Preface

The subject of 'the secret behind matter' that we have treated in detail in some of our works has attracted the attention of a wide range of readers and has been the occasion for them to notice an important truth that they had never considered before in their lives. This is no new philosophy or ideology; it is a truth that is within every person whether he wills it or not; a reality that everyone has experienced; it is easy to understand and various branches of science have proved it many years ago. It is possible to summarize this truth is this way: Everything that constitutes our life is a totality of perceptions received by our soul. The things, people, places and events that make our world and our lives meaningful are like a dream; we perceive them only in our brain and we have nothing to do with their truth or reality. If this subject is explained to a thinking person who will consider it with an open mind and without prejudice, he will easily and in a short time comprehend this great reality and adopt it into his own life. But some people may have probably been influenced by habits of thought and prejudices arising from what they have been taught to believe since childhood as well as from negative suggestions gleaned from the world around them. With this in mind, we have arranged this book as a kind of conversation with three enquirers who ask various questions. In this way, those areas that the participants have difficulty in understanding or accepting have been explained with actual examples taken from the various events we encounter in our daily lives. In this way, the readers will have the opportunity to think about what they have learned and apply it whether it be at home, at work, at school, in front of the television- in short, in every aspect of their lives. This conversation examines some ideas about life which probably come to the mind of every enquirer: that it is a totality of perceptions put by God into the human soul; that it is experienced in the brain like a kind of dream ; that this world, the orginal of which we can never have direct contact with, has a purpose, and provides some answers to the questions that arise from these ideas.Readers who want to learn the truth will find here what they want to know about these ideas. Besides the many who openly and without prejudice approach the truth, there will also be those who, although they have come to know and understand it, are unwilling to accept it or avoid the responsibility that learning this truth will entail. When those who have adopted such a point of view read this book, they will understand it better how degrading it is for a sensible person to live in a world based on lies and fantasy by running away from the truth. It must not be forgotten that what is beautiful is what is true; therefore, it makes no sense to fear the truth or run away from it. A renewed life of ease and contentment takes only some serious open-minded thinking.When people put forth the effort to learn and understand the truth, instead of deceiving themselves and running after fantasy, they will experience the beauty of a real and endless happiness as opposed to the false happiness of a deceitful world.

Introduction

The reality behind matter' is not a newly discovered, formerly unknown subject. It is alluded to in a number of verses of the Qur'an and plays a key role in the interpretation of some other verses. Throughout history, God has sent apostles, and deeply aware and thoughtful people, who proclaimed this reality to their societies.

Texts containing portions of their proclamations have come down to us today. Various degenerated forms of the true religion whose original revelations have been distorted wanted to preserve this reality as a mystical secret. Therefore, it is possible to find this reality in the texts that survive in Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism and Christianity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, the Eleatic school of philosophy, Plato (especially in his Allegory of the Cave) and a number of thinkers who followed them have all expounded some aspects of this question. In later periods, this subject has been related and taught by people who, under the influence of different points of view and with various interpretations, have thought about it openly and arrived at the truth.

Those who adopted materialism, the philosophy that claims that matter is the one absolute principle of existence, tried to cover up this reality. However, the Irish theologian and philosopher Berkeley raised this question again in the 18th century and, in so doing, changed the world of ideas after him. After Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, the materialists, especially Bertrand Russell, the spokesman of this school, attempted to insult and slander Berkeley, because they were unable to give him a philosophical response. However, Russell, in spite of the fact that he was the most representative thinker in materialist circles and the strongest defender of this view, was unable to disregard this truth. In his work entitled The Problems of Philosophy, he evaluated the situation in this way:

…Berkeley retains the merit of having shown... and that if there are any things that exist independently of us they cannot be the immediate objects of our sensations.1

However much Russell might claim the opposite, in the above statement he basically could not deny this reality, he even states openly that he accepts it.

As we step into the 21st century, developments in branches of science such as modern physics, quantum physics, astronomy, psychology and anatomy deeply discomfited those circles that espoused the old materialist view of the world. The study of fossils and research conducted in areas such as the science of genetics has caused the collapse of the theory of evolution; research conducted in areas such as optics and psychology have helped solve the mystery of our cognitive system; as a result of studies in astronomy, the Big Bang theory (the theory that the universe and matter had a beginning) was proposed; research done on atoms and sub-atomic particles has turned classical physics inside out and proved the theory of relativity – the fact that time is relative.

Developments in the realm of science, which have confirmed countless times the existence of God and His eternal sovereignty over the whole universe, left those materialist thinkers who are representatives of fanaticism and prejudice without recourse. Their powerlessness also continues today. We encounter a number of scientists and thinkers on television, in schools, and at lectures who, while maintaining that it is not possible to get in touch with the external world and that the life we live is composed of perceptions felt in our brain, feign ignorance and proceed not to inform people of the truth, and even act as if it did not exist.

However, to ignore the truth is no solution. Therefore, this book emphasizes how useless it is to fear the truth and run from it, shows what kind of damage this can do to a person, and reveals the spiritual state of those persons who act in this way.

Learning the secret behind matter will help to truly understand concepts such as the existence of God, His attributes, fate, soul, heaven, hell, eternity and timelessness. With this assistance, readers will truly learn the answer to such common every-day questions as 'Where is God?', 'What is fate?', 'What happens after death?', and they will find the answers they are seeking to many other questions.

Having spoken about this important aim, let's meet the people who will take part in the conversations in this book.

This meeting takes place in an atmosphere of mutual conversation and the readers taking part come from various circles. The name of the first one is Aisha; she is still studying at university in the department of computer engineering. Because Aisha is very interested in this topic, she understands that everything she interacts with is composed of impressions in the brain. But she wants to enhance her knowledge of the source of these images and learn the most cogent explanation.

The name of the second reader is Ahmed. He is an industrialist from one of the well-known families. Ahmed has learned that he can have no direct experience of the original of anything, and that, after death everything will come to an end as in a dream. But he is seeking an answer to some questions that he has not been fully able to grasp.

Ibrahim is the third of our readers. He has completed his doctorate in biology at a foreign university and has begun to work at a university as an assistant. Ibrahim heard of this subject from one of his friends; he has read some books but, because he has not fully understood it, he has a few question marks in his mind. This subject interests him very much from the scientific point of view.

Murad, who will answer the readers' questions, has in depth knowledge of this subject having learned about it years ago from the works of Harun Yahya.

Day 1

We are so familiar with seeing, that it takes a leap of imagination to realize that there are problems to be solved. But consider it. We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle. R.L. Gregory2

This important conversation begins on a weekend in a summerhouse outside the city.

MURAD: I really feel I know all of you after reading your letters. It's like we're old friends, meeting after a long absence and just picking up where we left off. You asked just the right questions. In fact, I hope as we talk and share ideas, you'll find the answers are more simple and precise than you can imagine. To explain a few technical matters I brought pictures and diagrams. Now, who's going to ask the first question?

IBRAHIM: I'd like to start first since I don't know much about the subject. I've read books that say, our lives are only composed of images that have nothing to do with the external world. Is that true?

Even though the process of hearing is regarded as a very natural thing, a complex process is involved as can be seen in the diagram below. Sound waves strike the ear and, after passing through various stages, are converted into electric signals which afterwards reach the brain by way of the nerves. Sounds are perceived in the hearing center of the brain. Actually, the brain is insulated from sound; that is, what we call the hearing center in the brain is a place of complete silence. But, within this silence, we perceive every outside noise and every conversation around us. This is an amazing mystery.

MURAD: That's right.

IBRAHIM: Well I'd like to know what this image is then.

MURAD: Ibrahim, isn't your specialty biology?

IBRAHIM: Yes.

MURAD: To understand this subject, it's necessary to know how our five senses work. We all remember high school biology but since you, Ibrahim, are advanced in that science, starting with the sense of sight, can you tell us how the five senses work?

IBRAHIM: Technically speaking the sense organs are part of a very intricate system that'll take hours to explain. Each organ has its own wondrous system. Volumes have been written about the way the ears make hearing possible, alone. But it's possible to at least outline this wondrous system in a few words.

