Dr Ibrahim Kalin - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre

ible” and ‘alam al-shahadah, “the world of the visible”. The
invisible world refers to that realm of existence known to
God alone. God has given intimations of this world but no
comprehensive knowledge of it has been made available.
While not accessible to the human experience, the invisible
world guides our encounter with the world of visible existence
and thus functions as a signpost for our conceptual
analyses and moral judgments. In a metaphysical and moral
sense, it regulates the affairs of the visible world in which
we live. What is striking about the Qur’anic notion of the
‘visible world’ is that a proper perception of it is based on an
experience of ‘witnessing’ (mushahadah), which is different
from looking and seeing. Witnessing means standing before
that which presents itself. It entails looking and seeing but
also attending to. It is more like the experience of looking at
a landscape and having a gestalt perception of it. In contemplating
a landscape, we move between parts and whole and
each time discover a new relationship.
In this sense, our encounter with the reality of things is a
rational and conceptual process but takes place within a larger
context of intelligibility and significance that goes beyond
purely logical and discursive thinking. Concepts, which are
not created in vacuum, correspond to different aspects of
reality and emerge in our encounter with reality, which the
Qur’an describes as “bearing witness to the truth”. Thus we
‘see’ the light, ‘touch’ the wood, ‘smell’ the rose, ‘taste’ the
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