6. Language

One of the main attributes which distinguishes man from other creatures is the complexity of their language. This is connected with the sophistication of their brain, the ability of their hands to manipulate things and the social and cultural systems they have formed.

The position of language in the process of evolution can be seen by the following sequence of events.

1. At first, it is supposed, particles tended to combine in a random fashion. Those that had greater stability tended to survive as units while others disintegrated. It took many millions of years for the genes which are the basis of life to develop.

2. The development of genes accelerated evolution. Though they mutated in a random fashion, the results of environmentally adjusted stable characteristics accumulated. It took much less time for the complex human brain to develop.

3. The development of the brain allowed learning and intelligent adaptation and manipulation. Change and development accelerated again.

4. The human brain developed language to encapsulate and transmit experiences in a symbolic form. It could also process this information and transform it. Thus what one person learnt or experienced could be transmitted to others, and each could accumulate and process the learning and experiences of the whole community. This further accelerated development.

5. The next stage is the invention of writing and printing which allowed transmission over large distances and times.

6. The invention of the telephone, radio and television led to still further acceleration. These networks are like the nervous system of the whole nation and are rapidly making the whole human race into a single organism.

7. The next invention is the computer. This allows human beings to think and do more than their own brains can. New computers have to be designed by other computers since no human being has the capacity to design it. It may also be possible to build an evolutionary process into a computer so that it will develop its own rules in the thousands, test and select the most useful ones, gather them together to build very complex processes.

In this series language occupies the fourth or central position. it connects the first natural triad with the next man-made triad.

Language is a method of communication. Awareness must be translated into a language by the sender, transmitted to the receiver who re-translates it back into awareness. The message is not the knowledge nor the truth, much less the reality. Most of our ideas, including science and religion, come through language. It is a grave mistake to take such ideas as knowledge, and even worse to take then as truth. When the translation made by the receiver is the exact inverse of the translation made by the sender then it becomes knowledge. This requires that:-

 (a) the translation process be the same

 (b) that the language also be the same.

 (c) that transmission and receiving apparatus correspond - the ability to speak, write and formulate in the sender is equivalent to the ability to hear, read and understand in the receiver.

 

When this knowledge modifies behaviour it becomes truth. But this truth may not be same as the truth informing the sender owing to the fact that

  (a) neither the receiver nor the sender may be correctly aware of it.

 (b) the sending and reception of a message is itself an experience and the sender or receiver may not have translated it correctly.

 (c) The modification process in the two may be different.

 

The Quran mentions languages in the following verses:-

“And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your language and your colours: verily in that are signs for those who know.” 30:22

“And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk that he might make the message clear for them. Then Allah sends whom He will astray, and guides whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” 14:4

“Those unto whom We have given the Scripture, who read it with a right reading, those believe in it. And whoso disbelieves in it, those are they who are losers.” 2:121

“N.U.N. By the pen and that which they write therewith, thou (Muhammad) art not, for thy Lord’s favour unto thee, a madman..”68:1-2

“Read: In the name of thy Lord who creates, creates man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the most Bounteous, Who teaches by the pen, teaches man that which he knew not. Nay, but verily man is rebellious that he thinks himself independent.” 96:1-7

“The Originator of the Heavens and the earth, when He decrees a thing, He says unto it only: Be! and it is.” 2:117

“And He taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying: ‘Inform Me of the names of these if you are truthful’. They said: ‘Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Thou only Thou art the Knower, the Wise.“ 2:31-32

“But those who did wrong changed the word which had been told them for another saying..” 2:59

“Those unto whom We gave the scripture recognize this teaching as they recognize their sons. But lo! a party of them knowingly conceal the truth.” 2:146

“Woe unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say: ‘This is from Allah’, that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.” 2:79

“Why say you that which you do not? It is most hateful in the sight of Allah that you say that which you do not.” 61:2-3

 

The question to be asked is this: Why is language considered so important in the Quran? Why does it consider it important that people should be given their religion in their own language? What do we mean by Language, and what does it consist of? We shall try to answer these and other related questions.

Firstly, a language, like light, is a medium for the transmission of information. It takes up the order of the experience of one person and transmits it to another. Secondly, it reflects the structure of the Universe. It consists of atomic sound units, the letters, which combine to form words, and these combine to form sentences. which combine to form paragraphs, and so on to chapters, books, volumes, libraries. Thirdly, it allows us to manipulate and control the data of experience:-

  (a) It codifies and translates experiences into words,

  (b) It allows consciousness to select, extract and grab important features of our experiences of the external, the social as well as the inner world, Such selection, however, means that we withdraw attention from other parts of experience. This often means ‘blindness’. Another consequence is that our attention may not be on aspects of experience which have the most significance.

   (c) It allows us to process the data, to analyse, relate, rearrange, synthesise and systemise.

