The Science of Speculative theology

This is a science that involves arguing with logical proofs in defense of the articles of faith and refuting innovators who deviate in their dogmas from the early Muslims and Muslim orthodoxy.

The real core of the articles of faith is the oneness of God.

I will present here a nice specimen of logical argumentation that will show us the oneness of God in the most direct way.

• I will then:
  • go back and give a correct description of speculative theology and the (subjects) it studies
  • explain why it developed in Islam

The things that come into being, whether they belong to essences or to either human or animal actions, require appropriate causes which are prior to their coming into being.

They introduce the things that come into being into the realm dominated by custom, and effect their coming into being. Each one of these causes, in turn, comes into being and, thus, requires other causes.

Causes continue to follow upon causes in an ascending order until they reach the Causer of causes – He who brings them into existence and creates them.

In the process:

• the causes multiply and widen vertically and horizontally
• the intellect becomes confused by them

Only a comprehensive knowledge can encompass them all, especially all human and animal actions.

Among the causes of action are the various kinds of intention and volition. This is because no action can materialize except through volition and intention.

The various kinds of intention and volition are matters pertaining to the soul.

As a rule, they originate from previous consecutive perceptions (tasawwurat). These perceptions cause the intention to act.

The causes of such perceptions are other perceptions. The cause of all the perceptions taking place in the soul is unknown, since no one is able to know the beginnings the soul. They are consecutive notions that God puts into the mind of man, who is unable to understand their beginnings and ends.

As a rule, man is able only to comprehend the causes that:

• are natural and obvious
• present themselves to our perception in an orderly and well-arranged manner

This is because nature is encompassed by the soul and on a lower level than it. The range of perceptions, however, is too large for the soul, because they belong to the intellect, which is on a higher level than the soul.

The soul, therefore, can scarcely perceive very many of them, let alone all of them.

Muhammad was wise to forbid us to speculate about causes.

• Such speculation causes the mind to become lost.

Man often stops to speculate about causes.

• This prevents them from ascending to the next higher stage.
• His feet slip and he goes astray and perishes.

One should not think that man has the power, or can choose at will, to stopor to retrace his steps.

No! Talking about causes results in giving the soul a fast coloring.

We do not know how (this comes about), for if we knew it, we could be on guard against it.

Therefore, one must completely abandon any speculation about the causes.

Furthermore, the way in which the causes exercise their influence upon the majority of the things caused is unknown.305

They are only known through customary (experience) and through conclusions 306 which attest to (the existence of an) apparent (causal) relationship.307 What that influence really is and how it takes place is not known. “And you were given but little knowledge.” 308

Therefore, we have been commanded completely to abandon and suppress any speculation about them and to direct ourselves to the Causer of all causes, who made them and brought them into existence, so that the soul will be firmly colored with the oneness of God.

So were we taught by the Lawgiver (Muhammad) who knows better (than we do) the things that are to the interest of our religion and the ways that lead us to happiness, because he saw that which is beyond sensual perception.

Muhammad said:

A man who stops at the causes is frustrated. He is rightly an unbeliever. If he ventures to swim in the ocean of speculation and of research into causes, seeking each one of the causes that cause them and the influence they exercise, I can guarantee him that he will return unsuccessful.

Therefore, Muhammad forbade us to study causes. Instead, we were commanded to recognize the absolute oneness of God.

The mind might suggest that it can comprehend all existing things and their causes. But such a suggestion is stupid.

Every person with perception has the superficial impression that the (whole of) existence is comprised by his perceptions, and that it does not extend beyond (the realm of his perceptions). 312

The matter is different in fact. The truth lies beyond that.

One knows that a deaf person feels that the (whole of) existence is comprised in the perceptions of his four senses and his intellect. The whole group of audible things constitutes no part of existence for him. The same applies to a blind person. The whole group of visible things constitutes no part of existence for him.

If people with such defects were not set right by their adherence to information they receive from their fathers and teachers who are their contemporaries, and from the majority of people in general, they would not admit (the existence of audible things, things visible, etc.).

They follow the majority in admitting the existence of these groups (of sensibilia), but (the admission) is not in their natural disposition nor in the nature of their sense perception. If dumb animals were asked and could speak, we would find that they would ignore the whole group of intelligibilia.

It would simply not exist for them.

It might be assumed that there exists another kind of perception different from ours, since our sense perceptions are created and brought into existence.

God’s creation extends beyond the creation of man. Complete knowledge does not exist (in man). The world of existence is too vast for him.

“God has comprehension beyond theirs.” 313

Therefore, everyone should be suspicious of the comprehensiveness of his perceptions and the results of his perception, and should follow what the Lawgiver (Muhammad) commanded him to believe and to do.

