بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Introduction
In the works of scholars throughout Islamic history, such as Imam al Ghazali and Imam Ibn al Arabi, they have spoken about and elaborated on the subatomic Universe. All muslim scholars read the same Quran, studied the same Sunnah, Hadith literature along with the Seerah (biography of the prophet) to draw knowledge from. The Ash’ari and Maturidi Aqeedah speak about the nature of the subatomic world to varying depths, but some scholars took this further and conceptualized the entire quantum structure of the universe from the Quran and Sunnah.
In the vocabulary of the Quran and Sunnah and the literature of the scholars the subatomic world has (compared to our time) a unique vocabulary we need to learn before we can understand what is being said.
To help explain these difficult ideas Imam Jalal al Deen Rumi often used poetry to teach people complex ideas about Allah, Islam and the Universe, He said:
“Dont feel sad you have the entire universe inside you” (the subatomic world and it’s particles)
“Stop atcing small you are the universe in estactic motion” (Quantum mechanics).
“Love is the bridge between you and everything else” (Quantum entanglement).
“Love is the energizing elixer of the universe the cause and effect of all harmonies” (Quantum entanglement through the coherence of waves, in space all particles exist as subatomic waves).
“Love is the religion and the universe is the book” (through our physiology man is connected to the universe and impacts it).
Subatomic particles are the ink of Allah and He imagined (created) the universe how He wished with them, because of this the prophet (saws) called space the inkwell (that these particles, or ink, exist in).
Imam Ibn al Arabi said about this, using a similar vocabulary; “The reality of imagination is transmutation (tabaddul: transformation as the particles create things) in every state and manifestation (zuhur) in every form (they take). There is no true being which does not accept (or undergo) transmutation except Allah; so there is nothing that possesses Real Being (al-wujud al-muhaqqaq) except Allah (what is our true form if we loose it once we die). As for that which is other than Allah, that is imaginal existence (temporary). So when Allah manifests Himself within this imaginal existence (this universe). He only appears in keeping with its reality, not in His Essence (“dhat”, He appears according to our limits only), which possesses true Being. This is what is meant by Allah’s words, “Everything is perishing except His Face” (28:88), i.e., except His Essence, since no state in the cosmos continues to endure. whether it be engendered (created and given form) or divine. . . . Hence, everything but Allah’s Essence undergoes transformation (istihala), rapid or slow; everything but Allah’s Essence is intervening imagination and vanishing shadow (by comparison). Therefore no engendered existent in this world, (or) in the next, and in whatsoever is between them, neither spirit (Jinn, Angel), nor soul, nor anything other than Allah’s Essence, remains in a single state; on the contrary, it is transmuted from one form to another constantly and forever: imagination (the forms particles have taken) is nothing but this, (and this universe is nothing but Allah’s imagination)” (Futuhat al Makiyah).
Imam al Ghazali in his work “The Niche Of Lights” (Mishqat al Anwar) similarly says; “all (lights or particles) rise to the Light of Lights (Allah’s light which created the first subatomic particle), the Origin and Fountainhead of lights (particles), and that is ALLAH, only and alone; and that all other lights (particles) are borrowed from Him, and that His alone is real light (everything has taken form from Him); and that everything is from His light (formed by His will), nay, He is everything, nay, HE IS THAT HE is, none but He has ipseity or heity at all, save by metaphor (we take our qualities physical and otherwise from Him). Therefore there is no (true) light but He, while all other lights (forms) are only lights (particles formed) from the Aspect which accompanies Him, not from themselves. Thus the aspect and face of everything faces to Him and turns in His direction; and “whithersoever they turn themselves there is the Face of Allah.” (This work was translated by a christian hence it’s difficult wording, once we realise the essence of this subject is that everything is created from subatomic particles, and they came from Allah’s light and took the qualities (shape) He gave them the entire discussion becomes much simpler to understand, for example the Imam next says “So, then, there is no divinity but HE; for “divinity” is an expression by which is connoted that towards which all faces are directed”, meaning all qualities we take on, in every respect to us, originate from Him Hence Allah is the Divine and the originator of everything we are).
Imam Ibn al Arabi calls the imagination (act of creating) of Allah by names well-known to those familiar with the Imams teachings. Perhaps the most famous is the “Breath of the All-Merciful” (nafas al-rahman) mentioned in verse 32:9, it is a reference to the cloud (of particles) the prophet (saws) spoke about which Allah extracted and created the universe from, literally it is a field (cloud) of subatomic particles that everything was made from at the beginning of the universe.
