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An Atheist
Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud
 IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICIENT, THE MOST MERCIFUL

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WOU[fu
An Atheist
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Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud

 Dar Al Taqwa Ltd. 1994

Second Edition March 2000

CONTENTS
ISBN 1 870582 09 8
Page
I.
He Begot None, Nor Was He Begotten ........ . 5
"If God Preordained My Deeds, Why Should
II.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, He Judge Me?" . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . .. . .. .. 11
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
III. Why Did God Create Evil? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other-
IV. "What About Those Unreached By The
wise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Quran ?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
V. Paradise and Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
. . A n 0 pmm
VI. Is Re11g10n . ?. .. .......................... . 45
Translated by Mohamed Yehia VII. Islam and Women.................................... 61
VIII. The Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
IX. The Conscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Published by: X. Is Pilgrimage A Pagan Rite? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dar AI Taqwa Ltd.
XI. Could Muhammad Be The Author of The
7 A Melcombe Street
Baker Street Quran? .................................................. 91
London NW 1 6AE XII. The Quran Did Not Come From A Human .... 113
email : dar.altaqwa@btinternet.com XIII. Doubts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
XIV. Religion and Evolution.............................. 137
XV. "There Is No God But Allah" ..................... 149
XVI. K.H.Y. 'A.S ........................................... 155
XVII. The Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
XVIII. The Meaning of Religion ............................ 169
Printed and Bound by :
De-Luxe Printers
X}. X. "We Won Worldly Happiness And You Got 175
245a, Acton Lane, Park Royal, Delusions" ............................................ .
London NW 10 7NR
website : http://www.de-luxe.com
email : de-luxe@talk21.com (for AppleMac files) or
printers@de-luxe.com (for Pc windows files)
3
 I
He Begot None, Nor Was He Begotten

My friend is a man who likes to argue and delights in

talking. He thinks that we, naive believers as we are, feed on
illusions and miss me pleasures and attractions of this world
beguiling ourselves with Paradise and the Houris. He studied
in France where he got a Ph.D. degree, consorted with
I lippies, and came to disbelieve in everything.
He adressed me sarcastically:
-You say that God exists. The chief among your proofs is
the law of causation which stipulates that every artefact,
creature, or existent must have been brought into being by a
maker, creator, or efficient cause : a piece of fabric points to
I he weaver, a painting to the painter, an engraving to the
engraver. The universe, according to this logic, is the most
cogent proof of a Puissant God who created it.
Granted that we believe in this creator, aren't we entitled,
according tp the same logic, to ask, "Who created the
Creator; who created that God you talk about?" Doesn't
your own reasoning and in keeping with the same law of
causation lead you to this question? Now, What have you to
say about this dilemma?
I replied to him by making clear that his question was
meaningless.
5
 - There is no dilemma or anything of that sort. You grant water is a proof that it exists, our yearning for justice is proof
that God is a Creator and then you ask about who created to us that a just Being exists.
Him making Him both creator and created in the same Aristotle followed the chain of causality tracing the chair
sentence, which is a contradiction. from wood, wood from the tree, the tree from a seed, and the
seed from the planter. He had to conclude that this chain
The other side of your question's meaninglessness is that
which regresses into infinite time must have begun with an
you imagine the creator as being subject to the laws which
'uncaused' cause, a primum mobile in no need of a mover, a
govern his creatures. Causation is a law for us who live in
creator who has not been created. This is the same thing we
space and time. God, who created space and time, is
assert of God.
necessarily transcendent in relation to both and it is an error
on our part to think that he is bound either by them or by From another quarter, Ibn Arabi, the muslim mystic,
their laws. It is God who created the law of causation and we replied to the question as to who made the creato~ by say~ng
cannot consider Him as subject to the law He created. that it can only occur to a disordered mind. Accordmg to htm,
it is God that substantiates existence and it would be
In this sophistry of yours you are like those dolls that, erroneous to point to existence or the universe as a proof ~f
seeing they move by springs, imagine that the human who God. This is the same as saying that light indicates day and It
made them must also derive his motion from the action of would be a lopsided argument to claim that day proves the
springs. If they were told that he is self-moved, they would existence of light.
retort that it is impossible for anything to move spontaneously
since everything in their world is moved by a spring. Just like God says in a Divine Utterance (Hadith Qudsi): "It is I
them, you cannot imagine that God exists in His own Essence who aids in proving and finding, there is no proof leading to
with no need of an efficient cause; and this is because you see 1ne."
everything around you in need of such a cause. It is as if you
God is the proof which is in no need of another proof. He is
thought that God needs a parachute to descend among men
the self-evident Truth; and He is the evidence that
or a fast car to reach His prophets; God is infinitely exalted
substantiates everything. He is manifest in order, precision,
above such conceptions.
beauty, and regularity; in tree leaves, in the feathers of a
The German philosopher, Immanuel Kant realized, in his fawn, in the wings of the butterfly, in the fragrance of flowers,
Critique of Pure Reason, that the mind cannot comprehend in the chanting of the nightingale, in the harmony of planets
infinite realities and that it is by nature fitted only to and stars which makes up that symphonic poem we call the
apprehend particulars. It is incapable of apprehending such a universe. If we allege that all this came into being by chance,
universal or total existence as that of the divinity. God was we would be like a person'who believes that blowing-up the
known by conscience not by reason. Just as our thirst for . ypes of a press into space can result in their spontaneous
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 apparatus contains the stomach, the duodenum, and the small
assembly into an authorless Shakepearean sonnet.
and large intestines, The genital apparatus has the same
The Quran spares us all these arguments with a few components: the ovary, the uterus, the testicles and their
expressive words. It says without sophistry and in a decisiv~ ducts; while the urinary system in all consists of the kidney,
clarity: the uriter, and the bladder. The anatomical unit in each of
"Say that God is One, the Eternal. these creatures is the cell. Whether we are dealing with
He begot none nor was he begotten. plants, animals, or humans, we meet with the same features;
None is equal to Him." they all breathe, breed, die, and are born in the same way.

What is so strange, then, in asserting that the creator is

*** one? Does He suffer from a deficiency to need completion?
My friend continued to question me in his sarcastic tone: It is the imperfect only who multiply. If there were more than
"Why do you say that God is one? Why shouldn't there be one god, they would fall among themselves, each taking his
many gods sharing the 'work' among themselves?" own creation to his side and the world would be ruined. To
God is sublimity and compelling - attributes which brook no
I chose to reply to him not with the aid of the Quran but
associates.
with the logic he accepts: that of science. My answer was that
God is one because the entire universe is built out of one ***
material ~nd according to a unified plan. The ninety two
~lements m the Mendelev table are built from hydrogen and My friend mocked the conc.ept of divinity {Robobyya) that
m the same ma~ner in which stars and suns flame-up in space; we entertain. He wondered at that god who interfered in
namely, by fusiOn and the emission of atomic energy. every thing big or small mastering all creatures and
"intimating to the bees to abide in mountains". No leaf falls
All forms of life are built of carbon composites - they are but He knows of it and no fruit grows out of its bud but He
all charred when burned - according to one anatomical plan. takes count of it. No female conceives and gives buth without
~n anatomy of a frog, a rabbit, a pigeon, a crocodile, a
His knowledge. It is He who causes the foot to stumble over a
guaffe, and a whale reveals the same anatomical structure in hole and the fly to fall in a plate of food. Even if the phone is
all. The same arteries, veins, cardiac chambers, and bones dead or the rain d'oesn't fall or, conversely, if it pours down,
correspond in all of them. The wing of the pigeon is the He is behind all these events. "Don't you keep your god
fore-leg in .the frog : the same bones with only a slight busy", asked my friend, "with too many trivial things under
transformatiOn. The long neck of the giraffe contains seven
such conception of Him as that?"
vertebrae, we find the same number in the hedgehog's neck.
I don't really understand my friend. Would god, in his
The nervous system in all consists of the brain, the spinal
opinion, be more of a divinity if He relieved himself of all
cord, and the motor and sensory nerves. Their digestive
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responsibility and, turning his back to the world he crcaLcd,
left it unattended to destroy itself in conflicts'! Is the true
divinity in his estimation that idle, unconscious being who
does not hear, see, or respond to his creatures and look after
them? It is to be further asked: from what quarter did he
II
know that certain affairs are important and serious enough to
so deserve such attention? 'If God Preordained My Deeds,
Why Should He Judge Me?'
The fly, which appeared to the enquirer so insignificant that
it doesn't matter whether it falls in a plate of food or not, can
change history with such an unimportant fall. It could thus My friend spoke gloatingly thinking that his arguments
infect an army with cholera giving victory to the other side would hold me captive by the scruff of my neck.
and, consequently, totally altering the course of history. - You say, he argued, that God manages everything in this
Wasn't Alexander the Great killed by a mosquito? The most creation with fate and predestination and that he has
trivial premises can lead to the most serious consequences, preordained our deeds. If this applies to me, for instance, in
whereas the most important beginnings can issue in nothing. the sense that all my actions have been preordained by him,
The Knower of the Unseen alone realizes the value of why then should I be accountable before him? Don't give me
everything. the usual reply that choices are open before me. Nothing is
It remains to be asked whether my friend has set himself up more preposterous than this lie. Let me ask you: have I had
as a trustee over God defining his prerogatives for Him; our any choice in my birth, sex, height and build of body, colour,
Lord is most Holy and High above such a naive conception. and country? Do I choose that the sun rise and the moon set?
The God worthy of divinity is He whose Knowledge Is it by my choice that a blow of fate descends on me, that
comprehends all; Who misses not one atom either in earth or death surprises me, or that I can only escape from a pitfall of
calamity by committing crime? Why should God force me to
sky.
do a certain deed and then hold me responsible for it?
He is God, the All-Hearing, the Responder, the Mindful of
If you argue that I am free and that I have a will besides
His creatures.
that of God wouldn't that be considered a kind of polytheism
since you are led to admit the multiplicity of wills? Moreover,
what can you say to counter the ideas of historical materialism
concerning the determinism of environment and
circumstances as well as the various forms of 'inevitabilities'
that adherents of that philosophy advocate?
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 - Having blurted out these words like bullets, my friend No one has any choice in matters relating to creation because
breathed in relief thinki~g that I have been completely 11 is God who creates what He wills and pleases. He will not
vanquished and that he had only to shroud my creed before hold you responsible for your short or admonish you for your
the burial. I, however, began to speak in a quiet voice: long stature, nor will He punish you for failing to stop the sun
111 its orbit.
You are victim to certain fallacies. Your deeds are
foreknown to God in His Record but they are not
preordained for you against your will. They are only The sphere of accountability is the area of Taklif or Divine
preordained in His Prescience just as you may foresee, in the Injunction. Within this area you are free and your argument
light of your knowledge, that your son will commit fornication should be confined inside its compass. You are free to repress
and he actually goes on to do it. Have you compelled him to your appetites, to bridle your rage, to resist the promptings of
it? Or was it, in fact, a foreknowledge which came true vour ego, to deter your evil intentions, to enhance your
because founded on your comprehension of the situation? benevolent tendencies.

Another confusion you fall in is your description of the You can be generous with your money and self.
freedom of the will as a lie arguing that you had no say in You can tell the truth or lie.
determining your birth, sex, height, colour, or country and You can restrain your hand from forbidden gains.
that you cannot will the sun to move from its orb. The cause You can divert your eye from prying into the
of the confusion is that you conceive freedom differently than sensitive spots of others.
we, the believers, see it. You have absolute freedom in mind;
You can hold your tongue and refrain from
therefore, you ask whether you can have a choice in making
cursing, back-biting, and slander.
yourself white or black, tall or short or whether you can will
to move the sun form its place or stop it in its orbit. Hence, [n this area we are free; and it is in this area that we are
you enquire plaintively, "Where is my freedom?" liable to account and questioning.
You are, in fact, talking about absolute freedom, the
freedom to do as you will in the universe - such a kind of The freedom we should be discussing is relative and not
freedom is God's alone. We do not hold this view of freedom alisolute; it is man's freedom within the sphere of Taklif or
as we are guided by the Quranic verse : Injunction. This latter kind of freedom is real and the
l_'vidence for its reality is our innate, intuitive sense of it. We
"Your Lord creates what He will and feel responsibility and contrition for our wrong-doing and we
chooses freely, but you have no power feel relief over our good deeds. We sense in every moment of
to choose." 'Jur lives that we are involved in weighing and choosing from
The Story, 68 among several possibilities. The primary function of our

12
mind, indeed, IS to choose and favour from among Shirk (polytheism) and with setting up equals to God who bid
alternatives. ;md dispense like Him. This view, my friend, is what you
echoed in your talk about the multiplicity of wills. It is a
We clearly and decisevely distinguish between the
mistaken conception; for human will does not transcend
trembling of our hand as a result of fever and its movement as
I >ivine Will. Man, in his freedom, may act contrary to what
it writes a letter describing that trembling. We are conscious
satisfies God, but he cannot do anything in contradiction to
of the shivering as determined and compulsory and of the
I lis Will. God granted us freedom to transgress against His
letter-writing as free and voluntary. If we were compelled or
wishes (we disobey Him) but He gave none the freedom to
conditioned in both cases we wouldn't be able to make the
1ranscend His Will. In fact, we encounter here another facet
distinction. This freedom is further affirmed by our
of the relative nature of human freedom.
experience that it is impossible under any pressure to compel
the heart to accept anything it does not want to. You can All our actions are within the sphere of Divine Will and are
force a woman with threats and beating to undress but no subservient to it even if they go against God's wishes and
pressure whatsoever can make her love you with all her heart. violate the shari'a (religious law). Our freedom itself is a
This indicates that God has safeguarded our hearts from all divine gift that God willingly bestowed and it was not
forms of compulsion and duress and that he created them forcefully extorted from Him. Indeed, our freedom is exactly
free. This is why God judges according to what the heart what He willed; and this is how we can understand this
harbours and the intentions bear. The believer who is forced Ouranic verse :
to utter expressions of Shirk (polytheism) or blasphemy "You cannot will but by the will of
under threatening or torture will not be held accountable for God."
them as long as his heart is steadfast in faith. In the following Man, 30
verse God absolves such person of responsibility:
Our will is subservient to His; it is a grant from Him, a gift
"Those who are forced to recant while
of His Kindness and Generosity. It lies within His own Will;
their hearts remain loyal to the faith
there is no duality, opposition, or competition between our
shall be absolved."
The Bee, 106 wills and God's Will and Judgment.
Understanding freedom in this way does not go against
A further element of confusion in connection with the Tawhid (faith in the Oneness of God) or sets up equals to
question of freedom of will is that some people understand God who bid and dispense like Him. Our freedom is precisely
human freedom as meaning a transcendence of Divine Will what He wills and decides.
and a management of affairs independent of God. A third point of confusion about the issue of freedom is that
Consequently, they accuse the advocates of freedom with some people who tackled the question of fate and
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predestination or the controversy of determinism versus ,, len tical to the creature's freedom of choice because God
freedom have understood fate as a compelling of man to that 111 cdestines every man according to his own desires and
which is contrary to his nature and bent. This is an error into 111 t cntions :

which you have also fallen, my friend; God has unequivocally

"Whoever seeks the harvest of the
denied that He resorts to compulsion :
world to come, to him We will give in
"If we will, we can reveal to them a great abundance; and whoever desires
sign from heaven before which they the harvest of this world, a share of it
will bow their heads in utter humility." shall be his."
The Poets, 4 The Counsel, 10

The meaning here is clear enough: God could have "There is a sickness in their hearts
compelled men to believe by revealing incontestable signs which God has increased,"
(ayat) or miracles but He did not choose this path because The Cow, 10
compulsion is not one of His laws: "As for those who follow the right
"There shall be no compulsion in path, God will mcrease their
religion. True guidance is now distinct guidance."
from error." Muhammad, 17
The Cow, 256 In the Quran, God addresses the captives of war thus:

"Had your Lord pleased, all the "If God finds goodness in your hearts,
people of the earth would have He will give you that which is better
believed in Him. Would you then than what has been taken from you,"
force faith upon men?" The Spoils, 70
Jonah, 99
<1od preordains according to the intentions and heart of man:
Compulsion, it is plain, is not part of Divine Law. if these are evil, man will come to evil; if good, good will be
his fate. There is no duality or opposition; predestination is
Fate and predestination should not be conceived as a
freedom of choice as God predestines us to what we choose
forcing of people to what is against their natures; on the
with our hearts and intentions. There is no injustice,
contrary, God destines each human being to a fate which
compulsion, or duress in this regard and there is no subjection
corresponds to his intentions - He wills him to what he
to what is against our natures:
himself really wills and He desires for him what he himself
desires. There is no duality here. Omi'N prto dination is "For him that gives in charity and
16 17
 guards himself against evil an~ winds, and spoke with birds by God's aid and gifts. Moses
believes in goodness, we shall smooth parted the sea while Christ raised the dead, walked on the
the path of salvation; but for him that water, and healed the blind-born, the leper, and the sightless.
neither gives nor takes and disbelieves We read about the Walis (men of God) and the blessed for
in goodness, We shall smooth the path whom the 'terrain is folded' and the unseen made known.
of affliction." 1 'hey attain to these levels of freedom by perseverance in
The Night Journey, 5-10 <rod's worship and by endearing themselves to Him. He
"It was not you who smote them; God responds by endowing them with emanations of His hidden
smote them." knowledge. Once again we encounter knowledge but this
The Spoils, 17 time it is Ladduni knowledge (one peculiar to God).

Abu Hamed El-Ghazali sums up and solves the problem of

The last verse indicates that the strike effected by man and
t reedom and predestination in two sentences : Man has
that preordained by God merge into one and the same strike.
freedom of choice in relation to what he knows, he is
This is the solution to the puzzle of fate and predestination:
preordained with regard to what he knows not. El-Ghazali
man is to intend while God is to enable and dispose, good for
means that the more knowledgeable man becomes the freer
good and evil for evil.
he is - and this holds true whether the knowledge meant is
Human freedom is not a fixed sum but a relative potential objective (Worldly) or Ladduni, coming from God alone.
which is capable 'of increase. Man can enhance his freedom
with knowledge. By inventing tools, instruments, and means ***
of transportation, he has managed to traverse our planet, to Materialistic thinkers commit a grievous error when they
defeat distance, and to overcome the limitations of time and conceive man as prisoner to historical and class determinism
space. Through study of the laws of environment, he could thus turning him into a link in a chain of economic and social
control and exploit it for his benefit; he knew how to resist laws and movements from which he cannot escape or
heat, cold, and darkness thus compounding his freedom in the extricate himself. Man becomes, in their view, a straw blown
sphere of action.
about helplessly in a violent air-current with no aid to steer
Knowledge, thus, has been one means. of breaking bounds himself with.
and restraints and of unshackling freedom. Another means to The phrase they tirelessly invoke as if it were a natural law
those ends has been religion: invoking God's aid by taking is "the inevitability of class conflict." According to scientific
the path leading to Him and receiving Revelation, support, analysis, this is a fallacy since there are no inevitabilities in the
and guidance from Him. This was the way oft he prophets and human sphere but, at best, there are only probabilities and
their followers. Solomon utilized the .iinn, mastered the expectations. Indeed, the distinction between man and
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physical objects, machines, or cogs resides in this fact. There are, still, the materialists' arguments about the
Whereas solar eclipses can be accurately predicted to the mnditioning of man by the environment, society, and
minute and second and the sun's future movements known for circumstances. Man, it is claimed, does not live alone and his
days and years, no one can know what is hidden in a man's freedom is not practiced in a vacuum. In reply to these
intentions or what he will do the next day and the day after. ;u-guments we say that the influence of the environment,
Such human factors can only be known in the form of society, and circumstances as factors antagonistic to human
probabilities or likely causes of action provided, of course, freedom confirms the dialectic nature of that freedom and
that enough information is at hand to aid in shaping the 1 loes not negate it. The freedom of the individual can only

relevant judgments. assert its existence in the face of an opposing force seeking to
displace it. If man moves in a vacuum where no resistance of
All the prophecies of Karl Marx, for instance, have proven any kind exists, he will not be free in the logical meaning of
wrong: communism did not arise in an advanced country, as 1he word since there will be no obstacles for him to overcome

he predicted, but in a backward one. The conflict between and thereby manifest and emphasize his freedom.
capitalism and communism did not intensify but both camps
were led by rapprochement to a state of "peaceful
co-existence". Communist countries have even gone so far as
to open their doors before American capital. The sharpening
of contradictions that Marx expected to occur in the capitalist
society leading to its bankruptcy did not materialize; on the
contrary, the capitalist economy flourished while discord and
dissention spread among the members of the socialist camp.

Marx's calculations were mistaken in their entirety proving

the error of his deterministic system. The 'history-moving'
conflict of our age is that non-class confrontation between the
Soviet Union and China and not the class struggle proclaimed
by Marx as the leitmotiv of his system. All this indicates the
failure of materialistic thinking to understand man and history
and the error of its predictions about the future. The failure
resulted from a basic fallacy; namely, the materialistic
conception of man as a fly caught in a net of inevitabilities and
the total disregard of the reality of man's freedom.
20 21
 III
Why Did God Create Evil?

My friend resumed his arguing in a derisive note of voice.