What we call external stimuli, that is, an outside effect stimulating our nerve endings such as light, sound, taste, smell and hardness, reach our sense organs – the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose and the skin. Here the first stage begins: the nerve endings receive the stimulation and convert it into an electric signal that can be transmitted by the nerves. In the second stage these electric signals are carried to the relevant centers in the brain related to sight, hearing, smell and taste. In the last stage, when the brain perceives these signals, it gives the appropriate response.

The stimuli coming from an object or from some food are converted into electric signals and, after passing through a series of processes, reach the brain to be perceived in the 'smell' center.

MURAD: Ibrahim, you explained it well. Yes, the system works in this way but at the cognitive stage of perception, that is, the stage when we understand what it is we sense, the system becomes much more complex. For example, we're sitting here looking at a pond. The signals of the senses create impressions belonging to the pond and its surroundings... Impressions from the surrounding area such as the smell of flowers, birds singing, the texture of the table and countless elements that form the images come together. The impression is then compared with information stored in our memory and the relevant center of our brain makes sense of our surroundings.Now Ibrahim, would you tell us what operation takes place when we see that tree over there?

IBRAHIM: It's simple. The information about the tree, that is, its color, distance, and dimensions are carried to my eye by means of light. Inside the eye, this information is converted into an electric signal and fed to the nerves, and then the nerves transport this information to the brain's sight center. These signals reach the sight center and the brain perceives them as a tree.

Someone who thinks that he is sitting and conversing with friends in a bright outdoor place is like someone watching a cinema screen. The friends sitting with him and the vastness of the view he sees around him are images formed in the sight center of his brain. He has no relation with anything outside his brain.

MURAD: Is the tree you see standing over there now or is it in the brain's sight center?

IBRAHIM: It's in the brain's sight center, of course.

AHMED: Just a minute. Okay, the impression of the tree may be in my brain but the tree is standing over there! I can go and pick a fruit from it or lean against it and sit in the shade.

MURAD: Let's not rush it and look at the subjects in order. Think for a moment about everything that makes a tree a tree – its colors, branches, leaves – all are perceived in the sight center of our brain.When we touch a tree or pick a fruit from it we experience an impression of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch, sent to the brain from all our five senses.We never have a connection with anything outside our perceptions. Without the sense of sight we can't see; if we don't have the sense of hearing, we can't hear. In fact, the things we perceive in our brains by means of the senses make up much of our whole life.

AHMED: Okay I accept that. But look. I'm reaching out and taking a bite of cake and eating it with pleasure. Once I've eaten the cake it gives me energy. Would it be right to say that I have no connection with the reality of this? Can we taste something without having anything to do with its reality?

MURAD: In fact, the question was answered earlier in the example of the tree. The cake, the tree and the table are in the cognitive center of your brain. But don't worry!We'll find examples later that'll make this clearer! But to sum it up now; everything we know about the world is composed of signals communicated to us by our senses. Apart from the information of those signals carried to the brain, we can never give an answer to questions like, ''What is the reality of these things like?", "Does reality and what we perceive have exactly the same quality?''It's not possible to go beyond our senses and get outside them. For this reason, throughout our whole lives, the world we see in our brain is perceived by the sense organs. Look, what the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell in his book The Problems of Philosophy emphasizes in situations which results from grappling with this problem.

While sitting in a garden, just look around; the trees, the grass, the sun in the sky, the chair you are sitting on, the table you are resting your arms on, the glass you are touching... All these things are actually objects you know by means of your sense organs and perceive by your brain's interpretation of electric signals.

Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it is that we have discovered so far. It has appeared that, if we take any common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the senses, what the senses immediately tell us is not the truth about the object as it is apart from us, but only the truth about certain sense-data which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and the object. Thus what we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance', which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?3

AISHA: I can give an example.I'm studying in the computer department, so this subject is a familiar one and I find the topic interesting. In countries where technology is highly developed, a lot of entertainment and education media have been created. And you know computer programs make up a great part of it. These are able to create a three-dimensional image in the brain. Today the principal aim of these 3-D computer games, so fascinating for children, is to give the illusion of real life in an imaginary setting by stimulating the five senses. Education in some professions from NASA astronauts to architects and engineers is done by the use of three dimensional imaging, called simulation. In simulation flight training, a pilot can't tell the difference between real flight conditions and simulated conditions, created by the computer. The subject of many great science fiction films we see is the idea that human life is constituted of impressions or virtual worlds formed in the brain.

IBRAHIM: Aisha's right. The world of science is no different. Ten years ago, no one would even dream of this topic. Now, of course, it's a major theme of discussion. There has been so much work in this area that it's getting easier and easier for a computer to form a non-existent world out of electrical signals and to have human beings experience a desired impression by means of these signals.A great deal of physics, atomic and biological research topics are shaped by this technology.

MURAD: You're so right! Developments in technology produce new examples that help people understand this subject more quickly. But I must make it clear that it's easier to grasp this subject by approaching it with an open mind. Even if we didn't know any of the examples you gave, nothing would change because the situation is extremely clear to me. But it's possible that a person who had never thought about this subject before will at first find it a bit strange. To learn that something we have accepted from birth as true, is, in fact, very different from what we have believed it to be, will cause various reactions in people. But if someone's basic aim is to learn the truth, he must accept the truth without resistance.For this reason, the examples we experience every day will assure that we grasp this reality much better. Besides, it's not enough just to explain the subject technically. We must go beyond this and look at the results.

AHMED: I've understood what you said up to this point. But I'm curious about where this subject will lead us. It's a little difficult in a moment to get used to a subject that's so unfamiliar.

MURAD: I think that all of you have understood the situation we find ourselves in.Anyway, it's not so hard to understand since it's a clear truth accepted by science.But since it's necessary for you to come to a definite opinion on this matter, let's look at it again from a different point of view. Now, Aisha, can you tell us about a dream that deeply affected you and that stayed in your conscious memory?

While asleep in your bed with your eyes closed, you can find yourself in a colorful forest and you can feel intense fear as you run away from the wild animals chasing you. Your dreams can be so vivid that you don't know you are dreaming until you wake up.

AISHA: Just last night I had a dream that really struck me. I was being attacked by wild beasts in a forest.I was terrified and running as fast as I could along a rough trail when my foot got caught in some brush and I fell. The animals came closer.I ran into a hut, slammed the door and locked it.Now the beasts were trying to get to me from the windows. I picked up an iron bar, trying desperately to defend myself and to escape. At that point I was awakened by a car horn. When I realized it was only a dream, I took a deep breath and was relieved.

MURAD: What's the difference between what we experience while awake and our dreams? Maybe you never thought about that. Maybe it never occurred to you, but dreams will help a lot to understand this subject. Even if a dream is extremely vivid while it takes place, from the moment we immerse ourselves in daily life, the dream loses its clarity and effect.Someone, who woke up in a sweat from a nightmare a little while ago, soon eats breakfast with none of the disturbing feelings his dream evoked. Or a child who is awakened for school in the midst of a pleasant dream, quickly forgets the delight of the dream by the time he washes his face. The events in a dream are sometimes so vivid that often, when people awaken, they wonder whether or not the dream was real. In fact, technically speaking, there's little difference between the world we experience while awake and the dreams we have while asleep. In the course of a dream, a person can experience anything that happens while awake; he can talk, eat, breathe, run, laugh, cry, feel pain and so on. The dream world is a copy of the every-day world. Therefore, people react to events in dreams as though they were real.Sometimes they wake up screaming from a frightening dream and don't want to wake up at all from a pleasant one.

AHMED: Last month I had a vivid dream too. In my dream, I was driving along the shore in a motorboat cutting through the water as I went. My friends gathered on the shore, admiring the new boat. I drove faster to impress them. I remember very well the vivid smell of the sea, and the strong wind and cold spray of salty water on my face as the high powered speed boat sped through the water. Occasionally I had to wipe the mist of the seawater spray from my glasses. Suddenly, the boat struck a rock and began to sink.I jumped into the sea and swam to shore with great difficulty. Then I woke up and was sweating profusely. After that dream I wasn't able to get into a motorboat for a while.

There is no difference between what we sense in a dream and what we sense while awake. We hear the voices of a crowd; we fall into the sea and experience the excitement as we struggle with the high waves all around us. We experience things as if they were really happening.

