Why does God exist? Why is God one? why is God Allah?

[Jerbi]

brothers and sisters.
I was born in a Muslim family that has been Muslim for generations. My country has a 99% majority of Muslims - not all are practicing , but still Muslims. I've accepted Islam as the religion to be followed due to these influences ... that is until I became 13-14 years old. Then I started asking myself the question : why does God exist? at the beginning I set it aside , not letting it sink in , the threat of hell fire is too much to be ignored. But this kind of questions linger and proliferate and keep on getting worse : why is God one? and what if this God really existed , what will make Him come in contact with us lowly humans. And if he had contacted us , why is Islam this contact?
So I searched , and with Allah's help and the help of people via the internet and through books that I've read, I came up with an answer:

Why does God exist:

"Everything in this universe has a scientific explanation" , this is what a reasonable person will answer you when you tell them that you believe ghosts are the cause why you can't find you shoe. This applies to everything : everything has a cause. I am here because my father existed and he exists because his father did and so on. this regression takes us to the very beginning , to the cause of all physical causes. Now consider this example : we have a wind-up toy (a monkey that plays a drum when it's activated). this monkey is called the phenomenon. The phenomenon needs to be activated so we are very sure that something activated it since we are seeing it play the drum right now. this something happens to be another wind-up toy that must have been activated at a certain point in time. Let's call this second toy "cause 1". just the same as with phenomenon , this toy has a need of something to activate it. "Cause 2" is its name and it has a cause , "cause 3". And so we find ourselves with a series of causes that lead to a functioning phenomenon. But since this phenomenon works , that means that the causes behind cannot be lead to an infinite regression. And thus the need of an ultimate reason that does not have a spring that need winding.
Back to reality , the cause of all causes and the reason that must not have any reasons behind it is God who caused the universe and the humans etc...

Why is God one:

This God who exists must be from "outside" the universe since He is the one who created it. The universe with all its space , its laws , its concepts of logic was created by God who existed before it. And thus no rules and no concepts of this universe rule over God. Including plurality. Since plurality requires space , and God cannot be confined to space. example: how do you know that these : * * are two asterisks ? because there is the concept of space. But God does not abide to space. So God can only be one. Furthermore the existence of two Gods or more implies that either : one of them created the universe and the other one watched , this means one is supreme over the other , and this is not the quality of a God. Or they built the universe together which means they need each other. A God can't be subjected to such humanly needs. not to mention that this implies the existence of differences in the creation and errors which do not exist.

Did God contact us:

Now this might not be the most elaborate explanation, but it convinces me. So feel free to post any better answers.
This is called divine providence. Agnostics do not believe that God cares for us , and this includes sending messengers and prophets.
So far we've said that God is one , he has created the universe so large and vast , and made us so small and insignificant. The age of the universe is estimated at 13 billion years , all that a human can hope to live is maybe a hundred years. This reminds of football matches. The stadium exists for many years , but the players only inter it for an hour and a half. The players are interested in the outcome , the spectators are interested in the match itself. Same thing with God who created us with such short lives. He wants to see what we do. And based on it an outcome is to follow. One would then expect to be told about the rules with which people should act during this short life. Messengers are it.
Let's then suppose that God did not contact us. This means that all these measures taken to insure the existence of life like the distance from the sun , the ozone layer that protects us from sun rays and the atmosphere that shelters us from meteors were done without reason , just for pleasantry. But pleasantry is human , and God does not have these features.Otherwise why would he just create us and turn his back on us? Why does he make a 13 year old boy ask himself such questions? Evil ?(astaghfirullah) Evil is a human trait not befitting God who does not have any of the flaws of the universe he created from "nothing" (nothing itself is something that started to exist). No. This is clearly a fallacy. And so a message to all of humanity is necessary. To tell them the truth about their God and to instruct them on how to act in this land in which he placed them. A message addressed to all humans in all times.

Why is God Allah:

In other words , why is Islam this contact with God? This I think was for me the easiest thing to prove. The message mentioned above must contain only the truth , since it is from God and must be something made public and known. So we only need to see which messages claim to be from God , and compare them with what was mentioned above. Any religion or sect or doctrine or philosophy that denies the existence of God or challenges his unity or denies prophetic missions is to be discarded. I know of a small number of religions: I know Hinduism , but it's a polytheistic religion that denies prophetic messages. So it must be discarded. I know Judaism: it's a monotheistic religion , that acknowledges prophetic missions but most Jewish sects forbid conversion to Judaism thus altering the very purpose of the divine message.Plus in Judaism there is a distinction between Jews and non Jews when it comes to things like usury. can't be the word of God. I know of Christianity. Acknowledges the divine messages and claims to be monotheistic. But as far as I can see , triune God where three entities are mentioned (plurality) and to all of whom the status of God is attributed is hardly monotheistic. Not to mention giving a son to God which belittles of Him.
And I know Islam. The religion where all these requirements are stressed within the 6 pillars of faith. God in Islam is described as one , not begotten and never did beget. I don't think any other religion describes God in a better way. So Allah is God. The word Allah itself in Arabic can be seen as meaning "The God" which is quite natural since there is one God.

