It is God who created man, gave him his sight and hearing, as well as a strong desire to know everything. Hence, man tries to have a mental picture for every event, place or person he hears about. If he cannot paint a true picture for such an event or person, he may resort to imagination. At times he comes up with silly or illogical conceptions, only to satisfy his mental need. When in old times people could not explain what causes earthquakes, they came up with the absurd idea that the Earth is placed on the horn of a great ox. When the ox feels tired, he moves the Earth from one horn to the other, and this movement causes the Earth to quake.
A person who does not indulge in fancies will not invent superstitions for mental satisfaction. He would rather endure suspense and uncertainty until God gives him the light necessary for correct vision.
We may believe in something that belongs to the world beyond the reach of our faculties of perception. Should we then be offered a chance to see it with our eyes, we would jump at such a chance. Prophet Abraham prayed to God to show him how He resurrects the dead: "When Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead,’ He replied, ‘Have you, then, no faith?’ Abraham said, ‘Indeed, I have, but I only wish my heart to be fully reassured’." (2: 260)
Abraham had believed that God brings the dead back to life, but his mind could not conceive how the process is accomplished. It is not necessary to know how life is given to the dead in order to believe that God does it. There was no doubt in Abraham’s mind, but he sought to attain perfect reassurance of the type that comes through seeing with one’s eyes what one has already believed. This means that seeing life being given to the dead would not have increased Abraham’s faith, but it would have given him reassurance, relieving him of the need to formulate a concept of how the process is accomplished. His doubt did not touch on God’s ability to give life to the dead, but concentrated on his own vision of how it is done. It was only natural for him to have such doubts because he could only make assumptions. Seeing the process in action gave him the reassurance that comes from correct vision.
When something is associated with an actual form that we see with our eyes, it acquires a solid basis and a real image that gives reassurance. Hence, audiovisual aids are of great value in education, particularly in scientific subjects. It is easier for the human mind to think about something through its true image or an audiovisual representation of it. Before completing 12 years of age, a child can hardly understand abstract ideas. In his early years, a child can only comprehend ideas that have a physical representation which we could see in front of us or imagine in our minds, or an idea that is closely associated with an action that we can visualize with our senses.
At the end of that stage we begin to gradually develop the ability to comprehend abstract ideas, without necessarily associating them with a material example or a specific action. As God has made our creation in stages, we move from what is simple to what is more complicated. Hence, we continue to prefer simple things because we are more comfortable with them and better reassured. Hence, when we are given an example, we are better able to understand the idea it represents. An impression of something is made much more effective when it is based on an actual picture of it. In all this, the senses are employed in formulating the right idea.
History is one of the school subjects that benefit greatly by audiovisual aids. Seeing a picture of a city or a palace where people lived some hundreds or thousands of years ago gives us an image that is always recalled when we learn about it. A picture of a historical personality is associated with the events in which he had taken part. We are no longer associating the city, palace or person with a mere name.
If you are sure of the reliability of your source of information, you accept that a particular king lived at a particular time, or a certain event took place then. But if you see the archaeological remains associated with that king, or those resulting from that event, you are far more certain of the truth of what you have learned. Indeed, your impression of their history becomes much more real and lively. It is a fact that we remember far more of what we see and hold in our hand than of what we read or hear about.
Thus, our memory of those ancient people whose history we have read becomes far more lively when we see the remains of their civilization. We now realize that they lived on Earth like we do. We are reassured by seeing their relics. It is not that we have more faith that they existed, but we have a better understanding of what we had already believed. The participation of our senses in studying about them enhances the quality of our learning.
All this applies to a believer who travels to Makkah to fulfill the religious duty of pilgrimage. He sees the Ka’aba for the first time, then he looks attentively at it, time after time, as if he wants to engrave its image in his mind so that he would never forget it. Thus, he acquires the sort of heart reassurance Abraham had sought from God when he appealed to be shown the process of bringing the dead to life. A Muslim turns his face toward the Ka’aba every time he stands up for prayer. He never doubts its existence. Now, when he sees it on arrival in Makkah for pilgrimage, his heart is filled with sweet reassurance.
As the pilgrim performs the tawaf walking round the Ka’aba, he remembers that Muhammad, God’s messenger, (peace be upon him), had done the same tawaf and had walked over the same ground. The pilgrim then goes to do the sa’ie between the two hills of Safa and Marwah, to commemorate the action of Hagar, Abraham’s wife, as she was searching for water for her thirsty child. He stands over each one of the two hills, just like she did. Thus, those historical events acquire new dimensions in his mind. We will dwell further on all this next week, God willing.
