![]() |
|
|
| |||
|
Home -> Online Books -> Ethics of Islam | |||
|
Preface continue
3. SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT ARE SIMPLE:something which cannot be divided into parts is called simple. The opposite of simple is composite or compound. According to this definition, the elements in chemistry which are called simple are really compounds because they can be divided into their atoms or into their molecules. The matter of spirit's being simple can be logically understood in the following manner. Spirit can understand something which is simple. If spiritual heart and spirit were compounds and could be divided into parts, something which is simple could not stay with it. If spirit could be divided, the simple thing which stays with it should be divided. But the thing which is simple cannot be divided, therefore the spirit cannot be compound or composite. Thus, it is simple.
4. SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT ARE NOT OBJECTS: a substance which has dimensions such as height, depth and length is an object. It is also defined as matter which has shape or form. The thing which exits through objects (Jisms) are called corporal (Jismani) or materialistic or related to object. Since attributes exist in objects, therefore it is called "related to objects."
5. SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT UNDERSTAND AND GOVERN: they know themselves. They also know that they know themselves. They comprehend colors through eyes and sounds through ears. They run the nervous system and move the muscles thus they utilize the body to perform certain actions. These types of actions are voluntary actions.
6. SPIRIT CANNOT BE PERCEIVED THROUGH SENSE ORGANS: materials and things made of materials can be sensed. Since spirit is not an object or related to an object, it cannot be sensed.
SECOND STEP: what happens to the spirit when a person dies? When a person dies and his body rots, his spiritual heart and spirit will not be destroyed. Death parts them from the body. When they leave their body, they go back to a non matter world. They will not be annihilated [until the Doomsday (Qiyamat) ]. Religious personages, philosophers and men of science who are not fanatics share this view. Only a few of the naturalists departed from this unanimity and slipped from the right path. They likened human beings to grass which grows in the desert. They said that human being, like grass, comes into existence, grows and disappears; his spirit does not stay in existence forever. For that reason, this group of naturalists are called "Hashashi" or "Grassers." Philosophers and religious scholars refuted their corrupt philosophy with various proofs.
[Allahu ta'ala created many elements, 105 of which have so far been discovered each having different and special characteristics. Every element comes into being through atoms. He made every atom, like a micro generator, a great source of energy. He created molecules and ion configurations by bringing atoms together. Then He created organic and inorganic compounds, cells, various tissues and systems. Each of them has such fine subtleties, natural laws and harmony in their creation that the mind falls into wonderment. For example, the cell which can only be observed under the microscope is like a giant factory which has many departments. The human mind so far has only seen a few of the machinery that exists in this giant factory. Functioning of millions of cells which make up a human body requires existence of thousands of proper conditions inside and outside the body. If one of these thousands of conditions and harmony breaks down, the body of a human being cannot function and will come to a halt. Allahu ta'ala, who is most powerful and knowing runs the body machine automatically by creating limitless order and harmony. The spiritual heart and spirit are like the electric power of this machine. When there is a small failure in a generator, the electric power goes out. Likewise, if there is a failure in the order and harmony which exist inside and outside the body, the spirit departs from the body and thus the human being dies. No motor or machine in the world can function indefinitely. They all wear out in time and are discarded. This is a general law of nature. The body also wears out in time and decays. When the body of a human being decays in the grave, none of the cells or elements become nonexistent. Decaying of the body means organic molecules which make up the body are decomposed into smaller molecules, like carbon dioxide, ammonia, water and free nitrogen with the influence of earth and inaerobic microbes (aerobic-inaerobic is similar in form to organic-inorganic). This decomposition is a physical and chemical reaction. Today, it is known with certainty that the matter is not annihilated during chemical and physical reactions. The French chemist Lavoisier who lived in the 16th century proved through experimentation that the matter is neither annihilated nor created out of nothingness during the chemical reactions. He supposed that everything can only happen through chemical reactions and by chemical laws and thus stated, "In nature, nothing is created and nothing can be annihilated." Today, newly discovered information about nucleus and nuclear reactions show that matter converts into energy and disappears, thus proving Lavoisier was wrong. Today, scientists clearly see that further advancement in science, new discoveries, and inventions add new strength to Islamic religion and refute the slanders of enemies of Islam and destroy and disgrace the atheists who worship materialism. Unfortunately, there are individuals who have graduated from college but do not understand the real scientific principles. Yet they pretend to be men of science and try to attack Islam on the basis of their pseudo-scientific understanding. Their lack of religious knowledge and their pseudo scientific understanding cause them to say that Islam caused us to lag the modern world. These kafirs with diplomas try to deceive pure youngesters by saying such lies, e.g., "Islam is backwardness. It prevents progress. Christians are progressing. They are inventing all sorts of scientific and technological vehicles. Their new inventions in the area of medicine, defense, and communication are dazzling our eyes. Muslims are not aware of any of these advancements in science