THE REAL ESSENCE OF MATTER

Materialists Have Fallen into the Biggest Trap in History

The panicky atmosphere sweeping materialist circles in Turkey, of which we've mentioned only a few examples here, shows that materialists face utter defeat. Modern science has proven that we cannot reach the original of matter, and put this forward in a clear, straightforward, forceful way. Materialists see that the material world, on which they base their entire philosophy, lies beyond a perceptual boundary they can never cross. In the face of this fact, they can do nothing. Throughout human history, materialist thought has always existed. Being assured of themselves and their philosophy, materialists revolted against God Who created them. They maintained that matter is eternal, that none of it could possibly have had a Creator. While denying God out of their arrogance, they took refuge in matter alone, with which they held themselves to be in direct contact. So confident were they of this philosophy that they believed that no arguments could ever disprove it.

That is why this book's facts regarding the real nature of matter so surprised these people. What we've related here destroyed the very basis of their philosophy and left no grounds for further discussion. Matter, on which they based all their thoughts, lives, arrogance, and denial, suddenly vanished. No human being has ever seen matter as it "really" is, so no philosophy can be based upon it.

One of the attributes of God is His plotting against the unbelievers. This is stated in the verse; "They plot and plan, and God too plans; but the best of planners is God." (Surat al-Anfal: 30)

God entrapped materialists by making them assume that matter is an absolute existence and in so doing, humiliated them in a way never seen before. Materialists deemed their possessions, status, rank, the society they belong to, the whole world to be absolute. Moreover, by relying on these, they grew arrogant against God. By being boastful, they revolted against Him and added to their unbelief. While so doing, they relied on a total conviction in the absoluteness of matter. Yet so lacking are they in understanding that they fail to realize that God compasses them round about. God announces the state to which the unbelievers are led as a result of their thick-headedness:

Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a Plot! (Surat at-Tur: 42)

Theirs is most probably the biggest intellectual defeat in history. While growing arrogant of their own accord, materialists have been tricked and suffered a serious defeat in their war against God by bringing up something monstrous against Him. The verse "Thus have We placed leaders in every town, its wicked men, to plot [and burrow] therein: but they only plot against their own souls, and they perceive it not" (Surat al-An‘am: 123) announces how unconscious these people who revolt against our Creator are, and how they will end up. In another verse the same fact is related as:

Fain would they deceive God and those who believe, but they only deceive themselves, and realise (it) not! (Surat al-Baqara: 9)

While trying to plot, unbelievers do not realize the very important fact that everything they experience is really experienced in their brains, and all the plots they devise are simply formed in their brains, just like every other act they perform. Their folly has let them forget that they are all alone with God and, hence, are trapped in their own devious plans.

Just like those unbelievers of bygone days, those living today face a reality that will shatter the basis of their devious plans. With the verse "...feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan" (Surat an-Nisa’: 76), God has stated that these plots were doomed to end with failure the day they were hatched, and gave the good tidings to believers with the verse "...not the least harm will their cunning do to you." (Surah Al ‘Imran: 120)

In another verse God states: "But the Unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst mistakes for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing." (Surat an-Nur: 39) Materialism, too, offers a mirage for the rebellious; when they have recourse to materialism, they find its philosophy to be nothing but deceptive. God has deceived them with such a mirage, and beguiled them into perceiving matter as an absolute. All those eminent professors, astronomers, biologists, physicists and all others, regardless of their rank and post, are simply deceived and humiliated because they took matter as their god. Assuming matter, whose essence they can never reach, to be absolute, they based their philosophy and ideology on it, grew involved in serious discussions, adopting a so-called "intellectual" discourse. They deemed themselves wise enough to argue about the truth of the universe and, more seriously to interpret God with their limited intelligence. God explains their situation in the following verse:

And [the unbelievers] plotted and planned, and God too planned, and the best of planners is God. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 54)

One may possibly escape from some plots in the world; but God's plan against the unbelievers is so firm that there is no avoiding it. No matter what they do or to whom they appeal, never can they find any helper other than God. As God informs in the Qur'an, "they shall not find for them other than God a patron or a help." (Surat an-Nisa’: 173)

Materialists never expected to fall into such a trap. Having all the means of the twenty-first century at their disposal, they believed they could grow obstinate in their denial and drag others into disbelief. This ever-lasting mentality of unbelievers and their end are described as follows in the Qur'an:

They plotted and planned, but We too planned, even while they perceived it not. Then see what was the end of their plot! - this, that We destroyed them and their people, all [of them]. (Surat an-Naml: 50-51)

This, in another sense, is what the fact stated in the verses comes to mean: Materialists are now told that everything they own is actually in their brains, and therefore, everything they possess has been rendered valueless. As they witness their possessions, factories, gold, money, children, spouses, friends, rank and status, and even their own bodies—all of which they deem absolute—slipping away from them hands, in a sense, they are destroyed. They come face to face with the fact that God, not matter, is the only absolute.

Realizing this truth is doubtless the worst possible thing for the materialists. That matter in which they place such faith, is separated from them by an impenetrable frontier is, in their own words, tantamount to "death before dying" in this world.

This leaves them all alone with God. With the verse, "Leave Me alone, [to deal] with the [creature] whom I created [bare and] alone!" God has called our attention to the fact that each human being is, in truth, all alone in His presence. (Surat al-Muddaththir: 11) This remarkable fact is repeated in many other verses:

"And behold! You come to Us bare and alone as We created you for the first time: you have left behind you all (the favours) which We bestowed on you..." (Surat al-An‘am:  94)

And each one of them will come unto Him on the Day of Resurrection, alone. (Surah Maryam: 95)

This, in another sense, is what the fact stated in the verses comes to mean: Those who take matter as their god have come from God and returned to Him. They have submitted themselves to God, whether they want to or not. Now they wait for the Day of Judgement, when each one of them will be called to account, however unwilling they may be to understand it.

