In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Powerful
Assalamu `Alaykum.
Dear Honest Student,
Sidi,
Here is a copy of one of our lesson trascipts with a completed
student of ours Harun al-Bostanian. It addresses your questions
about whether it is rationally provable that that Muhammad (May Allah
bless him and give him peace) was a messenger and why all beliefs
do not have proofs behind them.
Harun wrote:
> This leads to another 'difficult question' however.
> a) Allah is the ultimate source of knowledge
> b) Allah uses secondary causes (i.e. An angel is in charge of the
rain,
> Gabriel teaches the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)etc.)
> c) The knowledge that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)had was not possibley
> obtainable by a learned man, let alone an uneducated man, so it must
have
> come from a source with more knowledge than humans
> d) isn't it possible that another being (time-bound, created, but
more
> knowleadgeable than humans) taught him the Qur'an (i.e. like people
> hear angels etc.) ? I know that some people at the time of the
Prophet
> (pbuh) accused him of being possessed by Jinn (he (pbuh) even worried
> about this after the first revelation.)
We first place the "sought after" answer in the "statements" category.
Then, we place it in the Din category (level 1).
Then, we place it in the `Aqidah category (this is the second level).
Then, we see that there are two subcategories here:
i) Tenets which can be derived purely rationally
ii) Tenets which can only derived with the aid of Divine
Revelation. [It is not that rationality does not play
a part in deriving these tenets; but, rationality alone is
not enough to derive them accurately].
We wrote before concerning this:
Next, we must learn a general rule for placing each tenet
into one of the above two categories. One such rule
is "trial and error" - in which we first attempt to derive the
tenet rationally and upon failing consign it to the
Divinely-Revealed category. This method would be used
by non-erudite people or beginners.
The erudite would know a general rule at each level for
placing the question into the appropriate category. And
the general rule here is to see whether or not the tenet is
about an unseen arbitrary detail (e.g., in Allah's metaphysical
creation). If the tenet is about an unseen *arbitrary* detail
concerning Allah's creation (e.g., the depth of the Hellfire
or the number of doors to Paradise (e.g., 8)), then it cannot
be figured out rationally. If the tenet is about an absolute
affair which is not arbitrary (such as the Oneness of Allah),
then it can be figured out rationally.
Now for the purposes of demonstrating the "trial and error" method,
we will attempt to prove that Prophet Muhammad learned the Qur'an
from an Angel and not from another time-bound being such as a Jinn.
Thus, for now, we will place your question into category (i)
(level 3).
Now, we will attempt to build a rational argument to prove
that the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace) was
in contact with an Angel and not a Jinn (or other being who can
lie (be dishonest).
Now remember that all premises in a rational argument must return
either immediately or reflectively to one of the six reliable
sources of information mentioned in footnote 26 of the Notes
of Sources. If we cannot show that these premises return to
one or more of these sources, then the conclusion cannot be
claimed to be rationally necessary.
Start Proof:
a) Angels are beings which can only tell the truth and can
only perform actions which Allah commands them.
b) Conscious beings who are not angels (e.g., jinn and humans)
have the ability to go against Allah's apparent/external
command.
c) If the Prophet received his information from an Angel,
we can be sure that it is an accurate representation
of what Allah wanted to convey.
d) If the Prophet received his information from a non-Angel,
we cannot be sure that it is an accurate representation
of what Allah wanted to convey (again in His external
or apparent command).
e) Since Allah would want to ensure trust and reliability,
He would choose an angel and not a non-angel to convey
His message.
f) Since we know that the Qur'an could not have been produced
by a time-bound being due to its accuracy and expansiveness,
we conclude that it must have been produced by Allah.
g) Since we know that the accuracy of the Qur'an is
unblemished and all previous and current attacks
against its accuracy can easily be proven wrong, this
proves that the Qur'an actually contains the words which
Allah wanted to convey - as Allah's knowledge is only
accurate.
h) Since (g) is true, it is most likely that an Angel
conveyed the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad (May Allah bless
him and give him peace) and not a being who is prone
to lie (be dishonest).
