ISLAM AND
CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE
by
SYED SIBTE NABI NAQVI M. Sc. (Alig.) F.R.A.S. (Lond.)
All Rights Reserved by the Author.
Second Edition 1983
Price Rs.
INTRODUCING THE AUTHOR
Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi was born on 7th January, 1907 i n t h e f a mi l y o f Q u b a i S ye d s o f B u d a u n , In d i a . T h e f i r s t anc es t o r of t he a ut h or who mi gr at e d t o t he s u b -c o n t i n e nt f r o m Q u b a n ea r M ed i na i n 5 8 7 A M . , Hazr at Sharaf Uddi n Ala was a Khalif a of Shai kh Shihabuddin Suhrawardy. His son, Hazrat Alauddin Usuli, taught the Hanafi jurisprudence to Hazrat Nizam Uddin Aulia of Delhi. Another ancestor of the author, Hazrat Sadar Uddin Mahmud, was the Grand Qazi of Bengal. Still another ancestor, Syed Hamza Danishmand, wrote several books, of which the Arabic grammar entitled Mizan-al-Sarf is well-known. His father, Moulana Syed Inayat Ahmed Naqvi Hairat Budauni, was a great scholar. He corrected the defective manuscript Ibn ai-Farisi's rare book on optics entitled Tanqih al-Manazir, which is a commentary on Ibn al-Haitham's Kitab al-Manazir. Tanqih al-Manazir has been published by Dairat-ul-Maarif, Hyderabad (On), in two volumes. Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi got his training in Islamic thought from his father and received his school education at Moradabad and Budaun. Later on he moved to the Aligarh Muslim University where he obtained his Honours' and Masters degrees in Physics. in 1930, he joined the india Meteorological Department at Poona. During his stay at Poona he actively participated in the activities of a local Islamic Missionary Society and as such. came in close contact with His Eminence Mohammed Abdul Aleem Siddiqui (R.A.), it was during the period of 1931 to 1942 that most of the material and topics discussed in the present book were written by him in Urdu. At the time of Partition in 1947, the author opted for Pakistan and was associated in the division of assets and organisation of Meteorological Service in Pakistan, in 1953 he was appointed Director of the Pakistan Meteorological Services.
In 1940 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Meteoro-logica! Society, London, in 1954 a Fellow of the Royal mica! Society, London, and in 1958 a Fellow of the Geophysical Union of U.S.A. \n 1955 he was invited by the UNESCO to serve on its Advisory Committee for Arid Zone Research. About the same time he was selected by the WMO to serve on its Panel of E xp er t s f or H u mi d T r o pi cal r es ear c h a nd l at er for Tropical Meteorological Research 1960-66. He organised the Pakistan programmes of research during the International Geophysical year 1957-58, the international Indian? Ocean Expedition 1960, the International Quiet Sun year 1964, the international Hydrological Decade 1965. He acted as Secretary of the Section for Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology and Statistics during the annual session of the Pakistan Science Conference in 1956 and as its President in 1957, and as President of the Geography, Geodesy,Geophysics and Anthropology sections of the Pakistan Science Conference in 1958. He delivered the Ibn Sina Lecture at the Annual Conference of the Pakistan Scientific Society in 1960 and was elected its President in 1961. He presided over the Meteorology, Oceanography, Geophysics sections of the pan Indian Ocean Congress in 1961. He was a member of the Punjab Flood Commission 1951 and ci the East and West Pakistan Flood Commissions when they were formed in 1956 and 1957 res-pectrvely and continued till 1966. He was elected Vice-President of the Regional Association for Asia of the WMO for the term 1955-59 and its Pre-sident from 1962 to 1965. He was appointed as a United Nations1 Technical Assistance Expert for Meteorological Organisation and Training in Iraq from January 1966 to Feb-ruary 1969. He performed the Hajj in 1960, 1964 and 1969. Presently, he is Honorary Professor at the Aieemiyah Institute of Islamic; Studies and a Member of the Council of Learning of tne World Federation of Islamic Missions.
FOREWORD Professor Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi deserves the gratitude of all Muslims for his contribution to a field of study which is of immense importance in the perspective of the ideological conflict that has been projected since the nineteenth century in the names of religion and science. The advances in scientific Knowledge are said to have posed a challenge to the religions of the world. That may be correct in the case of religions, other than islam. As for Islam, however, the Holy Qur'an itself had proclaimed that, instead of challenging the truth of its Message, the advances in the domain of empirical knowledge will increasingly confirm it (XLI :53). Being a scholar of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Naqvi has very naturally discussed certain Islamic verities in the light of those sciences, and his discussions are scholarly i and illuminating. What is of importance in such discussions, however, is not the accuracy of the Interpretation of every detail, wherein there are possibilities of differences even in pure theological thought but the basic facts of empirical knowledge as they emerge to support what has been taught in religion. With this standpoint I commend Professor Naqvi's labour of love to all seekers of the light of knowledge, and I hope that Professor Naqvi himself as well as other Muslim scholars of science will devote increasing attention to the projection of that latest scientific knowledge which is illuminating progressively the path to the understanding and the appreciation of the eternal Truth enshrined in the teachings of Islam. (Dr.) Muhammad Fazl-urRahman al-Ansarial-Qaderi. Islamic Centre, Karachi-33. Pakistan. 21-6-1973.
PREFACE I was asked by Dr. Muhammad Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Ansari al-Qaderi, President of the World Federation of Islamic Missions, to deliver a series of lectures on Philosophy of Science as a part of education at the Aleemiyah institute of Islamic Studies. When I undertook this job, however, I was leading a etired life and had no access to the large number of books which I had the privilege of reading in the libraries of the Muslim University, Aiigarh, the India Meteorological Department, Poona, and the Pakistan Meteorological Department at Lahore and Karachi. I had, however, been writing in Urdu some lectures and articles based on my studies from 1931 to 1940. The Jamia Milliya Islamia (the National Muslim Univer-sity), Delhi, came to know of It about 1938 and invited me to deliver a series of lectures at their Academy. I compiled them in Urdu, but they could not be delivered due to some difficuities resulting from my being in governmental service. Thus in the absence of the original sources on which my thoughts in the present lectures are based, i had to rely on memory and the Urdu material collected for lectures at the Jamia Milliya, Delhi, and a few books which I have col-ected in my personal library during all these years. Many "references which would have increased the value of the statements in the present book could not be procured afresh in the short time available to me for arranging the materiai in the form of a book. Effort will, however, be made to remove this deficiency in future editions. I have been a scientist by profession for about forty years. As head of a major scientific department in Pakistan for fourteen years in its most formative period, for deciding policies-and programmes of
research in a number of branches of Meteorology, Geophysics and Astronomy, on innumerable occasions, I had to base my judgments on the fundamental concepts underlying each case. As a member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee for Arid Zone Research and of WMO Panels of Experts for Researches in problems of Humid Tropics and Tropical Meteorology, as the Convenor of the National Committee for Organising Researches in Pakistan during the] International Geophysics! Year, the International Year of the Quiet Sun, and the international Indian Ocean expedition, and as President of the Regional Association for Asia of the WMO, I had to do the same thing at the international level As such, I had to keep myself in touch with the latest trends of thought in Meteorology, Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, This perhaps gives some justification for my agreeing to undertake the job. My initiail training was in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, but my specialisation for hobby and occupation has been in Meteorology, Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and in Statistics as their hand-maid. Evidently, therefore, my present discussions are mostly from the point of view of Physical Sciences. Some branches of Meteorology and problems of Arid Zones and Humid Tropics deal with effects of environmental factors on living bodies. This has forced me to deal with Ecology and fundamentals of Biology also, but this was only a side-activity. During the period of supremacy of Islam the sciences of that period were taught to the students of Islamic Learning as a part of their normal courses of study. But, the present course of lectures is a novel experiment in Islamic education in modern times. No guidelines have been laid down con-to chalk out my own line. However, any honest criticism and suggestions for improvement would be most welcome. These I am confident, will help us to improve the scope, of these lectures in the future.
I was emboldened to undertake these lectures because they happened to give a concrete shape to my lifelong interest in the subject. The first extra-curricular English book which j remember to have read, perhaps even before I could read Robinson Crusoe, was "The Reason Why in Science", in. my early childhood, the first or the second book which I received as a reward from a revered friend of the family was the life of Michael Faraday.
Later on, in the nineteen-twenties, as a young student of science 1 had the opportunity to read books of famous authorities on Cosmology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Relativity, Quantum Theory and Wave-Mechanics, besides my course of study for Honours and M.Sc. degrees in Physics. At this stage I used to ask all sorts of questions, like all other young men knowing a little science, and my father used to satisfy my curiosity lovingly and affectionately by quoting passages from the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith, and explaining the principles of Epistemology, as developed by the Muslim scientists and Ulema, of whom he was one. He had made a special study of the works of Ibn al-Haitham and used to quote his scientific concepts quite often. This is the base on which the entire structure of my ideas stands and the following verse of the Holy Qur'an has been my guide since early youth:" Lo! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the difference of night and day are tokens for possessors of understanding—such as remember Allah stand-ing, sitting and reclining and ponder over the creation of the heavens and the earth (and say), Our Lord! Thou created not this in vain." ( M l : 190-191) As a result I have followed the developments in Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics with great interest during the last 50 years with some creative interest in the case of the latter two.
I am most grateful to Dr. Muhammad Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Ansari al-Qaderi for initiating and providing me the opportunity and the encouragement to make the present contribution, as also for the great pains he has taken in editing polishing up the final manuscript. Parts of the chapters on Cosmology and the origin of the Universe and Man were published in the Iqbal Review and the Scientist. They are reproduced here with many modifications. I am, however, thankful to them for permitting me to use that material. I must also thank my son, A.M.H. Masud Naqvi, and my nephew, Abu l Fazl Muhammad Alvi. for critically going through the manuscript and offering many valuable suggesA. Nasir and Mr. Idrees A. AH for carefully correcting the proofs I must also thank the office of the World Federation of Islamic Missions for typing the manuscript three limes before it could be ready for the press.
Karachi, dated 7th july, 1972.
Sibte Nabi Naqvi
CONTENTS Chapter
Page
Preface
VII
Introduction
XIIl
I-
What Is Science and its Philosophy
1
II-
Unities Established by Science
10
III-
The Scientific Method
IV- History of Development of the Scientific Method
47
V- Philosophy of Modern Science
51
VI- Creation of the Universe as Understood by
Modern Science VII- Origin of the Universe and Man according to the Qur'an
69 100
VIII- Some Conclusions Drawn from Advances of Science IX-
Miracles of the Prophets
126 140
X- The Mliracle of Celestiisi Journey by Night (Isra) & Ascent (Me'raj) of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) XI-
146
God (Allah)
160
I NDEX
168
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this book is to introduce Philosophy of Science to the students of Islam. This is very significant, indeed, because science deals with our experiences in this world, while Islam deals with the life of man in this world and in the Life Hereafter. Science can only support and strengthen Islam. It can never be, and has never been, opposed to the Qur'anic Revelation, viz., Islam, it is, therefore, most appropriate that Philosophy of Science should be taught in an Islamic Institute, as a part of Islamic studies. Judaism and Christianity are basically opposed to science. So is the case with most other religions. They are all based on mythology and miracles, and the scientists had to suffer inquisition in the Christian world as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The tree of knowledge was the forbidden tree according to the Bible. Not so in Islam. Knowledge of the names of all things in the universe was, according to the Qur'an, the distinctive merit of Adam over alt other beings. Reading and writing, were emphasised in the very first revelation received by Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!). Observation of nature and contemplation of the natural phenomena were declared by the Holy Qur'an to be the distinctive characteristics of the righteous Muslims and the wise. The Qur'an was declared'.to be the greatest and the standing miracle of Holy Prophet Muhammad. And what is that but a simple exposition of the basic principles and practices of conduct which could establish peace, contentment and happiness in this world and in the Hereafter. While trying to understand, in the light of the Holy Qur'an, the implications of various trends and concepts brought out by modern science, my approach is basically different from that of the Rationalists (Mo'tazilites) and the Scho-lastics (Mutakallimin). I am conscious of the limitations of human
knowledge and the continuously-expanding and curm-lative nature of science. Knowing the uncertainty of know-ledge and the impossibility of full and complete knowledg, and also being conscious that the whole basis of correlations established by science today may change completely by its advances tomorrow, as has happened several times in the past I do not like to explain the validity of the verses of the Holy Qur'an, which is the last Word of God, by far-fetched reasoning on the basis of the scientific theories prevalent at the time. If the meanings of the verses of the Qur'an apparently agree with the findings of science today, very good! If the do not appear to agree, we must wait for advances in science rather than distort or restrict the meanings of the Holy Book Ho doubt, in every age, we will have to make efforts to understand the Word of God according to the knowledge gained by different methods up to that time, but if there is any thing in the Qur'an which we cannot understand according to this knowledge, we need not hesitate to admit it, not as a proof against the truth of the Word of God, but as a challenge to the limitation of our knowledge. There are many example which can be quoted, e.g., the Qur'an requires us to belive in the Angels and the Jinns, or in the life-after-death and the Day of Resurrection. If we cannot understand these with the help of modern science, there is no need to deny them, or to explain them away by far-fetched reasoning, as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tried to explain the Jinns. in spite of the Prin-ciple of Uncertainty, and all its implications, let us wait and exert. There; may be new discoveries which may throw light on such phenomena, if we can now find pairs of such things as matter and anti-matter, and particles and anti-particles, as asserted by the Qur'an more than thirteen centuries back thai there are pairs of everything, we may succeed in identify -ing many other things also, which so far appear uninteliigible and impossible. The present writer is aware that many western scientists and philosophers have written books on the philosophy of science. But they all deal with the impact of advances of science on the Western
mind. The impact of these same advances of science on the mind of a practising Muslim scientist remains completely unrepresented. The present book has been written to fill in this long-standing gap and as such may be of some interest even to non-Muslim philosophers. It deals with the impact on Islamic thought of the advances of science up to the closing decade of the fourteenth century after Hijrah. Imam al-Ghazali and other Muslim scholastics, includ-ing-the Ash'arite and the Mo'tazilite philosophers, had tried to assess the impact on Islamic thought of the advances of science during the first thousand years of the Muslim era. But the difficulties in their way were innumerable. In spite of the brilliant attempts of the Muslim scientists the clutches of the classical 'learned ignorance' had not loosened and the axiomatic Deductive Method of the Greeks continued to hold its sway. Science was still a prisoner in the charmed labyrinth of Greek and Egyptian design. The revolt started by the Muslims against the old scientific method came to full fruition after the European Renaissance. But by that time the Muslims had been routed in Spain and the Middle East. Their learned people had been ruthlessly murdered and annihilated. Their books and libraries had been destroyed or carried away as prizes of plunder and stored in the archives of the enemies of Islam with the result that the contributions of Muslim scientists and philosophers were fully used as stepping-stones for further advances; their names were completely suppressed to the extent of dishonesty and intellectual robbery. If any Muslim contribution was mentioned at all, it was distorted, belittled and described in most damaging terms. No doubt there were some exceptions, but they were insignificantly few and were generally ignored. All this led to a complete intellectual demoralization of the Muslim youth, when the time came for them to be educated in he new sciences and philosophy. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan of the Aligarh Movement fame, Sheikh Muhammad Abduh of Egypt and Allama Iqbal, Pakis-tan's philosopherpoet of world-fame, undoubtedly tried to reassure the Muslims of the genuine worth of the contributions of the Holy Qur'an and of the Muslim intellectuals in the advancement of human thought. They tried
to show that the Word of God conformed fully with the Work of God investigated by science, and thus science and Islam could never come in conflict. But the advances of science since the death of Allama Iqbal have been simply breath-taking. Every year brings in so many absolutely new ideas and such revolutionary concepts that even the western philosophers are getting staggered. We have, therefore, examined some of the latest advances in physical sciences afresh to determine their implications on the Islamic thought. The approach is generally from the point of view of physical sciences and astronomy. And since this book is designed mainly for the students of Islam, the statements of the Holy Book on the aspects of nature investigated by science have been collected together to give them an opportunity to compare and contrast the findings of science and the teachings contained in the Revelation received by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!). In three chapters towards the end of the book the impact of science on religion and a clear understanding of the prophetic miracles has been brought out, because miracles are supposed to be against the Laws of Nature and have been a real source of conflict between religion and science in the West. An effort has been made to examine the problem of the bodily Ascent of the Prophet to al-'Arsh on the occasion of Me'raj. For the same reason the concept of the One, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent God of Islam has been discussed at some length in the last chapter. By all this it is shown that the concepts put forward in the Holy Qur'an are becoming more clear by the advances of modern science.
XV!
CHAPTER I
What is Science and its Philosophy Before we start the discussion, let us be quite clear as to what we mean by science. Immediately after gaining consciousness, man must have noticed that forces were operative in his environment. Some were helpful, others were harmful. The observation of these forces and phenomena, classifying them into different kinds according to their effects, establishing rules for identifying them, and then finding out some methods to decrease the harms associated with them, or to increase the advantages that could be derived from them, was certainly the beginning of a very noble intellectual effort, which we now identify by various arts and science, depending upon the aspects of mental activity covered by them, or the methods which they employ. This must have remained the main occupation of intelligent men for ages. The main aims of these efforts were: (a) To understand the working of the environment and its impact on man. (b) To exercise a measure of control over the surroundings. (c) To use the resources of environment. (i) for meeting the immediate needs, and (ii) for producing security of self and that of the group. This is what we do in science and technology and in knowledge in general. 1
Some homo sapiens were more intelligent than others d possessed better memories. Their capacity for.articulate
guage made it possible for them to accumulate and transmit ir knowledge and experience to their trustworthy youngss. Thus the knowledge continued to grow. In the beginning re must have been only two classes of people: (a) the wing, and (b) the unknowing. The former knew not only eir own experiences, but also the experiences of the preUS generations, which had been transmitted to them by eir elders. They became thus the respected Elders of their At this stage efforts were made to give permanence to ase experiences by depicting them through rough drawings the walls of the caves used for habitation and protection. is was the beginning of writing and has been discovered ong with the remains of men of the oidest stone age. Mental powers used in acquiring knowledge are three: (a) the Power of Discrimination; (b) the Power of Detecting Identity; (c) the Power of Retention, The power of Discrimination is involved in every act of erception, because perception only means distinguishing a ate from the preceding one. Consciousness is produced by break in one state of mind and the next. This is just like the roduction of induced currents at the make and break of an electric current. In fact, the very process of living a conscious e is a continuous series of discriminations carried out by e mind. But if we had only this discriminating power, Science could not arise. To distinguish one thing from the other gives only negative information. It is the power of the mind for discovering Identity which links the present and the future with e past and this gives rise to Science and to "knowledge. fferent people possess the powers of discrimination and ntification in different degrees. It is this property of pene2
tratingr the disguise of variety and seizing the common elements of sameness which is a measure of intellect and distinguishes a genius from common people. The power of Retention is of course necessary
for using the powers of Discrimination and identity. With expansion of experience and continuous use of powers of discrimination, identification and retention, the different aspects of knowledge got pronounced and the methods employed in their studies became clear. This led to differentiation of various branches of knowledge to which we now give different names like History, Politics, Geography, Astronomy, Mathematics, Philosophy, Science, etc. Their scopes have been changing in different periods, e.g., up to the Middle Ages many branches of modern science, like Physics and Biology, continued to be part of Philosophy, while Music and Mathematics or Medicine were regarded as independent sciences. Jealousies and competition for supremacy between different groups of men led to wars and bloodshed, which were, no doubt, very painful experiences of mankind. But it is a historic fact that these wars of supremacy of one group over the other led to great advances of knowledge in the fields of science and technology from the earliest times. In spite of ail the devastation which accompanied them, these wars helped in the expansion of human knowledge and the emancipation of mankind from many shackles. Many new discoveries were made to provide an element of surprise in war, and for routing the enemy. Up to the end of the nineteenth century the material universe, as felt by the five physical senses of man, was regarded as much an orderly reality as the existence of man himself. It was here, whether man felt it and saw it or not. It continued to exist even when a man closed his eyes, or when he slept. It continued to work according to an inviolable law, whether there was anybody to see and feel it or not. The work of science was to discover the relationships between different fragments of this orderly reality, and to understand the law according to which these relationships worked. 3
This is evident from the definition of physical sciences given by eminent scientists of that period. For instance, Maxwell defines Physical Sciences something like this "Physical sciences cover that sphere of human knowledge which deals with the organisation and
arrangement of things in nature". The definition2 of science by Stewart Tait in the "Unseen Universe" is as follows: "From the time of Aristotle up to now the speculators can be divided into two classes: (i) those who try to understand 'How1, and (ii) those who try to understand 'Why'. The scientists come in the first category". We may mention that the speculators who try to answer 'Why' come in the category of Philosophers. When, however, the answers to 'How' get widespread and the 'Why' of things gets mixed up with the 'How', we may call it the Philosophy of Science according to the definition given above. In both the definitions given here, and all others given up to the end of the nineteenth century, an external universe working according to the requirements of common sense is taken for granted, and the role of science is assumed to be to investigate the way in which it works. In the twentieth century, as the understanding about the working of Nature and Mind and of the teleological processes involved became clear, the concept of the sphere of science also changed completely. In his book on "Atomic Theory and a Description of Nature", Niels Bohr of Quantum Theory fame, defines 3 science by saying that "the work of science is to extend the sphere of our human experience and then to arrange these experiences in an order." Albert Einstein, in his book "The Meaning of Relativity", says4: "Sciences may be physical or social; the aim of all these is to correlate our experiences and then to bring them into a rational Order... " Sir Dampier Wathom, in "A Short History of Science", says 5: "The aim of science should not only be 1 "Matter and Motion", P.9 by Clark Maxwell.—The definition given here it a retranslation from Urdu translation of Maxwell's definition done by the author from the source n 1936-37. 2 Again or) retranslation from Urdu translation done in 1936-37, 3, 4, 5 On retranslation from Urdu translation done In 1936-37.
to correlate different phenomena, but also to correlate the concepts which are used to describe these phenomena". None of the three new definitions of science given here speaks of a pre-existing universe. They are concerned with the correlation
of experiences of man (phenomena) and with the correlation of concepts used in describing them. Instead of dealing with a pre-fab fabricated machine, in which man was just a small cog, we now deal with the experiences of man— an ever-changing and everexpanding, dynamic, living process. This is science, and investigation into the concepts leading to the correlations provides us with the Philosophy of Science. In Statistics, the meaning of ''establishing correlation" between one or more dependent and independent variables is to find out the extent of linear relationship between them. In order to establish such correlations, therefore, human experiences have been divided into various categories where simple relationships could exist, each of these being regarded as a branch of science and identified by a particular name. They can, however, be grouped under three major heads: (i) Physical Sciences, (ii) Biological Sciences and (iii) Social Sciences, each dealing with five basic elements, which, though outwardly quite different, are essentially similar in the ultimate analysis. The Physical Sciences deal with: (1) Mechanical Time, (2) Space, (3) Matter, (4) Energy and (5) Movements produced by energy. Take, for instance, Physics. It deals with interactions between energy and matter and their movements in space and time. Chemistry deals with interactions between matter and matter in space and time. Astronomy deals with the behaviour of matter or its congregates spread out in space, as unfolded in time, under the influence of energy; and so on. The Biological Sciences deal with: (1) Biological Time, (2) Life, (3) individual Cells, (4) Heredity and (5) Evolution. The Social Sciences deal with (1) Perceptive time, (2) Consciousness, (3) Mind, (4) Intuition and (5) the Subconscious.
5. included in a painting produced by him are shown by O---------O O---------O correlations established by C
O---------O correlations established by J O----.---.--O correlations established by L Suppose K asks C some questions whose answers were known to him and to A when he was alive; C puts his hands D on table E. After some time the legs of E begin to produce a tapping sound. C says that the soul of A, viz., B has come and is answering the questions put by K, whose answers were not known to C, but only to A and K. Scientist J correlates the sounds F with the hands D of C on E, with their pressure G, and density of air H, frequency of sound waves I, etc. The other man, artist L correlates the same experiences in some other way, say by a painting. We have shown three types of correlations established by three different persons, a spiritualist, a scientist and an artist, by connecting experiences A, B, C, D, E, etc. By O---------O, O---.----.--O or by O---------O respectively in fig: 1. each of these has some reality which cannot be denied. The correlations developed by C, J and L may ail have some significance and reality behind them, but we regard only those of J as scientific in which a particular method, recognised to be' the Scientific Method, is used, it is thus clear that although the knowledge gained by other methods may be correct and real, we do not regard it as "Science" unless a particular method is used for establishing the correlations. We will discuss this method later on as we progress. Here I would like to stress that in the present series of lectures we will be concerned mainly with the results of the knowledge obtained by the Scientific Method. At some places we will try to compare and contrast this knowledge with the knowledge obtained through Revelation by Prophet Muhammad and recorded in the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith or by some other.
8
prophets as recorded in the Bible. In this process you will occasionally notice a close agreement between the findings of the two. But this should not be used as an argument to term, as some of our scholars do, the Qur'anic knowledge as scientific knowledge, or to
term Islam as a "Scientific Religion". I consider this derogatory to
the Holy Qur'an and to Islam. The Qur'an is a Revealed Book, and Islam is a Revealed Religion. To call them scientific means that they were acquired step by step by an experimental method, which is not a fact. The enemies of the Holy Qur'an, of the Holy Prophet (God's peace be upon him!) and of Islam could utter such a blasphemy, but not a faithful Muslim who knows the facts. Alas! many of our simple-minded scholars fail to realize the significance of such utterances. By calling Islam scientific in the sense that its truths are now being confirmed by the Scientific Method, they unwittingly admit the Scientific Method to be a better authority than Revelation. This is not correct. The Holy Book was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!) by the All-Knowing God, for the guidance of mankind to the paths of peace, prosperity and happiness in this world and in the Hereafter. It teaches right conduct for ail kinds of situations which mankind can come across in its whole career, of which the fife in the material world is only a small section. As regards the Scientific Method, it is one of the fruitful methods for establishing correct relationships between experiences of man in this small section of his career.
9
CHAPTER II
Unities Established by Science The most important characteristic of science, like Islam, is its universality; and whatever definition we may adopt, science arises from discovery of Identity amidst Diversity. It covers the entire field of human experience in the material world. Before proceeding further, therefore, I would like to emphasize that the advances of modern science have now fully established three fundamental unities:' (1) Unity of Nature, (2) Unity of Mankind, (3) Unity of Knowledge, This is a natural outcome of the intellectual movement which started on its modern course under the influence of the Holy Qur'an. That book established the fundamental Unity of God, of which these three unities are a natural consequence. In addition, the unity of God leads to a fourth fundamental unity also, that of Religion; but we are not concerned with that in our present discussion. The lively discussions of the philosophical problems of "Everything is He" 2 and "Everything is from Him" 2 in the days of intellectual glory or the Muslims, and the penetration of these fundamental concepts into the rank and file of the masses through the mystics, and the fatal consequences of an •For full justification of this statement please see the History of Science, Volume I, Introduction, by 'Sarton'
1210
utterance based on the former concept to the life of Mansur— all these were expressions of this concept of the ail-pervading unity inherent in the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. Up to the time when the Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, the heathens considered Nature to be
full of, and ruled by, conflicting forces engaged in a perpetual strife. There was a fundamental duality pervading ail the expressions of the Archaic Civilization of Egyptian origin in all the corners of the world. The Hindus regarded the material world as a deception (Maya) resulting from the whirls produced by a trinity of permanent and eternal realities—Atma. Permatma and Prakirti—the Soul, the Super Soul (God)' and Matter, but governed by innumerable gods engaged in perpetual struggle with each other. The Zoroastrians believed in two supreme forces of Good and Evil—Yazdan and Ahriman, engaged in a perpetual struggle. The Greeks had defined the ideas of atom, eternal particles of matter, and void. The Jews believed that their God, Jehovah, had a favourite race of Israel, while all others were inferior. The Christians believed in Trinity. The Bible had proclaimed Nature to. have been rent asunder again and again when the prophets performed miracles. This was the very basis of their religions. On the contrary, the Holy Qur'an declared: "He Who created the seven heavens one above another; no want of proporiion wilt thou see in the creation of the Most Gracious (God). So turn thy vision again: Seest thou any flaw? Again turn thy vision a second time: Thy vision will come back to thee dulled and discomfited, in a state worn out (but thou wilt not discover any flaw or disharmony anywhere)." (LXVII: 3, 4). When the people asked the Holy Prophet to perform miracles, the Qur'an declared them to be ignorant, and repeated again and again that "the Habit of God does not change". Although very unusual miracles, like those of the other Prophets—nay, even more profound, like the Ascent ( ), were occurring through Prophet Muhammad every now and then, the Holy Qur'an never put forward these miracles as a proof of the Holy Prophet's divine mission, but only 11 as tokens and signs of God on which the wise should contemplate and from which those who fear God should take lesson. These signs pointed towards the fundamental unity of Nature, and to its uninterrupted working for a purpose, as is evident from the verses of
the Holy Book quoted above. So, for the first time in the recorded history of mankind, the Holy Qur'an declared in unmistakable terms the Unity of Nature and the Inviolability of its Law, on which modern science insists and rests. But the findings of science are restricted to the material world, while the Unity of Nature of the Qur'an. includes the Spiritual world also. So far as the Unity of Mankind is concerned, this idea was emphasised first by Islam. The Archaic Civilization, which is said to have developed in Egypt, had upheld the polygenic character of mankind all over the regions from Egypt to India, Indonesia, Pacific Islands and the Americas in the East, to Scandinavia and England in the North and the West, and among Bantus of Africa in the South up to Rhodesia and South Africa, even before the dawn of recorded history. Humanity was divided into two distinct classes: the Heaven-born sons of the sun and the moon, who ruled and went up to the heavens on death, and the Earth-born commoners, who helped in administration and went down to the underworld on death. No doubt, the Semitic religions taught the beginning of mankind with Adam and Eve, but up to the time of the advent of Islam humanity was divided into various sections and classes, high and low, depending upon their race, colour, caste and even occupation. The Prophets of Israel were not willing to throw the pearls of their wisdom before the Gentile swine, In India if a dirty Sudra happened- to hear the Aryan wisdom of the Vedas, molten lead was to be poured into his ears. Women and slaves were treated like lower animals, and had no status in the human society. White, yellow, brown or black races were not equal. The whole of humanity was divided and sub-divided by caste, colour, language and sex. It was Islam which revolutionised the very basis of human society in this respect. The Holy Qur'an declared in 12 unmistakable terms that: "Mankind was one single Nation, and God sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after clear Signs had come
to them, did not differ among themselves except through selfish contumacy...." (11:213). it emphasised the unity of mankind again and again. It abolished the differences between a slave and his master. Priesthood was abolished altogether. The rights, responsibilities and status of man and woman were made equal. And in his memorable last sermon, the Holy Prophet banned for ever all distinctions of status between Arab and non-Arab, Black and White, Master and Slave and Man and Woman. This was the basis of the Unity of Mankind which is now becoming apparent by advances of science, but which has not yet reached the hearts of the Christian Whites, the Zionists or the Hindus. Hitlers and Mussolinis, Dayans and Smiths have been holding sway wherever they got a chance. So far as. the Unity of Knowledge is concerned the revelation of the Qur'an started with the following verses: "Read in the name of thy Lord, the Cherisher, Who created (the entire universe), created man out of a clot of congealed blood: Behold! thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, taught man that which he knew not." (XCVI: 1-5). Further on, the Qur'an made it a responsibility and the privilege of the righteous and the wise to observe all kinds of natural phenomena and thus extend human experience. Of course, the Qur'an gives all these directives a spiritual orientation in the most beautiful and forceful words, but they are equally useful for the conduct of researches in the material world carried on by the faithful. The very mission of Prophet Muhammad is described in the Holy Book at several places in practically the following words, which form a part of the prayer of Ibrahim (Abraham) and Isma'il (Ishmael) when they were building the Ka'ba: "Our Lord! send amongst them an Apostle of their own, who shall rehearse Thy signs to them
13 and instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom ( ) and sanctify them: for Thou art the Exalted in Might, the Wise." (II: 129). Again in the same chapter (Surah II) in verse 151 the Qur'an says: "A similar favour have ye already received in that We have sent among you an
Apostle of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in New Knowledge." The Prophet himself directed his followers to travel even to China to seek knowledge and learning, because knowledge was declared by him to be the lost property of every Muslim, be 'it lying in any corner of the world and in the hand of anybody—the heathens, the Christians or the Jews. The Muslims were told that an hour spent in pursuit of knowledge was better than years spent in prayers. The ink of the pen of a scholar was declared to be as sacred as the blood of a martyr in the cause of God. Not only this, the Qur'an also defined the way in which 'the Wise' acquire knowledge. It says: "Behold in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of ships through the oceans for the profit of mankind; in the rain which God sends from the skies, and the life which He gives (therewith to an earth that is dead; in the animals of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and earth;—here indeed are signs for a people that are wise." (II: 164). it was all this inducement and honour offered by the Holy Qur'an and Islam which encouraged the Muslims, for the, first time in human history again, to collect at one place the knowledge of the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Iranians, the Indians, the Chinese—in fact from all corners of the then known world, in the Arabic language, in a Short period of less than 300 years. Huge amounts of money were spent on this-work—huge even according to modern standards. Islam abolished the restriction of knowledge to particular groups and made it a legacy of the whole of mankind. 14 It eliminated the privilege of the cultivation of knowledge on the basis of class or caste. Indeed, it made the pursuit of knowledge international and universal.
