Truth & Knowing

 

Critic:-

The problem is that though Islam claims to be the Religion of Truth, people do not really know the truth. What they have is ideas or thought about it. And these ideas will vary with the quality of the people, and their education and ambitions. The state of a people indicates their quality. It is obviously low in the Muslim world. One judges Islam by the people. Are they hypocrites? How can one determine what the truth really is, except from the behaviour?

Answer:-

This is true to a certain extent. Besides the large number of those who are Muslim in name only and know little about Islam, there are unfortunately also many who misinterpret and misrepresent Islam on the basis of inadequate knowledge, and also many hypocrites and quite a few traitors with various personal agendas.  But the teachings in the Quran are still in tact. What we find is that people have not studied and applied it. There have certainly been people of high quality, scholars and saints, in the past who have made a deep study and their commentaries have been published, but these have been neglected owing to environmental pressures and distractions. There are, therefore, three factors here and not just one. There are still a number of enlightened teachers and exemplars that can be found by those who sincerely seek. It is all a question of whether you want to follow the ignorant or those who have knowledge and been transformed by it.

The Quran tells us:

"Will ye enjoin what is right upon others, and forget yourselves?" Quran 2:41

"Most hateful is it to Allah that ye say that which ye do not." 61:3

The Prophet is reported to have said: "The destruction of my people is brought about by wicked learned men and ignorant worshippers. The worst people are the wicked learned men and the best are the good learned men."

We live by ideas, motives and actions and these are inter-dependant. Ideas can be (1) Knowledge, about facts, motives or actions, (2) Suggestion, modes of communication including symbolism and enabling devices, (3) Inventions. There is usually a mixture of these.  Science utilises several inventions both technological instruments and conceptual.

Knowledge can be about (a) the external Natural world, (b) Social, things such as law, politics etc. (c) Inherent, the truth or information that we are composed of. We have different amounts of access to these according to degree of consciousness.

Ideas have three aspects:- (a) Strength  (b) Comprehensiveness (c) Clarity.

Ideas can be divided into:- (a) Doubtful - two or more things are regarded equally likely or unlikely. (2) Conjecture - something is regarded as probably true, but not certain. (3) Conviction - no other possibility is admitted.

We have to consider three things:- (a) the objective truth as it exists apart from the observer; (b) the relationship of knower to the thing known; (c) the state of the knower.

This gives us three conditions:- (1) Certainty which refers to the objective truth.  (2) Appearance refers to the interactions between a person and the world or the object - this is limited to certain aspects, and different people can have different views of the same thing or select different sets of things for attention. Apart from (i) various degrees of partial truths, there are also (ii) illusions, which are misinterpretations and (iii) fantasies. (3) Belief refers to the person. A person may have an experience, but be aware of it to different degrees and he may state it in different ways. There is a distinction between the reality, the experience of it and the verbal description. We have to distinguish between (a) the truth that manifests in a person's behaviour, (b) his thoughts and (c) what he professes.

(i) Hypocrisy refers to the difference between what is professed and what is thought. (ii) Misinterpretation refers to the difference between the behaviour and the thought, though it is also sometimes regarded as hypocrisy at a deeper level. It is sub-conscious hypocrisy. (iii) Remorse - a person may genuinely wish to do what is right but fails because the combination of circumstances and inherent tendencies cause him to fail - the pressures or temptations are too strong. There is, therefore, a third condition that applies to the discrepancy between the profession and the behaviour.

Whereas there is interaction between certainty, appearance and belief, they are not identical. Strength, comprehensiveness and clarity applies to each, as does doubt, conjecture and conviction. People can have different strengths of belief and believe what is not certain and disbelieve what is certain to various degrees. Certainty could refer to what is always constant or to what is variable or possible or to what is contradictory and impossible.

Belief can be based on (1) cultural conditioning; (2) authority and hearsay; (3) superstition caused by fear, strong desire, fascination and need for excitement; (4) experiential evidence; (5) Evidence based on investigation and experimental; (6) rational thinking; (7) intuitive - something feels right because it is consistent with one’s nature or what one has learnt. (8) categorical notions - there are certain assumptions such as that all changes have causes; (9) existential evidence - that things fit into a self-consistent system of which we are part and towards which we have a function.

At this last level, belief becomes Faith. And though there are degrees of it and it is variable depending on degree of awareness, it ought to refer to a combination of certainty, appearance and belief.

As the Universe and all things in it are evolving, they are changing from what is to what will be. It is not, therefore, sufficient to know existing facts. Something more fundamental, must drive the direction of change. Human beings are part of this process and as far as they are conscious, they need conscious purposes and values. Nothing can be achieved without faith, love (interest) and hope which are inter-dependent. These, however, can and should be regarded as manifestations in consciousness of the Fundamental Creative Principle. 

