MODES OF COMMUNICATION OF GOD’S SPEECH TO HUMAN BEINGS

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

 

MODES OF COMMUNICATION OF GOD’S SPEECH TO HUMAN BEINGS:

To understand the implication further of what we have said: The word wahy has been employed by the Holy Qur’an with reference to inanimate as well as animate objects; and, among animate objects, to animals as well as human beings. Then, among human beings, it has been used for communication with the non-prophets, namely, merely righteous persons, as well as for the Prophets and Messengers of God. And it has also been used in connection with the mutual communication between good as well as evil-minded persons. As such, it covers different levels of meaning like: creation of an impression, suggestion of an idea, inspiration, revelation—direct and indirect, expressive of different modes of the basic underlying concept of ‘communication’.

 

However, the concept of ‘speech’ emerges in the Qur’an explicitly in respect of God’s communication with the human beings in verse 51 of chapter 42, which we shall shortly quote.

The same verse also leads us to the meaning of the word wahy as direct ‘Inspiration’ by God. Elsewhere, however, the entire revelation of the Qur’an, which took place through the medium of the messenger-angel (26:193; etc.), has been affirmed to have taken place through the process of wahy (12:3; etc.). Then the employment of the word, in 42:52, in respect of the multi-modal communication of God with the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him!) gives to it a most comprehensive scope of meaning. Hence, as it relates to human beings, God’s wahy to a merely righteous person—a non-prophet, should be taken to signify ‘suggestion or creation of an idea’; while as ‘Prophetic Revelation’—which, in its ultimate aim, relates to the guidance of humanity at large in a divinely-initiated struggle—it should be accepted as standing for absolutely clear ‘Inspiration’ and literal ‘Revelation’.

 

With these preliminary observations, we may turn to the Qur’an for the different dynamic modes of Divine communication with the human beings. It says:

“And it is not possible (or, fitting) for a human being (in his earthly constitution) that Allah should speak ^[1] to him otherwise than by wahy (—implying direct communication by Allah Almighty, which, in the case of a non-prophet righteous person, is in the form of the suggestion or infusion of some idea, and, in the case of a Prophet and a Messenger of Allah, is in terms of absolutely clear Inspiration),^[2] or from behind a veil (—implying direct communication by Allah Almighty to His Prophet and Messenger, to the exclusion of other categories of human beings: a communication wherein a Voice is heard, as happened in the case of Moses at Sinai), or (that) he sends a messenger (in the person of an angel to act as intermediary and) to reveal by His Command whatsoever He wills. Verily, He is Exalted, Wise.” (42:51).

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[1] Mark the word “speak” !

[2] This implication becomes fully established when we compare the mode of ‘wahy’ mentioned in the verse with the two other modes that follow, and give due weight, without any pre-conceived opinion, to the fact that the three forms of communication are three different types of processes that exclude one another in respect of their distinct natures.

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to be continued . . . . .