text:
layout: post
title:  "Matter: The Other Name For Illusion"
description: When you look out of the window, you think that you see an image with your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to think. However, in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see the world with your eyes. You see the image created in your brains. This is not a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the scientific truth.
excerpt: We Can Never Reach The Original Of The World That Occurs Within Our Brain. The Sense of Distance Is Also A Perception ThatOccurs In The Brain
summary: When you look out of the window, you think that you see an image with your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to think. However, in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see the world with your eyes. You see the image created in your brains. This is not a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the scientific truth.
keywords: Matter The Other Name For Illusion Harun Yahya
tags:  Books
date:   2021-05-24 12:00:00
last_updated: Aug 29, 2021
categories: [Books ]
permalink: /:categories/:title/
comments: false
published: true
lang: en
redirect_from:
  - /books/2021/05/24/MATTER.html
  - /books/2021/05/24/Matter-The-Other-Name-For-Illusion.html
---

**How Do Images Come To Be Seen As Matter?**

## MATTER: THE OTHER NAME FOR ILLUSION

**HARUN YAHYA**

First English Edition published in February 2002

Second English Edition published in March 2002

Translated by:

Carl Rossini, Ron Evans and Andrew Clark

Edited by:

Teed Rockwell, PhD

KULTUR

PUBLISHERS

Catalcesme sk. Uretmen Han No: 29/7

Cagaloglu - Istanbul / TURKEY

Tel: (+90) 212 511 44 03

Printing Press: Secil Ofset

100 Yil Mahallesi MAS-SIT Matbaacilar Sitesi

4\. Cadde No: 77 Bagcilar - Istanbul / TURKEY

Tel: (+90) 212 629 06 15

Website:

[www.harunyahya.com](https://www.harunyahya.com/)

**CONTENTS**

**FOREWORD**

**INTRODUCTION**

**IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT THAT THE WORLD**

**COMES INTO EXISTENCE IN OUR BRAINS**

It's Not Our Eyes That See, It is Our Brain

We Hear All Types of Sound In Our Brains

All Smells Occur In The Brain

All Tastes Occur In The Brain

The Sense of Touch Also Occurs In The Brain

We Can Never Reach The Original Of The World

That Occurs Within Our Brain

The Sense of Distance Is Also A Perception That

Occurs In The Brain

The World of Senses Can Occur Without Outside World's Existence

Who Is It That Experiences All These Perceptions?

**WHY IS THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTER SUCH AN **

**IMPORTANT SUBJECT?**

The Truth About Matter Shows That God is The One Absolute Being

Human Actions Also Belong To God

An Understanding Of The Real Nature Of Matter

Will Lead People To Faith

Understanding The Reality Of Matter Removes Worldly Ambitions

The Environment That Will Come To Be When The Real

Nature Of Matter Is Not Kept Secret

Knowing The Real Nature Of Matter Is The End Of Materialism

**TIME IS A PERCEPTION TOO**

Time Is A Concept That Is Formed From The Comparison

Of One Moment With Another

The Concept Of The Relativity Of Time Is Revealed In The Koran

The Concept Of "Past" Comes From Information In Our Memories

Past And Future Are News Of The Unseen

The Importance Of Submission To Fate

**ETERNITY IS HIDDEN IN GOD'S MEMORY**

Everything Is Recorded In The Mother Of The Book

Past And Future Are Actually Experienced In The Present

The Importance Of This Matter For Human Beings

**REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS REGARDING THE REALITY OF MATTER**

**CONCLUSION: THE TRUTH CANNOT BE AVOIDED**

**THOSE WHO LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTER FEEL**

**GREAT EXCITEMENT**

**THE MISCONCEPTION OF EVOLUTION**

**About The Author**

Now writing under the pen-name of HARUN YAHYA, Adnan Oktar was born in
Ankara in 1956. Having completed his primary and secondary education in
Ankara, he studied arts at Istanbul's Mimar Sinan University and
philosophy at Istanbul University. Since the 1980s, he has published
many books on political, scientific, and faith-related issues. Harun
Yahya is well-known as the author of important works disclosing the
imposture of evolutionists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons
between Darwinism and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism.

Harun Yahya's works, translated into 60 different languages, constitute
a collection for a total of more than 45,000 pages with 30,000
illustrations.

His pen-name is a composite of the names Harun (*Aaron*) and Yahya
(*John*), in memory of the two esteemed Prophets who fought against
their peoples' lack of faith. The Prophet's seal on his books' covers is
symbolic and is linked to their contents. It represents the Qur'an (the
Final Scripture) and Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him
peace), last of the prophets. Under the guidance of the Qur'an and the
Sunnah (teachings of the Prophet \[may God bless him and grant him
peace\]), the author makes it his purpose to disprove each fundamental
tenet of irreligious ideologies and to have the "last word," so as to
completely silence the objections raised against religion. He uses the
seal of the final Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), who
attained ultimate wisdom and moral perfection, as a sign of his
intention to offer the last word.

All of Harun Yahya's works share one single goal: to convey the Qur'an's
message, encourage readers to consider basic faith-related issues such
as God's existence and unity and the Hereafter; and to expose
irreligious systems' feeble foundations and perverted ideologies.

Harun Yahya enjoys a wide readership in many countries, from India to
America, England to Indonesia, Poland to Bosnia, Spain to Brazil,
Malaysia to Italy, France to Bulgaria and Russia. Some of his books are
available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,
Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese, Swahili, Hausa, Dhivehi (spoken in
Mauritius), Russian, Serbo-Croat (Bosnian), Polish, Malay, Uygur
Turkish, Indonesian, Bengali, Danish and Swedish.

Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been
instrumental in many people recovering faith in God and gaining deeper
insights into their faith. His books' wisdom and sincerity, together
with a distinct style that's easy to understand, directly affect anyone
who reads them. Those who seriously consider these books, can no longer
advocate atheism or any other perverted ideology or materialistic
philosophy, since these books are characterized by rapid effectiveness,
definite results, and irrefutability. Even if they continue to do so, it
will be only a sentimental insistence, since these books refute such
ideologies from their very foundations. All contemporary movements of
denial are now ideologically defeated, thanks to the books written by
Harun Yahya.

This is no doubt a result of the Qur'an's wisdom and lucidity. The
author modestly intends to serve as a means in humanity's search for
God's right path. No material gain is sought in the publication of these
works.

Those who encourage others to read these books, to open their minds and
hearts and guide them to become more devoted servants of God, render an
invaluable service.

Meanwhile, it would only be a waste of time and energy to propagate
other books that create confusion in people's minds, lead them into
ideological confusion, and that clearly have no strong and precise
effects in removing the doubts in people's hearts, as also verified from
previous experience. It is impossible for books devised to emphasize the
author's literary power rather than the noble goal of saving people from
loss of faith, to have such a great effect. Those who doubt this can
readily see that the sole aim of Harun Yahya's books is to overcome
disbelief and to disseminate the Qur'an's moral values. The success and
impact of this service are manifested in the readers' conviction.

One point should be kept in mind: The main reason for the continuing
cruelty, conflict, and other ordeals endured by the vast majority of
people is the ideological prevalence of disbelief. This can be ended
only with the ideological defeat of disbelief and by conveying the
wonders of creation and Qur'anic morality so that people can live by it.
Considering the state of the world today, leading into a downward spiral
of violence, corruption and conflict, clearly this service must be
provided speedily and effectively, or it may be too late.

In this effort, the books of Harun Yahya assume a leading role. By the
will of God, these books will be a means through which people in the
twenty-first century will attain the peace, justice, and happiness
promised in the Qur'an.

All translations from the Koran are from "The Noble Qur'an: A New
Rendering of its Meaning in English" by Hajj Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley,
published by Bookwork, Norwich, UK. 1420 CE/1999 AH

**To The Reader**

The reason why a special chapter is assigned to the collapse of the
theory of evolution is that this theory constitutes the basis of all
anti-spiritual philosophies. Since Darwinism rejects the fact of
creation, and therefore the existence of God, during the last 150 years
it has caused many people to abandon their faith or fall into doubt.
Therefore, showing that this theory is a deception is a very important
duty, which is strongly related to the religion (deen). It is imperative
that this important service be rendered to everyone. Some of our readers
may find the opportunity to read only one of our books. Therefore, we
think it appropriate to spare a chapter for a summary of this subject.

In all the books by the author, faith-related issues are explained in
the light of the Koranic verses and people are invited to learn God's
words and to live by them. All the subjects that concern God's verses
are explained in such a way as to leave no room for doubt or question
marks in the reader's mind. The sincere, plain and fluent style employed
ensures that everyone of every age and from every social group can
easily understand the books. This effective and lucid narrative makes it
possible to read them in a single sitting. Even those who rigorously
reject spirituality are influenced by the facts recounted in these books
and cannot refute the truthfulness of their contents.

This book and all the other works of the author can be read individually
or discussed in a group at a time of conversation. Those readers who are
willing to profit from the books will find discussion very useful in the
sense that they will be able to relate their own reflections and
experiences to one another.

In addition, it will be a great service to the religion to contribute to
the presentation and reading of these books, which are written solely
for the good pleasure of God. All the books of the author are extremely
convincing. For this reason, for those who want to communicate the
religion to other people, one of the most effective methods is to
encourage them to read these books.

It is hoped that the reader will take time to look through the review of
other books on the final pages of the book, and appreciate the rich
source of material on faith-related issues, which are very useful and a
pleasure to read.

In these books, you will not find, as in some other books, the personal
views of the author, explanations based on dubious sources, styles that
are unobservant of the respect and reverence due to sacred subjects, nor
hopeless, doubt-creating, and pessimistic accounts that create
deviations in the heart.

**FOREWORD**

**W**hat is explained in this book is an important truth, which has
surprised many and changed their perspectives on life. This truth can be
summarized as follows: **"We cannot have direct experience of any of the
events and objects that we encounter in real life—buildings, people,
cities, cars, places—in fact, any of the things we see, hold, touch,
smell, taste and hear. We only confront visions and feelings formed in
our brains"**.

There is matter outside, yet we may never know the actual of the matter.
We assume with the inculcation we have been given that these are
invariable in a world outside our brains and hence that we see and feel
the actual of them. **However, in reality we never see real existing
materials and we never touch real materials.** In brief while assuming
all through our lives that we deal with the matter outside, in reality
we know the copy and image of everything.

This is not a philosophical speculation. It is an empirical fact that
has been proven by modern science. Today, any scientist who is a
specialist in medicine, biology, neurology or any other field related to
brain research would say, when asked how and where we see the world,
that **we see the whole world in the vision center located in our
brains. **

This fact has been scientifically proven in the twentieth century, and
although it may seem surprising, it necessarily implies answers to two
questions; **"Since throughout our lives we confront the images formed
in our brains, then who is it that creates these visions? And who is it
that sees these visions in our brains without having eyes and enjoys
them, gets excited and happy?"** You will find the answers to these two
important questions in this book.

**The Secret Beyond Matter is Not Wahdatul Wujood**

The topic called "The Real Essence of Matter" has been criticized by
some people. Having misunderstood the essence of the subject, these
people claim that what is explained as the secret beyond matter is
identical to the teaching of Wahdatul Wujood. Let us state, before all
else, that the author of this book is a believer strictly abiding by the
doctrine of Ahlus Sunnah and does not defend the view of Wahdatul
Wujood.

However, it should also be remembered that Wahdatul Wujood was defended
by some leading Islamic scholars including Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi. It
is true that numerous significant Islamic scholars who described the
concept of Wahdatul Wujood in the past did so by considering some
subjects found in these books. Still, what is explained in these books
is not the same as Wahdatul Wujood.

Some of those who defended the view of Wahdatul Wujood were engrossed by
some erroneous opinions and made some claims contrary to the Qur'an and
the doctrine of Ahlus Sunnah. They, for example, completely rejected the
creation of God. When the subject of the secret beyond matter is told,
however, there is definitely no such claim. This section explains that
all beings are created by God, and that the originals of these beings
are seen by Him whereas people merely see the images of these beings
formed in their brains.

Mountains, plains, flowers, people, seas—briefly everything we see and
everything that God informs us in the Qur'an that exists and that He
created out of nothing is created and does indeed exist. However, people
cannot see, feel or hear the real nature of these beings through their
sense organs. What they see and feel are only the copies that appear in
their brains. This is a scientific fact taught at all schools primarily
in medicine. The same applies to the article you are reading now; you
can not see nor touch the real nature of it. The light coming from the
original article is converted by some cells in your eyes into electrical
signals, which are then conveyed to the sight center in the back of your
brain. This is where the view of this article is created. In other
words, you are not reading an article which is before your eyes through
your eyes; in fact, this article is created in the sight center in the
back of your brain. The article you are reading right now is a "copy of
the article" within your brain. The original article is seen by God.

In conclusion, the fact that the matter is an illusion formed in our
brains does not "reject" the matter, but provides us information about
the real nature of the matter: that no person can have connection with
its original.

**THERE IS MATTER OUTSIDE OF US, **

**BUT WE CANNOT REACH IT**

… \[S\]aying that matter is an illusion does not mean it does not exist.
Quiet the contrary: whether we perceive the physical world or not, it
does exist. But we see it as a copy in our brain or, in other words, as
an interpretation of our senses. For us, therefore, the physical world
of matter is an illusion.

The matter outside is seen not just by us, but by other beings too. The
angels God delegated to be watchers witness this world as well:

**And the two recording angels are recording, sitting on the right and
on the left. He does not utter a single word, without a watcher by him,
pen in hand\! (Surah Qaf: 17-18)**

Most importantly, God sees everything. He created this world with all
its details and sees it in all its states. As He informs us in the
Qur'an:

**… Heed God and know that God sees what you do. (Surat al-Baqara:
233)**

**Say: "God is a sufficient witness between me and you. He is certainly
aware of and sees His servants." (Surat al-Isra': 96)**

It must not be forgotten that God keeps the records of everything in the
book called Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet). Even if we don't see all
things, they are in the Lawh Mahfuz. God reveals that He keeps
everything's record in the "Mother of the Book" called Lawh Mahfuz with
the following verses:

**It is in the Source Book with Us, high-exalted, full of wisdom. (Surat
az-Zukhruf: 4)**

**… We possess an all-preserving Book. (Surah Qaf: 4)**

**Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or Earth which is
not in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)**

**INTRODUCTION**

**W**hen you look out of the window, you think that you see an image
with your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to think.
However, in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see the
world with your eyes. You see the image created in your brains. This is
not a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the scientific
truth.

This concept can be better understood when we realize how the visual
system operates. The eye is responsible for transforming light into an
electric signal by means of the cells in the retina. This electrical
signal reaches the sight center in the brain. The signals create the
vision you see when you look out of the window. In other words, the
sights you see are created in your brain. You see the image in your
brain, not the view outside the window. For example, in the picture
shown on the right hand side, the light reaches the eyes of the person
from outside. This light passes to the small sight center located at the
back of the brain after the cells in the eyes transform it into
electrical signals. It is these electrical signals which form the
picture in the brain. In reality when we open the brain, we wouldn't be
able to see any image. However, some kind of consciousness in the mind
receives electrical signals in the form of an image. The brain perceives
electrical signals in the form of an image, yet it has no eye, eye
cells, or retina. So, to whom does the consciousness in the brain
belong?

The same question can be asked about the book you are reading now. The
light coming to your eyes is converted into electrical signals and
reaches your brain, where the view of the book is created. In other
words, the book you are reading right now is not outside you, it is
actually inside you, in the sight center in the back of your brain.
Since you feel the hardness of the book with your hands, you might think
that the book is outside you. However, this feeling of hardness also
originates in the brain. The nerves on your fingertips transmit
electrical information to the touch center in your brain. And when you
touch the book, you feel the hardness and intensity of it, the
slipperiness of the pages, the texture of the cover and the sharpness of
the edge of the pages, all within your brain.

In reality however, **you can never touch the real nature of the book.**
Even though you think that you're touching the book, it is your brain
that perceives the tactile sensations. This book exists as a material
thing outside of your brain, but you merely confront the image of the
book within your brain. However, you should not be tricked by the fact
that a writer wrote this book, the pages were designed by a computer and
printed by a publisher. The things that will be explained in due course
will show you that you will never know the originals of the people,
computers and the publishers in every stages of the production of this
book.

We can therefore conclude that everything we see, touch and hear merely
exists in our brains. This is a scientific truth, proven with scientific
evidence. The significant point is the answer to the question asked
above, which this scientific truth has led us to ask; **who is it that
has no eye, but watches sights through a window in our brains and enjoys
or becomes anxious from these sights?** This will be explained in the
following pages.

> **IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT THAT WE ONLY CONFRONT A COPY OF THE WORLD **

**IN OUR BRAINS**

**W**e acknowledge that all the individual features of the world are
experienced through our sense organs. The information that reaches us
through those organs is converted into electrical signals, and the
individual parts of our brain analyze and process these signals. After
this interpreting process takes place inside our brain, we will, for
example, see a book, taste a strawberry, smell a flower, feel the
texture of a silk fabric or hear leaves shaking in the wind.

We have been taught that we are touching the cloth outside of our body,
reading a book that is 30 cm (1 ft) away from us, smelling the trees
that are far away from us, or hearing the shaking of the leaves that are
far above us. However, this is all in our imagination. All of these
things are happening within our brains.

At this point we encounter another surprising fact; that there are, in
fact, no colors, voices or visions within our brain. All that can be
found in our brains are electrical signals. This is not a philosophical
speculation. This is simply a scientific description of the functions of
our perceptions. In her book *Mapping The Mind*, Rita Carter explains
the way we perceive the world as follows:

Each one \[of the sense organs\] is intricately adapted to deal with its
own type of stimulus: molecules, waves or vibrations. But the answer
does not lie here, because despite their wonderful variety, each organ
does essentially the same job: it translates its particular type of
stimulus into electrical pulses. **A pulse is a pulse is a pulse. It is
not the colour red, or the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth—it is a bit
of electrical energy.** Indeed, rather than discriminating one type of
sensory input from another, the sense organs actually make them more
alike.

**All sensory stimuli, then enter the brain in more or less
undifferentiated form as a stream of electrical pulses created by
neurons firing,** domino-fashion, along a certain route. This is all
that happens. **There is no reverse transformer that at some stage turns
this electrical activity back into light waves or molecules.** What
makes one stream into vision and another into smell depends, rather, on
which neurons are stimulated.1

In other words, all of our feelings and perceptions about the world
(smells, visions, tastes etc.) are comprised of the same material, that
is, electrical signals. Moreover, our brain is what makes these signals
meaningful for us, and interprets these signals as senses of smell,
taste, vision, sound or touch. It is a stunning fact that the brain,
which is made of wet meat, can know which electrical signal should be
interpreted as smell and which one as vision, and can convert the same
material into different senses and feelings.

Let us now consider our sense organs, and how each one perceives the
world.

**It's Not Our Eyes That See, **

**It Is Our Brain**

Because of the indoctrination that we receive throughout our lives, we
imagine that we see the whole world with our eyes. Eventually, we
usually conclude that our eyes are the windows that open up to the
world. However, science shows us that **we do not see through our
eyes.** The millions of nerve cells inside the eyes are responsible for
sending a message to the brain, as if down a cable, in order to make
"seeing" happen. If we analyze the information we learned in high
school, it becomes easier for us to understand the reality of vision.

The light reflecting off an object passes through the lens of the eye
and causes an upside-down image on the retina at the back of the
eyeball. After some chemical operations carried out by retinal rods and
cones, this vision becomes an electrical impulse. This impulse is then
sent through connections in the nervous system to the back of the brain.
The brain converts this flow into a meaningful, three-dimensional
vision.

For example, when you watch children playing in a park, you are not
seeing the children and the park with your eyes, because the image of
this view forms not before your eyes, but at the back of your brain.

Even though we have given a simple explanation, in reality the
physiology of vision is an extraordinary operation. Without fail, light
is converted into electrical signals, and, subsequently, these
electrical signals reveal a colorful, shining, three-dimensional world.
R. L. Gregory, in his book *Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing*,
acknowledges this significant fact, and explains this incredible
structure:

We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see
separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of
simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is
nothing short of a miracle.2

All of these facts lead to the same conclusion. Throughout our lives, we
always assume that the world exists outside of us. However, **the world
is within us.** Although we believe that the world lies outside us, it
is in the smallest part of our brain. For example, the CEO of a company
might consider that he has direct contact with the external existence of
the company building, his car in the parking lot, his house by the
beach, his yacht, and all the people who work for him, his lawyers, his
family, and his friends. However, he merely confronts images of all of
these things formed in his skull, in a tiny part of his brain. He never
knows the actual of the matter in the outside world.

He is unaware of this fact and, even if he knew, would not bother to
think about it. If he stood proudly next to his latest-model luxury car,
and the wind blew a piece of dust or a small object into his eye, he
might gently scratch his itching, open eye and notice that the "material
things" he saw moved upside down or to the sides. He might then realize
that material things seen in the environment are not stable.

What this demonstrates is that **every person throughout his or her life
witnesses everything inside their brain and cannot reach the specific
material objects that supposedly cause their experiences. The images we
see are copies in our brains of the objects that exist outside of us. We
can never know the originals of these copies. **

Although German psychiatry professor Hoimar Von Ditfurth is a
materialist, he acknowledges this fact about scientific reality:

No matter how we put the argument, the result doesn't change. What
stands before us in full shape and **what our eyes view is not the
"world". It is only its image, a resemblance, a projection whose
association with the original is open to discussion.**3

For example, when you take a look at the room in which you are sitting,
what you see is not the room outside of you, but a copy of the room that
exists in your brain. You will never be able to see the original room
with your sense organs.

**How can a bright and colorful image**

**appear in your dark brain? **

There is another point that should not be neglected; light cannot pass
through the skull. The physical area in which the brain is located is
completely dark, and light cannot possibly penetrate it. **However,
incredible as it may seem, it is possible to observe a bright and
colorful world in this total darkness.** Colorful natural beauty, bright
sights, all the tones of the color green, the colors of fruits, the
designs of flowers, the brightness of the sun, people walking on a busy
road, fast cars in traffic, clothes in a shopping mall—are all created
in the dark brain.

Imagine a barbecue burning in front of you. You can sit and watch the
fire for a long time, but throughout this entire time, your brain never
deals with the original of light, brightness or heat from the fire. Even
when you feel its heat and see its light, the inside of your brain
remains dark and maintains a constant temperature. It is a profound
mystery that, in the darkness, the electrical signals turn into
colorful, bright visions. Anyone who thinks deeply will be amazed by
this wondrous occurrence.

**Light is also composed in our brain **

While discussing what science has discovered about vision, we mentioned
that the light we receive from the outside gives rise to some movements
of the eye cells, and these movements form a pattern from which our
visual experience emerges. However, there is another point that we need
to make: **Light, as we perceive it, does not reside outside of our
brain. The light we know and understand is also formed within our
brain.** What we call light in the outside world, which is supposedly
outside our brains, consists of electromagnetic waves and particles of
energy called photons. When these electromagnetic waves or photons reach
the retina, light, as we experience it, begins to come into existence.
This is the way light is described in physical terms:

The term "light" is used for electromagnetic waves and photons. The same
term is used in physiology, as the feeling experienced by a person when
electromagnetic waves and photons strike the retina of the eye. In both
objective and subjective terms, "light" is a form of energy coming into
existence in the eye of a person, which a person becomes aware of
through the retina by the effects of vision.4

Consequently, light comes into existence as a result of the effects that
some electromagnetic waves and particles cause in us. In other words,
there is no light outside our bodies which creates the light we see in
our brains. There is only energy. And when this energy reaches us we see
a colorful, bright, and light-filled world.

**Colors also originate in our brains**

Starting from the time, we are born, we deal with a colorful environment
and see a colorful world. However, there isn't one single color in the
universe. Colors are formed in our brains. Outside there are only
electromagnetic waves with different amplitudes and frequencies. What
reaches our brains is the energy from those waves. We call this "light",
although this is not the light we know as bright and shiny. It is merely
energy. When our brains interpret this energy by measuring the different
frequencies of waves, we see "colors". In reality, the sea is not blue,
the grass is not green, the soil is not brown and fruits are not
colorful. They appear as they do because of the way we perceive them in
our brains. Daniel C. Dennett, who is known for his books about the
brain and consciousness, summarizes this universally accepted fact:

The common wisdom is that modern science has removed the color from the
physical world, replacing it with colorless electromagnetic radiation of
various wavelengths.5

In *The Amazing Brain*, R. Ornstein and R. F. Thompson have stated the
way colors are formed as follows.

**'Color' as such does not exist in the world; it exists only in the eye
and brain of the beholder.** Objects reflect many different wavelengths
of light, but these light waves themselves have no color.6

In order to understand why this is so, we must analyze how we see
colors. The light from the sun reaches an object, and every object
reflects the light in waves of different frequencies. This light of
varying frequency reaches the eye. (Remember that the term "light" used
here actually refers to the electromagnetic waves and photons, not the
light which is formed in our brains.) The perception of color starts in
the cone cells of the retina. In the retina, there are three groups of
cone cells, each of which reacts to different frequencies of light. The
first group is sensitive to red light, the second is sensitive to blue
light, and the third is sensitive to green light. With the different
levels of stimulations of these cone cells, millions of different colors
are formed. However, the light reaching the cone cells cannot form
colors by itself. As Jeremy Nathans of John Hopkins Medical University
explains, the cells in the eye do not form the colors:

All that a single cone can do is capture light and tell you something
about its intensity. It tells you nothing about color.7

The cone cells translate the information they get about colors to
electrical signals thanks to their pigments. The nerve cells connected
with these cells transmit these electrical signals to a special area in
the brain. The place where we see a world full of color throughout our
lives is this special area in the brain.

This demonstrates that there are no colors or light beyond our brains.
There is only energy which moves in the form of electromagnetic waves
and particles. Both color and light exist in our brains. We do not
actually see a red rose as red simply because it is red. Our brain's
interpretation of the energy that reaches our eye leads us to perceive
that the rose is red.

Color blindness is proof that colors are formed in our brains. A small
injury in the retina can lead to color blindness. A person affected by
color blindness is unable to differentiate between red and green colors.
Whether an external object has colors or not is of no importance,
because the reason why we see objects colorful is not their being
colorful. This leads us to the conclusion that all of the qualities that
we believe belong to the object are not in the outside world, but in our
brains. However, since we will never be able to go beyond our
perceptions and reach the outside world, we will never be able to know
the originals of materials and colors. The famous philosopher, Berkeley,
acknowledges this fact with the following words:

If the same things can be red and hot for some and the contrary for
others, this means that we are under the influence of misconceptions...8

**We Hear All Types Of Sound **

**In Our Brains**

The hearing process also operates in a similar manner to the visual
process. In other words, we hear sounds in our brains in the same way
that we see the view of the outside world in our brains. The ear
captures the sounds around us and delivers them to the middle ear. The
middle ear amplifies the sound vibrations and delivers them to the inner
ear. The inner ear transforms these sound vibrations into electric
signals, on the basis of their frequency and intensity, and then
transmits them to the brain. These messages in the brain are then sent
to the hearing center where the sounds are interpreted. Therefore, the
hearing process takes place in the hearing center in essentially the
same way that the seeing process takes place in the seeing center.

Therefore, actual sounds do not exist outside our brains, even though
there are physical vibrations we call sound waves. These sound waves are
not transformed into sounds outside or inside our ears, but rather
inside our brains. As the visual process is not performed by our eyes,
neither do our ears perform the hearing process. For example, when you
are having a chat with a friend, you observe the sight of your friend in
your brain, and hear his or her voice in your brain. As the view in your
brain is formed, you will have a deep feeling of three dimensions, and
your friend's voice is also heard with a similar feeling of depth. For
example, you could see your friend as being a long way from you, or
sitting behind you; accordingly you feel his voice as if it is coming
from him, from near you or from your back. However, your friend's voice
is not far away or behind you. It is in your brain.

The extraordinariness about the real nature of the sound you hear is not
limited to this. The brain is actually both lightproof and soundproof.
Sound never in fact reaches the brain. Therefore, despite the volume of
the sounds you hear, the interior of your brain is actually very quiet.
However, you hear noise, such as voices, very clearly in your brain.
They are so clear that a healthy person hears them without difficulties
or distortions. You hear the symphony of an orchestra in your soundproof
brain; you can hear all the sounds in a wide range of frequencies and
decibel from the sounds of the leaves to the sounds of jet planes. When
you go to a concert of your favorite singer, the deep and loud noise
that fills the whole stadium is formed in the deep silence of your
brain. When you sing by yourself loudly you hear the sound in your
brain. However, if you were able to record the sound in your brain with
a tape recorder at that moment, you would hear only silence. This is an
extraordinary fact. The electrical signals that reach the brain are
heard in your brain as sound, for example the sound of a concert in a
stadium filled with people.

**All Smells Occur In The Brain**

If someone is asked how he senses the smells around him, he would
probably say "with my nose". However, this answer is not the right one,
even though some would instantly conclude that it was the truth. Gordon
Shepherd, a professor of neurology from Yale University, explains why
this is incorrect; *"We think that we smell with our noses, \[but\] this
is a little like saying that we hear with our ear lobes."*9

Our sense of smell works in a similar mechanism to our other sense
organs. In fact, the only function of the nose is its ability to act as
an intake channel for smell molecules. Volatile molecules such as
vanilla, or the scent of a rose, come to receptors located on hairs in a
part of the nose called the epithelium and interact with them. The
result of the interaction of the smell molecules with the epithelium
reaches the brain as an electric signal. These electric signals are then
perceived as a scent by the brain. Thus, all smells which we interpret
as good or bad are merely perceptions generated in the brain after the
interaction with volatile molecules has been transduced into electric
signals. The fragrance of perfume, of a flower, of a food which you
like, of the sea—in short all smells you may or may not like—are
perceived in the brain. However, the smell molecules never actually
reach the brain. **In our sense of smell, it is only electrical signals
which reach the brain, as happens with sound and sight.**

Consequently, a smell does not travel in any particular direction,
because all smells are perceived by the smell center in the brain. For
example, the smell of a cake does not come from the oven, in the same
way that the smell of the dish does not come from the kitchen. Likewise,
the smell of honeysuckle does not come from the garden and the smell of
the sea, some distance away from you, does not come from the sea. All of
these smells are sensed at one point, in a related area of the brain.
There is no concept of right or left, front or back, outside of this
sense center. Although each of the senses seem to occur with different
effects, and may appear to be coming from different directions, they all
in fact occur within the brain. The smells which occur in the smell
center of the brain are assumed to be the smells of outside materials.
However, the image of the rose is generated in the sight center and the
smell of a rose is generated in the smell center. If there is a genuine
smell outside, you can never reach the original of it.

George Berkeley, a philosopher who has realized the importance of this
truth, says *"At the beginning, it was believed that colors, odors,
etc., 'really exist,' but subsequently such views were renounced, and it
was seen that they only exist in dependence on our sensations."*

It may be instructive to consider dreams in order to understand that
smell is only a sensation. When people dream, in the same way that all
images are seen very realistically, smells are also perceived as if they
were real. For example, a person who goes to a restaurant in his dream
may choose his dinner amid the smells of the foods that are on the menu;
someone who dreams of going on a trip to the sea side senses the
distinctive smell of the sea, and someone who dreams of a daisy garden
would experience, in his dream, the pleasure of the magnificent scents.
Likewise, someone who dreams of going to a perfume shop and choosing a
perfume would be able to distinguish between the smells of the perfumes,
one by one. Everything in the dream is so realistic that when the person
wakes up, he or she might be surprised by this situation.

In fact, it is not necessary to examine dreams to understand the
subject. It is even sufficient to imagine one of the depictions that
were mentioned, such as the example of the daisy. If you concentrate on
the daisy, you can feel as if you are aware of its scent, even though it
isn't there. The scent is now occurring in the brain. If you want to
visualize your mother in your mind, you can see her in your mind, even
though she isn't there in front of you; in the same way you can imagine
the smell of the lily, even though it isn't there.

Michael Posner, a psychologist and Marcus Raichle, a neurologist from
Washington University comment on the issue of how sight and other senses
occur, even in the absence of an external stimulus:

Open your eyes, and a scene fills your view effortlessly; close your
eyes and think of that scene, and you can summon an image of it,
certainly not as vivid, solid, or complete as a scene you see with your
eyes, but still one that captures the scene's essential characteristics.
In both cases, an image of the scene is formed in the mind. The image
formed from actual visual experiences is called a "percept" to
distinguish it from an imagined image. The percept is formed as the
result of light hitting the retina and sending signals that are further
processed in the brain. **But how are we able to create an image when no
light is hitting the retina to send such signals?**10

There is no need for an external source to form an image in your mind.
This same situation holds true for the sense of smell. In the same way
as you are aware of a smell which does not really exist in your dreams
or imagination, you cannot know about those objects, which you smell in
real life, that exist outside you. You can never deal with the original
objects.

