Sufism and Quantum
Physics
There are parallels in Sufism and in quantum theory. A view
of the world is very similar to the views, held by Sufis and modern physicists.
In contrast to the mechanistic world view of the Westerners, for the Sufis all
things and events perceived by the senses are interrelated, connected, and are
but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate reality. For Sufis
“Enlightenment” is an experience to become aware of the unity and mutual
interrelation of all things, to transcend the notion of an isolated individual
self, and to identify themselves with the ultimate reality.
An exact science is expressed in the highly sophisticated
language of modern mathematics, whereas Tasawwuf is
based on meditation and insists on the fact that Sufis’ insight cannot be
communicated verbally. Reality as experienced by the Sufis is completely
indeterminate and undifferentiated. Sufis never see the intellect as their
source of knowledge but use it merely to analyze and interpret their personal Tasawwuf
experience. The parallel between scientific experiments and Tasawwuf
experiences may seem surprising in view of the very
different nature of these acts of observation. Physicists perform experiments
involving an elaborate teamwork and a highly sophisticated technology, whereas
the Sufis obtain their knowledge purely through introspection, without any
machinery, in the privacy of meditation or Dhikr. To
repeat an experiment in modern elementary particle physics one has to undergo many
years of training. Similarly, a deep Tasawwuf
experience requires, generally, many years of training under an experienced
master. The complexity and efficiency of the physicist’s technical apparatus is
matched, if not surpassed, by that of the mystic’s consciousness-both physical
and spiritual-in deep Dhikr. Thus the scientists
and the Sufis have developed highly sophisticated methods of observing nature
which are inaccessible to the layperson.
DHIKR
The basic aim of Dhikr is to
silence the thinking mind and to shift the awareness from the rational to the
intuitive mode of consciousness. The silencing of the mind is achieved by
concentrating one’s attention on a single item, like one’s breathing, the sound
of Allah or Laa ‘Ilaaha ‘IllAllaah (None
is worthy of worship but God). Even performing Salaat
(Prayer) is considered as Dhikr to
silence the rational mind. Thus Salaat leads
to the feeling of peace and serenity which is characteristic of the more static
forms of Dhikr. These skills are used
to develop the meditative mode of consciousness. In Dhikr, the
mind is emptied of all thoughts and concepts and thus prepared to function for
long periods through its intuitive mode. When the rational mind is silenced,
the intuitive mode produces an extraordinary awareness; the environment is
experienced in a direct way without the filter of conceptual thinking. The
experience of oneness with the surrounding environment is the main
characteristic of this meditative state. It is a state of consciousness where
every form of fragmentation has ceased, fading away into undifferentiated
unity.
INSIGHT
INTO REALITY
Sufism is based on direct insights into the nature of
reality, and physics is based on the observation of natural phenomena in
scientific experiments. In physics the model and theories are approximate and
are basic to modern scientific research. Thus the aphorism of Einstein, “As far
as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as
they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” Whenever the essential nature
of things is analyzed by the intellect, it must seem absurd or paradoxical.
This has always been recognized by the Sufis, but has become a problem in
science only very recently, e.g. Light as wave or photon or duality of light.
Great variety of natural phenomena belonged to the scientists’ macroscopic
environment and thus to the realm of their sensory experience. Since the images
and intellectual concepts of their language were abstracted from this very
experience, they were sufficient and adequate to describe the natural
phenomena. However the atomic and subatomic world itself lies beyond our
sensory perception. The knowledge about matter at this level is no longer
derived from direct sensory experience, and therefore our ordinary language,
which its images from the world of the senses, is no longer adequate to
describe the observed phenomena. As we penetrate deeper and deeper into nature,
we have to abandon more and more of the images and concepts of ordinary
language. Probing inside the atom and investigating its structure, science
transcended the limits of our sensory imagination. From this point on, it could
no longer rely with absolute certainty on logic and common sense. Quantum
physics provided the scientists with the first glimpses of the essential nature
of things. Like the Sufis, physicists were now dealing with a nonsensory
experience of reality and, like the Sufis; they had to face the paradoxical
aspects of this experience. From then on therefore, the models, and images of
modern physics become akin to those of Tasawwuf of
the Sufis.
