If he wants to enjoy the entire system of the world...

If he wants to enjoy the entire system of the world, he must act according to the natural laws and norms, for Allah operates His power through these norms which represent His will, wisdom and guidance. Here there is a possibility of some misunderstanding. It may be said if the science of history is divine and has a hidden link, with divine world, it automatically falls outside the scope of proper study and scientific analysis.

In this case the Muslim interpretation of history and its law become exactly like the divine interpretation of history made by a number of the scholars of theology belonging to scholastic schools of Christianity. Today we are interpreting the laws of history on the basis of their being divine, in the same way in which Augustine and other Christian thinkers interpreted history.

In reply we say that it is true that to accord divine characteristics, to the laws of history will put them beyond the scope of scientific investigation, but in this case it appears that a misunderstanding has cropped up. There is a basic difference between the method of the Qur'an which believes in a hidden link between history and the divine world on the one hand, and the divine interpretation of history made by Christianity on the other. These two concepts have been badly mixed up.

They must be kept separate from each other. The basic difference between the two is as under: Christianity accords every historical event a hidden and divine aspect and wants to interpret it superhumanly. It attributes the entire event to God and does not accept that it has any connection with any other event. It severs its relation with all other historical events so that it may be attributed to God alone.

Christianity does not want that any event along with other relevant happenings should indicate any divine laws and norms in respect of that event. On the other hand, the Qur'an does not accord a hidden aspect to an event to sever its connection with everything else and attribute it direct to Allah.

The Qur'an recognizes the existence of mutual relationship between various historical events in this world, but according to it this relationship is an expression of the wisdom and sagacity of Allah in regard to the creation and management of this world including the field of historical events. To make this point clear and to illustrate the two points of view in this respect, we can use the following example: Sometimes a man may say that it rains by the will of Allah.