- How dare you speak of your God as the Perfect, the
<>mnipotent, the Merciful, the Bounteous, and the Ruthful
while He is the creator of all evils in the world: disease, old
age, death, earthquakes, volcanoes, microbes, poison,
scorching heat, freezing cold, and the torments of cancer that
spare neither new-born babe nor decrepit senile. If God is
truly Love, Beauty, and Goodness, how then did it come that
lie created hatred, ugliness, and evil?
- This problem, raised by my friend, is among the basic
questions of philosophy; opinions differed and schools of
thought split over it. We say that God is all mercy and
goodness. He did not enjoin evil but suffered its existence for
a WISe end:
"God does not enJOin what is
indecent. Do you tell of God that you
do not know? Say: My Lord ordered
you to act in justice. Turn to Him
wherever you kneel in prayer and call
on Him with true devotion".
The Heights, 28
God only enjoins justice, amity, charity, forbearance, and
benevolence. He only accepts what is good. Why, then, does
23
He suffer the unjust, the murderous, and the thieving to with rich soil; wars unify and amalgamate nations leading to
perpetrate their deeds? The answer is that He wanted us to be their gathering in blocks and alliances and then in a League of
free; freedom necessitates error; it would be meaningless if it Nations and, finally, in a Security Council which is like a
did not allow us the right to trial, error, and right judgment universal tribunal where complaints are aired and settled. The
and the unrestricted choice between sin and obedience. ,,reatest inventions were made during wars; peniciline, atomic
power, rockets, jet planes and many others came out of the
God was quite capable of making us all benevolent by crucible of war. The ancient wisdom still holds true: "Out of
compelling us to obey him. This, however, would have the snake's poison comes the antidote." Even now we
entailed that He deprive us of the freedom to choose. But in manufacture the serum from the microbe. If our forefathers
His Plan and Law, freedom with suffering is more honourable have not met their death we would not have attained the
to man than slavery with happiness. That is why He let us sin, positions we now hold. Evil in the universe is like the shaded
suffer, and learn; this is the wisdom in His sufferance of evil spaces in a painting; if you come very near to the painting,
to exist. you will see these parts as defects and faults in it; but if you
~lraw back to a distance and take a general view of the
Nevertheless, a just and objective consideration of the
painting as a whole, you will discover that the shades are
matter would reveal to us that benevolence is the rule in the
necessary and indispensable fulfilling an aesthetic function
universe while evil is the exception. Health is the rule, disease
within the structure of that artwork.
the exception; we spend most of our life enjoying health and
are visited by sickness only for a few days in comparison.
Could it be possible for us to know health if disease did not
Similarly, a total of the times during which earthquakes have
occur? Health glitters as a crown on our heads that is only
struck would amount to only a handful of minutes in relation
known when we are ill. Likewise, it is impossible to know
to the age of our planet which is measured in many millions of
beauty but for ugliness or to know that which is normal
years. In the same reckoning, volcano eruptions or wars are
without getting acquainted with the abnormal. This is why the
but short-lived convulsions in the life of nations interrupting
philosopher Abu Hamed El-Ghazali said that the universe's
long periods of quiet and peace.
imperfections are the essence of its perfection just as t~e
curving shape of the bow is the essential feature ~f Its
Moreover, we can discern a benevolent aspect in almost
usefulness since 'a straight-shaped bow' would be unfit for
everything. Sickness bequeathes immunity; suffering
engenders hardiness, fortitude, and endurance; earthquakes shooting arrows.
relieve the pent-up pressures inside the earth preventing its
crust from blowing-up and restoring mountains to their places Another use of hardships and sufferings is that they sort out
as 'belts' and 'weights' that stabilize the crust; volcanoes spew men and reveal their true nature. As an Arabic verse
up minerals and other hidden resources thus covering the land eloquently put it:
25
24
 II
I,

matter is contained here in a nutshell! God sends the winds

"But for hardships all men would rule supreme.
;utd makes the river flow but a greedy captain may overload
Bounty -beggars and boldness kills."
his ship with people and goods and when it sinks, he curses
These tribulations are trials by which we know ourselves; they late and destiny. What is God's fault here? He sent a
are tests which determine our degrees in the sight of God. benevolent wind and caused the river to flow smoothly but
This world is but one act of a play that has many; death is ~.reed and. avarice turned this good into evil.
not the end of the story but its beginning. It is inadmissible to Indeed, what beautiful and fine words: 'Good comes from
_judge a play on the testimony of just one act or to reject a <lod, evil from ourselves'.
book because its first page did not appeal to us. The judgment
in both cases is incomplete. The entire significance of any
such work can only be known at its end.

One wonders at the alternative that our scoffing friend has

in mind. Does he, for instance, envisage for us a life without
death, sickness, senility, defeciencies, disability, grief, or
suffering? Is he seeking absolute perfection? But that latter is
for God alone. The really perfect being is one and cannot be
many. Indeed, why should he multiply? What can he possibly
lack in himself to seek for it in others? The upshot is that my
friend will not be satisfied except by becoming God which is
presumption par excellence.
Let us, in our turn, mock him and those, like him, who
scoff at everything. We ask those who dream of our life
becoming a flawless paradise, 'What have you done to
deserve a paradise on earth?' Indeed, what services did our
friend render to humanity so as to set himself up as God, the
One and the Vanquisher Who orders everything to be and
creates all by His fiat?
My grandmother had more sense than our
French-educated, 'learned' friend. She used to say in all
simplicity: 'Good. comes from God, evil from ourselves.' A
terse remark, indeed, but what a true view of the entire
26
 IV
What About Those Unreached By The Quran?

My learned friend started to scratch the top of his head. He

was, evidently, thinking hard to find a pitfall that would finish
me off this time. He began to speak slowly and deliberately:
Very well, what can you tell me about the fate of a person
whom the Quran or, for that matter, any other revelation or
prophet did not reach? What fault can you lay at him? What,
111 your creed, will be his fate on the Day of Judgment? I have

in mind, for example, an Eskimo in far away polar regions or

a negro deep in the jungle. What will befall such a person at
I he hands of your God on Doomsday?

-I began my answer to him at once:

Let me, first of all, correct your view of the issue involved
here. You have based your questions on a false premise. God
informed us in the Quran that He deprived no one of His
Mercy, Revelation, Words, or Signs:
"For there is no nation that has not
been warned by a messenger."
Fater, 24
"We raised a messenger in every
nation."
The Bee, 36
The prophets mentioned in the Quran are not all whom
29
 God sent. There are thousands of others about whom we I'Y that primitive negro may be more redeeming with God and
know nothing. Concerning those messengers, God says to his acceptable to Him than our prayers. Nevertheless, a closer
prophet Muhammad:
1 1msideration of the creeds of such primitive negroes reveals

"Of some you have already heard, of lhat they had messengers and revelations like our own. We
others we have told you nothing." know, for instance, that the Mau Mau tribe believes in a God
The Forgiver, 78 1t calls 'Mogabe' and describes him as a single being that was
neither begotten nor begets and that has no equal or like. Thi~
God, in fact, sends intimations to everything; to bees, for divinity is invisible and only known by his deeds and effects.
instance: lie is a creator, a donor of livelihood, a bestower, and a

"Your God inspired the bees, saying: compassionate being who heals the sick, relieves the
listressed, sends the rain down, and hears prayers. According
'Build your homes in the mountains,
to tribal lore, lightning is that deity's dagger and thunder the
in the trees, and in the thatchings men
make." sound of his footfall.
The Bee, 68
Isn't this 'Mogabe' almost the same as our own God? From
what quarter did those tribesmen receive such conception
This inspiration may be a Revelation, a BooK: delivered by
unless a messenger and a revelation came to them at some
Gabriel, or an illumination caused by God in a person's heart.
period of their history? As usual, this message must, with the
It can be a state of 'relief' in mental disposition, an insight
passage of time, have fallen victim to superstitions that
into truth, or an understanding of things. Again, it can take
corrupted its original purity.
the shape of reverence towards and fear of God as well as an
attitude of piety. Indeed, no one that ever 'tunes up' his heart We similarly know that the Niam Niam people believe in a
and sense will be deprived from receiving a favour from God. single divinity they call 'Mbole' who, according to their
Those, however, who block their ears and hearts will not sayings, moves everything in the jungle, visits the evildoers
benefit from any number of books, messengers, or miracles. with thunderbolts, and rewards the virtuous with livelihood,
God says that he blesses whomever He wills of his creatures blessing, and security. The Shilock tribe, we also know,
with His mercy and that He is accountable before none for believes in Jok, a single deity whom they describe as both
His deeds. For a wisdom known only to Him, He may send invisible and manifest. He abides in the sky and everywhere
warnings to some but not to others so that these latter may be and he is the creator of everything. The Denkas believe in a
excused in His sight and the slightest indication of faith single God, Nialok, whose name literally means 'he who is in
accepted from them. the sky' or the sublime. By what name other than Islam can
we call such creeds? What else can they be but messages
We can really never know. A mere fearful glance at the sky delivered by prophets who came to those peoples?
30
31
 "Believers, Jews, Christians, and "Why does God's mercy vary? Why should God reveal his
Sabaeans - whoever believes in God '"l'.ns to some while others know of them only through
and the Last Day and does what is 1c ports ? "
right - shall be rewarded by their
Lord; they have nothing to fear or to We reply to him by observing that revealing miracles to
regret." .,, 11ne may not be a blessing but a temptation. For didn't God
The Cow, 62 warn the companions of Christ who asked for a table to
, ll'scend among them from heaven?
Even the Sabaeans (or those among them who worshipped "God said: 'I am sending one to you.
the sun as one of God's signs and believed in the Oneness of But whoever of you disbelieves
God, in resurrection, in Judgment, and performing good hereafter shall be punished as no man
deeds) will have their wages from God. has ever been punished."
It is well-known that God's mercy varies in how it is The Table, 115
bestowed. There are those born blind and others who enjoy I 'he reason for this warning is that the coming of miracles is
sight. Some have lived in the age of Moses and saw him with always accompanied by an increase in the severity of
their own eyes parting the sea with his staff; others have lived JHII1ishment for those who disbelieve after seeing them.
in the time of Jesus and witnessed
r
how he raised the dead. As Jlappy indeed are those who believe from hearing of
for us, we only know of these miracles by hearing about them. 1cvclation without witnessing any miracles. And woe to those
Receiving a report of something is surely not equal to seeing it who see them but persist in disbelieving.
with the eye; for to see is other than to hear of a certain event.
rhe Quran you have with you is a witness against you and a
Nevertheless, belief and disbelief do not hinge upon miracles.
warning for you. On the Day of Reckoning it will not be a
Obdurate non-believers witness wonders from the prophets
mercy but the contrary. Sparing the Eskimo of the polar
sent to guide them but have no more to say of these miracles
1egions such an irrefutable witness may be a sign of mercy,
than describing them as 'fabricated sorcery'.
pardon, and alleviation on the Day of Judgment. A look at
1he sky from this ignorant Eskimo even once in his life may be
It is certain that our learned friend, who has just returned
sufficient for God to accept him as a sincere believer.
from France, has known three Books- the Torah, the Bible,
and the Quran- in his own language. These Revelations, it As for the reason why God shows more mercy to some than
seems, only exacerbated his indulgence in disputation. To to others, it is a dispensation he bases upon his knowledge of
evade the entire subject he shifted the discussion to a hearts:
hypothetical primitive in the jungle unreached by any "He knew what was in their hearts.
revelation and went on to ask us the following question: Therefore He sent down peace upon
32
33
 them and rewarded them with a have sent forth a messenger to warn
speedy victory." them."
Victory, 18 The Night Journey, 15
I lave I thus quietened your fears? Allow me further to add
God's knowledge of us and of our hearts precedes our
lltat the most peculiar aspect of your questions in this
creation in the wombs; it goes back to when we were spirits
, 1 >nnection is their deceptive pretense of belief and pity for
around His ~Throne. Some of us were attracted to His Light
I he poor negro deprived of the light, mercy, and guidance of
and were completely absorbed in it, while others directed
1he Quran. In truth, they indicate your disbelief in the Quran
their attention away from Him to enjoy the spectacle of the
1 ,.. its light and guidance. They are designed more for
universe (malakoot) shunning the splendour of their Creator.
mveiglement and subterfuge. They run contrary to your own
Ever since that time immemorial the latter have deserved the
nner conviction and I can only decribe this attitude as
lower degree and were predestined to perdition. Thus said
perversity in its quintessence. You are endeavouring to
those who 'see' (Ahl ei-Moshahada).
persuade us of an argument of which you personally do not
What we experience in our short life on earth is not have any proof. Don't you agree with me that your reasoning
everything that there is. Knowing the wisdom behind every 1s in need of mending?
suffering and privation is something that belongs only to the
Omniscient. If I were asked why God created the pig in that
shape we know, I can only reply that God chose for it a
'piggish' form becuse its nature or 'self' is swinish. It was right
and just that this animal be created in that shape we are
familiar with.
All the dispensations we see around us are just but realizing
the all-encompassing wisdom and discovering that hidden
justice is a task that is not within our ken. It is for this that the
Last Day was decreed; when the "scales" will be set up and
the Omniscient tell us of everything we disputed about.
And now, my friend, I shall set your heart to rest with the
decisive argument in this question. God said in His Book that
He will punish only those whom He warned beforehand
through His messengers:
"Nor do We punish a nation until We
34 35

------~----
 v
Paradise and Hell

My learned friend was perfectly sure of himself as he

delivered his bombshell in slowly-pronounced but
strongly-stressed words:
- How is it that God, the Compassionate and Merciful,
punishes us for a transgression committed in a moment of
finite time with eternal and infinite torment- 'In Hell they
dwell forever'? Who are we and what is our worth in
comparison to God's greatness to deserve such vengeance?
Man is only an atom or a speck of dust in the universe and
relative to God's Majesty he is infinitely more insignificant
1han that - he is, in fact, nothing in the full meaning of this
word.
- Our learned friend's conceptions are in obvious need of
correction.
We are not like atoms or specks of dust in the universe. Our
standing in the sight of God is not insignificant but
considerable. Didn't He breathe in us of His Spirit? Didn't
lie command the angels to bow for us? Didn't He promise us
the inheritance of the earth and the heavens? Didn't He say
of us:
"We have bestowed blessings on
Adam's Children and carried them
over land and sea. We have provided
37
 them with good things and exalted Their guilt, according to this verse, is not confined to one
them above many of Our creatures." moment of time. It is, in fact, a permanent feature of their
The Night Journey, 70 make up that repeats itself at any time. Indeed, if they were
returned to a new life they will commit the same
We have, then, something of God's Spirit in us. Nor are we transgressions all over again; therefore, they lie in their
atoms or specks of dust in relation to the universe. If we promise of improvement. Their sinning is an innate and
consider our bodies only we may well be like grains in the enduring attribute of their psyche and not a momentary slip in
wide, spacious world. But don't we contain this universe in the context of some exceptional life circumstance.
and comprehend it with our minds realizing its laws and
In another Quranic verse, God describes those inveterate
defining the orbits of its planets and stars? The astronauts
~;rrmers:
who landed on the moon ascertained that all our calculations
and designs have been true and accurate. Doesn't this "On the day when God restores them
indicate that in so far as our spirit is concerned we are larger all to life, they will swear to Him as
than the universe and that we 'contain' it? The Arab poet was they now swear to you, thinking that
right when he spoke of man in the well-known verse: they have some standing. Surely they
are liars all."
You deem yourself a tiny body She That Disputeth, 18.
While the great world is within you contained.
Man, as the sufis say, is the comprehensive book while the 1'his is a flagrant form of perversity and impudence which
entire universe is but some of its pages. motivated them to lie even to God and to swear falsely before
I lim on that Day of the Great Stand when veils are lifted and
Man, then, is of great standing and importance. He comes
l ., 1vers are removed; indeed, this is most audacious and
from the Spirit of God. His deeds necessitate accountability.
As for the finite sin in time for which God visits us with infinte ''vcrbearing.
torment in eternity, this is simply another fallacy of my We are definitely not dealing with a transgression limited to
friend's- the self-confident Ph.D.! God speaks about those a point in time but one that continues through time and after
immortalized in Hell-fire who beg to be returned to earthly time itself has ended. We are really confronting a psyche that
life so as to change their deeds to the better: carries within itself its eternal evil. Hence, everlasting
torment is only equitable for such souls. The Quran candidly
"But if they were sent back, they puts it: 'but (they) shall never come out of Hell.' (The Cow,
would return to that which they have 167). Ibn 'Arabi says that mercy for those souls lies in their
been forbidden. They are liars all". habituation to Hell-fire which will become their appropriate
Cattle, 28 abode through infinite ions.

38
39
 There is undoubtedly an affinity of element between This fire, then, is something that belongs to the Unseen
certain transgressing souls and fire; some of these souls are in (Gaib); all references to it can be taken as symbolic. It must
reality blazes of envy, grudging, voluptuousness, jealousy, not however be understood that we deny physical torment
'
advocating, '
instead, a 'psychic' punishment. Physical torment
and bitterness; they are flames of wrath, resentment,
rebellion, and other animal passions that flare and rage as a 1s so clearly indicated that no one dare contest or doubt it. We
veritable fire. Such souls can never live at peace or endure n.':rtainly believe in its occurrence. What we suggest is only
just one hour without causing conflict and setting fire to that the nature and particulars of such torment as well as the
everything that surrounds them; for fire is their element and qualities and features of the Hell-fire mentioned belong to the
natural habitat. It is a just judgment that Hell be their final hidden Gaib or Unseen. As it seems from Quranic references,
abiding place. It will be like placing a thing in its rightful it is a fire unlike that we know in our world just as the bodies
element. If they were admitted to Paradise they would not be l'xposed to it will be different from the frail, clayey bodies we
able to enjoy it. Didn't they disdain peace while on earth? now have.
We ought to be broad-minded in our conception of either The same view can apply to Paradise. It is not a market
Hell or Paradise. Hell-fire in the other world is not a 'grill' display of vegetables, dates, pomegranates, and grapes.
and what goes on there is not burning in its earthly sense. God 1'hese Quranic descriptions of it are mere symbols,
says. that the damned in Hell-fire speak with and curse each approximations, or illustrations that bring its truth within the
other. Hell has in its midst a tree with 'fruit' : the Zaqoum conceptual compass of human minds :
Tree which grows from the bottom of Gehena. In Hell there is
"This is a similitude of Paradise which
also scorching water for the tormented to drink of. Such place
the righteous have been promised.
where a certain kind of tree and of water exist and where the
There shall flow in it rivers of
damned talk must be another sort of fire than the one we
unpolluted waters, and rivers of milk
know:
for ever fresh.''
"As it enters every nation will curse Muhammad, 15
the one that went before it, and when
all are gathered there, the last of them 1n my understanding of the first sentence of this verse God is
will say of the first: 'There, Lord, are only giving our minds an approximation of heaven; but the
the men who led us astray. Let their 1rue details of heavenly bliss remain in the Unseen:
punishment be doubled in Hell-fire".
"No mortal knows what bliss is in
The Heights, 37-8
store for them as a reward for their
The tormented talk while in Hell-fire; a fire 'whose fuel is labours."
men and stones' (The Cow, 24). The Prostration, 17
41
40
 nl Him; He only visits His torment on the obdurate
"A Paradise as vast as heaven and
tllsheliever with whom all means of guidance and acquainting
earth."
w1th the faith and all explanations of it have failed:
The Imrans, 133
"But We will inflict on them the
Paradise cannot be a mere garden. Its fruits are abundant
'unfo:bidde~, never-ending' (The Event, 32); they ar~ lighter punishment of this world
before the supreme punishment of the
certamly unhke our own earthly fruits which can be forbidden
world to come, so that they may return
and which cease from season to season. The wine of Paradise
'will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason' it is to the right path,"
undoubtedly, very much different from the wine known' to u~
The Prostration, 21
which leaves a hangover and unsettles the mind. The Quran It is God's law that these men should taste the minor
goes on to say that God 'shall take away all hatred' from the punishments of this world to be roused from their torpor and
souls of the blessed in Paradise (The Heights, 43). Here again l11ghtened out of their deafness and slumber 'so that they may
we confront an unknown means of purifying hearts.
1ct urn to the right path.'
Paradise, then, is just like Hell: a matter belonging to the If all such approaches fail, with the disbeliever persisting in
Uns~en. T~is view does not, neverthelees, imply any denial of
Ius attitude, there remains only one option open: to inflict the
phystc~l.bhss. ~e ~elieve that Paradise contains both physical
p10mised torments on him so that he may come to know the
and spmtual bbss JUSt as Hell is physical and spiritual torment truth. Acquaintance with the truth is the essence of mercy.
at one and the same time. What we would rather emphasize is Should God neglect those obstinate disbelievers in their
that the details and nature of such bliss or torment are hlmdness and ignorance, He would be unjust- far removed is
unknown to us, that Paradise is not just a fruit and vegetable lie from this. To be led to Hell-fire is a kind of Care for such
market nor is Hell an oven for baking meat. benighted souls. All God's actions are merciful. He shows the
Torments in the hereafter are not a form of tyranny God macy of correction and of enlightenment to the benighted in
exe.rcises over his creatures but a kind of purification, lieU; and He is merciful with his generosity and blessings to
enlightenment, correction, and mercy: the knowing in Paradise:
"And why should God punish you if "I will visit my scourge upon whom I
you render thanks to Him and truly please : yet my mercy encompasses all
believe in Him?" things".
Women, 147 The Heights, 156
<iod encompassed everything with his mercy even those
Men were not all predestined for torment when they were
created. God does not punish the believer who has knowledge under punishment.
43
42
 Let us, in our turn, ask our learned friend: Would God, in
your opinion, be more just if He treated 'both sinners and
sinned against, murderers and murdered in the same manner
throwing up a tea-party for all on the Last Day? Is justice, in
our friend's view, synonymous to equalling black with white?
To those that find it impossible for God to inflict punishment VI
we may say: Doesn't He actually inflict suffering on us in this Is Religion An Opium?
world? Aren't old age, sickness, cancer ... etc. basic forms of
torment? Who created t_he microbe? Aren't these all
My learned friend continued his argument with a significant
warnings that we are dealing with a God who can torment?
look in his eyes:

What do you say to counter those who describe religion

,,~.an opium which drugs the poor and oppressed and makes
1hem acquiesce in the injustice and destitution they suffer
11ndcr, leaving them to dream of Paradise and the Houris
while the rich hold tight to their wealth as a right incumbent
lr om God's creation of men in various 'degrees'?

What, further, can you say in reply to those who believe

I Ita t religion did not really descend from God but, rather,
,,,,ginated from the 'earth' springing from social causes and
conditions to be employed as a weapon by one class against
11110ther?