MURAD: The events in your dream were very vivid, weren't they? Now try to remember the details of the dream. For example, Ahmed, can you distinguish the sounds, colors, smells - and the emotions you felt as you drove the boat – such as fear, hunger and joy from what you experience in a waking state?

AHMED: Probably not.

IBRAHIM: I also had a dream the other day I confused with real life. That evening I wanted to go to bed early because the next day we were going to go to the Islands to have a meal with my family. My sister went to sleep in her own room. Since I was tired, I immediately fell asleep. In my dream, I asked my sister to wash and iron my new shirt. I stood there myself and watched her ironing my shirt.When I got up in the morning, Asra had placed the shirt in the place I wanted, and I wasn't quite sure if it was real or I was dreaming.Had my sister really ironed my shirt or was it a dream?I thought for a minute and decided that it was real, then I went to thank my sister. When my sister acted surprised, I realized that all this had happened in my dream.

MURAD: Yes, sometimes dreams can be so vivid they're confused with real life. Besides, I want to remind you again, there's no difference between what we see while dreaming and what we see while awake. In both states, we have the same reaction to the same stimuli. For example, we sense the full taste while eating, we feel fear and flee from dangerous situations, and feel joy in a happy situation. Although from time to time we experience unusual things, our reactions are the same.

AHMED: I totally agree. Even that time in the sea when I was swimming and trying to save myself I remember how cold the water felt.

MURAD: But even more interesting is how it is that we see the things we experience in dreams. Ibrahim, can you tell us where we see our dreams?

IBRAHIM: Easy. We see dreams in our brain. I mean, just as we experience everything in daily life in our brain's cognition center so do we experience them in a dream. Technically speaking, there's no difference.

MURAD: To this point you've listened to what's been said. So Ahmed, tell us: how is it that, at night, with our eyes closed, such a clear and colorful world is formed in the dark recesses of our brain? How does the sun shine, and how are flowers so colorful and the sea so blue?How can we see these things with our eyes closed? Don't we need our eyes to see?

In this film, a journey is made through different dimensions by means of special images created by a simulator.

The hero of the film goes into the simulator and, without going anywhere, he finds himself in a totally different world.

The hero's body is in a twentieth century simulating device, but he finds himself in the nineteenth century. He thinks everything is real, but the cars, the people, his own clothing, even his own appearance are actually composed of impressions projected to his brain. None of them is real.

In recent years, many movies have been made about this reality. The scenes you see above are from just one out of hundreds of such films in which people are connected to a computer and live in a completely different world made up of impressions that seem very real. These films help us to grasp this obvious and important reality which most of us have not considered before.

AHMED: I don't have a clue though I know the dream I had seems to be proof of that.

MURAD: Even if we don't receive a stimulus from outside, in other words, even if our sense organs are really unaffected by stimuli belonging to the external world – elements such as light, color and dimension – we can still see and feel.In order for a world to be formed by means of the operation of all these perceptions, we have no need of the signals that our sense organs bring from the outside. What sees is not the eye and what hears is not the ear. If all these perceptions were produced artificially and transmitted directly to the relevant center in our brain, we would eat a cake that didn't exist, we would go to a country that didn't exist, we would smell a flower that didn't exist and we wouldn't perceive that all these things were imaginary.

AHMED: Could you go into a bit more detail?

MURAD: As in the earlier example, imagine that you're looking at a tree. There are signals related to the tree that your eyes send to your brain. If we were to artificially produce the same signals, and transmit them to the relevant nerves, we would see the same tree without eyes.

IBRAHIM: The earlier examples of a virtual world explains this matter completely. Look, in order to understand this matter better, let me expand the topic with a few more examples.As you know, with the advance of technology, devices called simulators are used in many fields. A life-like but imaginary environment is created and accessed by the use of a helmet, visor and a glove to make the connection. Those hooked up to the connections can experience an environment as if it was real. In a simulator, the fingers of a person wearing the glove are stimulated by a mechanism which sends signals from the finger-tips to the brain and the person thinks, for example, he's petting a cat. There is a similar mechanism in the helmet. In order that the impression appears more realistic, signals go from the helmet to the person's brain, and as a result, the image of a cat is formed in the brain. The person also hears the sound of a cat. In this way, the appearance, the sound and the feel of a cat are perceived completely. Without there being a single cat to be found, the person really feels that he's petting a cat.

AHMED: Now I understand.

AISHA: Me, too. Just think. If someone came to me while I was having the dream I had, and said, ''Don't be afraid. It's only a dream and not real. What you see is only in your mind and you're safe in bed."I doubt if I would believe him. Yes, now I understand much better; scientifically there is no difference between what I see in a dream and what I see while awake. It's already common for people to experience computer generated virtual reality. I saw a movie about virtual reality the other day. It was about the same thing we're discussing now. The heroes of the film were hooked up to a computer, found themselves transported to different places. For example, they thought they were in a gym doing Oriental martial arts but in fact never moved from the chair in front of the computer in that small room. One of the characters tried to explain to the person hooked up to the computer that what he was seeing was really just illusions. The film's hero didn't believe it, and he was only convinced when the computer images froze.

Above we see a simulating device. Wearing a special pair of glasses, a person sees unreal impressions and a glove gives him the sense that he is touching things that are not really there.

IBRAHIM: I saw that film too, but I didn't think of it from that angle.

AHMED: Murad, I see the point too, but can you give more examples to help us understand better?

MURAD: Sure! Let's go back to your dream. When you were swimming did you feel the coldness of the water, the buoyancy, taste the salt?While swimming, did you feel the exertion and then the fatigue? And did you hear the sounds of waves, seagulls, and other details your senses picked up during the dream?

AHMED: Yes.

MURAD: Were you convinced that what you were experiencing during the dream was really happening?

AHMED: Yes.

MURAD: Our experience of life in the real world, like the images in our dreams, is even more convincing. The impressions we perceive are so many, so clear and detailed that many people lead their whole lives believing they have some connection with the reality of all they see. But the same thing is also true for your dream as in your dream you thought you had some connection with the sea or the chair where you were sitting. If you think carefully for a moment, you'll understand that the things you experience in your dreams and the life you live while awake are composed of the same impressions.

As can be seen in the picture, the hero of the film demonstrates super-human feats when he has to; he can even fly through the air. Although he experiences these things in a highly realistic way, they are actually imaginary impressions created in the brain by the computer. Although the hero thinks he is experiencing these exciting adventures, he is actually sitting in a chair.

AHMED: I understand this but when I wake up from a dream, I come back to the real world which is in the same place where it was before I fell asleep. So, it is obvious that there is a world existing apart from our impressions. Right?

	In the film, the actor in the leading role is sitting in a chair connected to a computer, as can be seen in the picture above. Nevertheless, he can practice oriental martial arts (as can be seen in the middle picture) and he can move fast enough to outrun a bullet (as in the bottom picture). Everything is so realistic that the actor is very surprised when he opens his eyes and finds that he is sitting in a chair. This proves that to make a person experience a place or a situation there is no need for concrete external reality.

MURAD: What we call the material world is a place we can never have direct experience of. In fact, we may never know what it looks like. Apart from what our senses pick up and our impressions, we can neither see nor feel matter. From the day we open our eyes, we're always affected by impressions. Everything that makes up our daily life – school, family, toys, food, a bus, friends, a scenic view, home, the workplace – in other words, everything is composed of a film playing in the brain. Because a person will never be able to get outside of his senses, it's not possible to see what's outside. For this reason, everyone actually lives an entire life relating to impressions of the world that are in his brain.

In a dream, a person can do everything you see in the picture above: he can talk on the telephone, work at the office, ski, read a newspaper, take a trip, and play with a child. Despite the fact that the person is having a dream, everything seems highly realistic. The same thing is true for the real world. In fact, both what is experienced as a dream and what is experienced as real life are all impressions perceived in the brain. This is an important reality worth considering because we live with it every day of our lives.

AHMED: But people go to the moon and I can get on a plane and go to another city. Doesn't that mean that space exists?

MURAD: Basically, ideas such as space, depth, size also form a part of an impression. It's possible to understand this with the help of some simple examples. In your dream, did you see the moon and the stars? Or, as in your dream, did you get in a boat and go for a ride?

AHMED: Yes.

