Elucidation of Objectives — Page 49
Tau di h-e-Mar a m 49 glorious compendium of multifarious excellences is a mere nothing and that it cannot survive death. In other words, you do not have the least doubt about the per- manent existence of the concrete and observable phenomena; even the blind come to believe in the existence of the Sun by experiencing its heat during the day. Since all these aforesaid properties are collectively present in the human self, how on earth can you ever doubt that which has an enduring existence of its own? Is it possible that something which does not exist in its own right should still have the properties of all exis- tents? Furthermore, God is pleased to take oath in this context and style because an oath is tantamount to testimony. This is why temporal rulers also rely on oath, because in the absence of eyewitnesses—one oath performs the function of at least two witnesses. Since an oath is looked upon as a surrogate for a non-existent eyewit- ness from the point of view of reason, usage, common law and Shar i‘ ah, 58 God here equates an oath with an eye-witness. Therefore, when He says: I swear by the Sun and the sunlight , this means that the Sun and its light and heat bear witness to the human self being an existent and an enduring entity because, besides its other properties, the solar qualities of light and heat are 58 Islamic jurisprudence. [Translator]