My friend was, of course, referring in his last sentence to

the materialists and their ideas. I pointed to him that nothing
ranbe more erroneous than describing religion as an opium.
In its essence, religion implies burdens, injunctions, and
responsibilities; it surely does not mean disencumberment or
disavowal of anything and is, thus, no shirking of
responsibility and no opium. Our religion stresses work and
not laziness:
"Say: 'Act' God will behold your
44 45
 works, and so will His Prophet and the rich, the money-hoarders, the exploiters, and the oppressors.
faithful;" It expressly enjoined that wealth should not be monopolized
Repentance, 105 and exchanged among the rich alone but it should be open for
all as a right:
We believe in true reliance upon God (Tawakkul) not in
helpless inaction (Tawakul). Reliance upon God necessitates "Proclaim a woeful punishment to
resolve, expenditure of every possible effort, exhaustion of those that hoard up gold and silver and
every energy and means, and, then, submission to God's will do not spend it in God's service."
and fate: 'When you are resolved, put your trust in God', Repentance, 340
(The Imrans, 159). Resolve comes first. The Prophet's advice 'Spending' starts with the compulsory Zakat (payable on
to the man who wanted to leave his she-camel untied relying various sorts of income and assets) of 21/2%. It can go up,
upon God's preserving of it was: "Tie it and rely on God"; voluntarily, to include all you have in your pocket or at hand
that is, he should do his best to secure the animal and then put leaving yourself only with your daily sustenance:
his trust in God.
"They ask you what they should give
Religion means watchfulness, attentiveness, alertness, in alms. Say:
self-questioning, and the heeding of conscience in every deed, 'What you can spare.'"
word, or prompting- this is not the way of opium-eaters. The The Cow, 219
true opium-eater is the materialist who rejects religion
because he wants to escape its consequences and That which can be spared is anything more than is required
responsibilities and who thinks that the moments he lives for sustenance and the satisfaction of needs.
belong to him so that he goes about doing as he likes believing In this way, Islam combined the compulsory, legal
that there is no watcher, questioner, or resurrection after injunction with an exhortation to conscience and free will.
death. How can a man like this compare with the true muslim This is more honourable for man than forceful confiscation
who considers himself responsible even for his 'seventh and expropriation. Islam gradated the ceiling for spending in
neighbour' and who blames himself if any individual in his charity up to ninety per cent of income but at the same time it
nation starves or if any animal is mistreated feeling that he has did not lay down any compulsion. Islam was not revealed to
not fulfilled a duty made incumbent on him by his religion. confirm injustice but to declare an unconditional revolt
It is also not true that our religion originated from 'the soil', against all the unjust. It came as a sword waging war on
from social conditions and causes, to be employed as a tyrants and dictators.
weapon in the hand of one class against another and to The materialists, however, quote verses from the Quran
perpetuate the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the poor. such as the following to charge that religion is reactionary and
Quite the opposite is true. Islam came as a revolt against the class-oriented :
46 47
 Iii
I'

"To some of you God has given more

varieties as well as such Egyptian types with local names like
than to others."
'Gizeh 7', 'Sclarides', or 'Fully Good Fair'. We know several
The Bee, 71 varieties of Egyptian dates - the yellow Samani, the red
"We have exalted some in rank above :/,agloul, and the Hayyani- and of grapes such as the Banati,
others." 1he Fayyoumi, and the Smyrna. In animals and men, the
Ornament, 32 ranks, degrees, or variations are found in a far greater
measure.
In reply to such charge we can say that these verses apply to
modern London, Paris, Berlin, or Moscow just as much as Differentiation, in fact, is the law of existence as a whole.
they apply to Cairo, Damascus, or Jeddah. If we survey the The wisdom behind it is quite clear. If all men were born with
stree.ts of Mos~ow, for example, we shall find some people the same bodies, features, and qualities there would have
walkmg. on their feet, some riding bicycles, some driving a been no need for them to be created in the first place. It
Moskovitch, and yet others being driven in a luxurious Zim would have been sufficient for just one 'prototype-man' to be
car. What else can this be but an expression of variance in created in lieu of the rest. This would have naturally been
livelihood itself, in ranks, and in economic levels? generalized to every order of existence leading to the
impoverishment and bankruptcy of creation. The wealth and
The existence of differences between people is an axiomatic
fertility of nature show only in the variety of its yields and
fact. Communism has not been able to level such differences.
fruits and in the differences among its products.
Even extremist advocates of materialism and anarchy did not
call for equality. Equality as such is impossible; for how can Nevertheless, religion did not stand passively in the face of
'.11

we make two originally unequal people the same? From the such variance between rich and poor. It instructed that this 1
I
I
'
moment of birth, men are unequal in intelligence, strength, condition be rectified and described it as a temptation and
beauty, or talents. They are born in ranks or degrees in more trial: "We test you by means of one another. Will you not ~~
I

wa~s than ~ne. The utmost that economic philosophies have have patience?" (The Criterion, 20). We, as men, shall ,,
I

aspired to IS to achieve equality in opportunities and not discover how the powerful, for instance, uses his strength:
~quality ~f men, to secure for everyone the same opportunity will he help the weak or employ it to strike, murder, and
m educatiOn~ heal~h-care, and a minimum standard of living- tyrannize? We shall see how the richman manages his wealth :
the same thmgs, m fact, that religion calls for. To abolish will he dominate and squander or sympathize and be
de~rees and differences would not only be injustice in charitable? We shall also find out how the destitute behaves
qumtessence but a contradiction to nature as well. The in his poverty: will he envy and grudge, steal and embezzle or
natural order as a whole is based on variance, differentiation, will he work and toil at his best possible capacities to raise his
and variety in everything: in the fruits of the earth in standard of living in a manner that is lawful and just?
animals, and in men. In cotton we find short and long sta;led
Religion commanded justice, the redress of wrongs, and
48
49
equality of opportunities. It raised the torments of the lwen attained by any political doctrine old or new. In I~lam,
hereafter as a threat saying that there will be more . d. .d 1 has an absolute value whereas his value m all
I I JC 1ll IVl Ua .
widely-spaced ranks or degrees in the next world to redress other political philosophies is relative .. Un~er Isla~tc
what has not been rectified in this :
'" iunctions he is secure in his home, in hts p~tva~e affatrs.
"See how we have exalted some above (,I here shall be no spying and back-biting')' and m hts wealt~,l

others. Yet this life to come has lllcome, possessions, and freedom. Everything has a place m
greater degrees and is more exalted." I he Quran: the exchange of greetings, making room for those

The Night Journey, 21 :,;lling in a gathering, and the utterance of kind words.

To those who accuse Islam of political reaction we reply ,l'he Quran forbade oppression, tyranny' and the monopoly
that it brought with it the most progressive principles of rule.
(~r power by any one individual. God told the Prophet, perfect
Respect for the individual has reached its summit in Islam
which not only preceded but excelled the Human Rights aud competent as he was, 'You are not a compeller over
Declaration in this regard. An individual, in the consideration them.' (Qaf, 45). God also said to His Prophet:
of Islam, is equal to humanity in its entirety:
"Therefore give warning. Your duty is
"Whoever killed a human being,
only to remind them. you are not
except as a punishment for murder or
other wicked crimes, should be looked their ward."
upon as though he had k~lled all The Overwhelming, 21
mankind; and whoever saved a human
life should be regarded as though he
had saved all mankind." "The believers are a band of
The Table, 32 brothers.''
The Chambers, 10
All material achievements and reforms or the construction
p of rulers and the
of dams and factories cannot balance the murder of just one 1'he Quran also forb ade the Worshl
individual at the hand of the ruler in the process of carrying deification of the great:
out these reforms; it would be as if the ruler, in committing
"None of us shall set up mortals as
this crime, has killed all humanity.
gods besides Him,"
Such is a zenith in the respect for individuals which has not The Imrans, 64

50 51
 II
"Your Lord has enjoined you to
worship none but Him , "It was He who created you from a
' single soul."
The Night Journey, 23
The Heights, 189
~od prohibited demagoguery' the flattery of the mob and the
nff-raff, and compliance with the misleading . . Islam is, in a scientific sense, a dialectical synthesis of the
maJonty: materialistic bent of Judaism and the spirituality of
"Most men do not know (that God has < 'hristianity; it combines that strict, dry justice which laid
power over all things)." 1 It lWn the taking of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

with the amiability and excessive toleration which preach the

Joseph, 21
turning of the left cheek. The Quran came as a golden mean
"But most of them are senseless between the Torah, which has been corrupted to become a
men." purely materialistic book with no mention of the Judgment
The Spider, 63 I >ay, and the Bible, which inclined to total asceticism. The
<)uran lays down the law of mercy which incorporates both
"Most men do not believe (in the Day
fUstice and love. It allows the legitimacy of self-defense but
of Doom),"
prefers pardon, forbearance, and forgiveness:
The Forgiver, 59
"And whoso is patient and forgives -
"They (the greater part of mankind) that, verily, is of the steadfast heart of
follow nothing but idle fancies and things."
they do but utter falsehood " Counsel, 43
'
Cattle, 116 Whereas capitalism gave the individual free rein in the pursuit
of profit to the extent of exploiting others and while
"They are like the cattle - nay, they
communism completely crushed any freedom in that sphere,
are farther astray."
Islam offered the golden mean :
The Criterion, 44
"Unto men a share of that which they
Go~ simil~rly enjoined against racialism and discrimination have earned, and unto women a share
on Its basts :
of that which they have earned."
"The noblest of you in God's sight is Women, 32
he who fears Him most" The individual is free to acquire gains but he cannot keep
them all to himself; he has a right only to a share of them. The
The Chambers, 13
52 poor have a share in such gains which is to be taken in the
53
 I this approach we find another fact of the Quran's idea of
form of the compulsory Zakat portion of 21/z% or in voluntary n ht"ch antedated all other doctrines of progress. We
charitable spending of up to ninety per cent of income. This 1nogress w . . d d
.- those alleging that rehgton means ngt tty an
share is not given by way of alms or, indeed, charity but it .111swer creed of
,c~ rification by pointing out that Islam was ~ever a . .
represents God's right in the gains. It was through such fine
I - t "t always called for and champiOned thmkmg,
balance that Islam preserved both the individual's freedom 1h.tt sor , 1 C d f r
tontemplation, development, and c~a~ge.. ~nst er' o
and the right of the poor.
. .
t x.unp
le , such verses in their clear mdtcattOns .
The Quran perfectly hits the mark when it records God's "Say: 'Travel in the land and see how
call to the nation (Ummah) of Islam: 'We have made you a He originated creation,"
middle nation;' (The Cow, 143). Islam has chosen the just The Spider, 20
mean with regard to everything. It is not a mathematically
"Let man consider from what he is
determined mean but rather a dialectical or synthetic
created. He is created from a gushing
structure which incorporates thesis and antithesis - the right
fluid that issued from between the
and the left - transcending and adding to them. It cannot,
loins and the ribs."
therefore, be claimed that there is either a rightist or a leftist The Morning Star, 7
tendency in Islam; there is only the Sirat (Path) of the
moderate mean which we call 'the Straight Path'. Any "Will they not reflect on the camels
inclination either to the right or to the left of this path is a and how they were created; and
deviation from Islam. heaven and how it was raised on high;
the mountains and how they were set
The Quran did not tie us down to a definite political up, the earth and how it was levelled
programme or a detailed system of government for God
flat."
knew, in his Prescience, that circumstances change The Overwhelming, 17-19
necessitating Ijtihad or inventive intellectual effort to
formulate different programmes for different ages. In this All these are unambiguous commands for investigating the
way, the muslim would be free to effect an exchange with the . of man the animals, the mountains, the strata of the
creat ton ' b. S h
branches of knowledge available at every age without being earth's crust, and space with its stars and o~ tts. uc
confined to a set and unchanging programme. That is why the investigations, in fact, encompass all the matenal we now
Quran found it sufficient to proclaim the above-mentioned group under disciplines such as geo~ogy, astronomy,
general political recommendations as the essentials of ideal anatomy' physiology, biology' and embnology.
government. It did not shackle us with a dogmatic theory and then in the Quran clear injunctions to travel
this is, in fact, one of the aspects of its miraculous nature and We h ave, ' d . 1 s and
through earth gathering evidence, de ucmg aw ,
not a defect or shortcoming.
55
54
understanding how its creation was begun. This is what is n~tdiators or warders between Him and the believers. When
called today the science of evolution. hlam actually ruled it was a factor of progress as we indicated
.tnd as history testifies belying such shallow allegations.
There is no taboo against error. Islam rewards any one who
expends an intellectual effort and errs; it doubles that reward t Jnequivocal Quranic verses incite to knowledge and enjoin
to him who hits on the truth. ' lis acquisition; they do not set up any opposition between
There is no foundation to the charge that belief in religion 1d igion and science:
is the cause of our backwardness while atheism is the secret "Say: 'Lord increase my knowledge."
behind the progress of the west. What is true is that we lagged Taha, 114
behind when we turned our backs to the teachings of our
"Are those who know equal with
religion. When the muslims did adhere to the injunctions of
those who know not?"
their creed there was real progress, a nation that extended The Troops,
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf, and scholars like
Ibn Sina in medicine, Ibn Rushd in philosophy, Ibn "God bears witness that there is no
el-Haytham in mathematics, Ibn el-Nafis in anatomy, and god but Him, and so do the angels an\1
Gaber Ibn Hayyan in chemistry. the men of learning."
The Imrans, 18
Nations at that time received knowledge from us.
In the last verse God even couples the men of learning with
European dictionaries still keep the Arabic names of many
the angels relating both to the honour of His name and His act
stars and constellations. The French word for the distilling
of witnessing.
device, imbique, and the verb for that process, imbiquer, still
retain their. Arabic original: Ambeeq. rhe very first word revealed of the Quran was "Read"; the
knowledgeable are promised the highest ranks :
The west did not advance by atheism but through science.
The roots of the entire mistaken notion go back to the clerical "God will raise to high ranks those
tyranny of the Middle Ages, to the Inquisition's restrictions that have faith and knowledge among
against science and scientists exemplified by Galilee's you."
imprisoment and Giordano Bruno's burning at the stake. She That Disputeth, 11

When the Church ruled supreme and was diverted by the The word 'knowledge' and its various derivatives recur in the
Popes from its noble mission, it became a force for Quran about eight hundred and fifty times. How can anyone,
backwardness. Superficial critics imagined that such a in the light of the previous remarks, speak about a
situation applies to Islam as well. This is a mistake; Islam does contradiction between religion and science or about
not institute any clergy or papacy. God did not set up any restrictions imposed by the former on the latter?
57
56
 "Fight for the sake of God those that
Studying religion and deepening its understanding is a
fight against you,"
desirable attitude. The entire history of Islam is nothing but The Cow, 190
continuous movements of revival and development. The
Quran is certainly innocent of imposing any rigidity on men. "God loves those who fight in His
Everything in our religion accepts development except, of cause in ranks as if they were a solid
course, the essence of its creed and the core of its Shari'a structure.''
(Law). God is one and He will not 'develop' to become two or The Ranks, 4
three; His status is absolute. Similarly, evil will remain evil :\ 1 1he very centre of our religion we encounter values such ~s
I,
while good remains so. Murder will never become a virtue nor .. wrificing the self, wealth, and sons in the struggle.f~r Go.d s
will theft change into a blessing or lying metamorphose into , , se. Steadfastness in fighting and the express mJunction
111
an ornament for the good. Apart from these elements, r.ainst turning tail are Islamic values; and so are. endurance,
religion is open before thinking, intellectual assays, additions, , , 11 1stant readiness, and the defeating of despair
and development.
I low can a religion with such high regard for flexibility,
Islam, in its quintessence, is rationalistic. It accepts 1
;d ionalismthe scientific approach, and positive and
dialogue and argument and encourages the use of mind and 1 cvolution;ry attitudes be libelled by charges of rigidity and

reasoning. In more places than one we find the Quran asking petrification except from the tongues of such men as my
rhetorically: 'Don't they reason?', 'Don't they understand?'. dear' learned friend who, although just back from France
The believers are described as the 'people of reason' and the with his doctor's degree, is ignorant of the rudimentaries of
Quran tells us : his own religion and has not even read one letterr of its Book:
the Holy Quran?
"The meanest beasts in God's sight
are those that are deaf, dumb, and
devoid of sense."
The Spoils, 22
"Have they never journeyed in the
land? Have they no hearts to reason
with, or ears to hear with?"
The Pilgrimage, 46
Respect for the mind is the heart and essence of religion,
positive attitudes its core, and revolution its spirit. Islam has
never been a negative creed of submission :
59
58
 VII
Islam and Women

My learned friend began the discussion by asking me:

- Don't you agree with me that Islam's attitude towards
w< Hnen is reactionary?

He, then, took to counting the proofs of his charge:

Polygamy, seclusion at home, the veil, man's monopoly of the
ight to divorce, man's right to beat and desert his wife's bed,
1he issue of intercourse with the slave-girls 'you may own',
man's famous 'authority' (Kowama) over his wife, and,
finally, the favouring of males with a double share compared
lo that of females when inheritances are distributed.

Trying to recollect myself after this outburst by my friend, I

began to address him:
- The charges this time are many needing lengthy replies.
Let us, however, begin at the beginning - before Islam. I
think you know perfectly well that Islam was revealed in the
mid~t of a Jahili (barbaric and heathen) environment which
condemned new-born girls to be buried alive while allowing
men to marry up to twenty women and to force their
slave-girls to prostitution and keep the 'proceeds' to
themselves. Islam's licence for men to marry up to four wives
was, in effect, a kind of restriction not of abandon. Its
teachings saved women from death, servitude, humiliation,
and the stigma of shame.
61
 Are European women in a happier lot now amid the than one whose women are devoted mothers and housewives
prevailing sexual 'permissiveness' and the extra-marital and where the children are brought up under their mothers'
relations that plague most marriages? Weuldn't it be more attention and in well-cared for families? The answer is quite
honourable for a woman to become a second wife to a person
obvious.
she loves and enjoy all the rights and respect of matrimony
rather than to be a secret mistress stealing pleasure behind Islam, however, is quite aware and tolerant of the reasons
closed doors? that oblige women to go out of their homes and seek work.
There were women jurisprudents and poetesses throughout
In Islam, however, polygamy is only a license almost
the periods of Islamic history. Women went out to war and
impossible to be utilized because it is conditional upon a
for study. The injunction to stay at home was addressed t~ the
proviso very difficult to fulfill :
Prophet's wives, as we said, in the sense that they were higher
"But if you fear that you cannot examples. There are several and separate levels for ~he id~al,
maintain equality among them (the the possible, and the actual. The Prophets Wives
wives) marry only one."
accompanied him in his battles, this entails that going forth to
Women, 3
aid the husband in an honourable struggle is a blameless
"Try as you may, you cannot treat all
affair.
your wives impartially."
As for the veil (Hijab), it is in women's favour. Islam
Women, 129
permitted them to reveal their faces and hands (up to th.e
God, thus, makes it clear that even the most scrupulous will wrists) and enjoined the covering of all other part~ of their
not be able to treat his wives equally. The only men who can bodies. It is well known that what is forbidden IS always
fulfill this proviso, those who are really super-conscientious, desired and that concealment of alluring features enhances
are the prophets, the 'men of God', and those who follow their attractiveness. On account of total nudity among
their path. primitive tribes, the sexual passion of the males lap.ses in~o
As for the charge of seclusion, it concerns the Prophet's abeyance with the lack of curiosity. A man in such tnbe.s Will
wives who, as the supreme ideals, were enjoined by God to only have intercourse with his wife once a month and If she
'stay in your homes' (The Clans, 33). This is an indication that becomes pregnant, he does not come near her for two years.
the ideal position for woman is to be a mother and a
housewife completely devoted to her home and children. We When naked 'flesh' abounds on beaches in summer and is
can imagine the state of a nation whose women are in the available for oggling eyes, the bare body loses its lure,
streets and offices while the children are sent to orphanages novelty and charm becoming an ordinary spectacle that
and nurseries. Would such a nation be in a better condition ' . . . d bt dl a woman's interest
arouses no cunosity. It IS un ou e Y m
63
62
to be more desired or else she would turn into a common tlo 111 ineering, controlling, subjecting, tyrannizing over, and
' 11icting harm on others. The only way to deal with such a
unexciting sight. 111
1vpc is to disarm her and render her weapon of he~emony

Man's right to divorce is countered on the other side by a useless. That weapon is her femininity and by desertmg her
similar right for the woman. She can sue for divorce and get it twd she is disarmed. As for the first abnormal type, the
if she advances sufficient justifications. A woman can lay w Hnan who finds pleasure only in being beaten and
down a condition in the marriage contract reserving to her the -.ubjected, beating will be the best cure for her.
right of divorce without a court case; in this way she would 1t is from such analysis that we can grasp the implications of
have the same right to divorce as that of the man. 1he Quranic verse :
"As for those from whom you fear
Islam gives certain rights to the muslim wife that wives in
Europe, for example, have not attained. She receives a Mahr disobedience, admonish them and
send them to beds apart and beat them.
(obligatory marriage endowment) whereas in Europe she
Then if they obey you, take no further
pays a dowry. She has the right to manage her possessions as
she pleases whereas European wives lose that right as soon as action against them."
Women, 34.
they marry with the husband becoming the guardian over
their property. 111 just a few words - the underlined -we find a miraculously
scientific summary of whole volumes containing psychology's
Beating and desertion of the marriage bed are forms of
treatment reserved only for the disobedient or rebellious studies of female rebelliousness and its treatment.
wife. A man is obliged to treat his 'normal' wife with all We turn next to what my friend called the issue of
kindness and love. As a matter of fact, those forms of "slavegirls you may own" which brings us to Islam's position
treatment reveal the Quran's amazing insight into the on slavery and the Orientalists' accusation that it encouraged
phenomenon of wife-disobedience or rebelliousness that form of injustice. The truth is that Islam never promoted
(Noshooz) and they also accord with the latest findings of slavery but was the only religion to call for its liquida_tion. If
modern psychology about the abnormal behaviour of women. we read the Bible and St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians we
We know that psychology divides abnormal behaviour into will find the following in the latter document:
two kinds. The first is that form of submissiveness "Slaves: obey your masters with such fear and
scientifically known as 'masochism' - the abnormal condition trembling in your heart as you have for God."
in which a woman finds pleasure in being beaten, tormented,
and subjugated. The other kind is the domineering behaviour The Bible did not enjoin liquidating slavery as a social system;
or 'sadism', to put it in psychological jargon. It is that the utmost it called for was to command love and humane
abnormal condition in which a woman derives pleasure from treatment between the slaves and their masters.
65
64
 In the Torah that is in our hands today a treatment even ,(an_ would be gradually emancipated by making the release
worse than that of slaves was envisaged for freemen. It : ,.. freeing. of a 'neck' (a slave) an expiation for a number of
commanded that if a town surrendered without a fight its 1ransgressions both great and slight. In this way, slavery was
people should be taken as captives and slaves. On the other planned to be liquidated in stages.
hand, the town which puts up resistance and then capitulates It is reasonable, however, to enquire about the sort of
is to receive a far more terrible chastisement. Its old men,
1reatment
meted by masters to their slave-girls before the
youths, women, and children will be massacred. l~nvisaged end of slavery is attained. This is the topic th~t so ii

)erplexed my friend. The answer is simple: Islam perm~tted

Slavery, then was an established practice before the
revelation of Islam. Preceding religions recommended the
!he master to live with any slave-girl as his wife. There ts no
doubt that living with the woman-slave as a wife was, at that
slave's loyalty to the master. The Quran came to be the first time, an honourable and not a degrading treatment.
heavenly revelation to speak about 'freeing necks' and about
Above all, Islam's attitude to the slave, making him or her
their emancipation.
a brother or sister in faith and not a mere down-trodden serf,
The Quran did not clearly and openly prohibit slavery; should not be forgotten :
neither did it command the dismissal of existing slaves. For a
"The believers are a band of
sudden dismissal by a Quranic injunction of what amounted
at that time to hundreds of thousands of slaves without giving brothers."
The Chambers, 10
them jobs or any form of social functions would have meant a
real social catastrophe. It would have created hundreds of "It was He who created you from a
thousands of beggars accosting people in the streets asking for single soul."
sustenance or being forced to resort to theft and prostitution The Heights, 189
for a living. This is, certainly, a fate worse than slavery.
"None of us shall set up mortals as
The Quranic solution for such dilemma was to stop the gods besides Him."
The Imrans, 64
taking of slaves and then to work to free the existing numbers.
The source of slavery at that time was the enslavement of Muhammad, peace be upon him, gave the exam~le w.hen he
prisoners of war. Hence, the Quran stipulated that captives adopted a slave, Zeid Ibn Haretha, emancipatmg htm and
be set free or ransomed and not to be taken in slavery: 'Then even marrying him to Zeinab Bent Gahsh, the free. woman
grant them freedom or take ransom from them', I
I
and descendant of a noble house. All this was destgned ~o
(Muhammad, 4). This means that a prisoner of war is either deal a blow at arrogance and bigotry and to set a precedent m
to be favoured with release for God's sake or ransomed.
I
the emancipation of slaves that can be followed by others.
As for the already existing slaves, they - in the Quranic I
I
The Prophet wanted to make it clear, in deed and example,
67
66
\

!
that his mission is to free the slaves. "Of your world women and perfume were made
dear to me; and my heart's content is in prayer."
We come, finally, to man's authority over woman. This is
fact of life whether in Islamic, Christian, or godless countrie:... 1 k mentioned women with fragrance, perfume, and prayers
In atheist Moscow, the rulers have been men from the days l which is a very high rank of cherishing indeed. The last thing
Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Bolganin to our own time. In he said in the last speech before his death was a famous
France, England (written, of course, before Mrs. Thatcher rL"commendation for the well-being of and respect for women.
became prime minister), or any place on earth you care to If God has elected woman for home and man for the street,
name it is men who govern, legislate, and invent. All prophets it is because He assigned to the latter the trust of building and
and philosophers have been men. Even music composers construction in the earth while He entrusted women with a far
have been mostly men although composition is an imaginative greater mission which is the bringing up of humanity itself. It
activity that does not require 'male muscles'. As the Egyptian is far more elevating to woman's status to be given such trust.
thinker El-'Akkad said sarcastically: 'Men have even excelled
Can it, then, be rightly alleged that Islam has wronged
in and then completely dominated such "feminine
specialities" as cooking, sewing, and dress-making'. women?

