4. THE TRANSCENDENTAL WORLD

The world we are conscious of is only a small part of the totality of the Real World. There is, therefore, a large area of the Real world which is not accessible to us owing to the limits of our consciousness, intellect and our sense organs. This is affirmed by both Religion and Science. Thus we distinguish between the human world and the real world. Nevertheless the real world affects us and we have to adjust to it.

Our senses are limited is several ways:- There are limits to the size we can see, both as to the very small and the very large, the speeds, both as to slowness or rapidity, the complexity, the intensity and the differentiation between qualities, e.g. between the shades of a colour. This affects the structures and processes we can see. We can discern chemical substances through smell and taste, sound vibrations within a limited range through hearing, pressure waves, textures and heat through touch, electromagnetic vibrations of a very limited range through our eyes. There may be other kinds of forces we have no senses for.

People differ in the range and sensitivity of their senses, and the same person in different states or different times has different ranges and sensitivities. Other creatures on this earth have a different combination of senses. On other planets quite different creatures with a different combination of sense organs may have arisen.

Apart from this we select the data of experience by placing attention on some while ignoring others, according to our assumptions, interests and activities. We also interpret experiences and organise them, and see things according to how they fit into systems we have created. And this is affected by the culture and society in which we live.

The fertilised ovum appears to have some kind of general sensitivity and abilities which only becomes specific when the various specialised organs develop. The nature of these depends on the kind of environment to which the organism is adapted. Adaptation, however, depends not only on the environment, but also on the motives of the organism which in animals is usually confined to self-preservation and reproduction. Human beings, however, have other motives as well. Observation of babies and small children shows that their senses and actions are at first uncoordinated. They learn by experimentation. Success and failure then reinforces or weakens various behaviour patterns, and this success or failure depends partly on the inherent nature of the child, partly on the nature of the physical environment and partly on the social environment, the parents, relatives, friends, and the whole culture. The physical environment is itself the product both of the real world and of human action. As the strength of these learnt patterns of perception, motivation and action grow, others tend to atrophy. It is not, therefore, the case that the only possible forms of perception, thinking, feeling and behaviour are those which conform to conventional systems of geometry, logic and conceptual systems. These have been created by the needs of life in a particular industrial, political and cultural system, by a particular set of motives. There are other kinds of actions, motives and ways of seeing and thinking.

We are surrounded and affected by air which contains water vapour and numerous chemical compounds of various kinds, living things such as pollen, bacteria, viruses which may form complex communities, ionised matter, currents, waves and vibrations which may be mechanical, gravitational, electronic, magnetic, electromagnetic of a great number of frequencies, and we are normally quite unaware of all these. The Spacio-temporal field we are surrounded by may contain numerous forces, structures and processes. The connection between one object or event with another may well be through an invisible link. The real world, moreover, may have many more dimensions than those which are accessible to us. Religious literature tells us that the real world is populated by intelligent beings of various kinds, having remarkable characteristics, powers and functions, and that seemingly miraculous events and actions can take place in it. The fact that these have not so far been discovered by scientific instruments can hardly be regarded as proof that they do not exist. Instruments and procedures have limits, and science is not complete. But, we also know that human beings can lie, deceive themselves, and that their imagination can be driven by fears, desires, rationalisations, and misinterpretations to produce superstitions, illusions, delusions and even hallucinations. Therefore, caution is certainly required. The experiences, however, are real, though their interpretations might not be.

Now if the rest of Reality is not accessible to us how can we know it? We know this because:-

1. There are people who have a greater capacity for consciousness than ordinary man and they tell us about it. They are witnesses and there is agreement between them.

2. Most people have fleeting but extra-ordinary experiences which are not explicable in ordinary terms.

3. We do not only rely on what we can see. We also reason. We accept things which are consistent with our system of experiences and can provide us with understanding, and enable us to adjust and live.

4. Scientific investigation through instruments tell us that there is such a world. But this is like seeing the edge of things. It is only indirect knowledge and very limited. It also depends on what instruments have been created and how they are used and directed. The fact that the colours of light can be described as different frequencies of electromagnetic waves does not reveal the rich world we see through our senses. However, methods have been created through formulae, graphs and computers to represent the unseen world in visual terms. This is, perhaps no different from the use of symbolism in religion. It is, however, possible not only to make and use instruments, but also to think. The human body and mind is probably more sensitive and versatile an instrument with much greater potentialities than others. It is possible to refine and extend human capacities in order to increase knowledge.

5. Even in science the totality of experience could not be described merely by sense data. It was, therefore, necessary to make a distinction between mind and matter. But the mind was regarded as unreal or something which was inaccessible to science and, therefore, to be ignored. It became necessary, however, to study the mind and the science of psychology was created. But this, too, regards the mind as having a material basis. Yet it is perfectly clear that the whole of science is a mental effort. What, for instance, is the Theory of Gravity, the Laws of Motion, and the Theory of Relativity. Where is the world as described by Science. It is certainly not a material thing. If these are not material but merely ideas, are they unreal? Some scientists and philosophers get round this problem by assuming that these are merely useful modes of description. This does not, however, solve the problem - how is it that human actions based on these produce real material effects? How can something unreal be a cause of the changes in the real world? The distinction between mind and matter and between ideas and sensations are also merely ideas. The two are reconciled by life, the need to interpret and adjust.

The distinction between Heaven and Earth in Religion is not different from the distinction between mind and matter in science, between the World of Ideas and the World of Sensation. There are said to be 7 heavens and equivalently 7 earths. That is, there are 7 levels of consciousness and there are, therefore, 7 earths as seen through them. Not that there are objectively 7 earths, but that the same earth can be seen in 7 ways according to our level of consciousness. It is not possible to see anything apart from our capacity for perception. It is absolutely essential to remember this when considering religious ideas.

The scientific attitude is that we ought to accept only that which we know because of the research which has been done. Now note that this is not a statement of fact but of values since it tells us what ought to be the case. It is perfectly reasonable for science to have this attitude. Why not explore and understand the world as far as we can? What is not reasonable is to deny that there is nothing else to be known or that no other form of knowledge is possible. This would stop all research.

(a) It is a fact that people differ in their capacities for perception and understanding, even in science. There are people who have superior knowledge. The world as seen by animals is not the same as the world as seen by man. Nor is the world seen by scientists or mystics the same as that seen by ordinary people.

(b) Apart from this we have not only many different sciences, but also the world of commerce, politics, law, arts and many different crafts. Things are seen differently in each, and all of these are parts of the same world though each person sees only one aspect of it. Each of these has its own experts.

(c) The holistic or synthetic view of things is not the same as the analytical view. A human being seen from the point of view of personal relationships is not the same as seen by a physiologist. There is, therefore, a world as seen by faculties and attitudes beyond those normally employed. Sense has to be made of life and existence as a whole, not merely about various parts of it. Religion is, therefore, found among all peoples and in all times. It is integral to human existence.

(d) It is a fact that the capacity for perception and understanding can be improved, or else education would be a waste of time. Religious techniques and exercises are also a method of development.

(e) It is a fact that human beings rely for knowledge on what others tell them. Most of the people who accept science have not themselves undertaken the research to establish its truth, nor can they verify everything on which their lives are based. There could have been no advances in civilisation without such communication. If the people were suddenly to decide not to believe or support the scientists then the civilisation based on it would collapse.

(f) Since science is progressive it cannot be said that it contains the whole truth at anyone time. Its conclusions are constantly changing. It has and continually does make mistakes. The world is not, therefore, as described by it. It is also perfectly possible to interpret and organise the data of experience in different ways for different purposes than those used by science.

(g) In life, we must deal with both the known and the unknown since forces coming from the unknown certainly impinge on the known world. Every action we take involves a hope for the future which is certainly unknown.

(h) Even in science it is necessary first to accept experiences and then try to find explanations for these. It is not reasonable to reject experiences because they do not fit into current theories. The loadstone displaying magnetic properties was discovered first and it is only after this that theories about magnetism were developed. This would have been impossible if the existence of lodestones had been ignored.

All Religions are based on the premise not only that there is a greater real world beyond the world we see in ordinary life, but that we have a function with respect to it, and that this life is but an episode in the greater life of the real world. We shall see the real world when the limits in our consciousness are overcome either through death or a religious discipline, so that the barriers or veils, the circumference limiting us, has been destroyed. We shall then see ourselves as we really are and what we have done to ourselves. Hence Islam speaks of the Hereafter. The term "Hereafter" should not be taken to mean the future in this world or that there is another world to which we must go, but only to a different state of consciousness which allows us to see the greater or real world.

" You were heedless of this. Now We have removed from you your covering, and piercing is your sight this day." 50: 22

The world as described by the Religions differs from that described by science and from our common experiences in four major ways:-

1. That the real world has a moral constitution and a purpose.

2. That the real world is populated by a hierarchy of intelligences of different kinds and functions.

3. That man possesses within himself something which is either indestructible or capable of regeneration, namely the soul, the seat of consciousness. There is, therefore, a life after physical death. The ideas of Resurrection and Judgement are connected with this.

4. They also tell us that the disasters or fortunes which befall human communities, the rise and fall of nations, cultures and civilisations, economic and political ups and downs, the famines, droughts, storms, earthquakes, pestilences etc, can be the effects of human moral behaviour rather than due to indifferent cosmic causes.

It is supposed, by those who do not admit that there can be a reality apart from what they experience or discover through the senses or intellect, that these ideas have only a psychological or social explanation rather than being true about the real world. Several speculative arguments are put forward:-

(a) They are connected with hope and wishful thinking rather than with facts. In so far as we have a self-preservative instinct we have to explain away death. In so far as we are impotent in the face of injustice in this world we must hope for it elsewhere. Thus the Hereafter is believed not because it is a fact but because of desire and the psychological advantages the belief has. This may be true in some cases, but certainly does not explain the fact that some highly intelligent people believed in it. It is itself an unproved opinion.

(b) In so far as we desire and need control over the environment to satisfy our needs we have to explain occurrences which appear to be beyond our control. The world is, in inverse proportion to our science, technology and organisation, unpredictable and uncontrollable. It is, therefore, to be feared. This fear is said to have led to superstitions, the rituals, prayers, incantations which are forms of magic by which people tried to control, placate or conciliate these superior forces. This may be regarded as a primitive technology, the beginning of science, the first attempts at explanation and trial and error. This does not explain the existence of the higher religions.

(c) Religion arose as a result of awe in the face of the tremendous powers and spectacles displayed by nature. The common fact of experience is that man who shows more ability than any other creature can create things. Therefore, nature must also be created by some even more powerful being. This seems a reasonable assumption. Counter arguments to this view are not very convincing because human beings, like other animals are also products of nature and they create.

(d) Animism. The experience of the dead and sleeping bodies of friends and relatives combined with the experience of dreams about deceased friends and relatives is said to have led to the idea that the body is inhabited by a soul which survives death. This is now regarded as an unjustifiable conclusion because of the problems connected with the nature of life, memory and dreams.

(e) Religious ideas can be regarded as an attempt by certain sensitive and compassionate thinkers to protect the interest of the weak against the strong and unscrupulous, thereby making community life tolerable and even possible. They have a civilising influence. Some doctrines do the reverse, they protect the privileges, wealth, power and prestige of the few against the many. The priesthood, rulers and commercial interests have been protected against the envy, poverty, and revolt of the population by teachings inculcating tolerance and acceptance in this life and hope in the future life. This involves a contradiction. Perhaps, it was constructed only to facilitate social order. Indeed, many rulers have used it for this purpose. But this does not mean that that was its original purpose, and does not explain all aspects of religion.

