March 10, 2008
Islam Is All about Communication
Section: WRITINGS | 1356 reads
Nature of Reality: The Ultimate Puzzle for both Life and Science
The reason why these questions remain open-ended has to do with the ultimate nature of reality. Whether you are a sophisticated scientist, or a plain human being trying to live out your life in a simple manner, there is no getting away from the fact that reality is an enigma. So are all the questions related to and embedded in it.
And life on earth is an ongoing saga of humans trying to decipher reality as best as they can and be able to communicate with it as effectively as they must. God Almighty sent down the Qur’an to help us navigate these turbulent and treacherous rapids of life.
And he sent down a master-sailor and navigator in the person of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, to help us and be our guide in this adventure that we call life.
Thus, life, Qur’an and communication constitute a most amazing and wonderful triple token of love – Rahmah – conferred upon his creation by God the most loving, the most merciful and the most compassionate.
A number of things are involved here.
For God Almighty, life or death of his creation are both equal. He is above both those states and neither one of them means anything to him. Yet, he lives and he is from ever and for ever.
And he lives and operates all by himself, depending on no one, even though all living beings depend on him in every way for their life and sustenance. He, to use an expression from the Qur’an, is Samad.
He is the self-sustaining and ever-living one who is the source and means of support for all things living. He is in the language of the Qur’an Hayy and Qayyoom.
Thus, life and communication, taken individually or together, are among the greatest miracles of Allah’s design. Allah says so clearly in the Qur’an.
Qur’an that is a most wonderful and miraculous direct communication that comes from the ever-living and eternal God who does not die, sleep or doze off, to all life in the form of humans and Jinns.
Thus, Islam is communication. And communication, done right, is Islam. For, the ultimate goal of communication is – or at least it ought to be – truth. And the best communication is done using the best possible means.
And that, we can say, is a classic definition of Islam: a relentless pursuit, uncovering and communication of truth at all levels of human life and experience using the best and the most wonderful possible means and methods.
Qur’an on Islam
Here is what the Qur’an says about Islam: Innaddeena ‘indallahil Islam.
Paraphrase: The system that Allah designed and approved for running his creation including human life is what he calls Islam.
Everything and everyone needs a system to operate by. That is the law of Allah in his creation.
That is also true of the creation as a whole. It is nature. It is the natural law or the law of nature whether it is at the most micro or the most macro levels.
And that universal law is Islam, whether it is gravity or something else equally powerful and pervasive.
Islam is the law by which the creation in parts or in toto submits to the will of the creator. It is the law by which every cell in the human body or in a plant functions, grows, decays or regenerates following a natural trajectory set for it by God Almighty.
It is also the law based on which the sun rises during the day; the stars shine at night; the winds blow; and the rains comes down.
The name of that law is Islam.
It is the law that God created to run the affairs of his creation. It is also the law that God Almighty gifted to human beings based on which they could run their affairs – as individuals; as families; as groups; and as societies, cultures, civilizations, governments and world bodies.
That is a quick insight into that beautiful and miraculous Aayat of the Qur’an we cited above: Innaddeena ‘indallahil Islam.
Islam is the system Allah uses to run his creation. It is also the system Allah approves for use by his people, his very special creation – the human beings.
Innaddeena ‘indallahil Islam.
Allahu Akbar, what an Aayat! What a divine miracle in mortal human hands!
Just like Life, Islam also Covers Everything
Naturally, Islam covers the gamut of human life, from the most private and micro to the most public and macro. No matter what aspect of life you are talking about, or at what level, Islam leaves nothing out of its purview and jurisdiction.
Thus, there is no dichotomy of religious and worldly, sacred and secular, in Islam. How can there be? For, if it is life, it has to cover everything. So has Islam, for, Islam is life. It has to be lived according to that most wonderful and that most minutely calibrated natural law that God designed his creation to operate by and human beings to live by.
Whether it is in a mosque or marketplace, whether it is in politics or military matters, whether it is in law or academics, and whether it is in your own private and personal life or in any matter that concerns the society, culture and civilization of which you are a part, the best and the most optimum and natural way for you and for everyone else to live is to base and mold your life according to the beautiful and wondrous guidance of Islam.
Ask yourself this question: Which part of this universe does not follow the law of nature? Then ask yourself this other question: Which aspect of human life then should be left uncovered by the natural law of Islam that God designed for it.
You will know then what the answer should be. Nothing could be simpler.
You don’t need experts telling you what part of human life and activity Islam covers and what part it leaves out. All you need to remind yourself is that you came from God and Islam came from God for you. As a result, you, your life and Islam are tailor-made for each other.
They all fit like a glove.
That is why it is self-evident that Islam is life and the best life has to be that which is lived based on this divine law of nature that God specially designed for you and that he calls Islam.
So, What Is Life If Not Communication?
As for communication, what better instrument has anyone been given by nature and her God, as Thomas Jefferson would put it, for getting the most out of life and its blessings?
The human brain, the major hub of electronic circuitry in human body, is all about communication. The entire central nervous system is. It is about receiving, processing and sending out messages.
So is the autonomous nervous system, except that it has been put on automatic signaling all through to take care of routine messaging vital to the functioning of everyday human life.
So are all the peripheral sense organs like the eye that are connected to this most amazing central processing unit (CPU) of the human brain that packs the power and sophistication of a thousand supercomputers in no more than a fistful of gray matter consisting of neurons or brain cells.
So, human life is all about communication, folks! And it is communication at all levels of human existence, from the most simple to the most complex and from the most personal to the most public.
Thus, human life is communication in the life of an individual. And it is communication in a social setting, whether it is among strangers, neighbors, family members, business partners or political or some other interest groups.
It is also communication at larger societal and cultural levels.
Sometime this communication is through speech and sometime it is through gestures. And sometimes people communicate through what Shakespeare called silence. And how pregnant with meaning deafening with noise can some of those silences be!
Sometimes humans pour out volumes of words to say nothing. At other times they use a mere look, a touch or a gesture to say volumes.
What about animals? Do they communicate? And how!
Allahu Akbar, do they ever!
Ever seen songbirds sing; wolves howl; lions roar; dogs bark and talk; and swans trumpet and call out to one another? Have you witnessed squirrels or monkeys or deer issue warning calls to each other in the presence of a threat from a common predator?
What is life about if not communication – at every conceivable level?
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