Page 271 - For Men of Understanding

Theirs is most probably the biggest intellectual defeat in history. While
growing arrogant of their own accord, materialists have been tricked and suf-
fered a serious defeat in their war against Allah by bringing up something mon-
strous against Him. The verse "Thus have We placed leaders in every town,
its wicked men, to plot [and burrow] therein: but they only plot against
their own souls, and they perceive it not" (Surat al-An'am: 123) announces
how unconscious these people who revolt against our Creator are, and how
they will end up. In another verse the same fact is related as:

Fain would they deceive Allah and those who believe, but they only
deceive themselves, and realise (it) not! (Surat al-Baqarah: 9)
While trying to plot, unbelievers do not realize the very important fact that
everything they experience is really experienced in their brains, and all the
plots they devise are simply formed in their brains, just like every other act they
perform. Their folly has let them forget that they are all alone with Allah and,
hence, are trapped in their own devious plans.
Just like those unbelievers of bygone days, those living today face a reality
that will shatter the basis of their devious plans. With the verse "...feeble
indeed is the cunning of Satan" (Surat an-Nisa': 76), Allah has stated that
these plots were doomed to end with failure the day they were hatched, and
gave the good tidings to believers with the verse "...not the least harm will
their cunning do to you." (Surah Al 'Imran: 120)
In another verse Allah states: "But the Unbelievers, their deeds are like
a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst mistakes
for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing." (Surat
an-Nur: 39) Materialism, too, offers a mirage for the rebellious; when they have
recourse to materialism, they find its philosophy to be nothing but deceptive.

Allah has deceived them with such a mirage, and beguiled them into perceiv-
ing matter as an absolute. All those eminent professors, astronomers, biologists,
physicists and all others, regardless of their rank and post, are simply deceived
and humiliated because they took matter as their god. Assuming matter, whose
essence they can never reach, to be absolute, they based their philosophy and
ideology on it, grew involved in serious discussions, adopting a so-called "intel-
lectual" discourse. They deemed themselves wise enough to argue about the
truth of the universe and, more seriously to interpret Allah with their limited
intelligence. Allah explains their situation in the following verse:
And [the unbelievers] plotted and planned, and Allah too planned,
and the best of planners is Allah. (Surah Al 'Imran: 54)

One may possibly escape from some plots in the world; but Allah's plan

Matter and the External World 269