(f) The notion of God is a projection of the Father figure. God is related to the Universe as the Father was related to the world of the child. On the other hand it could be argued that Fatherhood is only possible because that is how the Universe is constructed. The Father is a similitude of God, not the other way round. A variation of this theory is that God is a projection of the Superego, that part of the sub-conscious mind in which social conditioning takes place. But it would be much more reasonable to suppose that the word "God" stands for all the laws, genetic as well as social and cosmic, which restrict or enable human beings

(g) Primitive pagan religions arose as a result of the fear of the unknown. They were created to explain life and the world by relatively primitive untrained minds which were unable to distinguish between reality and imagination. Because knowledge and experience was limited and fantasy was not under control they developed a number of superstitions and depravities such as human sacrifice, stories about the immoral behaviour of the gods and various forms of idolatry. Imagination differs from perception because (a) it works on memories (b) it manipulates it by rearrangement (c) this is done by desires and fears and other emotional factors (d) it does not carry out deliberate and methodical observation and search. However, science is no better position with respect to some future more sophisticated minds. It is certainly a product of the human mind and constructs a world which is different from the ordinary one of every day life. And yet it is regarded as corresponding to some reality.

(h) The higher religions came to free man from such superstitions. But in order to do this they had to adopt the same form. It is the only form people understood, and it was not possible to remove something without providing a substitute. Christianity, for instance, was spread by this method. Many pagan beliefs, practices and institutions were adopted by reinterpreting them. The result was to bring mankind to a higher stage. It made the coming of rationality and science possible. Religion having done its work should now be abandoned. The answer to this is that superstitions have not been abandoned. In the absence of religion people invent new ones. They are not satisfied with the scientific explanations and the rational way of thinking since it is inadequate.

(i) Religions are the result of the inherent human need to make sense of his existence. Their teachings are not factual statements but value statements or instructions. We are required to see existence in these terms in order to live our lives in an efficient and beneficial manner. They are connected with psychological health and development. This is not different from the scientific attitude where a theory is regarded as correct because it works.

(j) The mind, like the material world works through the Laws of motion. An action must have an equal and opposite reaction. An idea must have an anti-idea. Happiness and suffering are relative to each other. We cannot know or experience the one without the other. There must be as much of the one as the other. If a number of people have relatively more suffering than happiness, then this must be balanced by some people having relatively more happiness. If we wish to gain more happiness in the future we have to undergo more suffering in the present - we have to make sacrifices and efforts. Conversely if we lead a life of self-indulgence now we shall suffer for it later. If there is in this world more suffering than happiness then there must be another world or another section of the world to counter-balance this by having more happiness than suffering. But even in the other world an area of increased happiness must be balanced by an area of suffering. Hence the ideas of paradise and hell. This is, of course, a purely rational argument which has to be tested by experience.

But all these are intellectual speculations, mainly by disbelievers, rationalisers or hypocrites. The arguments have been put forward usually because the truth of religious doctrine has been rejected first irrespective of whether it is true or false.

The fact is that the higher religions all depend on the inspiration or revelations received by their founders and some of their followers or saints. Their teachings, therefore depend on extra-ordinary experiences coming from beyond the ordinary conscious mind to which we cannot apply the ordinary tests of science.

There are four ways of approaching the subject.

(a) We can accept them as they are presented, just as we accept the word of any other expert. The problem here is that there is difference in opinion or formulation between different traditions, particularly between the Western and Eastern religions.

(b) We can continue to seek knowledge and make researches by using appropriate concepts, methods and instruments to extend our faculties. But, because knowledge is a progressive thing, we will have to admit that at no time can we say that we have perfect knowledge of all things and our judgements based on it are perfectly correct.

(c) We can try to verify them in our own experience. This requires meditation and undergoing the kind of discipline which will heighten our consciousness to the same degree as those who have the experiential knowledge.

(d) We can try to understand, as far as possible, by the use of our faculties, what they mean. Since the teachings relate to what is not common experience, it cannot be given in a literal language which is designed to deal with common experience.

Consider the following:-

The whole of religion stands or falls on the question of whether there is or is not life after physical death. This is mainly a question of knowing what is meant by life and death. In order to understand it we have to know what is real and what is merely a way of looking at things and what is a descriptive device. If you believe that nothing but gross matter exists and you identify yourself with your physical body then on its death you cease to be. The matter of which you are composed, however, is not destroyed, only the structure it creates disintegrates. It has a beginning and an end, and is continually changing in between. The changes which take place in nature are cyclic. The same conditions continue to be reproduced though not exactly - e,g the yearly seasons. There is, however, no reason to suppose that the soul is not composed of some subtler type of matter which remains in tact.

There is a difference between a dead body, a living but sleeping body and a fully conscious body. Life means patterns of action and behaviour. It is energy also passing in out of a person. When, therefore, we speak about death, we are speaking about the cessation of such behaviour. But energy, too, is not destroyed. It changes its form. Indeed, matter is but one of its forms. Matter is a pattern of energy trapped in a locality. Once again we see that structure is something apart, and has its own reality. The pattern and structure are capable of reproduction and modification. The genetic information from which all organisms arise appears to be relatively immortal. Patterns are also transmitted through light. This is what enables us to see and recognise things. They form memories and we are able to communicate them to others. But the behaviour we recognise as a conscious person differs from mere life which remains constant while consciousness ceases in sleep and is resurrected the next morning. It does not appear to be a pattern but something having an integrity of its own capable of producing and altering patterns.

The corner stone of Science and, indeed, of all thinking must be the Law of Conservation. Though all things change their form, the essential substance remains the same. Otherwise no calculations would be possible. If the human mind did not contain something stable and unchanging then there could be no comparison between changing experiences either. Things would appear and disappear without order. Ultimately, matter and energy are also interconvertible. It may be that order is also inter-convertible with energy. Indeed, we distinguish different kinds of energies by the frequencies, amplitudes and wavelengths, which are also structures. There are only structures at many levels, and something capable of producing and changing these structures.

Consider a plant or animal. It consists of cells which die and are continually replaced by others fulfilling the same functions. Food, water and air which were once part of another organism enter into the organism, become part of it for a time, and then exit and become part of some other organism. Material objects, too, exchange atoms and energy with their environments and each other. If we analyse them we find that they consist of particles which can be similarly subdivided into parts. And so on. At the most fundamental level we have bundles of probability with no definite location, which can appear and disappear. We cannot find matter, only patterns. The human community is also an organism. It, too, continues to exist, though the individuals in it die and are replaced by other individuals. It is hardly possible to identify the organism with the matter of which it is composed. If we think of a person as matter then he is part of everything else and everything is part of him. The name we give to objects cannot, in fact, refer to the matter they are composed of, but to a particular structure or pattern of behaviour. It is actions which continue to survive in that they have effects which have other effects and so on. And these effects take place at many levels. We do not only affect objects by manipulating them. We affect others by our behaviour, example, and speech. We radiate all kinds of energies into our environment. There are constructive and destructive deeds, those which facilitate the process of development and those which obstruct or negate it.

" And call not those who are slain in the way of Allah 'dead'. Nay, they are living, only you perceive not." 2:154

"....and send good deeds before you for your souls, and fear Allah, and know that you will one day meet Him." 2:223

"The likeness of those who spend their substance in Allah's way is as the likeness of a grain which grows seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains. Allah gives increase manifold to whom He will." 2:261

"But whoso comes to Him a believer, having done good works, for such are high stations, Gardens of Eden underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide for ever. That is the reward of him who grows." 20:76

When a human being malfunctions, this affects not only himself but things in his environment. The malfunction is caused by pollution, contamination, or corruption because of interferences by factors extraneous to the individual. Man, like any thing else is a transforming instrument having a function with respect to the world he lives in. He receives from, transforms and emits to the world, all kinds of forces, materials and information. These processes are inter-dependent.

There is also a problem with the notion of Time. The question is:- Are the Past and Future real or not? The past exists only in memory and the future in anticipation or prediction, both in the mind. If the present alone is real, then what is its duration? Is it continuous or is it composed of little steps? If it is continuous then the instant we grasp it is the instant it passes away being replaced by what was in the future. The present, too, is illusive. If it comes in steps then every instant is a new creation. What connects them together? That which connects them together must lie outside Time. It cannot have a past, present or future. Similar considerations apply to space. All these have connection with order. Space and Time are regarded as dimensions in Science, that is, the number of co-ordinates required to specify a thing. There is, however, a third dimension, that of intensity, density or mass, the amount which can be squeezed into a given space and time. Mass used to be defined in two ways, according to the force of gravitational attraction and according to its inertia, resistance to change. But the two have been found to be identical in Relativity Theory. These three are inter-dependant and change according to the changes in the phenomena studied. If this is so then Past, Present and Future coexist from a transcendental point of view. Time is like space so that the past is like a place left behind and the future like the place not yet reached. We have an extension in Time. Our past is always within us. So is our future, except that it also allows a degree of self-modification. It is merely a question of how we look at things. Fundamentally, therefore, we are left with certain structures, types of order or what has been called Information. And where is this contained? In Space-time or the mind of God, or the Universal Consciousness.

The human mind has been constructed by the exercise of certain faculties which are engaged in pursuing a particular set of interests in a particular environment. He wants to make a living within his society and physical world. There is no reason whatever that the greater world should be accessible to these faculties. In so far as his interests become wider, man has found these faculties to be restricting and he has over the centuries developed new faculties. That which could not be understood in the past is understood today by an increasingly greater number of people. It is likely that, in order to understand the real world, he will have to look at it in a different way and use a different set of categories. We must abandon the restricted human view and see him in a more comprehensive manner, as if with the eye of Allah. The view of the world living in a house is different from that of a traveller in a train or from an aeroplane.

When we speak about a person we are speaking not about a particular structure, since this keeps changing throughout life, but about a continuity based on some common unchanging factor, that which we call "I", a centre of integration. Therefore, when we talk of man, of an "I", we are speaking of this constant element which we denote by the word 'soul'. The "I" is connected with the continuity of memory. Memory, however, may be consciously, sub-consciously or even unconsciously held. There are techniques by which unconscious memories can be extracted or made conscious. Though a great deal of scientific research into matter and energy has taken place, very little has been done into consciousness. Memory, consciousness and the "I" are still mysteries to science. In the meantime we have the teachings of great World Teachers who attest to the existence and survival of the soul. There seems no reason why we should reject their testimonies in favour of those of the speculators.

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Though there is general agreement that man is more than merely his physical body, there appears to be a difference between the religions about the details of his life after death. it all depends on how we see ourselves, by what we mean by "I". We could identify ourselves with our bodies, with our minds or with our consciousness. We could see ourselves as a material object, as a part or particle of the community, of humanity, the whole of life, the earth, or even as a particle of total reality. We could see ourselves as an organisation of cells, a complex of genes, an electronic pattern, a bundle of memories, a system of events, functions, or causes and effects in the matrix of the Universe.

There are, at least, eight different theories about the soul.

