The Great Mistake of Those Who Do Not Heed The Qur'an

Since those who follow Satan's way deny Allah, Who created the entire universe from nothing, they attribute an independent existence and power to every being. However, the universe is entirely subject to the power and the sovereignty of Allah, including people themselves and their experiences, because a person sees the material world in which he lives solely in the way in which his senses reflect it to him. That is to say, a person sees things as copies transmitted to his or her brain and only experiences the images in that brain.

For example, for us to see a car going along a road, or to hear its horn, or to get into that car and feel the softness of its seats and the hardness of its metal parts, it is not necessary for the car to exist in reality. We process all information about the existence of the car solely inside our brains by means of what our senses transmit to us. Therefore, it is not possible for us to experience the original of the car itself. What we deal with are nothing but electrical signals we perceive in our brains through our five senses. Our life goes on only within our brains. We can never have direct experience of what exists on the outside. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya, The Evolution Deceit, Eternity Has Already Begun, Knowing the Truth, Matter: The Other Name For Illusion, The Little Man in the Tower.)

In the same way, a person who goes to a meeting and gives a speech is really talking to the crowd within his brain. This person only imagines that he has been able to speak in front of a large audience. In other words, the person making the speech is incapable of leaving the meeting place inside his brain. The individuals who make up the crowd also see the speaker in their own individual brains. All the words and the shouting and the crowd of people have to remain within the brain.

Thus, acting according to the existence of a thing whose reality he has never been able to directly experience, placing value on people whose real selves he has never been able to address and possessing goods whose reality he has never been able to touch is a state of extreme meaninglessness for a person who cannot step out of the images in his brain. We can use the analogy of dreaming to consider this further. For instance in a dream, even if the food you can smell, whose appearance you can see and whose heat you can feel does not exist in reality, you may still be able to taste that dish and even feel its heat burning your tongue. Or you may dream of being late for an important task for which you are responsible, the nervousness arising from this and the excuses which you are thinking of offering in full detail, just as in real life. Until you awake from the dream, you may be totally convinced of the reality of what you are experiencing. These deceptions experienced in the dream may also apply to the world in which you find yourself.

This is a clear scientific truth which people who are overly attached to this world do not want to consider. No matter how hard they try to escape from it, no matter how much they resist accepting it, it is a truth which they cannot actually avoid. Above all it is a truth which people personally experience and observe throughout their lives. Whoever evades it should know that it is definitely not possible to escape from the world inside the brain. Therefore those who resist the Qur'an in the belief that matter is absolute will eventually come face to face with the truth that the things they value consist of a mere perception when they think about this very important scientific knowledge. In this way, things which have made them ambitious, things which have frightened them and things which have caused them to feel pride will naturally lose their meaning.

In the same way, people whose words are respected and who are accepted as leaders are nothing but the result of a perception which Allah has created in the minds of others, so that unconditionally following Satan, his manifestations in human form or people who are under his influence, is no different from the deception we have referred to above of supposing that one has direct experience of the material world.

A person may go for years without realising these important truths concerning the real nature of matter. Many people may not have considered that they see the people surrounding them, nature and the entire universe within their brains and that they can never directly experience the originals of what exists outside. However, a few seconds' sincere thought with a collected mind is enough to change a person's entire view of life and rescue him from such fixed ideas.

For example, think about this book which you hold in your hand, the things which are written in this book and the pages you turn one by one. Every one of these consists of perceptions reaching your brain through the medium of your senses. Reconsider: the book which you think you see consists only of electrical signals reaching your brain and the hand which turns the pages is one whose real nature you have never experienced throughout your life. The moment when you understand this wonderful situation is the moment when you begin your real life because understanding that matter may never be experienced in its essence and that you can only view images of what exists outside is the most important scientific truth which a person can learn in the life of this world.

All these truths demonstrate a person's helpless situation in the face of Allah, because the life of the world in which Satan deceives people with promises and empty illusions is nothing other than a world of the imagination which can only be perceived through the senses. All these truths constitute an excellent reason for surrendering ourselves to Allah, Who created everything, believing in Him with a certain knowledge and fearing him with a heartfelt fear.

The Qur'an is a message to all humanity and it explains all things to mankind. It is hoped that people who listen to the voice of their consciences will heed this call and abandon their escape from reality. In a verse of the Qur'an, Allah offers this invitation:

Certainly there is a transmission in this [Qur'an] for people who worship. (Surat al-Anbiya': 106)