Man is aware of nothing at the
time of his creation. The creation around him, however, is so vast that only Allâhu ta’âlâ knows its extent. This is
reported in the thirty-first âyat of Sűrat al-Muddaththir.[1] A child begins to
perceive classes of beings through its sense organs. Each class of beings is
termed an ’âlam. “The sense organ created first in
man is the tactile organ; with the ability of touch, man perceives cold, hot,
wet, dry, soft, hard and the like. The tactile organ cannot perceive colours or
sounds, and these are thought to be nonexistent. Then his organ of sight is
created, and with it colours and shapes are perceived. The world perceived by
this organ has more variety and more numerous beings than the tactile world.
Next his auditory organ functions. With this sense organ sounds and tunes are
perceived. Afterwards, his ability to taste and then his ability to smell are
created. Thus the five senses which reflect the world of perception are
completed. Towards the seventh year of life, his power of discretion (tamyîz)
is created by which things that cannot be comprehended through the sense organs
are realized. This power differentiates things that are perceived by the sense
organs from one another. Then his intellect or wisdom is created. What is useful,
harmful, good or bad is ascertained by the power of discretion; wisdom
distinguishes the neccessary, permissible, possible or impossible from one
another. Wisdom comprehends things that cannot be grasped by the powers of
perception and discretion. Besides wisdom, Allâhu ta’âlâ creates one more power in some of His chosen slaves. With this,
things that cannot be understood or learnt thru wisdom and things that will
happen in the future are known. This is called the power of prophethood (nubuwwa). Because the power of discretion cannot comprehend the things
within the cognitive area of wisdom, it is oblivious to them. And because
wisdom cannot understand the things comprehended by the power of prophethood,
it disbelieves, and denies them. Denial of what cannot be
---------------------------------
[1] “...:
and none can know the forces of thy Rabb [Allâhu ta’âlâ],
Except He. ...” (74-31)
comprehended is the result of not comprehending, not knowing.
Likewise, a person born blind will know nothing of colours or shapes if he does
not hear about them. He will not believe in their existence. To reveal to His
slaves that the power of nubuwwa also exists, Allâhu
ta’âlâ created dreams in men similar to this power. In
dreams, man might see what will happen in the future clearly or in its vision
in the âlam-i mithâl. If a person who does not know what dreams are is told,
“When man’s consciousness is suspended and thoughts and senses are gone like
that of a dead person, he sees unknown things that are beyond mind’s grasp,” he
will deny it. He will even attempt to prove that such a thing is impossible,
saying, “Man perceives his surroundings by his sense organs. With these organs
suspended, especially when they do not function at all, he will perceive
nothing.” He will reason rather coarsely. As sense organs cannot comprehend
things that are known by wisdom, likewise, wisdom cannot perceive the things
that are known by the power of prophethood.
Those who doubt the existence of
the power of prophethood doubt its possibility or, if its possibility is
accepted, its occurrence. Its existence or occurrence shows that it is
possible. And its existence is demonstrated by Prophets’ giving information
beyond the intellect’s ability. This information, which cannot be acquired
through the intellect, calculation or experimentation, was acquired only from Allâhu ta’âlâ’s ilhâm (inspiration placed upon the heart by Allâhu ta’âlâ or His angels, that is, through
the power of prophethood). The power of prophethood has also other
peculiarities. Since dreams, which resemble one of its peculiarities, exist in
men, we have given it as an example. Its other peculiarities are revealed
through dhawq (tasting, sensitivity) to those who strive on a path of Tasawwuf.
The peculiarity we have given must suffice as a proof to make one believe in
prophethood. Imâm Muhammad al-Ghazâlî, too, wrote this peculiarity as a proof
for believing in prophethood in his book Al-munqidh min ad-dalâl.
According
to ancient Greek philosophers, it is useful to believe in prophethood. They
said, “To believe in prophethood helps wisdom. Meditating over the existence,
power and knowledge of Allah is similar to this. Also, many useful things
beyond the intellect’s ability are learned from Prophets. Examples of this are
the Rising Day, teachings pertaining to the
next world, revelation of what
things are good and what others are bad, and knowing whether some foods and
medicines are harmful or not.”
