BY IRFAN BABA
Being a prophet, in fact the peerless prophet having virtue to converse with God in person, Moses yet was directed to follow an unknown man called Khidr. Astonishingly Khidr refuted to take the Moses as he could cognize that the Prophet would not be able to deduce his conduct. The acumen of the Prophet will fall in conflict with the acts of Khidr. Later proven true, eventually led to disengagement. Khidr explained everything before disunion, though. During the journey, however Khidr had gestured that divinity could not be grasped using sheer intellect. It was illustrated through an example of a bird who dampen its beak in the sea. Khidr interpreted that the water on the beak should be considered as the cognition endowed to us. The water in the sea, albeit is then the knowledge reserved by the God. This example clearly states that divinity cannot be comprehended sheer by intellect as the ration between them is discriminately in disequilibrium. It requires divine knowledge to understand divinity or its message, of course incorporated with intellect.
Divinity is absolute, human intelligence is just a cog or even lesser with flaws too, in comparison. Indeed our progress and development in any field of life is majorly dependent on intellect. The advancement through intelligence is a clear indicator that human intelligence is flawed and incomplete. The progress is simply fruition of working on previous discrepancies and produce fascinating and improved sequel. Today’s outcomes, for sure will be improved tomorrow, in turn. Therefore today’s updated results become tomorrow’s obsolete. Had it not been so, our first generation on the planet would had reached to the epitome, the epitome that we shall never touch nor the coming generations because the advancement is a continuous process. Hence intelligence can improve but cannot reach the perfection, a perfection which leaves no room for betterment while as Divinity is perfect, cannot be enhanced. So it is not possible that we can possess divinity with just intelligentsia which is actually feeble before former. Perfection cannot be chased by flaw oriented devise.
As a custom dignitaries do not introduce, nor praise themselves, nor ask for respect. This antagonizes etiquettes. The honor is done by others. What leaves us perplexed is that God introduced Himself, praised Self and asked people to worship Him.
Who introduced Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) in Vedas? In the Bible Saiah 48:9-11, God praised himself. In the preamble of Korran God taught us how to worship Him. Worship is a sort of respect. In every religious scripture God did; introduce Himself, praised Himself and asked to Worship Him. Did God violated the code of customs and etiquettes or He is unbound to such traditions? The reason is clear that intellect would never be able to describe God. An atheist cannot be convinced about the existence of God, scientifically or logically. It needs faith. Faith is a component of Divinity and Its message. Prophet Abraham (PBUM) tried to find God in stars, sun etc. using his intellect but he fizzled until divine knowledge descended on him. The modus operandi of intelligence is data, amassed through knowledge, experience, observation, logic etc. etc.
‘Khirad k paas khabar ke siwa kuch aur nahi.’
(The mind can give you naught, but what with doubt is fraught.)
Divinity is conviction based on feel and contentment. Intellect would never suggest Prophet Abraham to accept burning in fire or sacrificing his own son. Fire would burn him, logically and sacrificing his son for unseen God is never palatable to coherence. But he practiced faith.
Be-khatar kod pada aatish i namrood mai ishq
Aqal hai mehvi tamashaye labe baam abi
(Love fearlessly jumped into the fire of Namrud. Intellect is absorbed in the spectacle from roof-top still.)
Intelligence would never be able to know the God and that’s why He had to introduce Himself. Intellect would meet with disaster while knowing whether to worship God. He therefore had to ask people to worship Him. Intellect would never be able to access and gauge the worth and the might of God. He had to, then praise Himself. This again implies that divine guidance is must while understanding divinity or its message. Intelligence alone cannot do the job.
Intellect is confined, though logic stricken remains under illusion that it is as vast as the Universe. Scientifically, a fact has been proven that no man on planet has been able to avail whole potential of his brain. Only a meager percentage of brain has been applied by iconic scientists, philosophers or intellectuals. This connotes that intellect is limited as there is restrained usage of brain.
Intellect has a major impediment. It construes things as per one’s ability, intentions, knowledge, habits, internal and external factors etc. etc. In various segments of science, proofs can be presented to settle disputes, although, in non-material science like politics, philosophy, literature etc. conflicts could never be settled. After ages the criticism of Aristotle against his own teacher Pluto on Ideal State remains unsettled. Intellect led to different course on this single subject, these paths did not merge thus left subsisting void. This is an advantage, though, travelling on different paths on single subject helps in finding various methods, improvement and progress. However does not apply to divinity which, if studied through intelligence only, evolves conflicts, lead people to different tracks, away from prescribed ‘Straight Path’ of God. It should be bear in mind that there is only one path prescribed by God himself which leads to him is called the ‘Straight Path.’ There is no other path. Intelligence would create its own paths thus remain distracted and away from Omniscience.
Gah meri nigahe tez cheer gayi dil i wajood
Gah ulaj ke reh gayi meri tohmaat mai.
(There were times when my vision sharp pierced the heart and core of life. Time again, fell short of mark by mine inner doubts and strife.)
To understand divinity and its message (scriptures) intellect is must but under divine supervision.
Intellect is undoubtedly a priceless gift from God. It differentiates humans from other creatures. This gift is but for worldly affairs, to excel, to progress in them by creating conflicts, giving rise to doubts and clearing them through science and logic. However divinity cannot be engulfed by intelligence or its entities as rightly exampled by Khidr that water on beak cannot encircle the whole sea.
Intellect is flawed while divinity is omniscient…
Irfan Baba is an author of a novel entitled ‘Love and the Other World’, hails from Srinagar-Kashmir.
