Random Thoughts About Occasionalism and Science

I recently read the article titled Why The Arabic World Turned Away From Science written by Hillel Ofek. I found it very interesting and a stampede of thoughts and ideas rushed through my mind. Following are some random thoughts about it. I hope to organize them in a better way in future.

But there is another vantage point to it. The Greek science was not rubbish at all. Actually, if nothing else, modern days' scientific method has its roots in Greek Science. Consider the necessity of theorem proving, for instance. While contemporary world was also a lot more advanced, such as the engineering acumen of Egyptians, who raised monumental pyramids, only Greeks made the science flourish by necessitating the adoption of some scientific method. Greeks were genuine thinkers.

This is not to say that Muslims were not. Imam Al-Ghazali was a skeptic of sorts for a considerable period of his life. He eventually proposed occasionalism. The latter means that every single thing and action happens in the universe by the direct and immediate will of God (i.e. Allah, in an Islamic context). This means, for instance, that incidents like hurricane Sandy happen by the direct will of God. Western science states that laws of Physics dictate such events. Occasionalism suggests that laws of physics may be suggested as causes effecting such events. But at the core of them direct will of Allah is responsible for them and the laws of Physics are only used as covers to conceal the divine hand. West frowns upon such ideas. Indeed, even in the midst of such events one can hear Western intellect shouting that the idea that a divine will is responsible for all such events is ridiculous. I know Western skeptics say this even while they are dying. Muslims (and also Christians and possibly also Jews), on the other hand, suggest that the reason behind such events is moral decadency, such as homosexuality and lesbianism.

A belief in occasionalism also has a consequence for the Islamic belief system. This becomes evident when natural disasters like floods and earth quakes strike Muslims countries. In wake of such events, the Western intellect ridiculously asks the Muslims that why is this happening to Muslims and claims that there is no God. Surprisingly, the theology of Islam has an answer for this too; moral decadency of the society. And this is where the debate starts lurching into other extreme dimensions.

The question is whether Muslims should read philosophy or not. Our times suggest that we should do it. Imam Ghazali suggests that we should not do it. The main reason is that it can lead the Muslims away from piety. Indeed, the propensities of philosophers and the nature of the subject is such that it leads the pupil away from firm belief and lead to heresy. For, if a Muslim was not to pose and address the most arch-question of philosophy, "Does God exist?", he could be lured in to addressing the following question, "Does devil exist?". Or there could be other dodgy questions, investigation of which would at least sway the Muslim away from performing diurnal rituals.

West has a problem with the way religious people think. While the Muslims, for instance, use all the ifs and buts of logic to show the superiority of their theology, the Western intellect uses them to address the most primordial questions about existence of God. This causes a friction of ideologies. While a Muslim (or a Christian for that matter) would be highly inclined to circumscribe and direct his theses and arguments in a way that eventually find that God exists, philosophers and free thinkers have a genuine problem with that predisposed way of thinking which clearly inhibits free inquiry. This is absolutely understandable. 

Coincidentally there is now much evidence that human consciousness survives bodily death. A lot of evidence about this can be found in Western literature about spiritualism and near death experiments. This is obviously no proof for the existence of God. Stated in other words, the fact that human beings have ever lasting souls is by no means a proof of existence of a God. Human beings could possibly just have souls just like they have bodies. I would not be surprised to hear one day of emergence of a theory concerning evolution of human souls. But if the evidence that suggests that human beings have souls is true does point to the possible truth of religion, which after all is all about afterlife and souls. This again does not point us to the truth of a single religion. All religions have mentions of souls and afterlives within them. And a keen adherence to the spirit of science demands that we stick the necessities of evidence and proofs. Evidence and proof are indeed two strong pillars of science.

