All things, including man act on and react to their environments according to their nature and their experiences without being conscious of these. When conscious human beings came into existence, then this consciousness must have made them deliberately observe, think and meditate about the nature of existence and life, not only in order to understand it, but also in order to adjust themselves to it and arrange their lives in a harmonious way. This gave rise to Religion, a deliberately constructed conscious way of life. This, in its turn encourages the further expansion of consciousness, which modifies the world view. The history of the development of man, therefore, shows stages, each having its own spirit, consciousness or attitude towards existence. The World we live in provides us with experiences. But these must also be interpreted and understood by the mind. This requires a conceptual framework in which the raw data of experience is interpreted in a unified self-consistent and comprehensive manner so as to avoid contradictions and conflicts. This framework is seldom consciously understood by the people, but nevertheless it has its sub-conscious effects.

To understand Islamic World View and Way of Life some fundamental ideas must be understood:-

Allah is not just the source of all things but also the Lord and the goal :-

All things come from Allah and return to Him. They start from Unity, differentiate and then return to Unity. This is like the rising and sinking of waves in the ocean.

The effect of the acceptance of Allah, not just as an idea but as a reality, is, or ought to be, (a) the recognition of Unity (Tauhid) underlying all things (b) Objectivity in thought, motivation and action. (c) Purposiveness in the Universe.

2. Things are Absolutely True only when they have a function with respect to Allah. But human beings owing to their limitations have only partial knowledge and owing to attachments, fixations, habits and fantasies, false ideas. These lead to maladjustment and suffering. Objectivity means that the arising, behaviour and fate of all things depends on the whole context of all other things directly or indirectly. The behaviour of a person should not be mechanical, impulsive, subjective and self-centred but based on the recognition that a greater reality than himself exists to which he must conform. This produces inner and outer harmony, and also allows the expansion of his mental horizons and presents the possibility of self-expansion.

3. There is a purpose for the Universe. Since the whole of reality by definition cannot have anything external to it, then there can be no external cause for any change in it. All changes must then be attributed to purpose or intention. It is the cause of the arising of the Universe and all things in it. There is a Universal Plan, a direction of development, and all things in it are means to the fulfilment of that purpose. That is, all facts arise from this, have meanings in terms of it, and all values, good and evil, are also judged objectively in terms of this purpose. The end justifies the present and the past, and this is the reverse of the direction of time. Purpose can be seen in the fact that things form systems where the parts have a function with respect to the whole. Organisms seek food and eat in order to maintain themselves. But it is their activity that depletes their resources and produces the need. The cause and purpose of their behaviour are the same.

But, if all things come from Unity and return to it, the question is: What is the point of creation if everything merely returns to its original state? The answer seems to be that it does not. Development may be infinite. Our understanding of this purpose will also improve only as we develop further.

4. There is no dichotomy in the Quran between mind and matter. Indeed, we may say that Consciousness, life and matter are three aspects of phenomena and may loosely correspond to mass, energy and order in science. Mind really refers to behaviour, a characteristic of life. However, different things have different amounts of these characteristics. There is a whole series of phenomena or levels of being from maximum density to maximum consciousness.

There is a psychophysical parallelism. From one point of view we could say that when a change of motion takes place it is because of a force, but from another point of view we could say that when a force is applied the object cognizes and responds to it. Attraction and repulsion, which drive all events (e.g. gravitational and electromagnetic) are universal phenomena and take the form of pleasure and pain at the biological and psychological level. There is no difference between inertia and the self-preservative instinct except in greater complexity. Reproduction, growth, order creation and unification are also universal phenomena which can also be seen in crystals and other physical phenomena. There are different degrees of intelligence and this refers to sensitivity and the powers of adjustment or adaptation.

The other side of the coin is that certain psychological notions can also be given a universal or cosmic significance. Among these are the notions of Justice, Compassion, Truth, and all the other Names of attributes of Allah. Benevolence, for instance, refers to the fact that things obtain the materials and energy needed for their existence and function. Mercy implies that that there is a degree of tolerance before actions or circumstances cause irreversible consequences. Justice refers to laws so that the effects are proportional to the causes. And so on.

5. The "Trust" in 33:72 above may be regarded as referring to the vicegerency of man, that he contains the divine spirit (32:9) and has the power to consciously know and serve Allah. The fact that man is conscious and also has creative abilities points to the fact that these are also inherent in existence of which he is a part.

Thus, the Cosmos was created in order that man should arise and develop i.e. he is an intermediate goal, the final goal being the Perfect or fully conscious Man. Life in the world is full of tests and challenges and opportunities for learning and development. There is a relationship between the man and the cosmos. It is not just the case that man is formed of the same laws, materials, forces which exist in the Universe and that he has arisen in interaction with, and adjustment to, the cosmos, but also that he has a special function to know and understand and modify the Cosmos. The world is to a large extent a product of the human mind, not only because of the technologies he has invented and the changes he makes in the physical world, but also because of the organizations he creates and his ability to conceptualize and imagine by which he creates systems of ideas. The world he sees is really an affect on his consciousness modified by his psyche. It follows that if the Universe is understandable by the human rational faculties, then the Universe itself is rational and unfolds in accordance with rational principles. That is, the human mind is part of a Universal mind.