1. According to one theory, the Hindu, when the individual dies his soul, according to its condition is reincarnated, after a period, into another physical body. Thus, life is a continuous cycle of births and deaths. His actions, motives and thoughts modify his soul and this determines what his next life will be like. There is an automatic judgement. Thus paradise or hell may be regarded as a series of states from maximum suffering to maximum happiness, and the human soul can travel up or down this series.

The problem with this idea is that the population of the world is increasing and we have to explain where all these extra souls are coming from. The Quran agrees that there are, indeed, different degrees of paradise and hell. The Quran, however, denies the theory of the actual reincarnation of individuals into other bodies. If we cannot remember our past lives, in what sense can it be said that a person has reincarnated? As far as the individual is concerned his life may be divided into three parts:- (a) life before his present earthly birth. (b) the present earthly life from birth to death. (c) life after death. All the cycles are collapsed, as it were into a single one. However, this is not a denial of actual reincarnation since the Quran does compare resurrection to the yearly revival of nature in spring, but in the Islamic system such an idea is not useful. Consider a person who has died. He is judged according to his inner condition and sent to the appropriate degree of hell or paradise. Suppose that this is on earth. Indeed, the same earth can have many degrees of hell or paradise since obviously some people here are happy or suffer to different degrees or exist in a great variety of both outer and inner circumstances. But, having, no memory of the past, they are in exactly the same situation as before. The same rules apply. They will receive punishment or reward in accordance with their deeds. In so far as some people claim vestiges of such memories or these can be recalled under hypnosis, this may be due to some kind of communication which is no more or less fantastic than reincarnation.

"Until, when death comes unto one of them, he says: My Lord, send me back that I may do right in that which I have left behind. But nay! It is but a word that he speaks; and behind them is a barrier until the day they are raised." 23:99-100

The barrier may of course refer to a memory block or the impossibility of reversing time and returning to the same situation as in the past.

It is likely that reincarnation has been misunderstood. Buddha did not teach it since he denied the existence of a separate ego. The Dalai Lama explained the Buddhist position in terms of a Snooker Table on which there are a number of balls. If the cue ball is propelled against them then it collides with them causing them to move. There is a transfer of energy from it to the others. This is the Law of Karma or Causation. The psychological influences are transferred from one generation to another.

2. There are a variety of beings - minerals, plants, animals, human, jinn, angels, archangels. Indeed, an individual is composed of these different levels. In so far as he is dead or merely a body, he is mineral. In so far as he is unconscious or asleep he is said to vegetate. In so far as he moves and acts automatically he is an animal. In so far as he thinks and acts rationally he is human. Higher levels also exist within him. There are several planes of existence and not only do we move up or down these levels mentally, but we could get stuck at any of these levels more or less permanently. Some people certainly behave like animals. Each of the levels may be subdivided into sub-levels. There are also pre-mineral stages e.g. the electromagnetic or light, nucleonic, atomic, molecular, crystalline. The processes of involution and evolution can also be looked at from this point of view. The life force goes through these different levels of existence over millions of years. This solves the problem of where the increasing population is coming from.

"Ye shall journey from plane to plane." 84:19

But this verse is also compatible with some other theories mentioned below. It could be regarded as having the following possible meanings:-

(a) As above, we have the series mineral, plant, animal, man .... perfect or super man. We may identify ourselves with the life force or the creative impulse or with any of these stages as they develop. The fundamental force, the Spirit, undergoes development through these stages.

(b) There are not only changes in biological systems from single cells to multicellular organisms, but these also form herds. Human beings form tribes, which combine to form small nations, and these combine to form greater nations which may combine to super-nations and so on. Each stage is reached through several sub-stages. That is, the degree of organisation and integration becomes more complex. The nature of the individuals changes according to the system he belongs to.

(c) Human beings start as a germ cell, develop in the womb, are born as a child into a family, grow into adults to take their place in the community or nation. They are transported into a different world at every stage. They may later become a member of the planet, the Solar System, the Galaxy, the Universe. Humanity may expand into the Universe or may find intelligent life forms on other worlds with which they unite.

"Verily We created man from a product of wet earth; then We placed him as a drop in a safe lodging; then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot into a little lump, then fashioned We the little lump with bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of Creators. Then lo! after that you surely die. Then lo! On the day of Resurrection you are raised . And We have created above you seven paths, and We are never unmindful of creation." 23:15-17

(d) There are levels of reality and consciousness which may be represented as a series of smaller circles within larger ones. The conscious entity within man confined at first within the limits of his own body, may enter into a greater circle of collective consciousness; from thence to still greater circles. He may, for instance become part of the mind of this planet as it becomes conscious, of the galaxy or the universe.

3. Metamorphosis is well known in nature. Some organisms exist as caterpillars, then as pupae and finally emerge as butterflies and moths. The Quran, too, mentions the various levels of existence and the possibility of ascent (84:19, 56:58-64 90:10-13). A human being, according to some systems of thought, is said to have a physical, an astral (or emotional), a mental and a spiritual body, each existing within the former. The world can be similarly divided, e.g. a field of cells, a field of atoms and molecules, a field of sub-atomic particles, a field of electrons and so on, so that each of these bodies can be regarded as existing and interacting with the corresponding worlds. These worlds refer not to different areas, but to different aspects of it. They inter-penetrate each other as radiant energy permeates the air, air permeates water, and water, in its turn, permeates the earth. The death and disintegration of the physical body does not mean the death of the other bodies. There are four conditions of the soul according to which level it identifies itself with. Judgement takes place at death automatically, that is, in accordance with its condition.

"Have you seen that which you emit? Do you create it or are We the creator? We mete out death among you, and We are not to be outrun, that We may transfigure you and make you what you know not. And verily you know the first creation. Why do you not reflect? Have ye seen that which you cultivate?" 56:58-63

We may presume that human beings, like everything else are transforming devices, having a cosmic function. They absorb materials, energy, information from their surroundings, process these and produce an emission. But they have the capacity to utilise some of what they receive for their own growth.

4. According to one variation of this theory, also compatible with the above verse, not everyone survives death. Survival depends on having constructed an integrated higher body. Those who have not constructed an astral body, for instance, have nothing which can exist in the Astral plane. Conversely, people who may have started off with an astral body may have destroyed it in this life. They may be said to be dead at higher levels though still physically alive.

"Is he who founded his building upon duty to Allah and His good pleasure better, or he who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling, over-hanging precipice so that it topples with him into the fire of hell? Allah guides not wrong doing folk." Quran. 9:109, and 56:63 above

Since the bodies are constructed from subtler materials, energies and patterns they will have subtler faculties, experiences and powers. Religions warn against becoming distracted or obsessed with such things. The purpose should be continuous development in order to fulfil ones function rather than to develop occult powers and use them for selfish reasons or to impress others.

5. According to another theory, the Christian and Islamic, when people die, their spirit returns to God. All the dead will be physically resurrected and judged at the end of a particular period of time. The world as we know it will come to an end. There will be a Last Day which is also the Day of Resurrection and the Day of Judgement. There will be a recreation (21:104-105). However, the word 'Day' does not refer to 24 hours, but to a period of time which may be thousands of years long (70:4). A thousand years is, after all, only like the blink of an eye on the cosmic scale. The good, that is those who have integrated themselves, will be sent to Eternal bliss in Paradise and the evil, those who contain inner contradictions, will be sent to Eternal suffering in Hell. However, both Paradise and Hell have many degrees proportional to human behaviour (3:163, 78:26) and the word Eternity refers to a dimension outside serial time. It does not mean that people will stay there forever, but as long as Allah wills (11:107, 78:21-23). This may mean that it is possible that people may learn from their suffering and then get out of their situation. The Fire should be regarded as a symbol for suffering as well as a force for transformation as in the case of cooking and manufacture. It is more a psychological condition than a physical place (104:1-9) , though people certainly see and convert their social and physical environments in accordance with their psychological condition. It is a state of being cut off from Allah (83:10-16), and, therefore, from the source of enlightenment. It exists even in the present world (9:49). However, people are blind with prejudices and this keeps them in the same position (17:72). The judgement is an automatic consequence of the nature of people. They are judged by their own deeds, thoughts, memories. (79:34-47, 41:19-25, 17:36, 78:21-26, 50:21-22, 45:29,) The period between physical death and the final resurrection is not mentioned, and may be regarded as non-existence, as far as the individual is concerned since he has no memory of it. He dies at one instant and is resurrected at the next. The notion of Resurrection is not, therefore, completely different from the idea of reincarnation. The resurrected person is reincarnated.

"Do such men not consider that they will be raised again unto an awful Day, the day when mankind stand before the Lord of the Worlds?" 83:4-6

"The Day when We shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolls up a written scroll. As We began the first creation, we shall repeat it." 21:104

"Till when they reach it, their ears and their eyes and their skins testify against them as to what they used to do. ...Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes and your skins should testify against you, but ye deemed that Allah knew not much of what ye did, that your thoughts which ye did think about your Lord has ruined you, and you find yourselves this day among the lost." 41:20-23

There are three aspects to this, a physical, a social and a psychological.

Physically -It is well known that the earth will nott last for ever and that the sun is likely to explode in the distant future. It may do so before this because of some other presently unknown cause. Human beings by then will hopefully have evolved into something else. The earth may be struck by a meteor or comet. Large scale weather changes may occur, leading to global warming, storms, floods and famines. The protective ozone layer may disappear. Human activity may be responsible for some of these disasters. It is now well known that the continents are moving, that the earths magnetic field as well as its axis can change bringing about large scale destruction. There have been a number of ice ages. Whole civilisations and even species, such as Dinosaurs have been suddenly wiped out. Some of these disasters are so sudden that Mammoths have been found buried in the ice with plants still in their mouths. The Universe itself is expanding, may reach a limit and then collapse into a Singularity again because of gravitational forces. The whole process of creation will then begin again. According to Hindu doctrines the Universe is like the breathing in and out of Brahma.

Socially -The destruction of heaven and earth, howwever, probably also refer to the end of the worldly system as we know it rather than to the physical destruction of the earth. It may refer to the ideological system and the physical environment respectively. Great political, economic and social upheavals may take place. It appears to refer not so much to individuals but to the rise and fall of Civilisations. Societies and regimes which seemed stable and powerful have even recently suddenly collapsed into chaos, destruction and mass deaths. They culminated in Hell for the people instead of the Heaven they thought they were building. The day of resurrection is the time when a new Prophet arrives and brings about a new consciousness. People sort themselves out according to whether they support or oppose the Prophet, thereby benefitting or harming themselves.

"And every nation has its term, and when its term comes, they cannot put it off an hour nor yet advance it." 7:34

"Systems have passed away before you. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequences for those who did deny." 3:137

"And He it is who sends the winds as tidings heralding His mercy, till when they bear a cloud heavy with rain, We lead it to a dead land, and then cause water to descend thereon and thereby bring forth fruit of every kind. Thus bring We forth the dead. Haply ye may remember. As for the good land, its vegetation comes forth by permission of its Lord; while , as for that which is bad, only evil comes forth. Thus do We recount the tokens for people who give thanks." 7:57-58

"O ye who believe: Obey Allah and the messenger when He calls you to that which quickens you..." 8:24

It is perfectly possible to create a psychological, social or environmental system which brings suffering. famines, pestilence, wars and disorder. Tyrannies, injustice, criminality and psychopathy create hell. Many people live in an inner hell of resentment, depression, despair, antipathy, fear, anxiety, superstition, prejudice, delusions, hallucinations, and inner conflicts. They also transmit these to others. It is perfectly possible to visualise conditions in which all these increase or decrease. It is also possible to create a paradise.