Meet an average European guy, who is possibly also a student of sociology. Ask him about his views on religion and he would say that religion is wrong. This is suggested because of sociological reasons. For one of the things religion is considered important that historically it has been a vital tool in organizing the society. West wants to get rid of this crutch. Western intellect claims that society could be organized by adopting means from other ecological systems. Study apes, for instance, and we can learn to make peaceful and prosperous communities. But organizing the society is and has possibly been one trivial utility of the society. The main speciality of religion is afterlife. It is to meet this end successfully that religion has other arenas pertaining to the worldly social life. And if there is indeed an afterlife, religion becomes all the more significant. Organized religion may as well be wrong, specially if there is no afterlife. But I have a propensity that if any organized religion stands a chance for being right, it has to be Islam as it is the most organized of them all. I make this claim based on empiricism in some sense. Islam has already addressed every thing. This includes Christianity, Judaism, Idolatry, polytheism, atheism and all the philosophical intellect. This has been done in Quran. And Allah invites every human being to convert to Islam. This is done by frightening, by encouraging, by showing great rewards, by showing that He is merciful and extremely punitive at the same time and by showing them signs. Muslims are advised to invite others to Islam and to amend their own ways in the meantime. In the meantime they have been consciously advised not to use force of any sorts. For there is no compulsion in the religion. The greater emphasis is on the Muslims to live according to the tenets of Islam in this ephemeral worldly life. In the mean time they have also been advised to resist any force that tries to sway them away from achieving their otherworldly goals. This is called Jehad. The smaller and the bigger jehad. Which, of course, Muslims have not been doing very well.

On a separate note, Ubqari is a non profit organization that invites people to the religion of Islam. There are many prayers and Islamic medicines that can be found here. By and large Pakistanis browse the website the most. The second largest number of people who browse the website are from the United States of America, the third largest from from Saudi Arabia and the Fourth Largest from the U.K. There are many healing methods that are taught, such as Islamic sufi meditation. The message of the organization is not that of terrorism at all, but a genuine effort to attract the humanity to the religion of Islam. I would like to assert here that organization does not teach Muslims to hate non-Muslims. I am privy to this as I have heard many lectures of Hazrat Daamat Barkaatam Allama Hakeem Tariq Mehmood Chughtai. I have to force this point because I have read many Western accounts, specially those of Sam Harris, which claim that Islam spreads hatred. This is not true. I have heard Hazrat crying in combined prayers for infidels too. Islam is not a hate based religion. Besides, mostly average Muslims genuinely love the Western people. Indeed, this is because of the general attitude of the Western people which makes them so adorable. Even if you don't like it, Islam is worth reading and understanding.

A Consequence of the Innocence

All of us know what sort of a purpose movies like the innocence of the Muslims and caricatures of that kind serve. They uproot the Muslim world, violence happens, and a lot of mess is made. For certain elements, specially in the West, it is a litmus test of the volatile temperament of the Muslim world. But such events play another very cogent role. That is conversion. Events such as these draw attention of many people to the religion of Islam. Indeed, many are converted as a result of their curious study of the religion of Islam and its Prophet, Muhammad (May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

This idea struck me after an encounter with a Danish convert in Copenhagen once upon a time. The person was in his sixties and converted to Islam after a keen study of the religion as a consequence of the Danish cartoon controversy. I tend to forget the name of the person but I do remember that he talked to us (myself and another guy) about logical reasons why Islam prohibited certain things, for instance, homosexuality and lesbianism. He was a kind man, as normally Europeans are.

Europeans are extremely nice people generally. It is not hard to find a kind hearted person in most of the European countries in one's daily life. Be it your taxi driver, the person standing on the cash counter, or a work place colleague. A myriad of gestures of kindness is not difficult to receive. People are generally a lot more open-minded too, specially compared with the mindsets of the underdeveloped world. Work ethic is Western countries is specially commendable. European laws, regulations and culture are such that it is not difficult to integrate. Such are the reasons for European counties to be favorite destinations for many to seek work. 

Muslim countries in particular, and Asian and African countries in general, need to learn a great deal from the attitudes of the West. Indeed, West is considered a role model in so many spheres of our lives. Muslims have a propensity towards looking up to West or the civilians there as role models. This is true about the average non-Muslims (or let's call them infidels, from an Islamic point of view) living there. People are more humane and genteel. And average Muslims have endless praise for them and their social systems. I have attended numerous such gatherings where this has been discussed.

When some of the Europeans read about the doctrine of Islam, they do it very thoroughly. They thoroughly read about the Quran-e-Hakeem and about the life of the Prophet of Islam i.e. Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). And in doing so some of them choose to convert to Islam. We call them Muslims by choice. Such converts become better role models for the likes of us who are Muslims only by chance. And sometimes all of this happens as a consequence of ridiculous movies and peeving caricatures.

On The Brink of Death

These days quite often we hear of death from various sources around us. Every now and then we hear someone died whose death may or may not have concerned us. There are people who are dying due to natural causes, accidents, bloody conflicts, terrorism, natural disasters and ship wrecks. Many people present various explanations for death and for the factors that may have caused it. This, in large part, depends on the cultural upbringing of people and specially on the religious conditioning he/she may or may not have undergone. Death is, somehow, a very frequent event of our life. I remember having googled statistics about death a few month ago to learn that every second one person dies and two are born on our planet. Death is nonetheless going to stay with us for so long as we are alive. 

