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God, the most high has mentioned His
vicegerency and deputization as a trust reposed in man, that is, the knowledge
that enables man to fulfill the obligations and duties as a vicegerent of God
and the authority to command the control over the universe is a conferred
trust. One can use the entrusted thing with the permission of the owner bearing
this fact in mind that this thing actually does not belong to me and I am only
a trustee. Trustworthiness means that one will not claim the ownership rights
of the thing entrusted and use it with care, conceding that conferment is not
the achievement because of any quality in him.
God, the most Gracious announces that We
entrusted Adam with a Trust and empowered him to exercise authority so that he
could make use of Our Trust according to Our Wish and Will. There are few
things that require profound understanding about the Acquired Knowledge and the
Presented Knowledge. The trust conferred upon man can only be executed when he
excels in Presented Knowledge. The Acquired Knowledge cannot help us in this
regard because it only deals with worldly intellect and material senses. This
knowledge is acquired through consciousness and intellect which by the mankind
as a whole is termed understanding and common sense. But, it appears quite
perplexing that when the Consciousness and intellect are analyzed with prudence
and sagacity the intellect is found to be not more than imbecility, dearth of
understanding and lack of vision. When, for instance, we take the case of
statistics into consideration, the first step, the first letter which is taught
is 'one'. Unless it is not admittedly learnt two doesn't come under discussion
and unless the 'two' is not acknowledged 'four' is not mentioned. The prudence
and reasoning demands that we should consider what there is before one. These
types of questions are not supposed to be asked because the intellect has no
answer to them.
We are told that a child is born and he has
been named Tom, Dick or Harry. The same child with the passage of time
transforms into that shape and form in which features of that child cannot be
traced out any longer. Apparently the child vanishes behind the features of a
youth. The youthfulness gradually and slowly, with the passage of every day,
every hour and every minute of the hour transforms into such form and figure in
which no image of the youthfulness reflects. Now how strange it is that the
child born today is given the name of Tom and the same name is carried to his
eightieth year. How greatly is the intellect at fault, deficient and indiscreet
that it has only one name for the ever changing phenomenon Tom, in his
eightieth year is totally a changed person than that infant who was born eighty
years ago. It is worth noticing that when a thing is changed altogether then
how it is that its name remains unaltered and unchanged. Reason and intellect,
obviously, has no answer to this question as well.
A child is sent to school so that he could
learn to use intellect and reasoning. But what a child is taught there is all
that nonsense and foul logic which has been denominated as logic and reasoning.
Now if that innocent child who is not familiar with the so called standards of
intellect asks what comes before 'A' or, why this 'A' is not called 'B' and 'B'
is not called 'A'. The intellect and reasoning again have no answer.
The fact is that few postulates and
suppositions have been amassed to erect the building of learning’s and it is
insisted that these postulates should be accepted and treated as reality. But
what type of reality is this which has no logical explanation and we have to
accept these suppositions blindly to express our own irrational approach. The
more one believes and accepts this hypothesis, postulates and suppositions the
more learned he is considered. For example, one intends to do Ph.D. in
statistics. Leaving out this fact that the whole body of Mathematics is
established upon postulates and suppositions, one has to excel in accumulating
postulates. Prudence and contemplation tells that this man has allowed the
suppositions to ride him more than any other person, that is, in the world of
suppositions he has scored that position which is not available for others.
Such a man is called a Ph.D. scholar. No
rule of logic or any philosophy allows us to accept that what is based upon
suppositions could be accepted as a reality. For learning fiction and
suppositions, existence of intellect is of vital importance. And, for cognizing
reality we have to get rid of fictional life and its suppositional senses. One cannot
enter the world of reality if he is not liberated from the fictional senses.
The difference between the spiritual
sciences and the worldly sciences is that intellect claims to accept and
acknowledge only after observation, experimentation and comprehension. But when
it comes to faith and belief if one starts comparing them with intellect he
would find himself nowhere, for the simple reason that God, the Gracious cannot
be sighted with these material eyes, God, His Attributes and His Knowledge all lie
beyond the range of the fictional senses. All the prophets of God, and the
divine scriptures including the Holy Quran tells us that it is very much
possible that man could behold, could touch God, the most High and can present
his submissions in His Holy presence. This witnessing, touching and feeling the
Exalted Presence is only possible when one could step out of the circle of
fictional senses and the acquired knowledge.
There are two spheres of intellect in one,
a person despite possessing intellect does not make use of it and as long as he
does not use it he learns nothing. In the other one, a person without referring
to his intellect unwittingly enters the intellectual territory and then
intellect itself start guiding him and, in this guidance by intellect, he
explores a variety of information’s, discovers various laws of science and
manages to invent various inventions. This clearly suggests that for having
intellect the use of intellect is required and for having knowledge negation of
the knowledge already possessed becomes necessary and the more one succeeds in
negating oneself the more knowledge he assimilates whether it is knowledge
relating to fiction or reality.
Law: - For learning any knowledge a person
has to negate himself and the knowledge which he already possesses. As soon as
he forgets about the knowledge already assimilated by him, new horizons of
knowledge open unto him. This law is equally valid for the Acquired Knowledge
and the Presented Knowledge. When one becomes a Muslim, first of all he denies
that which he intends to accept, that is, first he repudiates God and then
acknowledges Him. If denial and repudiation at the first step is not there one
cannot be a Muslim. For becoming a Muslim the first condition is the recitation
of the Fist Creed (Kalimah tayibah). In which he says 'La illaha'; There is no
god, and then says 'IlLallah'; except God. It means that before acknowledging
God he repudiated anyone worthy of worship. Or to say, the first condition is a
Muslim is to know the law of negation and affirmation. When the Islamic creed
(La illaha illallah, Muhammad dur rasso Allah) is recited, in fact, one is made
to say that I repudiate that worshipping Deity and God which according to may
hypothetical knowledge is God and confirm that Deity is God (Allah) about which
the Holy Prophet (PBUH) has testified. Prophets and messengers of God always
remaining beyond the limiting hypothetical senses live in the sphere of real
senses. By saying, "mere is no god save that God which is defined and
testified by the prophet of God; Muhammad (PBUH)' a person proclaims that after
cutting himself off from the hypothetical and intellectual senses he is
entering those senses which according to the seer and godly teacher; the Holy
Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be Upon him) are the real senses.
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI
When any branch of knowledge is taken into
consideration, two things, because of their significance, immediately become
important. The first one is theoretical knowledge, which we possess about that
particular branch of knowledge and in its final stage practical demonstration
and implementation of that branch of knowledge is observed. In other words,
knowledge is the name given to the combination of theory and practice. Like any
other branch of knowledge, the spiritual sciences, too, are no exception to this
rule, that is, after learning and Rules, Laws, Principle and Formulae
Theoretically; they are tested, analyzed and examined practically. There are
two possible ways of learning and acquiring knowledge. One method is to learn
the theory first and then to use the learnt formulae, principles and laws
practically. The other method is to start learning through practical
experiments directly.