**All Tastes Occur In The Brain**

The sense of taste can be explained in a manner similar to those of the
other sense organs. Tasting is caused by little buds in the tongue and
throat. The tongue can detect four different tastes, bitter, sour, sweet
and salty. Taste buds, after a chain of processes, transform sensory
information into electrical signals and then transfer them to the brain.
Subsequently, those signals are perceived by the brain as tastes. The
taste that you experience when you eat a cake, yogurt, a lemon or a
fruit is, in reality, a process that interprets electrical signals in
the brain.

An image of a cake will be linked with the taste of the sugar, all of
which occurs in the brain and everything sensed is related to the cake
which you like so much. The taste that you are conscious of after you
have eaten your cake, with a full appetite, is nothing other than an
effect generated in your brain caused by electrical signals. You are
only aware of what your brain interprets from the external stimuli. You
can never reach the original object; for example you cannot see, smell
or taste the actual chocolate itself. If the taste nerves in your brain
were cut off, it would be impossible for the taste of anything you eat
to reach your brain, and you would entirely lose your sense of taste.
The fact that the tastes of which you are aware seem extraordinarily
real should certainly not deceive you. This is the scientific
explanation of the matter.

**The Sense Of Touch Also Occurs **

**In The Brain**

The sense of touch is one of the factors which prevents people from
being convinced of the aforementioned truth that the senses of sight,
hearing and taste occur within the brain. For example, if you told
someone that he sees a book within his brain, he would, if he didn't
think carefully, reply "I can't be seeing the book in my brain—look, I'm
touching it with my hand". Or, if we said "we cannot know the original
of this book that exists as a material object outside", again the same
superficially minded person might answer "no, look, I'm holding it with
my hand and I feel the hardness of it – so I know what it actually is
like ".

However, there is a fact that such people cannot understand, or perhaps
just ignore. **The sense of touch also occurs in the brain as much as do
all the other senses. That is to say, when you touch a material object,
you sense whether it is hard, soft, wet, sticky or silky in the brain.**
The effects that come from your fingertips are transmitted to the brain
as an electrical signal and these signals are perceived in the brain as
the sense of touch. For instance, if you touch a rough surface, you can
never know whether the surface is, in reality, indeed a rough surface,
or how a rough surface actually feels. That is because you can never
touch the original of a rough surface. The knowledge that you have about
touching a surface is your brain's interpretation of certain stimuli.

A person chatting to a close friend while drinking a cup of tea
immediately lets go of the cup when he burns his hand on the hot cup.
However, in reality, that person feels the heat of the cup in his mind,
not in his hand. The same person visualizes the image of the cup of tea
in his mind, and senses the smell and taste of it in his mind. However,
this man does not realize that he actually has contact only with the
copy of the tea within his brain. He assumes that he has direct contact
with the original glass, and talks to his friend, whose image occurs
again within his brain. In fact, this is an extraordinary case. The
assumption that he is touching the original glass and drinking the
original tea, which appears to be justified by his impression of the
hardness and warmth of the cup and the taste and smell of the tea, shows
the astonishing clarity and perfection of the senses which exist within
one's brain. This important truth, which needs careful consideration, is
expressed by twentieth century philosopher Bertrand Russell:

As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, that
is an electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our
fingertips, produced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of
the electrons and protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our
finger-tips arose in any other way, we should have the sensations, in
spite of there being no table.11

The point that Russell makes here is extremely important. In fact, if
our fingertips are given a stimulus in a different manner, we can sense
entirely different feelings. However, as it will be explained in detail
in due course, today this can be done by mechanical simulators. With the
help of a special glove, a person can feel the sensation of stroking a
cat, shaking hands with someone, washing his hands, or touching a hard
material, even though none of these things may be present. In reality,
of course, none of these sensations represent occurrences in the real
world. This is further evidence that all the sensations felt by a human
being are formed within the mind.

**We Can Never Reach The Original Of The World **

**That Occurs Within Our Brain**

As has been demonstrated here, everything that we live through, see,
hear and feel in our life occurs within the brain. For example, someone
who looks out of the window while sitting on an armchair feels the
hardness of the armchair and the slipperiness of the fabric in his
brain. The smell of the coffee coming from the kitchen occurs in the
mind, not in the kitchen some distance away. The view of the sea, birds
and trees he sees from the window are all images formed in the brain.
The friend who is serving the coffee, and the taste of the coffee also
exist in the brain. In short, someone sitting in his living room and
looking out of the window is in reality looking at his living room, and
the view seen from the window on a screen in his brain. **What a human
being would refer to as "my life" is a collection of all perceptions
being put together in a meaningful way and watched from a screen in the
brain, and one can never come out of one's brain.**

We can never know the true nature of the original of the material world
outside the brain. We cannot know, whether or not the original, for
example the green of a leaf, is as we perceive it. Likewise, we can
never find out if a dessert is really sweet or whether that is just how
our brain perceives it to be. Imagine, for example, a landscape you have
seen before. That landscape is not in front of you, but you are seeing
it in your brain. The science writer Rita Carter says:

Whenever we recall a given object, face or scene, we do not get an exact
reproduction but rather an interpretation, a newly reconstructed version
of the original… Although they may appear to be good replicas, they are
often inaccurate or incomplete. (Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind,
University of California Press, London, 1999, p. 135)

The same thing applies to the time when you look at a landscape. There
is in fact no difference between your imagining a landscape from a
distance and seeing it close up. Therefore, when you look at a view you
are actually seeing a version constructed in the brain, not the
original.

Anyone who considers this will clearly see the truth. One such person,
George Berkeley, expresses this truth in his work *A Treatise Concerning
the Principles of Human Knowledge*:

By sight I have the ideas of light and colours, with their several
degrees and variations. By touch I perceive hard and soft, heat and
cold, motion and resistance... Smelling furnishes me with odours; the
palate with tastes; and hearing conveys sounds... And as several of
these are observed to accompany each other, they come to be marked by
one name, and so to be reputed as one thing. Thus, for example, a
certain colour, taste, smell, figure and consistence having been
observed to go together, are accounted one distinct thing, signified by
the name apple; other collections of ideas constitute a stone, a tree, a
book, and the like sensible things...12

The truth Berkeley expresses in these words is this: We define an object
by interpreting different sensations that are experienced in the brain.
As is the case in this example, the taste and smell of an apple, its
hardness and roundness and those sensations related with the other
qualities of it are perceived as a whole by our brain and we perceive
this whole as the apple. However, we can never actually deal with the
original of the apple, only our perception of it. What we can see,
smell, taste, touch or hear are only the copies within the brain.

When we consider all that has been discussed up to this point, the truth
will be revealed in all clarity. For example:

\- If we can see a street full of colorful lights and all the colors
with their own brilliant shadings inside the brain where there is no
actual light, then we are seeing copies of the notice boards, lights,
streetlights and the headlamps of cars which are produced from the
electric signals within the brain.

\- Since no sound can enter the brain, we can never hear the original of
the voices of loved ones. We hear only copies.

\- We cannot feel the cool of the sea, the warmth of the sun – we only
feel the copies of them in our brains.

\- In the same way, nobody has been able to taste the original of mint.
The taste someone would sense as mint is only a perception which occurs
in the brain. This is because the person cannot touch the original of
the mint, see the original of the mint or smell or taste the original of
the mint.

In conclusion, throughout our lives we live with copy-perceptions which
are shown to us. However, these copies are so realistic that we never
realize that they are copies. For example, lift your head and have a
look around the room. You see that you are in a room full of furniture.
When you touch the arms of the armchair in which you are sitting, you
feel the hardness of it as if you are really touching the original of
it. The reality of these images shown to you, and the excellent artistry
in the creation of these images are sufficient to convince you and
billions of other people that the images are "the original of the
external matter". Even though most people have read that every sensation
relating to the world is formed in their brains, since it is taught in
high school biology classes, the images are so convincing that they have
difficulty believing that they are actually dealing with only copies in
their brain. The reason for this is that each image is created very
realistically and perfected to an art.

Nobody has been able to move out of the perceptions that exist in the
brain. Everybody lives in the cell that is in the brain, and no one can
experience anything except that which is shown by his perceptions.
Consequently, one can never know what happens outside of his
perceptions. Thus to say "I know the original of matter" would in fact
be an unjustified presupposition, because there is nothing that could be
held up as evidence. The observer deals with the images formed in his or
her brain. For instance, a person who wanders in a garden full of
colorful flowers can in fact never see the actual of the garden, but its
copy in his brain. Yet, this garden is so realistic that every person
gets the same delight from the garden formed in his brain as if it's the
actual one. Even so that billions of people have surmised seeing the
original of all they have seen just like that garden.

We should also emphasize that scientific or technological development
cannot change anything, as every scientific discovery or technological
invention occurs in the minds of people, and consequently is of no help
to people in reaching the outside world.

**The Sense Of Distance Is Also A Perception **

**That Occurs In The Brain**

Imagine a crowd on a street, with shops, buildings, cars, horns honking…
When you look at this picture it appears to be real. That is why most
people cannot understand that the picture they see is produced in their
brain, and mistakenly suppose that they see the original of all of it.
The picture has been created so perfectly that it is impossible to
understand that the image that they perceive as real is not the original
of the outside world, but only a copied image which exists in the mind.

The elements which make a picture so convincing and impressive are
distance, depth, color, shade and light. These materials are used with
such perfection that they become a three-dimensional, colorful and vivid
image inside the brain. When an infinite amount of detail is added to
the picture a whole new world emerges that, without realization, we
assume is real for all life, although we only interpret it in our mind.

Imagine now that you are driving a car. The steering wheel is at arms
length from you and there is a set of traffic lights about 100 m (or 300
ft) in front of you. The car in front of you is about 10 m (30 ft) away,
while there are mountains on the horizon, which, according to your
estimation, would be many kilometers (miles) away in the distance.
However, all of these estimations are wrong. Neither the car nor the
mountains are as far away as you would assume. In fact, the entire
picture, as on a movie reel, exists on a two dimensional frame, on only
one surface within the brain. The images reflected to the eye are
two-dimensional, like those on a TV screen. In such circumstances, how
can a perception of depth and distance occur?

What is referred to as a sense of distance is a way of seeing
three-dimensionally. The elements causing the effects of distance and
depth in images are perspective, shade and motion. The form of
perception called spatial perception by optical science is provided by
highly complicated systems. This system can be explained simply in this
way: The sight which reaches the eye is two dimensional. That is to say,
it has measures of height and width. The senses of depth and distance
result from the fact that two eyes see two different images at the same
time. The image that reaches each of our eyes differs from the other in
terms of the angle and light. The brain assembles these two different
images to form our sense of depth and distance.

We can perform an experiment to understand this better. First, extend
your right arm in front of you and hold up your index finger. Now focus
on this finger while closing your left eye first and then your right
eye. Because two different visions come to each eye, you will see the
finger move slightly to one side. Now open both of your eyes and while
continuing to focus on your right index finger, move your left index
finger as close to your eye as you can. You will notice that the closest
finger will have created two images. This is because now a different
depth has formed in the closer finger from that in the farther finger.
If you open and close your eyes one by one, you will see that the finger
located nearer your eye will appear to move more than the finger which
is further away. This is due to the increasing difference in the views
appearing in each eye.

While a three dimensional film is being made, this technique is used;
Images shot from two different angles are placed on the same screen. The
audience wears special glasses which have a color filter and polarize
the light. The filters in the glasses filter out one of the two views,
and the brain transforms these into one single three-dimensional image.

The perception of depth in a retina with two dimensions is very similar
to the technique used by artists to give the observer a feeling of depth
in a picture with two dimensions. There are certain factors resulting in
the feeling of depth, such as the placement of objects on top of one
another, the atmosphere perspective, changes in texture, linear
perspective, the dimensions, the height and the movement. For example
the change of texture is very important in perceiving depth. For
example, the ground that we walk on in a farm full of flowers is
actually a tissue. The tissues closer to us are more detailed while the
tissues further from us seem pale and harder to discern. Therefore, it
is easier to estimate the distance of objects located on a tissue.
Besides this, effects of shadow and light also contribute to the
perception of a three-dimensional view.

The reason we admire a picture made by a successful artist is the sense
of depth and reality which are given to the picture, which is created by
using the elements of shade and perspective.

Perspective results from the fact that distant objects appear smaller in
proportion to those which are nearer, depending on the person who is
looking at it. For example, when we look at a view, distant trees appear
small, while those nearby appear large. Likewise, in a picture with a
mountain in the background, the mountain is drawn smaller than the
person in the foreground. In linear perspective, artists use parallel
lines. For example, train tracks produce an effect of distance and depth
by meeting with the horizon.

The method that painters use in their paintings is also valid for the
image that occurs in the brain. Depth, light and shade are produced by
the same method in two dimensional space in the brain. The greater the
amount of detail in the picture, the more realistic it appears and the
more it deceives our senses. We behave as if there was real depth and
distance, as if there was a third dimension. However, all pictures are
like a film square on a flat surface. The visual cortex in the brain is
extremely small\! The distances, the images such as those of distant
houses, stars in the sky, the moon, the sun, airplanes flying in the
air, and birds – they are all crammed into this small space. That is to
say, there is technically no distance between a glass that you can hold
by extending your hand and an airplane that, if you looked up, you would
understand to be thousands of kilometers above; all of them are on the
single surface, that is, in the sense center of the brain.

For example, a disappearing ship on the horizon is not actually miles
away from you. The ship is in your brain. The window sill that you are
looking at, a poplar tree in front of the window, the road in front of
your house, the sea and the ship on the sea are all in the sight center
of the brain, on a two dimensional surface. Just like a painter can
represent the feeling of distance on a two dimensional canvas by using
the proportions of size, elements of color, shade and light and
perspective, so can the sense of distance also occur in the brain. In
conclusion, the fact that we sense objects to be far away or nearby
should not fool us, as distance is a sensation like all the others.

**Are You In The Room, **

**Or Is The Room Inside You?**

One of the reasons that prevent people from understanding that the
images seen are actually sensed in the brain, is that people see their
body in the image. They come to this wrong conclusion that "since I am
in this room, the room does not occur in my brain." Their mistake is to
forget that they have direct contact with only an image of their body
too. Just like everything we see around us merely consists of copy
images, so does our body also exist as a copy image in the brain. For
example, while sitting on an armchair, you can see the rest of your body
below your neck. This image too is produced by the same perceptual
system. When you put your hand on your leg, you sense a kinesthetic
feeling in the brain. This means that you see your body in the brain,
and you feel yourself touching your body in the brain.

If the body is an image in the brain, is the room inside of you or are
you in the room? The obvious answer to this is "the room is inside of
you". And you see the image of your body inside the room, which in turn
is in the brain.

Let us explain this with an example. Let us suppose that you call a
lift. When it comes, your neighbor, who lives upstairs from you, is in
it. You get into the lift. In reality, are you in the lift or is it in
you? The truth is: the lift with the images of the neighbor and your
body all occurs in your brain.

In conclusion, we are not "inside" anything. Everything is inside us;
everything occurs in the brain. The sun, the moon, stars or an airplane
flying in the sky many miles away cannot change this truth. The sun and
the moon, like the book that you hold are only copy images which occur
in a very small sight center in the brain.

**Artificially Produced Senses**

Science writer, Rita Carter, states in her book, *Mapping The Mind*,
that "there's no need for eyes to see" and describes at length an
experiment carried out by scientists. In the experiment, blind patients
were fitted with a device that transformed video pictures into vibrating
pulses. A camera mounted next to the subjects' eyes spread the pulses
over their backs so they had continuous sensory input from the visual
world. The patients started to behave as if they could really see, after
a while. For example, there was a zoom lens in one of the devices so as
to move closer the image. When the zoom is operated without informing
the patient beforehand, the patient had an urge to protect himself with
two arms because the image on the subject's back expanded suddenly as
though the world was looming in.15

As it is seen from this experiment, artificially produced senses can be
enough to form sensations.

**"The world of senses" that we experience in dreams**

A person lies on his bed with closed eyes while dreaming. However, in
spite of this, that person senses many things which he or she
experiences in real life, and experiences them so realistically that the
dreams are indistinguishable from the real life experience. Everyone who
reads this book will often bear witness to this truth in their own
dreams. For example, a person lying down alone on a bed in a calm and
quiet atmosphere at night might, in his dream, see himself in danger in
a very crowded place. He could experience the event as if it were real,
fleeing from danger in desperation and hiding behind a wall. Moreover,
the images in his dreams are so realistic that he feels fear and panic
as if he really was in danger. He has his heart in his mouth with every
noise, is shaken with fear, his heart beats fast, he sweats and
demonstrates the other physical affects that the human body undergoes in
a dangerous situation. However, there is no external equivalent of the
events in his dream. They exist only in his mind.

A person who falls from a high place in his dream feels it with all his
body, even though he is lying in bed without moving. Alternatively, one
might see oneself slipping into a puddle, getting soaked and feeling
cold because of a cold wind. However, in such a case, there is neither a
puddle, nor is there wind. Furthermore, despite sleeping in a very hot
room, one experiences the wetness and the cold, as if one were awake.

Someone who believes he is dealing with the original of the material
world in his dream can be very sure of himself. He can put his hand on
his friend's shoulder when the friend tells him that "he is dealing with
a copy image of matter; it isn't possible to deal with the original of
the world", and then ask "Am I an image now? Don't you feel my hand on
your shoulder? If so, how can you be a copy image? What makes you think
in this way? Let's take a trip up the Bosphorus; we can have a chat
about it and you'll explain to me why you believe this." The dream that
he sees in his deep sleep is so clear that he turns on the engine with
pleasure and accelerates slowly, almost jumping the car by pressing the
pedal suddenly. While going on the road, trees and road lines seem solid
because of the speed. In addition, he breathes clean Bosphorus air. But
suppose he is woken up by his ringing alarm clock just when he's getting
ready to tell his friend that what he's living at that moment isn't a
dream. Wouldn't he object in the same manner regardless of whether he
was asleep or awake?

When people wake up they understand that what they've seen until that
moment is a dream. But for some reason they are not suspicious that the
life that starts with a "waking" image (what they call "real life") can
also be a dream. However, the way we perceive images in "real life" is
exactly the same as the way we perceive our dreams. We see both of them
in the mind. We cannot understand they are images until we are woken up.
Only then do we say "what I have just seen was a dream". So, **how can
we prove that what we see at any given moment is not a dream?** We could
be assuming that the moment in which we are living is real just because
we haven't yet woken up. It is possible that we will discover this fact
when we are woken up from this "waking dream" which takes longer than
dreams we see everyday. We do not have any evidence that proves
otherwise.

Many Islamic scholars have also proclaimed that the life around us is
only a dream, and that only when we are awakened from that dream with "a
big awakening", will people be able to understand that they live in a
dreamlike world. A great Islamic scholar, Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi,
referred to as Sheikh Akbar (The greatest Sheikh) due to his superior
knowledge, likens the world to our dreams by quoting a saying of the
Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace):

The Prophet Muhammad \[may God bless him and grant him peace\] said that
"people are asleep and wake up when they die." This is to say that the
objects seen in the world when alive are similar to those seen when
asleep while dreaming, meaning that they exist in the imagination.16

In a verse of Koran, people are told to say on doomsday when they are
resurrected from the dead:

They will say, "Alas for us\! Who has raised us from our sleeping-place?
This is what the All-Merciful promised us. The Messengers were telling
the truth." (Surah Ya Sin: 52)

As the verse demonstrates, people wake up on doomsday as if waking from
a dream. Like someone woken from the middle of a dream in deep sleep,
such people will similarly ask who has woken them up. As the verse
points out, the world around us is like a dream and everybody will be
woken up from this dream, and will begin to see images of the afterlife,
which is the real life.

**Other examples of worlds that **

**are produced superficially**

Modern technology presents many important examples of how sensory
experience can be simulated with a high degree of realism, without the
help of any external world. In particular, the technology called
"virtual reality", which has developed considerably in recent years,
gives us some insight on the subject.

Simply put, virtual reality involves showing animated three-dimensional
images generated on a computer so as to construct "a real world" with
the help of some equipment. This technology, which is used in many
different fields for different aims, is called "artificial reality" or
"virtual world" or a "virtual atmosphere". The most important
characteristic of virtual reality is that a person who uses a special
device believes that what he sees is real, and moreover he is captivated
by that image. For that reason, recently, the word "immersive" is also
used to describe virtual reality, with "immersive" meaning to involve
deeply. *(i.e. Immersive Virtual Reality)*

The tools used to create a virtual world are a helmet (which houses a
screen that provides an image) and a pair of electronic gloves (which
provide a feeling of touch). A device in the helmet checks the movements
and angle of the head in order to provide an image on the screen which
is consistent with the head's angle and position. Sometimes, stereo
pictures are reflected on the walls and floor of a room-size cell.
People who wander through the room can see themselves through stereo
glasses in different places, such as at the side of a waterfall, on the
summit of a mountain, or sunbathing on the deck of a ship in the middle
of the sea. The helmets create 3D pictures with a realistic sense of
depth and space. The pictures are provided in proportion to human sizes
and the sense of touch is provided by other equipment, such as gloves.
Thus, a person who uses this equipment can touch the objects that he
sees in the virtual world and can pick them up and move them. The sounds
one hears in such places are also convincing, coming from any direction
with different depths and volumes. In some applications, the very same
virtual atmosphere can be presented to a few people in very different
places in the world. Three people from different countries (even
different continents) can see themselves with the others getting on
board a powerboat.

The system used in the devices that create the virtual world is
essentially the same as the system used in our five senses. For example,
with the effect of a mechanism inside a glove worn by the user, some
signals are given to the fingertips and then transmitted to the brain.
When the brain processes these signals, the user has the impression of
touching a silk carpet or a vase with a serrated surface, with puffy
prints on it, even though there is no silk carpet or vase around.

One of the important fields in which virtual reality is now being used
is medicine. With a technique developed in Michigan University, doctoral
candidates (in particular emergency service staff) complete a part of
their training in an artificial operating room. In this application,
images related to an operating room are reflected onto the floors and
walls of a room and the images of an operating table and a patient are
reflected in the middle of the room. By putting on 3D glasses, doctoral
candidates start to operate on this virtual patient.

These examples illustrate that a person can be placed in a realistic yet
unreal world with the help of artificial stimuli. With current
technology, an image can be produced which is an effective practice
aide. There is no reason in principle that eventually this technology
couldn't produce a reality which is indistinguishable from the real
world. It is very interesting that some famous films made recently deal
with the subject. For instance, in a Hollywood film called *"Matrix"*,
when the nervous system of two heroes of the film are connected to a
computer while lying on a sofa, they can see themselves in completely
different places. In one scene, they find themselves participating in
eastern sports; in another, they are in completely different clothes
walking in a very crowded street. When the hero, under the influence of
his realistic experience, says that he does not believe that the
pictures are created by a computer, the picture is frozen by the
computer. The person then becomes convinced that the world which he
believed to be real is indeed only an image.

In conclusion, it is possible in principle to create artificial images
or, in other words, an artificial world with the help of artificial
stimuli. So, we cannot claim that what we deal with in the "life image"
that we are seeing all the time is necessarily "the original". Our
senses could well be coming from a very different source.

**The important truth indicated by hypnosis **

One of the best examples of a world created with artificial stimuli is
the technique of hypnosis. When a person is hypnotized, he experiences
extremely convincing events which are indistinguishable from reality.
The person under hypnosis sees pictures, people and various images, and
hears, smells and tastes many things, none of which exist in the room.
Meanwhile, because of the experience, he becomes happy, upset, excited,
bored, worried or flustered. Moreover, the effect of the experience on
the person under hypnosis can be watched from outside physically. In
very deep hypnotic trances, certain kinds of symptoms can be observed in
the hypnotized person, such as an increase in the pulse rate and blood
pressure, redness of the skin, high temperature, and the removal of an
existing pain or ache.17

In one hypnotic experiment, a hypnotic subject is told that he is in a
hospital and that there is a dying patient on the tenth floor of the
hospital. He has been hypnotized into believing that if he rushes to the
patient with the right medicine, the patient will be rescued. The
subject, under the influence of hypnosis, thinks he is rushing to the
tenth floor. Meanwhile he gets out of breath and can't control it, due
to a feeling of being extremely tired. Then the subject is told that he
is on the top floor, and succeeded in fetching the medicine, and that he
can lie on a comfortable bed. The subject then starts to relax.18
Although the subject experiences the locations and the atmospheres as if
they were completely real, the places, people or events as told to him
do not exist.

In another experiment, a hypnotic subject in a normal room is told that
he is in a Turkish bath and that the bath is very hot. As a result, he
starts to sweat.19

This draws our attention to a very important point. In order for a
person to sweat, some conditions must exist. The reality that we come
across in this instance of hypnosis is that the hypnotized person has
sweated, even though there is no physical factor which would cause him
to sweat. This example shows clearly that there is no physical necessity
of direct experience of the original of places or atmosphere to feel
such an atmosphere or place. Similar effects can be created through
artificial stimulants or hypnotic suggestion.

The British hypnotherapy specialist, Terence Watts, a member of many
organizations including The National Hypnotherapy Association, The
National Psychotherapists Association, The Professional Hypnotherapists
Center, The Hypnotherapy Research Association, states in an article that
during hypnosis, some people who are recollecting a past event exhibit
some physical changes related to the event. For example, if there was an
element of suffocation in the event remembered, a hypnotic subject might
become breathless while explaining the event under hypnosis and might
even stop breathing for a while. Watts stated that under hypnosis, even
finger marks appeared on one of his patients where a slap on the face
was recalled. Watts also explains that this is not a mystery but a
reaction to sense of pain in the body.20

One of the most striking examples seen in hypnotic applications is that
even a wound can appear on the skin of the hypnotized person through
inculcation. For example, Paul Thorsen, a researcher, touches the arm of
the person under hypnosis with a tip of a pen and tells him that it's a
hot skewer. Soon, a blister (as would have been produced by a second
degree burn) formed in the region where the tip of the pen touched.
Thorsen also hypnotized a person called Anne O. into believing that the
letter A was being drawn onto her arm by pressing hard. Although nothing
else was done, redness emerged in the shape of an "A" in that area.21
Researchers H. Bourru and P. Burot, persuading a hypnotized person that
his arm was being cut, saw that the arm was bleeding after being
slightly drawn on by a pencil.22

J.A. Hadfield told a sailor in hypnosis that he was going to press a hot
iron bar on the sailor's arm and that the arm would burn. However, he
merely touched it gently with his fingertip, after which he covered it.
Six hours later when the cover was removed, there was a slight redness
and puffiness in that area. Hadfield states that "the following day the
puffiness became larger and swelled like a burn."23

These changes that occurred to the human body during hypnosis show that
we do not need the outside world to produce sensations of sight, sound,
touch, feeling, pain or ache. For example, although there is no hot iron
bar in the outside world, if the person is persuaded, there can be a
burn mark on his arm.

These examples show that when we examine how an image occurs, and follow
technological developments, and also when we add consciousness-altering
methods such as hypnosis to this knowledge, a certain truth becomes
clear. Throughout his life, a human being assumes that he is living in a
world which is external to his body. However, everything referred to as
the world is only our brain's interpretation of the signals which reach
the sense centers. In other words, we can never deal with any world
other than the one that occurs in our mind. We can never know what
happens or exists outside us. We cannot know what the original of the
sources of signals reaching the brain is either. This reality has begun
to take its place in science books and is taught to people since high
school age. The problem is that people do not consider the full
significance of this fact.

**Who Is It That Experiences All These Perceptions? **

So far we have established that everything we perceive takes place in
our brains. At this point we face a question which would be asked by
anyone who thinks on this subject a little bit.

As we know, the electric signals coming from the cells in our eyes are
transformed into an image in our brains. For example, the brain
interprets some electrical signals coming to the visual center in the
brain as a field filled with sunflowers. In reality, it is not the eye
that is seeing.

Therefore, if it is not our eyes which are seeing, what is it that sees
the electrical signals as a sunflower field, at the back of our brain,
in a pitch dark place, without feeling any necessity for any eyes,
retina, lens, visual nerves or pupil and enjoys the view in the sight?

Or who is it that hears (without needing an ear) the voice of a very
close friend, becomes happy on hearing it, and misses it when he cannot
hear it, when the brain is totally sound proof?

Or who is it in the brain that feels the fur of the cat when stroking
it, without having any need for a hand, fingers or muscles?

Who is it that feels sensations such as heat, cold, and a sense of
consistency, depth, and distance, as they originate in the brain?

Who is it that smells the lemon, lavender flower, rose, melon,
watermelon, orange, and barbecued meat inside the brain (even though the
brain is smellproof), and feels hungry because of the smell coming from
the grill?

We have thus far discussed how everything we perceive continuously is
actually formed inside our brains. Who is it then that sees the sights
in a brain as if watching television, and becomes excited, happy, sad,
nervous, or feels pleasure, anxiety or curiosity while watching them?
Who is responsible for the consciousness which is capable of
interpreting everything seen and everything felt?

What is the entity in the brain that has consciousness and throughout
life is capable of seeing all the sights shown to him in a dark, quiet
head, that is capable of thinking, and reaches conclusions and makes
decisions in the end?

It is obvious that it is not the brain, made up of water, lipid and
protein, and unconscious atoms, that perceives all this and is
responsible for consciousness. There must be a being beyond the brain.
Despite being a materialist, Daniel Dennett ponders the above question
in one of his books:

My conscious thinking, and especially the enjoyment I felt in the
combination of sunny light, sunny Vivaldi violins, rippling branches –
plus the pleasure I took in just thinking about it all – how could all
that be just something physical happening in my brain? How could any
combination of electrochemical happenings in my brain somehow add up to
the delightful way those hundreds of twigs genuflected in time with the
music? How could some information-processing event in my brain be the
delicate warmth of the sunlight I felt falling on me? For that matter,
how could an event in my brain be my sketchily visualized mental image
of … some other information-processing event in my brain? It does seem
impossible. It does seem as if the happenings that are my conscious
thoughts and experiences cannot be brain happenings, but must be
something else, something caused or produced by brain happenings, no
doubt, but something in addition, made of different stuff, located in a
different space. Well, why not?24

On the other hand, R. L. Gregory questions the existence of the entity
in the back of the brain, which sees all sights:

There is a temptation, which must be avoided, to say that the eyes
produce pictures in the brain. A picture in the brain suggests the need
of some kind of internal eye to see it – but this would need a further
eye to see its picture… and so on, in an endless regress of eyes and
pictures. This is absurd.25

Materialists who believe that nothing exists except matter cannot
understand this particular question. Who does this "internal eye", which
sees and perceives things seen and reacts to such things, belong to?

In the following passage, Karl Pribram describes this important search
by science and philosophy for the identity of the perceiver:

Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the "ghost" in the
machine, the "little man inside the little man" and so on. Where is the
I—the entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as
Saint Francis of Assisi once put it, "What we are looking for is what is
looking". 26

Although many people venture close to this reality in answering the
question "who is the entity that sees", they hesitate to accept all of
its implications. As demonstrated in the examples above, in discussing
the entity in our brains, some refer to the "little man", while others
say "the ghost in the machine", some refer to "the being using the
brain" while some say "the internal eye". All these terms have been used
to describe the entity beyond the brain which possesses consciousness,
and the means of reaching this entity. However, materialist assumptions
keep many people from understanding the true nature of this being which
actually sees and hears.

The only source that answers this question is religion. In the Koran,
God states that He created man in a physical way initially and then
"breathed His Spirit" to the man He created:

When your Lord said to the angels, "I am creating a human being out of
dried clay formed from fetid black mud when I have formed him and
breathed My Spirit into him, fall down in prostration in front of him\!"
(Surat al-Hijr: 28-29)

(He) then formed him and breathed His Spirit into him and gave you
hearing, sight and hearts. What little thanks you show\! (Surat
as-Sajda: 9)

In other words, the human being has another existence besides its
physical body. That entity inside the brain which says "I am seeing" the
sight inside the brain, and "I am hearing" the sound inside the brain
and aware of its own existence, and which says "I am me", is the soul
given to human beings by God.

Any human being with a mind and a conscience can understand this: the
being that watches every incident inside the brain—watches as if looking
at a screen throughout his life—is his soul. **Every human being has a
soul that sees without the need for an eye, hears without the need for
an ear and thinks without the need for a brain. **

The materialistic view—which maintains that matter is the only thing
that exists, and that human consciousness is only a result of some
chemical reactions in the brain—is in a quandary about this issue. To
see this it might be instructive to ask the following questions to a
materialist:

o Sight is formed in our brains but what is it that watches this sight
in our brains?

o Try to see in your mind's eye your neighbor living downstairs in your
apartment building when he is not with you. Who is it that vivifies this
person so clearly in your imagination down to the details of his
costume, the lines in his face, the whites in his hairs; the tone of his
voice, the way he speaks, the way he walks?

