1.   REALITY

 

            

The fundamental question about the nature of Reality involves us in a vicious circle. This is because we want to know something but the thing to be known is prior to the process of knowing while the knowledge of it comes after the process of knowing. The fundamental facts are:- (1) That Knowledge is the fundament reality for us – unless we are conscious of something it cannot exist for us.. (2) That Knowledge is a relationship between Knower and Known – we must exist to know and we must know something. (3) That fundamentally a vicious circle is inevitable because the Knower, the Known and the Knowledge must form a self-consistent system such that its elements are inter-dependent.

To Know already requires certain assumptions that are prior to Knowledge:-

(1) Reality, something apart from the knower, some thing to be known exists. This is the first assumption. The fundamental self-existing Reality is called Allah in Islam.

(2) Consciousness exists. If it did not then we could not know reality. But if there was no Reality, then consciousness would not be real. Knowledge is consciousness of what is real and is defined as Truth. This is the second assumption.

(3) The contents of consciousness exist. This is the third assumption. We can distinguish between three kinds of contents:- (a)  Thoughts, feelings, and intentions etc. which we regard as being within us. (b) Interactions which are seen as events, movement and change that also give us the notion of behaviour and energy. (c) Sensations which we assign to a reality external to us and regard as material.

We have to recognise the existence of several different kinds and levels of Reality. The world described in scientific books is not at all like the world we see and experience daily. Though it is about that world it is a description. The world of our social interactions, the economics, the politics, the culture and so on is different from the world of nature. The objects and events we see on the computer or television screen certainly exist because we can see and react to them, but they have a different kind of reality from the objects in our homes. The characters and their activities in novels are fictions, but in the world of fiction they are also real - Novels do exist and they do have characters in them. The images and thoughts in our minds most certainly also exist. The world described by science is a subset of the world of ideas. That is a subset of the world of experiences. And that is subset of the world as it exists which we can define as the Absolute World, the Divine World. It is a common mistake to confuse these and come to false conclusions.

 

There is a similarity between these three parts of the third assumption and the three assumptions, and a distinction arises in thought between the Spiritual, the Mental and the Physical. These can be regarded as three levels or aspects of Reality. Man is said to have a body, a mind and a soul. The Body, like other material things, refers to his physical structure, composed of matter and extended and limited in space and time and separate from other bodies. The Mind refers to behaviour and, therefore, to energy. The behaviour of the individual is the resultant of the behaviour of all his organs, tissues, cells and their constituents, each of which has its own patterns of behaviour. The individual entity interacts with other things in the environment, receiving, transforming and emitting. The Spirit is a field of Truth or Information that pervades the whole of existence. It can be regarded as having a pattern in which all parts are inter-dependent. The soul refers to the part that is associated with an individual or a group, but is not separate from other parts. It bestows consciousness, conscience and will. It is not bound by time and space. But it can be withdrawn as in sleep and death (39:42).

Scientific research has shown that matter is a pattern of energy, a localised trapped or ordered energy. It can, therefore, be understood that matter comes out of energy and that there is an interaction between body and mind. They affect each other. In the same way energy comes out of Truth or Information and Mind out of Spirit, and there is interaction between soul and mind. There are also group minds and group souls. In so far as an individual functions only at a fraction of his potentialities, he could be regarded as a member of a group and reincarnation might refer to another member of the same group. A human being can be said to be formed and modified in three ways:- (a) Physically by the genetic information within him, his physical interactions with his environment and his physical efforts. (b) Mentally by the society and culture in which he is brought up. (c) Spiritually, by the interactions of his soul with the spiritual world. All these levels also affect each other. Similar considerations apply to all other entities.

These levels lead to a corresponding distinction between:- (a) Being (b) Knowing and (c) Behaving.  The state of Being leads to Knowing and that determines behaviour or action. That in turn creates or causes changes. It is the Being of Allah that creates consciousness which leads to creation.

Correspondingly there is also a distinction in Knowledge between (a) consciousness (b) Understanding and (c) Information.

We make a distinction between Values, meanings and facts, though these interact and are inter-dependent. Man is inter-dependent with his environment. He receives an input from it, processes it according to his inner nature and produces an output into the environment. The environment processes this and some of the products become an input for man. There is, therefore a continuous creativity. Man can be regarded as modifying himself directly by what and how he processes things or indirectly through the environment, and the environment can be thought of as modifying itself by its processes and through human beings.

Man requires knowledge, motives and abilities for action. The data obtained from sensation must be interpreted by analysis, association and synthesis and related to the person so that he can act. Facts refer to the data, values refer to the motives, and meaning refers to the processing. Human life requires all three. This is the fundamental reality of human existence.

In general, though all three are required, Science can be defined as placing emphasis on facts and information; Philosophy can be defined as placing emphasis on meaning and understanding, while Religion places emphasis on Values and consciousness, conscience and will.

Facts refer to that which exists independently of human manipulation while values refer to human consciousness, conscience and will, to his awareness, motives and actions, to purposes and goals. Meanings arise when values are imposed on facts. It refers to the significance and interpretation of facts, and, therefore, implies relationship, interaction and communication between man and the world he lives in. It refers also to method and technique. Values refer to the wholeness or unity, facts to the separate data of experience and meanings to the relationship of this data with the whole.

Facts can refer to the world external to man, or the world within him or the relationship between the external and internal, and hence to the relationship between human beings. Values and meanings can be divided similarly. There are meanings in connection with the way we relate to external objects, to each other or ideas and processes within ourselves. In general, science deals mainly with facts, Philosophy with meaning and Religion with values.

However, facts, meanings and values have no meaning except in relation to each other. Facts, for instance, have to be interpreted and this requires a framework of reference or a value system. Values do not arise in a vacuum, but refer to something. Things which do not have any connection with us are meaningless. These words - fact, meaning and value - themselves refer to something and have value and meaning. Thinking occurs only at this level.

Therefore, we have to distinguish between at least three levels:-

Level 1 - Existence itself in which no distinction is made between things - This level is understood in Islam as belonging to Allah.

Level 2 - Where we make the distinction between existence or reality, ourselves and the relationship between the two.

Level 3 - Where we think about facts, meanings and values.

 

It is not difficult to see that these three levels, themselves correspond to facts, meanings and values.

Since language is only one way in which we communicate or interact, then Language and the analysis, inter-relationship and synthesis of the meaning of words and concepts is only a restricted part of Philosophy. Philosophy includes the underlying attitude or framework of reference in which we interpret our experiences of Reality (Metaphysics), and the conceptual systems and procedures, by which we obtain knowledge (Epistemology), and the analysis and the inter-relationships between concepts (Logic). In modern days the word Philosophy is restricted to Logic. There is some justification for this, since we can distinguish between three kinds of thinking - intuitive, rational and empirical, and these correspond to Religious, Philosophical and Scientific thinking. But they also correspond to Metaphysics, Epistemology and Logic. Since Philosophy is purely rational thinking it should exclude Metaphysics. However, it should also exclude Logic. This ought to be a science and in this work it is treated as such. But it is conventional in modern days to restrict Scientific Logic to mathematics.

Since the terms facts, meaning and values are inter-dependent, it is not possible to make an absolute distinction between them. Therefore, even in philosophy, in purely rational thinking, these three aspects, namely Metaphysics, Epistemology and Logic can be distinguished, though they interact.

