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In the Jewish religion, there are some who practice something called kabbalah, I don't mean the celebrity stuff, but the real kabbalah.

Here's a quick overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np3nefIMCTQ

Basically, they say that we are a closed box with 5 known senses, and we have to rely on our senses to translate reality. So what we experience on a day to day basis is just a translation of reality. Kabbalah allows you to see outside the box apparently.

Think of it like a translation of the Quran, you can only get so much from a translation of the Quran, but if you learn Arabic properly, you can get so much more seeing and understanding the real Quran without needing to rely on a translation, as via a translation, meaning can easily be lost, confused, missed etc.

My question is, does islam have such a system, similar to the Jewish Kabbalah system?

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@Yahia please don't use the comment feature to answer the question. –  Mujahid مجاهد Feb 15 '13 at 15:58
@AlUmmatمجاهد ok, comments deleted... –  Yahia Feb 15 '13 at 16:09

2 Answers 2

Although what I know about Kabbala is somewhat different (it is usually known to be Irfan of the Judaism but there are some scholarly ideas that it is far different than how it is introduced), but your question is mainly around the reality and our perception of the truth. It is usually stated that knowledge is two-fold, Ontic or Epistemic. The ontic knowledge is the knowledge of the reality as is, whereas the epistemic knowledge is the knowledge of the reality as it is perceived by a being.

The uncertainty law of Heisenberg is something that addresses our perception of the reality (which is an epistemic knowledge of the truth) never can be complete as is the ontic knowledge, so always expecting a nonzero discrepancy between the two knowledges. Although it is stated that the uncertainty law is a law of nature but it is obviously wrong, similar to the second law of thermodynamics which is wrongly known to be a law of nature, instead both of these rules have something to do with the observation (perception) of the reality and thus a matter of the observer's nature not the Nature.

According to Islam however, the gap between the two knowledges is removable and no way persistent. Indeed such a gap is not intrinsic even to our (as we are the observers) nature, but such gaps belong to the shortages in the means we usually use to perceive the reality, our five senses. Example for that is the limitations of the way that the eyes (our means for seeing) use to capture the reality, the light reflection confines the visibility to only the length scales larger than the wavelength of the light which introduces the reality to our brains. Other limitations also exist that are not to be stated here for the sake of brevity. However, all of such limitations are limitations of the means and the methods that we use our senses in perceiving the reality, none seems to be intrinsic to our being. One way is to augment our perception means by tools like microscopes and infrared cameras, and another way is to answer a fundamenta question about our nature: Can a human being perceive the truth directly?

Islam's answer to this question is YES. Indeed, the eyes are the transformers that receive light and change it into signals understandable by the brain, the brain analyze the signals but can never understand the results on its own. Indeed what do perceive and understand is called in Qur'aan to be the Heart which is located in the Chest (not to mean the physical limb inside the physical chest), this is somewhat related to the reality of the human being, its soul.

أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَا أَوْ آذَانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۖ فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَـٰكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ


Even intellect is not the Heart and they are two different things. And what is interesting is that Perception can be acquired ALSO directly through the Hearts. This perception can match the reality so that the two knowledges coincide, although it doesn't mean the direct perception is verily exact and flawless.

To understand this better let me mention an obvious fact. Perception of an external reality depends on two things:

  1. the means through which to perceive
  2. the capacity of the being that is to perceive the external reality. the Direct perception of the reality is free of only the former type of the flaws, but it still may suffer from the latter type of shortages.

Qur'aan very much cares about the Heart of the persons being Healthy, not being ill. The more Healty and purified is the Heart of the person (which means the more that the person is spiritually evolved and completed) the less flaw will be induced in his perception of the truth, and more influentially in his Direct perception of the truth.

يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ / إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ

The Day whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail, / But only he (will prosper) that brings to Allah a sound heart [26:88,89]

Those Saints that have been reached to the highest ranks of the humanity (through honest worshiping of Allah and complete submission and obedience) --that is, the 14 infallibles peace be upon them-- have expressed from time to time that can even see Allah through the eyes of their Heart, and of course this seeing is not through seeing the boundaries or shapes and colors (and Allah is glorified of being such as having boundaries and etc) but instead through feeling the presence of Allah, seeing and hearing what we cannot usually see and hear.

مَا ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ وَمَا غَوَىٰ / وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ / إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ / عَلَّمَهُ شَدِيدُ الْقُوَىٰ / ذُو مِرَّةٍ فَاسْتَوَىٰ / وَهُوَ بِالْأُفُقِ الْأَعْلَىٰ / ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلَّىٰ / فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ / فَأَوْحَىٰ إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ مَا أَوْحَىٰ / مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَىٰ / أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ عَلَىٰ مَا يَرَىٰ

Your Companion is neither astray nor being misled. / Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire. / It is no less than inspiration sent down to him: / He was taught by one Mighty in Power, / Endued with Wisdom: for he appeared (in stately form); / While he was in the highest part of the horizon: / Then he approached and came closer, / And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or (even) nearer; / So did (Allah) convey the inspiration to His Servant- (conveyed) what He (meant) to convey. / The (Prophet's) heart in no way falsified that which he saw. / Will ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw? [53:2-12]

A very brief expression of what I (not a scholar) understood from the Shia consideration of the issue, of course there are lots of details not addressed in this relatively short answer.

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Islam is a very practical religion. It does not believe in something that is not clear or forbids knowledge that can be achieved beyond five senses. For example

  • Magic is banned in Islam
  • Prediction is banned in Islam
  • Palmistry is banned in Islam
  • Astrology is banned in Islam

Any type of practice that sort of gives you supernatural power that only God knows is banned in Islam. So in short Islam does not recognized such 6th sense. There has been no description of such action in Islam, as far as I know.

Something that can be close is called Isthikhara Prayer. This is a special prayer that one prays if one is not something and need guidance from Allah. You offer speical isthikhar pray for 7 days and God Almighy will guide you either through dream or your own inclination or otherwise that will clear the path for you. But it is not 6th sense. It is guidance only for the purpose you offer the prayer for.

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Please do not answer without knowledge. There is no where in Islam that does not recognize the 6th sense. We know there are these abilities and we believe in the Unseen. Allah can give these abilities to whomever he wants. Also, istikara just has to be preformed once regarding a thing that you want to do that is neither halal nor haram, because if it is halal do it, if it is Haram don't do it, you do not need to make istikhara on these things. Also, dreams have nothing to do with dreams. Also, please provide citations. –  Mujahid مجاهد Feb 17 '13 at 22:29
I don't the question is about 6th sense as in telepathy, but rather understanding of the world from a source other than the senses. –  Muz Feb 18 '13 at 0:54
I have never heard anything in Islam that promotes or even recognizes 6th sense or promotes understanding the world from a different perspective. –  muslim1 Feb 18 '13 at 1:17

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