REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS REGARDING THE
REALITY
OF MATTER
Although
the issue of the reality of matter is exceedingly straightforward
and easy to understand, some people attempt to avoid accepting
the only possible conclusion, for a number of different reasons,
and pretend not to comprehend it.
Many
people who have understood the problem have expressed their extraordinary
excitement at learning "the secret behind matter," and
how it has changed their lives and way of thinking. Many people
try to go deeper into the issue, asking questions to try to understand
it better. You can see some of the comments they make in the chapter
"Those Who Learn The Secret of Matter Feel Great Excitement."
Others,
however, stubbornly deny this extraordinary truth, and put forward
various objections of their own in an effort to reject it. Anyone
who does reject it has to scientifically demonstrate that images
or sounds do not form inside the brain. Yet none of the objections
that are put forward, from scientists, professors of neurology,
brain experts, psychologists, psychiatrists or professors of biology,
in short from anybody at all, deny that our perceptions are formed
within our brains. This is because it is a scientifically established
fact.
Despite
this, some people try to cover the matter up by playing word games
or adopting an overblown scientific manner. They try to avoid
the evident truth which follows from the statement beginning "Since
images form in our brains…" One of the clearest examples
of this is the answers given by scientists who are asked whether
images form in the brain.
One
of these scientists replies: "No, images do not form in the
brain. The incoming signals form a representation of a visual
experience."
Let us
now examine the method this scientist employs to ignore the truth.
Asked whether images form within the brain, he starts out with
a definite "No." He then follows up by saying that the
signals form a representational image which enables us to see
what we are looking at. So he is actually answering the above
question in the affirmative. Of course the image in the brain
is a "representational one". Our brains can never contain
a real table, or sun or the sky. The image we have is a representation,
in other words a copy. When we say we can "see the world,"
we are actually perceiving this "representational world",
or "copy", or "imaginary world". These expressions
are all different ways of saying the same thing. One scientist,
asked whether what we see in our brains is a representational
world, answers, "Definitely not. What we see in our brain
is a copy of the world." In other words, he first rejects
the question asked, but then uses a rather more confused explanation
to confirm that we actually do see in our brains. This is a dishonest
method resorted to by some scientists who fear that if they accept
this truth they will in turn be forced to give matter up, which
they believe is the only thing that exists.
Others
feel unable to deny that images form in our brains, but because
they hesitate to say, "Yes, I see the whole world in my brain,"
they give a more meandering answer, "The brain simply processes
the incoming signals and orders neural activity, that is how you
see and hear." Yet in any case, the real subject of discussion
is where the image forms once the brain has carried out all its
processing. The answer provided by this scientist is not an answer
at all but a short account of the stage before the formation of
an image. The brain processes the signals, but it does not then
send them back to the eye or the ear. For this reason, it is not
the eye that sees, or the ear that hears. That being the case,
what does the brain do after processing the incoming signals?
Where is the processed information stored, and where is it turned
into images or sounds? Who is it who perceives this information
as images or sounds? When these scientists are asked for answers
to questions like these, they try to avoid accepting the truth
by offering long, convoluted accounts. Actually, it is a wonder
that there is any debate about such an obvious truth at all.
However,
all these ways of objecting to or avoiding the issue to hand are
feeble and invalid. Until someone who objects to the reality that
is described in these pages comes up with scientific facts to
disprove that all our perceptions are formed within our brains,
what he says will be of absolutely no worth. It is a fact that
images and all our senses form in our brains. However, even though
someone has clearly grasped this concept, he may still deny that
it is God who forms these images. He may say, 'I don't even like
to think about it,' or 'It is uncomfortable to imagine that I
can never see actual matter itself,' or "my life does not
have any meaning any more." That person may find it unnerving
that nothing exists but God. Yet he cannot say that he sees what
he does with his own eyes, or that the originals of what he sees
exist somewhere outside him. That is because there is no scientific
evidence or observation to show that that is the case, and neither
can there ever be any. In any case, even the most determined materialists
accept that images are seen inside the brain.
This
chapter will mainly be devoted to replying to the objections of
those who cannot bring themselves to accept this fact. Reading
these objections and the replies to them, you will see that the
replies are actually quite evident when examined with honesty
and without prejudice.
Objection:
"When you see a bus coming towards you, you get out of the
way to avoid being crushed. That means the bus exists. Why should
you get out of the way if you see it in your brain?"
Reply:
The point where those who ask such questions are mistaken is that
they think the concept of "perception" only applies
to the sense of sight. In fact, all sensations, such as touch,
contact, hardness, pain, heat, cold and wetness also form in the
human brain, in precisely the same way that visual images are
formed. For instance, someone who feels the cold metal of the
door as he gets off a bus, actually "feels the cold metal"
in his brain. This is a clear and well-known truth. As we have
already seen, the sense of touch forms in a particular section
of the brain, through nerve signals from the fingertips, for instance.
