Tauhid (Oneness of God) and Science - the Nature of Causality

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The title of this blog is based on the book "Tawhid and Science" by Osman Bakar.  I read the book over eighteen years ago and it left me thinking.  Tonight, as I looked at old notes, I found a few pages of my penned thoughts on the theme of causality discussed in the book.  I hope by sharing my thoughts, it would spark more thoughts in the mind of the readers.  These are just my thoughts which may be wrong for only God knows the truth.  The sentences in italics are current additions to the work.

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18/09/1995

The theologians say: (quoted from the book)

Everything in this world is made up of "atoms" be it matter, space or time.  Quantised!  No relation between one "atom" and the next...no question of causality.  The link between them is God's Will which made the world continue as we know it.

(For more details on the Atomistic concept of Nature as proposed by the Asharites, there is a good article here by the same author.)

The scientists argue: (quoted from the book)

There is causality only that God is the First and Ultimate Cause....The scientific perspective on causality seeks to explain the world and all phenomena, including the miraculous, in terms of "natural causes" or by appealing to the nature of things, given to them by God...The world is dependent not only on God's will but also His being.  It is clear however that the aspect they glorified is His Being and Intelligence.

My thoughts:
In the view of modern atomic/quantum theory, much of the theologians' ideas ring a bell.  As a Muslim scientist (which I'd like to think myself as) I cannot deny that matter has proven to be made of atoms and even smaller components (like the protons, electrons, quarks and leptons and now they have proved the Higgs Boson - the so-called 'God' particle) though these atoms unlike the "atoms" of the theologians have mass.  But looking at the components of the atoms like the electrons, protons and neutrons, there is a contradictory dual identity which none have yet managed to answer satisfactorily.  For example, the electrons have a dual characteristic of wave and particle.  It cannot be defined in terms of both space and time.  This comes closest to the Asharites' "atom" again.  Its ability to "move" from one shell to the next in quantised form, not having any identity in between the shells makes it even more similar.

I can also understand the scientific/philosophical stand where they emphasise on the "natural cause" of things.  Without these "laws", the whole foundation of experimental techniques will collapse because if B does not follow naturally from A then who is to say what results would occur in two identical experiments carried out independently of each other.  Should we even assume there will be results since results come about only if the law of causality is true.

But for me, there is no contradiction between them.  The Asharites, in modern terms, are looking at the microscopic (or even at nanoscopic level - I was involved in modelling the aerodynamics of a hard disk drive and at the read-write head where it is in nanoscale, the traditional fluid dynamics breaks down) end of the world where uncertainty principle holds.  It is very much the domain of the unseen and miracles - of an aspect of Allah's power that we know little of.

Let's take the instant of the fire in Prophet Abraham's a.s. story (where he was thrown into the fire and Allah said to the fire "Be cool").  In the quantum world, the fire has nearly infinite probability of being/having other properties other than burning.  (This is because the quantum world is a probabilistic world - with a probability distribution.)  I believe it is Allah's Will that causes the fire to burn over all other possibilities as time has no effect here due to it being a "split second" probability and constantly changing.  But in the macroscopic world, where time governs, fire has always been known to burn so the mind forms the knowledge of causality that fire burns.

Therefore in the case of Prophet Abraham a.s., it was Allah's will that the fire became cool.  That is, in the quantum world, the fire now takes on the less than how many percent probability of becoming cool instead of the overwhelm probability of it being hot.  In the macroscopic world, because the mind has always associated fire with burning it becomes a miracle.

For me, it is a miracle because it shows clearly Allah's powers and influences in our world and lives, showing that through His Will and Being is the Ultimate Reality.  We, being granted 'Aql' and free will, have also a reality, albeit a subjective reality as our reality depends on the Ultimate Reality.  Wallahu a'lam.

Seerah of the Prophet s.a.w. - A lesson in Humility

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

In recent days, I have been reading about Pope Francis and his humble and down-to-earth character and I was inspired.  The reports of his work among the poor and his own humble way of life captures my heart.  How many of our world leaders today exhibit such a nature?  I can't think of any but history has shown us that God had given us many such leaders in the past including Prophet Isa (Jesus) a.s. and most certainly our own Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.  Such virtues of these leaders should inspire us to attain these virtues and better ourselves through their examples.  In this part of the series, God willing, I will focus on the humility of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. which we should emulate and embrace.