MURAD: The moon and stars in your dream are in the same space as the stars you see while awake. Is that right?

AHMED: Yes, but...

IBRAHIM: Can I answer that? I studied this in an Optics course. What we call space is a kind of three-dimensional seeing. What stimulate the sense of space and depth in an impression are certain factors such as perspective, shadow and movement.

MURAD: True. The kind of impression called space in the science of Optics is part of a very complex system just as the impression of color is, but to put it simply we can say, basically, that an impression that comes to our eyes has only two dimensions. That is, it has height and width. The fact that the dimensions of an impression meet the eye at an angle and that the two eyes see two different impressions at the same time, causes the sensation of depth and space. Every impression that strikes one eye is different from the impression that strikes our other eye from the point of view of elements such as light and position. When the brain brings these two impressions into one picture, we get the sense of space and depth. Come on, let's try an experiment in order to understand this better. Ibrahim will be the subject.

IBRAHIM: Okay.

MURAD: First, stretch out your right arm and show us your index finger. Now, focus your eyes on your finger and open and close your right and left eyes one after the other. Because two different impressions strike your two eyes, you will see that your finger changes place or slides slightly. Now, continue to focus your eyes on your right index finger and bring your left index finger as close as possible to your eyes. You will notice that the finger closer to you has formed a double image which proves that an impression of depth different from that of the farther finger is formed in the system of perception. Now, while you are in that position, if you open and close your eyes one after the other, you will see that the closer finger changes place more than that farther finger because the difference between the two impressions striking the eye has been increased.

Do not let concepts such as space, size and depth deceive you; you perceive their existence in your dreams also. Just as in real life, you look up at the sky and see the moon and the stars in a particular special relation to yourself; in a dream you see them in the same relation. Actually, they exist in the 'sight' center of your brain.

IBRAHIM: Yes, you're right.

AISHA: I did it too. It occurs to me now that the same technique is used in making a three-dimension film. An image shot from two different angles is projected on the same screen. Viewers put on a pair of special color filter or polarized filter glasses. The filters in the glasses receive one of the two images and the brain brings these two together making a three dimensional image. Is that right?

MURAD: Right! Now, let's try another experiment. Aisha, close one eye and look around you. You continue to have an impression of depth, don't you?How is it that a clear impression like three dimensions can be formed on a single, two-dimensional retina? The answer to this lies in the elements of depth that operate when you look with one eye. The way a sense of depth is formed on a two-dimensional retina is very much like the technique used by an artist trying to get a realistic sense of depth in a two-dimensional picture. A few artists are very successful in achieving this sense of depth. There are a few important methods that go into its formation; these are: positioning one object on top of another, the perspective of atmosphere, texture, linear perspective, dimension, height and movement. I brought some pictures to illustrate this.

MURAD: Putting images one on top of the other is an important method of creating the sense of depth. Ahmed, it's your turn for an experiment. Now, take one of these two pens in one hand and one in your other hand. Hold them a little distance from your eyes but don't put them on top of each other.Now, move one pen a little farther away and close one eye. Without looking with both eyes, it's very difficult to know which one is farther away, isn't it?

AHMED: Yes, you're right.

MURAD: Now, with one eye closed, bring the two pens close together and place one in front of the other. Now you can measure space and depth much better, can't you?

AHMED: True.

MURAD: The famous American psychologist James J. Gibson was one of the first to understand the importance of change of texture in the sensation of depth.The surface we walk on, a road, or a field full of flowers is actually a texture. The textures close to us are more detailed while those more distant appear indistinct. For this reason, it is easier to make a judgment about the distance of an object which is placed on a texture.

In a three-dimensional film, two different images taken from two different angles are projected on the same screen. With the help of special glasses, a three-dimensional image is obtained. Although the viewer does not actually see a three-dimensional image on the screen, technology can give the impression of three-dimensionality. In a similar way, a person is deceived in thinking that he is observing a three-dimensional world around him.

AISHA: As you were speaking a sunflower field I saw yesterday came to my mind. Putting all these things together, I understand much better why the field appeared so vast.

	In these pictures it can be seen how painters give the impression of depth and reality to the picture by the use of shadow and perspective. All of these pictures are on a flat surface but the lines are made so as to give the impression of depth.

MURAD: And when the elements of shadow and light are brought into the picture, the three-dimensional image is complete. For example, the reason we admire a painting is because of the sense of reality and depth, and the use of shadow and perspective. Perspective arises from the perception that things in the distance appear to the viewer as smaller in relation to things that are near. For example, when you look at a landscape painting, the trees in the distance appear small and the trees that are close appear big. Or the image of a mountain in the background is drawn smaller than the image of a person standing in the foreground. In linear perspective, an artist uses parallel lines. Train tracks joining on the distant horizon gives the sense of depth and distance.

AISHA: So it appears that what we call depth and space is an impression formed in our brain.

MURAD: True. You see, because these elements are applied in art and that details come together, a realistic and convincing world emerges, formed from our impressions.

AHMED: You mean like the way we used to watch snowy images on black and white television and not get as involved in the action? Now we go to the cinema and, if the film is well made, we get caught up in it and feel as if it's real. The other day I went with my family to a three-dimensional film about dinosaurs. They gave us each a pair of glasses. The dinosaurs looked so real to me that I reflexively reacted when they jumped out at me.And I couldn't persuade the children that they weren't real.

MURAD: Right Ahmed. The more intricately the details of an impression are woven, such as light, shadow, and dimensions, the more realistic it appears and deceives our senses.And so we react as if three-dimensional space and depth is real. But every impression is formed on a single surface as on a frame of film. The sight center of our brain has an area of one cubic centimeter; that is, as small as a chickpea. All those things we see in the distance such as far-away houses, stars in the sky, the moon, the sun, airplanes and birds in the air, occur in this small area. In other words, there is technically no distance between an airplane which you may say is thousands of kilometers up in the air and a glass you can reach out and take with your hand. It's all on a single surface in the brain's center of perception.

When you look at these pictures, you get a sense of depth and space. For example, in the picture on the right there are trees close to you and farther away. But this is really a two-dimensional picture and all the trees are located on the same surface. With the use of perspective, an impression of depth has been created. Similarly, we can say that the impressions we relate to throughout our lives are actually on one plane.

AHMED: I understand too. There's no longer any doubt that space and depth are particular to the brain just like sight, sound and taste. But what does this change?That is what I can't understand. I mean, what difference does it make if everything is an impression in my brain?

MURAD: Then answer these questions. With what evidence can we claim that we have a relation to a material world outside our perceptions?

In the picture on the left, there is a distance between the person standing and the airplanes over his head. But the glass held by the man on the right appears much closer in comparison to the plane. Actually, both the planes in the distance and the glass in the man's hand are on one surface. There is no distance between the people and these objects. Each image is in the brain's center of cognition.

AHMED:Give me a moment to think about that.If we look at what we've talked about so far, it seems there's no proof. But isn't it true that the concrete, absolute material objects, from which these images arise, exist outside us?

MURAD: Yes of course, but Ahmed,can you make direct contact with what you call absolute matter?

AHMED: No, I now realize that I can't.

MURAD: Now, consider this. What qualities make that car a material object?

AHMED: Things like the metal used in its manufacture, the colors and then its size and weight.

MURAD: In that case, if we go back to what we were talking about earlier, if we take away from the image of the car our perceptions that have given us the feelings associated with that perception, such as color, hardness, depth, what's left?Or, let me put it this way. If we cut or temporarily interrupt the nerves going from our sense organs to our brains, what do we have?

If a computer is connected to the brain and electric signals are transmitted from the computer to the brain to create the sense of touch, even if there is no actual act of touching, the person thinks that he is touching something. Such a sensation is easily created with a simulator.

AHMED: Nothing at all.

MURAD: Here's a quote from Bertrand Russell that relates to what we've been talking about.He says, "As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, there is an electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our fingertips, produced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of the electrons and protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our finger-tips arose in any other way, we should have the sensations, in spite of there being no table."4 That is, when you think you're touching your car, it's an impression that comes from the signals sent to the brain by the protons and electrons in your fingertips.

AHMED: From this we understand that the reality of that which we call matter is completely unknown to us.

