The Heavens The Earth And The Qur’an. | Interface With Islam |
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| Written by Navid Masud | |
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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN QUANTUM PHYSICS HAVE PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION:
But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations. University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram. To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about holograms. A hologram is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser. To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears.
When one turns, the other also makes a slightly different but corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other always faces toward the side. If you remain unaware of the full scope of the situation, you might even conclude that the fish must be instantaneously communicating with one another, but this is clearly not the case.
Everything interpenetrates everything, and although human nature may seek to categorize and pigeonhole and subdivide, the various phenomena of the universe, all apportionments are of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a seamless web. In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. Because concepts such as location break down in a universe in which nothing is truly separate from anything else, time and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on the TV monitors, would also have to be viewed as projections of this deeper order.
Even visions and experiences involving "non-ordinary" reality become explainable under the holographic paradigm. In his book "Gifts of Unknown Things", biologist Lyall Watson describes his encounter with an Indonesian shaman woman who, by performing a ritual dance, was able to make an entire grove of trees instantly vanish into thin air. Watson relates that as he and another astonished onlooker continued to watch the woman, she caused the trees to reappear, then "click" off again and on again several times in succession.
Anything is possible, from bending spoons with the power of the mind to the phantasmagorical events experienced by Castaneda during his encounters with the Yaqui brujo don Juan, no more or less miraculous than our ability to compute the reality we want when we are in our dreams. Indeed, even our most fundamental notions about reality become suspect, for in a holographic universe, as Pribram has pointed out, even random events would have to be seen as based on holographic principles and therefore determined.
This statement implies that the entire mankind created from a Single Soul and surely as discussed above indicates that it must be holographic in nature. Each soul being a "whole within a whole" and thus being connected to every soul that has ever existed or exists. Further more we are informed about the meaning of paradise as follows: "The paradise is as wide as the heavens and the earth" 3 (133), 57 (21)
"In thy Sustainers’ sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning” 22:47 "in a day the length whereof is {like} fifty thousand years" 70:4. The very concept of "time" is meaningless in relation to Allah, who is timeless and infinite, and in the hereafter time will cease to have a meaning for man as well as the above verses clearly indicate.
Our physical or material existence is an illusion in spite of our solidity and the fact that we can see, feel and touch. We see the way we do as to what is "there" or "not there" because what we call consensus reality is formulated and ratified at the level of the human unconscious at which all minds are infinitely interconnected. Furthermore our mind converts from the blur of frequencies into our world of perception and gives these a coherent image when lit up in the light (Nur) of Creator. However this veil of physical or material illusion will be removed from our eyes at the next stage when we discover our true form of existence. "thou was indeed heedless of this, but now We have removed from thee thy (material) veil, and so thy sight is sharp this day" 50:22. Sharp vision implies that one discovers one’s life preserved within it to its tiniest detail. CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A PRODUCT OF PHYSICAL BRAIN BUT OF SOUL Since it is the human physical organism, which is bestowed with Self or Soul, it implies that the human organism was the only species, which first of all accomplished universality of the perceptions. Accordingly the next higher creative stage took its start in the Self or Soul of Man (a non-material entity) simultaneously on completion of sense organs during the development of human foetus. The creation of the new stage of life simultaneously the sense organs of the human foetus are fashioned is thus revealed in the Holy Quran: "Verily We created man from a product of wet earth. Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging. Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then clothed the bones with flesh and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of the Creators." 23 (12-14). The revelation that after a drop is safely lodged in the womb and then after going through the creative process of lump and bones, the bones are clothed with flesh establishes that at this phase of development, the foetus is almost complete, that is, its sense organs are fully fashioned. It is only on completion of sense organs that the Creator bestows on it His Soul and thus a new Creative Order emerges. It also reveals that Souls are distinct from human body. In other words, death comes to the physical body which is raised under physical laws and not to the Soul which lives in its mental state - the state of an illumination - and already exists as a non-material entity or personality outside the physical body. Soul is thus an illumination - the highest form of life - which appears as a distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. By virtue of its enlightenment as being, every Soul comes with intellectual enlightenment and moral exaltation and hence consciousness is not a product of our physical brain but of Soul. If our physical existence is but an illusion and consciousness creates an appearance of physical body and every thing around us that we interpret as physical and we are merely "receivers" passing through a "sea of frequency" - than this blur of frequency when lit up in the Light (Nur) of the Creator gives its a physical shape as we know it. "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. A likeness of His light is as a pillar on which is a lamp - the lamp is in a glass. the glass is as it were a brightly shining star - lit from blessed olive tree, neither eastern or western, the oil whereof gives light, though fire touch it not - light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He pleases. And Allah sets forth parables for men, and Allah is Knower of all things.” (The Quran 24: 35). Nur is the Arabic word for light but it also means conscious light or spiritual light or guiding light. And so Allah is the Nur (light) of the heavens and the earth because of HIS light all comes into existence.