He is more desirous of his happiness (than man himself) and he knows better what is good for him. His level (of perception) is higher than that of human perception. The territory he covers (in his mind) is wider than that of human intelligence. This does not speak against the intellect and intellectual perceptions.

The intellect, indeed, is a correct scale.

Its indications are completely certain and in no way wrong. However, the intellect should not be used to weigh such matters as the oneness of God, the other world, the truth of prophecy, the real character of the divine attributes, or anything else that lies beyond the level of the intellect.

That would mean to desire the impossible. One might compare it with a man who sees a scale in which gold is being weighed, and wants to weigh mountains in it. The (fact that this is impossible) does not prove that the indications of the scale are not true (when it is used for its proper purpose). However, there is a limit at which the intellect must stop. It cannot go beyond its own level. Thus, it cannot comprehend God and His attributes.

It is but one of the atoms of the world of existence which results from (God). This shows that those who give the intellect preference over (traditional) information in such matters are wrong, deficient in understanding, and faulty in reasoning.

This, then, explains the true situation in this respect. If this is clear, it is possible that the ascending sequence of causes reaches the point where it transcends the realm of human perception and existence and thus ceases to be perceivable. The intellect would here become lost, confused, and cut off in the wilderness of conjectures.

Thus, (recognition of the) oneness of God is identical with inability to perceive the causes and the ways in which they exercise their influence, and with reliance in this respect upon the Creator of the causes who comprises them.

There is no maker but Him. All (causes) lead up to Him and go back to His power. We know about Him only in as much as we have issued from Him. This is the meaning of the statement transmitted on the authority of a certain truthful (person)= “The inability to perceive is perception.” 314 Such (declaration of the) oneness of God does not merely refer to faith, which is affirmation based upon judgment.

It belongs to the talk of the soul.

Its perfection lies in its acquisition in a form that becomes an attribute of the soul. In the same way, the object of (all human) actions and divine worship is acquisition of the habit of obedience and submissiveness and the freeing of the heart from all preoccupations save the worshiped Master, until the novice on the path to God becomes a holy person.

The difference between “state” 316 and knowledge in questions of dogma is the same as that between talking (about attributes) and having them. This may be explained as follows= Many people know that mercy to the orphans and the poor brings (a human being) close to God and is recommendable. They say so and acknowledge the fact.

They quote the sources for it from the religious law. But if they were to see an orphan or a poor person of the destitute classes, 317 they would run away from him and disdain to touch him, let alone show mercy to him or any of the higher “stations” 318 of sympathy, affection, and charity. Their mercy for the orphan was the result of having reached the station of knowledge. It was not the result of the station of “state” nor of an attribute of theirs.

There are people who, in addition to the station of knowledge and the realization of the fact that mercy to the poor brings (a human being) close to God, have attained another, higher “station”= they have attained the attribute and habit of mercy.

When they see an orphan or a poor person, they approach him and show him (mercy). They wish to receive the (heavenly) reward for the compassion they show him. They are hardly able to refrain from (showing compassion), even if they are repulsed. They give as charity whatever they have available from their own property. The relationship of man’s knowledge of the oneness of God to his possessionof it as an attribute, is of the same character.

Knowledge results by necessity from possession of an attribute. It is a kind of knowledge that exists on a more solid basis than knowledge attained previous to the possession of the attribute. An attribute (on the other hand) is not obtained from knowledge alone. There must be an action, and it must be repeated innumerable times.

(Only) this results in a firmly rooted habit, in the acquisition of the attribute and real (knowledge). Another kind of knowledge thus makes its appearance. It is the kind that is useful in the other world. The original knowledge which was devoid of being an attribute is of little advantage or use. It is the (kind of) knowledge that the majority of thinkers (possesses).

But the (real) object is knowledge as a “state,” and it originates from divine worship.

According to Muhammad, perfection with regard to any of the obligations he has imposed (upon Muslims) requires this (distinction).

Perfection in matters of belief depends on the other knowledge, that which results from the possession of (these matters) as an attribute.

Perfection in matters of divine worship depends on acquisition of (these matters) as an attribute, on real (knowledge) of them.

Muhammad says concerning the principal act of divine worship:

Prayer, for Muhammad, was an attribute and “state” in which he found his ultimate pleasure and consolation. How different is the prayer of the people! Who could bring them to pray in that way!

“Woe unto those who pray, who are careless with regard to their prayer.” 320 O God, give us success. “And guide us on the straight path, the path of those to whom you have shown kindness, not of those with whom you are angry, and not of those who go astray.” 321 Amen.