Islamic Shari'a has not contributed to the creation of such

phenomena as the above which exist in those parts of the
world where no Shari'a or Quran have sway. We are simply
dealing with facts: men have authority or transcendence over
women by virtue of their natural attributes, fitness, and the
controlling personality given to them by the Creator. If, here
and there, a woman minister, leader, or ruler appears, she is
the exception that confirms the rule and the way in which she
is much talked about proves the abnormality of the event.

Islam, in fact, did no more than recognize this human rule.

This explains why the Quran allotted man double the
woman's share in inheritance: because it is man who spends
on the family and who works to support it.
Islam's position on women is justice itself. The Prophet's
conduct with his wives was the epitome of love, kindness, and
tenderness. Wasn't he quoted as saying:
69
68
 VIII
The Spirit

My learned friend had the air of someone who knew that

he was posing a problem very difficult to discuss. He started
to question me:
- What evidence can you give to prove that man has a
spirit, that he will be resurrected after death, and that he is
not just that body that ends in eust? What does religion say,
for example, about spirit(,summoning in s~jances?
- After a few moments of thinking I began to take the
challenge:
Your question today is undouzteely very difficult.
Discussing the spirit is like wandering in a labyrinth; there
are very few facts known about this subject and yet the little
there is supports our own position not yours.
I fell silent for a minute of deep thinking and then resumed
my answer to him:
Please, follow my line of thinking. The first indication
which aids us in finding evidence for the existence of the
spirit is that man has a double nature.
Man has two natures. There is firstly an external,
apparent, visible nature which is his body. This has all the
attributes of matter. It can be weighed and measured; it
occupies a portion of space and time; it is continually
71
changing, moving, and 'becoming' from one condition to the w 111 chtranscends the attributes of matter : it does not change,
other and from one moment to the next. The body is subject t docs not occupy a position in space-time, and it cannot be
1

to all conditions of health, sickness, fatness, leanness, \wighed and measured. On the contrary, this form ~f
ruddiness, paleness, vitality, satiety, etc. Appended to the nistence is the constant by which variables are measured; It
physical nature we find a continuous 'tape' of sensations, 1
s 1he absolute by which we come to know all that is relative
emotions, instincts, and fears which never, even for one 111 the dimension of matter.
instant, stops unwinding in the brain. The most accurate description of this type of existence is
1hat it is spiritual in nature.
In so far as this primary nature and the sensations
appended to it have the characteristics of matter, we can say We may go on to ask: which of the two natures constitute
that man's body and his 'animal spirit' belong to matter. man in reality? Is 'true' man the body or the spirit? To know
the answer we have to establish which of the two natures
There is, howev~r, another nature inside man which is governs the other.
totally different from the first in quality. It is characterized The materialists claim that man is just his body which is the
by .fixity and permanence; it is above time and space. This controlling nature. All the elements I have been enumerating
nature is what we call 'reason' with its unchanging standards, _ reason, aesthetic and ethical sense, conscience, and that
axioms, and deductions. It is also the conscience with its 'superstition' we call identity or the ego - they deem mere
judgments and the aesthetic sense. It is summed up in the secondary effects of the body, manipulated by it and serving
ego which consists of all the previous faculties: mind, ! .

and satisfying its lusts and passions.

conscience, aesthetic and ethical sense. The ego is
completely other than the body and the 'animal spirit' or This materialistic concept is erroneous. The truth is that
instincts which can be enflamed with hunger and desire. the body is servant not master, compliant and not imperious.
Doesn't the body feel hunger but we refuse to oblige it with
The ego is the absolute, fundamental identity through food because we have previously decided to fast that
which man experiences that profound sense of presence, particular day in worship of God? Isn't it aroused with lust
being, presentation to, and attendance in the world. He feels
but we restrain it?
that he is and has always been here. This is a fixed,
unchanging, and continuous sense which does not wax or Doesn't our body begin spontaneously from the moment
wane or grows ill or ages with time. It knows no past, we wake up in the morning to carry out 'a plan of action'
present, or future; but is an enduring present or 'now' that formulated to the smallest detail by the mind? Who is leader
does not elapse as sensations fade into the past. Its essence is here and who is led?
that awareness of duration and permanence. Where is the body's dominance at the moment of
It is here that we encounter another kind of existence self-immolation when a commando, for example, ties an
:I
73
72
 II'

explosive belt round his waist and marches forward to zlow I 'he spirit is not the brain zut the managing agent of the
up a tank with the enemy soldiers inside it? What bodily body and it is represented by a 'board of directors' working
interest does he serve zy his death? Which nature controls out of the brain's cells. The brain, just as the body's cells,
the other here? The spirit resolves to destroy the body in a !otnplies with the orders issued to it and reveals them in its
purely idealistic moment which no materialistic doctrine can actions; in the end, however, it is only a 'glove' worn by that
explain away by reference to any tangible gains. The body mvisible hand, the spirit, to act with it in the material world.
cannot resist such resolve; it has no power to counter it and
has no option but to fade away completely. It is here that we All this evidence leads us to grasp that man has two
know which of the two existences is the more ascendant natures: an essential, ruling nature which is his spirit and a
which of them really constitutes the essence of man. ' secondary, transient one; namely, his body. What occurs in
death is that the second nature passes away while the
We possess nowadays more than one proof that the body is immortal spirit joins eternity. The body goes to dust but the
the secondary form of existence : all operations of spirit ascends to its immortal world.
amputation, substitution, or transplanting of body parts;
To those who prefer philosophical arguments we can
reports of 'electric' hearts, artificial kindeys, blood and
produce yet another proof of the spirit's existence. This
cornea banks; and those 'stores of human accessories' where
proof is drawn from the peculiarities of motion. For motion
legs, arms, and hearts can be replaced or fitted on.
can only be observed from a point outside it; you cannot
It would not be an unbelievable joke to hear that a perceive the motion of which you are a part but you must
bridegroom may surprise his bride in the year 2000 to find have an external point from which you can observe it. This
her taking off her whig, dentures, foam-ruzber breasts, explains why you may not at certain moments be azle to
artificial eye, and wooden leg leaving nothing behind but a know whether the lift you are in has stopped moving or not
'chassis' like that of a car where the seats, doors, and because you have become an integral part of its movement.
upholstery have been removed. You can only perceive the lift's movements if you look
through its door to the fixed platforms outside. The same
The body undergoes extensive replacements without the applies to a train speeding on its rails. You can perceive its
character being correspondingly affected because the speed, while you are inside it, only at the moment it stops or
substituted arm or leg or eye or breast is not what contributes if you look out of the window at some fixed landmarks.
to make up man. Thus, they are removed and replaced even Similarly, the sun's movement cannot be observed by a
zy batteries, metal rods, or pieces of aluminium and nothing person standing on its surface, if that is possible, but it can be
happens to 'man' because he is not merely the sum of these observed from the earth or the moon. In like manner, the
members but is the spirit which presiqes at 'the driving earth's movement can ze observed from the moon and not
wheel' and controls that machine we call the body. from its own surface.
74
75
 The principle is that you cannot fully perceive a thing or IILtlerial inevitabilities. But what about resurrection? No one
state unless you are outside it. Thus, we could not possibly ""~so far returned from the kingdom of death to tell us what
have been able to perceive the passage of time if the n periences he underwent. The Day of Resurrection has not
perceiving part in us has not been implanted in a separate v~'~ arrived for us to point to a tangible, incontrovertible
'threshold' external to that continual passage; that is, in a p10of. All that can be said about resurrection is that it is a
'threshold of eternity'. If our perception of time moved with ~tllgious fact which both reason and science find probable.
every jump of the seconds hand of our clocks, we would not Hut why should these two latter find it probable?
have ever perceived the passage of those seconds and our /\11 the phenomena and aspects of the universe indicate that
perception of them would have just faded away as they 1vcrything passes through a complete circle where the end is
elapse without leaving a trace. loll owed by a new beginning: night comes after day and then
This is a stunning conclusion to draw and it means that part 1he day dawns again; the sun rises and sets to rise once more.
of our being iis external to the framework of the temporal The four seasons follow each other in a repeated cycle. Such
contiuum. It is immortal, it can observe time from a point of 11bservations make the waking involved in resurrection

stillness and perceive it without being implicated in it. It, probable after the sleep of death; for everything returns to
therefore, neither ages nor elapses. When the body crumbles where it began or is renewed. God refers to himself in the
into dust, that part will remain as it is to live its own, Ouran as the Originator and Restorer:
non-temporal life - that part is the spirit. "You shall return to Him as He
Each one of us can sense that spiritual existence deep down created you."
The Heights, 29
as a state of presence, permanence, attendance, and being
which is totally unlike that material existence with its changes, "He gives being to all His creatures,
fluctuations, and pulses which occur with the passage of time and in the end He will bring them zack
outside it. This internal state I call 'presence', and of which to life;"
we are conscious at moments of inner awareness, is the key to Jonah, 4
our spiritual existence and to that puzzle - the spirit.
Isn't it observed that everything moves in orbits from atoms
Another evidence to our spiritual nature is our intuitive to galaxies? Even civilizations and history have cycles. This
sense of freedom. If we were mere material bodies governed eternal renewal favours the possibility of resurrection.
within the framework of material existence by inevitable Another proof we may cite in favour of the truth of
material laws, this intuitive sense of freedom would be
resurrection is the order, accurate to precision, which governs
inconceivable. the universe from the largest galaxy down to the smallest
We have, then, a spirit that transcends time, death, and the atom without the slightest sign of aberration. Even the
76 77
invisible sub-atomic electron is governed by that order and 1 he Spirit is a puzzle about which no one knows anything. It
law. This infinetisimal part cannot move from one orbit to "' ~>t riking that whenever the Spirit is mentioned in the Quran
another within the same atom unless it discharges or absorbs tlw words 'of my Lo"rd's knowledge' or 'command' or others
an amount of energy equalling that taken by its jump. It is II similar meaning, accompany it:
more like a train traveller who cannot go anywhere without a "He lets the Spirit (by His command)
ticket. descend on those of His servants
whom He chooses."
Given this very tightly-woven order how can we imagine
The Forgiver, 15
that a murderer or an unjust person can escape retribution
simply because he has managed to elude the police. The mind "By His will he sends down the angels
finds it justifiable to conceive that this person will necessarily with the Spirit to those of his servants
be punished and that there must be another life in which whom He chooses,"
scores are settled - this is what justice decrees. The Bee, 2
We are zorn to love, to seek, and to strive for the "On that night the angels and the
achievement of justice. Nevertheless, justice is absent from Spirit by their Lord's leave come down
our world. If some thinkers consider that thirst for water with His decrees."
proves the existence of water, we can, similarly, contend that Qadr, 4
longing for justice is evidence that justice exists if not in our
world then, zy necessity, at a future time and hour when its "Thus we have inspired you with a
scales will be erected. Spirit of Our will."
Counsel, 52
All the previous hints are indications that point to and
favour the reality of resurrection, reckoning, and the next We always encounter the same words whenever 'spirit' is
life. A person who believes in the Quran, however, has no mentioned: 'Our will', 'of my Lord's knowledge', 'by his
need for such proofs because his heart has reached certainty leave'. Can God's Will be a spirit? Or can His Word be a
thus relieving him from arguing. Spirit? Didn't He speak about Jesus, peace on him, in the
It remains for us to ask what is the spirit? ,I following _words :
The Quran says :
"They ask you about the Sprity. Say:
'~II
'!
"A word from Him. His name is
Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary."
'The Spirit is of my Lord's Knowledge. The Imrans, 45
Little indeed IS the Knowledge I
Vouchsafed to you". l
'
God also said that Jesus is 'His word which he cast to Mary; a

78
The Night Journey, 85
j
~~
Spirit form Him'. Woman, 171
79
p
 I come finally to my friend's query about 'the summoning !ommunicate with whomever they wish either in dreams or,
of spirits'. This phenomenon is suspect in the eyes of mdeed, in wakefulness provided the appropriate conditions
believers. They doubt that what occurs in the darkened rooms (xist.
of seances is caused by the presence of this or that spirit. A
On the evidence of the many seances I attended and the
prominent thinker like Henri Soder, for instance, says that
particular experiences I had of that sphere I can say that there
such phenomena originate in the medium's subconscious and
is no proof that the phenomena of the seance room are due to
through his or her psychic powers; according to him, nothing
the presence of the intended spirits.
in fact, is summoned
The view of the muslim sufis may be the nearest
Some Indian thinkers believe that what really enters the
explanation to the truth of such occurrences. The matter is
1)1edium's body during the seance are some nether world
still open for study. It is regrettable, however, that
spirits which know certain facts about the dead and use them
superstitions are far in excess of the facts in this area. The last
to ridicule those present and have fun at their expense.
word has not been uttered yet.
Muslim sufis, for their part, say that it is not the spirit which You, my friend, will undoubtedly laugh at hearing such
attends the seances but its Kareen or Double; that is the jinni words as the jinn, the nether spirits, or the Double. You will
who accompanied the dead person during his life. The jinni be quite right there. If you do not believe that you have a
knows all the dead man's secrets by virtue of such 'company'. soul, how can you be expected to believe in a jinni; if you do
As the jinn live much longer than man, the Double survives not believe in God how can it be possible for you to believe i'"'
his human mate and it is he who attends seances divulging the the existence of the devils?
secrets of his mate and imitating his voice and manners to
Yet, if you have been born a hundred years ago and
poke fun at those present in accordance with the jinn's
someone came to you with a talk about an invisible ray that
hostility towards human beings.
goes through iron, or about pictures that travel the air across
Those sufis resort to a vivid illustration of their view. They the oceans in less than a second, or about a man who walks
say that if we ring the bell in an office the servant will show up over the dusty surface of the moon wouldn't you have laughed
to enquire about our requests but the master or director of the and chuckled at what he says many times more than your
office will not leave his domain so easily to attend on us. The laughter in ridicule of what I now say to you? You would have
same, they add, applies to the world of spirits. It is nether accused him of being a fugitive from a mental asylum. His
spirits, the jinn and such like who are summoned in seances predictions, however, are now facts that are all too apparent
and who impose on their audiences. before our eyes and ears.

The human spirits abide in another world; namely, the

Barzakh or Barrier. They cannot be recalled but they may
80 81
..:

IX
The Conscience

'You speak reverently about conscience', said my friend,

'as if it were an absolute entity. It is, however, a social
product. It is no more than a copper currency minted and
stamped in the forge of social dealings. In my opinion, its
judgments and criteria change according to the dominant and
I
current interests. That value which brings benefit I describe as I'
good, that which harms I label bad even if it were chastity
which you hold as dear as your eyes.'
I started to reply calmly:
Yes, I believe that this is the view of the materialistic
philosophy, at least according to what I hear. It sees in
conscience a deterrent and admonitory authority that sprang
out of social factors; it is just the outcome of a certain
experience that varies from one person to another and from
one age to the other.
The truth, however, gives you the lie, my friend. The truth
is that conscience is a light implanted by God in the human
constitution. It is an inborn indicat9r, guide, or compass
directing us to the truths of life. All that social cultivation has
to do in this regard is to polish and refine that instrument.
We have evidence to support our view and refute yours.
Consider the animal kingdom where no 'society' exists. You
83
 I!
lr

find the cat defecating and then turning to cover its faeces the devouring of man a crime deserving suicide as a
with dust. From what 'feline society' did it catch this habit? punishment?
How was it able to distinguish between filth and cleanliness?
We confront in this situation a kind of nobility, morality, or
Likewise, if you catch a cat stealing fish and hit it on the head,
conscientious behaviour that we can hardly find in a human.
it would bend it down fixing its eyes on the ground in a
We are, in fact, witnessing the total collapse of the
manifest sense of guilt. If the same cat happens to break a
materialistic conception and interpretation of the nature of
vase while playing with the children in the house, it would
conscience.
hurriedly run to hide in fear under a chair realizing that it had
done something wrong. There can be no explanation for what we see except that
presented by religion; namely, that conscience is a light
All these are signs and indicators of conscience. Feline implanted by God in human nature and that the entire social
community does not necessitate the emergence of such role in this connection is to remove the 'rust' covering the soul
feelings. That community itself does not even exist. and allow it to reveal that divine light. This is actually what
occurred in the incident between the lion and its trainer. The
Consider also 'marital' fidelity in doves, the horse's noble joint life, love, and companionship polished that animal's self
attachmnt to its owner till death, the lion's proud mein and its awakening the divine spark and making the lion experience
refusal to attack its prey from behind, the camel's shyness that sadness and repentance and then kill itself in sorrow like the
impels it to stop sexual intercourse with the female if it sensed humans.
an observer. Moreover, I remind you of that serious incident Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: 'That which is
seen by the spectators at the National Circus in Cairo years lawful is clear and that which is prohibited is clear.' He also
ago. The lion jumped at its trainer, Muhammad Helou, from said, 'Consult your heart even if you have been advised by
behind setting its claws in his shoulders and mortally man.' We are in no need of a 'Faculty of Shari'a Studies' to
wounding him. Circus officials report that the lion know right from wrong, truth from falsehood, lawful from
subsequently refused to eat or to leave his cage. It was unlawful. God has placed in the heart of each of us a Shari' a
transferred to t~e zoo and given a female to entertain it but it Faculty and a scale that cannot go wrong. All that is required
of us is to purify ourselves of the dross of matter and the
attacked its companion and forced it out. It continued to
pressure of desires so that we can 'see', 'know', and
refuse food and, finally, kept biting its guilty hand till it bled
'distinguish' without leaning on the crotchet of 'social
to death.
experience' but with the aid of God's light - the conscience:
Here we encounter an animal that takes its own life in grief "Believers, if you fear God, He will
and atonement for its crime. From what 'society' in the world give you guidance"
of lions did it adopt this attitude? Do lion communities hold The Spoils, 29
84 85
 God inspired the mystic Muhammad Ibn Abdel-Gabbar
with the phrase: "How can you despair of Me while in your
heart is My envoy and speaker."
The conscience is an eternal truth. The basic ethical values
X
are similarly fixed. Killing an innocent person will never
become a virtue, nor will theft, lying, harming others, vice, Is Pilgrimage A Pagan Rite?
lechery, harshness, scurrility, cruelty, hypocrisy, or
treachery. All these are moral defects and they will so remain My friend's eyes had that gleam which characterizes the
until God inherits the earth and all that is on it. look of a person preparing to deal a knock-out. His broad
Love, mercy, truthfulness, forbearance, forgiveness, and smile revealed his teeth and he rubbed his hands in glee as he
generosity will likewise remain virtues for ever. They will talked:
never turn into crimes unless the entire heavens and earth are - Don't you observe as I do that your pilgrimage rites are
corrupted and reason is annihilated leaving madness to rule frankly pagan? First of all there is that stone structure you call
supreme. the Ka'ba to which you cling and then go round. There is also
the stoning of the devil, the hurrying between Safa and 1.'
I

Marwa, the kissing of the Black Stone, and the occurrence of

the number seven in many acts such as circling the Ka'ba,
stoning the devil, or hurrying to and fro between Safa and
Marwa. This is, surely, a vestige of ancient superstitions
about talismanic numbers. There is yet that Ihram cloth you
wrap round your naked zodies in preparation for the
pilgrimage. Don't be angry with me if my frankness hurts you;
but, as you say, there is no timidity in the pursuit of
knowledge.
Having finished, he started puffing the smoke of his
cigarette slowly and fixed his eyes on me from behind his
glasses.
I began to reply with equal calm:
Don't you observe with me that according to the laws of
matter we studied it is found that the smaller body revolves

86 87
round the larger : the electron in the atom circles round the creatures? Can'~ you discern in the rites of pilgrimage a
nucleus, the moon round the earth, the earth round the sun, profound symbolic synopsis of all these mysteries?
the sun round the galaxy, the galaxy round a bigger one, and
so on till we ascend to the Absolute Greatest: God? Don't we Now for the number seven that moves you to so much
repeat the phrase 'Allah is greater' (Allahu Akzar) meaning sarcasm. Let me ask you, in my turn, why do we have seven
that He is bigger than everything? Hence, and in accordance I
I tones in the musical scale: Sol, La, C, Do, Re, ~i, Fa? After
with the laws of your science, everything should revolve I the seventh tone we return again to the pitch of Sol - always
round Him. You are now, in fact, revolving round Him in seven tones and not eight or more. The shades of the light
spite of yourself along with our solar system. You cannot spectrum are seven, electrons revolve round the nucleus in
choose but revolve for nothing is still in the universe but God seven fields, the embryo completes its growth only in the
- the Sanctuary, the Enduring; He is still whereas everything seventh month and if delivered before that time will be still- ':,i
ii
l

else is in movement around him. born. The days of the week are seven- among all peoples-
and this was reached without any previous agreement.

