The Method for the Discovery of God
The philosophical pursuit of God dates back to ancient Greece. It is believed that the first Greek philosopher was Thales of Miletus, who lived during 546 to 624 BC. Philosophy, in essence, is the search for the Creator, but philosophers could never be successful in discovering the Creator. Philosophy is commonly defined as the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language. This, however, is a superficial statement about the true subject of philosophy. In reality, philosophy is the scholarly search for God or the supreme truth.
All philosophers were in search of the truth, giving different names to their search. But no philosopher was successful in his quest. It is said about the British philosopher Bertrand Russell that he was a philosopher of no philosophy. This is not true of only one philosopher, rather this statement is applicable to all philosophers. The supreme reality has been the centre of search of every philosopher, but no philosopher could find a clear answer to his quest.
Why is it that the philosophers remained engaged in the pursuit of God, but could not discover God with certainty? The reason was that the method they followed was unscientific. All scholars and thinkers who tried to reach God by following the philosophical method could not find God. These people wanted to see God directly, but the truth is that God can only be discovered indirectly. They tried to directly find God, just as they would observe and study other entities of the material world. However, this methodology was not appropriate in the matter of God. This is why those who followed it could not be successful.
What is the right methodology for the intellectual search for God? The Quran has given an indication of the right methodology for the discovery of God. Historically speaking, the quest for the truth began about 3,500 years ago in the age of the Israeli Prophet Moses. We receive guidance for the first time in an incident that occurred in the life of the Prophet Moses. The Prophet Moses was born 3,500 years ago in ancient Egypt. His story has been narrated with detail in the Quran. The relevant incident occurred on Mount Sinai, which has an elevation of 2,285 meters. The event has been described in the Quran in these words:
“And when Moses came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show Yourself to me so that I may look at You.’ He replied, ‘You cannot see Me, but look at the mountain; if it remains firmly in its place, then only will you see Me.’ And when his Lord manifested Himself on the mountain, He broke it into pieces and Moses fell down unconscious. And when he recovered, he said, ‘Glory be to You, I turn towards You, and I am the first to believe.’” (7:143)
So, what is the right approach in the matter of discovery of God? When we reflect on this Quranic verse, we arrive at the conclusion that a human being cannot directly see God. A person can gain knowledge about God only indirectly. That is, by pondering over the creation of God one can have knowledge of the Creator. This guidance on the method to be adopted with respect to discovering God was available in the history of the Prophet Moses since past 3,500 years. But philosophers and thinkers did not follow this methodology. They continued to seek a direct observation of God.
However, this methodology could be understood by people only after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) used the telescope to observe celestial objects. Galileo is considered the father of modern science. The beginning of modern science was in 1608 when humans invented the basic form of the telescope. In 1609 Galileo further developed this elementary telescope and from 1610 to 1612 observed the motion of various planets of the solar system: Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Neptune.
A tradition has been recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari according to which the Prophet once said that God would surely support this religion with the help of a secular (fajir) person. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 3062) This tradition of the Prophet gives a clue that in the matter of discovery of God, there will be a secular person who will provide initial direction.
I have been thinking on this subject since a very long time. I have arrived at the conclusion that the “secular person” mentioned in the above tradition of the Prophet is perhaps the Italian astronomer Galileo who was born four hundred years ago. In this matter, Galileo’s role was not a direct one, but an indirect one. That is, his discoveries indirectly helped in finding an answer to the question of what method one should adopt to discover God.
In the time of Galileo, a very important incident occurred, which was the discovery of the telescope. Like Newton’s ‘apple shock’, we can call this ‘tele-shock’. Einstein has written that Galileo was the father of modern science. It is indeed true that with Galileo science entered a new age. The telescope had already been invented in Holland, but Galileo came up with an improved version of the available telescope and could for the first time observe parts of the solar system.
In 1610, for several nights Galileo observed Jupiter and three objects near this large planet. By closely monitoring their motion over the course of a number of days he concluded that these objects near Jupiter were Jupiter’s satellites which were in orbit around it. Galileo’s findings of Jupiter’s satellites caused a revolution in astronomy: a planet with smaller planets orbiting it did not conform to the principles of Aristotelian cosmology, which held that all heavenly bodies should circle the Earth. Aristotle’s conception of the universe is also called Ptolemy’s geocentric model, according to which the earth is at the centre of the universe with the sun, planets and stars orbiting it. But Galileo’s discovery in 1610 and his subsequent observations of the planet Venus later that year further made the Ptolemaic geocentric model untenable. The new theory of the sun at the centre in the solar system with other planets including the earth revolving around it is called the heliocentric theory.
It would be right to say that just as Newton’s discovery of the gravitational force happened after his moment of ‘apple shock’, similarly Galileo’s discovery of the heliocentric theory began after the ‘tele-shock’. This incident led to the beginning of modern science. In other words, it can be said that the invention of the telescope helped in bringing science to a new age. The potential utility of the telescope in gaining knowledge about the universe was first employed by Galileo.
Galileo is called the father of modern science because he was able to delink one thing from the other. In this matter, the French biologist Dr Alexis Carrel writes: “Galileo, as is well known, distinguished the primary qualities of things, dimensions and weight, which are easily measurable, from their secondary qualities, form, color, odor, which cannot be measured. The quantitative was separated from the qualitative. The quantitative, expressed in mathematical language, brought science to humanity. The qualitative was neglected.” (Man, the Unknown, New York, 1939, p. 278)
Although Dr Alexis Carrel has portrayed the distinction between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of things as a negative occurrence, in reality this was the reason why the scientific revolution could at all be ushered in. This delinking opened up the doors of scientific research which until now had been closed due to the influence of philosophy.
After this differentiation between the quantitative and the qualitative, all scientific disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy started developing further. The findings in these scientific fields were not directly related to religion, but indirectly they had a very important bearing on religion. Now all disciplines of science began to be studied freely and independently. Research in these areas indirectly helped in proving God’s existence.
Scientifically speaking, the above methodology of Galileo’s meant that the observable aspect of things should be separated from their unobservable aspect. Before Galileo, scientists could not delink one from the other. Because they were so focused on discovering the unobservable aspect of things, they remained deprived of that which was observable. But now the entire focus became concentrated on those aspects which were observable. In this way, it was possible to discover the observable aspect of things and thus also indirectly gain knowledge about the unobservable aspect of things. In other words, it was now possible to scientifically study the ‘observable’ creation and by way of this discovery, reach the ‘unobservable’ Creator behind the creation. This method is called the inferential method of argument.
This scientific method resulted in indirectly uncovering divine truths. This is why in the twentieth century several books and articles were penned on this subject. An example is The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe: Forty American Scientists Declare their Affirmative Views on Religion (John Clover Monsma, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1958, pp. 250) This book has been translated into Arabic with the title Allahu Yatajalla fi Asr il-Ilm (1968).
I can say that I have made God the subject of study my entire life. After deep study, I have published several books and articles on this. One of the books is titled in Urdu Mazhab Aur Jadid Challenge (1966). This book has been translated into Arabic as Al-Islam Yatahadda (1976) and into English as God Arises (1987).
By differentiating between the unobservable and observable aspect of things, new scientific knowledge came to light. This can be used to rationally prove the veracity of religious truths.
