July 6, 2013 by weloveprophet	in Islamic Beliefs, Oneness Of God and tagged Gary Miller, logic, Quran	| Leave a comment
Almost all of us have been faced with the questioning of a child by repeating one word over and over. He can be very frustrating to us as he asks Why? If you put a h1ife beyond his reach, he wants to know, Why? When you explain it is sharp, he asks “Why?” And so you explain, in order to cut fruit, and he asks, Why? And so it goes
It illustrates the dilemma of applying reason. What we have to do when we apply reason is first to set standards of proof. We decide for ourselves, “What will I be satisfied with if I find such and such and so and so that constitutes for me a final proof?” We have to decide on that first.
The key to avoiding this endless dissatisfaction is to satisfy ourselves about standards first; to satisfy ourselves that such and such are a list of criteria that constitute proof, satisfying proof, and then we test the subjects that we examine. In particular I will apply this to the Qur’an.
While all the prophets have their signs, Moses had the competition with the magicians and the Pharaoh, Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead and so on, one sign was given to the last of the prophets. According to the Muslims, this is the Qur’an. And this one Sign is still with us. Does not that after all seem fair, that if prophethood is to end that the last prophet should bring something that stays with us so that, in fact, a Muslim who takes his religion seriously suffers no disadvantage to Muslims who lived fourteen centuries ago?
Those people who kept company with the Prophet had access to no more of the necessary information than we have today. They had the Qur’an. That was the sign for them. It is still a sign to us today, the same miracle.
Well, let us test the Qur’an. Suppose that if I say to a man, “I know your father.” Probably he is going to examine the situation and see if it seems likely that I have met his father. If he is not convinced he will start asking me questions like: “You know my father, you say, is he a tall man? Does he have curly hair? Does he wear glasses?” and so on. If I keep giving him the right answers to all these questions, pretty soon he is going to be convinced. “Well I guess this man did meet my father like he said.” You see the method
Here in the Qur’an we have a book which claims that is author is one who was present at the beginning of the universe, at the beginning of life. So, we have a right to address that author and say, “Well, tell me something prove to me that you were there when the world began, when life began.” The Qur’an gives us an interesting statement. It reads:
” Have not the disbelievers seen that the Heavens and the Earth were one piece and we parted them and we made from water every living thing? Will they not believe? ” (21:30)
As it happens the universally accepted theory of the origin of the universe is now the Big Bang theory. It maintains that at one time all of the heavens and the earth were one piece, the ‘monoblock’ as it is called. At a particular point in time, this ‘monoblock’ burst and it continues to expand. This gives us the universe we have today. This was a recent discovery, a recent confirmation.
Well, this sounds like an answer to the question we stated with when we ask the author: “Tell me something that shows me you were present when the universe began when life began?”
Everyone must be committed to something. You have to put your foot down some place. It is impossible to be neutral all time. There has to be a point of reference in the life of any thinking individual. You have to take a stand somewhere. The question, of course, is to put your foot down in the right place. Since there is no such thing as a proof of a proof and so on, in order to find the right place to put one’s foot down, to take a stand, we have to search and find that place and it is by a method that I hope to illustrate here.
Let me first show more of our examination of the Qur’an, and then an examination of some words of prophets to find this point of convergence. In chapter fifty-one, verse forty seven, it is mentioned that the heavens are expanding. As I mentioned earlier, this is in connection with the ‘Big Bang’ origin of the universe, as it is usually called, and it was in 1973 that the Nobel Prize was awarded to three men who were confirming that, after all, the universe is expanding.
The comments of Muslims over the centuries on this verse which speaks of the heavens doing exactly that are very interesting. The wisest among them had stated that the words are very clear, that the heavens are expanding, but they could not imagine how that could be so. But they were content to leave the words as they were, to say: “Allah knows best”
The Qur’an mentions a city by the name of Iram (89:7). The city of Iram has been unknown to history, so unknown that even some Muslim commentators, out of embarrassment for feeling apologetic for their religion, have commented on this mention of the city in the Qur’an as being perhaps figurative, that Iram was possibly a man and not a city.
Interestingly enough, you will find the details in the National Geographic of 1978 which confirms that in those tablets the city of Iram is mentioned. The people of Eblus used to do business with the people of Iram. So here in these comes confirmation of the fact that, after all, there really was an ancient city by that name, wherever it was. How did it find its way into the Qur’an, we might ask?
Those Muslims who may have offered their commentary trying to explain away this reference that they were uncomfortable with, were outsmarted by the author of the Qur’an. They would attempt it. Primarily their actions would involve trying to produce evidence that the author of this book had a primitive understanding of the world around us.
