- Islamic creed
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- Creed and Quran Miraculousness
Reminding introduction:
Honorable brother, we start with the seventh lesson of creed and Miraculous Inimitable Quran lectures.
We talked previously about the elements of mandate and that the universe is the first element and the priority fundamental, then comes the mind, the righteous instinct, the lust through which we are promoted either by gratitude or by forbearing, the freedom that dignifies our deeds, the Islamic law which is the measures to which the mind and instinct are measured, and the time which is the wrap of our deeds.
We finished in a previous lecture talking about the universe and the signs
(Which we will mention in every lecture) which indicate the greatness of Allah through this universe.
Mind is an element of mandate
Now we move to the topic of the mind which is considered as one of the great fundamentals in man.
1- The lot of Ayas indicates the mind:
The Ayas (verses) that talk about the mind and its derivatives and all related issues are close to one thousand Ayas, Allah says:
“will they not then understand?”
“Do they not look”
“Will ye not (yourselves) be admonished?”
Mind related verses and all related issues are close to 1000 Ayas.
2- Man is a mind with recognition, a loving heart and a mobile body:
You all know dear brother that man is a mind with recognition, a loving heart and a mobile body, and he should fulfill the mind’s need with knowledge, the heart’s needs with love and the body’s needs with food and drinks, and he who fulfills these needs will excel, and he who fulfills a need while neglecting the sh3er will deviate.
There is a big difference between excelling and deviation, and man is a soul that is his entity, his own addresser, and his own blamer, the soul is the one that believes, disbelieves, sublimes, degrades, loves, hates, thanks, disowns, treats fairly, and pays effort.
Man’s soul is his entity, and it never dies, but tastes death which means death is a separation between man’s soul and the vessel it was in (the body), and this separation is because the divine supply comes to an end which is here the spirit (the divine supply).
To clarify: It is like electricity to a device,so is the soul when separated from the vessel it was in (the body) leading to death.
Don’t forget that this lamp goes dead either by cutting off the electric current or by smashing it while it is still connected to the current which resembles killing. So death is cutting off the supply, while killing is destroying the body so it won’t accept this divine supply and death occurs.
Anyhow, wisdom is to look after your soul as it is eternal, yet the western civilization unfortunately, taking into account all its accomplishment, looks after the body only.
And those accomplishments are over after death, while Islamic civilization accomplishments start with birth and never end and they last forever and ever.
There is a delicate truth, Allah says:
“would that thy Lord put an end to us!" he will say, "Nay, but ye shall abide!"
The mind is a comprehending power fed by knowledge:
Honorable brother, Allah bestowed man the mind which is a comprehending power and a superior need for knowledge, and unless this need is fulfilled, man descends from his humane level to an unsuitable level.
Unless this superior need is fulfilled, unless man seeks the truth, the secret of his existence,the purpose for his existence, the mission he was burdened with by Allah, and the commandments he was charged with, and unless he asks where from and where to and why and take his time to find the truth, and unless he seeks knowledge, he will descend from his humane level to an unsuitable level.
There are two types of People: a knowledgeable one and a knowledge seeker and there is no good in any other.
((Knowledge is better than wealth, for knowledge guards you while you have to guard wealth. Knowledge increases the actions, but wealth gradually decreases as it is spent. Those who amass wealth, though alive, are dead to realities of life, and those who achieve knowledge, will remain alive through their knowledge and wisdom even after their death, though their faces may disappear from the community of living beings, yet their ideas, the knowledge which they had left behind and their memory, will remain in the minds of people))
((Remember that there are three kinds of people: one kind is of those learned people, the second is the kind of those who are acquiring the above knowledge and the third is that class of people who are uneducated. They follow every pretender and accept every slogan, they have neither acquired any knowledge nor have they secured any support of firm and rational convictions so Kumail be careful that you are one of them))
These are the words of our Master Ali (may Allah be pleased with him)
This is how the soul dies:
Hence, mind is a comprehending power and unless you fulfill this need you will descend from a humane level and approach a Bohemian level, thus Allah says:
“(They are things) dead, lifeless: nor do they know when they will be raised up.”
The death of the soul, Allah says:
“They are only like cattle; nay, they are worse astray in Path.”
“They are as (worthless as hollow) pieces of timber propped up, (unable to stand on their own).”
“But thou canst not make those to hear who are (buried) in graves.”
Honorable brother, you can’t assure your entity and your human nature unless you seek knowledge.
The mind is a collection of principles:
Dear brother, what is the nature of mind? It is a collection of principles.