Psychologically - To know that we exist we have to be connscious. That consciousness exists is undeniable. But consciousness is variable and has several levels. Obviously the world as seen depends on the state of consciousness. An individual may develop within the period of his physical life. The word 'death' is used in two senses:-

(a) a person is spiritually dead when he is wholly immersed in the worldly life, he is dominated by his ego, and his higher faculties are dormant. Resurrection refers to the regeneration of his spiritual or objective self.

(b) a person is dead to the worldly life when he gives up his subjectivity, his rebellion, his worldliness, his inner contradictions. The death of the ego must precede the resurrection of the Spirit.

"Is he who was dead, and We have raised him unto life, and set for him a light whereby he walks among men, as him who is like one in utter darkness from which he cannot emerge? Thus is their conduct made fair seeming for disbelievers." 6:123

"Thus Allah brings the dead to life and shows you His portents so that ye may understand." 2:73 Also see 2:56, 73, 260; 6:36; 8:24; 30:50; 41:39

We can die at one level falling to the one below, or re-awaken in the one above. If we are alive to this world (the common world) in the sense of having all our faculties of thought, feeling and action exclusively involved in it, then we are spiritually dead. By dying to this world we can be resurrected to the higher world. This also explains the saying of Jesus:-

"He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that looses his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39

Death is a matter of relativity and degrees.

6. According to another theory, the individual ceases to exist on death. The word 'soul' (nafs) is taken to mean life, and is distinguished from the spirit (ruh). There will be a Day of Resurrection and Judgement when all those who have died will again come to physical life on earth. They will receive another body. Life on earth will become Paradise. The soul may then be seen as both mortal because it dies, and immortal because it is resurrected and comes to eternal life. There is psychological but not physical continuity. The Quran appears to support this theory:-

" We appointed immortality for no mortal before thee (Muhammad). What! If you die, can they be immortal? Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us you will be returned." 21:34-35

Note, however, that 'death' is also associated with the question of trial through good and evil. It, therefore, also has a psychological interpretation. We have to go through the fire of suffering in order to be transformed.

" Thinketh man that We shall not assemble his bones? Yea verily, yea, We are able to restore his very fingers." 75:3-4

"And they say: when we are bones and fragments, shall we forsooth, be raised up as a new creation. Say: Be ye stones or iron or some other created thing that is greater in your thoughts! Then they will say : who shall bring us back to life. Say: He who created you at first. Then they will shake their heads at thee and say: When will it be. Say: It will perhaps be soon. A day when He will call you and ye will answer with His praise, and ye will think that ye have tarried but a little while." 17: 49-52

"And verily We shall assemble them and the devils, then We shall bring them, crouching, around hell. Then We shall pluck out from every sect whichever of them was most stubborn in rebellion to the Beneficent. And surely We are best aware of those most worthy to be burnt therein." 19:68-70

One wonders, if the continuity of life is broken, in what sense can the new body be the same as the old one. The problem with this theory is that there is not enough material or space on the earth for all the people who have ever lived to coexist at the same time. This problem is overcome by assuming either that the earth itself will be transformed and the new bodies are not necessarily material ones like the present, or that only the virtuous will live on it. The wicked will not. For them there is Eternal death. Hell is regarded as the Fire which burns up rubbish, i.e that which does not perform a function. However, since nothing is ever lost, the individual could be regarded as being trapped in the lower order of materials. They have not been able to create or sustain an integrated self. They have lost their soul (23:103). The Islamic view is that there are many different kinds and degrees of paradise and hell which may be states rather than places, but in either case can coexist. The Universe is big enough. On the other hand these verses could refer to the recycling of materials. Dead things, including human beings are eaten by other things, converted into that which plants take up for their growth and these are in turn eaten by man. The time scale as used in religious language is not the same as that used by man.

Statistically speaking, if the number of material particles which make up mankind is finite then given sufficient time the same combination which produces an individual must reform.

7. Human beings can be looked at as communities rather than individually, like the cells making up the body. These cells are continually dying and being replaced while the body continues to exist. We may, therefore, look at the function of a thing rather than its physical presence. In accordance with the Causal Law the past produces the present, and the present produces the future. Everyone of us is the product of the convergence of cultural, genetic, social and psychological forces current in the society, and we, in turn, have a modifying influence on these. We create the next generation. The people of one generation may, therefore, be considered to be the same as those in a past or future generation. There are those who contribute to its development and those who contribute to its destruction. Some produce heaven and others hell. This appears to be the Buddhist doctrine and has some support in Quran 56:58 quoted above.

8. A variation of this theory, which is also compatible with the theory of evolution, is that individuals of certain types, whole communities and even the whole human race, in so far as they do not fulfil their function and develop will be wiped out and replaced by other people, communities or even other creatures. Resurrection and Judgement may be regarded as a continuous process, an aspect of life. Virtue will be defined as that which fulfils a constructive purpose in relation to an objective or natural plan and, therefore, survives, while that which does not, or opposes it, and is defined as evil, annihilates itself. This, too, is referred to in the Quran. (4:133, 35:16,) and in the following:-

"If He will, He can remove you and cause what He will to follow after you, even as He raised you from the seed of other folk. Lo! That which you are promised will surely come to pass, and you cannot escape." 6:134

9. Another theory which has confirmation in the reports and legends of ancient peoples throughout the world as well as in scientific investigations is that the earth is periodically struck by disasters which wipes out much of life and human civilisations. There is then a slow rebuilding. The life forms and conditions of life after the calamity is different from that which existed before it. The human survivors must slowly rebuild civilisation. There is, therefore, a new earth. Resurrection here means the recreation of mankind. This has happened several times in the past and will happen again. There are said to be 7 earths or such periods (65:12).

There is a problem here:-Though this calamity is not regarded as a consequence of human behaviour it does stimulate re-adjustment and evolution. But we are also told that it will cause the separation of the wicked from the good and that they will then live an immortal life in Heaven or Hell. This surely cannot refer to the people living on the new earth who are just as mortal. We must presume that they live on another spiritual plane. The earth could be regarded as a laboratory, the place of experimentation from which the valuable results are extracted in a permanent form at a different level. It could be that this information now affects the next cycle.

"On the day when the earth will be changed to another earth, and the heavens too, and they will come forth unto Allah, the One, the Almighty." 14:48

"When the earth is shaken with her earthquake, and the earth yields up her burden, and man saith: What aileth her?..." 99:1-2

"Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Calamity is! A day wherein mankind will be as thickly scattered moths and the mountains will become as carded wool..."101:3-4

"When the heaven is cleft asunder, when the planets are dispersed, when the seas are poured forth and the sepulchres are overturned, a soul will know what it hath sent before it and what left behind. O man!What hath made thee careless concerning thy Lord, the Bountiful? - Who created thee, then fashioned, then proportioned thee into whatsoever form He will, He casteth thee.? Nay, but they deny the Judgement, Lo there are above you guardians, generous and recording, who know all that ye do. Lo! the righteous verily will be in Delight. And lo! the wicked verily will be in Hell.... " 82:1-14

"Surely that which ye are promised will befall. So when the stars are put out, and when the sky is riven asunder and when the mountains are blown away, and when the messengers are brought to their time appointed - For what day is the time appointed? For the Day of Decision. And what will convey unto thee what the Day of Decision is! - Woe unto the repudiators on that day! Destroyed We not the former folk, then caused the latter folk to follow after? " 77:7-17

All these theories appear on the surface to be mutually exclusive and even contradictory. But since they are all advanced as true they must be consistent but referring to different aspects. The problem lies in the interpretation. Reality is comparable to a huge sphere of which only the surface is seen by man. There are apparent contradictions which can only be resolved if we can see the deeper levels. In so far as human beings are part of reality they may be considered to be a section of the totality. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the human mind has the capacity to become conscious at deeper levels. Indeed the Quran tells us that proof in personal experience will be provided.

" We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it is manifest to them that it is the Truth." 41:53

Experience shows that there are cycles of events, that creativity has not ceased and that there is always recreation out of something underlying which is permanent, like the waves in the ocean. The whole Universe may be a surface phenomena to be annihilated and recreated. It is a question of whether we identify ourselves with the surface phenomena or the substance beyond it.

"Unto Him is the return of all of you. It is a promise of Allah in Truth. Lo! He produces creation, then reproduces it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity....Lo! in the difference of the day and night and all that Allah has created in the heavens and the earth are signs for folk who ward of evil" 10:5 and 7

In the absence of personal experience we have to accept the word of those who have the capacity for such experiences. But we have to determine whether the person whose word we accept has such a capacity and this initially requires evidence of an indirect kind. Ultimately, we have proof of both kinds only if through his teachings this capacity develops also in the followers. There is, however, an inescapable spiral. No one follows the teaching unless he believes first, and yet it is by following the teaching that belief is established and reinforced. There is nothing extra-ordinary about this since it is part of all learning.

Many people believe that when they die physically their soul will be in heaven and that there will be a physical resurrection on this earth on which they will live forever. But there is no evidence in the scriptures for this. The physically dead have no memory and cannot do or think. They are truly dead. Yet, the fact that they are to be resurrected implies that something about them, the information composing them, is eternal, Resurrection will not be on this earth, but on a new transformed earth. This could be regarded either as a physical or spiritual earth according to point of view. It is not the same earth as we normally see, but those who live in it will certainly see it just as solid as we see ours. In view of the conclusions of modern physics regarding alternative universes (to be discussed in Book 9), this idea becomes less fantastic.

One thing is clear, the world we see depends on our capacity for perception and understanding. Reality is not the same thing to a man as it is to an animal, or to the modern educated man than it is to a primitive uneducated man, or even to two different people brought up under different cultural conditions. The world seen by the scientists is not the same as that seen by a business man, politician, artist or saint either. Yet all these different worlds are part of total reality. We can distinguish between at least three levels:- (1) The level at which separate individual things or persons interact. (2) The Causal level of the forces which unite all these individuals e.g. the Society. (3) The Universal Field or pattern which all these forces together form. The individuals by their behaviour do affect the causal level which also affects all the individuals. And this causal level affects and is affected by the whole field of Reality.

If we look at the world as a unit, then religious techniques work in the following way:-

(1) Religions provide the individual with (a) a Law and value system which modify behaviour; (b) an ideological framework by means of which all facts and experiences are interpreted in a unified and comprehensive manner; (c) a system of psychological practices - prayer meditation etc which work directly on their brains, nervous system and the rest of the cellular structure, no doubt creating physiological, bio-chemical and electrical changes. Thus action, motivation and thought are all affected. Though the individual dies, the effects of his existence on his surroundings persist.

(2) It creates social changes:- (a) the modified individual has indirect effects on other people through his behaviour and works, and direct ones on the order of the planet, its physical, electromagnetic or quantum field. (b) The economic, political, cultural and educational system in which the new generation is brought up is changed. (c) Religions work on families and the community, strengthening and unifying them so that the individual is supported and stimulated in certain directions and the new generation is brought up in a stabler and more conducive conditions.