For example, there is a word which is translated to usually in Arabic as zarrah. This is usually translated ‘atom’ and it is usually thought of in Arabic as being smallest item available at one time. Perhaps the Arab thought it was an ant or a grain of dust. Today the word usually translated as ‘atom’.
Those who would outsmart the author of the Qur’an have insisted that, well, the atom is not after all the smallest piece of matter because in this century it has been discovered that even the atom is made of still smaller of matter. Is it then possible to outsmart the author who chose to use this word? Well, in chapter ten, there is an interesting verse sixty one, which speaks of items the size of a zarrah, (atom) or smaller. There is no possibility in this subject someone is going to say a new discovery has outdated the words of the Qur’an on the issue of the size of matter or the ultimate particles. The verse talks about items the size of a zarrah (atom) or smaller.
Speaking of outsmarting the author of the Qur’an, the Islamic point of view is that when a man embraces Islam, his past is forgiven from the very beginning. This has been the invitation to Islam: come to Islam and all is forgiven from the past.
But consider this. There is only one enemy of Muhammad, peace be upon him, who is mentioned by name in the Qur’an: one Abu Lahab. In a short chapter of this book, he is condemned to punishment for his sins.
As it happens, the man himself was alive for many years after this revelation. He could therefore have finished Islam very easily. He needed only to go to the Muslims to announce his conversion. They had in their hands the revelation which said that this man is doomed to punishment. He could have gone to Muslims and say: “I accept Islam, am I forgiven or not?”
In fact, the Qur’an confidently predicted a number of things only a few years before they came to pass. The fall of the Persian Empire, for example, was predicted in spite of the fact that it had just suffered a serious military victory. The evidence was all to the contrary. But in the chapter entitled Rom, the fall of the Persian Empire, who were recently victors over the Romans, was predicted.
Some people may like to find any number of things in the Qur’an. But an honest method in examining this book, looking for evidence of the Divine origin, is to take things at their value, to look for things that are clear and to look in those places where we are invited to look. Remember the passage that I quoted earlier: “Have not the disbelievers seen…” This a common phrase of the Qur’an: “O Man, Have you not seen.” The invitation is to examine the evidence in these places. We are doing the sensible thing if we examine the words used to look for the doubted meaning and to find evidence of the Divine origin.
Each one of us is an expert on something. One does not have to have a degree in a particular subject to decide that now, “I can take my expertise to the Qur’an and see what I can find.” We all know something from our own experience and life.
I heard a story, several years ago in Toronto, of man who was given the Qur’an to read. The man was a member of the merchant marines who spent his life on the sea. When he read a verse in the Qur’an describing the wave on the ocean, “waves within waves and the darkness between,” he was surprised because the description was just what he knew the situation to be. When he returned the Qur’an to the man who gave it to him to read, he asked him (because he was completely ignorant of the origins of Islam): “This Muhammad, was he a sailor?” Well, of course, he was quite surprised to know that the man spent his life in the desert. So he had to ask himself: “From where did he get this knowledge of what looks like on a stormy sea?”
We all know something that we can be confident of and if we can turn to the Qur’an to read what it says about that subject, we are asking for confirmation of our belief in the Divine origin of the book.
A friend of mine from the University of Toronto, had experience of dealing with a man who was doing his doctorate in psychology. He chose as his subject: “The Efficiency of Group Discussion.”
When my friend heard about this, something went on at the back of his mind. My friend, being a Muslim, thought there was something familiar here about this idea. The psychology researcher was not a Muslim. He was debating with himself on changing the topic of his thesis. Should he call it ‘The Phenomenon of Two’ or ‘The Two Phenomena’? He was so surprised at his discovery.
Meanwhile, my friend found that there is a verse in the Qur’an, and he found it for himself on the same night, which speaks on discussions and the size of groups and how efficient they are. And maybe we should not be surprised to find that it is the groups that are two in numbers that do the best in achieving results. The verse in the Qur’an reads, concerning discussion groups, that when discussing the Qur’an, one should sit alone and reflect on its meaning or discuss it in groups of two. =
For myself, as I said everyone knows something for sure or has an interest and experience in life; my interest is in mathematics and logic.There is a verse in the Qur’an which says:
Which tells me that there are no wasted words in the Qur’an; that each verse is perfected and then it is explained. It could not be in a better form. One could not use fewer words to say the same thing or if one uses more words one would only be adding superfluous information.
This directed my attention to a particular mathematical subject, a logical subject, and I examined the Qur’an to see if I could find something of what I knew to be the case.