Those who do not believe in
prophethood say:
1 — “A person sent as a Prophet should have known that the one
who said, ‘I have sent thee as a prophet. Communicate my message!’ was Allah. And knowing Allah, in its
turn, is in no way possible. It may be a genie who uttered these words. All
religious people believe in genies.”
Answer: The person who was sent (as a prophet) proved by mu’jizas that he was
sent as such. Allâhu ta’âlâ is the One who creates the mu’jiza. Genies cannot perform it. Nor
can any other creature.
2 — “If the angel who brought
wahî to the Prophet was an object, it must have been seen by all those who were
present there. You, too, say that it was not seen. If it wasn’t an object but a
spirit, it would have been impossible for it to speak or to be heard. If your
answer is: ‘The angel that brought wahî from Allâhu ta’âlâ to the Prophet was an object. Allâhu ta’âlâ willed that it would not be seen, which is within His power,’
then we would necessarily not see a mountain in front of us or hear a drum
played near us, which is ridicuolus.”
Answer: The one who brought the wahî was
an angel. An angel is a fine, transparent object. It is not Allâhu ta’âlâ’s law for colourless and
transparent things to be seen. Air is a substance. Yet because it is
transparent and colourless, it is not seen. It would be ridiculous if we said
that solid things are not seen. It is possible for a spirit to take a visible
shape, to speak and to be heard, which has happened many times.
3 — “To believe in a Prophet, it is necessary to understand
that he is a Prophet. And this is possible only after long observation. The obligation
to confirm him on the spot is nonsensical.”
Answer: After seeing a Prophet’s wonders and mu’jizas, it
becomes impossible not to acknowledge that he is telling the truth. Those who
see or hear about them must acknowledge and believe the fact immediately.
4 — “It is a Prophet’s task to command useful things
and to prohibit harmful things. And this, in its turn, would be unfair for it
means enforcement or compulsion upon mankind. You say,
‘Allâhu ta’âlâ creates man’s actions; man has no role in these actions.’
Therefore, it means to compel the human slave to do what he could not do.”
Answer: The slave’s power has no effect
on the creation of his actions, but he may wish their creation and prepare
their causes. This is called “kasb” “(acquirement).
The human slave is encumbered to use his capacity called kasb. It is just that
he is commanded to do so.
5 — “Doing the command will tire
the human slave, and he shall be tormented if otherwise. Both choices are
hurmful to the slave. Allah is Hakîm (All-Wise), He does not do harmful
things.”
Answer: Our response to this is that all
the commandments are useful both in this world and in the Hereafter. Their
usefulness surpasses multiple times over the exhaustion they require. It is
unwise to miss so many benefits by trying to avoid so little labour.
6 — “If there is no advantage in
the recompense for the exhaustion caused by doing the command, it is
nonsensical to give the command. If there are benefits in it and if all of them
are useful for Allah, this means that He needs His slaves, which is contrary to
fact. If they are benefical to men, it is unreasonable to command something
useful and then to punish those who do not do it. In other words, this command
means ‘Either do what is useful to yourself or I shall torture you eternally!’”
Answer: The intellect’s finding
something beautiful, ugly or nonsensical is not always valid. Nor is it correct
to say that all the creations of Allâhu ta’âlâ must be useful. We shall prove this later on. Eternal punishment
will be given not because something useful is not acquired, but because the
slave did not carry out the command of his Owner and Creator. Not doing His
command is infidelity, sacrilege and irreverence towards Him.
7 — “Even though Allah konws that
His slave cannot do it or that he will not want to do something useful for
himself, why does He command it? Wouldn’t such a command be ugly and harmful to
His slave?”
Answer: As we have stated above, even if we were to
admit that such a command might be harmful to His slave, attaining great
rewards necessitates putting up with insignificant
difficulties.
According to the Mu’tazila, one of the seventy-two heretical groups in Islam,
there is also some value in proposing [Allâhu ta’âlâ’s]
commands and prohibitions to a disbeliever. Encouraging him to earn thawâb is
valuable. Thawâbs are blessings resulting from the performance of the
commandments by the one who is propositioned. They are not blessings arising
from the proposition. [For example,] a person invites someone to dinner though
he is certain that he will not come. Thus, he wants to show his generosity and
kindness. If he does not invite him, he will not be able to express his
intentions. At this point I find it useful to report the statements of Muslim
thinkers:
Allâhu ta’âlâ
has created men weak and needy. They need clothes, food, lodging, protection
against their enemies, and many other things. A person cannot procure his needs
by himself. His life is too short for this. Men have to cooperate and live
together. One man gives an implement he has made to another, who in return
gives him something else he needs. This need for cooperation is expressed as
“Man has been created civilized.” Living in civilization, that is, in
societies, requires justice. Everyone desires to get what he needs. This desire
is called shahwa. He becomes indignant with anyone who takes
his advantages away. Quarrels, cruelties and torture between them ensue.