A problem is also a relationship between facts and values. This too must come under the scrutiny of Philosophy. Connected with this is the question of time, the connection between the past which provides the facts and the future which is related to values. The whole subject of the nature, interconnection and application of technology should also come under the scrutiny of Philosophy. And this includes industrial, organisational and ideological technologies. That is, not merely machines and crafts, but also politics and law, and techniques of thought and actions. In general, however, once a set of facts and a set of values is established, then such techniques can be left to the ingenuity of people. Different methodologies can reconcile one with the other in different combinations and to different extents, and they can be based on different facts for different purposes. One system can then coexist with others, and no controversy is necessary.

 

We define Reality as that which exists apart from Knowers or their knowledge, since things can come into or go out of knowledge. Reality is, therefore, more than knowledge, nor is the knowledge of something the same as the thing known. Hence no distinctions can be made within Reality. The Absolute fundamental unitary whole Reality is referred to as Allah. There is no distinction at this level between the Knower, the Knowing and the Known. They are the same. This is the level of the Absolute. When a distinction arises between the three then we have the level of the Relative. It requires three interdependent factors - two relata and a relating factor. But this is itself relative to the Absolute and cannot exist without it.

According to the Prophet Muhammad (saw):-

“Allah says: I was a hidden treasure. I wished to be known. Therefore, I created the World.”

The implication of this is that it is formula describing the cause, nature and purpose of the Universe, and its contents including human beings. The name Islam, “Surrender to Allah” encapsulates this purpose, but goes beyond it, to return to the original source and level of existence.

It could be said that for Allah the act of knowing is the same as the act of creating. In order to be known, He creates something other than Himself. However, creation comes out of Himself as there is nothing outside Himself. He surrounds all things. He transcends the Universe and is imminent in things. He is omni-present (Quran 2:115, 8:47, 57:3, 2:115) He is also within man by His Spirit. (32:7-9). It can therefore, be said that the Universe exists as an idea in the Mind of Allah. In essence, therefore, Reality is much greater than the Universe and Allah is the Whole of Reality. Creation is both part of Allah and not-Allah. No created things because of their limitations can be Allah, but they are instruments through which Allah works. A human being likewise is not his arm, for instance, though he can work through it. Every thing manifests His glory and power and His Attributes (3:83, 13:15, 17:44). To know Reality is to interact with Allah.

This then, describes the fundamental Reality of existence.

The Trinity in Christian Theology, Father, Spirit and Son could refer to the Knower, Knowing and Known respectively. It is, however to be noted that though Allah the Omniscient is the Knower of all things (2:282, 32, 181, 244, 4:11, 24, 35 etc.), it is man as the agent of Allah (2:30) having the spirit of Allah in him (32:9) who is required to know Allah, and He knows Allah through the Spirit that carries the Word of Allah. He is the Real (22:62), His Word is Truth (6:74) and He created all things with Truth (15:85, 16:3). Thus Allah is the Knower as well as the Known and the Knowing. The Quran, therefore, tells us:-

“Believe then in Allah and His messengers, and say not "Three." Desist! it is better for you. Allah is only one Allah…” 4:171

In Reality, there is only Allah. The distinction is made only in the mind. It needs to analyse in order to understand. Consciousness, however, sees the whole.

 

A study of the Quran shows that several levels of Reality should be recognised:-

(1) A distinction is made in Islam between

    (a) The Essence of Allah

    (b) His Attributes, Word, and Spirit that link Him to Creation.

    (c) His Creation, that is, the Universe and all its contents.

 

Thus we have a Triad, containing a Triad. In Essence He is Absolute Unity and unknowable, since knowledge is relative. This refers to existence before the Universe was created by the Big Bang or to the substratum which remains constant underlying all changes, that which is self-existent and conserved. He created the Universe by His Word. The Spirit emanates from Him and carries His Word. The Attributes refer to His manifestation in the Universe. Conversely, the Universe is created and known because of His Attributes. They are the categories of thought through which things are known. They are distinguishable from each other because they are different aspects or points of view. The Universe displays not only mass, energy and order but also life, intelligence and consciousness. These too, have to be accounted for. Allah is, therefore:-  

    (a) Transcendental as well as

    (b) Imminent, and being within human beings, also

    (c) Personal.

 

These three are linked:- T > I > P.  This can be represented by three concentric circles, man within the Universe and the Universe within Allah. The possibility of Knowledge for man arises because he possesses consciousness which is part of a Universal Consciousness that is a part of Allah’s Awareness. Absolute Reality can be described as that which Allah is aware of. It is the same as the total interactions of all parts of what exists. However, we need to distinguish between three kinds of subordinate Reality, each of which has sub-divisions:-

(i) Personal Reality. The fact is that for us Reality is what we think and believe to be real. It consists of mixtures to different degrees, of objective factors that we get from our interactions with our environment, subjective factors can from ourselves and social factors acquired from the culture in which we are brought up and live. These other, non-objective factors are, of course, also real. However, we are not generally aware of all our experiences and tend to be aware of different sections of it at different times.  This depends on degree of consciousness. The Nature of Personal Reality (its size, quality and order) is proportional to degree of consciousness.

(ii) Collective Reality. The collective experiences of a group, community, nation or mankind are greater than the experiences of the individual. But as individuals are affected by the community of which they are part, the Personal Reality of the individual also contains and is contained in the Collective Reality. Personal Reality can expand within Collective Reality depending on level of consciousness.

(iii) Universal Reality. Human beings are only part of the greater world. There are all kinds of interactions going on throughout the world. This also affects human beings. The Collective Reality of Humanity contains and is contained in the Universal Reality. Collective consciousness can expand depending on level of consciousness.

 

(2) But the process of creation which links Allah with the Universe also contains a triad. Three things should be distinguished:-

  (a) His Attributes that describe Him to the World and manifest in it.

(b) His Word or Command by which He created the Universe and which refer to the fundamental laws or order upon which the Universe and all things in it are based. We can, however, distinguish between  three things:- His Commands that refer to the forces and their laws; His ordinances that refer to the order within entities that define those entities and His Permission.

(c) The Spirit which is an emanation and may refer to the fundamental substance, and to the medium which carries the Word and Attributes.

   The Law of Gravity, for instance, is Universal, but the arising of a particular star and planet with their particular gravitational forces and resulting orbits are a separate matter. The existence of that which gives rise to Gravity or any other fundamental force is a fact about Reality. That all things tend to fall to the ground because of the gravitational force is a certainty. That a particular apple will fall off the tree and hit a person on the head is a possibility but not necessary. It may happen or it may not. If it happens, then it is also a fact, but one which is not of the same type as the other two. There is a degree of flexibility such that a distinction exists between Potentiality and Actuality. Events in the Universe do not only happen because they are determined directly, but also because they are permitted by the Laws. This allows a degree of Tolerance that allows amendments to be made.

 

(3) The created Universe has levels:-

“So He ordained them seven heavens in two periods, and revealed in every heaven its affairs (duties and functions); and We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars and made it inviolable (guarded); that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knower.” 41:12

“Allah is He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth the like of them. The Commandment continues to descend among them slowly, that you may know that Allah has power over all things and that Allah indeed encompasses all things in knowledge.” 65:12

 It is only the lowest of these heavens that contains the visible Universe. There may well be many Universes that have their own heaven and so on. The heavens can be represented by circle that contains smaller circles, each containing still smaller circles. They can be regarded as levels of Reality consisting of substances that range from the very subtle and flexible to the very coarse and rigid. This increasing rigidity downwards can be regarded as resulting from an increasing number of forces, laws or rules that differentiate out from a single original force described as the Word of Allah. The potentialities increase the higher one goes.

