|
The other view tends to suppose that living cells and
tissues are governed by a natural law according to which
they carry within themselves the seeds of their complete
exhaustion. They, in their natural course, pass through
the stages of old age and senility and eventually cease
to function.
Even if we accept this view it does not mean that this
natural law is not flexible. In fact it is supposed to
be a flexible law, for we see in our ordinary life, and
it has been confirmed by scientific laboratory
observations also, that senility is an untimely
physiological phenomenon in the sense that sometimes it
appears early and sometimes very late. It is a common
experience which has also been confirmed by the
observations of the physicians, that many a man of
advanced age still possess a supple body and do not
suffer from any old age ailments. It is because of the
flexibility of this natural law that the scientists have
already succeeded in prolonging the life of certain
animals, hundreds of times beyond their normal span of
life by artificially creating conditions conducive to
the delay of senility.
They have falsified the law of natural senility by
acquiring brilliant successes and have made it clear
scientifically that to postpone senility or to provide
opportunities and specified factors therefore is
possible and if present day science is not able to
enforce this programme in the case of phenomena like
human beings it is on account of the fact that more
difficulties are involved in the matter with regard to
man as compared with other animals.
In a nutshell, it is logically and scientifically
possible to prolong life, though it is still practically
impossible to do so. Anyhow, science is endeavouring to
make it practical also.
If we consider the question of the Mahdi's age in this
light there appears to be nothing strange or surprising
about it, for it has been proved that such a long life
is logically and scientifically possible and the
scientists are working to turn its possibility into a
reality. All that appears to be surprising is that the
Mahdi has attained such a long life before the
scientists have been able to turn its theoretical
possibility into a practical one. This phenomenon can be
compared to the discovery of a cure for cancer or brain
haemorrhage before science can make such a discovery.
If the question is how Islam, which planned the age of
the Awaited Saviour, could anticipate science in this
field the answer is simple. This is not the only field
wherein Islam has anticipated science. The Islamic
Shari'ah as a whole anticipated the scientific
movement and the natural development of human thinking
by several centuries. Islam had already presented, for
practical application, the laws which science has taken
hundreds of years to discover. It has propounded
doctrines, the wisdom of which has been corroborated by
science only recently. It disclosed such secrets of the
universe which none could think of at that time and the
truth of which was later confirmed by science. If we
believe in this, then it is not too much for Allah, the
Exalted, to anticipate science in planning the age of
the Mahdi. We have talked of only those aspects of
anticipation which we can see directly. We can add other
instances about which Qur'an has told us.
Here we have talked of only those aspects of
anticipation by Islam vis-à-vis science which we can
observe directly. It is, however, possible for us to add
some other instances of anticipation about matters which
it has not been possible for science to comprehend so
far. For example, Qur'an tells us that the holy Prophet
was carried one night from Masjid al-Haram (at Mecca) to
Masjid al-Aqsa (at Jerusalem). If we try to perceive the
quality of this journey within the framework of natural
laws it points to the application of laws which govern
nature in this sense that science has not yet been able
to understand them and it will take it hundreds of years
more to specify their quality. The same Divine
Knowledge, which granted the holy Prophet this high
speed long before science could consider it to be
possible, also granted long life to his last Divinely
appointed successor, long before it could be achieved by
science.
(b) Suspension of laws
It is true, as far as common experience and the
experiments carried out so far by the scientists are
concerned, this long life granted by Allah to the
Awaited Saviour appears to be very unusual. But his role
of revolutionizing the world order and rebuilding the
entire system on the basis of justice and truth is also
so extraordinary that neither are the people familiar
with it nor has it ever been experienced in history. So
it should not be surprising if at the preparatory stage
also his role is preceded by some unusual and
extraordinary events, like his long life. Howsoever,
unfamiliar these events may be, they are not more
unusual than the great role to be performed by the Mahdi
on the appointed day. If we can relish that role, having
no precedent throughout history, there is no reason why
we should not relish his long life unprecedented in our
ordinary life.