A materialist will be unable to give a satisfactory answer to such
questions. The only explanation to these questions is the soul given to
man by God. However, materialists make a mistake not accepting the
existence of any being other than matter. For this reason the truth
explained in this book deals a massive blow to atheist materialist
thought, and constitutes a subject that materialists refuse to discuss
most.

**Who Lets Our Souls Watch All Of These Views?**

At this level there is another question that should be asked: Our soul
watches the sights in our brains. But who is it that creates these
sights? Could the brain itself form a bright, colorful, clear, shadowy
sight and form a whole world through electrical signals in a tiny space?
The brain is no more than a wet, soft, curvy piece of meat. Could a
simple piece of meat like this create a sight clearer than any that
could be provided by a television set with the latest technology,
without any snow or horizontal jitter? Could a vision of such high
quality be formed inside a piece of meat? Could this wet piece of meat
form a stereo sound of higher quality than a stereo hi-fi system with
the highest technology, without any sizzling noises? Of course, it is
impossible for a brain, which is made of one and a half kilograms (four
pounds) of meat to form such perfect perceptions.

Here we arrive at another truth. Since together with everything
surrounding us, the body we have, our hands, arms and faces are the
shadow beings, then our brains are also shadow beings. Thus we cannot
say that this brain which is itself actually only a visual sensation,
forms these visual sensations.

Bertrand Russell points out this truth in his work *The ABC of
Relativity*:

Of course, if matter in general is to be interpreted as a group of
occurrences, this must apply also to the eye, the optic nerve and the
brain.27

Realizing this fact, French philosopher Bergson said in his book,
*Matter and Memory*, that "the world is made up of images, these images
only exist in our consciousness; and the brain is one of these
images."28

Who, then, is the being that shows these sights to our souls, with all
their reality and clarity, and lets us live a life with all of these
perceptions and without any interruptions?

The being that shows all the sights to our souls, lets us hear all the
sounds, and creates all the tastes and smells for our pleasure, is the
Lord of all the worlds, the creator of everything, God.

**One Of The Most Important Dilemmas **

**Of Materialism: Human Consciousness**

Materialist philosophy can never explain the source of human
consciousness, i.e. the qualitative experiences that belong to the human
soul. For the materialist philosophy, matter is the only thing that
exists. Qualities belonging to the soul of a human being, such as
consciousness, thought, decision-making processes, happiness,
excitement, longing, enjoyment and judgment can never be explained in
the materialistic concept. Materialists pass quickly over this subject
saying "human consciousness is only the result of the functions of the
brain". A materialist scientist, Francis Crick summarizes this
materialistic claim as follows:

Your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense
of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the
behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated
molecules.29

However, such a claim cannot be defended by either science or logic. The
materialist prejudices lead materialists to make such explanations
regarding the qualities of a soul that belongs to human beings. In order
not to accept the fact that there is a being beyond the material world,
they attempt to reduce human intelligence to matter and make such claims
that have no relation with intelligence or logic.

The science writer John Horgan, although sympathetic to the materialist
position called "reductionism", points out the following problems with
Francis Crick's claims:

In a sense, Crick is right. We are nothing but a pack of neurons. At the
same time, neuroscience has so far proved to be oddly unsatisfactory.
Explaining the mind in terms of neurons has not yielded much more
insight or benefit than explaining the mind in terms of quarks and
electrons. There are many alternative reductionisms. We are nothing but
a pack of idiosyncratic genes. We are nothing but a pack of adaptations
sculpted by natural selection. We are nothing but a pack of
computational devices dedicated to different tasks. We are nothing but a
pack of sexual neuroses. **These proclamations**, like Crick's, **are
all defensible, and they are all inadequate.**30

Of course, these explanations are all inadequate and they are definitely
not logical. Any fanatic materialist is in fact aware of this truth. Not
surprisingly, Thomas Huxley, the foremost advocate of Darwin also stated
that consciousness cannot be explained by the interaction of neurons:
**"How it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness
comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as
unaccountable as the appearance of the Djin, when Aladdin rubbed his
lamp."**31

From Huxley's time until the present, the failure to explain human
consciousness through neurons hasn't changed. However, this is not
because of the inadequacy of science regarding this issue. In contrast,
especially towards the end of the 20th century, there have been many
developments in the field of neurology with many mysteries being solved.
However, these findings have showed that human consciousness can never
be reduced to matter and the reality lies beyond the material. One of
the leading Darwinist-materialist writers in Germany, Hoimar Von
Ditfurth, also confesses the fact that the currently adopted methods
cannot describe human consciousness:

**With our present research in natural history and genetic development,
it is obvious that we will not be able to give an answer to what
consciousness, spirit, intelligence and feelings are.** That is because
psychic-consciousness level is the highest level that evolution has
arrived, at least in this world. Therefore, although we are able to look
at the other stages and phases of evolution from the outside, by rising
above them, again by the help of our consciousness, we are unable to
approach consciousness (or spirit) itself in a similar way. That is
because no level higher than consciousness is available to us.32

American philosopher and doctor of mathematics, William A. Dembski,
states in his article, "Converting Matter into Mind", that the
bio-chemical functioning of neurons in the human brain and which mental
functions it involves have been understood, although qualities such as
decision making, wishing, or reasoning cannot be "reduced to matter".
Dembski also points out that specialists on consciousness have realized
the error of reductionism;

**…Cognitive scientists abandon hope of understanding this higher level
through the lower neurological level. …**Thus while the commitment to
materialism persists, the hope of explaining human intelligence at the
neural level, which for the materialist is the logical level, is not a
serious consideration.33

It is impossible to describe consciousness with a materialist worldview,
regardless of the extent of scientific development. As details of the
brain surface, it becomes clearer that the mind is irreducible to
matter. Materialists must put aside their prejudices and think deeper
and research further if they are to understand the concept of human
consciousness, as it is impossible to define the real meaning of
consciousness through matter. Consciousness is a function of the soul
that is given to man by God.

**Questions For Materialists**

It is totally illogical to state that thoughts, judgments, decision
mechanisms, or feelings (such as happiness, excitement, joy and peace)
are merely the results of the interaction of neurons in the brain of a
human being. Materialists who consider this issue more deeply are aware
of this truth. The famous materialist, Karl Lashley, made the following
comment towards the end of his career, even though he had defended the
idea for years that human consciousness could be reduced to matter:

Whether the mind-body relation is regarded as a genuine metaphysical
issue or a systematized delusion, it remains a problem for the
psychologist (and for the neurologist when he deals with human problems)
as it is not for the physicist. . . . **How can the brain, as a
physico-chemical system, perceive or know anything;** or develop the
delusion that it does so?34

Lashley drew attention to this conflict in one single question. However,
there are many other details that materialists must consider. The
explanations listed below illustrate some of the issues that reveal the
impasse of the materialist approach, and which must therefore be
considered in depth :

\- Stating that thoughts, excitements and feelings are products of
neurons is to claim that such things are the products of the unconscious
atoms, or products of the sub elements of atoms, such as quarks or
electrons.

\- Unconscious atoms cannot know the feeling of happiness or sadness and
neither can they enjoy music, taste, good friendship or a chat with a
friend.

\- Unconscious atoms cannot be Darwinist or materialist and come
together to write a book.

\- Unconscious atoms cannot view themselves or the nerve cells that form
themselves under an electron microscope and reach scientific solutions
from their research.

\- What is meant by the statement "consciousness is in the neurons of
our brains"? Neurons, just like other cells, are made of cell membrane,
mitochondria, DNA and ribosomes. Therefore, according to the
materialists, where does consciousness lie in these things? If they
suppose that consciousness is a result of chemical reactions between the
neurons and electrical signals, they are mistaken, because they cannot
explain a single "chemical reaction with consciousness". Nor can they
show us an "electric wave" that starts to "think" at a certain voltage
level.

If materialists think sincerely about these issues, they will realize
that all people including themselves are different from groups of
neurons or bunches of atoms. Despite being a materialist, the brain
specialist Wolf Singer, admits this fact by saying *"In this confusing
material of the universe there is 'something' that perceives itself as
'I am'."*35

This "something" that the scientist refers to is actually the soul that
is given to the human being by God. Due to this soul possessed by the
human being, a person can think, be happy, get excited, produce new
ideas, or oppose the ideas of others, or know the concepts such as
honour, respect, love, friendship, loyalty, sincerity and honesty. The
neurons and atoms that form human beings cannot think, make decisions,
produce philosophical ideas or know the feeling of love, compassion or
affection.

Materialists, when they are alone, know this truth and accept it.
However, due to their regarding their materialist prejudices as the
requirement of science and reason, they cannot come to accept this
absolute reality. On the other hand, the predicament they put themselves
into just to defend materialism, and the illogical ideas they accept,
actually cause much greater damage to them. A person who says "Our
thoughts are the product of our atoms and neurons" is no different than
a person who thinks his or her dreams are real, or a person who invents
incredible stories like fairytales and then believes in them.

The truth is actually this: a human being is a being that possesses a
soul given by God, and with this soul, he can think, talk, be pleased,
make decisions, establish civilizations and manage countries.

**WHY IS THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTER SUCH **

**AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT?**

**That** what people see, hear, touch, smell and assume to be absolute
entities are in reality perceptions, and that throughout our lives we
merely deal with copy images is as remarkable as the facts that the
universe was created from nothing, that existence is eternal, and that
we rise again to eternal life after death. God creates the universe at
every moment with its numberless details, perfect and without defect.
Moreover, this creation is so flawless that many people who have lived
on the earth so far have not understood that the universe and everything
they see is an illusion, and that they have no connection with the
reality of matter.

In the 21st century, this truth has become more evident because
scientific discoveries have definitely proven that we are actually never
in touch with matter. Although some people still refuse to accept this
fact, it is not something that can be ignored, disregarded or rejected.
On the contrary, **knowing the true nature of matter is an important
condition of being a realist.** For this reason, it is very important
for those who consider this question to grasp its significance. Some of
those who read about the real nature of matter have stated that they do
not understand why so much importance has been given to this question.
They even think that it has no relation to faith, and ask why it has a
place in every discussion about faith. However, the importance of this
topic is now evident. A knowledge of the true nature of matter scares
materialists because it destroys their worldview, and it is very
important for Muslims to understand this truth and to try to let people
know about it.

This knowledge helps people to understand some questions about faith and
must be explained as being as important as any other matter concerning
faith. As a result of an explanation of the real nature of matter,
people are cleansed from their attachment to the things of this world,
they direct their thoughts to the afterlife, they are rescued from a
grave error and they can easily grasp some truths that those errors
prevented them from understanding. Someone with a materialist view of
the world, or someone who has been brought up under the influence of
this kind of worldview, can never understand certain questions such as,
"Where is God?", "Do heaven and hell and hell exist?", "What is the
nature of spirit and eternity?", "Is there life after death?". But
perceiving that matter is an illusion naturally provides answers to
these questions, and enables people to clearly see that God is the one
absolute Being.

When people understand what matter is, they strongly sense that
everything by which they are bound to the life of this world—their
desires, passions and everything that makes them forget God and the Day
of Judgment—are deceptive and vain. Learning the true nature of matter
is what saves people from the desires of this world. It directs them
with pure hearts and sincerity towards God and saves them from the error
of associating others with Him.

This is a century in which people display arrogance, conceit and every
kind of inhuman and amoral behavior. However, when they realize that
they themselves, and those whom they look up to, are just shadow beings,
their arrogance and conceit will be replaced by humility and gentleness.

All these developments will be the means by which we will achieve a
secure and comfortable society, in which people can live without
meanness, selfishness and pitiless competition.

Certainly, there will be one important result that will come from an
awareness of the fact that we have no contact with the original matter:
The collapse of materialist philosophy.

Now, we shall discuss in detail why the fact that matter is not absolute
is one of the most important discoveries in history.

**The Truth About Matter Shows That God **

**Is The One Absolute Being**

One of the most important things implied by this fact is that God is the
One Absolute Being. Some people, under the influence of materialist
philosophy, think that matter is absolute being. Some of these people
believe that God exists, but when they talk about the existence of God,
and where He is, they display their ignorance. For example, if they are
asked "Where is God?", they will ignorantly answer, "Show me your
intelligence; you cannot. So, God is a reality like intelligence, but
you cannot see it." Others assume in their own minds (God is surely
beyond that) that God has an illusory existence like that of radio
waves. According to their false view, they themselves and the things
they possess are absolute existence and God's existence encompasses this
material existence like radio waves. **However, what is illusory is they
themselves and the things they possess. The One Absolute Being is God.**
God's existence embraces everything. Human beings are in no way absolute
beings but a transient image.

God reveals this truth in a verse:

God, there is no deity but Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is
not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and the
earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His
permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them but
they cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills. His Footstool
encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation does not
tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Surat al-Baqara: 255)

The fullness of faith consists of understanding this truth, avoiding the
mistake of associating others with God and acknowledging God as the One
Absolute Being. Someone who knows that, apart from God, everything is a
shadow existence, will say with certain faith (at the level of Haqq-al
yakin – truth of certainty) that only God exists and there is no other
deity (or any being with strength) besides Him.

The materialists do not believe in the existence of God, because they
cannot see Him with their eyes. But their claims are completely
invalidated when they learn the real nature of matter. Someone who
learns this truth understands that his own existence has the quality of
an illusion, and grasps that a being which is an illusion will not be
able to see a being which is absolute. As it is revealed in the Koran,
human beings cannot see God but God sees them.

Eyesight cannot perceive Him but He perceives eyesight... (Surat
al-An'am: 103)

Certainly, we human beings cannot see the Being of God with our eyes but
we know that He completely encompasses our inside, our outside, our
views and our thoughts. For this reason, God reveals Himself in the
Koran as **"controlling hearing and sight"** (Surah Yunus: 31) We cannot
say one word, we cannot even take one breath without God's knowing it.
God knows everything we do. This is revealed in the Koran:

God – Him from Whom nothing is hidden, either on earth or in heaven.
(Surah Al 'Imran: 5)

It is very important that God watches us, sees us and hears us at every
moment. Someone who realizes this, even if he does not see God with his
eyes, knows that He is aware of him at every moment. For this reason, no
matter what he is doing, he knows that God is a witness of him.
Consequently, he is careful not to do anything to displease Him and will
be mindful of what he does, says, and thinks. In the Koran, it is
revealed that God is close to us in everything we do; that He watches us
and that nothing eludes Him.

You do not engage in any matter or recite any of the Koran or do any
action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied with it. Not
even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven.
Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a
Clear Book. (Surah Yunus: 61)

Certainly God, Who is Absolute Being, knows every aspect of the human
beings He has created. This is a very simple thing for God. But some in
their ignorance may find this hard to understand. However, when we
observe the impressions we think are the "external world", that is, as
we lead our lives, the closest being to us is not an impression, it is
clearly God. The secret of the verse **"We created man and We know what
his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular
vein"** (Surah Qaf: 16) is hidden in this fact. But when a person thinks
that his body is composed of "matter, the absolute entity," he cannot
conceive of this important reality; this is again because he thinks that
the nearest thing to him is his body. For example, if this person
conceives of his existence as being his brain, he does not admit the
possibility that there is a being closer to him than his jugular vein.
However, when he conceives of the fact that matter is not absolute, and
that everything is a facsimile that he experiences in his mind, then
concepts such as outside, inside, far and near have no meaning. His
jugular vein, his brain, hands, feet, his house and his car that he
thought were outside himself, even the sun, the moon and the stars that
he thought were so far away, are all on the same plane. God has
encompassed him all around and is eternally near to him.

That God is eternally near to human beings is also revealed in this
verse: **"If My servants ask you about Me, I am near (to them)..."**
(Surat al-Baqara: 186) In another verse the same reality is expressed,
**"Surely your Lord encompasses mankind round about."** (Surat al-Isra':
60). In spite of this, some people continue to err by thinking that the
nearest thing to themselves is themselves. However, God is closer to us
even than we are to ourselves. The fact that God is the nearest Being to
a human being is emphasized again in these verses: **"Why then, when
death reaches his throat and you are at that moment looking on—and We
are nearer him than you but you cannot see"** (Surat al-Waqi'a: 83-85)
Indeed, a person on the point of death or lying in a hospital bed may
think that the closest being to him is the doctor at his bedside, his
mother who is embracing him, or his friends touching him and holding his
hand. But as it says in this verse, God is closer to him at that time
than anyone else. Moreover, God is the single closest Being to him not
only at that particular moment, but from the first moment of his
existence. But, because people do not see it with their eyes, some of
them are ignorant of this reality.

The fact that God is not circumscribed by space but embraces all things
is revealed in another verse:

Both East and West belong to God, so wherever you turn, the Face of God
is there. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Baqara: 115)

In another verse, God explains this reality in this way:

It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then
established Himself firmly on the Throne. He knows what goes into the
earth and what comes out of it, what comes down from heaven and what
goes up into it. He is with you wherever you are—God sees what you do.
(Surat al-Hadid: 4)

All of this implies that God is the One, True, Absolute Existence. With
His Knowledge, God embraces human beings who are shadow beings and every
other thing. This fact is also pointed out in the following verse:

Your God is God alone, there is no deity but Him. He encompasses all
things in His knowledge. (Surah Ta Ha: 98)

In another verse of the Koran, God warns people against being heedless:

What\! Are they in doubt about the meeting with their Lord? What\! Does
He not encompass all things? (The Koran, 41: 54)

**Human Actions Also Belong To God**

God has created man as a shadow being with no power independent of
Himself. This reality is revealed in this verse:

But you will not will unless God wills... (Surah Fussilat: 30)

Some people are unaware of this great fact. They accept that God created
them, but think that the work they do belongs to them. However, every
action performed by a human being is created with the permission of God.
For example, a person who writes a book writes it with the permission of
God; every sentence, every idea, and every paragraph is composed because
God wishes it. God reveals this very important principle in several
verses; one of these verses is, **"... God created both you and what you
do?"**. (Surat as-Saffat: 96) In these words **"... when you threw; it
was God Who threw... ",** (Surat al-Anfal: 17) God reveals that
everything we do is an act that belongs to Him.

In other verses, God instructs the prophet to take charity from
believers, but in the continuation of the verse, He explains that it is
really He Who takes charity:

Take charity from their wealth to purify and cleanse them and pray for
them. Your prayers bring relief to them. God is All-Hearing,
All-Knowing. Do they not know that it is God Who receives repentance
from His servants and accepts such acts of charity, and that God is the
Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful? (Surat at-Tawba: 103-104)

The great Islamic scholar Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi explains that the
deeds we do belong to God:

As for the spirits, the source of the actions that derive from them is
not found in their entities. **It is God alone who puts spirits and
objects into action continuously.** … Spirit and matters are not
comprised of chosen beings and determined facts. They are comprised of
divine acts; various manifestations of the almighty being. In the same
way, things that are said to be finite or infinite are nothing but a
single entity seen from two different points.36

As Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi explains, it is God Who creates every deed
and makes the soul of the doer believe that it is he himself who is
performing it. God creates this sense so realistically in every soul
that someone who throws a stone, for example, really thinks that he is
throwing it himself. However, a person who is a shadow being cannot
perform the act of throwing, but God makes him feel as if he is
performing the act. As a result of the wonderful perfection in God's
creation, a person senses this feeling intensely and actually thinks
that he is holding the stone, drawing back his arm to exert strength for
speed and throwing it.

Human beings live at every moment dependent on God and, whether they
know it or not, or whether they accept it or not, they are subject to
God. God reveals this in this verse:

Everyone in heaven and earth prostrates to God willingly or unwillingly,
as do their shadows in the morning and the evening. (Surat ar-Ra'd: 15)

Whoever you know, who lives or has lived in this world, in the present
or in the past, wherever he may be, whatever he may possess, or no
matter how stubborn a denier he may be, this reality does not change for
him or for anyone. Every human being is subject to God's will, every
person is a shadow being created from the breath of God's Spirit. Anyone
who knows this finds it impossible to accept praise for his wealth,
knowledge, title or reputation; nor can he accept adulation for his
place or position in society or success in his profession. Those who are
still arrogant despite this are in fact completely powerless. After God
has revealed that the person who thinks he has thrown the stone has not
really thrown it, but that it was God Himself who threw it, it is
unfathomable ignorance for anyone to think that he deserves credit for
any human success.

In this way God tests and trains every human being. Today those who
cannot understand or accept this obvious reality will, when they are
raised from the dead, see everything in its true light and understand
that their own strength avails for nothing:

**The metaphor of those who reject their Lord is that their actions are
like ashes scattered by strong winds on a stormy day. They have no power
at all over anything they have earned. That is extreme misguidance. (The
Koran, 14: 18)**

God is the only Being who has power over all things:

Everything in the heavens and everything on earth glorifies God.
Sovereignty and praise belong to Him. He has power over all things.
Surat at-Taghabun: 1)

**An Understanding Of The Real Nature of Matter **

**Will Lead People To Faith**

People who will come to realize that they have been watching images
shown to their spirits throughout their lives, will believe with
certainty that it is God Who created both their spirits and these
uninterrupted images.

The reason why some people stubbornly refuse to accept the secret of
matter is their unwillingness to conceive of the magnitude of God's
greatness and to accept their own nothingness. But even if these people
do not want to accept it, there is an indisputable truth: Everything in
heaven and on earth is God's and a manifestation of God. The only
absolute Being is God. The other beings that God has created are not
absolute beings but appearances. All the 'I',s , that is individuals,
who observe the appearances that God has created are all spirits from
God.

When people grasp the great secret of this knowledge, they will attain
great clarity of consciousness and the haze enshrouding their spirits
will lift. Everyone who understands it will freely submit to God, love
Him and fear Him. In addition, human feelings of pride and
self-satisfaction will be replaced by humility and modesty. This is what
God wants from human beings. Those who understand this amazing fact will
look at things from a different point of view and start out on a totally
different life. They will acknowledge God's power appropriately, and
distance themselves from the kind of person described by this verse:

They do not measure God with His true measure. The whole earth will be a
mere handful for Him on the Day of Rising and the heavens folded up in
His right hand. Glory be to Him\! He is exalted above the partners they
ascribe\! (Surat az-Zumar: 67)

**Understanding The Reality Of Matter **

**Removes Worldly Ambitions**

What we have described so far is one of the most profound truths that
you have heard in your whole life. We have shown that the whole material
world is really a shadow, and that this is the key to understanding the
existence of God, His creation, and the fact that He is the one absolute
Being. At the same time, we have presented a scientifically undeniable
demonstration both of how helpless human beings are and a manifestation
of God's wonderful artistry. This knowledge makes people assured
believers making it impossible for them not to believe. This is the main
reason why some people avoid this truth.

The things that are being explained here are as true as a physical law
or a chemical formula. When necessary, human beings can solve the most
difficult mathematical problems and understand many very complex
matters. However, when these same people are informed that throughout
their lives they have experience of only the images formed in their
mind, and that they have no connection with the original of matter, they
have no desire at all to understand. This is an exaggerated case of an
inability to understand, because the idea discussed here is no more
difficult than the answer to the questions, "What is two times two?" or
"How old are you?", If you ask any scientist or professor of neurology
where they see the world, they will answer you that they see it in their
brains. You will find this fact even in high school biology text books.
But despite the fact that it is clearly evident, information pertaining
to the fact that we perceive the material world in our brains and the
results that this information entails for human beings can be
overlooked. It is of major significance that one of the most important
scientifically proven facts is so carefully hidden from people's eyes.

The fundamental reason why people easily accept all scientific facts,
yet are so afraid to accept this one, is that learning the truth about
matter will basically change the way everyone looks at life. Those who
believe that matter and the self are absolute beings will discover one
day that they have merely dealt with the reflection in their minds of
everything they have worked for and protected based on this idea - their
spouses, their children, their wealth, even their own personalities.
People are very afraid of this reality and pretend not to understand it
even if they do. They try with determination to disprove the facts,
which are simple enough for even a primary school child to understand.
The reason behind this opposition is that they are afraid to lose what
this world offers.

For someone who is attached to his possessions, his children, or the
transient offerings of this world, the illusory nature of matter is
cause for great fear. At the moment such a person understands this, he
will have died before his natural death, and he will have surrendered
his possessions and his soul. In the verse, "**If He did ask you for it
(all your wealth) and put you under pressure, you would be tight-fisted
and it would bring out your malevolence."** (Surah Muhammad: 37), God
reveals how human beings will behave with meanness when He demands their
possessions from them.

But when a person learns the real nature of matter, he will understand
that his soul and his possessions already belong to God. If he knows
that there is nothing to give or to resist giving, he will submit
himself and all he possesses to God before he dies. For sincere
believers, this is a beautiful and honorable thing and a way to draw
nearer to God. Those who do not believe or whose faith is weak cannot
recognize this beauty and stubbornly reject this reality.

**Those Who Own Factories, Yachts Or Land, Which Are Images **

**In The Brain Worry Themselves For Nothing**

In this section we will consider the example of a heedless factory owner
who has lived all his life with the ambition of being rich, and who
worked day and night since he was young, thinking that he would earn
everything by the sweat of his brow. This example will show us a very
important truth.

The person whom we shall describe is middle-aged. He has two children, a
boy and a girl, whom he sends to good schools. He owns a few cars, a
yacht, some houses and some land. This man thinks he has everything that
is admired in the life of this world. He thinks he has attained
everything that a person could hope for in this life. Besides his
wealth, he has gained a great deal of respect. Everyone who knows him
regards him as a person who is respected, and has standing and position
in society. This opinion is shared by the servants who attend him in the
morning, the chauffeur who bows as he opens the car door for him, the
security guards who greet him with respect when he enters the company
building, and the employees who stand to attention from the moment he
enters the factory until he gets to his office. He has many close
friends and acquaintances in high places and positions. Every day he
runs from meeting to meeting; he is a member of some boards and
societies, and even chairman of others. In the course of a day he gives
orders to hundreds of individuals. In his bank and private safe he has
more money, stocks and bonds that he can count. As he adds up these
things from time to time, he gains even more satisfaction; he is proud
of himself and congratulates himself. What gives him a special feeling
of satisfaction and self-confidence is the fact that he earned
everything himself by his own hard work, and that he attained what he
had devoted his whole life to achieving.

One day, while he is sailing on a yacht with his friends, someone comes
up to him and says: *"Everything you see here at this moment—all these
people, this yacht, the sea, the factories, the houses, the employees
who jump to your command… You merely deal with their images formed in
your brain. You never know the originals of these appearances. If the
nerves entering your brain were severed, this yacht, the people on it,
their voices and conversations, the smell of the sea, the taste of the
fruit juice you are drinking, in short, everything would cease to exist
in a moment. All of these things as well as everything you have owned in
your whole life are in your mind. There is no difference between your
houses, cars, yachts, factories and companies and things you own in your
dreams. It is like having a dream about going to Europe in your own
private airplane and waking up in the morning to find that there is no
airplane, and that you are not in Europe but in bed. If one day you wake
up from this sleep you call your life; how can you be sure that you will
not be in a completely different place observing images pertaining to
this life? "*

This rich man will react strongly to what he is being told. If these
facts were told to him plainly with all scientific proof, even if he
understood he would not accept the truth. In his mind, to accept that
everything he owned was a dream-like fantasy would mean that he had been
following an illusion his whole life. Then, everything for which a
person is praised, everything that gives him a sense of pride and
self-importance is an illusion. The situation of that person will be as
humiliating and ridiculous as that of a person who is rich in his dreams
and puts on airs because of this imaginary wealth. When the rich man in
our example goes into his company after he has grasped this truth, he
will not be moved to arrogance by the respect and esteem shown to him.
This is because he now knows that those who show him respect and bow to
him are only facsimiles in his mind. Or when these things are told to
him, he will not be able to "show off" to his guests with his yacht
because both the yacht and the guests on it are appearances in his
brain.

When he is told that matter is an illusion and that he can have no
connection at all with the source of material existence, the farm he
bought the day before will come into his mind. In that case, the money
he counted out bill by bill and gave to the vendor, the farm he bought
with all its fixtures, the surrounding area surveyed as he made the
purchase—all would exist only in his mind. It would be exactly as if he
had dreamed the night before that he had won an important contract and
made a lot of money from it. When he woke up nothing would be left, and
what he thought was real would be a dream.

If this is the case, he is not in the yacht now. The yacht is an
appearance inside him. When he thinks he is going into his house
furnished in the latest style, in fact, he is opening a big garden gate
and entering a house in his brain. The house, the furnishings, the
garden and the garden gate are in his mind.

If this person is aware that what he is being told is clearly true, he
will come to realize that everything he owns at that moment are
fundamentally shadow beings. All these things are images shown to him by
God Who created him. In order to test him, God created his life and the
appearances of the things that he would think he owned. But forgetting
that God gave him these things and blessed him with the wealth of these
appearances, he became arrogant and spoiled by these things, gave
himself airs and regarded people as his inferiors. Then, he has spent
his life vainly clambering after an illusory dream world. But one day he
realizes that he has been caught up in illusions and wasting his time,
that none of these things has absolute existence and that only God
exists.

In one verse, God calls attention to those who have refused to accept
this reality throughout history and those who have pretended not to know
it:

But the actions of those who disbelieve are like a mirage in the desert.
A thirsty man thinks it is water but when he reaches it, he finds it to
be nothing at all, but he finds God there. He will pay him his account
in full. God is swift at reckoning. (Surat an-Nur: 39)

As we can see in this verse, God compared the deeds of deniers to a
mirage or a phantom. When these people attach themselves to these
phantoms and discover that they cannot expect help from them, they
understand that the phantoms are not real and that God alone is the one
absolute reality.

One of the main reasons why people are so afraid of this reality and do
not wish to accept it is that they understand, like the man in the
example above, that everything they own, their respect, their wealth
will pass away in one moment. Here we call your attention to one point:
we are not saying here that "everything a person owns will stay behind
after death and do him no good". We are saying that "everything a person
owns is an appearance." When he sees that what he has striven for
throughout his life, has troubled him and made him sad, and that he has
tried to beat down other people in the process, he realizes that it was
all an empty deception. In one verse, the Koran reveals that heedless
people live in deception. The greedy attachment of people to property is
related in a verse as follows:

To mankind the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colours:
women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses
with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is
merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. The best homecoming is
in the presence of God. (Surah Al 'Imran: 14)

In another verse it is revealed that the life of this world is a game, a
waste of time and a deception:

Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and
ostentation and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo
one another in wealth and children: like the plant-growth after rain
which delights the cultivators, but then it withers and you see it
turning yellow, and then it becomes broken stubble. In the hereafter,
there is terrible punishment but also forgiveness from God and His good
pleasure. The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of
delusion. (Surat al-Hadid: 20)

When people realize that these appearances they thought they owned
during this life are actually an illusion, they understand that they
have struggled and worried in vain, and that they have wasted their
time. There are those who jealously guard what they own, and for the
sake of these things become angry and abuse others, get irritated and
pound the table with their fist. But when they realize that they have no
connection with the actual material things, they are ashamed and deeply
sorry that they are like be someone who, in a dream, assaults other
people, gets angry and shouts at them. They immediately understand that
they should act in a way that will be pleasing to God, the Origin of all
the appearances shown to them. Those who comprehend this reality, that
is, believers say:

Say: "My prayer and my rites, my living and my dying, are for God alone,
the Lord of all the world." (Surat al-An'am: 162)

It is important never to forget this important point: It does not matter
at which point in his life a person comes to understand this reality; it
is never too late. He can change his way of looking at life right away
and reorder his way of living according to this principle; he can begin
to live not for illusions but for our Lord, the One Absolute Being. God
is always forgiving to His servants.

Those who slyly pretend not to know this reality, and refuse to accept
the fact that God is the One Absolute Being, have fallen into a powerful
trap. God describes their state:

... What they achieved here will come to nothing. What they did will
prove to be null and void. (Surah Hud: 16)

Even if a person does not want to accept this reality now and prefers to
deceive himself by believing that the things he owns are absolute
things, everything will become very clear after he dies on that Last Day
when he is raised again to life. On that day, as it says in the verse,
his **"sight is sharp"** (Surah Qaf: 22), and he will come to a much
clearer awareness of everything. But if he has spent his worldly life
running after illusory goals, he will wish that he had never lived in
that world. He will perish saying, **"If only death had really been the
end\! My wealth has been of no use to me. My power has vanished."**
(Surat al-Haqqa: 27-29)

**Those Who See The Real Nature Of Matter **

**Lose Their Arrogance**

Some people who become aware of this plain truth get upset. When they
understand that they merely deal with the copies in their brains of
their factories, houses, cars, property, children, spouses, relatives,
and social position, their helplessness and powerlessness lies open
before God. They understand that both they themselves and all that they
own, even the whole universe is an illusion and that they themselves are
nothing. All that is left is the spirit they call "I". Because it was
God Who gave them this spirit, they certainly believe in God and submit
to Him, even though they may not have believed before.