It was this firm belief in the Unity of Knowledge and this missionary spirit of the Muslim scholars and rulers which put Modern Science on its triumphant course, whose marvellous achievements we are witnessing today, and some of the implications of which we propose to discuss in the present series of lectures. These three fundamental concepts of Unity of Nature, Unity of Man and Unity, of Knowledge form the basis of the Philosophy of Science. Ordinarily it is the philosophy of individual scientists. However, what we mean by Philosophy of Science is the basic concepts which have generally been accepted and on which the entire structure of modern scientific thought rests and works. According to the nineteenth century definitions of Science and Philosophy, Philosophy of Science is that in which we begin to discuss why a particular relationship exists and works. According to the new definition of Science, Philosophy of Science describes the basic correlations between concepts on which the correlations of human experiences themselves are based, Some of these concepts are very intricate indeed and can be described only by mathematical functions. Physical interpretation of those concepts is difficult even for competent scientists, who understand the meaning, the significance and the limitations of each symbol used in the functions. It will be much more difficult for me when 1 try to make an effort to explain the significance of those functions to an audience of theological students, not having had the advantage of association with science to the extent required.
15
CHAPTER HI
The Scientific Method While discussing the kind of knowledge with which we are concerned in science, and in trying to define science, we saw that science concerns itself with the entire field of human, experience, some portions of which overlap with Other branches of knowledge that are not included in science, such as spiritualism, history, art of painting, etc. The distinctive feature of science was shown to be the method by which the phenomena are dealt with, Obviously the same method cannot be used for investigating matter and mind, or the mechanical, the biological and the perceptive Times. In the first chapter it was also hinted that the scientific method is not a fixed technique. It varies with the nature of phenomenon under study. The differences are, however, only in methods of observation and experimentation. In spite of these variations, there are certain features which are common to all the fields of science. In our present discussion we will try to study both these aspects. A. COLLECTION OF DATA The common basis of all sciences—indeed, of all knowledge— from the very beginning is the collection of data. In fact, it is a function of perception and cognition, or in other words, of the degrees of freedom of the body and the mind. The mind goes on collecting data from all kinds of observations and experiences. At the same time, by employing its powers of identification and retention, it goes on establishing relationships if some phenomenon appears to follow some 16 other phenomenon, whenever this occurs. This is the function of common sense. When we talk of collection of data in science we do not mean
the collection of a jumble of data or observations of all kinds. As mentioned earlier, in science we start by breaking up the material world of common sense into its basic component elements like space, time, matter, energy, life, mind, consciousness, etc. This is a very arbitrary division of the common sense material universe, which exists as a whole. We cannot be certain that each element which we treat separately in science Is really a separate entity in its own right. This can at best be regarded as a tentative hypothesis only. Such tentative hypotheses are the result of the natural primitive impulse of observation and correlation or of mental powers of Discrimination and Identity. The first function of science was to test the validity of the primitive hypotheses that were formed under the impulsive working of human mind, viz., common sense. This led to a great misunderstanding, which continued to plague science up to the end of the nineteenth century, and it continued to be believed that science was only an organised working of common sense. This misconception was removed only in the first quarter of the twentieth century when some of the most authentic and advanced results of science appeared to be against common sense. For instance, by that time it had been fully demonstrated by scientific method that mass, length and time associated with a body were all governed by its velocity, relative to some standard of reference—the length decreases, the mass increases and the time slows down as the velocity increases, but only with respect to the standard of reference chosen. If, however, some other standard of reference was chosen, such that their relative velocity was zero, the mass, the length and the time, all will remain unchanged. Very strange according to common sense! Or again: the Entropy of the universe is continuously increasing. Or, Light is both particulate and wavy in its nature. Or again: the Electron, the Proton,—in fact, every elementary particle, behav?
17 Sometimes like a particle and sometimes like a wave. Very, very strange, indeed! They are, at least, absolutely incomprehensible by common sense. When these findings became glaringly large and well-established, the scientists themselves began to re-examine
their position. Now it became clear that the scientific method distinguished itself from the common sense method at the very first stage of collection of data in common sense we are interested in a perceptible complex of very different qualities of a body as a whole, which we may call molecules of perception. Thus, in common sense method we try to establish relationships between different kinds of molecules of perception. Suppose our molecules of perception at a time relate to a tree laden with apples in a garden lighted by the sun. In this garden a healthy boy enters with a stick in his hand. He strikes an apple with his stick. The apple falls to the ground at a certain distance. He picks up the apple and runs away eating it by mouthfuls. After collecting all these data we establish a common sense correlation that the boy was perhaps hungry and he picked the apple to satisfy his appetite, and prophesy that he will do this again when he likes, unless arrangement is made to stop him from doing it. Here every molecule of perception is a complex of different qualities and we are interested in the working of each as a whole. The boy, the tree, the stick, the apple, all have matter arranged in them in different ways; they have different colours, they have different states of rest and motion, hardness, and so on, ail going to form each. We take each of them as a whole and then on correlating them according to common sense we understand what happened and what would be its consequence. Not so in science. In the collection of data for science we break up these molecules of common sense perception into quite different molecules of science. For example, suppose I am a physicist and I want to study the phenomenon of rest and motion, or of colour and heat, and wish to correlate amongst each group. Now in the example quoted in the 18 previous paragraph, ! will break up the molecules of common sense experience called boy, apple, tree, ground, sun, flowers and stick, and will collect in one group all forms of motion and rest, and in another group all forms of colour and heat.
I would pick out the colour from the cheeks of the boy, from the apple, from the tree, from the stick, from flowers, from the ground, from the sun, and will then collect data about other peculiarities of all states of rest and motion, or of different measures of heat obtained from different sources. I have now made entirely new molecules of my experience, viz. those of rest and motion, or those of colours and heat, and in science I try to establish correlations amongst these newly-created molecules. Thus in the scientific method the first step is to collect data about some aspect of the material world, which we assume to be correlated with some other aspect according to some tentative hypothesis. This is done after breaking up the molecules of common sense and by creating new molecules for scientific investigation. It is not necessary that all the correlations established between molecules of science may always reconcile with the relationships established by common sense. And that is what we see in many cases. The correlations of science are many a time opposed to those of common sense. And the fact mentioned here is really the reason for that. There are some other reasons also for obtaining incomprehensible results, but they are too technical to be discussed here. There are some aspects of Nature which can be studied in the laboratory, while there are others which are spread over vast areas in time and space. In the former case, we can control the parameters involved; while in the case of the latter, this Is not always possible. This divides sciences into two main groups: the Laboratory Sciences like Physics, Chemistry, etc., and the Field Sciences like Astronomy, Meteorology, Geology, etc. The time required for collection of data of equal reliability and significance is generally much shorter in the laboratory, than that required in field sciences. But the process
19 is essentially the same, and it has to be ensured that the data used in any study represents a random sample of the normal population of the aspect of Nature under study.
However, the very basis of normality of a population goes on changing as our knowledge about the nature of things expands. Take for instance a population of shortest distances between two points. Up to the eighteenth century all the Euclidean postulates were supposed to apply to alt the phenomena observed on surfaces of the earth or in the interstellar space. The facts about straight lines between points on the earth and in the space could all be taken to belong to a random normal population. In the 19th century non-Euclidean geometry was developed by the mathematicians, and at the beginning of the 20th century the theory of Relativity was accepted. This theory postulated that the interstellar space was four-dimensional and non-Euclidean. Now the shortest line between the points on this paper will be a straight line while on a surface in the interstellar space, i.e., between a star and the earth, it would be hyperbolic and the shortest distance between two points on this surface will be a hyperbolic curve and not a straight line. While the observations about shortest path between two points on a plane surface and in the interstellar space could be regarded as belonging to the same normal population up to the end of the 19th century, they cannot be supposed to belong to the same random population now. The primitive man depended for the collection of data entirely on his senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting, and their perceptive ability in each individual. But these senses are limited in their ranges of perception and can be easily misled. The perceptive capacities of different persons, or of the same person in different moods, also differ. Keep for some time your left hand immersed in a jug of hot water and the right hand in a jug of cold water. Then take out the hands from the two jugs and put them both in a jug of luke-warm water. The left hand will feel the water in the jug to be cool, while the right hand will feel it warm. You
20 look at the trees in a garden at some large distance. Though the trees are situated at different distances from you, they appear to you to be arranged in an array. You look at the stars on a clear night. They
appear to be spread out equally on all sides and you feet that you are at the centre of the galaxy. You look at a cube from different sides and angles, it goes on acquiring different shapes having no relationship with each other. You look at your wrist-watch and at the clock in another heavenly body. Even if the two give the same time when you and the other body are at rest, the time will be different if the two bodies are moving relatively to each other with a velocity comparable to the velocity of light. Sometimes the observations are distorted by preconceived ideas by which the observer may be obsessed. Sometimes people see what they want to see, or what they think they ought to see. Thus your mind notes things which are not there. In taking observations for scientific purposes it is therefore essential that the man who takes observations should be clear in his mind; he should not be obsessed by any preconceived ideas, and should be on his guard to record only what is actually happening. To be sure about the reliability of his observations, he must take all steps necessary to eliminate the sources of error or misunderstanding, in spite of all the care that may be taken, the inherent difficulties mentioned in the last paragraph cannot be avoided and you set a limit to dependability on the conclusions based on empirical observations. It is thus clear that a scientist should not only be honest in recording observations; he should also be clear and open in his mind and objective in his approach. He should have patience and perseverance to ensure reliability of his observar tions. He should understand clearly the peculiarity of his physical position and the limits inherent in his methods and equipment. If a scientific observer wishes to record data worthy of scientific study, he must either train himself in the qualities mentioned above, or be trained by experienced scientists to cultivate them. It is only then that the data collected by him
21
can be used for proceeding further according to the scientific
method. Even the observations taken with all this care cannot, and should not, be taken at their face value, until a number of other scientists confirm them independently, or preliminary statistical tests confirm their reliability. In collection of this type of data for scientific purposes, we cannot depend entirely on our senses. For this purpose, we have first of all to decide some units of measurement for different kinds of quantities and qualities, and then devise the means for measuring them, so that they may be comparable and expressible by numbers. It is here that the difference in observations concerning physical, biological and social sciences becomes well marked, and different tests for comparability and reliability have to be devised. The devices for measurement and & exact comparison of quantities, such as weights and scales for measurements of mass, length, area or volume, or quadrant and astrolabe for measurement of angles, are called scientific equipment. The devices which man makes for facilitating his work or for utilising the resources of the environment, such as wheels, pullies, axes, or the flints to produce fire, are called technological equipment. Both kinds of devices are required for scientific investigations. At this stage you might be interested to learn the rules that Jabir ibn Hayyan—Geber of the Westerners—the pupil of imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, laid down for observations and collection of data in the eighth century of the Christian era. These have been quoted by Ibn Khallikan from the voluminous book of 2,000 pages which Jabir wrote on Chemistry. After emphasizing the importance of experimentation and observations for attaining mastery on a scientific subject like Chemistry, he has laid down ten rules, I give below the last seven of these which relate to observatiofts:"4. The time and season must be carefully chosen;
22 5- lt is best for the laboratory to be in a secluded place, 6. The chemist must have trusted friends; 7. He must have leisure to conduct experiments; 8. and patience and reticence;
9. and perseverance, 10. He must not be deceived by appearances into bringing his operations to too hasty a conclusion." It is not necessary that all the observations which are relied upon in science be direct ones. But the effects of the, phenomena which are being investigated must be directly traceable and capable of quantitative evaluation, because it has often been rightly emphasized that a piece of knowledge, however widespread it may be, does not become science unless its concepts can be expressed by numbers. The advances of scientific and technological equipment have contributed equally in the expansion of the intellectual horizon of man and in the methods and meanings of collection of scientific data themselves. You will be interested to know that immediately after the Muslims had translated the scientific works of different countries into Arabic in the eighth and ninth centuries A.C., they realized the importance of this and introduced big astrolabes and quadrants foe exact observations of Stars and Planets and had even invented a spherical astrolabe. It was the exact observations taken with these instruments that enabled them to detect the wobbling of the earth's axis and the revolution of the planets in elliptical orbits round the sun, much before Tycho Brahe, Copernicus or Kepler. Originally, science insisted on dealing only with the hard, solid facts of observation and experience. But with the advances of science and technology we have now reached a stage where we deal with phenomena which we can never observe or even hope to comprehend fully with the limited material senses that we possess. What we now call observations are supposed to be the results of some other associated changes to be taking place in some way which can easily and
23
fully be understood on the basis of the knowledge which we already possess. Most of our observations in atomic physics, biochemistry, biophysics, astrophysics, etc., are of this kind. We continue to
include all the information thus collected In the list of reliable scientific facts and data. The conditions which have to be satisfied are: (1) The reliability of the equipment used for collection of data should satisfy objective tests based on theoretical and practical considerations and experience. (2) We should be clear about the limits of reliability of the data obtained by such equipment. And, (3) Whenever the particular conditions, under which a particular result has been obtained, are repeated, the same result should follow. Events which occur only once in a while, like the miracles, and are recorded by honest and reliable observers, can remain a part of true history, but will remain outside the pale of science until they can be repeated, or their analogues found under some other circumstances, i.e., unless they are correlated to some other reliable and well-established scientific facts. Science cannot, however, be disinterested in such freaks simply for the reason that they do not satisfy the requirements of knowledge acquired up to that time. Many such freaks are responsible for the miraculous advances of modern science. Photo-electric effect, radio-activity, Rontgen rays, X-rays and many more freak discoveries may be mentioned to illustrate this statement. B. CLASSIFICATION OF DATA
When a random sample of data, representative of a normal population in whose study we are interested, has been collected, we try to find out the characteristic of that population. This can be done only by arranging the data in some regular order. If there are more than one series of data which, according to our tentative hypothesis, we believe to be interrelated, we arrange the population in a regular order in res-
24 pect of each parameter, such as ascending or descending orders of magnitude of each, or by dividing them into smaller homogeneous, or approximately homogeneous groups, or by finding out their central values and indices of their dispersion
and variability, and coefficients of correlation. Sometimes it so happens that the quantities themselves do not appear to be related, but their second, third or fourth powers or their roots show a significant correlation, in that case these derivatives are used instead of the quantities observed. This is called analysis and classification of data. In simpler cases this process itself makes the relationships between different members inside the series or with members of other series evident, but that is not always the case. Even then the analysis and classification has to be done, because after collection of observations or data this classification of data is the second important step in trying to discover Identity in Diversity. In fact, all logical inference involves classification and it is required for proper judgement. It is impossible to detect similarity between objects without joining them together in thought, and forming an incipient class. This is the purpose of classification. Originally the success of classification and analysis depended entirely on the insight or breadth of vision of the scientist undertaking the study. But now an entire branch of science called Statistics is at the disposal of a worker for purposes of classification and analysis of data, and for testing the validity and significance of the results. C. HYPOTHESIS
After studying the characteristics of the members of a population within the series, or their behaviour on variations in some other population, we reach the stage when we begin to ask the question 'How' about the working and their correlations. The answer to this question is the hypothesis which describes in words and, or, in symbols the relationships that appear to exist between them. This is merely a postulate and in the ultimate analysis depends on guessing which in itself is not a scientific process as we understand it, but an absolutely unavoidable step.
25
Theoretically, the number of hypotheses which can be formed in a particular case will depend upon the number of variable parameters involved. Suppose a phenomenon involves only two
circumstances and there are two ways in which they may be connected, there will be four ways in which they can possibly occur. As such new circumstances of occurence or a variable is introduced, the number of combinations is doubled. Thus if there are three circumstances of their occurrence, there wilt be eight combinations; if four, they occur in sixteen combinations; if there are one thousand circumstances which may be connected, the number of combinations would require a number consisting of 302 digits to represent the ways in which the qualities might conceivably present themselves. But all these may not be logically valid. We have to test their validity according to the laws of thought and logic. Suppose we have a piece of matter. It may be iron (A) or not iron (a); it may be metal (B) or a non-metal (b); it may be an element (C) or not an element (c). Now there are eight possibilities: ABC
ABc Abc abc
aB C abC aBc Ab NowC we know that iron is a metal; therefore the com-
binations Abc, ABc and AbC are not logically correct and will therefore be ignored outright, and only five alternatives will be considered. The object of an hypothesis is to identify that one alternative, say, ABC (iron, metal, element) out of the many, which is really applicable to the sample under consideration. But the possibility of the other alternatives remains undeserved, and that is why hypotheses go on improving with the expansion of knowledge and collection of more accurate data. As already stated, the hypothesis is really a guess based on the past experience and knowledge. The play of genius becomes pronounced at this stage. A genius spots the 26
correct answer by deductive reasoning, or by inspiration, or at the first sight, or just by accident, while an ordinary worker continues to get involved and misled by irrelevant and unimportant issues. If, however, you examine this in a greater detail, it will become clear that patient hard work, good memory, sound judgement with deductive logical reasoning, along with a penetrating insight and an active mind, are absolutely necessary for a genius or good scientist who formulates a sound hypothesis. Genius, artistry, experience, hunches, intuition and even accidents have played a decisive role in the formation of an hypothesis from the earliest times. An hypothesis should, however, be In conformity with observed facts. This condition involves three constituents:(1) That the hypothesis allows application of deductive rea soning for drawing inference(s) of consequences cap able of comparison with observation(s). (2) That it does not conflict with the laws of nature, or of mind, which we hold to be true up to the time. (3) That the consequences inferred do agree with facts of observation. If a new hypothesis contradicts an old accepted hypothesis, the greater the probability we assign to the old hypothesis, the greater must be the evidence in favour of the new and conflicting one. Hypotheses like those of Lorentz and Einstein, for explaining the results of Morley-Michel-son's experiment, or of Planck and Bohr in the field of micro-dynamics of atom and radiation, which seemed to undo all the previous achievements of science, not only in the restricted fields of immediate concern, but in many more—for accepting the validity of such hypotheses very severe tests have to be devised and actual experimental evidence is needed. Another thing which all the hypotheses should satisfy, and which must have been realised by intelligent men very early, is that any hypothesis which is put forward should be
27 in accordance with the following laws of thought:(1) The Law of Identity. (Whatever is, is.)
(2) The Law of Contradiction. (A thing cannot both be and not be.) (3) The Law of Duality, or the Law of Excluded Middle. (A thing must either be or not be.) These three laws are not really three independent and distinct laws. Each law presupposes or implies the other two. They are rather three different aspects of the same truth about being or not being as delineated by the mind. It would thus appear that science is really the name of a mental process. This is true according to both the old and the new definitions. ' Science is therefore in the mind and not in the things. The properties of mind are therefore all-important and these laws of thought form the basis of science even now, as they always did. Every hypothesis in science should satisfy these self evident laws of thought. The Dialectic Materialists**—both scientists and philosophers, however, believe that the inherent contradiction residing in Nature provides the source and motive-power for all development in the universe. Three steps which we have discussed so far are so essential to gain any kind of knowledge that they must have been followed, consciously or unconsciously, even by the most primitive man, from the earliest times. The distinctive features of modern Scientific Method, which has greatly helped the rapid advancement of science, appears at this stage. Three methods can be used to test the validity of an hypothesis, selected out of a large number of possibilities depending upon the number of variables involved. This number can be easily computed mathematically by calculating the combinations and permutations according to the way in which the variables operate. The methods used for testing the validity of an hypothesis are described in the sections that follow. •• A Dictionary of Philosopby by M. Rosenthal and P. Yudin, Moscow, 1967, pp. 120 to 123.
28
D. TRIAL AND ERROR METHOD
The first method, which must have been used from the earliest
times, by even the most primitive man, is the method of Trial and Error' In this method you must put every possible hypothesis to practical test and decide by its result. It is very tedious and timeconsuming and thus an inefficient method, because the number of experiments to be performed will be the same as the number of permutations and combinations involved in the particular case under study. But it is used even by scientists as a last resort when there is nothing else to guide. From the scientific point of view it is better than the Greek Method of Axiomatic Deduction in which experimentation and empirical observations were shunned. E. AXIOMATIC DEDUCTIVE GREEK METHOD
The second method for testing the accuracy and validity of an hypothesis is known as the 'Greek Method' or rather the 'Axiomatic Deductive Method.' Deduction consists of passing from more general to less general. In deduction we are engaged in developing the consequences of a law. En a world consisting of an infinite variety and ruled by blind forces this is the most sound logical technique. This method had been very successful in Euclidean Geometry. As a result it continued to be applied to practically all the branches of science up to the time when Muslims entered the field and collected scraps of knowledge from every nook and corner of the world known to them. In the axiomatic deductive method certain evident facts which do not require any proof are accepled as axioms or as general laws by common agreement. Every hypothesis has to satisfy these axioms by deductive logic. You must be aware of the basic axioms in geometry like "a straight line being the shortest distance between two points, or that only one straight line can be drawn parallel to another straight line through a point outside the latter line. In every field of knowledge there were such axioms propounded by established intellectual authorities like Plato, Aristotle and Euclid. These be came the touchstones on which every hypothesis was tested
29 with the help of deductive logic.
An example would explain the working of the Deductive Greek Method. The Greeks believed that the material universe was composed of four elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Of these, earth and water were heavy and fell downwards in straight lines when free to move. The air and fire were light and went in a straight line upwards. The heavenly bodies could revolve in circles because that was a perfect shape without an end. The earth was stationary at the centre of the universe. The heavy elements, earth and water fell towards Its centre. The air remained over it and the fire went up and formed the stars. Every hypothesis about matter, earth or universe had to satisfy these "Axiomatic Truths" through deductive logic, before it could be accepted. This method depended entirely on the correctness of the axioms which could not be tested by the mundane experiments and empirical observations, because these are based on the human senses, which can be easily misled. There is no doubt that, even in that period, some great discoveries, like the principle of Archimedes, continued to be made by direct observations and their correct interpretation by geniuses. But these achievements go to the credit of the discoverers rather than of the method followed by the scientists of that age. The limitations of this method became evident when the Muslims collected sciences of all the distant countries. They found that in the same field the big authorities of different countries and sometimes their own discoveries, differed widely about the basic concepts expressed in the axioms by the Greeks. For instance, the Chinese had five elements instead of the four accepted by the Greeks. They counted wood also as an element like earth, water, air and fire Hence, some other method had to be devised to decide the validity of the. contending theories or hypotheses. This really helped in the development of a third method which we now call the "Induc-
30 tive Method" of reasoning or the "Scientific Method". This is the method which was started by Muslim scientists in the 3th. 9th and 10th
centuries A.C. and which has since been adopted as the Scientific Method by the world. We shall discuss it in the next section. F. INDUCTIVE METHOD
In this method when an hypothesis is formulated, the scientist who has formulated it tests its validity himself, before announcing it to the world. He works out the mathematical and logical consequences of the hypothesis under conditions and circumstances different from those under which the hypothesis was arrived at. The mathematical and logical results so deduced are called "Predictions" based on the hypothesis, under the conditions specified in the computations. This is induction, which means anticipating a general law from particular facts. Its logical validity depends upon a firm BELIEF in unity and uniformity of Nature assuming that what is applicable to the data or observations under study is applicable to the universe as a whole. This method could come into vogue only amongst a people who had a Belief in Unity and Uniformity of Nature. We have already seen that this idea was forcefully propounded by the Qur'an for the first time as a religious precept. Therefore, the Muslim scientists, for the first time in human history, started to follow the Inductive Method in the field of science as a regular procedure. The conditions specified for the prediction in induction are then specially produced. This is called "Experimentation". This is the most distinctive feature of the modern scientific method. If on experimentation, you obtain the result as predicted on the basis of the hypothesis, your confidence in the validity of the hypothesis increases. Jabir ibn Hayyan, who lived in the 8th century A.C., has recorded in black and white in his book on Chemistry: "the first essential is to perform practical work and experiments. One who does not do so will never attain mastery", for per-
31 Forming experiments he laid down ten rules, as already mentioned in
connection with collection of data and observations. The first three of those rules are reproduced below: (1) The operator should know the reason for performing the experiment, (2) The instructions must be properly understood. (3) impossible and profitless processes should be avoided. According to this understanding the vague hypotheses which do not lead to definite predictions, or hasty experiments which lead to vague results, are of no value. It may be advantageous to stop at this stage and see some examples of the working of the inductive method. The first example that i have come across pertains to the closing years of the 10th century A.C. or the beginning of the 11th century. Up to that time the geocentric Cosmology of the Greeks and the Egyptians was generaily accepted by Muslim scientists. According to this theory the fiery fixed stars were farthest from the earth in the heaven of fixed stars. Al-Biruni, in Kitab al-Tafftim, (Translation by Ramsay Wright), on page 117, states the distance of this heaven on the authority of AIMajest thus: "Nearest distance in parsangs compared with the radius of earth, 1081, 19'21 as 22974394,06". This heaven revolved round the earth once in 24 hours. The stars of the Milky Way, however, were supposed to be close to the earth and to be actually situated in the atmosphere of the earth. Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy—ail believed in it and supported it. This was like an axiom and all other problems in astronomy had to satisfy this, so to say, self-evident truth. Al-Hazen, during his studies of twilight and refraction of light through the atmosphere, computed that the thickness of the earth's atmosphere was somewhere near 10 to 12 miles. Some people say that his computation gave the height of atmosphere to be about 50 miles. Thus, let it be taken to be 10—50 miles or, say, about 50 miles.
