideas and customs were idolatrous and wholly untouched by Christian or Jewish religious thought. Even Makka’s hanifs,33 who rejected idolatry, were not influenced by Judaism or Christianity. No Jewish or Christian thought is reflected in these people’s surviving poetic heritage. Had the Prophet made any effort to become acquainted with their thought, it would have been noticed.

Moreover, Muhammad avoided the locally popular intellectual forms of poetry and rhetoric even before his Prophethood. History records no distinction that set him over others, except for his moral commitment, trustworthiness, honesty, truthfulness, and integrity. He did not lie, an assertion proven by the fact that not even his worst enemies ever called him a liar. He talked politely and never used obscene or abusive language. His charming personality and excellent manners captivated the hearts of those who met him. He always followed the principles of justice, altruism, and fair play with others, and never deceived anyone or broke his promise.

Muhammad was engaged in trade and commerce for years, but never entered into a dishonest transaction. Those who had business dealings with him had full confidence in his integrity. Everyone called him al-Amin (the Truthful and the Trustworthy). Even his enemies left their precious belongings with him for safe custody, and he scrupulously fulfilled their trust. He was the embodiment of modesty in society that was immodest to the core.

Born and raised among people who regarded drunkenness and gambling as virtues, he never drank alcohol or gambled. Surrounded by heartless people, his own heart overflowed with the milk of human kindness. He helped orphans, widows, and the poor, and was hospitable to travelers. Harming no one, he exposed himself to hardship for their sake. Avoiding tribal feuds, he was the foremost worker for reconciliation. He never bowed before any created thing or partook of offerings made to idols, even when he was a child, for he hated all worship devoted to that which was not God. In brief, his towering and radiant personality, when placed in the midst of such a benighted and dark environment, may be likened to a beacon of light illumining a pitch-dark night, to a diamond shining among a heap of stones.

How can we understand the Qur’an?

Understanding the Qur’an

The first step to understanding the Qur’an is to understand Arabic, the language in which it was revealed, for language has the same meaning for a text as bodily features have for a person. The essential existence of a text lies in its meaning, just as a person’s essential existence lies in his or her spirit. Bodily features are the externalized form assumed by the spirit, and therefore serve as a mirror in which to see into his or her character. In the same way, the Qur’an’s language and styles are the form of its meaning and cannot be separated from it.

The second step is to penetrate its meaning, which requires living it. Although its language constitutes its outer form and structure, and therefore is very important in penetrating its meaning, restricting its understanding to linguistic understanding means restricting oneself to form or formalism. One can penetrate the Qur’an’s meaning, in which its essential existence lies, through purifying the “heart” (the spirit’s seat) by avoiding sin and evil, performing the necessary acts of worship, and living a pious life.

In the words of the late Professor Haluk Nurbaki, a Turkish scientist, the Qur’an is “like a rose that continuously grows petals in the womb of time.” As science develops and contributes to penetrating its depths of meaning, the Qur’an blooms to an even greater extent and grows younger and fresher. Thus, having sufficient knowledge of such topics as the abrogation of laws, laws and principles dependent on certain conditions, and unconditioned, general, and particular rules and the occasions on which the verses were revealed is not enough; the general principles of natural science also must be known. Since Prophet Muhammad received the Qur’an and taught and practiced it in his daily life as an infallible authority, knowledge of his Sunna, his practice of the Qur’an, and his example of living Islam also are indispensable to understanding the Qur’an.

The Qur’an is not a book of science, history, or morality. Nor is it a book in the literal sense of the word. It is a book to be practiced, for it came to guide people to truth, to educate them intellectually and spiritually, and to govern their individual and social life. Therefore, it can be understood only through daily practice. Remember that the Qur’an was not revealed all at once, but over a 23-year period on many diverse occasions. Separating the Qur’an and practical life means reducing it to the status of an ordinary book to be read. It does not unfold itself to any significant degree to those who consider it to be no more than this.

However, it declares that everything wet or dry is in a Manifest Book (itself) (6:59). A Prophetic saying states that it contains the history of previous peoples, tidings of those to come after its revelation, and solutions to disagreements among people. It addresses and satisfies all levels of understanding and knowledge, regardless of time and place.

Hundreds of interpreters have written commentaries on it during the 14 centuries of its existence, and none have claimed to understand all of its various aspects and meanings. Thousands of jurists have inferred laws from it and based their reasoning upon it, but none have asserted that they have inferred all of the laws contained therein or understood all of the reasons behind its injunctions and prohibitions. All pure and exacting scholars who “marry” mind and heart, all revivers (the greatest, saintly scholars who come when needed to revive and restore Islam) find their ways in it, all saints derive their sources of inspiration and ways of purification from it, and all authentic Sufi paths depend upon it. And yet, like a source of water that increases as it flows, it remains as if untouched.

The Qur’an’s miraculous eloquence gives it this depth and richness of meaning. Its creative and artistically rich style is only one element on which its eloquence is based. It frequently speaks in parables and adopts a figurative, symbolic rhetoric using metaphors and similes. This is natural, for the Qur’an contains knowledge of all things and addresses all levels of understanding and knowledge.

Ignoring this symbolic and artistic style caused the Zahiriya movement to appear. These people were content with a superficial, narrow-minded understanding of the Qur’an’s outward meaning. At the other extreme, the Batiniya (esotericism) movement searched for the whole truth in symbols and neglected the expressions’ outer meaning. Both currents are harmful, for the middle way is always preferable.

Can you describe the Qur'an with its general features?

The Qur’an consists of the rhythmic verses, phrases, sentences, and chapters relayed by the Prophet as they were revealed to him by God, and which he proclaimed as the everlasting miracle testifying to his Prophethood. He challenged the Arabs of his time who doubted its Divine origin, as well as all unbelieving Arabs and non-Arabs who would come later.
Earlier Divine Revelations
God revealed His books to His Prophets before Prophet Muhammad in exactly the same way. God informs us in the Qur’an of some of them: the Pages of Abraham, the Torah, the Zabur (the Psalms), and the Injil (the Gospel). We do not know the names of the books given to other Prophets, and therefore cannot say with certainty whether they were originally revealed books or not.
These earlier Divine books were sent down in now-dead languages that only a few people today claim to understand. Given this, even if these books still existed in their original and unadulterated form, it would be virtually impossible to understand them correctly and to interpret and implement their injunctions. Fur-thermore, as the original texts of most of these earlier Divine books have been lost with the passage of time, only their translations exist today. Obviously a translation can never be the same as the original. Therefore even if they had not been corrupted, we still would not have them in their original form. The Qur’an, on the other hand, exists in its original language, which is still spoken and understood by millions of people.
The movement of returning to the Qur’an, which began about a century ago, continues with its ups and downs. The Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad over a 23-year span and mostly on different occasions. This last “version” of the Divine Word, which was planted in the Last Prophet as a seed, grew swiftly and raised on its stem, put out its shoots, came to leaf, blossomed, and yielded fruit in all aspects of life. Almost one third of the world lived a peaceful life under its calm, serene shade for many centuries.
However, the Qur’an was veiled by the neglect and unfaithfulness of its “friends” and the pitiless hostility of its “enemies.” As a result, the rapacious appetite of the modern Prometheus produced by scientific materialism has engulfed the globe like a poisonous octopus. After a few centuries of misery in the clutches of this octopus, Muslims all over the Muslim world felt the dire need of returning to the Qur’an and found that this Word of God was as fresh as when it was first revealed and is “growing younger as time gets older.”
The Muslims’ very essence was deeply injured by this poison, and they and other people are looking for an immediate cure. Only the Word of God has this cure, but only “doctors,” upon whom humanity’s future depends, can present it. If the Qur’an had been understood fully and accurately and practiced effectively, these modern poisons would have found only a few Muslim customers even it they had been presented in golden cups. Unfortunately, these poisons are easily injected into Muslim minds, and some so-called Muslim “doctors” who should have defied them with the Qur’an took them as if they were the antidote. They even have identified the true cure—the Qur’an—with them and, furthermore, have ventured to test it in the laboratory tubes where the poisons are produced.

How does Islam view life?

