| WARNING
The chapter you are about to read reveals a crucial life
secret. It should be read attentively
and thorougly, for it is concerned with a subject that is liable to make
a fundamental
change in one's oulook toward the external world. The subject of this
chapter is not
merely a point of view, a different approach, or a traditional philosophy.
It is a fact
which everyone, believers and non-believers, must admit to and which has
been
proven by science today.
The Important Reality that Invalidates Materialism
At the root of the Communists' nightmare of anguish throughout the 20th
century lies the Darwinists' materialist creed. Blindly accepting materialist
philosophy, Communists regard everything as composed of matter only, rejecting
the idea that human beings have spirits. In the same way, their adoption
of Darwin's theory of evolution led them to qualify human beings as no
more than "advanced animals."
This and the following chapter will explain why this ideology is unsound.
First off, we'll consider a very important reality that invalidates the
very foundation of the materialist dogma that regards everything as being
composed of matter. The second chapter demonstrates Darwinism's invalidity
from a scientific standpoint, showing that human beings have always existed
on this Earth as humans-distinct from animals-and have a spirit and consciousness
God has given them.
First of all, let's take a short look at the system of thought that holds
matter as absolute, denying the existence of anything else. As a result
of this flawed logic, materialists reject obvious existence of God (surely God is beyond that) and cannot
conceive that all things continue to exist by God's will. Materialists'
warped philosophy stems from this flawed conception, and is described
in the Qur'an (23:37) as the materialists themselves might express it:
"What is there but our life in this world? We die
and we live and we will not be raised again." Another verse (30:7)
describes the great error of these people who deny God and the afterlife:
"They know an outward aspect of the life of this world but are heedless
of the hereafter."
Why did materialism fall into this error, which gave rise to such flawed
conceptions? One reason is that never in their lives have they realized
a very important reality. And not being aware of it, they believe that
their entire lives are limited by the material world. Therefore, their
entire relation to the world is dominated by ambition. In the following
pages, we will reveal this important reality, of which godless people
are unaware.
The Real Face of Matter
We are about to demonstrate a reality that invalidates the roots of materialist
thought: not a philosophy or ideology; but a technical reality that everyone
inhabits whether he knows it or not, which has been proved by various
branches of science. If approached with care and sincerity, without prejudice,
it is very easy to understand. This reality can be summarized like this:
"All material existence that form us and our environment is a totality
of conception. The concept of what we call "matter" is like a dream, conceivable
only as an image in our minds. We can never have any connection with its original that exists outside us."
The "reality behind matter" is not formerly unknown and only newly discovered.
Throughout history, God has sent apostles and other deeply aware, thoughtful
people to proclaim this reality, which is alluded to in a number of verses
of the Qur'an and plays a key role in interpreting still other verses.
Texts containing portions of these individuals' proclamations have come
down to us today; while various degenerated forms of the true religion-whose
original revelations have been distorted-have sought to preserve this
reality as a mystical secret.
One can find this reality in surviving texts of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Taoism, Judaism and Christianity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras
and Plato (especially in his Allegory of the Cave), the Eleatic school
of philosophy, and a number of the thinkers who followed them all expounded
one aspect of this question. In later periods, it has been related and
taught by people who, under the influence of differing viewpoints and
various interpretations, have thought about it deeply and arrived at the
truth.
Those who claim that matter is the one absolute principle of existence,
tried to cover up this reality. But George Berkeley, the Irish theologian
and philosopher, raised this question again in the 18th century and in
so doing, changed the world of ideas after him.
Because materialists-especially Bertrand Russell,
the most passionate spokesman of this school-could not refute Berkeley
philosophically, they attempted to insult and slander him. Even though
Russell was the most representative thinker in materialist circles and
the strongest defender of this view, he couldn't disregard this truth.