Society disintegrates. To regulate all kinds of business transactions and to
establish justice in a society, many principles have to be known, each of which
becomes a law. They must be made known in the most equitable manner. If men
cannot come to a mutual agreement in preparing them, chaos starts again.
Therefore, they must be prepared by One who is equitable and above mankind. In
order for his decisions to be accepted, He has to be powerful, and it must be
understood that the decisions came from Him. Mu’jizas are the means by which
this is proven. Those who run after their own pleasures and shahwa and behave
arrogantly do not like the rules of Islam. They do not want to obey these
rules. They violate others’ rights and commit sins. By declaring that those who
obey Islam shall be given thawâb and those who do not obey them shall be
tormented, the system of Islam becomes stronger. Therefore, the One who has
ordained these rules and who will inflict the punishment must be known. For
this end, worship (’ibadâ) has been commanded. By worshipping every day, He is
remembered. Worship begins with confirming,
believing
in His existence, His Prophet and the blessings
and torments of the next world.
Three things arise from
believing in them and performing ’ibâdât: Firstly, one gets disencumbered from
following one’s lust; the heart and soul get purified, and one does not get
angry any more; lust and anger are hindrances against remembering the Creator.
Secondly, one enjoys different information and pleasures that are unrelated
with those obtained through the sense organs or thru experiments with the
matter. Thirdly, as it is meditated upon that the good shall be given blessings
and the evil-doers shall be tormented, justice gets established among men.
These statements of Muslim thinkers are similar to the statement of Mu’tazilas:
“It is reasonable that proposals are useful.”
8 — “If the performance of the
duty enjoined by Allah was predestined in the eternal past, such an injunction
would be unbecoming, nonsensical and unreasonable. It would be a useless
injunction to propose the performance of a duty which is absolutely inevitable.
On the other hand, it would be torture to enjoin the performance of a duty
which has not been predestined in the eternal past. It would mean to imply, ‘Do
the impossible!’”
Answer: Since man has the power to carry
out the duty, it would not be torture to command it. All of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s commandments are within man’s
ability. Our answer to this question corcerning the commandments will be the
same as the answer given to the question asked about Allâhu ta’âlâ creating. That is, it cannot be
said that Allâhu ta’âlâ has to
create something which has been predestined in the eternal past. Nor can it be
said that He is incapable of creating something which has not been predestined.
9 — “Injunctions that are
difficult for the body will deter man from considering and realizing Allah’s
existence. And it will not leave time for doing many other things.”
Answer: The benefits in the injunctions induce
meditation and an understanding of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s
existence and regulation of life. We have explained this in detail in the
answer to the seventh quotation above.[1]
---------------------------------
[1] It is essential in îmân to accept the commandments, that is, to
10 — “The intellect does the
thing it finds useful and does not do the thing it thinks is harmful. When it
cannot understand whether something is useful or harmful, it does it when there is need to do it. In view of
this function of the intellect, sending Prophets is unnecessary.”
Answer: There are many things which are
misunderstood or which cannot be understood by the intellect, and they have to
be taught by Prophets. A Prophet is like a specialized doctor. He knows the effects of medicines
well. The effects of some medicines might be found by laymen through the intellect
after long experiences, but men of intellect might face risks and harms before
learning them, and it would require a great deal of time and work. They would
have no time left for using their intellect in doing other necessary jobs. By
giving the doctor a little recompense, however, they attain the benefits of
medicines and rid themselves of their ilnesses. To say that Prophets are
unnecessary is like saying that doctors are unnecessary. Since the commandments
taught by a Prophet are wahî revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, they are all true and beneficial. The doctor’s knowledge,
although being the result of
.