The first principle: causality:
The first principle is causality as your mind is unable to comprehend anything without a reason for it, for example if you locked up the door of your house and no one has an extra key for this door, then you traveled after turning off all lights, but when you came back you saw from a distance through the windows the lights are on in your house, in this case you would be unbelievably worried, and if your wife asked: why are you worried? Well who entered the house?
Because your mind won’t believe that those lights were turned on by themselves, and this mind won’t comprehend something without a reason.
Second principle: purpose:
Equally, mind can’t comprehend anything without a purpose, and would ask: why was this thing put here, what is the purpose?
Once I happened to be in umrah (voluntary short pilgrimage that can be performed at any time of the year) and while I was in the prophatical sanctum there was a bookcase for Qurans with a slanted top shelf, why? The bookcase had Qurans and the top shelf was slanted so no one would put unsuitable thing on the Qurans by mistake, so you can’t understand the slanted shelf except for this purpose, and you can draw thousands of examples to this one.
Why would a truck drag along a chain from behind on the ground? You wouldn’t understand the reason as you know nothing about trucks until the reason hits you, well if thunder hit the truck this chain would discharge it and the truck would survive burning.
Hence the human mind does not comprehend without reason or purpose.
Third principle: harmony:
Contradiction is not accepted. Would you believe a man’s existence in Damascus and Aleppo simultaneously?
Impossible, as mind rejects contradiction and would never comprehend anything without a reason and a purpose.
Yet the most remarkable thing is that universal laws are based on causality, purpose, and harmony, and unless there was a perfect match between the mind and universal laws, mind would freeze its great mission which is to know Allah the Almighty.
If the universe was without the principle of causality, and something existed suddenly without any reason that might confuse the mind, while on the other hand if the universe was based on principle of causality but the mind wasn’t, then you would say: since the cause is not a necessity for something to exist then this universe would have no creator as if you are asking: which comes first the chicken or the egg, but who created the first chicken? Who is the causes’ creator? It is Allah the Almighty.
Hence, Allah the Almighty, He who created causes, takes you gradually through the principle of causality to His entity, while through the principle of purpose will take you gradually to the objectives you are aiming at in everything around you.
The cow produces ten times of milk more than its calf needs, the question to be is: Whom is this milk for? Allah says:
“And cattle He has created for you (men)”
If you read on about the topic of the three principles of causality, purpose and harmony, you would realize that the mind is a means to know Allah, and the remarkable thing is that the perfect match between the mind and universal laws is the reason behind the high effectiveness of the mind.
The mission of mind is limited
But the mind has a limited mission, how is that?
It is like if you have a super market with a very advanced and expensive scale in it geared up with memories, but though it is so advanced yet its mission is limited as it weighs only objects that vary between 5 grams and 5 Kilograms, and if you wanted to weigh your car with this scale and you put it on the ground and ran over it you would break it.
Can you say in this case that the scale is no good because it broke?, we would tell you it is your fault as you used it oppositely to what it was made for.
Its mission is limited which leads us to the fact that there is always scale in everything.
Means of certainty in the materialistic, intellectual, and metaphysical fields:
To explain the materialistic, intellectual, and metaphysical fields we would say: the certainty in things of materialistic nature are obtained by the five senses, for example the lamp glows while the fan’s sound is audible, and this is a brown color, while this is carved wood, so the five senses are the only certainty means in the materialistic field or their extensions such as Microscope or Telescope, so every thing of materialistic nature is realized by the five senses, and absolutely there is no disagreement over this field.
Yet, the certainty means of the intellectual field is the mind which mission is to see a materialistic thing or to see the traces of materialistic thing and judge it without seeing it.
For example if the mind saw foot prints it would say: foot prints are traces of walking, and when it saw a small stream of water it would say: it is a trace of a brook, and if it saw a dung it would say there is a cattle, or if it saw smoke behind a wall it would say: there is no smoke without fire, and this is the mission of the mind as it believes in something when it is given its traces, it is the means to believe in things with veiled entity but obvious traces.
The glowing lamp and the speaker’s sound are traces of electricity, so the mission of the mind is limited to this field.
Therefore the certainty means of anything with visible entity and traces like this glass is the five senses, you touch the glass with your hand and feel if it was hot or cold, while you see it with your eyes, and if it has a sound you listen to it with your ears, so the certainty means of the materialistic thing that has a visible entity and trace is the five senses.
But if we saw smoke without fire we would say: the fire entity is invisible while its trace is visible which is smoke but the mind judges and says: there is no smoke without fire.
Yet, when the entities and the traces of things are invisible the mind would become idle as this is beyond its mission and we call it the metaphysical field, the field of news from the ancient past, after death, and the angels.