In general terms, Islamic law is the knowledge, discipline, and science of humanity’s rights and obligations and of what is good and bad for humanity on the individual and collective levels. Thus the Islamic view of life consists of a set of rights and obligations by which Muslims are expected to live. Broadly speaking, Islamic law deals with our life in terms of our relationship with our Creator, ourselves (our rights upon ourselves), other people, and our natural environment (the rights of the resources that God has given to us for our benefit).
Each person is an instinctive worshipper; only the nature of the deity worshipped or the way worship is offered differ. God’s love abides in every person’s heart. By the nature of their being created, all creatures have to submit to their Creator. Thus all creatures, including humanity in its biological life, are Muslim and have to obey the rules of creation. The Qur’an both establishes that God is the natural deity for our worship and explains the right way to worship Him. It stipulates the uniformity of worship just as it stresses God’s Unity, the unity of the worshipped, and the unity of worship.
There must be unity between our worship and our attitude toward life. The deity to whom we pray is the same one we address while studying, earning a living, and improving conditions on Earth; the same one we remember while eating, drinking, interacting with family members and all other individuals or societies, regardless of time or place: Say: “Lo, my worship and my service and behavior, my living and my dying are for God, Lord of the worlds” (6:162). Our constant reiteration of God’s Name in our hearts makes us recall His Commands and our individual and social responsibilities.
When this happens, something very significant occurs in our life: Our regular worship gives us an extraordinary spirit. For example, the prescribed daily prayers (salat) allow us to repeat and refresh our faith five times a day. The prayer times—dawn, noon, afternoon, evening, and night—correspond with the five periods of our life: childhood and youth, maturity, old age, death, and life after death until the Resurrection. The next day’s dawn signifies the Resurrection, so each day is a complete cycle of our life in parallel with that of the world.
While praying, Muslims dissociate themselves from their worldly engagements and even from the world, turning to God with all their being. Reciting the Qur’an elevates us to a state as if we were receiving it directly from the Lord of the worlds. We request Divine help to enable us to follow His Chosen Path, refresh our belief, remind ourselves that one day we will have to account for our deeds, unburden ourselves, and ask Him to help us throughout our lives.
Thus the daily prayers strengthen our faith, prepare us for a life of virtue and obedience to God, and refresh our belief, from which spring courage, sincerity, purposefulness, spiritual purity, and moral enrichment. The Qur’an states that: Daily prayers prevent a Muslim from committing vices of every kind (29:45), and the Prophet considers it the Muslims’ (spiritual) ascension to God’s holy presence.
Muslims are urged to perform their daily prayers in congregation, and must do so for the Friday noon congregational prayer. This creates a bond of love and mutual understanding, arouses a sense of collective unity, fosters a collective purpose, and inculcates a deep feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood. Prayers are a symbol of equality, for poor and rich, low and high, rulers and ruled, educated and uneducated, black and white all stand in rows and prostrate before their Lord. Furthermore, this gives a strong sense of collective discipline and obedience to the community’s leader. Prayers train Muslims in those virtues that engender the development of a rich individual and collective life.
Islam regards human beings as God’s vicegerents and cannot tolerate the degradation brought on by their submission to humiliation or oppression, for Islam is the real way to freedom and liberation. It invites people to struggle against oppression and tyranny for their freedom and dignity. By prostrating before God, Muslims declare that they bow to no other power. Islam forbids serfdom; promises universal freedom, independence in thought, action, property, and religion; and safeguards a person’s integrity, honor, and dignity.
Islam frees people from their lusts so that sensual pleasure does not tempt and corrupt them. Consuming intoxicants and engaging in sexual and moral permissiveness, gambling, nightclubs, mixed social activities, immoral movies, fornication, adultery, extramarital sex, pornography, overspending, conspicuous consumption, arrogance, greed, and so on are all humiliating factors that destroy a person’s honor and dignity. Colonialists and imperialists used such practices to enslave Muslims and many other peoples. Only the daily prayer and other forms of worship, such as alms-giving (zakat), inculcate the will to struggle against self-degradation.

How can we define Islam with respect to the universe?

Islam defined with respect to the universe

Islam, derived from silm (submission, salvation, and peace), is the expression of God’s Grace flowing in the universe’s arteries. Being the Divine system to which all creation, except humanity, has submitted willingly, the universe contains no disorder. Islam is the firm, unbreakable rope stretched from Heaven to which all creatures hold fast and by which humanity will ascend to Paradise, our original home. Islam connects all creatures in a single unity and thus is the religion of universal brotherhood, sisterhood, and solidarity.
Islam can be likened to a string of prayer beads. Each bead stands for a species. When the string breaks, they all scatter. This is how the world is today, for people are divided into various classes, races, nations, territories, and economies. They consider nature as “a prostitute to be used without any sense of obligation and responsibility toward her.”
Tawhid (monotheism) implies the necessity of humanity’s harmony with nature. The universe, which has submitted to God, displays a coherence and harmony of which our world is also a part. Although our world is subject to the general laws of nature as well as its own unique set of laws, it is in harmony with other laws governing those phenomena beyond it. Humanity, which alone does not tread the path of nature, has free will and the gift of freedom, as well as the obligation to harmonize its life with the rest of nature. This harmony, moreover, is also the path of human exaltation and progress, the path upon which God originated human nature:
So set your face to the religion, a man [woman] of pure faith—God’s original nature in which He originated humanity. There is no changing God’s creation. That is the right religion, but most people know it not. (30:30)
Islam seeks to unite us with the vast domain of being, and strives to create an absolute unity between us and the universe. We are the most essential partner in the Realm of Existence, and each Muslim is the co-religionist of all creatures:
What, do they desire another religion than God’s, while to Him has surrendered whosoever is in the heavens and Earth, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they shall be returned? (3:83)
Have you not seen how all who are in the heavens and in Earth, the sun, moon, stars and mountains, trees and beasts, and many of humanity prostrate to God? (22:18)
The Messenger (Muhammad) believes in what was sent down to him from his Lord. Each believer believes in God and His angels, His Books and His Messengers. We make no distinction between any of His Messengers. They say: “We hear and obey. Our Lord, grant us Your forgiveness. Unto You is the homecoming.” (2:285)
Islam is the consummation of all religions. By accepting the Prophets and Scriptures of all nations, Islam affirms God’s Unity and universal providence, as well as the universality of religious experience, and seeks to bring together all people in one all-embracing faith and community. Muslims are true followers of all Prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
Tawhid, an expression of human existence, implies the equality and unity of all people in their relation with God, and thus indicates homogeneity, equality, and the unity of human origin. Humanness is the one element ingrained in the nature of all individuals. People of different social strata were not created by separate deities with varying levels of power, for this would violate tawhid by allowing possible disparity in their essential nature and erecting insuperable barriers between them. The same God created everyone, and so all people have the same fundamental essence: O humanity, be conscious of your Lord, Who created you of a single soul (4:1).
The Qur’an declares:
O humanity! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and formed into peoples and tribes to know one another (not to take pride in your color or race, or claim superiority based on your color, race, or socioeconomic status). (49:143)
In fact, the noblest person in God’s sight is the one who is most God-conscious. The Prophet is reported to have said: “Your God is One. You are from Adam and Adam is from dust. An Arab is not superior to a non-Arab, nor a white person over a black person, except for his or her piety and righteousness.”
This belief in human unity is the corollary of God’s Unity. The same God created and nourishes all people, regardless of race, color, creed, and culture. Hence all people are His servants, and those most dear to Him are His best servants. The Prophet is reported to have said:
God says to His servants on the Day of Reckoning: “You didn’t visit me when I was sick.” They reply: “How could I visit You, since You are the Lord of creation?” God says: “Don’t you remember that My servant so-and-so fell sick and you didn’t visit him (or her)? If you had, you would have found Me with him (or her). You didn’t give Me food when I asked you for it.” They respond: “How could we give You food, since You are the Lord of creation?” God says: “Don’t you remember My servant so-and-so who asked you for food but you refused. If you had done so, you would have found Me with him (or her).” God continues: “You didn’t give Me water when I asked you.” They respond: “How could we give You water, since You are the Lord of creation?” God retorts: “Don’t you remember My servant so-and-so who asked you for water but you refused? If you had done so, you would have found Me with him (or her).”
The Prophet informs us that a prostitute entered a road leading to Paradise and deserved it because she gave water to a thirsty dog out of compassion, whereas another woman entered a road leading to Hell because she let a cat die of hunger. This is Islam, with its arms wide open to all creatures, regions, and ages.