A revolution in logic has occurred in the last one hundred years, primarily over the difference between use and mention of words. A structure of logic seemed to be in danger of collapsing about a hundred years ago because it came to the attention of the people who studied these matters that the structure was not quite sound. The issue involved ‘self-reference’ and the use and the mention of words which I will explain briefly.
Aristotle’s law of the ‘excluded middle’ was the statement that every statement is either true false. About a hundred years ago, somebody pointed out that the law of the excluded middle is a statement and is therefore not a law after all. It could just as well be false as well as true.
When we use a word, we consider its meaning. When we mention a word, we are discussing the word itself. If I said Toronto is a large city, I mean Toronto, that place, is a large city. If I say Toronto has seven letters, I am talking about the word ‘Toronto’. In the first case I used the word and in the second I mentioned the word. You see distinction.
Connecting these ideas and the idea that the Qur’an is composed of verses that are perfected and then expounded for us, consider the verse which says:
The words are used clearly enough. Jesus is like Adam and by Jesus and Adam, we mean those two men. But what about the mention of the words? Was the author aware of the fact that if we were considering the words as words themselves, this sentence also read that ‘Jesus’ is something like ‘Adam’. Well, they are not spelt with the same letters, how can they be alike in this revelation? The only answer came to me fairly quickly and I took a look at the index of the Qur’an.
The index of the Qur’an has been made available only since 1945. This book was the result of years of work by a man and his students who assembled a book which lists every word in the Qur’an and where it can be found.
So, when we look up the word Isa (Jesus), we find it in the Qur’an twenty-five times. When we look up Adam, we find it in the Qur’an twenty-five times. The point is that they are very much alike in this book. They are equated. So, following up on this idea, I continued to examine the index looking for every case where something was set up as an equation, where the likeness of something was said to be the likeness of some other thing. And in every case, it works. You have to example a verse which reads:
Well, the phrase is Arabic for ‘the people who reject our signs’ could be found in the Qur’an exactly five times. And so is the Arabic word for ‘the dog’ (al-kalb). And there are several instances of exactly the same occurrence.
It was some months after I found this for myself that a friend of mine, who is continuing this investigation with me, made a suggestion that there are also some places in the Qur’an where one thing is said to be not like another thing.
As soon as he mentioned this up to me, we both went for the index and had a quick look at several places where on thing is said to be not like another thing and counted their occurrence in the Qur’an. We were surprise, and maybe should not have been, to find that, after all, they do not match up. But an interesting thing does happen. For example, the Qur’an makes it very clear in the verse that “trade” is not like “interest (or usury)”. The two words will be found six times for one and seven for the other. And so it is in every other case.
“Say, the evil and the good are not comparable, even though the abundance of evil will surprise you. So be mindful of your duty to Allah, O Man of understanding that you may succeed.”(5:100)
Well, I had a look at those two words in Arabic, the evil and the good, and found in the Qur’an that they both occur seven times. Yet the verse here is saying that they are not comparable. I should not expect to find that they occur the same number of times. But what does the rest of this verse say?
“The evil and the good are not comparable. The abundance of the evil will surprise you” and it did for there were too many of them. But it continues:
“Allah separates the evil from the good. The evil HE piles one on top of the other, heaping them all together.”
A favorite difficulty, or supposed difficulty, which critics like to cite or have cited in the past years concerning the Qur’an is that, apparently to their thinking, the author of this book was ignorant because he advised the Muslims to follow the lunar instead of the solar year. The critics say the author was unaware of the difference in the length of years, that if one follows twelve lunar months, one loses eleven days every year.
The author of the Qur’an was well aware of the distinction between the length of the solar year and the lunar year. In chapter eighteen, verse nine, it mentions three-hundred years and gives their equivalent as three-hundred and nine years. As it happens, three hundred solar years is equal to three -hundred and nine lunar years.
Let us go back to my original scheme of the occurrence of words in the Qur’an. The Arabic word for ‘month’, “shahr”, will be found twelve times in the Qur’an. There are twelve months in a year. If we find twelve months, how many days should we expect to find? The word in Arabic is “yawm”, and as it happens you will find that the word occurs three-hundred and sixty five times in the Qur’an.
As a matter of fact, the original issue which had me interested in looking up the occurrence of months and days was this distinction between the solar year and the lunar year. Well, for twenty-five centuries, it has been known that the relative positions of the sun, moon and earth coincide every nineteen years. This was discovered by a Greek by the name of Meton, and it is called the ‘Metonic’ cycle. Knowing this, I looked again to the index for the word ‘year’, sanah and found, sure enough, that it occurs in the Qur’an nineteen times.
