Did Allah create life?

[K.Venugopal]

In this regard Prophet Muhammad, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him, was reported by Ibn ‘Abbaas to have said:“Reflect on the creation of God but do not reflect on God.”

To reflect on the reality of God is to reflect on the infinite. And, as the mind boggles when it reflects on the limits of the finite universe and the galaxies and stars within it, it will be more confounded when it attempts to understand the uncreated. The Prophet, may God praise him, warned that the satanic forces would seek to introduce doubts in the hearts of the believers by raising unanswerable questions about God. Aboo Hurayrah related that God’s Messenger, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him, said:

“Satan will come to everyone of you and ask: Who created this and that? - until he questions: Who created your Lord? When he comes to that, one should seek refuge in God [say: I affirm my faith in God and His prophets] and avoid [such thoughts].”

You have quoted Mohammad. That was what was in Mohammad's mind. I am asking about what is in the Quran. That is what was in God's mind. How could God have claimed to have created life?

As for the reason Allah created creation, we muslims have an insanely simple answer to a question most people spend their lives trying to answer, and rarely succeed.

"I have created the jinn and humankind only for My worship." (Qur'an, 51:56)

The result, Muslims believe it is the greatest thing to be a slave of Allah. Unquestioning, obedient and intolerant to other religions.

 

[K.Venugopal]

Man created the chair, right? So by your reasoning, there is surely man in the chair, yes?

Now-a-days chairs are mass-produced by machines and we might only be interested to know which factory produced it. But even now in villages, when a chair of ornamentation is created, the fame of the carpenter is almost written into it. Why, if I draw a squarish horse and pass it off as drawn by M.F. Hussain, I might make a fast buck. That's because great drawings reflect the artist quite a bit.

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

-- William Blake, from "Auguries of Innocence"

I hope you got the flow of what I am saying.

 

[K.Venugopal]

Allah may have been refering to life in an earthly way or he amy have used life as a meatphor for living organisms.
God may not be alive in the way we understand it, it's posible he is not alive, who says existence must include life?
:embarrass

Your answer is very satisfactory. Existence includes life, but whether it can exclude life and still exist is a moot point.

 

[Mikayeel]

Well, and here is the part, where our opinions split. I refuse to believe in something/someone whose existence has never been prooven.
Science/Evolution is something I can touch and proove, but existance of God, no.

In that case, my decision has been made.

Peace

Thats right we differ greatly, uhm you are mostly right science you can see and touch! The problem is once u think u have it in your hands, it will slip. Science is to inconsistent!

Take my word my friend, go outside and just take a look at everything around u. Take a look at it with hope, and i will swear down that things will make sense! Important thing is to look with hope!

Everything just seem to be so perfect for us to live in! So many things we don't even think about.
Why do the ingredients we make food with taste good enough for us to eat? They could of tasted horrible!
Why does it rain in abudance? Why is the rain not salty?
So many things! So little hope....
Look at the world with hope and look at things from a different view

 

[Whatsthepoint]

That question is answered quite well here:
"Allah has honored humans by creating them to be His vicegerents on earth. He gave us free will, which makes us higher than the angels.

But our minds as human beings are limited to the boundaries of human perception. We should bear this in mind and never try to bother ourselves with things that fall outside of our scope of understanding. Allah did not need to create us, and therefore, we may never understand why He did.

Yes, Allah is perfect. Yes, He has no need of us; rather, we need Him. When He created us, He did not create us for His own benefit, but for ours. He created us for our advantage, not His.

Allah does not need to be worshiped; rather, we need to worship Him. Our need of God stems from our innate need of someone to help us and give us safety.

Our purpose of existence on earth is more meaningful than being slaves to worldly gains. There can be no meaningful life better than that prescribed by our Creator, Allah. Every act done according to Allah's way is an act of worship. Man is the beneficiary and Allah is in no need. The Qur’an says what means:

*{O mankind! It is you who stand in need of Allah, but Allah is Rich [Free of all wants and needs], Worthy of all praise.}* (Fatir 35:15)

We need Allah to feel our own being and to taste the happiness of life. Our need for Him is like the need of a baby for a supporting father and a merciful mother. We need to admit our powerlessness before Him and to trust Him to give us might and power, since He is the source of all might and power. A prophetic tradition reads:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in You for Your pleasure and against Your wrath and in Your forgiveness and against Your punishment and in You from You. I cannot praise You as You can praise Yourself.” (Reported by Muslim, Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah.)

Almighty Allah says what means:

*{Allah is He besides Whom there is no god, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist; slumber does not overtake Him nor sleep; whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His; who is he that can intercede with Him but by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot comprehend anything out of His knowledge except what He pleases, His knowledge extends over the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of them both tires Him not, and He is the Most High, the Great.}* (Al-Baqarah 2:255)"

source

As I said, no satisfactory response so far.
Thanks for trying anyway.

