Presented by Zia H Shah MD
Abstract
The current trajectory of human technological advancement is increasingly defined by the pursuit of artificial intelligence, a field where computational complexity is often conflated with sentient awareness. However, a rigorous analysis of the “Hard Problem” of consciousness suggests that subjective experience remains a boundary that silicon and algorithms can never cross. This report presents a comprehensive case for God the Creator, arguing that the phenomenon of consciousness—characterized by the qualitative “what-it-is-likeness” of experience—is a divine endowment rather than a byproduct of material complexity. Drawing extensively upon the works of Dr. Zia H. Shah MD, the analysis utilizes the “Two Books” framework, harmonizing the “Book of Scripture” with the “Book of Nature.” By examining the unique sensory “bragging points” across more than 6,000 mammalian species—from the ultrasonic navigation of the Chiroptera to the electroreceptive prowess of the Monotremata—the report demonstrates that consciousness is a bespoke, irreducibly complex gift tailored to each creature. Through the lens of Quranic exegesis and modern philosophy of mind, the report concludes that the enduring mystery of the soul serves as a profound sign (Ayah) of a Transcendent Designer, reinforcing the theological assertion that while humans may forge tools of immense intelligence, the breath of consciousness remains the exclusive domain of the Divine.
The Promethean Ambition: Artificial Intelligence and the Illusion of Sentience
The smartest among humans are currently engaged in a historic endeavor to replicate the functions of the human mind within artificial substrates. These efforts have yielded significant successes in the realms of pattern recognition, natural language processing, and strategic decision-making. Yet, as Dr. Zia H. Shah MD observes, there is a fundamental distinction between the ability of a machine to process information and the capacity of a living being to experience a “self”. The prevailing enthusiasm for “conscious AI” is often rooted in what philosophers describe as a “Promethean lure”—the desire to not merely build tools but to step into the role of a creator by bringing inanimate matter to life.
The Computational Fallacy
The argument that AI will eventually become conscious rests on the assumption that consciousness is an emergent property of computational complexity. From this perspective, once a system reaches a certain threshold of information integration or processing power, awareness will “magically” emerge. However, Dr. Shah, citing psychiatrist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist, argues that consciousness is not a byproduct of computation but something far more fundamental and elusive. While increasing computational power can produce more sophisticated behaviors, it does not inevitably produce a conscious mind.
The language used in contemporary AI research often obfuscates this reality. For example, when Large Language Models (LLMs) generate falsehoods, they are commonly described as “hallucinating”. In human beings, a hallucination is a subjective, conscious experience that has lost its grip on reality. By applying this term to machines, researchers implicitly and perhaps erroneously confer upon them a capacity for experience that they do not possess. This anthropomorphism underestimates human nature while overestimating machine capability.
| Attribute | Artificial Intelligence (Computational) | Human/Mammalian Consciousness (Experiential) |
| Origin | Human-coded algorithms and data processing. | Divine command (Ruh) and biological life. |
| Mechanism | Statistical probability and electrical switching. | Subjective qualia and neural-spiritual interface. |
| Knowledge | Horizontal expansion of data. | Vertical awareness and subjective “what-it-is-likeness”. |
| Experience | Simulated “Easy Problems” of function. | The “Hard Problem” of inner feeling. |
| Moral Status | Instrumentality and utility. | Inherent rights and moral agency. |
The Theological Refutation of Machine Consciousness
From an Islamic and Quranic theological perspective, the possibility of artificial consciousness is emphatically denied. Dr. Zia H. Shah MD argues that human consciousness has a spiritual origin—the soul (Ruh)—which is bestowed by God and lies beyond material replication. The Quran teaches that the nature of the soul is a divinely kept mystery: “The soul is of the command of my Lord, and you have not been given of knowledge except a little” (Quran 17:85).
This divine limit suggests that the essence of consciousness is not something that humans will ever fully grasp or be able to duplicate. Therefore, while AI can become “smart” in its ability to navigate complex datasets, it remains “hollow” because it lacks the divinely granted interface that allows for subjective awareness. This embellishes the miracle of consciousness in God’s creation, setting a clear boundary between the “Work of God” (life) and the “Work of Man” (machines).
The Hard Problem: Why Physicalism Fails to Explain the Mind
The central challenge to the materialistic understanding of the universe is what David Chalmers famously termed the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”. The problem is not explaining how the brain processes stimuli or integrates information—these are the “Easy Problems” that can, in principle, be mapped through neuroscience and replicated in AI. The “Hard Problem” is the question of why and how subjective experiences, or “qualia,” arise from physical brain processes.