32
When Al-Hazen came on the scene, the Muslim astronomers had been using big quadrants and astrolabes. They had even started using a spherical astrolabe, and had prepared astronomical tables showing positions of the stars and planets based on their own most accurate observations. They were using sine, cosine, tangent and cotangent in their computations. With the help of these and of the deep study of all the observational and theoretical material available to him, Al-Hazen came to the conclusion that the stars of the Milky Way were as far off as the other fixed stars, and that they were not situated in the atmosphere of the earth, i.e., at a height of 10-50 miles above the surface of the earth. Now there were two hypotheses about the same subject. The old hypothesis claiming the stars of the Milky Way to be situated in the atmosphere of the earth, unlike the other fixed stars which were far away. This had behind it the authority of all the old masters, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy and manv others. According to the Greek method it could not be challenged, because by deductive logic it satisfied all the axioms accepted by the scientists of old, and even by most others of AlHazen's times. But Al-Hazen challenged it and put forward the hypothesis that the stars of the Milky Way were far away from the earth, like all other fixed stars. The question was: "How to decide about the validity of these two opposing hypotheses?" Al-Hazen himself suggested an experiment—that of parallax. To choose the correct hypothesis amongst the two contending ones, he suggested that observations about the positions of the stars in the Milky Way, relatively to the other fixed stars, should be taken: (1) from the same place in different seasons, or (2) at the same time from 2 places far apart on the earth. The result would be: (a) If the stars of Milky Way are in the atmosphere of the earth, i.e., within a height of about 10 to 50 miles—far 33
the pull of each was proportional to its mass. The mass of the earth being very large as compared to the apple, its pull was equally large. Anyhow he gave an hypothesis that the force of attraction F, between two masses M1 and M2, is directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance D between them. Let the gravitational constant of proportionality be G. Then we1 may write: F=G
M1 M2
D2 This was a most extraordinary hypothesis against common sense. It conceived a force to be acting between all the heavenly bodies through interstellar space without any connecting medium. Common sense demands such a medium, and that is what ail the old scientists had accepted all along. It was known even in Newton's time that the interstellar space has no material link to transmit this force. Telescopic observations of the eclipses of the moon had shown that there was no atmosphere round the Moon and practically none in the interstellar space. This has now been finally confirmed by the astronauts who landed on the Moon and walked in Space during their space-flights, Now the question was: How the force of gravitation crossed this space. This force was so great and penetrating that no material body could stop, divert or decrease it, as if they are absolutely transparent, nay, nonexistent. Two particles at the opposite ends of the earth affect each other exactly as if the globe was not in between. The action is instantaneous so that every particle of the universe is at every moment in separate cognisance of the relative position of every other particle throughout the universe. Very puzzling, strange, marvellous, indeed!!! But it was found to hold wherever it was tested. This could not be denied. All the problems of dynamics and statics relating to motion and rest in gravitational fields on the earth could be solved on the basis of this hypothesis. The tides of the oceans, and the eclipses of the sun and the moon could be predicted correctly. The revolution of the planets in the solar system 36
in elliptic orbits could be very accurately demonstrated and predicted. The ad hoc laws discovered by Kepler for the motion of planets were brought into a system. The confidence in the validity of the theory continued to grow and there was no doubt that the theory enunciated was a universal truth— Newton's Law of Gravitation. Thus we see that if the predictions based on a particular hypothesis come out correct, whenever they are put to test under different situations, the status of an hypothesis is raised to that of a "Theory", if this theory is found to be universally applicable, it is called a "Law of Nature". Newton's theory of gravitation continued to be regarded as a law of nature until some irregularities in the motion of the outer planets, Saturn and Jupiter, against the motions predicted on the basis of theory of Gravitation came to the notice, when the observations taken more accurately by the telescopes became available. To explain the discrepancies, new planets were predicted on the basis of Newton's Law of Gravitation. Uranus was discovered in 1781, Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930 exactly in the position predicted. The confidence on this law was complete. The incomprehensibility of the force of gravity, however, continued up to 1919 when the Theory of Relativity was confirmed. Observations of the bending of light waves in the sun's gravitational field were found In 1919 to be nearly as much as "predicted. But Relativity introduced other strange concepts against common senseIt is thus clear that, in the Inductive Method of Modern Science, logical deductions under the new conditions of experimentation and empirical observations are the final arbiters for judging the validity of an hypothesis; which is in reality a rational and a logical guess only. A theory is an hypothesis which has been actually found to be a working relationship in a large number of cases actually tested. A law of nature is an hypothesis, or a theory which has been found to be correct wherever it is tested. It is thus a relationship which is assumed to be holding true universally. But there is no guarantee that it will be found to be correct on every occasion even in the future. The same law of gravitation failed when applied to the very accurate observations of the revolution of
37
Mercury, the tiny planet nearest to the sun. Us perihelion was found to move forward by a few seconds This was not in accordance with the famous Newton's Law of Gravitation. It had been ascertained by very accurate observations under ordinary conditions on the earth and at velocities much lower than the velocity of light. But when Mercury reaches its perihelion, its velocity is very high and comparable to the velocity of light, and here Newton's Law tailed. A new Law of Nature had to be search for, which could include Newton's Law, but at the same time could also explain the new facts which later observations had revealed. An experiment designed to test an hypothesis should be such that it gives quite unambiguous results, if there are more than one hypotheses about the same object, the experiment should be such that if the hypothesis A is correct, it should give the result X, if hypothesis B is correct, it should give the result Y, and X and Y should be quite distinct from each other. Suppose the result of the experiment is neither X nor Y, but Z. This is called a Negative Result. The hypothesis under which the experiment was performed is finished for ever, but a scientist does not hesitate to publish even this negative result. This, helps other workers in the field to avoid waste of time in repeating the mistake again in ignorance. . Some simple experiments, which are designed to provide a clear YES or NO answer to an hypothesis, are called FINGER-POST EXPERIMENTS. In some branches of science, where it is not possible to separate out single parameters for testing the validity of a particular hypothesis, and in which, due to the complicated nature of phenomena, a number of unrelated parameters cannot be excluded, as is occasionally the case in meteorology, medicine, psychology and other social and field sciences, CONTROL EXPERIMENTS have to be devised. They show the effects of irrelevant parameters as superposed on the effects of those factors which are under study.
38
Before closing this discussion, we may also note that science begins with observations and experiences of different kinds and ends also in further observations under controlled conditions to ascertain the correctness of the conclusions drawn from original observations about the relationships assumed to be existing amongst them. if the assumptions about the correlations cannot be proved experimentally, however rational they may seem to be, they will not come within the scope of science and cannot be called scientific. However, simply because a particular concept has not been arrived at scientifically, though unscientific, it need not necessarily be irrational and unreal This has been the attitude of most of the big scientists in the West who were not atheists by profession. Many a scientist has said: "1 cannot experiment on God—so in my laboratory I have got nothing to do with Him". Here comes the difference between a Muslim Scientist and an Atheist Scientist. While the atheist regards all the relationships discovered by him to be the outcome of an accidental combination of unintelligent forces of nature working under the impulse of contradiction as its chief motive force, a Muslim scientist regards them to be an insight into the "Habit of God" which does not change, and a working of an intelligence which does not falter. Call it by any name—Allah, God, Nature, Continuum, Space. On reaching this intellectual level polytheism has no leg on which to stand. At this stage I feel tempted to quote verbatim what W. M. Smart has said about the scientific method in the introduction to his book "The Origin of Earth", p. 14, 1955 edition; "Let us not then exalt the scientific method unduly as the close preserve of the scientist nor, which is much more important, as the only means by which we attempt to discover the secrets of Nature. It is easy for a scientist to be a materialist if he sees only in the Universe the apparently relentless unfolding of natural law, and forgets that there are domains 39
where the laws of Physics are irrelevant. But more and more scientists are realizing that they are exploring only one section of the great world of Nature in all its manifold complexity; beauty, moral conduct, spiritual values, religious experience, are all outside their domain, yet all come within man's scrutiny when he attempts to interpret the Universe as a whole and strives to discern purpose therein. A great work of pictorial art could be analysed by the scientist in terms of chemical constitution, atomic and molecular structure, the laws of physical optics, and all the rest; he might reduce Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to a collection of mathematical formulae in the theory of vibrations; in neither case would his interpretation be more than bare bones, incomplete and un- " satisfying." This is what we should remember. We should under stand and use the Scientific Method wherever possible, but we should not be dazzled by the glare of its achievements. We should use the results of scientific effort for subjugating Nature and for making full use of its resources intelligently, and nothing more. G. SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN OPERATION
We have seen that in the modern scientific method we -start with empirical observations and their classifications, in physical and biological sciences we separate out our experiences of the same type into different groups and thus try to determine the correlations between them and with other groups by hypothesising and testing them by inductive reasoning and experimentation. In Psychology and other social sciences- this cannot always be done. The personalities' involved in these are too complex to be capable of being broken up into simple elements as we always do. in physical sciences. The Determinist school in Psychology tried to adopt the method of the physical sciences, but could not succeed. In such sciences complex personalities can now be taken as units for analysis and study. 40
Methods are devised to separate out the contribution of different variables as far as possible, but this cannot always be done with complete success. It would be very interesting indeed to discuss in some detail the procedures of observation and experimentation adopted in social sciences as distinct from those of the physical sciences, but in connection with the Philosophy of Science I am sure that it would suffice if we note that though the scientific method remains essentially similar up to a certain stage, it has to be modified according to the nature of the material dealt with. Simply this alteration from the traditional scientific method of physical sciences, however, does not make it unscientific. in tact, some historians claim that their method has as much claim to the descriptive adjective 'scientific' as that of atomic physicists. But there is much to be done before this claim can be accepted, because more often than not the personal prejudices of a historian distort the facts depended upon by him for coming to a conclusion and preparing an hypothesis. H. EXPERIMENTATION
We have seen that experimentation is the distinctive feature of the modern scientific method. In fact, it is by far the hardest part of this procedure. But even. so an experiment does not guarantee that a conclusion supported by an experiment is the only and the final one under all kinds of stresses, strains and velocities. You throw a stone; you fire a bullet; you release an earth satellite or a rocket for the Moon, Mars or Venus probe; you take their observations. They all satisfy Newton's law of gravitation. You calculate the position of the earth and other planets according to that law. The eclipses can be predicted long before, in full detail, because Newton's Law holds in that case also. With all this long list of successes to its credit, Newton's Law failed to predict the movement of the perihelion of Mer-
41
cury—the point where Mercury in its elliptic orbit is nearest to the sun and where it moves forward by a small amount. Now take another example. Al-Hazen had a hazy idea of the velocity of light; but in his time the nature of light was not known. Still he found the laws of reflection and refraction of light. Newton postulated that a beam of light consisted of a shower of corpuscles of light The experimental results of reflection and refraction were fully explained on this hypothesis also. The observation that light travels in straight lines was also neatly explained. Later on Huyghens propounded the hypothesis that light was propagated by transverse waves. He also explained equally well the phenomena of reflection and refraction of light. But this wave-theory introduced two new difficulties. Firstly that waves travel in some elastic medium, but light travels in the interstellar space which was considered to be a void, a vacuum. A new name, "Ether", was introduced to solve this difficulty. It was assumed to be omnipotent, to be present everywhere. Now the ether, to transmit waves of light at a speed of about 300,000 km ! sec at frequencies of about 700 billion vibrations per second, requires a tremendous elastic force. Herschel had calculated that this force must be about 1,148,000,000,000, times that of the ordinary air at the surface of the earth so that the pressure of ether on every square inch must be about seventeen billion pounds. By accepting the undulatory theory of light we were asked by physical philosophers to believe that the empty space and all else in the heavens and the earth must be filled with something more solid and elastic than steel and Young had remarked that "the lumi-niferous ether pervading all space, and penetrating almost all substances, is not only highly elastic but absolutely solid" !!! He made the strange suggestion that "there may be independent worlds, some possibly existing in different parts of space, but others pervading each other unseen and unknown in the same space."
42
For about a century scientists and mathematicians continued to explore the properties of Ether in symbols and words, but utimately all this led to its complete disappearance from the material world. About waves we know that they bend round corners. A sound, which consists of waves in the air, can be heard behind a corner. If light was propagated by waves, it should also bend round corners and travelling in a straight line has no meaning. The believers in the wave-theory of light agreed to this, but new experiments had to be designed to show this effect. This was done by passing monochromatic light through two pin-holes by Young and later on by passing light through a fine diffraction grating, in which a thousand or more lines are etched in an inch on a glass plate. Light could pass through glass, but it is stopped by dark lines. Dark and bright bands are formed on the side away from the source of light due to the light waves bending at the line edges of dark lines in the grating. This phenomenon had been noticed by Al-Hazen several centuries before, during his keen observations of the passage of a light-beam through a mesh, like fine muslin cloth, but he could not explain it, because the problem had not been formulated up to that time. Anyhow, we know how that the formation of dark and bright bands by a diffraction grating is due to the bending of the waves of light round sharp corners and then by interference with the waves coming from the adjacent bright spaces in opposite phases. Where the waves are in the same phase they strengthen each other and produce bright lines. Where they are in opposite phases they cancel each others' effect and produce darkness. Now on this discovery of interference, the theory of propagation of the light waves in Ether and determination of the velocity of light, posed a new problem in science. Earth was rotating from West to East round its axis and revolving round the sun in the same direction. It was presumed that all this rotation and revolution was taking place in Ether in which the waves of light travelled. Morley and Michelson devised
43
an experiment tor measuring the relative velocities-between the Earth and Ether by a very sensitive interferometer. A part of a light-beam travelled in the North-South direction, and another part of (he same beam in the East-West direction. These two halves of the beam were brought back to travel together again. If there was the slightest difference in the relative velocities in these two directions, i.e. in the N-S and E-W directions, due to the rotation and revolution of the Earth, it would have been possible to detect the change in the velocity of light by the interference pattern. But the result showed no such thing. This only meant that either the Earth was not moving in the E-W direction at all, (as was assumed in the Geocentric Cosmology) or, if the Earth was moving, there was no relative motion between the Ether and the Earth. But this could not be, because Newton's Law, which required the Earth to rotate and revolve round the sun, had been tested and had always been found correct. The electromagnetic theory, which required relative motion between ether and the moving earth had also been tested experimentally and found correct. This was a very embarrassing situation for science, and realty a very great setback, but Lorentz solved the difficulty. He postulated that when a body moves at a great velocity, compa.ab.e to the velocity of light, the length in the direction of motion decreases in such a way that it completely compensates the difference in relative velocity of Ether and Earth in that direction and in a direction at right angles to it. This meant that the scales in the E-W direction on the earth contracted as compared to the scales placed in a N-S direction, and the difference in the relative velocities of Earth and Ether in N-S and EW directions could never be measured. In 1915 Einstein put forward the Special Theory of Relativity, which brought out that Space is really a four-dimensional continuum and Time is as much a real part of every thing in Space as its length, breadth and thickness. All the gravitational phenomena in Space were explained to be a consequence of its curvature and it was shown that when a body
44
moves with a velocity comparable to light, its length decreases, its mass increases and its time lengthens. This explained not only the result of the Morley-Micheison's experiment, but also the movement of the perihelion of Mercury, though not completely, yet much more satisfactorily than by Newton's law of gravitation. Another consequence of this was that a light photon when in motion should also acquire a mass different from that obtained by the earlier theory of electromagnetism. This meant that if the light of a star very close behind the sun passed close to the sun it will be bent differently from that demanded by the electromagnetic theory of light. Such an observation can be taken only during a total eclipse of the sun. For verification of the Special Theory of Relativity, science had to wait for three years up to the time of the solar eclipse of 1919. The result of these observations also, like those of the perihelion of Mercury were quite close to the values predicted according to the Theory of Relativity, but again not exactly as predicted. We thus know that the Theory of Relativity is a nearer approximation to the True Law of Nature than Newton's Law of Gravitation, but it is not the final, real and absolutely correct Law of Nature. This also shows that depending upon the strength of evidence derived from an experiment, one is able to regard the original hypothesis with a certain degree of confidence. But so far in science we have not reached anywhere near certainty. In fact, the only thing which we know with certainity is the principle of uncertainty. It must also be remembered that the claim of a scientist cannot exceed the evidence and, therefore, the results of experiments are never better than the limits set by the degree of accuracy and discriminating power of the equipment employed. They cannot also be wider than the cover of the experiment itself. There is thus always a possibility of improving correlations by improving the quality of the data and observations on which they are based it must also be remembered
45
that an experiment does not really prove a fact. Ail it does is that it provides evidence in favour of certain assumptions but there is always room for improving the equipment and experimental technique and thus for collecting better evidence for changing the basic assumptions as a consequence. The process of changes in basic concepts of science is also very interesting. To explain the results of new experiments new words like Atom, Void, Field, Ether, Electron, Particle, Anti-particle are introduced. These words have to be defined precisely by words, symbols and mathematical functions. These call for new experiments and new names and bring out new complications. The procession of Science thus continues to grow.
46
CHAPTER IV
History of Development of the Scientific Method In connection with observations, hypothesis and experimentation we have seen how Jabir ibn Hayyan and Ibn al-Haitham followed the inductive experimental method and depended on empirical observations for all their major contributions in Chemistry, Optics and Astronomy. Exactly similar methods were followed by the Musa brothers, Al-Razi, Al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd and a host of other Muslim scientists of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th centuries of the Christian era. Jabir ibn Hayyan has left documentary evidence of the importance which he attached to careful and constant observations and experimentation for getting mastery in science. He was the student of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, the great-grandson of Caliph Ali. Jabir's master was not only a chemist but also a genius in many other fields and got most of his knowledge as a family tradition going back to Caliph Ali and Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H) himself, who is reported to have said that "Ali is the gateway of knowledge of which I am the city". Evidently, therefore, the introduction of empiricism and experimental method of gaining knowledge was the result of the great emphasis which the Holy Qur'an had laid on observations of all kinds of natural phenomena, not leaving even a dirty fly, a humming bee, or a tiny ant. it emphasised not only their observation, but also contemplation about their working. Above all, the Qur'an, for the first time in human
47
history, declared in unmistakable terms that every thing in the heavens and the earth and in between them, even the blazing Sun and the glorious Moon, was for the service of man and that the law of nature was immutable. You may search the farthest corners of the heavens and the earth again and again. You will get tired-out and be exhausted, but you will not find a single instance of disharmony and incongruity. This was stated by the Qur'an, as already quoted from Surah Al-Mulk. All these challenges to human intellect, the clarion call for the fulfilment of human destiny and a firm belief in the Unity and Uniformity of Nature encouraged the Muslim seekers of knowledge to establish a new method of Empiricism, Surveys, Observations, Contemplation, Induction and Experimentation on the fines pointed out by the Holy Qur'an. This was the Qur'anic way of seeking knowledge and they did not think it necessary to give it any special name. In his book: "Conflict between Science and Religion",
Draper says as follows: "The essential characteristics of their (Arabs') method are experiment and observation. Geometrical and mathematical sciences they worked up as instruments of reasoning, In their numerous writings on mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, etc. it is interesting to remark that the solution to a problem is always obtained by performing an experimental observation. It was this that made them the originators of chemistry; that led them to the invention of all kinds of apparatus for distillation, sublimation, fusion, filtration, etc; that caused them in Astronomy to appeal to divided instruments such as quadrants and astrolabes, in Chemistry to employ the balance, the theory of which they were perfectly familiar with, to construct tables of specific gravity and astronomical tables like those of Baghdad and Spain, great improvements in Geometry, the invention of Algebra and the adoption of the Indian numeration in Arthmetic. Such were the results of the performance of the inductive method—their declining the reveries of Plato." 48
Up to the fourteenth century of the Christian era. Muslims were the undisputed intellectual leaders of the world in every field of human endeavour. There is no doubt that had there been no Muslims there would have been no renaissance in Europe. After the renaissance the Europeans took over. But it should be remembered that the Muslims made numerous advances in science, some of which have been recounted by Draper as quoted above, and many more, but many of which nave been intentionally and dishonestly suppressed and ignored by the great Western exponents of Knowledge and Truth, So much so that even the credit for introducing empiricism and experimentation in science is attributed to Francis Bacon and others, if they mention any contributions of the Muslim period at all, they go out of their way to mention a few mercenary Christian and Jewish scholars, who would have been persecuted in their own countries if they had dared to do any intellectual work at all. The example of Galileo of a much later period (seventeenth century) is before us. But 1 should think that for this great and standing hoax, Francis Bacon himself was responsible. In his book Novum Organum which he wrote in the first quarter of the seven-teenth century A.C., while pleading for the introduction of empiricism in Europe, he says again and again that "great authorities" follow this and consider this method better than the old deductive method of Greeks, But he never once mentions the name of the "great authorities" and the "wise people" of that period, because they were all Muslims; and Europe was at that time full of hatred and repugnance against them due to Europeans' religious bigotry and crusades. Perhaps he did not mention their names because the prejudice of Christian Europe against the Muslims would have hindered the adop-on of the Muslim method in science. Perhaps he feared inquisition, if he committed this indiscretion! Roger Bacon had done the same thing before him. He translated Al-Hazen's Kitab al Manazir as his own Optics
49
without mentioning the source. Kepler had done the same thing by declaring the elliptical orbits of the planets without ever mentioning the Spanish Muslim astronomer who was the discoverer of this fundamental truth. The Western seekers after truth continue to give credit for all these discoveries to their own Christian and Jewish compatriots with great flourish. According to them the fathers of the empirical technique of observation and experimentation were Francis Bacon, Descartes, etc. This we have seen is not a fact, but it is a fact that for the empirical method started by the Muslims the names of "Inductive Method" and "Scientific Method" were given by the Europeans and are now cherished by all as the most fruitful methods of investigating and correlating the experiences of man in his material environment, for giving a complete mastery over it, as was desired by the Holy Qur'an. The Qur'an had not been acquired by the scientific method, but by Revelation. The claim of Islam, however, is that the fundamental Truths described therein, and the limits and forms of human conduct prescribed therein, are so perfectly in keeping with the requirements of the nature of the material and the spiritual worlds that these will only be confirmed by the results obtained by the scientific method in the fields in which it could be applied and operated. We shall have examples of this when we discuss Cosmology as revealed by the scientific method and that described in the Holy Qur'an by Revelation. But for the present we shall stop and try to survey some other fundamental concepts which have emerged through the investigations conducted according to the scientific method during the past few centuries.
50
CHAPTER V
Philosophy of Modern Science The achievements of the scientific method in the hands of the converts to it, i.e., the Europeans, soon began to be felt in all the branches of science. In Astronomy the uneven surface of the Moon was seen The dark spots on the surface of the Sun were discovered. The moons of Jupiter and Mars and the girdles round Saturn were discovered, and speculation about the origin of the solar system was started. Another small planet, Pluto, was added to the solar system as late as 1930. In Physics and Chemistry the atomic theory was firmly established and science reached a stage where it discovered the element Helium in the atmosphere of-the sun before it could be found on the earth. Undulatory theory of light was fully established and it was due to the advances in the field of light that Helium was discovered on the Sun before it could be isolated on the earth. The kinetic theory of matter emerged; and a complete list of 92 atoms, regularly divided into groups, was discovered. The laws of conservation of energy and matter were fully and finally established. The determinist school of scientists began to claim that if they could know fully about the present numbers and states of atoms, it should be possible to express the past, present and the future of the material universe by means of equations. The electromagnetic theory of light was established; and thus heat, light, electricity and magnetism, which were
51
originally thought to be different kinds of forces, were brought together as different aspects of some fundamental unity. Spectroscopy and photography began to reveal the hidden secrets of the farthest corners of the material universe, visible through bigger and bigger telescopes. Cosmologists were wondering about the transfer of life to the earth from some other source through the interplanetary space. This was one of the deepest problems of the Philosophy of Science at the time. Production of artificial dyes and other organic chemicals in the laboratory, and later, on industrial sca!e, shook the faith in the hidden vital force which could alone produce organic chemicals, characterising the living beings. Above all the theory of evolution by Darwin end others showed that all living species had originated from simple unicellular bodies in mud and water and evolved into what they are now, by the continuous struggle for existence, by adaptation to the environment and by survival of the fittest This led to the mutation of species which, though not fully understood, was fully demonstrated by the discovery of skeletons of earliest species-; by the Geologists and Geomorphoiogists in the deepest layers of the earth. On the mechanical side, the toy of a revolving twin-jet of escaping steam was developed into steam-engine for driving locomotives and other machines and into turbines of the steamship engines. Electric dynamo and motor were invented and innumerable mechanical devices simplified, or rather, mechanised the human life. Many of the scientists began to claim that man and his mind was also a form of a machine. in fact, many scientists began to believe that the entire universe was a machine in which man was just a small cog. Others thought that man was just one of the advanced species of animals and nothing more. Newton's Law of Gravitation established the theory that One piece of matter could attract another piece of matter at.
52
a distance without any material connecting link between the two pieces, through gravitation. And what was this gravitation? It was only a kind of field, which was considered to be a sort of tension of some kind in the space in between two Material bodies. Faraday extended the concept of the fields by putting forward the concepts of Lines of Force round electrical and magnetic bodies and of Tubes of Force starting from one electrified or magnetised body and ending on the surface of the body oppositely charged. These Lines of Force and Tubes of Force had a tendency to contract and expressed themselves as a force of attraction between two oppositely charged bodies and as a force of repulsion between bodies charged similarly. Huyghen's wave theory of Sight called for the existence of a non-material flexible and elastic medium—Ether—-per vading everywhere in the matter and the void, to carry the transverse waves of Sight Hertz showed experimentally that electric waves were produced on changes in an electric field. Maxwell developed mathematical equations which showed that both the light waves and the Hertzean electric waves were electro- magnetic radiations in Ether. Also, the electric and magnetic fields at right angles to each other were found to be the basis of all these electromagnetic radiations, and were not only a physical fact but also a mathematical reality. The gravitational and electromagnetic fields were supposed to spread through Ether by longitudinal and transverse stresses respectively. Further, elucidation of mathematical and experimental properties of the medium pervading everywhere, viz., Ether, opened out entirely new aspects of Nature, some of which appeared to be entirely against common sense and against geometrical and physical concepts which had been . found and developed In the past. Non-Euclidean Geometry developed by Reimann, Lorentz and others and the Theory of Relativity proposed by
53
Einstein altered the very basis of rational thinking and rationality itself. The basis of age-old concepts of causality and of continuity and atomicity were completely changed. As a reaction to the material realists, there had emerged a school of idealist Philosophy. Berkeley believed that everything resulted from the appreciation of Man, otherwise there was nothing more that had any significance. While the philosophic off-shoots of the advances in Science, Mathematics and Astronomy were being hotly discussed and pursued, the scientists themselves were trying to assess the position of science and technology in teleoiogical processes. Towards the end of the 19th century the famous Lord Kelvin, in his presidential address to the annual session of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, declared that the future advances of science would be in the sixth and higher places of decimal. This was a pronouncement by one of the greatest authorities in science of the period. Its implication was that he felt that all that v as necessary had been discovered about the nature of things in the material . universe. The only progress that could be made would be by better measurements and greater precision. But Nature is always full of ingenious tricks in its hat. At the time when Kelvin was making his pronouncement, the negative result of Morley-Michelson's experiment about the relative velocity of light in the East-West ana North-South directions on the earth was shaking the foundations on which stood the whole structure of science known up to that time. A satisfactory solution had not yet been found out. The phenomenon of discharge of electricity through gases was being studied. The properties of the heavy elements, heavier than mercury and gold, were being studied; and many more similar revolutionary studies were in the progress. The twentieth century brought with it the discovery of the cathode-rays, the X-rays and radio-waves which extended the spread of electromagnetic waves over a very wide range
54
indeed. The photo-electric effect proved that he absorption of electromagnetic radiations did not occur continuously Radioactivity shattered the solidity of material atoms. Movement of the perihelion of the planet Mercury against Newton's Law of Gravitation destroyed the common sense model of the citadel of Nature. The studies of black-body radiations made it necessary to change the notion about the nature of radiation. Electron, Proton, and later on the Neutron, were discovered. Thus the whole basis and structure of 19th century science was disturbed and changed. 92 atoms, the fundamental particles of the nineteenth century, which could not be broken up into smaller portions, and which could neither be created nor destroyed, were reduced to systems composed of three fundamental particles: electron, proton and neutron. Photo-electricity and radio-activity of the early twentieth century shook the faith in the deterministic philosophy of the nineteenth century. When ultra-violet light or light of other colours fell upon a bright metallic surface, electrons jumped off from it; but this was contrary to expectations based on the reduction of intensity according to the inverse-square law. All of the electrons ejected from the surface were so very much alike that you could not identify any as distinct from all others, but you could say how many of them will be ejected when radiation of a particular frequency fell upon the surface. When a given mass of radio-active substance was allowed to disintegrate, you knew how long it will take to reduce itself to half, you knew how much Alpha, Beta or Gamma rays will be emitted, but you could never say which atoms will break up and transmute themselves into new atoms and radiations. So far we were, certain that Alpha rays were really a shower of positively-charged electrical particles of approximately known masses, moving with very high velocities, Beta rays Were showers of negatively-charged electrical particles, also moving with very high velocities approaching the velocity of light, Gamma rays were electromagnetic radiations like light
55
and X-rays but much more penetrating. At about the same time, physicists were studying black-body radiation. This led Planck to the conclusion that radiation did not take place in a continuous way, but consisted of bundles of energy, which were called Quanta and recognised as Photons. His theory was called Quantum Theory. Rutherford suggested a model for the structure of atoms in which the positive electric charge was concentrated at the centre in the nucleus round which revolved electrons on definite elliptic orbits, at different distances, like the planets round the sun. But according to this model radiation had to be continuous while the photo-electric effect and black-body radiation had shown that absorption and emission of light was not continuous, ft was established by Bohr that emission or absorption of radiation was the result of jumping of electrons from one orbit to another and the magnetic and electric fields could distort or modify these orbits. But just as in the case of the movement of the perihelion of Mercury, the old Newtonian dynamics could not explain the micro-dynamics of electrons revolving round the nucleus and not emitting and absorbing radiation continuously. To correlate these new observations and advances of science, the entirely new theory of Relativity, the Quantum theory and the theory of Wave-Mechanics were proposed and found to be as generally operative as the old Saw of Gravitation or the Electro-magnetic theory were found up to the end of the nineteenth century. It was experimentally shown that electrons, protons, etc., were also bundles of waves like photons. Dalton's theory of indestructible material atoms was gone, and along with it a very solid base of materialism disappeared. Now the material universe is the name of some bundles of waves, some whirls of energy of different sizes, charges and orientations to which we give the name of "Elementary Particles1'.