MURAD: True Ahmed, no one can know matter. Everything called matter is just an impression to us. Our perceptions send us sensations which form impressions such as color, light, taste, smell but beyond these they don't permit us to have direct experience of what we call matter. And science has reached the same conclusion. Those who regard matter as the sole absolute existence are left with no materialist belief system they can defend in the face of the fact that they can never have direct experience of the original of matter. Because throughout our whole lives we see only mental images and, because our entire world is composed of these images, it's not possible for us to regard anything called matter which exists in a place outside our senses as the sole absoluteness.

According to Ibrahim's example, when a person looks at the moon, the telescope or the view in front of him, he is actually looking at images on the same plane. However, these images can lead a person to believe that they are in different spaces. If you looked at such objects disposed in space and scratched your lower eyelid as Ibrahim did, you would see that the objects do not remain fixed but change their location.

IBRAHIM: Murad, something I experienced the other day comes to my mind. Two friends and I were in front of our summerhouse watching the full moon with a small, fixed telescope. I said to my friend, "The moon is a beautiful sight. It's amazing that it shines so brightly being so far away. You can see even the craters and mountains on it even thousands of kilometers away." While speaking, my lower eyelid began to itch. When I started to rub it, I saw the moon moving in various directions. I moved away from the telescope. With the other eye closed, I continued rubbing my eyelid. The summer houses, my friends, the sea from one end to the other and all the houses in the estate moved in various directions as my eyelid moved. If I were really able to have direct experience of the moon so far away, could the image of the moon I saw be moved so much by such a simple action as rubbing an eyelid? My friends, the shore, the houses in the estate and the sea appeared to be at various distances away. But everything as a whole was moving as a result of the simple action of rubbing an eye. Now I understand that I was mistaken when I thought that I was looking at something outside myself and objects I understood to be in the distance. In truth, the moon, other objects and even me are on the same plane.

MURAD: Very good! Now, let's repeat once more. A person walking on a street is, in fact, walking on a street in his brain and the cars that pass him are in his brain. If we are walking along an empty street and, as Ibrahim did, gently rub our lower eyelids, we will see this clearly. The street and the trees move in various directions. This is the movement of the impressions in our brains. Just as a picture we are watching on television moves when we try to adjust the antenna, so we have the same kind of effect here. We are like a person in our brain sitting in front of a television: whatever image is being shown, that is what we watch. Whatever we do, eat, walk on the street, go to school, meet with friends, our whole life is as if we were watching a video cassette.Images, sounds, smell, taste and touch are all sensed in the brain. In other words, we experience our outside world in our inside world. We spend our whole lives in the little house in our brain and we watch the outside world on the television in there. We experience all these things in a one cubic centimeter cell in our brain. We lead our lives without ever leaving that 'cell'.

IBRAHIM: For example, the fact that a person who is color-blind sees the world in different colors is proof of this, isn't it?

MURAD: I think you understand this subject very well. Yes, as you said, because a person watches these images throughout his whole life, he perceives the world according to the perceptions that are given to him. If the sense organs are damaged, a distorted perception occurs; for this reason, a person who is color-blind cannot know real color. People with a seeing disorder sees a blurred world.

AHMED: I understand.

MURAD: A person cannot get outside these impressions throughout an entire life.Therefore, to claim that the things we see are the way we see them and to think that we have any connection to their reality is illogical and of no use.

IBRAHIM: Murad. There's something I want to ask. Are there many people who know about this subject either in the past or in the presence?

MURAD: There are countless people. Not only in the world of ideas, but people working in scientific fields such as physics, atomic theory and astronomy, and well-known scientists whose names we often hear have understood this subject in one way or another and have come to their own interpretations. Materialist thinkers such as Marx and Lenin also studied this subject in their day and understood that it posed a great threat to their materialist views. For this reason, no matter how well they knew the truth, they tried to take measures to suppress it as they realised that accepting such a view would not be to their own advantage. If you like, I will give you the relevant sources. You do some research and tomorrow we'll talk about what you've learned.

Day 2

"…As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, that is an electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our fingertips, produced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of the electrons and protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our finger-tips arose in any other way, we should have the sensations, in spite of there being no table." B Russell 5

The next day the discussion continues at the dining table.

AHMED: I thought about it all night but there's still a question I can't answer.Everything is perceived in the brain but there must be a corresponding reality to these things outside that have the same form to others that I see.If this weren't so, could I be speaking with you? How could you understand what I'm saying? Other people are here with me. We speak the same language and share the same tastes. For example, the lemon on the salad was sour to us all. Outside ourselves, there's a taste of a lemon that we all share. Or, when I go to a factory, workers are working there and the products they produce are sold. Although I have nothing to do with it, this world exists outside. Is that right?

MURAD: Ahmed, it's good that you asked that. It gives us the opportunity to remind ourselves of what we talked about yesterday. Now, let's start from the beginning and go step by step. Yesterday we demonstrated in a scientific way that every kind of image, sound, smell and taste, and all kinds of senses that we call the world is an impression in the brain. You accepted this didn't you?

AHMED: I did.

MURAD: Then, where do you see me?

AHMED: In my brain.

MURAD: Where do you hear my voice?

AHMED: In my brain.

MURAD: This room, the furniture, Aisha and IBRAHIM:'s voices and appearances. Where are they?

AHMED: In my brain too, but...

MURAD: Where do you sense the sour taste of the lemon?

AHMED: It and you are in my brain.

MURAD: In the same way, your house, your family, your work place and your workers, your manufactured products, the television you watch, a country you visit, the foreign language they speak there, together with all the information that goes with these things and the memory that allows you to compare them are all in the brain. Isn't that so? Here are the thoughts of two famous philosophers, Bertrand Russell and L. Wittgenstein on this important truth: "... for example, you can't ask if a lemon really exists or not or how it came into existence. A lemon is only a taste perceived by the tongue, a smell sensed by the nose, a color and shape seen by the eye. These qualities may be the subject of scientific enquiry and definition, but science can never know the objective world."6

AISHA: So we can't be sure whether or not the taste of food or a sound is the same as someone else perceives it.Is that what we are saying?

MURAD: Yes, Aisha. You've expressed it very well. The famous scientist Lincoln Barnett also makes this comment: ''No one can know if his perception of red or of the note 'do' is the same as that of another person.''7 We can only know as much as our sense organs communicate to us, because it's impossible for us to directly reach the concrete reality outside. It's again the brain that interprets. In fact, we can't reach it under any other condition. Therefore, even when we think we're talking about the same thing, each person can actually be perceiving something different. The reason for this is that the perceived object depends on the person perceiving it. You see there's no objection to be made and no counter-evidence to be produced against the fact that every moment we see only an impression created by our senses and we have no kind of connection with the reality of any object outside ourselves. Having come to this point, there's no honest doubt to prevent a person from accepting this as a fact. Such an impediment could only come from personal prejudice, attachment to the world or ambition.

AHMED: I have to think about that a little.

AISHA: There's no doubt left in my mind but it's difficult to get used to it because of the endless number of details in the things I see which distracts my attention. Murad, I want to ask a question too. Where do these wonderful impressions come from? I have an idea of what the answer is but it would be better if you explained it.

IBRAHIM: Before you do that I want to add something. I've looked at a considerable number of books about the subject Muradexplained yesterday. I spent a long time on the Internet as well investigating this subject until the early hours of the morning. It is as you said; a large number of thinkers have expounded this subject in one way or another from Plato to Muhyi-dun Ibn Arabi, from Immanuel Kant to George Berkeley. But because of the conditions of the time and the pressure of opposing views, this subject could not be properly discussed and understood, and some thinkers wrongly interpreted what they discovered. I then did some research in some foreign sources on the biological, physical and anatomical sides of the question. I have no more doubt that everything takes on meaning in cognition and that we are seeing an impression in our brains.

What has been said to this point shows that everything a person relates to throughout his whole life is actually seen in his brain. For example, when you open a window on the twentieth story of a skyscraper and look down, the whole city with its buildings, people, work places, cars, streets, avenues, the sea, and the countless other things you see are composed solely of impressions perceived in the brain.