When a person grasps these facts, a feeling of humility and dependence
replaces pride, arrogance and self-satisfaction. If all the wealth of
the world and the most important position in it were given to a person
such as this, he would not become conceited, proud or arrogant. He will
not forget that he is only observing images that God has given to him,
and he will not get caught up in illusions. This sublime reality will
remove ambition, pride and conceit, as well as such negative feelings as
spite, hatred and anger. Those who know that everything is an illusion
will not engage in cut-throat competition with one another or harbor
spite or enmity against anyone. In an environment where everyone has
submitted himself only to God, there will be humility, submission,
compassion, deference, love and intimacy.

Therefore, it is highly unreasonable for a person to pretend not to know
this truth, and to fear it and run away from it. A person without faith
may well fear this truth because if he accepts these facts, he will also
be forced to accept the existence of God. But believers must embrace
with pleasure and enthusiasm the fact that matter is a reflection that
God makes them experience in their minds and that the one Absolute Being
is God. For a believer, to fear God's magnificent artistry and to avoid
seeing it makes no sense. When the truth is evident, it is pointless not
to acknowledge it, and to continue to be deceived by the clear lines of
shadows and three-dimensional apparitions. The believer does not fear
the truth, but thinks about the beauty and depth of reality, and
considers how much more wondrous God's flawless artistry becomes within
this system.

**This Reality Threatens Those Who Are Attached **

**To This World By Ambition**

A man who has received an award for what he has achieved, received the
award in his brain. Those who applaud him as he receives the award are,
in fact, an apparition of people in his brain.

A person watching this awards ceremony on the little screen in his brain
has no way of connecting with the source of the people in the
auditorium, the award, or the auditorium itself. These things stay
inside the brain. It is as if the person were watching the reward being
given to him on a videocassette.

This is the reason why people avoid this reality with horror. When those
who are bound to this world by ambition understand that their standing
and position in society, the awards they win, their bank accounts,
yachts, real estate, and the people that praise and esteem them are all
apparitions in their brains, they are consumed by a tremendous anger.
They avoid accepting this fact in all their arrogance because, they
realize that it implies that their esteem, reputation and property will
not be worth the ambitious commitments they have made. But no matter how
hard they try to escape this reality, they cannot change the fact that
they lead the whole of their lives inside their skulls.

**Worries And Difficulties Are Like **

**Images In A Dream**

Some people realize that certain things happen as apparitions in the
brain, but tend to forget that this is true for all phenomena. However,
in every second of one's life, one experiences copy images in the brain.
For example, a businessman who goes bankrupt receives images of his
workplace and his employees in his brain. The things he sold and the
money he received for them are all impressions in his brain. When this
man loses all his money, he loses the image of that money. A person who
loses his workplace and all possessions loses the image in his brain of
the workplace and the property. Or a person who has his car stolen again
has lost the appearance of a car in his mind. He can no longer see this
car-like apparition which he thought he owned, but of course he was
never actually connected to the original of that apparition even for one
moment throughout his whole life.

Not only things like this, but every difficulty a person experiences in
the course of his life is in the brain. For example, consider a person
who lives in a country where there is internal strife. He lives every
moment in mortal danger and comes every moment face to face with
assaults from hostile soldiers, but he is actually face to face with an
appearance of hostile soldiers in his brain. A person who is wounded or
loses his arm in a skirmish loses the apparition of the arm in his brain
and all his feeling of pain is a perception formed in the brain. The
threatening, spiteful and aggressive things said to him by his enemies
are composed of sounds formed in the brain.

As a result, events which produce difficulties, worries and fear are
illusions occurring in the brain. A person who sees what these illusions
really are does not feel anxious because of the difficulties in which he
finds himself, nor does he complain about them. Even if he were
confronted by the most aggressive and dangerous enemy, he would know
that he is face to face with illusions in his brain and would not be
overcome by fear or hopelessness. He knows that each one of these things
is an apparition formed by God and that He created them for a purpose.
No matter what he encounters, he is at peace in his trust and submission
to God. In some verses of the Koran, God reveals that there will be no
fear or sorrow for believers. One verse reads:

Those who say, "Our Lord is God," and then go straight will feel no fear
and will know no sorrow. (Surat al-Ahqaf: 13)

A person who knows that throughout his whole life he has experience of
the images created by God in his brain of everything that has happened,
and every sound he has heard, will, instead of becoming fearful and
vainly filled with anxiety and panic, trust in the endless mercy and
compassion of the Creator Who made him and these images.

**The Environment That Will Come To Be When The Real **

**Nature Of Matter Is Not Kept Secret**

Those who know that they have no connection with the actual material
things, and that they are in the presence only of images that God
presents to them, will change their whole way of living, their view of
life and their values. This will be a change that will be useful both
from the personal and social point of view, because someone who sees
this truth will live without difficulty according to the high moral
qualities that God has revealed in the Koran.

For those who do not regard the world as important and who understand
that matter is an illusion, it is spiritual things that deserve to be
given importance. Someone who knows that God is listening to him and
watching him at every moment, and is aware that he will render an
account of his every action in the hereafter, will naturally live a
morally virtuous life. He will be very careful about what God has
commanded and what He has forbidden. Everyone in society will be filled
with love and respect for one another, and everyone will compete with
one another in the performance of good and noble deeds. People will
change the values according to which they judge others. Material things
will lose their value and therefore, people will be judged not according
to their standing and position in society but according to their moral
character and their piety. No one will pursue illusion; everyone will
seek after truth. Everyone will act without worrying about what others
will think; the only question in their minds will be whether or not God
will be pleased with what they do. In the place of the feelings of
pride, arrogance and self-satisfaction that come from possessions,
property, standing and position, there will be a sense of the
understanding of humility and dependence. Therefore, people will
willingly live according to those examples of good moral qualities
spoken of in the Koran. Eventually, these changes will put an end to
many problems of today's societies.

In place of angry, aggressive people, anxious even about small profit,
there will be those who know that they have experience of an illusion of
everything they see. They will be well aware that reactions of anger and
loud shouting make them look foolish. Well-being and trust will prevail
in individuals and societies and everyone will be pleased with his life
and possessions. These, then, are some of the blessings that this hidden
reality will bring to individuals and societies. Knowing, considering
and living according to this reality will bring many more goodnesses to
human beings. Those who wish to attain these goodnesses should consider
this reality well and endeavor to understand it. In one verse, God says,

Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever sees clearly,
does so to his own benefit. Whoever is blind, it is to his own
detriment... (Surat al-An'am: 104)

**Knowing The Real Nature Of Matter **

**Is The End Of Materialism**

The philosophy of materialism is the worldview that is most threatened
by the fact that we never have direct experience of the original
material world. In order to understand this better, we must look at the
general definition of materialism. The wicked philosophy of materialism
is defined in materialist writings as:

Materialism accepts the eternity and endlessness of the world, that it
is not created by God and is infinite in time and space.37

In the 8th volume of the Larousse Encyclopedia, materialist philosophy
is defined as follows:

Materialism is a doctrine which does not accept the existence of any
other substance than matter. It is the opposite of idealism which says
that the essence and substance of reality is created by spirit.

As we can see in this brief definition, materialist philosophy regards
matter as the only absolute existent and believes that, apart from
matter, no thought or thing exists. Materialist philosophy does not
accept the existence of spirit but regards human consciousness as a
product of the activities of the brain. (We considered the invalidity of
this materialist claim in the section entitled, "One of the Most
Important Dilemmas of Materialism: Human Consciousness"). One of the
most important implications of what is explained throughout this book is
the fact that materialist philosophy is completely invalid. This is due
to the fact that it is now very clear today that we merely know the
version in our mind of what we call matter; it is impossible for us to
demonstrate what the original of matter outside our mind is like. This
is because it is impossible for us to come out of our minds and come
into contact with a material source of things. If we accept this fact
summarized in two sentences, neither matter nor materialism remains.
Seeing that we can never attain to the material existence in the
external world, it is clearly unnecessary and pointless to construct a
philosophy on matter and to base a view of life on it.

The basic reason why those who espouse materialist philosophy are
disturbed by this important secret underlying matter and refuse to
accept it even though it is very evident, is that they understand that
it will mean the end of their philosophy. Throughout history every
materialist has been disturbed by the description of the nature of
matter, even by the other materialists' reading books telling about this
fact, and they have expressed their misgivings. For example, one of the
leaders of the bloody Russian Revolution, Vladimir I. Lenin, in his book
written almost a century ago called *Materialism and Empirio-Criticism*,
warned his followers of this fact:

Once you deny objective reality, given us in sensation, you have already
lost every weapon against fideism, for you have slipped into agnosticism
or subjectivism-and that is all that fideism requires. **A single claw
ensnared, and the bird is lost.** And our Machists have all become
ensnared in idealism, that is, in a diluted, subtle fideism; they became
ensnared from the moment they took "sensation" not as an image of the
external world but as a special "element". It is nobody's sensation,
nobody's mind, nobody's spirit, nobody's will.38

These sentences show how uncomfortable this fact made materialists;
Lenin was very afraid of it and wanted to erase it from his own mind and
from the minds of his comrades. But materialists today are in a much
greater state of discomfort than Lenin was because the invalidity of
materialism has, in the last 100 years, become more clearly and strongly
established. Considered in the past to be a philosophical speculation or
a matter of opinion, the unreality of matter has now been proven for the
first time in history in an irrefutable and scientifically based manner.
The science writer Lincoln Barnett says that even hinting at this
possibility makes materialist scientists anxious and fearful:

Along with philosophers' reduction of all objective reality to a
shadow-world of perceptions, **scientists have become aware of the
alarming limitations of man's senses.**39

In Turkey and throughout the whole world, this fear and anxiety can be
seen very clearly in every materialist who confronts this issue. For
example, in Turkey, materialists have suffered a serious set-back from
the collapse of the theory of evolution, which they supposed to be the
basis of their philosophy. Now they have begun to understand that they
have lost a more important support than Darwinism—matter itself. For
this reason they are now saying that, from their point of view, this
issue is a very serious danger which causes their cultural fabric to be
totally shredded.

In fact, this points to a promise revealed to human beings by God in the
Koran. Where truth is plain, false ideas are bound to perish:

Say: "Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Falsehood is always
bound to vanish." (Surat al-Isra': 81)

Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it
and it vanishes clean away\! Woe without end for you for what you
portray\! (Surat al-Anbiya': 18)

Materialism and those who have espoused it throughout history use matter
as a pretext to rebel against God, Who created them from nothing, gave
them life and created the universe for them to live in. Asking such
superficial and ignorant questions as "If matter exists, where is God in
it?", they deny the existence of God and exert much effort to get others
to deny Him. Today they see one of their most important supports
destroyed; the reality described here has ripped their philosophy up
from its roots and left no possibility for further discussion. The
matter on which they had based all their ideas, their lives, their
arrogance and their denial has slipped from their hands in an instant.

Throughout history, materialists have left a heritage of denial and
methods of denial. For example, many materialists today use the words of
Lenin quoted above and urge their associates not to listen to or read
about this reality. However, the fact that science has clearly explained
the nature of matter, together with the fact that it is so easy to use
technology such as the internet to diffuse this information throughout
the world, has brought their efforts to nothing. Individuals are reading
about this reality, learning about it and coming to understand it. Those
who have accepted materialism until recently as the most valid worldview
now are very surprised to learn the real truth about matter and life in
this world. This is an extraordinary trap that God has set for the
deniers. No matter how deniers throughout history have set traps with
their foolish minds for true religion deviantly making material idols
just to deny God, God, in turn, has prepared an environment where their
false idols will be taken out of their hands and where they themselves
will be caught in the traps they have set. God reveals how throughout
history He has responded to the traps set by deniers.

... they were planning and God was planning, but God is the Best of
Planners. (Surat al-Anfal: 30)

By giving people the impression that they are in contact with the source
of matter, God has made materialists fall into a trap and has humiliated
them in a way that has not been seen before. They have regarded as
absolute being things composed of illusion—their possessions and
property, positions and titles, the society in which they live, in fact,
the whole world. And by trusting in these things, they exalt themselves
before God. In their own arrogant minds they rebel and go forward in
their denials. While doing this, their only strength lies in matter. But
they have fallen into such a lack of understanding that they never think
that God encompasses and surrounds them. In the Koran, God reveals the
final condition that deniers will reach as a result of their lack of
understanding:

Or do they desire to dupe you? But the duped ones are those who
disbelieve. (Surat at-Tur: 42)

Materialists have not yet realized that they are moving step by step
towards the greatest defeat in their history. For example, when they
have discovered that all images are perceptions in the brain, they have
not been able to take into account that this will cause the foundation
of their belief to collapse. When a materialist scientist, at the end of
his researches, discovers that things are not really what he had
believed them to be, and that he actually deals with images formed in
the mind, he has given a blow to materialist belief with his own hands.
In one verse, God reveals that deniers will unconsciously fall into the
trap that they themselves have set:

And likewise in every city We set up its greatest wrongdoers to plot in
it. They plot against themselves alone, but they are not aware of it.
(Surat al-An'am: 123)

No doubt, the realization of this fact is the most horrible thing that
could happen to a materialist. The fact that he merely has experience of
copy images of everything he owns is, in his own words, to be sentenced
to a living death.

Together with this reality, only God and they are left. In this verse,
God points out the fact that everyone is totally alone in His presence.

Leave the person I created on his own to Me alone. (Surat
al-Muddaththir: 11)

This remarkable fact is also revealed in many other verses:

You have come to Us all alone just as We created you at first, leaving
behind you everything We bestowed on you... (The Koran, 6: 94)

Each of them will come to Him on the Day of Rising all alone. (Surah
Maryam: 95)

In another verse, God reveals that deniers will be addressed with these
words on the Last Day:

On the Day We gather them all together, We will say to those who
associated others with God, "Where are the partner-gods, for whom you
made such claims?" (Surat al-An'am: 22)

After this, deniers will see the loss and destruction of all the things
they regarded as more important than God, things they thought existed in
the world such as possessions, children and all the things around them.
God reveals this truth in this verse:

See how they lie against themselves and how what they invented has
forsaken them\! (Surat al-An'am: 24)

The 21st century is a turning point in which this reality will be spread
among all people and materialism will be wiped off the face of the
earth. Why people believed what they believed in the past or held the
opinions they held is not important. What is important is that, after
seeing the truth, they must not resist it and not be too late to
understand this truth which will be completely understood at the time of
death. We must not forget that there is no escape from truth.

**TIME IS A PERCEPTION TOO**

**A**t this point in the book it has been explained that we can never
reach the original matter, thought to be an absolute existent, and that
every person experiences merely copy images in his brain. And it has
been shown how important this reality has been for the increase of fear
and love toward God, the spread of spirituality and good morals and the
collapse of materialism.

There is another concept similar to matter that materialists have
considered eternal and absolute—time. But like matter, time is also a
perception and is not eternal; there is a moment when it was created.
This fact, which has now been established by scientific proofs, was
revealed in several verses of the Koran.

**Time Is A Concept That Is Formed From The Comparison **

**Of One Moment With Another**

Time is a concept that depends totally on our perceptions and the
comparison we make between our perceptions. For example, at this moment
you are reading this book. Suppose that, before reading this book, you
were eating something in the kitchen. You think that there is a period
between the time when you were eating in the kitchen and this moment,
and you call it "time". In fact, the moment you were eating in the
kitchen is a piece of information in your memory, and you compare this
moment with the information in your memory and call it time. If you do
not make this comparison, the concept of time disappears and the only
moment that exists for you will be the present moment.

For example, a high school graduation ceremony is something in a
person's memory. By comparing other pieces of information in his memory
since the graduation, with the present moment, he forms an idea of time
and, according to the information in his memory, he determines the
length or the shortness of this time. But this sense of length or
shortness is completely in his brain, and comes from this comparison.

In the same way, when someone sees a person bend over to pick up a pen
that he had dropped on the floor and put it on the table, he makes a
comparison. In the moment when the observer saw the person put the pen
on the table, that person's bending over, picking up the pen, walking to
the table are pieces of information in the observer's brain. The
perception of time arises from the comparison of the person putting the
pen on the table with these pieces of information.

Renowned physicist Julian Barbour defines time in this way:

Time is nothing but a measure of the changing positions of objects. A
pendulum swings, the hands on a clock advance.40

In short, time is composed of **a few pieces of information hidden as a
memory in the brain; rather, it arises from the comparison of images.**
If a person did not have a memory, that person would live only in the
present moment; his brain would not be able to make these
interpretations and, therefore, he would not have any perception of
time.

**The Views Of Scientists On The Idea **

**That Time Is A Perception**

Today it has been scientifically accepted that time is a concept that
arises from our making a definite sequential arrangement among movements
and changes. We will try to make this clearer by giving examples from
those thinkers and scientists who have established this view.

The physicist Julian Barbour caused a great stir in the scientific world
with his book entitled *The End of Time* in which he examined the ideas
of timelessness and eternity. He pointed out that the idea that time was
a perception was very difficult for many people to accept. In an
interview with Barbour reported in *Discover* magazine, these comments
are made about time being a perception:

"I still have trouble accepting it" he (Barbour) says. But then, common
sense has never been a reliable guide to understanding the universe –
physicists have been confounding our perceptions since Copernicus first
suggested that the sun does not revolve around Earth. After all, we
don't feel the slightest movement as the spinning Earth hurtles through
the void at some 67,000 miles per hour. **Our sense of the passage of
time, Barbour argues, is just as wrongheaded as the credo of the Flat
Earth Society**.41

As we can see above, this renowned physicist pointed out that any idea
we have of time being absolute is false, and that research done in
modern physics has confirmed this. **Time is not absolute; it is a
variously perceived, subjective concept depending on events.**

François Jacob, thinker, Nobel laureate and famous professor of
genetics, in his book entitled *Le Jeu des Possibles* (The Possible and
the Actual) says this about the possibility that time can move
backwards:

Films played backwards make it possible for us to imagine a world in
which time flows backwards. A world in which milk separates itself from
the coffee and jumps out of the cup to reach the milk-pan; a world in
which light rays are emitted from the walls to be collected in a trap
(gravity center) instead of gushing out from a light source; a world in
which a stone slopes to the palm of a man by the astonishing cooperation
of innumerable drops of water which enable the stone to jump out of
water. Yet, in such a world in which time has such opposite features,
the processes of our brain and the way our memory compiles information,
would similarly be functioning backwards. The same is true for the past
and future and the world will appear to us exactly as it currently
appears.42

Because our brain works by arranging things in a sequence, we do not
believe that the world works as described above; we think that time
always moves forward. However, this is a decision our brain makes and is
therefore totally relative. If the information in our brains were
arranged like a film being projected backwards, time would be for us
like a film being projected backwards. In this situation, we would start
to perceive that the past was the future and the future was the past and
we would experience life in a way totally opposite than we do now.

In fact, we cannot know how time moves or, indeed, if it moves at all.
**This demonstrates that time is not an absolute reality but only a kind
of perception.**

The fact that time is a perception was proved by the greatest physicist
of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, in his "General Theory of
Relativity". In his book, *The Universe and Dr. Einstein*, Lincoln
Barnett says this:

Along with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of absolute
time – of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow, streaming
from the infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the obscurity
that has surrounded the Theory of Relativity **stems from man's
reluctance to recognize that sense of time, like sense of colour, is a
form of perception.** Just as space is simply a possible order of
material objects, so **time is simply a possible order of events.** The
subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein's own words. "The
experiences of an individual" he says, "appear to us arranged in a
series of events; in this series the single events which **we remember
appear to be ordered according to the criterion of 'earlier' and
'later'.** There exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or
**subjective time.** This in itself is not measurable. I can, indeed,
associate numbers with the events, in such a way that a greater number
is associated with the later event than with an earlier one.43

From these words of Einstein, we can understand that the idea that time
moves forward is totally a conditioned response.

Einstein himself pointed out, as quoted in Barnett's book: "Space and
time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from
consciousness than can our concepts of colour, shape, or size."44

According to the "General Theory of Relativity", time is not absolute;
apart from the series of events according to which we measure it, it has
no independent existence.

Our dreams are very important in understanding the relativity of time.
In our sleep we experience events that we believe go on for days but
actually, we are having a dream which lasts for only a few minutes or
even a few seconds.

In order to make this clearer, let us think of an example. Let us think
of a specially designed room with one window and that we spend a certain
amount of time in it. In the room there is a clock by which we will be
able to see the passage of time. Through the window we can see the sun
coming up and going down at regular intervals. After a few days we are
asked how long we have stayed in the room. Our answer will be calculated
by information we have received based on looking at the clock from time
to time and on how many times the sun rose and set. For example, we
calculate that we have spent three days in the room. But if the person
who put us in the room comes and says that we were actually in the room
for two days, that the sun we saw in the window was actually
artificially produced, and that the clock in the room was fast, then our
calculations would make no sense.

This example shows that our knowledge about the rate at which time
passes depends on references which change according to the person who is
perceiving it.

This is an example of how under different circumstances a person
perceives the same amount of time as longer or shorter. Here is another
example. For a person who is waiting for his brother to come out of an
operation, one hour seems like several. But if the same person is doing
something he really enjoys, he cannot understand how the hour passed so
quickly.

Einstein scientifically established the following fact in his "General
Theory of Relativity": The rate at which time passes changes according
to the speed of a body and its distance from the center of gravity. If
the speed increases, time decreases, contracts, moves slower and seems
that the point of inertia approaches.

Let us explain this with one of Einstein's thought experiments. Suppose
that there are two twin brothers. One of them stays in this world, the
other goes on a space journey during which he travels almost at the
speed of light. When he returns from space, he will find that his twin
brother is much older than he is. The reason for this is that the time
passed much more slowly for the brother who went on the space trip. The
same example can be thought of in relation to a father who went on a
space trip in a rocket traveling at nearly 99 percent of the speed of
time and his son who remained on this earth. According to Einstein, if
the father was 27 years old and his son was three, 30 earth-years later
when the father returned to earth, the son would be 33 and the father
would be 30 years old. 45

The relativity of time is not something that is relative to the speeding
up or slowing down of the clock; it comes from the fact that every
material system, to the particles at the subatomic level, works at
different rates of speed. In an environment where time was slowed down,
a person's heartbeat, rate of cell division and brain activity would
happen more slowly. In this situation, a person would go about his daily
business unaware that time had slowed down.

**The Concept Of The Relativity Of Time **

**Is Revealed In The Koran**

As we explained in previous pages, time is not an absolute reality; with
discoveries in modern science it has been definitely proved that it is a
relative perception. It is a wonder that this discovery made by science
in the 20th century was revealed in the Koran 1400 years before.

For example, in some verses, it is pointed out that life is very short.
A human life of approximately 60 years is said to be as short as an hour
in a day.

On the Day He calls you, you will respond by praising Him and think that
you have only tarried a very short time. (Surat al-Isra': 52)

On the day We gather them together—when it will seem if they had tarried
no more than an hour of a single day – they will recognize one
another... (Surah Yunus: 45)

In other verses, it is revealed that time is much shorter than people
think it is.

He will say, "How many years did you tarry on the earth?" They will say,
"We tarried there for a day or part of a day. Ask those able to count\!"
He will say, "You only tarried there for a little while if you did but
know\!" (Surat al-Muminun: 112-114)

In other verses in the Koran it is said that time moves with a different
speed in different dimensions. For example, it is revealed that one day
in God's sight is equal to a thousand years. (Surat al-Hajj: 47) Other
verses speak of this:

The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose length is fifty
thousand years. (Surat al-Ma'arij: 4)

He directs the whole affair from heaven to earth. Then it will again
ascend to Him on a Day whose length is a thousand years by the way you
measure. (Surat as-Sajda: 5)

In the style used in many verses of the Koran, it is clearly shown that
time is a perception. For example, God speaks of a number of believers
(The Companions of the Cave) whom He put into a deep sleep for over 300
years. Later, when He woke them up, these people thought that they had
been asleep for a very short time; they could not imagine how long they
had been asleep:

So We sealed their ears with sleep in the cave for a number of years.
Then We woke them up again so that we might see which of the two groups
would better calculate the time they had stayed there. (Surat al-Kahf:
11-12)

That was the situation when we woke them up so they could question one
another. One of them asked, "How long have you been here?" They replied,
"We have been here for a day or part of a day." They said, "Your Lord
knows best how long you have been here..." (Surat al-Kahf: 19)

The situation referred to in the verse below is an important proof that
time is a psychological perception:

Or the one who passed by a town which had fallen into ruin? He asked,
"How can God restore this to life when it has died?" God caused him to
die a hundred years then brought him back to life. Then He asked, "How
long have you been here?" He replied, "I have been here a day or part of
a day." He said, "Not so\! You have been here a hundred years. Look at
your food and drink—it has not gone bad—and look at your donkey so We
can make you a Sign for all mankind. Look at the bones —how We raise
them up and clothe them in flesh." When it had become clear to him, he
said, "Now I know that God has power over all things." (Surat al-Baqara:
259)

As we see, it is revealed in these verses that time is relative and not
absolute. This means that time changes according to the perceptions of
the perceiver; it is not a concrete existent that exists on its own
apart from the perceiver.

**The Relativity Of Time Explains **

**The Reality Of Fate**

As we see from the account of the relativity of time and the verses that
refer to it, time is not a concrete concept, but one that varies
depending on perceptions. For example, a space of time conceived by us
as millions of years long is one moment in God's sight. A period of 50
thousand years for us is only a day for Gabriel and the angels.

This reality is very important for an understanding of the idea of fate.
Fate is the idea that God created every single event, past, present, and
future in "a single moment". This means that every event, from the
creation of the universe until doomsday, has already occurred and ended
in God's sight. A significant number of people cannot grasp the reality
of fate. They cannot understand how God can know events that have not
yet happened, or how past and future events have already happened in
God's sight. From our point of view, things that have not happened are
events which have not occurred. This is because we live our lives in
relation to the time that God has created, and we could not know
anything without the information in our memories. Because we dwell in
the testing place of this world, God has not given us memories of the
things we call "future" events. Consequently, we cannot know what the
future holds. But God is not bound to time or space; it is He Who has
already created all these things from nothing. For this reason, past,
present and future are all the same to God. From His point of view,
everything has already occurred; He does not need to wait to see the
result of an action. The beginning and the end of an event are both
experienced in His sight in a single moment. For example, God already
knew what kind of end awaited Pharaoh even before sending Moses to him,
even before Moses was born and even before Egypt became a kingdom; and
all these events including the end of Pharaoh were experienced in a
single moment in the sight of God. Besides, for God there is no such
thing as remembering the past; past and future are always present to
God; everything exists in the same moment.

If we think of our life as a filmstrip, we watch it as if we were
viewing a videocassette with no possibility to speed up the film. But
God sees the whole film all at once at the same moment; it is He Who
created it and determined all its details. As we are able to see the
beginning, middle and end of a ruler all at once, so God encompasses in
one moment, from beginning to end, the time to which we are subject.
However, human beings experience these events only when the time comes
to witness the fate that God has created for them. This is the way it is
for the fates of everyone in the world. The lives of everyone who has
ever been created and whoever will be created, in this world and the
next, are present in the sight of God in all their details. The fates of
all living things—planets, plants and things—are written together with
the fates of millions of human beings in God's eternal memory. They will
remain written without being lost or diminished. The reality of fate is
one of the manifestations of God's eternal greatness, power and might.
This is why He is called the Preserver (al-Hafiz).

**The Concept Of "Past" Comes From **

**Information In Our Memories**

Because of suggestions we receive, we think we live in separate
divisions of time called past, present and future. However, the only
reason we have a concept of "past" (as we explained earlier) is that
various things have been placed in our memories. For example, the moment
we enrolled in primary school is a bit of information in our memory and
we perceive it therefore as an event in the past. However, future events
are not in our memories. Therefore, we regard these things that we do
not yet know about as things that will be experienced or happen in the
future. But just as the past has been experienced from our point of
view, so has the future. But, because these events have not been given
to our memories, we cannot know them.

If God puts future events into our memories, then, the future would be
the past for us. For example, a thirty year old person has thirty years
of memories and events in his memory and, for this reason, thinks he has
a thirty year past. If future events between the ages of thirty and
seventy were to be put into this person's memory, then, for this thirty
year old individual, both his thirty years and the "future" between the
ages of thirty and seventy, would become the past. In this situation
past and future would be present in the memory, and each one would be
lived experiences for him.

Because God has made us perceive events in a definite series, as if
there were a time moving from past to future, He does not inform us of
our future or give this information to our memories. The future is not
in our memories, but all human pasts and futures are in His eternal
memory. This, as we said before, is like observing a human life as if it
were already wholly depicted and complete in a film. Someone who cannot
advance the film sees his life as the frames pass one by one. He is
mistaken in thinking that the frames he has not yet seen constitute the
future.

**Past And Future Are News Of The Unseen**

In the verses, God reveals that the only one who knows what is secret,
invisible, unseen and unknown is He Himself:

Say: "O God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the
Unseen and the Visible, You will judge between Your servants regarding
what they differed about." (Surat az-Zumar: 46)

Say: "Death, from which you are fleeing, will certainly catch up with
you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the
Visible and He will inform you about what you did." (Surat al-Jumu'a: 8)

He said, "Adam, tell them their names." When he had told them their
names, He said, "Did I not tell you that I know the Unseen of the
heavens and the earth, and I know what you make known and what you
hide?" (Surat al-Baqara: 33)

Generally, the word "secret" is thought to refer only to something
unknown about the future; however, both the past and the future are
secret. Those who have lived in the past and those who will live in the
future are kept in God's sight. However, God gives some of the knowledge
kept in His sight to the memories of people and makes it known. For
example, when God gave knowledge concerning the past in the Koran, He
told the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) that
this was news of the unseen:

That is some of the news of the Unseen which We reveal to you. Neither
you nor your people knew it before this time. So be steadfast. The best
end result is for those who do their duty. (Surah Hud: 49)

This is news of the Unseen which We reveal to you. You were not with
them when they decided what to do and devised their scheme. (Surah
Yusuf: 102)

God gave the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace)
information about some things that had not yet happened which was news
of the unseen about the future. For example, the taking of Mecca (The
Koran, 48: 27) and the victory of the Greeks over the pagans (The Koran,
30: 3-4) were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and
grant him peace) before they happened. The Prophet's (may God bless him
and grant him peace) sayings about the signs of the day of resurrection
and the end times (which were news of the unseen to people of that time)
show that God taught these things to him.

The Koran explains that news of the unseen is given to prophets and some
devout believers. For example, it was revealed to Joseph that the trap
set for him by his brothers will come to nothing (The Koran, 12: 15),
and to the mother of Moses it was revealed that her son would escape the
cruelty of Pharaoh and become a prophet. (Surat al-Qasas: 7)

Finally, all that we call past and future is news of the unseen hidden
in the sight of God. God gives some of this knowledge to the memories of
those He chooses, at a time He chooses, thus making them aware of some
of the unseen. The events which become visible and observable are
characterized by human beings as being past events.

**The Importance Of Submission To Fate**

The fact that past and future are already created in God's sight, and
that everything has happened and is present at God's sight, demonstrates
a very important truth. **Everyone is in complete submission to his
fate.** Just as a person cannot change his past, so he cannot change his
future, because, like the past, the future has already happened.
Everything in the future is determined—when and where events will
happen, what he will eat, who he will talk to, what he will discuss, how
much money he will earn, what diseases he will get, and when, where and
how he will die. All these things are already in God's sight and already
experienced in His memory. But this knowledge is not yet in a person's
memory.

Therefore, those who are sorry, upset, outraged and worried about the
future, are anxious in vain. The future they are so worried and anxious
about has already happened. And no matter what they do, they cannot
change these things.

At this point it is very important to point out that it is necessary to
avoid a mistaken understanding of fate. Some people misunderstand and
think that what is in their fate will happen anyway so there is nothing
they can do. It is true that everything we experience is determined in
our fate. Before we experienced an occurrence, it has been experienced
in God's sight and is written in all its details in the Mother of the
Book (Lawh Mahfuz) in God's sight. But God gives everyone the sense that
he can change things and make his own choices and decisions. For
example, when a person wants to drink some water, he does not say "If it
is my fate I will drink", and sit down without making any move. Instead,
he gets up, takes a glass and drinks the water. Actually, he drinks a
predetermined amount of water from a predetermined glass. But as he does
this, he senses that he is acting according to his own desire and will.
He senses this throughout his life in everything that he does. The
difference between a person who submits himself to God and to the fate
created by God, and someone who cannot grasp this reality is this: the
person who submits himself to God knows that everything he does is
according to the will of God despite the sense that he has done it
himself. The other person mistakenly assumes that he has done everything
with his own intelligence and power.