May be this inevitability and frequency of death has led us to extend our thoughts about what may or may not happen once we are dead. We have religious doctrines, on one hand, that try to give us an explanation about a possible afterlife. Almost each one of them is embellished with a notion of a heaven and a hell and an everlasting human soul that will reside in one of those places, possibly for ever. On the other hand we have scientific explanations for what may or may not happen after we die. Of these there are two that are most popular and are based somehow on empirical research and on thought experiments. One view is that as we die we live in an eternal oblivion and in an eternal nothingness forever. This is backed by a hypothesis, stretched out after careful research, that human beings do not have an immaterial soul and that the idea of a soul is a mental one, coined at some stage in the remote human history by human beings with a propensity towards believing in the unseen and the unseeable, specially to explain the cause of unprecedented events, and also to survive beyond burial and bodily death. According to the proponents of this idea, the mind ceases to exist as soon as the brain death occurs and all the mental ideas along with beliefs about whatever esoteric things had been held also vanish and cease to exist. Proponents of this idea have conducted research and they often leverage from the results and loop holes in others research. We have learnt to call such people with various names such as atheists, agnostics or skeptics, although the name atheist suits them the most, specially if they are that rigid about believing in what they want to believe.

There is another classification of people who also leverage from science and their scientific training to show that a human soul, indeed, survives a bodily death and once we leave our bodies we keep on living forever in a so-called afterlife. The research that has been conducted and the body of knowledge that exists to support this line of argument has many dimensions to it. First, we have the spiritualists and psychics, who started addressing afterlife in the middle of the nineteenth century in North America and England. This group of people includes notable and renowned people of that time. Thus, one of the pioneers, Sir Alfred Russel Wallace, was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and the co-founder of his theory of natural selection. A careful review of the history and literature review of spiritualism suggests that it became an independent and a disparate body of knowledge even during its early years. Many spirit communication experiments were conducted and some notable members spent plenty of months in isolation to assess the feasibility of the enterprise and to contribute to the literature in the form of  books. The main reason why spiritualism flourished so much in the early years of its inception was also death. Another one of the early pioneers of the enterprise of spiritualism, Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle, states in his book titled, The History of Spiritualism, that frequent deaths due to war was the main reason to vest so much interest in this enterprise. Certainly, people die and their relatives want to know if they are doing well to where ever they have departed. Spiritualism, it turns out that, is widely seen as a religion in the West ever since its early days and its success in the area of spirit communication. A religion that tries to amalgamate and overshadow all the known religions that have a component of life after death appended to their respective doctrines. 

Another group of people who belong in this class are the ones who leverage from the findings of the so-called near death experiences (NDEs) and out of body experiences (OBEs). In a laboratory experiment involving an NDE or an OBE the subject is rendered clinical death or comatose to an extent that he/she is almost dead, in a meaningful clinical sense. After being brought back to life the subject is investigated about his/her experience of that period of time. Indeed, this is thought not only to be a difficult process for the subject to undergo but also for the experimenters as well. Besides, the validity of the tests is questionable from various scientific and philosophical perspectives. There is a variety of subjects' experiences, as have been reported in the literature. While most of the subjects have reported utopian experiences, it must be accepted that some subjects have reported nothingness too. The tests and their results, clearly, have to be conducted and reported, respectively, with a great deal of perfectionism as it can be supposed, fairly, that they have grave consequences on the well being of society as a whole. 

The conclusion, nonetheless, is that this latter class of scientifically motivated people have come to believe, as suggested by empirical research, that there is something after death. And that even though human beings may undergo bodily death, human consciousness tends to live on forever. We  can still, however, safely believe that the topic of afterlife is an open question, subject to further scientific scrutiny. 

This, all of a sudden, heightened interest in the nature of afterlife, in the western circles has many aspects to it. Some of them are intuitive and others can be thought that may have philosophical repercussions. Indeed an interest in the science of afterlife prevails in the oriental mindset as well. I have personally heard many common people talk about the western scientific endeavors about the nature of afterlife and about some of the simplistic methods that may have been adopted; such as fixing video cameras in the graves to know if actually anything supernatural, like any angels coming to the dead and asking various questions, happened. It may be argued that when common religious people, who do not have direct access to scientific method and apparatus and, above that, who do not have any scientific training, read and discuss such accounts of the western researchers' endeavors about knowing the plight of the dead and not being able to get a clue, whatsoever, about the internal happenings of the grave, have a propensity to alluding it as limit of the power of science and the excellence of religion in being esoteric. I believe that this propensity is wrong. West needs to be complimented a great deal in the way it has progressed scientific research over the past few centuries.  

