The
Koran strongly recommends to ponder and meditate upon
the Creation to find the traces of the Creator in its
harmony. Hence the so-called "cosmological verses''
which are frequently quoted as one of the many miracles
included in the Koranic text. The exploration of the world
is encouraged, provided the explorer is wise enough to
recognize that the harmony that is present in the cosmos
originates in God.
By
looking at the cosmos, the intelligence He put in us constantly
meets His Intelligence. Several Koranic verses draw the
reader's attention to the numerical order that is present
in the cosmos.
The
cosmic regularities which are a consequence of God's Will
can thus be qualified as "mathematical regularities.''
The
esoteric doctrines of Islam go one step further.
According
to the views of the Akbarian school, funded after the
work of Muhyi-d-din Ibn Arabi (1165 -- 1240), the Creation
is God's self-disclosure to Himself through the veils
and signs of the creatures.
The
things “are” not, since only God is.
They
only own a given preparation to receive being and qualities
from God. The (relative) stability of cosmic phenomena
is rooted in God's (absolute) immutability.
However,
the status of the cosmos is paradoxical, between absolute
Being, God Himself, and absolute nothingness. As a consequence,
we cannot expect to reach clear-cut statements about the
fundamental reality of the world.
According
to the Islamic theology, God does not act by fixing the
laws of physics and the initial conditions and letting
the world evolve mechanistically.
As
a matter of fact, there is nothing like secondary causes,
simply because God, as the “primary” Cause,
does not cease to create again the world at each instant.
In this continuous renewal of creation, the atoms and
their accidents are created anew at each time.
The
regularities that are observed in the world are not due
to causal connection, but to a constant conjunction between
the phenomena, which is a habit or custom established
by God's Will.
This
principle of the Islamic theology apparently contradicts
the views of modern science, which of course stipulate
the existence of secondary causes.
But
we must understand the negation of causality by the Islamic
tradition as an emphasis on the metaphysical mystery of
the continuous validity of the laws.
This
questioning on causality is not an obstacle to our scientific
investigation of the cosmos. On the contrary, it prompts
us to reflect upon the way God acts, and shows His signs
“upon the horizons” (Koran, 41:53).
In
the Middle Ages,the distance to God's throne was “measured”
by the Arab astronomer al-Farghani to 120 million km,
under simple assumptions on the properties of the planetary
spheres in the paradigm of the Ptolemaic cosmology.
The
renewal of creation taught by the Islamic doctrines also
means the continuous appearance of new creatures. At each
level of the cosmos, there are always new things. God
is infinite and "self-disclosure never repeats itself''.
So
God's self-disclosure is endless. What appears in the
Creation exactly corresponds to the flow of possible things.
This
is why, according to al--Ghazali (1058 -- 1111), "there
is nothing in possibility more wondrous than what is'',
because what is actually reflects God's desire to show
up to us. This helps us understand the Prophetic saying
: "Curse not time, for God is time.''
The
production of an infinite number of ``patches'' of the
physical universe described by chaotic inflation, reflects
God's eternal self-disclosure. The appearance of ``emerging
properties'' at all levels of complexity, and particularly
the appearance of life and intelligence, is another aspect
of this continuous self-disclosure.
This
is why Ibn Arabi comments: ``God does not become bored
that you should become bored.''
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