What is the concept of Deity of Islam and what is Tawhid?

The concept of deity

God Almighty should be considered from five perspectives. One is His “Essence” as Divine Being (Zat in Islamic terminology), which only He can know. A Prophetic Tradition says: “Do not reflect on God’s ‘Essence’; instead, reflect on His works and acts.” God has no partners, likes or resemblance, as pointed to by the verse: There is nothing like or compared unto Him (42:11). The second perspective is His Essential, “Innate” Qualities as being God, which are the Attributes’ source. The third perspective is His Attributes, which are of three kinds: Essential Attributes (e.g., Existence, Having No Beginning, Eternal Permanence, Being Unlike the Created, Self-Subsistence); Positive Attributes (Life, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Will, Hearing, Seeing, Creating); and innumerable “Negative” Attributes, summed up as “God is absolutely free from any defect and shortcoming.”
The Attributes are the sources of the Names: Life gives rise to the All-Living, Knowledge to the All-Knowing, and Power to the All-Powerful. About 1,000 of God’s many Names are known to us. The Names are the sources of the acts: giving life has its source in the All-Living, and knowing everything down to the smallest originates in the All-Knowing. God is “known” by His acts, Names, and Attributes. Whatever exists in the universe, in the material and immaterial worlds, is the result of the Names’ and Attributes’ manifestations: Universal and individual provision points to His Name the All-Providing, and the All-Healing is the source of remedies and recovery. Philosophy has its source in Wisdom, and so on. The acts, Names, and Attributes are the “links” between God and the created, or the “reflectors” with which to have knowledge of God.
Although we try to know or recognize God by His acts, Names, and Attributes, we must not think of Him in terms of associating likeness or comparison unto Him, for nothing resembles Him. He is absolutely One, Single, and totally different from all that exists or has the potential to exist. In this sense, His Oneness is not in terms of number. He also has Unity and relations with the created. To have some knowledge of Him through His acts, Names, and Attributes, some comparisons are permissible. This is pointed to in the verse: For God is the highest comparison (16:60). The writer’s using the Sun as a unit of comparison to understand God’s acts, Names, and Attributes should be considered from this perspective.
Tawhid
All religions revealed to the Prophets have the same essence. Over time, however, the original message was misinterpreted, mixed with superstition, and degenerated into magical practices and meaningless rituals. The conception of God, the very core of religion, was debased by anthropomorphism, deifying angels, associating others with God, considering Prophets or godly people as incarnations of God (Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna, and Rama), and personifying His Attributes through separate deities.
The Prophet rejected such theological trends and restored the conception of God as the only Creator, Sustainer, and Master of all creation to its pristine purity. Thus, as John Davenport puts it:
Among many excellencies of which the Qur'an may justly boast are two eminently conspicuous: the one being the tone of awe and reverence which it always observes when speaking of, or referring to, the Deity, to Whom it never attributes human frailties and passions; the other the total absence throughout it of all impure, immoral and indecent ideas, expressions, narratives, etc., blemishes, which, it is much to be regretted, of too frequent occurrence in the Jewish scriptures.
Tawhid, Divine Unity and Oneness, is clearly observed throughout the universe. If we look at ourselves and our environment, we easily discern that everything depends upon this principle. For example, our bodily parts cooperate with each other. Each cell is so connected with the whole body that the One Who created it must be He Who created the body. Likewise, each element comprising the universe is interrelated and in harmony with each other element and the universe as a whole.
Given this, the only logical conclusion is that the same Creator Who created the particles created the universe, and that the motion of subatomic particles is the same as that observed in the solar system. Everything originates from “one” and returns to “one”: We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back (to its former state) again (21:104). A tree, for instance, grows out of a seed or a stone and finally results in a seed or a stone. This strict obedience to the One Who established that order explains why the universe is so orderly and harmonious. As the Creator, One, All-Omnipotent and All-Knowing, operates it directly, how could it be otherwise? As the Qur’an reminds us:
Each god would have taken off what he created, and some of them would have risen up over others. Had there been gods in Earth and heaven other than God, they both would have been in disorder. (21:22)
Tawhid is the highest conception of deity that God revealed to us through His Prophets, among whom were Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Over time, people deviated from the pure teachings after their Prophets died. Turning to polytheism or idolatry, they relied upon their own faulty reasoning, false perceptions, and biased interpretations to satisfy their lusts. Such a course is impossible with a tawhid-based system, for this requires that they obey only the One Supreme God’s commandments.
‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib is reported to have said:
The foremost in religion is God’s knowledge, the perfection of His knowledge is to testify to Him, the perfection of testifying to Him is to believe in His Oneness, the perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him as pure, and the perfection of His purity is to deny all kinds of negative attributes about Him.
He is infinite and eternal, self-existent and self-sufficient. As stated in the Qur’an:
He is God, One, needy of nothing and Everlasting Refuge; He begets not, nor is He begotten; and there is none like unto Him. (112:1-4)
There is nothing like or compared unto Him. (42:11)
Vision perceives Him not, and He perceives all vision; and He (alone) is the All-Hearing and All-Seeing. (6:103)
In the words of ‘Ali:
He is Being but not through the phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything but not by physical nearness. He is different from everything but not by physical separation. He acts but without the accompaniment of movements and instruments. He is the One, only such that there is none with whom He keeps company or whom He misses in his absence.
God’s Attributes cannot be transferred or present in another, since they are infinite. One who cannot keep himself alive cannot give life to others. One who cannot protect his own power cannot govern the vast universe. The more one reflects, the clearer it becomes that all divine powers and attributes must exist in only that one particular being.

Do we need religion any longer in this age of science and technology?

Although modern technology has blinded us to some fundamental human limitations so that we consider ourselves omnipotent, self-sufficient, and self-existing or possessors of unlimited power, in reality we are weak, frail, needy, and destitute. Although we cannot create a leaf or a gnat, or even a molecule of water, our entrapment by the spell of modern technology makes us loath to admit this. We are content to ascribe all natural events, from sunrise and sunset to the movements of atoms, to nominal natural laws that function without our intervention. Even our bodies work independently of us, for we cannot prevent ourselves from sleeping, becoming hungry or thirsty, or dying at the hands of a microscopic creature.
We always are accompanied by sorrows arising from past misfortunes and by worries about the future. Fear, love, and expectations are inseparable from our existence, while such things as youth and beauty, of which we are very fond, leave without saying “good-bye.” We greatly fear and are overwhelmed unexpectedly by misfortune, old age, and death. Countless requirements must be maintained if we are to go on living, yet we have total control over none of them. We may be injured, accidents may end our hopes, and disease and unexpected events always threaten and block our way to happiness. We endure earthquakes, storms, floods, fires, and other natural catastrophes. Both the vast variety of phenomena and our awareness of our own frailty make our own weakness and helplessness quite clear.
Despite our claims of dominating nature and conquering space, we have more need of religion than our ancestors ever did. We may not be worshipping fetishes as they did, such as trees, animals, rivers, fire, rain, and heavenly bodies, but, according to Fromm, millions of us have our own fetishes: national heroes, movie stars, politicians, sports figures, musicians, and many, many others.
Furthermore, millions of us practice such modern religions as transcendental meditation, necromancy, Satanism, and spirit worship in the hope of satisfying that which cannot be satisfied with scientific and technological advancements. Others seek fulfilment in stadiums, nightclubs, casinos, jobs, and trade unions. They transform such places into places of devotion because they cannot suppress their need to worship. Inevitably, those who do not believe in and worship the One God become the slaves of numerous deities.

How can we establish God’s Existence?