   (d) It allows communication, cooperation and interaction between people.

 

Several points, emerging from the above verses, should be noted:-

1. The ability to use words is the ability to construct concepts and make sense of the world. This is done by abstracting common elements from experiences and, therefore, also to discriminate between things. One chair is not the same as another. But when we have the name ‘chair’ we can apply it to the different objects which we also distinguish from other objects. This enables us to discover the relationship between objects. The words taught to Adam probably refer to the attributes of Allah - the fundamental categories of thought which create the concepts. The world of concepts, however, is not the same as the world of objects.

2. The word does not stand for an object but for an awareness of an experience of it. We cannot know anything but experiences. A big difference exists between people who think that their verbal statements refer to reality and those who think that it refers to experiences. It leads to controversies in which the former are clearly mistaken.

3. Language facilitates awareness. Most thinking is done in a language. We are not generally aware of that for which we do not have words. Conversely, we become aware of that for which we have words. The way words are connected together also tells us something about how experiences are connected.

4. We communicate with each other through language. We have only a limited number of direct experiences. But words are associated with experiences. Thus, through words we add the experiences of many other people not only in numbers, but also from far away and from long ago in time. This allows the accumulation of experiences and the development of the human race.

5. It is through language that we systematise and synthesise experiences and create higher and more complex concepts. Knowledge can advance vertically. Thus we become aware of things which are not given to the senses.

6. Language translates awareness of experiences into words and these should be translated back into awareness of experiences, and to experiences. But the words themselves are also experiences and have their own associations. The system of experiences connected with language becomes separated from the system of direct experiences. It is, therefore, perfectly possible, and indeed, it is a common occurrence, that there is often a contradiction between a verbal description of an object or event and the experience of that object or event. It is perfectly possible to deceive ourselves, to lie, and also to invent.

7. The world we see is constructed by our lingual or conceptual system. The Universe itself is constructed in the same way. The Universe is as it is because Allah has conceived it so. Let us be clear about what is meant by this. It is not being stated that Allah constructs the Universe in imitation of man, but that it is only possible for man to construct the world he sees because this is how reality operates. Man can only do that which is already inherent in existence. This is the reverse of anthropomorphism. Allah is not like man, but man in some respects has been made godlike. The Universe is constructed from a Natural Language, i.e. the Words of Allah, and man constructs his own world through his language. The two will correspond only if human language corresponds to Natural language.

8. In so far as all things have a particular behaviour and this behaviour affects other things, they can be said to communicate and have a language. Human language is merely a more complex example of this interaction.

“The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein praise Him, and there is not a thing but hymns his praise, but you understand not their praise.” 17:44

“Have you not seen that Allah, He it is Whom all who are in the heavens and the earth praise, and the birds in their flight? Of each He knows verily the worship and the praise, and Allah is aware of all things.” 24:41

9. A simple word is a sign which stands for the experience of an object. But there are words which stand for qualities, quantities, relationships, structures. sequences or patterns of events, and various combination of these and at various levels. They are all objects of experience. Human beings use three kinds of signs to think about experiences and communicate with each other:- words, numbers and symbols. These correspond roughly to the three categories of experience, qualities, quantities and order. When we name an object we may be speaking of it as a bundle of qualities as in ordinary speech, or a bundle of quantities as in science, or as a system of order. In every case we are speaking about an image in our minds.

10. There is a difference between natural language and human language owing to the ability of man to manipulate words apart from experiences, and also because of the limitations of human experiences to which the words apply. The language used by man can either be objective or subjective. It can apply to objects of experience, it can be an explanatory device or it can be fiction. These three are often confused with each other. Fictions are concepts or ideas which are re-arrangements of the data provided by experience in a manner not found in experience. They are artificial. A device is half-way between an object and a fiction since it is created by man, but it has a function in explaining real objects of experience. Science is full of such devices. Religion, too uses them. But there is a difference between these two uses. The explanatory devices in religion are taken from experience itself and are, therefore, objects while those of science tend to be fiction. For instance, in religion, a real or possible event or object is taken as an example to explain some other event or object. In science, devices such as Centres of Gravity, various constants etc are fictitious devices. Philosophers in particular invent such devices and explain the whole of existence by them, thereby causing confusion and controversies about words. Islam objects to the use of artificial concepts, at least in Religion:-

“Would you wrangle with me over names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which no warrant from Allah has been revealed? Then await the consequences, lo! I too am waiting.” 7:71

 

11. Language has content, intention and context. These three should not be confused with one another.

12. Language has causes in the communicator and effects in the receiver. These may be quite different since each depends on a different set of relationships and associations. The meaning of words may not be the same for the speaker or writer as for the hearer or reader. The intentions of the communicator may not be understood by the receiver. The intention may not be to convey factual information, for instance, but to gain some advantage. The same words spoken to different people in different situations will have a different meaning. Sentences are spoken within a context of a conversation or situation. Someone may have been asking a particular question relevant to some problem he was having. The answer may have been quite different had it been some other person in some other situation who was asking the same question. The people to whom an answer was being given may have been pre-occupied with some particular way of thinking with respect to which the answer was correct, but it would have been incorrect if it was associated with another way of thinking. Some people, for instance regarded Jesus as God when they were speaking about the Divine Spirit which manifested through him. But for those who took the physical man to be a god it was necessary to deny this.

