Visible and Invisible
Refrence:


Man and Universe، Shahid Murtadha Mutahhari؛



According to the Islamic conception of the cosmos, the world is an aggregate of the visible and the invisible things. This conception divides the universe into the world of the visible and that of the invisible. The Holy Qur"an itself has repeatedly mentioned the visible and the invisible, especially the invisible. To believe in the invisible is an article of faith in Islam. The Holy Qur"an says:
"Those who believe in the unseen." (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:2)
"With Him are the keys of all that is hidden. None but He knows them." (Surah al-An"am, 6:59)
There are two kinds of the invisible or the hidden: the relatively hidden and the absolutely hidden. The relatively hidden is that thing which a person cannot perceive by means of his senses because it is at a long distance from him. For example, for a person who is in Tehran, Tehran is visible and Isfahan is invisible. But for him who is in Isfahan, Isfahan is visible and Tehran is invisible.
In the Holy Qur"an at several places the word "ghayb" (invisible or hidden) has been used in this very relative sense. The Holy Qur"an says: "These hidden (unknown) events which We have revealed to you, were neither known to you nor to your people so far." (Surah Hud, 11: 49)
Evidently the events of the people of the past are "hidden" as far as the present day people are concerned, though they were "visible" for those who witnessed them.
At another place the same word "ghayb" has been applied by the Holy Qur"an to the realities which are absolutely invisible. There is a difference between the realities which are perceptible through the external senses, but are not visible on account of great distance, and the realities which are imperceptible and invisible because they are not corporeal and finite. Evidently when the Holy Qur"an says that the faithful believe in what is invisible, it does not mean what is relatively invisible, for everybody, irrespective of his being faithful or infidel believes in that. Again when it says that with Allah alone are the keys of all that is hidden, it means all that is absolutely hidden, for the meaning of the verse does not fit in with what is relatively hidden. The same is the case with those verses in which the visible and the invisible have been mentioned together. For example, the Holy Qur"an says:
"He is the knower of the visible and the invisible; and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful." (Surah al-Hashr, 59:22)
This verse also refers to the absolutely invisible and not to the relatively invisible.
How are these two worlds, the visible and the invisible related to each other? Has the visible world any boundary line beyond which the invisible world is situated? For example, is it that from the earth to the sky there is the visible world and i beyond that there is the invisible world? Obviously such a conception is vulgar. Should we suppose that there is a physical boundary line which separates the two worlds, that would mean that both the worlds are physical and material. The relation between the visible and the invisible cannot be explained in material terms. At the most what we can say to make their relationship understandable is that they stand in almost the same relation as a main body and a branch of it or a body and its shadow. In other words this world is a reflection of another world. The Holy Qur"an indicates that whatever there is in this world is a "lowered form" of the things existing in another world. What has been called "keys" in the verse quoted above, has been named "stores" in another v
erse. The Holy Qur"an says:
"There is not a thing but with Us are the stories thereof; but We do not send it down except in an appointed measure." (Surah al-Hijr, 15:21)
It is on this basis that the Holy Qur"an regards everything, even stones and iron, as having been sent down. "We send down iron." (Surah al-Hadid, 57:25)
This does not mean that all things including iron have been shifted from a higher place to a lower place. In fact, whatever there is in the world, has its "root" and its "essence" in another world, the world of the invisible and whatever there is in that world, has its "shadow" and a "lowered form" of it in this world.
The Holy Qur"an makes it obligatory to have faith in the unseen. The same point is described in another way, when faith in the angels, the Prophethood and the revelation is enjoined.
The Holy Qur"an says: "The Messenger believes in that which has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the believers. They all believe in Allah, His angels, His Books and His Messengers." (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:285)
"He who disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day, certainly has gone far astray." (Surah an-Nisa, 4:136)

In these two verses the Books of Allah has been mentioned separately. Had they signified the Scriptures revealed to the Prophets, the mention of the Messengers would have been enough. That is an indication that here the books signify some different kind of realities. The Holy Qur"an itself has referred to some hidden truths and given them the name of "an explicit book" "a protected tablet", "the mother book", "a written book" and "a hidden book". A faith in this sort of metaphysical books is a part of Islamic creed.
The Prophets have come basically to enable mankind to have, as far as possible, a general view of the entire creational system. The creation is not limited to the perceptible and palpable things which come under the purview of the experimental sciences. The Prophets want to raise the outlook of man from what is perceptible to what is understandable, from what is visible to what is invisible and from what is finite to what is infinite.
Unfortunately, the wave of the materialistic and limited thinking which has risen from the West has spread to such an extent that a section of the people insists to bring down the vast and high Islamic conception of the world to the level of the perceptible and material things