Believing in angels and Jinn belongs to metaphysical field.
So again materialistic field is of things with visible entity and trace and is realized by the five senses, while the intellectual field is of things with invisible entity but visible trace and is realized by mind, but whatever has an invisible entity and trace, it is known by authentic news reported to us, and it is that obvious.
If you entered a house and you saw a pitcher or a glass of water, they would belong to the materialistic field.
If you saw a glowing lamp it is a trace of electricity and you would say: there is electricity in this house either from the public net or from a generator, but if you saw a closed closet you would never guess what is inside this closet no matter how much rational or intelligent you might be and if the owner of the house told you: I keep my precious books in this closet then you were told the news by him.
Wisdom requires putting everything in its proper place:
The certainty means of things with visible entity and trace is the five senses, while the certainty mean of things with invisible entity but visible trace is the mind, and the certainty mean of things with invisible entity and trace is the authentic news.
Your cleverness is to put any religious issue in its right place, but when you use your mind in the third field you will get it confused.
A man might say I don’t believe in Allah or bring me an evidence of angels’ existence, well there is none.
If he said I want a scientific evidence of angels, Jinn, or hereafter’s existence, well these are issues that have been reported.
There is a delicate issue, when a Daeyah (missionary person) debates over metaphysical issues with someone who denies the existence of the religion, in this case he will be in a great confusion as he has no evidence for the mind, so your cleverness is to put any issue in its right place either it was materialistic, intellectual, or metaphysical.
Dear brother, when one of us enters the university campus he will realize ( with his mind) all its features such as the luxurious nature of the buildings, its lush gardens, marvelous halls with their sound proof walls, luxurious seats, mobile boards, sound amplifiers, and projectors, its dormitories, administration buildings, laboratories, auditoriums, and theatres, but are you able to know who is the dean? Impossible.
What are the bylaws, on which it is determined which student to accept, expel or dismiss? Impossible.
The mind isn’t enough it needs authentic news so we need the mind and we need reporting.
Everything mind fails to comprehend is reported by Allah:
The critical fact is that anything your mind failed to comprehend was reported to you by Allah, and as long as the scale of the super market is meant to weigh grocery supplies it is incapable of weighing your car in which the manufacturer put a label of its exact weight.
So anything your mind fails to comprehend was reported to you by Allah.
Dear brother, we should believe without doubt that no matter how sharp-sighted you are (sometimes you are told by a doctor that your eye’s rate of sharpness is 12 over 10 which means you can read the last row of letters and know all its directions because if you can read the row before last it gives you the rate of 10 over 10). But no matter how sharp sighted you are, it is useless without the light which between you and the visible objects, so when a blind man sit with a sharp-sighted man in a dark room, both of them become equal.
As the eye is useless without a light that intermediates between it and the visible objects, so is the mind that is useless without a leading revelation, so light to the eye is like revelation to the mind, hence Allah says:
“For he thought and he plotted; And woe to him! How he plotted! Yea, woe to him! how he plotted! Then he looked round; Then he frowned and he scowled; Then he turned back and was haughty; Then said he: "This is nothing but magic, derived from of old; This is nothing but the word of a mortal! Soon will I cast him into Hell-Fire! And what will explain to thee what Hell-Fire is? Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone! Darkening and changing the colour of man! Over it are Nineteen.”
The verse means that the human mind will go astray without celestial revelation, and this is exactly what we suffer most about the western civilization as they use the mind only and for that they are in deep darkness while the Muslims are sleeping in the sun light.
The justifiable mind and the straightforward mind:
We have two kinds of minds, a straightforward mind and a justifying mind. the straightforward mind is the one which leads you to the truth while the justifying mind is the one that is used for what it was not created to do.., how?
To elaborate imagine you have a very expensive printer that would let you gain lot of money if you used it to design covers, cards, calendars, and diaries, yet if you used it produce counterfeit money you would end up in jail.
So the same machine could be used in high paid artistic commercial work or could be used in unlawful job then it would be the reason of putting you in prison.
Thus, mind without revelation might be dooming to its owner, Allah the Almighty said:
“We will drag him by the forelock”
The forelock is the place where decisions and judgments are made
“A lying, sinful forelock!”
So when man takes the wrong decision his mind is held responsible for it.
To explain: if a person owns a very expensive house and he sold it for foreign currency and he has a device in his pocket to detect the counterfeit money (which shows an orange light for the genuine money and another color for counterfeit money), but when he sold his house for hard currency he didn’t use this device. This device resembles the mind, now in his other pocket there is a list of the counterfeit money’s numbers and this resembles the Islamic law, so this man neither used his mind nor applied the Islamic law so it took him by surprise that the whole sum was counterfeited and he lost his house because of his own bad judgment.