56
Time became one of the dimensions of the material world tike its length, breadth and thickness, and Eddington, in the introduction to his book, Space, Time and Gravitation clarified the implication of this change as an additional degree of freedom to all material bodies by saying that if some body is locked up in a room and all the sides in length, breadth and height of the room are closed, but because the room as well as the body inside it are four-dimensional, i.e., they have four degrees of freedom, but the fourth dimension of Time has not been closed; hence, if the body inside it had the capacity to use its freedom in this direction, it could certainly come out or go into the three-dimensional room even when the six sides of the room remained closed. It is something like this. Suppose that on a plot of land you are surrounded by six-feet high walls on all sides. If you Know how to jump across the wall, i.e , if you know how to use your degree of freedom in the third dimension by jumping over the wall, you can go in and come out of the wailed prison at your will. Similar will be the case of a body having four degrees of freedom to jump out of or into a closed room from the fourth dimension. This is not fiction but a physical reality according to the understanding of modern science. In ordinary life, time is an irreversible movement from past to present and future. To go backwards in this dimension is not possible, but according to mathematical equation showing the distance as travelled by a body in terms of the changes in its co-ordinates in the four dimensions from x, y, z and t to (x + dx), (y + dy), (z + dz), and (t + dt), its value can be both positive and negative because c2 dt2 = dx2+dy2 + dx2 or dt = ± / dx 2+ dy2 + dz2 where c is the velocity
c of light. H.G. Wells, using the same property of the fourdimensional space-time continuum had introduced the timemachine in his novels for going backwards and forwards in time, as you go backwards and forwards in the three dimensions of length, breadth and thickness. This is just a
57
dramatic expression in words of the meaning of the relationship:dt =± /ds2 + dx2 + dy2 + dz2 c
The negative value of the square-root on the right hand side would mean going backwards in time, In the Quantum, Theory, the energy in radiation is not emitted continuously but in bundles or quanta when an electron jumps from one orbit in the atom to another. The amount of energy issued or absorbed is equal to the change in the momentum of the electron in passing over from one orbit to the other. This is equal to a constant 'h' multiplied by the frequency of radiation V (Greek letter nu). The Quantum Theory brought back the theory about the corpuscular nature of light, from waves to particles. Now, light was to be regarded as consisting of both particles (or, the photons) for some purposes, and of waves for others. The wave-mechanists explained away all the phenomena by bringing in the concepts of groupvelocity and wave velocity and by showing that the photon was only a group of waves travelling with the velocity of light. In wave-mechanics, another very funny thing became clear. While the electrons jump from one orbit to the other inside the atom, they cross the intervening four-dimensional space in between the two, but theoretically their existence in that space is impossible. This theoretical conclusion is fully supported by actual observation, because in the intervening apace, between the two orbits in an atom, the electrons cannot be located by any means at the disposal of science. This means that the electron is annihilated in one orbit and created in the other. This cannot be so, because the mechanism which gives rise to emission or absorption of radiation cannot- both annihilate and create a body at the same time.
58
In view of this situation, the only way in which the transfer of an electron from one orbit to the other could be conceived was as follows; Inside an atom the electromagnetic field is very strong, being about 1040 times stronger than gravitation. We also know that the nature of electromagnetism is quite different from that of gravitation, which is the function of the four-dirnensional space-time continuum. It was explained that elec-tromagnetism is the exhibition of a higher degree of freedom in the field inside the atom, say, the fifth dimension. Due to the strong electromagnetic field inside the atom, when an electron is knocked out from an orbit, it is thrown out of the four-dimensional continuum of space-time and travels in the fifth dimension of electromagnetism. This is tne reason why it cannot be located in the four-dimensional space intervening the two electron orbits inside the atom. Wonderful! Very wonderful indeed! The mathematical equations developed for the travel of electron in lower degrees of freedom term it impossible in this region, Relativity has shown to us that this material universe is four-dimensional. Quantum Theory and Wave Mechanics have taught us that even a fifth dimension is equally available in our material environment to make passage of perceptible bodies like electrons possible in it—a passage hidden from the eye, so much so that it cannot be seen even by mathematical equations, because these equations describe conditions in the four-dimensional continuum and show that it is impossible for such particles to exist in this fourdimensional space in between two orbits inside the atom. At this stage I will ask you to remember this when we discuss the miracle of Isra'—the bodily travel by night of Prophet Muhammad (P,U.H.) from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa by an electromagnetic vehicie, the Burraq.
The point which I wish to emphasize is that the twentieth century advances of science have shown that this mate-
59
rial universe in which we live is not only three-dimensional, in which matter can block the movements, but also four-dimensional and even five-dimensional. And, what is a dimension in mathematics? It is the name of degrees of freedom. In science, while we were trying to correlate our experiences, we started with the correlation of threedimensional phenomena by three-dimensional equipment and threedimensional concepts and language. As our knowledge advanced we were forced to take into account higher and higher degrees of freedom—four and five dimensional occurrences. Things which appear impossible and irrational when looking upon them from the point of view of lower degrees of freedom become possible and valid when higher degrees of freedom are taken into account We shall stop here for the time being and have a look at some other miraculous advances of science in the twentieth century. While wave and particle nature of a photon was being ascertained and explained, J. P. Thomson and others showed that an electron also was of the same nature. The electron also proved to be a wave and a particle at the same time. Researches in Cosmic rays and Atomic Physics have now revealed about 90 elementary particles, which can be grouped in families of 8 to 10. These are all of similar nature, i,e., sometimes a particle and at others a bundle of waves, with different gravitational masses, electric charges and spins. Now science is in search of a Fundamental Particle more fundamental than ail the others—the "Quark", of which ail the other elememary particies are made up. The procession is advancing in both the directions. On the micro-scale, inside the atom, we have seen that more and more fundamental particles, arranged in groups and series have been discovered and we have reached a stage where the search of the most fundamental particle*— the building-block of the entire material universe has started. We have discovered higher and higher degrees of freedom operating in all this complicated bundle of human experience which we call the Material World. We have seen that all the fundamental particles have a quality inherent in their very 60
nature. Sometimes they are particles, sometimes they are waves. In any case, they are ail big or small bundles of electromagnetic energy. In common language which may be understood by the common man, all these wave-particle bundles may be called by the genetic name "Light" and expanding universe lighted inside with these lights may be considered aniche in which there are lamps—-stars and galaxies— and the interstellar space is full of all kinds of electromagnetic radiations as if by the oil of olive, neither of the East nor of the West, which is glowing inside a glass without fire. But energy is the capacity of someone to do work. Is that One whose energy is exhibited in these elementary particles inside the expanding universe intelligent or unintelligent? This is the big question, Science says it is unintelligent and calls it Nature. "Materialist Dialectics regard it not only unintelligent but also think its inherent Contradiction to be the motive force of all development" (A Dictionary of Philosophy by Rosenthal and P. Yudin, p. 122 Moscow, 1967), Islam says it is the Intelligent, All-Knowing God—Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient—Allah, and He is described in Surah "Light" (XXIV: 35} of the Holy Qur'an as follows: "Allah is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth, The similitude of the light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp in a glass as if it were a shining star. This lamp is kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon Light. Allah guideth unto His Light whom He willeth. And Allah speaketh unto mankind in allegories, for Allah is the Knower of all things." Immediately another question arises: did a continuum precede the appearance of these bundles of energy, or the continuum came into being on appearance of these bundles? We shall look into it further as we proceed. But it would appear from the verses of the Surah XXIV quoted above that the limited expanding universe was opened out in a much higher dimensional continuum in which it could be identified as a
61
'niche' and now it is shining as a whole like a 'star'. All the electromagnetic radiations are not the results of chemical reactions— burning—fire. It is only light upon light in a limited transparency (glass) as if it were shining. Talking about the wave nature of the elementry particles, in his Presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sir James Jeans once appeared to suggest that this material universe was only a "Thought Wave" of some Supreme Thinker. But later on in his book "Some Problems of Philosophy" he came to the conclusion that the phenomena in the material universe are much more complicated in their nature. It is only a partial view when wet call a photon, electron, proton or any other fundamental entity as Particle or a Wave. Their real nature is described by the mathematical functions. In reality they are neither a simple' wave, nor a simple particle, but something much more complex. I agree with Sir James Jeans. An elementary particle when viewed from a lower dimension appears sometimes as a particle and at others as a. wave. Such contradictions appear only when a thing is viewed from a lower dimension. You know a cone is a three-dimensional body in which a circular surface is wrapped up by another surface in such a way that the free end of the wrapping surface meets at a point. If you cut two-dimensional cross-sections from this cone, the cross-sections will sometimes look like a circle, sometimes an ellipse, sometimes a parabola or a hyperbola, and in one case even a pair of two straight lines. You know that these are only the lower-dimensional views of a three-dimensional cone. Very strange indeed! This is what, I think, Sir James Jeans means that the real nature of the entities, which we sometimes find to be particles in our material four or five dimensional world, and sometimes waves, is much more complex. In order to explain the seemingly contradictory nature of photon, electron and other elementary particles, it may be postulated that a photon is a point of an electromagnetic field, its rest-mass is zero, it has no electric charge, it is neither visible, nor detectable. When it begins rotating on its axis, it
62
appears as a particle with spin equal to one, when it begins to move in a line, while it is still spinning on its axis, it appears as a bundle of waves. I am fully aware that this is a very inadequate representation of the actual facts, but this is the best i can think of in common words. This means that when we try to picture a rotating entity at a place in a three-dimensional continuum, it appears as a particle. When this rotating particle acquires motion i.e., when its positions in space are changing in time,—In other words, when we observe it in operation in the four-dimensional continuum, it appears as a wave. When we picture such an entity changing its momentum or working as an organism in moving from one orbit to another inside the atom, we cannot locate it until it comes back to a four-dimensional continuum orbit, because in this process it has to employ its higher degree of freedom to travel in the five-dimensional continuum of electro-magnetism. Now let us look at the same problem from another point of view. We have seen experimentally and mathematically that our material world is at least five-dimensional, because radiation cannot take place until the electrons have the capacity to use the fivedimensional continuum, between the electron's orbits inside the atoms. The problem which we wish to solve is how such a five-dimensional continuum could form. This is the problem which has remained the subject of enquiry from the earliest times in different forms and phraseologies. The problem of eternity of matter in a void, that of the First Cause, or that of Maya and eternal Atma, Permatma and Prakriti are just a few aspects of the same question. There is one thing about which we must be clear at this stage. Lower degrees of freedom cannot produce a complex of higher degrees of freedom because of the inherent limit of their physical nature and capacity. A point of zero degree of freedom, or a point having no dimension, cannot produce a line unless it is given one degree of freedom to move in
63
some direction. This would be possible only if the continuum in which it is situated has this degree of freedom already present in its constitution. A line cannot produce a surface "of two dimensions, unless a point is given two degrees of freedom, i.e., (1) to move in some direction, and (2) to move at an angle to the original direction but in the same plane. Similarly a surface cannot produce a volume with three dimensions, unless the point has three degrees of freedom to move, i.e., (1) backwards and forwards, (2) to the right and the left, and (3) upwards and downwards. And so on. Thus we see that lower degrees of freedom or lower dimensions cannot produce a complex of higher degrees of freedom or dimensions unless the continuum in which it exists already has the capacity for them, it is only from a complex of higher degrees of freedom, or higher dimensional continuum and a body of higher dimensions, that you can cut out and perceive cross-sections of lower degrees of freedom or lower dimensions. From a surface you can have a line. From a volume a surface. From a four-dimensionai continuum a volume, and so on. The presence of three-dimensional material bodies in a fourdimensional space-time continuum is a living We have seen that the active components of this seemingly three-dimensional, or in fact four-dimensional, matter, viz., electrons, protons, etc., utilize the five-dimensional continuum electromagnetism for producing radiation. Is the universe, in which the living ceils along with dead matter, and the very independently-acting radio-active atoms, exist, only four or five-dimensional? We know that the continuum in which we are situated is at least five-dimensional But are not the properties of living cells in vegetation, animal and human bodies, a!i of which have, their distinctive features, only the expressions of the degrees of freedom acquired by the fundamental particles of energy let loose some six to ten billion years back by the explosion of Yelm—the mother atom of modern Cosmology, or rather of modern Science?
64
The big question is: where that big explosion, which produced our material world, took place? Was it in a three, four five or higher dimensional continuum or in a zero-dimensional void. It could not be in a void, because Yelm itself was not void; it contained entities having higher degrees of freedom. In a void of zero degree of freedom higher dimensional activity would have been impossible. The only conclusion which we can draw, from the considerations that we have put forward so far, is that it must have been in a continuum in which much higher degrees of freedom could have their free play. While making this speculation, 1 am certainly going far beyond modern science. But it is equally certainly not against the conclusions reached by modern science and mathematics themselves. This is in fact one logical conclusion which we cannot ignore. Now we shall try to understand another conclusion of science that is equally important from the point of view of religion, which always believed that though the empirical and inductive approach is helpful in getting mastery over the mate rial elements of Nature, it cannot provide the complete com prehensive world-picture of this complicated system which we call the material world. For that, man has to depend on Reve lation. While trying to study the electron we found that to determine its properties the electron must be subjected to radiation or electric and magnetic forces. Immediately any of these forces is brought into play, the electron itself is affected. You can determine either its position or its velocity or its inherent state. Only one property can be determined at an instant. It is impossible to determine both the nature and themotion of the electron at one and he same time. This is the principle of Indeterminacy, or Uncertainty. This principle is now so firmly established in modem science that it is generally believed that the only thing about which there could be complete certainty is the "Principle of
65
Uncertainty." The Laws of Nature so far discovered are now regarded as only high statistical probabilities and not absolute certainties. So many well-established taws of Nature have been modified in the twentieth century that the validity of a new observation is not judged by its conformity with the well-established laws but by the reliability of its observer, because no law can be absolutely certain in the sense that it covers all the possible combinations and permutations of the variable parameters involved. The hypotheses go on improving through the advancement of knowledge and widening of human experience. This only means that although a law may be statistically valid so far, the possibility of its being disobeyed at times cannot be precluded, particularly when improved means of investigation become available or the use of higher degrees of freedom becomes possible. The really fundamental comprehensive law of Nature is, however, immutable. The "Habit of God" does not change, as the Qur'an puts it, or the Laws of Nature are inviolable within some statistical limits as science would like us to believe. Then what do the statements made in the previous paragraph mean? They only mean that because we are investigating Nature which has four, five or higher degrees of freedom, with equipment ana mathematics operating in lower dimensions, i.e., with three or four degrees of freedom only, this leads to seeming contradictions like those of particle and wave, or other uncertainties due to the very nature of higher degrees of freedom of Nature involved. You can never encompass a three-dimensional cone by a one-dimensional straight fine. The taws of Nature that we have discovered so far are not the True Laws of Nature, but only a lower-dimensional understanding of the Universal Law. Hence the unavoidable Uncertainty, about which we have become quite certain. The uncertainty, contadiction and spontaneity which we have come across during the progress of knowledge by. the scientific method have led to interesting discussions of determinism and indeterminism by scientists and philosophers.
66
Jeans and Eddington have discussed these problems at some length from the point of view of scientists who did not fear to give expression to some natural and logical conclusions of the scientific discoveries, which we have just touched in passing so far. For an audience of the future leaders of religious thought, like the one before me, I will leave this to philosophers more competent than 1 can ever claim to be. ! will, however, not hesitate to draw your attention to an evident conclusion which we can draw from the discussions we have had so far. We have seen that the real and the ultimate source of knowledge is Nature itself. But knowledge itself is only in the mind which works according to its own laws. The observations of Nature and establishing correlations between them form the basis of ail knowledge. Those observations which we succeed to correlate by the scientific method, i.e., by the method of observation, deductive and inductive reasoning and experimentation come in the sphere of science. Those which cannot thus be correlated with other experiences form part of history and other branches of knowledge, or of religion, as explained earlier. These cannot be ignored or set aside simply because they were not recorded by a scientist, or because they were interrelated with the personality of a prophet or a saint. They do remain a part of history, awaiting treatment by the scientific method, if possible. Nature and history are thus two sources of knowledge; The spiritualists believe that there is a third source also, viz., Revelation, or the inner experience. This is what the Qur'an has emphasised. The story of creation is of fundamental importance both for scientists and religious leaders. Instead of talking to you about abstract problems of determinism and indeterminism in the Philosophy of Science, I would like to explain the story of creation as now understood by scientists.
67
This should be of particular interest to you because the conflict between Science, on the one hand, and Christianity and Judaism and practically all other religions except Islam, on the other, rests on the modern scientific concepts about the creation of the universe. I will then put before you the verses of the Holy Qur'an on the subject, because the story of Creation in the Qur'an is the result of an experience quite distinct from the Scientific Method, viz., Revelation. For a clear comparison I shall also quote the story of Genesis from the Old Testament, which will show how Revelation is corrupted by ignorant people.
68
CHAPTER VI
Creation of the Universe as Understood by Modern Science The advent of interstellar space-travel, landing of man on the moon, and the introduction of new techniques of cosmic photography and radio-astronomy have ushered in a new revolution in astonomy, specially in the field of astro-physics. This is bound to be more tarreaching in its consequences than the revolution which started on the introduction of big quadrants and spherical astrolabes by the Muslims between the eighth and the eleventh centuries or the invention of the telescope in the seventeenth century. At that time our material world was very limited, indeed. The big divided instruments used by the Muslims improved the accuracy of the eye-observations and the telescope widened our observational horizon several times. It has continued to expand very rapidly with the manufacture of bigger telescopes and the advances in techniques of photography and sensitiveness of the photo-plates. It has widened still further by the introduction of the Radio-Telescope. Today we can see millions of galaxies like our own, at distances of millions of light years. Each of these galaxies contains millions of stars like our sun. With the help of radio-telescopes we have discovered large masses of dark clouds and other heavenly bodies which could never have been imagined before. All these visible and invisible heavenly bodies are sending out visual signals, cosmic rays, ultraviolet rays, infra-red rays and radio messages and inviting us continuously to unfold their secrets.
69
All the astronomical observations were so far taken from the bottom of a restless atmosphere, extending to several hundred miles. This atmosphere is divided into well-marked layers like troposphere, stratosphere, ionosphere, etc. Each of these layers modifies the electromagnetic radiations, which pass through it so profoundly that the pictures of heavenly bodies seen by us are completely distorted. But so far, there was no way out. Now, for the first time, we have succeeded in getting out of the atmosphere into free space and in seeing things as they are. The astronomical science, which was so far largely speculative, has suddenly changed into an experimental science. The human race has jumped out into Space to gain knowledge about the sun, the moon, the other planets and the interplanetary space by direct experiments, uninterfered with by the atmosphere of the Earth. The problems of space, time and gravitation, which were so far a matter of mere theoretical interest, have now assumed a practical importance, and the knowledge of the structure of the universe is soon going to be of immediate Pratactical use. These problems are but phases of the cosmological problem, which in its own turn, converges into two main issues: the structure of the universe and the creation of the universe. There is no doubt that this cosmological problem has been the subject of speculation from the earliest stages of human existence. In fact, if we look at the concepts about the creation of the universe put forward by various generations and nations, we get a very good idea of not only the scientific facts known to them, but also of their religious beliefs and hidden hopes and motives. They show the breadth of experimental knowledge attained in every generation, the depth of their thoughts, and the height of their aspirations. They also throw light on their social ideals and behaviour. The story of creation of the universe, in fact, provides a key to the story of the evolution of scientific investigation and research, and sums up the total knowledge gained by man at each stage. "Cosmology" is not an a priori science; its basis lies
70
in Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Astro-physics, etc. The history of these sciences is in fact a description of a rapidly receding and expanding intellectual horizon—not only the observational horizon, but also that of basic concepts on which philosophers raise their systems of cosmological thought. In every branch of knowledge there are certain facts which form the core. These are based on experimentally-verifiable laws. On the other hand, there are always certain concepts near the border-line of science which are hazy and ill-defined. In cosmology the reasoning is generally co-extensive with these illdefined concepts and uncrystallised ideas, because in this we actually try to step even beyond their limits. It is therefore natural that certain parts of cosmology are controversial and not quite certain. But we can neither ignore them, nor can we brush them aside simply for this reason, because the advancement of knowledge is always on the border line, near the horizon, where ideas and basic data are ill-defined. Efforts to comprehend the problem of creation o1 the universe has been made by different nations from the earliest times in two entirely different ways. Firstly, by introspective contemplation in the mystic way. The pantheistic hypothesis that "God is all and ail is God", or its reserve theistic belief that the universe is a creation distinct from God, both are the results of this effort. The second approach has been inductive and scientific. We wish to discuss the knowledge about creation as it has been obtained by the scientific and inductive method. The progress of knowledge by this method, though slow, is more reliable and beyond controversy. No doubt, the scientific theories also change from time to time, yet every one of them is correct within the limits of observations on which-it is based. Every step forward on this path carries us closer to the ultimate goal, i.e., correlation of our experiences for the full understanding of reality as it is.
81
The cosmologists have put forward a number of hypotheses about the creation of the universe. This group of workers includes the well-known personalities of Kant, Laplace, Jeans, Eddington, Hubble, Dirac, Gamo, Einstein, Hoyell, etc. Everyone of the hypotheses they made has some strong points and some weaknesses, but ultimately all of them reduce themselves into two groups—the hypothesis of Explosion or Big Bang and that of Steady State. Their propounders also fall into two groups of theists and atheists respectively. This basic difference between the two groups has crystallised in the last few decades. i will first try to encompass physical cosmology and will try to represent the structure of the universe. I will also discuss its general atomic structure, and alter considering the physical and chemical composition of the material world, i will try to take a glimpse of that field of events where at a particular moment, for reasons beyond our comprehension, a sudden explosion occurred in Yelm, the mother-atom, and after the appearance of tight first and then of darkness, this material universe, as we see ana experience it today, came into existence. This is a very difficult and complicated problem, but I will try to clarify the issues involved in this most perplexing story. Before the invention of the telescope, i.e, up to 1609 A.C., all the astronomical observations were made by the naked eye. But the human eye can see things up to a very limited distance. Up to that time, therefore, our universe was confined to a very limited corner of our galaxy of the Milky Way. Some nebulae could of course be sighted here and there, but they were regarded as situated in our starry universe of the galaxy itself. The population of stars appeared to be spread out equally on all sides. The sun, the moon and the planets of the solar system occupied an important, rather the most prominent, place in the universe seen by the naked eye. It appeared that the Earth was at the centre of that universe. Practically all the astronomers believed it to be at the
72
Centre, .and this inference, based on visual observations, was not far wrong. If you are standing in a forest, with a diameter of 20 or 30 miles, far away from the centre, say at a distance of 4 or 5 miles from the edge, and if a fog envelopes you and you are not able to see beyond a mile or so, you will see trees spread out equally all around you; and on the basis of this observation you will be justified in thinking yourself to be at the centre of the forest. This was exactly the position of the astronomers depending upon the observations of their naked eye. They used to consider their planet earth to be at the centre of the universe. This belief was most satisfying psychologically also. The most intelligent creature in the universe, Man, should be at the centre. The discovery of the telescope and the law of gravitation, and even more than these, the development of the technique of photography and sensitivity of the photo-plate, opened out ways for further discoveries. We could see about 5,000 stars with the naked eye. Now their number can be counted in hundreds and thousands of millions. Now we know that there are some 150 thousand million stars in our galaxy, which can be well recognised. The bright stars which can be seen in the northern and southern hemispheres of the sky are burning and raging spheres like our sun. In the beginning it was assumed that their masses and brightnesses are also like those of our sun. On the assumption that their brightness, as seen by us, vanes in the inverse ratio as the square of their distance, Newton worked out the distances of all the stars. In the nineteenth century, when the distances of near stars were computed on the basis of parallax, they were found to agree fainy well with the results of Newton, which were therefore accepted to some extent. But when the colours and temperatures of the stars were estimated, it was found that the brightness of stars varies very greatly. Some stars are three hundred thousand times brighter than the sun and some are less bright to the same extent. After this the distances calculated by Newton had to be changed completely.
73
While these efforts were in progress, Herschel put forward the hypothesis that the sun is at the centre of the universe. This was just like the geocentric assumption of the old astronomers depending upon eye-observations. However, by the correct analysis of his telescopic observations he succeeded in reaching the conclusion that the stars in our galaxy are not equally spread in ail directions within a sphere. These are spread far out in the equatorial plane and the galaxy is flattened on the poles in the shape of two saucers with their tops placed on each other. So is the case with more than 70 per cent of the galaxies now discovered. The stars are situated in the universe at very great distances from each other. Every star is like a lonely ship plying on an unbounded ocean. For instance, in the solar system itself, which is an insignificantly small part of the material world, the distance of the earth from the sun is 93 million miles and that of Pluto from the sun is 3,670 million miles. This is the longest distance in our solar system. Our closest neighbour amongst the stars is Alpha Centauri. It is so far off that its light takes about 4.4 years to reach us. In other words, it is situated at a distance of about 26X1012 miles, or about 280,000 times the distance between the earth and the sun. The stars are often found in groups of two, three or four. The periods of revolution of each of these round the other have been found to be in inverse ratio to their masses. We are thus able to determine their masses from the observations of their motions. It is similar to determining masses of different members of the solar system, because in this we know the density, volume and velocities of rotation and revolution of different members very accurately. In this way the masses of different heavenly bodies have been computed with great confidence. We also know that the masses of different stars do not vary much. The mass of our sun is about 1992 X 1024 million tons. This is nearly the average mass of the population of stars. The difference between this and the mass
74
of the heaviest and the lightest stars is not much. Ordinarily they vary from about one tenth of the solar mass to about ten times that of the solar mass. Of course, some stars, or their groups, have masses varying from about one hundredth to one thousand times that of the sun. The variation in the brightness of stars is, however, much more. Some stars are three hundred thousand times brighter than the sun, while some are three hundred thousand times fainter. So far as the colours of the light sent out by the stars are concerned, we find all the colours of the rainbow and many more on both the sides of the visible spectrum. The colours of the stars help us in determining their temperatures. The variation in respect of volumes and densities of matter in Them is far greater. If we arrange the stars according to their masses about 80 per cent of the stars are arranged in respect of their colours also. The heavies sxars send out light towards the blue and violet end of the spectrum and are much hotter. The lighter stars are reddish and at a lower temperature. The stars with average mass, like our sun, are yellow. These are called "main sequence stars". Besides these, there are stars of two different kinds. One kind of these stars are called "White Dwarfs" which have much higher temperature at their centres than found in the sun. The matter near their centres is so compressed that its density is several hundred thousand times greater than the density of matter in the sun. In respect of their evolutionary stage they are in old age and they occur to the left in the graph for the main sequence stars. They explode at regular intervals. The greater they are removed from the main sequence the longer is the period of their explosion, and ultimately they burst and die out from the visible world. The other type of stars are found to the right of the main sequence stars. They are usually red, or sometimes yellow. Their temperature is much lower as compared to other
75
stars. They have huge masses, but their matter is spread over such vast volumes that their density is very low indeed. In some of them there are hardly a few molecules in a cubic centimeter. In mass and volume they are several million times larger than the sun. They are called "Red Giants". Their brightness varies in regular periods. They present an early stage in the story of creation and meet the stars of the main sequence after considerable evolution. Now we know that our sun is not even at the centre of our galaxy. In fact, it is a very ordinary member, situated on the outskirts, in a spiral arm of the galaxy, some 30 thousand light years away from its centre. The diameter of our galaxy is about a hundred thousand light years. The sun with its 9 planets, 31 moons, 30 thousand asteroids or' planetoids and thousands of comets (tail stars), is revolving round the centre of the galaxy with a very great velocity, from west to east, and its one revolution round the centre of the galaxy will be completed in about two hundred million years. In the words of the Qur'an the sun is heading towards a goal! This goal so far is towards the Dog star. In our galaxy there are many bright or dark nebulae or cosmic clouds. In the galactic system we find some spots of light, some of which are spread over vast areas and are called "Magellanic Clouds". Some of them are lighted up by bright stars in their midst, others are dark and hide the starry sky behind them. These produce spectacles like those of holes or vast cracks in the sky. These used to be considered as cracks in the sky for many years. But the Holy Qur'an declared in Sura Al-Mulk. verses 3 and 4: "He who created the seven heavens one above the other. No want of proportion wilt thou see in the creation of the Most Gracious God. So turn thy vision again: seest thou any flaw? Aye look again and yet again, thy vision will only return to thee dulled and discomfited in a state worn out." How true this Qur'anic assertion has been found. We have examined the heavens again and again, but found that
76
there is no such incongruity as holes and cracks anywhere in the heavens. The dark clouds are debris of gases and dust left over in the interstellar space after the formation of stars. They hide the bright stars at their back and cast shadows which give impression of holes and cracks in the heavens. Unlike these there are patches of light which are called "Stellar Nebulae". These have round or flattened shapes and some have rings or parts of rings connected by bars. One such nebula with spiral arms can be seen even with the naked eye in the constellation of Andromeda. Until about 50 years back all those nebulae were considered to be a part of our galaxy. Kant and Laplace had put forward the hypothesis that these nebulae are formed by the collision of two stars and that our solar system had been produced in a like manner. In 1925 on the basis of the photographs of the nebulae t a k e n b y . t h e b i g t e l e s c o p e s o f M o u n t W i l son, Hubble proved that these nebulae consist of millions of stars. They are not just like the page-boys of our galaxy. In fact, they are galaxies in their own right. Each of these galaxies has some Alghol stars called "Cepheid Variables". The periods of the Cepheids vary from a few hours to days, weeks, months and years. From the observations of the Cepheids in our galaxy whose distances could be calculated by other means, Shapely proved that the brightness of all the Cepheids having the same period is the same, and their brightness does not depend upon the variation of the light emitted by them but entirely on the inverse relation of the square of their distances. This provided us with a new yardstick for measuring the distances of galaxies. Where the distances of galaxies were computed on the basis of periods of the Cepheid variables situated in them, it was found that the galaxies also group themselves in constellations 77
like the stars. For instance, we now know that there are about 17 galaxies in the group to which our galaxy belongs and they occupy an area in space which would require light one hundred and fifty thousand years to traverse. In some cases there are as many as 500 galaxies in a constellation. With the help of the biggest telescope we have so far counted about 150 billion galaxies in the material universe to which our galaxy belongs and they occupy a volume in space which would take light roughly ten thousand million years to traverse. This sphere contains in the region of 10 grammes of matter in a multitude of forms from radiation and tenuous gas to ultra-compact neutron stars with a density of about 10 gm per cubic centimeter. This universe, if seen from outside, will look like a glass full of light without fire. If these galaxies are arranged according to their shapes, we find that some of them are spherical or a little flattened. These are about 17 per cent of the total number. 80 per cent of the galaxies have flattened out very much like our galaxy and have ultimately thrown out spiral arms, as in our case. Some 3 per cent of the galaxies are irregular in shape. When we arrange the nebulae according to their shapes, they are arranged surprisingly well with respect to their other characteristics also. For instance, the rounder and less-flattened galaxies are in earlier stage of evolution in other respects, and their rates of rotation about their central axes are not very fast. As they become flatter the rotation about the central axis becomes faster. It is believed that the flatter the galaxies are the faster they rotate and the older and more advanced they are. However, in all these galaxies, we can easily distinguish different kinds of stars and we find that when the galaxies are very flat they become much brighter and more blue. Another striking thing noticed is that the galaxies of the same shape have similar brightnesses and similar volumes. 'n other words, their ages and stages of evolution are also similar. '
78
The flattened nebulae, with spiral arms spreading out, are very important from our point of view, because the are like our own galaxy. These are populated in the inner central region with the red giants and the inter-stellar space there is very clear. As against this, the arms are full of particles of dust and gases and contain the main sequence stars, Blue Giants and White Dwarfs. Our sun is a main sequence star. The presence of dust and gas in these arms, in the region of main sequence stars, plays an important role in the evolution of systems of planets, moons and the comets (tail stars), like those in our solar system. It has been found that in the solar system the total angular momentum of the planets and moons, etc., is so great as compared to the angular momentum of the sun that its distribution could not be explained on the basis of the hypothesis of Laplace, Jeffry and Jeans. It has now been shown that the distribution of the momentum between the central star and the planets, etc., and the other characteristics noticed in the solar system could be explained on the hypothesis that when the sun entered the cosmic cloud in thearm of the galaxy and when the plasmic matter got heated up, it expanded and cooled, the planets, the moons, the asteroids and other members of the solar system were-formed under the action and reaction of the forces of gravitation and magnetism. This would mean that in 80 per cent of the galaxies, which are like our galaxy, there could exist systems like our solar systems, and even in the arms of our own galaxy there could be more systems, like those associated with our sun. There may be life like the earthly life, or of some different type, present on planets at suitable distances from the central star in each system, but our knowledge is very limited so far. We cannot say anything about this, in fact, the stars are so far off that we cannot even observe the small planets associated with them. From the observations of Cepheid variables in the near galaxies we have been able to compute their distances. These
79
estimates have shown that the nebulae of similar shape are equal in size and also in their brightness. The Alghols and Cepheid variables cannot be distinguished in distant nebulae, but the discovery of similarity of galaxies has made it possible to compute their distances by the often-used proportionality of the observed brightness with the inverse square of their distance. The material universe is spread around us to a distance of about five thousand million light years. This is an expanding universe; every galaxy is receding from us with a velocity which is proportional to its distance. We can measure their speed of rotation round their axes and the velocity of their recession from us by spectral analysis of the light received from them. This can be done with the help of the principle called "Doppler's principle". The mixed light of different colours, as in sunlight, appears to us colourless. If it is passed through a prism, its colours separate out and we see the spectrum. These various colours are really electromagnetic waves with different wave-lengths. If the body sending out light and the body on which the spec-trometric observations are taken are relatively stationary, the bending of a ray of a particular colour is always the same, depending upon its wave-length. If they are approaching each other, with a velocity comparable to the velocity of light, the lines of various colours in the spectrum are shifted towards the violet end of the spectrum. If they are receding from each other, the rays are shifted towards the red end of the spectrum. This is Doppler's principle which applies to all kinds of waves, and even the radio-waves sent out from dark heavenly bodies follow this principle. By the spectrometric examination of all the galaxies we learn the interesting fact that the light coming from all the galaxies is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum, showing thereby that alt the galaxies in the universe are receding from us, and from each other. Hubble had discovered the law of recession of heavenly bodies in 1929. According to this law the velocity of recession
80
of heavenly bodies is 38 times the distance between them in million light years. If a galaxy is 100 million light years away from us, it will be receding from us at rate of 3,800 miles per second. If it is 1,000 million light years from us, its rate of recession will be 38,000 miles per second. This is about one-fifth of the velocity of light. The rate of recession of the galaxies which we have succeeded in identifying with the 200-inch telescope has been as great as 2|3 of the velocity of light. A most distant galaxy which has been detected by the radio-telescope during the last decade is about 4,500 million light years away. We know from the theory of Relativity that no material body can move with a velocity greater than that of light. It is thus evident that with the biggest radio-telescope the most distant galaxy, which we will be able to see, will be moving with a velocity which wilt be a little less than the velocity of light. This distance is now not far from our reach. In other words, we have reached near the utmost limits of the observable space-time complex. Let us now try to understand how this expanding universe was created. in understanding "How" and "Why" in this field of cosmology the great difficulty is that we try to extend the results obtained from observations on the tiny earth to the whole universe. But our earth, even our solar system, is insignificant like a speck of dust in the universe. On this earth we cannot produce and experience the velocities of material bodies which we are observing in the universe, nor can we understand the state of the continuum when the dimensions of space-time merge, so to say, into each other on approaching the velocity of light, where time, so to say, becomes stationary, where the meaning of mass changes its very significance, and where lengths have a different meaning altogether. But, we cannot solve this problem unless we are clear on this point. It has been shown mathematically that if the continuum in which our material universe is situated is simply three-dimensional, in that case a ray of light will travel in a Euclidean
81
raight line. If it is four-dimensional, the ray of light will not avel in a straight line, because that space will be non-Eucliean and in that space the shortest distance between any two ints will lie on a surface described by the revolution of a perbola on its axis. The bending of the ray of light on this asis was predicted by Einstein for the observations at the me of total eclipse of the sun in 1919. The actual observaons showed that although the bending of the ray was of the rder of magnitude predicted, it was not exactly equal to that. This showed that Space was non-Euclidean, i.e., more nan three-dimensional, but the tour-dimensions of space-me also do not cover it completely. There could be non-Euclidean space of spherical type lso in which the shortest distance between two points on any urface will be a part of a great circle. The bending of rays n this also can be computed. But to discover the bending in his type of space, rays of light from much greater distances ire required. With the big optical and radio-telescopes now in use has become possible to test the type of non-Euclidean space hat we have actually in existence and in which our material iniverse is situated. This problem was discussed in the Ame-ican journal "Science" (1961, volume 134) in two articles by William A. Baum under "Photo-electric Test of World Models" p. 1426) and Allan Saudage under "Travel Time for Light from Distant Galaxies Related to the Riemannian Curvature of the niverse" (p. 1434). In these articles it is shown that by cer-ain methods which have now become available, it is found that the geometric structure of physical space is not Euclidean, but the specific kind of non-Euclideanism cannot also be oncluded. This has clearly shown that the dimensions, or the egrees of freedom of the continuum in which we are situated, definitely more than three. But the upper limit is not comtely encompassed by four, five, etc., dimensions for which
82
the non-Euclidean spaces and surfaces have so far been conceived of and investigated. The preceding discussion leads us to the conclusion that ours is a universe composed of galactic systems. They are made up of the type of matter sending out radiations similar to those that we have in our galaxy. The optical properties of the atoms and molecules are the same as in our solar system. This we have ascertained from spectroscopic analysis. But such radiations can be sent out both by matter and antimatter. At one place in the visible universe two galaxies appear to be colliding, or are in the process of crossing each other. This system is sending out such intense radiations which could be produced only on the annihilation of matter. This would be possible only if one of these two galaxies was made up of matter, likes ours, and the other galaxy was made up of anti-matter. When matter and anti-matter come together they destroy each other and produce the intense radiation which we are observing. The question that arises is whether all this matter and antimatter which compose the material world are something created? Or have they been there from eternity? The materialists believe that the total amount of matter is from eternity. It is the Reality. It has always been there and will continue for ever. The second thing which is from eternity accordingly, is its capacity to do work—the Energy. The greatest achievement of the 19th century was the supposition of the conservation of energy and conservation of matter, which entails that matter could neither be produced nor annihilated; its shape and composition could change but not its amount. So is the case with energy according to the principle of conservation. The total amount of the two together is constant in the universe. Us capacity for doing work is shown by the *Anti-matter is that In which tht nucleons are negative, made up of anti-protons and anti-neutrons, and the surroundlng particle are antl-electrons, I,e,, positrons, etc.
