The First Article The Element of Reality

THE ELEMENT OF REALITY

Introduction

Introduction

This book is set out as three articles. The First Article throws light on the element of reality, or on the polishing up of Islam by means of a number of premises and matters. The Second Article discloses the element of rhetoric. The Third elucidates by means of the element of doctrine the answers to the Japanese. As for the books, [^1] they are a sort of Qur'anic commentary (tefsir) realised through investigation of the sciences of the heavens, earth, and humankind alluded to in the Qur'an.

[^1]:The books (kitap) here mentioned, which in other places in the text are said to number three, evidently refer to three sections which were planned for (his uncompleted work but remained unwritten. They were to contain more detailed expositions of some of the matters discussed. See pages 57, 103, 115, 118, 125. It is suggested that these books were realised in different form in Bediuzzaman's Qur'anic commentary, Ishārāt al-I'jāz, composed 1913-14, published 1918. English tr., Signs of Miraculousness. The Inimitability of the Qur'an's Conciseness. 2nd edn. (Istanbul: Sözler Publications, 2013).

The First Article

The First Article

It is one of the rules of the authoritative scholars to use premises (mukaddeme) in order to reach one's objective. We therefore shall build a staircase of twelve steps.

The First Premise

The First Premise

It is an established principle that when reason and transmitted sacred texts conflict, reason is taken as basic and the sacred text is interpreted. [^2] But then reason has to be [true] reason.

[^2]:For this rule, see Publisher's Preface.