A distinction can be made between:-

(a) The level of the Absolute where there is maximum freedom. Order is necessary in order that some thing regular can exist by which we can recognised, predict and control. But Chaos is also necessary in order to give fluidity and flexibility by means of which changes can take place. Complete order creates rigidity where nothing can change. Complete Chaos means that nothing recognisable exists. At the level of the Absolute there is no distinction between the two.

(b) The level of Principles that restrict that freedom and establish the basic parameters.  There are changes throughout the Universe, but there is something constant behind the changes, Laws according to which changes take place. But these Laws are also changing though much more slowly. They too change according to something constant behind them.

(c) The level of Potentialities that causes further restrictions. At this level, Reality can be regarded as a field of all possible pathways or histories such that whatever path an entity takes, it can be seen as predetermined. This also gives rise to the idea of the Multiverse.

(d) The level of Actualisation – interactions cause the collapse of the potentialities into a single one. However, this is composite containing several elements. It has its own potentialities. This allows the existence of still further Actualities.

The Universe may, perhaps, be regarded as arising something as follows:- There is at first only Allah who is self-existing. There is a Field of Reality beyond quantum events which is not accessible to science. However unpredictable quantum events do take place. This may, perhaps, be referred to as the Mind of Allah. The fundamental substance becomes organised by the Fundamental Force, named the Will or Command of Allah, to form various structures. Some of these are fundamental particles which themselves become organised to produce another level of existence. Some of the units so formed, are again organised to form a third level of existence. And so on. An example is sub-atomic particles forming atoms that form molecules that form cells and so on. Thus multiplicity arises from Unity or Homogeneity. At each level the particles or objects interact to form a wholeness, but there is obviously an interaction between the various levels also. All objects have to adjust to each other. The units at each level can theoretically be organised in various ways to form many kinds of entities or creatures. Fundamentally, however, there is just a Field or Network of forces which contains centres or knots where the forces convergence or from which they diverge. These knots are organised to various levels.

The changes and events at all levels depend on the introduction of Truth, Information or Order from the higher to the lower level. Since things are separated and an object exists within an environment a distinction arises between:-

   (a) Inner order and events

    (b) Outer order and events,

    (c) Interactions between the two.

 

All are equally real and have some independence. Any one object may be regarded as an observer with respect to the other. It learns and is modified through its interactions. There is a process of involution towards increasing multiplicity, a process of evolution towards unity, and a balancing process between the two.

 

(4) There are levels of consciousness corresponding to these levels of Reality. A human being can be regarded as consisting of these levels of Reality. Each level has its own nature, power and possibilities and behaviour can be controlled from any of these level. For example behaviour can arise from instincts, reflexes, conditioning, habit, reason or conscious intention and there are higher states of consciousness. Man is required to ascend in consciousness through these levels.

“You shall surely travel from stage to stage!” 84:19

 “Who, when there falls on them a calamity say: Verily, we are Allah's and, verily, to Him is our return."  2:156

“Seek they other than Allah's religion? When to Him surrenders whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and unto Him shall they return!” 3:83

“But O, you soul in peace and fulfilment! Return unto your Lord, well pleased and well pleasing unto Him!  Enter you amongst My servants. Enter you My Garden (Paradise)!” 89:27-30

At the highest level the limitations that exist at the lower level disappear. However, though a description of the state is given it is necessarily symbolic (Quran 2:25-26):-

"We are your guardians in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and you shall have therein what your souls desire and you shall have therein all you ask for.” 41:31

“A similitude of the Garden which is promised unto those who fear Allah, beneath it rivers flow, its food is enduring, and likewise its shade (shelter, security)! That is the reward of those who fear (keep their duty); but the reward of disbelievers is the Fire!” 13:35

It is necessary to understand that if there is to be development and an ascent then certain modes of understanding and formulations, ideas, values, goals and activities that were appropriate for one stage have to abandoned and replaced by others that are appropriate in the next stage and they must facilitate further progress. Otherwise they obstruct and strangle. It is also true that in so far as each person has his own Personal Reality certain kinds of formulations or presentations of a Truth will fit into that Reality in a consistent manner and give understanding, but this may not be true for others with a different Personal Reality. Nor will other formulations or presentations of the same truth fit into all Personal Realities.

 

(5) The physical world is experienced and described in terms of the dimensions of Space and Time by which things are separated and distinguished. It is, however, likely that a third factor should be added, namely Intensity, which, like Time, also refers to a difference within the same space, “mass” which describes matter, for example. In Islam and other religions Time is seen as Relative to the observer, the Knower. A Day for God, for instance, may be like 1000 years for man (22:47) or even 50,000 years (70:4). The word “Day” therefore, refers to a unit of time that describes a process.

In science, matter is now seen as events, mass and energy are seen as equivalent, and Space and Time have been linked into the concept of space-time. This however is relative to the observer. Investigation shows that apparently solid objects consist of structures of parts that consist of parts and so on. Ultimately, the object consists of tiny particles that are moving at great speed through a much greater apparently empty space. This space, however, is not empty but consists of a field of forces that links together the particles and these are not solid either but are bundles of probability. They seem to be diffuse, spread over an area. The solid object is in fact an illusion. Human perception consists of units that have a duration of about one tenth of a second. Cinemas take advantage of this fact to show a series of separate still pictures at a faster speed, thereby creating the illusion of a continuous event. Photos can be taken at high speed and shown slowly to reveal processes one could not normally see. On the other hand photos can be taken very slowly and then shown at high speed, revealing other normally unseen processes. It is also possible to examine things closer in space through microscopes or to see things far away through telescopes or to move further away, even upwards by aeroplanes or rockets and see patterns and events that could not be seen otherwise. It is, however, also possible to expand or narrow down consciousness or to change its intensity, attention and focus. The whole of existence can, therefore, be regarded as a “Now-Here” in Absolute Consciousness. All other kinds of consciousness are restricted parts of it. Each has its “Now”. The past too is only known in the “now” and the future is predicted from the “now”. Expansion of consciousness brings the past and future into the “Now”. It is also a characteristic of consciousness that though it is diffused over an area (it is omni-present in it) it can wander within it by change of focus.

There are several possible views about Time:-

(a) If Time is a dimension and we are passing through it rather than Time passing us, then it seems that all things that we do are already pre-determined; unless space-time itself is a property of events or of our perceptions and changes with them.

(b) Time, like Reality, has levels. It refers to durations and the duration of one entity is embedded as a part of the duration of a larger entity or system, which is embedded in the duration of another still larger system, and so on.

(c) Time is an infinite continuum, but there is a process of evolution balanced by involution – there is a direction of increasing unification and an opposite direction of disintegration. There is a constant flow of events and souls upwards and downwards (e.g. Quran 34:2 and 70:3-4, 65:12, 97:4). Both are required to maintain existence. There are entities at various levels where processing takes place the balance is maintained. These entities receive an input, process it and produce an output. The processing consists of making or extracting higher order substances and excreting lower order substances as waste. There is Metabolism that consists of catabolism and anabolism.

(d) Time is cyclic such that everything repeats itself endlessly. But all cycles belong as parts to greater cycles and contain sub-cycles. This appears to be a Hindu view where the Universe is the breathing in and out of Brahma. It is also compatible with an Islamic interpretation and a scientific view where the Universe comes out of a Singularity as a result of the Big Bang and is reabsorbed in the Big Crunch. But this makes the Universe purposeless.