Abdallah ibn. mas‘ud and some (other) companions of the messenger of Allah said commenting on: “He is the one who created for you all that is on earth. then he stretched out straight toward the heaven and fashioned it into seven heavens.” Allah’s throne (sidrat al Muntaha, the furthest limit of subatomic space) was upon the water (a simile for an ocean of particles). he had not created anything except what he created before the water (this subatomic depth). when he wanted to create the creation, he brought forth smoke (the cloud in other translations) from the water (this is a simile for the process particles were undergoing when the Universe was being created, the simile for Arabs 1400 years ago is of steam coming from water, being used to create space). the smoke (cloud) rose above the water and hovered loftily over it (particles were forming other particles), he therefore called it “heaven”(Heaven is the subatomic part of our universe), then he dried out the water (physical matter was formed), and thus made it one earth.” (Tabari)
The Prophet (saws) teaching about subatomic depths said; (each statement here is a simile) Allah’s Messenger (saws) was asked “what is below the earth, and he said “water” (the subatomic oceans or depths); it was said “then, what is below water?” He said “darkness” (Dark matter and energy, the blackness of space); it was said “what is below the darkness?” He said “wind” (the Kursi which is the second last subatomic depth); it was said “what is below the wind?” He said “soil” (the Arsh, it is called soil because just like the gourd beneath our feet, it is the foundation (outer boundary) of the universe, sidrat al muntaha); it was said “what is below soil?” He said “knowledge of creatures discontinues at the knowledge of the Creator.” (Tabari)….this hadith can be understood easily if we start with the soil and work backwards, Knowledge of creatures stops at the Arsh, it is the limit, so here soil can’t be anything else and as is commonly understood by the scholars, what is before the Arsh is the Kursi, footstool, it gets this name because in distance it is like a footstool to a throne. We can explain what the other similes are because we have compared them to other ahadith that explain more, this is just summation in this present work.
Imam Ibn Arabi says: “The cosmos (universe) in the state of its existence is nothing but the forms that are received by the Cloud (of particles) and that become manifest within it.”
Hence the breath of Allah mentioned in the verse is Allah’s command to subatomic particles to take the forms He commanded, in this verse the context is the human soul.
In the vocabulary of the scholars of Aqeedah the subatomic forces holding all particles together are called Aradh (translated vaguely as the accidents that act upon particles), Imam Ibn Arabi said about this…“So if you look at the reality of the cosmos (space), you will see it as a vanishing accident (aradh, in this context it means “incidental characteristics” or temporary qualities particles have taken, think particles fields affected by forces to form matter). . . , while the fixed substance is the Cloud (the subatomic field, solid matter is temporary, vanishes, when it’s form is destroyed, but the smallest subatomic particles, the cloud, is more lasting), which is none other than the Breath of the All-Merciful. All the forms that become manifest in the cosmos are accidents (have taken form) within the cosmos and may vanish; they are the possible existents (al-mumkinat) and are related to the Cloud as forms are related to a mirror [when different objects are placed in front of it, it reflects different forms]” (Futuhat al Makiyah).
The term Accident (aradh) is one taken from Islamic physics directly, Islamic scholars who were also physicists called the smallest indivisible particle, the first particle to exist in the universe, ‘Al-Jawhar Al-Fard’, the unique essence.
The scholars understood the subtle words of Allah in the Quran better than us, Allah says about His breath in the Quran directing people to what it is referring to;
32:6 Such is the Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, the Mighty, the Merciful,
32:7 Who made all things good which He created, and He began the creation of man from clay;
32:8 Then He made His offspring come into existence from an extract (sperm) of insignificant fluid;
32:9 Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His (Own) Spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and hearts (that take advantage of this soul). Small thanks give ye!
Allah begins the passage about the creation of man by mentioning He is the knower of the visible and invisible in this universe, the visible is the physical matter we are created from and the invisible is the subatomic particles everything comes from, the invisible is most relevant to the verse “and breathed into him of His (Own) Spirit” because the soul is entirely made from subatomic particles, while the visible here is a reference to clay.
Allah created the soul after He created the universe and He created everything in it from subatomic particles as the prophet (saws) said in many ahadith.
Imam Suhrawardi
Imam Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (d.1193, Imam al Ghazali d.1111), was a Shafi‘i Sunni scholar and more than likely followed the Ashari Aqeedah as he speaks about the Aradh (accidents) and Jawhar (particles, often translated as substances) in his works.
In 1183, Imam Suhrawardi arrived in Aleppo (Syria), the year Salah al Deen (d.1193) conquered the city and handed it’s governance over to his son al-Zahir (d.1216), who the Imam befriended. In 1186, he completed his most significant work, “Kitab Hikmat al-Ishraq”. Hikmat al Ishraq literally means the “Wisdom of Illumination”, referring to the light or particles Allah created the Universe from, mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah. The title of the work gives the literal intention behind the Imam’s work because in Islam wisdom is from Allah alone, “And whosoever is granted wisdom is indeed granted abundant good”(2:269).