83
concept of entropy which represents the state of organization or disorganisation in the universe. The entropy of the universe is increasing, or, in other words, its organisation is becoming more and more perfect. According to this hypothesis, a time could come when no work would be possible. The materialists, however, believe that accidents will continue to happen even then, and some activity will always continue. To prove this, they take help of the Kinetic theory of gases, and put forward many interesting examples to prove their point. But all these discussions are needed for the difficulties created by themselves by accepting the conservation principle and thereby the eternity of matter and energy. As the mechanical concept of the universe had reached its height of advancement at the end of the nineteenth century, it was generally believed that science had reached its perfection, and its further advances would depend upon greater accuracy of measurements and observations. The atomic theory of Dalton and the Periodic law of Mendeleev had been fully demonstrated. New elements were being discovered with its help. Life was considered to be the result of the mechanical forces operative in matter. It was asserted that if we could know the exact state at any moment and the condition of all the atoms in the universe, it would not be difficult to describe its past, present and future completely by equations. Soul and God were considered to be the results of blind faith. The scientists could not experiment on God and soul in their laboratories; therefore they were not their concern. In this very period the Christian Church established, after meticulous researches of their Scriptures, that the material universe was created in seven days in the month of October in 4004 B.C. When the researches in geology unearthed fossils of plants and animals lying buried in layers deep down the earth, the geologists could calculate, on the basis of their stratification, the time when they were actually buried in the earth.
84
This came to hundreds of thousands and millions of years. Now those Christian and Jewish scientists who believed in God and in the New and Old Testaments found themselves in a great difficulty. According to their own researches this earth has been in existence for millions of years; but the Bible had taught them that this earth was created in 4004 B.C. They were simply perplexed. Added to this was the theory of evolution which was shaking Christianity and Judaism to -their very foundations. It was completely at variance with the story of creation in their Scriptures which taught them of spontaneous creation. The Christian Church tried to meet the geological challenge by saying that, though the earth was created in 4004 B.C., God in His endless bounty and also to show his miraculous powers, had embedded the fossils of millions-of-years old plants and animals in the deep layers of the earth. Under these circumstances there was no way out for a Christian scientist except either to discard religion altogether, or to say that science and religion in which they believed are entirely different things and we should not mix them together. This is what they did: they either became agnostics and atheists or left their religion behind when they came to their laboratories. The difficulties which beset the Jewish and Christian scientists do not arise in the case of the Muslim scientists. The Holy Qur'an does not ask its followers to believe in such foolish dogmas. It does say that the universe was created in six "Days". But it also makes it clear that the word "Day" used in this context is a Cosmic Day which is equal to thousands of years of the terrestrial countings. It is, therefore, clear that the six Days mentioned in the Qur'an for the completion of the creation of the universe are six epochs or stages. Then, there is nothing in the Qur'an against the idea of evolution, lt rather emphasises the power of evolution as one of the most fundamental characteristics of God, which is denoted by one of His names "al-Rabb". Indeed, there is nothing in the Holy Qur'an of which we should be ashamed to ad-
85
mit like the Christian and Jewish scientists of the West. But it appears that we are doomed to be misled by the westerners. Originally we adopted the wrong geocentric astronomy of the Greeks and the Egyptians and put ourselves in the labyrinth of their design. And now under the misleading teachings of Christian scientists based on their doubts about the Christian dogmas, we have started getting ashamed and frustrated about our uncorrupted religion—Islam. The most fundamental fact about the universe which has so far been brought out is that all the heavenly bodies are composed of material atoms, which we can identify by the radiations emitted by them. Dalton believed that these particles are unbreakable and indestructible—that they are the smallest units of matter. The weight of the atoms of different elements is different and on that depends their chemical and physical properties also. And these properties repeat themselves again with increase or decrease in their intensly after a certain number of elements. This was the periodic law. Towards the end of the nineteenth country it appeared that there are some 92 elements, consisting of atoms of different weights and colours, etc. The discovery of radio-active elements proved that the doctrine of the indivisible atoms was wrong. The discharge of electricity in vacuum-tubes and the researches of Rutherford, Thomson and others proved that all material particles are composed of negatively and positively charged electrical particles called electrons and protons respectively. The protons are at the centre of the atom and the electrons revolve round them in fixed orbits, like the planets round the sun. In the hydrogen atom, there is one proton at the centre and one electron that revolves round it on a shell or an orbit. The helium atom has two protons in the nucleus and two electrons on the outer shell. But the atomic weight of helium is 4. When this new complication was investigated it was found that in the nucleus of a helium atom there are two neutrons, be-
86
sides two protons, and the weight of the neutrons is nearly equal tothat of the protons. It was also found that the neutrons are very unstable particles. They break up into a proton and electron or anti-proton and a positron in 13 minutes, if they are left free in space. These neutrons have no electric charge and their presence in the nucleus increase the atomic weight only. Thus protons and neutrons make up the nucleus and they together form the "nucleons". As the number of protons and neutrons increases in the nucleus, heavier elements are produced. The properties of atom depend upon the number of protons in its nucleus. Their position in period table is determined by these. It is called "atomic number". Arrangement of the periodic table shows at a glance both the continuity and the differences in the properties of matter. The number of electrons revolving in the outer shells in an atom is the same as the number of protons in its nucleus. The chemical properties of the atom depend upon the electrons in the outermost shell. Their valency also depends upon the number of electrons on the outermost shell. The maximum number of electrons which can exist on a particular shell is fixed. On the first shell round the nucleus can exist 2 elections, on the second and third shells 8 each, on the fourth and fifth 18 each, and on the sixth 32. When the number of electrons on the outermost shell becomes 2, 8, 18, or 32, their capacity for combination with other elements is completely satisfied, their valency becomes zero and they do not readily combine with other elements. This is the case with Helium. Krypton, Xenon, Radon and Lutecium, Neon, Argon. Originally it was believed that there could be only 92 elements. Now we know that there are 102 elements and expect to discover two more, thus making a total of 104. The atoms in many of the elements are such that the number of protons in the nucleus and the number of electrons in the outer shells remain unchanged, but the number of neu-
87
trons increases or decreases depending upon the manner in which the particular atom is formed. The result of this is that, although the chemical properties of a particular element remain unchanged, the atomic weights of their different atoms differ. These atoms are called isotopes. So far, we have succeeded in separating out 300 isotopes in nature. 50 of these are radio-active. The isotopes are representative of temperatures and radio-active balance of the cosmic environment at the time of creation. Several isotopes are produced by the breakup of the radio-active atoms and their relative amounts present in any body help in estimating the age of their habitat very accurately. For instance, lead was formed as one of the elements at the time of creation. It is also produced by the radio-active break-up of the atoms of thorium, radium, uranium, etc. The atomic weights of the lead atoms obtained from all these sources are dftrerent, but their chemical properties are the same. These are all the isotopes of lead. The weight of the natural lead atom is 204. The lead atom produced from U2w weighs 206, that from U234 weighs 207 and that from Th232 weighs 208. If in a rock we find all these isotopes of lead and also U238, U235 and Th232 then, from their relative amounts present in the rock, we can easily compute the age of the rock. This can be done because every radio-active element has a fixed half-life period. The half-life period of Th2J2 is 14,000 million years, that of U23s >is 4,500 million years and of U235 is only 710 million years. This means that if we have 2 gms of Thorium anywhere, it will be reduced to 1 gm in 14,000 million years and to 0.5 gm in another 14,000 million years, and so on. Similarly U2 38 will be reduced to half in 4,500 million years, and so on. Thus from the relative amounts of Th232, U238. U235, Pb2os, Pb206fi and Pb207. which will always be there, we calculate the age of the rock. The ages of rocks of the earth have been computed in this way. The oldest rock that has been found so far is about 3,400 million years old, This shows that the rocks in our earth solidified about 3,400 million years back. 88 When we compute the amount of U 238 and U 238 present in
the meteors falling on our earth we find the surprising fact that U235 is nearly always only about 0.7 times of U 238 . It cannot be believed that at the time of creation these two isotopes of Uranium were created in such different amounts. Therefore, assuming that originally their amounts were equal and the present difference in their amounts is due to difference in their half-life periods, we find that to reduce the amount of U 235 to its present proportion at least 7 periods of 710 million years must have passed. Thus we know that Uranium was created in this universe about 5,000 million years back. When on our earth we find that the amount of Thorium is nearly the same as that of non-radioactive elements of similar atomic weights we at once know that even one half-life period of this element, i.e., 14,000 million years has not yet passed since the creation. Thus, when we compute the age of the earth from the relative amounts of different isotopes of lead, we find, according to Hubble, that the earth was created some 3,500 million years back. We know that all the rivers carry some salts into the oceans and the amount of salts in the oceans therefore goes on increasing from year to year. On computation it has been found that in every 100 years it increases by about a millionth part. We know the present quantity of salts in the oceans. If we compute the age of the earth from the rate of increase of salt mentioned above, we again find that the oceans came into existence on this earth some 3,500 million years back. George Darwin, the grandson of the famous Charles Darwin, has found that, due to dissipation of energy by the tides, the distance of the moon from the earth increased by about 5 inches every year. At present, the distance of the moon from the earth is nearly 239,000 miles. Assuming that the moon originally broke off from the earth or was formed
89
very near to it, and therefore, dividing 239,000 miles by 5 inches, we get a figure 4,000 million years, which would apparently be the age of the moon. After man reached the moon and brought back its soil and rock samples, though the enquiry has not reached a final stage, it has been found that the soil of the moon is not similar to that of earth, but the age of the moon comes out to be of the same order. Thus we find that the age of the earth computed from the isotopes of the different elements present on it, is in harmony with the age of various landmarks in the cosmic history, the formation of oceans, the breaking away of the moon or its independent formation, the consolidation of meteors, etc. It is thus seen that the amounts of isotopes, or rather the amounts of various elements serve as a very important link in understanding the story of evolution of the universe. It may be shown by these methods that our material universe came into existence between 5 and 10 thousand million years back. This is a very important calculation. Because in the history of the human race it is for the first time that we have known by the scientific method that matter has not been in existence since ail time. It was created some time between 5 and 10 thousand million years back. It may be recalled that all the millions of galactic universes are receding from each other at tremendous velocities and their rate of recession goes on increasing at the rate of 38 times the distances of galaxies measured in millions of light years. The velocities of recession measured near the horizon of the radio-telescopes are approaching the velocity of light itself. If we calculate backwards the time when all these galactic systems started on their journey outwards from a central position, we come to the surprising figures of about ten thousand million years. In other words, we learn that the galaxies which we now find at a distance of 10,000 million, light years had started to disperse from a central point about ten thousand million years back.
90
When we get results of the same order of magnitude about the date of coming into existence of the material universe from all the different methods known to us, our confidence in the results obtained from our terrestrial observations is much increased. Again, when we compute the ages of the sun, the moon, the stars and the galactic systems, etc., from their brightness, from the variations in radiations emitted by them depending upon their atomic constitutions, their stages of evolution, their velocities—in whatever way we compute their ages, all come to a few thousand million years. No doubt, the ages which we obtain by different methods do differ. By some methods we get 3 thousand million years, by some 5 thousand million, by some even 10 thousand million years or so. But if we keep in view the difficulties of these computations and the uncertainties involved and then if we also remember that a most insignificant being on an insignificant speck, the earth, is trying to peep out through formidable barriers of space and time, the difference of a few billion years in these computations is not important at all. What is important is the fact that all these approaches lead us to a definite beginning of this material universe, a few billion years back. It has not been in existence from eternity. Now the question arises as to how all this matter was created. It is not difficult to understand this, if we keep in view the facts that the universe is expanding and that according to the theory of Relativity, the expansion or contraction of the universe is as important a property of the four-dimensional material universe as gravitation itself. From our observations we know that all the galaxies are not only receding from each other, but they also rotate round their axes. This rotation affects their shape. The greater the speed of rotation, the more they are flattened on their poles. This also shows their stage in evolution. Some 80 per cent of the galaxies are rotating so rapidly that they have flattened out very much and, in most cases, matter has burst
91
out in spiral arms, as in the Andromeda Nebulae, or in our own galaxy. Their average kinetic energy of rotation is pro-ponional to their velocity of recession, just as is the case with molecules in gases. This is just according to statistical mechanics. This shows that the conditions which we experience on a small scale in the molecules of gases on the earth are happening on a large scale on galaxies in the inter-galactic space. We find that the galactic matter, spread out in space, is governed by similar laws as the fluids on the earth. Thus we understand how, after the first creation, it must have divided into great pieces now constituting the galaxies and their constellations after becoming a smoke-like mass and how the stars in these galaxies must have formed lacer on. All these observations also show that if today our space, with all its galactic systems, is expanding, at one stage it must have existed highly compressed in a small space. This was the case only a few billion years back. In other words, all that matter, which is spread over billions and billions of miles of space today, must have, about 10 billion years back, been packed up in a small space. At that time its diameter could not have been more than about 30 times the diameter of our sun. The pressure inside this sphere must have been so great that its density must have been several million times the density of water. At that time its temperature must have been billions of degrees absolute. Under these conditions it would be impossible for matter like ours to exist. The whole space must have been full of the elementary particles like protons, neutrons, electrons, in close compaction. Nobody can say how the conditions of original compaction were produced. We can, of course, conjecture that this could have resulted either by the contraction of some earlier universe, or all those elementary particles had come into being by the command of "BE" (of. The Holy Quran) In any case, when the compaction of this mother atom called 'Yelm' reached its limit, a start of expansion was inevitable. Just as on July 4, 1754, on the burst of a white dwarf, Crab Nebula began to expand—
92
and it can be seen expanding even today—exactly like that, the sphere full of Elementary Particles, Energy, Whirls, Yelm (the mother atom) burst some 6 to 10 billion years back. On this explosion our material universe came into being. Because the elementary particles are not material in their nature. They are, so to say, bundles of waves or whirls, big or small, having positive, negative or no electric charges and magnetic moments called spins, which are measured in steps of 1/2 and its multiples starting with zero. Immediately the following questions arise. Whirls or waves? Where? In what medium? Electric charges? On What? Spin O, 1/2 , 1 or 2? Where? These are all manifestations of Energy and are designated quantum-fields in the background-continuum which has certainly more degrees of freedom than those residing in these. The universe which we call material today is only the result of interaction between the so-called classical fields like those of Gravitation and Electromagnetism and the Quantumfields resulting from whirls and spins, etc, which started some 6 to 10 billion years back. We know that, according to the theory of Relativity, the light-Quanta have, relativistic mass, which can be obtained by multiplying its intensity by the square of its velocity. We also know that when the radiation-pressure exceeds a limit, it becomes dominant and overcomes gravitation. When the sphere full of 'Yelm' must have exploded, the temperature of the expanded mass must have been about 15 million degrees after about a minute. At that moment the mass of light would have been dominant over gravitational mass. The conditions of that moment can be described only by the word "light", because matter had not yet formed. At that moment the mass of elementary particles must have started expanding and, after the expansion for a few minutes, the conditions must have become favourable for the formation of hydrogen atoms and then for the formation of helium atoms. 99 per cent of the elementary particles must have been used up in building up the hydrogen and helium atoms. After that the other heavy
93
atoms must have formed. Gamo and others have worked on this problem in great detail and they have established that all the elements, which we find today in the entire material universe, must have formed within half an hour of our terrestrial counting and these must have remained drowned in the ocean of electromagnetic radiation for ages. When this elemental gas must have continued to expand under the pressure of light for something like 300 thousand years, it must have cooled to an extent that darkness must have taken the place of light, because at that stage there were no stars to light up this mass of gases. Naturally at this stage the dynamics of the system under radiation-pressure must have come under the influence of gravitation. The condition of that entire mass must have been like smoke, in which there were gases and some small particles of dust. Now when gravitation became dominant over light, contraction and turbulence must have started. On this contraction the total mass of gas and dust must have divided itself into big lumps which constitute the present galaxies and their groups. On this division on contraction, and under the influence of gravitation, it is inevitable that the big lumps of gas must have started rotating round their central axes. James Jeans had worked on these problems some fifty years back and proved that at such a stage all these consequences are inevitable and rotation must have started in the great lumps of gas. Commencement of a new turbulence in the whole system, under the above-mentioned rotation, was natural. As a result of this, formation of stars and their constellations and of cosmic nebulae must have started. All this must have taken several million years. After that, the planetary systems would have evolved round some of these stars, and our planet Earth is one of them. It must have taken about 3 billion years for life to form on a few of these planets and thus we came into existence and are trying today to reconstruct this long story from the 94
fragments provided by the material world, because we have seen that matter itself is the best guide for reconstructing this story. We have succeeded in forming estimates of the relative amounts of different material elements present on the earth, in the meteors, in the sun and in other stars. These estimates have been made both on the basis of observations and on the basis of various hypotheses put forward by different cos-mologists about the creation of matter and the universe. Hydrogen constitutes about 55 per cent of the total amount of matter present in the universe; 44 per cent is helium, and the remaining 1 per cent is made up of alt the other elements. The second point which is brought out by these studies is that, after we reach the atomic weight of 100, there is not much variation in the relative amounts of different elements. This distribution of quantities of different elements cannot be full explained on the basis of the hypothesis of "Steady State", but it becomes evident on the basis of the hypothesis of "Explosion". The radiation which is reaching us from the stars near the border of our cosmic horizon has taken more than 4 billion years to reach us and thus we are observing the conditions which existed in those galaxies some 4 billion years back, while the light from near stars in our own galaxy takes hardly 800 to 90 years. In the farthest galaxies we notice more red giants, indicating an earlier stage in cosmic evolution, while in the near galaxies and stars we are noticing conditions after a long evolutionary process. We have thus succeeded with our biggest telescopes to see the entire evolutionary condition of the universe covering about 4 billion years. When we succeed in seeing galaxies moving nearly with the velocity of light, we shall have reached a stage beyond which it would not be possible for us to see. Here the time and space merge into a condition which in Urdu we call by the name of ( ) (Falak-uI-Falak), the
95
heaven over the heavens. This is the stage beyond which we cannot see and our material laws will have no meaning. At this stage the cosmic hypothesis of steady-state gets perplexed, because, according to this, the universe is infinite and this limit in the infinite has no meaning. It puts forward different concepts of limited fourdimensional saddle-like space in an unlimited continuum, but all that is really playing with words. It is for such reasons, besides many other reasons, that I do not find the hypothesis of Steady-State to be satisfactory. To me the Explosion hypothesis is more satisfying. But, according to this hypothesis, the average density of matter in the universe must continue to decrease on expansion. Theoretical considerations show that when the average density is reduced to a certain limit, viz., 2 x 10~19 gm/cm3 the expansion will be halted. It is computed that this will happen in about 35 thousand million years. After that contraction will start and in about 90 thousand million years the original state of Yelm will be reached again. According to the Big Bang hypothesis the formation of the galactic systems started after two distinct stages of light and darkness, from a condition similar to smoke. This hypothesis makes it clear that the action of Energy in our present material world started at a particular moment, which was very distant if measured on the scale of terrestrial time, but on cosmic the scale it is hardly more than 6, 7 or 10 thousand million years. The stars in this four or higherdimensional space-time continuum are advancing in stages of evolution, or going down according to the inherent law of their nature. Some of them die out for ever after a few pre-death convulsions. Such sudden convulsions have been observed in stars even In the short history of man on the earth. It seems that the law of birth, growth, decline and death is not limited to the biological world. It operates in the nature of the physical world also. It suggests that the physical universe is not an ever-evolving system: it does not grow
96
ever-lastingly. Finally, it is to die. The ever-expanding universe, as it were, means increase in velocity. This increase may touch the boundary of the light-speed. Celestial objects approaching the speed of light cease to operate according to the macro-laws of Physics. It is assumed that after reaching that stage they disappear. So the law of death prevails upon the expanding universe also, or, according to the hypothesis of Pulsating Universe, expansion should stop at a certain stage and then the contraction should take place till the original state of compaction is reached. This cosmological account that encompasses the physical structure of the universe, its origin and disappearance, leads to certain definite conclusions, which are far-reaching from the point of view of Philosophy. One conclusion is that the reality which permeates the physical universe is not static. It is something dynamic. The elementary particles in the constitution of the physical world, the congregation of these particles known as atoms, their groups known as molecules, do not represent static mechanisms. They are produced by the impacts of lighter and heavier vortices, electrical, magnetic or neutral in character. Their nature can therefore be best expressed by waveequations. Wave-equations are the most developed tools to formulate and express an ever-active and dynamic system of events. Furthermore, the wave-equations are methods of apprehension of the dimensions or degrees of freedom of the events of a system. A dimension is an indication of the degree of freedom. A two-dimensional continuum is more free than a one-dimensional series of events. Definitely a fourdimensional system has higher degrees of freedom for its sequences than what could be obtained in a three-dimensional con-tinuum. The dimensions or degrees of freedom increase so rapidly with the basic physical events that the latest advances in Physics could master the wave-equation of the
97
hydrogen atom only, the simplest atom in the universe. Consequently, the wave-equation of the atom having the atomic number 104 is simply a far-off cry. Let us concede, however, that there is no logical bar on the formation of wave-equations of this state of matter. But one conclusion we cannot ignore, viz., the backgroundcontinuum from which all these atoms have emerged should possess degrees of freedom far beyond its progenies. The most important conclusion which follows from ail cosmoiogical thinking on the basis of the current scientific knowledge is that all lower dimensions have their origin in higher dimensions. Continuums of lesser degrees of freedom are grounded in the continuum of higher degrees of freedom. In other words, a world of four, five, six or higher dimensional continuum could come into being in a world of higher dimensional continuum only, not in a continuum of lower degrees of freedom. This principle is of great importance since it gives a definite lead to the nature of ultimate reality. The ultimate reality, which shows infinite variety in its activity, must be wholly conscious, absolutely intelligent, and completely tree. This means that it must have infinite dimensions. In other words, It must have infinite degrees of freedom. It is on this basis that the worlds of tower dimensions, of lesser degrees of freedom, could come into being. It is the ultimate background of all definite dimensions or limited degrees of freedom, which are experienced in the different strata of the world. To this ultimate reality with infinite dimensions, we give the name of "Allah" (the God). Thus, our cosmoiogical inquiry, if it does not lead us to the realm beyond light-waves, at least ends in a conjecture about the character of the Ultimate Reality. Any system of Philosophy which will be in conflict with this conjecture shall be suspect. The conjecture is that the emergence of a four or five-dimensional continuum from a lower-dimensional con-
98
tinuum is beyond logical comprehension. It should demand for its existence a higher-dimensional continuum in the background. This leads to the Being of Infinite Dimensions as the Universal Stratum behind everything that exists. This is the story of creation of the material universe as disclosed by science. It has caused much confusion and hostility towards science in the Christian and Jewish religious circles. Now let us see the story of creation of the universe and man as given in the Qur'an by Revelation to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him), and see what Islam has to say in the matter.