After giving a lecture on the subject of the Qur’an , I touched on some of these subjects and a questionnaire from the audience afterwards said: “How do we know we still have the original Qur’an. Maybe pieces of it have been lost or extra parts been added?” I pointed out to him that we had pretty well covered that point because since these items, the perfect balance of words in the Qur’an, have come to light only in this generation, anybody who would have lost the portion of this book, hidden some of it, or added some of their own would have been unaware of this carefully hidden code in the book. They would have destroyed this perfect balance.
We are told in the Qur’an that no questionnaire will come to the Muslims with the question for which a good answer has not been provided, and the best explanation for whatever his question. This verse says:
We looked again to the index of the Qur’an and we found the word, qalu (they say), is found three hundred and thirty-two times. Now, what would be the natural counterpart? The Arabic word, qul, which is the command ‘say’ and you will find at the index it also occurs three hundred and thirty-two times.
An interesting feature of the Qur’an is that it replies to critics as to its origin. That is, no one has yet come up with suggestion as to where this book came from which is not commented on within the book itself.
In fact, the new Catholic Encyclopedia, under the heading Qur’an, mentions that over the centuries, there has been many theories as to where this book came from. Their conclusion: today, no sensible person believes any of these theories. This leaves the Christians in some difficulty. You see, all the theories suggested so far , according to this encyclopedia, are not really acceptable to anyone sensible today.
Where did the book come from? Those who have not really examined the Qur’an usually dismissed it as being, they say, a collection of proverbs or aphorisms, saying that one man used to announce from time to time. They imagined that there was a man who, from time to time during the day, will think of some witty little saying and spit it out and those around him will quickly write it down, and eventually these were all collected and became the Qur’an.
Those who read the Qur’an will find that it is not anything like that at all. The collection of things said by the Prophet is the subject and the content of the Hadith. But the subjects and contents of the Qur’an are all in a form of a composition and explanation. I site as an example the chapter, Yusuf, which is an entire story in great detail about one particular episode of one portion of the life of one man. It is a composition.
It is for this reason that virtually all those who have actually examined the Qur’an usually refer to it as being the product of the authorship as attributed to Muhammad and his ‘co-adjudicators’. These were supposed to be people who would sit with him and composed the Qur’an. You see, they imagined that the Qur’an was composed by a committee.
They acknowledged that there was too much information and it was too well composed for one man to have assembled. So, they imagined that a committee of men used to meet regularly, brought their various sources of information, composed something and then handed to this man and told him, “Go to the people tomorrow, this is your revelation.” In other words, it was a fraud concocted by a group of people. But what do we know about fraud? The Qur’an reminds us as it says:
“Saw, now the truth has come, and falsehood neither invents anything nor restores anything.” (34:49).
“Have they not considered the Qur’an, if it came, from other than Allah, surely they will find in it many inconsistencies.”(4:82)
Imagine a student submitting a term paper or a final exam and then writing at the bottom of the page a not to his teacher: “You will find no mistakes in this paper. There are no mistakes on this exam.” Can you imagine the teacher letting that rest? The teacher would probably not sleep until uncovering some inconsistency after a challenge like that. It is not the way human beings speak. They do not offer challenges like that. But here we have it in the Qur’an, a direct challenge saying: “If you have a better idea as to where this book came from, here’s all you need to do. Find some inconsistencies.”
There are critics who make the attempt, critics who try to say the Qur’an contains inconsistencies. A publication that came to my attention recently suggested that the Qur’an was contradictory on the subject of marriage, because in one place, it says: “don’t marry more than one wife unless you can provide for them all,” and in another place it says: “Don’t marry more than four.” They see this as a contradiction. What they have is a counter-distinction. In one case, the qualification for marrying more than one has been given. In the other case, a limitation on how many may be married is given. There is no contradiction.
For critics who would attack the Qur’an and insist it contains mistakes, we can use the same method as in our reply to Christians who claim that Jesus is on record as claiming to be equal to God. Remember the three categories of evidence offered. The evidence offered was insufficient, ambiguous or impossible.
You see, if someone cites a verse from the Qur’an, trying to show that it is a mistake, we only need to show that the verse cited is insufficient to establish that there is a mistake or we need to show that the verse cited cannot possibly have the interpretation which the critic is giving it. It will always fall into one of these three categories.
I had experience, on one occasion, describing some of the contents in the Qur’an to a man who did not know the book I was talking about. He sat next to me with the cover turned over. I just told him about the book, what it contained and told him it was not the Bible. His conclusion was, the book was miraculous. This man was a minister in a Christian Church. He said, “Yes, that book could not possible have originated with the man and therefore it must come from the devil, because it’s not the Bible.”
