Argument#5
Statement No. 5
Bullet motion, falling, and repulsion
Explanations and summaries are editorial material. Consult the source to verify the original wording.
Faithful reading
My Statement No. 5: The answer to this lies in the firing of the bullet. If you arrange it so that there is no movement at all, it will not move forward even by a hair’s breadth. Of course, if the level is not equal everywhere, it will come down in the shape of a shield. If you throw a stone with a catapult, it will come down to the ground as soon as it is sent away. This is the repulsion.
Easy explanation
Imam Ahmad Raza (rahmatullahi alayh) answers the previous bullet example by first asking us to separate rest from motion. A bullet that has not been given any forward movement does not move forward merely because it is a bullet.
So the first point is simple: forward travel needs some forward motion to have been given to the object. Without that motion, there is no forward journey to discuss.
He then turns to what happens after an object has been sent forward. Its path does not have to remain perfectly level. It can begin to bend downward while it is still moving ahead.
The same idea is illustrated with a stone thrown by a catapult. The stone is sent forward, but during that travel it also comes downward toward the ground.
This curved route of a moving object is called its . In very simple words, the trajectory is just the path the object follows through the air.
In this statement, Imam Ahmad Raza (rahmatullahi alayh) connects that downward change of path with what the source calls . Here, repulsion is the source’s own term and must be understood inside its argument.
A modern reader can keep two ideas separate for clarity. One is the forward motion already given to the bullet or stone. The other is the downward effect that changes its path while it travels.
In modern physics, the familiar name for the Earth’s downward pull is . This modern clarification is not a replacement for the source wording; it only helps the reader picture the motion being discussed.
That is why the example is useful: the object can move forward and downward at the same time. Its forward motion and its downward change are not the same thing, even though they appear together in one flight.
The main purpose of Statement 5 is therefore to answer the earlier claim about a bullet moving straight on its own. Imam Ahmad Raza (rahmatullahi alayh) points to the need for actual motion and to the object’s downward path, and he describes that within the source’s discussion of repulsion.
So the first point is simple: forward travel needs some forward motion to have been given to the object. Without that motion, there is no forward journey to discuss.
He then turns to what happens after an object has been sent forward. Its path does not have to remain perfectly level. It can begin to bend downward while it is still moving ahead.
The same idea is illustrated with a stone thrown by a catapult. The stone is sent forward, but during that travel it also comes downward toward the ground.
This curved route of a moving object is called its . In very simple words, the trajectory is just the path the object follows through the air.
In this statement, Imam Ahmad Raza (rahmatullahi alayh) connects that downward change of path with what the source calls . Here, repulsion is the source’s own term and must be understood inside its argument.
A modern reader can keep two ideas separate for clarity. One is the forward motion already given to the bullet or stone. The other is the downward effect that changes its path while it travels.
In modern physics, the familiar name for the Earth’s downward pull is . This modern clarification is not a replacement for the source wording; it only helps the reader picture the motion being discussed.
That is why the example is useful: the object can move forward and downward at the same time. Its forward motion and its downward change are not the same thing, even though they appear together in one flight.
The main purpose of Statement 5 is therefore to answer the earlier claim about a bullet moving straight on its own. Imam Ahmad Raza (rahmatullahi alayh) points to the need for actual motion and to the object’s downward path, and he describes that within the source’s discussion of repulsion.
No text is available in this reading mode yet. Choose another mode or open the source PDF.
Source PDFs
Page references belong to the source edition; other editions may use different pagination.