It is not your fingers that do the feeling. People accept this
because it has been demonstrated scientifically. However, when
it comes to the bus hitting someone, not just to his feeling the
metal of the indoor-in other words when the sensation of touch
is more violent and painful-they think that this fact somehow
no longer applies. However, pain or heavy blows are also perceived
in the brain. Someone who is hit by a bus feels all the violence
and pain of the event in his brain.
In order to understand this better,
it will be useful to consider our dreams. A person may dream of
being hit by a bus, of opening his eyes in hospital later, being
taken for an operation, the doctors talking, his family's anxious
arrival at the hospital, and that he is crippled or suffers terrible
pain. In his dream, he perceives all the images, sounds, feelings
of hardness, pain, light, the colors in the hospital, all aspects
of the incident in fact, very clearly and distinctly. They are
all as natural and believable as in real life. At that moment,
if the person who is having that dream were told it was only a
dream, he would not believe it. Yet all that he is seeing is an
illusion, and the bus, hospital and even the body he sees in his
dream have no physical counterpart in the real world. Although
they have no physical counterparts, he still feels as if a 'real
body' has been hit by a 'real bus.'
In the same way, there is no validity
to the materialists' objections along the lines of "You realize
that matter actually exists when someone hits you," "You
can have no doubt as to the existence of matter when someone kicks
your knee," "You run away when you meet a savage dog,"
"When a bus has hit you, you understand whether it is in
your brain or not," or "In that case, go and stand on
the motorway in front of the oncoming traffic". A sharp blow,
the pain from a dog's teeth or a violent slap are not evidence
that you are dealing with the matter itself. As we have seen,
you can experience the same things in dreams, with no corresponding
physical counterparts. Furthermore, the violence of a sensation
does not alter the fact that the sensation in question occurs
in the brain. This is a clearly proven scientific fact.
The reason why some people think
that a fast-moving bus on the motorway or an accident caused by
that bus are striking proofs of the fact they are dealing with
the physical existence of matter is that the image concerned is
seen and felt as so real that it deceives one. The images around
them, for instance the perfect perspective and depth of the motorway,
the perfection of the colors, shapes and shadows they contain,
the vividness of sound, smell and hardness, and the completeness
of the logic within that image can deceive some people. On account
of this vividness, some people forget that these are actually
perceptions. Yet no matter how complete and flawless the perceptions
in the mind may be, that does not alter the fact that they are
still perceptions. If someone is hit by a car while walking along
the road, or is trapped under a house that collapses during an
earthquake, or is surrounded by flames during a fire, or trips
up and falls down the stairs, he still experiences all these things
in his mind, and is not actually confronting the reality of what
happens.
When
someone falls under a bus, the bus in his mind hits the body in
his mind. The fact that he dies as a result, or that his body
is completely shattered, does not alter this reality. If something
a person experiences in his mind ends in death, God replaces the
images He shows that person with images belonging to the hereafter.
Those who are unable to understand the truth of this now on honest
reflection will certainly do so when they die.
Objection:
"It is true that I see all objects in my mind, but I am seeing
things that actually exist outside."
Reply:
The fact that we perceive the whole world in our brains has been
definitively established by science, and no right-thinking person
can claim anything to the contrary. However, the point that people
fail to understand is this: If we perceive all things in our minds,
then how can we be sure of the existence of things outside our minds?
This doubt is valid: We never can be sure that there do exist physical
counterparts of the things we perceive in our minds. That is because
we can never step outside our brains and see what is really out
there. That is why it is impossible to claim that the images in
our brains really correspond to things in the outside world. Nobody-not
the person making the claim, nor a neurologist, nor a brain surgeon,
nor a philosopher, nor anyone else-has ever been able to step out
of his own brain to see what there is outside it.
Everything
that a person knows about his life is perceived by the brain by
means of the electrical signals reaching it. In other words, we
always live in the worlds that exist within our own brains. The
birds we see when we look at the sky, the car about to disappear
from sight at the other end of the street, the things in our rooms,
the book in our hands, our friends, relations and everything else-all
of these are copy images that reach our brains. Nobody can step
outside this life within the brain. Neither science nor technology
can be of any assistance in doing so. That is because whatever a
scientist may invent, he still invents it within that image in his
brain. For that reason, the object he invents to see the outside
world with still remains inside his brain.
Although
the truth of this is perfectly clear, some people still maintain
that the images they see still correspond to physical realities
in the outside world. They believe in "matter" (even though
they have never seen matter itself), and they ignore the fact that
matter is nothing but a name people give to the illusions they see.
