SIGNS WITHIN OURSELVES

53- We will show Our signs to them in the horizons, and within themselves, until it becomes
clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord witnesses all things?
41-Elucidated, 53

The Quran uses “nafs” (self) to express consciousness, the quintessence of our personality.
“Nafs” is integrated with our physical body; the author of all good and bad acts is our “nafs.”

The fact that the atoms of our physical body - of which 99% is vacuum - deprived of all
consciousness, perform such conscious acts as seeing, hearing, and thinking, cannot be
explained materialistically will form the subject matter of another book I am intending to
write, in which this issue will be tackled within a larger framework, stretching from the
philosophy of mind to the quantum theory wherein many scientific branches will find room.
With this in mind, I refrain from taking up this issue in this present work.

The point I should like to dwell upon now is the verse’s allusion to signs in ourselves. There
are a priori categories that the mind is constitutionally endowed with, concepts or ideas that
are not derived from experience. The subject I speak of in this chapter is not based on
findings obtained by satellites, telescopes, submarines or on the recent developments in
physics, chemistry or biology. Here we find ourselves surrounded by the available data of a
rich philosophical background. The tribe to which the Prophet belonged dealt in trade and
animal husbandry. The Prophet himself was not brought up in a milieu like Plato’s Academy
or in an environment where the colorful and lively schools of philosophy like Cartesianism
flourished. Therefore, the fact that the Quran made a distinction between the outward signs
and the signs immanent in man’s soul is noteworthy.

ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
The basic message transmitted by all the religions revealed by God is the fact that He is a
Perfect Being. This becomes all the more apparent when we witness all the entities created
by God. In the ontological argument, attainment of God is achieved not through exterior
means, but from the idea of “Perfection” or “Perfect Being” inherent in each of us.

Farabi and Avicenna were among the first philosophers to refer to the initial arguments of
ontology. Farabi analyzes the ontological argument together with the cosmological argument.
According to them, God must be self-existent (Necessary-Being); assuming that He does not
exist would be a contradiction in terms. All other creatures are possible creatures; both their
existence and nonexistence can be a topic of discussion. If the possible entities are not
resolved in the Necessary-Being, there would be a contradiction in terms. Given the fact that
Farabi’s conclusion is a combination of ontological and cosmological arguments, many
thinkers believed to have found traces of this for the first time in the works of Avicenna.

Nevertheless, this argument is, more often than not, associated with Descartes. To avoid
committing error, he sets out in his philosophical quest by considering all past knowledge as
if it were nonexistent. He begins with the statement that many of the preconceived opinions
he has accepted since childhood have turned out to be unreliable; so it is necessary once in a
lifetime to demolish everything and start again right from the foundations. There follows a
systematic critique of previous beliefs. Anything based on the senses is potentially suspect,
since I have found by experience that the senses sometimes deceive and it is prudent never
to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.

Elsewhere Descartes expresses this “cogito argument” in the famous phrase, “cogito ergo
sum” (I think, therefore I am). He derives from this argument that he exists incontestably
and that thinking can never be confuted. Later he realizes that knowing is more perfect than
doubting and explains how this idea of perfection leads him to the most perfect, to the idea
of a supremely Perfect Being.

He reasons that the representational content (or objective reality) of this idea is so great that
it cannot have originated from inside his own (imperfect) mind, but must have been planted
in him by an actual Perfect Being - God. Things outside him like the sky, the earth, the light
and the heat and a thousand other things, all these things contained nothing that would
surpass him. If they were unreal he might have concluded that he had acquired them from
the void. However, this could not hold true of a Perfect Being. He could not have acquired it
from nothingness.

Descartes concluded the existence of God after having examined the evidence inherent in the
self. He said that this conclusion was not an invention of his imagination, and that to add or
subtract anything to or from it was beyond him. He had to accept the fact that he had come
to the world with this a priori sign. Like the initials that an artist imprints on his work, God
had implanted this idea as He created him.

While Leibniz contends that Descartes’ views need to be supplemented, he formulates an

ontological argument bearing similarities to Avicenna.