and technology. We have to follow Christians." They encourage youngesters to depart from their beautiful Islamic morals and Muslim brotherhood and follow the Europeans and Americans. They say that following them is progression. They try to make youngesters irreligious and enemy of Islam like themselves and thus try to lead them to disasters. In reality, Islam orders us to progress in science and technology. Christians and all other disbelievers do what they have learned from their forefathers and masters. They add small modifications to the things they learned from their fathers and do them again. If their forefathers didn't do any of these, today's generation wouldn't be able to do anything. The saying, "Takmil al-sana'at is through talahuk-i afkar" has been said centuries earlier. This phrase states that perfection of technology (sana'at) is accomplished by adding and combining thoughts. History shows that new things in science and technology are all done by Muslims. They advanced the science and technology to the level of last century. This was accomplished through the Islamis religion and through the governments and states who implemented orders of Islamic religion. Christians saw that they could not destroy Islamic states through the crusades. They accomplished their aim internally through political intrigues, lies, and cheating. They formed governments through secular and masonic (irreligious) persons in their lands. But they cannot destroy Islam. These secular and masonic people are tring to get credit for today's advancement. But all they did was to add small modifications to the earlier technological advancement done by Muslims. Since Islam exposes baseness of the actions of those who only think their own advantages and pleasures, they in turn attack Islam by saying that Islam prevents progress. Whereas Islam orders to be progressive and work for the advancement of science and technology. Everyone around the world including Christians, Jews, and even idol worshippers believe in heaven and hell. Churches and Synagogues are full to capacity and even over-crawded with their congregations. It is apparent that since they are not calling these believers as backward and retrogressive, that comes to mean that they are not calling science and technology as advancement instead they are calling their pleasure driven life style and immorality as advancement and progress. This type of undeserved attacks to Islam first designed and generated by British. Please read the book, Confessions of a British Spy published by our Hakikat Kitabevi. At this point of history it is necessary for Muslims to unite and attach themselves to the religious and scientific knowledge ordered by Islam and establish a huge industry in order to produce new inventions and in order to serve humanity and provide humanity with happiness better than the Christians do.
The matter which is contained in the constitution of the human body comes from earth, water and air. Living beings are in need of these three sources. When the body rots after death, it decomposes into these three sources again. Life after death will be possible by the composition of these three groups of matter or composition of some materials which are similar to these three groups.
Neither the spiritual heart and spirit nor the angels can progress or attain higher grades. They stay in the same state as they were created. When spiritual heart and spirit join with the body, they acquire attributes through which it becomes possible to make progress, or to become a disbeliever or a sinner so that they descend to the lowest of the low.
Every object in the material domain is known by its qualitative attributes. Every object is a composition of elements and molecules. Elements change from one molecule to another and therefore, objects lose their homogenous composition and deteriorate and turn into other objects with different qualitative attributes. Even though matter does not become annihilated in these types of changes, the objects change over time. They become nonexistent and other types of objects replace their existence. In the early ages matter was called "Hayula". The matter which take a shape was called figure (Surat).
Since the spiritual heart and spirit cannot be dissolved into pieces and are not made up of parts (Incorporeal), therefore they never change, deteriorate or disappear from existence. In physical events, objects do change their shapes or forms. For example, when water receives extra heat, it changes to vapor. It turns from liquid to gaseous form. Liquid form of water disappears and gaseous form of water comes into existence. In chemical reactions, the composition or constitution of the object changes. The matter which makes up an object becomes nonexistent while another object with different composition or matter-structure comes into existence. In physical phenomenons, objects change their forms or shapes but the matter which makes up that composition or constitution does not change. In chemical reactions, an object in one form becomes nonexistent then existent in another form. Therefore, matter changes but it does not become nonexistent permanently. Alternately, in nuclear reactions, matter also becomes nonexistent and turns into energy.] THIRD STATE: the spiritual heart and spirit have powers. These powers are not like the powers of plants or animals. Plants and animals also have spirits which are proper for their constitution. Spiritual heart only exists in human beings. Every living creature has plant-spirit. This type of spirit performs such functions like birth, growth, feeding, getting rid of harmful deposits, reproduction and death. These functions are carried out in human beings, animals as well as plants. Details of these functions and how they are carried out are taught in biology. The growth in these living beings is not continuous throughout their life spans. It stops after reaching a predetermined level. This level in humans on average is twenty four years. Becoming obese is not growth. The function of feeding is continuous throughout the life span. Because life cannot be sustained without getting necessary nutrition.
In addition to plant-spirit, humans and animals also have animal-spirit. Its location is the chest. This animal-spirit is the source of voluntary-movements. In human beings, it does this through the order of the spiritual heart.