MURAD: Ibrahim, congratulations on your work! Those who only partially understand the truth that the whole of matter is a perception try to avoid the question by saying: "This is a kind of that old-fashioned philosophy of Idealism." But the question can't be avoided. It's an extraordinary truth and one that is of great importance for all humanity. As you said, this subject is not a new one in the world of ideas or the world of science. In the ages when science was still little developed, a number of wise and thoughtful people had come to know this subject either through holy books, words of prophetic guidance or by contemplation. We have already quoted from some of these thinkers earlier. Idealism, one of the two branches of philosophy, and the mysticism (Sufism) we encounter in monotheistic religions have been deeply engaged in this subject. Moreover, as science developed, physics, astronomy, atomic physics, psychology, biology, and medical science have all, whether they intended to or not, demonstrated the technical sides of this truth. The reason why some people regard this subject as strange and incomprehensible is their unfamiliarity of these subjects. However, these days, even in high school biology classes, the fact that perceptions are formed in the brain is taught in some depth. That is, everyone can grasp this truth even in a school biology course.

IBRAHIM: It's hard to believe that someone could be uninformed about such a familiar subject. I can't understand what would prevent a person from thinking about it.

MURAD: Prevailing conditions, misinterpretations and adverse reactions by opponents have prevented it from being widely accepted. Those who hold the materialistic view of the world have resorted to every means to hide, falsify, and impede the truth. For example, Berkeley was one of the greatest thinkers of his day and he understood the subject well. He was nonetheless subjected to insults and a defamation campaign initiated by the French materialists against the work he had done in this area. Yet his works were the means by which some people came to see the truth. And you must realize that to understand this truth means the beginning of a new and authentic life and a complete change in the way a person looks at the world. In this situation, those deceitful materialist ideas urging you to think that matter is the basic existence disappear from the scene and you get a view of the real universe. Throughout life, a person is educated and tested by impressions based on perceptions he experiences. Hidden in this truth are the secrets of eternity, timelessness and fate.

AISHA:This is such a great truth! But I still wonder.Will you explain to us the source of these impressions now?

MURAD: Yes, it's time for Aisha's question. Later I'll go into more detail but first let me tell you a truth that you know. It's God Who imprints all these impressions and causes us to live a life based on perceptions. This is a very clear truth. But before explaining the endless power of God and His creation of everything from nothing, I want to give you a few more details.

AISHA: Yes. I understand very well that God has imprinted everything in us. But, continue. Afterwards, there'll be a few things I will want to add.

MURAD:Now we know that everything we experience as life, everything we see, everything we hear is formed in our brains. What we call the world is a three-dimensional impression formed of perceptions. There is no information or evidence to prove that we have any connection to an outside material world. In that case, such an imaginary world is of no use to us.Throughout our lives, we have no relation to anything other than those impressions we're given. Look, there's a famous television host who interviews journalists. IBRAHIM, can you explain what's going on here?

One of the best examples to show that an artificial situation can be created without reference to an outside world is the practice of hypnotism. Under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, a person can be made to believe that hot is cold and salty is sweet. He can be made to think that he is on holiday on the seashore even though he is at that moment in the studio.

IBRAHIM: This host is probably not aware of it but, when he goes on television he's not doing a show for crowds of viewers; he's doing the show for an impression in his brain. When he thinks he's doing a press conference, he's really making a report to impressions of reporters in his brain. Those who watch this host's program each see the host differently in their brains. He tries to explain something to these people, but all this activity occurs in the dark recesses of his brain.

MURAD: Well said, Ibrahim. But we're not used to thinking in this way. So let's look at some more examples. What channel is your favorite program on? Wait, let's try some other channels.

IBRAHIM: Here's a talk show. Have you seen it before? They always have a hypnotism segment on this program. Murad, hypnotism is a part of our subject, isn't it?

MURAD: Sure it is.Hypnotism can help us understand our subject much better. Look at the hypnotist.By the suggestions he makes, he has the audience do things that aren't really happening. Look, that guy thinks he's a famous football star, and thinks the pillows are footballs. That woman is trying to wipe away imaginary stains. The tall fellow thinks that everyone he sees around him is from outer space. There, you see? Through hypnosis, a person constructs a non-existent dream-like world, on the basis of suggestions. And as long they're under hypnosis, they live in that world.

At a hypnosis session open to the public all the spectators show great interest in observing a hypnotized person. The reason for this is that this person believes he is in the situation that has been suggested to him and acts accordingly. For example, when it is suggested to him that he is a famous football star, and that the cushion in his hand is actually a ball, he is so convinced by the suggestion that he tries to play with the cushion as if it were a ball.

AISHA: True! Now, if we go to that guy and say, "This is all your imagination and you were hypnotized. You're not really a famous football star and what you're kicking isn't a football,"we'd get denial in response.If we said, "At this moment you're in a studio with almost a hundred people watching," we'd never get him to believe the reality.

MURAD: You're right. Now let's get to today's topic. To repeat what we said yesterday, "Everything is formed from perceptions which reach the center in the brain relevant to them. There we make sense of the impressions that we perceive."There are three important questions: First, does the brain perform all these functions?Second, what is the nature of the perceiver, or what we call "I?"Third, what is the source of these impressions and why are they transmitted to us?

IBRAHIM: Certainly, the brain performs all of these functions. Just think. If we didn't have brains, there wouldn't be any image or sense.

AHMED: You're right.

MURAD: Do you mean to say that the brain is the source of images that create emotions, laughter and tears, moral, spiritual values and conscience? Isn't the brain a piece of flesh weighing about one and a half kilos? Is there a difference between the material substance of the brain and of those other objects that we can see? Just think about this.Isn't the brain an impression just like an arm or a leg?

AISHA: I never thought about it that way.

AHMED: Just a minute. What do you mean, that the brain is an impression perceived inside the brain? In that case, can you tell us where we see everything?

MURAD: I'll try to explain this in terms of a subject that will surprise you. Now, you may be about to hear what I am going to explain for the first time. A little while ago when we were talking about how we see and how we hear, I explained how the sense of hearing was formed in the brain by sound waves striking our ears and being transmitted to our brains as electric signals via the nerves. But more interesting than this is the fact that there exists in the brain something that, as a result of all these wonderful operations, sees three-dimensional, full-color images, hears sounds perfectly, distinguishes between hundreds of different tastes, thinks, feels and judges. The brain simply collects the electric signals coming from the eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin. But inside the brain there is another being that interprets these signals and sees an impression. Aisha, you can't say that brain cells create these impressions, can you?

AISHA: Certainly not, Murad. A cell doesn't have an eye or an ear to see or hear with.

MURAD: Yes, that's the surprising thing. This being sees without needing eyes and hears without needing ears; and perceives what is seen and heard.Scientists have also offered numerous theories about this matter.A writer, R.L. Gregory has explained it this way. "There is a temptation, which must be avoided, to say that the eyes produce pictures in the brain.A picture in the brain suggests the need of some kind of internal eye to see it – but this would need a further eye to see its picture… and so on, in an endless regress of eyes and pictures. This is absurd."8 As you see, this writer understood and explained the problem clearly. But because of his materialist point of view, he wasn't able to give an answer to the question of "to whom this internal eye belongs", and has rejected the truth completely. In the world of science and philosophy, Karl Pribram draws attention to the important search for the identity of the being who senses the perception. "Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the 'ghost' in the machine, the 'little man inside the little man' and so on. Where is the I – the entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as Saint Francis of Assisi once put it, 'What we are looking for is what is looking.'"9

A person's brain is also a part of the collection of impressions one relates to. Think of a brain you buy from the butcher: you can hold it in your hand, see it with your eyes and examine it with your other senses. The same thing applies to your own brain. Furthermore, it is not possible for this piece of flesh we call the brain to feel pleasure and sorrow, to interpret the electric signals transmitted to it or to distinguish the hundreds of different sounds, smells and tastes.

Now I'll ask you again: If that consciousness that hears what I'm saying, asks for details of the pictures and diagrams it sees, seeks an answer to questions, isn't brain's cells or a cognitive center, what is it then?

IBRAHIM: Are you saying there's someone in our brain we don't know about who hears and interprets what we say?

MURAD: The answer to your question is very important, IBRAHIM:, because in research and investigations to date, no such center or being has been encountered. In that case, that which forms sound or music in the brain and that which listens to human conversation must be human consciousness.

IBRAHIM: So where in the brain is this consciousness?