We wonder if it is a mere chance that each of the only
two persons who undertook to purify the human
civilization of all its impurities and to reconstruct
the world should have had a very long life span, several
times that of a usual one. One of them played his role
in the past. He was Noah, about whom the holy Qur'an has
expressly said that he lived among his people for 950
years. He reconstructed the world after the Deluge. The
other is to play his role in the future. He is the Mahdi
who has already lived among his people for more than a
thousand years and is destined to play his role on the
appointed day and build the world anew.
How is it then that we accept the longevity of Noah who
lived at least for about a thousand years and deny that
of the Mahdi.
We have learnt that a long life is scientifically
possible but let us suppose that it is not so and the
law of senility is inexorable and cannot be defied
either today or in future. Then what does this mean? It
means only this that to live for centuries, as is the
case with Noah and the Mahdi, is contrary to the natural
laws established by science through modern methods of
experimentation and investigation.
In this case a long life may be accepted as a miracle
which suspends a natural law in particular circumstances
to preserve the life of a particular person entrusted
with a celestial mission. This miracle is not unique in
its kind, nor is it alien to the Muslim belief derived
from the text of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
The law of senility is not any the more relentless than
the law of the exchange of heat, according to which heat
passes from a body having a higher temperature to a body
having a lower temperature. This law was suspended to
protect Abraham when he was thrown into the burning
fire, for this was the only way to preserve his life.
The holy Qur'an says: "We said: O fire, be coolness
and peace for Abraham". (Surah al-Anbia, 21:69).
Accordingly, he came out of the fire unscathed.
In many other cases also natural laws were suspended to
protect the prophets and other Divinely appointed
people.
The sea was parted for Moses. It appeared to the Romans
that they had captured Jesus whereas they had not.
Muhammad got out of his house while it was surrounded by
a mob of the tribe of Quraish, waiting for an
opportunity to assassinate him. Allah concealed him, so
that the Quraishites could not see him when he walked
out through their midst. In all these cases natural laws
were suspended for the protection of the people whose
lives the Divine Wisdom wanted to preserve. The law of
senility too, can be bracketed with these cases of
suspension.
From the above discussion we can arrive at a general
conclusion and say: Whenever it is necessary to preserve
the life of one of the chosen servants of Allah to
enable him to accomplish his mission, the Divine Grace
intervenes to protect him and one of the natural laws is
suspended. On the contrary if the period of his
appointment comes to an end and the task entrusted to
him by the Almighty is accomplished he meets death in
accordance with the natural laws related to life or is
martyred.
In this connection we are usually confronted with the
following questions.
How can a natural law be suspended and the compulsory
relationship existing between the various phenomena be
severed?
Will such a suspension not be in contradiction with
science which has discovered that law determines the
compulsory relationship on the basis of experimentation
and investigations?
Science itself has provided an answer to this question.
It has already given up the idea of compulsion in
respect of natural laws. It only says that these laws
are discovered on the basis of systematic observation
and experiment. When it is observed that one phenomenon
invariably follows another, this invariability is
treated as a natural law. But science does not claim
that there exists a binding and compulsory relationship
between any two phenomena, because compulsion is a
factor which cannot be proved by experiment and
scientific methods of investigation. Modern science
confirms that a natural law as defined by it, speaks
only of an invariable association between two phenomena
and is not concerned with any compulsory relationship
between them.
Hence, if a miracle takes place and the natural
relationship between two phenomena breaks down it does
not amount to the breaking down of a compulsory
relationship.
In fact, a miracle in its religious sense has become
more comprehensive in the light of modern scientific
theory than it was when the classical view of casual
nexus prevailed. According to the old theory it was
presumed that the phenomena invariably associated with
each other must have an inevitable relationship between
them and this inevitability meant that their separation
from each other was inconceivable. According to modern
scientific thinking, however, this relationship has been
transformed into a law of association or invariable
succession.
Thus, a miracle need not come into clash with
inevitability any longer. It is only on exceptional
state of the invariability of association and
succession.