For example, when a person who has submitted himself to God learns that
he has contracted a disease, knows that the disease is in his fate and
he trusts in God. He thinks that because God has put it in his fate, it
will certainly bring him great good. But he does not wait without taking
any measures thinking that if he is fated to get better he will get
better. On the contrary, he takes all possible precautions; he goes to a
doctor, pays attention to his diet and takes medicine. But he does not
forget that the effectiveness of the doctor, the treatment, the
medicine, as well as whether or not he will get better are all in his
fate. He knows that all this is in God's memory and was present there
even before he came into the world. In the Koran, God reveals that
everything that human beings experience is written beforehand in a book:

Nothing occurs, either in the earth or in yourselves, without its being
in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for God. That
is so that you will not be grieved about the things that may have
escaped you or exult about the things that come to you. God does not
love any vain or boastful man. (Surat al-Hadid: 22-23)

For this reason, anyone who believes in fate will not be troubled or
despair about things that happen to him. On the contrary, he will have
the utmost trust and confidence in his submission to God. God has
determined in advance everything that happens to a person; He has
commanded that we not be sorry for the things that happen to us, and be
self-satisfied by the blessings that we receive. The difficulties that
human beings experience, together with their wealth and success, is
determined by God. All these things are in the fate predetermined by our
Lord to test human beings. As it is revealed in one verse, **"... God's
command is a pre-ordained decree."** (Surat al-Ahzab: 38)

In another verse, God reveals that **"We have created all things in due
measure."** (Surat al-Qamar: 49) Not only human beings but also all
things animate and inanimate, the sun, the moon, mountains and trees
have their fate determined by God. For example, a broken antique vase
was broken at the moment determined by its fate. While it was being
made, it was determined who would use this centuries-old vase, as well
as in which corner of which house and with which other objects it would
stand. The designs on the vase and it colors were determined in advance
in its fate. It was known in God's memory on which day, which hour,
which minute, by whom and how it would be broken. The first moment the
vase was made, the first moment it was placed in the window for sale,
the first moment it was placed in the corner of the house, the moment it
was broken into pieces, in short, every moment in the centuries-long
life of this vase, was present in God's sight as one single moment.
Whereas even though the person who would break the vase was not aware
that he would break it until a moment before it happened, that moment
was experienced and known in God's sight. For this reason, God tells
human beings not to be sorry for the things that may have escaped them.
What have escaped them escaped in accordance with their fate, and they
cannot change it. People must learn a lesson from what happens in their
fate, see the purpose and benefits that accrue to them from it. They
must always incline themselves toward the endless mercy, compassion and
justice of our Lord, Who creates their fate, and spares and protects His
servants.

Those who lead their lives heedless of this important reality are always
anxious and fearful. For example, they are very worried about the future
of their children. They are very concerned about questions such as
these: What school will they go to? What profession will they follow?
Will they have good health? What kind of lives will they lead? However,
every moment of a person's life is determined in God's sight, from the
time he is a single cell to the time he learns to read and write, from
the first answers he gives in a university exam to what company he will
work in during his life, what papers he will sign and how many times he
will sign them, where and how he will die. All of these things are
hidden in the memory of God. For example, **at this moment**, a person
is in the fetal stage, at primary school and at the university. These
are all in God's memory as **one single moment**, along with the moment
he celebrates his thirty-fifth birthday, the first day he begins his
job, the moment when he sees the angels after he dies, the moment when
he is buried, and the moment on the Last Day when he will give an
account to God.

Consequently, it is pointless to worry and be fearful about a life whose
every moment has been lived, experienced and is still present in the
memory of God. No matter how hard a person tries and no matter how
anxious he may be, everyone, his children, spouse, friends and relatives
will live the life that is present at God's sight.

If this is the case, a person of conscience and intelligence who grasps
this reality must submit humbly to God and to the fate He has created.
Actually, everyone is already in submission to God, created in
subservience to Him. No matter whether he likes it or not, he lives
subservient to the fate created for him by God. A person who denies his
fate is a denier because being a denier is written in his fate.

Those who submit themselves willingly to God may hope to enjoy God's
pleasure and mercy and to win paradise; they will live a life of well
being in security and happiness both in this world and in the world to
come. This is because, for a person who submits himself to God, knowing
that there is nothing better for him than the fate created for him by
God, there is nothing to fear or be anxious about. This person will make
every effort, but he knows that this effort is in his fate and, no
matter what he does, he will not have the ability to change what is
written in his fate.

A believer will submit himself to the fate created by God. In the face
of what happens to him, he will do his best to understand the purpose of
these happenings, take precautions, and make an effort to change things
for the better. But he will take comfort in his knowledge that all these
things come to be according to fate and that God had determined the most
beneficial things in advance. As an example of this, the Koran mentions
measures taken by Jacob for the security of his children. In order to
make his sons beware of people with evil intentions, Jacob advised his
sons to enter the city by different gates but he reminded them that this
would never influence the fate determined by God.

He said, "My sons\! You must not enter through a single gate. Go in
through different gates. But I cannot save you from God at all, for
judgment comes from no one but God. In Him I put my trust, and let all
those who put their trust, put it in Him alone." (Surah Yusuf: 67)

People may do what they like, but they will never be able to change
their fate. This is revealed in this verse:

Then He sent down to you, after the distress, security, restful sleep
overtaking a group of you, whereas another group became prey to anxious
thoughts, thinking other than the truth about God—thoughts belonging to
the Time of Ignorance—saying, "Do we have any say in the affair at all?"
Say, "The affair belongs entirely to God." They are concealing things
inside themselves which they do not disclose to you, saying, "If we had
only had a say in the affair, none of us would have been killed here in
this place." Say, "Even if you had been inside your homes, those people
for whom killing was decreed would have gone out to their place of
death." So that God might test what is in your breasts and purge what is
in your hearts. God knows the contents of your hearts. (Surah Al 'Imran:
154)

It can be seen in this verse that even if a person runs away from a task
in the way of God in order not to die, if his death is written in his
fate, he will die anyway. Even the ways and methods resorted to in order
to escape death are determined in fate and everyone will experience
those things that are written in his fate. And in this verse, God
reveals to human beings that the purpose of the things created in their
fate is to test them and to purify their hearts. In the Koran it is said
that everyone's death is determined in the sight of God and that the
conception of a baby happens with the permission of God.

God created you from dust and then from a drop of sperm and then made
you into pairs. No female becomes pregnant or gives birth except with
His knowledge. And no living thing lives long or has its life cut short
without that being in a Book. That is easy for God. (Surah Fatir: 11)

In the verses below it is revealed that everything a person does is
written sentence by sentence and what those in paradise experience are
also things that have already been experienced. As we said earlier, the
real life of paradise is for us in the future. But the lives of those in
paradise, their conversations and feasting is in God's memory at this
moment. Before we were born, the future of humanity in this world and
the next had been experienced in God's sight in a moment and is being
kept in God's memory.

Everything they did is in the Books.

Everything is recorded, big or small.

The heedful are amid Gardens and Rivers,

on seats of honour in the presence of a Competent Sovereign. (Surat
al-Qamar: 52-55)

We can understand from this way of speaking in the Koran that, in God's
sight, time is a single moment and for Him there is no past or future.
As we see, some events that will be for us in the future, are understood
in the Koran as being long passed. This is because both the past and the
future are created by God as a single moment. Therefore, an event which
is related to occur in the future, in fact, has already occurred, but,
because we cannot understand this, we think of them as future. For
example, in the verses where the account to be given to God by human
beings is described, it is understood as a long passed event.

And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and all who are
on the earth swoon away, save him whom God wills. Then it is blown a
second time, and behold them standing waiting\! And the earth shone with
the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the prophets and the
witnesses are brought, and it is judged between them with truth, and
they are not wronged. Every self will be repaid in full for what it did.
He knows best what they are doing. Those who disbelieve will be driven
to Hell in companies and when they arrive there and its gates are opened
its custodians will say to them, "Did messengers from yourselves not
come to you, reciting your Lord's signs to you and warning you of the
meeting on this Day of yours?" They will say, "Indeed they did, but the
decree of punishment is justly carried out against the unbelievers."
They will be told, "Enter the gates of Hell and stay there timelessly,
for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant\!" And those who fear
\[and respect\] their Lord will be driven to the Garden in companies and
when they arrive there, finding its gates open, its custodians will say
to them, "Peace be upon you\! You have done well so enter it timelessly,
for ever." (Surat az-Zumar: 68-73)

Some further examples of this are the following:

And every soul came, along with a driver and a witness. (Surah Qaf: 21)

And the heaven is cloven asunder, so that on that day it is frail. (The
Koran, 69: 16)

And because they were patient and constant, He rewarded them with a
garden and garments of silk. Reclining in the garden on raised thrones,
they saw there neither the sun's excessive heat nor excessive cold.
(Surat al-Insan: 12-13)

And Hell is placed in full view for all to see. (Surat an-Nazi'at: 36)

But on this day the believers laugh at the unbelievers. (Surat
al-Mutaffifin: 34)

And the sinful saw the fire and realized they are going to fall into it
and find no way of escaping from it. (Surat al-Kahf: 53)

In the above verses, the events we are to experience after death are
described as finished. This is because God is not bound to the relative
dimension of time and space as we are. God has willed all these events
in timelessness; human beings have done them, experienced them all and
brought them to a conclusion. The verse below reveals that every kind of
occurrence, great and small, happens within the knowledge of God and is
inscribed in a book.

You do not engage in any matter or recite any of the Koran or do any
action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied with it. Not
even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven.
Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a
Clear Book. (Surah Yunus: 61)

**ETERNITY IS HIDDEN IN GOD'S MEMORY**

**S**ome of those who do not completely understand that we never have
contact with the original matter and everything we see is actually a
complex of perceptions formed in the brain fall into error and draw
wrong conclusions. For example, some people understand the explanations
about matter being an illusion to mean that matter does not exist.
Others think that matter exists as an illusion only when we are looking
at it, but when we are not looking at it, it does not exist. Neither of
these ideas is correct.

First, to say that matter does not exist, or that people, trees or birds
do not exist is definitely wrong. All of these things exist and have
been created by God. But, as we have explained from the beginning of
this book, God has created all these things as an image or a perception
for us. That is to say, after God created these things, He did not give
them a concrete independent existence. Every one of them continues to be
created at every moment.

Whether we see them or not, all these things are eternal in God's
memory. All those things that have existed before us, and that will
exist after us, have already been created by God in one single moment.
As has been explained in the earlier chapter, time is an illusion; God
created time and He is not bound by it. Therefore, those things that
will exist for us in the future have been created in one moment in God's
sight and they currently exist. But we cannot see them yet because we
are bound by time.

Just as those things we will see in the future (or will exist in the
future for us) are present every moment in God's memory, so, in the same
way, things in the past do not cease to exist, but are present in God's
memory. For example, when you were a fetus in your mother's womb, the
day when you started to learn how to read and write, the moment you
picked up your first school report, the moment you first drove a car,
the time an old lady smiled at you when you gave her your seat on a bus,
and other such things you experienced in the past, together with all the
moments you will experience in the future, are at this moment in God's
memory and will remain there for eternity.

Suppose you kick a stone as you walk along a path. The time when you
would kick that stone was determined and created in your fate even
before you were born. The fact that this stone fell off a larger piece
of rock, and every stage at which each of its cracks and recesses was
formed—all of these were present in the sight of God even before you
kicked the stone.

The same thing is true of a dead butterfly you see in a garbage can or a
dry leaf falling from a tree onto your head. From the time the butterfly
was still a caterpillar to the time it left its cocoon, from the time
its wings dried to the time it fell into the garbage, everything was
predetermined in its fate. In God's sight, the living butterfly and the
dead butterfly continue to exist and will continue to exist eternally.

**Everything Is Recorded In The **

**Mother Of The Book**

As we explained in the foregoing section, God created in one moment
every event and every creature that we perceive as past and future. In
the Koran it is revealed that the fates of every human being and every
other creature are hidden in the Mother of the Book:

And truly, it is in the Mother of the Book, in Our Presence, high in
dignity, and full of wisdom. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 4)

… We possess an all-preserving Book. (Surah Qaf:4)

Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or earth which is
not in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)

In other verses, God says that everything that happens in heaven and on
earth is recorded in this book.

Those who disbelieve say, "The Hour will never come." Say: "Yes, by my
Lord, it certainly will come\!" He is the Knower of the Unseen, Whom not
even the weight of the smallest particle eludes, either in the heavens
or in the earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that which
is not in a Clear Book. (Surah Saba': 3)

It is revealed in these verses that, since the universe was created,
everything animate and inanimate, every event which happens are the
creation of God and are therefore in His knowledge. In other words, all
these things are in God's memory. The Mother of the Book is a
manifestation of God as the Preserver (Al-Hafiz).

**Past And Future Are Actually **

**Experienced In The Present**

Because time does not exist in the sight of God, all things happen in a
single moment, that is in the "present". All events which we think of as
past and future are present to God; in His sight everything is much more
clear and vital than we can perceive. For example, at this moment Jonah
(pbuh) is being cast into the sea as a result of the drawing of lots;
Joseph (pbuh) is being thrown in to the well by his brothers; he is
eating his first meal in prison and leaving the prison. At this moment
Mary is speaking with Gabriel; Jesus (pbuh) is being born. At this
moment Noah (pbuh) is driving the first nail into the ark and leaving
the ark with his family at the place God chose for them. The mother of
Moses (pbuh) is putting his cradle into the water, Moses (pbuh) is
receiving his first revelation from God in the bush, he is dividing the
sea and the believers are passing through it. At this moment Pharaoh and
his army are being drowned as they cross through the sea and Moses
(pbuh) is speaking with Khidr, Khidr is repairing the walls of the
orphan children. Those who asked Dhu'l-Qarnayn to build a barrier to
protect them are at this moment presenting their request and
Dhu'l-Qarnayn is building the rampart that was not to be breached until
the Day of Judgment. Abraham (pbuh) is at this moment warning his
father, breaking down the idols of the pagans, and the fire they threw
at him is giving Abraham (pbuh) coolness. Prophet Muhammad (may God
bless him and grant him peace) is at this moment receiving a revelation
from Gabriel and he is being taken from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid
al-Aqsa. At this moment the people of 'Ad are being destroyed. The
dwellers in Paradise are on their thrones engaged in mutual
conversation; the dwellers in Hell are being consigned to the flames
suffering in great sorrow for which there is no remedy or recourse.

God sees and hears all these things, in this moment, with a far greater
clarity than we can imagine. God can hear sounds at frequencies that we
cannot hear and He can see things that we cannot see. All the events and
sounds that we can perceive and not perceive are all present in the
sight of God and experienced at every moment in all their vividness.
None of these things is ever lost but continue in God's memory with all
their details.

This is also true of all the events in your life. For example, the
foundation of the house left to you by your grandfather is at this
moment being constructed. Your father is now being born in this house.
The moment you first started to talk is happening now. You are now
eating the meal you will "actually" eat ten years from now.

The reality that all these examples present us with is this: no moment,
no event or no existing thing has ever, or will ever cease to exist. As
a film we are watching on television is recorded on a film strip and
composed of several frames, and as our not seeing some of the frames
does not mean that they do not exist, so it is with what we call "the
past" and "the future".

It is very important to understand one point correctly: none of these
images is like a memory or a dream. All of them are vivid as if you were
experiencing them at this moment. Everything is vitally alive. Because
God does not give us these perceptions, we see them as past. And God can
show us these images whenever He wants to; by giving us the perceptions
proper to these events, He can make us experience the events.

From these examples it can be seen that for God, past and future are
both the same. For this reason, nothing is hidden from God, as is
pointed out in this verse;

(Luqman told his son): "My son, even if something weighs as little as a
mustard-seed and is inside a rock or anywhere else in the heavens or
earth, God will bring it out. God is All-Pervading, All-Aware." (Surah
Luqman: 16)

To Those In Paradise Who Desire To See It,

God Can Show The Past Just As It Happened

If a servant of God in Paradise wishes, God can show him things from the
earthly life just as they happened. (God knows the truth.) For example,
if a person in Paradise asks God to let him see his dead dog alive
again, his burned house before it was destroyed, or the Titanic before
it sank, God can show it all to him even more vivid that it was before.
For example, as the Titanic makes its way on the sea, the fish
surrounding it will all be in the same place as at that moment and the
passengers will be discussing the same things using the same words. Or
ancient great civilizations can be seen in the high point of their
splendor and wealth. A person who is curious about the Inca civilization
can see any period of this civilization whenever he wishes. Because
every event continues to be lived eternally with the same vividness in
God's memory, the person who wants to see an event will find everything
present the same as it was.

In one verse, God reveals that in Paradise people will have everything
they desire:

... You will have there all that your selves could wish for. You will
have there everything you demand. (Surah Fussilat: 31)

If those in Paradise wish it, God will show them every worldly image and
occurrence that will give them sorrow but will make them happy and
joyous. This is a great blessing that God has prepared for His worthy
servants in Paradise.

**The Importance Of This Matter **

**For Human Beings**

This matter is of great importance for human beings because everything
that happens to us in a day, even things we have forgotten by the time
evening comes, the way we act, our attitudes and every thought that
crosses our minds are unforgotten and kept in God's sight.

For example, a person gossiping with his friend forgets this; it is not
important to him. But that moment when he gossiped remains forever in
God's sight. Or if a person has a negative thought about Muslims, that
thought, the moment he thought it, the expression on his face and the
sentences he used all remain forever in God's sight. Or the
self-sacrifice with which a person feeds his friend although he himself
is hungry will remain eternally in God's sight together with the
circumstances of that moment, and the attitude and the thoughts that
were expressed. Or a person who remains patient in a difficulty for
God's sake and speaks kind words to the one who is troubling him will
not have his fine moral behavior lost, but kept for eternity. And on the
Day of Judgment, God will question all the good and evil deeds that a
person has committed; those things which people have done but forgotten
will confront them unforgotten and unchanged. Some people will even be
surprised that the book they are given in the course of the reckoning is
so detailed and they will say,

The Book will be set in place and you will see the evildoers fearful of
what is in it. They will say, "Alas for us\! What is this Book which
does not pass over any action, small or great, without recording it?"
They will find there everything they did and your Lord will not wrong
anyone at all. (Surat al-Kahf: 49)

For this reason, a person aware of this reality must never forget that
his every act and thought are locked for ever in God's memory and will
continue to exist there; he must take care and fear the Day of Judgment.

**REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS REGARDING **

**THE REALITY OF MATTER**

**A**lthough the issue of the reality of matter is exceedingly
straightforward and easy to understand, some people attempt to avoid
accepting the only possible conclusion, for a number of different
reasons, and pretend not to comprehend it.

Many people who have understood the problem have expressed their
extraordinary excitement at learning "the secret behind matter," and how
it has changed their lives and way of thinking. Many people try to go
deeper into the issue, asking questions to try to understand it better.
You can see some of the comments they make in the chapter "Those Who
Learn The Secret of Matter Feel Great Excitement."

Others, however, stubbornly deny this extraordinary truth, and put
forward various objections of their own in an effort to reject it.
Anyone who does reject it has to scientifically demonstrate that images
or sounds do not form inside the brain. Yet none of the objections that
are put forward, from scientists, professors of neurology, brain
experts, psychologists, psychiatrists or professors of biology, in short
from anybody at all, deny that our perceptions are formed within our
brains. This is because it is a scientifically established fact.

Despite this, some people try to cover the matter up by playing word
games or adopting an overblown scientific manner. They try to avoid the
evident truth which follows from the statement beginning "Since images
form in our brains…" One of the clearest examples of this is the answers
given by scientists who are asked whether images form in the brain.

One of these scientists replies: "No, images do not form in the brain.
The incoming signals form a representation of a visual experience."

Let us now examine the method this scientist employs to ignore the
truth. Asked whether images form within the brain, he starts out with a
definite "No." He then follows up by saying that the signals form a
representational image which enables us to see what we are looking at.
So he is actually answering the above question in the affirmative. Of
course the image in the brain is a "representational one". Our brains
can never contain a real table, or sun or the sky. The image we have is
a representation, in other words a copy. When we say we can "see the
world," we are actually perceiving this "representational world", or
"copy", or "imaginary world". These expressions are all different ways
of saying the same thing. One scientist, asked whether what we see in
our brains is a representational world, answers, "Definitely not. What
we see in our brain is a copy of the world." In other words, he first
rejects the question asked, but then uses a rather more confused
explanation to confirm that we actually do see in our brains. This is a
dishonest method resorted to by some scientists who fear that if they
accept this truth they will in turn be forced to give matter up, which
they believe is the only thing that exists.

Others feel unable to deny that images form in our brains, but because
they hesitate to say, "Yes, I see the whole world in my brain," they
give a more meandering answer, "The brain simply processes the incoming
signals and orders neural activity, that is how you see and hear." Yet
in any case, the real subject of discussion is where the image forms
once the brain has carried out all its processing. The answer provided
by this scientist is not an answer at all but a short account of the
stage before the formation of an image. The brain processes the signals,
but it does not then send them back to the eye or the ear. For this
reason, it is not the eye that sees, or the ear that hears. That being
the case, what does the brain do after processing the incoming signals?
Where is the processed information stored, and where is it turned into
images or sounds? Who is it who perceives this information as images or
sounds? When these scientists are asked for answers to questions like
these, they try to avoid accepting the truth by offering long,
convoluted accounts. Actually, it is a wonder that there is any debate
about such an obvious truth at all.

However, all these ways of objecting to or avoiding the issue to hand
are feeble and invalid. Until someone who objects to the reality that is
described in these pages comes up with scientific facts to disprove that
all our perceptions are formed within our brains, what he says will be
of absolutely no worth. It is a fact that images and all our senses form
in our brains. However, even though someone has clearly grasped this
concept, he may still ignorantly insist on denying in his own mind the
fact that it is God Who forms these images. He may say, 'I don't even
like to think about it,' or 'It is uncomfortable to imagine that I can
never see actual matter itself,' or "my life does not have any meaning
any more." However, it should be noted that learning this vital truth
about matter is not an uncomfortable situation at all. On the contrary
it is a means to deeper perceive the might and power of God, better
grasp His superior artistry of creation, love Him and hence the images
around more by knowing that they are all manifestations of God, get more
pleasure from them and live with a deeper meaning. In brief it's a great
and precious blessing. Yet, some people who find it hard to understand
the profoundness of faith may find it unnerving that nothing exists but
God. Yet they can never say that they see what they do with their own
eyes, or that what they see are the originals that exist outside them.
That is because there is no scientific evidence or observation to show
that that is the case, and neither can there ever be any. In any case,
even the most determined materialists accept that images are seen inside
the brain.

This chapter will mainly be devoted to replying to the objections of
those who cannot bring themselves to accept this fact. Reading these
objections and the replies to them, you will see that the replies are
actually quite evident when examined with honesty and without prejudice.

Objection: "When you see a bus coming towards you, you get out of the
way to avoid being crushed. That means the bus exists. Why should you
get out of the way if you see it in your brain?"

**Reply:** The point where those who ask such questions are mistaken is
that they think the concept of "perception" only applies to the sense of
sight. In fact, all sensations, such as touch, contact, hardness, pain,
heat, cold and wetness also form in the human brain, in precisely the
same way that visual images are formed. For instance, someone who feels
the cold metal of the door as he gets off a bus, actually "feels the
cold metal" in his brain. This is a clear and well-known truth. As we
have already seen, the sense of touch forms in a particular section of
the brain, through nerve signals from the fingertips, for instance. It
is not your fingers that do the feeling. People accept this because it
has been demonstrated scientifically. However, when it comes to the bus
hitting someone, not just to his feeling the metal of the indoor—in
other words when the sensation of touch is more violent and painful—they
think that this fact somehow no longer applies. However, pain or heavy
blows are also perceived in the brain. Someone who is hit by a bus feels
all the violence and pain of the event in his brain.

In order to understand this better, it will be useful to consider our
dreams. A person may dream of being hit by a bus, of opening his eyes in
hospital later, being taken for an operation, the doctors talking, his
family's anxious arrival at the hospital, and that he is crippled or
suffers terrible pain. In his dream, he perceives all the images,
sounds, feelings of hardness, pain, light, the colors in the hospital,
all aspects of the incident in fact, very clearly and distinctly. They
are all as natural and believable as in real life. At that moment, if
the person who is having that dream were told it was only a dream, he
would not believe it. Yet all that he is seeing is an illusion, and the
bus, hospital and even the body he sees in his dream have no physical
counterpart in the real world. Although they have no physical
counterparts, he still feels as if a 'real body' has been hit by a 'real
bus.'

In the same way, there is no validity to the materialists' objections
along the lines of "You realize that matter actually exists when someone
hits you," "You can have no doubt as to the existence of matter when
someone kicks your knee," "You run away when you meet a savage dog,"
"When a bus has hit you, you understand whether it is in your brain or
not," or "In that case, go and stand on the motorway in front of the
oncoming traffic". A sharp blow, the pain from a dog's teeth or a
violent slap are not evidence that you are dealing with the matter
itself. As we have seen, you can experience the same things in dreams,
with no corresponding physical counterparts. Furthermore, the violence
of a sensation does not alter the fact that the sensation in question
occurs in the brain. This is a clearly proven scientific fact.

The reason why some people think that a fast-moving bus on the motorway
or an accident caused by that bus are striking proofs of the fact they
are dealing with the physical existence of matter is that the image
concerned is seen and felt as so real that it deceives one. The images
around them, for instance the perfect perspective and depth of the
motorway, the perfection of the colors, shapes and shadows they contain,
the vividness of sound, smell and hardness, and the completeness of the
logic within that image can deceive some people. On account of this
vividness, some people forget that these are actually perceptions. Yet
no matter how complete and flawless the perceptions in the mind may be,
that does not alter the fact that they are still perceptions. If someone
is hit by a car while walking along the road, or is trapped under a
house that collapses during an earthquake, or is surrounded by flames
during a fire, or trips up and falls down the stairs, he still
experiences all these things in his mind, and is not actually
confronting the reality of what happens.

When someone falls under a bus, the bus in his mind hits the body in his
mind. The fact that he dies as a result, or that his body is completely
shattered, does not alter this reality. If something a person
experiences in his mind ends in death, God replaces the images He shows
that person with images belonging to the hereafter. Those who are unable
to understand the truth of this now on honest reflection will certainly
do so when they die.

Objection: "It is true that I see all objects in my mind, but I cannot
believe that all are copy images."

**Reply:** The fact that we perceive the whole world in our brains has
been definitively established by science, and no right-thinking person
can claim anything to the contrary. However, the point that people fail
to understand is this: If we perceive all things in our minds, then will
we never be able to know the originals of the objects that exist outside
our minds? This doubt is valid: We never can be sure that what we
perceive in our minds is the original external matter. That is because
we can never step outside our brains and see what is really out there.
That is why it is impossible for us to know how the external
counterparts of the images in our brains really are. Nobody—not the
person making the claim, nor a neurologist, nor a brain surgeon, nor a
philosopher, nor anyone else—has ever been able to step out of his own
brain to know how the matter outside it is.

Everything that a person knows about his life is perceived by the brain
by means of the electrical signals reaching it. In other words, we
always live in the worlds that exist within our own brains. The birds we
see when we look at the sky, the car about to disappear from sight at
the other end of the street, the things in our rooms, the book in our
hands, our friends, relations and everything else—all of these are copy
images that reach our brains. Nobody can step outside this life within
the brain. Neither science nor technology can be of any assistance in
doing so. That is because whatever a scientist may invent, he still
invents it within that image in his brain. For that reason, the object
he invents to see the outside world with still remains inside his brain.

It is not possible for anyone to know what matter actually looks like,
because nobody has ever come face to face with the original of anything.
From the time of the first man right up to today, not one human being
has ever heard the original of any sound, nor seen the original of any
view, nor enjoyed the original smell of a rose.

Objection: " The pain when a knife slips and cuts my hand and the blood
that flows from it are not an image. What is more, my friend was with me
and saw it happen."

**Reply:** We actually considered the reply to this objection in the
previous answer. Given the importance of the subject, however, it will
be beneficial to run over it one more time.

Those who say this kind of thing ignore the fact that not only sight,
but other senses such as hearing, smell and touch also happen inside the
brain. That is why they say, "I may see the knife in my brain, but the
sharpness of the blade is a fact, just look how it has cut my hand."
However, the pain in that person's hand, the warmth and wetness of the
blood, and all the other perceptions still form within the brain. The
fact that his friend may have witnessed the incident changes nothing,
because his friend is also formed in the same visual center of his brain
where the knife is formed. This person could also experience the same
feelings in a dream—the way he cut his hand with a knife, the pain in
his hand, the image and the warmth of his blood. He can also see in that
dream the friend who saw him cut himself. Yet the existence of his
friend does not prove that what he sees is not a dream.

Even if someone came up just when he was cutting his hand in that dream
and said: "What you are seeing is just perceptions, this knife is not
real, the blood flowing from your hand and the pain in it are not real,
they are just events you are witnessing in your mind," the person will
not believe him, and will object. He might even say: "I am a
materialist. I do not believe in such claims. I feel everything I am now
seeing. Look, can't you see the blood?"

Those who insist that they have direct contact with the original matter
are like the person we have just been considering. In the world of
perceptions they live in, they hear the words, "All these things are
perceptions, and you can never reach the original sources of these
perceptions," yet they violently oppose this truth.

Yet we must not forget that nobody who cuts his hand just says, "This is
only an image" and sits down without doing anything about it. That is
because God has created effects binding people to the images they
perceive. For instance, someone who cuts his hand puts something on it,
bandages it or goes to the doctor. However, he merely has experience of
images formed in his brain of all of these processes. The bandage and
the medicine he puts on are all images that form inside the brain.

Objection: "Is saying that we only have experience of the illusion of
matter we perceive in our minds compatible with Islam?"

**Reply:** Some Muslims suggest that the fact that we only have
experience of the illusion of matter in our minds is not compatible with
Islam, and maintain that religious scholars in the past rejected this
fact. That is not actually the case, however. On the contrary, what we
are saying here is in complete conformity with the verses of the Koran.
It is exceedingly important for a definite understanding of many verses
and subjects revealed in the Koran, such as heaven and hell,
timelessness, infinity, resurrection and the hereafter.

Unquestionably, even if he is unaware of this subject, a person can
still live in complete faith. He can have faith, with all his heart and
feeling no doubt, in what God has revealed in the Koran. We must still
make it clear, however, that an awareness of this subject allows such a
person to deepen his faith and certainty. A number of Islamic scholars
of the past looked on the matter from that same point of view. The only
factors that prevented what they had to say from being widely spread and
known were 1) the fact that the level of science when they lived was
unable to totally clarify the subject and 2) the existence of trends
that were apt to lead to its being misunderstood.

The most important of those Islamic scholars who explained the true
nature of matter was **Imam Rabbani**, who has been widely respected in
the Islamic world for hundreds of years and is seen as "the greatest
reformer of the 10th century according to the Muslim calendar." In his
book *Letters*, Imam Rabbani provides a detailed commentary on this very
subject. In one of his letters, Imam Rabbani says that God created the
entire universe at the level of perception:

I have used the following sentence above, "God's creation is at the
sphere of senses and perceptions." This means "God's creation is at such
a sphere that at that sphere, there is no permanency or existence for
objects apart from senses and perceptions."46

On close examination, Imam Rabbani is careful to emphasize that the
world we see, in other words all that exists, has been created on the
level of perception. All that exists outside this level of perception is
the Being of God. Imam Rabbani explains that God is the only absolute
being:

**Nothing but God exists on the outside…** Perhaps **all of Almighty
God's creation finds constancy on the sphere of perception…** **If it
does have a fixed appearance, that is again only on the perceptual
level.** It only has permanency **thanks to God's artistry on that one
level.** In short, it only has permanency and appearance on one level.
It does not have existence on one plane and appearance on another… 47

As a result, as we can see from Imam Rabbani's clear exposition, matter
is not an absolute entity and we have only a very limited knowledge of
it**.** All we can see is the image presented to us in our minds. It is
God, the Lord of all the Worlds, who creates this image and presents it
to us.

The great Islamic scholar **Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi** also believes that
the only thing that has definitive existence is God, Who has created the
whole universe only on the perceptual level. He is known as "The
Greatest Master" (Shaykh al-Akbar) on account of the depth of his
knowledge, and in his work *The Essence of Wisdom (Fusûs al-Hikam)*, he
reveals that the universe is but a shadow existence consisting of what
is manifested by God:

I say that you must know that apart from God, all that exists, or
everything in the universe, stands in the same relation to God as a
shadow to a man. That being the case, everything apart from God is but
His shadow… **There is no doubt that the shadow exists in
perception.**48

As Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi's words demonstrate, man is something that
possesses the soul God has breathed into him, a manifestation of God.
God is all that really exists, whereas man is a dream. This is a most
important truth, and we would be making a grave error to believe the
opposite.

