Light, Clay, and Cosmos: The Intersection of Islamic Metaphysics and Scientific Frames

Mokhtar Stork

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we behave the way we do? Why a sudden smell can change our mood in an instant, why we struggle daily between our worst impulses and our highest ideals, or why humans are capable of both intense cruelty and breathtaking self-sacrifice?

Science frames human actions as a complex, multi-layered puzzle shaped by the interaction of biology, psychology, environment, and evolution. At any given second, our actions are sparked by neurobiological triggers—such as brain chemistry and sensory cues—which are continuously conditioned by our upbringing, psychological habits, and cultural environments. Ultimately, these mechanisms are anchored in millions of years of evolutionary history, where survival and social cooperation sculpted our behavioral blueprints.

Religion in turn views human behavior through the lens of free will, divine law, and a perpetual struggle between a higher spiritual calling and earthly desires. Within this framework, human actions are rarely seen as morally neutral; instead, they are categorized as righteousness or sin, carrying profound eternal or spiritual consequences. Ultimately, behavior serves as a living test of obedience, faith, and the capacity for love and mercy, reflecting whether a person is actively aligning with their divine blueprint or drifting away from it.

What I am presenting here deals with what we are from an Islamic perspective. I am of the view that per-ordainment, determinism, free-will, and scientific evidence, when combined, enable us to view life in a more comprehensive manner.

THE LIGHT OF GOD (Nur)

The Light of God (Nur) plays a significant role in Creation. This Qur’anic verse provides us with a parable concerning His Light: “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as (if there were) a niche and within it a lamp, the lamp is in glass, the glass as it were a brilliant star, lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east (i.e. neither it gets sun-rays only in the morning) nor of the west (i.e. nor it gets sun-rays only in the afternoon, but it is exposed to the sun all day long), whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself), though no fire touched it. Light upon Light! God guides to His Light whom He wills. And God sets forth parables for mankind, and God is All-Knower of everything,” (Surah Nur 24:35).

“70,000 veils of Light and darkness separate God (from his creation). Nobody reaches the reality of one of those veils without being annihilated.” (At-Tabarni in Al-Kabir and Ibn Abi ‘Asim).

To date, Voyager 1 has only managed to cross the edge of the heliosphere into interstellar space, but it remains well inside the solar system's gravitational boundaries and the Oort Cloud. Both Voyager 1 and 2 are still trapped inside the Sun's gravitational sphere of influence, specifically traveling through the theoretical Oort Cloud. It will take Voyager 1 roughly 300 years to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and about 30,000 years to exit it completely. 

According to Ibnu Abbas (r.a.): God is the “light of the heavens and the earth” and as such, it is His Light that guides the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth. The Prophet (s.a.w.) was asked, “Where was our Lord before He created His creation?” The Prophet (s.a.w.) replied, “He was in a cloud, beneath which was air and above which was air, and He created His throne on water,” (Tirmidhi).

God’s veil is His Nur (Light). It is this Light that keeps creation in existence. If this “Veil of Light” were to be withdrawn according to the Prophet (s.a.w.), the “Splendour of His Countenance” would consume His creation as far as His sight reaches. (Sahih Muslim). 

Ibnu Majah describes the withdrawal of God’s Veil of Light (Nur) in the following manner: “If He were to remove it, the glory of his Face would burn everything of His creation, as far as His gaze reaches.” The Qur’an states: “And do not invoke with Allah another deity. There is no deity except Him. Everything will be destroyed except His Face. His is the judgement, and to Him you will be returned,” (Surah Qasas 28:88).

According to Ibnu Masud (r.a.): “There is no night or day with your Lord; the Light of the Throne comes from the Light of His Face.” According to Ubay (r.a.): The “lamp” in the verse refers to the light that in turn refers to the Qur’an and the faith that is in a believer’s heart. Everything is dependent on this ‘Light’.

SCIENCE FRAMES IN RELATION ADAM IN ISLAM

Currently, Science Frames dealing with DNA, your genes, and biological, psychological, environmental, cultural, and religious factors are all viewed independently. These can be related to the creation of Adam in Islam.

Just as the macrocosm is governed by divine light and celestial order, the microcosm of human biology and behavior follows a parallel divine architecture. From the selections from al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya of Ibn ‘Arabi, one can acquire details of Adam’s physical creation: why he smells (created from foetid mud), and has six directions: a strong side and weak side, above and below, etc. At the time of his creation, he had a form and shape but no ruh (spirit or soul as commonly used).

