THE AGE OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION—PART II

The guidance Prophet Muhammad received from God has been fully preserved in its original form. The first revelation the Prophet of Islam received, forms part of the chapter titled Al-Alaq (No. 96) of the Quran. God said: “Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.” (96: 3-5) This is a declaration that man cannot find guidance on his own. In fields like agriculture, horticulture, engineering, etc., man gains knowledge through experience in his daily life. But the superior knowledge required for man’s eternal guidance cannot be attained by man’s own efforts. It is necessary to receive higher learning through prophetic guidance. The objective of all the great philosophers of ancient times was to discover guiding principles to govern human life. Despite great efforts made by great minds over several thousand years, philosophy has not produced any guidance of this nature. It is a fact that the efforts of philosophers have created confusion rather than any clear guidance. Karl Marx’s (d. 1883) book on the failure of philosophy titled The Poverty of Philosophy, was written from this viewpoint. It is generally true that philosophic thinking, based entirely on reason, has failed to provide eternal guiding principles. This ended the age of philosophy after the emergence of modern science. Philosophy is now considered a historical discipline rather than a living discipline. The same was the case with mysticism. The mystic philosophers believed that they could attain the higher truth through contemplation and love, without the medium of human reason, or recourse to any other external source. The history of mysticism spans several thousand years. Many have wanted to learn the truth through mysticism, but after long experience found that what man finally attains through mysticism is ecstasy. But in the matter of truth ecstasy has no importance. The highlight of human existence is consciousness, or the mind. The successful seeker of truth finds it at the level of the mind, or consciousness, and not at the level of ecstasy. Ecstasy is a state of Scholars agree that the domain of science is limited only to the knowledge of things. The knowledge of truth is beyond the sphere of science.