In our era to vest an interest in knowing about a possible afterlife has many motives to it. First and foremost of these reasons is what was pointed out by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle. That is, death. We live in a highly connected world where deaths are taking place around us all the time. We are encouraged to deal it with in different ways in so many ways to soothe our agonies. Thus, it is very common to hear in a western country the common slogan that life is short and that it should be enjoyed to the fullest, something in which there is no harm. Similarly, religion offers many antidotes to death. Islam, for instance, encourages everyone to live every day as the last one. 

A very major concern in knowing about the nature of afterlife is that the nature of the latter, if one exists, or if it does not exist, can be vital in shaping and modeling the present ephemeral life. Indeed, any concrete knowledge about the nature of afterlife can be extremely useful in influencing human behavior. For, if we were to find out great evidence supporting the idea that we are destined to live in eternal oblivion once we are dead does not only mean a huge victory  for the atheists, it also means a great loss of equal proportions to the religiously inclined, spiritualists, and NDE and OBE sympathizers. The more indoctrinated you are, the more the magnitude of the feelings. Even though I think and believe that there is no harm in knowing the truth. For instance, there is no harm in believing the theory of nothingness if it were found, with compelling evidence, that this is what a human being is destined to be. The viable question then would be to wonder about how to effectively live this current, short and otherwise pointless life, specially in an otherworldly sense. A bad option may be to completely mess it up. A better option would be to shape it nicely, specially by leveraging from some nice examples, such as, as I presume, may have been laid out in The Moral Landscape. 

Finding out that an afterlife exists does not rule out the reality that science is a useful enterprise. The idea that science has come to the brink of death just by there being a possibility of an afterlife is probably a foolish one. Obviously, in a philosophical sense, science may be considered to be less valuable if the present life is minute as compared to the next one. Some people may naturally get inclined to improving their afterlives as opposed to their present plight. Some people may still hate their current state of affairs for reasons known to them despite all the worldly endowments they may have at their hands. But people may still hate to live even if they knew that they were destined to nothingness. After all, people living in the western countries have had a greater propensity towards committing suicide in the absence of reasonable stimuli. But the possibility that there is an afterlife does not render science useless or bring it to a brink of death; it only possibly makes it a little less useful.

Similarly, any finding that contradicts popular and deeply held notions should not be ruled out just for the sake of its being idiosyncratic. As a personal opinion this applies to people of all schools of thoughts. Open-mindedness is virtue. Scientific theories evolve and devolve to refine, accept or to reject previous developments.

A conspicuous contradiction to this is the religion itself which remains inflexible to any criticism that is thrown towards it. It must be accepted that the religious, if not the religion itself, have a bad tendency about endorsing every scientific finding that agrees with their religious doctrine and rejecting vigorously whatever is in conflict with science. This must be discouraged. I remember having read an account in the Big Bang by Simon Singh, once upon a time, that when some Pope (possibly Pope John Paul) endorsed the big bang theory, Bishop Lamaitre, one of the pioneers of the theory, discouraged it. The very rational and understandable reason given for that was that science is an enterprise that is in constant flux all the time. And that as much as it may be a source of great happiness for the believers for a scientific theory of great significance to agree with their beliefs about the creation of the universe, it may be a cause of an agony of equal proportions if a latter scientific theory were to refute the former one with a lot more clarity. This is something that happens in Muslim circles too. Thus, every once in a while one gets to hear sermons in which glorious achievements of science are told with much pride which seem to endorse the Islamic ideas. This does sound absurd since normally the deliverer of the sermon has little or no formal education in science.

I am not sure about Islam's stand on theological skepticism. Of course, it makes a lot of sense to believe that Islam would discourage such an idea. According to Islam a believer is expected to strive to increase his faith in Allah as the sole God and Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) as his last and final prophet. I, however, read of a famous Islamic scholar and philosopher, Imam Ghazali (RA), also known as Algazel to the West. He formally introduced philosophical skepticism in Islamic philosophy.  According to his own account he practiced skepticism for a considerable while in his life. And after a while he became a firm believer when the God, most high, himself cast His divine light in to his heart. One may argue about the nature of that light or about the qualitative aspects of his conversion, or the ulterior motives there of. One may also argue, after establishing it as a fact, that his spiritual experience was of the sort of the myriad of fake NDEs. But it may as well be the case that he literally was enlightened by God himself. He may have adopted a strategy for that in parallel to his skeptic pursuits. May be he leveraged from a path synonymous with this. Nonetheless, Algazel is one of most revered sufi saints of medieval times. His work also inspired and influenced numerous well known western scholars of latter times. These include, and, possibly, are not limited to, Rene Descartes, David Hume, and Thomas Aquinas.