99
CHAPTER VII
Origin of the Universe and Man according to the Qur'an The origin of the expanding universe and of life and Intelligence on the Earth poses many fundamental problems which remain unsolved, in spite of all the advances of science and technology in the twentieth century. The cosmological theories of the Steady State and Evolution after Explosion, or the Big Bang, for the origin of our expanding universe, and the theories of evolution or. of spontaneous creation of man and other biological species on the planet Earth have been the source of much controversy between men of religion and the scientists in the West. According to the Bible, the creation of the universe and man took place in October 4004 B.C. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., and God took rest on Sunday. This has led western scientists to much derision of religion in general terms, though it really refers to Judaism and Christianity. When the Muslim young men find this derision of religion in general terms by some of the greatest authorities in Science and Philosophy in the West, they are misled to believe that all the western criticism applies to Islam and the Holy Qur'an also. An effort has been made in the present chapter to bring together the Qur'anic verses about the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and about the emergence of life and man on the Earth. While discussing the Qur'anic concepts we shall try to elucidate some of them on the basis of modern scientific concepts. In this our aim is not to justify the Qur'anic con-
100
cepts on the basis of the ever-changing and expanding con cepts of science,by far-fetched reasoning, but only to com pare and contrast the two concepts for a clear understanding by those who try to comprehend. The materialists and the atheists, who believe in the cosmoiogical theory of the Steady State, believe that the fourdimensional material world has existed from eternity and will continue for ever. It is the basic property of Space that, as it expands, matter is created spontaneously and new stars and galaxies come into being, while the older ones fade out of the continuum on reaching the velocity of light. Amidst all this aimless spontaneous activity, lite appeared on the planet Earth, and perhaps on some other planets also, which have a suitable combination of climatic and material factors, just by an accident, and has itself followed the course of evolu tion which has culminated in the emergence of the homo sapiens species. But, in any case, it is an aimless series of accidents which resulted in the struggle, of which we are wit nesses and participants. There is no purpose or aim behind it, and "from dust thou art and unto dust will be thy return" is ail that it is. The theists amongst the western-scientists and cosmo-logists assume this expanding universe to have started its aimless course by the sudden explosion of 'Yelm', the mother-atom, some six thousand million years back. They have shown by careful sitting of all the astrophysical, astrochemical and geophysical evidence that all the material atoms, now present in the universe, were created within a few minutes of the original big explosion, from the elementary particles, which are not material in the strict sense of the word, because matter starts from atoms. The temperature at that stage was millions of degrees absolute and light was the dominant phenomenon then. The pressure of light dominated over the gravitational force and the whole mass began to expand at the rate at which we see it expanding today. After some thousands of years the expanding matter cooled to an extent that dark-
101
ness took the place of light. There were no individual bright stars to light up this mass yet. Some material particles must have, no doubt, formed and started forming, but the whole mass was no more than something like smoke. At this stage, in the expanding mass, under its own inertia, the force of gravitation began to show itself and one continuous smoky mass split itself into numerous turbulent parts, which now form the receding galaxies and their groups. On further cooling by radiation, the masses constituting the receding galaxies split up into further parts rotating about a centre in each mass, and these parts constitute the stars and planetary systems which we see today. These evolutionary cosmoiogists, by starting the material world at a particular moment representable by the command "Be", and by showing the dominant stages of "Light" and "Darkness", just by implication and indirectly, lend support to the Biblical story, but immediately after that they are nonplussed, because the Biblical theory demands this start to be in 4004 B.C. and the completion of different stages in six terrestrial days—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which, to say the least, is absurd. Here they begin to harp on the separate spheres of religion and science, and so ore and so forth. When, however, they have to express an honest opinion or verdict on the religion which they Know and in which they believe, they have to admit the absurdity of their religious dogma, but instead of admitting that their verdict refers to Christian or Jewish dogma, they say that about Religion in general. As regards the Qur'an, it says that this material universe was created in six Cosmic Days: "And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six (Cosmic) Days and His Throne was upon water, that He might prove which of you is best in conduct." (XI:7). (cf. also: Vll:54; XXV:59). Now the Cosmic Day is not a fixed duration in terms of terrestrial counting. It may be of thousands of years on 102
the terrestrial counting. It may be longer still or much shorter. This is clear from the Qur'an, which states in Surah XXII, verse 47: "Verily a Day in the sight of the Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning." Again in Surah LXX, verse 4, the Qur'an says: "The angels and the spirits ascend unto Him in a Day, the measure whereof is fifty thousand years." Such Cosmic Days are called the "Days of God" as in XLV:14:— "Tell those who believe, to forgive those who do not look forward to the Days of God." These Days of God are interpreted by Allama Yusuf Ali in note 4748 in his translation of the Qur'an not as periods of 24 hours, but as "stages through which God's purpose works". Now let us see what the Qur'an says about whether the material universe was created for a purpose. The Lord says: "Hast thou not seen that Allah hath created the heavens and the earth in Truth (in true proportion, or in accordance with the requirements of Wisdom). If He pleases, He can do away with you and bring (forth) a new creation." (XIV:19). The same thing has been repeatedly emphasised in several other verses, for example, in Vl:73, XVI:3, XXXIX-.44, XX:8, XXXiX:5, etc. It is thus clear that, according to the Qur'an; the material world was created at a particular moment for a purpose, in truth, in true proportion and in accordance with the requirements of wisdom ( ). The Holy Qur'an also describes the way in which the creation of heavens and the earth started and the stages through which this creation, until its perfection, has passed. The Qur'an says: "Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up (mass), then He opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe." (XXl:30). There could perhaps be no better description of an evolutionary cosmology which was certainly not known or believed in by any astronomer, cosmologist or biologist at the time when the Qur'an was
103
revealed. Even if it had been postulated by some unknown philosopher of the past, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on himl) was definitely not aware of it. Then the process of opening out of the closed-up. mass described in the following words: "AN praise be to Allah Who created the heavens and the earth and brought into being darkness and light." (Vl;l). It is further explained that: "Then He turned to heaven (mark the singular here!) while it was something like Smoke and said unto it and the earth come both of you willingly or unwillingly'." The Holy Qur'an thus tells us that a closed-up mass opened out at the command 'Be'. Then were created darkness and Light. It was after this stage, when the whole mass was like smoke, that He began to differentiate between the heaven and earth, but the two were to grow together. This is a point which is very clear from the above description in the Holy Scripture. The nucleus of the earth began forming at the very start when foundations of the material universe were being laid. The earth may be revolving round the sun, like so many other planets, but it does not appear to be a progeny of this star ' or some passing-by stranger, as was suggested by practically all the leading cosmologists and philosophers up to the middle of the 20tn century. The origin of the planets in the system appears somehow to have started by the fixation of the plasmic matter in which a number of other natural forces besides gravitation had a considerable part to play. Now let us see the stages of evolution of the cosmos. These are beautifully described in verses 9 to 12 of Chapter XLl:— "Say: Do you really disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two Days. He placed therein firm mountains above its (surface) and blessed it with abundance and provided therein food in proper measure in four Days, alike for all seekers. Then He turned to the heaven (mark singular number) while it was (something like) smoke and said-unto it and
104
unto the earth 'come both of you willingly or unwillingly'. They said, we do come willingly in obedience'. Then He completed them into seven heavens in two Days and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command. And He adorned the lowest heaven (again note singular) with lights and provided it with guards. That is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing." It is thus clear from the description of creation in the Holy Qur'an that the evolution of the heavens and the earth has taken place in six periods which have been termed as "Day3" in the Book. These are really cosmic periods of varying durations and are certainly not periods of 24 hours with evenings and mornings according to terrestrial counting. The six periods in three stages of two periods each are as follows:— FIRST STAGE OF TWO COSMIC PERIODS 1st Period: Unfolding of closed-up mass by sudden explosion, formation of material atoms at a high temperature, coming into existence of darkness surrounding the lighted mass, its cooling and spread of darkness into the mass itself—congregation starting—a state of thing like smoke—gravitation coming into prominence and splitting up of the whole mass into bigger lumps, further splitting up of each lump into smaller masses —the stars and the planets.
2nd Period: Stars and other astronomical bodies, big and small, including the earth, began separating out, temperature of each mass rising to incandescence by compression on coot-ing and or by radio-activity. SECOND STAGE OF TWO COSMIC PERIODS 3rd Period: The small mass constituting the earth cools and forms a
105
solid surface which is described as dry ringing clay with its topographic features in igneous rocks. 4th Period: As the Earth cooled further the first showers of water charged with basic organic molecules fell on carbides and other active compounds of the ringing day. It was eroded and life-cells began to form and evolve in black mud and water. In this fourth cosmic period lower life spread over the whole surface of Earth, and the Earth was blessed with lower forms of life and assimilable organic and inorganic substances (foods) in abundance and proper measure for all seekers alike. It is interesting to note that in this fourth period when life was appearing and developing in water, and the living species were in water, the Qur'an states: "Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up (mass); then We opened them out? And We made From water every living thing. Will they not then believe?" (XX:30). It was probably at this stage when life was developing and evolving in water that the "Throne" of authority is said to have been on water, as in Surah XI verse 7: "And His Throne was upon water, that He might test which of you is best in conduct." It was during the stage earlier than the appearance of life on earth that the lowest heaven and earth were commanded to work and evolve together. In other words, the higher capacities of the continuum and the lower qualities of aggregates of the spinning, gravitational and electrical entities (the elementary particles) constituting the material atoms and their chains (molecules and cells) were commanded by the Creator to work together harmoniously for the fulfilment of the purpose for which the closed-up mass was opened. Here at the very start we find the inherent contrast in the motive-forces of evolution in Islam and in preachings of all the western philosophers and scientists—theists and atheists alike. The Qur'an lays down the criterion of conduct
106
as the test for their ultimate survival, while the westerners, Hume, Darwin, Karl Marx and all others, make survival dependent on ruthless annihilation and exploitation of the weaker species by the stronger species. More of it later. It will suffice to note at this stage that in the first four phases or stages of evolution, the earth had formed with its litho-sphere and topographic features, and the lower forms of tite and food materials had appeared on it. THIRD STAGE OF TWO COSMIC PERIODS
When life appeared, more heavens began to evolve, and when life and intelligence spread all over the earth it was then that the seven heavens were perfected and the Lord established, not rested, Himself on the Throne. This look place in the third and the last stage again in two periods or Cosmic Days. The Qur'an says: "So He completed them into seven heavens in two Days and He assigned TO each heaven its duty and command. And We adorned the lowest heaven with lights and provided it with guards. That is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing." (XLI:12) 5th Period:
The first of these last two Days is the period in which the various species of living animals with different degrees of intelligence were spreading over the earth. The lowest of the heavens, the four or five-dimensional continuum was adorned with lights of different stars—the stars rising to incandescence by contraction and production of heat by atomic reactions, mostly fusion. 6th Period:
The last and the sixth period was of the birth of man on earth, endowed with cognition and thus capable of participating in the creative activity and sovereignty of the Creator in the lower degrees of freedom prescribed for the cosmos, limited by the lowest heaven in space-time complex, and by the other six heavens in ranks one above the other. This is 107
what is described in the Qur'an when it says: "It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth; moreover His design comprehended (he heaven, for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and of all things He hath perfect knowledge." (11:29). "Allah it is Who raised up the heavens without any visible supports; then He established Himself on the Throne. And He pressed the sun and the moon into service; each pursues Its course until an appointed term. He regulates it all. He clearly explains the Signs, that you may have a firm belief in the meeting with your Lord." (XI11:2). "We have adorned the lowest heaven with an adornment, the planets; and have guarded it against all rebellious Satans." (XXXVII: 6, 7). "And, verily, We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six Days (periods) and no weariness touched Us." (L:38). "He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then He established Himself on the Throne. He Knows what enters the earth and what comes out of it, and what comes down from the heaven and what goes up into it. And He is with you wheresoever you may be. And Allah sees all that you do." (LVII:4). it is thus clear that the Lord Who has complete knowledge and who is Ail-Powerful, created the heavens and the earth for a purpose (in truth) in six Cosmic Days, each of which was of varying length in terrestrial counting—a thousand years, fifty thousand years, a million years, or even more, in the last stage He perfected the seven heavens, ordained their laws and established Himself on the Throne. But, unlike the Lord of the Bible and the Torah (as corrupted by the Christians and the Jews), "no weariness touched Him and He felt no fatigue" to take rest on the seventh day—the Sunday. This has been beautifuly described in Ayatal-Kursi, the "Verse of the Throne", thus: "God! There is no god but He, the Living, the Self-sustaining, the Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on the. earth. Who is there that intercedeth in His presence except as He permitteth? Ho knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they
108
encompass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them, for He Is the Most High, the Supreme." (l!:225). The Lord of infinite degrees of freedom encompasseth the Throne. The Throne in its turn encompasseth the heavens and the earth. The heavens are the stages one above the other; and the first heaven, which is adorned with lights and planets, contains the earth. Thus the material universe consisting of higher and higher-dimensional entities was evolved by the Lord of infinite degrees of freedom in six stages. No weariness or fatigue touched Him in perfecting this organisation (or a definite purpose. Now the stage was set for the vicegerent—Man—to appear on the scene, but the preparation had started long before. As regards the appearance of man on earth, the Qur'an distinguishes between two stages: i.e., (1) Creation and (2) fashioning him in the homo sapiens shape. It says: "And We created you, then fashioned you, .........." (VII.11). Now, taking up man's creation, the following verses, in their serial order as they appear in the Qur'an, are worthy of note;— "And, surely, We created man from dry ringing clay, from black mud wrought into shape. And the Jinns We had created before from the essential of fire." (XV:26, 27). "From it (i,e., the earth) We created you and thereunto We return you, and thence shall We bring you forth a second time." (XX:55). Verily We created man from an extract of clay." (XXIII:12). "And Allah has created every animal from water. Of them are some that go upon their bellies, and of them are some that go upon two feet, and among them are some that go upon four. Allah created what He pleases. Surely Allah has the power to do all that He likes." (XXIV:45). "And He It Is Who has created man from water and has made from him
109
kindred by descent and kindred by marriage, and thine Lord is AllPowerful." (XXV:54). "He Who has made perfact everything that He ha* created. And He began the creation of man from clay. Then He made his seed from an extract of despised fluid. Then He fashioned him and breathed into him His spirit. And He has given you ears, and eyes,
and hearts; but little thanks do you give." (XXXI!:7-9). The above verses of the Holy Qur'an mention water, the dry ringing clay' and the 'black mud' in connection with the creation of man on the earth. It was at a much later stage that males and females were developed, the species were evolved and the human being was fashioned. So far there does not appear any real difference with the theory of evolution put forward by the modern biologists. But after that a very big difference arises. The theory of evolution entrusts the mutation of species to the mercy of the fundamental laws of struggle for existence, survival of the fittest and adaptation to the environment, while the Qur'an makes it a blessing of God and a reward for good conduct in each phase. This is clear from verse 7 of Surah XI. Coming to the emergence of sex-differentiation, the Qur'an tells us: "O, ye human beings! fear your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and created therefrom its mate, and from them twain spread men and women." (IV:1). "And He it is who produced you from a single soul."
110
case of Adam." (III:59). It is a historical fact that Jesus was born from a single soul—Mary, without intercourse with any male. This is what the Qur'an bears out. The similitude of Jesus to Adam is therefore the similarity of circumstances in which a single female gave birth to a child without the help of a male. This is possible according to the understanding of conception in modern science, and that is what the Qur'an declared to have happened in the case of Adam, Eve and Jesus. In the case of the first two the mutation of species took place in the process of evolution, in the case of Jesus the evolution was of soul alone. He could speak when he was still a small baby, and proclaimed the truth of God even at that early age. In the case of Adam it was a greater revolution. It was a change of species. From a mere animal, be it a female ape, or a female of any other animal, were born two off-springs endowed with the spirit of God—the cognition, the determination, the reflection of a perfect ego, the intelligence far beyond that of the best of the animals, capable of thinking and knowing and deciding and giving expression to feelings and ideas in words and symbols. In spite of the searches during the last century and a half, we have not been able to find the missing link between man and the ape. Not only that, we have not been able to find the links between the creeping worms and the vertebrates, and other land-mark changes in the evolutionary link. This is one of the great mysteries even today. In the light of the verses of the Qur'an quoted above, we shall never find these links, because the changes were not gradual. Suddenly in the womb of an older species a new species took shape and a pair of homo sapiens was born. This took place in the last stage and could have happened as far back as fifty thousand years or even more. According to the verses quoted so far, all this drama appears to have been enacted on the Earth itself. The Earth cools down and a crust of dry ringing clay of igneous rocks is formed. The first showers surcharged with molecules of suitable carbon compounds fall on this dry ringing clay, full
111
of reagents and capable of strong reactions; they erode it and life begins to develop in black mud and, then in water. New species are born until a stage is reached when a female singly gives birth to the first homo sapiens and its mate—Adam and Eve. If so, what about the "garden" from where Iblis was expelled and from where the fall of Adam and Eve took place? This is a very delicate point which has caused much controversy in the past and is likely to evoke passions even now. It must be noted that much before the seven heavens and the human being had been perfected, after creating him from dry ringing clay, from an extract of black mud and in water, the Lord said unto the angels: " I am about to place a vicegerent on the earth." In any case, let us see the whole story of the appearance of man on Earth as related in the Holy Qur'an at different places. The relevant verses are:— "He is Who created for you all that is in the Earth; moreover His design comprehended the heaven, for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and He knows all things. And when thy Lord said to the angels: i am about to place a vicegerent on the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein such as will cause disorder in it and shed blood.? and we glorify Thee with Thy praises and extol Thy Holiness." He answered, 'I know what you know not.' And He taught Adam the names of all things, then He put them before the angels and said: 'Tell Me the names of these, if you are right They said: 'Holy art Thou! No knowledge have we except what Thou hast taught us: surely Thou art the Alt-Knowing, the Wise." He said: 'O Adam, tell them their names'; and when he had told them their names, He said: 'Did I not say to you, I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and i know what you reveal and what you conceal. And when We said to the angels: 'Fall ye prostrate before Adam', and they fell prostrate, except Iblis. He refused and was too proud; and he was the Disbeliever. And We said: 'O Adam dwell thou
112
and thy wife in the garden, and eat therefrom plentifully wherever you will, but approach not this tree, lest you be of the wrong-doers.' But Satan caused them both to slip from it and drove them out of the stale (of felicity) in which they were. And We said: 'Get ye down, all, with enmity between yourselves, and for you there is an abode in the earth and a provision for a time. Then Adam learnt from his Lord certain words (of prayer). So He turned towards him with mercy. Surety He is OftReturning (with compassion), Merciful. We said: 'Get ye down, alt of you, from here. And if there comes to you guidance from Me, then whosoever shall follow My Guidance on them shall come no fear, nor shall they grieve. But they who will disbelieve and treat Our Signs as lies, these shall be inmates of the Fire, therein shall they abide.' " (II:30-39). "And We have given you (mankind) power in the earth, and appointed for you therein a livelihood. Little give ye thanks. And We did create you (and) then We gave you shape; then said We to the angels, 'Fall ye prostrate before Adam.' And they (all) fell prostrate, but iblis did not; he would not be of those who fell prostrate. God said, 'What prevented thee from falling prostrate when 1 bade thee?' He said, 'I am better than he. Thou hast created me of fire, while him hast Thou created of clay.' (God) said, 'Then go down hence, it is not for three to be arrogant here. Get out, thou art certainly of those who are abased.' He said, 'Grant me respite till the day when they Will be raised up.' God said, Thou shalt be of those who are given respite.' He said, 'Now since Thou hast adjudged me as lost, I will assuredly lie in wait for them on Thy straight path. Then will I surely come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, and Thou wilt not find them to be grateful.' God said, 'Get out hence, despised and banished. Whosoever of them shall follow thee, I will surely fill Hell with you all. And O Adam, dwell thou and thy wife in the garden and eat therefrom wherever you will, but approach not this tree
113
lest you be among the wrongdoers.' But Satan whispered (evil suggestions) to them so that he might make known to them what was hidden from them of their shame and said, 'Your Lord has only forbidden you this tree lest you should become angels or such things as live for ever.' And he swore to them, 'Surely I am a sincere councillor unto you.' So he caused them to fall (into disobedience) by deceit. And. when they tasted the tree, their shame became manifest to them and they began to stick the leaves of the garden (together) over themselves. And their Lord called them saying, 'Did I not forbid you in respect of that tree and did I not tell you that verily Satan to you is an open foe.' They said, 'Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves and if Thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us we shall be of the lost.' He said, 'Get ye down, some of you being enemies of others, and for you there is an abode on the Earth and a provision for a time.' He said, 'Therein shall you live and therein shall you die, and therefrom shall you be brought forth.' O. children of Adam! We have indeed sent down to you raiment to cover shame, and to be an elegant dress; but the raiment of righteousness —that is the best. That is (one) of the Signs of Allah, that they may remember. O Children of Adam! let not Satan seduce you, even as he turned your parents out of the garden, stripping them of their raiment that he might show them their shame. Truly he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you see them not. Surely We have made Satans friends for those who believe not." (VII:10-27) "And, surely, We created man from dry ringing clay, from black mud wrought into shape. And the Jinns We had created before from the essential of fire. And (remember) when thy Lord said to the angels, 'i am about to create a mortal man ( ) from dry ringing clay, from black mud wrought into shape; so when I have fashioned him (in perfection) and have breathed into him My spirit, fall ye down in prostration before him! So the angels fell down in prostration, ail of them together, except Iblis: he refused to be
114
amongst those who submit (prostrate). God said, 'O iblis, what is the matter with thee that thou wouldst not be among those who prostrate?' He answered, 'Why should I prostrate myself unto a mortal man whom Thou hast created from dry ringing clay, from black mud wrought into shape?' God said, Then get out hence, for surely, thou art rejected. And the curse shall be upon thee till the Day of Judgement." He said, 'My Lord, then grant me respite till the day when they shall be raised.' He said. Thou art of those that are granted respite, till the day of the appointed time." He answered, 'My Lord since Thou hast adjudged me as lost, I will surely make (evil) appear beautiful to them on the Earth. And I will surely lead them all astray— (note that although Adam had not yet disobeyed and had not been thrown out of the garden, Satan was talking of the Earth and of Adam being mortal), except Thy chosen servants from amongst them.' (God) said, 'This is the path leading straight to Me. Surely thou shall have no power over My servants, except such of the erring ones as (choose to) follow thee. And surely Hell is the promised place for them all." (XV:26-44) "O Adam! This (Iblis) is an enemy unto thee and unto thy wife, so let him not drive you both out of the garden so that thou come to toil. It is vouchsafed unto thee that thou hungerest not therein nor are thou naked. And thou thirstiest not therein nor art exposed to the sun's heat. (All this is said to Adam when he was still! in his original garden.) Bui the Devil whispered to him saying, 'O Adam shall I show thee the tree of immortality and power that wasteth not away.' Then they twain (i.e., Adam and Eve) ate thereof, so that their shame became apparent unto them, and they began to cover themselves with the leaves of the garden. And Adam disobeyed his Lord, so he went astray. Then his Lord chose him, and relented towards him, and guided him. He said: 'Go down hence, both of you—all together, one of you a foe unto the other. But if there comes unto you from Me guidance, then whoso fol-loweth My guidance, he will not go astray nor come to grief." (XX:117-123)
115
The points to be noted here are: the Lord told the angels that he was about to create the mortal man from clay on the Earth and asked them to prostrate before Adam when He had fashioned him in perfection and breathed His spirit into him. All of them, except Iblis, paid homage to Adam. When asked why he did not do it, iblis replied, "1 am better than he. Thou hast created me of fire and him hast Thou created of clay." And although Iblis was "rejected" and on him was the Lord's curse till the Day of Judgement, he, having got respite, continued to live in the garden where Adam was living. And Iblis said, "so by Thy might! will surely lead them all astray, except Thy singleminded slaves amongst them." (XXVIll:82-84). Also he continued in the garden to beguile Adam and Eve and to make them conscious of nakedness and shame through eating from the forbidden tree, telling them that it was the tree of immortality. He continues even now to beguile all the children of Adam, except "the single-minded slaves" of the Lord among them. The most important thing to note about the garden in which Adam lived before being beguiled by Iblis is that there were mortals living in it. Iblis said so to the Lord. In fact, the fear of death was such a potent factor that when their avowed enemy, the Satan, told Adam that by eating it they would become immortal or angels, they forgot the command of the Lord, and Adam and his wife both partook of it. Further, it is quite clear from the story of creation described in the Holy Qur'an that, after the opening out of the closed-up mass, the plasmic matter passed through two periods before the lowest heaven and the earth and other lights or stars could be distinguished. The earth continued to develop its topographic features and chains of food material and living organisms formed in mud and water. The evolution of species by mutations continued to take place as a reward from the Lord for good conduct in each phase. So long as life with the highest degrees of freedom in the material word was developing in water, the Throne of
116
God's Authority was on water. When higher species with greater intelligence began to spread over the earth, heavens higher in rank were perfected and then only after the perfection of the seventh heaven and the 'Arsh, Man came on the scene with full cognition and other mental and spiritual attributes; and thus cognition and other spiritual and intellectual attributes of man are nothing but the exhibition of higher degrees of freedom bestowed on him by the Lord when He breathed into him His own spirit. The Throne, as mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, is the seat of communion and command between the Creator, Who possesses infinite Degrees of Freedom, and man and the material world, who possess only limited degrees of freedom. It is the highest stage from which the commands for the material universe, which consists of the seven heavens and the earth, descend. It is thus the connecting link between the Lord of Infinite Degrees of Freedom, on the one hand, and the continuums of limited degrees of freedom represented by the seven heavens and the earth and all that is in between them, on the other. The inanimate material world possesses at least five dimensions or degrees of freedom, viz., of space-time (4 degrees of freedom) and of electromagnetism representing a higher degree of freedom than four, associated with simple matter itself. Life and soul represent still higher degrees of freedom. At the beginning, when the closed-up mass opened out, all the activity was confined to the congregation of the fundamental particles and entities in simpler forms and the degrees of freedom of the newly-forming material world were confined to only a few—say, four, five or six. But, as activity became organised in congregations and chains of greater complexities, viz., as life began to develop, the degrees of freedom of the active mass began to increase. From the verses of the Holy Qur'an already quoted it is clear that the perfection of -the seven heavens and ordinance of their laws took place only in the last stage when intelligent life and man appeared on the earth. It is evident that the heavens of the Qur'an "are only the limits of the degrees of freedom in the
117
lower continuums. It is also evident from the Holy Qur'an that the degrees of freedom (and thus knowledge) of the evil spirits are not higher than the degrees of freedom of the first heaven, beyond which they try to seek knowledge, which, in spite of their best efforts, they will never be able to attain. The angels were commanded to fall prostrate- before Adam only after the Lord had breathed His own Spirit into him and given him more knowledge than any of the angels. This can only mean that the cognition stage of man was reached only after the Lord, in His infinite Mercy had endowed Adam and Eve with higher degrees of freedom and knowledge. Iblis failed to realise this superiority of man, who was originally born from ringing clay, black mud altered, and in water. He became arrogant and refused to pay homage to the humble man, because he had himself been formed from the fundamental particles of some other kind which have been termed as the 'essential of fire' in the Holy Qur'an. It was, however, due to his ignorance, which was due to his own limited degrees of freedom and, thus, limited capacity for knowledge. As regards God's vicegerent, his conduct, like the conduct of all other earlier species, had, no doubt to be tested. As to the effects of eating from the forbidden tree, the first and the real effect was the realisation of nakedness and shame even in the "garden", unlike other animals who have no such realisation even up to this day. The other two temptations which Iblis had offered to Adam and Eve were: (1) to become immortal; (2) to become like the angels. So far as the first temptation is concerned, it could have significance only to the mortals crawling on the earth. It had no meaning if Adam was born in the "Garden of Bliss" where there will be no death of the type with which we are concerned here.There are only three stages in the life of man as men-
118
tioned by the Holy Qur'an:— (1) Birth on this earth. (2) Death on the earth. (3) Resurrection and reckoning lor final judgment about the conduct on the earth. Adam was apparently no exception to this scheme. Iblis had obtained respite from the Lord to beguile Adam and his progeny up to the final day, before Adam had disobeyed. The second temptation is also a real one for the human ego surrounded by a perpetual struggle and himself participating in it. The temptation of the newly-emerging vicegerent not having experience of his own potentialities, to attain the angelic plane of activity, even though the angels possess really lower degrees of freedom than his own, must have certainly been great. It is thus quite evident where and what this "garden" was, where Adam and Eve emerged from a single soul by mutation of the species, from a mother singly, as Jesus Christ was born of Mary alone. The story would have remained incomplete if the end of the material universe was not explained by the Qur'an. But it explains this also very clearly in Surah XXI verse 105 when it says: "Remember the day when We shall roll up the heavens like the rolling up of a written scroll by a scribe. As We began the first creation, so shall We repeat it." So the opening up of a closed-up mass was the beginning and the rolling-up like a written scroll will be the end, and it is promised that the whole process will be repeated again. What a beautiful description of a pulsating universe having degrees of freedom many more than four or five. The starry universe below the first heaven is expanding at present and will begin to contract at a certain stage. Only the disciplined souls which have mastered the capabilities of higher degrees of freedom will
119
be able to transcend the lower continuum to enjoy perpetua happiness in the heavens of higher degrees of freedom, while the undisciplined souls, the wards of Iblis and his disciples, will enter the fire of Hell consisting of the pulsating lower continuum. However, before we close this chapter it will be profitable to compare the Qur'anic version of the story of the creation of Universe and Man with the Genesis described in the Old Testament. I reproduce it from a translation of the Latin Vulgate (published by Burns Oates and Washbourn Ltd., London, 1914), Book of Genesis, Chapter 1: "1. In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 2. And the earth was void and empty and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved over the waters. 3. And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from darkness 4. And God said: Be light made. And light was made. 5. And He called the light Day, and the darkness Night, And there was evening and morning one day. 6. And God said: let there be firmament made amid the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under The firmament, from those that were above the firmament. And it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and morning were the second day. 9. God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so done.
120
10. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gather ing together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11. And He said: Let the earth bring forth the green herbs, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. 12. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning
were the third day.
14. And God said: let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years. 15. To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done. 16. And God made two great lights; a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. 17. And he set them the earth.
in the firmament
of heaven to shine upon
16. And to rule the day and night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20. God also said:
let the water bring forth the.
121
creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven, 21. And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22. And he blessed them saying: increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth. 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24. And God said: let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so done. 25. And God made the beasts upon the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth, after its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26. And he said: let us make man to our image and likeness; and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts and the whole earth and every reeping creature that moveth upon the earth. 27. And God created man in his own image; in the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. 28. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move on the earth.