 

You are, of course, making your judgement about the state of Muslims from a Western point of view where external factors such science, organisation and technology are considered most important. However, the value system that provides the motives in Islam is quite different. People are to be judged according to the degree of spiritual development - how well they are adjust to Reality and fulfil themselves. That is what intelligence demands.

According to the Prophet (saw) the first thing created by Allah was "Aql". Some people translate Aql as Intellect. But this word is normally used for the faculty for thought. The word Intelligence is much more appropriate.

Intelligence refers to adaptation – the way a thing adjusts to the system to which it belongs. This follows from the notion of Fundamental Unity - that all things derive from a single source, are dependent on it and form interdependent parts of a single system, though it has several levels of organisation. As all things, including human beings, exist because of the Truth (or Order) that is inherent in them (Quran 15:85), the information about their origin and function is built-in in them. (Quran 2:32, 7:172, 13:15, 43:87, 30:30).  But human beings are aware of these only to different degrees or mostly not at all. It is this unawareness or “forgetfulness” that is responsible for the degradation of man and all his problems and suffering. The greater the number and strength of the external distractions and temptations provided by the social, cultural and physical environment that compete for attention the weaker does the inner awareness become and the greater is the motivation and effort required to reverse this process. There is, therefore, a distinction between impressions, stimuli or knowledge that is (i) nutritional or beneficial, (ii) catalytic or enabling and (iii) poisonous or harmful for the soul. The first duty of the Muslim, from which all other life obligations flow, is therefore to “Remember”. (Quran 2:152, 2:200, 3:191, 7:205, 13:28, 18:29, 24:37, 29:45, 33:41, 57:16, 62:10, 63:9-11)

It is necessary also to understand the difference between knowing, understanding and being though they all require intelligence. It is possible to know much and understand little or vice versa. It is possible to incorporate something into one’s life motives to various degrees, but still not know or understand it to various degrees. A person can know about engineering, do engineering or be an engineer. A person can know and think about Islam to various degrees, or practice Islam to various degrees, or he can be a Muslim who is actually in a state of surrender to Allah, and there can be a combination of these.

Apart from this, there are numerous directions in which intelligence can be channelled. Some people are superior in one thing while others are superior in another and some people can employ their intelligence more constructively and for good while others employ it more destructively and for evil, deliberately or owing to ignorance, lack of understanding or unawareness. Naïve superficial comparisons between people is, therefore, wholly inappropriate and often prejudiced and mischievous.

A distinction has to be made between principles, motives and actions. Actions are judged by motives and motives by principles. But even an action that leads to greater overall harm than benefits can be regarded as culpable if insufficient effort was made to acquire the appropriate knowledge, motivation and skills.

Intelligence, therefore, requires three things:-

(1) that something is perceived, (2) it is processed by linking it with things already in memory, inherent, acquired or processed and (3) appropriate action is taken.

It has seven inter-dependent characteristics:-

(1) The ability to behave according to its inherent nature.

(2) The ability to react to factors in the environment.

(3) The ability to discriminate between things similar and dissimilar, abstract what is common, and isolate what is not, to include and exclude.

(4) The ability to learn from experience.

(5) The ability to process data, to analyse, relate and synthesise.

(6) The ability to foresee consequences owing to memory of events or extrapolation of observed tendencies.

(7) The ability to form patterns and systems and perceive what is consistent or inconsistent and to discriminate between what is compatible and beneficial or contradictory and harmful for an entity including oneself.

Everything shows different degrees of intelligence and can be distinguished accordingly. Examples of primitive intelligence are water finding its own level, and elasticity, all things have a degree of it. If you press against something it yields. It is sensitive to the pressure and this pressure is distributed among the particles to compress them.

One could say that an object that moves because of a force acting on it is adjusting to it. It is not reacting mechanically. It is moving in a direction so as to neutralise the force - it has a self-preservative instinct. All things have a degree of this and it is called inertia. If the force is too great relative to its inner cohesion, the object shatters and the parts move in different courses.

The view of existence based on Unity and intelligence is quite different from the scientific view based on mechanical determinism. It requires that events are caused when things interact and that the event depends on and affects all the interacting things according to their nature. That is, no thing exists in isolation but exists in a context of an environment with respect to which it has a function and to which it must adjust. Its fate will depend on how this is done. Every whole is more than the sum of its parts because of the organisation, consist of parts that are wholes and is part of a whole. (i) It exerts controlling effects on the parts, (ii) the parts must adjust to the whole and (iii) the parts affect each other. There are therefore, three ways of looking at things.

This is not say that the scientific view is invalid or not useful – some views are more comprehensive and useful than others and for different purposes. The Islamic view is wholistic and relates to the process of living.

