The Vertical Dimension

Moving to the next dimension, which is īmān: if Islam is the horizontal dimension, or the dimension of width, then this is the dimension related to a vertical motion. In other words, īmān relates to a person's connection with the Creator, or with God, in Islam. Islam is an outward practice that is keeping people together, and there are social rules that we adhere to. When one moves into īmān, this is why we are doing it. It transcends simply the act of doing it, and moves into the realm of why. Why are we practising these things? The reason that the Qurʾān gives is that it should be for God alone. That would be the vertical dimension of īmān.

Now, in the hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is asked: what is īmān? — akhbirnī ʿan al-īmān. Interestingly enough, in the hadith the Prophet (peace be upon him) does not actually define īmān, but rather gives us the objects of īmān. What is implied in the hadith is that this was something the Arabs understood: they knew what īmān was. And here a digression is called for, just for a moment.

This chapter looks a great deal at Arabic terms, and there is a reason why. First of all, the Muslims believe that the Arabic language is a language of revelation. In other words, it has a unique status amongst other languages. Now, the Muslims would say that this is true about the Hebrew language, that it is probably true about the language of Sanskrit, probably true about some original Chinese language, and possibly true about some of the Indo-European languages, like Greek. But traditionally Greek is seen as more what they call a sacerdotal, or priestly, language: as Latin was for the Roman Catholic Church, Greek was for the Greek Orthodox Church. In the Muslim tradition, Arabic is definitely part of the worldview of the Muslims.

There is a theory in linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf theory of language, which is also the language relativity theory, which is the idea that a language is not simply a means of communication, but that embedded in the language is a worldview. In other words, individuals articulate their worldview through their language. And this is important.

To give a good example of that: the word in English for reality is related to a Latin word, res, and res means thing. Res equals thing. Now, that is a very interesting concept right there. In other words, embedded in the language itself, they are telling us what we think about reality. Reality is thing. There is an inherent materialism in that word. There is an inherent materialism in that word.

Now, to take an example of the word in Arabic for reality: it is ḥaqīqah. The root word is ḥaqq, which is a name of God. Al-Ḥaqq means the Real, and it is one of the ninety-nine names of God. So, embedded in the Arabic language, the perception of reality is already related to something that is beyond this. It is related to the divine. There is an idea, in a sense, that reality itself is not what we are experiencing in the realm of things, but actually transcends the realm of things. Because in the Islamic tradition, God is not a thing. God is not a thing. The word in Arabic for thing is shayʾ, and shayʾ comes from a word which means that which is willed into existence. So a thing is something that emerges into existence from non-existence. So reality transcends thing, in the Islamic worldview. Reality transcends thing. Within the Arabic language, then, certain semantic fields will be seen that are created by these triliteral roots — that are based on these three root letters — and that are articulating something very important about reality.