A Significant Point and Important Mystery: The relation between the branches of science and Divine names.

A SIGNIFICANT POINT AND IMPORTANT MYSTERY

By describing under the title of ‘the teaching of the Names’ all the attainments of learning and scientific progress and wonders of technology which man manifests through his comprehensive disposition, this wondrous verse contains the following subtle and elevated allusion: all attainments and perfections, all learning, all progress, and all sciences, have an elevated reality which is based on one of the Divine Names. On being based on the Name, which is concealed under numerous veils and has various manifestations and different spheres, the sciences and arts and attainments find their perfection and become reality. They are not some incomplete and deficient shadow.

For example, engineering is a science; its reality and final point reaches to Almighty Allah’s Names of All-Just and Determiner, and observes with all their majesty the wise manifestation of those Names in the mirror of engineering.

And, for example, medicine is a science, and also an art; its final point and reality are based on the Absolutely Wise One’s Name of Healer, and through observing that Name’s compassionate manifestations in the vast pharmacy of the earth, medicine finds its perfection and becomes reality.

And, for example, the natural sciences, which discuss the reality of beings; through seeing the regulating, nurturing supreme manifestations of Almighty Allah’s (May His glory be exalted) Name of All-Wise in things, in their benefits and advantages, and through attaining to the Name, and being based on It, these sciences may contain true wisdom. Otherwise they are either transformed into superstition, or become nonsense, or open up the way to misguidance like Naturalist philosophy.

There, three examples for you! You may make analogies with these for the other sciences and attainments.

Thus, with this verse, the All-Wise Qur’an strikes the hand of encouragement on man’s back, urging him to the highest peaks, the furthest limits, the final degrees, which he is far behind at the present degree of his progress. It points its fingers at those degrees, saying: “Forward march!” Contenting ourselves for now with these jewels from the sublime treasury of this verse, we close this door.

Also, for example, the All-Wise Qur’an, the supreme miracle of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), the Seal of the Office of Prophethood, in the face of whose claim to Divine Messengership the miracles of all the former Prophets were like a single confirmatory miracle; the leader of the Prophets and cause of pride of the universe; who manifested in detail with all their degrees all the Names which were taught in brief to Adam (PBH); who, in raising his finger, through the manifestation of Divine glory split the moon, and lowering it, through the manifestation of Divine beauty poured water from it like the Spring of Kawthar; and who was verified and corroborated by a thousand miracles.(1) Through numerous clear verses like,

Say: If all mankind and the Jinn were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support, (Qur’an, 17:88.)

which describes the purity of its exposition, the eloquence of its expression, the comprehensiveness of its meanings, and the elevatedness and sweetness of its styles concerning truth and reality, which are the most brilliant of the All-Wise Qur’an’s aspects of miraculousness – through verses like these, it directs the gazes of men and jinn to the clearest and most brilliant aspects of this pre-eternal miracle. It provokes all men and jinn. Arousing the eagerness of its friends and obstinacy of its enemies, it urges them with intense encouragement to imitate and copy it, to resemble it with their words. It also places that miracle before the eyes of creatures in such a way that it is as if the only aim in man coming into this world is to take that miracle as his goal and guiding principle, and studying it to understand the purpose of his creation, and to proceed towards it.

In Brief:  The miracles of the other Prophets (Peace be upon them) all indicate a wonder of human art or craft, and Adam’s (Peace be upon him) miracle indicates in concise form, besides the bases of those crafts, the index of the sciences and branches of knowledge, and of the wonders and perfections, and urges man towards them. As for the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the supreme miracle of Muhammad (PBUH), since it shows in detail the reality of the teaching of the Names, it points clearly to the true goal of the sciences and branches of knowledge, which are truth and reality, as well as the perfections, attainments, and happiness of this world and the next. With truly powerful encouragement, it urges man towards them. It encourages and urges in a such way it says:

“O man! In the face of manifestations of dominicality, the elevated purpose of the universe is man’s universal worship and submission to Allah, while his furthest aim is to attain to that worship by means of those sciences and perfections.” In stating this, it hints:

“At the end of time, mankind will spill into science and learning. It will obtain all its strength from science. Power and rule will pass to the hand of science.”

Also, since the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition repeatedly puts forward its eloquence and beauty of expression, by allusion it says: “At the end of time, eloquence and beauty of expression, the most brilliant of the sciences and branches of knowledge, will be most sought after in all their varieties. Even, in order to make one another accept their ideas and carry out their word, men will find their most effective weapon in eloquent expression, and their most irresistible force in fine oratory.”

In Short: Most of the Qur’an’s verses are keys to a treasury of perfections and guides to a store of knowledge.

If you wish, you may reach up to the skies of the Qur’an and the stars of its verses by making the previous twenty Words a stairway of twenty steps.(2) Through them you will see what a brilliant sun is the Qur’an! See how it sprinkles a pure light over the Divine truths and the truths of the contingent realm! See what a brilliant effulgence it spreads!

Conclusion:  Since together with alluding to the wonders of present-day human progress, all the verses about the Prophets are also in a style which as though infers and traces their limits in the future; and since it is certain that all the verses point to numerous meanings, indeed, it is unanimously agreed upon, and since there are categorical commands to follow and obey the Prophets, then together with the explicit meanings of the above verses, it may be said that they indicate in allusive fashion the important of man’s arts and sciences, and urge him towards them.

(1) Bayhaqi, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, i, 10< Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, vi, 58, 583.

(2) Indeed, the thirty-three Words, thirty-three Letters, thirty-one Flashes, and thirteen Rays form a stairway of one hundred and twenty steps.
 

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Two Important Answers to Two Important Questions: Why does the Qur'an not describe the news of the technological developments explicitly? Why does the Qur’an not mention them explicitly so that unbelievers will be compelled to confirm it?