Alongside Imam Rabbani, **Mawlana Jami** also expresses this astonishing
truth, that he came by from signs in the Koran and by using his own
powers of reason, in the words; **"Whatever exists in the universe is
but a perception. It is like a reflection in a mirror, or a shadow".**

As we have seen, great Islamic thinkers have made this truth perfectly
clear, and for this reason it is not credible to claim that it conflicts
with the Koran and the Sunnah, or that it is rejected by the world of
Islam. What is more, it must not be forgotten that it is a
scientifically proven fact, which nobody can deny, that we see all that
we do in our brains. Because this was not scientifically known in past
times, it is quite natural that some Islamic scholars should not have
referred to it. Furthermore, the fact that we cannot have direct
experience of the original matter has been described in a perverted way
by some circles, who have tried to do away with the rules and laws of
religion in this way. On account of these twisted and dishonest views,
some Islamic scholars have issued warnings against these dangers.
However, these comments have deviated from the truth. They should not be
compared with the comments we have seen above.

As we have stressed from the very beginning, the truth is that matter is
created by God and we cannot experience direct contact with its
original.

Objection: "If we are dealing with an illusion of everything, how can we
explain some of the attributes of God?"

**Reply:** Some believers think that when we accept the true nature of
matter, a curtain is brought down on many of the names of God, and that
if matter is simply an illusion, the manifestation of some of those
names cannot be explained. This is again an error that stems from
shallow thinking and failure to understand the nature of the subject.

First of all, no force or idea can draw a curtain over any of the names
of God. No scientific truth can prevent the manifestation of any of
these names. It is God Who creates these truths in the first place. God
is not bound by the things and laws He creates. For this reason, no
power or knowledge in the world can do away with any of these
manifestations. Even thinking such a thing would be failing to
appreciate the infinite might of God.

Furthermore, the fact that we are dealing with a copy of matter that
forms in our minds is an important proof that, contrary to what these
people may think, the manifestation of the names of God takes place at
all times and in all places. That is because, just like a film, this
image which forms on the perceptual level cannot come about of itself,
and there must be something that displays it, and that means a Creator,
Almighty God, Who brings it into being.

The fact that the image is permanent and unbroken is clear evidence that
our Creator God continues His act of creation at all times. In fact, one
verse says that the earth and the sky (in other words, the universe) are
not fixed and unvarying, that they only exist by virtue of God's
creation, and that they will cease to exist when that creation ceases:

God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from
vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of
them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving. (Surah Fatir: 41)

In the Koran, sura 27, verse 64, God reveals that He **"originates
creation and then regenerates it"**. In another verse, He draws
attention to the fact that people are at every moment being created:

Do they make things into partner-gods which cannot create anything and
are themselves being created? (Surat al-A'raf: 191)

In other words, **the reason for the permanent and unbroken nature of
the images we see, is not that they have a fixed existence, but that God
creates them at every moment.** So the manifestation of God's continuous
creation can be seen at every moment, in everything a person sees or
feels.

In consequence, this truth makes the manifestation of the attributes of
God in the universe even clearer. For example, someone who knows that
when he goes into a garden he has experience of only the images of all
the fruit, flowers and trees presented to him in his own mind will
recall that it is God, the **Provider (al-Razzaq)**, Who gives him
countless blessings and beauties, and Who shows these images to him.
Someone with a pleasant house who knows the true nature of all the
furniture, antiques, gold and silver in it, in other words who realizes
that he is only dealing with images of all these things in his brain,
can never brag about his possessions. Just like the Prophet Solomon
(pbuh), he identifies God, the **Giver (al-Vahhab)** as He Who shows the
beauty of these possessions to him and makes him wealthy by means of it.
Or, when someone convinces another of the existence and oneness of God,
that He is the only Absolute Being, together with the existence of
heaven and hell, he thus sees the manifestation of God's attribute of He
Who reveals the true path, the **Guide (al-Hadi)**.

We must here recall that it is a scientific fact that everyone sees the
images, hears the sounds that accompany them, and feels their physical
properties in his brain. We can never know, by means of our perceptions,
what lies outside our brains. We can be sure, however, that there is a
power as the result of which we see these images and hear these sounds,
and who creates them in a relationship of cause and effect. That force
is God. If He did not create these images for us, there would be no life
in this world. In this way, God's creation and the manifestation of His
attributes continue at every moment. For instance, God continues to
create this book and the words in it, together with the colors in the
pictures it contains, for whoever reads it.

This shows to us God's attribute of Creation (al-Khaliq), and the power
of His creation. At this very moment, God is showing the billions of
people on earth billions of separate images. Each of these images is
created without pause, in perfect harmony, and down to the finest
detail. Every individual is shown images without the tiniest error of
detail. Thinking of this wonder will demonstrate God's infinite might
and that He is the only Ruler of the Worlds.

When saying that matter was created on the level of perception, Imam
Rabbani explains that the names of God are also manifested on the level
of perception:

… The Glorious God **assigned an appearance from all appearances for
names from all names in the sphere of non-existence with his Perfect
Might. And He created it at the sphere of sensations and perceptions.**
At the time He willed and in the way He willed… **The constancy of the
world is not at the exterior level but at the level of sensations and
perceptions**… Even in the exterior, there is nothing permanent and
existing other than the being and attributes of the Almighty God...51

It is impossible for anyone who comprehends this truth to swell up with
pride because of his success, wealth, property and titles. Since at
every moment, in every place, he knows there is a manifestation of the
name of God, and that he is perceiving an image that God is causing in
him, he can never forget how helpless and needy he is in the face of
God.

He believes in the truth stated in the verse below as "Haqq-al yakin'"or
with truth of certainty:

Mankind\! you are the poor in need of God whereas God is the Rich Beyond
Need, the Praiseworthy. (Surah Fatir: 15)

Objection: "This is an old philosophy that was once put forward by the
idealists"

**Reply:** Because some people are very uncomfortable at the true
explanation of matter, they try to compare the truth that we have
experience of only a copy of matter formed in our brains to earlier
philosophies. Developments in the sciences, however, reveal that this is
a scientific fact, not a mere philosophical speculation. So these
peoples' efforts are all in vain.

Besides, the fact that other thinkers in other times have supported an
idea neither disproves nor makes it worthless. The fact that we have
experience of a perception of matter has been understood and stated by
people in earlier as well as our own times.

Furthermore, the ideas of the idealists of the past were not disproved
by the materialists who emerged later. Therefore, saying, "This idea has
been expressed in the past" proves nothing.

The idea that we perceive the world in our brains is not a philosophical
speculation:

The true facts about matter are not something that has been discovered
for the first time, although it is true that in the past they were
discussed only in the form of a philosophical speculation. However, the
facts have now been scientifically proved.

Many thinkers, religious scholars and scientists throughout history have
brought this subject up and explained that we merely have experience of
copies of matter. For instance, ancient Greek philosophers such as
Pythagoras, the Elea School and Plato—with his allegory of the cave—have
looked at the subject from that aspect. Documents that have come down to
us show that false religions such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and
Taoism, as well as Judaism and Christianity, two of the true religions
based on Divine revelation, have all discussed the matter. Prominent
Islamic scholars such as Imam Rabbani, Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi and
Mawlana Jami have also discussed the essence of matter in the same way.
However, it is the Irish philosopher Berkeley whose ideas on the subject
need to be given the most detailed discussion.

Berkeley said that we knew only the copy version of matter that formed
in our minds. He came in for fierce attacks from the materialists of the
time who believed that matter enjoyed an absolute existence, and who
tried to silence him by insults and slander.

However, because of the lack of scientific facts at the time when they
lived, neither Berkeley nor other thinkers were able to support their
views with empirical evidence. As a consequence, it was not possible for
the matter to be completely understood or widely discussed, particularly
given the pressure from those who held the opposite view. Some of these
incorrectly evaluated the truth they had discovered, and even though
they came close to the truth, they were unable to draw the correct
conclusions. Others with hidden agendas tried to drag the matter in a
completely erroneous direction.

The Essence of Matter is a Scientific Fact:

In our time, however, "that we know matter as it is perceived in the
mind," is no longer a matter of philosophical speculation, but has
turned into a fact backed up by scientific proof. Advances in the world
of science have revealed the functioning of man's sensory organs. As we
saw at the beginning of this book, this functioning is the same for
every sensory organ. The signals coming to our sensory organs from the
outside world are turned into electrical signals by our cells and
forwarded to the perception centers in our brain by our nerves. So man
sees, hears, smells, tastes or touches the world in tiny perception
centers in his brain.

These scientific facts are now completely clear, and can be found in any
book on physiology or high school biology textbook. The way images and
perceptions form in the brain is now taught in a detailed manner in
medical schools. As our knowledge has advanced, sciences such as
physics, quantum physics, psychology, neurology, biology and medicine
have clarified the factual details of the process.

For instance, the theoretical physicist Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, who has
attracted considerable attention with his research and has written eight
award-winning books, explains that quantum physics in particular has
revealed that the world we see is composed of copy beings that we have
experience of in our brains:

…there is something beyond all materialism, beyond the physical world,
out of which all reality, the whole of existence, projects. This would
overwhelm traditional dualism – and I take this view not as a mystic but
as a quantum physicist. I think that our most modern understanding of
the physical world suggests that there may be an ineffable realm, a
mystical realm, an "imaginal" realm, out of which the physical world
pops into existence. Kind of like what \[the German physicist and
pioneer of quantum mechanics\] Werner Heisenberg suggested when he
brought the notion of consciousness into physics – when he said that
it's the observer who creates the observed simply by the act of
observation… I see reality differently. Reality to me is more like a
dream – I see a dreaming reality. **I envision a dreamer, or a great
spirit, of which we're all a part… And I think that using this model we
can achieve some real scientific breakthroughs, rather than attempting
to reduce everything down to the simplest level.**53

This scientist has seen the fact that we perceive the material world in
our minds in the light of scientific discoveries, and is only one of the
scientists who have done so. Those who reject this evident scientific
truth do so for ideological reasons, not scientific ones. That is
because these scientists do not wish to accept this fact, knowing as
they do that it will completely undermine the materialism to which they
are so stubbornly attached. In fact, Dr. Wolf makes it clear that this
reality will exclude any possibility of materialism.

When we consider the scientific results that have been obtained, there
is no credibility in treating the fact that we perceive the outside
world in our brains as a philosophical speculation. **It is not a
philosophical speculation at all, but a scientific fact clearly revealed
by scientific discoveries.** It is a fact that everyone lives within,
and which nobody can deny. Everyone, religious or not, knows that
unconditionally, and even if someone does reject it, that rejection is
meaningless.

Objection: "Is the subject of the truth of matter the same as the idea
of the unity of being (Wahdat al-Wujud)?"

**Reply:** It is true that the idea of the unity of being is something
that many Islamic scholars of the past have discussed while considering
some subjects that appear in this book. However, what is being discussed
here is not the same as the unity of being.

Throughout history, many scholars and thinkers have explained this
principle. Some of them, however, have been led astray by a false idea,
and have seen the things that God has created as totally non-existent.
However, to say that we see an illusion of matter formed inside our
brains does not mean that "none of the things we see exist." That is
**because all the things we see, the mountains, meadows, flowers,
people, seas, in short everything we see, everything whose existence God
has described in the Koran, has been created and does exist. However,
each and every one exists as an image.**

Everything created by God exists whether we see it or not. It has in any
case been created, and as we have seen, it will continue to exist under
the memory of God from the moment it is created until the moment it
dies. (For further information see *Eternity Has Already Begun* by Harun
Yahya).

As a result of this, the fact that we have experience of only an
illusion of matter formed in our minds does not mean it does not exist.
But this fact does tell us something about the true nature of matter
i.e. that it is a perception.

**Objection: "How can anyone love something he knows to be an illusion?
If we accept that everything is an illusion formed within our minds, how
are we to love our mothers, fathers, friends and the prophets?"**

**Reply:** A person asking this question does not know, or has not
understood that he is also an illusion. Whereas he accepts his friends
and family as illusions, he accepts himself as absolute. However, like
those close to him, he is also an illusion. The body he sees and
touches, like those of those he loves, is an image that forms inside his
brain.

Furthermore, the fact that such peoples' friends and family are also
perceptions in their minds does not prevent them being loved. If someone
loves his family and friends because of their corporeal or material
existences, then that is in any case a false love. True love consists in
loving someone because of the features manifested in him by God. For
instance, although we have never seen the Prophet Muhammad (may God
bless him and grant him peace), we feel great love and affection for him
because we know that many of the attributes of God, such as The
Supporter (Al-Wali), The Sovereign Lord (Al-Malik), The Generous One
(Al-Karim), The Trustee (Al-Wakil), The Guide (Al-Hadi) are manifested
in him. Yet the only source of this love we have for the Prophet
Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) is the love and
affection we feel for his true Lord, God.

Muslims love people, and all other things too, because of their love of
God, and because all of these things are a manifestation of Him. For
instance, a Muslim who loves a young gazelle, does so because God's
compassion and love are manifested in it, because the lovable qualities
God has created in the animal please him, and its appearance inspires a
feeling of compassion in him. He does not love the animal itself, or any
other creature, on its own as an independent entity.

A Muslim feels no independent love or ties for any person or thing. The
origin of all love is the love of God. One Koranic verse says, **"...
besides God, you have no protector and no helper,"** and stresses that
man has no other friend than God. (The Koran, 2: 107) Another verse
asks, **"Is God not enough for His servant?"**. (The Koran, 39: 36) That
being the case, those we love cannot be our friends and parents
independently of God. For that reason, the fact that all our family and
friends are perceptions in our mind just reinforces that truth. When we
love our mothers, what we actually love are the qualities of God that He
manifests in her, The Merciful (Ar-Rahim), the Compassionate (al-Rauf)
and the Protector (al-Asim). Alternatively, when we love a brother
believer, we really love the pleasing morality that God manifests in
him. Since we hope that his character and nature will be pleasing to
God, they are also pleasing to us. Since we see that he loves and fears
God, we also take pleasure in this faithful image that God has created.
For that reason, when we love someone, we are really loving God, and our
love and affection for that image are really love and affection for
their true source, God.

Those people who love others independently of God, as having an
independent existence distinct from Him, are making a grave error.
According to the Koran, love and devotion are only to be felt for God,
and other things are loved for their manifestations of Him. God has the
following to say about those who love people and ascribe to them an
independent existence:

Some people set up equals to God, loving them as they should love God.
But those who believe have greater love for God. If only you could see
those who do wrong at the time when they see the punishment, and that
truly all strength belongs to God, and that God is severe in punishment.
(Surat al-Baqara: 165)

As it says in the verse, to ascribe to people or things a force outside
the existence of God means to consider them the equals and partners of
God. However, nothing that exists has the power to do anything or carry
out any action apart from God. In many verses of the Koran, people are
warned about ascribing powers to anything else than God:

Those you call on besides God are servants just like yourselves. Call on
them and let them respond to you if you are telling the truth. Do they
have legs they can walk with? Do they have hands they can grasp with? Do
they have eyes they can see with? Do they have ears they can hear with?
Say: "Call on your partner-gods and try all your wiles against me and
grant me no reprieve. My Protector is God Who sent down the Book. He
takes care of the righteous." Those you call on besides Him are not
capable of helping you. They cannot even help themselves. If you call
them to guidance, they do not hear. You see them looking at you, yet
they do not see. (Surat al-A'raf: 194-198)

As is clearly stated in the above verses, it is not possible for anyone
other than God to help anyone else. Not even a person's parents,
children or friends, whose existence he assumes throughout the course of
his life, can actually do anything to help him. Help from friends and
family only happens by the will and permission of God. It is not even
possible for someone to help himself outside the will of God. It is even
impossible for anyone to walk, see or feel, in short to survive, if that
is not the will of God.

Neither must we forget that things and people, of whose original
existence we can have no idea, and we are dealing with only copy images
of which, will be taken away from those who resist acknowledging this
fact in the Hereafter. As revealed in the Koran, everyone will be called
to account all alone. In other words, in the same way that everyone is
actually alone with God in this world, so he will be called to account
in the same way after death. God states this in a verse;

You have come to Us all alone just as We created you at first, leaving
behind you everything We bestowed on you. We do not see your
intercessors accompanying you, those you claimed were your partners with
God. The link between you is cut. Those you made such claims for have
forsaken you. (Surat al-An'am: 94)

When looking at a friend, for instance, everyone sees the image of a
friend that God creates in his mind. If the nerves to his brain are cut,
the image of his friend will disappear. It is only God Who is Living and
Eternal. So how, in that case, can anyone be attached to anything, the
original of which he can never establish contact with, and which only
exists in his mind? It must not be forgotten that it is only God Whom a
person must love and submit to.

Objection: "A person wants his loved ones to be as real and permanent as
he is."

**Reply:** Some of those who object to this matter say: "A person wants
his friends to be as real and permanent as he is. How can they be any
different?"

Such statements show that these people have not understood what we have
been saying about the true nature of matter, or else have not thought
deeply enough about it. People who say such things are not "real and
permanent" as they believe themselves to be, so they cannot expect their
loved ones to be real and permanent. When one considers the matter, a
person will understand that his own body is merely an image that God
shows to his soul.

When some people feel their bodies, feel pain when they cut their
fingers, or meet some of their bodies' physical needs, this may cause
them to forget that their bodies are copy images. However, a person's
own body is actually a perception, just like everything else, and nobody
can ever know the original of the physical existence of his body. For
example, the pain when one cuts one's finger is again a perception. So
is the feeling of fullness one enjoys after eating something. Artificial
signals from outside the human body can also produce the same feelings.
However, nobody can ever know how the original of his own body is. It is
the soul that God has given to man that feels pains or understands the
words on a page, for that reason, the individual himself is also a
manifestation of God. These people are not real and permanent, as they
would believe.

Objection: "To conclude that the universe is a collection of perceptions
means abandoning enquiry into how the universe functions, in other words
science."

**Reply:** This is a form of objection generally put forward by
materialists, and is used to show this subject, in their own opinions,
as opposed to science and intended to negate it. However, it is clearly
false and invalid.

God shows us the images we experience within ourselves as united by a
network of cause and effect relationships, all linked together by laws.
The images that form in our brains of night and day, for instance. We
perceive night and day as being linked to the Sun and the movement of
the Earth. When the image of the Sun in our minds is at its height, we
know that it is noon, and when the Sun goes down, we witness the fall of
night. When creating perceptions belonging to the universe, God created
them together with a cause and effect relationship. We never experience
daytime after the Sun has gone down. Thus science is the observation and
study of this cause and effect relationship that God has created in our
minds.

Let us consider another example: In the illusion within our minds,
whenever we let a pen go, it falls to the ground. As a result of
research into the cause and effect relationship that governs these kinds
of occurrences, we discover "the law of gravity." God presents the
images he shows us in our minds as linked to particular causes and laws.
One of the reasons for the creation of these causes and laws is that
life is created as a test. Science is born as a result of research into
the order within which these laws and the collection of perceptions
called the "universe" function. That is why it is very important to
study science, the laws that appear to govern the extraordinary images
that God has created.

In conclusion, there is no justification for materialist claims that
accepting the fact that we do not have direct contact with the actual
matter means rejecting science. On the contrary, those who genuinely
accept the fact see science as an important way of understanding this
collection of images, and the secrets within them.

There is a great difference between this conception of science and that
of the materialists. The laws of nature that we have discovered by
observing the totality of images in question are the laws of God, Who
created that same totality. The view of science held by materialists,
who erroneously think that matter has an absolute existence, that the
laws of nature stem from matter itself, and that it is these laws which
actually created them, collapses in the light of this truth.

Neither must we forget that God possesses the power to create all these
perceptions without the need for any cause or law. For example, God can
create a rose without using a seed, or rain without the need for clouds,
or shadow and day and night without the Sun. God reveals this fact in a
verse:

Do you not see how your Lord stretches out shadows? If He had wished He
could have made them stationary. Then We appoint the sun to be the
pointer to them. Then We draw them back to Ourselves in gradual steps.
It is He Who made the night a cloak for you and sleep a rest, and He
made the day a time for rising. (Surat al-Furqan: 45-47)

As we have seen in this verse, God reveals that He first created shadow,
then the Sun as a cause of it. Dreams are an example that can help us to
understand this creation better. Although our dreams have no material
counterpart, we still perceive the light and warmth of the Sun. From
that point of view, dreams are indications that perceptions of the Sun
can be created in our minds without its actually being there.

However, within this test, God has also provided humans with a reason
for everything. Day is caused by the Sun, and rain by clouds. All of
these are images that God creates individually in our minds. By creating
a cause before an effect, God enables us to think that everything
functions within specific rules, and thus enables us to carry out
scientific enquiry.

Objection: "Is there not a contradiction between describing the being of
God with the proofs of His existence in nature on the one hand, and
saying that the physical world, put forward as a proof of His existence,
does not exist on the other?"

**Reply:** Some people who have not fully understood the essence of
matter mistakenly suppose that the statement "We cannot contact the
original of the physical world, all we are dealing with is the copy
images in our minds" means "Nothing exists." However, saying that matter
is a totality of perceptions or an image we perceive in our brains is
not the same as saying that matter does not exist. There is a physical
universe, but we can never know its original. We merely have experience
of its copy, or illusion, in our minds.

That we merely deal with matter's illusion is very definite proof of the
existence of God. That is because since nothing that exists on the
perceptual level (just like an image) can possibly create itself, that
shows there is a Creator—Almighty God—Who brings it into being. Thus,
the fact that the physical universe is only an image is concrete proof
of the existence and oneness of God. For that reason, there is no
contradiction between the fact that we have experience of matter's image
and existing things manifesting the existence of God. Quite the
contrary, one is a logical consequence of the other.

God has created everything that exists. However, we only know their
perception and images formed in our minds. Examining and studying the
properties of these image-objects demonstrates proof of the superiority
of God's creation, His art and His infinite knowledge. As a result,
there is no contradiction between saying that matter is a totality of
perceptions and then studying the properties of these perceptions and
seeing the greatness, and might of God.

It must also be made clear that some people think that God only exists
as long as there exist beings that think about Him (God is surely beyond
that), and as a result of this a grave error, put forward a number of
objections. However, if God wished He could eliminate all the images
that He has created, and destroy all that exists, yet He would still
exist. That is because He is infinite and timeless. Several verses draw
attention to the fact that God can destroy whatever He wishes at any
time:

Mankind\! if He wanted, He could remove you altogether, and produce
others instead. God certainly has the power to do that. (Surat an-Nisa':
133)

Mankind\! you are the poor in need of God whereas God is the Rich Beyond
Need, the Praiseworthy. If He wills He can dispense with you and bring
about a new creation. That is not difficult for God. (Surah Fatir:
15-17)

God existed before anything else, and will continue to exist even if
everything else ceases to exist. This is revealed in a verse:

Everyone on it will pass away; but the Face of your Lord will remain,
Master of Majesty and Generosity. (Surat ar-Rahman: 26-27)

Objection: "If we accept this account, then there can be no concepts of
lawful or unlawful."

**Reply:** This is a completely unrealistic claim. The fact that we
cannot be in direct contact with the physical world does not do away
with the secret of the test. Even though we never get to know the
original of the matter, what God has said to be forbidden is forbidden,
and what is lawful is lawful. For example, God has forbidden the eating
of pork. Saying, "I only confront the perception of pork" and then going
on to eat it is evidently dishonest and unintelligent. Alternatively,
saying "I only know the images of these people in my mind, so it does
not matter if I lie to them" is not something that anyone who fears God
and has understood what we are discussing could ever do. That applies to
all the limits, commands and prohibitions imposed by God. The fact of
what we are discussing does not do away with performing the five daily
prayers, giving alms, for instance. The fact that the alms we give exist
in the minds of the people we give them to does not mean we need not
perform this obligation. God has created the whole world as a totality
of perceptions, however, within these perceptions we are still charged
with abiding by what the Koran has revealed.

In the past, some people twisted this truth to try and do away with the
concepts of lawful and unlawful. However, they already possessed a
twisted belief system, and they may have wanted to use this truth for
their own ends. Yet it should be understood that the conclusion they
arrived at was incorrect.

In conclusion, anyone who honestly considers the situation will clearly
see that, for the purposes of the test which God gives us, it is not
necessary to interact with the matter itself. God has created this test
within the world of images. There is no basis to the suggestion that one
needs to know the original of the matter to pray or distinguish between
what is lawful and unlawful. Furthermore, the important thing is the
soul. It is the soul that will be punished or rewarded with blessings in
the Hereafter. For that reason, the fact that we confront an illusion of
matter in our minds does not prevent us doing what is lawful and
avoiding what is unlawful or carrying out our religious obligations.

At this point, we need to be clear that those who claim they have no
responsibility for images will say, "We thought we were not responsible,
that is why we are here," when they are sent to Hell. Even though Hell
is an image, in the same way as this world is, its torments will still
be suffered forever.

**Objection: "Everybody says leaves are green when they look at a tree.
Since everyone describes this tree in the same way, that means it does
not exist in my mind alone."**

**Reply:** What people around us call green, we also call green.
However, is the color they call green the same green we see in our
minds, or do they refer to what we see as blue, and call it green? There
is no way we can ever know. As we have already seen, there are no colors
outside our mind. There are only different length light waves outside,
and it is our brains which process these into colors. Thus colors form
within us, and no one else can ever see the color we see in our brains.

This is a subject that has been discussed by many philosophers and
scientists, and the latter have agreed that "We can never say whether
someone else sees the rose which we see as red in the same way as we do,
or whether what we see as blue he refers to as red." This applies to
perceptions, not just colors. Daniel Dennett, for instance, expresses
his thoughts on and interest in the subject:

Locke discussed it in his *Essay Concerning Human Understanding* (1690),
and many of my students tell me that as young children they hit upon the
same idea for themselves, and were fascinated by it. The idea seems to
be transparently clear and safe:

"There are the ways things look to me, and sound to me, and smell to me,
and so forth. That much is obvious. I wonder, though, if the ways things
appear to me are the same as the ways things appear to other people."

Philosophers have composed many different variations on this theme, but
the classic version is the interpersonal version: How do I know that you
and I see the same subjective color when we look at something? Since we
both learned our color words by being shown public colored objects, our
verbal behavior will match even if we experience entirely different
subjective colors – even if the way red things look to me is the way
green things look to you, for instance.54

Drew Westen, a professor of psychology from Harvard University, says
that from the scientific point of view we can never know whether
somebody else perceives a rose in the same way we do:

If perception is a creative, constructive process, to what extent do
people perceive the world in the same way? Does red appear to one person
as it does to another? If one person loves garlic and another hates it,
are the two loving and hating the same taste, or does garlic have a
different taste to each? The constructive nature of perception raises
the equally intriguing question of whether, or to what extent, people
see the world as it really is. Plato argued that what we perceive is
little more than shadows on the wall of a cave, cast by the movement of
an unseen reality in the dim light. What does it mean to say that a cup
of coffee is hot? And is grass really green? A person who is color-blind
for green, whose visual system lacks the capacity to discriminate
certain wavelengths of light, will not see the grass as green. Is
greenness, then, an attribute of the object (grass), the perceiver, or
some interaction between the observer and the observed? These are
philosophical questions at the heart of sensation and perception.55

As we see, the fact that we make the same definitions, or call the
colors by the same name, does not mean that we see the same things. To
compare the perceptions of people is absolutely impossible, because
everyone sees a distinct world within his brain which belongs to him
alone. The next objection includes yet another explanation pertaining to
this objection.

Objection: "I am in a garden with two friends, and the three of us see
exactly the same things. If what we each see in our minds is the same,
how can you say that these images are illusions?"

**Reply:** The fact that you and other people see the same things does
not mean that you see the original of matter that exists outside your
minds. That is because you also see your companions in your mind. For
example, when strolling with your friends in a fruit garden, in the same
way that the apples, apricots, colored flowers, the sounds of the birds,
the warm breezes, and the smells of the fruit and flowers all form in
your brain, so do your friends, and the things you all talk about. In
other words, your friends are walking in the garden you see in your
mind, not one in the outside world. So the fact that your friends see
the same things as you does not mean that you confront the original of
all that you see.

When you watch a match in a stadium full of people, the fact that
thousands of people see a goal being scored at the same time and react
to it at the same moment is no proof of your seeing the real existence
of the stadium, the players, the referee nor the thousands of people in
the stands. The players, fans, cheering and everything else you see
there all take place inside your brain. The player who scores a goal and
the fans who rejoice at it are all inside you. You rejoice at a goal
scored in your mind, and clap and cheer with the crowd in your brain. In
conclusion, the fact that the people you see alongside you confirm what
you see does not mean that you are seeing their originals that exist in
the external world. No matter what their number is, the people you say
are "right beside" you, are actually in your brain.

Objection: "We perceive the external world as it actually is so there
isn't any abnormality in our behavior. For instance, when we come to a
cliff, we stop instead of keeping on and walking over the edge."

**Reply:** This objection shows that the questioner is seriously
confused, and has not understood what is being said. That is because the
objection rests on the following claim: "There is a physical world out
there. However, everybody sees that world differently in his own mind."
This person thinks that such a claim is being made, and goes on to
object to it, thinking that he disproves the claim by saying: "There is
a material reality out there, and we see it as it is. Nobody sees it any
differently. The proof of this is that when there is a cliff edge out
there we see it as such, and stop walking."

However, the fact under discussion here is very different from what that
person supposes. One case says, "There is an outside world, but we see
this world differently from how it truly is." The other says, "We
perceive all that we experience in our minds, and we can never make
direct contact with any sort of original independent entity. For that
reason we can never know what these originals that exist in the external
world are like."

The fact that we do not walk over the edge of a cliff does not mean that
we have direct experience of the original matter in the external world.
When we walk along a straight path and then stop at the cliff edge, we
are walking along a path in our brain, and see the cliff edge in our
brain. In fact, even if we do fall off the edge of the cliff, we still
perceive doing so in our brains. That happens in exactly the same way as
when a bus hits us, or a dog bites us, as we have seen above. When we
fall off the cliff, the pain of any injuries or broken bones we suffer
still forms in our brains.

Objection: " God shows us these images in order to test us. However, why
should God, the creator of all actions, bring about such a test?"

**Reply:** Naturally, God has no need to test people to see their
attitudes, since it is our Lord who has created all events, times and
places. God is not constrained by time and place. What for us are the
past and future have been lived and come to an end in an instant in His
sight. However, God allows us to experience these tests and causes so
that people should witness their own attitudes and understand why they
go to heaven or hell. Someone who knows that God is his friend—that He
is infinitely just, compassionate and loving—will accept this creation
of His.

God shows us things that have already happened in His sight. He gives
people the feeling that they are doing these actions themselves. Within
that feeling, He announces by means of the Koran that we are responsible
for everything He reveals. That responsibility is to obey all of our
Lord's commands. We can learn beyond this only if God wills. If He
wishes, God can reveal this secret and wisdom to us either in the world
or in the hereafter. Or if He wishes, never at all. As stated in a
verse, **'they cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills'.**
(Surat al-Baqara: 255) Whatever happens, God is our Lord and Protector.
It is therefore our duty to trust in Him, who gives us so many
blessings, and to be pleased with everything He creates.

Some people in the past have grasped the truth about the essence of
matter, yet because their faith in God and their understanding of the
Koran have been weak, they have produced deviant ideas. Some have said,
"Everything is an illusion, so there is no point in worship." Such ideas
are twisted and ignorant. It is true that everything is a perception
presented to us by God. However, it is also true that God charges us to
abide by the Koran. What we have to do is to carefully abide by His
commands and prohibitions.

In the Koran, God reveals that He has provided very little information
about the soul. God has created this image of a test for a certain
cause:

We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of
wealth and life and fruits. But give good news to the steadfast. (Surat
al-Baqara: 155)

You will be tested in your wealth and in yourselves and you will hear
many abusive words from those given the Book before you and from those
who associate others with God. But if you are steadfast and do your
duty, that is the most resolute course to take. (Surah Al 'Imran: 186)

There is considerable wisdom within this test. One of these is that we
are tested and then it is determined where we will be in the eternal
life of the Hereafter as a result. Further wisdom could lie in the way
people can witness what they do throughout their lives, and see why the
morality by which they have lived should lead them to heaven or hell at
the Day of Judgment. But God knows the truth. All we can do is to pray
that He will reveal His knowledge to us.

Objection: "From what we have seen so far, our perception will continue
even after death. Will that last forever? Are heaven and hell nothing
but totalities of perception?"

**Reply:** God has created the people in such a way that we can only
perceive the world by means of images presented to our souls. In other
words, we can only see the images presented to us in our brain, and can
by no means see or touch what lies outside it. However, after death God
will create the individual in a different manner. This creation will
also be an image, in other words, we will see an image of heaven again
in our minds, although we can never know how that new creation will be.