But the mind can form attachments and habits and it can fantasize and these can pervert and mislead him. If his mind does not conform to this Universal Mind but comes into conflict with it, then it cannot perceive reality or deal rationally with it. It then suffers and destroys itself. It is, therefore, essential, if he is to be well-adjusted to the real world (the world as created by Allah), that man should have a suitable psyche. To create and maintain this requires a correct guidance and discipline. This is what religions endeavour to provide. But the same distorting mechanisms can distort his perception of religion also.

6. Creation consists of a multiplicity that still forms a single system. All things are in relation, interaction and inter-dependence with other things and cannot exist in isolation. This means that the cause of any change is the result of three factors, the inner nature of each entity and their relationship ( e.g. distance from each other in space and time etc.). E1 - r - E2. This relationship depends on the context of other things. From the point of view of each entity, there is an external stimulus E1 and an internal response E2. In other words no object is wholly inert. We cannot say that the behaviour of something is caused by only an external cause. Its own nature also has an effect. The same external force acting on two or more different things will have different effects, and different forces acting on the same thing will have different effects. Or the same force on the same thing will have different effects if the conditions governing the relationship changes.

7. The interaction of things produces a whole, a higher level entity. This whole also affects, modifies and controls the parts to various degrees, though the parts also have effects on the whole. The system belongs to a higher supra-system, and the parts are sub-systems. The parts may be said to have a function with respect to the whole, and their arising, modification, atrophication or replacement, their fate depends on how they fulfil this function. During the history of a system new parts may arise for a period and then disappear being replaced by others. The history of the Biosphere shows the arising and disappearance of many species. The Universe itself has undergone many stages, and may itself be a stage in something greater. The same applies to man and his societies and institutions. Development takes place because one generation dies to make way for another. Thus change is not a smooth series of changes and there is constant creation.

8. There are levels of existence. The cause of things is regarded not so much as being prior in time to the effect, but being at a level above. The ultimate cause is said to be the Word of Allah, which is Truth. Truth may be defined as order, negative entropy. Evolution means that order is increasing. On earth it is the result of Solar and Cosmic forces coming from above. The things on earth respond to these forces. They evolve by absorption of truth according to their various capacities. Events happen because of the transfer or exchange of Information or Truth.

But Allah, the fundamental reality is not only the creator but also the maintainer of the Universe.

The implication is that the Universe is recreated every instant. If there is a regularity or law which we see and upon which we depend such that A is the cause of B, then there is really no reason that these should always be associated together except that observation shows that they are. The cause of this association is Allah. This is not far from the idea in Physics that there is a Quantum field underlying all physical phenomena which is fluctuating or pulsating, and where events appear to be unpredictable but are restrained within certain probabilities.

9. Allah can do as He likes but He also works through laws. There is no dichotomy between Law and Chance. Thus though there are regularities which determine events there is also what Western science calls chance or random events. The notion of "chance", however, is dismissed. Chance cannot be a cause. It is merely a word that refers to human limitations to see or calculate. Thus the notion of Will replaces both Chance and Mechanical Determinism.

10. Time is relative. It is measured as a relationship between the duration of something relative to some unit of duration within an observer and the system or frame of reference. Two different observers in different frames will experience it differently, and this duration will have to be translated from one to the other by some ratio.

This Islamic conceptual framework is different from that of science. Owing to the unjustified dichotomy between mind and matter, science attributes consciousness, purpose and freedom only to the observer, O and inertia, materiality and determinism to the thing observed, M, and appears to ignore altogether the relationship between them and the conditions which affect the relationship, C. But since knowledge, K, cannot exist without the object M and the observer O, who must also exists, then science must reduce the observer, O, also to M. But this leads to a contradiction. If the observer, being an object cannot help behaving as he does then the ideas he obtains are caused by forces and it is quite irrelevant whether they are true or not. The fact, however, is that we do experience consciousness. If we were not conscious, then nothing would exist for us, not even ourselves and there would be no knowledge. One way out of this dilemma is that if we are material objects, then we will have to modify our notion of matter to include the property of consciousness. It ceases to be inert. At one time mass and energy were thought of as distinct things, but now it is known that they are aspects of the same thing and interconvertible. Negentropy or Order is another notion that must be incorporated in the notion of matter. Energy can be locked up as Order or released. It can be in kinetic form as motion or in a potential form as tension. Consciousness appears to be connected with the perception of order.

