The question of whether the universe is conscious has persisted across cultures, religions, and philosophical traditions for thousands of years.
Panpsychism, the idea that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality, and spreads over the entire universe, has been around in some shape or form, since humans started pondering over the universe.
Recent developments in physics, especially in quantum mechanics, have reignited the debate of a conscious universe.
This article attempts to answer this age-old question in the light of psychology, physics and Islamic teachings.
Introduction: The Problem of Cosmic Consciousness
There are many definitions of “consciousness”, including but not limited to:
“The quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself” (Merriam-Webster)
“The state or fact of being mentally conscious or aware of something” (Oxford)
We can also call Consciousness the capacity for subjective experience. Irrespective of the definition we chose, consciousness remains one of the most perplexing topics in philosophy and science.
Traditional scientific approaches treat consciousness as an emergent property of complex neural systems, whereas panpsychism proposes that consciousness, in some primitive form, is a basic feature of all matter.
In contemporary philosophy, panpsychism has been revived as a possible solution to the “hard problem” of consciousness articulated by David Chalmers (1995), which asks how physical processes can give rise to subjective experience.
In his own words: “My own view, though, is that it will not be a purely reductionist or physical explanation. We won’t explain consciousness purely in terms of the brain. In terms of the brain, you’ll get a good solution to the easy problems, to the various behaviors and so on, but you’ll never get a full solution to the hard problem: why is all this accompanied by experience?”
“Rather, what we need to do is to take conscious experience itself as primitive, as a fundamental element of the world. It’s the same attitude we take towards space and time and mass in physics: we don’t reduce them to something more fundamental, but then we come up with fundamental laws that govern them and that can explain them.”
Historical Roots of the concept of a Conscious Universe
Early Greek philosophers speculated about a living cosmos. Thales of Miletus (c. 624–546 BCE) famously claimed “all things are full of gods.” suggesting a kind of proto-panpsychism, while the Stoics envisioned the universe as a rational, ensouled being infused with pneuma.
In Vedantic Hinduism, the ultimate reality (Brahman) is pure consciousness, of which all individual minds are manifestations. In Buddhist Yogācāra thought, consciousness is the primary reality, with matter arising as a projection of mind. Daoist philosophy views the Tao as both the origin and continuous conscious flow of existence.
The worldview of many Indigenous Peoples in Canada includes the principle of connectivity – that everything in the universe is connected. The spirit world is connected to the mortal world, the sea is connected to the land, and the sky is connected to the ground.
Classical Islamic scholars developed metaphysical systems supporting this view. The Sufi saint who discussed the ideology of Sufi Metaphysics to the greatest depth is Ibn Arabi. He employed the term “wujud” to refer to God as the “Necessary Being”. He also attributed the term to everything other than God but insisted that wujud does not belong to the things found in the cosmos in any real sense. Rather, the things borrow wujud from God, much as the earth borrows light from the sun. The term “Wahdat-al-Wujut” (Unity of Being) is also attributed to him, although it is not found explicitly in his writings.
Entanglement and Nonlocality: Universal Awareness?
Quantum entanglement occurs when particles share a correlated state that persists regardless of spatial separation. Experiments by Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger (awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2022) confirmed the “nonlocal” nature of quantum systems.
Interestingly, The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025, was awarded jointly to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”. Their work opens the door to the possibility of quantum mechanical effects on “larger” objects.
Going back to the concept of “nonlocal”, it is a phenomenon where two or more particles remain “connected”, and measuring a property of one instantaneously influences the others, regardless of the distance separating them. This instantaneous correlation, famously called “spooky action at a distance” by Einstein, is a key feature of quantum entanglement.
We should note, however, this nonlocal nature of quantum mechanics does not violate the restriction of faster than light speeds, but this is a more detailed topic, not covered in this article.
While entanglement is not itself consciousness as such, it reveals a universe where separateness is, at a fundamental level, an illusion. This deep, instantaneous connectedness is conceptually similar to the interconnected awareness described in mysticism and panpsychist philosophy.
