Intuition, the Self, and the Measure of the Reality

By Nasir Gill

The Lived Fact of Consciousness

Any attempt to develop a “universal philosophy” that takes man as the measure of reality must begin, not with abstract substances, but with the lived fact of consciousness. The most immediate datum each of us has is not a world of objects, but the simple awareness: “I am; I experience.” From this starting point, I want to sketch a philosophy in which human intuition is a genuine mode of knowing divine reality, and in which the self has ontological value within a universally fundamental consciousness.

This perspective is indebted to Muhammad Iqbal’s vision of the ego (khudi) and its encounter with reality. This endeavor, in the domain of philosophy, is just an extension of his philosophical concepts as he himself stated in his epoch making book “Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam”: thinkers in later ages will broaden its horizon, by bringing reason closer to intuition for a meaningful coherence in understanding the ontological value of the self in context of the universe and reality. And, to make it, universally, a more accessible account.

Intuition as a Mode of Knowing

Human beings know in more than one way. We observe, we reason, we calculate. Yet much of what matters most to us—our sense of right and wrong, the depth of another person, the presence or absence of meaning—reaches us not as the end of a chain of arguments, but as a sudden, immediate “seeing.” When we witness a flagrant injustice and feel, before any reasoning, that “this is wrong,” or when we sense the profound worth of a beloved person, we do not normally proceed by syllogism. We simply see. These experiences have a distinct phenomenological character: they present themselves as direct disclosures of significance rather than as tentative hypotheses.

Call this mode of awareness “intuition.” Intuition, in this sense, is not a vague hunch or private fantasy; it is a non-inferential cognition of reality, especially of values, persons, and—at its highest reach—of divine presence. It differs from raw sensation, which delivers colors and sounds without inherent meaning, and from discursive reasoning, which moves step by step from premises to conclusions. Intuition is an immediate grasp of meaning and worth.

Discursive reason in fact presupposes such intuitive givens. We reason only because we already take for granted that there is a world, that truth is preferable to falsehood, that other minds exist, that some forms of suffering count as real evils. These are not conclusions of further proofs; they are starting points we “see” as self-evident or at least as more trustworthy than their denial. Intuition, in this way, underlies both empirical science and formal logic. It is the background light in which all our concepts and inferences are drawn.

Cross-Cultural Testimonies of Intuition

Across cultures and religious traditions, we find testimonies of a more intense form of this direct insight. Sufis speak of kashf, unveiling of the Real; Advaita Vedānta of anubhava, direct realization; Buddhists of prajñā, liberating wisdom; Christian mystics of infused contemplation. The doctrinal interpretations differ, but structurally these reports converge: an experience of immediate knowing, of being addressed by or united with a reality that surpasses the ego and yet is intimately present. Iqbal, in his own way, emphasizes that the highest knowledge of God is not gained by mere speculation but by an inner meeting of ego with Ego in love and action.

The Discipline of Intuition

However, to treat intuition as a cognitive organ is not to grant immunity to error. Many things present themselves to us with the feeling of obviousness that later scrutiny reveals as prejudice, fear, or wishful thinking. The sense of “immediacy” can attach itself just as easily to illusions as to truths. For this reason, any serious philosophy of intuition must also be a philosophy of its discipline. If intuition is to be more than private sentiment, it must be held answerable to criteria: coherence with the broad span of human experience; capacity to survive sustained critical reflection; resonance with refined insights across cultures; and, not least, the moral fruits it bears in life. Genuine intuition tends, over time, to deepen integrity, compassion, and clarity. Pseudo-intuition breeds arrogance, cruelty, or sectarian closure.

Consciousness and the Nature of Reality

Beginning from the self’s experience of awareness and value, we are led toward a particular picture of reality. It is difficult to treat consciousness as a negligible side-effect of blind matter once we recognize that all our access to “matter” is mediated by consciousness. The sheer fact that there is anything it is like to be implies that reality is not exhausted by mass, charge, and extension. It is therefore reasonable to explore a metaphysics in which consciousness is not derivative but fundamental.

Within such a view, we encounter a plurality of finite centers of awareness: human selves, and perhaps other forms of sentience. To regard them as utterly independent, like islands thrown into an alien ocean of dead matter, leaves unexplained the deep intelligibility of the world we share and the profound resonances between minds. An alternative is to see these finite selves as distinct centers in a more encompassing field of consciousness. This field is not a neutral container but the living ground of all awareness and value: what religious language calls God, the Absolute, or universal consciousness.

The Ontological Weight of the Self

This does not dissolve the self into a featureless One. On the contrary, the self has real and irreducible ontological weight. Each finite self is a unique “focus” in which universal consciousness becomes this particular person—this unrepeatable center of perception, intention, and response. To injure or destroy such a center is not merely to disrupt a biological mechanism; it is to silence a singular voice in the chorus of being. The self is therefore not an illusion to be dispelled, but a reality to be fulfilled.

Here, the influence of Iqbal is evident. He insists that the ego is real, dynamic, and called to strengthen itself in relation with a higher Ego, God. In 20th century Iqbal bound this process closely to a specific prophetic and historical narrative. Now, in 21th century, it is the time to test it universally with the help of modern methodologies in the field of psychology and biology. —–About the truthfulness, responsible freedom, and loving participation of self in the ground of consciousness.

Ethical Horizons and Participation in Reality

Once we affirm both a universal consciousness and the intrinsic value of finite selves, an ethical horizon opens naturally. The good for beings like us cannot be mere survival or pleasure. It consists in a deepening participation in the reality from which we arise—a reality characterized, in our best intuitions, by truth, creativity, and love. To grow in understanding, to act justly, to create beauty, to extend compassion: these are not arbitrary preferences, but concrete modes by which a finite self aligns with and reflects the attributes of its source.

This participation is experienced from within as a refinement of intuition. Our moral conscience—the quiet or insistent sense that some actions harm what is deepest in us and others affirm it—can be understood as the universal consciousness “echoing” in the finite center. When we heed that echo and subject it to patient testing in life and dialogue, our intuitions become more trustworthy guides. They orient us, not toward an abstract ideal, but toward the living presence in which the worth of every self is grounded.

Such a philosophy does not claim to see from above or to possess final formulas for the divine. It takes “man as the measure” in a double sense: our knowledge is irreducibly human, conditioned by our capacities and histories; yet these very capacities, especially intuition, open us onto more than ourselves. The self is both a limit and a window—finite, fragile, and yet capable of cognizing and embodying a reality that is inexhaustibly greater. To cultivate this capacity—to purify, clarify, and test our intuitions; to honor the ontological worth of each self; and to orient our freedom toward participatory alignment with universal consciousness—is to live philosophically in the fullest sense.