Malfuzat – Volume I — Page 227
Malfuzat - Volume I 227 The Philosophy of the Holy Quran Taking Oath on Created Entities I once again, return to my initial discussion and state that the objections which are raised against the oaths of the Holy Quran are also similar in nature, to those mentioned above. After much reflection and contemplation, the secret disclosed to me is that wherever in the Holy Quran, at any particular instance, an im- provident individual has raised an allegation, in the very same place lies hidden a treasure of the most sublime verities and insights. The reason such people remain oblivious to them is because they harbour an enmity for the truth; they only read the Holy Quran to criticise it and raise allegations against it. Bear in mind that there are two parts of the Holy Quran-in fact, there are three. Firstly, there is a part which even the simplest and most uneducated person can comprehend. The second part is disclosed to those people who sit at an average level; although they are not completely uneducated, yet they do not possess a very large capacity for knowledge. The third part is for those people who are abreast of the highest degrees of knowledge and who are known as philosophers. It is a distinct quality of the Holy Quran alone that it educates all of these three classes of people with- out differentiation. There is only one means by which an educated and average person, as well as a philosopher who sits at the highest level, can be educated all the same. It is a matter of exclusive pride for the Holy Quran that every class of people derives grace from it in accordance with their own individual capacity and rank. Now for a response to the allegation which is levelled against the Holy Quran on its taking oaths. In the absence of a witness, an oath is deemed to stand as a witness in its place. Both in terms of customary and religious law, and even in common practice, it is an accepted fact that when a witness is not available, a sworn oath suffices and takes the place of testimony. Similarly, the custom employed by Allah Almighty in the Holy Quran is that in order to establish ideologies, God presents entities, which are plainly evident to serve as testimony for matters of conceptual nature. ¹ It ought to be remembered that the method employed by Allah Almighty in the Holy Quran is that in order to establish matters of ideology, He presents things that are plainly evident to serve as a witness; and this is done so in the form of oaths. One must never forget that comparing the oaths of Allah the 1 Al-Hakam, vol. 5, no. 20, dated 31 May 1901, p. 1-4