Nevertheless, the fact that heaven and hell are experienced as
perceptions does not in the least detract from the pleasure received
from the former, nor the suffering from the latter. In the same way that
someone in this world feels pain when he burns his hand, so he will also
feel the reality of this perception in the Hereafter. Feelings such as
pain are also perceived in the brain. However, this perception, which
everybody experiences, has been created to be exceedingly realistic,
just like all our other perceptions. People can even faint from the
violence of the pain they feel. In the same way, some images can cause
people intense discomfort, even though they are created as perceptions
in our minds. For instance, an unpleasant sight or sound, or a bad smell
can cause great discomfort. The fact these are perceived in the brain
changes nothing. **Therefore, even though hell will be presented to the
soul as a perception, that fact does nothing to lighten the torment that
will be experienced there.** In the same way that God creates the life
of this world to be so clear and convincing that people assume it to be
"a definite fact," He has the power to do exactly the same thing in the
hereafter. God reveals in several verses that the torments of hell are
quite unbearable:

... My punishment is the Painful Punishment. (Surat al-Hijr: 50)

We will make those who disbelieve suffer a severe punishment and repay
them for the worst of what they did. That is the repayment of the
enemies of God – the Fire. They will have it for their Eternal Home as
repayment for their renunciation of Our Signs. (Surah Fussilat: 27-28)

The same thing applies to heaven. Everything a person enjoys or which
gives him pleasure is a perception that forms in his mind. Someone
enjoying a conversation with his best friend, for instance, is in
reality doing so in his mind. Or someone enjoying the magnificent sight
of a waterfall, and listening to the roaring of the water, is actually
seeing sights and hearing sounds in his mind. There is no question about
that. Yet that does not stop him enjoying that image. That is why God
reveals in the Koran that heaven represents supreme achievement for
people, and that it contains everything their souls will take pleasure
from:

But those who heed their Lord will have Gardens with rivers flowing
under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever: hospitality from
God. What is with God is better for those who are truly good. (Surah Al
'Imran: 198)

Their Lord gives them the good news of His mercy and good pleasure and
Gardens where they will enjoy everlasting delight, remaining in them
timelessly, for ever and ever. Truly there is an immense reward with
God. (Surat at-Tawba: 21-22)

As for him whose balance is heavy, he will have a most pleasant life.
(Surat al-Qari'a: 6-7)

Furthermore, someone who knows that it is God Who allows him to see
these delightful images will take even greater pleasure from the fact.
For example, someone who picks an apple from a tree, with its lovely
smell and pleasing appearance, and thinks of God Who has created that
smell and appearance for him, will enjoy that image even more than other
people. God will prepare different images of heaven for each believer,
and the best examples of whatever a believer's soul craves will be given
to him there. In this world and in the hereafter, a person's only
friend, protector and creator is God. All the prophets, apostles, devout
believers, houris and others that he will see with him in heaven are
beings that form the clearest manifestation of God's friendship, love
and closeness.

It is quite evident that God allows us to receive this totality of
perceptions throughout our lives. An honest person who realizes this can
feel no doubt about His justice, flawless creation, and that He creates
the best and most beautiful of everything. God will also create heaven
and hell within an image as perceptions. Yet that fact does not change
the promises God makes in the Koran. While a person is offered the
greatest joys and pleasures for all eternity in heaven, the terrible
suffering in hell for unbelievers will also last for all eternity. God's
creation is flawless, and He keeps His promises.

Those are people from whom We accept the best of what they have done and
pass over their evil deeds. They are among the Companions of the Garden,
in fulfillment of the true promise made to them. (Surat al-Ahqaf: 16)

As verses make clear, heaven exists at this very moment in the sight of
God. He has created heaven and hell, and both of them exist, in time and
form, in His sight.

Objection: "Can we never directly experience absolute existence? I am
uneasy at knowing that I exist only in a world of perceptions."

**Reply:** Only God exists absolutely. Whatever else we see is a
manifestation of God. People generally assume that they and others do
physically exist, and that God permeates them, a bit like radio waves.
(God is surely beyond that) Yet the truth is the exact opposite of that.
In other words it is only God Who exists. We must not be deceived by the
fact that we cannot directly see His Being. Wherever anyone turns,
whoever he looks at, whatever he is actually seeing is the
manifestations of God.

Furthermore, far from making someone uneasy, this fact should give even
greater happiness to anyone who believes in God. It is a great honor
that God is all that exists and that we, His servants, are illusions.
That fact is cause for rejoicing. It multiplies the awe we feel for our
Lord, and our submission to His infinite might.

It is also an important statement that people will naturally be freed
from their worldly desires, and that will allow them to worship God
without attributing any partners to Him. That is because saying
"Something else must exist besides God," is actually attributing an
equal to Him, and claiming that there is another power outside that of
God. However, that can never be the case with a true believer. Such a
person has no fear of anything but God. When he comes by any strength or
power, he knows that these really belong to God. When a doctor finds a
cure for his sickness, he praises God as the One who has really supplied
the cure. He knows that the doctor is just an agent for the cure God has
caused to come about.

God always creates the most beautiful and best of everything. That fact
must never be forgotten. In one verse, God reveals:

Return to your Lord, well-pleasing and well-pleased\! (Surat al-Fajr:
28)

A person must always be content with every event that God creates. In
that case it can be clearly understood how this truth we are discussing
can bring people closer to God. What is more, when the Koran is read
again with this truth in mind, the wisdom in many of the verses can be
more readily appreciated.

It is true, however, that someone who does not believe in God, who is
trapped by his worldly desires, who has no hope of the hereafter, and
who holds materialist views, could be made terribly uneasy by this
situation. It is truly disappointing and crushing for such people to
understand that they confront only an illusion of all the things they
desire and all the people they assume to have absolute existence. When
they understand the truth, they will see that they have spent all their
lives chasing illusions, and wearing themselves out in vain with their
desires. They will see that they wasted their energies in denying the
truth. They will be truly saddened by that, and even humiliated.

They will also suffer grave disappointment in the hereafter from
assuming that all such illusions were truly real.

Those are the people who have lost their own selves. What they invented
has abandoned them. Without question they will be the greatest losers in
the hereafter. (Surah Hud: 21-22)

Yet, the fact that everything is an illusion, that God is all that truly
exists, is a source of great joy to anyone who accepts God as his only
friend and protector, and who genuinely loves Him.

Objection: "Is the end of this world of perception nothingness? Can
people remain in that nothingness?"

**Reply:** One of the things that prevent people from thinking about
this subject is that they are frightened of remaining in complete
nothingness. When they consider the implications of this, they realize
that they can never know the original of what they think they touch.
However, nothing apart from the will of God can remove any of the causes
that He has created to test us in this world. These causes will continue
to be created until the moment of our death.

We will continue to undergo such tests as feeling the hardness of a
table, seeing our blood when we cut our hand, pain, suffering, fear and
sickness. The fact that we live in a world of nothing but perceptions
will not do away with our close connection to such causes. Even when we
die, there will still not be nothingness. As God has revealed in the
Koran, we will begin a new life of different dimensions and causes.
There is no reason to think that we will end up in nothingness. Since
God has created human beings in this environment which tests us, He will
continue to provide us with perceptions. That is in fact what He reveals
in the Koran. When our perceptions in this world cease, perceptions of
the hereafter will start, and we will never feel ourselves to be in
nothingness.

Objection: "Can someone who understands that he can never reach the
world existing outside his brain continue to be tested in this world?"

**Reply:** This is a very important subject. Some people suggest that
the test will come to an end when this truth is finally understood.
However, that is a dishonest idea. As we have already seen in other
replies, the test will continue as long as we live.

Even though God causes us to live in a way in which we can never
confront the original matter, He also links the world to all its many
causes and effects. For instance, when we are hungry we eat something.
We do not say, "It is all an illusion, so it does not matter." If we do
not eat, we grow weak and eventually die. God can remove these causes
and effects whenever He wishes, for whoever He wishes, by whatever means
He wishes. We can never know when or why He will do this. However, this
is a most important truth: God charges us with abiding by the whole of
the Koran, and we continue to live in the sphere of causes in order to
abide by the divine commandments in it. For example, God commands people
to do good and avoid evil. He orders defenseless women and children to
be spared cruelty and suffering. In the Koran God asks "Why are you not
fighting in their name?" It would be completely wrong and dishonest to
adopt an attitude rejecting these responsibilities that God has placed
on our shoulders.

On the contrary, someone who is aware that it is God Who shows him
everything that goes on will feel an enormous obligation in response to
every image he sees. Unlike many people, he will always try to support
good and prevent evil. That responsibility can never be passed on to
others, and no excuses to the effect of "Let someone else do a bit, I've
done all I can" are acceptable. Someone who knows the true facts of the
situation will say, "If God is showing me this image, then He wants me
to find a solution, and I am responsible for doing so."

In conclusion, everyone must do all he can to carry out the
responsibilities laid on his shoulders in the Koran. Knowing the true
nature of matter -and coming by a view of the world in accordance with
that nature- further strengthens all our efforts to gain God's good
pleasure, and increases our determination many times over.

Objection: "Is it really true that God is everywhere? Does His
sovereignty not lie in the heavens?"

**Reply:** Some people believe in the existence of themselves, matter,
and the world they see around them. They think of God as an illusion
that somehow surrounds this existing matter. (God is surely beyond that)
Or, since they cannot see God with their own eyes, they say "God must be
somewhere we cannot see, in space, or somewhere far away in the sky."
(God is surely beyond that) These are all enormous mistakes.

God is everywhere, not just in the heavens. As the only thing that truly
exists, God permeates all the universe, all people, and all places and
He manifests Himself in the entire universe. Wherever you turn, the face
of God is there. According to the accounts related, our Prophet (may God
bless him and grant him peace) told a person who says that God is in the
heavens that he's telling the truth. However, this account does in no
way conflict with the fact that He is everywhere. Since if one person on
earth at one point on your location holds his hands up and prays to God
and assumes that He is in the heavens and if another person at the South
Pole turns to God in the same way and yet another person at the North
Pole also holds his hands up, and another in Japan, another in America
and yet another on the equator all turn to Him holding their hands up to
heaven, then it's impossible to talk about any fixed direction. In the
same way if the djinns, angels, satans at different points of the
universe and the space pray towards the heavens, then a fixed heaven or
direction would be out of the question to discuss and it would cover the
entire universe. Wherever you turn, the manifestation of God is there.
As we have seen in earlier sections, it has been revealed in several
verses of the Koran that God is everywhere, closer to us than our own
bodies, and that wherever we turn we see the face of God. For instance,
He says **"... His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth..."**
(Surat al-Baqara: 255) Another verse stresses that there is no doubt
that the Lord encircles all that people do:

"... But my Lord encompasses everything that you do\! " (Surah Hud: 92)

As is revealed in the Koran, God is not solely in the heavens. God is
everywhere. This truth has been given us by means of the Koran.

The explanation of the secret behind matter will enable people to
understand these verses better. Those people who see that matter has no
absolute existence will understand that God is everywhere, that He sees
and hears them every moment, that He witnesses everything and is closer
to them than their own bodies, and that He hears every prayer offered to
Him.

**Conclusion: Hell Is The Home Of Argument**

In the Koran, God draws attention to human beings' argumentative
natures, **"We have variegated throughout this Koran all kinds of
examples for people, but, more than anything else, man is
argumentative\!"** (Surat al-Kahf: 54) Some people pretend not to
understand the simplest truths, no matter how clear they are, especially
if they think these truths conflict with their own interests. They go
into unnecessary detail, ask pointless questions that can never lead to
any definitive conclusion, and reveal an argumentative nature. On
account of that character trait, some people throughout history have
argued with all the prophets and messengers chosen by God, and put
forward unrealistic arguments to oppose the clear truth that has been
given to them. The aim behind this opposition was not a genuine desire
to learn the truth, but rather a wish to make difficulties in their own
opinions so they could ignore it.

We must exclude here those people who ask questions out of a genuine
desire to learn the truth, consider and understand it. Of course it is
totally reasonable and necessary to ask questions about this very
important subject, and to refer to those who know more about it, since
most people will have come across it for the first time in their lives
and it will completely change their ways of looking at the world. It is
also evident that people who ask questions out of a genuine desire to
understand are different from those who are simply argumentative and
skeptical and lack all understanding. The people we are talking about
here are those who refuse to see the truth, and who have grown used to
argument and denial.

God describes the state of mind of such argumentative types in a verse:

They retort, "Who is better then, our gods or him?" They only say this
to you for argument's sake. They are indeed a disputatious people.
(Surat az-Zukhruf: 58)

One of the examples of stubborn and argumentative people given in the
Koran is Pharoah. Although the prophet Moses (pbuh) explained the whole
truth to him quite clearly, he asked a question that had nothing to do
with what the prophet had been saying, the answer to which could not
possibly do him any good. This is the question he asked the Prophet
Moses (pbuh) when told about the existence of God:

He said, "What about the previous generations?" (Surah Ta Ha: 51)

It is evident that Pharaoh only asked the question to start an argument.
There was no sincere desire to learn in it, and he thought in his own
feeble mind that the Prophet Moses (pbuh) would have no answer. However,
the prophet immediately understood why he asked it, and, as revealed in
the verse, gave him a clear reply:

He said, "Knowledge of them is with my Lord in a Book. My Lord does not
misplace nor does He forget." (Surah Ta Ha: 52)

Naturally, argumentative and denying natures are not restricted to
Pharaoh and similar types who lived in the past. A large part of people
today are always ready to start an argument about subjects that clash
with their own interests, and particularly about religion. They do not
really want to understand a subject that is perfectly obvious if
approached with a measure of honesty. This is immediately clear from
their attitudes and the questions they ask. Subjects such as destiny and
the nature of matter in particular, such as we have been considering in
this book, are some that people most often try to ignore. For that
reason, questions asked about these subjects are often inspired by a
wish to convince themselves such things are not true, rather than a
sincere inquiry into the truth. For instance, those who ask, "If
everything is an image, what is the purpose of carrying out our
religious duties?" cannot realize what a meaningless question that is.
The only reason they suggest the fact that man is created as an image
should stop him praying, or the fact that food is an image should stop
some things from being unlawful, is simply to raise an objection,
without thinking about the matter at all. Their sole aim, which lacks
any logic, is to refuse to accept the truth.

Believers, however, immediately accept the truth when they see it, and
abide by it. They say, "We have heard and obeyed," as the Koran puts it.
When argumentative types ask them questions, they give clear replies
without getting drawn into polemics. God has revealed that believers
give this kind of reply when questioned by those who want to have an
argument:

Say, "Do you argue with us about God when He is our Lord and your Lord?
We have our actions and you have your actions. We act for Him alone."
(Surat al-Baqara: 139)

Those who argue with true believers, who refuse to understand that God
is all that truly exists and that they themselves actually belong to
God, thus rejecting obvious truths, and who, with their foolish minds,
question the existence of heaven and hell, the compassion of God, and
His justice with illogical questions must understand the following: They
will continue these arguments in hell. Koranic verses describe hell as a
place of eternal argument and conflict:

Arguing in it with one another, they will say, "By God, we were plainly
misguided" (Surat ash-Shu'ara': 96-97)

When they are squabbling with one another in the Fire, the weak will say
to those deemed great, "We were your followers, so why do you not
relieve us of a portion of the Fire?" Those deemed great will say, "All
of us are in it. God has clearly judged between His servants." (Surah
Ghafir: 47-48)

As we have seen in the above verses, the deniers will continue to argue
even in the flames of hell. In other verses, Allah reveals the following
about those who try to argue with believers, and cites their words:

They will say, "Our Lord, give him who brought this on us double the
punishment in the Fire\!" They will say, "How is it that we do not see
some men whom we used to count among the worst of people? Did we turn
them into figures of fun? Did our eyes disdain to look at them?" All
this is certainly true – the bickering of the people of the Fire. (Surah
Sad: 61-64)

The souls in hell will still continue to argue in those dark and narrow
places, under the iron cudgels and the boiling water poured over them,
as their skins melt from the heat of the flames. The pointless debates
will go on, and they will keep asking each other why they are suffering
these torments. They will continue to fall out over God and the
believers:

Here are two rival groups who disputed concerning their Lord. Those who
disbelieve will have garments of fire cut out for them, and boiling
water poured over their heads, which will melt the contents of their
bellies as well as their skin, and they will be beaten with cudgels made
of iron. Every time they want to come out of it, because of their
suffering, they will be driven back into it: "Taste the punishment of
the Burning\!" (Surat al-Hajj: 19-22)

However, they will never be able to come to any conclusion from these
debates. The unbelievers who argued over the truth in this world, and
thus ignored it, will continue arguing in the pains of hell, in great
sorrow, which will never cease—unless God wills.

The continuation of this debate among the companions of hell is a sign
that not even when they see the fires of hell will those who do not
believe come to understand the truth of what they are talking about.
They will continue to deny, even among the torments of hell:

Those in the Fire will say to the custodians of Hell, "Call on your Lord
to make the punishment less for us for just one day." They will ask,
"Did your Messengers not bring you the Clear Signs?" They will answer,
"Yes." They will say, "Then you call\!" But the calling of the
disbelievers only goes astray. (Surah Ghafir: 49-50)

The bad manners and attitude of these people, who will continue to
refuse to call on to their Lord even in the fires of hell and to be
swollen with pride, are clear for all to see. No matter how many
examples are given them, no matter how much proof, they still will not
understand. God reveals how some people will never believe in another
verse:

They have sworn by God with their most earnest oaths that if a Sign
comes to them they will believe in it. Say: "The Signs are in God's
control alone." What will make you realize that even if a Sign did come,
they would still not believe? (Surat al-An'am: 109)

For that reason, we must not be surprised if some people refuse to
accept the truth of what we have been discussing here, no matter how
clear and evident it is. Their stubbornness in the face of the truth is
actually a revelation from God.

**CONCLUSION: **

**THE TRUTH CANNOT BE AVOIDED**

**A**n increasing number of people are coming to accept this truth,
which changes people's fundamental ideas and makes them firm believers
in God. Accepting this truth enables people to love and willingly abide
by all the features of that pleasing morality revealed in the Koran, and
removes all evil feelings—such as competitiveness, hatred and enmity—and
replaces them with love, compassion and humility, which is the true
nature of matter. Those who say, **"How is it that it took me so long to
realize a truth so obvious and simple as this?"** are in the majority.

It is very important that anyone who understands this one truth should
tell others about it. It enables people to definitively grasp other
difficult subjects, such as destiny, time, death, the resurrection,
heaven and hell. Everyone who does this will both enable others to
understand the Koran better and more quickly, and will be a means
whereby people turn rapidly to the true path.

God has given the glad tidings that when nothing is associated with Him,
when only He is worshipped, when only He is accepted as the one deity
and the one power, then the morality of the Koran will rule on the
earth:

God has promised those of you who believe and do right actions that He
will make them successors in the land as He made those before them
successors, and will firmly establish for them their religion with which
He is pleased and give them, in place of their fear, security. "They
worship Me, not associating anything with Me." Any who disbelieve after
that, such people are deviators. (Surat an-Nur: 55)

For the morality of the Koran to hold sway all over the world, the most
important condition is for people to believe that there is no other
power than God. The subjects discussed in this book need to be
thoroughly understood in order to get rid of such polytheistic ideas as
thinking that matter has an absolute existence outside God, that He can
only permeate matter in an illusory manner, to see God as an entity just
as abstract as intelligence, to imagine that human beings have a power
other than God, that people can change their destiny if they choose,
(surely God is beyond all these) or that time and place are absolute.
Those who ask why the matter is so important and why we devote space to
this subject at every available opportunity in all our books, should
think some more about it.

God is the only being to exist absolutely. He sees and hears us as we
read or think about this book and knows the secrets of our hearts. God
surrounds us from every direction. **God exists absolutely. It is we His
servants who are abstract. This fact is a source of great joy and beauty
to all who love God and realize that they are His servants.** It cannot
be right for Muslims to seek to avoid this truth. Muslims must accept
the truth with all their hearts, not diminish themselves in the sight of
God by ignoring it. God issues a warning to His believing servants in
the Koran:

Do not mix up truth with falsehood and knowingly hide the truth. (Surat
al-Baqara: 42)

We must not forget that the revelation of this truth will be a means
whereby materialism will be overthrown, and spirituality and pleasing
morality will rule the earth. People in materialist circles who realize
this are very uneasy when this truth is revealed, and resort to the most
ridiculous and desperate means to prevent it from reaching peoples'
ears. This is because they know it will undermine the entire basis of
their philosophy. However, the truth about matter has now been revealed
in complete clarity and openness. This truth, which used to be just a
philosophical speculation because of the lack of scientific evidence,
has now been totally validated scientifically. Frederick Vester, for
instance, who grasped the truth of the matter, has this to say,

The statements of certain thinkers that "man is an image, everything
experienced is temporary and deceptive, and this universe is a shadow,"
seem to be proven by science in our day.56

All materialist squirming is to no avail. Now that knowledge can be
communicated all over the world in the blink of an eye, this truth that
they have tried to hide from peoples' eyes for hundreds of years is
**now being read, learned and explained everywhere, from Guyana to
England, America to Indonesia, Singapore to Sweden, and even in the
strongholds of materialism, Russia, China, Cuba and Albania.**
Materialism is falling apart with the greatest collapse in history. That
is because it has today been realized that we can never approach the
original of matter. **If we can never have a direct relationship with
matter, then there can be no materialism.**

This important fact, which makes it easier to understand a number of
signs and subjects in various verses of the Koran, completely demolishes
the superstitious and antireligious belief that is materialism. This is
a major development. God states in the Koran:

Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it
and it vanishes clean away\! Woe without end for you for what you
portray\! (Surat al-Anbiya': 18)

As is revealed in this verse, when the truth comes to replace falsehood,
matter, which is the brain of materialism, which is a false ideology,
also disappears. No materialist has the slightest chance of holding back
or changing this fact.

> **THOSE WHO LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTER FEEL GREAT EXCITEMENT**

**T**he letters below are from people who read about 'The Secret Behind
Matter,' in previously published books. These extracts from these
letters contain only their thoughts after learning the truth.

**-** The fact that matter is an illusion is so enormous that it seems
almost impossible to describe it. For instance: Can you imagine the
excitement felt by someone who dies and returns to life? Or the
ineffable excitement felt by someone who flies through the air, walks
through a wall, or is in several places at the same time? Yet this
matter is not comparable even to those miraculous states. The word
extraordinary is mild in comparison. Even to say that it is wonderfully
strange and exciting is insufficient. It is an incomparable
manifestation of God's deep and sublime art. Yet what I do not
understand, how was it that something so easy to grasp was hidden from
man's understanding for so many years? How did mankind fail to realize
it? Or else were those who did realize frightened, and so chose to tell
nobody? I read it once and immediately understood. Everything is
perfectly obvious… K.H.G. Frankfurt

\- We must immediately tell this truth, which shocks man's reason, to
everyone. What are we waiting for? Is it not perfectly clear? We must
immediately use all possible means to tell the world about it. This
truth will bring people closer to God. In my view, this is a truth that
will rock everything in the world to its foundations. I can find no
other words to say. My respects to you, and may God have you in His
keeping.' F.E. Ankara

\- I read the chapter "The Secret Behind Matter" at the back of *The
Evolution Deceit*. There is one thing I did not understand. It is
something rather odd. What is this thing, this me, inside me? What a
great secret this is. I wonder when people will ever understand it. It
is perfectly clear, and not hard to grasp at all. Why did it take us so
long to understand? When everyone in the world understands it, I think
there will be countless revolutions in science. I do not know what to
call this situation. I was amazed, stunned. I gave thanks to the great
God. I now understand everything better. Yet I find it rather difficult
to explain it to others. Some people fail to understand. They say they
are standing in front of me. Yet when they say so, I am an image in
their brains. That person thinks I am outside. I am now simply wondering
how better to explain by amazement. I am waiting for this subject in
your new book. If the examples are all taken from daily life, it will be
easier to explain things to others. S.K. Muğla.

\- Dear Mr. Yahya, I have read 'The Secret Behind Matter' in your books
many times. My view is that matter is definitely an illusion. This is
something wondrous, that life is just like a dream. It has affected me
in an extraordinary way. However, the impression that we deal with the
original of matter, and the feelings it inspires in me, are so
convincing that I generally live as if it is real. Yet when I think
about it for a moment, I immediately clearly feel that matter is just an
illusion. Yet it is really so believable. I laugh at myself. Sometimes,
something annoys me so much that I raise my voice. Then I am embarrassed
when I remember the image in my brain I shouted at. What an astounding
creation we have. The idea that I feel matter is so powerful that nobody
who did not know the truth could ever doubt it. I sometimes look at the
Bosphorus. I think about how long it would take to get to the opposite
shore. I look into the distance. Then I think. Even the place I believe
to be furthest away is inside me, in my brain, inside my brain as an
image in other words. Man is an extraordinary creature. God has created
him with such splendid knowledge that I do not exactly know how to
describe or talk about it. Let me say, however: I hope that you and your
work will find favor with God for giving us this great knowledge. E.M.
Istanbul

\- I read your account of the secret behind matter at the back of *The
Evolution Deceit* with great interest and excitement. At first, I
understood it in theory, but not in practice. Then it suddenly fell into
place when I was thinking about it. I was caught up in a stunning
excitement. "God," I said, "this is an amazing thing." Such a thing had
never crossed my mind. They used to say that life was like a dream. I
thought that was just a figure of speech. Such people did not mean it in
the true sense of the words, but as a simile. Who knows what they would
do if they knew it was actually true? It is an extraordinary situation.
Yet everyone who reads the book is quite calm. I wonder if they have
fully understood it. How can they be so calm in the face of such a
position? I have now understood death, the hereafter, resurrection, life
in heaven and everything much better. In the Koran, God says, "It is
easy for Us to create you again." Everything is now clear in my mind.
Everyone I talk to on the subject has difficulty in understanding it.
How can I explain it more easily and clearly? Some people I described
the subject to got really very excited. I wonder if I am wrong to
explain it all so directly? Would it be better if I first explain about
the love of God, that He is the Compassionate and Merciful, and that He
wants people to attain the very best and live in the best possible way?
What do you think? S. U. Edirne

\- Since primary school I was always told that all the senses form
inside the brain. It was a fact I knew very well. I explained it clearly
so many times in biology classes, but I still never really saw the true
face of the matter. I would say that images formed in the brain, but
that matter existed far away outside me. It is out there, and I see it.
My thinking was confused, along the lines that the image formed where my
eye was, and then in the brain. Thought that matter existed absolutely,
right there in front of me. Actually, I cannot have thought too deeply
about it. Whereas matter appears in only one place. I see that place and
matter as being together. It is as if I am in front of a thin curtain,
but it is not clear what is actually doing the watching, a nothingness
or a soul. Yet there is a power that perceives everything, a nothingness
that takes up no space, yet a consciousness that perceives the five
senses. Are you thinking of writing a more detailed work on the subject?
Also, your books are not available in the province where I live. Can I
inform the publishers? With my respectful wishes for your every success.
Y.C. Kayseri

\- I explained this subject to a number of my friends. They are
university graduates, yet they are quite incapable of conceiving what
the subject is all about. "Come off it," they say. "OK, the image may
form in my brain. But you are right there in front of me," as they put
their hands on my shoulder. I describe how that conversation and action
is all taking place in the brain. I even say that if the nerves leading
to the brain were cut they would be unable to see, or touch. They still
don't understand. That failure to understand seems to me like 'the
emergence of a diagnostic metaphysical truth,' because they are unable
to grasp this concept. Yet I explained it to my nephew, a primary school
student, and he got it at once. I ask myself whether their comprehension
has been deliberately prevented. Or whether they have no personal
identity. Is that possible? The Koran speaks about people whose eyes and
ears are closed. Is it possible some people do not have any
consciousness of seeing or hearing? Could you go into these matters in
the next edition of your book? Thank you in advance. E.A. Istanbul

\- Dear Harun Yahya, I particularly enjoy reading philosophy, and so I
read about the secret behind matter with great enjoyment. That matter is
an illusion has been explained several times in the past. Yet people
have probably not had the time to consider the perceptions that convince
them that they see the original of matter, or else they would have
grasped this evident truth. However, they have much greater
opportunities to see truth of it these days. The studies into and
descriptions of the structure of the eye, the nerves that carry the
image to the eye, the visual center in the brain and similar matters
have made it a great deal easier to understand this truth. Furthermore,
the development of specific physics, three-dimensional films,
television, video and the like have all made it easier to provide vivid
examples. In my view, this subject will come to predominate in the world
in this century. As you also know, quantum physics is already shouting
the truth out loud. I expect it will be even easier if some people do
not retreat into a childish fear of the truth, and if the pain of the
shattering of the love of the world can be overcome. I do not think that
running away from the truth, hiding one's head in the sand and ignoring
the facts are not an attitude compatible with human honor. There are
many things I want to say, but I do not wish to take up your time. With
my very best wishes. T.E. Richmond

\- Why do the television, radio and newspapers not tell people that we
confront a version of matter in our brains, in other words its copy
formed by the interpretation of electrical signals? This certain truth
should be evaluated by prominent scientists on panel shows or television
debates. I wonder whether anyone could be found to oppose it, and what
he would say. I have heard accounts from people who have failed to
understand it, and I have been amazed. How is it that grown up people
fail to grasp such an obvious fact? Such people might turn up, but it is
the nation that will make the final judgment. Not only will the nation
learn from it, but it will also see the logic, or rather the
illogicality, of those who cannot understand this truth. My view is that
this subject is very important in Islam. I hope that this importance
will grow as time passes… K.I. Samsun

\- Your description of matter affected me very deeply. It goes beyond
the powers of human reason. It is not something that can be completely
understood. It is odd to think that even this letter I am writing is an
image. Image meets image, and they communicate. It really is an
astounding situation. In my view, everyone who reads about it will
understand… W.B.F. England

\- My way of looking at life has changed since reading the chapter in
your book about the secret behind matter. The other day, for instance, I
got angry at someone and was about to raise my voice. Then I realized
that everything was inside my brain. I immediately calmed down, and all
my anger had ebbed away. It seemed as if Iwere behaving like an old
woman getting angry at a poor actor in a Turkish film. These truths,
that constitute such a major change, need to be communicated to much
wider communities, and you must therefore bring out a new book. If you
do bring out such a book, would you please let me know? M.V. Aydin.

\- I have read The Secret Behind Matter. Does everything really happen
in my brain? Is my brain not an image, too? That is what I really fail
to understand. Everyone should be told about it in schools and on the
television. I would like to go into the matter in much greater detail.
What do you suggest? I would be most grateful if you would help. K.B.
Antalya.

\- I am an eye doctor. A patient asked me about how we see the other
day. The first questions were technical ones, but then he started asking
things that really made me think. Such as who it is who sees the images
in the brain. I was strongly affected. I believe in the existence of God
and the soul, yet it had never occurred to me to explain the existence
of the soul in such a scientific and clear way, although it lies within
my field of expertise. I read what you had to say on the matter on your
Internet page. Are there any other sources, or do you have any other
books you can recommend? It might even be a foreign source. I really
think that this is an important subject, well worth learning,
researching and thinking about. Not only what I have read broadens
peoples' horizons, but it leads them to question many things in life. It
is genuinely important. F.N.G. Eskisehir.

\- I watched the CD *THE SECRET BEYOND MATTER* yesterday. I tried my
best to understand, and think I managed to do so. There are questions I
want to find answers to. Please help me. M.H. Izmir

\- When I read "THE SECRET BEYOND MATTER" I thought everything was a
screenplay written just for me. I mean I felt as if I was in a film such
as Truman Show or Matrix. I felt as if I am living in a machine designed
just for me. I found myself in a number of states when I looked at
things in that way. You have gone into the matter in greater depth than
anyone to date. E.H. Toronto.

\- I have just watched part of your video, *The Secret Behind Matter.*
The subject has been very well explained, although I think we will need
more examples when we explain it to others. The examples in the
documentary are definitely sufficient, but a few more, particularly from
daily life, would make it easier for us to understand and explain, I
think, if a subsequent version is produced. That is because people
cannot comment on this subject as it requires, and they are putting
false ideas forward. In order to put a stop to that, I think it would be
useful to reinforce the existing examples with some simpler ones. S.G.
Istanbul

\- My views on the material world and life have changed fundamentally.
Life, other people and those around me are no longer what they were. The
more I learn the facts, the more I have started to turn away from
certain things, I have started to look inside myself and think more. I
wonder if that is right. But in one way I feel more at peace, more
secure and happier. What people do and say now seem quite facile to me.
I am looking for someone who will listen to and understand what I am
experiencing. I hope that, as always, you will help me on this most
important issue. I do not want to waste my life in vain. K.U. Tekirdağ.