 

[K.Venugopal]

No, I'm saying he's simply 'not alive' in the way we understand it. For something to be dead, it must once have lived.

Life is indivisible. Life forms die, but life itself cannot die. Allah did not create life, ALLAH IS LIFE.

 

[K.Venugopal]

God is self-sufficient, yet he wants (or needs, basically the same) worship?
If god were self-sufficient, he would not have created anything...he would not have done a single thing, as taht woudl imply there was a reason, a necessity for it, which is in contradiction with a perfect, self-sufficient being.

You've got the seed here of a higher truth. Maybe I will revert to it some other time in some other thread.

 

[Whatsthepoint]

Life is indivisible. Life forms die, but life itself cannot die. Allah did not create life, ALLAH IS LIFE.

That's a fair view from where you're standing...
One question: what are you trying to achieve with this thread?

 

[1ummah]

Allah cannot be comprehended/understood through knowledge only.

Allah cannot be understood/comprehended through having Faith.

Only when these two come togeter can you get a glimpse of Who Allah is.

"Allah Guides whomever He Wills without any measures"

May Allah Guide us all

 

[Whatsthepoint]

Your answer is very satisfactory. Existence includes life, but whether it can exclude life and still exist is a moot point.

Why not? A chair exists yet it is not alive. A virus exists, yet it is not alive. why can't god exixst and be unalive?
I know you percieve life as some higher force connected with god... whereas I see life as a quality of living beigns, which did not exists before the first life forms appeared. It's more of a description than anything else... I find ot simialr to the word connection. You've got two adjacent boxes, inbetween them is a connection... which does not exists physically, it's an idea, a description of a certain state.
God does not need to be alive in order to be/exist.
If I were a muslim, I'd interpret the verse in question to decribe the creation of living organisms (life) and the setting of a limit to their existence (death).

 

[Whatsthepoint]

Allah cannot be comprehended/understood through knowledge only.

Allah cannot be understood/comprehended through having Faith.

Only when these two come togeter can you get a glimpse of Who Allah is.

"Allah Guides whomever He Wills without any measures"

May Allah Guide us all

the same with polytheism, trinity etc... that muslims are so keen to disprove with logic.

 

[Keltoi]

We have our own perception of what "life" is. Meaning we think of flesh and blood with all the inner workings of the human body. People of faith view God as "something" else entirely.

 

[AvarAllahNoor]

One person is an Allah worshipper and another is an idol worshipper. As Allah helps his worshippers, the idols too are helping its worshippers. There are probably more idol worshippers than Allah-worshippers. Without some benefits both camps would have been bereft of worshippers. So let's accept the dictum - to each his own way.

You need to go and read the Vedas. You'll find idolatry is not permissable. So saying idols help the believer is codswallop!

 

[MustafaMc]

I agree Allah is immortal. Which means Allah always had life. Then why does the Quran say Allah created life?

Can you quote me Surah and ayat? (I read your latter post)

 

[Keltoi]

Am I off base in my understanding that God's creation is what we call "life"? This isn't as difficult of a question as some are making it out to be, at least in my opinion. What is referred to by "life" is indeed the creation of the Almighty God. Mortal beings made of flesh and bone, whether it be animal or Human. Or if one wants to get more complex, all the variations of life as we know it, from single cell organisms to the complex human body. God would be neither mortal, nor flesh, nor cell. At least that is how I view it.

 

[K.Venugopal]

That's a fair view from where you're standing...
One question: what are you trying to achieve with this thread?

I am simply trying to say that when the Quran says Allah created life, there seems to be something amiss there. I am not taking the position that the Quran is wrong. I prefer to believe that we have not come to a proper understanding of what the Quran means. That could be because those folks who interpreted the Quran in the initial period might have been somewhat insular –and chose to reinvent the wheel again, failing to appreciate that, for example, the Hindu culture or the Veda had already trod much grounds on key understanding of the human dilemma. Instead, the approach had been to say that all that came before the Quran is crap and all that comes after the Quran would also be crap. It is probably this attitude that I am questioning.

 

[Intisar]

The reply does not satisfy me, it confuses me even further.
God cannot be the creator of everything and at the same time not be created..

Why would he need to be created? God is independent, he doesn't need a creator. He's the absolute creator, nothing is before him or supercedes him.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Abdul Fattah]

Yeah, yeah, I get hat.
But that makes it impossible for god to be the creator of all things.

This is splitting hairs. "All things except himself" Was that really so hard to come up with?

 

[Intisar]

Also, God having a creator would entail that he has a beginning (life) and an end (death) and as it has been stated umpteen times, God has none of these attributes.

 

[ranma1/2]

It is said in the Quran that Allah created life. If Allah were to have created life, there would have been no life till He created it. If there was no life till He created it, Allah would have been dead till He created life. This is a logical absurdity. Can my brethren in Islam therefore please explain why it is said in the Quran that Allah created life?

that the fun with any religion, contradictions dont count.

seriously though, id say they mean allah created all other life.