Hence dear brother, a straightforward mind leads you to the good, success, prosperity, belief in Allah, obedience to Allah, to be of service to mankind, and closeness to Allah, whereas the justifying mind is like occupying a country claiming that you are doing so for liberty and democracy, while the facts show the otherwise as you despoiled its fortunes, and killed people without consideration, hence, the justifiable mind is very dangerous, degraded, and disreputable.
This kind of mind covers lust, twisted desires, and degradation, and whenever you sit down with a sinner and you listen to his justification for his actions, you know that he is using his justifying mind, and whenever you meet a wise, pious, and believing man, you know that he is using his straightforward mind.
Therefore righteousness is a circle where 4 lines intersect, the authentic reporting, straightforward mind, pure instinct, and objective reality.
Dear brother, as I said a while ago, when you use your brain opposite to what it was created for, it will be devastating, Allah says:
“For he thought and he plotted; And woe to him! How he plotted!”
But the mind is inspired by heavenly revelation, and by the instructions of the wise creator.
Dear brother Allah says:
“(Allah) Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur-an. He has created man: He has taught him speech (and Intelligence).”
Between mind and method:
Now with mind and method, is it possible that man learned Quran before he was created, how do we interpret this Aya?
The order in this Aya is hierarchical, not chronological as there is no point in man’s existence without a method to follow, so the Quran is the method like a very expensive machine that is very useful and complicated yet the company you ordered it from forgot to send you the instructions manual without which you will break it down if you used it, but at the same time if you didn’t you will lose its money’s value, so in this case aren’t the instructions more important than the machine? This is the meaning of the verse:
“(Allah) Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur-an. He has created man: He has taught him speech (and Intelligence).”
Taboos to be considered in the mind’s topic:
Mind could be your means to find Allah, yet it is incapable of comprehending Him, Allah says:
“Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth.”
It is the same as if you rode a vehicle to take you to the shore yet you can’t sail with it deep in the sea, and as I have just said, anything that your mind is incapable of comprehending was reported by Allah.
As if your mind is a horse that you ride to the front door of the Sultan but when you enter his palace you do that alone without the horse, so with your mind you find Allah but if He ordered you, that order should be carried out by you to the letter.
Another example: When a man tried to find a physician who is highly experienced, sincere, qualified, and with exceptional credentials, so when he found him (by using his mind) he was told not to eat salt, in this case he can’t argue with him because he used his mind to find him and he should carry out his order in accordance to his belief in him as a highly qualified doctor.
Our lives as well as our minds have a lot of red lines the most important which is:
((Reflect on Allah’s creations not on Allah’s Entity or you will be doomed))
The mind is incapable of comprehending Allah’s entity as I have just mentioned and the mind is material oriented so Allah’s entity can’t be comprehended by the mind and if someone used his mind to contemplate on Allah’s entity he would be ruined, imbalanced and may be he would go crazy, the Prophet PBUH said:
((Reflect on Allah’s creations not on Allah’s entity or you will be doomed))
Therefore there are red lines that the mind shouldn’t cross.
Dear brother, Being smart does not mean that you tell religion doubters reported issues, because if you did you will be in big trouble as they will not comprehend the meaning of a reported matter which means that their minds are absolutely incapable of looking into it, as to them, it is a mere reported matter.
One of the universal signs:
Let us move to another thing which will be one of the universal signs indicating His Greatness, Allah says:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
The earth is stable and it rotates around the sun at a speed of 30 kilometers per second, 1800 km in one minute, and our lecture will take 50 minutes so by the end of it we are close to cover a distance of 9000 kilometers and knowing that from Damascus to Riyadh is 1200 kilometers, and we are on earth which is running around the sun that makes us cover 9000 kilometers in space by now, Allah says:
“Thou seest the mountains and thinkest them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away”
Despite the movement of the earth it is stable.
Once I happened to be in a mosque in Istanbul, the tourist guide took me to the niche and showed me a marble pillar which he asked me to rotate and when I did it responded because there was a 1 millimeter of space between it and the building and this mosque was built 700 years ago. Allah says:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
The buildings are stable and the proof for that are earthquakes. Aghadeer, the Moroccan city, sank under the ground in 3 seconds. Even a hotel of 30 stories sank as a whole with its name signboard still on the roof like a tomb stone, so this hotel sank down the earth a distance of 30 stories, so:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
Therefore we should know Allah’s blessings when they are still available not when they are diminished, this is the first meaning.