The Qur’an comments on this suggestion in chapter twenty-six, verse two-hundred and eleven, as to those who would suggest that the book came from the devil. It points out that it does not quite suit him, does it? Is this how the devil misleads people? He tells them, worship none but God, he insists that they fast, that they practice charity. Is this how the devil misleads people?
Compare the attitude of someone like this, to the attitude of the Jews who knew Jesus and opposed him until the very end. There is an episode reported in the Bible where Jesus raised a man from the dead, one Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, alive again those Jews who were watching, what did they do? Did they suddenly say that this man is a true prophet and become believers? No, the Bible says they immediately discussed among themselves that “since this man is working on his signs soon everyone will believe in him. We’ve got to find a way to kill him,” and they attributed his miraculous powers to the devil. He raised that man by the power of the devil.
Now, the Christians who read that episode will feel very sorry for those Jews who had clear evidence right before their very eyes and attribute the miracles to the devil. Does it not appear that they may be doing the same thing when we illustrate what we have in the Qur’an and their final excuse is only: “It originated with the devil.”
There are those who insist that the Qur’an was copied, that it originated in Christian and Jewish sources. As a matter of fact, a book published in recent years called Worshipping the Wrong God has stated, as though it were a fact, that after the first revelation of the Qur’an came to Muhammad, peace be upon him, that his wife died and so he quickly married a Jew and a Christian, and this is where he drew the rest of his sources for his book.
It was ten years after the first revelation of the Qur’an that his wife died, and it was another ten years after that when the Qur’an was virtually completed that he married a Jew and a Christian.
Did he copy from Jewish and Christian sources? In the Qur’an, the ruler of Egypt who opposed Moses is known as Fir’aun, not Pharaoh. The Jews and Christians have always said ‘Pharaoh’. It is easy for an Arab to say ‘Pharaoh’. But in the Qur’an, it is Fir’aun, with an ‘n’. Why? Surely the Jews must have teased the Arabs about that and said: “You’ve got the word wrong. It’s ‘Pharaoh’ and not Fir’aun.” But they insisted on it and it continues that way in the Qur’an, Fir’aun.
As it happens, this historical writings of Herodotus, the Greek historian, exist to this day, and Herodotus comments on the ruler of Egypt, being in his day and in the centuries before him, one man who went by the title of Fir’aun.
Did the book copy from the Christians sources? The Qur’an insists that Jesus was not crucified, that this was only an illusion, but that the Jews who thought they crucified Jesus were mistaken because it was not really so. Christians would have no part of that. As it happens, the idea that Jesus was not really crucified is really very ancient and can be traced back to the first century. But Christians who believed that were eliminated as heretics within the first two-hundred years after the time of Jesus and they were not teaching this doctrine anywhere around the Arabian Peninsula fourteen centuries ago.
Could the author of the Qur’an have been copying from Christian sources when he says that Jesus spoke to man as a baby (3:46) and in later life? The Arabic word used indicates that he was still speaking to man and teaching to them in his forties. The Christians have always maintained that Jesus was gone by the time he was thirty-three. It indicates that there could have been no copying. In fact, a man would have to be stubborn and insists on the points as explained in the Qur’an in the face of Christian opposition who would have said: “No! No! I wasn’t like that. We tell the story differently.”
“When the Persians should sink so low in mortality, a man will be born in Arabia whose followers will upset their throne, religion and everything. The mighty stiff-necked ones will be overpowered. The house which was built and in which many idols have been placed will purged of idols and people will say their prayers facing towards it. His followers will capture the towns of the Farsi, Entaus and Balkh, and other big places round about. People will embroil with one another. The wise men of Persia and others will join his followers.” (Desature no.14)
The Muslims recognize this very quickly because the Ka’bah, the building which all Muslims face in prayers everyday, was at one time filled with idols and it was part of the mission of Muhammad , peace be upon him, to purge the house of idols till today. It was in the next generation, after the time of the Prophet that the wise men of Persia and others did join his followers.
In the Bible, in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, we have the words of Moses who reports that God told him that there would raise up a prophet,from among the brothers of the Israelites, like Moses.
Jesus spoke of it himself and the words survived, just barely, but they survived in the bible. Jesus spoke of God sending another ‘Paraclete’.