If the claims of the afterlife enthusiasts are actually true and if there "is actually" an afterlife, it cannot be known, at the present moment, as to which religious doctrine, if at all, is true, This, however, does seem to mean a demise for atheism as to their claim concerning a "nothingness" after death has been rendered false. Obviously, only a formal, universally acceptable, proof of the existence of a supreme supernatural deity (aka God) can hammer the last nail in the coffin of this doctrine.

Psyops: The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Mi...

Psyops: The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Mi...: This article tends to present translations of important excerpts from the chapter titled " The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their ...

The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding

Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari
Qadri Kalachwi (RA)

This article contains translations of important excerpts from the chapter titled "The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding", from the book "Irfan (part 2)" by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here. I have to acknowledge that this translation is not very good and has various reasons to it:

1. I have tried to translate everything verbatim from Urdu to English with less regard for grammatical corection but to stay more in harmony with the text.
2. There are many jargon words specific to Islamic spiritualism which I do not know the meaning of and I do not possess an Urdu to English dictionary.
3. Translation is a cumbersome process.
4. I did the translation.

It is advisable that this article be read in connection with, and preferably after reading, An Account of Invocation of Jinns, Angels and Souls.

It is also advisable that this article be read in connection with, and preferably after reading, On Afterlife and Islamic Spirituality.

The motivation behind doing this translation very immediately was this interview of Richard Martini, 

New Pathway To Healing: An Interview With Richard Martini.

Now we want to make this thing clear that what beings are the safli (evil) souls that  European Spiritualists invoke and communicate with. And when they are asked that who are you, why do they reply that we are your forefather's and we are the souls of those people who have passed away from this world. And before this we have been living our lives on earth like you, and now we are living and are busy in spiritual progress in the seven communities (or planes or levels or realms) of the aalam-e-arwaah (the world of the souls).

If this is true then the beliefs of all religions, specially Islam, which are, judgement, the judgement day, hashar nashar (I think this translates to judgement too), azaab-e-qabar (punishment of the grave), munkar nakeer (some angels that ask questions in the grave), qayaam-e-qayaamat (again the setting of the judgement day), and the reality of heaven and hell etc., then belief vanishes in them. Because when these spirits are asked about these things they deny their existence. And say that there is no such thing like this. Neither there is hell nor heaven, nor is there any existence of a Godhead. Although because of spiritualism Europe's science-ridden materialists' previous naturalist and atheistic ideology has now changed and they have all become convinced of life after death and they have gotten redemption from the Christian Religion's old papal and priestly machinations.which had indulged them into the wrong consolations of tasliyyat (I don't know the translation, but I think that it means confession) and kaffaara (this is an urdu word which means to pay or worship, or do something similar to attain redemption from one's sins). Now everyone considers himself responsible for his deeds. But these spirits meaning safli souls' (I don't know the meaning of safli but I think that it means evil) and jinn devils' false descriptions have pushed them into a quagmire of a new type of atheism and irreligiousity and the ghost of Darwin's evolution has again overcome their hearts and minds. Meaning that this life is a natural thing and just like in the worldly life the human body is attaining the levels of material progress and evolution, similarly death is also synonymous with a natural change and after death human being keeps on accomplishing higher levels of spiritual progress and evolution. Before this, although to a certain extent, everyone had the fear of death, due to which those people used to refrain and shy away from doing bad deeds, but now the fear of death has vanished away from their hearts and the thought of reward and punishment has also vanished. Only the name and the process of progress and evolution has remained which is happening autonomously. Similarly the devil has pushed them in to a new kind of irreligiosity and atheism. Thus, the example of falling from the sky and getting stuck in the date palm suits truly with them. And similarly he has imprisoned them in the false idea that the miracles of the previous prophets were also of this kind and type of safli (evil?) and mad (mental, the word junooni) karishmas and when their mediums heal and cure the diseases created by mad ghosts then they think that previous prophets, specially Hazrat Isa (Alaihe Salaat-o-wassalam, meaning peace be upon Him) (i.e. Jesus Christ PBUH) who used to cure, handicapped or the blind by birth, he also had inside him this type of spiritual and healing power, the practice of which these people do in their churches with the help of passes etc. Even though, there is a diference equivalent of sky and the earth between every two of these safli (evil?) acrobatics and alvi (good in some sense?) miracles.