Now we will examine this proof with the measure of footnote 26 of the
Notes of Sources.
Statement (a) needs empirical evidence in order for us to accept it.
What this means is that we have to capture an angel and dissect its
mental capacity and find out how it actually works. And after such
as examination, we could probably see that an angel was not much
different than a computer programmed with artificial intelligence
(with the exception of consciousness).
As this method of verifying statement (a) is a long shot, we conclude
that we will probably not be able to verify the truth of statement (a)
this way.
Thus, we search for other ways. One way would be to collect mutawatir
transmissions from angels which show that all of their statements are
honest and no lies are issued from them. Even if we were able to do
this, that still wouldn't prove that angels *could not* lie as the
mere fact that no lie is recorded will not serve as sufficient evidence
that no lie is possible - again until we examine their mental
capacities and realize that their knowledge, statements, and actions
is "programmed" by Allah and as such "lies" cannot be manifested by
them.
Thus, we conclude that statement (a) is not a sufficient base for
a rational statement until a dissection and study is done on the
angel species.
Now moving on to statement (b). It can be proven via mutawatir
reports (mostly in the East where people are "into" this stuff) that
jinns can both lie and tell the truth. The same is true for humans.
Thus, we conclude that statement (b) *is* rational.
The rationality of (c) depends on whether we are able to prove
if (a) is rational or not.
(d) is rational since it is based upon (b), which is verifiable.
(e) has nothing to do with rationality (by the strict definition
of the term). Rather, our stating that Allah would want to ensure
reliability in his transmission assumes that He wants what is
best for us. And as explained in lines 51-52 of al-Jawharah
al-Tawhid, His wanting what is best for us is not rationally
verifiable or necessary.
(f) is rational; but, it requires a long proof which ties into
why a time-bound being cannot issue such words and such words
can only issue from a being who is independent of time. As a side
note, another way to prove that the Qur'an cannot issue from a
time-bound being would be to show that its mere mathematical
complexity goes beyond what a time-bound being can construct
[We are not talking about about the arrangements of the words,
letters used, topics discussed, language styles employed, rhetoric
techniques used successively in a way which goes beyond the
capacities of a time-bound being who can only experience linear
thought, etc.)].
(g) is internally inconsistent - even if it is rationally provable
that there are *no* errors in the statements of the Qur'an. The
inconsistency is that there is no link between its being accurate
and it being *revealed* by Allah to the Prophet (May Allah bless
him and give him peace). This is because Allah manifests accuracy
at the hands of people who have not had anything revealed to them.
For example, the following statements can be said to be accurate
but are not revealed:
* All matter is made up of distinct building blocks.
* A rainbow consists of multiple colors of successively
increasing/decreasing wavelengths.
* When an opaque layer covers the human eye, no light
reached the retina.
Thus, a collection of such accurate statements does not necessarily
indicate that they are revealed from Allah.
O.K. So, we failed (albeit on purpose) but we'll try again:
TRY #2:
a) Angels are beings which can only tell the truth and can
only perform actions which Allah commands them.
b) Conscious beings who are not angels (e.g., jinn and humans)
have the ability to go against Allah's apparent/external
command.
c) If the Prophet received his information from an Angel,
we can be sure that it is an accurate representation
of what Allah wanted to convey.
d) If the Prophet received his information from a non-Angel,
we cannot be sure that it is an accurate representation
of what Allah wanted to convey (again in His external
or apparent command).
e) Since we know that the Qur'an could not have been produced
by a time-bound being due to its accuracy and expansiveness,
we conclude that it must have been produced by Allah.
f) Since we know from mutawatir transmission that the Prophet
reviewed and finalized each and every verse of the Qur'an,
that proves that the entire Qur'an is traceable back to
the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give him peace). Due
what we note in (e) - and due to knowing that the Prophet
was an illiterate man - and due to knowing that he did not
have any "scholar" contacts (again by mutawatir transmission
- as a side note, the claim that the Monk Buhayra taught him
does not hold ground after learning that he did not really
spend time with him and also knowing the great span of time
between that event and the start of his prophethood), we
conclude that the Prophet must have learned each surah of the
Qur'an from a "spiritual" means.
g) Now in view of premises (a) and (b), we give preponderance
. to the fact that the Prophet (May Allah bless him and give
him peace) learned the Qur'an from an angel.