122
29.
And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meal. 30. And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. 31. And God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day." Thus we see that according to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, the creation of the material universe with man in it took place in six days, each with an evening and a morning, i.e., in six terrestrial days in the following order:1 First day with evening and morning—Heaven and earth created. It was empty and dark and the Spirit of God moved over water. Light was made—Day and Night started. (Ch.l, 1 - 5). (Although the sun was not the-re!). 2. Second day with evening and morning—Firmament made amidst water. Water above the firmament and below it was divided and the lower one given the name "seas' and the Firmament was called Heaven. (Ch.l, 6-8). (This means that Heaven was below the clouds!!!}. 3. Third day with evening and morning--Oceans gathered and dry land appeared—Earth brought forth green herbs with seeds and fruit thees with seeds. (Ch. 1, 9-13) 4. Fourth day with evening and morning—Lights made in the firmament of heaven to divide day and night and signs for seasons, day and years—Sun, Moon " and Stars created. (Ch.l, 14-19),
123
5.
Fifth day with evening and morning—Water brings forth creeping creatures and fowls and whales and every living and moving creature which lives in the waters or on the earth. (Ch.l, 2023). 6. Sixth day with evening and morning—Earth brings forth living creatures of all kinds. God made man in His own image and likeness and bestowed on him the power to rule over fishes of the seas, fowls of the air and beasts and all creatures on the earth. (Ch.l, 24-31). 7. Seventh day—This was not mentioned in Chapter l. It is mentioned in Chapter If as follows:God resteth on the seventh day and blesseth it. The earthly paradise, in which God placeth man was made. He commandeth man not to eat of the tree of knowledge. He formeth a woman of his rib. {Ch. II, Verses 1-25). I need not comment on the Biblical story. Everybody can see that the original Revelation must have been something like that given in the Qur'an, but it has been badly corrupted and made topsyturvy by small minds who could not understand the description in crisp language about a pulsating evolutionary universe, in the face of primitive anthropological mythologies all around them. As regards the Qur'an: no doubt the genesis and the ending of the universe described therein appears to agree very closely with the findings of science today, about fourteen hundred years after the revelation. What about fourteen hundred years hence? Cosmology will have developed very much. But, as pointed out earlier, the findings of today will only be amplified to cover areas brought out by improvements of technology. The laws discovered up to this time will remain correct so far as the limited human experience of today is concerned. The Holy Qur'an is not a book of science. It is only a guide for human conduct. I am sure that the future genera-
124
tions will be able to find out the guidelines aboul the new lines of activity of human body and mind as discovered by the scientific advances in human knowledge. It is one of the miraculous qualities of the Holy Qur'an. It claims that it will be able to satisfy man in all ages. So far this claim has stood the test of our widening experience, and there seems no justification for doubting its efficacy in the future.
125
CHAPTER VIM
Some Conclusions Drawn from Advances of Science In our rather hurried survey of some of the deepest findings of modern science the following points have emerged:Matter now found in the universe is not eternal. It came into being within a few minutes after the release of elementary particles on the explosion of Yelm, the mother-atom, some six to ten thousand million years ago. The elementary fundamental particles are some entities of energy, at rest or in motion, spinning or not spinning at a point somewhere (in the continuum), having gravitational masses and electromagnetic charges. We, however, do not know whal these fields and where these motions are. A proton has no rest mass and no electric charge, although it is a carrier of electromagnetic energy. It is the only elementary particle which has a spin equal to unity. Similarly graviton and neutrino have no rest masses and carry no charges. But the spin of graviton is 2 and of neutrino 1/2. Other particles have half or zero spin. These entities are capable of using degrees ol freedom higher than four of the space-time continuum for their most common operation, viz., radiation. Each has an anti-particle with it, and what the anli-graviton will be we do not know. In fact, we do not know much about the graviton either.
126
Matter, which was regarded in the. early stages of development of science to be not only eternal but also indestructible, has been found to be subject to annihilation resulting in tremendous amounts of energy represented by mc 2 where 'm' is the mass destroyed and 'c' is the velocity of light. The law of conservation of mass, which was one of the greatest achievements of the nineteenth century, has disappeared and now only the law of conservation of energy remains. But the source of energy and mass brought into the material world by Yelm and some cosmic rays remains unaccounted for. Up to the end of the nineteenth century the material universe was considered to be consisting of solid atomic bodies which occupied definite portions of space. These could not be divided further and were supposed to be something like floating boats in the river of time. The atoms and their congregates called molecules and cells were supposed to be obeying the physical and chemical laws of the slow-moving macrocosm {the large-scale physical universe). All this has now been found to be merely a conceptual form of nearly empty four, five or higher dimensional fields or continuums studded here and there by collections of big and small whirls, or spinning elementary particles of energy. The kind of spin, the size of the spinning whirls and its stability and their electromagnetic characteristics distinguish these "whirls from one another. About ninety such elementary particles have been discovered, and now we are in search of Quark, the most fundamental of the elementary particles. These entities are dualistic in their nature, sometimes they behave like particles and sometimes like waves. The tensions and stresses producing these dualistic entities are called "Quantum Fields". It is impossible to gain perfect knowledge about any of these particles, the very fact of observation being a source of disturbance. Electromagnetic forces are as real and distinct operate in the material world as gravitation. The operation of
127
gravitational attraction is the result of the four-dimensional continuum and that of electromagnetism is the result of a higher degree of freedom residing in the Held constituting the material world. The tensions and stresses caused by these forces are termed "Traditional or Classical Fields"—Gravitational Field, Electric Field, Magnetic Field. While gravitation is a dominant force in the macrocosm {the physical world), electromagnetism becomes dominant in microcosm (the world of the atoms and the elementary particles). Actually in the earliest stages of growth and development of the material universe electromagnetism was the dominant force even in the macrocosm, and the continuing expansion of the galaxies today is a remnant of that operation at the time of explosion. Electromagnetism has played a fundamental role even in the formation of the planets and satellites from plasmic matter as shown by the latest researches in astro-physics and astronomy. When an atom releases energy in radiation, an electron jumps from one orbit to another in the four-dimensional continuum, but it has never been located in the intervening space between two orbits. Theoretically it is not possible for the electron to exist in this space, but the electron does cross that space. In our ordinary language it could be expressed only by saying that the electron has moved from point to point in the intervening space between the two orbits, or by saying that it is annihilated in the first orbit and created in the second orbit. The forces which result in this transfer are not capable of this contradictory dual function of annihilating and creating an electron. The only other valid explanation of this extra-ordinary, rather a miraculous, event of most common experience in the material world, is as follows. Inside the atom the electromagnetic field is much stronger, about 10 raised to power 40 times stronger, as compared to the gravitational field, which is only a function of the fourdimensional con-tinuum of space-time. Electromagnetism is the function of
128
higher degrees of freedom, say, live-dimensional continuum. In this five-dimensional continuum when an electron is disturbed from one stable position or an orbit, it is thrown out ot the fourdimensional continuum of space-time altogether into the fifthdimensional continuum which is available to it in the intense electromagnetic field inside the atom. It travels in the fifthdimensional continuum tilt the energy involved in disturbing it is emitted or used up in bringing it to another appropriate stable position or orbit. This is equal to 'hy' where 'h' is Planck's constant and ' v ' (nu) is the frequency of the radiation. The result of this simple obedience by the electron of the immutable taw of Nature is that it appears to violate the law as understood and found operative in the sphere of lower degrees of freedom—the four-dimensional continuum. But it has not violated the True Law of Nature of the higher dimensional continuum, which is a part of its being, and the freedom to use which it possesses. The Habit of God does not change, as the Qur'an would put it; or the Law of Nature in its holeness is immutable, as Science would put it. But the fact remains that while the true law of nature has not been violated, it appears to have been violated in the view of a common man, or even to a scientist accustomed to judge all his observations on \he touchstone of his macrocosmic experience, in the three or four dimensional continuum. This anomalous position is similar to the perplexing problem ot the fundamental elementary particles—photons, electrons, protons, mesons, etc., being both a wave and a particle in their ultimate structure. Both the difficulties and perplexeties arise when we try to form a conceptual picture of a phenomenon of higher dimensions or higher degrees of freedom, with lower dimensional material— language, physical experiments, or their mathematical interpretation in terms ot degrees of freedom lower than those possessed by the bodies and the fields
129
involved. While trying to understand the story of creation of the universe and man as developed by the scientific method, we' found that activity in matter is not limited to three or four dimensions. Even the fifth dimension of electromagnetism comes into play while an atom gives out or absorbs radiation. What degrees of freedom become operative in matter when it is organised in big molecules and in living cells? It is a big question. We do not know its answer yet. But the phenomena of Radioactivity, Life and Mind, so far as science is concerned, and of the Sou! also for the Spiritualists, are certainly exhibitions of higher and higher degrees of freedom becoming operative in the complicated fields created by the congregation of some 90 kinds of elementary particles, which have different kinds of spins, electric charges and gravitational masses. Where and how all this jumbling up of different kinds of movements and fields happens, we do not know. We have succeeded in establishing the wave-equation of an hydrogen atom which has just one electron and one proton in combination. What form of the function describing the combined effect of hundreds and thousands of all kinds of elementary particles in a living cell would be, is too much for the grasp of the human mind and his mathematical understanding so far. Science does not now speak of any strange medium like the nineteenth- century "Ether", where all the spinning, curving or twisting could occur to give the various properties. We are, however, in search of Quark, the building block for all the fundamental particles. But it has not yet been discovered. If you want to visualise the distribution of elementary particles in atoms, of stars in a galaxy, or of galaxies in the material universe, you can easily do it by increasing an atom to the size of a big room, or decreasing the galaxy, or the universe to The size of that room. In this room you give out a puff of smoke from a cigarette. In a short time the smoke
130
particles will spread out and mix up with the air in the room. These smoke particles will represent the electrons, etc., in a-big atom, stars in a galaxy or the galaxies in the universe. Such jumbles of uniquely-isolated fundamental particles give rise-to all sorts of earthly and heavenly bodies. Thus the material universe consists of small whirls in a practically empty continuum, joining in jumbles to constitute material bodies. Coming together of these jumbles in a practically empty continuum constitutes stars and galaxies. Though each jumble may appear to be a dwarf or a giant to the living human beings, yet each is so far off from other jumbles as compared to their respective sizes that it appears to be a lonely wanderer in a wilderness. According to the general theory of Relativity the total congregation of such galaxies in the universe must either expand or contract. It cannot remain stationary. Observations have confirmed that at present the material universe is expanding and the galaxies are receding from each other. They will begin to contract after about thirty-five thousand million years. Ours is a pulsating universe. In the story of creation as revealed to Prophet Muhammad {Peace be upon him!) we found that a closed-up mass was opened out at a certain instant in cosmic history. The mass thus opened out passed through three stages of varying periods of two sub-stages in each. The first heaven was formed after the opening out of the closed-up mass when matter was still in the stage of smoke. The heaven and the earth were commanded to evolve together in harmony with each other. This was the stage of dead matter and the degrees of freedom of the material universe at this stage were those of matter wherein electromagnetism was handing over control to gravitation. The degrees of freedom were five or six. In the second stage when topographic features had formed on the earth and life was created from ringing clay (igneous rocks} in black mud altered, and in water, there was only one heaven in which were the stars. The Throne of the
131
Lord, the Seat of Authority, where the Will of God crystalised into action of the material world, viz., al-Arsh ( ) was on water. Life, mind and soul were coming into being and higher and higher degrees of freedom were coming into play in the material universe and more heavens were coming into being one above the other without any support. Angels were created from Light ( ) and the Jinns were created from essential of the burning Fire ( ) Here it may be noted that Light and Fire, though producing different effects on human body and mind, are essentially similar. The only difference between the two is that the light-quanta have slightly more energy than the quanta of heat. Thus when the Lord announced His intention of creating man on earth and making him His vicegerent, the angels alone are not mentioned in the Qur'an. In actual fact, Iblis, a Jinn, was also present in the congregation. They tried to argue with the Lord that man would shed blood and cause disturbance and may, therefore, not be created. After the Lord perfected the homo sapiens physically, He breathed His Own. Spirit into Adam and asked the angels and jinns to pay respect to him. The angels did so after the intellectual superiority of Man was made manifest to them, but Iblis (jinn) refused. In his ignorance he refused to do so, because he was created of the essential of Fire—some other kind of fundamental particles in which energy of infra-red region formed the basis of his being. Here the superiority of man over angels and jinns was that of knowledge. While the angels could not name all the things in the world, Adam—Man—could. But what is knowledge? The angels could see ali the things or feel their effects, but could not name them, while Adam could. What does this mean? Let us consider it in some detail. Knowledge is the name given to a condition where the
132
one who feels, sees or experiences a thing can move to a plane" equal to, if not higher than, that of the source of experience. Suppose there is a conscious point whose degrees of freedom are zero. It has a fixed position and cannot move about in any direction. Now suppose it is pricked by a pin from above. It cannot move upwards. It will, no doubt, feel the pricking, because it is conscious, but it will never be able to understand the cause. The knowledge of the cause is the name of experience as interpreted by memory and understanding, i.e., a process of correlation of the cause with some other known experience, which is possible only after some movement to comprehend the cause, and therefore a body with zero degree of freedom will have an experience, but no comprehension, because it cannot move in any direction. A body with one degree of freedom, i.e., a conscious line will be capable of having knowledge about the cause of the experiences from the direction in which it has freedom to move, but for no other direction. A body with two or three degrees of freedom will be able to acquire knowledge of the two or three dimensions in which it is free to move, but not of the fourth; while in a body which has four degrees of freedom, his knowledge will also comprehend many experiences from the direction of time. If such a body is imprisoned in a fous-dimensional room by closing exits only in its three dimensions, i.e., the floor, the four vertical walls and the roof, he will be able to come out and go in by using the fourth dimension and using the fourth degree of his freedom, as Eddington would put it. Man's better capacity for knowledge in comparison with the angels and the jinns, as demonstra'ed by God on the day of perfection of man, was really, a demonstration of larger degrees of freedom constilutionally possessed by man over all other living and conscious beings in this universe, the angels and the jinns inclusive. This is the big mathematical hypothesis implied in the story of creation of man described
133
in the Holy Qur'an. Now the question arises what is the limit of the degrees of freedom of man? Can he use all of them? Is there an example where any human being utilised his degrees of freedom beyond three and attained maximum knowledge possible for man? So far as the first question is concerned, it has been generally believed for long that corresponding to the five physical senses of perception, viz., seeing, touching, hearing. smelling and tasting, man possesses five inner senses. Mystics have believed in this and many of the exercises in Yoga and other forms of mysticism are just to awaken and strengthen these inner senses of seeing, touching, hearing, smelting and tasting. They believe, and Aristotle agreed with this, that while the physical senses are limited by barriers in the three dimensions, the inner senses do not suffer any such limitation. Actually, the contention of the mystics is that every child is born with the five physical senses of perception and five corresponding inner senses of perception. Immediately after birth, it is simpler and easier for the child to begin employing his physical senses to satisfy his needs. The result is that while his physical senses become strong and well-developed by constant exercise and use, the inner senses get numbed and paralysed by neglect and disuse. The contention of the mystics is that by their special exercises they reawaken and strengthen a particular inner sense or senses. The claim of Islam is that every child is born a Muslim and through the practice of Islamic discipline, both the physical and the inner senses are equally developed. Historic examples of the complete fulfilment of this claim are numerous. The question arises why only five inner senses? The answer is simple. The working of alt the senses of perception depends on the transmission of impulses received by the phy-ical organs, in the form of seeing, hearing, smelling, taste ana touch, to different braincentres, through nerves, in the form
134
of electric currents and potentials. At the nerve-ends in the brain the electric impulses produce certain chemical reaction, which are interpreted by the mind as shape, sound, touch, smell or taste. The meaning of possessing five inner senses of perception is that the mind can project itself far beyond the carriers of space, and time and receive impulses at the same nerve-ends which get influenced by the organs of five phy-sical senses in their three dimensional experiences. For this very reason we call them the inner senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting, although the physical agents necessary to produce similar sensations are absent. In fact, we have a sixth sense of time also. It does not depend on the use of any physical organ, but it works on the capacity of The brain-cells to serialise perceptions and to pro ject them into the memory of the past and present experi ences, which is just a demonstration of the freedom of move ment possessed by the human mind in the direction of time. Logical induction is a demonstration of the same capacity to wards the future—the unknown. Ordinarily a living body seems to be accustomed to use time as an irreversible move ment from past to present and future, but by using memory" and induction the mind can move in any direction at any time. This seems to be the meaning of The sense of time possessed by man. This interpretation of the inner senses of perception settles one old-standing controversy amongst the Ash'arite and the Mo'tazilite schools of Islamic Philosophy. The Qur'an says that the righteous will see God in Heaven. During his Ascent to the Throne of Authority, Prophet Muhammad saw God, and his sight did not falter. The Ash'arites say that this seeing was similar to seeing with the eyes. The Mo'tazilites say that it could not be like seeing with the eyes. The argument advanced by the Mo'tazilites was that for a body to be seen, light must be reflected or emitted by the body. This light should enter the eye of the one who
135
sees. Its image will be formed on the retina and then alone one can see. They further argued that if God is to be seen • He must either reflect light coming from another source, or He must emit light Himself. God is Eternal ( ) . and all else, including light, are ephemeral and mortal ( ). In case He is to be seen by reflected light, the Eternal for getting Himself to be seen will have to depend on an ephemeral and mortal source which would be a serious defect in respect of His Eternality. Therefore, it is impossible, because God is free of all defects. If, for being seen, God emits light ' Himself, an ephemeral element becomes a part of His Being. This is also impossible, because that would be against His Eternality. Therefore, they argued that no one can see God in the way which we call seeing. The Ash'arites argued that God would be seen by the inner sense of sight which does not depend upon light and therefore the repugnant element of ephemeral light does not come into the process at all. Even otherwrise, if we accept that the presence of inner senses means the possession of higher degrees of free-dom by the body having life and soul, and the mind produces the same reactions in the brain by projecting itself as are pro-duced by the transmission of impulses by the physical sense organs, as suggested by me, the problem is easily solved. In the presence of the Lord, the mind and memory of the righteous will produce sensations similiar to those of seeing by eyes, although there will be no light focussing on the retina and producing that effect. Now we know that the material universe is the name given to energy exhibiting itself by the wave-particle duality in the form of radiation or elementary particles. These include the photon which gives light. So the general term "Light" would be the best term to describe the ultimate active agent of Being of the universe. This general term Light is a part -of the Ultimate Reality and is therefore not ephemeral ( ).
136
It is through this light by which the slaves who completely submit to the Ultimate Reality will see Him. I have discussed his problem in some detail here because the question of seeing God on the Day of Judgement or in al-Jannah will arise only when men and women have been recreated after death, and they will come into the presence of the Lord with their bodies. Only the righteous who had disciplined their souls and progressed in the process of evolution to a higher stage, will be able to see the Lord. The sinners whose evolution was stopped in the life on earth, by indiscipline and disbelief, will not have this privilege. This clarification was also necessary because the problem of seeing God, which is clearly stated in Surah al-Najm, becomes a deciding factor in solving the controversy about the Prophet's Ascension, viz., whether it was an experience of the body and soul together, or of soul atone, or only a dream. The present discussion should therefore be carefully noted and kept in mind. It will be required when we discuss that miracle. Coming back to the problem from which wo had digressed, let us see what do the mystics mean by saying that by developing one or more of their inner senses they overcome the physical barriers of Space and Time? So far as I can see and judge, it only means that man has four degrees of freedom of space-time on which the five physical senses of perception depend. Then, all living bodies possess a sixth sense of lime also, which some people have quite well-developed, while others have it in a numb or blunted form. Let us see what this time-sense means. You must be aware that the bodies of all human beings, animals and plants are made up of ceils. A cell can be a microbe with a diameter of one part in two hundred and fifty thousand parts of an inch, or it can be the yolk of an ostrich's egg about the size of an orange. An organisation of cells may be a butter-cup, an ant,
137
a man, a whale, or a 1,000 year told bunyan tree. In spite of all this great variety, all the cells have some common features which are necessary for the maintenance of life. There is a single-celled organism called Euglena Gracilis. Euglena changes itself into a plant or an animal and back again into plant as its environment changes. Though it is unique in a number of ways, Euglena shares certain features with other single-celled organisms, and with all the higher organisms, including man. The euglena has only a red spot in its front portion through which it gets sensations of sight although the spot in nothing like an eye. This unicellular body, Euglena, has also a very well developed sense of time. For twelve hours it works like a plant and for twelve hours like an animal. This activity is independent of light and darkness, because it continues like this even in perfect darkness. The question is how this time-sense works in this unicellular body. This would be possible only if the congregation of atoms and molecules on reaching the life-stage attains a degree of freedom in the fourdimensional continuum which gives it a knowledge of time-interval, just as the three lower degrees of freedom enable it to overcome distances and heights by three-dimensional devices. And its seeing is also something like the inner sense of sight mentioned earlier, because there is no eye to form the images and there is no brain to interpret these images. In the case of man, the use of memory in the fourth dimension. Those who can coordinate this working of the. cells of their body and the brain can use their time-sense more effectively. This is all that the time-sense means. In addition to these five physical senses of perception and the sixth sense of time pertaining to the degrees of freedom of the spacetime continuum, the living body of man possessing mind and soul has some more degrees of freedom which enable him to gain experiences and knowledge far beyond his physical reach. He can know the surface conditions as is done by touching physical objects, or the longitudinal vibrations of material bodies as the ear does, or the transverse
138
electromagnetic vibrations like eye, or some other characteristics..of these bodies which the tongue or the nose-membranes recognise. It may be one extra degree of freedom which performs all these functions, or it may be five more degrees of freedom one for each kind of perception. To fix the number of these degrees of freedom will be a pure conjecture , because we have no material basis, and because so far this phenomenon is far beyond the grip of numbers, which throws it out of the domain of physical science. But there is no doubt that a living man possesses many more degrees of freedom than four, and exercises them also in what people call telepathy and other names.
139
CHAPTER IX
Miracles of the Prophets Now comes the most important question from our point of view. There are innumerable historically-true records of many saints, in all ages, having performed miraculous deeds. They are too numerous to be discussed here. There is, however, a class of highly-revered persons who have consistently been respected and followed by large numbers of peoples m all countries and ages and whom we call Prophets. They are respected even today, and the histories and mythologies of all nations contain accounts of their activities. Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon Jesus, Hud, Saleh, Muhammad (may Peace of God be upon alt of them!) are some of the Prophets about whom we know from the Qur'an and the Old and the New Testaments that they performed miracles. Rama, Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius might also have been Prophets of their countries and times, but we have no proper historic records about them. Much of their personalities have got mixed up with mythologies. So far as the known Prophets are concerned, there is one characteristic which is common to them all. Each of them claimed to have been guided by the Supreme Being Himself, through Revelation. And what is Revelation? However much the people may differ about the mode of Its operatons, it was communion with the All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Omnipotent and Omniscient God, by whatever means it might have been.
140
it was the acquisition of knowledge without getting lessons-about it from any human being, or from one's own observations and experiences. It was a sudden exposition of a whole truth, without any step-by-step and piecemeal approach through the scientific method. Many very strange and curious happenings are associated with every Prophet. These are called Miracles. Miracles are those strange phenomena which are associated with a Prophet but occur in Nature like any other phenomena. The Prophets always associated them with the working of God's Will and the manifestation of His Power, and they performed them to impress upon the unbelievers the Divine basis of their mission and to help the faithful in accepting their teachings with full confidence. The prediction of a flood, the preparation to face the flood successfully, the occurrence of the promised devastating flood and the survival of Prophet Noah and his faithful followers, were the miracles of Prophet Noah (Peace be on him!). The coming out unharmed of Prophet Abraham (Peace be on him!) from a huge bonfire in which he was thrown by Nimrud, was his miracle. The direct conversation with God, that of changing of his staff into a snake and its swallowing up the magic-snakes of the magicians, the crossing of the Red Sea as if it had become dry land and the drowning of Pharaoh who followed him, or his striking of a rock in the Sinai desert with the rod and of twelve springs coming out gushing from it, were the miracles of Prophet Moses (Peace be on him!). The curing of the lepers and the blind, making a dead man breathe again, of telling people what they had eaten, or of making the earthen birds fly, were the miracles of Prophet Jesus (Peace be on him!). In the the case of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!) such things were happening every now and then. The
141
rout of the army of Abraha even when the Prophet was in the womb of his mother is regarded as a miracle preceding his birth. The splitting of the moon; the coming back above the horizon of the sun after it had set; the loud recital of Kalima by the stones in the hand of Abu Jahl; small supplies of water and food becoming sufficient and satisfying 1or large congregations, are with authentic evidence in their support, some of the miracles of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!)-One of the most astounding of his miracles however, was his celestial journey by night on Burraq from Mecca to Jerusalem —the Isra ( ) and then the Ascent across the seven heavens and Sidratul-Muntaha to the Throne of Authority of the Lord—the Ascension—al-Me'raj ( ) These are all his miracles. Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) was, however, the last of the Prophets to guide the human race, whose knowledge was to encompass the whole universe—the earth, the sun, the moon the stars and the interstellar space. Sciences and arts were to reach their highest culmination in the hands of man after his ministry, and the most astounding mysteries of nature were to be solved by him. Therefore, whenever anybody asked him to show a miracle, like those of the Prophets of old, the Qur'an always declared that they were ignorant people who did not understand. The sun and the moon, the night and the day, the blowing winds which shift the clouds like slaves, the clouds and the rain, the plants and the animals, the flowers and the fruits of different colours and kinds which grow from the same soil, the insects and the birds, the tiny ant, and the dirty fly—all are miracles of God, His Signs, on which the wise and the thoughtful have been asked by the Qur'an to contemplate. The standing miracle of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) was, however, declared to be the Holy Qur'an which claims in clear words that even it all the learned people of the human race and of the race of the jinns join together, they could not produce anything like it, a chapter or even a verse. The question is, what are the miracles? Followers of
142
all the older religions believed that they were occurrences against the laws of Nature, and their occurrence showed how grand was their Prophet. For his sake and to make his mission a success, God stopped the working of the ordinary laws of Nature and made things happen which perplexed the beholders, and proved to them the greatness of their Prophets. The rationalists have always contested this view. The staunch followers of all the old prophetic religions have regarded miracles as a necessary requirement for proving the correctness of the teachings of their respective Prophets. The rationalists have, however, contended that there was no relationship between the conversion of a rod into a snake and the assertion of the Prophet that there was only one Supreme God who should bo worshipped. I however consider, and I am not alone in this, that the correct position is that all the Prophets were definitely associated with miraculous happenings. Miracles always happened with every true Prophet, but they were not to prove the soundness of his material, moral or spiritual teachings. The miracles were only a sort of material and physical evidence of the fact that he who was chosen by God to be a Prophet was capable, by the boundless mercy of God, of employing in the affairs of his life, particularly at critical moments of his career, and of using the higher degrees of freedom inherent in his personality. The first and the essential exhibition of this larger capacity was the strange way of getting knowledge, whcih is called Revelation. The other exhibitions of those awakened degrees of freedom used to be the other miracles which happened in the life-time of the Prophets, and even afterwards through the saints from amongst their followers. The second controversy about the miracles has been about their nature, i.e. whether they were in conformity with the law of Nature or in violation thereof. The followers of the dogmatic form of religion have always insisted that if a miracle is to be a miracle at all, it should be against the law of
143
Nature. The rationalists and the scholastics of Islam have, on the other hand, insisted that the Holy Qur'an is emphatic that the law of Nature is immutable. The Habit of God does not change. They quote the Qur'an: (Blessed is) He Who created the seven heavens one above the other: No want of proportion (or disorder) wilt thou see in the creation of (God) Most Gracious. So turn thy vision again: seest thou any flaw? Again turn thy vision a second time; (thy) vision will come back to thee dulled and discomfited in a state worn out (but no flaw wilt thou find)." (LVII: 3.4), Here in Surah al-Mulk humanity has been challenged to find out a single flaw anywhere in the seven heavens and the earth, and it has been told that they will get tired out and discomfited but they will not find any example. The miracles therefore cannot be in violation of the law of Nature, but only according to it. In an effort to prove this point the rationalists and the scholastics have tried to establish correlations between miracles and other scientific theories accepted in their times. In the cases where they could not explain a particular miracle according to the scientific and philosophic understanding of their times, they either denied the reliability of the historic record, or distorted the facts to suit their convenience. in distinction 'to the contentions of both these schools, our present survey of the trends of modern scientific thought has shown two things very prominently. First, we cannot be certain about the finality of any law of Nature discovered by the scientific method so tar. Each ' law represents only a high degree of statistical probability but not a certainty. In fact, after a certain stage it becomes certain that we cannot gain certain knowledge at all. The very fact of observation distorts the object observed. . In view of this we cannot claim that we have complete knowledge and that it should be possible to explain every observation and human experience, including the miracles that have been recorded by honest people correctly and complete-
144
ly. If a miracle cannot be explained or understood, or if it does not fit in with the laws of Nature discovered so far, it would not be correct that it should be disbelieved or discarded. The phenomena occurring in our material world by the operation of higher degrees of freedom inherent in living material bodies through the employment of the facilities available in a higher dimensional continuum, cannot always be explained easily. These will appear to be violating certain laws as delineated in the lower dimensional continuum by the devices working in the lower degrees of freedom. In fact, they will not be violating the real law of Nature as actually operative in the continuum in which they happen. We have seen examples of this in the process of radiation when an electron crosses a space where it cannot exist, and also in the nature of elementary 'particles which sometimes behave as waves and sometimes as particles. These are only the paradoxes that have occurred beyond the degrees of freedom of space-time continuum. There is no doubt that with the advancement and improvement in the understanding of our environment and of ourselves, there will always be a need to examine the miracles again and again. But if they do not appear to conform to our knowledge acquired up to that time, there is no need to dispute the veracity of the miracles, or to distort the facts. ' We should simply go on doing research about them, through the scientific method if we please, or through other methods, if necessary. We have done this in the case of X-rays, Rontgen rays, radio-activity, and the astounding results of the Morley-Michelson's experiment. We are doing this about the living cell, about the elementary particles, and about the Quantum fields. The human race has been fully rewarded for these efforts. A similar concerted, balanced and conscientious effort in respect of the most perplexing and apparently very strange prophetic miracles will be equally rewarding. Muslim thinkers like Farabi, Ibn
Sina and Ibn Miskawaih held a similar view, and to me it appears to be the most appealing view if we keep the trends of modern scientific thought in mind.
