AN EVENING WITH SIR JAMES JEAN
Here is an incident which occurred in England, as related by Inayat-ullah
Mashriqi. “It was Sunday,” he writes, “the year 1909. It was raining
hard. I had gone out on some errand when I saw the famous Cambridge
University astronomer, Sir James Jeans, with a Bible clutched under his
arm, on his way to Church.
Coming closer I greeted him, but he did not reply.
When I greeted him again, he looked at me and asked, ‘What do you want? ‘Two things, I replied.
‘Firstly, the rain is pouring down, but you have not opened your
umbrella. ‘Sir James smiled at his own absent-mindedness and opened his
umbrella.
‘Secondly’, I continued, ‘I would like to know that a man
of universal fame such as yourself is doing—going to pray in Church?’
Sir James paused for a while, then, looking at me, he said, ‘Come and
have tea with me this evening.’ So I went along to his house that
afternoon. At exactly 4 o’clock, Lady James appeared. ‘Sir James is
waiting for you’, she said. I went inside, where tea was ready on the
table. Sir James was lost in thought. ‘What was your question again?’ he asked, and without waiting for an answer, he went off into an inspiring description of the creation of the celestial bodies and the astonishing order to which they adhere, the incredible distances over which they
travel and the unfailing regularity which they maintain, their intricate journeys through space in their orbits, their mutual attraction and
their never wavering from the path chosen for them, no matter how
complicated it might be. His vivid account of the Power and Majesty of
God made my heart begin to tremble. As for him, the hair on his head was standing up straight. He eyes were shining with awe and wonder.
Trepidation at the thought of God’s all-knowing and all-powerful nature
made his hands tremble and his voice falter. ‘You know, Inayat-ullah
Khan’, he said, ‘when I behold God’s marvellous feats of creation, my
whole being trembles in awe at His majesty. When I go to Church I bow my head and say, “Lord, how great you are,” and not only my lips, but
every particle of my body joins in uttering these words. I obtain
incredible peace and joy from my prayer.
Compared to others, I
receive a thousand times more fulfillment from my prayer. So tell me,
Inayatullah Khan, now do you understand why I go to Church?”
Sir James Jeans’s words left Inayat-ullah Mashriqi’s mind spinning.
“Sir,” he said, “your inspiring words have made a deep impression on me. I am reminded of a verse of the Quran which, if I may be allowed, I
should like to quote.” “Of course.” Sir James replied. Inayat-ullah Khan then recited this verse:
“In the mountains there are streaks
of various shades of red and white, and jet-black rocks. Men, beasts and cattle have their different colours, too. From among His servants, it
is the learned who fear God” (35:27-28).
“What was that?”
exclaimed Sir James. “It is those alone who have knowledge who fear God. Wonderful! How extraordinary! It has taken me fifty years of continual
study and observation to realize this fact. Who taught it to Muhammad?
Is this really in the Quran? If so, you can record my testimony that the Quran’s an inspired Book. Muhammad was illiterate. He could not have
learnt this immensely important fact on his own. God must have taught it to him. Incredible! How extraordinary!”
And how significant that Sir James Jeans should have concluded his book, The Mysterious Universe with these words:
“We cannot claim to have discerned more than a very faint glimmer of
light at the best; perhaps it was wholly illusory, for certainly we had
to strain our eyes very hard to see anything at all. So that our main
contention can hardly be that the science of today has a pronouncement
to make, perhaps it ought rather to be that science should leave off
making pronouncements: the river of knowledge has too often turned back
on itself” (p.138).
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