There is a lot of argument over the meaning of this word ‘Paraclete’. For now we can leave that aside. What is a ‘Paraclete’? It does not matter. The first letter of John shows that Jesus was a ‘Paraclete’. He is called a ‘Paraclete’ and we have Jesus promising another ‘Paraclete’ is going to be sent. We lose a lot by this word ‘another’ in English because it is ambiguous. If someone’s car breaks down, and it is a Toyota, and I say, ‘” I’ll go get you another car,” maybe I mean, “I’ll go and get you another Toyota because this one you have is broken,” or maybe I mean, “Forget Toyota, they’re no good; I’ll go and get you a Datsun.” It is an ambiguous word. But the Greeks had a word for it. When they meant ‘another’ of the same kind, they said “aloes”. When they meant another of a different kind, they said “heteroes”. The important thing there is that when Jesus, who was himself a Paraclete, said “God will send you another Paraclete” he used the word aloes, not heteroes.
Christians want to say that this other ‘Paraclete’ that has been sent was different from Jesus. It was not a man, it was a spirit. What Jesus said was: God will send you another one like me, another man.” Muslims believe that Muhammad is the fulfillment of this prophecy by Jesus. The Qur’an says that this man is mentioned in the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians (see7:157).
Christians came to expect that the return of Jesus because of a Jewish misunderstanding. ‘Messiah’ and ‘Son of Man’ have been given special significance by the Jews, even though many people were called by this same name as in the Bible. The Jews came to expect a victorious leader. When Jesus did not turn out to be quite what many expected, they hatched the idea that he would return some day and fulfill all these prophecies.
According to Jesus, he told his disciples to greet one another with the expression, “Peace be with you.” Do the Christians do that? Muslims do, universally, whether they speak Arabic of not. The greeting for one to another is Assalamu’ alaikum (peace be with you).
The brother of Jesus in the Book of James, stated that no man should suggest what he is about to do of highlight his plans for the next few days in anyway without adding the phrase “if God wills.” Do not say “I will go here and there do this and that” without adding the phrase “if God wills.” Do Christians do that? Muslims do, whether they speak Arabic or not. If they so much as suggest they are going downtown to pick up some groceries, they will add Insha-Allah, which in Arabic means, “If God wills.”
When we reflect upon the nature of our world, we see order everywhere from the water cycle to the movement of the earth around the sun. Commenting on the order found in the universe, the physicist Stephen Hawking explains that the overwhelming impression ‘‘is one of order, the more we discover about the universe, the more we find that it is governed by rational laws.’’[1] This observation is shared by the vast majority of scientists.
No one would believe such an explanation. A mobile phone is clearly something that was put together in an organized way, so it would be rational to believe that it must have an organizer. In the same way, when we see the order in the universe, isn’t it rational to say that the universe also has been organized in an amazing way by some being?
This organization is best explained by the existence of God. God is the one who brought about the order in the universe.
However, according to Cosmology the universe had a beginning some 14 billion years ago with a cosmic event commonly known as the ‘Big Bang’[2].
Imagine you heard a loud bang, and you asked ‘where did that sound come from?’ Would you be satisfied with the answer that it came from ‘nothing’ and it ‘just happened?’ Of course not! You would say ‘what was the cause of that loud bang?’ In the same way, rationally the ‘Big Bang’ must also have a cause that bought it about. Now we can ask since the ‘Big Bang’ has a cause, what was the cause of that cause? Then we can ask, what was the cause of that cause? And so on and so on. But this can’t go on forever and must end with a first cause, because of the following example:
Imagine a sniper who has just found his target and calls back to base to get permission to shoot. The person at the base tells the sniper to hold on while they seek permission from someone else higher up. So the guy higher up seeks permission from the guy even higher up and so on and so on. If this goes on forever, will the sniper ever get to shoot the target?
We can conclude that this first cause must be powerful as it brought the whole universe into existence, and it must be intelligent as it caused the ‘laws of science’ which govern the universe. Also, this first cause must be timeless, spaceless and immaterial, because time, space and matter began at the ‘Big Bang’. Finally, since it is uncaused it must have always existed.
Over the last decade some really startling facts have been found that show that children have an innate belief in God. Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford Centre for Anthropology and Mind, states “The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children’s minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose…” He adds that “If we threw a handful [of children] on an island and they raised themselves…they would believe in God”[3]. To put it simply, his answer as to why anyone would believe in God is that, our minds are designed to do so. Disbelief in God is something which is unnatural to the human being. Oxford University development psychologist Dr Olivera Petrovich, who is an expert in the Psychology of Religion states that, belief in God develops naturally and that “atheism is definitely an acquired position”[4].
So where did this natural belief in a creator come from? We can’t say it is taught by society as this belief is innate, and studies show that it is independent of societal pressures and is cross-cultural[5].
The best explanation for this belief is that God has instilled it into humanity.You have just read three independent reasons why it makes sense to believe in God. Belief in God is not only rational but it’s also part of human nature. There are many questions raised by the existence of God, such as why is there evil and suffering in the world? Doesn’t evolution disprove God? Do we have a purpose in life? All these issues and more will be answered in future articles.