KANT’S TIME AND SPACE CATEGORIES

The Quran speaks of signs in the “self.” So far, I have gone over “the idea of the existence of
God” innate in us, as propounded by Descartes and other thinkers like him. I believe that the
verse that refers to signs in the “self” meant much more. I am of the opinion that the “self”
considered an a priori entity and all the characteristics innate in us come within the scope of
this verse.

According to Kant’s matchless discovery that made him what he is, time and space are innate
in us before all experience and encounters with the outside world. A little child, who has no
notion of distance, moves away from things he dislikes and approaches things that seem
pleasant to him. Therefore, man knows whether such things are within or outside his reach
as an a priori intuition. In other words, the idea of “space” is already there in his mind
without having previously experienced it. The same thing holds true for the “time” factor. The
child has the sense of “before” and “after,” prior to other perceptions. Had it not been so, all
our perceptions would become chaotic, disordered, in disarray. To go into the details of other
evidence related to the innateness of the idea of time and space would necessitate longer
discussions. Kant referred to those innate characteristics while analyzing our contacts with
the outside world. He said nothing about the fact that these were evidence of God’s
existence.

We live in a unique place as the “self.” We can liken the space in which we live to an
extremely complex gate. The “self,” along with the a priori categories such as time and space
we possess from birth, is the only key to this gate. We open this gate, which is of a complex
structure, with the key (viz. our “self”). Whoever it was who created this universe, time and
space is also the author of the “self.”
Our capacity of learning how to speak is also innate in us, as we saw in the previous chapter.
The innateness of this capacity is also an evidence of our perfect creation along with the time
and space categories implanted in us. Not only our physical being but also our mental
makeup is made to fit the outside world.

It is our belief that anybody taking up arms against a priori knowledge is doomed to perish!

ENCODED
30- Therefore you shall devote yourselves to monotheism, the creational instinct placed into
the people by God. There is no alternation of God’s creation; this is the right religion, but
most people do not know.
30-The Romans, 30

What have been encoded in us as a priori data when we were created, conforming to the
precepts of the religion revealed by God, are evidence of the perfect creation of God. If we
consider the contents of the verse (41-The Elucidated, 53) that speaks of signs in the “self”
as being in conformity with the Creation, the matter may be understood better. Many people
encounter difficulty in understanding Descartes’ expression of “innate ideas.” To have a
better insight into Descartes’ arguments, we need to concentrate very attentively on the
structure of the mind. It might be better to conceive of this as the conformity of our creation
with the precepts of religion, since it can be understood easily. Most of us seek answers to
the questions, “From where do I come?,” “What is the purpose of my existence?,” “Where am
I heading?” The reason for our asking such questions is that we are created in such a way as
to feel the necessity of asking them. There are many people - people who have inhibited
their own impulses - who evade asking such questions and avoid meditating upon them. Our
Creator’s inducing us to pose such questions, His creating us disposed to have faith in
religion, are indications of a religion that He would reveal. For there is nothing that can
provide an answer to such questions outside religion. One of the evidences of the existence
of religion is our having been made in a way to be in need of believing in it.

God who makes us thirsty has also created water to quench thirst. God who makes us
hungry has also created the food we need. Getting thirsty and hungry are different from the
existence of water and food in the outside world. We might feel the need for something that
did not exist in the world, rather than water, viz. the molecules whose constituents are
hydrogen and oxygen. But the fact is that our body is made to want what it is programmed
in it. To be immortal is the thing we desire most, more than our need for water and a meal.
Survival is more important than all desires and passions. God made us in such a way as to
wish for an afterworld. This need we feel is an evidence of the Hereafter.

Our creation includes in its scope all His evidence, of the evidence of religion and of the
Hereafter. I would like to draw your attention to the expression in the above verse: “There is
no alternation of God’s creation; this is the right religion.” This postulate is coeval with man’s
creation. The person who can decipher the meaning of these signs believes in God, His
religion and the Hereafter. The last sentence of the verse, in which it is said that the majority
of people do not know this, is very meaningful. As a matter of fact, many people fail to
appreciate these signs innate in them, thereby denying themselves.