Question:Could God create a rock so strong that He himself could not carry?

[Samiun]

:sl: Inshallah this answer would benefit us in answering questions like this..

Question:Could God create a rock so strong that He himself could not carry?

Answer: Could God murder people ,could God steal from people can he lie? He does things that only befit His majesty. You're giving human qualities to Allah of building a rock and physically moving it these are human qualities it doesn't apply here. Allah can do anything but it would only befit His majesty.That's why he doesn't steal, murder or have children.

-Excerpt from Sh. Kamal El-Mekki's lecture

[سيف الله]

Salaam

It is a strange question to ask. Heres a philosophical response (from a Christian perspective).

[Insaanah]

:sl:

This question has been asked here before, and answered by Muslims, though the responses are lengthier:

Please see points no 2 and 4 here, under Specific Logical/Philosophical Arguments:

http://www.islamicboard.com/clarific...ml#post1542744

[Pygoscelis]

I think you need to have some appreciation for why and in what sense the question is asked.

It isn't a serious question usually. It is just a remark on how baffling (and some would say self refuting) the concept of infinite power is. Infinity is a strange concept to try to wrap your mind around.

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[Samiun]

Well I think it is a serious question to confuse the mind of Muslims especially those in their youth like me so we can doubt our religion and become atheists :|. Why is infinity a strange concept to you?

[Caller الداعي]

A good answer I came across was that a rock is bound to space and time and Allah is beyond that.

[dudeguy]

The actual question is 'Can God create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it?'
Well, god has given humans free will that he himself cannot predict what we will do.

[Abu Loren]

The actual question is 'Can God create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it?'
Well, god has given humans free will that he himself cannot predict what we will do.

Are you sure your religion is Islam?

[IAmZamzam]

It's very simple.

1. Mathematics is our system of describing the orderly structure of creation. Note that: we use it to express what our Maker already put there. He made the rules, in other words, and we're just reporting on them.
2. Logic is how we match things up, whether consciously or unconsciously, with mathematical law. This may usually boil down only to seeing whether a situation aligns to the Law of Identity (does A equal A or does it equal not A? "I wasn't even in the same room! That couldn't have been the same remote control you're talking about! It doesn't make any sense!"), although other principles such as the transitive property get involved as well. One way or another it all ties in.
3. Therefore, since our logic is based on mathematical principles that are His own creations, there is no reason why He should be subject to them. After all, we're his creations too, as is the rest of the world, and everything else we know about is subject to him. In fact, it is an explicit doctrine of Islam that everything is subject to Him.

I don't get it: if He can break the rules of physics, why is any other kind of rule such a stretch?

I can hear the slippery slope fallacies coming in droves now: "Well, how do you know He won't do all sorts of other things that don't make any sense then? You've opened the floodgates now. If God can do anything then anything can happen: you've just admitted it. Blah blah blah." Religious skeptics are often really fond of slippery slope fallacies when it comes to the subject of miracles and the supernatural. It makes me wonder when you consider how this particular fallacy tends to be rooted in fear. When all that stuff happens, then you can come to me with it. Any artist knows that a large part of design is to have a modus operandi to go by, and to at least generally stick to it. I think I've said what I have to say.

[Muhaba]

are athiests that stupid that they have to ask stupid questions. had they had a brain they'd realize that thier gastro-intestinal tract (the one that helps you eat, digest, and excrete) did not come into being by itself!
everytime an athiest goes to toilet to excrete, let him/her consider this question: "Could this system have come into being by itself?"

Sorry had to be blunt!

[Abu Loren]

are athiests that stupid that they have to ask stupid questions. had they had a brain they'd realize that thier gastro-intestinal tract (the one that helps you eat, digest, and excrete) did not come into being by itself!
everytime an athiest goes to toilet to excrete, let him/her consider this question: "Could this system have come into being by itself?"

Sorry had to be blunt!

I double like this. ;D

[Independent]

had they had a brain they'd realize that thier gastro-intestinal tract (the one that helps you eat, digest, and excrete) did not come into being by itself!

You know, I have a sneaking suspicion that you will never ever find an atheist who believes this :)

[greenhill]

Like that illusion (drawing) where the staircase is goes down (or up), anything can be said or shown to create doubt. Play of words can really cause doubt to those who were doubtful in the first place...

[Abz2000]

Lol I remember this guy was arguing that God could have a son if He wanted to, then brother Ahmed Deedat explains that God doesn't have a partner and it does not befit His majesty.
The guy comes up with: don't you yourself believe that God can do anything?
Ahmed explains: Yes, but within reason, Dont you yourself believe that all is within God's dominion? can God throw you out of His dominion?
The poor guy was a little baffled.

[Ahmad H]

I was asked this same stupid question before by a friend of mine. I looked into it and I realized the answer was that Allah is not bound by anything. He is not subject to gravity which is something He created. The Creator is above His creation. Thus, question answered.

[shahidiceprince]

True. 'Heavy' is a very relative term. What is heavy on Earth will not be heavy on, say, Moon. A giant drilling machine on earth weighing 50 tonnes would weigh no more than a few pounds on Phobos or Deimos, Mars' moons! Heck, it will be no more a few ounces in open space where there is little or no gravity (the Sun's gravitational pull will give it some weight)!

What we have to understand here is that Allah Almighty has created something as big and huge and incomprehensible as the Universe and something as small and equally incomprehensible as bosons and mesons which make up matter. Truly, there is nothing (that is comprehensible to us) that He cannot do. It is but man's folly that he puts forward condescending questions like these, proving that man's intellect is too feeble to grasp the incomprehensible!

[h-n]

For Allah to create any size of rock, and place it into being, he would still be holding it. As he keeps the worlds in their orbits and upholds the heavens and paradise.

For the Question can God have a child if he can do anything;

There can be no other God, if there was he could not keep his thoughts, actions hidden from Allah, the Creator of the Universe the one God. So there can be no other God.

Allah cannot die as that would mean going into nothingness (which Allah would have created) and Allah is All-Mighty, Majestic, nothing is able to overtake him.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.

[loveofgod]

:sl: Inshallah this answer would benefit us in answering questions like this..

Question:Could God create a rock so strong that He himself could not carry?

Answer: Could God murder people ,could God steal from people can he lie? He does things that only befit His majesty. You're giving human qualities to Allah of building a rock and physically moving it these are human qualities it doesn't apply here. Allah can do anything but it would only befit His majesty.That's why he doesn't steal, murder or have children.

-Excerpt from Sh. Kamal El-Mekki's lecture

This question makes me laugh out loud. Really stupid question. What is stronger? The rock or the One who made the rock?