The universe and God’s Existence

The existence of God is too evident to need any arguments. Some saintly scholars have even stated that God is more manifest than any other being, but that those who lack insight cannot see Him. Others have said that He is concealed from direct perception because of the intensity of His Self-manifestation.
However, the great influence of positivist and materialist schools of thought on science and on all people of recent centuries makes it necessary to discuss this most manifest truth. As this now-prevalent “scientific” worldview reduces existence to what can be perceived directly, it blinds itself to those invisible dimensions of existence that are far vaster than the visible.
Let us reflect on one simple historical fact: Since the beginning of human life, the overwhelming majority of humanity has believed that God exists. This belief alone is enough to establish God’s Existence. Those who do not believe cannot claim to be smarter than those who do. Among past and present-day believers are innovative scientists, scholars, researchers and, most importantly, saints and Prophets, who are the experts in the field. In addition, people usually confuse the non-acceptance of something’s existence with the acceptance of its non-existence. While the former is only a negation or a rejection, the latter is a judgment that requires proof. No one has ever proven God’s non-existence, for to do so is impossible, whereas countless arguments prove His existence. This point may be clarified through the following comparison.
Suppose there is a large palace with 1,000 entrances, 999 of which are open and one which appears to be closed. No one could reasonably claim that the palace cannot be entered. Unbelievers are like those who, in order to assert that the palace cannot be entered, confine their (and others’) attention only to the door that is seemingly closed. The doors to God’s existence are open to everybody, provided that they sincerely intend to enter through them.
The most important factor leading many, especially those under the spell of materialistic science and its worldview, to fix their eyes on the apparently closed door is causality. Causality leads to the vicious chain of cause and effect, for each cause is also an effect. Moreover, the effect is totally different from the cause. All things and effects are usually so full of art and beneficial purposes that even if all causes gathered they would be unable to produce one single thing, let alone their simple immediate causes.
In order for a cause to produce an effect, it has to be able to produce the whole universe in which that effect takes place, for that effect cannot exist without the whole universe. Nor can they exist separately. Materialist scientists imagine powerless, dependent, and ignorant causes to be responsible for the existence of beings and things, and thus fancy them to possess absolute qualities. In this way they are implying (tacitly believing) that each of those causes possesses qualities that only can be attributed to God.
However, the latest discoveries of modern science, like the universe’s unity and its parts’ inseparability, exclude the possibility of all the explanations put forward by materialistic science. They demonstrate that all entities, whether in nature or in the laws and causes attributed to them, are devoid of power and knowledge. They are contingent, transient, and dependent beings. But the properties attributed to any of these entities need infinite qualities like absolute power and knowledge.
This shows that causality is by no means necessarily linked with “objective” study or “neutral” scientific investigation. It is no more than a personal opinion. Moreover, it is an opinion that is irrational and devoid of sense.
When we study the universe, we see that all beings utterly refute the false claims of materialist and atheistic reasoning through their order, mutual relationship, and duties. They affirm that they are nothing but the property and creatures of a Single Creator. Each rejects the false notions of chance and causality, ascribes all other beings to its own Creator, and proves that the Creator has no partners. Indeed, when the Creator’s Unity is known and understood correctly, it becomes clear that nothing requires that causes should possess any power. Thus they cannot be partners to the Creator, for it is impossible for them to be so.
The universe is a document for believers to use. The Qur’an informs us that believing in God is to assent with one’s heart to the Creator with all His Attributes supported by the universe’s testimony. The true affirmation of God’s Unity is a judgment, a confirmation, an assent, and an acceptance that can find its Owner present with all things. It sees in all things a path leading to its Owner, and regards nothing as an obstacle to His Presence. If this were not the case, it would be necessary to tear and cast aside the universe in order to find Him, which is impossible for us.
The universe has been made in the form of an intelligible book so as to make known its Author. The book, which addresses humanity, seeks to make humanity read the book and its parts, and respond with worship and thanks to its Author’s will. Humanity attains to that worship by uncovering the order in the Book of the Universe through scientific study and displaying the functioning of the universe’s beings and workings.
The universe is not passive or neutral. We cannot interpret it as we wish, for there is only one correct way of looking at the world, one universal worldview common to all humanity. This view is taught to us in the Qur’an as well as in the Book of the Universe by our Creator. This means that the Qur’anic worldview recognizes that the perception of the world differs relatively from one person to another. It allows for plurality within unity so that a universal dialogue is possible. This worldview contains no fragmentation or conflict, only harmony, assistance, peace, and compassion.
The materialist scientific worldview is based on radical fragmentation, for it views nature as a mechanism with no inherent value and meaning. It isolates an object by cutting off its connections with the rest of the world, and studies it within its immediate environment.
But our perception of ourselves tells us that we are meaningful and part of the whole universe, and that everything must have a meaning and be part of the universe. Materialist science has left the subject—humanity—out of the universe and, insofar as this science is taking over, people feel that they have no place in this world. Thus they are isolated and live lives without meaning, except in a very limited, egoistic sense. People are alienated from their environment and from themselves.
The universe is an inseparable whole. Indeed, the unity observed in its totality, including humanity, is so clear that no one can deny it. Thus the materialistic approach to the scientific method has to be reconsidered. This method is reductionist, for it reduces every thing to fragments and then attributes each fragment to causes. But in reality, all things are interconnected and interdependent, for it is impossible to attribute anything, however small, to causes that are themselves transient and contingent. Since whatever is responsible for one thing must be responsible for everything, we cannot have one thing without the whole.
Why can we ascribe a thing to its antecedents in time but not to its neighbors in space? Why should a thing be able to produce another thing just because it happened before? All modern scientists know that space and time are fully equivalent and unified into a four-dimensional continuum in which both “here” and “there” and “before” and “after” are relative. In this four-dimensional space, the temporal sequence is converted into a simultaneous co-existence, the side-by-side existence of all things. Thus causality appears to be an idea limited to a prejudiced experience of the world.
Causality does have some meaning. Opposites are mingled in this world: truth with falsehood, light with darkness, good with evil, white with black, and so on. Since people have ingrained inclinations toward both good and evil, they are tested in this world to determine whether they will use their free will and other faculties in the way of truth and good or otherwise.
Divine Wisdom requires that the veil of causes and laws be drawn before Divine Power’s operations. If God had willed, He could train the planets with His “Hands” in a way observable by us or let visible angels administer them. Then we would not be speaking of the laws of causes involved, such as gravitation. Or, in order to communicate His Commandments, God could speak to each person directly without sending any Prophets, or could write His Name with stars in the sky in order to compel us to believe in His Existence and Oneness. But in this case, humanity’s earthly existence would not be an arena of trial that pushes us to new developments and discoveries in science and technology, thereby enabling us to remove one veil more from the meaning of existence.
Like a mirror’s two sides, existence has two aspects or dimensions: one visible and material, known as the Realm of Opposites and (in most cases) Imperfections, and the transparent, pure, and perfect spiritual realm. The material dimension must—and does—contain events and phenomena that appear disagreeable to us. Those who cannot perceive the Divine Wisdom behind all things may even criticize the Almighty for those disagreeable events and phenomena. To prevent that, God uses natural laws and causes to veil His acts. For example, so that we do not criticize God or His Angel of Death for the loss of our beloved ones or our own death, God places diseases and natural disasters (among other “agents” or “causes”) between Himself and death.
On account of this world of testing and trial’s essential imperfection, we encounter and suffer from many deficiencies and shortcomings. In absolute terms, every event and phenomenon is good and beautiful in itself or in its consequences. Whatever God does or decrees is good, beautiful, and just. Injustice, ugliness, and evil are only apparent or superficial and arise from humanity’s errors and abuses. For example, although a court may pass an unjust sentence on you, you should know that Destiny permits that judgment because of a crime that you are hiding. Whatever befalls us is usually the result of self-wronging, an evil that we ourselves have done. However, those who lack the necessary sound reasoning and judgment to understand the Divine Wisdom behind events and phenomena may impute directly to God the apparent ugliness or evil, imperfections and shortcomings, experienced in worldly life, even though God is absolutely free of any defect or imperfection.
Therefore, so that people do not ascribe any ugliness or evil to God, His Glory and Grandeur require that natural causes and laws be a veil before His acts, while belief in His Unity demands that those causes and laws should not be ascribed to any kind of creative power.
If God Almighty acted in the world directly, and not through causes and laws, we would be unable to develop scientific knowledge or live even an instant of a happy life free of fear and anxiety. We can observe and study patterns in phenomena thanks to God’s acting from behind natural causes and laws. Otherwise, each event would be a miracle. The regularity within the flux and mutability of events and phenomena makes them comprehensible to us, and so awakens within us the desire to wonder and reflect, which is a principal factor in establishing science. For the same reason, we are able to plan and arrange our future affairs to some degree. Just consider how life would be if we did not know whether the sun would rise tomorrow!
Whoever owns such attributes as beauty and perfection desires to know them and make them known. God owns absolute beauty and perfection and is independent of all things. He also owns a holy, transcendent love and thus a sacred desire to display His Beauty and Perfection. If He showed His Names and Attributes directly, without the “medium” of causes and laws, we could not endure them. He manifests them as he does and by degrees within the confines of time and space so that we can connect with them, reflect on them, and perceive them. The gradual manifestation of Divine Names and Attributes is also a reason for our curiosity and wonder about them.