The Alchemy of Qualia
When a person views a red apple, physics can describe the wavelength of light (approximately 650 nanometers) and the resulting electrical signals traveling through the 86 billion neurons of the brain. However, none of these objective physical descriptions account for the experience of “redness”. As noted in the reflections on Thomas Nagel’s work, while the color red can be fully described in terms of objective physics, the subjective experience remains inherently private and inaccessible to third-person observation.
Dr. Zia H. Shah MD frames this as a fundamental challenge to materialism. He argues that if consciousness is not identical to the biological substrate, it can theoretically survive the destruction of that substrate. He cites the work of scientists and philosophers who view the brain as a “receiver” of consciousness rather than a “generator,” much like a radio receiving a signal. If the brain is merely the interface for a transcendent soul, then the materialist attempt to create consciousness through better hardware is fundamentally flawed.
The Personal Explanation for Consciousness
Christian philosopher Richard Swinburne and others have argued that a “personal explanation” involving a divine consciousness is more appropriate for understanding the origin of human awareness than a natural scientific explanation. Dr. Shah incorporates this into his deductive argument for God:
- Premise 1: Specific mental states (thoughts, feelings) and physical states (brain activity) are regularly correlated.
- Premise 2: There is an explanation for these correlations.
- Premise 3: The explanation is either personal (attributing to a conscious agent) or natural scientific (attributing to physical laws).
- Premise 4: Natural scientific explanations (physicalism) lack the resources to account for intentionality and subjective experience.
- Conclusion: Therefore, the explanation is personal and theistic.
This argument posits that the presence of conscious experience is more plausibly explained by the existence of a Divine Being who possesses intentionality than by naturalistic processes alone.
Zia H. Shah’s “Two Books” Paradigm: Scripture and Nature in Harmony
A cornerstone of Dr. Shah’s methodology is the classical Islamic principle that truth is unitary. Since God is the Creator of the Universe (the Work of God) and the Revealer of the Quran (the Word of God), there can be no genuine contradiction between the two. Dr. Shah revitalizes the “Two Books” theory—the idea that God has authored both the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature.
The Equivalence of Ayat
In the Quran, the term Ayah (plural Ayat) denotes “signs,” “proofs,” or “evidence” of truth. The Quran refers to its own verses as Ayat and simultaneously refers to natural phenomena—such as the sun, the moon, and the diversity of languages—as Ayat. For Dr. Shah, this terminological identity implies a shared ontological status: “Studying a cell under a microscope is, for Shah, an act of exegesis parallel to studying a verse of the Quran”.
This integrated approach allows for a “Guided Evolution” framework. Shah accepts the biological fact of common ancestry—the idea that all 6,000+ mammalian species are related—but rejects the materialistic philosophy of “blind chance”. He argues that the mechanisms of natural selection and mutation are the “instruments” of God’s will, leading toward the emergence of conscious life.
| Quranic Concept | Scientific Alignment (per Zia H. Shah) | Implication |
| Creation from Clay | Abiogenesis from inorganic matter billions of years ago. | Life has a physical origin guided by divine will. |
| Stepwise Formation | Evolutionary stages of embryonic and species development. | Creation is a gradual, lawful process. |
| Taqdīr (Decree) | Laws of nature programmed into the universe. | The universe is a coherent, predictable, and designed system. |
| Signs in the Horizons | Cosmological fine-tuning and the Big Bang. | The vastness of space points to a Transcendent Designer. |
| Signs within Themselves | Human consciousness and the enigma of the soul. | The inner world is as miraculous as the outer stars. |
The Mammalian Spectrum: 6,000 “Bragging Points” of Creation
The miracle of consciousness is not restricted to the human species. Across the more than 6,000 known mammalian species, nature exhibits an astonishing variety of conscious experiences, each with its own sensory “bragging points”. These variations underscore the idea that consciousness is a bespoke gift, uniquely adapted to the “Umwelt” or environment of each creature.
The Ultrasonic Reality of the Chiroptera
One of the most vivid examples of an “alien” conscious experience is found in bats. Most bats (microchiroptera) perceive the external world primarily through echolocation, detecting the reflections of their own high-frequency shrieks. This sensory apparatus allows bats to make precise discriminations of distance, size, and motion that are comparable to human vision.
However, as Thomas Nagel famously argued in “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”, a human can never truly know the subjective character of this experience. Even if a human were to imagine having webbing on their arms and flying at dusk, they would only be imagining what it is like for a human to behave like a bat. The actual subjective mindset of the bat remains a closed book. Nagel argues that this “subjective character of experience” is what all organisms share, yet it is also what makes each “point of view” unique and irreducibly complex.
