Science and Religion.Part2

•Everything is contained in the Qur’an, but at different levels.

Therefore, not everything is readily apparent. The Qur’an’s main duty is to teach about God’s perfection, essential qualities, and acts, as well as our duties, status, and how to serve Him. Thus, it contains them as seeds or nuclei, summaries, principles, or signs that are explicit or implicit, allusive or vague, or suggestive. Each occasion has its own form, and is presented in the best way for making each Qur’anic purpose known according to the existing requirements and context. For example:

Human progress in science and industry has brought about such scientific and technological wonders as airplanes, electricity, motorized transport, and radio and telecommunication, all of which have become basic and essential for our modern, materialistic civilization. The Qur’an has not ignored them and points to them in two ways:

• The first is, as will be explained below, by way of the Prophets’ miracles.
• The second concerns certain historical events. In other words, the wonders of human civilization only merit a passing reference, an implicit reference, or an allusion in the Qur’an.

For example, if an aircraft told the Qur’an:

“Give me the right to speak and a place in your verses,” the aircrafts of the sphere of Divine Lordship—the planets, the Earth, the moon—would reply on the Qur’an’s behalf: If a submarine asked for a place, the submarines belonging to that sphere—the heavenly bodies “swimming” in the atmosphere vast “ocean” would say: “Compared to us, you are invisible.” If shining, star-like electric lights demanded the right to be included, the electric lights of that sphere—lightning, shooting stars, and stars adorning the sky’s face—would reply: “Your right to be mentioned and spoken about is proportional to your light.”

If the wonders of human civilization demanded a place based on the fineness of their art, a single fly would reply: “O be quiet! Even my wing has more of a right than you. If all of humanity’s fine arts and delicate instruments were banded together, the delicate members of my tiny body would still be more wonderful and exquisite.

The verse:

Surely those upon whom you call, apart from God, shall never create (even) a fly, though they banded together to do it (22:73), will silence you.”

The Qur’an’s viewpoint of life and the world is completely different from the modern one. It sees the world as a guest-house, and people as temporary guests preparing themselves for eternal life by undertaking their most urgent and important duties. As that which is designed and used mostly for worldly purposes only has a tiny share in servanthood to and worship of God, which is founded upon love of truth and otherworldliness, it therefore has a place in the Qur’an according to its merit.

The Qur’an does not explicitly mention everything necessary for our happiness in this world and the next for another reason: Religion is a divine test to distinguish elevated and base spirits from each other. Just as raw materials are refined to separate diamonds from coal and gold from soil, religion tests conscious beings to separate precious “ore” in the “mine” of human potential from dross.