In The Problems of Philosophy, he admitted that: "Berkeley retains
the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being
denied without absurdity, and that if there are any things that exist
independently of us, they cannot be the immediate objects of our sensations."124
However much Russell might claim the opposite, in his statement above,
he basically could not deny this reality, but even openly states that
he accepts it.
Actually not only Russell's outlook, but the entire materialist philosophy
is about to collapse. As we step into the 21st century, modern developments
in physics, quantum physics, astronomy, psychology and anatomy and other
branches of science are deeply discomfiting those who espoused the old
materialist view of the world. The study of fossils and research conducted
in areas like genetics have caused the theory of evolution to collapse.
Research in optics and psychology have helped solve the mystery of our
cognitive system; as a result of advances in astronomy, the Big Bang theory-proposing
that the universe and matter had a beginning-has become generally accepted.
Research into atoms and sub-atomic particles has turned classical physics
inside out, proving the theory of relativity- that time itself is relative.
Countless scientific discoveries have confirmed the existence of God
and His eternal sovereignty over the whole universe, leaving with no recourse
those materialist thinkers who represent fanaticism and prejudice. Their
powerlessness also continues today. On television, in schools, and at
lectures, we encounter scientists and thinkers who feign ignorance of
the fact that we can't get in touch with the external world, that our
experience is composed of perceptions felt in our brain; and proceed not
to inform people of the truth, even behaving as if it did not exist. But
ignoring the truth is no solution. Let us examine this reality a little
more closely.
What We Perceive As Outside Is Actually Inside Ourselves
Sitting with his family, watching television,
a person is actually at the presence of a great miracle. The miracle
is that every image the people sitting in the room see is actually
in each person's brain. Is the person in the room, or vice versa? |
Stimuli such as light, sound, smells, tastes and textures from objects
assumed to exist in the external world are carried through nerves to sensory
centers in the brain. All these stimuli consist of electric signals. During
the process of sight, for example, light rays (photons) radiating from
the exterior world reach the retina at the back of the eye, which transforms
them through a series of processes into electric signals. These signals
are transferred along nerves to the center of vision at the rear of the
brain. Thus, the colorful, bright, three-dimensional world is perceived
within this center of only a few cubic centimeters.
The same process also enables the other senses. Tastes are transformed
into electric signals by cells on the tongue's surface. Smells are transformed
into electric signals by cells in the epithelium of the nose. Special
sensors lodged under the skin transform impulses of touch (such as feelings
of firmness or softness) into electric signals, and a special mechanism
in the ear transforms sounds in a similar way. All these signals are sent
to respective centers in the brain, where they are finally perceived.
To clarify the point, assume you are holding a cup of coffee. Receptors
under your skin transform the cup's hardness and heat into electric signals
and send them to your brain. Simultaneously, the coffee's strong smell,
its taste and dark brown color all become signals sent to the brain. The
clink when the cup touches the table is perceived by your ears and sent
to the brain as an electric signal. All these perceptions are interpreted
in the relevant brain centers, working harmoniously with one another.
As a cumulative result of these impulses, you sense yourself drinking
a cup of coffee.
Anyone who sits in a room, watching television or dining with his family,
experiences a great miracle, even though he is unaware of it. The image
of four surrounding walls is, in reality, within that person's brain.
That being the case, are you in the room, or is the room inside you?
Most people are unaware of this great truth, assuming themselves to be
sitting in a room, watching television or chatting with their family.
Those who do grasp this fact, on the other hand, pretend not to understand
this miracle, since they fear it. Yet this fact of which they plead ignorance
is undeniable, confirmed by science. Stimuli reaching the eye from the
room's four walls, the pictures or paintings on them, the television,
carpet, furniture, and light on the ceiling are all transformed by the
retina's cells into electrical currents, then transmitted to the visual
center in the brain. A person perceives the image of the house, which
he thinks he is in, in a tiny space in the rear of his brain.
Never in his whole life can he move outside this
space; never can he see another image, apart from the one on the "screen"
in his head. He can never hear a sound apart from those transmitted
to his brain. A person lives out his whole life within this small, bony
room.