13. There is a difference between the word and its meaning. The words do not have a meaning by themselves but are accompanied by intonations and gestures which alter meanings. In order to understand what a person has said in the past, it would be necessary to reproduce the same rhythms of voice and gestures as those which accompanied the words. The word has meaning in a context of other words. If this context is altered the meaning also changes. Meanings can exist in different fields to which the words refer. Horizontally, there is a language of science, of politics, of economics, of trade, of crafts, of poetry and so on. Though the same words may be used their meanings in each of these fields is different. The language used in religion should not be confused with that of the others. This confusion is very common.

14. Meanings can also exist at several levels. Vertically, that which is true at the physical level may not be true at the biological, psychological or higher levels, and vice versa. What is true at the microscopic level may not be true at the macroscopic. There are several levels of synthesis, abstraction and generalisation. There are literal, metaphorical or symbolic meanings. Common objects, events or structures may be taken as types referring to some higher experience which cannot be otherwise described. Religious language is of this type.

15. Language is revelatory in more than one way. What a person says can reveal not only that which he is saying, but his attitudes, his upbringing, his social class, his intellectual capacities and so on.

16. Language can be used to modify the individual since the words produce changes in the mind and brain of the listener.  

17. Language is used for many purposes apart from communicating information. It can be used for entertainment, instruction, describing, insulting, gaining status, self-expression, uplifting, encouraging, appealing, persuading and so on. The meaning of what a person says may not be in the words at all. Consider the following:- A woman says to another at a party, “That is a nice dress you are wearing. I have one just like it but I wear it for housework.” The purpose is clearly not to state a fact.

The purposes for which the religious language was created should not be mistaken for other purposes, especially not with that of science, politics or commerce.

18. Language itself functions at three distinct levels:-

   (a) People react to words by conditioned reflexes as they do to other stimuli. It is well known now that a word or label becomes associated with particular percepts, emotional attitudes and actions. People then react to a label, think in terms of it and their behaviour is wholly determined by it. Language is reduced to the level of just another conditioned reflex. At this level behaviour is mechanical or automatic. Slogans, labels and dogmas may arouse great emotional reactions and we have bigotry, prejudices, persecutions, and sectarian conflicts. A complex, X is formed in the mind consisting of items A, B, C, D etc. Then the whole complex, X reacts as one to only one of these stimuli, say A, or anything associated with it, even though B, C, D etc may be absent. Discrimination is inhibited and stupidity results.

 (b) When the meaning of words is taken into consideration this involves considerable nervous and intellectual activity in the form of analysis, comparison, relating and synthesis. The meaning depends entirely on the system of concepts and how they are understood.

  (c) When the words are taken only as signposts to some experience, the attempt is made to invoke those experiences. It should be obvious that a verbal statement can only be true if:-

    (i) It stands for an experience,

    (ii) for him who has that experience, not for anyone else.

    (iii) The statement has that meaning and no other.

    (iv) The experience is consistent with the whole system of experiences about the world. If it is not, it might be a hallucination.

    (v) The system of experiences is consistent with the real world and allows him to adjust to it.

 

19. A language is rooted in (a) the psychology of a people, (b) in the culture of the community and (c) in the geography of the area.

 The words ‘water’ or ‘garden’, for instance, cannot have the same associations in a rain forest as it has in a hot dry desert. The word ‘chair’ or ‘table’ has a different significance for those whose culture requires them to sit at tables for meals and those who sit on carpets. A person with a fiery or demonstrative temperament will be differently affected than those with a placid or cool temperament by emotional words.

The words and phrases of a language are associations with the kind of literature and ideas propagated through that language. The same set of ideas do not exist in every language. The Buddhist doctrines cannot be understood in the West in the same way as they are understood in Buddhist countries unless a great amount of their literature is also studied.

20. A language does not merely consist of words but also a grammar, idioms, similes, symbols, gestures. These differ between languages and makes translation difficult or even impossible. If an English man says ”The person, X, is round the bend” it would be absurd for an Arab to go there to find him.

21. Language may be used in an analogical or symbolic manner where a description refers not to a particular event, but that particular event itself describes a general pattern or any other area where that pattern may be found. Some physical or social situations or stories can be used to describe psychological processes.

