divinely intended manifestation of goodness or benefit, and autonomously
defaults towards non-beneficent expressions of the phenomenon following an
insult that causes deviation.
For example: when unguarded deforestation occurs at the hand of men, the
function and form of the local ecology is altered so that inherent forces of
entropy are released bringing disorder and destruction to a concord otherwise
intended for perennial benefit. Hence, the injudicious manmade disruption
cuts short the manifestation of the intended tawhid of nature. When this
‘natural’ order is disturbed and thus deterred from obedience to the word of
al' Musawwir, it becomes subject to forces that lie 'outside' the range of what
men generally site as ‘normal’. This unbalanced estate favors extremes of too
little or too much, while a more balanced approach represents the taqua or
pious obedience of creation to God’s command, which, if left confined within
its extreme boundaries will never deviate of its own accord towards chaos,
even if it may appear to do so for example, in the case of an asteroid strike or
volcanic eruption after which nature autonomously restores itself according
to God’s command.
Therefore, we may redefine natural chaos as the created potential for both
order and disorder, and as such, chaos also represents both the 'beginning
and end' of any created thing. Hence, chaotic potential is an inherent quality
of the cosmos. In the Greek, it actually translates as “full of potential.”
Therefore, out of chaos God ordered the universe and to chaos it inevitably
returns to be recreated or re-ordered, or even annihilated as God wills. The
interval between this divine ordering and disordering represents a kind of
'rest' period during which the divine word 'Be' completes or fulfills itself in
the ‘cause and effect’ activities that Muslim philosophers have termed
“accident.” Man however, tends to accelerate the return to chaos when
participating in activities that disturb this balanced interval of active rest,
both in nature (macro-cosmic) and self (micro-cosmic). We may consider
man’s rush towards chaos the antithesis of miracle, because the miracle is
what accelerates energies inherent in the manifest word of Al-Musawwir
towards restoration of the affected system’s perfection; this being the return
of its form, function and purpose, or even the creation of a new system.
potential for life as well as the principle of consciousness.” All ‘potential’ disordered or not,
and regardless of mythos, can only have originated with Allah.