Throughout history, people have been
speculating and reasoning about “God”. Some people (atheists) argue that
there is not something like the so-called “God”, whereas some other
people (theists) argue that there is “God”, Who is the Creator of this
universe.
Even those who believe that there is God
do not have a clear idea about God. There are polytheistic beliefs that
claim that there are several gods. There are monotheistic beliefs that
allege that we have only one God.
Again, the monotheistic faiths disagree
over such one God, Who is the Lord of this universe. They differ about
His attributes, how He should look like and whether He may be like us.
As a result of such fierce controversy,
frequent questions are asked by people everywhere and every time: is
there God? Does God exist? Do we have one or more gods? How does God, if
any, look like?
In this article, I will try to answer
the above questions quite simply and reasonably. While we cannot
perceive the existence of God by any of our usual senses (i.e. hearing,
sight, smell, touch or taste), it must be borne in mind that if God
exists, this must be provable by our very logic. If God exists, He must
be fair. How can God punish people for disbelieving in Him if they
cannot feel His very existence?
Let us review the common beliefs about
God! The first belief to be reviewed is the atheistic theory that there
is no God for this universe, and the world created itself or existed by
evolution.
In fact, this belief is not true. If an
atheist walks in a desolate desert and comes across an obsolete car over
there, he may claim that the desert has no maker, but he cannot allege
that the car has none.
Now, we have two possibilities: either
to believe that everything has no maker (this is not right by intuition)
or everything should have a maker (this is right by experience). So
just as the car should have a maker, the desert also should have a
maker. The only difference in between is that the car was created after
man. That is why he cannot deny that a car should have a maker. But the
desert was created before man. Therefore, a person may claim that the
desert has no maker simply because he did not witness its creation. (Al-Kahf 18:51)
Who is God? How does He look like? Is He like us?
Now, we have come to a conclusion that
this universe has a maker who created it. But, is such a maker only one
or more beings? The polytheistic faiths maintain that this universe has
several gods (three gods in Christianity and more in other faiths).
However, the idea that our universe has
more than one God is negated by many arguments including but not limited
to the following arguments: the first argument is that if the alleged
gods are equally indispensable, all of them cannot be God because one of
them cannot dispense with any of them and so each of them will be
impotent when alone but potent with the other gods. The lord of this
universe can in no way be impotent.
If all of them are equally dispensable,
all of them cannot be God either, simply because the universe can
dispense with them, so why should they be there?
If one of them is indispensable while
the others are dispensable, so the indispensable one is our God, but the
other dispensable ones are not gods.
The second argument is that either the
alleged gods have only one will or several wills. If they have unified
volition, why should be more than one God there? If they have multiple
volitions, they should disagree. What will happen if they disagree?
Supposing that they fail to reach an agreement, they would keep fighting
against one another. Accordingly, the universe should have been
destroyed a long time ago as a result of fighting among gods.
Such fighting would end either in the
victory of only one God or the destruction of gods themselves and the
annihilation of the whole universe. According to the first likelihood,
we will have only one God at the end of the day. According to the second
likelihood, the universe should have been ruined a long time ago as it
is unreasonable that gods would remain in harmony throughout the history
of the earth without irresolvable disagreement. (Al-Israa’ 17:42) (Al-Mu’minun 23:91)
The third argument is that the
multiplicity of gods entails inconsistency in the universe. The
consistency of this universe entails that it is created by only one God.
(Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:22) (Al-Mulk 67:3)
Now, we may conclude that this universe
should have one God. But, how should this God look like? Is He like or
unlike us? Many faiths preach that there is one God, but they depict Him
as a fellow human being, a cow or the like.
Logically speaking, God should be much
greater than His creation. When we review any creature of God, we notice
that it is greatly, exquisitely, and cleverly created. Every day,
scientists have new scientific discoveries which indicate the ultimate
greatness of creation. So, the greatness of the Creator should be more
infinite, absolute and ultimate as well.
All attributes of greatness, magnitude,
majesty and grandeur should be ascribed to the Creator of this universe.
Such attributes are derived from the observation of the greatness of
creation around us.
For example, God should be the Creator of everything. He should not have been created by anyone else. (Al-Ma’idah 5:17)
God should be Almighty, All-powerful, Omnipotent, Eternal, Immortal, and Omnipresent (Al-Baqarah 2:284) (Aal `Imran 3:26) (Aal `Imran 3:189) (Al-Furqan 25:58) How come the Creator of all people is killed or crucified by a few people? (John 19) (Matthew 27:32-56) (Luke 23:26-43)
God should neither beget nor be begotten. (Al-Ikhlas 112:1-4) (An-Nisaa’ 4:171) Otherwise, we will have the above dilemma of multiple gods. (Luke 2:1-20) (Matthew 1:18-25)
God should be Self-sufficient. He should not need to eat, drink or go to the toilet. (Al-Ma’idah 5:75) God should not need anyone, but everyone should need Him. (Fatir 35:15) (Muhammad 47:38)
God is worthy of worship and prayer by everything. (Matthew 4:9-10) (Al-Baqarah 2:83) (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:25) (Al-Baqarah 2:133) He should not worship or pray to anyone else. (Mark 1:35) (Matthew 14:23) (Luke 6:12) (Luke 23:34)
God should be able to benefit or harm all creation. (Al-Ma’idah 5:76) All creation should not be able to benefit or harm Him. (Matthew 27:46)
God should be the one who sends people to Paradise. (Al-Ma’idah 5:72) He should not be sent to Paradise by anyone else. (Luke 23:43)
This is the truth about God. This is the
Lord of this universe Whom we all should worship alone without any
partner. This is God, no matter how different the names that may be
given to Him. This is God, Allah, or Dieu. We should not care for names
but for attributes.
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