22. An important use of language in religion is to produce certain psychological states, attitudes, experiences, feelings, thought processes, and actions. Instructions are recognised when they apply to actions, but it is seldom realised that there are also similar uses of language in the field of feelings and thought. A Myth may tell us something about the nature of Reality or life, and may be an instruction about correct attitudes and motives. Dogmas, for instance, ought to be taken as instructions to think and verify, or to assume certain psychologically useful attitudes.

23. A verbal formula may be used to implant a kind of capsule in the mind. It is a construct which has been “charged” by association with certain ideas, experiences etc. This creates or evokes the required psychological state when the formula is uttered. Charms and talismans may be used in the same way.

It should be remembered in this connection that psychological states govern not only what we think, feel and do, but also our perception and our physical condition, and the way we organise our life. What we do to the environment as a result elicits a response from it, What we think and feel governs what data we select for attention, and how we interpret and organise it. We also surround ourselves with, and seek objects, events and people according to our likes and dislikes, which now control the kind of experiences we have. We enter a kind of protected nursery or trap, according to point of view, whereby we have created a world for ourselves which also forms and controls us.

If a man is unfriendly because he thinks people are selfish and want to take advantage of him, then his behaviour will cause others to be unfriendly and unhelpful towards him. This, of course, confirms his previous assumptions. He may regard others as selfish in the first place because they failed to cater for his own selfish expectations. A great number of logical arguments are vicious circles of this kind.

It is this kind of logic which keeps the nations in constant conflict. Each arms itself against the likelihood of the other’s aggression, thereby creating the fear of aggression in the others. They too must arm themselves. These traps have arisen unconsciously or accidentally. The same methods could be used deliberately and consciously, remembering, of course, that they can be used either for good or evil, to facilitate the development and release of people or to exploit and subdue them. The danger is that these techniques will be misused or misapplied if there is no constant supervision by people who must themselves be supervised. Indeed, such misapplication is a common feature of most religions.

24.  The only way it is possible to overcome differences of interpretation is to provide the same experiential situation for the communicator and the recipient. This is done when a special language is created. In the case of science and technology the same laboratory conditions, instruments, experimental situation, procedures and language are provided in order to ensure that the same common external objects and events are experienced by all. In the case of religion the same common external conditions, the same activities and also the same inner conditions are necessary in order that the same experiences will provide the common meaning to the terms used. There is no difference between them in this respect.

25. It is possible to distinguish between four kinds of language:-

 (a) The language of instruction. This is literal and tells us what to do.

 (b) The emotional language of feelings which tells about the significance of things to ourselves. This is the language of literature, art and poetry. Though it is regarded as subjective, it has objective elements in so far as it describes experiences which are common to people by virtue of the fact that all human beings are fundamentally similar.

 (c) The intellectual language such as that of science and philosophy which is abstract. It does not deal with sense data but with concepts and models.

 (d) The transcendental language which is symbolic and allegorical. It deals with the more universal patterns of experience in a much more unified way. It is as if things are seen from a distance such that certain distinctions disappear but overall patterns, not previously seen, appear. Instead of being conscious of the individual trees, for instance, we become conscious of the structure of the forest. This is usually the language of religion.

 

It is possible to describe a human being in scientific terms, but this description in no way tells us the same thing as that which we experience when we have personal relationships, or when a superior officer controls the actions of a subordinate. Nor do any of these tell us the same thing as that which we are told when the relationship of man with the rest of reality is under consideration.

These four languages should not be confused with one another. Each tells us an aspect of the truth, but if something described in one language is interpreted in another then it falsifies it.

26. Our minds are incapable of perceiving all aspects of a situation or event. We select only parts of it. By so doing it constructs the world we see. The number of words is far smaller than the number of different experiences. But words can be combined to describe these. As the number of combinations increases the greater is the number of words invented. The greater the number of words there are the greater is the accuracy possible, but the more difficult it is to learn, remember and use them. Individuals and groups, therefore, use sub-languages consisting of a selection of words only and these are applied to a restricted part of experience. As these will differ from one another, they will make communication between groups difficult.

27, Experiences can occur at different levels of complexity. A combination of experiences is also an experience. We abstract common elements and discover differences by removing these common elements. We also see relationships between relationships and patterns of patterns, qualities of qualities, and so on. The progress of knowledge implies that:-

    (a) The quantity of data known increases

    (b) There is an increase in the number of relationships known

    (c) Increasing synthesis of data.

 

It is, therefore, entirely possible that there are a great number of higher levels and subtler objects not experienced, described or named in the language we use but which may exist in another language. The level at which a language is being used has to be recognised in order to make communication possible. A word may stand for a recurring pattern or type rather than an object or event or quality. When a relationship between words is established to form a sentence, and sentences are put together to form a story, these may not refer to actual literal events, but to a general pattern.