Now, this proof has potential to be a rational proof. However
as we mentioned before, premises (a), (b), and (e) need long
digressions or extensive research to prove why they are actually
rational beliefs.
However, even if (a), (b), and (e) can be rationally proven, we
will only be able to give *preponderance* to the fact that the
Prophet learned the Qur'an from an angel and not from a jinn.
This is because it is contingently possible that the Jinn read
the Preserved Tablet and accurately conveyed the information in
it.
The only *rational* conclusion we can reach using this approach
is that the Qur'an again was received from some divine/spiritual
source.
And unless we can prove something rationally, we are forced to
group the issue into the category of `aqidah of arbitrary facts.
Thus, after we have failed with this trial and error method.
We go back to level 3 and place the original question into
category (ii) (arbitrary beliefs).
Now it is quite easy according to the first injunction A, which
we gave previously for this category to show that the Qur'an
was revealed by an angel.
Surah 26, Verse 193
nazala bihi r-ruhu l-amin
The trustworthy angel (this is one meaning of ruh according to
Fayrozabadi in Classical Arabic) came down with it (i.e. the
Qur'an).
Thus, we can prove rationally that the entire Qur'an was
learned through some spiritual/divine means by the Prophet
Muhammad. But, we can only give rational preponderance to
the belief that this spiritual/divine means was an angel.
Now this brings us to a point which the erudite know about,
which was hinted at in the injunction for aqidah (level 2):
a) Allah has on purpose obscured necessary premises for
rationally concluding the details of the `aqidah we
are asked to believe in. This is hinted at in many
places of the Qur'an, such as:
"And they say why was not an angel sent down (in front
of us)? If We had sent down an angel, then the issue
would have been decided and they would not be given
this time (in the world) to tarry." [6:8]
"Say: If I had [the proofs] which you are asking for,
the issue would have been decided between you and me.
And Allah is best-aware of the wrong-doers." [6:58]
He has done this to see how many of His servants can trust
their heart over their senses - as all rationality returns
to sensory perception.
It is quite easy to believe one's senses as this is the first
conscious perception that we have as babies. It is part of
the test to trust one's heart which vaguely recalls the first
meeting with Allah mentioned in verse 172 of surah 7:
"And when we took from [Adam] the [souls of the] Children of
Adam who would come later [dhuhuri-] and made them witness
against themselves asking, 'Am I not your Lord?' And they
replied, 'Of course, we witness [that you are our Lord]'.
And then we said, 'We did thus so that you would not claim
on the Day of Resurrection that you were unaware of such.' "
Thus, the erudite know the following:
a) The beliefs mentioned in Song 2 of the Guiding Helper can
be rationally proven (somehow or the other).
b) The beliefs mentioned in Song 3 of the Guiding Helper are
mostly arbitrary details which if Allah willed would have
been different.
Now, we have reviewed the proofs given by certain previous scholars
for the beliefs in Song 3, but we have found the premises falling short
of the requirements for a rationally necessary statement as outlined
in footnote 26 of the Notes of Sources. And this returns to what
`Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari notes in his matn al-Sullam al-Munawraqi
that logical proofs are of various types and of various levels -
the highest of which is called a "burhaan" which has premises which
return to one of the six reliable sources of information.
And in any of this, you are free to challenge anything we say (for
purposes of learning). For example, you may attempt to give a
rational proof why there must be angels or why Allah sent down
books or why the dead will in fact be resurrected, etc.
End Lesson Transcript
Wassalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah
Abuqanit Hasani
Main Author
Guiding Helper Foundation
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Traditional Sunni Islamic Epistemology
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