| "The son of man is a unique andcomplex product (of Evolution) which has combined in him thenatures of both the angel and the beast. If he leans towards thelatter, his animal nature, he falls lower than the beast itself,but if he turns his attention to the former, his angelic nature, herises higher than the angel himself." |  | آدمىزاده طرفىمعجونےاست از فر شتى سرشتى وزحيوان گر كند ميلاين شود كمازين ور كند قصدآن شود بىازان |
It is but religion, true Religion, that enables the "son of man" i.e., mankind to surpass angels in godliness. Note, this is exactly what Sir Oliver Lodge says in his book, The Substance of Faith allied with Science.
There is another use of Religion to which I should refer briefly before I pass on to the main argument. You always intend doing many things but never succeed in doing them all, either because you change your mind or because somebody or something prevents you from carrying them out. It is nevertheless important to yourself and society that your wishes, which are naturally more numerous than your actions, should be as good as the actions themselves. Laws and social conventions cannot adequately control them, for they take account of only outward manifestations, that is, actions which flow or result from your inward desires, passions and prejudices. These are controlled by such religions as true Christianity and true Islam which take that as done which was merely intended to be done, and inhibit bad intentions even before they appear in action.
Now, whatever religion supplies the best motives for virtuous conduct and most effectively prevents mischievous intentions, must necessarily be one which conforms best with the most approved ideas of the science and arts of the time. I hold that Islam is such a religion.[52]
Let me begin by showing a conformity of Islam to a modern idea, that there are more worlds than one.[53] There are still some religions which assume that there is no other world than the world we live in, and that God created and maintains it for men only. Science has proved that such assumptions are unwarranted, and has even suggested grounds for believing that there are beings in the innumerable worlds of stars. This world of ours with its inhabitants has therefore no right to monopolise God to itself. Nor indeed have we, human beings, any right to consider ourselves as its superior inhabitants. Science is now-a-days on the track of finding out beings who are or who may be superior to man. Note that all this is implied in the expression رب العا لمين "the Lord of the worlds" contained in the Sura and other parts of the Qur'an. It does not say "the king of the world" (رب العالمين) or of men رب العالم but says generally and truly that God is the King or Lord of great or grand worlds: رب الانسان, the definite article رب العالمين in Arabic is often used to express greatness or grandeur as in the word ال which means the Most High God.
According to Islam there are two sources of knowledge, Science and Revelation: the one represents man's effort to learn God's ways, and the other represents God's grace to discover His ways to man.[54] I for one believe that the difference between the two sources of knowledge corresponds to the difference between "Experience" and "Intuition," between Acquired Ideas and Innate Ideas—a difference which modern philosophers (Spencer and Bergson) consider to be one of degree only and not of kind.
Note 8.