37. The Active Intellect – Its Force and Style (1)

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Like Nasrid-Din, we tend to look at things where or in the way we want to see them, which makes alternative points of view appear strange, abstract, or meaningless. For modern Western materialism, there is hardly any text that is more ‘alternative’ than the Qur’an. So entrenched are we, even more so than its first readers, in our comfortable physicalist view of reality that we can only be lured out of our trenches by the indirect device of metaphor. Plain exposition, which is abundant and repetitive in the Qur’an, generally meets with resistance. Its symbolic passages, on the other hand, are like the goodly tree – connecting familiar or concrete images from our experience or literature with ideas that can only be seen growing on the uppermost boughs of our intellectual imagination.

One of the most memorable passages of this type is in the 27th Surah, or Suratin-Naml. Naml means “Ants”. We may never get more than an ant’s-eye view of what AL-LAH means by power, knowledge, and guidance in these verses (15-44). Still, it is worth a try if we believe, as I do, that such anecdotes in the Qur’an are there for more than just to tell a story.

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The expression, ‘Knowledge is power’, is about to be turned inside out – using symbols of power to reveal what real knowledge is. With the first appearance of Dawud (peace be upon him) in the Qur’an (Q2:251) his power is mentioned in passing, and more as a means to something greater:

The Qur’an’s stories about Dawud and Sulaiman (peace be upon them) are not meant to display their worldly power, which is of no use to us now, but their wisdom and knowledge, excellences that can light our way today as it did for them then. And their first lesson, the highest achievement of their learning, is here in the first line – Praise is due to GOD. All their sagacity ultimately serves no nobler purpose than to magnify AL-LAH, from Whom all intellectual gifts come. By fervently worshipping AL-LAH, the True Proprietor of all excellences, the ordinary believer achieves in his own small way as much as the greatest prophets achieved in theirs.

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The symbolism of this 30-verse passage – which is not to deny or minimize its literal import – begins here. What is the significance of birds in general, and particularly the speech of birds? How is it related to being given some of everything? And how is this the clearest favour?

• Birds are remarkably potent symbols in the Qur’an. They are first mentioned (Q2:260) when Ibrahim (peace be upon him) asks to see (Show me) how GOD revives the dead. After the demonstration, AL-LAH says: Know that GOD is Mighty, Wise. ‘Isa (peace be upon him) uses a bird made from clay as a sign (Q3:49) to illustrate GOD’s power to infuse dead matter with life. The ancient rituals of augury or ornithomancy, by which pagan priests claimed to foretell the future from the flight, cries, or feeding patterns of birds, are mentioned (and implicitly condemned, e.g., in Q36:18). Do you not see (Q24:41), we are asked, how their singing, like everyone in heaven and earth, glorifies AL-LAH? And of particular significance is this verse (Q67:19):

Not only are we encouraged to look up and notice the flight of birds, but also to see them as GOD sees them, up close – as if they live and move in the palm of His Hand.

• The leading figurative association of birds in the Qur’an is with sight, followed by connections to knowledge, life-giving powers, and praise. Birds, then, represent an invigorating wisdom, a knowledge of the visible realm that can, by speech, be rendered audible as well. Consider them as the symbol by which the singular, instantaneous certainty of sight mentioned in Chapter 3 of this book is articulated in a slower, more extended medium, namely sound. Whatever space-conquering insight I may have in mind, I need gradual, linear time and the clumsy but enchanting mechanism of words (or birdsong) to lay it out for you. This is why the speech of Sulaiman alone (peace be upon him) begins by addressing his subjects – O people; the knowledge GOD gave him in one medium is to be conveyed for mankind’s benefit through another medium. And with such wide-ranging sight and clear means of communication at his disposal, he has, in effect, some of everything. It is by this illuminating favour that he has obtained the right to rule and the power to command – sparks that leap out from the Light of the Lord Most Powerful.

• The emphasis on sight is reinforced at many points in this 30-verse passage: Why do I not see the hoopoe? (Q27:20); We shall see if you are truthful (Q27:27); see what they respond with (Q27:28); Consider (literally See) what you will command (Q27:33); seeing what the messengers will bring as a reply (Q27:35); in the blink of an eye (literally before your glance comes back to you) (Q27:40); we shall see if she is rightly guided (Q27:41);and when she looked, she thought she saw a pool (Q27:44).

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For a man of GOD, his knowledge is not something he simply gets or acquires; he inherits it from those before him and finds it gathered together for him by a power not his own. Command of it is entrusted to him, so in common parlance we may say that the knowledge is his. But what we are actually seeing in this passage is a metaphor for how true knowledge works with anyone when it is informed by the Knowledge of GOD and granted by His Will. It is a force, or rather an integrated collection of forces, which is organized, mobile, and spiritually transformative.

The jinn are mentioned as the first force. How are we to understand their symbolic significance, their character, and their role?

• The jinn were created from fire prior to the creation of man (Q15:27). Iblis was one of them, hence their association with the diabolical and demonic. The triadic root for jinn – j – n – n – is the same as that for insane, namely possessed by jinn. They are rarely seen by man, but have names, tribes, and various dispositions – good and bad, believing and rejecting – analogous to humans (Q72:11, 14), and are frequently addressed in the Qur’an along with mankind. Just as the birds are distinguished by their sight, so do the jinn have a propensity for hearing (Q72:9). They were employed by Sulaiman (peace be upon him) in various practical fields – diving (for pearls) (Q21:82), construction, and metal-working (Q34:13). They were his engineers and technicians, befitting a group whose primary association is with fire.
• There are no salient connotations for mankind here, possibly because as the middle element humanity includes or has access to both the practical characteristics of the jinn on the one hand and the imaginative qualities of the birds on the other. The concept of man as microcosm, as the epitome of all creation, has strong support in many religious and philosophical traditions, and is suggested through the many Qur’anic verses in which even the angels are commanded to show their respect for him by prostrating to Adam (peace be upon him). One might say that, through Sulaiman (peace be upon him), the human element represents the central importance of a relationship to GOD in the multi-dimensional campaign of pursuing knowledge.
• What are those dimensions? Clearly they are three in number, symbolized by the jinn, mankind, and birds.

1. The jinn represent the task-oriented, technical, and systemic aspects of knowledge, obsessed – even to the point of madness or malice – with amplifying, clarifying, and applying what has been obtained. They dive into their subject, calculating, crafting, devising, and dividing. In this work of mine, they sort my sentences, shape my stanzas, and sharpen my style. The jinn are the real engine in today’s marketing and technology, for their specialty is know-how.
2. Birds are the search-oriented, data-driven, and communicative aspects of knowledge, forever fascinated with distances, novelties, and whatever can be snatched up and brought back to the nest. No flight of fancy or sky-scraping vista is too far for them. In this work, they explore new horizons of thought, hovering or wandering wherever inspiration leads them. When left unchecked, they tend to be explicit and scornful of boundaries in the cause of know-what.
3. Finally, coordinating these two and mediating between their contrasting tendencies is the essentially human capacity for bearing the message (Q33:72), understanding it (Q21:79), and implementing it by a higher form of knowledge, namely wisdom or good judgement. (McGilchrist’s left (jinn-like) and right (bird-like) hemispheres of the brain require a non-physical unifying principle.) This is the intellect’s true sphere of activity – concentrating, organizing, and commanding the forces granted to it, and, most importantly, glorifying the Superior Intellect Who keeps it in Mind. It is this element – which we could term know-why – that is sadly missing in this crippled age of extremism, imbalance, and sheer ignorance of Who GOD is. And without that, this book would never have been written.

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