Throughout his life, a person cannot leave
this space; cannot see any images in his brain; cannot hear any
noises apart from those perceived in his brain. A person's whole
life transpires within this little room. |
Everything we see around us is the work of electrical signals producing
an image in our brain. To explain this more clearly, imagine that you
are looking at the bowl of fruit on a dinner table. When light rays from
it reach your eyes, several operations come into play: The rays, converted
into electrical stimuli, are transmitted by nerves to your brain's visual
center. In this way we can say that we see "fruits of various colors,"
as can easily be found in any biology or physiology textbook. But what
is most amazing is that the visual center is a place of complete darkness.
Actually there is no screen in the brain: When electrical stimuli come
from the table, no image is formed in the visual center. When we say we
see the table and the fruit on it, we are actually seeing electric signals
transmitted in total darkness.
Here we meet a fact.
Light rays from the table reach our eyes,
where they are turned into electrical stimuli transmitted by nerves
to our brain's visual center. There is no actual screen in our brain,
of course: Electrical stimuli coming from the table do not form
an actual image in the visual center. We say that we see the table
with the colorful fruit on it, but we actually see the electrical
signals reaching the pitch darkness inside our brain. |
What we call the visual center is composed of fat, protein and nerves.
It cannot perceive incoming electrical signals as images by these. In
that case, who is it that sees the electric signals
in the darkness of the brain without the need for eyes?
This is what materialism, with its lying attempts to explain everything
in terms of basic matter, can never understand. What leads materialists
definitely into a blind alley is an extraordinary reality that most
people cannot conceive of. In the darkness of our brain is a being
that need no eyes to see a table clearer than one projected on the finest
television-three-dimensional, life-like and indistinguishable from the
original.
What sees this perfect image is also what separates human beings from
animals and all other animate and inanimate things is the Spirit that
God "breathed into" them when He created them. In the Qur'an (15: 28-30),
God reveals the existence of the "spirit" in these words:
When your Lord said to the angels, "I am creating a human
being out of dried clay formed from fetid black mud. When I have formed
him and breathed My Spirit into him, fall down in prostration in front
of him!" Then the angels prostrated all together, every one of them.
Copies Indistinguishable from the Originals
Miraculously, the perceptions of the spirit are completely the same as
reality. Despite the fact that the spirit has nothing to do with material
originals, but only with electrical signals reaching the brain, it sees
shapes and colors and feels hardness and texture, just as they are in
reality. So clear are these impressions that he's convinced that he's
seeing and touching the original.
For example, a swimmer in the sea's cool, blue waters is actually immersed
in a great miracle. He thinks he is swimming in the water, but has never
emerged from the darkness inside his brain. From the moment he entered
the water, every stimulus entering his body is immediately converted by
the cells into electrical current and transmitted to his brain. At this
point, something miraculous happens: the spirit, with no arms or legs
to stroke with or feel the wetness, senses that water is touching his
skin and buoying him up.
However, the person never has any connection with the color of the water,
its temperature, and the sound of the waves-all these things are inside
the human brain. A person really has no connection
with the original of even his own body that exists in the external world; but only perceives electrical signals from
inside it. Even though this miraculous reality is taught in schools and
written about in textbooks, many people are not aware of this extraordinary
reality; and most of those who are aware of it do not want to understand
it.
The Reality that Materialists are Afraid to Understand
Have you ever considered that all the material
things you know in this world-your house and belongings, spouse
and children, your parents and colleagues-are perceived as images
that occur in the darkness of your brain? |
In light of this extraordinary and exciting knowledge, consider that
all the material things you know in this world-your house and belongings,
spouse and children, your parents and colleagues-are perceived as images
that occur in the darkness of your brain. Has it ever occurred to you
that you are fixed to an image that occurs in your brain, you can never
see the outside, you can see the things listed above only in your brain
and you can never get outside this small world?
