ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Al-Ilahiyyat Volume 1 Chapter 2: Ways To Knowing Allah Ways To Know Allah There is a precious statement by people of knowledge.

“The ways to knowing Allah are as many as the population of creations and even many, many times more.” This is so because every natural phenomenon has two faces like those of a coin: One of them talks about its existence, limits, details and position in the cosmos, while the other talks about its link with its causation, its existence through it, its origination from it. This natural phenomenon, from the standpoint of the first face, is the subject of research in natural sciences.

Each researcher takes one aspect of this face according to his specialization, taste and knowledge. One looks into dust and minerals, another looks into plants and trees, while a third looks into animal life, and so on. From the standpoint of the other face, it is located as a path towards knowing Allah, praise to Him, and to getting to know Him from the aspect of His Signs: Our signs lead to us, So look after us at the signs.

The natural phenomena, the great, the magnanimous as well as the petty, have two faces. Islam has stressed getting to know them and to delve deeply into their signs and details: “Say: ‘Behold all that is in the heavens and on earth’” (Qur’an, 10:101). But it does not mean that one should stop at just such knowledge and regard as his (ultimate) goal.

Rather, it means he must use such knowledge as a bridge to know the One Who created and initiated everything, the One Who created in them the ways and the systems. The difference is clear between a materialist who gets to know nature and the theologian. The first looks at nature as it is, standing at it without using it as means to know the other, i.e. he (only) gets to know the principles of their existence and the causes behind their formation.

Although he looks at the natural phenomena just as the materialist looks at them and tries to become acquainted with all the laws and systems that dominate them, the theologian, on the other hand, uses them as means to a higher knowledge: knowing the Doer Who made them exist, the One Who set up systems in them. It is as though the first look is cast at the appearance of an existent, whereas the second transcends it to the interior.