(3) Genetic conditions are changed. The new conditions affect the three sources of evolution, namely effort, mutation and natural selection. Although it is supposed that mutations are produced accidentally owing to cosmic radiations, it is likely that electrical and chemical stresses within the organism resulting from its efforts, and the rest of the environment including the social one, also modify this. The changed social conditions now exert a selective effect by encouraging the multiplication of certain characteristics while suppressing and eliminating others. It also brings out the potentialities of dormant genes and finds new applications. The economic and cultural system determines which people with what characteristics will become prosperous, whom they select as mates, what the domestic relationships will be, and how many children they will have, can support, and how good a developmental environment they provide for them.

There are, therefore, three kinds of effects - psychological, social and physiological.

We ought, therefore, to see the individual not as an isolated entity, but as a cell in a larger organism. Consciousness is not, and cannot be, by its very nature a personal possession, but is something which is transmitted through individuals to various degrees. It can only refer to a wholeness, and the relationship of the parts to the whole, not to parts in isolation.

There are cycles of events such as the Day and Night, and the changes of the seasons - smaller cycles within larger cycles which themselves belong to still greater cycles. It is not only the case that the human personal memory is confined to his own physical cycle of birth and death, but that the racial memory is also confined to a particular historical cycle. It is probable that the story of Noah's Flood, a legend found throughout the world, is a myth contained in the collective unconscious mind, a racial memory which refers to some great disaster in the past which destroyed human civilisation from which it is only now recovering, and that the story of the creation of Adam and his expulsion from Paradise refers to some even greater cycle. The sin of Adam, it should be remembered was the possibility for him to rebel and disobey his nature. This appears to tell us that he began to form an ego by reason of which he was able to re-arrange the data of experience in a manner different from that found in nature, thereby constructing his own subjective value systems based on personal pain and pleasure and a world of illusions in his imagination. These also destroyed his capacity for correct adjustment to his environment. In short he consumed of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. This, Fall, however, appears to have been a consequences of the very faculty which made him a vicegerent. It was required if he was to become an agent of the creativity, initiative and responsibility of Allah.

On the other hand this story may refer to an unconscious experience common to every human being as he develops from birth to adulthood. As he becomes aware of his volitional power and the associated responsibility, it produces the fear of making mistakes and the disasters which would follow. Indeed, the unconscious mind already knows that mistakes (or contradictions) have been made by the the society and the individual himself, that these are responsible for his suffering and that he may be overwhelmed or drowned by their adverse consequences. It can hardly be denied that the particular characteristic which distinguishes man from the rest of creation is just this faculty, that if it exists then it must be a potentiality of the materials of Universe from which we are created, and that it is one which transcends analysis by reason, though the ability to reason pre-supposes its existence.

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The following quotations provide clues to how life and death are understood in the Quran:-

"O mankind! If you are in doubt concerning the resurrection, then lo! (consider this): We have created you from dust, then from a drop of seed, then from a clot, then from a little lump of flesh shapely and shapeless, that We may make it clear for you. And We cause what We will to remain within the womb for an appointed time, and afterwards We bring you forth as an infant, then give you growth that you attain your full stature. And among you there is he who dies, and among you there is he who is brought back to the most abject time of life, so that, after knowledge, he knows naught. And you see the earth barren, but when We send down rain thereon, it thrills and swells and puts forth every lovely kind of growth. That is because Allah, He is Truth. Lo! He quickens the dead, and lo! He is able to do all things." 22:5-6

"He will say: How long tarried ye in the earth, counting by years? They will say: We tarried but a day or part thereof. And of those who kept a count ! He will say: Ye tarried but a little while if ye only knew. Deemed ye that We had created ye for naught, and that ye would not be returned to Us? " 23: 115

"Whoso is blind here in this world will be blind in the Hereafter, and yet further from the road. " 7:72

"There are degrees of grace and reprobation with Allah, and Allah is Seer of what ye do." 3:163

"No soul can ever die except by Allah's leave and at a time appointed. Whoso desires the reward of this world, We bestow on him thereof; and whoso desires the reward of the Hereafter, We bestow on him thereof. We shall reward the thankful. " 3:145

"Hell is before him, and he is made to drink a festering water which he sipped but can hardly swallow, and death comes to him from every side while yet he cannot die, and before him is a harsh doom. A similitude of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their works are as ashes which the wind blows hard upon a stormy day. They have no control of anything that they have earned. That is the extreme failure. Have you not seen that Allah has created the heavens and earth with truth? If He will He can remove you and bring some new creation in your stead." 14:16-19

"On the day when the earth will be changed to other than the earth, and the heavens, too, will be changed, and they will come forth unto Allah, the One, the Almighty."" 14:48

"O ye who believe! Obey Allah and the messenger when He calls you to that which quickens you, and know that Allah comes between the man and his own heart, and that it is He unto whom ye will be gathered." 8:24

"Look, therefore, at the prints of Allah's mercy in creation: how He quickens the earth after death. Lo, He verily is the Quickener of the Dead'." 30:50 See also 41:39

"Only those can accept who hear. As for the dead, Allah will raise them up; then unto Him will they return." 6:36

"And when the Trumpet is blown there will be no kinship among them that day, nor will they ask one another. Then those whose scales are heavy, they are the successful. And those whose scales are light are those who lose their souls in hell abiding. The fire burns their faces, and they are glum therein." 23: 101 - 104

"Have they not seen how may generations We have destroyed before them, which indeed return not unto them: but all without exception, will be brought back before Us." 36:31-32

"On the day when it (the Day of Judgement) comes no soul will speak except by His permission; some among men will be wretched, others glad. They will be in the Fire; sighing and wailing will be their portion therein, abiding there so long as the heavens and the earth endure save for that which your Lord wills. Lo! your Lord is doer of what He will. And those who will be glad they will be in the Garden, abiding there so long as the heavens and the earth endure save for that which your Lord wills: a gift unfailing." 11:105-108

NOTES

Resurrection requires that there should be a memory in the fabric of the world or in the mind of Allah, and that later the individual be reconstituted from this record. Indeed, the Quran tells us that the record of what men think and do is preserved. Human beings as all living organisms are created from the blue print existing in the genes and these may be regarded as records of the history of the evolution of life. Memory exists in the genes. Memory is still a mystery to science. It is believed that all human experiences are recorded in the cells of the brain, probably in its fine structure. However, memory probably also exists in all the cells of body - the muscles as well as the viscera since these are also modified by actions and emotional experiences. On the other hand these structures may only be instruments which give us access to certain kinds of memory as a tuned radio gives access to certain programs on certain frequencies.

Consider a machine such as an aeroplane. It is also reproduced from blue prints and it also has an evolutionary history. But the records are not physical things but in the minds of the inventors and developers though these are transferred to paper and computer discs. They are passed from minds to computers, from computers to minds and from mind to minds through speech. The records on a computer disc or paper is not the same as the object itself. It is an electrical or magnetic pattern on the disc or a pattern of shapes on paper, but there is some kind of causal connection between the object and these patterns through the mind. These records can also be modified through the mind. This human ability is certainly a reality and exists because that is how the Universe is constructed. It must be a potentiality in the Universe itself.

The difficulty appears to arise from a narrow definition of reality. It is essential to recognise three aspects to reality -

(1) The Physical World of material things to which we have access through the senses,

(2) The Mental World of ideas to which we have access through thought,

(3) The Spiritual World which we experience as beauty, truth, goodness, joy, suffering, values, motives, courage, responsibility, consciousness, conscience and will etc.

They are all equally real. Materials are dealt with by craftsmen and industries, but scientists, philosophers and other thinkers deal with ideas. All mathematician and scientists think they are dealing with something real, though the formulae they produce are not sensory objects. No one who suffers from the feeling of guilt, pain or joy supposes that they are unreal. It is not the case that these three worlds have a separate existence. They are aspects of the same world but accessible through different faculties, and all three are used in connection with every experience or action. The Scientist or philosopher does not only think but also requires sensory data and has spiritual experiences and applies values. The same applies to the physical worker and the mystic.

All three worlds are part of an Absolute World which is more than the three, because we must recognise that our capacity for experience at anyone time as well as at all times together is less than that contained in the Absolute World. If this were not so we could not have new experiences, and we would also fail to recognise that other people may have experiences which we do not. It would make communication and learning futile. However, these Worlds also overlap so that some of the experiences in each world are outside the others while some are within them.

We think mentally about the spiritual world and this gives us religion. But this cannot be identical with the Spiritual world as a whole. We also think about the physical world, obtain our ideas from experimentation in the physical world and apply them to the physical world. This gives us science. But science does not account for the whole of our ideas, nor do these account for all possible ideas. We also try to apply spiritual ideas to the physical world, to our surroundings and our physical life and this gives us spiritual experiences. But there is more to the physical world than what we experience. This gives us 7 levels, the 8th being the Absolute World. The centre, where the three worlds coincide is a reflection of the Absolute world and may be regarded as representing "I" where the Spirit of Allah is to be found. The achievement of immortality may, therefore, be regarded as a realisation or identification of oneself with the pattern or record rather than the physical body. Judgement refers to the state achieved by a process of self-modification.

The Quran also tells us that those who achieve the highest heaven can create anything they desire directly. This possibility can already be predicted from the progress of modern technology. It is already possible through computers to create what is called virtual reality. It is possible to enclose oneself in a machine to exclude all sensations except those produced by the computer. It may be possible to create instruments which read brain waves, operated by the mind, which can be attached to computers which can then produce corresponding images. It may become possible to create machines which can automatically produce all the products we desire and these could be controlled by computers. It could become possible to transfer all the genetic and other data of which a person is composed to computer discs and reproduce the individual from these records. These records could be modified by the individual himself or by others according to desire, purpose or ideal. All this is, however, an indirect way of doing things and entails many dangers. The fact remains that there is something in the nature of the Universe itself which is permanent - the principle of conservation applies to it - which allows modification, continuity, creativity and transformation. Identification of personal consciousness with this reality is a much more direct way of achieving this aim. The possibility of doing this depends on understanding the nature of consciousness. It is an awareness of unity underlying diversity and, therefore, depends on, and varies with, inner integration. It is this faculty which allows concepts and ideas to be formed. But it is more than ideas because it is that by which we experience reality, its certainty and this affects action and feeling as well as thinking. It relates us to the rest of existence.

The Quran distinguishes between the Spirit (Ruh) and the Soul (Nafs) and the Body. The Spirit refers to the medium through which information is transmitted, that which creates order and organisation; the body refers to the substances of which things are made; the soul refers to that which animates a person or thing. The Spirit of Allah was breathed into man and will return to Him on death. It is also that which inspires man, gives him consciousness, conscience and will.

"He began the creation of man from clay; then He made his seed from a draught of despised fluid; Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and hears. Small thanks give ye. And they say: When we are lost in the earth, how can we then be recreated? Nay but they are disbelievers in the meeting with their Lord. Say: The angel of death, who has charge concerning you, will gather you, and afterwards unto your Lord you will be returned." 32: 7-11 Also 15:29

"Allah Lord of the Ascending Stairway whereby the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him.... " 70:4

"They ask thee (Muhammad) about the Spirit (of inspiration): Say: The Spirit comes by the command of my Lord and of knowledge you have been given but a little." 17:85

The soul, however, may, perhaps, be regarded as a structure created by the combination of spirit and body. It does not, however, refer to life since it is described as that which makes the difference between a sleeping or living and a dead person. It refers to what is usually called mind in the West. In science, a distinction is made between mass, energy and order (negentropy), but these are studied only quantitatively. The fact, however, is that life or mind are distinguished by the quality and complexity of behaviour, and that the term energy is, therefore, much too simplistic, particularly when the difference between a living and a dead body are obvious to all.