I
So far for the law of the lesser and the greater which you
Doesn't all this signify something? Or is it that all these facts
studied in physics. As for us, we circle around God's House of
are, for their part, mere talismanic superstitions?
our own free will. This House, the Ka'ba, was the first
building man devoted to the worship of God. Ever since that Let me further ask you: don't you kiss a letter your beloved
time immemorial it has become a symbol and a House of sent you? Are you, then, a pagan? Why blame us, therefore,
God. Don't you 'circle' the Kremlin revering a certain man for kissing that Black Stone which our Prophet Muhammad,
entombed there and claiming that he saved mankind. If you peace be upon him, carried in his own robe and kissed? There
know where Shakespeare is zuried, you would race each other is no paganism involved at all; for we do not address our
to visit his grave in more fervour than we have as we vie for devotion and worship to the stones but to the profound
the journey to the tomb of Muhammad, peace be upon him. meanings, symbols, and memories they evoke.
Don't you lay a wreath on a stone monument saying that it is a The pilgrimage actions are occasions for inducing
symbol of the unknown soldier? Why, then, blame us for contemplation, arousing the feelings, and instilling godliness
casting a stone at a certain post which we take to symbolize in the heart. The Ihram cloth we wrap round our naked
Satan? Don't you live in a ceaseless 'hurrying' from the bodies, and which should not be sewn, symbolizes the
moment of your birth to that of your death and doesn't your renunciation of worldly ornament and complete devotion
son, after your death, repeat that 'hurrying' all over again? before the Presence of the Creator. It is just the same as our
This is the same as the symbolic 'hurrying' from Safa - the condition at birth and death; for we come to the world
name in Arabic connotes emptiness or vacuum as a symbol of wrapped in a piece of cloth and go out of it in the same attire.
nothingness - to Marwa, the spring which signifies life and Don't you need formal suits for audiences with kings? We,
being. Isn't this, in fact, the pendulous movement of all for our part, say that only such stripping of ornament and
88 89

I I
I
donning of this simple robe is appropriate for God's Majesty;
for He is greater than all kings and nothing more befits
attendance before Him than absolute humility and the
shedding of clothes. The humble Ihram robe worn in God's
Presence by rich and poor, Raj and millionaire alike signifies
also that men are zrothers however different they may be in XI
ranks and wealth. Could Muhammad Be The Author of The Quran?
For us the pilgrimage is a great gathering, an annual
conference; it is an enlarged version, if you like, of the Friday My friend spoke slowly choosing his words:
prayers - that smaller meeting which unites us every week. - I don't really want to hurt you, for I know how much you
These events have wonderful significance for anyone who cherish the Quran. I concur with you that it is a worthy book.
cares to contemplate their meanings. They are as far removed But why couldn't it have been compiled by Muhammad
from paganism as can be imagined. himself? It wouldn't be out of the ordinary if a man as great as
If you had stood, as I did, on Mount Arafat, one among he was should write a book as valuable as the Quran. This,
millions crying 'Allahu Akbar', reciting the Quran in more certainly, would be a more logical explanation than the claim
than twenty tongues, calling out 'labbayka Allahuma labbayk' that the Quran was revealed by God. We have never
(we have answered your call, God), sobbing, and melting in observed God in the process of sending anythins down from
love and longing - you would have shed tears unconsciously heaven. We live in an age in which it is difficult to persuade
and merged in that multitude of men, you would have anyone that an angel called Gabriel came down from heaven
experienced that sense of reverence and annihilation of self with a book to reveal it to a certain person.
before God, the Magnificent, the Lord of all Being, Who I replied in my usual quiet voice :
masters everything there is.
- On the contrary, we live in an age in which it is
completely easy to believe that there are invisible angels and
that truths can come to men in inspiration. Our moderns
speak nowadays of flying saucers that come from distant
planets to land on earth, of invisible rays that can kill, of radio
waves that home on to targets to facilitate their destruction,
of pictures that are transformed into frequencies in the air and
then materialize again as they are received in sets as small as
cigarette packets, of cameras that take pictures of 'ghosts', of
eyes that see in the dark, of a man who walked on the moon.
90 91
 It is no longer an inconceivable thing to hear that God has author, he would have voiced his cares and grief in it. In one
sent an invisible angel to deliver His revelation to one of his and the same year, his wife, Khadeeja, and his paternal uncle,
prophets. Gabriel's existence has, in fact, become a stale fact Abu Taleb, died. They were his only supports in life and the
in our age; it is less strange and amazing than many things we loss he sustained in their departure was incalculable. Yet no
see or hear about every day. word is mentioned in the Quran about them. The Quran also
remains silent about the death of Ibrahim, Muhammad's only
You ask, 'Why shouldn't we say that the Quran has been son over whom he grieved. The Quran is, in fact, totally
composed by Muhammad (peace be upon him)?' The reply is separate from Muhammad's self.
that we cannot do this. With its form, phrases, and even
letters, and with the knowledge, science, mysteries, stylistic Sometimes a Quranic verse would come to contradict what
beauty, and linguistic precision it contains, it is impossible to Muhammad has been doing or thinking. At other times, a
conceive that any man is capable of composing it. Add to this verse would be revealed to adomnish him, as when he turned
the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was illiterate; to the nobles of Quraysh leaving the blind man who came to
he could not read or write, he did not attend any school, and listen to him :
he did not travel outside the Arabian Peninsula or get
"He frowned and turned his back
acquainted with any civilization. To doubt the source of the
when the blind man came towards
Quran, or even just to enquire about it as you do, is indeed
him. How could you tell, he might
impossible in the light of what I have just said. God, in fact,
have sought to purify himself. He
challenges disbelievers like you who alleged, in the Prophet's
might have been forewarned, and
time, that the Quran is of human authorship:
might have profited from Our
"Say: 'Then bring a sura like it, and warning."
call (for help) on all you can besides He Frowned, 1-4
God, if you are truthful."
Jonah, 38. A verse would come at times to revoke a measure of the
Prophet's:
God is daring them to enlist the help of the jinn, the angels,
"A prophet may not take captives
and the geniuses among men to compose even one verse
until he has fought and made slaughter
similar to those of the Quran. That challenge is still standing
in the land. You (the Prophet's
and no one has yet come up with anything in answer.
followers) seek the chance gain of this
Indeed, if we study the Quran in fairness and objectivity, world, but God desires for you the
we will completely rule out that Muhammad, peace be upon world to come. He is mighty and wise.
him, was its author. If, first of all, he had really been its Had there not been a previous
92 93
 sanction from God, you would have Akfara men ahlihi 'Obayd
been sternly punished for that which (Obeid has lost all his kinsmen)
you have taken." Falaysa yobdi wala yo'eed.
The Spoils, 67-8 (He can no longer initiate or settle matters).

Sometimes the Quran commands Muhammad, peace be The rhythm in this line derives from its division into two
upon him, to communicate to his followers that which he hemistiches rhyming together with a long 'd' sound. It is, in
could not have possibly said if he had been the author of the fact, what is called 'externally induced rhythm'. The Quran's
rhythm or music, on ' the other hand, is internal:
Quran:
"Say: 'I am no prodigy among the "Wad-dhoha, wal-layli etha saga"
prophets; nor do I know what will be (By the morning hours, and by the
done with me or you." night when most still)
Al-Ahqaf, 9 The Morning Hours, 1
There are no hemistiches or rhyme in this straight forward
No prophet can, of his own accord, inform his followers that phrase, but it is redolent with rhythm. From whence did such
he does not know what will happen to him and to them or that rhythm come? It is internal music.
he cannot bring benefit or ward off harm either with regard to
himself or to them. They would desert him, if he did so. In Listen to the following verses :
fact, the jews took advantage of the above verse to justify "My Lord! Lo! My bones wax feeble
their charge that our Prophet was really a useless man for he and my head is shining with grey hair.
did not know what will be done to himself or to his followers. Yet, never, Lord, have I prayed to you
If the Prophet had been the author of the Quran, such verses in vain."
could not have been found in that book. Mary, 4
Secondly, if we examine the style of the Quranic phrase, we "Taha. We have not revealed unto
will find that it is completely new and unique in its syntax or you (Muhammad) the Quran that you
structure. It is quite different from anything that came before should be distressed. But as a
or since in Arabic literature. We can almost go to the extent reminder unto him who fears. A
of dividing everything extant in Arabic into poetry, prose, Revelation from him who created the
and Quran. This latter is a kind apart neither poetic nor earth and the high heavens. The
prosaic. For rhythm in poetry is the outcome of meter and Beneficent One, Who is established
rhyme. This is seen, for example, in a line of poetry by Ibn on the Throne"
el-Abbas al~,Asadi: Taha. 1-4

94 95
 _,
If the topic dealt with is a threat the sentence structure and put one letter in place of the other. Every word has been
morphology become like chunks of flint stone and its rhythm chosen from among millions by a very sensitive act of
produces a sort of metallic screeching that pierces the ears : discernment.
"On a day of unremitting woe we let We shall presently encounter such accuracy as has never
loose on them a howling wind which been equalled in composition. Examine, for example, the
snatched them off as if they had been word 'fertilizing' in the following verse :
trunks of uprooted palm-trees."
"We let loose the fertilizing wind"
The Moon, 19-20
Al-Hijr, 22
Words like 'howling' and 'uprooted' strike our ears with their
sounds in Arabic, like pieces of rock. It was in the past understood in a figurative sense to mean
that the wind stimulates the clouds causing them to rain; the
If Quranic verses report a major event, like those that rain would then 'fertilize' the soil, that is, make it productive.
speak about the end of the Flood, their sentences become Nowadays, however, we know that the winds drive
very short as if they were Morse Code signals. A verse in its positively-charged clouds into negatively-charged ones
entirety becomes like a pithy telegram with a momentous causing lightning, thunder, and rain. In this sense they
impact: 'fertilize' the clouds. We also know that winds carry the
"A voice cried out: 'Earth swallow up pollen from one flower to the other thus literally fertilizing
your waters; heaven, cease your rain! them. Hence, we are before a word which is true figuratively,
The floods abated and God's will was literally, and scientifically. It is, moreover, aesthetically
done.'' superb and rhythmically pleasing. This is what we mean by
Houd, 44 meticulous accuracy in the choice and placing of a word.
Let us also consider the following verse :
Such varying effects in word morphology, syntax, and the
concordance of rhythms with meanings and feelings reach to "Do not usurp each other's property
the very summit in the Quran. They are always achieved in a by unjust means, nor bribe judges with
smooth and easy manner without any artificiality or it in order that you may knowingly and
affectation. wrongfully deprive others of their
Thirdly, if we further pursue this line of analysis, we will possessions."
The Cow, 188
discover a meticulous accuracy and staggering adequacy:
every letter is in its precise place neither advanced nor The Arabic word used for 'bribe' here is 'todloo' which
retarded. You cannot substitute one word for another, nor literally means to 'lower' something or send it down. This may
96 97
 -~-

seem a strange use putting in mind that the judge or ruler to "You shall not kill your children for
whom the money is given is in a higher not a lower position fear of want. We will provide for them
vis-a-vis the givers. The Quran, however, effects an and for you."
appropriate correction with this use : the hand that accepts
The Night Journey, 31
zribes is a lower hand even if it is the ruler's or the judge's.
This is how the expression 'lower it down to the judges' comes
The underlined difference in word order is not haphazard but
in an unequalled stylistic adequacy to convey the meanness
calculated. When the killing of children is motivated by actual
and degradation of those who receive bribes.
want, by the poverty of the family at that time, the Quranic
In a verse about jihad or holy struggle we read: emphasis is on God's succour of the parents; hence, they are
mentioned first (in the first verse). If, on the other hand, the
"0, Believers, why is it that when it is
killing is impelled zy fear of expected want, of the future
said to you: 'March in the cause of
possibility of poverty, the Quran delivers its assuring message
God', you are bowed down to the
by placing the children (the future) before the family as
ground with heaviness."
recipients of God's provision (in the second verse). Such
Repentance, 38
minutiae can hardly occur to the mind of any human author.
The Quran uses the elided from - Iththakaltum - of the verb
Similar cases in the Quran of advancing or retarding words
tathakaltum ('bowed down to the ground with heaviness') to
are always meaningful. In the verse which lays down the
vividly express the cowardice of some who cling and stick to
punishment for theft the male thief is mentioned before the
the ground in terror when they are called upon to fight. The
female whereas in that which speaks about fornication the
elision of the 't' sound found at the beginning of the original
fornicatress is mentioned before the fornicator. The reason
form of the verb and its merger into the 'th' sound eloquently
behind such ordering is quite obvious : in cases of theft man is
conveys the sticking of the cowards to the ground for dear
always more daring and the initiator, but in fornication it is
life.
usually the woman who initiates the train of events; she lays
The Quran speaks about the killing of children for fear of the snares for the intended man from the very moment she
poverty in two similar verses which only differ in a significant stands zefore the mirror making her face up, wearing her
respect: perfume, or selecting a short dress. Thus, the Quran:

"The adulteress and the adulterer,

"You shall not kill your children
. ( scourge you each of them a hundred
because you cannot support them. We
lashes."
provide for you and for them:"
Cattle. 151 Light, 2
98

I _ __ 99
 "As for the thief both male and spoke with Him but none of them saw Him. Muhammad,
l
female, cut off their hands in peace be upon him, received the.Quran through hearing. The
punishment for their deeds." I mother can distinguish the voice of her child crying even when
The Table, 38 I it is lost in a crowd of people. Hearing in human beings stays
In more than sixteen places in the Quran, 'hearing' is active even during sleep when the eyes are resting. Anyone
mentioned before 'sight' when zoth come together: who undertakes an anatomy of the hearing system will find it
more sensitive and exact than sight.
"and gave you ears and eyes and
hearts; so that you may give thanks." The Quran employs a similar technique of word order with
The Bee, 78 regard to wealth and offspring :
"and gave them ears and eyes and
hearts." "The day when wealth and children
Al-Ahquf, 26 will avail nothing and when none shall
"Hear and see them on the Day they be saved except him who comes before
come unto Us." his Lord with a pure heart."
Mary, 38 The Poets, 88

"The hearing, sight, and heart of man "Your wealth and children are but a
shall be questioned." temptation. God's reward is great."
The Night Journey, 36 Cheating. 15
"You did not hide yourselves, so that
your ears and eyes and skins could not "Neither their riches nor their children
observe you." shall in the least protect them from His
Fussilat, 22 scourge. They are the heirs of Hell,
and there they shall remain for ever."
"He also hears all and sees all"
Counsel, 11 The Irnrans, 116
Hearing, as we can see from the previous verses, invariably
"Do they think that in giving them
comes first.
wealth and children we are solicitous
It is unquestionable that the sense of hearing is more for their welfare? By no means! They
sensitive and developed than sight. We hear the jinn but we cannot see."
do not see them. The prophets heard the words of God and The Believers, 55
100 101
 "Let neither their riches nor their "They ask you about what they should
children rouse your desire. Through give in alms. Say: 'What you can
these God seeks to punish them in this spare'."
life, so that they shall die The Cow, 219
unbelievers."
"They ask you about the phases of the
Repentance, 55
moon. Say: 'They are timings for
There are many more verses keeping the same order of people and pilgrimage'."
mention, the secret behind this is that many people cherish The Cow, 189
wealth more dearly than their own offspring. "They ask you about the Spirit. Say:
Subtle and exact stylistic touches in the Quran extend to 'The Spirit is of my Lord's
word inflections. In the verse : knowledge'."
The Night Journey, 85
"If two parties of believers take up
arms against each other, make peace The word 'say' (kol) comes invariably as an answer to the
between them." question introduced by the phrase, 'they ask you'.
The Chambers, 9
An exception, however, occurs when a verse speaks about
the two parties are referred to first in the plural mode : the the condition of the mountains on Doomsday:
verb 'ektatalo' -fought among themselves- is used. But later
"They ask you about the mountains.
on they are spoken of in the dual mode : in the word
Then say: 'My Lord will crush them to
'baynahuma' which means 'between the two of them'. There
fine dust'."
is a very subtle and fine touch here. For in the thick of fighting
Ta Ha, 105
the two parties will merge into each other becoming a 'host'
or 'pluralism' of striking arms, zut if at peace they will
Here the word 'say' comes in Arabic in the form 'fakol' or
separate again into two (the dual mode) groups each sending
'then say' instead of 'kol'. The reason is that all previous
an envoy for talks. Hence the precision of the Quranic
questions have already been put to Muhammad, but no one
manner of expression.
has yet asked him about what happens to mountains on
Even propositions and conjunctions are employed in (or Doomsday because this is one of the secrets of that day. Thus,
are absent from) the Quranic text for weighty considerations God is in effect saying to him: if you are asked about that
and according to a precise and accurate calculation. An subject, THEN SAY such and such a thing. The prefix fa is not
example of this method is afforded by a repeated Quranic superfluous but semantically functional in a calculated
structure based on the phrase, 'they ask you': manner.
102 103
 In another verse we read: The pronoun 'We' in these examples expresses the unison of
"If My servants ask you about Me, I divine attributes as they act in a great original invention such
am near." as creation.
The Cow, 186 If, on the other hand, the verses deal with a situation in
The word 'say' is absent here because the question concerns which God speaks to a creature of His, as in His talk with
the essence of God and it is He only who can 'say' anything Moses, the individual pronoun 'I' is employed:
about that subject. "I am God. There is no God zut Me.
A similar subtlety is manifest in the Quranic uses of the Worship Me, and recite your prayers
pronouns 'I' and 'We' in relation to God. For God speaks in in My remembrance."
the plural 'We' when referring to a divine act in which all His Ta Ha, 14
attributes contribute such as creation or the revelation and
preservation of the Quran : --o:
--:;;
God uses 'I' because it is His Essence that is present here and
l because He wishes to lay stress on His Oneness and on
''We revealed the Quran and shall
monotheism in worship.
ourselves preserve it."
AI Hijr, 9 Still pursuing the meticulous accuracy of Quranic
expression, we find two identical verses about patience that
"We created you, will you not differ only in an '1' letter added to a word in the second of
believe." them. In the first verse Loqman, the Wise, says to his son:
The Event, 67
"Endure with fortitude whatever
"We revealed the Quran in the night zefalls you, for this is will-power."
of Kadr." Loqman, 17
Kadr, 1
In the second verse we read :
"Behold the semen you discharge : did
you create it or We?" "Who endures and forgives this truly
The Event, 59 is will-power."
Counsel, 43
"We created them and endowed them
with strong limbs and joints; but if We Patience in the first verse is "men 'azm el-omoor"
please, We can replace them by other (will-power) while in the second it is "Lamen (truly) 'azm
men." el-omoor." The secret behind the emphasis with 'Ia' in the
Man, 28 latter construction is that the patience involved in this case is
104
105
 'I
I
':.

doubly more demanding than the endurance exhorted in the "Who will cause me to die and bring I' I

first verse. It is patience vis-a-vis an aggression by an me back to life hereafter." I

opponent and the person advised is required not only to The Poets, 81
endure but to forgive. This is certainly more difficult than the
endurance of unavoidable divine fate. "He who gives me food and drink"
The Poets, 79
I ,II

The same emphatic 'Ia' occurs once more to add ,I

11'1

'I
significance to two similar verses about the sending down of The word 'He' is brought in the second verse to emphasize
rain and the growth of plants: divine agency when the provision of food is mentioned II

"Consider the water which you drink.

because anyone can easily claim that he is the provider of
food and drink. No one, however, will claim the ability to
II
II
Was it you that poured it from the
cause death and resurrection as God did with Ibrahim.
clouds or We? If we please, We could
turn it bitter." The same eloquent precision is seen when the Quran
The Event, 69 addresses the muslims in the following terms:
"Remember Me, then, and I will
"Consider the seeds you sow. Is it you
remember you. "
that give them growth or We? If We
The Cow, 152
pleased, We could turn your plants
into chaff."
The Event, 65 The Quran, however, speaks differently to the jews:
''Children of Israel remember that I
The Arabic word for 'could turn' in the first verse is "ja' bestowed favours on you"
alnahu" while in the second it is "laja'alnahu". The emphatic The Cow, 40
'Ia' in the latter word is necessitated by the fact that there will
certainly ze someone to claim that he can destroy the plants The reason zehind this is the materialistic zent of the jews
turning them into chaff just as the Creator can. With regard to who remember God only in circumstances of benefit, interest,
the former case, however, no human dare allege that he can or favour. The muslims are spiritually more elevated and
draw down salt water from the cloues. There is no need for understand what it means to remember God for His own sake
emphasis here. and not for an expected favour from Him.

The same accuracy of expression is found when Ibrahim In the same vein, God addresses the elite among the
(Abraham) describes God: knowledgeable and wise :
107
106
 "So fear Me, you that are endowed "Those are in Hell and I care not and those in
with understanding." Paradise and I care not."
The Cow, 197 This follows from divine Exaltedness and it is the only
But when the Quran speaks to common men, it has this loophole through which Satan can reach men. He can
warmng: misguide and insinuate evil into them because God will not
compel any one who preferred infidelity to become a
"Guard yourselves against that fire
believer. This is why the devil swore by God's Exaltedness
whose fuel is men and stones,
when he declared his design to seduce men.
prepared for the unbelievers."
The Cow, 24 The devil also reveals his intelligence when he says:
"I will waylay your servants as they
Ordinary men can only be deterred zy the threat of Hell-fire walk on Your straight path, and spring
but the elite know that God is infinitely more powerful than upon them from the front and from
any fire and that, in fact, He can make such fire cool and the rear, from their right and from
harmless for whomever He pleases. their left,''
The Heights, 16
Accurate choice of words in the Quran is exemplified in
Eblis's oath to tempt humanity: He mentions four directions of attack on men but neglects
two: from above and from below. This is significant; above
"I swear by Your Exaltedness that I
men there is divine Lordship and below them there is
will seduce all men,"
creaturely humility. Anyone who is devoted in hurilility to
Sad, 82 worship and serve the Exalted God will be immune against
the insinuations of the devil.
In swearing by God's Exaltedness in particular, and by no
Eblis specifies that his chosen seat of seduction will be on
other divine attribute, Satan'proves his knowledge and
the straight path, on the road to the good, on the prayer mat.
cunning; for this particular attribute declares that God is
That person who neglects prayers, gets drunk, or is addicted
absolutely in no need of His creatures: hence, those who
to lechery has no need of a devil to lead him astray; his own
believe or disbelieve are perfectly free to pursue the course
soul has already done the trick. He has become a ruined
they have chosen. Their actions would not affect God at all human being and Eblis is a sharp thief who does not relish
since He is the Trascendent Almighty who does not need His wasting his time over ruined houses.
creatures or, for that matter, the entire universe.
Instances of eloquent Quranic accuracy of expression are
m a Divine Utterance, God says: inexhaustible. We find yet another one in the way the
108 109
mention of forgiveness and mercy precedes that of "The sky was rent asunder on that
punishment and wrath. God is first spoken of in the Fatiha day, frail,"
(Opening verse of the Quran) as the Compassionate and the The Inevitable, 16
Merciful and then as 'the King of the Day of Judgment'. He is "Hell was revealed to the erring."
invariably described as pardoning whomever He pleases and The Poets, 91
then punishing whomever He wills. Forgiveness, thus, always "They were ranged zefore thy Lord."
comes before punishment except in two verses. The first The Cave, 48
concerns the amputation of the thief's hand:
The reason for this treatment is that all events past and
"He punishes whom He wills and present have already taken place in God's Prescience; God is
forgives whom He pleases." not limited by time so that the future can ze veiled from Him.
The Table, 40 He, the Exalted, is transcendent to both space and time. That
This punishment takes place in worldly life but is followed by is why we find certain Quranic phrases speaking
forgiveness in the hereafter. simultaneously in two tenses in what appears to be a
contradiction:
The second verse narrates Jesus's address to God on
Judgment Day about the polytheists who worshipped him "The Judgment of God has come: do
rather than God. He says to his Lord: not seek to hurry it on."
"They are your bondsmen: it is for The Bee, 1
you to punish or to forgive them. You The Judgment, according to the tense of the first clause, has
are the Mighty, the Wise One." already occurred in the past; God, nevertheless, orders men
The Table, 118 not to hurry it on as if it were still an event expected in the
Jesus does not address God as the Forgiver and the Merciful future. The secret behind this, as I explained, is that the
out of deference and he mentions punishment before Juegment has, in fact, occurred and ended in God's
forgiveness to indicate the gravity of the transgression Prescience but has not yet unfolded before men's knowledge.
committed. There is no contradiction here but accuracy, precision,
resourcefulness, and truthfulness in the rendering of
Quranic precision reaches the summit in the treatment of
profound meanings. These are deep mysteries that need to be
time. The Creator speaks about future events in the past
studied.
tense. All the happenings of Doomsday are described in the
past tense: All the previous examples illustrate the precise structuring
"The Trumpet was sounded" and extreme accuracy of Quranic expression. The words are
The Cave, 99 meticulously chosen and even the letters are meaningfully
111
110
used. No addition, elision, advancing, or retarding occurs but
by careful design. This approach is unequalled in any human
composition. It is only found in the Quran.
As for the scientific hints and allusions to the wonders of
natural phenomena that we find in the Quran and that reveal
XII
secrets and mysteries discovered only in our own age but
quite unknown to Muhammad, peace be upon him, we devote The Quran Did Not Come From A Human!
another discussion; for this is a lengthy matter, indeed.
I resumed talking to my friend:
~-

