Does the universe follow a pattern of predetermined laws and is it bound by an order or everyday brings something new and unpredictable?
Is the destiny of the Universe and us inside it predetermined or it follows a pattern of Chaos.
There are ideas that say not a leaf falls out of a tree without God’s permission. If it is so, then all our efforts are useless. Even though what God chooses and what God permits are two different things, I am not going to focus on that here. I mention it so you think about it. Everybody may have better idea than me. That’s what I call personal God. I know it is controversial statement to make. But in reality, my God and your God does exist. Even though there can only be one God from eternity to eternity, God of that shepherd in Moses story in Masnavi was different than Moses God.
Let me start with some opinions here: Avicenna (Ibn Sina Balkhi), famous Islamic philosopher and father of medicine believed God can choose to create or not to create apple tree but he is unable to choose and make apple tree grows apricot.
Einstein believed there has to be a universal truth. He would say “God cannot be playing dice with Universe” He wanted to discover a magic formula that can explain everything. His whole life and work was focused towards that idea. In his words he wanted to “Read the mind of God”. Reaching that goal kept physicists busy for last two hundred years. Efforts toward discovering theory of everything will still kept them busy for very long time to come. Amazingly when you finally know one thing, a hundred new unknowns pop up. String theory, M Theory etc are steps in that direction which calls for Multiverse, parallel universes and dimensions above 11 from which only three are visible to us.
Einstein finally failed and others want to finish his work. As soon as everybody thought Einstein succeeded with theory of relativity, quantum physics came to existence which follows totally different set of rules.
Let’s get back to Avicenna. Did he say that and exactly that way? I don’t know. I can only go by what I read about him which is not necessarily always precise. But I can understand he was too much under Greek Philosophy influence, and was trying to create an Islamic version of it by including his own opinions. He was one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers and his books on medicine, the great medicine, was thought in western medical universities even 200 years ago. He was way ahead of his time but every theory has an end and something better replaces it. That’s how God made us, constant evolution.
Prophet of Islam Mohammad said the best of affairs lies in the middle. I will try to follow that path. But first let’s explore some concepts and misconceptions.
Over 1400 years, Quran has been misused; People quote Quran and interpret it wrong, either from ignorance or on purpose. Quran had been made a prisoner, taken hostage for the benefit of criminals. They do anything they want to, enslave women, and abuse children then they quote Quran for power, for money and for their unholy deeds. One of the common mistakes purposely or unknowingly is interpreting it word by word without looking at full sentences and full idea. Literally meaning of Quran takes you astray. Quran is full of metaphors. Stories told in Quran are for the purpose of understanding an idea. Do you think all the stories told in masnavi are true? Did the lady talk to boiling peas? Did pumpkin really talked to grape vine? Of course not. But when it comes to Quran, Bible and Torah, people forget that important fact. God knew we are going to take it out of context and warned us not to do so. Those are the verses of Quran that we always ignore. That’s why we believe there are running creeks of honey in heaven and we are going to set on silk carpet under the shade of tree and eat singing bird’s kebab on gold plates. God wants us to use our brains. Let’s see that warning God gave us:
"He it is Who hath revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture wherein are clear revelations - they are the substance of the Book - and others (which are) allegorical. But those in whose hearts is doubt pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking (to cause) dissension by seeking to explain it. None knoweth its explanation save Allah. And those who are of sound instruction say: We believe therein; the whole is from our Lord; but only men of understanding really heed. (Quran 3:7)."
Can it be clearer than that? Ignoring that important verse turn some of us to monsters that misuse religion and some to atheists because we cannot in right mind believe in mambo jumbo (Kherafats). That is one of the verses that Rumi calls core and brain of Quran. Whoever understood that, will understand the whole thing. (We picked the brain out of Quran. **** We left the skin for others. Rumi).
Now by understanding that fact we can examine every concept in Quran. But the discussion here is Lawhi Mahfooz or protected seal, protected title, whatever you translate it in English. It is an Islamic concept that supposedly everything happening in this world was written before creation somewhere that is not part of this world. Is it written in a book or a stone like Ten Commandments or is it in flash drive or a huge hard drive? None of the above, it is part of God’s conscious. For lack of better word, because all the words are invented by human and words are not powerful enough to explain God, nothing is powerful enough for that purpose.
We can compare Lawhi Mahfooz to what Einstein calls reading God’s mind or what today they call theory of everything.
Can God make apple tree to grow apricots? He certainly can. Will he do it? Not in a million years. Why not? There is the whole answer, the whole point, the magic formula that explains Free Will and Destiny, The Theory of everything that Einstein was seeking, etc. God created this universe with a set of rules, universal laws or law. I can only speak for this universe not other parallel universes. No one knows if those worlds use the same rules or not. The amazing thing about this order that I call God’s democracy is that the rules stay the same because they are so perfect and because they work. You need to change the rules only when they stop working. Other fact about that democracy is God himself follows the rules that he created for the Universe. That is why he is not going to make the apple tree grows apricot. If we use our free will in the future to change apple tree grow apricots, that is possible but it is not going to be apple tree anymore. When God says stars and moon and trees and everything else praise Allah, that means even though they have to follow universal rules, they have some freedom of will. I don’t know, again to sun, it will live and burn helium for another 4 billion year and shine upon us, you don’t know from which corner and in which direction and power and when the flares will spit.
Avicenna explained it in tenth century A.D. the best he knew then, we explain it according to what we know at 21st century, someone else will explain it in 31st century differently, if we make it that far. The ultimate explanation is with God himself.
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