What is the Islamic view of nature?

Islam and nature
Islam contains an elaborate hierarchy of knowledge integrated by the principle of Divine Unity (tawhid). This hierarchy includes juridical, social, and theological sciences, as well as spiritual and metaphysical ones, all of which derive their principles from the Qur’an. Elaborate philosophical, natural, and mathematical sciences, each originating from one of God’s Beautiful Names, also developed within Islamic civilization.
For example, the Name the All-Healing shines on medicine; geometry and engineering depend on the Names the All-Just, All-Shaping, and All-Harmonizing; and philosophy reflects the Name the All-Wise. Each level of knowledge portrays nature in a particular light. Jurists and theologians consider knowledge to be the background for human action, philosophers and scientists see it as a domain to be analyzed and understood, and metaphysicians view it as the object of contemplation and the mirror reflecting suprasensible realities.
Muslim scholars have no tradition of separating the study of nature from knowing God. Thus many Muslim scientists, such as Ibn Sina, Nasir al-Din Tusi, and Jabir ibn al-Hayyan, either were practicing Sufis or attached intellectually to Sufi schools [44. Muslims have always considered observing and contemplating nature very important aspects of their spiritual journey.
Furthermore, Muslims have maintained an intimate connection between science and other fields of Islamic studies. This connection is found in the Qur’an itself, for as the Divine Scripture of Islam it corresponds to the macrocosmic revelation (the universe). Thus Islam is also the name of the Divine system of the universe. The Book of Islam is “the recorded Qur’an (al-Qur’an al-tadwini)” and the entire universe is the “Qur’an of creation (al-Qur’an al-takwini).”
Humanity is also a Divine Book that corresponds to the Qur’an and the universe. Given this, ayat designates a Qur’anic verse, events taking place within our souls, and all phenomena occurring within nature. Human life is so interrelated with natural phenomena that those who can discern them can draw absolutely correct conclusions about the world’s future. In other words, the laws of history can be deduced from the laws of nature. For example:
Your Lord is God, Who created the heavens and Earth in six days. He then mounted the Throne, covering day with night, which pursues it urgently—and the sun, moon, and stars subservient, by His command. Verily, His are the creation and the command. Blessed be God, the Lord of all being. Call on your lord, humbly and secretly. He loves not transgressors. Do not do corruption in the land after it has been set right. Call upon Him in awe and eagerly. Surely the grace of God is nigh to the good-doers. It is He Who looses the winds, bearing good tidings before His grace, till, when they are charged with heavy clouds, We drive it to a dead land and use it to send down water and bring forth all fruits [from the soil]. Even so, We shall bring forth the dead. Hopefully you will remember. And the good land’s vegetation comes forth by the leave of its Lord, and the corrupt [land’s vegetation] comes forth but scantily. Even so We turn about signs for a people who are thankful. (7:54-58)
These verses apparently discuss natural phenomena yet mention the Resurrection and prayer’s importance. Corruption in the land is forbidden, and we are told that God commands everything and has no partners either in creation or command. Thus the main principles of faith (belief in God’s Oneness and the Resurrection) are emphasized while we are reminded of our function or duty: As God’s vicegerents, we are to pray, establish justice, and avoid corrupting and transgressing the Divine law.
Other inner meanings are hinted at. For example, day and night symbolize happy moments and misfortunes respectively, which alternate in both a person’s and a nation’s life. Rain, the symbol of Divine Grace, is mentioned as the grace of God, which is close to those who do good. The winds bearing the good tidings of rain correspond to the pioneers or leaders of a religious revival, and their message is likened to heavy clouds of rain.
Hearts without faith and minds without good judgment and sound reasoning resemble dead lands that need rain to be made fruitful. Just as a fertile land’s vegetation emerges by its Lord’s leave, hearts and minds ready for the Divine Message are the sources from which faith, knowledge, and virtues radiate. However, there will always be some desert-like minds and hearts that do not receive enough rain to produce any vegetation and so do not benefit from this grace.
Finally, these verses console believers living as small oppressed minorities amidst a corrupt, wrong-doing community with the good tidings that victory is near as long as they keep striving for God’s cause and seeking help in patience and prayer.
Thus revelation is inseparable from the cosmic revelation, which is also a book of God. By refusing to separate humanity from nature, Islam preserves an integral view of the universe and sees the flow of Divine grace in the arteries of the cosmic and natural order. As we seek to transcend nature from its very bosom, nature can be an aid in this process, provided that we learn to contemplate it as a mirror reflecting a higher reality:
In the creation of the heavens and Earth and in the alternation of night and day there are signs for people with minds, who remember God and mention His name, standing and sitting and on their sides, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and Earth: “Our Lord, You have not created this for vanity. Glory be to You! Guard us against the chastisement of the Fire. (3:190-91)
Humanity and nature
Humanity is located at the axis and center of the cosmic milieu. By being taught the names of all things, we receive the keys to knowledge of all things and so gain domination over them. However, we receive this power only in our capacity as God’s vicegerent (khalifa) on Earth, not as a rebel against Heaven.
In fact, humanity is the channel of grace for nature, for our active participation in the spiritual world causes light to enter the world of nature. Due to our intimate connection with nature, our inner state is reflected in the external order. Thus when our inner being turns to darkness and chaos, nature turns from harmony and beauty to disequilibrium and disorder. We see ourselves reflected in nature, and penetrate into nature’s inner meaning by delving into our own inner depths. Those who live on the surface of their being can study nature as something to be manipulated and dominated, while those who turn toward the inner dimension of their existence can recognize nature as a symbol and come to understand it in the real sense.
This concept of humanity and nature, as well as the presence of a metaphysical doctrine and a hierarchy of knowledge, enabled Islam to develop many sciences that were influential in the West’s own development of science and yet did not disturb Islam’s intellectual edifice. Someone like Ibn Sina could be a physician and Peripatetic philosopher and yet expound his “Oriental philosophy” that sought knowledge through illumination. A Nasir al-Din al-Tusi could be the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day as well as the author of an outstanding treatise on Sufism.
Muhy al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi could be a leading personage in the most esoteric dimension of Sufism and yet explain the universe’s expansion and the motion of objects. Jabir ibn al-Hayyan’s adherence to Sufism did not prevent him from founding algebra and chemistry. And Ibn Jarir al-Tabari [5], one of the most outstanding figures in Islamic jurisprudence, history, and Qur’anic interpretation, wrote about the winds’ fertilizing clouds so that rain would fall. Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum, a well-known seventeenth-century Sufi master, was a brilliant astronomer and mathematician as well as a specialist in the occult sciences.
There are many more such examples, but these are enough to show that Islam’s hierarchy of knowledge and its possession of a metaphysical dimension have satisfied its followers’ intellectual needs. And so they never sought to satisfy their thirst for causality outside of religion, as happened in the West.
Islam is the universal order, the integral religion of harmony, and the unique system that harmonizes the physical with the metaphysical, the rational with the ideal, and the corporeal with the spiritual. Each dimension of our earthly life has its own place within Islam’s matrix and thus can perform its own function, enable us to be at peace with ourselves and our community and nature, and to gain happiness in both worlds.

What about the relation between Modernity, Christianity and nature?