Human Self has the capability for true mental representation of images of objects and their properties without sense stimulus establishes memory, thoughts, reason and concepts which are non-material stand outside the domain of perceptual brain which simply serves the Analytic Faculty (Conscious mind or what Freud called it is Ego) of the Human Self as an instrument or yardstick for analysing the values and properties of the material universe as well as the physical body under its higher conscious enlightenment. It shows that the physical body and its sense perceptions are duly represented in the Self, as the Human Self is capable of keeping in it a sense of objects and their properties even if they do not provide a sensory stimulus. If a germ cell when delivered out of the physical body and planted in the womb could act in the form of a "physical brain" to construct it to the system of DNA chemicals, we can be sure that the Human Self which remains attached through its mental processes (Conscious mind) with the physical body and its perceptual brain would also construct its whole physical life which already lives fully preserved in it. Memory is not a physical phenomenon; it is directly related with the understanding. It can operate only if it exists out of the spatial time-matter and motion. As against it, the perceptual mind being material in nature cannot hold nonmaterial characters in it. Hence it can neither retrace the events nor can it jump into the future. Even DNA system - a sort of "physical memory" laid in chemicals strictly follows the process through physical motion in spatial time. These scientific facts establish that it is not the perceptual mind which perceives psychic life lived by the Human Self as an independent entity outside it; these are the mental processes of the Self or Soul which keep in it the whole psychic life and are capable of reproducing the same sense without stimulus of the physical body or brain. "Allah takes (mans) souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep. Than He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death, and sends the other back till an appointed term. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect." (The Quran 39:42). If our Soul joins the "Super-Hologram" during our sleep and is able to construct "reality" in our dreams and we experience all the sensations - be they be fear or joy or pain or whatever and yet we have not physically experienced them. It’s a reminder that our Soul is capable of reproducing all our emotions without the physical body or brain.
"And they say: When we are bones and fragments, shall we, forsooth, be raised up as a new creation? Say: Be ye stones or Iron or some created thing that is yet greater in your thought! Then they will say: Who shall bring us back (to life)? Say: He Who created you at first. Then will they shake their heads at thee, and say; When will it be. Say: it will be perhaps be soon." 17 (49-51). The words "it will perhaps be soon" reveal that the time interval between the departure of the Souls on death of the bodies and their resurrection has no significance for the souls held in suspension as they already live beyond the material times. The revelation also establishes that Souls live as independent entities and do not die with the death of the physical bodies. What is really significant and differentiates the individual Souls is the level and the grade of psychic development attained by them while living attached with the material universe through the perceptual system of their physical bodies.
"And the soul and its perfection! - So He reveals to its way of evil and its way of good; He is indeed successful who causes it to grow, And he indeed fails who buries it." (The Noble Quran 91:7-10) Within Islam Halal and Haram (lawful and unlawful) play a great part in making man conscious of his physical life on this earth, for these two have some connection with his every action and thought, and it is for man to decide which of them to choose in his everyday activities. Even though we may think that at times of doing wrong, no-one is any wiser or hurt by our actions, misdeeds, or even bad thoughts - however in an holographic universe even thoughts have a meaning and a significance and are as real as an action.
“The heavens we have built with power and We are expanding it.” (The Quran 51:47). We are first informed that this universe is expanding and will continue to do so till such time that Self-Conscious stage is wound up and the next stage or "reality" will take its start simultaneously with the contraction of this physical universe: “The day when We shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolls up a written scroll. As We began the first creation, We shall bring it forth anew.” (21:104). Folding up of the universe does not mean reversal of time, as stated before, time is no longer a fundamental in "holographic universe" in which every thing is interconnected and hence time has no meaning. As to the words "As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it" - the first creation being the moment of big bang and the nucleus mass of the universe being the first living substance - and this could only mean in my opinion that the entire struggle of the life from that moment onwards lies preserved from within in a non material form and under the new "reality" we have a potential to access and witness any information that we may seek from within that "super-hologram". In the commentary to the above verse Mohammed Assad in his translation of Quran links the above verse to the following: On the Day when the earth shall be changed into another earth, as be the heavens." (The Quran 21:48)."