 

There is a story about a Greek, a Turk, an Arab and a Persian who were travelling together. They only had a small amount of money between them, and decided to pool it in order to buy some fruit. But they quarrelled as to what they would spend it on. A bypasser who heard them quarrelling happened to speak their different languages. It turned out that they all wanted to buy grapes but had different words for them. He managed to settle their arguments.

This story can be taken as a type illustrating a more general situation. A great number of arguments are of this kind even among academicians. In fact each person has a language of his own in so far as the words he uses refer to his own private experiences.

It is not possible to convey the same meaning by the same sentences to people in another place. It is not only necessary to translate an idea from one language to another, but to transfer all its meanings. A correct transfer involves a transfer of experiences, and this requires knowledge of the psychology, sociology and the geography of the people from and to whom it is transferred.

Human beings learn not only through direct experience, by thinking, analysing, relating and synthesising the data of experience, by communication with each other via language, but also by direct transfer of experiences. Although it may be possible for one person to directly experience the experiences of another this faculty is undeveloped, and can be ignored for most purposes. Brain activity is connected with electrical and magnetic changes and these can be transferred by induction and radiations. Communication takes place indirectly through the use of sounds or written signs which stand for certain experiences. There are rules relating these which may or may not correspond to the relationships between experiences. A language has to be learnt in the same way as other things. Changes in place, temperaments, times and conditions of life cause changes in experience. Words acquire different meanings for different people. Verbal agreement or disagreement will not then correspond to real agreement and disagreement. Most futile arguments and conflicts of opinion in religion, philosophy and politics are based on misunderstanding of the terms used. In fact there may be unconscious agreement. On the other hand people appear to be agreed on certain statements and form sects on the strength of this. But, in fact, they understand these statements quite differently. Sects are usually based on an illusion of agreement and disagreement.

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The Quran tells us:-

"And He (Allah) taught Adam the Names (qualities), all of them; (Quran 2:31)?

The implication could be:-

(1) Firstly we must differentiate between Allah's Word and Human language. Allah's Words refer to:-

(a) the creative forces in the Universe (3:47, and

(b) the Truth (6:74) or Order contained in things by reason of which they exist and, therefore, also

(c) the communicating causal forces between things by which things affect each other (7:54, 65:12).

Human words have a restricted application within the Universal scheme, but are a reflection of it. We have three stages:- (i) The real events,(ii) the experiences of it, (iii) the verbal description of the experience. The three are not identical, but the experiencing human being mediates between the Real and Lingual and this will depend on the quality of the person. But the experience always covers an area which smaller than the real and the description covers an area that is smaller than the experience. We can illustrate this by three concentric circles marked D within E within R.

The experience is true if it corresponds to the real, and description is true if it corresponds to experience that corresponds to the real. Language refers to the third level.

(2) The "names" refer to the attributes of Allah - 7:180

(3) These names refer to certain fundamental ideas called "categories of thought" or "archetypes" by which we interpret experiences and give them meaning. - They must exist before we can interpret the data of experience.

(4) They refer to the ability to form concepts by abstraction by which thinking takes place. They are not sensations as given by the sense organs, and not memories or images, nor are they  perceptions, which are interpretations arrived at by associations of sensations with previous experiences. They are a third stage in data processing. This allows processing to continue to further stages of synthesis such as ideation, systematization, integration etc.

(5) The names also refer to the ability to give labels to concepts. This includes the ability to translate what is abstract into something concrete, that we can see or hear and which acts as a medium through which we can transmit experiences, thoughts, concepts, and ideas. This also allows us to record experiences so that they can be transmitted unchanged over time.

(6) All this allows the accumulation of experiences and further processing of it. This facilitates development and evolution.

(7) Quran 2:31 should probably also be read in association with:-

"Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit, and made for you the faculties of hearing, and sight and hearts (feeling); little is it that you give thanks." 32:9

And also 7:71, 14:4, 68:1-2 and 96:1-7

The point appears to be that man has within him, as potentialities, the divine attributes, including creativity and responsibility, and that we should be vicegerents and behave objectively as agents of Allah. The general capacity for Language is part of this and is a built-in feature of man, though the specific words and grammar have to be learnt. We should not invent concepts or ideas through fantasy and desire, but stick to real concepts about Allah made, principles, objects and events, though there are a variety of ways in which this can be expressed. That is differences in the form of the words, which we assign to things does not matter, but we must think of the objects or events they refer to. There are different kinds of conceptual systems and ways of formulating things, as demonstrated by the various Messengers, and they are still valid as long as we understand their reference and significance.

To continue with a view of language compatible with Islam:-

As we do not directly know the real objects or experience other people's experiences, how do we know what is true or not?

There are three ways of interacting with the real world:-

(a) The processing of the data obtained through the senses.

(b) Indirectly, through language and verbal reasoning.

