Page 131 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

human mind for thousands of years! Intellectuals and philosophers
had done their utmost to unravel the mysteries of the universe
through reason, but had ultimately been forced to admit defeat.
That is why philosophy, until now, has not led men to any positive
creed, but has rather plunged them into scepticism. As the Quran
has put it, “Little indeed is the knowledge vouchsafed to you.”
(17:85) It has been conceded that man’s intellect on its own can
take him only part of the way along the path to truth; it cannot
take him right to the ultimate reality. Whenever man attempts to
go beyond his limits, he will certainly fail. His approach would be
more realistic if he were to rely upon that knowledge which has
been given to man through revelation. In the past, both these
viewpoints had been dealt with only by speculation. But now, in
modern times, science has—astonishingly—given its judgement in
favour of the Quran. Science has discovered that through reason
man can achieve only partial knowledge. A scientific illustration of
this is the black hole theory, which tells us that only three percent
of matter is physically observable, the other 97 percent remaining
beyond the limits of human observation. Modern scientific
discoveries have enabled us to establish revealed knowledge as
authentic by adhering to modern scientific standards.
It would take a whole encyclopaedia to do justice to all of
the facts now accepted by modern science. For our immediate
purposes, we list below just a few of the more salient points:
1. The process of general research into an investigation of
nature has uncovered secrets of nature which give amazing
proof of there being a Mind behind it, which created it, and
which continues to control it. The universe discovered by
science is so extraordinarily meaningful and organised that
there can be no explanation for it but the existence of a
Creator and Master of the universe.
2. Islam has had the greatest difference with other religions
over the question of polytheism versus monotheism. People
in general have favoured polytheism because they found it
difficult to believe that the multifaceted world could have
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