02-25-2006, 10:28 PM
Bismillah
As i c brother Mohsie Masha'Allah clarified the matter, but I have a few to add.
Quote:My religion is the same in that regard. God is what always was and what always will be.
The problem for men is that we have trouble wrapping our head around this concept. Afterall, everywhere we look we see cycles of life and death. How does life exist without a beginning? How does a beginning exist without the previous life to begin it? It is, essentially, a "chicken or the egg" type question. In the Catholic Church I think this would be referred to generically as the mystery. The deeper you think, the wider the ocean you swim in becomes.
I thank Allah that your relegion is in the same regard, now to clarify more about how life exist without a begining:
Within the human being there is a great power of perception and comprehension, but the awareness of such perception is not from within itself, but from the outside world. Such powers have access to the outside world, and these are the five senses:
- Sense of Seeing
- Sense of Hearing
- Sense of Smelling
- Sense of Tasting
- Sense of Feeling
According to such senses, and the power of reality they transmit, that we can imagine, acknowledge , analayze and construc and act accordingly, we can conclude main principles of an idea, and measure similarities and parallels between themselves and we cannot do anything more than that.
Now to clear the above, let us say for example, if those who are born blind, no matter how smart they are, or even geniuses, they can never imagine anything about colors no matter how we try to clarify it to them, because they had never before did acknowledge any of such color by thier own vision, if u say white, red, green blue, pink and so one, they will not be able to imagine a picture of such a color, unless they gain vision to nature so they can see the colored world as it is in front of them. Also those born deaf, the same they cannot know or hear what is going around them unless they gain his sense of hearing, and so on with the other 5 senses, to such principle we can measure the rest of our emotional senses, and we cannot know or understand its reality unless we go through an experience to fulfill such sense or feeling.
Now to sum the above, we can say that a human or a being can only acknowledge things in this vast universe through objects or things that are scattered in this world, and which is reachable and can be seen or sensed by our 5 senses, and if it wasnt for such senses then we would not acknowledge any thing of the outside world. Then we would have stayed in full ignorance, like a cave man, if he stayed all his life in a cave afraid not exploring the outside world, he will not learn or see anything more than what is around him.
In The Holy Quran such truth Allah(SWT) indicated:
Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem:
171. And the example of those who disbelieve, is as that of him who shouts to the (flock of sheep) that hears nothing but calls and cries. (They are) deaf, dumb and blind. So they do not understand.
2, Surat Al-Baqara
22. Verily! The worst of (moving) living creatures with Allâh are the deaf and the dumb, those who understand not (i.e. the disbelievers).
Maybe if we were given other senses than the ones we have, we could have seen things that we cannot see or acknowledge. The human brain created many machines and gadgets that help us to acknowledge many things around us that we cannot see or feel, like density, gravity or weather degrees and so on. that means that there is defeciency in our senses, and it could have been possible that we have such senses that recognizes what these machines furnish us with. Suppose we got the sense to feel the strength of minerals and metalics from behind veils and under the ground and in mountins, wouldnt we be wider in our senses than we are now? Do not other creatures have senses that we do not have? How inferior we are inspite we are the best and most complete in creation.
I explained much but to reach to a reality, that we cannot say that we will not belive in a things we do not see, or acknowledge, our own inferior senses are the only way to acknowledge what is around us and it is limited in knowledge. Science today discovered that the universe is filled with many pictures and realities that we cannot see with our own vision, it is also filled with sounds and voices we cannot hear, if we say that there is a place in the universe that this spot is empty has no sounds planets or movements, then a machine or a satelite pictured and caught sounds of such a place, then we cannot deny its existance.
Also if we think about it from the intellectual aspect, this sane power we have in our brains no matter how it tried to imagine things that is beyond its senses it will not be able to, because the intellect will still turn around materialistic senses which we feel hear taste and so on.
So at the end we reach to the fact that we cannot deny things that we cannot see or hear just because our limited abilities prevents us from seeing them, there is a Greater Power that we cannot see or feel with our limited powers and senses that created this vast universe that we live in, we cannot also imagine how the hereafter is no matter how large is our imagination, because it is beyond our imagination and it is beyond our abilities and senses to see, also it is beyond our senses to know how The angels or the jinns look like because we cannot see them.
There is a greater Power than all this creation that we cannot see Who created the vast universe that we cannot reach or see with our own eyes, The Creator of this vast universt, He is The Greatest, The One, nothing is like Him, and we cannot see Him or reach Him with our inferior abilities.
To summarize the above, we can say:
1- That our senses, which is our way to science is limited and does not cover everything that exists.
2- The ability of imagination in us is also limited in to the limits of our senses.
3- Our brains are limited, and it cannot recognize all the existing facts that we cannot see, even if i had to accept it by intellect.
In The Holy Quran we can find verses that summurize the above, and dividing the universe according to the beings into 2 parts:
a- World of The Unseen.
b- World of The seen.
As describr above, things that we can see and feel with our limited senses and things that we cannot see.
Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem:
22. He is Allâh, than Whom there is Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He) the All-Knower of the unseen and the seen (open). He is the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
23. He is Allâh than Whom there is Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He) the King, the Holy, the One Free from all defects, the Giver of security, the Watcher over His creatures, the All-Mighty, the Compeller, the Supreme. Glory be to Allâh! (High is He) above all that they associate as partners with Him.
24. He is Allâh, the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of forms. To Him belong the Best Names . All that is in the heavens and the earth glorify Him. And He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. 59, Surat Al-Hashr
8. Allâh knows what every female bears, and by how much the wombs fall short (of their time or number) or exceed. Everything with Him is in (due) proportion.
9. All-Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Most Great, the Most High.
10. It is the same (to Him) whether any of you conceal his speech or declare it openly, whether he be hid by night or go forth freely by day. 13, Surat Al-Ra'ad.
Now the unseen is beyond our acknowledged senses.
the seen is every thing that we can reach to it with our senses, wether by our own senses or through science.
Now I will ask you about The soul that is within us, can we see it or do we know what it is or from what it is created no one knows and no one will ever know, no matter how much researches we try to do.
Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem:
85. And they ask you (O Muhammad ) concerning the Rûh (the Spirit); Say: "The Rûh (the Spirit): it is one of the things, the knowledge of which is only with my Lord. And of knowledge, you (mankind) have been given only a little."
17, Surat Al-Isra'
65. Say: "None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allâh, nor can they perceive when they shall be resurrected."
This is the first part of the answer, after it the completion insha'Allah
Peace