Modernity and nature
The dangers caused by our domination of nature are well known, despite new measures taken to protect it. Nature is no longer considered sacred, as it was in the medieval era, and so has lost its meaning. The resulting void caused by the disappearance of this indispensable aspect of human existence continues to exist within our souls and manifests itself in many ways, sometimes violently and desperately.
his domination of nature is largely responsible for many problems, among them urban sprawl and congestion, the exhaustion of natural resources, the destruction of natural beauty, and the abnormal rise in mental illnesses. And this, together with giving our animalistic tendencies complete freedom, has made the problem of war so crucial.
Our present encounter with nature, as well as its associated problems, carry within themselves elements connected with the Christian civilization of the Middle Ages. When Christianity came to replace or save the civilization of Antiquity, it found itself in a world dominated by naturalism, empiricism, and rationalism. Human knowledge gradually became sanctified, and the Church considered giving such attention to nature to be a blasphemy blinding people to the vision of God. As a result, the Church opposed this naturalism and emphasized the boundary between the supernatural and the natural. Theologians neglected nature’s theological and spiritual significance because they believed that nature had nothing to teach humanity about God, and therefore it had no theological and spiritual significance.
Although some Western writers such as W. Temple, claim that Christianity and science have a close relationship because Christianity, as the most avowedly materialist great religion, can dominate matter, in fact, Christianity has shown a certain negligence regarding knowledge and certainty. The Renaissance ushered in endless controversies between the Church and science. Moreover, due to the Church’s opposition to human reason and knowledge, as well as its depriving nature of its spiritual significance, modern science developed as a fatal instrument in materialistic hands.

What is the Islamic viewpoint on the Universe and natural environment?

Everyone talks so much about the danger of war and environmental pollution that peace and ecology have become quite fashionable words. However, those who are expected to diagnose these problems wish to remove them through the further conquest and domination of nature.
This problem has arisen because the humanity–nature equilibrium has been destroyed by the modern materialistic conception of, and corrupt attitude toward, humanity and nature. Most people are reluctant to perceive that social peace and peace with nature is possible only through peace with the spiritual order. To be at peace with Earth one must be at peace with his or her heavenly self, and this is impossible if one is not at peace with Heaven.

What is truth and where does it come from?

It is rare for even two or three people to agree on the truth of a matter. If the rich and powerful define truth, their truth will exclude or disadvantage the poor and vice versa. Truth cannot be decided by majority vote, for truth is truth regardless of how many people vote for it. Truth is—and can only be determined by—the Truth, another name for God, Who created humanity and the universe. Our task is to discover that truth and abide by it.
Of course there are some universal truths, such as honesty, generosity, altruism, truthfulness, helpfulness, and compassion. These are essentially reflections of our true nature. Created by the One, Who is All-Wise, All-Generous, All-Compassionate, every person has an innate inclination toward these virtues. Therefore they are confirmed and established by Islam, which was revealed by God through His Prophets to show humanity how to resolve all of its psychological and social problems.
While constant change is observed in nature, there is an underlying aspect of permanence in everything. For instance, a seed germinates underground and grows into a tree without the laws of germination and growth changing. Likewise the essential purposes of all people, regardless of any external material or other changes in their lifestyles, as well as their impact on our lives and environment have remained unchanged since the creation of Adam and Eve. All of us share certain general conditions of life and value: we are born, mature, marry, have children, and die; we have some degree of will and common desires; we share certain values, such as honesty, kindness, justice, courage, and so on.
Thus all Prophets sent by God were sent with the same message concerning God’s Absolute Oneness and Absolute Transcendence: He does not beget nor is He begotten, for He is Eternally Self-Existent. Each created being naturally depends on his or her Creator. Only the Creator is Self-Existent, unique and single, and not composite, subject to change, or contained by time or space. Belief in such a Divine Being constitutes the primary foundation of the Divine religion preached by all Prophets. Its other pillars are belief in the Resurrection, all Prophets without distinction, angels, Divine Scriptures, and Divine Destiny (including human free will).
Through sincere faith and worship, as well as adherence to the Prophets’ pristine teachings, we can attain the highest degree of elevation, even becoming worthy of heaven. There is no other escape from the snares of worldly life, the oppressive ignorance of false human-made systems, or the tyranny of self-appointed clerical authority.
Those who do not use their free will to discipline themselves face the danger of enslavement by their passions. Such lack of self-discipline causes us to wrong others, for the goal of such behavior is to satisfy our desires. Since the Divine religion does not allow such wrongdoing, those who pursue it try to corrupt religion in order to justify their whims and fancies. This causes disorder, oppression, unending conflict, and destruction. God wills mercy for His creatures, not oppression or injustice, and that they live in peace so that justice prevails. However, history relates that the followers of all earlier Prophets split into opposing factions and tampered with the religion to serve a given sect’s local cultural preference or interest.
All previous Prophets were sent to restore the Divine religion to its original purity by purging the innovations and deviations added by its adherents. This is why Prophet Muhammad was sent after Jesus to preach the same pillars of faith. God revealed to him the Qur’an, which contains the eternal principles for our individual and collective life. Since God decrees that the Qur’an is absolutely and permanently preserved, Prophet Muhammad is the last Messenger.
Unfortunately, Judaism and Christianity rejected the Divine Messages and Prophets that came after the ones sent to them: The Jews rejected Christianity and Jesus, as well as Islam and Muhammad, and the Christians rejected Islam and Muhammad. So these two religions finally became so exclusive that Judaism took on the form of a national religion and Christianity presented itself as the only true religion. However, Islam honors the religious experience of those who came before its revelation, because Islam confirms and completes what is true in those religions. Given this, Muslims say that Prophet Abraham and all other Prophets were Muslim. Such an outlook explains why Islamic civilization, from its very beginnings, was and remains tolerant, plural, and inclusive. It has always been this way, except for the rarest of exceptions.

What is the Islamic view of humanity and its relationship with religion?

Immediately after our birth, we have no conscious knowledge of ourselves or our surrounding environment. And yet we are not aliens, but rather beings who are fitted to survive here. For example, each person’s body is made up of the same elements that exist in nature. The building blocks making up Earth’s mineral, vegetable, and animal elements also constitute the sperm and the egg that, when joined, initiate our earthly life. And yet no one knows how this inanimate matter is transformed into living forms. We can say only that it is a direct gift of the Creator. Thus we are children of nature and aware of ourselves as creatures made by the Creator. Such awareness makes us aware of the second aspect of our being: our heavenly aspect.
Typically, children are born into a welcoming environment and know the embrace of parents and a wider family of relatives. Moreover, they are immediately provided with the most perfect nourishment: a mother’s milk. As they grow, children experience the world as a fully ordered environment of sight and sounds, heat and light and rainfall, and an infinite diversity of plants, fruits, and animals. All of these enable children to exercise and enlarge the senses, feelings, and intellect implanted within them by the Creator.
Likewise, their bodies function without their conscious effort or decision. Each person receives a minutely arranged and coordinated physical body as a gift from the Creator when He bestows life, so that his or her life may be supported and mature. Very little of what we have can be said to be our own doing. In fact, without the Creator’s help, we could not even manage our own bodies and therefore would die.
The One Who created the universe and subjected it to our stewardship is also the One Who created us. Given this, it makes perfect sense to consider what our responsibility is and, considering all that we have been given, to reflect on how we will answer for ourselves and for what has been placed in our care. Human responsibility before the Creator is voluntary, whereas all non-human creatures perform their duties without reflection but also without defect.
The apparent efficiency of modern technology obscures our relative impotence and vulnerability. We cannot create even a leaf or a fly, although we are free to tamper with God’s creation to the extent He wills. We have no dominion over our body’s operations, such as its hunger or thirst, or the world. We cannot determine our parents, our time and place of birth and death, or our physique or physical structure. We have to use the natural world to sustain and enlarge our lives. The One Who subjected nature to us also implanted within us the necessary intellectual faculties by which we can use nature. Our intellect is capable of obtaining some knowledge of nature’s orderly operations and then formulating laws based upon the observed uniformity and reliability. These laws are our imperfect, human intimations of the supreme laws created and used by the Supreme Being to create the universe.
The quality of being human comes from our immaterial and spiritual aspects, not from our natural and material aspects. The spirit and intellect do not originate in the physical body, for the spirit’s departure from a dead body reduces that body to something that will decompose into the soil. The body remains for a while, but all of its former senses are now absent. This means that the spirit uses the body, and that only life gives the body any meaning.
This body–spirit relation can be understood somewhat by the following analogy: A factory, no matter how complex, sophisticated, and excellent, has no more value than a pile of mechanical junk if there is no electricity to operate it. This does not mean that the spirit is everything in and of itself and that the body is junk; rather, the spirit needs matter or a corporeal form to express its powers and functions.
A fruit tree’s future life is encapsulated in its seed, and a tree is worth only as much as the value of the fruit it yields. In the same way, each person’s life-history is recorded and is of value only in proportion to the number of good deeds done and the level of virtue attained. Again, just as a tree increases by means of the seeds in its fruit, we prosper by our good deeds, the weight and consequence of which one day will be revealed to us.
We scatter our deeds in this world and harvest the results in the next world. Given this, the All-Majestic, All-Powerful, All-Wise Creator, Who brings us into existence from non-existence and Who brings us to life by breathing the “spirit” into our bodies fashioned from nature’s clay, will resurrect us after we decompose into the ground. For Him, doing so is as easy as bringing day after night, spring after winter, and making what appears to be dry wood at the end of autumn yield grapes the following summer.
In addition to all of this, we have three principal drives: desire, anger, and intellect. We desire or lust after the opposite sex, and love our children and worldly possessions. We direct our anger at what stands in our way, and by using it can defend ourselves. Our intellect enables us to make right decisions. The Creator does not restrain these drives, but rather requires us to seek perfection through self-discipline so that we do not misuse them. It is this struggle that determines our humanity, for without it we would have no purpose and would be the same as all other non-human creatures.
Only people mature spiritually and intellectually, for no other part of creation has the necessary ingredient for this process: free will. All of them live lives that are wholly determined within nature, for without free will they have no way to keep themselves within the correct limits. If we ignore these limits, we may usurp the property of others or seek illicit sexual relations, or use our intellect to deceive others.
This is why our powers must be held in check. Our intellect was given to us to be used with wisdom, and our desire and anger to be used lawfully and in moderation. Moreover, since we are social beings we must restrain ourselves, or else wrongdoing, injustice, exploitation, disorder, and revolution will occur.
But what is lawful and right, moderate and wise?
Who decides the criteria, and how will they be accepted by people?
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
What is my final destination?
What does death demand from me?
Who is my guide on this journey, beginning from clay and passing through the stages of a sperm-drop, a blood-clot, and a lump of flesh, another creation where the spirit is breathed into my body, and finally reaching the grave and through there to the Hereafter?
In all of these questions lie the essential problem of human life.

