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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