Our discussion today of the scientific hints in the Quran

may be more stimulating to your 'scientific' mind than our
previous exchange. Modern astronomy, biology, anatomy,
and atomic researches were certainly non-existent when some
Quranic verses were revealed more than one thousand four
hundred years ago to touch upon natural phenomena (or signs
- Ayat- as they are called in the Holy Book). These verses
deal with the sky, the earth, the stars, the planets, the
development of the embryo, and the creation of man in a
manner that corresponds to the latest discoveries of the
sciences of our time.
The Quran did not tackle these subjects in the detailed
approach of a specialized scientific text. It was primarily
revealed as a book of creed, way of life, and legislation. Had
it dealt elaborately and expressly with such topics, it would
have shocked the Arabs of its time with things they could not
comprehend. It resorted, therefore, to suggestions, hints, and
I
intimations leaving them to be explained hundreds of years
later zy the sciences and discoveries of the future and to
manifest their real nature one generation after the other as
miracles and signs which prove that the Quran is indeed from
the True God.
113
112
 God says in His Book: 1hat the earth moves in space since both it and the mountains
"We will show them Our signs in all .1re one mass:
the regions of the earth and in their "You see the mountains deeming
own selves, until they clearly see that them firm while they pass away like
this is the truth." clouds."
Fussilat, 53 The Ant, 88

Since those addressed were not satisfied with God's own rhis means that the mountains which appear solid and inert
testimony to the truth of the Quran, it became necessary that really 'float' in space. Likening mountains to clouds,
He prove it to them with manifest signs. The Quran continues moreover, contains another very important suggestion about
day after day to uncover more of these amazing signs before the 'fragile' structure of matter which, as we know today, is
our astonished eyes. really composed of atoms just as the clouds are composed of
droplets.
It mentioned in unequivocal terms the roundness of the
earth employing, in the following verse, the verb Yokawwer One of the striking things in the Quran is the frequent
(to round) twice to describe how the night and day 'slide mention of the 'simultaneity' of night and day which co-exist
upon' each other as two halves of a ball: in time from the beginning of creation to its end without each
of them preceding the other:
"He causes the night to succeed
(Yokawwer) the day and the day to "The sun is not allowed to overtake
succeed (Yokawwer) the night." the moon, nor does the night outpace
The Troops, 5 the day."
Ya Sin, 40
Consider also in the same connection the verse which speaks This clearly hints to the roundess of the earth. Night and day
about the 'spreading' of the earth where the verb dahaha is started simultaneously together since the beginning of
used to express this fact: 'After that, He spread the earth creation as 'hemispheres'; if the earth had been flat, day and
(dahaha)' (The Soul-Snatchers, 20). Daha is the only word in night would have succeeded each other by necessity. This
Arabic that means to spread something and to make it oval at suggestion is emphasized by another verse which speaks of
the same time. The earth, as is well-known, appears to those the occurrence of Doomsday while the earth is, as it ever has
who live on it spread flat but it is, in reality, round or, to be been since its creation, passing through night and day at the
exact, oval in shape. same time:
We read, in the Quran, another clear hint to the effect that "When the earth has taken on its
the mountains 'swim' in space which, consequently, implies ornaments and was embellished, and
114 115
 its people deem they are masters of it, We find in the Quran references to paths or ways in the
Our commandment comes zy night or heavens:
by day and We make it waste as if it "By the heaven full of paths."
had not flourished yesterday." The Winds, 7
Jonah, 24
We also find significant allusions:
The pharse 'by night or by day' brings out that simultaneity of
the two which can only be explained by the fact that one half "By the sky with its returning of
-of the planet is hidden from the sun and is, therefore, dark (rain)."
while the other half faces the sun and is lighted by its rays. If The Morning Star, 11
the earth had been flat, it would have been in one condition
only at a time and it would have been incorrect to say, in the The sky, that is, returns all that rises to it from the surface of
words of the Quran, 'nor does the night outpace the day.' the earth back again to that surface : it sends back the water
vapour in the shape of rain, it holds rising bodies back by the
Linked to this observation is the mention, in the Quran, of force of gravity, it bounces back radio signals by deflecting
the multiplicity of 'rising' and 'setting' points. God is them in the ionosphere, and it similarly deflects infra-red rays
described as the 'Lord of the rising-places and the back to the earth's surface warming it at night.
setting-places' (The Ascending-Stairways, 40) and the 'Lord Just as the sky returns and deflects back all that rises to it
of the two Easts and Lord of the two Wests' (The Merciful, from below, it also deflects, absorbs, or scatters away all that
17). If the earth had been flat, there would have been only is directed to it from space thus protecting the earth's surface
one rising-point or 'east' and one setting-point or 'west'. On from bombardments of the deadly infra-red or 'cosmic' rays.
the Judgment Day, man says to the devil who accompanied It acts exactly as a 'roof :
him throughout his life :
"We spread the sky like a canopy and
"Would we were as far apart as the provided it with strong support,"
two horizons (literally, the two The Prophets, 32
Easts)."
Ornament, 35 "We have built the heaven with Our
might, and We expand its vastness".
The Arabic text can be interpreted to indicate that the sun's The Winds, 47
setting in one area or horizon (west) can be the point of it~
rising in another area (east). This is only possible if the earth The last words describe what is now known as the theory of
is round. the progressive expansion of the universe.

116 117
 When the Quran was revealed, the smallest known unit of "Does man think We shall never put
matter was the atom described as an individual, indivisible his bones together again? Indeed, We
entity. The Holy Book came to speak of even more minute can remould his very finger-tips".
units into which the atom can be divided. It was, indeed, the The Resurrection, 3-4
first book ever to mention something smaller than the atom :
God stresses that He will even re-constitute the human finger,
"Not an atom's weight in heaven or
as part of the resurrection, restoring its original shape. This is
earth escapes Him; nor is there
a reference to the miraculousness observed in the peculiar
anything smaller or greater but
make-up of finger-prints so that no two of them are alike.
recorded in a Book Glorious."
Sheba, 3 The Quran describes the spider's web or 'dwelling' as the
frailest of 'houses'. It did not say the spider's filament but
All these Quranic hints and suggestions are clear-cut 'dwelling'. It is now known that the filaments of the spider's
references to such facts as the roundness of the earth, the web are four times stronger than similar filaments of steel.
nature of the sky, and the atom - facts that could not have The weakness, according to the Quran, is in the 'dwelling' not
been thought of by a sane or even madman in that age in the material of which it is made. The spider's dwelling, in fact,
which the Quran descended to the earth. is the worst possible place for anyone seeking residence or
protection. It is a trap for all outsiders and it is a
Consider, for instance, the insight given by the Quran into
slaughter-house for its own inhabitants: the female spider
the embryo's evolution and its indication that the male sperm
swallows its mate after fertilization, it also gobbles up its
alone is responsible for the determination of the baby's sex:
offspring after they are hatched, and the young spiders
"He created the sexes, the male and themselves devour each other.
the female, from a drop of ejected The spider's dwelling is certainly the most vivid and
semen," eloquent example that can be employed to illustrate theworst
The Star, 45 kind of shelter or fate. Those who resort for help or
protection to others than God will be opting for a kind of
This is a biological fact that has become known only in our succour identical to that one may receive in a spider's
own time. We say nowadays that it is the upper tip or 'head' dwelling. Hence, the expressiveness of the verse:
of the sperm that solely carries the sex determination factors.
"Surely the spider's is the frailest of all
One of the phenomena that God brings forward as a dwellings, if they but know it."
challenge to those who deny resurrection is the shaping of the The Spider, 41
human finger with the formation of the finger-prints: The last words- 'if they but know it'- are significant; for they
118 119
indicate that such knowledge about the frailty of the spider's
helps to prevent hemorrhage after it. Ripe dates contain a
dwelling will come to light only ages later just as the other
laxative material and it is well-known that asperients of plant
biological mysteries ~ferred to by the Quran.
origin are useful in easing childbirth and making it safe by
In the sura called 'The Cave', we read this verse: cleansing the colon. The prescription of ripe dates and the
"They stayed in their cave three timing of their consumption with the 'throes of childbirth'
hundred years and nine more." reveal a remarkable scientific accuracy which, in fact, is not
The Cave, 25 strange to the Quran.

We now know that three hundred years in the solar calendar It was such scientific, figurative, and literal truth that God
exactly equal three hundred and nine in the lunar- to the day, referred to when He thus described the Quran :
minute, and second. "Falsehood cannot come at it from
In the sura of 'Mary', God - Exalted He be - narrates how before or behind."
Mary, when in labour, took shelter beside the trunk of a Fussilat, 42
palm-tree wishing that she were dead: "If it had not come from God, they
"And when the throes of child-birth could have surely found in it many
drove her to the trunk of the contradictions."
palm-tree, she said: 'Would that I had Women, 82
died ere this and become a thing of The contradictions meant here are both among the verses
naught, forgotten!' Then a voice cried themselves and between them and the established scientific
out to her from below her: truths discovered by the sciences. Both kinds of discrepancy
'Grieve not. Your Lord has placed a invariably plague works of human origin. More often than not
brook running at your feet. And shake we find the writer anxious to add, omit or emend every time
the trunk of the palm-tree toward you. he produces a new edition of a book of his. We observe, in
It will drop fresh ripe dates in your science, how theories succeed each other with the latter one
lap." exploding the former. However careful the writer may be, he
Mary, 23-5 is bound to fall into contradictions. This is a defect from
which the Quran is free.
Why, one wonders, was she called upon to eat of the ripe
Moreover, the Quran is a miracle on another level: it tells
dates of the palm-tree? The latest scientific study provides the
of a past that has not been recorded in history and about a
answer: ripe dates contain a styptic substance, oxytocin,
future which, at the time of Revelation, has not yet
which facilitates delivery by astringing the uterus and which
materialized. Its various prophecies have come true. About
120
121
the victory of the Eastern Roman Empire after its defeat at provide them with the earth's fruits so
the hands of the Persians, the Quran has the following to say: that they may be thankful."
Abraham, 37
"The Romans have been defeated in a
neighbouring land. But in a few years He was calling for sustenance to be provided for that infertile,
they shall gain victory." dry valley. Later on, God promised prosperity and wealth for
The Romans, 2-4 the inhabitants of Mecca when they expressed fears that His
injunction to prohibit the idolators from visiting the Ka'ba
'Few' in Arabic indicates a number between three and nine; would result in losses and economic stagnation (the Mecca
the Roman victory came seven years after their defeat. The 'boom' depended on pilgrims). God answered the Meccans
Quran similarly predicted the muslim victory at Badr: thus:
"Their (the infidel's) army shall be "If you fear poverty, God, should He
routed and put to flight." please, will enrich you through His
The Moon, 45 bounty."
Repentance, 28
It also prophesized their victorious entry into Mecca :
"God has fulfilled the vision He This promise is being fulfilled nowadays before our own
showed to His messenger in very eyes in the form of oil that flows almost without end from the
truth. You shall indeed enter the depth of the deserts with its prices shooting up madly sky-high
Sacred Mosque, by God's will, secure, one day after the other. It is equally fulfilled in the treasures
(having your hair) shaven and cut, not of uranium deposits hidden in those deserts and ensuring the
fearing,'' prosperity of the Arab countries to the end of time.
Victory, 27 The Quran also talks about the mysteriously hidden world
of the Unseen, of the secrets of the jinn and the angels which
Both events actually took place. were only imparted to a few chosen souls among the sufis. If
The Quran contains prophecies which we still see being those blessed spirits see anything, they see only what accords
realized in our own day; Ibrahim prayed to his God: with the words of the Quran. They only read what
corresponds to its secrets.
"Lord, I have settled some of my
offspring in a barren valley near your The Quran delivers to us the final word in politics, ethics,
Sacred House, so that they may systems of government, war and peace, the economy, society,
observe true worship. Put in the hearts marriage, and human relationships. It laid down perfect laws
of men kindness towards them, and that anticipated and excelled, in the relevant areas, those
123
122
included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for
instance. All this is presented in a unique style, a sublime
phrasing, and a stylistic and aesthetic structure that stands
apart in the history of the Arabic language.
When the mystic Ibn 'Arabi was asked about the secret of
the miracle of the Quran, he replied in one phrase: 'Absolute XIII
truthfulness'. The words of the Quran are absolutely true
whereas the utmost that any writer can achieve is to attain Doubts
'relative truth'; the most he can aspire to is to reach truth
according to his own vision. The extent of an individual's My friend resumed his arguments:
vision, however, is always limited and it changes form one You claim that the Quran never contradicts itself. Well,
time to another. Everyone of us comprehends only one side consider the follwing. The verse: 'Let him who will, believe in
of truth and misses many: we look at an angle and neglect it, him who will, deny it' (The Cave, 29) is contradicted by
others. The truth we reach is always relative. Only God another: 'Yet you cannot will except by the Will of God'
possesses omniscience and comprehensive insight. He alone is (Man, 30). The Quran says that guilty men will be questioned
capable of knowing the absolute, unchanging Truth. For this on the Judgment Day:
reason we say that the Quran is from God because it hit on
the abolute truth with regard to everything. "That which they assert will be taken
down. They shall be questioned."
Muhammad, peace be upon him, was asked to describe the Ornament, 19
Quran. He said: 'In it there is the history of what came before
you, the judgment concerning your own affairs, and mention "It is an admonition to you and to
of what will come after you. It is the perfect Book and God's your people. You shall be questioned
strong rope. It is the Straight Path. Any tyrant who deserts it all."
will be broken down by God. Anyone who seeks guidance Ornament, 44
elsewhere will be led astray by God. It is never indistinc~ to Yet, elsewhere it has this to say:
the tongue nor are minds misled by it. Its freshness is not
"The wrong-doers shall not be
staled by repetition. Scholars never have their fill of it. Its
questioned about their sins."
wonders are never over."
The Story, 78
This is our Book, my friend.
The wrong-doers, according to the Quran, will be known by
For all these characteristics, it could not have been their looks and 'they shall be seized by their forelocks and
composed by a human. their feet'. The Merciful, 41
124 125
 At one place the Quran makes it known that on the Day of heart. This means that He wants for man what man
Judgment no one will bind the guilty for punishment: intentionally and freely wants for himself. Man, in fact, is
"No one will be bound as he will predestined to what he has freely chosen. There is no
bind." compulsion, duality, or contradiction in this. Predestination is
The Dawn, 25 free will. This is indeed, one of the most difficult points in any
attempt to solve the riddle of predestination and freedom of
According to my understanding, this means that every the will. What you describe as a contradiction is, ironically,
evil-doer will undertake his own punishment. The Quran the unravelling of this mystery.
says: 'Your own soul shall on this Day call you to account.'
(The Night Journey, 14). In another place, however, we find As for the verses about the judgment of evil-doers, each
this verse: one of them concerns a different group of persons. Some will
"then fasten him with a chain seventy be questioned and their testimony heard, others, whose
cubits long." myriad sins show on their faces, will be known by their looks
The Inevitable, 32 and will be 'seized by their forelocks and their feet'. There
will also be the hardened disbelievers against whom their own
- I began to counter his doubts : hands and feet will testify:
What you have pointed out are not contradictions. Let us "On that Day we shall seal their
examine them together. 'Let him who will, believe in it, and mouths. Their hands will speak, and
who will, deny it' is an unambiguous verse indicating man's their very feet will testify to their
freedom of choice. 'This freedom, however, was not forcibly misdeeds.''
won form God. He gave it to us out of His own Will. This fact Ya Sin, 65
is pointed out in the second verse you quoted: 'Yet, you
cannot will, except by the Will of God.' Certain wrong-doers will call their own souls to account
Man's freedom falls within and not against God's Will. It tormenting them with sorrowful regrets and chastening them
can be exercised in a manner that contradicts what pleases with grief. Those will be the ones whom no one binds but
God - as when we choose to disbelieve - but it cannot go themselves. There will be, finally, those master criminals and
against His Will. It is always exercised within that Will even if tyrants who will even go to the extent of lying to God as they
it contravened divine pleasure. This is a very fine point which are brought before him and swear falsely in that dire
we tackled in our discussion of free will and predestination. situation:
We said there that predestination by God is the same as the "On the Day when God restores them
freedom of the human will; for God destines man to that all to life, they will swear to Him as
which exactly corresponds to the content of his intention and they now swear to you, and they will
126 127
 fancy that they have some standing. literally means 'that which rescues'). Rain in such profusion
Surely they are the liars." cannot be brought down by any scientific process.
She That Disputeth, 18
God's knowledge of what is concealed in wombs, on the
It is this group that will be put in long chains and dragged to
Hell with the faces of its members looking shamefully down. other hand, is a total, comprehensive prescience and is not
merely limited t0 the future baby's sex. It is a knowledge that
It may be added here that Abu Hamed el-Ghazali interprets
concerns the destiny of that new creature, what he or she will
the chains spoken of in the Quran as the 'chains of causes' on
which the criminals relied instead of God. be, what he or she will do in the world, and what his or her
history from birth to death will be like. This, certainly, is a
- My friend proceeded to ask me again: I would like to knowledge beyond the scope of any physician.
know your view on that 'Divine Knowledge' mentioned in
such verses as the following : - My friend resumed his questioning: What about that
"God alone has knowledge of the 'Chair of God' which, you say, is vast enough to contain or
Hour of Doom. He sends down the comprehend the heavens and the earth? And what about
rain and knows what every womb 'God's Throne' which, according to your description, is
conceals. No mortal knows what he 'carried by eight'?
will earn tomorrow, no mortal knows
where he will die." - Your own mind, my friend, an insignificant human as
Loqman, 34 you are in comparison to the universe, can comprehend the
heavens and the earth. How can you, then, imagine that
The Quran affirms that such knowledge is God's alone and is God's Chair will be incapable of containing them? The earth,
not given to anyone else: 'He has the keys of all that is the sun, the planets, the stars, and the galaxies are 'carried' in
hidden. None knows them but He.' (Cattle, 59). Yet, any space by God's Power; how can you find it strange, therefore,
physician nowadays can know not only what is hidden in that the Throne is described as being 'carried'.
every womb but also whether that embryo is male or female.
Scientists, moreover, are able to send down 'artificial rain' by - What is, then, the Chair and the Throne?
certain chemical processes.
- Tell me what the electron is and then I shall tell you what
- The Quran, I replied, did not mention 'rain' - as you the Chair is. Tell me what is electricity, what is gravity, what
allude in your last remark - but 'gaith' or a heavy, intense is time? In fact, you are not entitled to ask me about the
flood of rain that is sufficient to change the condition of an nature of God's Chair or Throne because you do not know
entire nation and save it by transforming its barrenness to the essence of any single thing. The world is full of mysteries
fertility and prosperity (hence the Arabic 'gaith' which and those two belong to them.
128 129
 - Very well, I wish you can so skilfully argue for the "and We enjoined on them charity,
Quran's story about the ant that talked to warn off the rest of prayer, and alms giving."
her race from the coming of Solomon's army: The Prophets, 73

"an ant said to her sisters: 'Go into In this way we can understand how God abrogates without
your dwellings, ants, lest Solomon and really blotting out in the bungling sense you implied.
his warriors should crush you without
knowing it." - What do you say about this verse: 'I created mankind
The Ant, 18 and the Jinn in order that they might worship me.' (The
Winds, 56)? Is the Almighty in such dire need of our
- If you had read even a little in entymology, you would worship?
not have asked about this phenomenon. Entymology lit~rally - On the contrary, we are the ones who desperately need
teems with elaborate studies of ant and bee 'languages'. That to worship him. I ask you, do you adore beautiful women
the ants have a language is now a certain fact. It would have under orders? Don't you find a certain pleasure in such love?
been impossible to distribute functions in a cell comprising Aren't you transported into ecstasies when you taste your
hundreds of thousands of ants, to organize them, and to beloved's beauty? It is thus with God who is more Beautiful
propagate orders and instructions among that huge mass than any beautiful being we know or can imagine. If you knew
without a means of communication or a language. There is His Majesty, Beauty, and Exaltedness, you would worship
nothing contradictory in that an ant recognized Solomon. him finding in such reverence the zenith of elation and
Didn't man know the existence of God? ecstacy.

- Let me further enquire how is it possible that God wipes Worship, as we see it, can only be based on knowledge.
out what is written in His Tablet of Fate? It is said in the God can only be worshipped by being known. Knowledge of
Quran: 'God confirms or abrogates what He pleases. His is God is the end of all kinds of knowledge and the crowning of
the Eternal Book'. (Thunder, 39) Can your God make a long line of 'knowing' that starts from birth. The first thing a
mistakes just as we do in our arithmetic calculations and go baby knows after he is born is his mother's breast; it is his first
about blotting out and confirming? Or is it that He corrects pleasure. The child, then, gets acquainted with his parents,
himself as we, poor humans, do? his family, his community, and his environment. He starts to
exploit that environment for his own use, turning it into
- God abrogates misdeeds by inspiring man with good another, new 'breast' supplying him with wealth, riches, and
actions. He says in His Book: 'Good deeds make amends for pleasures. He extracts gold and diamonds from the earth,
sins.' (Houd, 114). This is why he describes His good servants pearls from the sea, fruits from nature. Such is his second
thus: source of pleasure in life after his mother's breast.
130 131
 He then moves from knowing his earthly enviroment t< 1 Grandeur. We do not find humiliation or subjection in
exploring the heavens. He sets foot on the moon and launche-, worshipping Him but liberation and honour. We are liberated
his probes to Mars in a journey to the unknown thus enjoying from all the enslavements of the world, from desires,
an even more intense pleasure : that of discovering the appetites, ambitions, and money. As we come to fear God,
universe itself. we are no longer frightened by anyone else and we cower
That 'navigator' into space turns, however, to ask himself, before no creature. Fear of God is courage, worshipping Him
"Who am I that I have come to know all this?" He thus starts is freedom, humility before Him is dignity, and knowing Him
a new journey of knowledge with his own self as target this is certainty.
time. He sets out to know himself, to control its capacities,
and exercise them for his own good and for the benefit of Such is the nature of worship. We harvest its profits and
others. This is a third kind of pleasure. pleasures. God is in no need of anything. He created us so
that He may give and not take from us. He created us to
Following that, the summit of knowledge after invest us with some of his perfections. He is the All-Hearing
acquaintance with the self is knowledge of God who created and the All-Seeing and He gave us hearing and sight. He is
that self. With this final sort of knowledge man reaches the the All-Knowing and the All-Cognizant and He gave us mind
culmination of happiness for he comes to meet the Perfect, to take from His Knowledge and the senses to take from His
the Transcendent, the truly Beautiful above any beauty. Cognizance.