According to the Holy Quran, life has manifested itself in the form of Human Self or Soul after passing through various stages of creation. This is the final link in the development of life in this world. But life is not limited to this world; it continues beyond death. The higher life that the individual with a developed personality is capable of leading after life in this material world is called a heavenly life, or the life of paradise (Jannah). On the other hand, the onward march of the personalities who could not fully develop in the present world is bound to be thwarted: this kind of life is called an infernal life or the life of hell (Jahannam). Hell and paradise do not stand for places or localities; they denote different conditions of Human Self, which have been described metaphorically in the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran envisages the Human Self as a developing entity. When the Self has successfully completed the present journey of life, death opens the door to the fresh and more glorious possibilities. Joy at the accomplishments made is blended with prospectus of fresh opportunities. Having realised a certain quantum of potentialities during its earthly career, the Self becomes aware of what is still left to be actualised. This state of mind, blend of joy and zest at higher plane of existence cannot be described, but it can be symbolised. That is why the Holy Quran has resource to metaphorical language in regard to paradise: As described before "heavens" is different form of reality like a live internet connected to every corner of this universe and to every atom on the face of this earth. Higher Creative processes must build on Human Selves in the form of greater and greater self illumination. In other words, the universe beyond is the highest form of mental experience which already lives potentially in each Human Self waiting to be realised in steps or as the distinguished Physicists described it as beyond this holographic stage lies a possibility of "infinite further development." "That ye shall journey on from stage to stage. What aleph them, then, that they believe not" (84: 19-20). Hell on the other hand is seeing the ripple effect of your own actions and feeling and tasting the actual pain (being a part of the live internet) that those actions brought on those who had to face the after effect of those actions. So long the victim lasts, as many generations the effect lasts, to as many people the evil spreads, the perpetrator is in his own hell: "So he who does an atom's weight of good will see it. And he who does an atom’s weight of evil will see it." (The Glorious Quran 99:7;8) or "Man will that day be informed of what he sent before and what he put off. Nay, man is witness against himself, Though he put up excuses." (75:13;15). We are informed in one of the authentic traditions of the prophet that a mark on our forehead will determine whether we are in heaven or hell - in my opinion it is referral to the holographic nature of our mind which under new "reality" is accessible by the entire creation with all the tiniest details of our life on earth and would instantly know whether the persons actions in life conformed to the commandments of the Creator or not, and if not, will be relegated to lowest echelons of that "order". The popular belief that saints or saviour or someone else to that matter can "intercede" with Allah is no more than a myth..
Man lives with his ideals. Even those who deny this inner psychic urge to their Self's, already live with the ideal; although their ideal may be low or based on negative values because of sheer ignorance of their own Self's. The Self can, however, attain permanent satisfaction only if its ideal is based on the attributes of the very Self. It is because real satisfaction cannot be achieved if the ideal lacks in the qualities and attributes as are embedded in the Self or Soul. For instance, Human Self enjoys freedom, it exists as a unit entity, it gives decisions, it is conscious of itself, it has the attributes of love and attraction, it is aware of eternity, etc. Accordingly the Right Ideal must have similar attributes as manifested by the Soul. It follows therefore, that only such Ideal or Ideology, which is based on the attributes of Human Self, can satisfy the Self to identify with. The ideal is half of the Human Self and it lives in Soul just like the two complementary parts, which live in the unit-seed. If we take away the ideal, the Human Self cannot exist, that is, it can never know of itself as a Self-conscious Entity. Although the human urge is to love and seek its Creator whose reflection he finds in his Self, yet as he is in the making, he may misuse the gift of freedom and adopt some wrong ideal. Mankind has been provided guidance by the Creator through the Prophets and Messengers created by Him through the law of Emergent Creation. Those people who follow different ideologies in fact live as different species of Human Self. According to the creative process, there is only one Right Ideology as the truth is only one but the forms of wrong are many. Therefore, the next stage of conscious light must build or start on the spiritual values attained by the followers of the Right Ideology. In other words, those who remained blind in the present stage of creation cannot see the light that will appear at the next higher stage. Such people will have to pass through great mental and spiritual agony to make them fit for reaching that conscious light. This is similar to the various species of animals in this world, which are consciously blind compared to the conscious light bestowed on man. The wrong ideologies, which negate the spiritual values of the Human Self, keep the Human Self-blind. The followers of such ideologies believe in the reverse order of creation. That is, they think themselves as the product of material forces. These people are prone to annihilate their Self's or Souls for ever and thus they may never attain the spiritual light in the next stage which has to build on the Human Self's only. This is the fundamental law of the creative process that life start and advance on right conscious values. The conscious light at the next higher stage is spiritual light of glory of the Creator and as such, only that part of humanity that had faith in the Creator and developed their Self's in the right direction can see the glory of the Creator at the next higher stage. It is high time, therefore, for those who have the gifts of worldly life to choose the Right Ideology for their smooth journey in the next tier of their life - the universe beyond. Let us remember that no man other than the men created under the natural process of Emergent Creation can give laws and determine ideologies for the mankind. CONCLUSION: "O Soul thou art at rest, Return to thy Lord, well pleased, well pleasing, So enter among My servants, and enter My Garden!" (The Quran 89: 27-30). Man must achieve and attain the state of spiritual perfection before he can hope to gain the company and the pleasure of Allah, and this can only come about by the remembrance of Allah and abiding by his commandments, thereby avoiding the path of evil which only serves to divert him from the right path and thereby causing him a mental or spiritual agony in "universe beyond", until such time that he finally cleanses his spiritual Self in order to be fit for his final goal, by that time justice has already been done without Allah lifting the finger. It does not say enter a Muslim, Jewish, Christian or Hindu Soul - and so in the final analysis our destination is the same. Allah has no chosen people (not even Muslims) just a chosen message. This is so because in Islam all other true non-idolatrous religions are combined thus making it a unique religion. Lastly the holographic universe can only be a creation but with a sting in its tail that having created man on the principle of "whole within a whole" - Allah has created nothing less than a potential Allah - and in spite of that man is not independent of Allah and when ever he tries to do so he only ends up by self destroying. |
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