The condition of the soul depends on what people do with it. It may develop or it may deteriorate and disintegrate.

"Allah receives men's souls at the time of their death, and that soul which dies not, in its sleep. He keeps that soul for which He has ordained death and dismisses the rest until an appointed time. " 39:42

"Read your Book. Your soul suffices as reckoner against you this day. Whosoever goes right, it is only for the good of his own soul that he goes right, and whosoever errs, errs only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another's load." 17:14,15

"By the soul and Him who perfected and inspired it with what is wrong for it and what is right for it. He, indeed, is successful who causes the soul to grow, and he, indeed, is a failure who corrupts it." 91:9-10

"Nor do I absolve myself of blame. Certainly the human soul is prone to evil, save that whereon my Lord has mercy." 12:53

"And I do call to witness the self-accusing soul." 75:2

" O thou righteous soul at peace! Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure. Enter thou among My servants; enter thou My Garden." 89:27- 30

We may, therefore, speak about seven stages in the development of the soul:- a dead person who resembles a mineral, a sleeping person who can be said to vegetate, a person awake who has many limitations which lead him to evil, a person who is self-conscious and self-critical, a person who is inspired by the spirit within, and a person who is at peace and harmony with himself and nature, and finally a person who has returned into the fold of Allah.

It is probably the Self-accusing soul which sees Hell on one side and Heaven on the other. The soul having been released from the body, being no longer subject to the repression and other self-deceiving mechanisms, sees itself as it is, thereby constructing its own hell or heaven.

" Till when they reach the fire, their ears and their eyes and their skins testify against them as to what they used to do..... Your thoughts which you did think about your Lord has ruined you; and you find yourself this day among the lost." 41:23

"Lo! Hell is all around the disbelievers." 9 :49

"But when the great disaster comes, the day when man will call to mind his whole endeavour, and hell will stand forth visible to him who sees. Then , as for him who rebelled and chose the life of the world, lo! hell will be his home. But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust, lo! the Garden will be his home. " 79: 34-41

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Recent investigation shows that apart from the visible human body man, and other life forms, also have the following features:-

1. A physical field. The body contains a great number of structures. Every structure has a resonance frequency, and rhythms of its own. The physiological processes create their own vibrations and the water of which man is composed is sensitive to these. Thus human beings can react to the environment and induce reactions in the environment through resonance.

2. There is an Aura surrounding living organisms which consists of ionised matter, the structure of this is different from the structure of nerve paths and blood vessels. This is also sensitive to inner and outer processes. Instruments sensitive to this have been produced.

3. There is an electrical field associated with every organ and with an organism as a whole. Instruments can measure these. Inner and environmental processes, some occurring in the sun and the rest of the cosmos, affect these fields.

4. We can analyse a human body into cells, these into molecules which can be divided into atoms and so on until we come to what might be called a Field of Quantum events. Fundamentally, it is events in this field which is responsible for our behaviour. It might well be that consciousness and thought refer to events in this field rather than at higher levels. The word 'spirit' may refer to forces in this field. The Universe itself can be analysed in the same way, so that the Human quantum field is part of, and interacts with, the Universal Quantum Field. This Field is known to exist but it is inaccessible to Physics because the medium through which observations are made, namely light, cannot be divided beyond the limit of the quanta. This makes the events in this field unpredictable. Mechanical Laws do not apply here. This subject is dealt with in Book 9 - Science.

If the word 'knowledge' is confined to information received in this indirect way then we cannot obtain any knowledge about this world. But if we admit that some direct contact can also be obtained with this field under certain circumstances then we have a different definition of knowledge and a great number of possibilities mentioned in the religions but inaccessible to science also become understandable. The scientific argument is that if we cannot know something then we must ignore it. This is because any fantasy whatever could be invented and there is no way of knowing whether it is true or not. In fact, however, science invents a great number of theories for which there is no direct evidence but which appear to explain known facts. The scientist also claims that knowledge should be defined as that which he discovers by his procedures, that which he understands and accepts, and that others should accept it also. In fact, knowledge refers to the experiences of a person which form a consistent unified system with other experiences such that they enable adjustment to the world we live in. More strictly, it refers to consciousness of such experiences. It cannot refer to verbal descriptions, isolated experiences, other peoples experiences or opinions, or things which lead to modes of behaviour which are self-destructive. Like everything else it has arisen because it bestows survival and developmental value.

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We could start the study of existence without making any assumptions about matter, mind or force etc. We start with a blank sheet in which all phenomena arise. We call this Allah. A study of the Quran and Hadith shows that after Allah there are three fundamental notions - Spirit, Truth, Intelligence. The nature and relationship between them may be given tentatively as follows:-

Spirit is the diffuse ground state of matter before it is organised. It may refer to what in physics can be called a sub-quantum field, which has the properties of mass, energy and consciousness. At this level there are no discrete particles or particles may be regarded as if they were knots in a web.

Truth is that which produces organisation at various levels and is probably that which in physics is called Information, Order or Negentropy. This organisation creates discrete or separate objects.

Intelligence is that which allows adaptation and adjustment of a part to the whole. It is, therefore, a product of Spirit and Truth. It is the first creation while the other two are attributes of Allah. Intelligence requires that there should be a certain amount of flexibility, a range of probabilities, so that adaptation can take place to a range of circumstances. It will be shown in Book 9 on Science that intelligence is already present at the most fundamental quantum level. These sub-atomic entities are not particles but bundles of probability waves which collapse into a particle when they interact with an object. In Biology evolution is said to take place through variation and selection. Organisms have a range of characteristics so that they can adapt to changing environments. Mutations also produce variations, and it is probable that they are also selected in the organism itself. In Psychology learning is said to takes place by trial and error. This requires that the mind is capable of forming a range of alternative plans each of which is tested. This can take place wholly in the mind where it works on memories at great speed.

All other phenomena can now be described by just these three inter-related notions.

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In order to understand immortality we have to decide what is meant by individuality, the "I".:-

(a) Is it the memory of the experiences which we as individuals undergo? Memory, however, fades and new ones are formed.

(b) Is it the characteristics and temperament which are the result of genetic information? The genes may be regarded as immortal since the genes of the parents continue to live in the off-springs. However, the individual is the result of the combination of genes. These combinations change and the genes also undergo transformation.

(c) Does it refer to the function of the individual in a society or in the whole scheme of things? A person, for instance, like a cell, may be regarded as a reincarnation of a past person in so far as his function is the same.

(d) Does it mean the effects which a person has on his environment? In this sense a person never dies because these effects create permanent changes in so far as time has a direction, though he ceases to produce new effects on death.

(e) Does it refer to some kind of continuity amidst change and transformation? It could mean that human beings will reach a stage of psychological development when they will become conscious of this constant within themselves.

(f) Does it refer to some kind of pattern or Blue Print other than a genetic one which is recorded on the fabric of Space-time or the collective or Universal consciousness as we record on paper or a computer? This seems to be the religious view. There is to be a day of resurrection when the individual is reconstituted from this Blue Print. Indeed, there was a Blue Print from which the whole Universe and all things in it were created in the first place - the potentialities were laid down first in the form of the Laws and Constants of the universe, and all actualisation occurs later in accord with these potentialities.

(g) Does it mean that human beings will reach a stage of scientific and technological development which will allow them to become immortal.

It could be argued that to say that Allah will give man immortality is not different from saying that Allah will give man the power to achieve this. After all we know how human beings are produced and yet it is Allah who is said to have made human beings. From the present scientific view physical immortality is theoretically possible in three ways:-

1. The storage of human physiological or brain patterns in computers from which regeneration can be achieved by suitable chemical factories.

2. Cloning - the reproduction of a person from one oof his cells as plants are reproduced from cuttings taken from other plants.

3. Human beings are composed of three kinds of cells - Most cells die out and are replaced by others replicated by previous cells. They have a built in clock which allows them to replicate only a limited number of times. There is a sequence of chemicals at the end of a chromosome called a Telomere which shortens every time the cell divides. When none is left the cells die. The germ cells, however, are immortal, otherwise the species would have died out. The Telomere does not shorten because the cell contains an enzyme which restores the missing part. It may, therefore, be possible to supply such an enzyme artificially to the cells, thereby ensuring immortality or at least longevity. However, things are not so simple. The brain cells after maturation do not replicate themselves but gradually die out. Where mental exercises continue the surviving cells tend to take over the function of the ones that die. However, this fact sets a limit to the effectiveness of the brain and the length of useful life. Perhaps these cells can also be induced to replicate themselves.

But it is also necessary to consider the following:-

(a) The capacity of the brain for experience and learning is limited. Though it can cope with more than our present life span, it certainly cannot do so for an immortal life unless unlearning also takes place.

(b) Diseases due to accidents, infections, faulty diets, life styles and psychological attitudes can continue to take place. This will destroy the quality of life or cause fatalities. It may create permanent Hell for some people.

(c) The constant radiations from the planet and cosmos continue to interfere with the replication of the cells.

(d) Nature created death and reproduction in order to ensure adaptability to changing conditions and evolution. The old generation develops rigid habits of thought and behaviour but conditions in the environment continue to change even by the accumulating effects of the actions of the old generation. New conditions require a new generation to cope with them. Without this there will be stagnation, suffering or extinction.

(e) Immortality would increase the population beyond the level at which the planet can sustain it. Either mankind will have to expand to other parts of the Galaxy or else reproduction will have to be limited. Perhaps a balance can be found where only some of the better and more capable people are allowed immortality and reproduction is also limited to the production of better people.

Thus immortality must go hand in hand with greater virtue, as well as with greater adaptability and abilities.

Research has been done recently with people who have had near death experiences. Some people have also been revived after being pronounced clinically dead. Their statements about their experiences during the time of death are remarkably similar. Two distinct kinds of experiences are reported which correspond to the ideas of Heaven and Hell. Many people, including children, report that they floated out of their bodies and while hovering near the ceiling, they could see their bodies lying on the bed as well as all the activities of doctors, nurses and relatives going on around it. Death itself is experienced first as gathering darkness, then a light appears and they go through a tunnel towards it and are finally enfolded by this light which they experience as great love, peace and happiness. They are, therefore very reluctant to return. These experiences are variously interpreted according to the religious traditions they adhere to. Some interpret this as heaven or being in the presence of God. Some also see a figure who they regard as being their particular saviour or Prophet. Others who have led a life of crime report not light but a fire full of suffering people and interpret it as Hell. These experiences are very real and profound enough to invariably transform their lives. No doubt experiences of this kind are the basis of religious doctrines about the lifting of the veil, judgement, and immortality.

The Physiologists explain these as hallucinations caused by the fall of blood pressure, diminishing oxygen and increase in carbon dioxide in the brain due to respiratory and circulatory failure, and the release of chemicals called endomorphines in the brain. These are pain-suppressors and produce a feeling of euphoria. However,

(a) The Physiologist has obviously not had the same experience and cannot, therefore, assess them. He first assumes that they must be unreal and only afterwards tries to prove this by explanations.

(b) It is possible to induce chemical and electrical changes in the brain by showing people pictures or presenting them with other objective events. The fact that changes are taking place in the brain does not imply that these pictures or objective events do not exist except in the mind.