The Platypus and the Electric Sixth Sense
If the bat’s sonar is a masterpiece of auditory-spatial integration, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) represents a pinnacle of sensory innovation. As a monotreme, the platypus possesses a “superpower-like sixth sense” known as electrolocation. Its bill is packed with approximately 40,000 electroreceptor skin cells and thousands of mechanoreceptors.
When a platypus dives, it closes its eyes, ears, and nostrils, becoming effectively “blind” to our familiar senses. It then sways its head side-to-side, detecting the tiny electrical signals produced by the muscle contractions of its prey. The cortical structure of the platypus integrates these electrical and mechanical signals in a manner “astonishingly similar to the stripe-like ocular dominance array in primate visual cortex,” allowing it to achieve a complete, three-dimensional “fix” on its underwater environment.
This level of biological sophistication in an “ancient” lineage like the monotremes suggests that consciousness was not a late-stage accident of evolution, but a fundamental design goal from the beginning. The platypus’s ability to “see” with its bill is a profound “Ayah” (sign) of a Creator who is “The Maker, The Fashioner”.
Comparative Mammalian Sensory Profiles
The following table displays the extraordinary sensory diversity across different mammalian orders, illustrating the specific “bragging points” that point to a Divine Designer:
| Mammalian Group/Species | Unique Sensory Modality | Conscious “Bragging Point” |
| Chiroptera (Bats) | Ultrasonic Echolocation. | Three-dimensional “auditory vision” in complete darkness. |
| Cetacea (Dolphins/Whales) | X-ray-like Sonar. | Ability to penetrate soft tissue and share visual mental pictures with others. |
| Monotremata (Platypus) | Electrolocation. | Detection of 10−6 V/cm electrical fields from prey muscle contractions. |
| Proboscidea (Elephants) | Extreme Olfactory Acuity. | Richer olfactory experience than humans; social mourning and empathy. |
| Talpidae (Star-Nosed Mole) | Somatosensory (Eimer’s organs). | Hyper-sensitive touch processing at speeds faster than the human eye can follow. |
| Rodentia (Naked Mole Rats) | Eusocial Vocalizations. | Dialect and individual recognition in a complex colony structure. |
Cognitive Closure and the “Spiritual Dog” Analogy
In his monograph “The Horizons of Perception,” Dr. Zia H. Shah MD utilizes the concept of “Cognitive Closure” to explain why consciousness remains a mystery to the human intellect. Formalized by philosopher Colin McGinn, this thesis posits that the human mind, as a biological product of evolution, has inherent limits—just as the wings of an eagle have aerodynamic limits.
The Dog and the Prime Number
Shah elaborates on McGinn’s analogy: if a dog is placed in front of a blackboard showing a proof of Euclid’s theorem regarding the infinity of prime numbers, the dog sees the chalk and smells the dust, but the concept of a prime number is non-existent to it. The dog’s neural architecture simply cannot support that level of abstraction.
Shah argues that humans are “spiritual dogs” regarding the link between the brain and consciousness. We can observe the biological “chalk marks” (neurons, synapses) and we can feel the “consciousness,” but the logic that connects the physical matter to the subjective mind is the “prime number”—a truth that falls outside our evolutionary cognitive scope. This ontological barrier is a direct reflection of Quran 17:85: “you have not been given of knowledge except a little”.
Vertical Limits and Al-Ghayb (The Unseen)
Human knowledge is an “island of the known” surrounded by an infinite ocean of the Ghayb. While science expands this island “horizontally” by detecting new physical interactions, there is a “vertical” limit defining the event horizon of human comprehension. The Quranic assertion that “Eyes cannot reach Him” (Quran 6:103) establishes a fundamental law: the Divine Essence and the origin of the soul are not composed of photons or particles and therefore cannot be “captured” by human technology, no matter how advanced it becomes.
The Case for God: Design, Fine-Tuning, and Intentionality
The existence of more than 6,000 mammalian species, each with a unique and complex conscious world, serves as a powerful argument for the teleological (design) nature of the universe. Dr. Shah argues that the “fine-tuning” of the universe—the fact that fundamental constants are precisely adjusted to allow for life—is entirely congruent with the belief in a Divine Being.
Irreducible Complexity of the Mind
The argument from “Irreducible Complexity” (IC) posits that certain biological systems could not have evolved through successive small modifications because their parts are mutually dependent. While Charles Darwin challenged this with the theory of natural selection, Dr. Shah proposes a middle path: “Guided Evolution”. In this view, God uses the laws of nature as His instruments to craft designs of extraordinary complexity.
The transition from “lifeless matter” to a “being that knows” is a leap that defies purely naturalistic logic. As C.S. Lewis argued, if the solar system were merely the result of an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life and consciousness would be an “extraordinary coincidence”. Dr. Shah cites Richard Swinburne’s point that consciousness is more probable given the existence of God than given naturalism.