(e) Time is a Spiral. Things do not return to exactly the same position but there is some flexibility and possibility of renewal and change.

These different views are not necessarily incompatible with each other, but could be different aspects of the same thing.

 

(6) Creation may also be seen to have the same corresponding triads. It does not refer only to the material universe but also to life and consciousness. There are structures, interactions and sensitivity. There is mass (resistance and inertia), energy (behaviour, motion) and order. Order may be regarded as the intermediate state or a reconciling factor between Unity and Multiplicity, between involution and evolution. The existence of many objects creates a difference between what is internal to the object, what is external to it, and the interactions between the two. The distinction between the subjective and the objective arises from this, and experience or knowledge is the third factor, the relationship between these two.

Reality consists of all things which we experience and know as well as those which are beyond our experience and knowledge, and even beyond the capacity of our faculties. A distinction, therefore, exists between:-

    (a) What we know.

    (b) What we are capable of knowing.

    (c) What exists.

 

Owing to the distinctions between the Creator, the Creative forces and Creation, a distinction has to be made between:-

    (a) Existence (b) Certainty (c) Possibility

Certainty refers to some kind of necessity or compulsion. Existence implies the absence of this compulsion. Possibility implies that though something does not exist it could do so given the right conditions.

We cannot know anything which is not an effect on our consciousness, and must depend on its structure. But we know that objects must exist independently of it because we feel compulsion or a constraint on our consciousness, conscience and will which comes from outside it. Our capacity to change our perceptions at will and to do as we like is limited. The word ‘Reality’ is understood with reference to this state of affairs. Since there is nothing outside the All by definition, there can be no such constraints on Allah. The distinction between external, internal and relational, or between the objective, the subjective and interactive, can only be made about things which are limited and created.

Owing to internal processes we do have some capacity to reorganise the data of perception. We can invent, have illusions, hallucinations and delusions. We can also have inner interactions so that we can know our inner processes both at the physiological and psychological level. We also have a language by means of which we describe and communicate experiences to others.

There are, therefore, three different sources of knowledge, external, inner and social (e.g.. lingual). But apart from the material and logical difference between these three, there is also a psychological difference. Here a distinction is made between (a) cognition, (b) faith and (c) opinion.

We may think that something is true but it may not be true. This is opinion. We may be certain that it is true and act accordingly. The word faith refers to this. The conventional definition of faith, that it consists of beliefs without evidence, is not compatible with the Islamic or, indeed, any other religious view. Faith does not refer to intellectual opinions but to interaction and the consistency of experiences or the relation of ideas with inner Truth – the order of which our nature consists. There is, however, a higher stage which goes beyond faith, that of gnosis or identification which is incorporated in the notion of surrender. Here, we have an awareness of the forces which give rise to something.

The object is not the same thing as the experience of it, and the experience of it is not the same thing as a description of it. These are three different categories. A description is about part of an experience, and an experience is about part of an object. The one is done through the medium of language and the other through consciousness. Both have their own structures and limitations, and differ from those of the object. Many different descriptions of the same experience and many different experiences of the same objects are possible. A distinction is, therefore, made in the Quran between:-

Ilm-ul-Yaqin. (Quran 102:5) - The Lore of Certainty; descriptive, verbal or logical knowledge.

Ain-ul-Yaqin . (Quran 102:7) - The Eye of Certainty; Experiential knowledge.

Haqq-ul-Yaqin (Quran 69:51) - The Truth of Certainty; Gnosis, the Knowledge of Identification.

 

These are like the differences between people who have read about carpentry, those who have seen it done or indulged in it, and those who are carpenters.

 However, no mention is made here of existence and possibility, but the word ‘certainty’ itself implies the other categories, which are ignored.

This distinction is also seen in the following verse:-

“Moses said to his family: verily I have seen a fire, I will bring you from there some information; or I will bring you a flaming brand that ye may warm yourselves.” 27:7

Here Fire symbolises the transforming truth, and Moses makes the distinction between seeing, describing and using it.

There is a correspondence between certainty, existence and possibility on the one hand and reality, experience and description on the other. There is an element of fantasy in description, and an element of uncertainty in experience. The experience of words is not the same thing as the experience of that to which they refer, and the combination of words is something different from the relationship between experiences. A description does not necessarily correspond to an experience in all its aspects, and an experience does not necessarily correspond to a real situation. An experience abstracts some aspects of reality, and a description abstracts some aspects of experience. This is why different people experience the same situation differently and describe the same experiences differently at different times.

These three types of knowledge may also be seen as corresponding to the distinction between the three levels or aspects of man, each having three aspects, namely:-

(a) The Physical - (i) sensation, (ii) physiological processing and (iii) instinctive, reflex or conditioned action. Unconscious or automatic behaviour.

(b) The Mental - (i) thought, (ii) feeling and (iii) voluntary action. Subconscious behaviour.

(c) The Spiritual - (i) consciousness, (ii) conscience and (iii) will. Deliberate, conscious or intelligent behaviour.

 

Self examination shows that thoughts, feelings and action can take place without our awareness. We need to direct consciousness inwards to become aware of these. Therefore, we have an independent spiritual faculty. We must not confuse this with emotion, feeling or thought. Though people believe that they are always conscious, it can be experimentally determined that this is not so. Speaking is not the same thing as thinking, and thought is not the same thing as consciousness. Ask a person what position his arms and legs are in, what his facial expression is, what he is feeling, what thoughts are going on in his mind, what kind of objects exist in his vicinity, and he will only be able to tell you this because the question has drawn his attention to them. The scientist or artist who deliberately examines something can see much more than the ordinary man who looks at the same thing.

Try to be aware of yourself and your surroundings and you will not be able to sustain this state for more than a few seconds. The mind becomes involved. Hence from the Islamic point of view human beings are asleep and need to be woken. (34:46). It is Allah who is the Aware.

The mind may be regarded as a bridge between the other two levels. In so far as man identifies himself with his mind he may be regarded as existing between two worlds, earth and heaven. These words can be regarded as symbols for the world as seen through the faculties belonging to these different levels. An animal, for instance, not having a mind in the human sense cannot see the world as seen by the human mind and cannot understand the culture produced by it. Similarly, the ordinary mind cannot see the world as seen by a conscious person. Consciousness has been divided into 7 levels. The world seen through these, therefore, also have seven levels known as the 7 Heavens.

The power of the mind lies precisely in this position, that it is partly controlled by and partly free from the objects, events and mechanical laws operating at the physical level. It can form concepts and manipulate these. It is capable of rearranging the data of experience. It can, therefore, invent new things and it can lie. This gives man both advantages and disadvantages. He can be creative, but he can also be trapped in fantasy.

We shall, therefore, distinguish between Reality, Truth and Knowledge. We defined the word Reality to mean what Allah is. Truth is defined as that which Allah does or says. Or conversely, what Allah does or says is Truth. Knowledge is the effect of truth on our consciousness. The words Reality and Truth are, however, often used synonymously. The methods of approach to these are Surrender, Faith and Reason respectively. However, the word Knowledge is often used erroneously to refer to the Truth or Information that is inherent in us and make the laws, processes and events within us, but which we are not aware of. We could, therefore, speak of various degrees of Knowledge – Conscious, preconscious, subconscious, unconscious knowledge and also self-conscious, super-conscious and cosmic-conscious knowledge.

