Quran 17:85 · Al-Isra

‘The Spirit’ here means divine revelation. The Arabs who used to question the Prophet were not deniers of revelation. Their questions arose not out of their ignorance of the fact that God reveals His message to His prophets, but out of their ignorance of the Prophet, that is, not considering him worthy of receiving divine revelation. It was at a time when history had not yet created an aura of greatness around the Prophet. He appeared to people like a common man, so they could not believe that the angel would come to him with God’s words, and if they questioned him, it was only to scoff at him. However, in answer to this question the Quran gives us a very important principle, that is, that man has been granted only a little knowledge, and not complete knowledge. That is why realism demands that he refrain from embroiling himself in such questions as he cannot answer because of his natural limitations. In ancient times man could see only with his naked eye. So observation by the eye could work only over a specific distance, which is not enough to study the truth. For instance, something which appears from a distance to be a single object turns out to be two when we come closer to it. Since so many gadgets have become available in latter times, man has come to look upon them as remedies for his limitations. He thinks that by means of these gadgets, things can be observed to the fullest possible extent. But when man reached the twentieth century this misunderstanding came to an end. Then he learnt that things were far more complex and mysterious than were imagined, even with the aid of these gadgets. This being so, remaining content with limited knowledge is now the demand of realism, not just the demand of some creed. During the age of Newton, the world of scientific research was limited to the macro world. In those times, it was held that all things of the world, in their ultimate analysis, were a combination of atoms and the atom was something which could be weighed and measured. In the light of this theory, it was believed that anything that could be weighed and measured or was tangible had any real existence. Consequently an unseen God could not be believed in at a scientific level. However in the 20th century in the era of Einstein, with the splitting of the atom, human knowledge reached the micro world from the macro world. Now it was demonstrated that the atom was composed of electrons and protons, which were nothing but intangible waves or energy which could not be seen. It could be apprehended only by means of indirect effect or by inference. Therefore, unobservable things that could be proved by inference also came to be considered as having a real existence. This led to the belief in the argument from design. “Where there is a design (Universe) there is a Designer”. It was thus accepted that if we could see the effect of God, His design, or the Universe, we had to ultimately believe in the existence of the Designer or the Maker of the universe. Our capacities are limited, but the world beyond us is unlimited. It is impossible for the limited to grasp the unlimited. Human limitation demands that man should remain content with indirect knowledge, and stop insisting on direct knowledge. In other words, knowledge acquired by indirect methods should be regarded as being as valid as that acquired by observation.