The first mental habit we discussed was the mental habit of Seeing Asbab. Whether a single proton, a flowing river or a magnificent mountain, all are asbab—their fundamental reality is that they are means of becoming closer to Allah.
The Natural Sciences & Asbāb
When we study the natural sciences, we are busy studying the relationships between asbab, in detail. Consider the following three statements:
- Water boils at 100 degrees celsius. This statement informs us of the relationship between the sabab of heat and the sabab of water.
- A tennis ball falls at a rate of acceleration of (9.82m/s2). This tells us about the relationship between the sabab of the ball and the sabab of an invisible force we have labeled “gravity.”
- Washing hands reduces the risk of spreading infection. This statement tells us about the sabab of clean hands and the sabab of infection.
What do all three statements above have in common?
They all describe relationships between asbab that we can see, touch or somehow measure.
We call these kinds of relationships, horizontal. These three sentences describe horizontal relationships between asbab.
This leads us to the second and third Mental Habit. I put both of these Mental Habits under a broader category called, “Seeing the Unseen.”
We’ll start with the second Mental Habit under Seeing the Unseen, called Seeing the Direct Vertical Relationship.
What is the Direct Vertical Relationship?
This Mental Habit describes a movement of the mind.
This mental movement is from a Seen Sabab to Allah ﷻ Himself. When we say Seen Sabab, this is contrasted with an Unseen Sabab. We will have plenty of discussion on the difference between Seen and Unseen later, but for now you can use the phrase “Seen Sabab” and “Physical Sabab” interchangeably.
Look at this sunnah dua of our Nabi ﷺ for when we put on our clothes:
الحَمْدُ لِلهِ الَّذِي كَسَانِي هَذَا الثَّوْبَ وَرَزَقَنِيهِ مِنْ غَيْرِ حَوْلٍ مِنِّي وَلَا قُوَّةٍ
All Praise is for Allah who has clothed me with this garment and provided it for me, with no power nor might from myself.
Can you find the main seen sabab that the Prophet ﷺ is mentioning in this dua?
It’s clothing. (Garment).
This is the dua that is sunnah to say whenever we put on our clothes in the morning, for example.
We are thanking Allah for clothing us. How? With no power nor might from myself.
Yet, were there not in fact many other seen asbāb involved in getting and putting on these clothes? Did we wake up and then suddenly upon standing our pajamas miraculously were replaced by our clothes for the day all neat, ironed and ready to go?
Obviously, minimally, we used our legs (seen asbāb) to walk to the closet (seen sabab), we selected an item of clothing (seen sabab), and we used our arms and hands (seen asbāb) and the energy (seen? sabab) vested in our body (seen sabab) to wear them.
This cumbersome paragraph that you just read describes multiple horizontal relationships between seen asbāb. Despite doing all of that, what are we told to say?
“—Who has clothed me with this garment and provided it for me, with no power nor might from myself.”
Hold on there. Didn’t I get up, walk to the closet, select my clothes, take off my clothes from the rack, and wear them? Yes. Were there not multiple horizontal relationships between multiple asbāb? Yes.
Yet I am, with my very words—no, with the words of our Nabi ﷺ—being told to, in a sense, negate all those horizontal relationships and look past them to the One True source of all of it—Allah. The Prophet ﷺ, wanted us to use the asbāb as asbāb—as means by which we become closer to Allah. But how did he teach us to do that? By not taking the asbāb? No. He taught us to draw closer to Allah by taking the asbāb. We get up and physically put on our clothes. Instead, our Nabi ﷺ, has us take the asbāb while verbally, and thus mentally, denying the horizontal relationship between them.
(This is of course with the understanding that the horizontal relationship between them is also a sabab that draws us closer to Allah, but the words of our Nabi ﷺ are inescapably clear: with no power nor might from myself).
And keep in mind in addition to it being in your closet, it wasn’t always that way. You had to go (sabab) to work (sabab) and earn (sabab) money (sabab) and then go (sabab) to the store (sabab) and or go (sabab) online (sabab) on your computer (sabab) and buy (sabab) the item of clothing (sabab), which was then delivered (via many asbāb please don’t make me write them all out), until it came to your door (sabab) and then you (sabab) went (sabab) downstairs (sabab) and picked up using the power (sabab) in your body (sabab) a pen (sabab) to open (sabab) the tape (sabab) that holds (sabab) the box (sabab) closed (sabab) and…
Ya Latif! I think that’s enough.
You did all that, yet you say: “with no power nor might from myself.”
Our Nabi ﷺ is wanting us to move our attention from the horizontal relationship between seen asbāb to the vertical relationship between the seen asbāb and Allah ﷻ.
He wants our minds to move “upward,” so to speak. This is why we mentally negate every horizontal relationship in the dua by saying “with no power or might from myself.” (Obviously, we understand that Allah is not in any particular direction, but referring to Allah as “high” or “indicating upward” when referring to Allah was accepted by the Prophet ﷺ).
And this is just about the everyday matter of putting on our clothes!
How about the dua after we finish eating?
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِى اطْعَمَنَا وَسَقَانَا ، وَجَعَلنَا مُسْلِمِينَ
All praise is for the One who satiated me, quenched my thirst, and made us from among the Muslims.
Again, even if we (sabab) cooked (sabab) the food (sabab) ourselves (sabab), sat down (sabab) on the chair (sabab), and ate (sabab) the food (sabab) —or perhaps someone else (sabab) cooked (sabab) it (sabab) for us (sabab) and we (sabab) ate (sabab) it (sabab)—the dua at the end of the meal jumps straight to the Source. Again, we take the asbāb, but we negate the relationship between them verbally and thus mentally. Our Nabi ﷺ wants our minds to move “upwards,” to Allah, instead of just bouncing around between asbab “down here” in the dunya. (Though, do not forget to thank the one who cooked the food for you, if applicable).