(c) It does not explain the out of body experiences.

(d) Even if the experiences are subjective, the fact remains that that which we become conscious of is real to us. And this applies also to all science. The subject of study cannot be anything other than human experience.

(e) The fact that the experience transforms their lives implies that new information has entered into it and has produced objective effects.

(f) We do not only gather facts, but we also have to interpret and evaluate them. This can be done in different ways, and more or less usefully or comprehensively. This applies also to science which is not the only way of doing it.

(g) A better explanation is that the trauma allows consciousness to penetrate into the unconscious mind, or that processes in unconscious mind rise into the conscious mind.

Techniques of meditation also lead to the same physiological changes and can stimulate the same kind of experiences. They are, therefore, also regarded as subjective episodes. But the extra-ordinary paranormal powers which these states bestow on people are becoming much more widely known and baffle these theoreticians.

Some researchers have been able to take their subjects under hypnosis to what are claimed to be previous their lives in past ages. But these are usually brief episodes. These researches appear to confirm the doctrines of Reincarnation. The results of these experiments can be interpreted in various ways.

(a) that the subconscious or unconscious mind of an individual can partly overlap another mind which existed in the past and which must still be presumed to be in existence though the owner has died.

(b) That there is some kind of record of events in the very fabric of the world to which the sub-conscious mind has access.

(c) That all events have causes and produce effects which produce still other effects and so on, and human beings have powerful faculties in their unconscious mind which can process this information and reconstruct past events. We can derive the causes from the effects and vice versa to various degrees.

(d) That Time is not something that passes but rather that we pass along it and the unconscious mind can contact other areas of it. Or that it is curved and short cuts can be found from one point to another,

(e) It may, however, be the case, that some souls might after death remain attached to certain localities as ghosts, or that they or parts of them might enter and possess another body fully or partially. But it is not a general rule.

Universal Consciousness, may be depicted as a Field or a Great Circle. In this Circle smaller circles continually appear and disappear. These may be regarded as different communities having their own collective consciousness. These smaller circles arise because of the circumferences which separate them from the other circles and from the Great Circle. The smaller circles have within them even smaller circles, the individuals. They may have still smaller circles within them. Clearly each small circle will be subconscious or unconscious of the greater circle to which it belongs, since this lies outside it. It may well be that the different lives which people recall under hypnotic regression are related circles within a larger circle. We can draw many circles which will partially overlap each other. The individuals arise like waves in the sea, exist for a brief period and then dissolve back into the sea. However, a wave is an organisation. It has a certain structure and behaviour. The material, the medium in which it moves is almost irrelevant. The particles simply move up and down while the wave moves in a different direction. From another point of view, the materials in the wave are constantly changing just as in the human being. The individual during his life time not only affects those around him, but also modifies himself. He, therefore, affects the sea as a whole both by his actions and when he dissolves. He may have an organising or disorganising effect. The next set of waves which arise from the sea will, therefore, be different. The process of evolution may depend just on this kind of process. It is probably a universal process governing not just mankind, but all things.

Some people called mediums, in a state of trance, claim to contact the spirits of those who have died. Others claim to see or feel their presence. Ghosts and paranormal events have been reported throughout the world and many cases have been well verified. Some people raise good or evil spirits by means of ceremonies or devices such as the Ouija boards. Others claim to be guided by the spirit of long departed people when they do faith healing or in extra-ordinary accomplishments such as producing music and literature in the style of past masters, or in "automatic writing". Some have spoken in a trance state in a languages with which they were not acquainted in their waking state. Many people, including Plato and Pythagoras, claim to remember their past lives. Many religious people have dreams with various degrees of vividness, see visions or hear voices and some of these are not private to themselves, but have been heard by many others. It is also a truth that all the religions began when their founders had extra-ordinary experiences of this kind. This includes Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, and even lesser men such as Paul. They cause conversion, change lives and transform the world. There are certainly many phenomena for which physical science has no explanation. Though there are undoubtedly many people who make false claims deliberately, misinterpret their experiences or suffer from pure fantasy, it is not possible to dismiss all these reports. The idea that the real world is more than that which we normally experience through our limited senses, that there are other levels of reality must be accepted, and is usually accepted by the majority of mankind. It is rejected only by those who are blinded by prejudices, preconceived entrenched ideas or have some personal interest in not doing so. It is well known that even animals react to phenomena most human beings cannot see.

It is, however, also the case that these experiences are interpreted differently by different people in different places and according to their cultural framework. The Buddhist may see Buddha, the Catholic Christian may see Mary, the Protestant Christian may experience Christ and the Muslim may experience Muhammad or a Saint. We, therefore, have to distinguish between the experience itself and its interpretation. This, however, is no different from normal experience. In fact, fundamentally, all experiences are interpretations. In ordinary human beings a distinction should be made between at least three levels of interpretation - (a) When we see colours, shapes and other qualities, we have already interpreted our sensations by associating them with past experiences. (b) When we identify objects as tables, trees, men etc, we have put together these qualities and associated them with experiences of similar objects. The concept determines what we see. (c) Thirdly we relate them to other objects and to ourselves in various ways to form an idea. This is determined by the system of ideas we have obtained from the cultural background, the experiences in particular places and the studies we have made. This may be a scientific, philosophic, religious, political system.

Several possibilities exist:- (a) that various forces produce changes in the individual which he may processes in various ways, He may misinterpret these, Hallucinations are real inner experiences which are projected outwards. (b) that Awareness varies in extensity, intensity and stability according to inner, social and environmental conditions. Illusions are due to insufficient data or lack of sufficient discrimination, but everyone has insufficient data to various degrees. Certain experiences can only be had under certain circumstances. (c) that people have inner motives which cause them to select only certain experiences for attention, ignore others and exaggerate or reduce still others. (d) that different people may organise their experiences in different ways so that the over all pattern is different and this pattern determines how each item is interpreted and related to others. (e) that experiences may be induced deliberately by entities. Even hypnotists can do this to their subjects. Some religious sects and political propagandists can also do this. All educational systems and the media of communication such as newspapers and magazines also have this effect. (f) It is believed by some people that the normally invisible entities can actually change their constitution and become visible. However, they may do so in a way understandable to man rather than in their actual form.

There are some resemblances between the System of thought in Physics and that of Islam:-

It has now been discovered that matter and energy are inter-convertible. Einstein's formula gives us E=MC2 , where E is energy, M is mass and C is the velocity of light. This could be written C= square root of €(E/M). The interesting thing about this is that the Quran compares Light to Allah (24:35-37). The speed of light is regarded as an absolute quantity. Time can be measured with respect to it. Anything travelling with that speed is Eternal. Speeds lower than this cause Time to flow faster as the speed of events slows down, or conversely the increase in speed of Time flow produces the energy. If the Universe was created by a Big Bang, then even energy comes out of nothing. The Universe may have been created by the introduction of Information (Negentropy, Order, or Truth). Energy and Information may also be inter-convertible. However, information seems to appear and disappear. This problem could be solved by supposing that Information has two states, Potential and Actuality, and some third factor converts one form to the other. The religious idea about the immortality of man may be seen as referring to Information. Modern quantum research shows that the Universe is fundamentally a unitary field in which every point is a bundle of probabilities dependant upon all the other points. Nothing is, infact, separable from anything else.

If there is a Universal consciousness and all things are organisations or thoughts within it, then, in so far as human beings also contain the divine spark, it should possible for human beings to alter their state. In the ordinary state human consciousness is trapped or imprisoned in a complex of memories, which create habits or automatisms and attachments. It is regarded as evil and it can be regarded as in Hell.

"And if they answer thee not, then know that what they follow is their own lust. And who goes further astray than he who follows his lust without guidance from Allah. Lo! Allah guides not wrongdoing folk." 28:50

"Lo! the human soul enjoins unto evil, save that whereon my lord hath mercy." 12:53

"Lo! Hell is all around the disbelievers." 9:48

The only way out of this situation is that the individual should reconstruct himself. This is possible because a person is the product of his own thoughts. It is necessary to realise that it is not reason but faith which determines a person's state and behaviour. It is now well known that people can die because they believe they will or overcome apparently fatal accidents and diseases because of faith. All human achievements depend on it. It is the spiritual state which determines the electronic and bio-chemical processes. The techniques for reconstruction, escaping the trap are also described.

"Till when they reach it (Hell), their ears and their eyes and their skins testify against them as to what they used to do. And they say unto their skins; Why testify ye against us? They say: Allah hath given us speech Who gives speech to all things, and Who created you first, and unto Whom ye are returned. Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes and your skins should testify against you, but ye deemed that Allah knew not much of what ye did. That your thoughts which ye did think about your Lord hath ruined you; and you find yourself this day among the lost." 41:20-23

"Is he who founded his building upon duty to Allah and His good pleasure better; or he who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling, overhanging precipice so that it topples with him into the fire of Hell. Allah guides not wrong doing folk. The building which they built will never cease to be a misgiving in their hearts unless their hearts be torn to pieces. Allah is Knower, Wise. Lo! Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs; they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Quran. Who fulfils His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that ye have made, for that is the supreme triumph. Triumphant are those who turn repentant to Him, those who serve Him, those who praise Him, those who fast, those who bow down, those who fall prostrate in submission, those who enjoin the right and who forbid the wrong and those who keep the limits ordained by Allah - and give glad tidings to the believers." 9:109-112

"Gardens of Eden underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. That is the reward of him who grows." 20:76

"None despairs of the Spirit of Allah save disbelieving folk." 12:87

"No laden one shall bear another's load, and man has only that for which he strives, and his effort will be seen. And afterward he will be repaid for it with fullest payment. And thy Lord He is the goal." 53:38-42

All souls, the whole Universe of multiplicities comes out of Unity and must return into it. In fact, it has always been a Unity, but ignorance or illusion sees it as a multiplicity of separate things. It is illusion which must be dispelled by the cultivation of consciousness.

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THE ESOTERIC THEORY

Science is looking for a Unified Theory which will explain all physical phenomena. Having discovered the Grand Plan, it is then only necessary to fill in all the details. This, however, still leaves out much which is subject to experience and other aspects of existence which lie outside its field. Religion wants to explain not only all facts, but also meaning and values since these are also parts of human experience. It wants to understand existence as a whole. There is an esoteric science which does just that. However, in so far as a great part of this lies outside our experience it must use methods of thinking and description which are unusual and not easily understood.

The gist of the esoteric ideas regarding the development of the Universe may be summarised as follows:-

The Universe begins as a rarefied uniformity from a point, expands and differentiates through 7 levels of increasing density. Each level consists of a condensed form of the substance describing the previous level. It then contracts or dissolves back into the original uniformity or point. There is, therefore, a progressive externalisation, objectification, manifestation or actualisation depending on how these terms are defined. There is a process of Involution or disintegration which is followed by Evolution, though the two processes are interdependent and also take place at the same time. If the substance in the first stage is named Spirit and that of the last stage is called matter, then there is only a difference of density between them. Spirit, life and matter are three aspects of the same thing, though they exist in different proportions as we go down the scale. Analysis of material objects will, therefore, show the existence of these subtler levels within them. Some of the fundamental particles organise together through several stages back to the Unity from which they came e.g. into sub-atomic particles which organise into atoms, which organise into cells or crystals which organise into organisms which organise into communities and so on. Thus, fundamentally, we are dealing only in order and information. This does not have to be confined to any material entity, but can be transferred. A gene, for instance, need not be regarded as a material object since the materials it is composed off are constantly passing through it. On the contrary, it is a pattern which arranges matter and can migrate, multiply and alter.

