Page 169 - Allah is Known through Reason

Saint Francis of Assisi said: "What we search for is the one that sees". 33
Now, think of this: The book in your hand, the room you are in, in
brief, all the images in front of you are seen inside your brain. Is it the
atoms that see these images? Blind, deaf, unconscious atoms? Why did
some atoms acquire this quality whereas some did not? Do our acts of
thinking, comprehending, remembering, being delighted, being unhappy,
and everything else consist of the electrochemical reactions between these
atoms?
When we ponder these questions, we see that there is no sense in look-
ing for will in atoms. It is clear that the being that sees, hears, and feels is
a supra-material being. This being is "alive" and it is neither matter nor an
image of matter. This being associates with the perceptions in front of it by
using the image of our body.
This being is the "soul".
The aggregate of perceptions we call the "material world" is a dream

observed by this soul. Just as the bodies we possess and the material world
we see in our dreams have no reality, the universe we occupy and the bod-
ies we possess also have no material reality.
The real being is the soul. Matter consists merely of perceptions viewed
by the soul. The intelligent beings that write and read these lines are not
each a heap of atoms and molecules and the chemical reactions between
them, but a "soul".

THE REAL ABSOLUTE BEING
All these facts bring us face to face with a very significant question. If
the thing we acknowledge to be the material world is merely comprised of
perceptions seen by our soul, then what is the source of these perceptions?
In answering this question, we must consider the following: matter does
not have a self-governing existence by itself. Since matter is a perception,
it is something "artificial". That is, this perception must have been caused
by another power, which means that it must have been created. Moreover,
this creation must be continuous. If there were not a continuous and con-
sistent creation, then what we call matter would disappear and be lost. This

A Very Different Approach to Matter 169