'Ilham'/ Intuition- a function of human mind (1)

   

we have already seen in the article “Modes of Human Trial and Levels of Consciousness”  that When, on ‘youm e alast’, Allah made all human beings give witness about His Lordship, all human beings gave witness to that effect. All human beings accepted/ submitted that Allah is their Lord, but the submissions by all human beings to Allah were not at equal levels; this submission to Allah’s Lordship by more pious people was greater than that by lesser pious people.  Similarly every human being submitted to Allah’s Lordship variably in various matters/incidents which he was to face in future life. The objective behind Allah’s question was to know how much man would submit to Allah in his life matters; the reply by the man showed how much he would submit to Allah in various incidents in his life. These various levels of submission shown by individual(s) to Allah’s Lordship in various incidents of life are called human intentions/‘neyyat’. It has also been seen that these intentions/ ‘neyyat’ developed on ‘youm e alast’ are not developed by human souls; rather they are developed by human beings of blood and bones,  before they are born. 

It has also been seen that in psychological terms, these intentions are called unconscious level of human mind. These intentions or unconscious mind are not part of living memory of individual; these are part of forgotten memory. It is these intentions or unconscious mind which is made apparent to every individual during his/her life span. When these intentions become known to individual, they become individual’s wishes. This is the second level of human conscious which is called sub-conscious or preconscious. When individual acts to actualize its wishes, the third level of human mind operates, which is called conscious. Human action may be physical action (performed through body) or mental action (thinking). 

One implication of foregoing is that human intentions- i.e. good or bad- are inherently embedded in the unconscious level of human mind. Second implication is that these human intentions- i.e. good or bad- are pre-determined before humans are born in this world. But it does not mean Allah has forced these intentions i.e. good or bad upon the man; actually man has developed himself these intentions on ‘youm e alast’. What Allah does is only to move these intentions from the unconscious mind to the sub-conscious or conscious mind; Allah only makes known to the man his unknown intentions-i.e. good or bad intentions (Allah does it by generating stimuli through external factors including humans). .
 

We may adduce everything in this world is pre-determined but whatever man receives in this world is based on his intentions which he/she has developed on ‘youm e alast’.

From the foregoing, it may be adduced that human mind does not create good or bad intentions in this world because good or bad intentions are inherently embedded in unconscious part of human mind, and are predetermined before man is born in this world. However it does not mean human mind does not think. The process of making known to the man so far his unknown intentions is not possible without a thinking human mind. I mean it is through process of thinking that a human mind becomes aware of something unknown. It is this process of making known to the man his unknown good or bad intentions, which has been described in the following verse:

 “Then He (Allah) inspired (ilham) into him (mankind) his wrong and his right” (Sura al-shams-8).

This verse tells man’s good or bad intention/ideas are inspired into him; in other words, man becomes aware of his good or bad ideas/intentions. This process of inspiration (ilham) is the process through which human intentions/ideas embedded in his unconscious mind are moved into his conscious mind so that he may become aware of his unknown ideas/intentions.

We may conclude that ‘ilham’ /Inspiration/intuition is a function of human mind through which unknown intentions/ideas of a man are made known to him. These unknown intentions/ideas are inherently embedded in the unconscious part of human mind. It does not mean human mind does not think;the process of knowing anything is not possible without a thinking human mind. Human mind does think, though it does not create any thing, after taking birth into this world. Whatever intentions/ideas a human mind contains have been developed by him before his birth in this world, and have been made part of his unconscious mind, and such intentions/ideas are made known to him after his birth, through intuition. 

As against intuition, 'wahi' is carried out through an external agency i.e. an angel; the message carried through a 'wahi' is made known to the prophet through an angel (Gabriel).  Some 'wahi' is carried out without an angel- such wahi is confined only to a rasool. Such 'wahi' i.e. without Gabriel, is  like an intuition. Both wahi and intuition  are always correctly comprehended by the recipient; a prophet always correctly comprehends wahi and every person always correctly comprehends intuition. The difference between wahi and intuition is that intuition is common to all people whereas wahi is confined to only few people. Though common person is capable of comprehending intuition correctly,   common man is not always capable of reading/understanding his whole unconscious mind correctly; unconscious mind contains not only such ideas which constitutes intentions but also other ideas and stimuli thereof, and all knowledge, information, observations, experiences etc. It means the subject of Intuition are only such ideas which constitute human intentions but subject of wahi are all knowledge, information, experiences, observations, feelings, perceptions and all ideas. As mentioned earlier, both wahi and Intuition are correctly comprehended by the recipient. In case of wahi, the correct comprehension of what is subject of wahi is ensured by Allah directly (e.g. wahi carried without angel) or is ensured through the angel (e.g. the wahi carried through angel). ( pls also see my article "Concept of Infallibility of Prophet and Qadyaniat (5)").   In other words, 'wahi' has broadly two types. The first which is carried out by an angel (Gabriel); and the second which is carried out without an angel. The ideas made known to a prophet through both types of 'wahi' are inherently embedded in the unconscious part of the prophet's mind; that is why a prophet is always by birth a prophet. All people are granted with the capability of intuition; but only a selected few are chosen for a 'wahi'.  (continued).