MURAD: When I say consciousness, I don't mean a layer of fat or the nerve cells. This consciousness is the soul God created and gave to human beings. The soul doesn't need eyes to see images or ears to hear sounds. Nor does it need a brain to think. This is one of God's miracles.

AISHA: In that case, if what really sees, hears and feels is our soul only, is it true to say that our sense organs are simply a vehicle?

MURAD: Of course, Aisha.

AISHA: That's exciting!

AHMED: And besides being amazing, once more we learn our own strength is to no avail and we are witnesses to the power of God.

Actually, everyone relates to his own screen; that is, to images projected to his own soul. Even if several people are in one place, no one knows the images that the other person is in touch with. Everyone can see only the images projected on his own "screen".

MURAD: What you said is very true, Ahmed. People like you who've come to know the truth, understand that God has placed the whole three-dimensional universe with its color, shadow and light into a dark space of a few cubic centimeters in the brain, must think about God, fear Him and take refuge in Him.

IBRAHIM: I understand too that our brain is also a perception. There can be only one thing that does the perceiving, and that is the soul that God has created and given to us. It's clear that the soul is a special existence different from an impression. I don't know how I could have thought before now that all these activities were performed by the brain.

MURAD: A characteristic of the soul is to be affected by the impressions it sees. Impressions lead to the formation of sensations like satisfaction, pain, happiness and fear in the soul. These impressions are created in a way to affect the soul and the soul is created to be affected by them. In this way, each of us finds ourselves in our own world. It's a place of testing. So, what we call the world appears to be a group of particular impressions perceived by the soul.

AISHA: If the soul is the only existence that perceives impressions, there must be a supreme existence apart from the soul that causes us to see these impressions. Moreover, there must be a fundamental purpose in our being made to see these impressions.

MURAD: Yes, actually we can understand it without protracting the discussion too much. As you also know, it's God Who is the possessor of supreme knowledge and Who causes us to see everything. He uninterruptedly impresses these images in our souls. In this way, God makes us each live in our own world and tests us in it.

AISHA: We can think of it as a television broadcast, can't we?I mean, God, with His determining wisdom and knowledge, makes the entity we call the soul perceive those impressions as the world. While this broadcast remains uninterrupted and continuous, that is, while God shows us the impressions He wills, we react to things we experience without realizing their nature. Apart from the soul and what the soul observes, we have no relation to an external world.

MURAD: Exactly. Now that we've established the soul's existence, it remains to examine the source and the reason for these impressions. There are conclusions of vital importance that we'll draw from what we've learned. The first subject is the source and nature of the impressions. We know now that we are in no relation tothe original of the world outside us and that we observe a wonderful world composed only of impressions. The magnificence of these impressions, the art, wisdom and knowledge in their creation reveals to us the supreme Creator.There's no absolute being apart from God Who has created everything. Apart from the existence of God, what remains are His manifestations that God has impressed within us. To God belong all strength, intelligence, knowledge, art, power and wisdom. When we think of these impressions, the supreme knowledge evident in the creation of these impressions, the soul's position in relation to the impressions, we come to know in a most wonderful way, the existence of God and His attributes. If we don't grasp this truth, our faith in God can't be without deficiency and we may entertain very wrong notions about Him.

AISHA: In that case, there is no absolute existence apart from God.

MURAD: Exactly. Apart from the existence of God, there is no absolute existence. Nor is it possible. However, as a miracle and manifestation of the superior nature of His creation and His omniscience, God shows us this material universe in the form of an "illusion", "shadow," or "image." As a consequence of the perfection in His creation, human beings can never reach the world outside their brains. only God knows this real material universe.To say that something exists in an absolute sense and that we can have any relation to it, arises from a false premise. Moreover, because everything is an impression to uscreated by God, there's no power or will that is independent of God. Those who try to explain the existence of God, construct a logic of their own and say, "We can't see God but we can't see radio waves either. We know radio waves exist, therefore, God exists like a radio wave."This line of reasoning is false. People who resort to such logic believe that matter is absolute and imagine that God (Surely God is beyond all that) is like an abstract being that surrounds matter. But truly, God IS the absolute being. Other things are manifestations created by Him. God alone exists; everything else is a shadow being.

AHMED: But we didn't learn these things that way! I mean, okay God created everything. There is no other deity besides God, and He possesses the highest attributes. But we live in this world with our own will and intelligence. That is, everyone makes their own life.

MURAD: As we can understand from Ahmed's statement, people have become confused about God and about fate as a result of some unfounded opinions. Someone who believes that matter itself is independent of God will naturally interpret everything according that belief. Those who can't grasp God's eternal power, knowledge and absolute existence have some very wrong views. They describe Him as a being who lives somewhere in the sky who doesn't interfere with the workings of the world. They believe that the world they live in is the only reality.They even assert arrogantly that they are actually material beings themselves, and that God (Surely God is beyond all that) is a phantom, an immaterial spiritual being who has no influence on matter.

AISHA: I always thought that way because that's what we were taught. But now I realize how wrong I was.How does our religion explain this?

MURAD: The Qur'an mentions this subject in several verses and it provides the key to understanding some verses. For people like you who comprehend that you are not in direct contact with the original of matter, everything becomes clearly intelligible. Such people grasp in a moment how close God is to them. They can see immediately mistaken ideas and false opinions concerning God that many espouse. It may have already occurred to you how close God is to human beings, but when you consider what we have been saying, you realize that God is closer to us throughout our lifetime than anything else.

IBRAHIM: I never thought of it that way.

MURAD: Ibrahim, God is closer to you than Aisha, Ahmed, I or even than you yourself.In Surah Qaf verse 16, God says concerning human beings, "We are nearer to him than his jugular vein." And in Surat al-Isra' verse 60, this truth is revealed in these words, "Surely your Lord encompasses mankind." But a person who believes that his body is composed of matter can't grasp this important truth. For example, if the brain is a place considered by one's 'self' a place accepted as outside would be about 20-30 centimeters away. But when one grasps that there is no contact to something called matter, and that one is only relating to perceptions in the mind, concepts such as outside, inside and closeness become meaningless. God has encompassed us and is eternally close to us.

IBRAHIM: ETERNAL CLOSENESS! I never thought about that before. It's clearly plain to me now but I never thought about it until today.This is really amazing.

MURAD: There are other verses relevant to this subject. I want to read these verses to you. Please listen.

When (your soul) leaps to your throat (at death)

And you are at that moment looking on.

We are nearer him than you but you cannot see. (Surat al-Waqi'ah: 83-85)

In another verse, it is said: God reminds us of this subject in these terms:

When My servants ask you about Me, tell them I am indeed close (to them). I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided. (Surat al-Baqara: 186)

IBRAHIM:Yes, the verses are very revealing. When you mention eternal closeness, now I really know what you mean.

AISHA: I also understand and feel very excited. God is with me every moment. He hears every prayer.He knows everything I do and think.He's closer to me than I am to myself. This is really a wonderful thing. I don't understand how I could not have considered it before now.

MURAD: An understanding of the nature of matter also makes some other things clear. Someone who considers these things understands that besides God there's no other absolute being, He created everything and He is in control every moment. For example, Surat an-Naml verse 64 reveals that "He originates creation."That is to say, God is the creator of everything at every moment. Surah Fatir verse 41 explains this truth in this way: "God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving." This means everything in the universe is under God's control at all times and their existence continues only with His permission.

IBRAHIM: Therefore there's no power besides God. So when I say I am doing something, it's basically God Who is creating it while I think I am doing it. Is that true?

MURAD: Very true. There's no question of interfering with the impressions that are created by God and perceived by the soul. Whatever He causes us to observe, is what we see. It's not possible to change or influence the impression. At this stage, the idea of fate can be easily understood. Our fate is whatever we observe in this world of impressions created by God. We observe a definite sequence of events that we perceive as our life as if we were watching a film. Whatever is predetermined for us in fate is what we sense and perceive. In the Qur'an, this subject is clearly revealed in Surat al-Insan verse 30: "But you will not will unless God wills". In Surat al-Anfal verse 17, it is also said "…you did not throw, when you threw; it was God Who threw." The same fact is stated in Surat as-Saffat verse 96: "God created both you and what you do." These verses show that man is not independent of God.