In the Science Frames, we relate genetic failures to Down syndrome and an elevated risk of developing leukemia. The connection relies on a biological concept called the two-hit hypothesis, where a cell must undergo multiple distinct genetic failures before it becomes fully malignant.

Modern scientific discoveries in epigenetics further illuminate this connection. Epigenetics demonstrates that while our baseline genetic sequence remains fixed, our environment, habits, and emotional choices physically alter how those genes are expressed—effectively turning biological switches on or off throughout our lives. From an Islamic standpoint, this mirrors the dynamic interplay between our primordial clay base and the varying measures of divine Light (Nur) infused within each soul. Just as the mixture of earth shapes our inherent predispositions, environmental and moral choices act upon that latent blueprint, allowing either the light of higher consciousness or the shadow of earthly impulse to manifest in our daily behavior.

From an Islamic perspective, the Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “Verily God created the elements of man in darkness and then He infused into them His Light (Nur)...” (Mishkat: Narrated Abdullah Ibnu Amr).

Abu Musa Ash-Sahari (r.a.) reported the Prophet (s.a.w.) as saying: “Verily Allah Almighty created Adam from a handful which He took from the earth, so the children of Adam come in accordance with the earth. Some come with red skin, white skin, or black skin, and whatever is in between, smooth and rough, bad and good,” (Tirmidhi).

Allah said, “Truly, I am going to create man from clay. So, when I have fashioned him and breathed into him (his) soul created by Me. Then you fall down prostrate to him,” (Surah Sad 38:71-72). Allah then breathed into him of His spirit and entrusted him with the whole cosmos. This in brief sums up the initial stages of Adam’s beginnings.

The mixing of different amounts of clay and infusion of different amounts of Light (Nur) by Allah causes some people to have a greater amount of light and others a greater amount of darkness. According to Ibn Arabi, the ‘Dust’ makes manifest the Divine Realities, so that each person may know its share from its Creator. “God manifests Himself in the theophany through His light in that Dust, which is called the People of Reflection.” This produces different kinds of human character and behaviour.

ADAM’S STATUS

According to Chittick (2002), Adam (a.s.) was “created with the means of mastering creation in the image of the all-comprehensive name ‘Allah’, which designates Allah in both His absoluteness, His infinity, His Essence and His attributes, His incomparability and His similarity, His transcendence and His immanence. When Adam saw his own essence, he came to know his ground in all things and from all things. Iblis on the other hand is only a fragment of the universe. He does not possess any comprehensiveness and that is why Adam (a.s.) was made Allah’s Vicegerent (Khalifatullah)."

Allah said, “O Adam, tell them their names.” And when he told them their names, He said, “Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and that I know what you reveal and what you conceal?” (Surah Baqarah 2:33).

HUMAN NATURE IN ACCORDANCE WITH ADAM’S CHARACTER

The Qur’an states that we are arrogant, conceited, full of pride, and look down on others (Surah Luqman 31:18). We make assumptions and are slanderous. We backbite and indulge in idle gossip (Surah Hujurat 49:12). We are mischief-makers and hypocrites (Surah Baqarah 2:11-12, Surah Al-Qasas 28:77). We fail to uphold justice and fall prey to corruption (Surah Nisa 4:135). We are ungrateful and lack consistency in faith: believing when things are good and failing when enduring trials and tribulations (Surah Al-Asr 103:2-3). We are destroyers of the environment (Surah Baqarah 2:205) and use our wealth to establish corrupt systems (Surah Al-Qasas 28:77).

From Ahadith, we acquire insights into the existence of Adam, which in turn also enables us to understand why we are what we are:

• Ever in Haste: When Allah blew His spirit into Adam, He did so from the head, thus causing him to sneeze. The angels responded by saying, “Alhamdulillah” (All Praise be to Allah). Allah responded by saying: “May your Lord have mercy on you.” As the ruh reached his eyes, Adam saw the fruits of Paradise (Jannat). As the ruh reached his stomach, he desired to eat them. He wanted to get up even before his ruh had reached his feet, thus causing Allah to reveal in the Qur’an that man is ever in haste.

• Weak, Hasty & Niggardly: The Qur’an states that “Adam was created weak” (Surah Nisa 4:28) and “Surely man is created of a hasty temperament. Being greatly grieved when evil afflicts him, and niggardly when good befalls him” (Surah Ma’arij 70:20-21). This verse describes the fickle nature of man. When calamity befalls him, he becomes desperate and upset, losing patience. However, when good things come his way, such as wealth and comfort, he becomes begrudging and miserly in spending his wealth for good causes.

