Is God an Intellectual Reality

Is God an Intellectual Reality?

Dr.
Khalid Zaheer

We certainly do not perceive God, but we do
observe this world. History has recorded the story of the fashion in which we
have beheld it for the last five thousand years. We have observed it from widely
different angles. The Bedouin of deserts, and the unsophisticated tillers of
soil had their share of intimate observation of this world. So have the modern
scientists and astronomers like Swedenborg, Herschel, Hubble, and Einstein done
from their very special positions. We saw this world even when our imagination
suggested that a slightly taller structure would literally shake hands with the
sky; we are still watching it now when we know that some of its stars are so
distantly placed from us that their light takes billions of years to reach us.

There was a time when we fancied our sun to be no
more than a big ball which, if it were to somehow cool down and descend to us,
could be conveniently employed for our benefits. Our modern enlightenment has
enabled us to know this its distance from Pluto, a planet, for example, is four
billion and six hundred million miles. Furthermore, we know that this system is
only a small part of a large galaxy which has billions of suns, and that this
galaxy is just one of the millions of spiral nebulae.

This, then, is what we know as yet, we do not
know what more is in store, still eluding us for want of ever further scientific
probing.

Throughout this long period of stay in this world
we have always heard the silent verdict of our intuition that all this
arrangement despite its vast expanse and grandeur, is a creation, Our intellect
unequivocally endorses this verdict. Efforts to form a contrary opinion not
withstanding, human intellect have always ended up with the same conclusion. The
findings of the latest research are, likewise, no different. Man is,
Consequently, forced to confirm that this world is undoubtedly a creation, no
more and no less than that.

We conclude from the above that if this world is
a creation it should definitely have a Creator. A common rebuttal of this
argument, based on the question of identification of a Creator of this deduced
Creator, is clearly illogical, for we do not argue that everything should
necessarily have a Creator. On the contrary, we assert that every creation
should indispensably have a Creator, and because we accept this world to be a
creation, it must logically have a Creator. Everyone should, therefore, submit
willingly to this verdict of our intellect.

We readily yield to this verdict which is
unanimously endorsed by our intuition as well as by our intellect. Our entire
existence, in fact, is a clear testimony to it. Nothing within or external to us
can challenge this contention. We, therefore, believe that the existence of God
is an unquestionable reality which no reasonable person can afford to deny.

Reality does not appear through our observations
and experiences only. We also, at times, infer from evidences of objects and
events to arrive at conclusions. Information gathered through both channels
deserve equal right on the word. A modern physical scientist has rightly
remarked that reality is always reality whether discovered directly or through
reasoning. The major part of man's best scholarly achievement is based on this
process. He unhesitatingly affirms those facts which he has discovered through
logical reasoning just as he affirms those which he has observed directly.

As the Holy Qur'an invites man to believe in
the facts which belong to the second category, the unseen facts, it was but
logical that it should have adopted the process of intellectual reasoning to
convince its readers. It first draws the attention of man to the reality which
exists in this intuition. It informs him that the Powerful and Wise Being who
unquestionably exists beyond the domain of his senses was never unknown to his
intuition. Call Him Allah or Rehman (the Beneficent)' all good names
are His. The Qur'an then draws the attention of man's intellect to the
visible aspects of this world. It presents for his consideration the various
expressions of nature, both within himself and external to him in the
surroundings, which lie within his observable reach, It says:

Your God is one God; there is no
God save Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Lo! in the creation of the heavens
and the earth; and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon
the sea with that which is of use to man, and the water which Allah sends down
from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all
kinds of beasts therein, and in the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds
obedient between heaven and earth are signs for people who ponder. (2:164-165)

It then implores the intellect to accept the
consequential outcome towards which these expressions inevitably lead, for it is
only befitting for it to submit to truth.

It is the same process which modern science has
adopted to prove many of its claims. The Holy Qur'an employed it in a period
when the startling achievements of our times were unknown. Modern science was,
no doubt, fortunate in discovering the process which is the only way of
appreciating unseen realities. It is, however, unfortunate in ignoring the
reality which emerges most prominently after adopting this process: the
existence of God. We do not know how long it will take to overcome this
contradictory attitude.

©
Copyright April 2000. All Rights Reserved with the Author