(c) Through direct gnosis. This could be the result of the fact that a human being has direct access to his own system - body, mind and spirit - and, therefore, to the materials, forces, processes and laws that govern these and all things that directly affect his system. A kind of resonance or empathy is set up between his own system and other things.

These correspond roughly to what the Quran calls:- Ain-ul-Yaqin . (Quran 102:7) - The Eye of Certainty. Experiential knowledge. Ilm-ul-Yaqin. (Quran 102:5) - The Lore of Certainty. Haqq-ul-Yaqin (Quran 69:51) - The Truth of Certainty.

We have the following levels:-

(1) All things in the Universe interact with others. The object exists within an objective system S(O), and its properties depend on the interactions it has with the other objects in its environment.

(2) An object O1 affects other objects O2 etc, including human beings, through a medium M. such as Gravity, Light etc. The effect in man can be at an unconscious, sub-conscious or conscious level. When it is at a conscious level we call it an experience. At the conscious level, the experience is interpreted within a system of experiences S(E), which is not the same as the objective system. It is a percept. The experience E depends on the nature of the object O, the medium M and the nature of the mind of the observer P.

(3) The experience E is translated by the observer P into a description D. The description is done within a lingual or conceptual system S(D), which is a social medium of communication. This system is not the same as the system of experiences or the objective system. However, words and symbols are also experiences and there a part, a sub-system of the system of experiences.

Consider an event or object O, which is experienced by two observers P1 and P2 as E1 and E2 respectively, and they apply the description D1 and D2 to it respectively. Then D1 relates to E1 and D2 relates to E2. Because the observers cannot experience what the other experiences or know how the other understands a word, then there cannot be any agreement between them about either E or D. There is an agreement only if D1 and E1 relate to O and E2 and D2 also relate to O. It does not matter then how people experience things and how they understand words. In order to experience each will have to translate the forces (e.g.. light, the medium of communication coming from the object into experiences. In order to communicate these experiences they have to translate these into a description using a language system. P1 will have to encode his experiences in a system of signs (in speech or writing), transmit this to P2 who must decode it into his own experiences. These experiences will only correspond if the same words D are associated with O.

But there is no direct communication between what one person experiences and another. If these two persons live in the same environment where X exists and learn the same language S(D) then P1 will learn to associate O with E1 and D1, while P2 will learn to associate O with E2 and D2. There will be a correspondence between the relationships O, E and D in the minds of P1 and P2. But this does not mean that their experiences are identical. If, however, they are not in the same environment and do not learn the same language in contact with it, then there will not be an understanding between them. In fact, even if there is, the two may process their experiences differently. This will apply both to the direct experience of the object and of the words.

Problems arise because language can be used in three ways.-

(a) Like all other experiences the sound or sight of words can arouse their own reactions that may be intellectual, emotional or physical. These may be conditioned reflexes. Slogans etc. have this effect and produce mindless reactions. On the other hand it is possible to use this mechanism to produce and reinforce useful associations and experiences.

(b) Language forms a separate system. The meaning of words arises from all the associations the labels have. Intelligent communication is based on meanings.

(c) Language can be used symbolically in that a phrase or story refers to a pattern of experiences. The words do not have a literal meaning, which refers to specific things, but to something abstract and much more universally true or at a deeper level. They can, through a kind of resonance, bring into consciousness or connect it to the sub-conscious fundamental patterns or archetypes.

When two people P1 and P2 communicate, then P1 can point to the object O and utter the label D. He experiences O as E1(O) and the label as E1(D) and these are connected. He experiences himself as E1(P1) and the other as E1(P2) and sees that they resemble each other outwardly and in behaviour. Thus E1(P1) and E1(P2) correspond. P1 infers that because P2 has the same behaviour as P1 and can give the same expression to his experiences as P1 then the inner state and experiences of P2 correspond to that of P1. In other words, there is a correspondence between E1 and E2. As the world experienced by P1 contains P2 as well as objects O that are external to P2, he also infers that there is a world W outside himself, so that W contains O, P1 and P2.

P2 has two experiences E2(O) and E2(D) which are also connected. He experiences P1 as E2(P1) and himself as E2(P2). He sees that these resemble each other. So E2(P1) and E2(P2) correspond. And he also infers that E1 corresponds to E2. He also infers that there is a World outside himself. Note that this could not be inferred until P1 and P2 communicated and described their inner experiences to each other. So, the three things, the world W, the observers P and their descriptions D are linked and mutually support each other.

If we draw a circle to denote the experiences of a person P1, then within this circle there is not only the object and the other person and the label, but also himself. This consists of his body, its actions as well as the associated inner experiences. The same is true for P2.