Reality does not have an opposite. That which is unreal does not exist. The opposite of Truth is Falsehood. This is a rearrangement of things which are themselves real. There is also a third condition associated with it which is neither true nor false but may be possible. Reality refers to something existing independently of the knower; Knowledge refers to the knower; and Truth refers to the interaction between the two, to experience. Knowledge comes into existence as a third, relating factor when a distinction is made between object and observer (the known and the knower). Self-knowledge requires this distinction within oneself.

Western Logic recognises only two criteria of truth, namely, empirical knowledge (that provided by observation) and rational or tautological knowledge which depends on verbal definitions. Yet it is a well known fact that there is a third source of knowledge. All hypotheses are arrived at by flashes of inspiration or insight, a sudden unification, patterning and integration of data. This is a supra-rational event. This may be explained as follows:- Each human being is formed from the substances, processes and laws operating in the Universe. He is also the product of a long evolutionary history during which adaptation to the cosmos took place. He, therefore, has truth built into him. He is also in interaction with the rest of reality through these processes. The state of Surrender may be seen as a harmony between the inner and the outer. But owing to the limitations of consciousness he is not aware of this. That is, it is not knowledge. His mind is divisible into the Conscious and the Unconscious, and also the Subconscious in so far as he can become aware of the borders between the two.

The Conscious mind or the Ego consists, as it were, of a small circle within a much larger circle. Influences from the greater circle can sometimes penetrate into the smaller circle particularly when there is a crack in it. Most people occasionally experience states of egolessness, but only in short flashes. It is a state of Surrender which Islam requires us to cultivate deliberately. They suddenly see themselves not as the centre, but as an item in a much more universal context. Revelation, Inspiration and Intuition may be regarded as different degrees of this experience. Inward exploration and self-awareness are legitimate methods of increasing knowledge. Outer experiences come in separate units between which relationships have to be found.

There are, therefore, three ways in which knowledge is obtained:-

(a) That obtained directly through the outer, mediate and inner senses. We not only receive data from the external world, but also from within our bodies and from within our minds.

(b) A flash of insight consists of the sudden falling into place of an item of experience into a system of experience. It forms a pattern. The individual, however, may have several independent or semi-independent systems of experiences or complexes. A hypothesis tends to spring to mind only when the rational faculty is suspended. This quite often happens in dreams or when the rational faculty is exhausted after great mental effort.

(c) This system of experiences must fit into the structure of our psyche in order to give a feeling of certainty. It must be assimilated and integrated. It must modify the individual. This, however, is seldom achieved. A great number of the religious teachings refer to this level.

In view of the fact that this is a non-rational event the rational mind is unable to distinguish between the super-rational and the sub-rational, that is, the products of desires, conditioning, habit, fantasies, prejudices and so on. A rational process of reasoning, calculation and experimentation has, therefore, to be undertaken to prove or disprove them.

There is a correspondence between these three levels of knowledge and the distinction made within religion by the Prophet Muhammad, namely:- al-Islam (the discipline), al-iman (the faith), and al-ihsan (righteousness). Or when he said:-

“The Shariat (the religious law) is what I say, the Tariqat (the Method or Way) is what I do, and the Haqiqat (the Truth) is what I am.”

A person tends to accept the Shariat mentally or verbally. It is a discipline which prepares him for the next stage, and the seeker now begins to see the truth. This perception gradually modifies him. It is only at the stage of the Haqiqat that he becomes truly righteous. The Law exists only to enable unregenerate people to behave in a manner they would have behaved had they been regenerated. This enables regeneration. At a higher stage of development the law is no longer required. But this does not imply that the law can be flouted. It is obeyed through faith. The word faith does not apply to people at the first stage at all. Faith refers to seeing something as true rather than merely verbal acceptance, or acceptance through fear, superstition or greed. The righteous require neither faith nor law, because they surrendered to reality. They are Muslim in reality, not just by faith or words.

“The wandering Arabs say: ‘We believe’. Say unto them: ‘ Ye have no faith, but rather say: We have submitted, for the faith has not yet entered your hearts.“ 49:14

“Follow that which is inspired in thee...” 6:107

“Proofs have come unto you from your Lord, so whosoever sees, it is for his good, and whosoever is blind is blind to his own hurt.” 6:105

“We shall show then Our signs upon the horizons and within themselves, until it be clear to them that it is the Truth.” 41:53            

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The Quran refers to Reality in Chapter 69, titled “Reality”:-

“The Reality! What is the Reality? Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Reality is!

“The tribes of Thamud and A’ad disbelieved in the judgement to come. As for Thamud, they were destroyed by the lightning. And as for A’ad, they were destroyed by a fierce roaring wind which He imposed on them for seven long nights and eight long days so that you might have seen men lying overthrown, as they were hollow trunks of palm trees. Can you, (O Muhammad) see any remnant of them? And Pharaoh and those before him, and the communities that were destroyed, brought error. And they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, therefore did He grip them with a tightening grip.

“Lo! When the waters (of Noah’s Flood) rose, We carried you (mankind) upon the Ark that We might make it a memorial for you, and that remembering ears might retain its lessons in memory. And when the trumpet shall sound one blast and the earth with the mountains shall be lifted up and crushed with one crash, then, on that day will the Event befall. And the heavens will split asunder, for that day will be frail. And the angels will be on the sides thereof, and eight will uphold the Throne of their Lord that day, above them. On that day ye will be exposed; not a secret of you will be hidden.

“Then, as for him who is given his record in his right hand, he will say: Take, read my book! Surely I knew that I should have to meet my reckoning. Then he will be in a blissful state in a High Garden whereof the clusters are in easy reach. (And it will be said to them) Eat and drink at ease for that which ye sent on before you in the past days.

“But as for him who is given his record in his left hand, he will say: Oh, would that I had not been given my book and knew not what my reckoning was! Oh, would that I had been dead! My wealth had not availed me, my power hath gone from me. It will be said: Take him and fetter him and then expose him to hell-fire and then insert him in chains whereof the length is seven cubits. Lo! He used not to believe in Allah the Tremendous, and urged not on the feeding of the wretched, therefore hath he no lover here this day, nor any food save filth which none but sinners eat.

“But nay! I swear by all that ye see and all that ye see not, that it is indeed the speech of an illustrious Messenger.

“It is not poet’s speech - little is it that ye believe!

“Nor diviner’s speech - little is it that ye remember!

“It is revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.

“And if he had invented false sayings concerning Us, We had assuredly taken him by the right hand and then severed his life-artery. And not one of you could have held Us off from him. And lo! It is a warrant unto those who ward off evil. And lo! We know that some among you will deny it. And lo! It is indeed an anguish for the disbelievers. And lo! It is Absolute Truth (Haqq-ul-Yaqin). so glorify the name of thy Tremendous Lord.”

 

These verses, as other verses in the Quran have an outer social, as well as in inner psychological meaning. If we decipher the language and the implications of this verse we may, perhaps, explain it as follows:-

The first verse tells us that Reality is not describable, nor is it the same as that which is experienced but it can be conveyed by some of its consequences. It has to be distinguished from Illusion, from what people think it is. Ignoring reality is Error and eventually leads to destruction, though illusions may survive for a time. The various communities mentioned as examples, lived in a world of illusion, created by a restricted view and limited memory, which they mistook for reality. But suddenly this world was shattered and their eyes opened. Sudden destruction has happened to many nations. Similar fates overtook the Islamic civilisation in the Middle East at the hands of Chenghis Khan, the Muslim Empires in India and Spain, and more recently in Iraq and Bosnia. Floods and droughts have also devastated Muslim communities in various parts of Africa and Asia. All this could be attributed to the Muslims having abandoned their religion as a result of which they failed to develop and remain vigilant. The world undergoes revolutionary changes so that the habits of thought, which had been produced by past stability, have to be abandoned. Our entire psychological world, too, may be suddenly shattered in the same way. Progress in knowledge also tends to create revolutions of this kind. Indeed, our death, and awareness of death, will shatter our illusions, since these depend on sensual attachment. Reality lies beyond our experiences and ideas of it, and we must take this into consideration.