Every motion performed at every moment by the man in the frames on the top has been determined in his fate long before he was born. What he is doing is simply following the path of his fate. Walking to the car, reaching out his hand to the door, taking hold of the handle, opening the door, getting in, sitting down, closing the door - all of these motions exist in his fate.

AISHA: But we so often hear expressions like "He cheated fate" or "He was a victim of fate."

MURAD: Such expressions stem from ignorance, a failure to understand the reality of fate and an inability to conceive of God's eternal power.Fate can be generally defined as "God's immediate knowledge of past, present and future."

AHMED: Can you explain a bit more, Murad? How is it possible that events can be known that haven't yet taken place?

MURAD: To say something hasn't happened is to speak from a human perspective.The event hasn't happened just so far as we can know. But God isn't limited to time and space.Indeed, it is He Who created time and space. For this reason past, present and future are all one to Him. Everything has "happened".

AISHA: So, there's no such thing as "cheating fate".

MURAD: Right, Aisha. A human being can't interfere with fate.There's no recourse beyond it. For example, a person can't lengthen or shorten his life.This has been revealed in the Qur'an, in verse 30 of Surah Saba: "Say: 'You have a promised appointment on a Day which you cannot delay or advance a single hour.' " It can be understood from this that there's no such thing as chance, accident, or luck. Everything happens as God has determined it and when He has determined it. It is not in human hands to change it or prevent it. That is, human beings have no such power.

IBRAHIM: When people die, have an accident or get sick, or when things don't go the way they want, they go through a kind of rebellion. Now I understand better how fatuous that is.

MURAD: Because every moment is created by God, everything we observe has reason, purpose and intelligence. Everything is created for a purpose. For example, a business man boards a plane for London but at the last moment he remembers that he has left his wallet in the airport and gets off the plane. The plane leaves without him and crashes and so the business man doesn't die. In such a situation, someone who has no concept of fate might say something like, "He escaped death, he changed his fate." In fact, every moment this person lives is a part of his fate. Getting on the plane, forgetting his wallet, the crash of the plane and the interpretation given to the event by a person standing outside are all determined by fate. There has been no change. In fact, fate is created as a whole and rules over the whole of life. This fate is determined from the first moment of creation.

IBRAHIM: It means that before coming into this world every thing that we're going to experience has been determined and is known to God. Is that what you're saying?

MURAD: Yes. I'll explain this with another verse from the Qur'an. God informs people in this way: "You do not engage in any matter or recite any of the Qur'an or do any action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied with it. Not even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven. Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a Clear Book." (Surah Yunus: 61)As we can understand from this verse, everything that has happened and that will happen on earth has been recorded in God's sight even before the creation of the universe. For this reason, even before you came into the world, even when your mother, your father and your grandfather were not yet born, God knew that you would be having this conversation with us.

AISHA: I want to give an example to show another misunderstanding of fate. Someone I know got skin cancer. It was said that he had only a short time left but he went abroad for treatment and got better. At that time, I frequently heard people say, "He beat death" and "he extended his life."

No matter what a person experiences, he is living out the fate that God has created for him. If he becomes ill or has an accident and must undergo an operation, his survival of the danger to his life and every event he experiences afterwards were first written in his fate. Someone who suffers an accident and gets better has not "beaten his fate"; he has experienced these ordeals because having an accident and getting better were in his fate.

MURAD: As you've also understood, there's no question of shortening or extending life. It was according to his fate that the person was sick, came close to death, received treatment and got better. All these occurrences proceeded in a definite sequence, but, in fact, the result is determined from the beginning. Once we know the truth, we can easily solve problems we never understood before. The most important thing is that God is the one absolute power Who encompasses all. He is closer to us than our jugular vein. Everything is under His control.Everything has been determined and ordered by Him in the most wonderful way. A human being observes only what has been predetermined for himself. This nullifies every sort of spiritual or material anxiety and fears about the future. It reduces to unimportance a human being's passion and ambition in relation to the world. Only the consent of God gains importance. So, a person begins to see and understand things in the correct way according to their true meaning. He comes to appreciate the power and sovereignty of God, the absolute Ruler and supreme Creator of all things.

IBRAHIM: What you're saying is very important and subtle. Were there those in the past who wrongly understood and falsely interpreted these things?

MURAD: Yes, there's been various forms of perverse tendencies in the past. Some factions looked at the matter from a single point of view and said,"What's the use of worship since God is already doing everything?" They then abandoned worship. Some have said, "Humans strive in vain," and then adopted a lazy attitude, putting forth no effort or struggle. There were some who had even a more perverse attitude and went so far as to consider themselves on the same level as God (Surely God is beyond all that). Surat al-An'am verse 148 says this about those who have taken up in such a perverse view:"Those who associate others with God will say, 'If God had willed we would not have associated anything with Him, nor would our fathers; nor would we have forbidden anything.' In the same way the people before them also lied until they felt Our violent force. Say: 'Do you have some knowledge you can produce for us? You are following nothing but conjecture. You only tell lies.'. " As seen in this verse, such people act upon conjecture and are in truth, liars.

AISHA: This is a very important point. Can you be more precise?

MURAD: God has created the world as a place of test and has sent to humanity apostles and books through which He has revealed the right way and pointed out their responsibilities. We, who are bound to physical impressions in this testing place, are obliged to act in the way God has revealed. That is, we bear the responsibility for the reactions we give to these impressions. Finally, in return for those things we do in this realm of impressions, we will go to heaven or hell.

AISHA: We do nothing and we do everything, is that right?

MURAD: Aisha, there are two sides to the question. First, the external side or appearance. From this angle, a person is responsible for every action. We're physically bound to this world and our souls are influenced by occurrences which happen in the world of impressions. God gives us such a sense. When we are hungry, we have to fill the physical impression with the impression of food. When we are physically ill, we resort to the impressions of a doctor and medicine. There is an eternal intelligence and reason for these things in creation. The second, and the hidden side of the question is to understand the basic meaning of life – which is projected to us through impressions – and to see the truth. A person who discovers this reality understands that there's no strength apart from God, that he can never have direct experience of the original of the external world, and that all power belongs to God.So, he correctly evaluates this life and the world.

IBRAHIM: That is, a person who is aware of this matter also gets sick, goes to a doctor and takes medicine but in doing this he knows that he is basically following his fate; he realizes that God is the cause of the illness and of its cure; and his reaction will be according to this understanding. Is that right?

MURAD: What you said is revealed in Surat ash-Shu'ara in these words: "(It is) He Who created me and guides me; He Who gives me food and gives me drink; and when I am ill, it is He Who heals me; He Who will cause my death, then give me life; He Who I sincerely hope will forgive my mistakes on the Day of Reckoning." (Surat ash-Shu'ara: 78-82) A person who understands that all power belongs to God and that there is no friend or helper besides God, attains a complete sense of intimacy in faith and in the worship of God. So long as he remains conscious of this, he will be protected from the damaging and destroying influences of the world. He takes medicine but he knows that God is the One Who cures; he eats but he knows that God is the One Who satisfies; that is, he continues to lead the same life, but with an awareness of the truth.

AHMED: But you didn't say anything about the things that bind me to the world now.My house, my name, the property I've accumulated over so many years, and my children who'll continue my name and my family after I die. If I accept what you have said, I must accept that I have no connection to the reality of these things. That I relate only to copies of them in my mind.

MURAD: Ahmed, if you wish, think about the things we have talked about today and be sure to come to our final talk tomorrow. A large part of what I'm going to talk about tomorrow is of interest to you and people who think as you do.

AHMED: Of course, I'll be happy to come. Anyway, I don't intend to reject such an evident truth; that would really be to run away from the truth despite being certain of it. But there are still some details that I want to learn more fully.

IBRAHIM: There are no question marks left in my mind about the fact that everything is composed of impressions in my brain, that I have no relation to an external world, the nature of the soul, or about the existence of God.I hope we can extend the subject a bit farther. In the meantime, I'll prepare some more questions too.

AISHA: Murad, why does such a wonderful truth make some people uneasy? It does them no good to stop their ears and close their eyes to the truth.

MURAD: You have a day to think about that. Tomorrow, when we meet, I think you'll have the answers to all your questions.