Two things I'd like to share;

1. a poem -

This mystery will not end
This search for truth is fraught with error
This precious walk between death and life
Is filled with both awe and terror

One blind corner
Leads to two blind alleys
By now you?d expect the grand finale

Yet here I am
Still awake
Conscious of every breath I take

You say that God does not exist
Yet I sincerely ask - then why do we?

A random blur
A spontaneous out growth
A grandiose cruel cosmic joke
A fiction penned by some unknown author

?The universe? - is all you offer

And so I give you the benefit of the doubt
And labor away in calculation
Fields, strings, groups, codes, spheres, loops, and all other contortions

?The universe? - is all you say
Then carry on your merry way
And I envy you in your self satisfaction
As I ponder this ?principle of least action?

And all my friends have grown and cried
Yet here I remain - with this resounding ?why??

Why me or you?
Or the universe?
I demand an answer in a single verse!

? His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, ?Be,? and it is.?

two - a little metaphor of science
http//avaguenotion.tumblr.com/post/122981347034/the-white-dolphin-theory

Here's a better summary I think - http//www.calphysics.org/problems.pdf

I'm particularly interested in the topology of space. But all of them are really interesting to be honest ;D

Salaam,

Bravo OP, beautifully stated!

Here's my take -

Mathematics is the organization of sensory impressions and forms (think Al Mussawir) . Physics is the act of relating mathematical conceptions to observed phenomena. The more phenomena that can be united under one elegant explanation - the more successful the theory. As new observations are made they are placed within existing theories. However, the theory itself does not contain absolute truth - it's more a noble attempt to capture the truly indescribable. Only when observations seem to conflict with our existing interpretation do we have to begin revising. i.e. scientific revolution. From physics we travel upwards to chemistry. All of chemistry is the elaboration of the basic fundamental properties that we currently understand about fundamental constituents of the world. BUT - it's very possible that our models of the fundamentals change before the knowledge built on old models does. This fact makes the sciences pragmatic (we know "enough" to make use of the knowledge, EVEN if its not an accurate reflection of reality) We then unite the biological sciences to the chemical sciences on the molecular level. Each new layer of reality has it's own "emergent" phenomena that while ultimately made up of more fundamental aspects CAN'T be entirely reduced to the fundamentals. There's interaction between all the layers. It's almost a continuous, smooth gradient.

Thus, all the empirical data collected by experimentalists is devoid of any metaphysical interpretation. It's only when a theorist begins trying to find coherence in the myriad forms and patterns and shapes that metaphysical world views are brought in. BUT - not every theorist has a strong metaphysical world view. AND the empirical data has an influential role on the metaphysics one ascribes to.

Metaphysics and Physics are still separate. The doors of philosophy never shut. We just stopped giving a shit about truth and replaced it with who can have the best military and shiniest toys.

"And He it is Who has created the heavens and the earth in six Days and His Throne was on the water, that He might try you, which of you is the best in deeds? hail

I didn't complete that last sentence.... just ignore it hahaha

Salaam

I made an account simply to respond to this thread. I notice it's been long dead, but I hope I may be of service to you. Inshallah

Let me first begin with an insight I had one day; Every word in a book written in a particular language is contained in a sufficiently large dictionary, agree? It's not too far a stretch to then state that ALL the books are implicit in that one book - the dictionary. Thus all the knowledge and information encoded in each book is in a sense encoded entirely in the dictionary.

So what of this?

Well, we know "And if whatever trees upon the earth were pens and the sea , replenished thereafter by seven seas, the words of Allah would not be exhausted. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise." 31;27

We know that Allah's "word" is his command. "Be" Isa was a "word" the entire creation could be considered a "word" and everything in it be "words"

This shed's light on Adam being taught the "names"

Back to the guarded book.

the word "maknnin" which is translated as "guarded/protected" has the root letters of "kaf nun nun"

According to project root (http//www.studyquran.co.uk/PRLonline.htm) this root word has the general connotation of "to cover, conceal, keep secret, keep from site, hidden, refuge, veil/covering"

And finally we know that Allah has all knowledge and Qadr, and (though I can't find the verses this moment) Everything in a sense has already been "written"

If we are to take all these loose strands and attempt to weave them together I would be inclined to think that the pure in heart, the nearer one is to allah the more open to his "words" one becomes. These words preserved in the 2 books. The quran and the creation.

and as always, only Allah knows.

May we be guided to light and knowledge.

If I may speak from my current state of knowledge I would vent

Salaam everyone,

Imagine there's a lake, this lake hidden deep within a forest, this forest filled with fruits and thorns.

The Quran is the shore surrounding the lake, the forest is the sunnah that exists in the world that leads to the lake - in hadith, in minds, in tradtions
the thorns are the false hadith, the misquotes, the false prophets, all the error that stands in the path.

Allah is the light and creator of the lake and the forest and the metaphor and my computer and so on.

I was trapped in a prison in virginia as a juvenile, had been raised in a muslim family but was a hardcore follower of scientism (the idea that science has the final say in truth and reality)

All I had was a Quran and a few simple suras memorized. I studied the arabic alphabet and then would stare for hours at a single side by side english arabic translation. Going back and forth between the memorized sound, the forms of the letters I now knew, and the meaning in english. (I began doing my 5 prayers and even fasted one ramadan)

Few years later I was released and totally abandoned what I had come to love and know. The very root meaning of the word Kufr (ka fa ra - to cover up/conceal/reject) in exchange for the pleasures of friendship that I had before incarceration. Inevitably those pleasures died just as the growth the tiller loves turns to dust.

Now I sit with the yusuf ali translation and everytime there's something ambiguous I first find the verse on the corpus quran site. Then I find the word and I find the root letters (there given at the top of the page when you choose a specific word)

From there I go to this http//www.studyquran.co.uk/PRLonline.htm I know they have an app on some devices.

I cannot stress the importance of deeds. Scholarship is beautiful, but I have found my path opened and drawing nearer through righteous action.

May Allah guide us all, and make our paths open and clear, and increase us in knowledge, and destroy falsehood, and allow us islam and the path of the prophet. May we be granted yaqeen (certainty). May we die with laillaha in our hearts and minds and tongues.

(it may be helpful to know the word "hadith" simply means talk. What talk will you believe in?)

ameen