All things are limited in time and space, even societies and their way of life, the earth, opinions, theories and ideas, and the Universe itself. Permanence and certainty at the superficial level is an illusion. We must not suppose that the categories by means of which we interpret our experiences are attributes of Reality. It is only the fundamental truth which is permanent, and those who abide by it rather than by what is superficial and accidental, negotiate these changes as if in an Ark. Those who continue to live in Illusions created by themselves will suffer. The only constants are Allah, and the Law of Cause and Effect derived from Him. The Universe is dynamic, and in all processes it is the effects which survive. Hence the significance of action lie only in these effects. All systems of thought, motivation or action, too, be it in science, politics, economics or art, must, therefore, be judged according to whether they produce good or bad effects, and facilitate the discovery and development of what is permanent in man.

The World and Life in it should be used for learning, not merely facts but also meaning and values. Some people, the Messengers, are particularly sensitive to, and in contact (the life-artery) with Reality. They are a source of guidance. They can be regarded as a spark of Reality, or representing the possibility of such sparks entering human consciousness and the human world. This, too, is part of the nature of Reality and the proof of its existence. Accepting their message (internalising it) is, therefore, tantamount to accepting Reality. Their message should not be confused with that of poets or diviners.

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The properties of the Universe are given in various parts of the Quran as follows:-

1. Unity underlying diversity. (38:66, 112:1-4)

2. Constancy underlying change. (10:65, 55:26-27)

3. Order and Harmony underlying chaos. (67:2-4)

4. Infinitude underlying the finite. (4:126, 6:104)

5. Proportionality. (54:49-50, 13:8)

6. Regularity and Periodicity. (13:2, 6:100)

7. Repeated and Continuous creation, and evolution. (10:5,35, 21:104, 84:19, 56:58- 62)

8. The existence of Law and causation. (13:15, 30:30, 15:85, 4:110-111

9. Purposiveness and the directedness of creation. Inherent urges, pain and pleasure, good and evil, punishment and reward, attraction and repulsion are mechanisms by which this is governed. They are aspects of the Justice, the Beneficence and Wrath of Allah. (46:3, 38:28, 53:42, 75:36 23:115)

10. Purpose also means that things have a function with respect to the environment or world to which they belong. They will be judged according to how they fulfil this function. (45: 13, 15, 22)

11. Beneficence - That things are nurtured and sustained. (10:45, 58, 6:12)

12. The pair of opposites underlying, interacting and creating all phenomena. It is this which obscures the Unity of Reality - Positive and Negative, Active and Passive, Good and Evil, Male and Female, Order and Chaos. (36:35, 43:12, 51:49)

13. The cyclic nature of phenomena - Day and Night; The changes in the Seasons; The motion to and fro between the two opposites. The emergence of all phenomena from, and the return to, a Singularity.(55:26-27). The Universe and all parts of it, including the earth, the Biosphere, Humanity and the the various communities in it, the individual and his organs and cells all undergo various kinds of cycles which interact with each other. Since we see only parts we never see the reality of the whole.

14. Inter-Dependence. Everything is created by forces and subject to causal laws. (13:15). It should, however be noted that this idea is different from scientific Determinism. Allah not only works by means of Laws, but can do as He Wills. There is, therefore, a flexibility built into nature which also provides a degree of uncertainty. When Science looks at nature it isolates those aspects which are regular and conform to Law, leaving aside phenomena which do not conform to Law. But Lawfulness is only seen in contrast to Chance, and cannot exist without it. Both chance and determinism should be rejected. Organic Life, for instance, consists both of order and disorder (heat), and cannot exist without both. A living cell differs from a crystal in that the latter is relatively rigid and inadaptable because of its order. Absolute order is absolute death as is absolute chaos.

15. Experimentation. There is diversification, testing and selection. (3:142, 4:133). The final outcome is pre-determined, because things which serve that purpose survive and those which do not are annihilated, or rather, are sorted out according to quality and function. This may, perhaps, be likened to the fact that some cells in the human body become the brain, others the heart, liver, bone, hands, foot and so on. 

16. Memory. All events are recorded in the fabric of the universe, that is, they leave a permanent trace. That is why they can be recalled and can produce evolution by accumulation.(50:4, 46:29, 57:3-4, 83:7-9, 18-21)

17. Layering. There are levels or layers of existence.(65:12, 70:3-4, 84:19, 3:163)

18. Stages. There are stages of development. (13:38, 7:34, 6:67, 10:50)

These do not describe objects nor the forces which give rise to them, but the underlying principles which govern creation. It is only an understanding of these that leads to the Sciences. This, however, is a description of certainties, not the experience or the truth of it.

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The thesis that Reality is other than that which we perceive or think it to be, can be supported by the following arguments:-

1. That which exists apart from our perception of it we cannot know. Therefore, that which we know is dependant on the quality of our consciousness. We must not assume that time and space, qualities, quantities, relationships and modalities by means of which we perceive the world are attributes of the world.

 It is assumed that the colours which we attribute to things are not, in fact, the attribute of things, but that they are experiences of different frequencies of electromagnetic vibrations. But how do we know this? Clearly these, too are experiences of the object under different conditions. And if we rotate a disc having different coloured areas on it then the total impression given is of the colour white. Conversely, white light is broken up by a prism into different colours. The experience of colours, however, changes under different experimental conditions as psychologists have shown. The point is that human activity and the relationship between things and between objects and observers affects what is experienced. It could be stated that every experience is unique and that it is we who construct the relationships. The characteristics objects display are also the result of their relationships. Since the object cannot be known without its characteristics we cannot know objects, but only relationships.

2. The fertilised ovum has a general sensitivity. As the cell multiplies to form the whole human being, the cells differentiate to form the various organs. The sense organs as well as all other faculties developed in man are those which help him survive in the world he lives in. This depends partly on the nature of the environment and partly on his needs and desires. It also depends on his size relative to other things, the speed with which his nervous system works, his sensitivity and powers of discrimination. There is evidence to suggest that man has lost much of his sensitivity both to external stimuli and messages coming from within himself. The power of discrimination between subtle differences and his nervous system has become much more sluggish. Organisms in the sea or the air develop different faculties. They also develop different faculties and organs if their habits are different. Not all animals developed the long neck of the giraffe, for instance. Some organisms, animals as well as plants, respond to very weak forces and very small changes. They also appear to know by instinct what is good or bad for them. Beings on other planets and with different motives would no doubt develop different organs. The general sensitivity still exists and new faculties can be developed. The blind or deaf can be trained to interpret vibrations. It is also possible to increase the sensitivity of the sense organs. It is possible to interpret and think in terms of smells. The “loudness” of the external senses, however, generally obscure the weaker or undeveloped sensitivities.

We see by means of a spectrum of colours which is only a small part of the total range of radiations. Some animals cannot see colours. Others are sensitive to higher or lower ranges. The world looks different to them. Apart from electric and magnetic waves there is also sensitivity to air (sound) waves, and to other mechanical or pressure waves, gravitational and nuclear forces, and perhaps other forces not yet discovered. There may be bionic or psychic forces.