COMMUNICATION PROBLEM
Scientists realized that our common language is not only
inaccurate, but totally inadequate to describe the atomic and subatomic
reality. With the advent of Relativity and Quantum mechanics in modern physics
it was very clear that this new knowledge transcends classical logic and that
it cannot be described in ordinary language. Similarly in Tasawwuf it
has always been realized that reality transcends ordinary language and the
Sufis were not afraid to go beyond logic and common concepts. The problem of
language faced by the Sufi is exactly the same as the problem the modern
physicist faces. Both the physicist and the Sufi want to communicate their
knowledge, and when they do so with words their statements are paradoxical and
full of logical contradictions. These paradoxes are characteristic of all who
practice Tasawwuf and since the beginning
of the 20th century they are also characteristic of modern
physics.
DUALITY OF LIGHT
In Quantum Physics, many of the paradoxical situations are
connected with the dual nature of light or – more generally – of
electromagnetic radiation. Light produces interference phenomena, which is
associated with the waves of light. This is observed when two sources of light
are used resulting in bright and dim patterns of light. On the other hand,
electromagnetic radiation also produces the “photoelectric” effect: when short
wave length light such as ultraviolet light or x-rays or gamma rays strike the
surface of some metals, they can “knock off” electrons from the surface of the
metal, and therefore it must consist of moving particles. The question which
puzzled physicists so much in the early stages of quantum theory was how
electromagnetic radiation could simultaneously consist of particles (that is of
entities confined to a very small volume) and of waves, which are spread out
over a large area in space. Neither language nor imagination could deal with
this kind of reality very well. Sufism has developed several different ways of
dealing with the paradoxical aspects of reality. Works of Attar, Hafiz, Ibn
Arabi, Rumi, Bastami, etc
show they are full of intriguing contradictions and their compact, powerful,
and extremely poetic language is meant to arrest the reader’s mind and throw it
off its familiar tracks of logical reasoning. Heisenberg asked Bohr: Can nature
possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?
Whenever the essential nature of things is analyzed by the
intellect, it must seem absurd or paradoxical. This has always been recognized
by the Sufis, but has become a problem in science in the 20 the century. The
macroscopic world is in the realm of our sensory experience. Through this
sensory experience one can draw images, intellectual concepts and express them
in a language. This language was sufficient and adequate to describe the
natural phenomena. The Newtonian mechanistic model of the universe described
macroscopic world. In the 20th century the existence of atoms and subatomic
particles or the ultimate “building blocks” of nature was experimentally verified.
The atomic and subatomic world itself lies beyond our sensory perception. The
knowledge about matter at this level is no longer derived from direct sensory
experience, and therefore our ordinary language, which takes its images from
the world of the senses, is no longer adequate to describe the observed
phenomena. As we penetrate deeper and deeper into nature, we have to abandon
more and more of the images and concepts of ordinary language. From this point
on, it could no longer rely with absolute certainty on logic and common sense.
Quantum physics provided the scientists with the first glimpse of the essential
nature of things. Like the Sufis the physicists were now dealing with a
nonsensory experience of reality and, like the Sufis, they had to face the
paradoxical aspects of this experience.
MODERN PHYSICS
According to the Sufis, the direct mystical experience of
reality is a momentous event, which shakes the very foundations of one’s
worldview, that is the most startling event that could ever happen in the realm
of human consciousness (as-Shuhud). Upsetting every form
of standardized experience. Some Sufis describe it as “the bottom of a pail
breaking through.”
Physicists in the early part of the 20th century
felt much the same way when the foundations of their world-view were shaken by
the new experience of the atomic reality, and they described the experience in
terms which were often very similar to those used by the Sufis. Thus Heisenberg
wrote: “…recent developments in modern physics can only be understood when one
realizes that here the foundations of physics have started moving; and that
this motion has caused the feeling that the ground would be cut from science.”
The discoveries of modern physics necessitated profound changes of concepts
like space, time, matter, object, cause and effect, etc., and these concepts
are so basic to our way of experiencing the world, that the physicists who were
forced to change them felt something of a shock. Out of these changes a new and
radically different world-view is born which is still in the process of formation.
Quantum theory implies an essential interconnectedness of nature. Quantum
theory forces us to see the universe not as a collection of physical objects,
but rather as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a
unified whole. This is the way the Sufis have experienced the world.
SPACE-TIME
The
Sufis seem to be able to attain nonordinary states of consciousness (Shuhud)
in which they transcend the three-dimensional world of everyday life to
experience a higher, multidimensional reality. In relativistic physics if one
can visualize the four-dimensional space-time reality, there would be nothing
paradoxical at all. The Sufis have notions of space and time, which are very
similar to those implied by relativity theory. In Tasawwuf,
there seems to be a strong intuition for the “space-time” character of reality.