Since there is a connection between the object, the label and the persons for each person and this can be repeated, both observers infer that there is a similar connection for the other. Person P1 can encode his experiences E1 into D (because it corresponds to E1(D) and send it to person P2. P2 receives it and decode it into E2 (because it corresponds to E2(D). So though P1 and P2 do not have each other's experiences, communication is true if E1(D) is the same as E2(D), and experience E2 corresponds to E1, and E2 relates to O as E1 relates to O. The object O itself is never known, nor the observer P, nor are the experiences identical. What is known is only the relationship between P and E.

Problems arise when something is referred to which is not an object to which one can point. This may be a concept or the experience of another person. It becomes necessary to learn to use the language in the same conditions by the same actions. Work in the same laboratory with the same equipment and methods will be required. The same education and training will have to be provided. This, of course, applies to science, as well as Commerce, Politics, Philosophy, Art and also religion. In general, there is little understanding between these various groups unless of course they also undertake each others disciplines and environments.

 

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The view which we have of the world is produced mainly by our language - the way we define words and how we relate them. This may not be the same as the actual objects and the way they are connected. In fact we do not know this, but only the connection between these objects and ourselves. Different languages describe different aspects of experience better than others. If a connection can be found between two different language systems, then it is possible to translate ideas existing in one system to another. But they may be much more awkward and complex to handle there.

If we avoid making a distinction between mind and matter, but regard them merely as two points of view, the one looking outwards and the other looking inwards, then we have psycho-physical parallelism. If there is psycho-physical parallelism, then it follows that if psychological phenomena can be described in physical terms as science tries to do, then physical phenomena may also be described in psychological terms.

It is possible to say, for instance, that what the Physicist describes as Inertia is an inherent Self-preservative instinct in all matter. A body is said to persist in its state of motion or organization until some force acts on it and changes its motion. From another point of view the body may be said to move or readjust itself in order to get away from the force to preserve itself. There is no difference between saying that this phenomena may be described by the statement: “The object behaves as if the external force causes the object to accelerate.” or by the statement: “The object behaves as if it is trying to accelerate away from the applied force.”

Take the phenomenon of intelligence. When we apply pressure to something, then it changes its shape owing to its elasticity. It presses back and returns to its original position when the pressure is lifted. In other words it has adaptability and this is intelligence. So called dead materials and metals also suffer from fatigue and exhaustion. Nature performs experiments; it proceeds by trial and error. There is nothing which a scientist does which is not also done by nature. He merely does it faster. This is because he has a brain operating by the same laws as those which exist in nature, but also because his experiences have given him a memory. The same manipulations, trial and error, success and failures, combinations and dissociations, synthesis and analysis which occur in nature can now occur in the field of memories. Man is said to possess intelligence and consciousness owing to his complex structure, particularly because of electrical activity in his brain.. But man is only part of the Universe which also has a most complex structure. and electrical and electromagnetic interactions. It does not, therefore, appear to be reasonable to suppose that intelligence and consciousness do not exist in the Universe. If they do not, how and from where did human beings acquire them? And if they have these, are human beings not part of the Universe? Most problems such as these disappear if we understand the terms used more comprehensively rather than trying to confine them to certain areas.

Man is said to have purposes, while nature is regarded as being devoid of this. In fact, however, human purposes have causes, and there is no reason why we should not speak about purposes in nature in the same sense.

When something is destroyed the materials are not lost, and yet the objects have changed. The materials man is composed of continually change, but still we think of him as the same man. What do these names refer to? The word “Table”, for instance, could refer to a function. Anything could be a “table” when it was fulfilling that function. The name may, therefore, refer to a particular situation, a relationship which the object has with its environment. Objectively speaking the name given to an object ought to contain references to the function of the object in the real world. In many cases the name includes an implied reference to how they affect man, either by causing pain or pleasure. And this is not necessarily the same thing as what may benefit or harm him. The names do not, therefore, refer to materials but to structures, relationships and qualities.

 

Let us now consider some more abstract concepts.

The three main attributes of Allah are said to be Justice, Love and Truth. They are not separate things but different aspects or view points. It may be variously asserted that the fundamental principle governing the Universe is Justice, or that it is Love or that it is Truth.

We may regard the word ‘Justice’ as referring to Law or Order or Regularity which applies to all things in the field where it operates. All things will be treated similarly according to their similarities, and dissimilarly according to their dissimilarities. Conversely it is this order which creates the similarity or dissimilarity. This is also a law of the mind. Without it we could not think since there would then be total chaos. If similars did not behave similarly we could not discern any regularity. We cannot, for instance measure one thing by inches and another by centimeters and then compare them. Thus even science requires Justice. Justice requires that similar actions should have similar consequences. It does not require that there should be equality, but that similar actions should be similarly treated. The legal or moral use of the word Justice is derived from the Objective or Natural use of it or vice versa.