The objects we see consist of atoms in rapid motion and between which there are spaces much greater than the size of the atoms. These are patterns of still smaller particles between which there are spaces far greater than the sizes of the particles. Supposing now that our metabolic rate were to be different so that we experienced time or space in greater or lesser lumps. A year may be experienced as a second or a second as a year, a cubic kilometre as a cubic millimetre or a cubic millimetre as a cubic kilometre. What would the world be like then?

3. What we see or do depends on our genetic make-up or temperament, our past experiences, on the environment, what we surround ourselves with, where we migrate to and what we construct. All these differ in different people.

4. Our perception and ideas depend not only on our capacity to sense, but also intelligence (the ability to analyse, relate and synthesise), and the quality, intensity and direction of the efforts we make to relate and integrate data. These differ in different people.

5. What we see depends on the stability, intensity (power), extensity (the amount of data we can keep in mind at the same time) and cotensity (the ability to perceive connections) of consciousness. This varies between individuals. What is true for one is not necessarily true for another. We are affected not only by what we are conscious of. We must distinguish between consciousness, sub-consciousness and unconsciousness. Consciousness refers to our ordinary awareness. Sub-consciousness refers to what we can become conscious of if we direct our attention to it. This creates our sciences, philosophies, art, law etc.. Unconsciousness refers to what we cannot be ordinarily aware of though it affects us. It is conceivable that consciousness can be extended to this area. Human beings, for instance are more conscious than animals. Influences pass from one level to another. The world must, therefore, also have corresponding levels, not in itself, but because it is seen thus. We see at a relatively coarse level.

6. Matter varies according to density. This allows the molecules in liquids a greater freedom of motion than in solids, and the molecules in gases a greater freedom of motion than in liquids, and so on. But if solids can have a structure, there is no reason to suppose that there are not also more subtle structures in liquids and gases. Oceans and the Atmosphere have currents and eddies. Could there not be entities made out of other states of matter? Because air was invisible, it was not thought of as being material until recently. Even more recently it was discovered that light had mass. The notion of materiality continues to change. In fact we can describe 7 states of matter.

 Solids, Liquids, Gas, Plasma (as radiated by the sun), Electronic, Radiant (light etc.), and sub-quantum.

The material at one level surrounds the material of the next and also permeates it. Liquids soak into solids, gases into liquids and so on. Perhaps, there are entities at each of these levels. Indeed, the same object, say a human being, could be considered from the point of view of several levels: as a whole body, as a structure of cells, as a structure of molecules, atomic particles, or electrons, a field of electromagnetic forces and, perhaps, further. The view of man from each of these levels is quite different. Here each level is a structure composed of the next, and the interactions at each level are different.

7. We compare things and extract common elements to form concepts, leaving aside the differences. These concepts allow us to analyse experiences. A third factor then also arises, namely relationships. Facts are, therefore, created by us by the act of comparing or the act of putting together, by analysis and synthesis, and this depends on what we select for purposes of comparison.

8. Repetition is important for perception. We recognise things because of repetition. We classify things because we perceive they have something in common. Repetition, however, is an ambiguous word. No two things or experiences are absolutely identical. The mind has the tendency to suppress differences because they are not reinforced as common elements are. The powers of discrimination and recognition of similarities differ considerably. Two things do not need to be identical to be recognised as similar. All cats, for instance, are recognised as similar. We cannot always distinguish one cat from another. On the other hand everyone is constantly changing from birth to death, and yet we regard a person to be the same person through all these changes. Things become even more complex when we consider not just objects, but events and patterns, and also patterns of patterns.

9. A fact is meaningless by itself. It must be interpreted. It is interpreted by fitting it into a context, a system or framework of reference created by a great number of other experiences. These in turn must be part of a still greater system. And so on, until we come to the whole of experience which constitutes our world. When a datum finds its position in the system by forming links with other data then this gives it its meaning. There may be several systems of experience which are mutually exclusive, overlap or exist within another. The real Truth can only exist if all the systems of experience create a consistent whole. That is, when the consciousness of the individual is fully integrated.

 10. Even within our capacities for perception the environment provides too much data for our minds to deal with. We select only a small part of it. We construct the world by search, selection, interpretation and organisation of the data it provides according to our assumption, interests and activity. Action elicits a reaction from the environment, and this provides us data. Different actions would provide different data. Scientific action is a special kind of action providing special kinds of data, and should not be mistaken for all possible data.

11. The data of experience is processed by the use of techniques such as mathematics, language and various logical systems. These are useful aids helping us to deal with the environment. Their results should not be mistaken for the truth. Usefulness is not the same thing as truth, and there are different ideas of what is useful.

12. Our views depend also on the physical environment and circumstances, the nature, frequency and order of events. The relative frequency with which certain events take place determines the strength of the impressions made. The use of Newspapers and magazines and other media produces a distortion in this. For instance while crime may be take place in reality only once in a million events, it will be reported much more frequently.

13. An experience has three cooperative ingredients, namely action, feeling and thought. A person who merely studies science from books does not understand it in the same way as someone who actually performs the experiments. A person cannot understand religion by studying it as one who participates in it. The criticisms of those who have one approach against those who have another approach is quite invalid.

14. There is a social element in all thinking and experience. We see that for which we have words because they draw our attention to it. Thinking is done through a language and the concepts current in a society. Our feelings, emotional reactions, motives and the kind of actions and behaviour we perform are similarly conditioned. It is, therefore, not strictly true that experience is private. Yet we cannot have someone else’s experience. Truth is, therefore, personal. It may, perhaps, be possible at some level, that the experience one person has can be directly shared with another. It cannot directly matter to an individual that someone else has a truth. The truth of something cannot be proved for anyone else. Each must discover his own. We depend on a consensus of opinion. A consensus is created by the following factors:-

   (a) The self-same conditions, in the field or laboratory, provide all the individuals with their systems of experience.

   (b) The same motives, actions and thought patterns (conceptual system) should be used.

   (c) The same procedures for description and verification should be undertaken.

 

 The fact remains that their experiences are different though a way has been found through language to set up a correspondence between the experience of one person and another. The experience of the person, P1 in connection with a situation S, is incorporated in a verbal statement, V. The experience of the person, P2 in connection with the same situation S, is incorporated in the same verbal statement, V. The situation, S and the statement, V will be experienced and understood differently by P1 and P2. Thus we have two situations S1 and S2, and two sets of descriptions, V1 and V2.

The proof now goes as follows:- There is a correspondence between S1 and S2. This is the same as the correspondence between V1 and V2. Since there is a correspondence between S1 and V1, then there is also a correspondence between S2 and V2. It does not, therefore, matter how things are experienced and what the nature of the object is, what matters is that we can communicate as long as words refer to particular situations. However, the greater the number of elements and the more complex the situation the likelihood of this remaining true diminishes. It is necessary to emphasise that we have here a social agreement of what is true, which may not correspond to reality. Nor is the consensus of ten blind men equal to the perception of a sighted person. And usually the conditions of observation, the motives and the procedures are not the same. This is especially so when religion is being discussed because there is no common object, but only different inner experiences.

15. Many people mistake the Real for the Material. It is supposed that this idea comes from Science. But this is untrue. Science does not, in fact, speak of matter at all. If it uses such terms as mass, energy and entropy, these refer to certain mathematical relationships. They are certain kinds of experiences. Are thoughts, ideas, feelings, dreams, lies, fantasies, real? They, too, are experienced, though they are different in kind from what we experience through the senses. The mistake lies in confusing one with the other. There may be numerous other categories of experience.

