|
MANY
OTHER PHENOMENA IN THE
UNIVERSE POINT TO THE
RESURRECTION
A
great care is shown in,
and many purposes are
attached to, even the
most
insignificant-seeming
things in the world
A
great care is shown in,
and many purposes are
attached to, even the
most
insignificant-seeming
things in the world. For
example, cellulose is
the structural tissue
that forms the chief
part of all plants and
trees. Through its
elasticity, it enables
plants to bend and
protects them from
breaking. It has an
important place in the
paper industry.
The
digestion of cellulose
is very difficult. Only
the enzymes secreted by
ruminant animals can
dissolve cellulose.
However, cellulose is
advisable for an easy
excretion, it
accelerates the working
of bowels and prevents
constipation. Animals
are like factories that
change substances with
cellulose into useful
matter. The excrement of
animals is used as
manure. Innumerable
bacteria in the soil
consume the excrement,
thus both increasing the
soil in productivity and
cleaning the earth of
bad-smelling things.
But
for the bacteria in
earth, it would be
impossible to
survive in the world
But
for the bacteria in
earth, it would be
impossible to survive in
the world. To cite a
single example, if the
flies born in a single
spring-time did not
disappear in earth, they
would form a thick cover
over the whole of the
earth. Through the
manifestation of His
Name the All-Purifying,
God Almighty employs
bacteria to clean the
earth. Have you ever
considered why forests
are so clean although
many animals die in them
every day? They are so
because carnivorous
animals and bacteria eat
up dead animals and
clean the earth of them.
To conclude, do you
think that God, Who
employs the most
insignificant-seeming
creatures to serve many
great purposes, allows
man to rot away in
earth, thus reducing his
existence to utter
futility?
Again,
a wound healed shows
the vigor of the
body. A fruit
reminds of the tree
on which it has
grown. Footprints
point to the one who
has passed by. A
leakage of water
indicates a source
of water. Similarly,
the feeling of
eternity in man and
his desire for it
are signs of One Who
is eternal and of
the eternal world.
This
world with whatever is
in it can never satisfy
man. He overflows with
subtle, refined feelings
and aspires to lofty
ideals, which cannot
possible have originated
in matter and the
material world. These
are the reflections in
man of the infinite,
immaterial dimensions of
existence.
Philosophers,
especially the Muslim
ones, call the universe
macro-human, while
describing man as normo
or micro-cosmos. Like
man, the universe is a
whole entity all the
parts of which are
interrelated with one
another. Who knows that
there is not an angel
deputed to represent the
universe, one serving as
its spirit. Like man,
the universe also
suffers injuries and, as
Einstein puts it, new
bodies are formed in its
remote corners. Just as
man has an appointed
time of death, so does
the universe.
As
we increase in
knowledge about
existence,
paradoxically, we
also increase in
ignorance about it.
We
have little knowledge
about existence. As we
increase in knowledge
about it, paradoxically,
we also increase in
ignorance about it.
Existence is in a
continuous flux and we
do little other than
observing it. The
Prophet Muhammad, God’s
Last Messenger, upon him
be peace and blessings,
used to pray: O God,
show me the reality of
things!
There
is nothing
purposeless in the
‘palace’ of the
universe and precise
ecological balance
There
is nothing purposeless
in the ‘palace’ of
the universe. Its
ecological system is so
complex and the parts
comprising it are so
interrelated to one
another that the lack or
removal of one of them
can result in the
destruction of the
universe. In order to
express this reality,
God’s Messenger, upon
him be peace and
blessings, declared: If
dogs were not a
community like you. I
would order their
killing.3 If the
bacteria within trees
were killed, we would
not be able to obtain
fruits from trees. Every
species, even every
thing, has an important
place of its own in the
structure of the
universe. Such a
magnificent universe
cannot be purposeless.
It works to a moving
time-line. As seconds
point to minutes,
minutes to hours, and
hours to the end of the
present day and the
coming of the next one,
and days point to weeks,
weeks to months, months
to years and years to
the end of a whole
life-span, existence has
its own days in its
every sphere and
dimension, and the
life-span appointed for
it will one day come to
an end. Also, time
proceeds in cycles. For
example, a scientist has
established that corn is
abundantly produced in
every seven years, and
fish come in abundance
in every fourteen years.
The Quran points to
this fact in sura
Yusuf. The life of
existence as a whole has
certain terms or cycles.
The worldly life is a
cycle or term, the life
of the grave is another
cycle, and the afterlife
is the last cycle which
has many cycles or terms
of its own. The Quran
calls each of them a
day. This is so because
a day is the shortest
unit of time-cycles. It
corresponds to the whole
life of existence in
that daytime reminds of
the worldly life with
its divisions of dawn,
morning, noon,
afternoon, and evening
corresponding to one’s
birth and babyhood,
childhood, youth, old
age and death
respectively, and that
night resembles the
intermediate life of the
grave and the next
morning, the
Resurrection.
|
|
