✍︎The text below is Felsufi's own essay in reading and reflection. It may carry approaches that differ from classical tafsīr — Sufi interpretation, synthesis with modern science, the Risale-i Nur perspective. Because it is the author's personal ijtihād, alternative classical readings exist; this text makes no claim to a single correct reading — it offers a perspective.
Earlier in this series we said briefly that the Human, the Cosmos and the Qur'an are three faces of a single reality. This triad is in fact the most complete representative of the ontological categories of observer, observed and that which gives meaning. Yet the modern understanding prevalent today is physicalism, which posits only the observed — and takes even that to consist of matter and energy. In this essay we set out what physicalism is and why it is problematic.
Three Faces of a Single Reality
One reality — three ontological categories
The Human
The observer — an irreducible information-processing system
The Cosmos
The observed — the only category physicalism admits
The Qur'an
That which gives meaning — never enters physicalism's frame at all
Physicalism is the idea that everything that exists is fundamentally physical. In other words, everything — mental, social or biological — reduces to physical processes definable by science. This view has helped us understand the world and has been highly effective in letting science explain a great deal about reality. Yet for all its appeal, physicalism faces some large difficulties.
Three Difficulties Physicalism Faces
“Everything is fundamentally physical”
Quantum
Matter ceases to be solid and concrete; it becomes abstract mathematical structure — wave functions, quantum fields.
Emergence
Consciousness arises from neural networks, social behaviour from individual interactions — yet neither reduces to the sum of its parts.
This shows there are distinct levels of reality.
Abstract entities
If mathematical patterns are taken in too, what distinguishes it from Platonism or neutral monism?
Two states of matter
Matter is solid and concrete. It is measured, occupies space, can be handled.
The word “physical” points at something definite
Reduction looks intuitive
→
Matter is less a definite thing than a cloud of probabilities; it turns into abstract mathematical structure.
“Physical” is widened to include the abstractions
As the definition stretches it loses its distinctness
The definition game — physicalism's defensive reflex
TRIGGER
A new abstraction is discovered
Wave function, field, mathematical relation — nothing like solid matter.
STATE
“Physical” is redefined
If it is measurable and comes from experiment, it counts as physical; the scope widens.
STATE
EVERYTHING science studies becomes physical
The thesis is now elastic enough to fit any new discovery.
The thesis loses its meaning
A claim that excludes nothing is a claim that asserts nothing.
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Widening its definition to include whatever science takes up strips physicalism of its distinctness and turns it into a vague, all-encompassing term.
The Observer — A Distinct Ontological Category
In truth, existence out there is interfused like a sea; drawing boundaries around objects is hard. To separate a leaf from the tree, the tree from the forest, the forest from nature, nature from the world — this is the work of the observer.
The measurement problem in quantum mechanics underscores this fundamental role: through the act of measurement the observer determines the state of the system. This forces us to admit the observer as a distinct and fundamental existent — an information-processing system irreducible to anything else. That the observer plays a significant part in shaping reality challenges physicalism's simple reductionism head-on. We will treat this in more detail later.
Existence is far more complex than physicalism allows. Passing beyond it opens doors to a deeper understanding of the universe. Rather than compressing everything into the narrow definition of “physical,” we can better appreciate the richness and complexity of reality by admitting the interplay of the physical, the mental and the abstract.
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By widening our view we may begin to see the many-layered nature of existence — something no single frame can wholly grasp.
Stay tuned for the further essays on the way to understanding the triad in existence: observer (human) – observed (cosmos) – meaning-giver (Qur'an). We welcome the comments and questions that will open the subject from other angles.
✱About the series
This is the third essay in the series Terminology for Reading the Human, the Cosmos and the Qur'an. The previous is The Story of Indivisible Wholes, on which the discussion of emergent phenomena here directly rests. All 7 essays of the series are on the site. — This essay quotes no verses directly; it belongs to the series' conceptual preparations.
✦With Gratitude to the Author
This essay appears on QuranCodex with the verbal permission and generosity of Felsufi. All interpretations and syntheses reflect the author's personal reflection; QuranCodex carries these texts respectfully as an invitation to think. The original text is published on Medium.