Arguments for Messengership – Part 50

The Reasonings (page 141)

“The third is that you may not be able see some statements of the Qur’an as congruent with some rational and observable realities, and may regard it as unfitting for its purposes of guidance and establishment of truths.”

(page 143)

“As for the third objection, which is not being able to see the apparent meanings of some Qur’anic statements as being in congruity with some rational or observable realities, after first consulting the First Premise, you should consider this: The  four  basic purposes of the Qur’an are establishing in the mind  God’s existence and Oneness, the Prophethood, the bodily  Resurrection, and justice and worship. Therefore, the Qur’an refers to the facts of creation, which are the subject matter of  physical sciences and can only be known through scientific study, parenthetically for the sake of its basic purposes. While mentioning the facts observable by everyone in every age clearly, it refers to others allusively and in broad terms, leaving their clarification to scientific studies over time and encouraging humankind to study them.”

Recap: Do I need a Messenger in my life?  It is in human nature to seek guidance.  I need a guide not to show me the way, rather show me how to get there. My questions take me to where I should arrive, but I do not know how to get there. I need satisfactory answers with their acceptable explanations to my very human existential questions:

• Why am I here?
• What is the meaning of my existence?
• Why am I given existence?

The tree does not answer these questions.  My cells do not answer these questions either.  They only whisper me that there must be answers to my questions because, by their very being, they exclaim that their there is meaning in existence. How can I make sense of this meaning in existence? How can I utilize them? Which way I should follow? I am in desperate need to seek answers to such questions.  The universe is dumb and does not say anything about the way to arrive towards the expected destiny.  My fingers too ask me why they are made.  Now, what do I do?  Who will answer such questions for me?

Historically, Prophets presented to people answers to such questions and they claimed that they are not the producer of such answers.  When I check the answer that revelation presents to me, it should make sense with my human expectations, at least that is what the Prophets or Messengers claim.  Thus far, we have established the need for Messengership in our journey of studying “Arguments for Messengership.”  While doing so, we also should be checking in on the historical context of the Messengership of Muhammad (PBUH).  Why?  Because it is one thing to confirm the message as it claims to be the Speech from my Maker and, then, it is another thing to check in on the message carrier or the messenger who claims to carry this message from His Creator.  Hence, I need to do a background check on the historical life of Muhammad, the content of the message he presented to me, his attitude, personality and events to see for myself that this man is really an envoy and message carrier.

• The message itself is not historical but live for me or anyone after me and before me because of its dynamic nature.
• Muhammad, as the message carrier or messenger is a historical man who presented the message and claimed that he is not the producer of the message. Muhammad presented the message and practiced it as much as he shared in.

Human potentialities are endless and in this it is fixed for everyone.  Human capacity, on the other hand which occurs as a development of these potentialities, are dynamic i.e. not fixed.  We all are given the ability to learn and how much we develop our potentialities into abilities depends on our conscious choice and effort.  Therefore, there are degrees to the awareness of one’s Source of existence.  I get to know the Source of my Existence as much as I get to know myself.

• I get to value the Source of my Existence as much as I value my existence.
• I qualify the Source of my Existence at the same degree as I qualify my existence.

The Quran speaks to people at their level i.e. based on their capacities.  The Quranic language with its grammatical style and structure is devised in such a way that it speaks to everyone from any epoch and capacity level.  This phenomenon is specific to the Quran only.  Example: if you take in any literature text that is man-made, not only it does not answer human existential questions in a satisfactory way but also does not use a grammatical style that is dynamic.  Although, one may argue that human beings can benefit from literature text written centuries ago, one has to consider that the author is limited to his own life conditions and perhaps had no such intention of making the text available for upcoming generation.

• The text of the Quran is static, but its meaning is dynamic.
• The objectives of the Quran are static, but its interpretation is dynamic.
• This dynamic meaning of the Qur’an with its dynamic interpretation guides me through my dynamic life conditions.

How do we understand human development and civilization advancement?

Rather than using the language such as “technological advancement”, we need to mention about the order in the universe.  Discovering the order in the universe is all about ‘advancements.’

• The order in the universe is fixed and static but uncovering the order is dynamic.
• The message of the Creator of the universe is static and fixed but, in its meaning, it is dynamic.
• The dynamic order with its dynamic meaning urges me to investigate the source of the answer to my dynamic existential questions. The answer must be somewhere since I ask them, but where is it?

Analogy:  The laptop is made by an engineer.  Similarly, it is easy for everyone to conclude that the universe must have a Creator.  All civilizations have concluded such.  The real issue is how do I communicate with the Source of my existence and the universe?

• Consciousness needs to be employed to make such communication alive, active and dynamic.
• Consciousness needs to be employed for investigative purposes to ensure that the Creator of the universe speaks to human beings.
• If I can conclude that the Creator of the universe speaks to human beings, then such a One must provide answer to all my human questions.