Now we consider it important to tell the souls or the spirits that are invoked by the spiritualists of Europe in their seances and those that say we are your forefathers who have passed away from your world or we are those dead humans' souls who inhibited the earth. We have passed away from this world and tell their relatives and kin their complete signs and whereabouts. Who they actually are? And what is their reality? 

It should be clear that the mediums of Europe are often women or weak, illiterate, or simple minded (or possibly innocent) men. Most of the mediums are affected by certain mental illnesses for a while. And the guide spirits that are appointed on them that mostly tells of itself as a foreign person. The most strange thing is that such infants who die after less than even a week or so, such infant children' souls' when invoked start talking, communicating and answering every question like grown up adults without training. Moreover, when some people die, they appear in spiritual seances and start talking without inhibition, even when they are not buried. Even though the person, after having undergone prolonged illness, the difficult process of death, enters the unseen and unheard barzakh (another jargon word, but it is one of the planes of the afterlife) and has to deal with different kinds of revolutions and storms therein. He, for no reason, has the pain and agony of leaving his beloved land, house, relatives and kin and solitude, how can he instantaneously get rid of all of these irritations and problems and start talking with the members of the seance? Thus, these are things which the refined wisdom cannot agree to accept.  Thus, what are these things that tell of themselves as the dead peoples' souls? If they are not souls, then how and why they are aware of all the information and circumstances of the souls.  

So the real thing is that according to Islamic beliefs when a human being is born, a devil is appointed and fixed for (and with) him. Therefore, when it was asked to Hazrat Muhammad Sallalaho Alaihe Wassalam (PBUH), You (PBUH) replied, "Yes, a devil has been fixed with me. But Allah Almighty has endowed me with dominance over him and my devil has become a Muslim". Such physical jinns and devils are born naturally with every human being and to him is also an hidden structure, to which some people refer to as duplicate. This structure is human soul's image, shadow, and complete model and all human feelings and knowledge. Besides this there are other subtle structures in human self. Our spiritual teacher Hazrat Sultan Baahu (Rehmat Allah Alaih) (May Allah's beneficience be upon Him) says in his book Noor-ul-Huda Kalaan:

There are bodies within the body of the human beings and there are various types of these bodies. And every type has a name given to it. Because Humans' body is like a magical treasure. The puzzle of this magic of body is solved by a person of spell by virtue of the name of Allah and attains inner and hidden wealth and blessing. Those hiddedn structures are described as follows:

(I am missing the translation because of the fact that there is use of Persian language here and some jargon).

On another occasion he says:

Nine types of subtle bodies come out of Arif Billah's body. Thus, four bodies are nafs-e-ammaara, nafs-e-lawwaama, nafs-e-mulhima and nafs-e-mutmainna. Three bodies are of the heart; qalb-e-saleem, qalb-e-muneeb, qalb-e-shaheed, and two bodies of the soul; rooh-e-jamaadi, rooh-e-nabaati.

On a third occasion he says that:

From every body, thousand rather so many bodies come out and then they assemble in to one body.

So this type of numerous bodies/structures exist in the human body and after death this type of human's symbolic bodies stay behind like offspring. Other than this there is Allah Almighty's uncountable invisible creation the quantity of which is not known to any other but Allah Almighty.

Translation 74:31: And none can know the hosts of your Lord but He.

One structure, namely humzaad which is called as duplicate in English is appointed with a human from the time of his/her birth. If the spiritualists of Europe invoke such an invisible subtle structure and he/she tells of him/her-self as the body and mind of or the soul of the same soul, then because of this an aspersion cannot be made about different divine religions' specially Islam's, beliefs and ideologies and various notions regarding human soul about punishment, judgment, etc stay untainted as they are. The existence of jinns is although true and shown in Europeans' old religious beliefs and they exist with the names of genie, fairy, devil etc. But the type of invisible subtle creation spiritualists encounter in or out of their seances, they describe themselves as dead peoples' souls. And whatever right or wrong those souls tell them they believe in that. Although one hundred years ago there was not a single person in Europe who was convinced about the existence of soul after death. Now only due to the invocation of souls in the spiritual seances and frequent visual exhibitions experiments has convinced Europe of life after death and a slight glimpse about the one  true thing among many beliefs and ideologies about the religion of Islam, which is life after death, has been known. And in spite of so many observations and experiments devil has indulged them in to a new type of atheism and naturalism. As Allah Almighty has said in surah Al-Anaam (chapter 6) of the Holly Quran:

111. And even if We had sent down unto them angels, and the dead had spoken unto them, and We had gathered together all things before their very eyes, they would not have believed, unless Allah willed, but most of them behave ignorantly.