It is not possible for anyone to know what matter actually looks
like, because nobody has ever come face to face with the original
of anything. From the time of the first man right up to today, not
one human being has ever heard the original of any sound, nor seen
the original of any view, nor enjoyed the original smell of a rose.
We must
also remember this: Anyone who claims that there is a physical world
that exists beyond our perceptions still needs eyes with which to
see that world. And that outside world will turn into an electrical
signal when it passes through his eyes, and those electrical signals
will create an image inside his brain. Consequently, that person
will still be seeing the world inside his brain. If the nerves leading
to that person's brain are severed, the image of the world that
he maintains exists "outside" will also suddenly cease.
That being the case, what is the point of insisting on something
the original of which we can never see, and which can be of absolutely
no use to us even if it does exist?

Objection:
"Matter exists outside my brain. The pain when a knife slips
and cuts my hand and the blood that flows from it are not an image.
What is more, my friend was with me and saw it happen."
Reply:
We actually considered the reply to this objection in the previous
answer. Given the importance of the subject, however, it will be
beneficial to run over it one more time.
Those who
say this kind of thing ignore the fact that not only sight, but
other senses such as hearing, smell and touch also happen inside
the brain. That is why they say, "I may see the knife in my
brain, but the sharpness of the blade is a fact, just look how it
has cut my hand." However, the pain in that person's hand,
the warmth and wetness of the blood, and all the other perceptions
still form within the brain. The fact that his friend may have witnessed
the incident changes nothing, because his friend is also formed
in the same visual center of his brain where the knife is formed.
This person could also experience the same feelings in a dream-the
way he cut his hand with a knife, the pain in his hand, the image
and the warmth of his blood. He can also see in that dream the friend
who saw him cut himself. Yet the existence of his friend does not
prove the physical existence of what he sees in his dream.
Even if
someone came up just when he was cutting his hand in that dream
and said: "What you are seeing is just perceptions, this knife
is not real, the blood flowing from your hand and the pain in it
are not real, they are just events you are witnessing in your mind,"
the person will not believe him, and will object. He might even
say: "I am a materialist. I do not believe in such claims.
There is a physical reality in everything I am now seeing. Look,
can't you see the blood?"
Those who
insist that matter does actually physically exist outside are like
the person we have just been considering. In the world of perceptions
they live in, they hear the words, "All these things are perceptions,
and you can never reach the original sources of these perceptions,
nor can you know whether these originals even exist or not,"
yet they violently oppose this truth.
Yet we must
not forget that nobody who cuts his hand just says, "This is
only an image" and sits down without doing anything about it.
That is because God has created effects binding people to the images
they perceive. For instance, someone who cuts his hand puts something
on it, bandages it or goes to the doctor. However, all of these
processes again happen as images in the brain. The bandage and the
medicine he puts on are all images that form inside the brain.

Objection:
"Is saying that matter is an illusion we perceive in our minds
compatible with Islam?"
Reply:
Some Muslims suggest that the fact that matter is an illusion is
not compatible with Islam, and maintain that religious scholars
in the past rejected this fact. That is not actually the case, however.
On the contrary, what we are saying here is in complete conformity
with the verses of the Koran. Many of the verses that imply matter
is an illusion are exceedingly important for a definite understanding
of subjects revealed in the Koran, such as heaven and hell, timelessness,
infinity, resurrection and the hereafter.
Unquestionably,
even if he is unaware of this subject, a person can still live in
complete faith. He can have faith, with all his heart and feeling
no doubt, in what God has revealed in the Koran. We must still make
it clear, however, that an awareness of this subject allows such
a person to deepen his faith and certainty. A number of Islamic
scholars of the past looked on the matter from that same point of
view. The only factors that prevented what they had to say from
being widely spread and known were 1) the fact that the level of
science when they lived was unable to totally clarify the subject
and 2) the existence of trends that were apt to lead to its being
misunderstood.
The
most important of those Islamic scholars who explained the true
nature of matter was Imam Rabbani, who has been widely respected
in the Islamic world for hundreds of years and is seen as "the
greatest reformer of the 10th century according to the Muslim calendar."
In his book Letters, Imam Rabbani provides a detailed commentary
on this very subject. In one of his letters, Imam Rabbani says that
God created the entire universe at the level of perception:
I have used the
following sentence above, "God's creation is at the sphere
of senses and perceptions." This means "God's creation
is at such a sphere that at that sphere, there is no permanency
or existence for objects apart from senses and perceptions."
46
On close examination,
Imam Rabbani is careful to emphasize that the world we see, in other
words all that exists, has been created on the level of perception.
All that exists outside this level of perception is the Being of God.