What about Islam’s relations with other religions?

In the paper he sent to the World Religions Platform held in South Africa in 1999, Fethullah Gülen, a renowned Turkish scholar, writes:
Islam reconciles opposites that seem to be mutually exclusive: religion–science, this world–the next world, nature– Divine Books, the material–the spiritual, and spirit–body. Religion can erect a defense against the destruction caused by scientific materialism, put science in its proper place, and end long-standing conflicts among nations and peoples. The natural sciences, which should act as steps of light leading people to God, have become a cause of unbelief on a previously unknown scale. As the West has become the main base for this unbelief, and because Christianity has been the religion most influenced by it, dialogue between Muslims and Christians appears to be indispensable.
As Muslims, we accept all Prophets and Books sent to different peoples throughout history, and regard belief in them as an essential principle of being Muslim. A Muslim is a true follower of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and all other Prophets, upon them be peace. Not believing in one Prophet or Book means that one is not a Muslim. Thus we acknowledge the oneness and basic unity of religion, which is a symphony of God’s blessings and mercy, and the universality of belief in religion. So, religion is a system of belief that embraces all races and all beliefs, a road that brings everyone together in brotherhood.
Regardless of how their adherents implement their faith in their daily lives, such generally accepted values as love, respect, tolerance, forgiveness, mercy, human rights, peace, brotherhood, and freedom are all values exalted by religion. Most of these values are accorded the highest precedence in the messages brought by Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, upon them be peace.
In the West, some changes are observed in the attitudes of some intellectuals and clerics toward Islam. I must particularly mention the late Massignon, who referred to Islam by the expression: “The faith of Abraham revived with Muhammad.” He believed that Islam has a positive, almost prophetic mission in the post-Christian world, for: “Islam is the religion of faith. It is not a religion of natural faith in the God of the philosophers, but faith in the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Ishmael, faith in our God. Islam is a great mystery of Divine Will.” Together with Christian clerics and men of religion, many Western thinkers besides Massignon, like Charles J. Ledit, Y. Moubarac, Irene-M. Dalmais, L. Gardet, Norman Daniel, Michel Lelong, H. Maurier, Olivier Lacombe, and Thomas Merton express warmth for both Islam and for our Prophet.
Also, expressions regarding Islam in the final declaration of the Second Vatican Council, which began the process of dialogue, cannot be ignored. Another important point is that Pope John Paul II, admits in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, that (in spite of Muslim neglect and carelessness) it is still the Muslims who worship in the best and most careful manner. The Pope reminds his readers that, on this point, Christians should take Muslims as their example.
Muslims and the West have struggled with each other for almost fourteen centuries. From the Western perspective, Islam has threatened Western doors and opened many of them, facts that have not been forgotten. While from the Muslim perspective, as Graham Fuller and Ian O. Lesser acknowledge, (Kusatilanlar-Islam ve Bati’nin Jeopolitigi (trans.), Istanbul: 1996, p. 41-2), in the last century alone, far more Muslims have been killed by Western powers than all of the Christians killed by Muslims throughout history. Many Muslims tend to produce more comprehensive results from this. They believe that Western policies are intentionally designed to weaken Muslim power. Christendom’s historical portrayal of Islam also contributes to this. For centuries, Christians were told that Islam was a crude and distorted version of Judaism and Christianity. For a very long time the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, was considered an imposter. This historical experience leads even educated and conscious Muslims to believe that the West is continuing its thousand-year-old systematic aggression against Islam and, even worse, that it is doing so now with much more subtle and sophisticated methods. They approach the Church’s call for dialogue from the same perspective.
This leads Muslims to oppose and resent the West. However, modern modes of transportation and mass communication have turned the world into a global village in which every relationship is interactive. The West cannot wipe out Islam or its territory, and Muslim armies can no longer march on the West. Moreover, as this world is becoming even more global, both sides feel the need for a give-and-take relationship. Islam, as represented by the Holy Book and the Sunna of the Prophet, has retained the freshness of its beliefs, spiritual essence, good works, and morality as it has unfolded over the last fourteen centuries. In addition, it has the potential to blow spirit and life into Muslims who have been numbed for centuries, as well as into many other peoples drowned in the swamp of materialism. Just as religion has not yet escaped the onslaught of unbelief based on science and philosophy, no one can guarantee that this storm will not blow even stronger in the future. These and other factors do not allow Muslims to view and present Islam purely as a political ideology or an economic system.
The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, defined a true Muslim as one who harms no one with his/her words and actions, and who is the most trustworthy representative of universal peace. Muslims travel everywhere with this sublime feeling that they nourish deep in their spirits. Contrary to giving torment and suffering, they are remembered everywhere as symbols of safety and security. In their eyes, there is no difference between a physical violation and a verbal violation, such as backbiting, false accusation, insult, and ridicule.
A Muslim’s beginning point must have an Islamic basis. In the present situation, Muslims cannot act out of ideological or political partisanship and then dress this partisanship in Islamic garb. If we can overcome this tendency, Islam’s true image will become known. The present, distorted image of Islam that has resulted from its misuse by both Muslims and non-Muslims for their own goals scares both Muslims and non-Muslims. How the West sees Islam is illustrated by the fact that in American universities it is not taught as a religion in theological schools, but as a political system in the political science or international relations departments. Such a perception also is found among Westernized segments of the Islamic world and non-Muslims in Asia and Africa. Strangely enough, many groups that have put themselves forward under the banner of Islam export this image and actually strengthen it.
In the Qur’an God says: “This is the Book wherein there is no doubt; a guidance to those who fear God” (2:2). Then it is explained that these pious ones are those: “Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them; and who believe in what is sent to you and what was sent before you, and (in their hearts) have the reassurance of the Hereafter” (2:3-4). At the very outset, using a very soft and slightly oblique style, the Qur’an calls people to accept the former Prophets and their Books. Having such a condition at the very beginning of the Qur’an seems very important to me when it comes to getting into contact with the followers of other religions.
In another verse God commands: “And discuss not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation)” (29:46). In this verse, the Qur’an describes what method, approach, and manner should be used.
Elsewhere, in Sura Mumtahana, it is stated: “God forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for God loves those who are just” (60:8).
Some Qur’anic verses level, according to some, certain degree of harsh criticisms against the People of the Book. However, such criticism is directed against wrong behavior, incorrect thought, resistance to truth, the creation of hostility, and undesirable characteristics. The Old and New Testaments contain even stronger expressions against the same attributes. However, immediately after these apparently sharp criticisms and threats directed at those who engage in such behavior, very gentle words are used to awaken hearts to the truth and to plant hope.
God-revealed religions strongly oppose disorder, treachery, conflict, and oppression. Islam literally means “peace,” “security,” and “well-being.” Naturally based on peace, security, and world harmony, it sees war and conflict as aberrations to be brought under control. Islam has always breathed peace and goodness. It considers war an accident, and has established rules to balance and limit it. For example, it takes justice and world peace as a basis, as in the verse: “Let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from Justice” (5:8). Islam developed a line of defense based on certain principles that protect religion, life, property, the mind, and reproduction. The modern legal system also has done this.
slam teaches that those who want to reform the world must first reform themselves. In order to bring others to the path of traveling to a better world, they must purify their inner worlds of hatred, rancor, and jealousy, and adorn their outer worlds with all kinds of virtues. Those who are far removed from self-control and self-discipline, who have failed to refine their feelings, may seem attractive and insightful at first. However, they will not be able to inspire others in any permanent way, and the sentiments they arouse will soon disappear.
Goodness, beauty, truthfulness, and virtue are the essence of the world and humanity. Whatever happens, the world will one day find this essence. No one can prevent this.