Let’s take some examples from the Quran:
Innumerable verses from the Quran talk about what we call “natural processes”. Our general level of science literacy is much higher relative to the people of the past, so when we think of these natural events, we often default to using this cold, mechanical word called “process” to describe it, automatically bringing to mind the many seen asbāb and the horizontal relationships between them. We will give a few āyāt as examples only, but the Quran is filled with these.”
“It is He who sends down rain from the sky; from it is drink for you, and from it grows the vegetation on which you pasture your animals. He causes to grow for you thereby the crops, olives, palm trees, grapevines, and from all the fruits. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought.” (Surah Nahl, 10, 11).
Allah is calling our attention to the fact that He sends down the rain (negating the horizontal relationships between the seen asbāb of water vapor, pressure and temperature associated with clouds and rain), and then, after mentioning its benefits to us (we drink from it and the vegetation grows from it, and we feed our animals on that vegetation), Allah says He causes the crops to grow. So even though Allah Himself said that “from [the water] grows the vegetation”, Allah negates the horizontal relationship between water and growth by saying, “He causes to grow for you the crops.” Instead, we are prompted to see the direct vertical relationship between the seen sabab and Himself. The other way to say this is that we are being encouraged to move our minds from the seen sabab to Allah. Furthermore, it is as if the important part of the horizontal relationship between the sabab of water and the sabab of vegetation growth was simply that we observe how we benefit from the water Allah sent down— but then Allah negates the horizontal relationship between water and growth right after that.
Again, the point here is not that we are being told, “pretend like there is no relationship between water and plant growth.” Remember we are talking about what kind of mental habits the Quran calls us to have. What I am trying to show is that one of those mental habits is clearly, and strongly, the mental habit of seeing past the horizontal relationships between seen asbāb to the direct vertical relationship between the seen asbāb and Allah Himself. The mental habit is that our minds move “upward” to Allah with every sabab we look at. After all, all created things are asbāb: their ultimate purpose is to connect us back to Allah.
Here is another āyah (again, the Quran is filled with these):
“It is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds, and He spreads them in the sky however He wills, and He makes them fragments, so you see the rain emerge from within them. And when He causes it to fall upon whom He wills of His servants, immediately they rejoice.” (Surah Rum, 48)
Allah sends the winds (negate: horizontal relationship between seen asbāb of pressure changes, earth’s rotation).
They stir the clouds, but then right after that, “He spreads them in the sky” (negate: horizontal relationship between sabab of wind and its effect upon asbāb of clouds (i.e. physically pushing and scattering them), causing them to spread out.
He makes them fragment (negate: the horizontal relationship between the asbāb of forces of the wind upon asbāb of clouds), so you see rain emerge from within them. And when He causes it to fall (negate: horizontal relationship between sabab of weight of water and sabab of pull of gravity) upon whom He wills of His servants… etc.
In case you are not convinced yet…
“Do you not see that Allah drives the clouds, then He brings them together, then He makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it? And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail, and He strikes with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills. The flash of its lightening almost takes away the eyesight.” (Surah Nur, 43)
“And We have sent the fertilizing winds and send down water from the sky and given you drink from it. And you are not its retainers.” (Surah al-Hijr, 22)
Again and again and again, Allah points us to the asbab, and has us exercise the mental muscle of looking at each sabab and then move “up” to Allah, so that we can develop the Mental Habit of seeing the direct vertical relationship between Allah, and the seen sabab. From a scientific standpoint of course there is nothing at all wrong with saying “water vapor reaches a saturation point, which we call the ‘dew point,’ and then begins to condense, and this condensation, when it falls, is what we call rain.” That statement is true, but it is not representative of the Mental Habit the Quran is calling us to. Even in the most basic physical relationships that we see in our every day experience such as “He causes it (the rain) to fall” and “Allah sends the wind” and “He spreads (the clouds) in the sky”, we are told to look past the horizontal relationships between the asbāb and see the direct vertical relationship.
We could diagram it out like this:
Again, we do not deny the association between the forces of wind upon the clouds resulting in their being spread out. What we are called upon to develop is the Mental Habit of seeing past the horizontal relationship between asbāb to the direct vertical relationship between Allah and each sabab. Why? Because the entire purpose of the things we are studying (wind, clouds, clouds spreading out) is so that we can learn more about our Lord and increase in our knowledge of Him.
At this point one might ask: but don’t we need to study these things for our own practical benefit as well? The short answer is yes, but there is a difference between using the tool of science to investigate the horizontal relationships between asbāb on an as needed basis versus conditioning our minds to see nature as a series of horizontal relationships as a Mental Habit. We will talk a lot more about that, in great detail, at another point.
Mental Habit 2: Seeing Direct Vertical Relationships
The Quran is repeatedly telling us that even in the everyday associations of things like water and plant growth, for which you need no science to know whatsoever: look past the horizontal relationships between the seen asbāb… instead, look—with every sabab—from that sabab, directly to Allah.
Thus, we term this Mental Habit: Seeing Direct Vertical Relationships.
Question: Given the above, does increasing the number of potentially study-able asbāb and their horizontal relationships make it easier to move the mind from the horizontal to the vertical? Or does it make it more difficult? Or does it depend?
We will return to this question in a separate post.
For now, click here to read about the next mental habit: Seeing Indirect Vertical Relationships.
(Image by vecteezy.com)