The Sufis have experienced a state of complete dissolution (Fanaah)
where there is no more distinction between mind and body, subject and object.
In a state of pure experience, there is no space without time, no time without
space, they are interpenetrating. For the physicist the notion of space-time is
based on scientific experiments whereas for the Sufi it is based on Tasawwuf.
The relativistic models and theories of modern physics are illustrations of the
two basic elements of Tasawwuf world-view-the Tahwiid of the universe and its
intrinsically dynamic character. Space is curved to different degrees, and time
flows at different rates in different parts of the universe. Our notions of a three-dimensional
Euclidean space and of linear flow of time are limited to our ordinary
experience of the physical world and have to be completely abandoned when we
extend this experience. The Sufis talk about an extension of their experience
of the world in higher states of consciousness, and they affirm that these
states involve a radically different experience of space and time. They
emphasize not only that they go beyond ordinary three-dimensional space in
meditation, but also - and even more forcefully-that ordinary awareness of time
is transcended. Instead of a linear succession of instants, they experience an
infinite, timeless, and yet dynamic present. In the spiritual world there are
no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have
contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in
its true sense.
MASS-ENERGY
EQUIVALENCE
Einstein showed the mass-energy equivalence, through a
simple mathematical equation, E=mc*2. Physicists measure the masses of particles
in the corresponding energy units. Mass is nothing but a form of energy. This
discovery has forced us to modify our concept of a particle in an essential
way. Hence particles are seen as "Qunata" or bundles of energy. Thus
particles are not seen as consisting of any basic "stuff." But energy
is associated with activity, with processes, which means that the nature of
subatomic particles is intrinsically dynamic and they are forms in
four-dimensional entities in space-time. Therefore subatomic particles have a
space aspect and a time aspect. Their space aspect makes them appear as objects
with a certain mass, their time aspect as processes involving the equivalent
energy. When subatomic particles are observed, we never see them as any
substance; but what we observe is continuously changing patterns of one to the
other or a continuous dance of energy. The particles of the subatomic world are
not only active in the sense of moving around very fast; they themselves are
processes. The existence of matter and its activity cannot be separated. They
are but different aspects of the same space-time reality.
The Sufis, in their nonordinary states of consciousness,
seem to be aware of the interpenetration of space and time at a macroscopic
level. Thus they see the macroscopic world in a way which is very similar to
the physicists' idea of subatomic particles. For the Sufis "all compounded
things are impermanent" - fanaah. The
reality underlying all phenomena is beyond all forms and defies all description
and specification, hence to be formless, empty or void. To the Sufis all
phenomena in the world are nothing but the illusory manifestation of the mind
and have no reality on their own.
CONCLUSION
The principal theories and models of modern physics lead to
a view of the world, which is internally consistent, and in perfect harmony
with the views of Tasawwuf. The significance of
the parallels between the world-views of physicists and Sufis is beyond any
doubt. Both emerge when man inquires into the essential nature of things-into
the deeper realms of matter in physics; into the deeper realms of consciousness
in Tasawwuf-when he discovers a different reality behind the superficial
mundane appearance of everyday life. Physicists derive their knowledge from
experiments whereas Sufis from meditative insights. The Sufi looks within and
explores his or her consciousness at its various levels. The experience of
one's body is, in fact, often seen as the key to the Tasawwuf
experience of the world.
Another similarity between the physicist and the Sufi is the
fact that their observations take place in realms, which are inaccessible to
the ordinary senses. To the physicist the realms of the atomic and subatomic
world; in Tasawwuf they are nonordinary
states of consciousness in which the sense world is transcended. Both for the
physicists and the Sufis, the multidimensional experiences transcend the
sensory world and are therefore almost impossible to express in ordinary
language.
Quantum Physics and Tasawwuf are
two complementary manifestations of the human mind; of its rational and
intuitive faculties. The modern physicist experiences the world through an
extreme specialization of the rational mind; the Sufi through an extreme
specialization of the intuitive mind. Both of them are necessary for a fuller
understanding of the world. Tasawwuf
experience is necessary to understand the deepest nature of things and science
is essential for modern life. Therefore we need a dynamic interplay between Tasawwuf
intuition and scientific analysis.
Reference: http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_1_50/scientific_evidence_on_the_onene.htm
With thanks from Mr. Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.
D. President, Islamic Research Foundation International,
God bless the entire humanity
No comments:
Post a Comment