Two Realities: Visible and Invisible

Dr. Pasha

(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)

There are two realities in existence: one visible, one invisible.

The Qur’an calls them Ghaib and Shahaadah.

Most things in the universe are one or the other. But the Human Body is a perfect embodiment or confluence of both realities simultaneously: visible as well as invisible.

Shahaadah in the human being is the corporeality – the physical aspect – of the Human Body: the flesh, the bones, the muscles, the blood, and the rest.

Ghaib in the human being is what lies hidden in the deepest recesses and folds of the human corporeal body, and that cannot be accessed or “experienced” by the senses even if that body is dissected and vivisected to its most minute micro- and nano-cells, elements, particles and components, visible only through the most high-powered microscopes.

That Ghaib in the human body is the Spirit. Call it the Soul if you will.

The Qur’an calls it Ruh and dismisses all questions about Ruh and its true nature as premature and misplaced.

And the Qur’an declares any serious discussion of Ruh and its true nature to be altogether too ambitious and a bit too advanced a subject for human breeches, at least at the time of the coming down of the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.

The reality of all fight among scientists on this score is NOT if the soul exists or not, BUT almost entirely concerning how do we know that it does and how do we learn about its existence and nature.

That is what the whole scientific doubt and discussion is all about.

Yet, what is certain about the soul is that it is there. And its existence is as certain as any physical entity – piece of the Shahaadah.

Shahaadah – the visible reality – of course is what is accessible to human senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Either directly or with the help of minutely calibrated scales and instrumentations.

Science with its best traditions and most rigorous methods is the best guarantor of accessing Shahaadah.

Ghaib is beyond the reach and power of the human senses to reach. It cannot be accessed – or connected to – through the senses and, therefore, through the methods and instruments of science that are developed to access, measure and understand physical reality: the Shahaadah.

Yet, as I said before, Ruh exists. And you cannot deny it.

And the instrument of accessing Reality of Ghaib is through the Wahy, which is the name God Almighty gives to the direct message he sends down to his special messengers. And which is compiled and documented, in its final and most complete form, in the Qur’an.

Call the Ruh Spirit if that makes you feel better. But regardless of the name by which you choose to refer to it, what is undeniable is that the Ruh is there: this invisible thing, this piece of the puzzle that the Qur’an calls Ghaib.

Or you can simply call it Life! And who among us dare deny the fact that there is such a thing as Life in existence?

We can all feel, know, realize, understand that it exists – Ruh, Spirit or simply Life. Otherwise, what do you think makes the Human Body move – when you say it is alive?

And what is it that, when it finally seems to depart from the body, brings the entire process of regeneration and recovery of the Human Body to a complete and irreversible stop, and lays it cold, like the slab of ice on which it is often laid, and inexorably leads to the decay of the body and, eventually, turns it to dust?

So, what is that invisible thing – that part of the Ghaib – that upon leaving the visible part of the world – the Shahaadah – does all these things to your body?

And not a scientist in the world can either stop or reverse that process?

Just because you do not see it does not mean it is not there. You see its signs and effects all the time. And you know it for sure when it has departed the Human Body: that it is no longer there.

As for using certain postulated effects as evidence of the existence of a certain thing or phenomenon, here is something we all need to confront: hypothesizing, predicting and measuring effects is one of the most time-honored and tested methods of science!

In other words, science routinely uses the Shahaadah – what it knows – to reach Ghaib: what it does not know. That is, to reach that which to science is still a mystery.

That is the essence of the Scientific Method in this world.

So, why then this grand, stubborn, blind, dogmatic and irrational exception when it comes to Ruh – the Soul or the Spirit?

Or simply the most visible and undeniable aspect of human reality called Life?

END