“A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE HOLY QUR’ĀN”

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Authored by

Dr. Javed Jamil

(Chair in Islamic Studies & Research, Yenepoya (Deemed to be) University, Mangalore)

Lord of Knowledge
٧- أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّـهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۖ مَا يَكُونُ مِن نَّجْوَىٰ ثَلَاثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ وَلَا خَمْسَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سَادِسُهُمْ وَلَا أَدْنَىٰ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْثَرَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَعَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كَانُوا ۖ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا عَمِلُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ◯

Can’t you visualise that God knows whatever is there in the Cosmic Tiers and the Earth? There is nothing that secretly transpires between any three, but He is the fourth One present; nor between five, and He is the sixth; and fewer or greater in number, but He is always with them, wherever they happen to be; subsequently following the Day of Final Establishment1, He will declare to them how they performed; He has knowledge about everything.2 (58: 7)

1- “Yaum-al Qiyāmah” is being translated in this book as “Day of Establishment” because Qiyāmah is the derivative of Qiyām meaning standing or halting or getting established. The day of Qiyāmah will be when the system of the present day universe will stop functioning and the new Order of God will be established.

2- God designed the system of the whole universe in accordance with precise mathematical formulations. It means that he is the biggest master of mathematics. He formulated a combination of the laws of physics, which together made possible the functioning of the vast universe without any breach.

So, he is the originator and master of physics. He imparted specific properties to more than one hundred elements, which combined together to develop into innumerable substances on solid, liquid and gaseous forms, which ultimately provided all that man needed on the earth.

He is therefore the originator and master of chemistry. He created a system of various types of heavenly bodies including stars, planets, satellites, asteroids, quasars, supernova, etc., and arranged them as a seven cosmic tier system.

So He originated and knows cosmology and astrophysics the way none else can come anywhere close to. He then evolved laws of biology through the use of organic and inorganic chemistry; and then in association with the laws of physics He evolved living beings on the earth, finally culminating in the creation of human beings.

Obviously, He knows terrestrial sciences, and living sciences like no other living beings. Once man emerged, He started guiding him through religious, spiritual, civil, criminal, social and moral lessons meaning that He is the supreme authority on all these sciences.

Of course His knowledge knows no bounds; and human beings cannot hope to have even an iota of that knowledge in the possible life span. He is, and will continue to be the subtle master of every information and knowledge of past, present and future.

And one day, He will declare the life of the present-day universe over; will then create a new creation; and will resuscitate human beings. Of course, human beings will then be questioned what made them repudiate One God, why they associated other gods with Him, and why did they not obey His commands which for their own safety, security and prosperity.

He is the Master-of-Knowledge about the Incomprehensible and Comprehensible; He is Great-High1. (13: 9)

1- “Great” means that nothing can be greater in structure or function than God, because He encompasses and governs the whole universe. God however does not have a physical existence like anything else in the universe.

He is limitless in every sense; and only limited things can be viewed, understood or comprehended by the limited human capabilities using the means, which are all limited. There is therefore no point trying to understand or describe the structure of God.

Only His functions related to the universe can be understood, albeit partially, because again the means of communication and understanding available to man are too little to completely understand the structure and functioning of the vast universe.

Man knows very little. Only a few things are comprehensible; most of the universe is incomprehensible for him. God’s knowledge, on the other hand, comprehends everything, present, past or future, even what is in one’s heart or what one is dreaming at any particular time.

Man depends on certain waves, light being the major one, for gaining any information. God does not depend on anything. He has His Own ways, which man cannot even imagine.

Whatever man knows or will ever know is also because he has been given certain faculties – Brain, Spinal Cord, etc. — within his body and certain tools outside his body – different waves like light and sound.