By Tameemuddin Humble / Gaya
Maulana Maudoodi Memorial Lecture was organised on 5th January 2025 on the topic Law of Cause and Effect-an Islamic perspective under the aegis of Jamaat e Islami Hind, Gaya.
The annual lecture was delivered by Prof Masroor Ahmad, former HoD Physics, M G College, Gaya this year. The topic was explained lucidly in the light of Quran and science. Prof Masroor Ahmad told the audience about the system of governance of the worldly happenings in this world. We could not understand it by our simple logic of Cause and Effect as the Law of Determinism explained in the today’s philosophy and physics.
The law of Nature or the system of Governance of Allah also matches the Theory of Probabilities as found in the Quantum Mechanics. Through the dozens of verses of Quran and what the theory of probabilities says, Prof Masroor tried to establish the fact that the human being would not be able to understand the logics of day to day happenings in our lives only by the law of determinism i.e the cause and effects but we would have to understand the theory of probabilities found in Quantum physics.
He told the august gathering that every event in this world was governed by Allah and not by any deterministic law that appears to us. It is actually the result of the series of maximum probabilities of events. The series of events of maximum probabilities appears as the law of Nature to us but it may not always be true. He told exceptions do happen but only when Allah allows this to happen so that it appears as Cause and affect to us. Thus it put someone to test his/her Imaan bil Ghaib (ایمان بالغیب).
He further suggested that the changes occurred in our daily lives could not be explained only by the simple Deterministic Law.
Taqdeer is one of the attributes of Allah.
The belief in Taqdeer means that Allah knows all his creations and the future events. Human beings are provided with the instincts of wisdom to choose from the right and wrong and thus examined for the lives after deaths.
Furthermore, he also told the audience the Will of Allah can’t be predicted even by the Statistical Average drawn in the theory of probabilities. He gave an example of availability of livelihood subsistence (رزق) in this world to understand. Rizq or the livelihood is not same for the same capable persons, as we see in the society.
The availability of Rizq varies from person to person despite having the same conditions. Therefore the logic of Cause and Effect doesn’t apply here. It is Allah’s Will to judge the human beings’ behavior in the given conditions and accord them the different positions in their lives after deaths. Insufficient subsistence doesn’t mean necessarily the result of insufficient labour and skill. He told the audience the idea of Allah could be understood to some extent by the Statistical Average of the series of probabilities as explained in the Quantum Mechanics.
The lecture was followed by the question-answer session. The participants appreciated this scientific endeavor of JIH Gaya to understand the idea of Allah in the light of modern science.