Now why do you think that this glass stays on the table? Because it has weight. What is weight? It is the gravity of things towards earth’s center.
Honorable brother, we live in a blessing that we are unaware of until we lose it.
When the astronomers left the earth towards the moon they reached an area that doesn’t belong to the moon nor to the earth with no gravity in it, and man has no weight in this area, he would sleep on his bed and wake up on the ship’s ceiling, he can put anything in the air and it stays there, Allah says:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
Who stabilized things on the earth? This is a blessing, the furniture, the bookcase, and everything is stable, they all have weight, you are also stable.
If man moved to moon’s surface then his weight would be one sixth of his weight on the earth, so he will weigh only 6 kilograms.
If an astronomer rode his space ship and reached the area which is gravity free he will be weightless and all space trips proved that.
So the weight of anything is its gravity to earth’s center and is considered a great blessing, so things have weights and there is stabilization.
The meaning of “who has made the earth firm to live in”
First meaning:
Who has made the earth firm to live in? And why did the marble pillar revolve? Because of the 1 millimeter space, and if the building pressed this millimeter, the pillar wouldn’t revolve which is a sign of a well-designed building and so as the earth that is stable.
When an earthquakes take place sometimes it destroys everything when it scores 7 on Richter scale, so believer knows Allah’s blessings when it is still available not when it is diminished, and this is the blessing of earth’s stabilization.
Sometimes man thinks that earth is safer when he travels by plane, but earth itself might shake and won’t leave a trace like what happened in Cairo’s earthquake a few years ago. So earthquakes take place on earth and if there is a stable area it is considered as a blessing from Allah, The Almighty said:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
This is the first meaning.
The second meaning:
Who gives things weights? You put something here and it stays in its place and if it is not for its weight you would leave the house and come back to see everything in a different place yet what really happens is that everything is stable which is considered one of Allah’s blessings, and the Ayah says:
“Allah sets forth a Parable: a city enjoying security and quiet, abundantly supplied with sustenance from every place: yet was it ungrateful for the favours of Allah: so Allah made it taste of hunger and terror (in extremes) (closing in on it) like a garment (from every side), because of the (evil) which (its people) wrought.”
“Say: "He hath power to send calamities on you, from above and below, or to cover you with confusion in party strife”
Such as earthquakes and what is taking place in neighboring countries.
Hence, dear brother, when man reflects on Allah The Almighty’s creations and greatness he will glorify Allah even more, Allah says:
“Thou seest the mountains and thinkest them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away: (such is) the artistry of Allah, Who disposes of all things in perfect order:”
You stand in stability.
The third meaning:
How is it that you are stable while standing, the supporting base of your body (feet in this case) is not enough, as any figure similar to human body needs a supporting base that is bigger than 70 centimeters. However, the foot is very small and yet it gives stability while standing, how?
This balance is because of a very complicated system called equilibrium system in the ear there are semicircular canals with a fluid that has a horizontal surface so when man inclines the fluid stays horizontal till it reaches a place in this canal without fluid and that make him realize that he is inclined and he rectifies his posture. If not for these three canals man would never be able to stand on the ground and would fall and the proof is that a dead man falls and can’t stand because this system is inactive.
When man knows that his stability on earth is because of a gravity system, and earth’s stillness though it is moving, and as I mentioned earlier that we covered by the end of this lecture 9000 kilometers in a speed of 30 kilometers per second yet the earth is still stable, also things have weights and man is equipped with balance canal system and all that is from Allah the Almighty’s wisdom, Allah says:
“Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day;”
Reflecting on the universe is the shortest way to know Allah:
Dear brother, I always repeat the following: reflecting on the creation of heavens and earth is the widest gate to approach Allah, and the shortest way to Him, because that puts you face to face with Allah’s greatness, and if I say: “mind” and I might mean intellect, so reflecting on the creation of heavens and earth is the reason to know Allah and this is why we entitled this meeting “creed and Miraculous Inimitable Quran” and inimitability is to reflect on these verses, and the stability of the earth is another story.
When you go to Australia that is located on the bottom side of the earth yet you still see sky over your head and ground under your feet it is puzzling, then what is altitude? It is the opposite side of earth’s center and this is a system, Allah says:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
You are indulged in stability, who gives things their weights? And if not for the balance canals you would have needed feet like elephant’s feet and walking would become hard labor, the reflecting would get you to know Allah and to know the delicacy of your own creation, Allah says:
“Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;”
“We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, Then do We abase him (to be) the lowest of the low”
Dear brother, we will carry on with this topic in our coming meeting.