Please note that this discussion is also inspired by a lecture by Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl which you can find here.  I also based this writing on the book "The Leadership of Muhammad" by John Adair as well as several well known hadiths.  Just to contextualise this discussion let us remind ourselves that besides being a Messenger of God, the Prophet was also the de facto leader in Madinah.  Yet instead of palaces and riches, he lived a simple life as described in "The Leadership of Muhammad"

In Medina, Muhammad lived in the long, low, mud-brick house with open windows with a palm-leaf roof that he had helped to build with his own hands.  It was more like a Bedouin tent than a town house....He never ate at a table but always kneeling or squatting on the ground in the open air in the Bedouin manner.  There was no carpet, simply a woven palm mat.

He was also known to have helped his wives in the daily chores as depicted in the following hadith:

Narrated Al-Aswad ibn Yazid: "I asked Aisha: “What did the Prophet use to do at home?” She said: He used to work for his family, and when he heard the Adhan (call for the prayer), he would go out."

How many of our leaders live such lives as would work for their family?

He was, by virtue of being a Messenger of God, promised  Paradise.  Yet he was the foremost in prayer and asking for forgiveness.  Narrated Aisha:

The Prophet used to offer prayer at night (for such a long time) that his feet used to crack. I said, "O Allah's Apostle!Why do you do it since Allah has forgiven you your faults of the past and those to follow?" He said, "Shouldn't I love to be a thankful slave (of Allah)?' When he became old, he prayed while sitting, but if he wanted to perform a bowing, he wound get up, recite (some other verses) and then perform the bowing. [Sahih Bukhari]

A "thankful slave" indeed! And then there is this hadith:

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) cautioned that, “Whoever is not thankful to people is not thankful to God.” [Ahmad, Tirmidhi, and Abu Dawud] 

In Jami' Tirmidhi, this hadith is categorised as Sahih.  So, not only should we, by the Prophet's tradition, be thankful to God but also thankful to people, especially in recognising the good that they have done to us be it directly or indirectly.  

Another act of humility of the Prophet was in the way he would not accept any special privileges as mentioned by John Adair:

Muhammad would never allow a seat to be reserved for him when attending a meeting but would sit wherever there was an empty place.  When men rose to their feet as he walked by, he would ask them to remain standing only if that was their way of showing respect for humankind.  If they were standing up to honour him, however, he always asked them to sit down.  For Muhammad said to them: "I am a man like you.  I eat food like you and I also sit down when I am tired - like you!"

And yet he himself honoured others:

He would himself, however, stand up when any dignitary came to him. He had stood up to receive the wet nurse who had reared him in infancy and had spread his own sheet for her. His foster brother was given similar treatment. He avoided sitting at a prominent place in a gathering, so much so that people coming in had difficulty in spotting him and had to ask which was the Prophet (pbuh). Quite frequently uncouth bedouins accosted him in their own gruff and impolite manner but he never took offence. (Abu Dawud Kitabul Atama).

He also found time for the sick, the women and the children amidst his busy schedule:

      Narrated Anas:

"The Prophet was the best of all the people in character. I had a brother called Abu Umar, who, I think, had been newly weaned. Whenever he (that child) was brought to the Prophet the Prophet used to say: O Abu Umayr! What did al-nughair (nightingale) do? It was a nightingale with which he used to play with. Sometimes the time of the prayer became due while he (the Prophet) was in our house. He would order that the carpet underneath him be swept and sprayed with water, and then he would stand up (for the prayer) and we would line up behind him, and he would lead us in prayer." (Al-Bukhari)

Prof Khaled in his lecture quoted more traditions where the Prophet s.a.w. would visit elderly women,most of whom were widows, and kept them company or do chores for them.  Here are other narrations along the same line:

He would not hesitate to do the menial work of others, particularly of orphans and widows (Nasi, Darmi).
Once when there was no male member in the house of the companion Kabab Bin Arat who had gone to the battlefield, he used to go to his house daily and milk his cattle for the inhabitants (Ibn Saad Vol. 6, p 213).

The Prophet s.a.w. was always in the service of others.  Can we do any less?  In his conclusion, John Adair said this about the concept of Muslim leadership:

The Muslim tradition of leadership...At its pinnacle is the lofty ideal that human leaders - men and women, boys and girls - should model themselves on God.  Through meditation on the Qur'an, Muslims should seek to reflect in their way of life - especially in their leadership - these qualities in the world, as the moon reflects the sun.

May God help us to be better leaders (of ourselves and others).