Page 275 - For Men of Understanding

ation, great scholar Imam Rabbani set the right measure on this subject.
According to Imam Rabbani, all beings are "shadow beings" relative to Allah.
Islamic intellectuals such as Imam Rabbani, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi and
Mevlana Cami realised this fact from the signs of the Qur'an and by using their
reason. Some Western philosophers like George Berkeley have grasped the
same reality through reason. Imam Rabbani wrote in his Mektubat (Letters) that
the whole material universe is an "illusion and supposition (perception)" and
that the only absolute being is Allah:
Allah... The substance of these beings which He created is but noth-
ingness... He created all at the sphere of senses and illusions... The
existence of the universe is at the sphere of senses and illusions, and
it is not material... In real, there is nothing in the outside except the
Glorious Being, (Who is Allah).15
However, the number of those who have understood this fact throughout
history has always been limited. Great scholars such as Imam Rabbani have
written that it might have been inconvenient to tell this fact to the masses and
that most people would not be able to grasp it.
However, in the age we live in, this fact has been made empirical by the
body of evidence put forward by science. For the first time, the fact that mat-
ter is not absolute and our knowledge of it is extremely limited is described in
a concrete, clear, and explicit way.
st
For this reason, the 21 century will be a turning point when people in gen-
eral will comprehend the Divine realities and be led in crowds to Allah, the
only Absolute Being. In the 21 century, materialistic 19 -century creeds will be
st
th
relegated to the trash-heaps of history; Allah's existence and creation will be
grasped; facts like spacelessness and timelessness will be better understood.
Humanity will break free of the centuries-old veils, deceits, and superstitions
enshrouding us.
It's not possible for any shadow being to impede this inevitable course.

Matter and the External World 273