What is the meaning of Islam in a general sense?

The Qur’an uses din, usually translated as “religion,” in different contexts with various meanings, of which the most important and common are: judging, rewarding, punishing (1:4, 51:6, 82:18-19, 37:53, 56:86); way, law, constitution (12:76); penal law (24:2); the collection of moral, spiritual, and worldly principles, system, way of conduct (33:5, 40:26); servanthood, obedience (16:52); and peace and order (8:39).
General Islamic Beliefs
With Islam, God completed the religion He revealed and chose for humanity (5:3). Literally, Islam means submission, peace, and salvation. In its most fundamental aspect, Islam is epitomized in the most frequently recited of all Qur’anic phrases, the Basmala—In the name of God, the Merciful (al-Rahman), the Compassionate (al-Rahim). Both words are related to the quality of rahma (mercy and compassion). God manifests Himself through His absolute, all-inclusive Mercy and Compassion, and Islam is founded upon that affirmation. The Qur’an calls Prophet Muhammad’s mission a mercy for all the worlds.
Monotheism
Islam is uncompromisingly monotheistic, for its theology begins and ends with God’s Unity (tawhid). Given this, the universe is seen as an integral whole of interrelated and cooperative parts in which a splendid coordination, harmony, and order is displayed both throughout the universe and within each living organism. This harmony and order come from the Unity of the One Who created them and Who is absolute, without partner, peer, or like. The universe operates according to the laws God established for it, and therefore is literally Muslim—absolutely submitted to God. Thus its operations are stable, orderly, and harmonious.
Humanity
God created the universe so that He could be known and recognized in all His Names and Attributes, and therefore His creation includes one creature with free will: man. Of all creatures, only man can manifest the Divine Names the All-Willing, All-Knowing, and All-Speaking. God then endowed us with the knowledge of things (names), and made us His vicegerent to rule on Earth according to His laws. As having free will means that one must choose, each person’s life consists of choosing between what is right and wrong.
God endowed humanity with three principal faculties fundamental to our survival and carrying out our function as His vice-gerent: an appetite for such things as the opposite sex, offspring, livelihood, and possessions; anger or forcefulness in defense and struggle; and reason or intellect. Since we are tested in this worldly life and are free to choose, God did not restrict these faculties.
According to Islam, our individual and collective happiness lies in disciplining our faculties so that we may produce a harmonious and peaceful individual and social life. If they remain undisciplined, they may drive people to immorality, illicit sexual relationships, unlawful livelihoods, tyranny, injustice, deception, falsehood, and other vices.
Prophets
All Prophets came with the same essentials of belief: belief in God’s Existence and Unity, the world’s final destruction, Resurrection and Judgment, Prophethood and all Prophets without distinction, all Divine Scriptures, angels, and Divine Destiny and Decree (including human free will). They called people to worship the One God, preached and promoted moral virtue, and condemned vice. Differences in particular rules and injunctions were connected with the economic and political relationships existing at that time, and because all Prophets prior to Prophet Muhammad were sent to their own people and for their own time. Prophet Muhammad, however, was sent to humanity regardless of time or place. Thus to be a Muslim means believing in all previous Prophets and the original previous Scriptures.
A Prophet, one purified of sin and vice and having a deep relation with God, guides people to truth and sets a perfect example for them to follow. Such people have the following essential characteristics: absolute and complete truthfulness, trustworthiness, and communication of the Divine Message; the highest intellectual capacity, wisdom, and profound insight; sinlessness; and no mental or physical defects. Just as the sun attracts the planets by the invisible force of gravitation, Prophets attract people by the force of their profound relation with God, certain miracles, and the sheer nobility of their person, purpose, and character.
Faith or belief
Faith or belief, the essence of religion, is not just a simple brief affirmation based on imitation. Rather, it has degrees and stages of expansion or development, just as a tree’s seed is gradually transformed into a fully grown, fruit-bearing tree. Belief contains so many truths pertaining to God’s 1,001 Names and the realities contained in the universe that the most perfect human science, knowledge, and virtue is belief as well as knowledge of God originating in belief based on argument and investigation. Such belief has as many degrees and grades of manifestation as the number of Divine Names. Those who attain the degree of certainty of belief coming from direct observation of the truths on which belief is based can study the universe as a kind of Divine Scripture.
The Qur’an, the universe, and humanity are three manifestations of one truth. Therefore, in principle, there can be no contradiction or incompatibility between Qur’anic truths (from the Divine Attribute of Speech) and truths derived from the objective study of its counterpart, the created universe (from the Divine Attributes of Power and Will). An Islamic civilization true to its authentic, original impulse contains no contradiction between science (the objective study of the natural world) and religion (the personal and collective effort to seek God’s good pleasure). True belief is not based on blind imitation, but rather should appeal to our reason and heart, and combine reason’s affirmation and the heart’s inward experience and submission.
Another degree of belief is known as certainty coming from the direct experience of its truths. This depends on regular worship and reflection, and those who possess it can challenge the world. So, the Muslims’ foremost duty is to acquire this degree of belief and try, in full sincerity and purely to please God, to communicate it to others.
The highest aim of creation and its most sublime result is belief in God. The most exalted rank of humanity is the knowledge of God. The most radiant happiness and sweetest bounty is the love of God contained within the knowledge of God; the purest joy for the human spirit and the purest delight for a person’s heart is the spiritual ecstasy contained within the love of God.
Worship
Belief engenders different kinds of worship, such as responding to explicit injunctions (e.g., the prescribed prayers, fasting, alms-giving, and pilgrimage) and obeying prohibitions (e.g., avoiding all intoxicants, gambling, usury, killing, and deception). Those seeking to strengthen their belief and attain higher ranks of perfection should be careful of their heart’s and intellect’s “acts” (e.g., contemplation, reflection, invocation, recitation of God’s Names, self-criticism, perseverance, patience, thankfulness, self-discipline, and perfect reliance upon God). Moral virtues are the fruits of religious life. As Prophet Muhammad said: “I have been sent to perfect virtue.”
Islam also regulates our collective life
By means of belief and worship, as well as its intellectual, moral, and spiritual principles, Islam educates us in the best possible way. In addition, it uses its socioeconomic principles to establish an ideal society free of dissension, corruption, anarchy, and terror, one that allows everyone to obtain happiness both in this world and in the hereafter.