I define a thing as that for which there is no ultimate necessity. An equivalent expression would be to say that things are contingent objects. They are not necessarily existent (wajibul-wujud), which is to say they do not have the same degree of reality as GOD and whatever necessarily pertains to Him. Included in our world of contingent objects are the things going on in our mind or spoken out loud – our ideas, our words, and the like.
From Abi Hurairah, who said that the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace) said, “Two sentences – light upon the tongue, heavy in the balance, beloved by the Gracious – ‘Gloriously transcendent is AL-LAH in praise; Gloriously transcendent is AL-LAH, the Sublime’”. (Sahihu Muslim, Book 48, Hadith 41)
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم كَلِمَتَانِ خَفِيفَتَانِ عَلَى اللِّسَانِ ثَقِيلَتَانِ فِي الْمِيزَانِ حَبِيبَتَانِ إِلَى الرَّحْمَنِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ
The weightiness of utterances is emphatically expressed in the following verses:
They said, “The Gracious has acquired a son.” / You have come up with an abominable thing! / The heavens almost come to being ripped apart by it, the earth split open, and the mountains fallen into ruin. (Q19:88-90)
وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ الرَّحْمَنُ وَلَدًا
لَقَدْ جِئْتُمْ شَيْئًا إِدًّا
تَكَادُ السَّمَاوَاتُ يَتَفَطَّرْنَ مِنْهُ وَتَنشَقُّ الأَرْضُ وَتَخِرُّ الْجِبَالُ هَدًّا
Words, in short, are things.* We may not yet have the measure of them, but GOD already does.
* In Appendix 1, I distinguish between GOD’s Names, by which He names Himself insofar as He is One Who is eternally Capable of Speaking (Al-Mutakallim) and is inexhaustibly Nameable (Al-Musamma), and our words for His Names, which are what we write, pronounce, delete, and generally treat as transitory objects contingent on such actions.
To assert that words are things, given that not all things are material entities, should not be controversial. But the Qur’an also declares the converse – that all things come from words. Consider these verses: His affair is only that, when He intends [desires] a thing, He tells it “Be!” and so it is. (Q36:82) and When He decrees an entity, He only tells it “Be!” and so it is. (Q19:35) Not only is a thing or entity / affair (shai’ or amr in Arabic) brought into existence by a word, but its pre-existence – indicated by the it in He tells it – is engendered by a conceptual act: He intends a thing, or He decrees an entity / affair.
Things come to be by a word, and also cease to be by a word.
Have you not seen the ones who left their dwellings in their thousands out of fear of death? AL-LAH pronounced, “Be dead!” on them, and then revived them. (Q2:243)
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ وَهُمْ أُلُوفٌ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ فَقَالَ لَهُمْ اللَّهُ مُوتُوا ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ
And when We want to ruin any settlement, We give an order for the opulent residing there; they do their evil there, and thus the word comes true for it, and We destroy it utterly. (Q17:16)
وَإِذَا أَرَدْنَا أَنْ نُهْلِكَ قَرْيَةً أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا فَحَقَّ عَلَيْهَا الْقَوْلُ فَدَمَّرْنَاهَا تَدْمِيرًا
Not only the beginning and the end of a thing are brought about by a word, but also its continuance:
Without a word preceding from your Lord, the matter over which they differed would have been decided. (Q10:19)
وَلَوْلاَ كَلِمَةٌ سَبَقَتْ مِنْ رَبِّكَ لَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُمْ فِيمَا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ
Everything is written prior to its occurrence . . .
Do you not know that verily AL-LAH knows what is in the sky and on the earth? That is, indeed, within a Book. That is, indeed, an easy matter for AL-LAH. (Q22:70)
أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَالأَرْضِ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ فِي كِتَابٍ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرٌ
. . . and remains in GOD’s Book from its occurrence until its final expression on the Day of Resurrection.
Those who had received the knowledge and the faith said, “You indeed remained within the Book of GOD until the Day of Rising. This, now, is the Day of Rising, but you have not been cognizant.” (Q30:56)
وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ وَالإِيمَانَ لَقَدْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْبَعْثِ فَهَذَا يَوْمُ الْبَعْثِ وَلَكِنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ
The only difference between words as we normally understand them and material things is that the latter are cloaked in a degraded language, one that is literally harder for us to understand. When you get hit by a car, laid low by a disease, or die of starvation, your lifelong chatter is simply being interrupted by a sudden shout or a sentence for which you have no adequate response.
They are only waiting for a single shout that seizes them while they are arguing. (Q36:49)
مَا يَنظُرُونَ إِلاَّ صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُونَ
People who prefer to deal with materials, with this hard, literal language from GOD, such as engineers, tend to consider all language to be similarly literal. Given the ascent of engineering as modern humanity’s predominant approach to reality, the figurative and poetic language of the Qur’an is more often seen as an impenetrable problem to be ignored, explained away, or strictly denoted in one-to-one matches of word to material object – no longer as an opportunity to explore new openings of meaning in the clouds of connotation that constitute all things.
The Qur’an was revealed in the language of a people whose pride, joy, and finest product of the mind was poetry. Muhammad (may GOD bless him and give him peace) was raised up among a nation of bards and verbal connoisseurs – not technocrats and mathematicians. The Arabs were (and still are) renowned for their generosity, impulsiveness, and passion rather than their meticulous rigidity or minute calculation. GOD is entirely capable of precision; we have only to look around in awe at His masterpieces of intricate design. But He also creates with flair and abandon – profuse palettes of colour in His meadows and coral reefs, unbounded bounty in His schools of fish and rainforest fruits, and breathtaking expansiveness in His countless galaxies and the dark deeps between them. We should never let the neat conclusions of the actuary stifle the wild wonder of the artist in us, nor allow our grasping at closure dictate terms to the open-handed worlds of the Ever-Living.
Because our words appear to be as shapeless and transient as the morning mist, we tend to think that GOD’s words are also light and insubstantial. GOD can communicate by signs (ayat) in that airy verbal style of ours – hence the Qur’an and the scriptures before it. But He also speaks materially, through signs (ayat) likewise, and so clearly and vehemently that we take them as not just another version of reality, but all of reality. In doing so, we not only discredit the power of verbal speech – both His and ours – but empty the realm of material speech of its meaning. We convert His whole words and eloquent sentences into our blunt numbers – a stunningly impoverished digital mock-up. Technically, we can do with it the kind of work that the minions of Sulaiman (peace be upon him) are described as performing – diving, construction, metal-working, and the like. But they are described in the Qur’an as either jinn, made from fire, (Q27:17) or devils (Q21:82). By privileging their literal handling of reality over all other forms of interaction, we not only neglect our true human nature but endow ourselves with the demonic powers that falsely convince us we have finally succeeded. (Look around at our world today, and see the proof of our ‘success’.)
The first mention of Adam (peace be upon him) in the Qur’an discloses a higher, wiser, and more spiritual reality – the one that GOD intended for us. It is a story that tells us of our origin, nature, and destiny, and the components of both our current reality and the Greater One awaiting us.
The GOD You Already Know 