March 18, 2013 by weloveprophet	in Oneness Of God and tagged evil, Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, loss, soul	| Leave a comment
This is its nature and that is its trait, except for the soul that Allaah grants tawfeeq(guidance) and which He makes firm and assists. None has been saved from the evil of his soul except by the tawfeeq of Allaah, as Allaah says relating from the wife of al-Azeez:
“And I free not myself (from the blame). Verily, the soul does indeed incline greatly to evil, except when my Lord bestows His Mercy (upon whom He wills). Verily, my Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Soorah Yoosuf 12:53)
“…..And had it not been for the Grace of Allaah and His Mercy on you, not one of you would ever have been pure…” (Soorah an-Noor 24:21)
“And had We not made you stand firm, you would nearly have inclined to them a little.” (Soorah al-Israa 17:74)
Furthermore, the Prophet (sallallaahu alaiyhi wa salam) used to teach them (i.e.., the people) the ‘Speech of Need’ (Khutbah al-Haajah): ” All praise is for Allaah; we praise Him, seek His aid and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our souls and from the wickedness of our actions. Whosoever Allaah guides, then none can misguide him and whosoever Allaah misguides, then none can guide him…” (related by Aboo Daawood)
Allaah has made in contrast to this soul, a soul that is content. If the soul that constantly commands evil urges the servant with something, the content soul prohibits him from it. The person at times obeys this soul, and at other times obeys the other; he himself is one of the two that is prevalent over him.
Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy upon him, states: “Allaah has assembled two souls: a soul that greatly orders evil and a soul that is content, and they are hostile towards one another. Whenever one diminishes, the other strengthens. Whenever one takes pleasure in something the other suffers pain as a result of it. Nothing is more difficult for the soul that constantly encourages evil than performing deeds for Allaah and preferring His pleasure to its own desire and there is nothing more beneficial to it than Allaah. Likewise, there is nothing more difficult upon the content soul than performing deed for other than Allaah and that which the incentives of desire bring about, and there is nothing more harmful to it than desire…. and the war is continuous, it cannot come to an end until it completes its appointed time from this world.”
January 11, 2013 by weloveprophet	in Oneness Of God and tagged Allah, bliss, greatest love, peace, tranquility	| Leave a comment
Loving Allah is the ultimate aim. Having attained the state of true love for Allah, each stage that follows it is one of its fruits and a branch from its roots – such as longing, intimacy and contentment. Each stage that precedes it – such as repentance, perseverance and doing without.
The most beautiful, the most sincere, the most elevated and the most exalted kind of love is most certainly the love of the One Whom hearts were created to love, and for Whom creation was brought into existence to adore. Allah is the One to Whom hearts turn in love, exhalation and glorification, humility, submission and worship. Such worship cannot be directed towards other than Him. It is the perfection of love accompanied by complete submission and humility. Allah is loved for His own sake in every respect. All except Him are loved for the love they give in return. All the revealed Books, and the message of all the Prophets, bear witness to the love that is due towards Him, as does the natural impulse He has created in all His servants, the intellect He has given them, and the blessings He has poured on them.
Hearts, as they mature, come to love whomever is merciful and kind towards them. So how much greater is their love for Him from Whom all kindness springs!
Every good thing enjoyed by His creation is one of His limitless blessings, and He is One with no associates and no partners:
“And whatever good you have – it is from Allah; and then, when misfortune comes to you, you cry to Him for help.”
“And from among mankind there are some who take for themselves (objects of worship as) rivals to Allah, loving them as they should (only) love Allah. And those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah.”
“O you who believe, whoever of you becomes a rebel against his deen (know that in his place) Allah will bring a people whom He loves and who love Him, humble towards the believers, harsh towards the disbelievers, fighting in the way of Allah, and not fearing the blame of anyone who blames.”
The Prophet has sworn that no servant truly believes until he, (the Prophet ) is more dear to that servant than his own child, father and all of mankind. (Related Bukhari, kitab al-Iman: 1/58 Muslim, kitab al-Iman, 2/15)
The Prophet also said to Umar ibn al-Khattab, “even until I am more dear to you than your own self”. (Related Bukhari, kitab al-Iman wa’n-Nadhur, 11/523)
This means that you are not a true believer until your love for the Prophet Muhammad reaches this level.
When it comes to what we love and what this entails, then is not Allah (Most Exalted is He), even more deserving of our love and adoration than our own selves?