We experience not only sensations, but also feelings and thoughts. This allows us to distinguish between three categories, namely the inner, the outer and medial. By outer is meant the external data which is given to the senses. Science studies this World. By inner is meant the world of thoughts, images, memories, dreams, fantasies etc.. These may be electrical activities of the nervous system which respond to electric, electromagnetic and magnetic events in the environment. Other forces may also be involved. It is not true that the contents of the mind arise only from the external world through the sense organs. By the medial is meant the physiological or bodily experiences. These may be due to biochemical processes which also respond to the chemistry going on in the environment. Smells, for instance, of which we may or may not be aware, can affect our feelings. Clearly all three are inter-dependant.

16. But the distinction between the three kinds of experiences is falsely considered to correspond to objective, subjective and imaginative experiences. It is perfectly possible to be objective about ones own physiological experiences or about ones own thoughts. And it is perfectly possible to be subjective or imaginative about external or sense experiences. True objectivity implies the recognition of the psychological element in knowledge. Feelings such as compassion can be said to be objective since they give information about someone else’s state, and motivate a selfless action.

17. Human beings are also capable of imagination, distortion, suppression, exaggeration, extension, fantasy and invention. Fundamentally, it is not possible to invent anything. It is only possible to re-arrange the data of experience and its elements. This may result in creating new objects, events, patterns and ideas. The mental re-arrangement can be constructed externally, e.g. machines. It is also possible to produce lies, including self-deception. The mental re-arrangement is then attributed to the external world, though it is not. A third possibility also exists, as in Science and Philosophy. The re-arrangement is done to establish a new relationship between man and his environment. It is a technique to aid thinking, motivation or action. To attribute this re-arrangement to the external world would constitute a lie.

18. There are problems connected with time. Is the future and the past real? Existence is attributed to what is “now”, in the present. The future and the past do not exist now. If they are real, where are they? The past exists in our memories. We can change the past by re-interpreting it. And the future exists as a potentiality in present processes.

The present is a variable term. It depends on how much we are conscious of as a unit. If an event lasting 1/10 of a second is experienced as a unit then this is our “now”. If an impression made during one hour is experienced as a unit then this is the “now”. Clearly, the two are quite different. What is the past or the future for one is included in the present of the other. Elements which repeat themselves during that time will reinforce each others, while others cancel each other out, or merge creating a synthesis. In actual fact what we experience as an object is a series of events taking place very rapidly. When a film is made, its speed can be increased or reduced to produce different impressions. These different impressions are different experiences, but we know that they refer to the same thing because we associate them in our minds.

Reason tells us that it is the earth which is rotating with respect to the sun. But this is contrary to experience. We see the sun moving from east to West. At one time it was thought that the earth was the centre, and the sun and stars revolved around it. Then it was thought that the earth and planets revolve round the sun. But we know that the sun also moves. All motions are now understood to be relative, that is, we can think of any object as being stationary and study the motion of others with respect to it. It then follows that all points of view are equally valid. Only some are more convenient than others under certain circumstances. If we took the centre of the galaxy as stationary and studied the motion of the earth with respect to it, then we would get a very complex motion. Since we exist on the earth, the idea that the sun moves around it remains valid. If our unit of perception, our “now” were to be several centuries in extent then the sun would not appear as a moving disc in the sky, but as a broad flat ring round the earth. The “now” of Allah creates a completely different Universe.

A distinction has, therefore, to be made between the Real World, the Personal World which is only a small part of it, and the False world which also contains fantasy and lies.

We have some control over the Personal world because it is our construction. However, we are affected by

   (a) Other people directly and indirectly owing to suggestibility, imitation, conditioning, action and reaction,

   (b) The fact that we are also in some ways genetically alike, but also different,

   (c) Our environments have common elements. but also different ones.

 

Our construction is not, therefore, free but determined by inner and outer circumstances. The Personal World is a modification of a Public World. The different Personal worlds of a community are inter-connected making and being made by the Public World. The Public World, in its turn, is a modification of a much more Universal World. This is because a Society or Community is not independent of other Societies and Communities. Humanity is part of a larger Biosphere, which is part of a still greater world and so on.

If human beings have consciousness, and can affect each other directly then we can speak of a collective psychological world. This world is not inside us, but has an objective outer existence, because the inner experiences of others are not within us. It is more than likely that animals, plants and even minerals, in so far as they have an inner organisation possess consciousness to various degrees. The psychological world then must include all these.

A great number of entities, events and processes may exist in the psychological world. The laws regulating these may be quite different than those in the physical world. Many Religious concepts refer to this world. This world, too, is subject to search, selection, interpretation and organisation by the individual minds. Human beings have control here, too. But this control is limited by their conditioning, suggestion, and inner constitution.

Control over this world depends on faith. Little can be done without confidence or faith even in the material world. But here it is much more important.

There are three interacting Worlds, (a) the Material or external, (b) the Social world of human interactions and (c) the Psychological world of experiences and ideas. Cities and civilisations constructed by people show how the planet itself is transformed by what people think, feel and do. On the other hand there is little doubt that the material world, even when constructed by themselves, conditions the mind of the individual. Both the Material and the Psychological World depend on the Social world and vice versa. Thus, if we denote the worlds by M, S, and P we have the following interactions:- M-S, S-M, M-P, P-M, S-P, P-S. To this we must add a factor X which refers to the overall condition produced by M,S and P. It will have its own effects on each of these. There are 7 worlds.

 

We must also distinguish between a Natural World, a Human World and a Transcendental World. The Natural World consists of animals, plants, minerals, energies and forces. The Human World consists of man and his works. It has a Material aspect (Cities, Parks, Roads, Farms etc..), a Social aspect (Laws and Organisation) and the World of Ideas. The Transcendental World refer to the Earth and the Heavens, to the macro-forces and organisations in it.

There is no reason for believing that if we can find in man physical processes which correspond to psychological ones, and vice versa, that this does not also apply to all other things. The one consists of a view from outside, and the other from within. It is usually much simpler to describe an experience than to describe the physiological processes giving rise to it. Indeed, the psychological process is more direct and has to be known first before an attempt can be made to describe the physiological process. It may be too complex to describe, or name. The idea of an object, a desire, or intention, no doubt, has a physiological basis. But even if these could be described it is hardly likely that anyone would use this description instead of the normal experiential ones. The physiological descriptions, too, merely refer to experiences of a different kind.

 

In so far as there is psycho-physical parallelism, it is possible to describe the world either in physical or in psychological terms.

From the scientific point of view that which is not known or cannot be known to man does not exist or need not and should not be taken into consideration. But we can refute this:-

  (a) We know that there is an area of reality which we do not and cannot know.

  (b) We know that this area of reality affects us and our surroundings.

   (c) We know that changes in (i) actions, (ii) interests, (iii) ways of perception, (iv) concepts, (v) procedures, (vi) faculties, and (vii) levels of awareness show us different aspects of reality.

 

Therefore, we do have knowledge, can, and must take these into considerations.

From the Scientific point of view, Reality is a quantum field which is described by certain boundary conditions, for which there is no explanation. We may, therefore, suppose that there exists a sub-quantum Field of Infinite Potentialities. But these are restricted by something in the field itself, and it is these restrictions which produce the Universe and all things in it.

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