The Importance of the Subject

It is of the utmost importance to understand correctly the secret beyond matter explained in this chapter. Mountains, plains, flowers, people, seas—briefly everything we see and everything that God informs us in the Qur’an that exists and that He created out of nothing is created and does indeed exist. However, people cannot see, feel or hear the real nature of these beings through their sense organs. What they see and feel are only their copies that appear in their brains. This is a scientific fact taught at all schools of medicine. The same applies to the book you are reading now; you can not see nor touch the real nature of it. The light coming from the original book is converted by some cells in your eyes into electrical signals, which are then conveyed to the visual centre in the back of your brain. This is where the view of this book is created. In other words, you are not reading a book which is before your eyes through your eyes; in fact, this book is created in the visual centre in the back of your brain. The book you are reading right now is a “copy of the book” within your brain. The original book is seen by God.

It should be remembered, however, that the fact that the matter is an illusion formed in our brains does not “reject” the matter, but provides us information about the real nature of the matter: that no person can have connection with its original. Moreover, the matter outside is seen not just by us, but by other beings too. The angels God delegated to be watchers witness this world as well:

And the two recording angels are recording, sitting on the right and on the left. He does not utter a single word, without a watcher by him, pen in hand! (Surah Qaf: 17-18)

Most importantly, God sees everything. He created this world with all its details and sees it in all its states. As He informs us in the Qur'an:

… Heed God and know that God sees what you do. (Surat al-Baqara: 233)

Say: "God is a sufficient witness between me and you. He is certainly aware of and sees His servants." (Surat al-Isra’: 96)

It must not be forgotten that God keeps the records of everything in the book called Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet). Even if we don't see all things, they are in the Lawh Mahfuz. God reveals that He keeps everything's record in the "Mother of the Book" called Lawh Mahfuz with the following verses:

It is in the Source Book with Us, high-exalted, full of wisdom. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 4)

… We possess an all-preserving Book. (Surah Qaf: 4)

Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or Earth which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)

Conclusion

The subject we have explained so far is one of the greatest truths you will ever read in your lifetime. Proving that everything we see and refer to as "the material world" is actually in our minds, that we can never have direct experience of the material originals existing outside, is important in comprehending the existence of God and His creations and to understanding that He is the only absolute Being.

The person who understands this will realize that the world is not the sort of place that most people surmise. Not an absolute place with an exterior existence, as supposed by those who wander aimlessly about the streets, get into fights in pubs, show off in luxurious cafes, brag about their property, or who dedicate their lives to hollow aims. The world is an image we see in our brain, whose original we can never reach. All of the people cited above watch these perceptions in their minds, yet are unaware of this.

This very important concept undermines the materialist philosophy that denies the existence of God. This is why materialists like Marx, Engels, and Lenin panicked, became enraged, and warned their followers "not to think over" this concept when told about it. Such people are so mentally deficient that they cannot even comprehend the fact that perceptions are formed inside the brain. Assuming that what they watch in their brains is the "external world," they cannot comprehend obvious evidence to the contrary.

This unawareness is the outcome of the lack of wisdom God gives to disbelievers. As it is said in the Qur'an, the unbelievers "have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle-nay more misguided: for they are heedless [of warning]." (Surat al-A‘raf: 179)You can explore beyond this by using the power of your personal reflection. Concentrate your attention, and ponder on how you see the objects around you and feel their touch. Think heedfully, and you can feel that the being that thinks and reads this book at this moment is only a soul, who watches the perceptions called "matter" on an inner screen. Anyone who grasps this has moved away from the domain of the material world that deceives a major part of humanity and has entered the domain of authentic existence.

This reality has been understood by a number of theists or philosophers throughout history. Even though the Wahdatul Wujood view has deviated from the truth by misunderstanding this reality and rejecting the existence of all creation, great scholar Imam Rabbani set the right measure on this subject. According to Imam Rabbani, all beings are "shadow beings" relative to Allah.

Islamic intellectuals such as Imam Rabbani, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi and Mevlana Cami realised this fact from the signs of the Qur'an and by using their reason. Some Western philosophers like George Berkeley have grasped the same reality through reason. Imam Rabbani wrote in his Mektubat (Letters) that the whole material universe is an "illusion and supposition (perception)" and that the only absolute being is God:

God... The substance of these beings which He created is but nothingness... He created all at the sphere of senses and illusions... The existence of the universe is at the sphere of senses and illusions, and it is not material... In real, there is nothing in the outside except the Glorious Being, (Who is God).214

However, the number of those who have understood this fact throughout history has always been limited. Great scholars such as Imam Rabbani have written that it might have been inconvenient to tell this fact to the masses and that most people would not be able to grasp it.

However, in the age we live in, this fact has been made empirical by the body of evidence put forward by science. For the first time, the fact that matter is not absolute and our knowledge of it is extremely limited is described in a concrete, clear, and explicit way.

For this reason, the 21st century will be a turning point when people in general will comprehend the Divine realities and be led in crowds to God, the only Absolute Being. In the 21st century, materialistic 19th-century creeds will be relegated to the trash-heaps of history; God's existence and creation will be grasped; facts like spacelessness and timelessness will be better understood. Humanity will break free of the centuries-old veils, deceits, and superstitions enshrouding us.

It's not possible for any shadow being to impede this inevitable course.

214 Imam Rabbani Hz. Mektuplari (Letters of Rabbani), Vol.II, 357, Letter, p.163