112. And so We have appointed for every Prophet enemies - Shayatin (devils) among mankind and jinns, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or by way of deception). If your Lord had so willed, they would not have done it, so leave them alone with their fabrications. (Tafseer Qurtubi, Vol.7, Page 67)

In the verses above, how has Allah

CONTINUED

Certainty in Belief is Dependent Upon Seeing

Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari
Qadri Kalachwi (RA)

This article contains translations of important excerpts from the chapter titled "Certainty in Belief is Dependent Upon Seeing", from the book "Irfan (part 2)" by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here.

It is also advisable that this article be read in connection with, and preferably after reading, On Afterlife and Islamic Spirituality.

Now we come to our real topic and describe the reality of nafs (the soul, or the self). It should be made clear that Allah shows to the seekers of path verses and signs of the aafaaq (skies) and anfas (souls, selves) so much so that they clearly find the truth.

سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ 

شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ (حم 53:41)

We shall show them Our portents on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth. Dothnot thy Lord suffice, since He is Witness over all things?

In the verse quoted, a mention has been made about the world of aafaaq (the skies) and world of anfas (the souls), the whole universe is composed of these two worlds.

The world of Aafaaq (the skies) is also called as the world of creation, the apparent world, the witnessed world, the material world, the subtle world, the shape world, and the unreal world. And this is this world that the human being knows about and feels through his five senses.

The second world of anfas (the souls) is also called as the upper world, the inner world, the invisible world, the subtle world, the world of meaning and the real world. And this world is hidden from the apparent senses. The anfas world is real and the aafaaq world is its image. Both worlds have similar earth, sky, sun, moon, stars and all of the other things and two types of material and subtle subtle creation. In Quran-e-Pak Allah Almighty often discusses the reality of the invisible world with the subtle world and its creation. As Allah Almighty says.

الم  o ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ  o  الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ()

This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who ward off (evil). Who believe in the Unseen.

Normally with, يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ, it has been considered to bear faith without seeing. This can never be correct because faith and belief become firm with seeing. As there are three levels of belief: First is ilm-ul-yaqeen (knowledge of belief), ain-ul-yaqeen (vision of belief) and haq-ul-yaqeen, which mean identification, visual perception and discovery. Just like in the case of any issue or incident a man's testimony is true only if he has actually witnessed and seen the particular issue or the incident. Otherwise, without seeing the witness can be proven to be wrong. Similarly, in the case bearing testimony of oneness of Allah Almighty and on Prophethood of Hazrat Muhammad (May Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon) only those virtuous and people of enlightened conscience can be true who have seen the invisible accounts and the inner/hidden issues of Allah Almighty with the eyes of their inner self. Meaning that their kalimah (word of testimony):

اَشْهَدُ اَنْ لَّآ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللہُ وَحْدَهٗ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهٗ وَ اَشْهَدُ اَنَّ مُحَمَّدً اعَبْدُهٗ وَرَسُوْلُهٗؕ

Translation: I bear witness that (there is) no god except Allah; One is He, no partner hath He, and I bear witness that Muhammad (Sall-Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) is His Servant and Messenger.

is correct. Just like Allah Almighty showed the angels of the earth and the skies to Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) to strengthen his faith and belief. As it has been said: 

Translation: 6:75. Thus did we show Ibrahim (Abraham) the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that he be one of those who have Faith with certainty.

Rather Hazrat Ibrahim kept on begging and requesting Allah Almighty for peace of heart and solidarity of certainty in faith. As it is discussed in these verses:

Translation 2:260. And (remember) when Ibrahim (Abraham) said, "My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead." He (Allah) said: "Do you not believe?" He [Ibrahim (Abraham)] said: "Yes (I believe), but to be stronger in Faith." He said: "Take four birds, then cause them to incline towards you (then slaughter them, cut them into pieces), and then put a portion of them on every hill, and call them, they will come to you in haste. And know that Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise."