Actually, this concept of "outside" is a hypothetical one,
because a perception has no body, and takes up no volume. Imam Rabbani
explains that things (in other words, matter) have no existence on
the outside:
Nothing
but God exists on the outside… Perhaps all of Almighty God's creation
finds constancy on the sphere of perception… In the same way that
matter has no existence in the outside world, it appears on the
outside in a colorless form… If it does have a fixed appearance,
that is again only on the perceptual level. It only has permanency
thanks to God's artistry on that one level. In short, it only
has permanency and appearance on one level. It does not have existence
on one plane and appearance on another… It contains no sign on
the outside that might allow it to be seen there…47
As
a result, as we can see from Imam Rabbani's clear exposition,either
by referring to science or by thinking with our powers of reason,
we reach the conclusion that we can never know whether there is
an actual physical counterpart corresponding to what we perceive.
All we can see is the image presented to us in our minds. It is
God, the Lord of all the Worlds, who creates this image and presents
it to us.
The
great Islamic scholar Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi also believes that
the only thing that has definitive existence is God, who has created
the whole universe only on the perceptual level. He is known as
"The Greatest Master" (Shaykh al-Akbar) on account of
the depth of his knowledge, and in his work The Essence of Wisdom
(Fusûs al-Hikam), he reveals that the universe is but a shadow existence
consisting of what is manifested by God:
I
say that you must know that apart from God, all that exists, or
everything in the universe, stands in the same relation to God
as a shadow to a man. That being the case, everything apart from
God is but His shadow… There is no doubt that the shadow exists
in perception.48
Muhyiddin
Ibn al-'Arabi offers a clear reply to those who see themselves as
having an existence independent of God, who believe that they enjoy
a separate existence:
As
I have explained to you, the world is a concept. It has no real
existence. That is what illusion means. You have thought to yourselves
that the world is something that intrinsically exists: That its
existence depends on itself, and that it exists independent of
God. However, that is not the case. Do you not see that the shadow
derives from its owner and since it is connected to him, it is
seemingly impossible for it to separate it from its owner… This
being so, you must know that you are but a dream. All that you
perceive, and all that which you say is "separate from the
Lord" or "it is not me" is also but a dream. All
that exists does so within a dream. God is the only One to possess
true existence in its very essence. 49
As
Muhyiddin Ibn al-'ArAlongside these two, Mawlana Jami also expresses
this astonishing truth, that he came by from signs in the Koran
and by using his own powers of reason, in the words; "Whatever
exists in the universe is but a perception. It is like a reflection
in a mirror, or a shadow".abi's words demonstrate, man is something
that possesses the soul God has breathed into him, a manifestation
of God. God is all that really exists, whereas man is a dream. This
is a most important truth, and we would be making a grave error
to believe the opposite.
As we have
seen, great Islamic thinkers have made this truth perfectly clear,
and for this reason it is not credible to claim that it conflicts
with the Koran and the Sunnah, or that it is rejected by the world
of Islam. What is more, it must not be forgotten that it is a scientifically
proven fact, which nobody can deny, that we see all that we do in
our brains. Because this was not scientifically known in past times,
it is quite natural that some Islamic scholars should not have referred
to it. Furthermore, the fact that matter is an illusion has been
described in a perverted way by some circles, who have tried to
do away with the rules and laws of religion in this way. On account
of these twisted and dishonest views, some Islamic scholars have
issued warnings against these dangers. However, these comments have
deviated from the truth. They should not be compared with the comments
we have seen above.
In
fact, Imam Rabbani mentions those philosophers who depart from the
truth when discussing the subject of matter. He stresses that what
he says is very different to their twisted views. He says the following
in his Letters:
When I refer
to the world as "imaginary," I do not mean that it is
made and shaped by the imagination… Of course, what it really means
is that God has created the world on the perceptual level… An imaginary
thing has no true appearance or body… This can be likened to a circle
created by the fast cycling of a point. It also has an appearance,
but not a body…
On
the other hand, philosophers who are comprised of a group of lunatics
actually talk about something else. What they mean is that the world
is the work of imagination and it is shaped by the imagination.
There is a great difference between the two.50
As Imam
Rabbani has made clear, the ancient Greek sophists said that "matter
is a perception we have created ourselves." This view is rationally
and scientifically flawed, and departs from true religion. As we
have stressed from the very beginning, the truth is that matter
is a perception created by God.
It
is a grave error to confuse this false view of those philosophers,
with the explanation given here by Islamic scholars that "matter
is a perception created by God."
A href="repliestoobjections2.html"
46- Ýmam Rabbani, Letters
of Rabbani, Vol II, 357. Letter, p. 163
47- Ýmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 470.
Letter, p.1432
48- Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p.
117-118
49- Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p.
120-122
50- Ýmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 480.
Letter, p. 543, 545
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