Comments From Some Scientists and Thinkers Asked About The Nature Of
Matter

\- Many thanks for your e-mail and its most interesting contents. I am
not a scientist, but I found your questions very interesting. I cannot
give any scientific answers to your questions but I must say that I
learnt a lot by reading them. Thank you for writing and I will share
your questions with some friends in the sciences to see what answers
they will give. Best wishes and, again, than you for writing. Kofi Opoku

\- All of your questions and observations are insightful and right on
target\! These are old questions of course, but to this day they are not
fully resolved. In fact modern neuroscience and psychology and even
philosophy would be much advanced if their researchers were as concerned
about these questions as you are. Unfortunately, your question \#13 is
also right on target (Question \#13. Some people are incredibly afraid
when these topics are discussed? What do you think the reason for this
may be?) The answer is that when you see the world correctly, the way
you describe it, it is a very very frightening prospect. But the truth
is always worth discovering, even if it is a frightening truth. Steve
Lehar

\- You ask a number of interesting questions that have troubled
philosophers for centuries. Certainly we could be living in a virtual
world inside some supercomputer, and never know the difference, as in
the movies Tron or The Matrix, but as long as the "laws of nature",
which could be part of the programming, remain stable, and we can't tell
the difference, it doesn't make a difference. Naturally, many people are
afraid of thoughts of this kind because they threaten their comfortable
worldviews. Jon Roland (President and CEO of the Vanguard Research
Institute)

**THE MISCONCEPTION OF EVOLUTION**

Darwinism, in other words the theory of evolution, was put forward with
the aim of denying the fact of creation, but is in truth nothing but
failed, unscientific nonsense. This theory, which claims that life
emerged by chance from inanimate matter, was invalidated by the
scientific evidence of miraculous order in the universe and in living
things. In this way, science confirmed the fact that Allah created the
universe and the living things in it. The propaganda carried out today
in order to keep the theory of evolution alive is based solely on the
distortion of the scientific facts, biased interpretation, and lies and
falsehoods disguised as science.

Yet this propaganda cannot conceal the truth. The fact that the theory
of evolution is the greatest deception in the history of science has
been expressed more and more in the scientific world over the last 20-30
years. Research carried out after the 1980s in particular has revealed
that the claims of Darwinism are totally unfounded, something that has
been stated by a large number of scientists. In the United States in
particular, many scientists from such different fields as biology,
biochemistry and paleontology recognize the invalidity of Darwinism and
employ the fact of creation to account for the origin of life.

We have examined the collapse of the theory of evolution and the proofs
of creation in great scientific detail in many of our works, and are
still continuing to do so. Given the enormous importance of this
subject, it will be of great benefit to summarize it here.

**The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism**

Although this doctrine goes back as far as ancient Greece, the theory of
evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth century. The most
important development that made it the top topic of the world of science
was Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, published in 1859. In this
book, he denied that Allah created different living species on Earth
separately, for he claimed that all living beings had a common ancestor
and had diversified over time through small changes. Darwin's theory was
not based on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it
was just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the long
chapter of his book titled "Difficulties on Theory," the theory failed
in the face of many critical questions.

Darwin invested all of his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which he
expected to solve these difficulties. However, contrary to his
expectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these
difficulties. The defeat of Darwinism in the face of science can be
reviewed under three basic topics:

1\) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth.

2\) No scientific finding shows that the "evolutionary mechanisms"
proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all.

3\) The fossil record proves the exact opposite of what the theory
suggests.

In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general
outlines:

**The First Insurmountable Step:**

**The Origin of Life**

The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a
single living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8 billion years
ago. How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species
and, if such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be
observed in the fossil record are some of the questions that the theory
cannot answer. However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How did this
"first cell" originate?

Since the theory of evolution denies creation and any kind of
supernatural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" originated
coincidentally within the laws of nature, without any design, plan or
arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have
produced a living cell as a result of coincidences. Such a claim,
however, is inconsistent with the most unassailable rules of biology.

**"Life Comes From Life"**

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive
understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that
living beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times,
spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-living materials came
together to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was
commonly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and
mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this
theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was
believed that mice would originate from it after a while.

Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed to be evidence
of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood that worms
did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there by flies in
the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.

Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacteria
could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accepted in
the world of science.

However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book, Louis
Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, that
disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In
his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will
the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow
struck by this simple experiment."57

For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these
findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex
structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come
into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.

**Inconclusive Efforts of the Twentieth Century**

The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of life in
the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander
Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the 1930s, he tried to prove
that a living cell could originate by coincidence. These studies,
however, were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to make the following
confession:

Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps
the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of
organisms.58

Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve
this problem. The best known experiment was carried out by the American
chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged to have
existed in the primordial Earth's atmosphere in an experiment set-up,
and adding energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic
molecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.

Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that this
experiment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of
evolution, was invalid, for the atmosphere used in the experiment was
very different from the real Earth conditions.59

After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he
used was unrealistic.60

All the evolutionists' efforts throughout the twentieth century to
explain the origin of life ended in failure. The geochemist Jeffrey
Bada, from the San Diego Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an
article published in Earth magazine in 1998:

Today as we leave the twentieth century, we still face the biggest
unsolved problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: How
did life originate on Earth?61

**The Complex Structure of Life **

The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up in such a great
impasse regarding the origin of life is that even those living organisms
deemed to be the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell
of a living thing is more complex than all of our man-made technological
products. Today, even in the most developed laboratories of the world, a
living cell cannot be produced by bringing organic chemicals together.

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great in
quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of
proteins, the building blocks of a cell, being synthesized
coincidentally, is 1 in 10950 for an average protein made up of 500
amino acids. In mathematics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is
considered to be impossible in practical terms.

The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of a cell and which
stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. If the
information coded in DNA were written down, it would make a giant
library consisting of an estimated 900 volumes of encyclopedias
consisting of 500 pages each.

A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: DNA can replicate
itself only with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes).
However, the synthesis of these enzymes can be realized only by the
information coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have
to exist at the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that
life originated by itself to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an
evolutionist of repute from the University of San Diego, California,
confesses this fact in the September 1994 issue of the Scientific
American magazine:

It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of
which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at
the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the
other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that life
could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means.62

No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated from natural
causes, then it has to be accepted that life was "created" in a
supernatural way. This fact explicitly invalidates the theory of
evolution, whose main purpose is to deny creation.

**Imaginary Mechanism of Evolution **

The second important point that negates Darwin's theory is that both
concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary mechanisms" were
understood to have, in reality, no evolutionary power.

Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mechanism of
"natural selection." The importance he placed on this mechanism was
evident in the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means of
Natural Selection…

Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and
more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in
the struggle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of
attack by wild animals, those that can run faster will survive.
Therefore, the deer herd will be comprised of faster and stronger
individuals. However, unquestionably, this mechanism will not cause deer
to evolve and transform themselves into another living species, for
instance, horses.

Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary power.
Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his book The
Origin of Species:

Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences
or variations occur.63

**Lamarck's Impact**

So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin tried to answer
this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding of
science at that time. According to the French biologist Chevalier de
Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living creatures passed on
the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation.
He asserted that these traits, which accumulated from one generation to
another, caused new species to be formed. For instance, he claimed that
giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves of
high trees, their necks were extended from generation to generation.

Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin of Species,
for instance, he said that some bears going into water to find food
transformed themselves into whales over time.64

However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-84)
and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in the
twentieth century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits
were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell
out of favor as an evolutionary mechanism.

**Neo-Darwinism and Mutations**

In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the "Modern Synthetic
Theory," or as it is more commonly known, Neo-Darwinism, at the end of
the 1930s. Neo-Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions formed
in the genes of living beings due to such external factors as radiation
or replication errors, as the "cause of favorable variations" in
addition to natural mutation.

Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world is
Neo-Darwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings
formed as a result of a process whereby numerous complex organs of these
organisms (e.g., ears, eyes, lungs, and wings) underwent "mutations,"
that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is an outright scientific fact
that totally undermines this theory: Mutations do not cause living
beings to develop; on the contrary, they are always harmful.

The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex structure,
and random effects can only harm it. The American geneticist B. G.
Ranganathan explains this as follows:

First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly, most
mutations are harmful since they are random, rather than orderly changes
in the structure of genes; any random change in a highly ordered system
will be for the worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake
were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building, there would
be a random change in the framework of the building which, in all
probability, would not be an improvement.65

Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that is, which
is observed to develop the genetic code, has been observed so far. All
mutations have proved to be harmful. It was understood that mutation,
which is presented as an "evolutionary mechanism," is actually a genetic
occurrence that harms living things, and leaves them disabled. (The most
common effect of mutation on human beings is cancer.) Of course, a
destructive mechanism cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism." Natural
selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself," as Darwin also
accepted. This fact shows us that there is no "evolutionary mechanism"
in nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, no such any imaginary
process called "evolution" could have taken place.

**The Fossil Record: **

**No Sign of Intermediate Forms**

The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the theory of
evolution did not take place is the fossil record.

According to this theory, every living species has sprung from a
predecessor. A previously existing species turned into something else
over time and all species have come into being in this way. In other
words, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

Had this been the case, numerous intermediary species should have
existed and lived within this long transformation period.

For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the past
which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits
they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile-birds, which
acquired some bird traits in addition to the reptilian traits they
already had. Since these would be in a transitional phase, they should
be disabled, defective, crippled living beings. Evolutionists refer to
these imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past,
as "transitional forms."

If such animals ever really existed, there should be millions and even
billions of them in number and variety. More importantly, the remains of
these strange creatures should be present in the fossil record. In The
Origin of Species, Darwin explained:

If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most
closely all of the species of the same group together must assuredly
have existed... Consequently, evidence of their former existence could
be found only amongst fossil remains.66

**Darwin's Hopes Shattered**

However, although evolutionists have been making strenuous efforts to
find fossils since the middle of the nineteenth century all over the
world, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All of the
fossils, contrary to the evolutionists' expectations, show that life
appeared on Earth all of a sudden and fully-formed.

One famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact, even
though he is an evolutionist:

The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail,
whether at the level of orders or of species, we find – over and over
again – not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at
the expense of another.67

This means that in the fossil record, all living species suddenly emerge
as fully formed, without any intermediate forms in between. This is just
the opposite of Darwin's assumptions. Also, this is very strong evidence
that all living things are created. The only explanation of a living
species emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any
evolutionary ancestor is that it was created. This fact is admitted also
by the widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations
for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth
fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have
developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If
they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed have been
created by some omnipotent intelligence.68

Fossils show that living beings emerged fully developed and in a perfect
state on the Earth. That means that "the origin of species," contrary to
Darwin's supposition, is not evolution, but creation.

**The Tale of Human Evolution**

The subject most often brought up by advocates of the theory of
evolution is the subject of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds
that modern man evolved from ape-like creatures. During this alleged
evolutionary process, which is supposed to have started 4-5 million
years ago, some "transitional forms" between modern man and his
ancestors are supposed to have existed. According to this completely
imaginary scenario, four basic "categories" are listed:

1\. Australopithecus

2\. Homo habilis

3\. Homo erectus

4\. Homo sapiens

Evolutionists call man's so-called first ape-like ancestors
Australopithecus, which means "South African ape." These living beings
are actually nothing but an old ape species that has become extinct.
Extensive research done on various Australopithecus specimens by two
world famous anatomists from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly
Zuckerman and Prof. Charles Oxnard, shows that these apes belonged to an
ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to
humans.69

Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as "homo," that
is "man." According to their claim, the living beings in the Homo series
are more developed than Australopithecus. Evolutionists devise a
fanciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of these
creatures in a particular order. This scheme is imaginary because it has
never been proved that there is an evolutionary relation between these
different classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the twentieth century's most
important evolutionists, contends in his book One Long Argument that
"particularly historical \[puzzles\] such as the origin of life or of
Homo sapiens, are extremely difficult and may even resist a final,
satisfying explanation."70

By outlining the link chain as Australopithecus \> Homo habilis \> Homo
erectus \> Homo sapiens, evolutionists imply that each of these species
is one another's ancestor. However, recent findings of
paleoanthropologists have revealed that Australopithecus, Homo habilis,
and Homo erectus lived at different parts of the world at the same
time.71

Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectus have
lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens neandarthalensis and Homo
sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.72

This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim that
they are ancestors of one another. The late Stephen Jay Gould explained
this deadlock of the theory of evolution although he was himself one of
the leading advocates of evolution in the twentieth century:

What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of
hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis),
none clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display
any evolutionary trends during their tenure on earth.73

Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is "upheld" with the
help of various drawings of some "half ape, half human" creatures
appearing in the media and course books, that is, frankly, by means of
propaganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific foundation.

Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scientists in
the U.K., who carried out research on this subject for years and studied
Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being
an evolutionist himself, that there is, in fact, no such family tree
branching out from ape-like creatures to man.

Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science" ranging from
those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific.
According to Zuckerman's spectrum, the most "scientific"—that is,
depending on concrete data—fields of science are chemistry and physics.
After them come the biological sciences and then the social sciences. At
the far end of the spectrum, which is the part considered to be most
"unscientific," are "extra-sensory perception"—concepts such as
telepathy and sixth sense—and finally "human evolution." Zuckerman
explains his reasoning:

We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields
of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the
interpretation of man's fossil history, where to the faithful
\[evolutionist\] anything is possible – and where the ardent believer
\[in evolution\] is sometimes able to believe several contradictory
things at the same time.74

The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the prejudiced
interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain people, who blindly
adhere to their theory.

**Darwinian Formula\!**

Besides all the technical evidence we have dealt with so far, let us now
for once, examine what kind of a superstition the evolutionists have
with an example so simple as to be understood even by children:

The theory of evolution asserts that life is formed by chance. According
to this claim, lifeless and unconscious atoms came together to form the
cell and then they somehow formed other living things, including man.
Let us think about that. When we bring together the elements that are
the building-blocks of life such as carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen and
potassium, only a heap is formed. No matter what treatments it
undergoes, this atomic heap cannot form even a single living being. If
you like, let us formulate an "experiment" on this subject and let us
examine on the behalf of evolutionists what they really claim without
pronouncing loudly under the name "Darwinian formula":

Let evolutionists put plenty of materials present in the composition of
living things such as phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, iron, and
magnesium into big barrels. Moreover, let them add in these barrels any
material that does not exist under normal conditions, but they think as
necessary. Let them add in this mixture as many amino acids and as many
proteins—a single one of which has a formation probability of 10-950—as
they like. Let them expose these mixtures to as much heat and moisture
as they like. Let them stir these with whatever technologically
developed device they like. Let them put the foremost scientists beside
these barrels. Let these experts wait in turn beside these barrels for
billions, and even trillions of years. Let them be free to use all kinds
of conditions they believe to be necessary for a human's formation. No
matter what they do, they cannot produce from these barrels a human, say
a professor that examines his cell structure under the electron
microscope. They cannot produce giraffes, lions, bees, canaries, horses,
dolphins, roses, orchids, lilies, carnations, bananas, oranges, apples,
dates, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, figs, olives, grapes, peaches,
peafowls, pheasants, multicoloured butterflies, or millions of other
living beings such as these. Indeed, they could not obtain even a single
cell of any one of them.

Briefly, unconscious atoms cannot form the cell by coming together. They
cannot take a new decision and divide this cell into two, then take
other decisions and create the professors who first invent the electron
microscope and then examine their own cell structure under that
microscope. Matter is an unconscious, lifeless heap, and it comes to
life with Allah's superior creation.

The theory of evolution, which claims the opposite, is a total fallacy
completely contrary to reason. Thinking even a little bit on the claims
of evolutionists discloses this reality, just as in the above example.

**Technology in the Eye and the Ear**

Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is the
excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear.

Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly answer the
question of how we see. Light rays coming from an object fall oppositely
on the eye's retina. Here, these light rays are transmitted into
electric signals by cells and reach a tiny spot at the back of the
brain, the "center of vision." These electric signals are perceived in
this center as an image after a series of processes. With this technical
background, let us do some thinking.

The brain is insulated from light. That means that its inside is
completely dark, and that no light reaches the place where it is
located. Thus, the "center of vision" is never touched by light and may
even be the darkest place you have ever known. However, you observe a
luminous, bright world in this pitch darkness.

The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that even the
technology of the twentieth century has not been able to attain it. For
instance, look at the book you are reading, your hands with which you
are holding it, and then lift your head and look around you. Have you
ever seen such a sharp and distinct image as this one at any other
place? Even the most developed television screen produced by the
greatest television producer in the world cannot provide such a sharp
image for you. This is a three-dimensional, colored, and extremely sharp
image. For more than 100 years, thousands of engineers have been trying
to achieve this sharpness. Factories, huge premises were established,
much research has been done, plans and designs have been made for this
purpose. Again, look at a TV screen and the book you hold in your hands.
You will see that there is a big difference in sharpness and
distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows you a two-dimensional image,
whereas with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective with
depth.

For many years, tens of thousands of engineers have tried to make a
three-dimensional TV and achieve the vision quality of the eye. Yes,
they have made a three-dimensional television system, but it is not
possible to watch it without putting on special 3-D glasses; moreover,
it is only an artificial three-dimension. The background is more
blurred, the foreground appears like a paper setting. Never has it been
possible to produce a sharp and distinct vision like that of the eye. In
both the camera and the television, there is a loss of image quality.

Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp and distinct
image has been formed by chance. Now, if somebody told you that the
television in your room was formed as a result of chance, that all of
its atoms just happened to come together and make up this device that
produces an image, what would you think? How can atoms do what thousands
of people cannot?

If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye could not have
been formed by chance, then it is very evident that the eye and the
image seen by the eye could not have been formed by chance. The same
situation applies to the ear. The outer ear picks up the available
sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear, the middle ear
transmits the sound vibrations by intensifying them, and the inner ear
sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electric
signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalizes in the
center of hearing in the brain.

The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the brain is
insulated from sound just as it is from light. It does not let any sound
in. Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside, the inside of the
brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are
perceived in the brain. In your completely silent brain, you listen to
symphonies, and hear all of the noises in a crowded place. However, were
the sound level in your brain measured by a precise device at that
moment, complete silence would be found to be prevailing there.

As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been spent in trying
to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful to the original. The
results of these efforts are sound recorders, high-fidelity systems, and
systems for sensing sound. Despite all of this technology and the
thousands of engineers and experts who have been working on this
endeavor, no sound has yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and
clarity as the sound perceived by the ear. Think of the highest-quality
hi-fi systems produced by the largest company in the music industry.
Even in these devices, when sound is recorded some of it is lost; or
when you turn on a hi-fi you always hear a hissing sound before the
music starts. However, the sounds that are the products of the human
body's technology are extremely sharp and clear. A human ear never
perceives a sound accompanied by a hissing sound or with atmospherics as
does a hi-fi; rather, it perceives sound exactly as it is, sharp and
clear. This is the way it has been since the creation of man.

So far, no man-made visual or recording apparatus has been as sensitive
and successful in perceiving sensory data as are the eye and the ear.
However, as far as seeing and hearing are concerned, a far greater truth
lies beyond all this.

**To Whom Does the Consciousness that Sees **

**and Hears within the Brain Belong? **

Who watches an alluring world in the brain, listens to symphonies and
the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?

The stimulations coming from a person's eyes, ears, and nose travel to
the brain as electro-chemical nerve impulses. In biology, physiology,
and biochemistry books, you can find many details about how this image
forms in the brain. However, you will never come across the most
important fact: Who perceives these electro-chemical nerve impulses as
images, sounds, odors, and sensory events in the brain? There is a
consciousness in the brain that perceives all this without feeling any
need for an eye, an ear, and a nose. To whom does this consciousness
belong? Of course it does not belong to the nerves, the fat layer, and
neurons comprising the brain. This is why Darwinist-materialists, who
believe that everything is comprised of matter, cannot answer these
questions.

For this consciousness is the spirit created by Allah, which needs
neither the eye to watch the images nor the ear to hear the sounds.
Furthermore, it does not need the brain to think.

Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on
Almighty Allah, and fear and seek refuge in Him, for He squeezes the
entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a few cubic centimeters in a
three-dimensional, colored, shadowy, and luminous form.

**A Materialist Faith**

The information we have presented so far shows us that the theory of
evolution is incompatible with scientific findings. The theory's claim
regarding the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the
evolutionary mechanisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and
fossils demonstrate that the required intermediate forms have never
existed. So, it certainly follows that the theory of evolution should be
pushed aside as an unscientific idea. This is how many ideas, such as
the Earth-centered universe model, have been taken out of the agenda of
science throughout history.

However, the theory of evolution is kept on the agenda of science. Some
people even try to represent criticisms directed against it as an
"attack on science." Why?

The reason is that this theory is an indispensable dogmatic belief for
some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materialist
philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialist
explanation that can be put forward to explain the workings of nature.

Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact from time to time. A
well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C. Lewontin
from Harvard University, confesses that he is "first and foremost a
materialist and then a scientist":

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us
accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the
contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material
causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts
that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no
matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is
absolute, so we cannot allow a Divine \[intervention\]...75

These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alive just
for the sake of adherence to materialism. This dogma maintains that
there is no being save matter. Therefore, it argues that inanimate,
unconscious matter created life. It insists that millions of different
living species (e.g., birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees,
flowers, whales, and human beings) originated as a result of the
interactions between matter such as pouring rain, lightning flashes, and
so on, out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to
reason and science. Yet Darwinists continue to defend it just so as "not
to allow a Divine intervention."

Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with a
materialist prejudice will see this evident truth: All living beings are
works of a Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise, and All-Knowing. This
Creator is Allah, Who created the whole universe from non-existence,
designed it in the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.

**The Theory of Evolution: **

**The Most Potent Spell in the World **

Anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular ideology,
who uses only his or her reason and logic, will clearly understand that
belief in the theory of evolution, which brings to mind the
superstitions of societies with no knowledge of science or civilization,
is quite impossible.

As explained above, those who believe in the theory of evolution think
that a few atoms and molecules thrown into a huge vat could produce
thinking, reasoning professors and university students; such scientists
as Einstein and Galileo; such artists as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra
and Luciano Pavarotti; as well as antelopes, lemon trees, and
carnations. Moreover, as the scientists and professors who believe in
this nonsense are educated people, it is quite justifiable to speak of
this theory as "the most potent spell in history." Never before has any
other belief or idea so taken away peoples' powers of reason, refused to
allow them to think intelligently and logically, and hidden the truth
from them as if they had been blindfolded. This is an even worse and
unbelievable blindness than the totem worship in some parts of Africa,
the people of Saba worshipping the Sun, the tribe of Prophet Ibrahim
(as) worshipping idols they had made with their own hands, or the people
of Prophet Musa (as) worshipping the Golden Calf.

In fact, Allah has pointed to this lack of reason in the Qur'an. In many
verses, He reveals that some peoples' minds will be closed and that they
will be powerless to see the truth. Some of these verses are as follows:

**As for those who do not believe, it makes no difference to them
whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe. Allah
has sealed up their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a
blindfold. They will have a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqara,
6-7)**

**… They have hearts with which they do not understand. They have eyes
with which they do not see. They have ears with which they do not hear.
Such people are like cattle. No, they are even further astray\! They are
the unaware. (Surat al-A'raf, 179)**

**Even if We opened up to them a door into heaven, and they spent the
day ascending through it, they would only say: "Our eyesight is
befuddled\! Or rather we have been put under a spell\!" (Surat al-Hijr,
14-15) **

Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this spell should
hold such a wide community in thrall, keep people from the truth, and
not be broken for 150 years. It is understandable that one or a few
people might believe in impossible scenarios and claims full of
stupidity and illogicality. However, "magic" is the only possible
explanation for people from all over the world believing that
unconscious and lifeless atoms suddenly decided to come together and
form a universe that functions with a flawless system of organization,
discipline, reason, and consciousness; a planet named Earth with all of
its features so perfectly suited to life; and living things full of
countless complex systems.

In fact, the Qur'an relates the incident of Prophet Musa (as) and
Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheistic philosophies
actually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true
religion, he told Prophet Musa (as) to meet with his own magicians. When
Musa (as) did so, he told them to demonstrate their abilities first. The
verses continue:

**He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on the
people's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced
an extremely powerful magic. (Surat al-A'raf, 116)**

As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive everyone,
apart from Musa (as) and those who believed in him. However, his
evidence broke the spell, or "swallowed up what they had forged," as the
verse puts it:

**We revealed to Musa: "Throw down your staff." And it immediately
swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place and what they
did was shown to be false. (Surat al-A'raf, 117-8)**

As we can see, when people realized that a spell had been cast upon them
and that what they saw was just an illusion, Pharaoh's magicians lost
all credibility. In the present day too, unless those who, under the
influence of a similar spell, believe in these ridiculous claims under
their scientific disguise and spend their lives defending them, abandon
their superstitious beliefs, they also will be humiliated when the full
truth emerges and the spell is broken. In fact, world-renowned British
writer and philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge, who was an atheist defending
evolution for some 60 years, but who subsequently realized the truth,
reveals the position in which the theory of evolution would find itself
in the near future in these terms:

I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the
extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the
history books in thae future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy
and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible
credulity that it has.76

That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon see that
"chance" is not a deity, and will look back on the theory of evolution
as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell in the world. That spell
is already rapidly beginning to be lifted from the shoulders of people
all over the world. Many people who see its true face are wondering with
amazement how they could ever have been taken in by it.

**NOTES**

1- Rita Carter, Mapping The Mind, University of California Press,
London, 1999, p. 107

2- R. L. Gregory, Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, Oxford
University Press Inc., New York, 1990, p. 9

3- Hoimar von Ditfurth, Der Geist Fiel Nicht Vom Himmel (The Spirit Did
Not Fall From The Sky), p. 256

4- M. Ali Yaz, Sait Aksoy, Fizik 3 (Physics 3), Surat Publishers,
Istanbul, 1997, p. 3

5- Daniel C Dennett, Brainchildren, Essays on Designing Minds, The MIT
Press, Cambridge, 1998, p. 142

6- Daniel C Dennett, Brainchildren, Essays on Designing Minds, p. 142

7- www.hhmi.org/senses/a/a110.htm

8- Georges Politzer, Principes Elémentaires de Philosophie (Elementary
Principles of Philosophy), Editions Sociales, Paris, 1954, p. 40

9- www.hhmi.org/senses/a/a110.htm

10- Michael I. Posner, Marcus E. Raichle, Images of Mind, Scientific
American Library, New York, 1999, p. 88

11- Bertrand Russell, ABC of Relativity, George Allen and Unwin, London,
1964, pp. 161-162

12- George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human
Knowledge, 1710, Works of George Berkeley, vol. I, ed. A. Fraser,
Oxford, 1871 p. 35-36

13- Orhan Hançerlioğlu, Düşünce Tarihi (History of Idea), Remzi
Kitabevi, İstanbul: 1987, p.447

14- George Politzer, Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie, Editions
Sociales, Paris, 1954, pp. 38-39-44

15- Rita Carter, Mapping The Mind, p. 113

16- Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p. 220

17- William Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis,

https://www.lucidexperience.com/HypnoPapers/512.html

18- Dr. Tahir Özakkaş, Gerçeğin Dirilişine Kapı HIPNOZ (The Door Opening
to the Awakening of Reality: Hypnosis), "Üst Ultrastabilite" (Upper
Ultrastability), Se-da Yayınları, Vol.. 1, 1st Edition, p. 204-205

19- Dr. Tahir Özakkaş, Gerçeğin Dirilişine Kapı HIPNOZ (The Door Opening
to the Awakening of Reality: Hypnosis), "Üst Ultrastabilite" (Upper
Ultrastability), p. 267

20- Terrence Watts, Abreaction, The psychological phenomena that
hypnotherapists either love or hate,
https://www.hypnosense.com/abreaction.htm

21- Poul Thorsen, Die Hypnose in Dienste der Menschheit, Bauer-Verlag,
Freiburg-Haslach, 1960, p. 52-53

22- René Sudre, Traité de Parapsychologie, Payot, Paris, 1956, p. 341

23- Dr. Recep Doksat, Hipnotizma (Hypnotism), p.106-108

24- Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained, Little, Brown and
Company, NY 1991, p. 26-27

25- R. L. Gregory, Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, p. 9

26- Ken Wilber, Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes, p.20

27- Bertrand Russell, ABC of Relativity, George Allen and Unwin, London,
1964, pp. 161-162

28- Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, Zone Books, New York, 1991

29- John Horgan, The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies
Replication, Medication, and Explanation, New York:Free Press, 1999, p.
258-259

30- John Horgan, The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies
Replication, Medication, and Explanation, p.258-259

31- John Horgan, The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies
Replication, Medication, and Explanation, p.229

32- Hoimar von Ditfurth, Der Geist Fiel Nicht Vom Himmel (The Spirit Did
Not Fall From The Sky), p.13

33- William A. Dembski, Converting Matter into Mind, 1998, www.arn.org

34- William A. Dembski, Converting Matter into Mind, 1998, www.arn.org

35- Cumhuriyet Bilim Teknik Dergisi (Cumhuriyet Science and Technology
Journal), 7 July 2001, no. 746, p. 18; Der Spiegel, 1/2001.

36- Ferid Kam, M.Ali Ayni, Ibni Arabi'de Varlik Dusuncesi (The Idea of
Being in Ibn Arabi), p. 37

37- Materyalist Felsefe Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Materialist Philosophy),
Istanbul, Sosyal Yayınlar, 4. Edition, p. 326

38- V.I. Lenin, Materialism and Empiriocriticism, Progress Publishers,
Moscow, 1970, p.334-335

39- Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, William Sloane
Associate, New York, 1948, p. 84

40- Tim Folger, "From Here to Eternity", Discover, December 2000, p.54

41- Tim Folger, "From Here to Eternity", Discover, December 2000, p.54

42- François Jacob, Le Jeu Des Possibles, University of Washington
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43- Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, William Sloane
Associate, New York, 1948, p. 52-53

44- Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, William Sloane
Associate, New York, 1948, p. 17

45- Paul Strathern, The Big Idea:Einstein and Relativity, Arrow Books,
1997, p. 57

46- İmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 357. Letter, p. 163

47- İmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 470. Letter, p.1432

48- Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p. 117-118

49- Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p. 120-122

50- İmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 480. Letter, p. 543, 545

51- İmam Rabbani, Letters of Rabbani, Vol II, 470. Letter, p. 517-518

52- Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 1912, p.5

53- Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Closer To Truth, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 2000,
p. 8

54- Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained, s.389

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58- Alexander I. Oparin, *Origin of Life*, Dover Publications, NewYork,
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59- "New Evidence on Evolution of Early Atmosphere and Life," *Bulletin
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60- Stanley Miller, *Molecular Evolution of Life: Current Status of the
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61- Jeffrey Bada, *Earth*, February 1998, p. 40.

62- Leslie E. Orgel, "The Origin of Life on Earth," *Scientific
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63- Charles Darwin, *The Origin of Species by Means of Natural
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64- Charles Darwin, *The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First
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65- B. G. Ranganathan, *Origins?*, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth
Trust, 1988, p. 7.

66- Charles Darwin, *The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First
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67- Derek A. Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil Record," *Proceedings of
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68- Douglas J. Futuyma, *Science on Trial*, Pantheon Books, New York,
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69- Solly Zuckerman, *Beyond The Ivory Tower*, Toplinger Publications,
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258, 389.

70- "Could science be brought to an end by scientists' belief that they
have final answers or by society's reluctance to pay the bills?"
*Scientific American*, December 1992, p. 20.

71- Alan Walker, *Science*, vol. 207, 7 March 1980, p. 1103; A. J.
Kelso, *Physical Antropology*, 1st ed., J. B. Lipincott Co., New York,
1970, p. 221; M. D. Leakey, *Olduvai Gorge*, vol. 3, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1971, p. 272.

72- Jeffrey Kluger, "Not So Extinct After All: The Primitive Homo
Erectus May Have Survived Long Enough To Coexist With Modern Humans,"
*Time*, 23 December 1996.

73- S. J. Gould, *Natural History*, vol. 85, 1976, p. 30.

74- Solly Zuckerman, *Beyond The Ivory Tower*, p. 19.

75- Richard Lewontin, "The Demon-Haunted World," *The New York Review of
Books*, January 9, 1997, p. 28.

76- Malcolm Muggeridge, *The End of Christendom*, Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1980, p. 43.

W hat is explained in this book is an important truth, which has
surprised many and changed their perspectives on life. This truth can be
summarized as follows: "We cannot have direct experience of any of the
events and objects that we encounter in real life—buildings, people,
cities, cars, places—in fact, any of the things we see, hold, touch,
smell, taste and hear. We only confront visions and feelings formed in
our brains".

There is matter outside, yet we may never know the actual of the matter.
We assume with the inculcation we have been given that these are
invariable in a world outside our brains and hence that we see and feel
the actual of them. However, in reality we never see real existing
materials and we never touch real materials. In brief while assuming all
through our lives that we deal with the matter outside, in reality we
know the copy and image of everything. which is created in our brains.

This is not a philosophical speculation. It is an empirical fact that
has been proven by modern science. Today, any scientist who is a
specialist in medicine, biology, neurology or any other field related to
brain research would say, when asked how and where we see the world,
that we see the whole world in the vision center located in our brains.

This fact has been scientifically proven in the twentieth century, and
although it may seem surprising, it necessarily implies answers to two
questions; "Since throughout our lives we confront the images formed in
our brains, then who is it that creates these visions? And who is it
that sees these visions in our brains without having eyes and enjoys
them, gets excited and happy?" You will find the answers to these two
important questions in this book.