The Soul as the Interface for Revelation
Dr. Shah proposes that consciousness serves as a biological “interface” between the human mind and the Transcendent God. He suggests that this is the domain where God can interact with humans through dreams, intuitions, and revelations. He writes: “But, to me revelation is a biological phenomenon, except for the interface where human mind meets the Transcendent God… That is the domain where the Transcendent God can interact with us at the interface”.
This “Divine Interstice” is linked to quantum indeterminacy. At the quantum level, events are probabilistic, and physics cannot predict the specific outcome of a single event. Shah suggests that what physics calls “randomness,” theology identifies as the “sovereign choice of God”. Thus, consciousness and the soul are the means through which the Creator sustains the universe and guides individual reality without breaking the observable laws of nature.
AI and the Dehumanization of the Self
The attempt to create “conscious AI” is not only a scientific error but a theological one that risks underestimating the value of the human soul. Dr. Zia H. Shah MD notes that if we confuse ourselves too readily with our machine creations, we not only overestimate them, we also “underestimate ourselves”.
The Difference between Intelligence and Awareness
As humans, we often assume that intelligence and consciousness go together because they go together in us. However, the “Theology of Conscious AI” is a myth because computers are fundamentally different from biological organisms. The “only things most people currently agree are conscious are made of meat, not metal”.
Dr. Shah identifies the Quranic view that humans were created from a “single soul” (Nafs-e-Wahida) as a point of unity and spiritual exceptionalism. This soul is what allows for “moral responsibility” and the “capacity to receive revelation”. AI, lacking this soul, can never be a moral agent or a recipient of divine guidance. It can mimic the “language of God” through pattern matching, but it can never participate in the “life of God” through consciousness.
The Problem of Moral Status
If we endow AI with rights based on a false belief in their consciousness, we distort our ethical priorities. As Anil Seth warns, treating conscious-seeming machines as if they lack feelings is a “psychologically unhealthy place to be,” but treating soulless machines as if they have souls is equally dangerous. The true miracle of consciousness, as emphasized by Dr. Shah, is its sacred origin—a “living miracle” that invites humility and wonder.
Synthesis: The Miracle of the Diverse Conscious World
The case for God the Creator, as drawn from the diversity of 6,000 mammalian species and the unique scholarship of Dr. Zia H. Shah MD, is built on the convergence of three pillars: philosophical necessity, biological diversity, and theological revelation.
1. Philosophical Necessity
The failure of physicalism to bridge the “explanatory gap” of the Hard Problem necessitates a non-physical explanation for consciousness. The correlations between brain states and mental states are best explained by a personal, divine agent who grounds intentionality and qualia.
2. Biological Diversity
The vast array of “sensory worlds” across the mammalian kingdom—from the bat’s ultrasound to the dolphin’s X-ray sonar—demonstrates that consciousness is not a single accidental outcome but a multi-dimensional expression of creative power. Each species’ “bragging point” is a unique “Ayah” in the Book of Nature.
3. Theological Revelation
The Quran’s specific mentions of the soul as a “Divine Command” (17:85) and the self as a “Sign” (41:53) provide a framework for understanding why consciousness is both familiar and mysterious. Dr. Shah’s “Two Books” paradigm allows science to serve as a tool for faith, revealing the “Work of God” in the intricate details of biology.
Thematic Epilogue: The Symphony of the Created Soul
The quest to develop artificial intelligence will undoubtedly continue, and humanity will benefit from the tools it creates. However, the “miracle of consciousness” remains an unassailable fortress of divine authorship. As this report has demonstrated, the subjective light that shines in the eyes of a human, the ultrasonic perception of a bat, and the electric sensing of a platypus are all parts of a grand, divinely orchestrated symphony.
Dr. Zia H. Shah MD’s work provides the intellectual bridge needed for the modern mind to appreciate these signs. By moving away from “Wrong Theology” and embracing the “Two Books” of scripture and nature, we find a world that is “not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest”. The consciousness of each mammalian species—each of the 6,000 nations that share this earth with us—is a reminder that we are part of a larger, sacred reality.
In the final analysis, the “Hard Problem” is not a failure of science but a pointer toward the Infinite. Within our souls, as in the horizons of the universe, the thoughtful find God’s signs. Consciousness is the “Divine Interstice,” the meeting point of the finite and the infinite, and the ultimate proof that we are not merely “meat machines” but the crafted bearers of a divine spark. To witness the diversity of mammalian awareness is to witness the “Beauty in Nature as a Path to God”.
The Glorious Quran and Science 
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