---------------------------------
.believe
that is necessary to do the commands and to abstain from the prohibitions. One
who believes most of the commandments but disbelieves only one of them and does
not want to obey it will have disbelieved Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salâm). He will
become an unbeliever. Being a Muslim requires, believing in all the
commandments. If a Muslim, though he believes the commandments, disobeys them,
e.g. does not perform salât out of laziness, or, following his bad friend or
nafs, has alcoholic drinks, or, in case of a woman or girl, goes out with her
arms and/or head uncovered, he or she does not lose their îmân or become an
unbeliever. A person of this sort is a sinful, disobedient Muslim. If he does
not want to obey even one of the commandments, that is, if he disapproves it,
does not esteem it as a duty or slights it, he loses his îmân and becomes a murtadd
(renegade). Such statements
as, "What if I do not perform salât and go out with a bare head? Living
and doing favours to people have precedence over salât,” mean to approve some
of the commandments and disapprove others. Every Muslim must pay attention to
this subtle point, and those who disobey the commandments must be vigilant lest
they should lose their îmân. Neglecting the commandments is different from
wishing not to obey them. These two should not be confused!
thought and experience, cannot be said to be wholly true.
11 — “The mu’jiza’s existence is
not admissible. Since it is a wonder outside of normal events, it is not
something which the intellect can accept. For this reason, prophethood is not
something reasonable, either.”
Answer: Creation of earths and heavens
from nothing has much more wonder in it than a mu’jiza does. If it is
impossible for certain things to happen outside of the laws of nature, this
does not mean that wonders cannot happen outside of these laws. Wonders have
happened through Prophets and Awliyâ’ for centuries. A man of intellect cannot
deny these events. A mu’jiza is intended to demonstrate that a Prophet has told the truth. It has to
be a wonder; something done within the laws of nature cannot be a mu’jiza.
12 — “A mu’jiza cannot prove
that a Prophet is telling the truth. It
is not certain whether a mu’jiza is created by Allah or made by a Prophet himself. Magic is a wonder,
too. You also believe in magic and incantation.”
Answer: The intellect putting forward
various possibilities, i.e. hypotheses and theories,
does not refute the knowledge acquired by the sense organs or experimentation.
The occurence of a certain thing does not prevent us from thinking of its
nonexistence. Allâhu ta’âlâ, alone, is the One who effects everything’s coming into
existence, as explained above. In other words, a mu’jiza is created by Allâhu ta’âlâ, not by a Prophet. Even though everybody cannot
perform magic and incantation, they do not resemble the wonders of [a Prophet’s] splitting the sea, bringing
a dead person back to life, restoring sight to a blind person, or curing a
person whose illness has become hopeless from the medical point of view.
Therefore, they are not confused with mu’jizas, which are wonders.
13 — “Occurrence of a mu’jiza is
known either by seeing or by hearing reports which are tawâtur.[1] A report cannot be
considered factual even if it is tawâtur. Therefore, those who have not seen a
mu’jiza will not know of a Prophet, for there may be liars among those who report it as tawâtur:
that is, commonly known.
---------------------------------
[1] Tawâtur
is the state of being
widespread or being reported by most people, which is a document for
authenticity and makes denial impossible.
Answer: In most worldly affairs, reports
that are communicated through tawâtur are believed. For example, such facts as
there being a city named Delhi, that the earth is larger than the moon and
smaller than the sun, that Muhammad the Conqueror conquered Istanbul from the
Byzantine Greeks are believed by hearing them from others.
14 — “We have studied religions.
We have found things that are contradictory to reason and science. Thus, we
have concluded that they have not been revealed by Allah. Examples of these are
the permission given to cause pain to an animal for the purpose of eating;
fasting at certain times; the prohibition of eating and drinking some delicious
foods and drinks; the commandment imposing troublesome journeys for the purpose
of visiting certain places; performing sa’y and tawâf like insane people or
children, throwing pebbles without any certain target, kissing a valueless
stone, the prohibition of looking at a free but ugly woman, and the permission
to look at pretty jâriyas.”
Answer: Even if the intellect could distinguish good from bad and if we were to admit that Allâhu ta’âlâ must command His human slaves to do useful things, it is obvious that the intellect could not have the ability to grasp the benefit of the things mentioned in this question. This inability of the intellect does not show the absence of their value. Allâhu ta’âlâ has given these commandments because He knows their worth. As we have explained before, there are many things that the intellect cannot comprehend but which are comprehended by the power of prophethood. We shall explain this with more detail at the beginning of the second article.