Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | August 2, 2015

In the developed countries computerized telephone systems have been introduced. As a result modern communications have undergone a transformation. In many towns in the U.S., for instance, a system called "enhanced 911" has been installed. The number 911 has to be dialed in an emergency for the caller to summon help.

With enhanced 911, a telephone company is now able to trace the originating number of the call and the caller's address instantly even without the caller saying a word. This automatic system can immediately identify and convert numbers into addresses even when the callers are unable to say where they were calling from. The system's computer is so efficient that after tracing the call it can itself determine whether the emergency relates to the city's police, fire or ambulance department. In Orlando, Florida, a panic-stricken woman caller dialled 911 but could not say a word before hanging up. Gunshots, however, were clearly audible. Within minutes cars were on their way to the correct address and the culprit - an enraged gun-toting relative of the woman's - was apprehended. In another case, a deaf and dumb person could summon help in similar fashion in an emergency. (The Times of India, April 16, 1985) In the above instances, the computer converted the call into telephone numbers, and telephone numbers into addresses, then without delay informed the police by wireless.

The Quran (2:186) tells us that when a servant calls God he immediately establishes contact with Him. There is no delay either in the response.

The computerized telephone contact is a material analogy of this spiritual reality. It shows how a servant, moved by the remembrance of God, loses himself in a spontaneous outburst of feeling, calls upon Him and instantly finds himself very close to Him.