We agree with the scientific view that modern scientific
methods cannot prove the existence of an inevitable
relationship between any two phenomena. Anyhow, we are
of the view that there must still be some explanation of
the invariability of association and succession. As it
can be explained on the basis of the theory of intrinsic
inevitability, it can also be explained if we assume
that it is the Wisdom of the Organizer of the universe
which requires a particular phenomenon to be invariably
related to some other phenomenon and that in certain
cases the same wisdom may require that there should be
an exception. Such exceptional cases are called
miracles.
Now let us take up the question as to why Allah is so
keen to prolong the Mahdi's life that, even natural laws
are suspended for his sake. Is it not advisable to leave
the leadership of the appointed day to a person to be
born in the future and brought up according to the needs
of that time? In other words, what is the justification
for this long occultation?
Most of the people who ask this question do not want an
answer simply based on belief. It is not enough to say
that we believe it to be so. What the interrogators
really want is a social explanation of the position in
the light of the tangible requirements of the great
change expected to be brought about by the Mahdi.
Hence, we leave aside for the time being the
qualifications we believe the infallible Imams to have
possessed and take up instead the following question:
Is it likely, in the light of the past experience, that
such a long life of the leader-designate will contribute
to his success and will enable him to play his role
better?
Our reply to this question is in the affirmative. Some
of the reasons are given below:
The proposed great revolutionary change requires that
its leader should possess a unique mental calibre. He
should be conscious of his own superiority and the
insignificance of the knotty system he has to overthrow.
The more conscious he is of the insignificance of the
corrupt society he has to fight against, the more
prepared he will be psychologically to wage a war till
victory is won.
It is evident that the size of his mental calibre should
be proportionate to the size of the proposed change and
the size of the social system required to be eliminated.
The more extensive and deep-seated this system is, the
greater should be the psychological push required.
The mission being to revolutionize the world, full of
injustice and oppression, and to bring about a radical
change in all its cultural values and diverse systems,
it is but natural that it should be entrusted to a
person whose mental calibre is higher than that of
anyone in the whole of the existing world and who may
not have been born and brought up under the influence of
the society required to be demolished and replaced by
another culture of justice and righteousness. One
brought up under the shadow of a deep-seated and
world-dominating culture is naturally impressed and
overawed by it, that being the only culture which he has
seen and by which he has been influenced from a tender
age.
But the case should be different with a person who has a
long historical background, who has witnessed several
great cultures successively grow and decline, who has
seen the big historical changes with his own eyes and
has not read about them in books, who has been a
contemporary of all the stages of the development of
that culture which happens to be the last chapter of the
human history before the appointed day and who has seen
all its ups and downs. Such a person, who himself has
lived through all these stages very carefully and
attentively, is competent to look at the culture he has
to grapple with in its historical perspective and is not
daunted by its magnitude. He does not regard it as an
unalterable destiny. His attitude to it will not be like
that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) to the French
monarchy.
For thousands of years man has been aspiring to
delay death which is a predestined phenomenon.
During the past centuries the efforts of the
alchemists to find out an elixir of life ended
in fiasco.
At the end of the nineteenth century scientific
advancement revived the hope for a long life and
it is possible that in the near future this
sweet dream may turn into a reality. In this
connection the scientists have resorted in the
first instance to experiments on the animals.
For example, McKee, a distinguished expert of
the Cornell University and Alex Komfort of
London University have conducted experiments
about the connection between food and senility.
Alex Komfort was able, in the course of his
experiments, to increase the age of a group of
mice by fifty per cent. The results of the
studies spread over four years conducted by
Richard Rothschild, another American expert,
regarding increase in the life of mice by the
use of Methyl aminoethynol were published in the
spring of 1972.
It is not possible to ascertain directly that
one phenomenon is the cause of the appearance of
another phenomenon (like the rising of the sun
being the cause of the earth becoming hot). We
understand only this that one phenomenon (rising
of the sun) is continually followed by another
viz. the surface of the earth becoming hot.
|
