FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Prof. Farida Khanam is an author, editor, translator, public speaker and former professor of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Among her books are ‘A Simple Guide to Sufism’ and ‘A Study of World’s Major Religions’. She has translated into English many books authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently the chairperson of CPS International, she is a regular contributor of articles to various publications. Prof. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
FAITH IN THE UNSEEN
The Quran says:
This is the Book; there is no doubt in it. It is a guide for those who are
mindful of God, who believe in the unseen […]. (2: 3)
FAITH in the unseen is not just a matter of belief. It is directly related to guidance. Only if you believe in the unseen will you receive God’s guidance. If you do not believe in the unseen, you will not receive God’s guidance.
By ‘unseen’ is meant a reality that cannot be seen, but is present nonetheless. This is so with God. Although God is apparently invisible, in reality His presence can be experienced more than all existing things. In the above-quoted Quranic verse, faith in the unseen actually refers to faith in God, but in consequence it includes all those aspects of faith which a believer is required to believe in—for instance, divine revelation, angels, Hell and Heaven, etc.
We know things in two ways. Firstly, through observation, and secondly, through inference. From the scientific point of view, both these methods are equally reliable.
Today, science is considered as a reliable means for analyzing and arriving at a conclusion. Science consists of theoretical science as well as technical science. Technical science looks only at the appearance of things, but everything that appears to be visible is, in the final analysis, invisible. For instance, you can see a flower, but you can’t see its fragrance, not even through the most powerful microscope. This is so even though the flower’s fragrance has an existence of its own in the same way as the flower does.
According to science, all things are collections of atoms, and, ultimately, all atoms are collections of electrons, which are not visible to the naked eye. Referring to this fact, a scientist commented that the entire universe is an invisible ‘mad dance’ of electrons'. Another scientist describes it as a collection of ‘waves of probability’.
In this sense, one can say that it is not only the apparently invisible Creator who is in the unseen but also the apparently visible creatures. The British scientist A. S. Eddington wrote a book on this subject, titled Science and the Unseen World around a century ago. The fact is that we see only the external appearance of the things that are visible to us in this world. Their reality remains invisible to us. This is true with God as well. In terms of His being, God is unobservable, but in terms of His creation, God is visible for us.
The existence of the creation is evidence of the existence of the Creator. The universe is so meaningful that it is simply impossible to explain it without accepting the existence of the Creator.
Faith in the unseen is not just a matter of belief. It is directly related to guidance. Only if you believe in the unseen will you receive God’s guidance. If you do not believe in the unseen, you will not receive God’s guidance.
God’s being invisible to us is, in one sense, in line with the requirements of the test to which we are put. The test is to discover God while He is in the unseen. If God were plainly visible, there would have been no test at all. Because God is in the unseen, faith in Him is an ‘examination paper’ for us. If God were visible, believing in Him would not have been an ‘examination paper’ for us.
For God and other articles of faith to remain in the unseen is a great blessing for human beings. It is because of this that our process of thinking continues and that we are led to continuously reflect and ponder on things. It becomes possible for us to find God at the level of discovery. It is because of this that God-realization can become a self-discovered reality for us. And it is a fact that there is nothing greater in this world than a self-discovered reality. Thus, for God and other articles of faith to remain in the unseen is an endless source of intellectual development for us.
A person whose mind has been awakened through study, reflection and deep pondering can truly have faith in God and truly realize Him. Someone with an un-awakened mind flounders in intellectual blindness, and in such a situation can hardly hope to arrive at God-realization.
Faith in the unseen as a condition for God’s guidance is no arbitrary condition. In fact, it is a very reasonable condition for a creature like man. To understand any great reality, one needs an awakened mind. Only someone whose mind is awakened is capable of understanding a profound truth. God is, undoubtedly, the biggest and most profound truth—the Absolute Truth. And so, only a person whose mind has been awakened through study, reflection and deep pondering can truly have faith in God and truly realize Him. Someone with an un-awakened mind flounders in intellectual blindness, and in such a situation can hardly hope to arrive at God-realization.
Prof. Farida Khanam
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