It is, however, necessary to understand that the Islamic conceptual system differs from that of science because of a difference in purpose. Whereas science is interested only in describing facts in order to provide a method of controlling nature to serve certain pre-selected values, religion is concerned with something much more fundamental, with the source of the values themselves, with the process of living, with human relationship with reality, in thought, motivation and behaviour. The function of religion in human affairs is to provide a particular Spirit or consciousness for a community, which guides its world view and way of life. This makes it into the dominant community in so far as its influence on the whole Age is concerned. It is this dominance which is described as the vicegerency in the Quran (See Quran 7:69,74,129, 10:73, 38:26).

The ancient Egyptian Civilization, for instance, appears to have been dominated by the idea of creating conditions on earth as they saw them in heaven. They saw order and harmony in the heavens but chaos on earth and they wanted to create an ordered civilization amidst barbarians. The Pharaoh was regarded as the representative on earth of God in heaven, himself a god and son of God.

When this Civilization collapsed owing to increasing disorder, the torch passed to the Hebrews. Moses (saw) had learnt all the Wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). He may also have learnt from Jethro, a priest of Midian, an Ismaelite (See Exodus 3:1, 4:18, 18:5 and Quran 18:61-83). The revelations to him established a Theocratic system in Palestine based on strict monotheism. This was successful for some time and flowered into a high civilization. Though it was confined to a tribe, its influence spread much wider into the rest of the world, especially after the dispersal of the Israelites. Hebrewism degenerated, but the ancient Wisdom was preserved in some esoteric circles such as the Essenes and later transmitted to Christianity. There is some evidence that John the Baptist as well as Jesus (saw) had connections with such groups. The teachings of Jesus (saw) spread mainly in the West and became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine. An organized Church arose which became the sole interpreter of doctrines. Salvation was confined to those accepted Jesus and heretics were persecuted. But as the Church grew in political and commercial power, adulteration from worldly interests caused the degeneration of Christianity. Christian Theology reverted back to Egyptian times and re-adopted some of their mythologies. The Dark Ages descended over Europe.

The regeneration of Religion took place through the Prophet Muhammad (saw). A reformulation of religion, the rectification of misunderstandings, and a considerable amount of demythologizing and reinterpretation took place to suit the new age. The Quran tells us (e.g. 2:25-26) that much of the imagery is symbolic and restores the concept of God as a Unity which transcends human beings. The world was already showing signs of becoming one owing to contact between people through trade. The new Prophet had to be for the whole world and Islam had to be more Universal in that it recognised the validity of many Prophets and the religions they brought. They were all Islam as originally taught.

Hebrewism places its emphasis on Law, justice, hope, rules of behaviour and ritual. Christianity places emphasis on compassion, love, charity, conscience, motives, and social services. But according to Jesus (saw), he had not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. It was meant to be a new level, an addition or a respiritualization of what had become an empty vessel of formal laws and dogmas. Islam had to confirm the doctrine of Compassion and restore the Law, and in addition to these, add an emphasis on truth, knowledge, awareness, thinking, faith, and objectivity. Quite obviously a civilization requires all three levels. Islam adds a fourth factor, namely surrender - to give up one's ego and give one's whole loyalty to Allah alone, to conform willingly to what is Universal and to liberate oneself from attachments to idols, anything less than Allah.

Although, it is supposed that the Western Civilization, which now dominates the world, is a Christian one, the fact is that it came into existence only after the influence of the early Church was reduced and after a collision with Islam. Ideas, attitudes, modes of perception and other influences from the Islamic world poured into Europe through Spain and other places and brought about a Renaissance, Enlightenment and a Reformation in Europe. Western Civilisation is a product of these. But having transferred its impulse, the Muslim nations degenerated. But the progress of Western civilization, like previous ones, appears to have been gained at the expense of spiritual welfare It seems the spirit is used up in creating worldly manifestations. This may be the same process by which the material Universe came into existence in the first place - by congealing or condensation of the original Spirit. The decay of the Western, and indeed World Civilization, is certainly becoming evident to an increasing number of people. Muslims look forward to the predicted return of a Prophet and the revival of Islam. It is, however, necessary to remember that Islam means "Surrender to Allah" and refers to true religion in general as taught by all Prophets, and does not necessarily refer to a particular religion or sect specially when the original teaching has been misunderstood and misapplied.

Note that verse 33:40 states that Muhammad was a Messenger of Allah and "the Seal of the Prophets", but not the last of the Messengers.

However, Islam, in its essence, is to be regarded as complete because there is nothing greater than surrender to Allah, but not all its potentialities have yet been realized. Three further stages are possible:- (1) Universality, the general recognition that all religions are in essence one, though forms may be different, or Islam dominates the World. (2) The recognition of the primary importance of methods of spiritual and psychological welfare and development above those of social and material welfare. These latter are dependent on, and affect, the former. (3) The establishment of a World-wide, what has been called, Kingdom of Heaven on earth, something attempted by Hebrewism, Christianity and Islam and predicted also in Daniel 2:44 and Quran 61:9.

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