SYMBOLISM
HOLIDAYS
MYTHS
&:
By Imam Alauddin Shabazz
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION iiINTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 7 | |||
---|---|---|---|
SUBTLE SYMBOLIC IN "DALLAS" | MESSAGE | 119 | |
CHAPTER 8 | |||
QUR'AN ON SCIENCE, & SIGNS | SYMBOLS, | 125 | |
BIBLIOGRAPHIES | 133 |
WITH THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE
BENEFICIENT, THE MERCIFUL.
This book is dedicated to the many savants whose thoughts, words, and deeds have contributed to the sum total of knowledge and understanding of creation, Allah's word and all those whose future activities will be instrumental in helping humanity expand its awareness to the relationship with the CREATOR, the universe, and oneness of man.
Recognition is given particularly to the late Honorable Elijah Muhammad (who was on time), AJJamah A. S. K, Joomal, the late Professor Fazlur Rahman, the late great Imam Malik Shabazz, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, Dr. Na'im Akbar, Karimah Shabazz, (formerly Karimah Omar) and Dr. Muhammad Asad. Exceptional scholars whose research, insight and counsel provided accretion and audacity to my being. All praises, however, is due only to ALLAH to whom we all shall return.
For a successful interface between theology and science, one must connect symbols and myth with known facts. Science and religion, both enterprises make an extensive use of said. Though it may seem at first blush that science deals only with empirically verifiable truths, just a little reflection will reveal that this is really not so.
We know that mathematics is involved in the argumentation and development of all the exact sciences. Physics and quantum mechanics could not exist without the calculus. Yet the language of mathematic is symbolism.
Philosophers of science readily admit that what emerges from laboratory experiments are not absolute laws dealing with hard and unchangeable and final facts, but rather estimations dealing with the behavioral patterns of matter. And these patterns are able to be explicirared and interpreted in terms of statistical analysis. All analysis has to be communicated and formulated in terms of what really are statistical symbols which proves valuable in the macrocosm in dealing practically with the reactions that were observed and in predicting similar behavior in the future.
The symbols and myths of science find companion symbols and myths in the language of theology. Both deal with areas that lie essentially on the borderline of our direct consciousness.
Just what is a symbol? "It is a kind of sign. A sign is any reality which, when known, or when entering into our consciousness, leads to the knowledge of another reality apart from it, of which itis seen as the sign," states Dr. Charles R. Meyer, a professor of Systematic Theology at St. Mary of the Lake. Thus