If the materialists-who deny the existence of the spirit, believing that
matter is the only reality-accepted this obvious truth, they
would have to throw aside all the principles and goals on which they've
based their lives. Angered by this great miracle, they have resorted
to many methods to attack it and made irrational claims to obfuscate the
facts. Some materialists pound tables with their fists or kick walls to
convince themselves that matter is not a perception. Other materialists
may claim that a bus hitting someone is no mere
perception, but objectively "real." They want to escape the understanding
that all feelings of pain from the impact are already perceptions formed
in the brain; the victim has never been in contact with the "actual" bus.
Again, all the sensations of the blow are perceived
in the darkness of the brain, by the human spirit.
The Huge Trap into Which Materialists Have Fallen
Materialist philosophy has always existed throughout history. Very assured
of themselves, materialists revolted against God Who created them and
maintained that since matter had no beginning nor end, it couldn't possibly
have been created. Denying God out of their arrogance, they took refuge
in matter which they held to have the only "real" existence. So confident
were they in their arrogance and denial that they believed that no argument
put forth could ever disprove it. That's why the facts regarding the real
nature of matter surprised them so much. Suddenly it destroyed the very
basis of their philosophy-matter, on which they based all their lives-and
left no ground for further debate. They saw the material world, in which
they so blindly believed in, trusted and relied, taken away and could
do nothing about it. Since no human being actually
sees the reality of matter that exists outside us, hears real sounds, or smells genuine scents,
how can we talk of materialism?
One of the attributes of God is His plotting against the unbelievers,
as stated in the Qur'an, verse (8: 30):
They plot and plan, and God too plans; but the best of planners is God.
God entrapped materialists by letting them assume that matter exists
and in so doing, humiliated them in an unseen way. Materialists grew arrogant
against God by relying on their possessions, status, rank in society.
They revolted against God by being boastful (surely God is beyond that) and adding to their unbelief
by relying totally on matter. Yet, they were so lacking in understanding
that they failed to realize that God encompasses them. In the Qur'an (52:
42), God reveals the state to which unbelievers' thick-headedness leads
them: "Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But
those who defy God are themselves involved in a Plot!"
This is most probably the biggest defeat in history. While growing arrogant
of their own accord, materialists have been tricked and suffered a serious
defeat in the war they waged against God by devising a monstrous thing
against Him.
In another verse (24: 39), God says: "But the disbelievers,
their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched
with thirst mistakes for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds
it to be nothing." Materialism, too, becomes a "mirage" for the
rebellious when they seek to depend on it. Just as stated in this verse;
they find it to be an illusion. God has deceived them with such a mirage,
beguiling them into perceiving this whole collection of images as real.
LENIN COMMANDED HIS COMRADES,
"DO NOT THINK, OR ELSE YOU WILL BELIEVE."
The world to which we're connected is composed not
of matter, but perceptions. Because this fact knocked the foundations
from under materialist philosophy, its ideologues are very uncomfortable
and try not to think about it, even recommending that their colleagues
not think about it either. Chief among them is Lenin. In Materialism
and Empirio-Criticism, a book he wrote a century ago, he warned
that materialists should not think about this subject, else they
might become "caught up" in religion:
Once you deny the objective reality
[that is] given us in sensation, you have already lost every weapon
against fideism [reliance on faith alone], for you have slipped
into agnosticism or subjectivism-and that is all that fideism requires.
A single claw ensnared, and the bird is lost. And our Machists [an
adherent of Machism, developed by the Austrian philosopher Mach,
one of the leaders of modern positivism], have all become ensnared
in idealism, that is, in a diluted, subtle fideism; they became
ensnared from the moment they took "sensation" not as an image of
the external world, but as a special "element." It is nobody's sensation,
nobody's mind, nobody's spirit, nobody's will.1
As this quote shows, the only thing materialists can
do about the "real nature of matter" is to avoid thinking about
it!-the clearest indication that the myth of materialism derives
its strength only from people's self-deception.