• Opportunistic: In the tafsir of Qurtubi, with reference to Hakim, Tirmidhi has reported from Ibnu Abbas (r.a.) that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said that after the offer of the trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains—which they turned down because they felt they would not be able to handle it—it was offered to Adam. Adam asked, “O Lord, what is it that goes with it?” The answer was: “If you succeeded in fulfilling the demands of this trust to your best (that is, remained obedient to your best), you will be rewarded (which will be in the form of the nearness and pleasure of God and the eternal bliss of Jannah), and if you let this trust go to waste, you will be punished.” Scholars state that it was Adam’s desire to acquire nearness to Allah and to seek His pleasure which caused him to accept this responsibility. Could it be that he was possibly thinking about the rewards? However, the moment he assumed this responsibility—actually not even that much time between the Zuhr and ‘Asr Prayers—he was already being snared by Satan and fell from grace. When you look at the world today, the destruction of the environment, the lack of justice, etc., it is obvious that mankind as a whole has failed to live up to expectations even in a worldly sense. (Note: Those who were offered the ‘amanah’ turned it down because they feared they would not be able to fulfil its responsibilities and would be punished. However, when Adam was offered it, he accepted readily, probably thinking about its rewards, thus being labelled as being “unjust and ignorant” in the Qur’an by Allah, Surah Ahzab 33:72).

• Untrustworthy & Liar: Abdullah Ibnu ‘Amr (r.a.) is reported to have said that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “There are four things which, if you come to have them, and you have nothing out of so many worldly things, you are still no loser: Guarding of trust, telling the truth, good morals, and lawful sustenance.” (Tafsir Ibnu Kathir; Musnad of Ahmad). The Prophet also forewarned: “A time will come when no sooner does a man rise from sleep, amanah (trust) will be confiscated from out of his heart leaving some of its traces behind... so much so that people will enter into mutual transactions and contracts, but no one will fulfil the obligations of amanah due against him...” Narrated Abu Hurairah (r.a.): Allah’s Messenger (s.a.w.) said, “When Allah created Adam, He touched his back, and there fell from his back every soul that He would create from his offspring till the Day of Resurrection... Adam saw a person from amongst them and he felt attracted towards him... He said: ‘My Lord, what span of life have you allotted to him?’ He replied: ‘Sixty years.’ He said: ‘My Lord, enhance his age from my age (to the extent of forty years).’ ...When Adam completed his age life-span with only forty years remaining, there came to him the angel of death. Thereupon Adam said: ‘Are there not forty years left in my life-span?’ The angel said: ‘Did you not confer your son [forty years]?’ Adam denied it and so did his offspring. Adam forgot and ate (the fruit) of the tree and so his offspring also forgot and he (Adam) committed an error and so did his offspring commit an error.” (Mishkat). The Prophet (s.a.w.) also stated: “Among the signs of a hypocrite are three, even if he fasts and prays and claims to be a Muslim: when he speaks, he lies; when he gives a promise, he breaks it; and when he is trusted with an amanah, he betrays it” (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

CONCLUSION

Adam’s created state clearly defines human attitude and behavior. When this physical foundation is considered alongside the measure of Light (Nur) each soul receives at its inception, we begin to understand why human beings differ so profoundly in every aspect of existence.

Viewing Creation through the initial measure of divine Light reveals how every descendant of Adam takes shape distinctly—an expression of pre-ordainment. When we synthesize these spiritual realities with the latest scientific discoveries, a clear connection emerges, explaining the roots of human nature through the twin lenses of Islam and empirical science.

Bringing these two realms together reveals a vital truth: religion and science were never meant to exist as separate, isolated entities. For too long, modern discourse has compartmentalized spiritual truths and scientific inquiry into competing paradigms. By framing human genetics, behavior, and neurobiology through the foundational Islamic accounts of Adam’s creation and the divine Nur, we reconstruct a unified vision of existence. It is this kind of synthesis that Muslim scholarship should consider today: bridging sacred metaphysics with contemporary science to demonstrate that empirical discoveries do not contradict faith, but rather illuminate the intricate mechanics of God’s divine architecture. (Mokhtar Stork, 1 Nov 2026)

[Reference: Based on some extracts from my book: God’s Light (Nur) Determines Your Fate (2024).]

NOTE: The Arabic Language is made up of "sun" and "moon" alphabets. When uttered we say in Arabic Phonetics: Ibnu 'Arabi - not Ibn 'Arabi. Its an Orientalist creation which we continue to follow to this when writing in English, which I find ridiculous!)