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The story of Newton sitting in the garden of Cambridge during the time of pandemic, and being stirred by the falling of an apple, is probably one of the most revered and reputable stories of our time: a story of a mind who was able to decode one of the strongest realities of our Universe, inspired by a mere apple. But something is quite missing in this story, the part which would tell us about the motivation he carried; the motivation which kept him focused long enough to formalise the mathematical tools that had existed for centuries into one of the most important tools of Mathematics, namely calculus.
In the 21st century, when some of the unpublished manuscripts of Newton were auctioned, Maynard Keynes was among the few who got lucky and took hold of a manuscript which he thought would contain further extensions of Newton's continued attempt at decoding the laws of Physics. But what he found still perplexes some of the minds of our time: papers filled with the details of occult practices being formalised to understand the workings of One Higher Reality of Being, the Only Creator.
Since the beginning of Human civilisation on this land, curiosity has been one of the tools we failed to give up upon. From the ancient Babylonians, to the Egyptians, to the Greeks, till the Arabs, all civilisations attempted to understand the fundamental laws of Nature, Natural Philosophy. But something was strange in this inter-civilisational attempt. All the efforts towards discerning the bigger questions of this reality always required fine-tuning, intelligent design, and a predictable end, along with more questions left unanswered than were answered. It took at least one sane mind in every civilisation to conclude that there must exist a higher form of Knowledge than this reasonable, rational mode of discerning.
Following up upon the history of ideas and civilisations, we see consistent reports of people claiming to be the apostles of God, calling upon the Oneness of Him, and always alluding to the very natural realities people were spending their curiosity on. The difference was in the certainty and truth-value the message carried, it was as if water had found its long-lost vessel. Among the few obvious conclusions their message put forth, one was the acceptance of what we now call Science as being the Signs leading to belief in Him, and Him alone, as the Creator and Sustainer of all. This consistency spanned from the legend of Idrees to the trials of Nuh, from the speeches of Ibrahim to the ferocious sermons of Musa, until the Final Apostle of this continuum completed one of the greatest purposes of existence, Muhammad Mustafa (May Peace and ever-continued blessings be upon him, his family, and his followers).
Listing the primary aspects of the mission of the Prophet (May Peace and blessings be upon Him), the foremost is "Yatlu-Alaihim Ayatihi", the recital and elaboration of His verses. This aspect served, and continues to serve, as the strongest force there exists in pulling mankind towards what is Truth. This aspect was not only confined to the recital of the verses of Allah alone; rather, it was the mechanism Allah chose for His Prophets from the beginning of time, till the coming of His Last Messenger, to call people to the true path. It is thus that we find the Qur'an alluding, in almost every single chapter, to the Signs of Creation in the heavens and the earth, in the external and the internal realm, in the observable and the unobservable. It is no mere coincidence that the richest intellectual work ever produced in the recorded history of mankind came from the buildings bearing minarets in their courtyards, with the name of Allah and His Prophet called out from them.
The Qur'an, as the revealed message of the Sustainer of All, the One Alone, thus stands as the caller towards building the most intelligent and sound explanations of the workings of this reality, in order to make clear the Signs in the heavens and in ourselves as testaments to the One Allah alone. It is thus that Islam stands upon calling every striving soul to make the heavens and the earth bear witness to the message of the Purest alone, declaring peace for all and the never-ending harmony of reality.
It is in this way that this recital of the verses of the One True served, and will continue to serve, as the first operational step entering a person into the world of God, opening the realities that were closed before, opening the doors of the worlds that were shut before.
It is with understanding this integral part of the life of the Prophet and the aspect of his mission, that Muslims can build upon the striving force we are held responsible for in these post-modern, confusing, and unclear times.