145
CHAPTER X
The Miracle of Celestial Journey by Night (Isra') &Ascent (Me'raj) of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) As an example of what I have proposed in the last chapter, I will now take up one of the most astounding of the miracles of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.), viz., that of Travel by Night from Mecca to Jerusalem and then the Bodily Ascent of the Prophet to the heavens and the 'Arsh and return to Mecca in an incredibly short time. I will discuss it in the light of our discussions in the preceding pages, because this miracle has been the subject of a sharp controversy since the earliest times. Travelling bodily and instantaneously from Mecca to Jerusalem without any material means of transport, and then his bodily ascent to the 'Arsh, the Seat of Authority in the material world of the Lord Himself, has appeared to be such a strange thing to many people that it has given rise 10 three different views among the Muslims during the course of history. The most widely—accepted view has been that Isra' and Me'raj were experiences involving the total personality. Among those who have differed from this view, 'some have regarded these experiences as of the soul alone, while, others have thought that it was only a dream that the Prophet dreamt. But the actual fact is that if it were only a dream, or an experience of the soul alone as apart from the body, then then was
146
nothing for (he disbelievers to contest or make fun, and even suggest that (God forbid) the Prophet was not in his right mind, if the Prophet, when describing the experience next morning, had not made it clear that the experience was of body and soul together. This miracle has been described in Surah XVII (Bani Israel) and Sura Llll (An Najrn) in the following verses: 1. "Glory to God who did take His servant for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (the Ka'ba in Mecca) to the Farthest Mosque (the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem) whose precincts We did bless—in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (alt things)" (XVII:1). 2 "By the Star when it goes down! your companion (Muhammad) is neither astray nor being misled; nor does he say (aught) of his own desire. (Up to here the doubts of the Unbelievers are removed). It is no less than a Revelation revealed. (This emphasizes that the statements which follow are from God and their authenticity should not be doubted). He (Prophet) was taught by One Mighty in Power, Endued with Wisdom: for He appeared while he (Prophet) was in the highest part of the horizon. Then he (Prophet) approached and came closer and was at a distance of two bows or even nearer. So did God reveal to His Servant what He meant to reveal. The (Prophet's mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw. Will ye then dispute with him what he saw? For indeed he saw Him at a second descent near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass— near the Garden of Abode. Behold the Lotetree was shrouded in mystery unspeakable. His sight never swerved nor did it go wrong. For truly did he see of the greatest Signs of his Lord." (LHI:1-18). We have seen the evidence of the Holy Qur'an. Now let us see how the. event is described in the Hadith. Here is the
147
description of the event as it emerges when we take into consideration all the authentic traditions. The Prophet was resting one night in the hateem of the Ka'ba. He was in a state between sleep and wakefulness when Angel Gabriel, accompanied by some other angels, came. The Prophet received him and was informed that God wanted him in audience. The Prophet responded immediately. They party went, to the well of Zam-Zam where the Prophet's chest was opened up and his heart was washed clean, in a basin of gold, with the water of Zam-Zam, and then the chest was closed up again. Then a special carrier was brought. Its name was Burraq—a derivative form of Barq, which means electricity. The Prophet got on it. The Burraq's speed was so great that its every step fell where the eye-sight could reach, i.e., with the velocity of light or even more. On this carrier, the Prophet was taken on journey by night (Isra') from Masjid al-Haram (the Ka'ba in Mecca) to Masjid al-Aqsa (the "Farthest Mosque" 'in Jerusalem). At Masjid al-Aqsa the Prophet tied his steed where the Prophets of old used to put their steeds, and offered two raka'ats of congregational prayers along with the other Prophets. He acted as the leader of the congregation with the Prophets of old praying behind him. After the prayers, Gabriel offered him three cups: one was full of wine, the second contained milk and the third contained honey. The Prophet took the cup of milk for refreshment, whereupon Gabriel informed him that he had selected normal nature (al-fitrah) and that if he had selected wine, his followers would have gone astray. Thereafter the Ascent commenced, wherein he crossed-the interstellar space and reached the gate of the first heaven. The angelguard on this gate enquired from Gabriel whether there was permission of God for the Prophet to cross that barrier. On getting reply in the affirmative they allowed the Prophet to pass. Similar conversation look place, between the
148
guards at the gates of different heavens and Gabriel, before the Prophet was allowed to pass into the remaining six heavens one after the other. In the first heaven the Prophet met Adam (P.U.H.), who greeted him as a 'Righteous Son and a 'Righteous Prophet. To the right of Adam (P.U.H.) was Heaven and to his left was Hell, both of which the Prophet witnessed. In the second heaven the Prophet was welcomed by Jesus (P.U.H.) and Yahya (P.U.H.), in the third by Joseph (P.U.H.), in the fourth by Idris (P.U.H.), in the fifth by Aaron (P.U.H.). in the sixth by Moses (P.U.H.). Each of them greeted htm as a 'Righteous Brother' and a 'Righteous Prophet'. In the seventh heaven he met Abraham (P.U.H.) who greeted him by calling him a 'Righteous Son' and a 'Righteous Prophet. On going beyond the seventh heaven the party reached the Sidratul-Muntaha—the "Tree" beyond which none can go, near which is the Garden of Abode. There he 'heard' the 'sound produced by the 'Pen' 'writing' the destiny of the universe. Here Gabriel appeared before the Prophet in his real form. This was the highest stage in the degrees of freedom of Gabriel. He informed the Prophet that be (Gabriel) could not go beyond that stage. It was here that the Prophet got his first glimpse of the Lord God Himself in His full Glory; and conversed with Him, obtaining the Highest Wisdom. That Highest Wisdom—that unique experience in the Realm of Knowledge—is inexpressible in human language which relates to the experiences of three-dimensional continuum only. However, three pieces of clearly expressible commands and information were also received: 1. The last verses of Surah al-Baqarah. which form the edifice of the Islamic Belief-System. 2.
The Prophet was informed that all his sincere followers will be pardoned, if they abstained from polytheism; and
149
3
Five daily prayers were made obligatory on all Muslims with fasting during the month of Ramadan. This whole experience, which was completed in a very short period of time indeed, was so unique that even when the ' Qur'an speaks of it, as quoted in the foregoing (Llll:—18), its statements remain mysterious. Thus, so far as the above-mentioned experiences are concerned, there appears no difference in the statements of the different companions, but the nature of the experience and the meaning and significance of different statements have been a source of acute difference of opinion even amongst the Companions of the Prophet, what to say of the rationalists and their opponents among the later Muslims and the Unbelievers from the very beginning. These controversies were not entirel unjustified, because, after all, men of common sense have to judge things and experiences on the basis of fully-acceded facts by the sciences of their time, and above all, by the standards of logic and common sense. The whole incident happened in such a short time that travelling bodily in that time from Mecca to Jerusalem and then crossing the whole of the starry universe now known to be extending to millions of light years—nay! not only impossible, but also (God forbid) absurd if the distances crossed in this experience are expressed in three-dimensional language of miles and Iight years. If the covering of distances beyond Jerusalem is taken in this sense, then the speed of travel would be far beyond the speed of light. This was impossible to believe not only for the ancients, but also for us who know that the velocity of light is the limit of highest speed in the fourdimensional continuum. But, it was an experience of realisation of higher and higher degrees of freedom residing in the human body and soul, then there would be no difficulty, as we shall see presently. The Unbelievers did doubt even the veracity of such a claim and it was in this light that the news of Isra' and Ascent
150
was carried to Abu Bakr. He, however, had such complete confidence in the honesty, integrity and intelligence of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) that he, without hesitation, accepted it as an experience involving total personality of the Prophet, Abdullah Ibn Abbas and many other Companions concurred with that view, and a majority, of Muslims continue to believe "it as such even today. I am one of them. If it was only a dream or an exploit of soul alone, there was no occasion for all this controversy to arise, or for God to clarify the position in the revealed verses of the Holy Qur'an that: 1. "Your companion is neither astray nor being misled (LIII:2), nor does he say (aughl) of (his own) desire (Llll-3). It is no less than a Revelation revealed (LIII-4)." 2. "The (Prophet's mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw (Llll-11). Will ye then dispute with him what he saw? (Llll-12)." 3. "His sight never swerved nor did it go wrong." (Ull:17). In the light of these clear verses of the Qur'an and in agreement with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Abdullah Ibn Abbas and a host of other learned and pious Muslims, we believe that it was an experience of the body and soul together. This is in keeping with the modern scientific thought which we have already discussed in earlier pages, and as we shall elaborate it hereafter. While discussing the bodily Ascent of Prophet Muhammad the problem of his actually seeing God will also be clarified. From the description of Isra' and Me'raj, based on the Holy Qur'an and the most authentic traditions given above, it would appear that the Ascent ( ) took place in two distinct stages. The first stage was of the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. The vehicle employed in the journey was an
151
electromagnetic carrier, Burraq, which was like a photon (a bundle of electromagnetic field) and travelled with the velocity of light or even more. It was certainly above the four-dimensional continuum, i.e., in the fifth-dimensional continuum of electromagnetism as the electron travels for giving out radiation. As already mentioned, the name Burraq is a derivation from Barq, which means electricity. This itself suggests that this journey, although it covered a distance in the spacetime continuum, was in a continuum having a higher degree of freedom than four. We have seen in our discussions before that both the material universe and the living group of Quantuum fields which we call man, have higher degrees of freedom inherent in their very constitution. The person of the Prophet was made capable to use these higher degrees of freedom in this journey. This was one of the great signs which God wanted to show to His Servant. That is why neither the resistance of the material environment produced any adverse effect, as it does on a meteor with a much lower velocity of even about 26 miles per second, nor could anybody in the fourdimensional continuum see him on the way to Jerusalem. If this journey was in the fifth-dimensional continuum by an electromagnetic carrier, then the really strange thing which cannot be understood, on the basis of what has been learnt so far, is that the jumping of an elementary particle— an electron—from one. orbit to another in the atom across the prohibited four dimensional space is quite different from the regular journey of a whole jumble of such particles across the four-dimensional continuum. This appears to be a forbidden field and a serious mixing up of the classical fields with the Quantum fields. Yes! It may appear to be a mix-up. But why not? Is not the perceptual material world itself a standing exhibition of the same mix-up? Do we know how Euglena, a unicellular plant-animal, distinguishes between Red and Blue and keeps time. It has no eye; it has no brain; it has no me-
152
chanism to mark time. Do we know how it changes its nature from a plant to an animal on change of the environment? We do not know. It is certainly the result of some great mixing up of the classical and Quantum fields. Do we know how the simple molecules join in a most intelligent way in the twisting spirals of a protein molecule, and how each jumble of some molecules in a cell goes seeking the right place in a gene or a chromosome? Indeed, the production of living matter from dead matter and of dead matter from living cells is one of the greatest Signs of God, as the Qur'an would put it. In the creation of living matter from dead matter higher than four degrees of freedom are brought into play; and in the journey by night of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) from Mecca to Jerusalem these degrees of freedom were fully employed according to the Will of God for showing the Signs to His Servant, which have remained unrealizable by any other man so far. But the availability of unlimited sources of energy by smashing or making atoms and studies in meta-psychology have opened the way. If we have been able to attain speeds to free us from the shackles of gravitation, attainment of speeds to free us from the shackles of space-time continuum does not appear to be an impossible proposition. The human mind is certainly working in this direction and success is bound to come sooner or later. The Propnet travelled in higher dimensional continuums beyond the harm of resistance by obstructing matter and above the reach of mechanical time, but he saw all that lay under him during the journey. He told the questioners exactly the position of a caravan that was en route to Mecca, and that position on the night in question was confirmed by the travellers when the caravan reached Mecca. The Prophet had not been to Jerusalem before this event. People who had seen the place asked him details about it and he told them exactly.
THE ASCENT The second stage of the miracle mentioned in Surah
153
An-Najm (LIII) is more difficult to understand, because it covers a sphere beyond the material world and deals, with the journey across the seven heavens, beyond Sidrat-uI-Muntaha to the Throne of The Authority of God, and seeing God in His full Glory and Majesty, and conversing with Him. Those who believed it to be an experience of the soul alone believed that the Prophet did not see God. On the other hand, those who believed that the Prophet ascended in the Me'raj with his total personality believed that he saw God as mentioned in the Qur'an. About the question of seeing God I have already mentioned the differences EOT Ash'arite and Mo'azilite schools of philosophy, and at the same time shown that the perception in the portion of the brain which is affected by the eyes can be affected in other ways also, and that there will be no difference in the process EOT seeing by the eye or in any other way if the perception is by that portion of the brain which sees. Hence, there is no difficulty, according to our understanding of the process of seeing, if we believe that the Prophet saw God, as if It was by the eyes. The question will, however, arise only if it can be shown that the Ascent was with the body and not only of the soul or in a dream. The verses of the Qur'an above leave no doubt that the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem was with body and soul together and also the question of seeing God and of the Lote-Tree surrounded by mystery and of the reception of the Revelation that God revealed, were not mere illusions but actual bodily experiences. The Qur'anic statement: "His sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong," is not a statement of some illusion, but actual bodily experience and His being seen. Let us keep in mind that the degrees of freedom of a human body endowed with soul are many more than those of dead matter. We have seen that the degrees of freedom
154
residing even in dead matter are more than four, because in the process of radiation an electron has to use a higher degree in the electromagnetic continuum. The electron actually passes over the forbidden space through the agency of the electromagnetic continuum. Eddington has shown that a four-dimensional body can come out and go into a room which is completely closed on all the sides in the three dimensions of length, breadth and height, if the body can use the fourth dimension of time, which is not closed in the room. There should be no difficulty in accepting that this congregation of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., composing the cells of a human body can also bodily cross the barriers of fourdimensions through the fifth dimension if God provides Burraq—an electromagnetic carrier—for this purpose. How these conditions were created? I do not know! This requires further research which may actually lead to the discovery of a new means of transportation, as we have already pointed out. While discussing the Qur'anic version of the creation of the universe we saw that the seven heavens were perfected only when man was born on the earth. It was only then that the 'Arsh, or God's Throne of Authority for the material umi-verse with man in it. was finally established.' While discussing this we saw that the 'Arsh was on water when all the living beings were confined to water. After the perfection of man, the establishment of the Throne of Authortiy beyond the Lote-Tree would show thai the degrees of freedom of man were beyond the reach of the most eminent of the angels—Gabriel. Man had evidently more knowledge than even Gabriel It was the activation of these degrees of freedom which opened the possible" degrees of evolution of the completely-disciplined man— the Insan-ulKamil the 'Servant of Good par excellence. He had submitted himself completely to the Will of God ( i . e . , he was perfect in Islam), and had qualified himself for the highest degree of attainment of having close Vision of God.
155
On the occasion of Meraj the Prophet is stated by the Quran to have reached God on the Arsh closer than two bows. Let us see what it means. Some commentators have interpreted this to be twice the distance where an arrow would fall from the best bow, or even less. Others have taken it to mean the distance as fixed by two bows placed side by side, as shown below: Abdullah Yusuf Ali has interpreted it as a circle by placing the two arches opposite to each other, with, their strings as the coinciding diameters as shown below:
I take this to mean the closest possible coincidence,
because two arches when placed with their convexities touching each other tangentially mean contact at one point only. There could be no better description of he closest contact of the personality of Prophet Muhammad for a brief moment with his Creator at AI Arsh on the occasion of his Elevation and Ascent. This was the stage which the Prophet reached when there was revealed to him what was revealed. It could not be expressed in the symbolism of the three-dimensional continuum, called language and words.
156
What we have said so far only proves that doubts with regard to the 'Me'raj' emerge only if we confine our approach to the laws of the four-dimensional continuum, such as, the maximum velocity is that of light, or resistance of a body moving with high speed in a material environment would result into heat, or journey would take time, and the process of requirements for travelling across the stellar and inter-galactic and extra-galactic space would be necessary. But, all inconceivability of going beyond space fades into insignificance if a body is employing the higher degrees of freedom. The law, as visualised in the lower dimensional continuum, or in its language, may produce perplexities, but it cannot stop the occurrence. The Me'raj was the realization in actual practice by Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.), of all the degrees of freedom inherent in his personality, which naturally end at al-'Arsh' where the Will of the Infinite-Dimensional Being crystallises into operational commands for the heavens and the earth. It is only thus that the Qur'anic statement of God being "nearer to man than his jugular vein" or that the 'Arsh encompasses the seven heavens and the earth" can be understood. In the Infinite-Dimensional Being, Who has Complete Knowledge and All Power, the material universe, the seven heavens, the Sidarat-ul-Muntaha, the man and the 'Arsh are only exhibitions, or working realisations of different degrees of freedom. The seven heavens are one above the other without any support. The 'Arsh encompasses all, and that a perfect man with body and sou! can reach it was demonstrated by God in the case of Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.). Every Muslim can get a taste of this if he performs his daily prayers with full devotion and absorption of the mind, body and soul. The meeting of Prophet Muhammad with different Prophets in different heavens only showed the attainments of these Prophets for using their degrees of freedom in spheres one above the other as reached by them, or conferred upon them by God.
157
Heaven (al-Jannah) and Hell could be seen to the right and the left of Adam in the first heaven. This seems to mean that one side of the first heaven is towards the material stars and galaxies. The souls of the sinners will not be able to go beyond this sphere; while the righteous, by their spiritual discipline, will have enabled their respective souls to use higher degrees of freedom. Alt that took place in the Me'raj could take place in dimensional continuums higher than that of space-time and was, therefore, above time and space. I know that some philosophers, while discussing this miracle have suggested that while the Prophet was out on this journey, time stopped for all the duration. However, if we look at the problem as an activation of the higher degrees of freedom possessed by the living body of the Prophet (P.U.H.), such an assumption is not necessary. The Habit of God did not change even on this occasion. The law of Nature was not broken. It was only the exhibition of the capacities of the Perfect Man in a universe which has many more degrees of freedom than encompassed by space-time continuum, By the way, this delineation of Prophet Muhammad's Isra' and Me'raj provides an answer to a perplexing problem of modern astronomy. Was the space-time continuum there before matter came into existence? Or, has it developed on the appearance of matter in the void? We have shown else-where in his book that realization of lower-dimensional cross-sections from a higher dimensional being is possible, while the reverse process is not possible. The conclusion, therefore, is that the Infinite-Dimensional Being, with His infinitedimensional continuum, is there from eternity and will continue for ever. He is Conscious, Living, Intelligent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. He has Complete Knowledge and is All-Powerful; there is nothing besides Him. In religion we call Him God. Islam gives His proper name as 'ALLAH'. Everything is from Him and in Him and is the consequence of the action of His Own Free Will.
158
-The Isra' and the Me'raj of Prophet Muhammad show the possession by him—as the Perfect Man—of degrees of freedom inconceivable for us humble human beings. Let us not doubt the greatness conferred on him by God and let us offer our humble salutations to him.
159
CHAPTER XI
God (Allah) While discussing the advances of modern scientific Cosmology we learnt that the continuum in which our expanding material universe is situated is not Euclidean three-dimensional. It is not even four-dimensional, as mathematically deduced by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity. It is higher-dimensional. We also learnt that, for giving out or absorbing radiation, an electron jumps across the forbidden four-dimensional space between two orbits inside the atom through the fifth-dimensional continuum, which is no doubt an inherent part of the material universe. While discussing the Qur'anic concepts of the evolution of the heavens and the earth, we found that the heavens, one above the other without any visible support, as enunciated by the Qur'an, were created one after another as higher forms of life and intelligence emerged, and were-completed into seven heavens and the 'Arsh when Man appeared on the scene. It became thus clear that the seven heavens are nothing but spheres in the continuum with greater and greater degrees of freedom. The first heaven, which is decorated with lights (stars) and contains living matter, is the outcome of the impact of energy in the form of Quantum and Classical fields; it has at least five degrees of freedom, if not more. Therefore, the other six heavens over this heaven, though contiguous with it are spheres of higher and higher degrees of freedom, and the Sidrat ul Muntaha, where the degrees of freedom of angel Gabriel end, is above the seventh heaven, and al-'Arsh, which
160
is the seal of Authority of the All-knowing God in the material world, encloses Sidrat-ul-Muntaha and is beyond it. Thus the degrees of freedom at al-Arsh are more than anything else in. the present universe containing the seven heavens and the earth, possesses. This was shown to mean that The Will of the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient Being—God—cryslalises into actions in the lower domain at this stage. Al-'Arsh is not God, but only a stage in the degrees of freedom in the continuum physically limiting its highest stage in the material universe. While discussing the Me'raj (Ascent), we learnt that Prophet Muhammad (P.U.H.) did actually reach the 'Arsh with his body and soul. Evidently, therefore, this means that the degrees of freedom of the Perfect Man existing in complete harmony with the universe, reach the degrees of al-'Arsh; where the Prophet, the beloved Servant of God came in closest contact with Him. For reaching this stage of evolution man has to subject his body and soul to a discipline in the life on the earth, which discipline is called "Islam". The souls which have disciplined themselves completely through Islam while associated with the material body, will continue to evolve even after they are separated from their body and will reach that heayen beyond the first which they have earned; or in other words, the stage where they will be able to use higher and higher degrees of freedom in the appropriate heaven for which they had trained themselves while the soul was associated with the material body inside the first heaven. The souls of sinners and of the wards of Iblis will not be able to attain higher degrees of free dom, and will suffer inside the first heaven containing the f u r iously burning and blazing matter in the stars, which will ultimately be closed up, and will become one continuous mass of fi re—which we might call the "Mother Atom"—the "Yelm", or by the religious term "Hell." The attainment of capacities by souls for higher degrees of freedom on separation from the material body by subjecting
161
hemselves to a religious discipline, through the performance of Worship of God ( ) and by following the code of con duct prescribed by Islam, is like adjusting resistance, capaci-ance and inductance for producing radio-waves of different qualities and frequencies under different electric potentials and currents. The interval between the disappeara n c e o f M a n f r o m t h i s universe (on death) and t he cl osi ng up of t he e x p a n d i n g u n i v e r s e w i l l be Barzakh—period of suspense for the souls discharged from their material bodies on earthly death. Then will come the Day of Judgement when all the souls will be reborn in material bodies just as a song dispersed on radio-waves can be reborn in a radio-set after long periods. Or, like the electromagnetic waves emitted by galaxies millions of years back, which can be picked up on radio-telescopes and photoplates today. On rebirth the souls with higher dimensional capacities will again get associated with Quantum and classical fields This will be the Resurrection. How? I cannot conceive, but certainly something like the reception of radiowaves on a radio-set. After re-birth, 1he disciplined and undisciplined individuals will be sorted out. The former will be free to move to higher heavens—the Paradise; the latter will remain confined within the first heaven,—this will be Hell. These concepts, as brought out by the Qur'an and supported directly and indirectly at some turning points in the Evolutionary Cosmology of a pulsating universe of Modern Science, lead to a very interesting conclusion. The material | universe possessing limited degrees of freedom, though distinctly existing as if in its own right, cannot be separated from a much higher dimensional continuum, which for the sake of ! convenience we may call 'n' dimensional, or in simple language, "Infinite Dimensional Continuum". It is just situated in it. Modern Science regards this background continuum— whatever be its degrees of freedom—as lifeless, unintelligent and without a will of its own, but having a tendency to develop contradictions. This tendency for contradictions is, according
162
to it, the cause and the motive-force for all development in the material world. Formerly, it was believed that the atoms of matter were the ultimate reality existing in the void from eternity, and that they would continue for ever. Also that the properties of matter gave rise to different form of energy. The principles of Conservation of Matter and Conservation of Energy were the fundamental principles which governed all the processes in the material world. Now material atoms have broken down into Elementary Particles of some ninety kinds with different masses, electric charges and spins. These are all bundles of electromagnetic waves of different wave-lengths. In other words, it is the difference in the arrangements of energy which result in different kinds of Quantum Fields. These are working in the Classical Fields of Gravitation and Electromagnetism. To these we give the names of matter and energy. The materialistic Evolutionary Cosmology also fails to answer a more material phenomenon. When, on the first Big Bang, all the Elementary Particles constituting the Matter of this universe were created, an equal amount of Anti-particles to create anti-Matter should also have come into existence- The collisions of particles and anti-particles, and matter and antimatter, schould have immediately started and reconverted itself into Primeval Energy again. This is the law of Nature, as we understand it from the study of Nuclear Physics. But this has not happened. Even if all the matter and anti-matter had stayed so long as to form their own galaxies, these would have collided and converted into Primeval Energy long ago. This has also not happened. Why? How? We do not know! After all our searches into the farthest depth of the stellar universe we have located only a few galaxies and stars of matter and antimatter in collision and producing intense Lesser Rays. According to the Quranic cosmology, however, there Could arise no such difficulty, because the universe is engaged in a cycle of being opened out and closed in, and this will be repeated The present universe is expanding at present and
163
wilt be closed in on the appointed day. When the closing-in. starts, it will be of the elementary particles now constituting matter and radiant energy. When on reaching maximum compression the 'Yelm' explodes, the elementary particles inside it will be scattered and the material universe will form again, as it might have formed 10 thousand million years back. This will be mainly material, and a few anti-matter galaxies or stars, such as we see today, would be produced from the newly-created particles and anti-particles. This process is a continuing one. In any case, Modern Science tells us that the really ultimate thing is Energy—the Capacity to do Work. Whose Energy? Modern Science does not answer! How does this energy produce entirely different kinds of processes like life, soul, mind and intelligence associated with matter? Modern Science again does not answer. However, dogmatically, i.e., without any logically-valid proof, it believes that it is unintelligent, but somehow produces intelligence, and contradiction inherent in Nature provides the motive-force for all development. It dogmatically believes that it was by accident that a planet of the size and properties of the earth happened to form at a suitable distance, from the sun, which helped in the appearance of life and its evolution to the present stage. There is no plan and no purpose behind all this drama. All this is the result of contradictory urges inherent in Nature, and "From dust thou art and unto dust is thy return", is the ultimate truth. On the other hand, religion based on revealed knowledge wants us to believe that a closed-up mass was opened out at a particular moment for a purpose by a Being whose qualities are expressed by His ninety-nine Names, or Attributes, which are the best models for humanity to follow, and which qualities are in keeping with the laws of thought, logic and science as far as they can go. The qualities of this All-pervading Being are not strange and irrational like those of so-called Ether, or of the Nature
164
conceived by the Dialectic Materialists as full of contradictions According to the Holy Qur'an, He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. His knowledge is complete. He hears and sees all. He is Eternal, Living, Best of Planners, Exalted in Power, SelfSufficient, Free from all wants, Most Merciful, Most Beneficent, Most Forgiving, Most Kind, Most Great, Irresistible, Just and never unjust, Best to Decide, Swift in taking account, Quick in retribution, Helper and Protector, Cherisher, the Truth, the Perfect Ego, the Unity, not one of three or of two, the only Reality, and Worthy of Praise. He is Wise; He is the Guardian Lord, the Lord of Bounties, the Lord of the Throne of Honour and Glory Supreme, the Lord of the mystery of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of Power, Full of Loving Kindness, Disposer of all affairs. Lord of the easts and the wests, Lord of the Dawn and Lord of the Ways of Ascent. He is the One Who originates and repeats creation, Who creates and sustains, orders all things, feeds all creation, guides and evolves all creation, Who gives life and death, Who created light and darkness, the sun and the moon, the stars and the galaxies, night and day and all in between the heavens and the earth, Who created all things in pairs, Who is present everywhere, Who sees all, Who is ever close to man, Who tests and purifies, Who lightens difficulties, "relieves afflictions, gives light to man, Who provides without measure, Who subjected the sun, the moon, the earth, the seas and all in between the heavens and the earth to man, Who sends rain and revives the dead earth, Who fulfils the needs of every creature, Who sets up justice, Who listens to prayers, and Who recognises all good. To Him is the goal of all. He has no begotten son or daughter, nor any partner. His domain ex-iends over everything. He encompasses everything and is with us wherever we may be. To Him belong alt the forces of the heavens and the earth. All beautiful names are His. All creation speaks of Him. His Command is but a single act. His decrees are unalterable. All good is from Him. What is with Him will endure.
165
These are the attributes of the Infinite Dimensional Continuum in which all the drama of the material limited dimensional continuum is being played. Islam gives this Supreme Being, this Infinite Dimensional Continuum, the name of Allah, and teaches that all the attributes of man and of the living and non-living beings in the material universe are only a limited reflection of His attributes, which could be expressed in the four-dimensional language of man. Although the attributes of the limited- dimensional congregates cannot be different from those of the Primeval medium Constituent, they have to be imperfect and limited. But the logical and philosophical objection about the production of Life and Intelligence and Mind from unintelligent dead matter disappears. We have nor to depend for getting all the evolutionary activity on "cpntra-dictions" tike the dialectic materialists. The Source of all the Energy exhibiting itself in the material universe is located, though its ultimate nature does not become clear, and perhaps cannot be comprehended. Thus to us the Qur'anic concept at but the nature of God, if expressed in terms of the latest advances of Modern Science, is that He Is the Ultimate Back-Ground Continuum Whose degrees of freedom are without limit. It other words. He is the Infinite Dimensional Continuum. Unity is His fundamental attribute, but this unity is unique in its nature because there is no Second of His Kind. There can be no other infinite Dimensional Continuum, because its opposite is only zero. It is not material, although matter is only an exhibition of activity of the Infinite Dimensional Continuum in a few degrees of freedom. He is with everything and everywhere, because nothing can be outside the Infinite Dimensional Continuum. But nothing can be given His status. It cannot also be given the status of being His wife or son or daughter. No Trinity or Duality is possible of which He may be One. That is the Qur'anic concept of God which has satisfied millions and millions of human beings of varying intellec-
166
tual calibres in the past fourteen hundred years, and which satisfies us even today when we have broken the barriers of gravitation and landed on the moon, when we understand Space and Time, when we know that the degrees of freedom of the non-Euclidean Space in which we are situated are many more than four or five, and that time is one of its coordinates like length, breadth and thickness, and when we know that all this material universe is just the result of the impact of Quantum and Classical fields in a many-dimensional continuum.
167