Humans additionally have another spirit. When we refer to spirit in humans, it is automatically understood that reference is made to spiritual heart and spirit together. This spirit does things like reasoning, thinking, and laughing. It does these things through the spiritual heart. Animal-spirit has two types of power. The power of comprehension and the power of movement. The power of comprehension is a force which understands things. This understanding manifests itself in two ways. The first is comprehension through physical sense organs. The second is comprehension through unseen organs or inward faculties. There are five physical sense organs. The first physical sense organ is skin. Through skin, warmth, coldness, wetness, dryness, softness and hardness are understood. When an object touches the skin, the animal spirit understands whether this object is warm or not. This type of sensing is stronger on the inside of the hand (palm). The second sense organ is smell, done through the nose. The third is the organ for taste, accomplished through the nerve system on the tongue. The fourth is the organ for hearing, which is done through the nerves in the ears, and lastly, the fifth is the organ for seeing, and it is done through the nerves in the eyes.
There are also five unseen internal sense organs:
1. Common sense (Hiss al-mushtarak): it is located in front of the brain. The external sensations, coming from sense organs to their respective parts of the brain are gathered in this part.
2. Imagination (Hayal): its location is the front of the first space of the brain. Sensations that are perceived and comprehended are stored in imagination. When one looks at an object, that object causes sensation in the common sense part of the brain, when the object is removed from the eye sight. The sensation stops at the common sense but its image is transported to imagination and continues to exist for a long time. If imagination did not exist, everybody would forget each other and no one would recognize anyone.
3. Perception (Vahema): it is the mental process by which sensory stimuli are given meaning by us, e.g., nonverbal communication. Perception is mentally organizing impressions and labeling them. Animosity or truthfulness cannot be sensed through a sense organ but a person who is an enemy or a friend can be sensed or can be seen with an inner power. This inner power is called perception (Vahema). If perception did not exist, a sheep could not understand that the wolf is its enemy and would not run away from it, leaving its lamb unprotected.
4. Memory (Hafiza): it stores what is understood through perception.
5. (Mutasarrefa): it is a faculty of the mind which compares the received sensations and perceptions and arrives at new conclusions. For example, it can think of an emerald mountain. This faculty is very well developed in poets.
The power of movement which is the second power of the animal spirit is also two types. The first one is appetite or carnal power (Shahawi). Human beings and animals through this power desire things they need or crave. This power is also called animal instinct or bestial (Bahemi). The second type is called wrath, anger or rage (Ghadabi). Through this power, they defend themselves against things that present danger to them. These two types of power are also called "beastly powers."
The power that causes movements needs the power of comprehension. Things should be sensed first through sense organs so that they can be judged good or evil, then according to this perception, they could either be desired or repulsed. All of these sensing and movements are carried out by the central nervous system. Spiritual heart and spirit exist only in human beings. This spirit also has two powers. Human beings are differentiated from animals through these powers. The first one of these powers is the knowing power, i.e., the mind or intellect (Quwwat al-alema and Mudrika). The second is the power that has an effect upon application, or the force that does or performs things (Quwwat al-amela). [There is not a corresponding word in English language. Let us call this "causative power."] The mind or intellect is also called reason (Aql, Nutq). This power has two types. The first one is theoretical knowledge (Hikmat al-Nazari). It is good for obtainig scientific knowledge. The second is practical knowledge (Hikmat al-amali). This power is used for possessing the knowledge of ethics. Theoretical knowledge which obtains scientific knowledge is useful for understanding the reality or essence of the material world. On the other hand, the practical knowledge, which possesses the knowledge of ethics, discriminates virtues and deeds from vices and vices.
The spirit's power, which we will call "Causative power", accomplishes things that are useful to humans. It achieves accomplishments according to the information obtained by the mind or reason. As we have mentioned, the power that causes movements in the animal spirit is used for desiring or rejecting things according to its perception of good or evil. In humans, causative power follows the faculty of reasoning. If it comprehends things through reasoning as good or useful, it performs them. If it reasons that the final result would not be beneficial to itself, it does not perform them or even repulses them. Human spirit, in addition, also manages the carnal and wrath forces of the animal spirit through the spiritual heart.
Most people carry out the majority of their affairs through the forces of their animal spirits or souls (Nafs). In other words, they do them through "Wahm" and "Hayal."
Imam Muhammad Al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta'ala be pleaed with him, and some of the renowned Sufi masters, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with them, said, "Those forces of the spirit are angels. Allahu ta'ala, by pitying us, gave some of the angels to the command of the spirit. They will be under the charge of the spirit until the person dies and his spirit departs from his body. There are also some signs to this effect in some of the hadiths. For example, sometimes wonderful things materializes through some people who do not possess a quality to produce wonderful things. Therefore, this is proof for their argument." Human beings realize maturity through these two powers of the spirit. |
|
|