Question:-

Given the Islamic view of reality, its ideal and value system as you described, how would you assess Americans or other Western People that consider themselves more advanced?

Answer:-

According to the Quran:-

“Surely, We have created man in the best of moulds. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low; except those who believe and behave righteously; for theirs is a reward unfailing.” 95:4-6

Righteous behaviour is defined in the following verses:-

“Then set your purpose for religion as a man upright by nature - the nature made by Allah in which He has made men; there is no altering (the laws of) Allah's creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know - turning to Him only, and be careful of your duty to Him and keep up prayer and be not of those who ascribe partners to Him (polytheists),  of those who split their religion and became schismatic, every sect rejoicing in its own tenets.” 30:30-32

“And by the soul and Who fashioned it, and enlightened it with what is wrong and right for it!  He indeed is successful who causes it to grow (or purifies it)!  And he indeed is a failure who corrupts it! “ 91:7-10

Accordingly, human beings have been divided into three classes - the people of the Left Hand, the Right Hand and the Foremost (Quran 56:7-14).

The American and the people of the West are like any other people conditioned by their culture. Like people in other nations, they are not all the same. There are different levels and kinds of intelligence and each nation has a different proportion of each type. Few behave consciously according to any objective standards or purpose. The majority tend to be rather primitive, immature and barbaric, badly miss-educated and ill informed, but nevertheless arrogantly self-opinionated about everything on the basis of ignorance and prejudice. They tend to be trapped in a web of fantasies and illusions spun by their media and those who govern and manipulate them, and by low awareness, morality and self-control. Their behaviour is controlled mostly by habits, irrational impulses, accidental events, automatisms, fixations, obsessions, phobias, cynicism, suggestibility, gullibility, distractibility, fickleness, instability, impatience, excitability, hysterics, pretence, posturing, gamesmanship, dependence, cowardice and proneness to flattery, temptation, diversion of attention, group pressures, provocation, bribery and threat. It is motivated by selfishness, greed, lust, pride, vanity, envy, fear, anger, hate, prejudice, self-pity, lying, deception, rivalry, one-upmanship, meanness, malevolence and spite. Their minds are occupied by trivialities, futilities, superficialities, gossip, scandals, backbiting, boasting, excuse making, suppression, procrastination, distortion and rationalisation away of inconvenient truths, justification of the morally indefensible, self-deception, wishful thinking, projection of blame, self-praise and the defamation and condemnation of others. It is not just that psychological, social and physical resources, energy and time are wasted uselessly but also in ways that are harmful, which requires much effort to neutralise or cure.

They are subject, through mental conditioning to rampant depravity, violence, malfunctioning family and social systems, and they have vandalised the planets through wastage of resources, pollution and disruption of the ecological balance. Much of the commercial, institutional, political and cultural activities are psychopathic, and criminal. The great differences in wealth, the impotence of the individual in the face of organisations and those who have the wealth, power and prestige, and the consequent social injustices, are obscene. This demoralises large sections of the population that need to be bribed and distracted by the temptation offered by gambling, the excitement of sport and spectacles, and the escapism of alcohol and drugs. The greater the organisation, the greater the restriction of rights and freedoms of the individuals through ever increasing controls and laws, the greater does the irresponsibility become and the more is initiative eroded and the greater is the “liberalisation” in the form of adoption of all manner of perversions. 

They are usually controlled by a group of self-seeking, self-assertive, ambitious but relatively of low intelligence, morality and ability, often conscienceless psychopathic and hypocritical leaders and heroes who they idolise, follow and emulate and who always accuse others of the failures, crimes, abuses and atrocities that they themselves commit but hide. Their governments have secret agendas, manipulate information and people, and run terrorist organisation consisting of criminals that spy, experiment on and use their own citizens as well as other nations to further their own ambitions, and carry out all kinds of subversive and criminal activities that lead to mass hysterics, prejudice, destabilisation, insurrections, treachery, persecutions, war, mass murder, destruction, deprivation, chaos and suffering.  

But the majority of the people do not notice or think and accept all this as normal and even laudable. Consciousness, conscience and will are inactive. They are asleep and violently resent attempts at awakening.

But, as pointed out, all people are in more or less the same boat. As we are all trapped in the same mire, it is not a question of condemnation, but of pity and compassion and of tolerance and forgiveness and above all of mutual assistance in escaping this condition. After all, God, through his compassion for mankind, also sent his guidance. This obviously also implies that the Muslim must resist temptations and pressures to conform and drown in the muddy waters.

Nothing said here should be construed as implying that people everywhere do not also have various admirable traits and achievements, especially in enterprise, exploration, science, organisation, technology and arts, in acts of self-extension, compassion, generosity and self-sacrifice, and in heroic efforts to overcome difficulties and personal limitations. There are positives and negatives in various amounts and proportions.

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