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ALL
HUMAN ATTAINMENTS OF LEARNING AND
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS HAVE
A REALITY WHICH IS BASED ON ONE OF THE
DIVINE NAMES
In
describing all the attainments of
learning and scientific progress, and
wonders of technology with which man has
been endowed because of his vast
potential under the title of ‘the
teaching of the Names’, the verse
quoted above alludes to a fine point
which is as follows:
All
attainments and perfections, all
learning, all progress, and all
sciences, each have an elevated reality
which is based on one of the Divine
Names. It is through being based on a
certain Name, which manifests itself
through numerous veils and in various
ways and levels, that a particular
branch of science or art attains its
perfection and becomes reality.
Otherwise, it remains something
imperfect, deficient and shadowy.
For
example, engineering is a science. Its
reality lies in the Divine Names, the
All-Just (One Who gives everything a
certain measure and creates everything
just in its place) and the Determiner,
and its final aim is to receive the wise
manifestations of those Names in full
measure and with all their majesty.
Medicine
is an art as well as a science. Its
reality lies in the Divine Name, the
All-Healing and its perfection in
finding a cure for every illness by
discovering the manifestations of mercy
of the Absolutely Wise One in the earth,
which is His vast ‘pharmacy’.
Again,
each of the natural sciences, which
discuss the reality of entities, can be
a true science full of wisdom only by
discerning in things the regulating,
directing, administering, sustaining and
all-embracing manifestations of the
Divine Name, the All-Wise, and in the
benefits and advantages of those things,
and by being based on that Name.
Otherwise they either become
superstition and nonsense, or cause
misguidance like naturalistic
philosophy.
Out
of many, these are only three examples
for you! You may compare with these the
other sciences and attainments.
With
the verse, He taught Adam the names, all
of them (2:31) the wise Quran points to
the highest points, the furthest limits,
the final degrees, from which, at the
present level of his progress, man is
far away, and urges him towards them.
This verse is extremely rich and
elaborate in meaning but for now I will
go no further.
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