The Abrahamic Experience

In this blog, we will talk about the story of Abraham(AS) in which he goes through a sequence of experiences to figure out the fact of the oneness of God. Religion is natural and also revealed. Islam is called natural religion because the revelation is in agreement with (human) nature. We will try to explore the importance of intuitive experience and how the experience of God is a first-hand intuitive experience.

David Hume’s simple and complex ideas

David Hume, a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, has categorized ideas into simple and complex ideas [1]. Simple ideas are those which need to be experienced in order to conceive them. For instance, If I ask you to imagine Z24A, then you will not be able to imagine it as you have not experienced this simple idea before. Additionally, they can’t be further broken down into more ideas as the infinite regress of ideas is not possible.

Complex ideas are those which are the combination of simple ideas. We are unable to imagine something that is neither simple nor a complex idea. However, complex ideas may or may not exist in the real world. For instance, if we consider gold as a simple idea and mountain as the other simple idea then we can imagine a gold mountain(complex idea) but it may not necessarily exist in reality.

The story of Abraham (AS)

The people in the Abraham era were indulged in idol worshiping and the Quran narrates the story of Abraham about the experience of God in Chapter 6 Verse 74-84. He saw the stars and thought that stars were God. When the stars disappeared he realized that it could not be the case. Subsequently, he saw the moon and deemed it to be God. Once it vanished, he realized that it could also not be God. He had a similar experience with the sun. This story is an example of proof by contraction as the proposition that the star is the God leads to a contradiction.

The oneness of God

Islam is a monotheistic religion that puts a strong emphasis on the oneness of God (Tawhid). God is perfect and associating any partners with Him is a dire sin in Islam.

Let’s try to put the story of Abraham and David Hume’s ideas into perspective.

God as a simple idea

When Abraham was thinking of stars as God, he took two simple concepts namely God and star and came up with the complex idea of star God. As we discussed before that simple ideas must be experienced in order to conceive them which means that the idea of God is an experience that everybody is intuitively aware of. A blind man who has never experienced the colors before can never really conceive and talk about colors in a true sense. Hence, God is a simple idea that everyone has experienced and that should not be combined with other simple ideas to make complex ideas. In other words, associating partners with God is the worst sin in Islam.

Augmentation

The existence of stars is overshadowed by the moon and the might and glory of the sun overshadow the glory of the moon. This is an example of augmentation. Abraham saw the glory of the star and made it glorious by augmenting it. He saw the might of the sun and confused it with the most mighty being by augmenting its mightiness. David Hume argues that we see these features and augment them and consider them God. However, The fact is that the God in Islam is perfect by nature. And nothing could be added to the perfectness. Therefore, Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion.

Importance of Intuition

The children’s experience is predominantly empirical. A child learns about different things by experiencing them and getting educated by the people in their surroundings. The reality of your experience is defined by sensory experiences. As one grows older the intellect takes precedence over the empirical and sensory experiences. For instance, even though the shadow is moving as the earth rotates around the sun, your eyes are not able to observe that. So, you have to rely more on your intellect rather than your senses. There is one experience that takes precedence over the intellect namely conscious intuitive experience.

Consciousness

Every human being has been blessed with something that enables us to be aware of our surroundings. This awareness can be defined as consciousness. One important fact about this inner experience is that it is subjective. These inner subjective experiences are also called qualia and can not be accessed by third-person entities e.g science. For instance, your experience of tasting vanilla-flavored ice cream is unique to only you and can’t be compared with other people’s experience of eating the same ice cream. We have already discussed mind-body dualism in our previous blog. The brain is composed of material substance and the mind is immaterial. The pressing question is how this inner subjective conscious experience emerges from the material brain. This problem is referred to as the hard problem of consciousness.

What is the difference between a robot and a human?. If we manage to develop a robot that is a carbon copy of humans then does it mean that they both are the same?. It is certainly possible to develop a robot that says ouch whenever you pinch it and you could also observe the biological neurons firing. Moreover, it behaves identically to humans. However, the inner subjective consciousness can’t be added to it. This shows us the indispensable importance of intuitive experience.

In conclusion, the story of Abraham reaffirms the intuitive experience of the oneness of God which is experienced by every being. The simple idea of God can’t be combined with any other idea as God is perfect and there is no addition to perfection. We also briefly looked at the importance of intuitive and concious experience for humans.

References

The Abrahamic Experience - Firas Zahabi

(1) For simplicity the distinction between impression and idea is not made. More here