These objects exist in a medium and send out information by their vibrations directly in space-time or through the medium of light or sound etc. Some of this is picked up by us as raw data. We have to reconstruct the world in our minds through several stages of interpretation and organisation, e.g. sensation, perception, conception, ideation, systematisation and so on. This reconstruction is only a parallel part of general evolution and affects and is affected by it. The cultural world human beings see and live in, for instance, cannot be seen or understood by animals. Less developed people cannot see or live in a world of more developed people. Similarly, there are higher worlds which cannot be seen by present humanity.

After a period of rest the process is repeated. And so on. Each cycle is possibly higher than the next because the results of the development at one stage are encapsulated, as it were, into a seed, from which the next stage springs. These cycles affect all things and produce lesser cycles within them, and so on. Therefore, it is possible to investigate phenomena through analogical reasoning. The cycles are akin to the yearly cycles in nature where death takes place each winter and revival each spring, but the results in each cycle depends on what has been achieved in the previous cycle. It is possible to study phenomena both by observing the external world as well as by observing inner psychological phenomena since we are more intimately related to them in this way , though what we see will depend on the level of our consciousness. The earth and all things in it including man, too, is divided in the same way into 7 corresponding levels. (65:12) and man has, therefore, 7 aspects or paths (23:17).

The development of each stage is controlled by certain Powers. These should not be regarded as dead mechanical forces as science sees them, but as something which organises the materials in the same way as magnetic fields organise iron filings in well known experiments. The structure formed by these iron filings is only significant in that they point to the magnetic field underlying it. Religious cosmology is not interested in material objects as such but that which organises them. An animal, for instance, is a bundle of instincts which controls the way the materials and energies are organised and utilised within the physical structure. They are the cause rather than effects of the physical structure.

It is possible to divide the states of matter into corresponding levels:- 1. the original substance X, 2. vibrations also called Sound or the Word, 3. radiant matter (e.g. electromagnetism), 4. plasma (as that produced by the sun), 5. gas, 6. liquid, and 7. solid. This corresponds to the classical elements ether, sound, light, fire, air, water and earth, but not exactly. Inner or psychological properties have also to be taken into considerations. There are also Beings associated with these levels:- archangels, angels, jinn, human, animal, plants and minerals. Plants eat minerals and convert mineral matter into plant matter. Animals eat plants and convert plant matter into animal matter. Human beings in so far as they are human live on their animal bodies, converting animal matter into human matter, and so on. Each level also controls the level below. These different types of matter should not be regarded as the same. They appear the same when they are taken into the laboratory for analysis where they are converted into mineral matter.

Human development is cyclic. The Divine Spark passes from the highest heaven downwards creating the lowest or denser levels. It then ascend back upwards. This is represented by a Ladder.

"What ails you that you hope not towards Allah for dignity when He created you by diverse stages? See you not how Allah has created seven heavens in harmony and has made the moon a light therein, and made the sun a lamp? And Allah has caused you to grow as a growth from the earth and afterwards He makes you return to it, and He will bring you forth again a new forth-bringing." 71:13-18

"On the day when the earth will be changed to a different earth, and the heavens will also be changed..." 14:48

The sequence of events appears to be as follows:-

The soul starting from Allah descends through the various levels and enters the earth where it becomes mineral. It then becomes a plant, and later animal and finally human each through 7 stages. It must then, through 7 stages each, evolve upwards returning to Allah. Human beings, like everything else, can, therefore, be divided into 7 levels. The consciousness of the individual will vary according to his level. It is not possible for persons at level 4, for instance, to perceive the higher elements and the world they see will consequently be different from those of other levels. As the first level of man enters the first level of earth, the seventh level of man enters into the second level of earth, and so on. However, as the movement is continuous people of several levels will coexist at the same time in various proportions. It is a common experience that though most of the people in a community have an average state of development, there are always others of higher or lower quality. Man is said to be at level 4 now but there are some people of level 5, and a few of higher levels are born from time to time and help the others to develop. The earth evolves in the same way. The coarse earth will, therefore, be transformed into a higher subtler level. The same process may take place in other planets, the sun, galaxy and so on. The process describes not only the development of the biosphere, but also humanity as a whole, and the individual from conception, birth to adulthood and death.

The diagram below summarises the esoteric theory. Its dimensions are not spacial. It must be thought of in different dimensions, and it refers to only a section of the real world, all others being of the same form.

(The ideas presented here are not an exact rendering of Islamic Esoteric teaching, but an adaptation made in order to simplify what are otherwise very complex ideas. This is justified on the grounds that there are several systems which differ from one another in terminology and structure. This is inevitable in view of the fact that the terms are highly comprehensive, and different systems concentrate attention on different aspects of the whole. The World of Similitudes, for instance, can be also called the World of Abstract Ideas since it is connected with the Intellectual functions. The coming into existence of a natural entity is not considered different from the way human beings produce things. Their diagrams and terminology will, therefore, have a significance within the context of their particular system. There is no rigid, agreed or common system.)

The first three levels or Heavens can be called the Divine World. Evolution refers to the Four lower Levels. but the descent and ascent again create a Septet as the numbered circles indicate. Though the descending stages shown on the left or negative side in the diagram, are on the same level as the ascending ones, shown on the right or positive side, there is a difference. The descent is wholly unconscious, while the ascent is conscious. This descent is known as the Fall of man or the Expulsion from Heaven. Note, however, that though people of past civilisations could be regarded as superior to present materialistic man in certain respects, no further human evolution could take place without this Fall. It is consciousness which provides a purpose by differentiating between things and creates the pair of opposites (as between the left and right hand side of the diagram), and the struggle against involutionary forces. Thus, the 7 levels also denote 7 levels of consciousness. These may, perhaps, be named as Pre-consciousness as in minerals, Sub-consciousness as in plants,, Attentive Consciousness as in animals, Self-consciousness which should be normal to man, Objective Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, and Absolute Consciousness. The Four Lower levels also correspond to the Four stages of the developing Soul, mentioned elsewhere, or the Four bodies man is regarded as having in some systems. The circles show different aspects of man, positive and negative at various levels, e.g. Will, Consciousness, Intellect, emotion, motor capability, sensation and instinct. They are connected by broken lines to show their order of development, while the solid lines show the stages of his evolution. If this figure were stretched out then the 7 levels of man would correspond to the 7 heavens.

The Universe was created in 6 Days or Stages. The 7th, when Allah rested, consists of automatic evolution and ends with the Perfect Man. When man has completed his evolution he becomes the Perfect Man. This is the 8th Stage, which is the beginning or first stage of another cycle. It is a Reflection or Image (Genesis 1:26,27) of the first stage. This is why Man is the Vicegerent. Since the whole process of development depends on the initial impulse at level 1, man already exists as a potentiality there. This is referred to as the Heavenly Man. Humanity is an integral part of the Universe. Note that he occupies level 4, the exact centre in the Septet. As such he mediates between the upper triad and the lower triad and is affected by both. Hence his dual nature and the inner struggle. The dotted circle shows the state of man in suspended animation beyond the Barrier (Barzakh) after death. With respect to each level the higher level can be regarded as Heaven or Paradise while a lower level, can be regarded as Hell.

Similar processes may be taking place at other levels.

Note that:- Human beings consist of spirit, mind and body. These should not to be confused with a distinction between consciousness, life and matter (the subjective, interactive and objective aspects) which are merely characteristics applying in different proportions to all substances. They apply to order, motion and inertia. The body is a temporary vehicle formed by the materials and forces existing at a particular time and place. The spirit is immortal, but the soul may be regarded as a particular organisation of the spirit caused by its residence in the body. This organisation changes according to behaviour. Though the soul is independent of the body, the mind acts as a bridge between the other two, thus carrying influences from one to the other. Mental attachment to things material, to this world and self-identification with ones body and senses limits and confines the soul. After death the body is lost and the soul so attached will suffer. And this is Hell.

The condition of the human soul, therefore, depends only on his thoughts, desires and longings (41:23). However, his actions, motivations and experiences over his life time modify these. It is necessary, therefore, to be conscious and deliberately cultivate the correct mental attitudes and this requires the control of ones actions and motives and the appropriate search, interpretation and organisation of one's experiences. All these require a special set of ideas, interests and practices which it is the function of religion to provide.

Though there are resemblances between the Islamic esoteric teachings and both those of the West based on the Kabalah and of the East based on Brahman and Buddhist teachings, which point to a common origin, certain differences, at least in the way they are presented, should be noted.

1. The Eastern systems teach Reincarnation, the Western do not. As the diagram above shows there is a change in level. Reincarnation may be a misunderstanding of this. However, some people do seem to remember events that happened long ago. This is probably a case of racial memory, connections with the collective consciousness .

2. In the Eastern systems the present condition is explained as being the result of past actions. The emphasis in Islam is the exact opposite. The future condition of the individual depends on his present action. Though clearly both are the two aspects of the same thing, the one attitude is passive and other active. The Last Day, the Day of Judgement, not to be found in Eastern systems, is therefore emphasised.

3. In the Eastern systems there are a host of gods which in Islam are called angels and archangels. Islam disapproves of confusing the two (3:80), since the latter do not have independent powers.

4. The Law of Karma appears to be almost deterministic and mechanical in the manner of Western Science and this is probably why it appeals to the modern western mind. Allah, however is not only a God of Power and Justice, but also of Love and Compassion and of Truth and Wisdom. Eastern systems do not appear to take these into consideration. The second of these attributes introduces a certain amount of tolerance and uncertainty into the system. The third attribute implies that individuals are not isolated, but that they affect and are affected by each other, their environment and other things, so that a kind of adjustment and balance has to be established and maintained. There is an Intelligence at work. The condition of the individual is not always his fault, nor do his actions always have the expected lawful consequences. But as he is inter-dependant with others, he has responsibilities with respect to others. From this point of view the consequences do become just. It may well be that the condition of a person or object is designed to produce certain effects, to test, challenge or stimulate a person. Islam, therefore, requires not only endurance from the individual, but also positive intelligent action as well as social and environmental responsibility.

5. The Law of Karma is also interpreted as implying that either the Universal process is a meaningless cycle or that there is continuous evolution, both in the same manner as Western thought assumes. But there is both evolution and involution, and they are dependant on each other. Since a factor A, at one level acts on a factor C, at a lower level to produce a third middle factor B, we may regard B as an involution of A and an evolution of C. Though the overall direction of development is constant there is no guarantee that any particular part of the whole will evolve or involve. The diagram above shows that there is a way down as well as up. However, both systems teach the descent of some higher souls into the world of man to guide them. Jesus, for instance, is said to have descended from Heaven.

6. The Western system appears to place emphasis mainly on the Law of Triads, while the Eastern places it on the Law of Septets. The Islamic system combines them. Indeed, as 7 +3 =10, and the Tree of Life in the Kabalah is based on ten Sephiroth, it can be regarded as allowing such a synthesis.

7. Since these other systems are very ancient they are probably derived from a humanity which existed at a different stage of development, 3 or even 2, as shown above. These systems will have to change in future in accordance with human knowledge and development.

However, these differences may only be a matter of interpretation.

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