“Extraterrestial Intelligence; Amazing New Insights from Qur’an in the Light of Its Own Nature” by Sayeedur Rahman, Furqania Academy 2009.
Bookreview by Arnold Yasin Mol, DRC 2009.
Life
Are we the only highly intelligent and adaptable life form in the universe? Are we alone? This is one of the most fundamental questions, and if answered, can change our whole civilization. Because although we are with over 6 billion humans, we feel utterly alone in our position in the universe. Are we privileged (only life in the universe), or a freak by-product of the universe, or are we one of the many life forms which the universe is meant to produce? Many great scientists are starting to believe it is the latter. According to them, the laws of nature are formed in such a way, that they create a perfect environment for life to emerge in. You can approach the outcome of this conclusion in two ways: that this universe just happens to be perfect for life (no purpose behind it), or that the universe is meant to produce life (thus implying intent behind it). As the chance of a universe just happening to be perfect for life is beyond probality, some scientists came up with the idea of a multi-verse, that in reality, unending universes emerge, each with their own properties, and that thus some are perfect for life isn’t a surprise since they are bound to appear in this unending cycle of emerging universes. But this multi-verse ‘machine’ just moves the probability-question, as a reality that produces unending different universes is in itself a complex reality. How could that sort of reality have emerged? As this universe is so complex and precise, every time a theory is formed to explain the origins of this complexity, the only thing that the theory will do, is avoid the still present question: what was the first cause of reality? What triggered it to move?
For me, it is illogical and impossible that this development of complexity, whether our universe is part of a multi-verse or not, to have started without a causation. Something caused to start reality with its different layers of energy to form and become more and more complex. For this evolution of complexification to be possible, the start off point of reality must have had this possibility build in. As the causation triggered the cause, the causation must then be of Absolute characters to have this ability. This Absolute which also causes reality with a built-in plan to emerge, must be beyond a mathematical principle, because it has a goal, it wants life to emerge, and thus it has a will, a Self. Thus we can understand that there is an Absolute Self which is the creator of all reality.
Now we are just starting to understand how dominant this life-creating-possibility is within the structure of the universe, and through possibility equations the idea of millions of planets with intelligent life has become a reality. So life MUST be out there in the universe. We are not alone.
Did God tell us?
Since the beginning of human history, spiritual and religious traditions have emerged that relate to contact or understanding the Divine. Over the millennia, several views on God were formed, and traditions were written down. Some of these traditions directly claim to be divine communication. As we now understand nature better then ever before, and have a clearer view on religious traditions and interpretation, we can judge these religious scriptures if their texts are realistic or not. The oldest scriptures as the Hindu Veda’s and the Judeo-Christian Bible show clear traces of hundreds of years of human tampering and editing of the texts. And so their texts are clearly not universal or coinciding with nature and humanism, but reflect the cultural beliefs of their times. And so if real communication had occurred with the originators of the scriptures, it is hard to get a clear view on them in our age. The youngest of the scriptures, the Qur’an, has a different history as it was written down immediately without any editing, and its view on nature and mankind coincides with our scientific and universal thinking. The Veda’s and the Bible have been studied to see if they mention life beyond earth, but only through re-interpretation of some verses they could be understood as confirming alien life. But this doesn’t confirm to traditional interpretations of these texts, and although that is not a direct criteria, it shows these scriptures are not clear about this subject. This is not so with the Qur’an. The Islamic scripture has not only several verses which mention life beyond earth, affirming other worlds, but these verses have for the majority of Qur’anic commentators been understood as confirming alien life, since the beginning of Islamic history.
19:93 Certainly, everyone (kullu man) in the heavens (as-Samawat) and the earth/ground (al-Ardh) will but come to the Ultimate Provider (ar-Rahman) as a servant.
The above verse is very precise in what it describes. The Arabic word kullu means ‘all of it’, the Arabic word man means ‘a person’, ‘someone that is considered intelligent like a human’, as for example an animal as an ape or dolphin cannot be addressed with man, although these animals are undeniably intelligent. It must have a developed consciousness. Thus kullu man means every intelligent self-aware being that can be communicated with. The Arabic word as-Samawat comes from the root sama which means ‘to be high above’, ‘above or beyond earth’, ‘something that is clear and distinguishable’. Al-Ardh means ‘the land which you can walk on’ and is the word where the English word ‘earth’ comes from. The combination al-Ardh and as-Samawat shows two different fields, one is land where you can walk on, the other is everything above and beyond it. Thus it is clear that the heavens in the above verse cannot be just the earth’s atmosphere, but the whole universe itself. And this shows how clear the Qur’an is on there being intelligent alien life in the universe, as it describes ‘all conscious beings/kullu man’ within the universe/as-Samawat AND the land/earth/al-Ardh. Intelligent conscious life exists on earth and in the rest of the universe.
There are several verses that say or indicate the same (42:29, 16:49, 17:44 etc.), and so the science of believing there is conscious alien life is in concord with the Qur’anic worldview. Sayeedur Rahman’s book “Extraterrestial Intelligence; Amazing New Insights from Qur’an in the Light of Its Own Nature” discusses these verses and shows that the Qur’anic worldview resulting from them also influences the interpretation of other verses that normally were only interpretated from a human-on-earth point of view, and now can be understood as having a cosmic audience and subject.
An Unfolding Theory
There are several verses in the Qur’an that talk about humans having multiple lives (53:44-47, 22:66, 7:172, 23:99-100), which were mostly understood as allegorical, referring to stages in an human life or of a group. Rahman understands these verse as referring to actual lives being lived on different planets, where by all of us has emerged in different species on different planets and eventually vanishes through natural disasters as they would not accept the communications given to them by God. The idea of rebirth has been read in the Qur’an by several scholars that were mostly from Indian descent, as rebirth is a doctrine in the on Indian origin’s Hindu and Buddhist faith. My first reaction to reading Rahman’s theory was that he is a direct product of the Indian culture, and tries to incorporate this into Islamic interpretation. But does this make his ideas invalid? Certainly not. Islam originated in the Arabic peninsula where Semitic worldviews dominated. The dominant approach to the Qur’an has thus always been a combination of Judeo-Christian and Persian doctrines. And so the Qur’an has never had a true universal interpretation, which combined all the ideas and knowledge of mankind into a Qur’anic interpretation, a revelation which addresses mankind as a whole.
Rahman’s theory of Qur’anic rebirth differs with the Hindu and Buddhist doctrine on many points, as he bases them purely on Qur’anic verses. He first discusses the concept of alien life existing on other planets and how this is confirmed by the Qur’an. This has a direct influence on understanding who the Qur’an is addressing and who has been addressed by previous revelations. He then discusses the ‘multiple lives’ verses mentioned above as indicating that our consciousnesses/souls have existed before in other intelligent species on other planets, and that our souls will keep travelling from species to species, every time arising on a different planet and eventually destroyed by natural disasters, until the Day of Judgement whereby the whole universe is destroyed. The question that arises is of course, why, why give people multiple lives? Rahman answers this simple and convincing, God is the Most Merciful and will give respite to all beings again and again, so they have the chance to reform themselves into doing good and discovering the truth.
Rahman’s theories are worked out well and has opened new roads in approaching the Qur’an and shows the cosmic significance of its message. It also proves that the Qur’an is still unfolding itself, and will keep revealing itself in line with our growing understanding of the universe and the collected ideas and potentials of mankind. It is an important work and a mind-opening read, that will create many fruitful discussions.
Arnold Yasin Mol©DRC 2009