The word love has many connotations and is largely misunderstood in this age. It should mean concern for other things. The chapters in the Quran are headed with a formula containing three inter-related notions. “In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.” Allah refers to the origin, cause and goal, Beneficence refers to nurture, support, and maintenance and Mercy refers to tolerance, flexibility and adaptability. The implication is that the Universe is so constructed that these factors are inherent in it. In fact nothing could arise if it was not. There are forces of attraction, cohesion and evolution, a tendency to re-establish the unity and homogeneousness from which they originally derive. All things are inter-dependant. In so far as the Good is definable objectively as that which facilitates integration and evolution, then to say that love is paramount in the Universe is to say that nothing no matter how evil it seems can be entirely evil since it cannot reverse the evolutionary process.

The Universe is also forgiving in that there is a degree of flexibility and tolerance whereby the evil consequences of an action can be avoided, overcome or neutralized by other appropriate actions. There is the possibility of learning by accumulated experience, by intelligent behaviour and transformation. When one person under the influence of love bestows some benefit on another, takes on himself the consequences of someone else’s actions or some burden, such as a debt, then the law of justice is not revoked since the consequences are merely transferred or transmuted. It is not difficult to find examples of these in nature. The Law of Love makes possible in the Universe what the Law of Justice by itself cannot. By itself it would make the Universe into a machine. Love as a moral principle is only possible because there exists an objective principle of Love. It is not possible for human beings to do anything which is not inherent in the natural order.

Allah is also Truth. Truth implies that there is something Absolute, a unity not subject to change or disintegration. It implies a fundamental law of conservation in Existence. It also implies order by which we recognize, predict and control things. It is also the principle of Objectivity according to which the Real World is to be thought of as something different from our opinions and our limited experience of it, which sets a limit to what we can do, and causes us to take into consideration all the other things which together with ourselves constitute the world. This is, of course, a fundamental assumption in all Religion and even in Philosophy and Science. The objective truth not only pervades the world outside us but also within us. It is possible, therefore, to gain access to it not only by external studies but through self-study. It is by exploring and developing inner consciousness that we can also benefit from external observation. The expansion of our experiences through the development of the capacity for experience is the road both to self-fulfillment and evolution.

These fundamental notions, therefore, lie behind both knowledge and values.

Consider certain laws known to physicists:-

All things continue in their state of uniformity and direction of motion until an external force acts to change this. The change of motion is proportional to the acting force. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The change is, therefore, attributed to something not seen, a force. How do we know that this force exists? We measure it by the change in motion.  Religion does exactly the same. But it wants to explain not only physical phenomena, but also social and psychological ones. It wants to explain facts as well as values. It assumes that Allah exists. How do we know that Allah exists? We see Him by the creativity in the Universe, in Nature and ourselves. The notion of force allows the scientist to distinguish between different kinds. but as far as the religious man is concerned, he wants an overall synthetic or unitary view of reality which the notion of Allah provides.

Secondly, it is clear that these laws are used to construct machines. They could have been reinterpreted to teach that without efforts we cannot transform ourselves, that the transformation is proportional to the effort made, and that every effort we make will have a reaction, a modifying effect on the maker of the effort. In fact, the laws tell us more about the mind since it requires that we seek a cause for every change. We do not take changes for granted. This is because a change disturbs stability and constitutes a stimulus; a stimulus arouses us to action; and the action has the function of removing the stimulus, that is to restore stability. An explanation is regarded as Truth when it does just that.

Ultimately, if we have an original state of equilibrium represented by Zero, 0, then the third law requires that if an action, +1 is produced, it will produce an equal and opposite reaction, -1, a pair of opposites. There is a force of attraction between them *1 which tries to return the system to its original state of equilibrium. The original unity remains eternally the same. There is ultimately only a Law of Conservation, and this is an attribute of Allah. There is a state of potentiality from which all three +1, -1 and *1 arise. The law of the mind consists of the same. There is only a stimulus if there is a change. If there were no change from state A to state B we would not seek a cause, an explanation. We have the potential to do things. But if we make an effort we create an opposite to it which must be reconciled.

We are not merely saying that the notion of cause is a mental necessity, but that since our minds are created by the forces of nature, and because they have arisen from a long evolutionary history of development in contact with the real world, then the mental necessity is also built into the structure of the Universe. What is more, since we are part of the Universe, the same fundamental laws apply to us. The point we are making is that there are certain assumptions built into the language we use which have not been fully explored. In so far as they are not sufficiently comprehensive some of these are inconsistent with each other and lead to confusion, to compartmentalization of life and to superficiality.

It follows from this discussion that if the language is not correct, that is, if it is not objective or natural, then it is not possible to think correctly, to interact and communicate correctly, and it is not even possible to see and understand existence correctly. It is, then impossible to live and adjust oneself to reality correctly. The ability to do all this depends on having an appropriate language or conceptual system. The world is created by the Word, both the real and the human, and the latter must conform to the former. This is Surrender.

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