Arguments for Messengership – Part 40

The Reasonings- (continuation)

“THE FOURTH POINT: As pointed out in the Tenth Premise, the Sharia guides every person according to their capacity of mind and heart. It is as follows:

The great majority of people cannot grasp abstract truths unless they are not presented to them in forms that are familiar to them. Therefore, in presenting abstract truths, comparisons, similes, metaphors, parables, or allegories are used. In addition, the great majority of people tend to accept as true what they perceive to be true with their five external senses. For this reason, since even preliminary truths and basic laws concerning physical sciences had not yet been established at the earliest period of its establishment, the Shari‘a preferred to remain concise in these sciences in order not to confuse people. However, it did not refrain from hinting at certain basic truths concerning them.”

The Quran speaks to its reader according to their capacity.  Why is this important?

We need to understand that the One who is speaking is the Creator of the universe. If this Creator spoke according to His capacity then no one would understand. There is a sort of condescendence from the Creator to the human abilities where every being is able to benefit from.

Let’s take an example where a primary level educated person goes to attend a post doctorate level discourse in Physics. How much can this person benefit from that discourse? Most of the material will be alien to this person.  One has to study in a particular path to make sense of the advanced topics.

The Quran however does not speak in such a way that requires specialization of any sort. If it did then I wouldn’t understand what it says. This would result in me not paying any importance and attention to what it states. The speech would become irrelevant to common people, non-specialized ones. Majority of the society are not specialists and thus would not be guided. Such a communication would be useless. Thus, the Quran has to be accessible by common people and everyone if it claims to be from the Creator of the universe.

Every human being has the same potential which they can develop into capacities. For example, I have the potential to learn Physics and once I start learning, this starts building into my capacity in Physics. Quran speaks to the human potential by presenting the case that requires no sort of specialization. It would also be my expectation that whoever made me must not force me into some specialization. Every civilization has their expertise and specializations. Wisdom requires a Divine Speech that must be timeless and comprehensible by everyone at any time and space.

There is the prevalent trend of encouraging the time bound stance of the speech, as far as their time of revelation is concerned, in all of the major faiths. It is true that the message was received first by those in a particular time and space. The Speech is miraculous where some of the discoveries are just being made in our day and age. The One Who is Speaking the Divine Message knows about the future and that is amazingly miraculous. So what are we to do with that miraculous message? Take some sort of ethical lesson from those events mentioned in the Speech only? Unfortunately for some people, the speech being miraculous from a time bound perspective is leading the way to accept whatever the Quran says. One has to humbly accept the claims being made without giving any thought. As the Speech is already considered confirmed, imitation happens. For example, I am convinced that the professor I am learning from is the best in his field. I thus no longer question his/her teachings because the professor is the best in the field. Will I be learning anything new and being convinced? Even when I have concluded that the Quran is a miraculous text/speech, I must read it with a careful, investigative mind. I need to assimilate the message with my human side (reason, intellect, senses, feelings) and be convinced.

What is the purpose of the Quran in making all sorts of claims?  It must also provide the evidence for those claims. The evidence must be simple, within reach of the majority who are non-specialized folks.

This brings us to the purpose of the Quran with those claims and evidences. The aim of the Quran is to teach people what they cannot know by themselves with the experiences within this universe. Human beings need to be taught what to make of their experiences. The aim of the Quran is to take the addressee to the Absolute world, Whose existence is not within this experiential world.

• I need to be taught about the Absolute World.
• By myself in this world with my experiences, I am unable to fathom what this world refers to.
• The Quran acts as the teacher to introduce me to the Absolute Realm.

The content in the Quran which is really the evidence to what this universe points to is always the same.  Just like the order of the universe never changes, similarly, the evidences in the Quran are not subject to time-space. Evidences from the physical world help us confirm what the physical world refers to, i.e. Absolute World. I can come to my conclusions such as:

• Source of this world cannot be limited
• Order is preserved
• Only an Absolute Power can be responsible for the continuous change I observe

The Quran and the universe must be utilized together, they cannot be separated.  The reference of “the book” in the Quran is interesting – there was no physical book at that time. The book of the universe has to be considered with the speech. The primary audience of the Quran is referred to as the one who does not know anything about what this universe points to (referred in Arabic as “ummî”).  We are all endowed with the potentiality to learn the reality and to learn we need teachers to help us.

The Quran does not teach me anything that I can learn by simply observing the universe. However, what I observe in the universe witnesses what the Qur’an teaches me about belief matters.  In order to learn what the meaning refers to, I need to be taught because my potentiality is there.  However, I can benefit from the Speech of God as much as my capacity allows me to do so.  Hence, there is no end to learning and understanding the reality, it is an ongoing journey.

The Prophet is said to be “ummî”, he did not receive any sort of special training by scholars or other learned men.  The contemporaries of the Prophet did not make a big deal out of the prophet being unlettered “ummî”. Nowadays, it has become a deal where scholars argue about the Prophet being illiterate. His being “ummî” is the sign that what is taught in the Qur’an can only be revealed by the One Who Knows. However, there is such information in the Qur’an that cannot be the product of even the most learned man of that age.

We should understand that if we did not receive the prophetic message, our minds would never be able to grasp that this world refers to something other than itself. We are all in need to be taught and informed:

• Existence of the Absolute World
• Qualities of the Absolute World
• Quiddity, Oneness of the Absolute World