This is the pilgrimage of the worshippers to the worshipped In a Divine Utterance, God says to His favoured servant:
on the road of reverence. It is all happiness. If there are
"My creature, obey me and I shall make you
hardships in life, it is because pricks must bleed the fingers of
divinely-aided saying to a thing 'Be' and it
the rose pluckers. He who aspires to the summits of the
becomes."
infinite must toil to attain them. More marvellous and
wonderful is the attainment by the worshipper to the Wasn't that, in fact, what occurred to Jesus, peace be upon
knowledge of his God and the falling of the veils from his him? He resurrected the dead, created clay birds that came to
eyes. The mystic, clothed in rags, says, 'we live in such bliss life, and healed the blind and the leper - all by God's
that kings would fight us with swords for it, if they but know permission and aid.
how it is.'
Slavery to God, then, is the exact opposite of enslavement
This is the sweetness of sincere worship; it is the in the human sense. In the latter it means that the master
worshippers' share. But God is in no need of such worship or exploits the slave's powers. In the former, however, it is quite
of the entire creation. We do not adore him beacuse we are the contrary: it is the Master who bestows endless gifts on His
enjoined to do so but because we know His Beauty and slave and invests him with infinite perfections.
132 133
 When God says, 'I created mankind and the Jinn in ordL'r These are but few, deep meanings of that verse which
that they might worship me', this means in reality that HL aroused your doubts :
created men and Jinn only to grant and bestow on them love, "I created mankind and the Jinn in order that they
goodness, dignity, and honour and to invest them with glory
might worship me."
and vicegerecny on earth.
If you contemplated it carefully, it would have only aroused
The Lord God, the Absolute, has no need whatsoever of amazement and wonder in you.
our worship. We need such worship and all the boundless
honour, goodness, and gifts it confers. He, of His Grace,
permitted us to stand before His Presence at any time we wish
without any previous appointment. He allowed us to stay in
His presence as long as we desire and to call on Him as much
as we can. This is realized as soon as we spread the prayer mat
and open our prayer-s with Allahu Akbar (God is Greater).
We are, then, in His presence and can ask of Him what we
like.
I

Show me any king into whose chamber we can enter I

;I
without previous notice and stay in his audience as long as we I
wish. I
'I
Maulana Sheikh Muhammad Metwaly el-Sha'rawy, a good
man of God, has two beautiful lines of poetry on that divine I
I
gift:
I
It is honour sufficient for me that I am a creature ~I
fi
Welcomed without dates by my Master. ;I
Exlated He is in His Glorious Holiness,
But I meet Him whenever I like.
II
Maulana el-Sha'rawy says also in this regard: 'Do you think
that an artefact which is presented to its maker five times a t
day for inspection can malfunction?' He is referring, of
course, to the five daily prayers. !I
134 1 135

l
 XIV
Religion and Evolution

My friend said:
You are in a tight corner today; for you have to prove that
the creation of man really occurred in the magical manner
pictured by religion: the Creator moulding a piece of clay in
His hand and breathing into it and, abracadabra, there is
Adam! If you insist on adopting this view you will be sternly
contradicted by the science of evolution which says your
Adam came into being by a series of evolutions occurring to
some animal forms. He is not, in fact, completely separated
from his animal ancestry. He is, to be exact, a cousin of the
apes sharing with them his seventh 'grandfather'. The
unmistakeable similarity in the details of the anatomical
structure of all these life-forms is evidence that they are all
members of one family.
- I started to argue with him warming up for a heated
scientific controversy:
Let me first of all correct your knowledge of the religious
(Islamic) view of creation. God, according to that view, did
j. not create Adam in a 'hocus-pocus' manner: here is a lump of
11
clay, breathe in it and, voila, there is the first man. The Quran
presents a radically different account of Adam's creation. In
that account, creation occurs in stages, phases, and over an
extended time span measured in God's own scales. The
137
 Ouran did not say that man came directly out of clay but that l'hese verses indicate that there were stages starting with the
he emerged from a 'race' or 'breed' (solala) that came from creation out of clay which was followed by formation, then
clay: fashioning, and, finally, breathing of God's Spirit into the
"We created man from a breed creature: man. The word 'then' us'ed in this context, or the
( solala) of clay:" temporal dimension of the entire process, should be
The Believers, 12 understood in relation to 'divine time'; it could mean millions
of years:
At the beginning man was nothing worthy of mention: "Each day of His is like a thousand
"Didn't there pass on man a space of years of your reckoning."
time when his life was a blank Pilgrimage, 47
(insignificant thing)?"
God, exalted He be, defines the temporal phases of man's
Man, 1 creation in the 'Prostration' sura:
Man's creation, then, came in stages: "He first created man from clay, then
bred his offspring from a drop of
"Why do you deny the dignity of God
despised fluid. He fashioned him and
who has created you in gradual
breathed into him of His Spirit. He
stages?"
gave you eyes and ears and hearts;"
Noah, 13-4 The Prostration, 7-9
"We created you and gave you form. At the beginning, it is clear, there was clay. Then came a race
Then We said to the angels: 'Fall (solala) bred from semen or 'the despised fluid'. These were
prostrate before Adam.' They all fell the early, humble origins of man or the 'blank' insignificant
.I
prostrate except Eblis who was not thing spoken of by the Quran. Man was then moulded and
among the prostrate." fashioned. After that the 'spirit' was breathed into him and he
The Heights, 11 was', thus, endowed with hearing, sight, and 'heart' becoming
"Your Lord said to the angels: 'I am Adam. The first man, therefore, emerged at the end of a
creating man from clay. When I have ,I
series of evolutions and was not made instantaneously in the
fashioned him and breathed of my hocus-pocus style you imagine.
Spirit into him, kneel down and We read in the Quran: 'God brought you from the earth
prostrate yourselves before him." like a plant' (Noah, 17). This is a clear indication that creation
Sad, 71-2 was like the growing of a plant with all the evolutionary
138 139
phases, time, and gradation that this process passes through. exclude the possibility that each one of them derived from an
The real puzzle, however, concerns the exact nature of such independent origin or from a separate engineering concept.
phases or stages. Did the tree of life originate in its entirety
Moroever, it would be erroneous to say, for example, that
from one source or 'parent' ? This tree is basically of clay by
the hand-cart spontaneously evolved by dint of laws inherent
virtue of chemical structure, and it is a fact that all its forms
in it to become a horse-drawn carriage, an automobile, a
revert after death to their clayey origin. But by 'parent' we
steam locomotive, and a diesel locomotive in succession. The
mean something more than the clayey origin. The question
truth is that each of these inventions was realized as a result of
we want to pose is whether a primeval cell emanated from
a mental mutation in the inventor's mind and a creative leap
that primitive clay and multiplied to yield all those genuses
in the engineer's. No one invention emerged from another
and species of plants and animals including man; or whether
though the temporal succession in which they appeared may
there were various beginnings: one origin evolving into
lend credence to such view. What really happened was
plants, another developing into such animal branch as the
something else : every invention 'of the above started
sponge for instance, a third from which fishes evolved, a
independently as a creative mutation in the inventor's mind.
fourth whose development yielded reptiles, a fifth from which
birds emerged, a sixth forming the matrix for the evolution of
This illustration throws light on Darwin's errors and the
mammals, and a separate beginning from which man evolved
pitfalls and lacunae he fell victim to when formulating his
thus having an ancestor of his own like the other genuses?
theory.
The anatomic similarity among the branches, genuses, and Let us review what Darwin wrote in his Origin of Species.
species of the tree of life does not exclude the evolution of The first thing he discovered during his voyage on The Beagle
each genus from a distinct origin. Such anatomical similarity was the identical anatomical plan on which all animal species
in all life forms, however, is evidence to the unity of their were moulded. The skeleton, for example, is the same in most
Maker because they are all fashioned out of one material, in vertebrates. The arm in the ape corresponds to the bird's wing
one method, and according to one plan. This is the only and that of the bat. Every piece of bone in it is matched by
necessary conse.quence of the similarity. But it does not another in those wings with slight modifications to suit the
inevitably follow from this fact that all life forms evolved from function of the member. The bones in birds are thin, tender,
one ongm. light, hollow, and covered with feathers.

Consider, in this regard, the similarity we observe in the The long neck of the giraffe contains seven vertebrae: the
means of transportation. The car, the train, the tram, and the same as in man's and as in the hedgehog's which is too short
diesel locomotive are all built round similar mechanical and to be called a neck. Man's hand has five fingers and we find
structural principles indicating thereby that they are all the same quinary formation in apes, rabbits, frogs, and
inventions of the human mind. This, nevertheless, does not lizards. Pregnancy lasts nine months in whales, apes, and
140 141
 human females, while sucking takes two years in the three gills. These, then, wither away and the lungs appear. At
"pecies. The tail vertebrae in apes are found merged and another stage it develops a tail which, in turn, disappears. At
telescoped in man's caudal bone or the coccyx. The tail one time it is covered with hair which later on recedes.
muscles have changed in man into a solid bottom for the
Rock layers tell us, through the fossils they preserve, a
pelvis. The heart with its four chambers and the layout of the
concatenated story about the emergence and disappearance
body's arteries and veins are identical in horses, donkeys,
of one genus after the other: from simple mono-cell animals,
rabbits, pigeons, and men. The same similarity of structure is
to myriad-celled ones, to molluscae, to crustaceans, to fishes,
observed with regard to the digestive apparatus: the pharynx,
to amphibians, to reptiles, to birds, to mammals, to man.
the stomach, the duodenum, the small and the large
intestines, and the anus, in that order. The genital apparatus Darwin was right, in fact he was a genius, when he laid
is similar in all: the testicles, the ovary, and their ducts. The down that invaluable premise of anatomical similarity among
urinary apparatus is also common to all : the kidney, the animals. He was equally on the right track when he posited
uriter, and the bladder. The breathing system consists of the the hypothesis of evolution.
same components: the trachea or windpipe, and the two He fell into error, however, when he hazarded an
lungs. The lung in amphibians is the floating bag in fish. explanation of the process of evolution and his conception of
the phases and details of such process was mistaken.
In the light of all such correspondences it was natural for
Darwin to conclude that all animals are members of one For Darwin believed that evolution is solely motivated by
family scattered in and differentiated by various latent materialistic factors. Animals fight with tooth and claw
environments. Each species, according to his conception, in a bloody and terrible struggle for survival. The weak are
adapted to its own environment. The whale in arctic zones eliminated and survival is always for the fittest. Such war
developed a coat of fat while the bear put on one of fur. The raging in nature is the power that picks out the strong and
skin of jungle man living under equatorial sun became black well-adapted creatures fostering them, preserving their
like a protective umbrella against the scorching rays. The eyes offspring, and opening up before them the vistas of life.
of cave lizards atrophied because useless in the dark and they
became blind, while their prairie brethren still retain their This theory may explain the survival of the stronger but it
sight. Those animals that took to the water developed their does not account for that of the beautiful. A pied wing has no
limbs into fins and those that took to the air evolved theirs more physical advantages or survival value than a plain, white
into wings. Those destined to walk the earth transformed one. It is certainly no more efficient in flight. If we grant that
their limbs into legs. a male seeking for mate prefers one with a pied wing, a
question will immediately arise as to the reason for this since
Doesn't the embryo in fact, give the process away? At a the variegated colours do not represent any increment in
certain stage of its development we find it breathing through efficiency. If we include preference for the more beautiful in
142 143
our estimation, as we are bound to do in the light of the weeds out the older feature because of its inappropriateness.
previous question, the materialistic interpretation collapses In this way, evolution from ordinary to membraneous legs
completely. takes place.

In the latter case the theory remains incapable of explaining This thory erred when it established evolution on the basis
why something like the horse should branch out of the donkey of haphazard mutations and mistakes. It totally overlooked
family, or why a beautiful, delicate and sensitive animal like any element of planning or creativity. Chance mutations can
the gazelle should evolve out of the ibex, although it is less never be valid bases for an explanation of the inventiveness,
strong and tough than members of that species. One wonders accuracy, and precision we observe in everything around us.
about the way in which that theory can account for the A mosquito, for instance, lays its eggs in a swamp.
hoopou's wing, the peacock's feathers, and the amazingly Miraculously, it seems, every egg comes into being equipped
spotted and wonderfully coloured types of butterflies. In such with two bags to help it to float. From what quarter, one
phenomena we discern the hand of a master artist inventing wonders, did the mosquito learn Archimedes'laws so that it
and creating. We are no longer in the realm of a crude and equipped its eggs with those floating bags? Consider also
rough business like the war of survival and the struggle of those desert trees that produce 'winged' se.eds which fly for
tooth and claw. miles with the wind and are spread over vast areas. In what
school did these trees know enough about aereal lift laws to
The second error in the theory of evolution came at the enable them to make such winged seeds that fly hundreds of
hands of the advocates of 'mutation'. Mutations are new miles in search of suitable grounds for growth?
characteristics that unexpectedly appear in the offspring on
account of incalculable changes occurring when the male and There are, again, those 'carnivorous' plants that equip
female cells join in mating and the chromosomes responsible themselves with snares and remarkable 'booby traps' to catch
for determining hereditary characteristics cross with each and swallow up insects. With what mind were they able to
other. devise these tricks ?

Sometimes the new characteristics may be detrimental in In such examples we are, in fact, before a Comprehensive
the case of deformities and disfigurements. At other times, Mind that thinks and invents for His creatures all sorts of
however, the mutations may be useful and appropriate for the ways and means. Evolution is unthinkable without that
animal's new environment. An animal that takes to the water, Creative Mind:
for example, may develop flat feet. This new characteristic is "He that gave all creatures their
certainly beneficial; for such type of feet is more suitable for distinctive form and then rightly
swimming. Nature, then, fosters this characteristic. It guided them."
transmits it to the new generations and, at the same time, Ta Ha, 50
144 145
 The third difficulty facing Darwin's theory is the recently of undeveloped animal life. We remember agam m this
discovered chromosome or gene chart. It is now known that context the verse:
every animal species has a chromosome chart peculiar to it
"Didn't there pass on man a space of
alone. It is impossible that any species did or could evolve
time when his life was a blank
from another because of the difference in chromosome
(insignificant thing).''
charts.
Man, 1
We conclude from the previous review that Darwin's
The truth, in spite of all, still remains an unsolved riddle.
theory is shaken. Although anatomical similarity among
No one can claim that he has attained it. What really occurred
animals and evolution itself are widely accepted facts, the
in creation may have been totally different from our own
stages and the nature of the latter process are still a mystery.
views and those of scientists. The entire subject continues to
Were there separate beginnings for the various genuses or do
be open for investigation. All that science has ventured so far
they all go back to identical origins?
are guesses.
Evolution is clearly mentioned in the Quran just as the
stages of creation, formation, fashioning, and breathing of
spirit are. Science, however, has not yet been able to
formulate a valid theory that can explain these stages.
If we go back to the 'Prostration' sura, we will find the
following account of creation:
"He first created man from clay then
bred his offspring from a drop of
despised fluid. He fashioned him and
breathed into him of His Spirit. He
gave you eyes and ears and hearts;"
Prostration, 7-9

The meaning is quite clear: those early origins of man from

which Adam later evolved and which procreated by means of
a 'despised fluid' had no hearing or sight or 'heart' (in the
sense of mind or reason). These faculties evolved later on
when the spirit was breathed into Adam in the last stage of his
'moulding'. Such origins, then, could have been some forms
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 XV
'There Is No God But Allah'

My friend said:
Don't you agree with me that you over do the use of the
phrase 'there is no god but Allah' as if it were a key that opens
every door? You bury your dead and receive your new-born
babies while repeating this phrase. You engrave it on seals,
decorate necklaces with it, print it on coins, and hang it on
walls. You say that whoever pronounces it from your number
will have his body saved from Hell(,fire. If any one utters it a
hundred thousand times, he will go the Paradise, as if it were
a magic talisman, a charm to. scare the jinn away, or fairy tale
bottle for holding giants captive.
There is, moreover, those mysterious letters with which
many Quranic suras open and which have no apparent
meaning for you: A.L.M., K.H.Y., A.S., T.S.M., H.M.,
A.L.R., etc.
Will I escape torment if I uttered 'there is no god but
Allah'? Well, if yes, then I hereby utter it in your presence as
a witness along with those who are present with us today:
'There is no god but Allah'! Is it all over now?
- You have not said anything, my friend.
This phrase benefits those who act its meaning out, it is not
for those who pronounce it with the tip of their tongue. It
implies a method of action and a life plan; it is not just the
149
aggregate of some letters. Let us study its meaning. When we with accumulating money, heaping wealth, flattering the
say 'there is no god but Allah' we really mean that none is to rulers, ingratiating himself with superiors, seeking pleasures,
be worshipped except God. Our entire creed can, in fact, be following his prejudices and whims, narcissistically clinging to
found in the negator Ia (no) and the exceptive ilia (but), in the his opinions, and fanatically upholding his own viewpoint has
negation and affirmation that both words indicate. Between not really said 'no' to all these objects of his worship. He is
negation and affirmation lies our whole creed. prostrating himself before their altar unknowingly. If he says
'there is no god but Allah', he is lying; he is merely uttering
'La' denies divinity to anything. It denies it to all the
with his tongue that which he does not confirm by the actions
worldly pleasures we worship: wealth, splendour, power,
of his limbs.
lusts, fine living, gorgeous women, luxurious affluence,
pomp .. We refuse to be enslaved by these or worship them. 'There is no god but Allah' really means that there is no
We deny divinity to them. By 'Ia' we also restrain our own reckoner or observer except God. He alons is worthy of being
selves that desire them. For man is wont to worship his own feared and watched. Whoever fears sickness, the microbe, the
self, his own opinion, prejudice, will and whim. He is policeman's baton, or the ruler's soldiers has not truly said
naturally prone to adoring his intelligence, talents, and fame 'no' to all such false gods. He remains in their service joining
and imagining that with them he can control events and a host of fake gods with his Creator. He lies even if he utters
people and even the entire society around him. He, thus, 'there is no god but Allah'.
deifies himself without knowing it. It is against such
All this proves that 'there is no god but Allah' is a
aggrandizement of self that we say 'no' or Ia; we refuse to
covenant, a constitution, and a way of life. It is intended to be
worship or confer divinity on it.
enacted. To whomever acts according to its full implications,
We say 'no' to the director, to our superior, and to the it really becomes a talisman opening all recalcitrant doors. It
ruler. We decline to accept them as gods, for 'god' here will save him in this and in the next world and will be his
means an agent or doer and the true agent, in our belief, is gateway to Paradise. A mere utterance of that phrase with the
God alone. All else are mere means or causes. We therefore tongue without heart-felt belief or bodily actions confirming it
' '
say 'no' to the director, the minister, and the president; to is quite useless.
wealth, splendour, power ,and to the self with all its talents
In addition, 'there is no god but Allah' expresses a
and intelligence. We refuse to confer divinity on them.
philosophical httitude. Dr Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, the
By 'ilia' (but), on the other hand, we except only One Egyptian writer on philosophy, says that th'is testimony
Being from the attitude outlined above, a Being with regard implies the admission of three facts : that the utterer or
to whom we confirm such agency and potency: God. witness exists, that the entity indicated by the witness exists,
Our entire creed falls between Ia and ilia, between negation and that the persons before whom the testimony is delivered
and affirmation, as I said. Anyone who is totally preoccupied also exist. It is, to put it more simply, a clear admission that
150 151
the self, God, and the others have a real existence. my friend, lie twice when you utter that testimony. Firstly,
you are admitting what your materialistic philosophy denies.
Islam, thus, rejects both philosophical idealism and
Secondly, you do not act according to the implications of the
materialism. It repudiates both the right and the left choosing
testimony even for one second of your life.
for itself a mediate position. It rejects philosophical idealism
because it does not recognize the existence of others or that of As for the mysterious letters - A.L.M., K.H.Y. ~.S.,
the objective world as an external fact independent of mind. H.M., A.L.R., etc -let me ask you first about the y's and x's
2
Everything, according to this philosophy, occurs in the mind in algebra, the logarithms, and the energy equation: E = mc .
just like dreams or thoughts. You, as a person, the radio set, All these are mystifying riddles for anyone who is ignorant of
the street, society, the newspaper in my hand, and all the wars mathematics and algebra. For those, however, who are
around us are only events or visions that take place in mind. welll,versed in such studies,. they carry very important
The external world does not really exist. meanings. In a similar manner, the Quranic letters will be
found to have profound significance when their meanings are
This extremist idealistic postion is rejected by Islam and
denied by the testimony of 'there is no god but Allah'; for that revealed to us.
testimony, as I said,is a frank admission that the witness, the - My friend interrupted sarcastically:
entity attested for, and those present when it is delivered- the And have their meanings been divulged to you?
self, God, and others- are all accepted facts.
- I replied dropping a bombshell:
Islam similarly rejects philosophical materialism because
that creed accepts only the objective world and denies This is a very interesting subject. It needs a lengthy
anything beyond it; it denies the unseen and God. exposition which may amaze you.

In this attitude, Islam advances a realistic philosophy and

manner of thinking. It recognizes the existence of the
objective world and, then, adds to that world all the
magnitude that the unseen existence of God confers. It
presents, in fact, a synthetic structure combining the ideas of
both left and right within a comprehensive philosophy that
still challenges the efforts of thinkers by surpassing their
probabilistic theories which are not established on any
certainty.
The testimony of 'there is no god but Allah', then, implies a
way of life and a philosophical stance. As a materialist, you
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 XVI
K.H.Y.' A.S.

- I said to my atheist interlocutor:

You must have been startled the first time you read those
separate letters at the opening of some Quranic suras. I mean
such clusters as: H.M., T.S.M., K.H.Y. 'A.S., K., S., and so
on. I wonder what did you say to yourself then.
He just pouted his lips indifferently muttering indistinctly:
3 Well!
- Well. what?
- Well, I thought that your prophet was merely impressing
you with such trick.
- Very well, let us examine that 'nonsensical talk' with
which you think our prophet tricked us.
Take, for example, a rather short sura like 'Qaf'. If we
count the occurrences of the letter K (Qaf) in it, we will find
that they are fifty seven. Consider the sura which follows it,
Counsel, which is twice its length and opens also with the
letter K. You will find that this letter occurs fifty seven times
also. Is this a mere coincidence ?
If we add up those occurrences of the letter K, we will have
a hundred and fourteen: the number of the suras which the
Quran contains. Do you remember how the sura of Qaf opens
and how it ends? It begins: 'K. By the glorious Quran' and
155
 ends with the verse: 'Admonish with this Quran whoever rhus the letters' frequency of occurrence is in the same
fears My warning'. These are more like hints indicating that K descending order in which they are ranged at the sura's
(Qaf) symbolizes the Quran. Remember that the letter K beginning: A.L.M.R.
occurs a hundred and fourteen times in both suras which, as I
said, is the number of the Quran's suras: The computer, then, worked on the averages of these
letters' occurrences in the Quran as a whole. It fed back to us
- My friend said nonchalantly: the following bombshell : the highest rates or averages for
these letters are in the Thunder sura which, with regard to
These are just coincidences. them, is mathematically superior or preponderant to any
- I continued calmly: other sura of the Quran.
Let us continue our probing. Feed all the Quran's suras into The same thing happened in the statistics concerning the
a computer and instruct it to give us some statistics on the opening A.L. M. of the Cow sura:
average occurrence of the K letter in them.
A. occurs 4592 times.
- He became totally alert and tensely attentive saying: L. occurs 3204 times.
Has this been already done? M. occurs 2195 times.