Concept of a Conscious Universe from the Promised Messiah’s (as) writings
From the discourse above, one can conclude that there are two prevailing schools of thought; either only a part of the universe is conscious, or everything in the universe and the entire universe is intrinsically conscious.
Is an alternative line of thought possible?
The Promised Messiah (as) has written extensively about related topics in his book Aina Kamalat-e-Islam (Mirror of Excellence of Islam).
Although the Promised Messiah (as) has not expressively talked about the consciousness debate, his writings do reveal an interesting alternative.
The entire universe can be conscious, without assigning consciousness as an intrinsic attribute of every particle of the universe.
“Everything that happens or appears, issues from the wisdom and appropriate will of God Almighty, and that will is manifested in accordance with the system through physical means. As God Almighty has not invested the physical bodies with knowledge and intelligence, the mediation of such things was needed which are invested with knowledge and intelligence for the fulfilment of things requiring knowledge and intelligence, and they are angels.” [Mirror of Excellence of Islam, page 193]
Interesting to note that the Promised Messiah (as) uses the words “knowledge” and “intelligence” which are much more profound than mere consciousness.
Conscious can perhaps be attributed to a primitive living being, but certainly not knowledge or wisdom.
The Promised Messiah (as) has explained that the consciousness of matter comes from intermediaries that govern and control each and every particle of the universe with knowledge and wisdom. These intermediary beings are called angels.
The Promised Messiah (as) has used several verses of the Holy Quran to explain the concept of angels as bearers of knowledge and wisdom for everything in the universe.
“There is no being but has a guardian over it.” [86:5]
In his commentary of the verse above he makes it clear that angels not only guard humans, but they guard everything in the universe and that the celestial bodies are “run” by angels.
“God Almighty has stated this verse with an all-comprehensive scope by qualifying it with the word “kull” (meaning ‘all’); thus, it is clearly proven that everything to which the word nafs (individual thing, body, soul) can be applied is safeguarded by angels. Hence, according to this verse, we must believe about the celestial bodies that all stellar objects—the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter—are under the protection of angels. That is, for each of them—Sun and the Moon, etc.—an angel is appointed who safeguards it and runs its functions appropriately.” [Mirror of Excellence of Islam, footnotes page 165]
The Promised Messiah (as) also refers to the following verses of the Holy Quran:
“We call to witness the winds that waft the vapours,
And carry the load of moisture,
And blow gently
And distribute the command of Allah in the shape of rain,”
[51:2-5]
“In these verses, God Almighty first indicated, like philosophers, the cause of rain descending from the clouds and sets out how water becomes vapour and then becomes clouds, then in the last verse disclosed the reality so that no one should imagine that the system of material causes and effects is adequate for the dispensation of God. Rather, a system of spiritual causes is behind this physical system which supports this visible system.” [Mirror of Excellence of Islam, page 198]
Conclusion
The concept of angels bringing consciousness, knowledge and wisdom to everything in the universe is an alternative school of thought compared to panpsychism and the prevailing scientific thinking.
We can also explain the concept of angels as an overarching consciousness that prevails in the universe. This concept will be closer to panpsychism but will stop short of assigning consciousness as an intrinsic attribute of every particle of the universe.
So, we can conclude that the universe is conscious, but that consciousness comes not from matter itself. It comes from an intermediary that possesses consciousness, knowledge and wisdom.
To someone who believes in God and angels, this may be easier to comprehend. But how do we convert this into a palatable scientific theory?
To attempt that we will have to understand the concept of angels in detail, especially in relation to observable phenomena in this universe.
This is an ongoing research topic.
About the Author
Mohammad Shahab Khokhar, MS, MBA, writes on science, spirituality and technology. He is especially interested in the study of science from the perspective of the Holy Qur’an.
He can be reached at: shahab@quantumjump.io