The Imams work teaches similar ideas to what Imam al Ghazali teaches about the structure of the universe and what Imam al Suyuti (d.1505) said Angels are, in relation to their role in this universe, Imam Suhrawardi’s work because of it’s technical nature only found limited acceptance, like any physics textbook it is only read by it’s students. The only similarity between these scholars, besides coming to similar conclusions about the universe, is that each scholar followed the Shafii Madhhab of Fiqh (Legal School of Thought), meaning they would have employed the same rules (Usul) for interpretation and applied the same Usul al Fiqh (Principles of Jurisprudence) to the Quran and Sunnah, they all practiced Tasawwuf, and followed the same Ashari Aqeedah.
The prophet (saws) said about this matter, “Allah hath Seventy Thousand Veils of Light and Darkness: were He to withdraw their curtain, then would the splendors of His Aspect surely consume everyone who apprehended Him with his sight.” (Imam al Ghazali Mishqat al Anwar, the Niche Of Lights).
As the hadith indicates if we begin with the splendour of Allah, Imam Suhrawardi taught that all the universe is a successive outflow from the original Light of Allah, Light of Lights (Nur al-Anwar). The fundamentals of his teachings is pure light (particles), that unfolds from the Light of Allah in a descending order of ever-diminishing intensity in relation to Allah’s splendour, and through complex interaction, gives rise to a “horizontal” array of other lights (particles). In other words, as the hadith of Jabir states (mentioned in the note on the subatomic world) Allah began creation with a single particle then divided it into other particles, He would create four particles at the same subatomic depth, this what the Imam meant by horizontal, then in a vertical direction, meaning at a subatomic depth closer to us, Allah took the fourth particle and created four other particles from it, Allah did this repeatedly until the physical universe was created.
In the Niche of Lights (Mishqat al Anwar), Imam al-Ghazali (d.1111) discussed this using the Qur’anic terminology of light, whereas Imam Suhrawardi, in his Wisdom of Illumination, according to western academics who could not trace his Islamic sources said, He “developed a truly original light ontology”, in other words he proposed a unique structure to the subatomic nature of the universe, more accurately He was one of the first people to speak about subatomic space and quantum mechanics as some Authors on this subject noted.
Allah says about the first moments of creation, “And the heaven We created with might, and indeed We are (its) expander.” (Quran 51:47), “Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, then We separated them, and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?” (Quran 21:30)
“In verse (21:30), the Arabic words ratq and fataq are used (for matter being joined). The word ratq can be translated into “entity” “sewn to” “joined together” or “closed up”. The meaning of these translations all circulate around something that is mixed and that has a separate and distinct existence. The verb fataq is translated into “We unstitched” “We clove them asunder” “We separated” or “We have opened them”. These meanings imply that something comes into being by an action of splitting or tearing apart.”
From the first particles later particles where forced into existence by the changing conditions present in the early universe, as the verse states the matter that both heaven (space) and earth are made from where a joined entity (particle) then they where torn from this entity as other particles where created and the universe formed. Solid matter represented by the earth in this verse, came from subatomic matter represented by the heavens, which many ahadith on this subject indicate, this is how they where joined then separated, this is what that expression means, the physical was torn from the heavenly in the vocabulary of the Arabs.
In this verse is another confirmation that what is meant by Heaven is the subatomic part of the universe, it is the ghayb, unseen, Allah often speaks about.
Today physicist have coined the term the big bang, the universe came into being from a singularity, implied in this is the idea that we can trace the origins of matter and particles by there earlier states in the universe, as they developed from then to the forms we know today.
The Imam explained that ‘while light always remains in itself identical, its proximity (depth as we go deeper into the subatomic universe) or distance from the Light of Allah (its origin) determines the ontic (real) light reality (nature) of all beings. Light (particles) operate through the activities of dominion (the way the particles that come form each other interact with each other) of the higher ‘triumphal’ or ‘victorial’ lights, as well as the desire of the lower lights (later particles) for the higher (first) ones, operating at all levels and hierarchies of the universe.’
‘Reality (the subatomic) proceeds from the Light of Lights (Allah’s light) and unfolds via the First Light (the first particle) and all the subsequent (generations of) lights (particles) whose exponential interactions bring about the existence of all entities. As each new (generation of) light (particle) interacts with other existing lights (particles), more light (particles) and dark substances (dark matter and energy) are generated. Light (particles) produce both immaterial (subatomic fields) and substantial lights (particles), such as immaterial intellects (Angels), human and animal souls.’
‘Light (particles) also produces dusky substances, such as bodies. Light (particles) can generate both luminous accidents (Aradh), such as those in immaterial lights (subatomic fields), physical lights (particles formed from the field) or rays, and dark accidents (dark energy), whether it be in immaterial lights or in bodies.’ (this is an amazing comment, literally the scholar said as physics says, particles can act as force carriers, Aradh).