Then Allah showed the process of resurrecting the dead to Hazrat Ibrahim (AS). And if having certainty of faith without seeing had any value then why would Allah Almighty have increased Hazrat Ibrahim's faith by showing him the angels of the earth and the skies? And why would Hazrat Ibrahim have requested to see the resurrection of the dead?  So belief and faith and the certainty therein is dependent on seeing and reciting the kalimah of testimony without seeing is not correct at all. And such is the testimony of hypocrites. As we have described in the previous verses:

Translation 63:1. When the hypocrites come to you (O Muhammad ), they say: "We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah." Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are liars indeed.

So the issue of faith is all about the invisible. As it has been described in the conditions of faith (The detailed declaration of faith): 

I have faith in Allah and His Angels, His Books and His Messengers, and the Day of Judgment and that all good and evil and fate is from Allah and it is sure that there will be resurrection after death. 

And all of these are invisible things. And till the time a believer cannot see these hidden secret things his having faith in the invisible world is word of testimony is not at all correct and right. The starry eyed hypocrites who are blind since ever from this invisible real world, their formality driven and conceited faith is not equal to a piece of straw in value near God. Rather like hypocrites their verbal word is not becomes a cause and reason for their curse and doomed faith. The saying of Allah in this regard is:

Translation 17:72. And whoever is blind in this world (i.e., does not see Allah's Signs and believes not in Him), will be blind in the Hereafter, and more astray from the Path. 

The description about Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) that has been given of another occasion in Quran-e-Hakeem  that he after seeing the stars, moon and the sun after one another that this is my God. The real detail and description and explanation of these verses is extremely important. Allah says:

Translation 6:76: When the night covered him over with darkness he saw a star. He said: "This is my lord." But when it set, he said: "I like not those that set."

And when he saw the moon while it was shining, he said this is my lord. But when that set he got fed up of that too. And when he saw sun he considered it as his lord and god. But when that also set he showed annoyance with that too. Ultimately after seeing the actual noor (light) of God he said:

Translation 6:79. Verily, I have turned my face towards Him Who has created the heavens and the earth Hanifa (Islamic Monotheism, i.e. worshipping none but Allah Alone) and I am not of Al-Mushrikun (see V.2:105)".

So all the universe is composed of Aalam-e-Aafaaq (the visible world) and the aalam-e-anfas (the invisible world. Just like the visible world has material stars, moon and the sun, the invisible world also has subtle stars, moon(s) and sun(s). When the disciple achieves levels of discipleship in his inner self he has to pass through many inner places, levels and circumstances. And different enlightenments are bestowed upon him. Thus the enlightenment of nafs (the self) on the level (place) of naasoot appears in the form of star due to lights of the deeds. On some disciples when this type of light appears then he considers it as the light of Allah.But after some while when the disciple progresses and moves ahead from this level then this light disappears and dims. At this stage the disciple understands that this passing and dimming light is temporary and Allah's light (noor, actually the urdu word tajjalli is used here) is ahead which is eternal and perpetual. After this the tajjali-e-qalb (light of heart?) appears on the disciple on the level of malakoot (angels?) due to lights (anwaar) of names (asmaa) in the form of moon. Because this light is slightly brighter than than the previous light, due to this the disciple starts considering it as the the light of Allah Almighty. But after a while this light also disappears and the disciple understands that this could also not be the light of Allah Almighty. When the disciple progresses further then the light appears in the level of jabaroot due to anwaar-e-sifaat (lights of characteristics, traits, qualities) in the form of sun and the disciple (the actual word in Urdu saalik is used here and I do not know the real translation of the word in English) thinks that this electrifying and clear light is that of Allah Almighty. But when in the accomplished levels this light disappears, he abandons it by saying "I like not those that set." (verse 76:6). After this in the level of Laahoot the actual light of Allah Almighty appears on the disciple which does not dim or disappear in any way. At this stage the disciple knows that this is the actual, real and personal light of Allah Almighty. At this stage, like Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), by becoming appointed on the level of real unity of and by attaining close proximity of Allah Almighty he proclaims: 

Translation 6:79. Verily, I have turned my face towards Him Who has created the heavens and the earth Hanifa (Islamic Monotheism, i.e. worshipping none but Allah Alone) and I am not of Al-Mushrikun (see V.2:105)".

Meaning that I have turned my attention completely towards the personal light of Allah Almighty and I have become a complete knower by ridding myself off from all polytheism except the lights (anwaar) deeds, names and traits.

NOTE: Another relevant topic to this is that of the psychospiritual organs.