- I replied quietly: Yes, it has. The frequency of occurrence is in the same descending order
3 What was the result? found at the opening of the sura: A.L.M. The computer
further revealed that these letters have mathematical
- The computer informed us that the highest averages and preponderance over others within the Cow sura. A similar
rates occur in the Qaf sura. This sura is mathematically ratio is found in 'The Imrans' which also opens with A.L.M. :
"superior" to all others in the Quran with regard to this
particular letter. Is this another coincidence? A. occurs 2578 times.
- How strange! L. occurs 1885 times.
M. occurs 1251 times
- The 'Thunder' sura opens with the letters A.L.M.R.; we
fed this into the computer and it gave us an account of the The same correspondence is observed between the
occurrence frequency of these letters in the sura:
descending order of frequency and that of occurrence at the
A. occurs 625 times. opening of the sura. Likewise, these letters are found in this
L. occurs 476 times. sura in a higher rate than the other letters of the alphabet.
M. occurs 260 times. The Spider sura opens with A.L.M. These letters are
R. occurs 127 times. distributed in it in the following manner :
156
157
 A. occurs 784 times. opening K.H.Y.'A.S. of 'Mary' where their average
L. occurs 554 times. occurrence frequency is higher than in all Meccan suras.
M. occurs 344 times.
The same results hold in the case of all the suras opening
This is the same descending order of their occurrence at the with the letters H.M. If these suras are put together, the
opening of the sura. They are also found in it in a higher ratio occurrence frequency of the H.M. letters is found to be higher
than the other letters of the alphabet. The 'Romans' begins in them than in all Meccan suras. This fact applies also to the
also with A.L.M. and these occur in the following frequency two suras beginning with S : Sad and The Heights (the last
ratios: actually opens with A.L.M.S.). These two suras were
A. is found 547 times. revealed successively in this order. If they are taken together,
L. is found 196 times. they will be found to preponderate mathematically over all
M. is found 318 times. other suras of the Quran with regard to the average
occurrence frequency of these letters with which they open.
Again, this is the same descending order of their occurrence
at the start. These letters have, as in the previous cases, a A similar phenomenon is noted in all suras starting with
higher ratio of occurrence than any others of the alphabet in A.L.R.; namely, Abraham, Jonah, Houd, Joseph, and
the same sura. Al-Hijr. Four of these were revealed in succession and if
taken as a unit, computer read-outs on them will show the
Among all the suras opening with A.L.M., we find that
highest average of occurrence frequency for the letters
those revealed in Mecca are mathematically preponderant,
A.L.R. among all Meccan suras. In 'Ya Sin' the same thing
with regard to the average frequency of occurrence of these
obtains but in reverse, as it were, with regard to the letter
letters, over the other Meccan suras. We also find that those
sequence Y. S. because the Y., the last letter in the Arabic
suras revealed in Medina and beginning with the letters
alphabet or 'ya', comes before the S (sin). That is why we
A.L.M. are similarly mathematically preponderant, with
note that the frequency of occurrence for these two letters in
regard to the average frequency of these letters, over the
this sura is, in fact, lower than in all other suras of the Quran
other Medina suras.
whether revealed in Mecca or Medina.
The same phenomenon _is observed in connection with the
My friend fell silant and I went on to reassure him by saying
cluster A.L.M.S. which opens the 'Heights'. The computer
that I was not making up all these figures. As a matter of fact,
informs us that the average occurrence frequency of these
I was quoting from a study by an Egyptian scientist, Dr.
letters is highest in that sura which is mathematically
Rashad Khalifa, who lives in America. His book, Miracle of
preponderant in this regard over other Meccan suras.
the Quran, (published in English by Islamic Productions
In 'Ta Ha' it is found that 't' and 'h' occur in frequencies International, St. Louis, Missouri), contains the details of his
higher than in all Meccan suras. The same happens with the research. I presented that book to my friend. He leafed
158 159
through it in silence and I continued my talk to him: advance statistical averages for its letters is another
You see, it is no longer a question of chance. We are before impossibility. It is a task of which the All-Knowing alone is
precise laws and carefully calculated placing of letters each of capable. It is He who knows everything before it occurs and
which is weighed as if with an exacting scale. I read to you the calculates swifter and more accurately than all imaginable
appropriate verse from the Quran. computers combined. God alone, whose Knowledge has
comprehended everything, can do this. The individual letters
"It is God who has revealed the Book with which the suras open are only symbols of His Knowledge
with truth and justice." imparted by Him in His Book and left for us to discover as
Counsel, 17 time goes by:
And what a sort of justice have we here! We are before such a "We will show them Our signs in all
finely just scale that it can weigh a hair or a letter. With the regions of the earth and in
findings like these the idea that the Prophet was the author of themselves, until they clearly see that
the Quran is no longer tenable. It is inconceivable to imagine it is the truth."
him saying to himself in advance of composing the Quran, "I Fussilat, 53
will fashion the Thunder sura on the letters A.L.M.R. and I am not saying that what has so far been uncovered contains
put in it the highest average of occurrence frequency for these all the secrets of these letters. It is just a beginning that has
letters in the entire book." been made; no one yet knows to what horizon will it lead us.
It is to be asked where could he have found anyone to With the new significance now seen in such letters, the idea
undertake providing him with these statistical averages. Such that the Quran had been composed can be completely and
a task can only be accomplished by an electronic computer. If finally refuted. This significance puts us before accurate
the Prophet had attempted it himself, he would have calculations and profound meanings for every letter so that no
undoubtedly spent several years just to calculate the letter one dare allege that this is just mere scribbling. Can't you see,
dispositions for only one sura - adding and subtracting at the my friend, that you face here a species of language that
level of knowledge available in his age. He was not even cannot be described as just a string of letters?
aquainted with the knowledge of his age. It is to be further
enquired whether he occupied himself with composing or with My friend did not answer, but kept browsing through that
the calculation of the letter placements. We confront here an book I gave him without uttering a sound.
impossibility.
Moreover, if we take into consideration that the Quran was
revealed in small, separate parts along a time span of twenty
three years, we will certainly conclude that formulating
160 161
 XVII
The Miracle

My friend said:
- I don't pretend to understand how it is possible for the
Merciful God - whom you describe as the Ruthful, the
Benevolent, the Bounteous, the Oft-Pardoning, and the
Remitter to command His Prophet and 'close friend' (khalil),
Abraham, to slaughter his son? Don't you concur with me
that this is rather difficult to believe?
- It is obvious from the context and events of the story that
God's wish was not for Abraham to slaughter his son. The
proof is that no such thing happened. Divine wish was that
Abraham should 'slaughter' his excessive fondness and love
for his son and deep attachment to him. It is impermissible
that there should be any clinging in the heart of a prophet for
any thing other than God: neither world, nor son or
splendour or person. A prophet's heart should not be
attached to any of these things. As is known, Ismail was born
to Abraham in his old age and senility. He was, therefore,
excessively fond of and attached to him. Hence, God's trial of
His prophet was necessary. What the story narrates supports
this interpretation. For when Abraham succumbed to his
God's command and drew his knife to slaughter his son, the
commandment came from heaven with the sacrificial lamb.
- What do you think, then, of Abraham's wonderful
miracles such as his entry into fire and exit without being
163
burnt? What have you also to say about the miracles that Indeed, history records that when some colonialists arrived
occurred to Moses when he transformed his staff into a in Africa in a plane landing in the jungle among a crowd of
serpent, or when he used the same staff to part the sea, or primitives, the naked negroes fell prostrate on their faces,
when he drew out his hand from under his armpit white as beat their drums, and sacrificed offerings thinking that God
lily? Don't all these 'miracles' appear to you as a juggler's has descended from his heavens and that what had happened
show in a circus? How can God go about proving His is a violation of all laws. We, on the other hand, know that an
Omnipotence and Greatness by such acrobatics which are, in aeroplane flies and lands according to certain laws and that it
essence, instances of the irrational and of the contravention of is designed in line with precise engineering laws. Its flight in
natural order? Don't you say, in effect, that the strongest the air is a perfectly reasonable matter; it does not contravene
proof of God's Greatness is the order, reason, control, and the law of gravity. It transcends that law by another; namely,
laws which govern throughout the universe without being that of action and reaction. We are, in fact, dealing with a
violated? case of hierarchy of laws, and not with one where laws are
violated. To give an example, we know that water climbs up
- Your understanding and conception of miracles are inside the trunk of the palm-tree in an apparent violation of
erroneous. You see them as juggler's tricks and irrational the law of gravity. It does not, in truth, contravene that law
violations of law. The truth about them, however, is but acts in accordance with a group of laws which overrule
something else. gravity in that particular instance. These are the laws of the
integrity of the water column, of capillarity, and of osmotic
Allow me to use an illustration to clarify the matter for you.
pressure. All of them act to draw the water up the palm-tree
If you were destined to travel three thousand years back in
time and enter upon Pharaoh in that bygone age with a trunk.
transistor radio the size of a matchbox in your hand which Thus, we are never outside the pale of reason or of the
'sings and talks' all on its own, wouldn't he and his entire ratipnal. What occurred in miracles was not an acrobatic
retinue be stupefied and damn the thing as a miracle, a work show. The stupefaction of the primitive negroes was due to
of magic, an irrational absurdity, or violation of all laws. We their ignorance of such laws as governed the flight of the
know now, however, that there are no sue}) things in the plane. Your own wonder at Moses's parting of the sea or
innocent radio set. What actually happens in the transistors is turning the staff into a serpent, or at Jesus's raising of the
governed by and unfolds according to the laws of electronics. dead, or at Abraham's harmless stay in fire are all of the same
It is, in fact, quite reasonable. It would be more amazing if order as the primitives' amazement. You imagined that such
you were to enter upon the king of Babylon with a television miracles were irrational juggler's tricks and violations of law,
set in your hand showing pictures from Rome; and the while, in fact, they all occurred in harmony with divine laws
Assyrian king would certainly clap his hands in wonder if you which overrule the laws we are familiar with. Hence, they
turned a plastic disc before his eyes and it started to talk. represent species of order and of the rational, but ones which
164 165
are above our understanding. By such miracles God is not and earth, then penetrate them! But
demolishing order but giving us a glimpse of higher order and this you shall not do except by our own
laws and of the workings of a Mind too vast for us to authority."
comprehend. The Merciful, 33
Followers of the Baha'i sect have fallen into the same error Authority here or 'power' is divine knowledge which IS
you committed when they rejected miracles thinking that infinitely greater than that of man.
their acceptance is a contempt and degradation of reason.
They resorted, consequently, to rez,interpreting the Quran by
inventing other meanings for its words than those apparent.
Moses, according to this view, did not really part the sea with
his staff but the staff mentioned is the Law which parted or
distinguished the true from the false. Similarly, his 'spotlessly'
white hand is the symbol of benevolence; Jesus resurrected
spirits not bodies and he opened minds not sightless eyes. In
this way, those people played the trick of veering off the
literal meanings of the Quran to allegorical and figurative
interpretations and explanations whenever they met with
anything they found inconceivable.
They took that course of action because they
misunderstood the nature of miracles believing them to be, as
you also saw them, irrational violations of law and
contraventions of order.
As a matter of fact, we live now in an age in which miracles,
if they occurred, would no longer be found inconceivable. We
have seen science leading us to the surface of the moon. If
human science gave us all this power, surely divine knowledge
can grant us infinitely more.

Listen to this really beautiful verse :

"Mankind and jinn : if you have power
to penetrate the confines of heaven
166 167
 XVIII
The Meaning of Religion

My friend said:
3 Look, if there is really a Paradise as you say, I'll be the
first one to enter it. For I am, indeed, more religious than
many of those sheikhs of yours with their beards and rosaries.
- What do you mean by 'more religious'?
3 I mean I do not hurt anybody. I do not steal, kill, accept
bribes, envy others, have grudges, or intend evil for any
creature. I have only benevolence in my mind and my sole
aim is general good. I wake up and go to sleep with an easy
conscience and my motto in life is to reform things as best I
can. Isn't this religion? Don't you say that the essence of
religion is conduct?
- Ah, what you practice is something else called good
manners. It is, indeed, enjoined by religion but is not
symonymous with it. You are confusing religion with its
requirements. Religion has only one meaning; namely, the
knowledge of God; to know your God truly and to cultivate a
certain conduct and behaviour towards Him. It is to know
your God as He is- Supreme, Majestical, Near, Responding,
All-Hearing, and All-Seeing. It is to pray to Him kneeling
and prostrate in the reverence of creature to Creator. This
private dealing between you and God is religion. As for your
good conduct towards your fellow men, it is necessitated by
169
 religion and is, in fact, a God-oriented behaviour also. - What a miserable view you have of your God. He gave
Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Alms reach the you mind and you imagine him as an irresponsible fool. By
hand of God before that of the beggar". Whoever loves God God, you are certainly an atheist even of you well(, behaved to
will equally love his creatures and be charitable to them. If, the end of time. All your good deeds will be rejected and
however, your correct conduct and dealings are confined to thrown to the wind on the Day of Judgment.
men only recognizing and seeing nothing else beside them and
- Won't this be injustice?
this earthly life, you are a complete disbeliever be you ever so
well-mannered in your behaviour with them. Indeed, your - Quite the contrary, it is justice itself. You thought that
good manners in this case only prove your sharpness, your such deeds come out of your own self and have not been
sense of propriety, and your tactfulness. They do not prove inspired by the Guiding and the All-Sage who led and guided
your religiosity. You simply want to win people, to succeed in you. It is you who are unjust to your god denying his favours.
life. Your good behaviour is merely a means to worldly gains. This is the difference, in fact, between the good deeds of the
This is the bent of most disbelievers. believer and those of the atheist in case both are equal in their
external good manners and behaviour. Both may build a
- Believe me when I tell you that sometimes I feel the hospital for the treatment of the sick. The atheist says. 'I build
presence of a power. this grand hospital for the people.' The believer, however,
3 A power? says, 'My God guided my efforts to build this big hospital for
the people. I was only a means to the realization of this good.'
- Yes, there is an unknown power behind the universe. I
fully believe that there is. It is really a great difference. The latter person attributes
the good deed to its real author and source leaving to himself
- What, then, is your conception of this power? Do you
only the role of means; and he is thankful to God for even this
see it as a Being that sees, hears, understands, tends His
limited function praising Him for making him into a mediate
creatures with guidance and care, sends them scriptures and
cause. There is certainly a vast difference between pride and
messengers, and answers their calls and supplications?
modesty, arrogance and humility, tyranny and meekness.
3 Well, frankly, I don't believe in that conception. I don't Thfiit is why you do not pray or prostrate yourselves in your
even find it imaginable. Moreover, it seems to me naive and pagan creed of the electromagnetic power.
unworthy of that great power.
- Why should we pray? And to whom? I don't see any
- Then it is a blind, electromagnetic power that drives the point in your -prayers. Why all the various movements of the
universe in a meaningless, amoral push towards nothing. This body, wouldn't piety of the heart have been sufficient?
is the only appropriate description of your great power.
3 The point and wisdom of prayers is that the false pride
-May be! you dwell in be shattered the moment your forehead touches
170 171
the dust and your heart and tongue join in saying 'Exalted be purifies hearts. That is the reason why the Quran speaks in
my Allt.Sllblime God'. At this moment you will have finally most of the verses dealing with this matter about the 'purified'
realized your true position: you are the lower and He is the and not the 'sincere'. God, however, promised to guide to His
Supreme. You are dust walking on dust and He is a Being own path those who 'return'; that is those who repent and
exalted over the seven firmaments. revert to Him. So you have to return to Him and He takes
over from that point.
As for your question about the necessity of bodily
movements and why wouldn't heart-felt reverence be enough,
let me ask in my turn: why was your body created in the first
place? You are not satisfied with oral expressions of love but
you desire to kiss and hug. You would mock anyone who is
content with heart-felt generosity without giving out aid and
money. God created the body so that it may expose what is
hidden in your heart. What really fills your heart will overflow
to your body. If your piety is sincere, it will show on your
body making you kneel and prostrate yourself. If false, it will
not go beyond your tongue.

3 Do you think that you will go to Paradise?

- We will all pass across Hell and then God will save those
who feared Him. I don't know whether I have been a pious,
God-fearing person or not. This is only known to the the
Knower of the Unseen. All my deeds, regrettably, are mere
inkt.blots on paper. The deed may be pure but the design may
not. Intentions may be sound but sincerity may not. One may
think that he is making good deeds for God's sake while he is
really expending his efforts for the sake of fame and worldly
glory among men. We often delude ourselves. We let
illusions, wishful thinking, and false security take over us
unconsciouly. We ask God for safety.
- Can any mortal be pure of heart in his devotion to God?
3 He can't be sincere out of his own will but it is God who
172 173
 XIX
'We Won Worldly Happiness,
And You Got Delusions'

- My friend said with a note of joyous truimph:

We may disagree widely and argue for a long time. It is
certain, however, that we come off the better from our fight
with you. We won the happiness of this world while you
emerge only with a few delusions in your heads. What is the
use of talking when we have won the lion's share of this
world's pleasures. We have enjoyed parties to the small
hours, drinking, beautiful women, luxurious living and all
sorts of pleasures untarnished by the taboos of the forbidden
or haram. You, for your part, have only got your fasting,
prayers, remembranec of God, and the fear of Reckoning.
Who do you think is the real winner?
3 I am ready to concede that victory to you, if you have
really gained your happiness as you say. If, however, we
patiently consider the truth of the matter together, we will
find that the picture you draw of happiness- midnight parties,
drinking, pleasures unmolested by fear of the prohibition
taboo - is truly misery in essence.
3 How is that?
3 Such life is, in truth, slavery to insatiable appetites that
are no sooner satisfied than hunger again for more, and if
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they are sated they grow dull and weary and you fall into of animals? The Quran has hit on the perfect truth when it
torpor and sluggishness. described the 'unbelievers'.
Are the embraces of women the right place to find lasting
happiness in? We know that affections fluctuate, that passion "The unbelievers take their fill of
is volatile, and that beautiful women are seduced by mere pleasures and eat as the beasts eat; but
words of praise. The stories of lovers tell only of unhappiness Hell shall be their home".
which is exacerbated and crowned with greater Muhammad, 12
disappointments if the infatuation ends in marriage. For in
that latter estate each party will miss in the other the desired It is not denied that the unbelievers enjoy their life; but this
perfections he imagined were there. After the lust is slaked joy is like that of animals. Is it really a form of happiness?
and the desire abates each will come to see the other's defects This life of lust is only a series of stimulated desires, tensions,
blown large as if through a magnifying glass. consuming hunger, and gorging surfeit. It has no relation
whatsoever to true happiness which can only be attained in a
What about great wealth? It is merely another form of state of psychic peace and relief and of spiritual liberation
slavery. The wealthy, in fact, are put in the service of their from all kinds of slavery. In its final definition true happiness
riches; they are enslaved in the process of aggrandizing, is a state of peace between man and his soul, the others, and
collecting, and guarding them thus becoming their servants in God. This reconciliation, peace, and sense of internal
a reversal of the normal, or at least expected, course of quietude can only be reached through a certian expenditure
events. of effort when man devotes his strength, wealth, and health to
the service of others, when he lives in intention and deed a life
What about power and glory? Aren't they, in essence, of goodness and charity, and when his relationship with God
pitfalls leading to arrogance and tyranny. The person in is deepened by prayer and reverence reciprocated from the
power is like a rider on a lion: today he has the reins in his Divine by Help, Light, and Tranquility.
hand but tomorrow he is eaten by the beast that carries him.
Such happiness is the essence of religion. Didn't the mystic
And are wine, drugs, gambling, lechery, and secret sex in his rags cry out, 'We live in such bliss that kings would fight
umhampered by fear of the unlawful, aspects of happiness? us with swords for it, if they but know how it is'. Those who
They are, in truth, but forms of escape from mind, from tasted that bliss, the bliss of contact with God and peace with
conscience, from the spirit's yearning and human the self, know that the mystic is quite right.
responsibility by drowning oneself in the fire of lust and the - But weren't you just a few years ago 'one of us' drinking
rabidness of appetites. Is this really a higher style of life or a and painting the town red as we used to do? Didn't you
deterioration back to the hording of apes and the copulation express atheistic ideas in your book God and Man which
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outreached even the most disbelieving in its audacity? What the designs of intelligence, and the creations of an inventive
set you on the opposite course? hand.
I observed in nature an integrated, accurately wrought
3 God, may He be exalted, changes but is Himself not
structure in which everything coincidental or haphazard is
changed.
impossible. Every phenomenon cries out, 'I have been
planned by a designer and created by a Puissant Creator'.
3 I know that you attribute everything to God's grace. But
what was your role or effort in that transformation? I read the Quran and found in my ears a resonance and
rhythm unknown in familiar language. It staggered my mind.
3 I looked round me and found that death and dust are
It delivers the conclusive word in everything that it touches
absurd and meaningless jests. I saw the universe in which I
upon: matters of state, morals, legislation, the universe, life,
live precisely and accurately governed with no room for
the self, and society; and that in spite of its being revealed
aberration or disorder. If my life was meaningless and
more than one thousand four hundred years ago.
destined for nothingness, asthe 'absurdists' imagine, why is
it, then, that I weep, repent, or feel a burning yearning for The Quran accords with all that science discovered or
truth and justice willing to sacrific my life and blood for such invented although it was brought to the world by an illiterate
values. bedouin from a backward nation which did not know the light
I saw the stars moving in their orbs by law; communities of of civilization. I read the history of that man and of his deeds,
insects talking; plants seeing, hearing, and feeling. I saw that and I conCluded that he was a prophet. He could not have
animals have "ethics"; that the human brain, the wonder of been but a prophet and this wonderful universe could not
wonders, contains more than ten thousand million nerve have been created but by the Puissant God whom the Quran
connections all. working at the same time in a miraculous mentioned and described His works.
perfection. If just one fault occurred here or there, it would Having listened attentively to all I said, my friend spoke
immediately result in paralysis, blindness, loss of speech, trying desperately to feel his way to a last breach through
mental confusion, or hallucination. Such defects, however, which he can demolish my arguments:
are only exceptional. What power, then, maintains the safety
of this enormous machine and who endowed it with all those - What would happen if all your expectations arc
perfections? erroneous and you end up, after a long life I hope, in dusty
death that has nothing beyond it?
I saw .. beauty in the leaves of trees, in the feathers of
peacocks, and in the wings of butterflies. I heard delightful 3 I would not have lost anything ! I would certainly have
music in the chanting of hoopous and the chattering of birds. enjoyed as full, happy, and eventful a life as can be. It is you,
Wherever I turn my face I see the brush strokes of a painter, however, who will lose much if my beliefs are right and my

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expectations come true. I assure you, my friend, that they are I l"ww well that his guidance was not in my power. Didn't
true and that you will have a tremendous surprise. 1 ... d s;y to His Prophet:

While I was addressing him, I looked intently at his eyes "You do not guide whomever you will but God
and saw for the the first time a flood of terror flowing from guides whomever He pleases"
them. His lids were twitching and convulsing.
llut I hoped and prayed that my friend see the light of faith.
It was, however, a transient moment of fear. He soon I lw te is no sin or fate worse than disbelief.
regained his composure. But this was enough for me to realize
that for all his arrogance, obstinacy, and obduracy he was
standing precariously on the edge of a precipice of doubts,
emptiness, and nihilism clutching at nothing.
3 He resumed talking in a voice that he endeavoured to
charge with certainty:
You shall see that dust is all that awaits us or you.
- Are you sure of that?
And for the second time terror flooded his eyes.
-Yes.
He replied stressing every sound of the word as if in fear
that his accent may give him away.
3 You are lying. This is a matter of which we can never be
certain.
After our long conversation that night I returned home
alone. I knew that I had opened a wound in his soul. I had
undermined his crumbling philosophy and the holes will grow
more gaping with time. His weak logic will not be able to
mend them.
I whispered a prayer for him hoping that his terror may yet
save him; for when all paths for the entry of truth are barred
with obstinacy fear may be the only path left.
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