With the notion of intensity of light, Imam Suhrawardi then develops his two-fold process of light (particle) production. A vertical hierarchy (the subatomic world unfolding to the physical one) and a horizontal hierarchy (different subatomic particles being created at specific subatomic depths) of pure immaterial light structure (subatomic fields, termed) his “Illuminationist” quantum physics. From the Light of Lights (Allah’s light) proceeds a first vertical hierarchy of lights (particles) from which is created a Second Light (generation of particles), and from which the all-encompassing barzakh, unseen subatomic world is (first) created, from the Second level of lights (particles) a Third Light level (generation) of lights (particles) is created, and the Second (level of) barzakh (the word here refers to subatomic depth, the Imam understood the unseen, ghayb, was the subatomic). The vertical hierarchy (generation) of lights (particles) interacts with a horizontal hierarchy (generation) of lights’. (In physics the first particles to exist act as the subatomic forces that create larger particles, light is the electromagnetic force it is responsible for it, and other boson particles similar size to light particles cary the other two subatomic forces we know of. This is why physicists today are looking for one of the first particles in the universe, they think is responsible for the force of gravity).
‘Out of the interaction of the vertical and the horizontal lights (particles), the bodies of the lower physical world are generated. These horizontal or vertical lights are all structurally interrelated.’
‘The two dimensional hierarchy of lights introduces a new non linear notion of subatomic causation. The multiplication of subatomic entities serves to increase the ontological distance that exists between the Light of Lights (Allah’s light) and the sublunar world (the physical world that resulted from it), while simultaneously providing a greater holistic view of reality, since light lies at its core.’ (Meaning as each subatomic depth is created it creates distance from Allah’s light which is the point of origin, the boundary of the universe or the lowest subatomic depth, this distance kept increasing until we reached the physical world).
The scholars of Islam where very close in describing the universe to modern physics, which shows just how much they understood from the Quran and the prophets (saws) words, this isn’t surprising since Allah said “We have explained in detail in this Qur’an, for the benefit of mankind, every kind of similitude”(18:54), without the benefit of modern equipment it is difficult to be entirely accurate, even in our time, but the major components are all there.
When Allah talks about spirituality He is talking about the subatomic world, in a language Arabs could understand, it surrounds the entire body and it’s effects we feel through our senses. Everything is made from something even our thoughts, imagination and dreams, they are all made from subatomic particles, and all these are are the medium through which we experience spirituality, no one was more clear on this point than Imam al Ghazali who often repeated it in his major work Ihya Ulum al Deen (the revival of religious sciences) and wrote an entire seperate work to explain it, The Niche Of Lights (Mishkat al Anwar).
Many of Islams Major scholars understood this but before our time it was an understanding difficult to teach. Imam Ibn Arabi, Imam Suyuti, Imam Rumi and many more all wrote on this subject it is the key to understanding the depth of their works and spirituality itself. Our spirituality is governed by the Laws of this universe, this was the lesson Allah taught His Angels when they objected to Adam being made Khalifah on earth. The Angels objected on the basis of humanity becoming corrupted, while Allah replied to them by literally saying ‘You don’t know the science behind their spirituality, but I do’.
“And He imparted unto Adam the names of all things [the ability to know the unseen]; then He brought them within the ken of the angels and said: “Declare unto Me the names of these [things], if what you say is true.”
They replied [unable to name anything]: “Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! No knowledge have we save that which Thou hast imparted unto us. Verily, Thou alone art all-knowing, truly wise.”
Said He: “O Adam, convey unto them the names of these [things you have not seen before].” And as soon as [Adam] had conveyed unto them their names, [Allah] said: “Did I not say unto you, `Verily, I alone know the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth, and know all that you bring into the open and all that you would conceal’?” [how you move things in the universe] (2:31-33).
Allah says to his Angels who live in the Unseen part of our world and already see what is veiled to us, “Did I not say unto you, `Verily, I alone know the hidden reality”, Ghayb al Samawati wal Ard, “of the Heavens and the Earth”, in other words how the heavens and the earth work and the laws they run by, which are the basis for Man’s spirituality and ability to know the unseen better than you Angels, Allah was referring to a type of Ghayb (the Unseen laws of the universe) the Angels could not see, these are the Laws of the Heavens (subatomic world) and the Earth (physical world) with which He created them.
This is the area of knowledge we need to learn, in order to understand mans spirituality and every verse of the Quran that is till a mystery to us today. Understanding space and how it works is a tafsir to the Quran that unlocks it;
Allah said “In time We shall make them fully understand Our messages [through what they perceive] in the utmost horizons [of the universe] and within themselves [the microscopic and subatomic], So that it will become clear unto them that this [revelation] is indeed the truth.” [Qur’an 41:53]
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين