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 necessary,
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 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 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
---------------------------------
[1] “...: and none can know the forces of thy Rabb [Allâhu ta’âlâ], except He. ...” (74-31)
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 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 with 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 things that are known with 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 in 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) would
prove 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 wahy 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 wahy 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 before us or hear a drum
played near us, which is ridiculous.”
Answer:
The one who brought the wahy 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
5- “Doing the command will tire the human slave, and
he shall be tormented if otherwise. Both choices are harmful 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
useful 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 knows 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 servant?”
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 (’ibâda) 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 in the next world.
Three things arise from believing in them and
performing ’ibâdât: Firstly, one becomes safe against 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 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 Allâhu ta’âlâ’s commandments are within man’s ability. Our answer to this
question concerning the commandments will be the same as the answer given to
the question asked about Allâhu ta’âlâ’s 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 believe that it 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!
10- “The intellect does the thing it finds useful and
does not do the thing it thinks 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. 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 illnesses. To
say that Prophets are unnecessary is like saying that doctors are unnecessary.
Since the commandments taught by a Prophet are wahy
revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, they are all true and beneficial. The doctor’s
knowledge, although being the result of 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.
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 a certain
place; 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 an independent 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
---------------------------------
[1] Tawâtur is the state of being widespread or being reported by most people, which is a document for authenticity and makes denial impossible.
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.