Re: Details of interpreting verses from the Qur’an and obvious blunders
Dear psyah, ghaib is from root GHAIN, YAA and BAA and concrete root meaning of this root is absence but conceptually there are various meanings derived from it eg hidden, unknown, back biting, invisibility, depth of a wall, vanish, concealment, doubtfulness, setting of the sun, the moon or stars, travelling in the folds of the earth, gossip, slander and so on and so forth. I have explained in the other posts how derived meanings of roots are brought about.
For example, if we cannot see something, it is ghaib because it is not present before our eyes. Likewise future results of our actions are invisible till they show up. A plan we draw for building a house will not become a reality till it is all done. Likewise the program of Allah is only visible to us on paper or in our minds till we turn it into a reality through our working on it, so the reality related to divine program is ghaib till it become obvious.
So there are various way to interpret word ghaib depending on the purpose of user and the context in which the word is used. Anything is ghaib while it is ghaib and becomes obvious when it becomes mashhood ie obvious to witnesses of it. However, it would be better if you could help me understand your reason for asking me. I am not talking about ghaib rather I am talking about blind faith in the face of self evident reality. If you tell me God is Al GHAIB, I have no problem accepting that in the sense that I cannot see God, the being. However if you tell me something about ghaib that is unreasonable in lkight of self evident reality then I will not accept that because it contradicts self evident reality.
A case in mind could be that of existence of jinns in sense of supernatural creatures with supernatural powers that people believe in. I do not accept that, why not? Because it contradicts self evident realities. Also if anyone asks us how did we come to know that word jinn means that kind of creature that fascinated people like creative writers and story tellers then what can we tell anyone because we have not come across any such creature despite we being told it interacts with us?
There are plenty of books written on the subject of jijnns and magic but all are by fraudsters to create victims or ignorant mullas who have not done any research on this matter. It is the very same logic we use when we talk to christians for example. In the quran Allah tells us that how can he have a son when he has not even a wife. Will that be a valid argument if logical and rational reality was not taken into account ie purpose and context in which Allah is talking? Otherwise as ignorant muslims say Allah is God so he can do anything and that makes the whole thing senseless. Likewise context and purpose of things and concepts is very important.
Many time we can hear people say this world is not perfect or this quran is not perfect but the question is are they taking into account the purpose of things and their context? Without context and purpose nothing makes any sense neither universe nor quran or any human being. This is why we cannot afford to move away from the context and the purpose of things otherwise we become utterly lost.
Only if we want to have sense and want to make sense of things that anything matters not otherwise.
So please explain your point so that I could explain things further from my point of view if I understand your point.
regards and all the best.