Everything that comes from Him to His servants whether it is something that they hate, directs us to love Him. His giving and His withholding, the good fortune and the misfortune that He decrees for His servants and His abasing them and elevating them, His justice and His grace, His giving life and taking it away again, His compassion, generosity and veiling of His servants wrong actions, His forgiveness and patience, His response to His servants’ supplications even though He is not in any need of His servants whatsoever – all this invites hearts to worship Him and love Him.
If a Human being were to do the smallest amount of any of these things to another, that person would not be able to restrain his heart from loving him. How can a servant not love, with all his heart and body, the One who is constantly Merciful and Generous towards him in spite of all his wrong actions?
Allah seeks His servants friendship and love by means of His generosity towards him, even though He is not in any need of him. The servant, on the other hand, invites Allah’s anger through his disobedience and wrong actions, even though he is in need of His assistance.
Neither Allah’s mercy nor His generosity towards the servant deter him from disobeying his Lord. In the same way, neither the servant’s disobedience nor his wrong actions deter Allah from granting him His blessings.
Furthermore, while anyone who we love and who loves us may behave like this for personal gain, Allah does so in order to benefit us.
Furthermore, while anyone with whom we trade will not do business with us if he does not make a profit from the transaction – and he will do what he can to make a profit one way or another – Allah (Most Exalted is He) trades with us in order to enable us to make the best and greatest profit for ourselves from our transaction with him. Thus one good deed counts as between ten and seven hundred good deeds, or even more, while a bad deed is recorded as only one bad deed and can be swiftly wiped out.
Allah (Most Exalted is He), in His infinite mercy has created everything for us, both in this world and in the next. Who else then, deserves to be loved and worshipped more than Allah? All that we – and the whole of creation, for that matter – require and need is with Him. He is the Most Generous. He gives His servants more than they need, even before they ask him. He is pleased with even a little right action and increases its rewards. He forgives untold wrong actions and wipes them out. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth supplicates to Him. The multiplicity of things never bewilder Him, nor is He weary by the insistent pleas of His servants. Indeed He is pleased with those who persist in their supplication.
He is ever pleased with His servants who seek His assistance, and He is angry with those who do not. He is displeased when He sees a servant being disobedient and not caring about his actions, and yet He veils His servant’s wrong actions while the servant himself does not veil them. He has mercy on His servant while the servant does not have any mercy on himself.
He has called him to His acceptance and mercy through His compassion and generosity – but he declines. He has sent Messengers to him and made His covenant known through them. Allah, even draws near him and says:
“….Is there anyone who is calling on Me, so I may answer his prayer? Is there anyone who is asking of Me, so I may grant his request? Is there anyone who is seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?” (Related by Muslim, Kitab al-Musafirin wa Qasruhu, 6/36)
How then, can our hearts not love Him, the One who – and no other than Him – grants rewards, answers prayers, pardons mistakes, forgives sins, veils wrong actions, dispels grief and drives away sorrow?
He alone, is worthy of remembrance, worship and praise. He is the most generous to be asked, the most liberal to give, the most merciful to pardon, the mightiest to assist and the most dependable to rely on.
He is more merciful to His servant, than a mother is to her baby. He is more pleased by the repentance of the penitent sinner than a man who is overjoyed to find his riding beast, with all his provisions still on its back after he had lost it in a barren land and had given up all hope of survival.
He is pleased with the obedient servant for his obedience, even though it could not have happened without his help and assistance. He pardons and forgives even after He has been disobeyed. And yet, the rights which are due to Him are the ones which are most rejected and neglected.
He is the nearest witness, the most sublime protector, the most true to His Word, and the most just of all Judges. He knows the secrets of the selves:
He records the actions and decides the lifetimes of His slaves. To Him, the secrets in the hearts are known and the Unseen revealed. Everyone yearns for Him, faces humble themselves before the Light of His Face, and minds are completely incapable of understanding the Essence of His Being.
Love of Allah the Almighty gives life to the Heart and sustains the soul. The heart experiences no pleasure, nor feels any joy, nor tastes any success – not even life – if it does not have this love. If the heart loses this love, then the loss it suffers is more severe than that of the eye when it is deprived of its sight and the ear when it is deprived of its hearing.
Even worse than this, the decay of the heart when it is devoid of love for its Creator, Source, and True God, is far worse than that of the body when it no longer contains the soul. This truth is only recognised by the people who are alive, for a wound does not pain the dead.
When she was giving counsel to her children, one of the women of the salaf once said to them, “Make it a habit to love and obey Allah, for those who have taqwah take their obedience to the point where their body experiences aversion for anything other than obedience. If the cursed one (shaytan) tries to tempt them to do something wrong, the wrong actions is ashamed and avoids them because of the way in which it is rejected by them.”