1- (V. I. Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1970, pp. 334-335) |
All those eminent professors, astronomers, biologists, physicists and
others, regardless of their rank and post, are simply deceived and humiliated
for having taken matter as their god. Assuming a collection of images
to be absolute, they based their philosophy and ideology on them,and involved
themselves in serious discussions. They deemed themselves to be wise enough
to offer an argument about the truth of the universe and, more importantly,
adopted a so-called "intellectual" dispute about God, Who explains their
limited intelligence in the Qur'an (3: 54): "And
[the disbelievers] plotted and planned, and God too planned, and the best
of planners is God."
From some plots, it may be possible to escape. But there is no way to
avoid God's plan against the disbelievers. They can never find a helper
other than God. As God states in the Qur'an (4: 173), "They
shall not find for them other than God a patron or a help."
For materialists, realizing this fact is no doubt the worst possible
thing, because it leaves them all alone with God. Thus, they understand
that God is always with them and He encompasses all things. With verse
74: 11 of the Qur'an, God calls us to remember that each human is, in
truth, totally alone in His Presence: "Leave Me
alone, [to deal] with the [creature] whom I created alone!"
This remarkable fact is repeated in many other verses:
And behold! You come to us alone [individually] as We
created you for the first time: you have left behind you all [the favors]
which We bestowed on you. (Qur'an, 6: 94)
And each one of them will come unto Him on the Day of
Resurrection, alone. (Qur'an, 19: 95)
In another sense, these verses state that those who take matter as their
god have, nonetheless, come from God and will return to Him. They have
submitted their wills to God, whether or not they wanted to. Now-however
unwilling they may be to realize it- they await the Day of Judgment, when
every one of them will be called to account.
The Importance of the Subject
It is of the utmost importance to understand correctly the secret beyond matter explained in this chapter. Mountains, plains, flowers, people, seas—briefly everything we see and everything that God informs us in the Qur’an that exists and that He created out of nothing is created and does indeed exist. However, people cannot see, feel or hear the real nature of these beings through their sense organs. What they see and feel are only their copies that appear in their brains. This is a scientific fact taught at all schools of medicine. The same applies to the book you are reading now; you can not see nor touch the real nature of it. The light coming from the original book is converted by some cells in your eyes into electrical signals, which are then conveyed to the visual center in the back of your brain. This is where the view of this book is created. In other words, you are not reading a book which is before your eyes through your eyes; in fact, this book is created in the visual center in the back of your brain. The book you are reading right now is a “copy of the book” within your brain. The original book is seen by God.
It should be remembered, however, that the fact that the matter is an illusion formed in our brains does not “reject” the matter, but provides us information about the real nature of the matter: that no person can have connection with its original. Moreover, the matter outside is seen not just by us, but by other beings too. The angels God delegated to be watchers witness this world as well:
And the two recording angels are recording, sitting on the right and on the left. He does not utter a single word, without a watcher by him, pen in hand! (Surah Qaf: 17-18)
Most importantly, God sees everything. He created this world with all its details and sees it in all its states. As He informs us in the Qur'an:
… Heed God and know that God sees what you do. (Surat al-Baqara: 233)
Say: "God is a sufficient witness between me and you. He is certainly aware of and sees His servants." (Surat al-Isra’: 96)
It must not be forgotten that God keeps the records of everything in the book called Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet). Even if we don't see all things, they are in the Lawh Mahfuz. God reveals that He keeps everything's record in the "Mother of the Book" called Lawh Mahfuz with the following verses:
It is in the Source Book with Us, high-exalted, full of wisdom. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 4)
… We possess an all-preserving Book. (Surah Qaf: 4)
Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or Earth which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)
They said "Glory be to You!
We have no knowledge except what
You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
(Qur'an, 2: 32) |
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