Of course after a few debates with atheists I came to see how they challenge this argument about why God exists , asking physical proof of the existence of God and saying that the existence of the universe is not a reason to believe that it has a creator. And when asked : how did the universe come about , their answer is at best we don't know. Some can try to convince me with fancy words like the fluctuations of vacuum. An argument that can't of course explain the creation of the universe since these fluctuations have a cause. In short , they are trying to prove how a baby can be created by reasons from within it , instead of saying that its existence comes from outside of it , from a male and a female sexual entities.
Others , mainly from other religions and namely the Christians , argue using what they say contradictions and scientific mistakes in the Qur'an - of course the existence of such mistakes discards any book from being the word of God , for God can't make mistakes. Claims of this category include the number of "days" of creation , the laws of inheritance , the shape of the earth , the orbit of the moon and the sun etc... . Answers to such questions can always be provided.
Some others bring out cherry-picked verses and present them as being a call for hatred and killing , or abuse of women. Answers are again provided.
And the mother of all questions : Why does God make us suffer , why does he cause so much pain and suffering. As I mentioned earlier , This life is a test. And a test that has an outcome : either a blessing or a curse. But to fully fathom happiness , one must feel sadness , and to understand pain one must understand comfort . health and sickness , hope and despair just the same. So would you understand beauty if you didn't know ugliness? Will you enjoy heaven if you have no idea about its opposite? And will Hell be bad , if people only knew pain? No.

This is how I got to be convinced about my religion. I understand arabic , the mosque is around the corner from my house , I hear Athan all the time. But still I can't find the emotional burst that some new converts experience. Why do new converts cry ? What am I missing? Am I that confident about going to heaven? What's wrong with me? Any converts who have experienced this please tell about it. It seems something great and not to be missed.
Salam

 

[Ahmad H]

Walaikum assalaam,

Asking the question such as "Why does God exist" is similar to asking, "Who created Allah?" which is forbidden by the Holy Prophet (saw). He said that people will keep asking questions until they ask this. Seek refuge in Allah and desist from this line of questioning.

We are limited beings with limited understanding of nature and the universe. What we know is very insignificant to what is really out there in the universe and as to the reality behind much of what goes on in nature. Our observations themselves are very limited.

So how can we ask about Allah when we are not able to see Him? All we know is His attributes. To inquire about Him beyond the knowledge He has given us about Himself is wrong no matter how you look at it. We cannot know what He is exactly, because we simply do not know. Our inferences are limited to our own observations on nature around us and our limited knowledge on life.

The simple truth is that you should know one thing about Allah: "There is nothing like unto Him" (42:11)

Also, "He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him." (112:3-4)

So how can you possibly know about Him beyond what He tells you? There is nothing in our knowledge that we could have that would ever allow us to probe into what Allah is, how He is, and why He is what He is. All we know is from what He told us what He is, but only to the limited extent of what the linguistic meanings of those words are. We cannot probe philosophically into this because it is like saying that we know something about Allah which we do not know. Remember, the hands, the tongue and the eyes will all be taken into account. Our secret hidden thoughts will be taken into account. So on the Day of Judgment, you would have to tell Allah that you said things about Him which were not true. What will you say then?

So I would refrain from this line of questioning if I were you. I am telling you this based upon the knowledge of the Qur'an as I have stated for you above. "There is nothing like unto Him" (42:11) is a very decisive statement, and it means what it says. It means: "You cannot possibly know anything about Allah besides what He told us about Himself because nothing in our knowledge can grasp what He is in any sense beyond what He communicates to us. He is beyond anything we know."

And if we cannot even imagine what Heaven is like and its enjoyments, of which our minds cannot conceive, and it is something which we have never heard of before nor could we have ever imagined or thought of it in how it will really be, then when just the mere sight of Allah is the ultimate pleasure of Paradise, how much so knowing anything more about Him?

Get close to Allah and become His close friend through prayer and beyond that Nawafil prayers. Fast often and read Qur'an often. Then learn the Qur'an in memorization and meaning and teach it to others, be a good example to other Muslims, stay up at night and offer Tahajjud prayers. Do what you can to be closer to Him and then His reality will open to you. But it will not be much and it will not be beyond what we can conceive. We cannot conceive of Allah more than what we know. But you can get closer to Him and thus know Him in that way only. Perhaps you will learn of His affection and His ways better towards us humans. But what else can you know besides understanding what has been revealed to the Holy Prophet (saw)?

Also, what you are attempting to do, if you continue after I told you what the Holy Prophet (saw) said, would be the height of arrogance. Because then you would be attempting to know something about Allah which only He knows, and that is like trying to compete with Him in His knowledge of Himself, and you would be trying to put yourself above the knowledge of the Holy Prophet (saw), when he knew Allah better than any of His creation does. He said to not inquire in something useless such as "Who created Allah?" Surah Al-Ikhlas gives the answer that Allah is not created, otherwise He would have been creation. He is the Creator because when everything is created they must logically have a Creator of some sort. He revealed to us that He is the Creator. Plain and simple.

So who cares if these questions linger, you will understand everything better through both knowledge and then obedience. Islam is the way it is because there is great wisdom behind it. When you know the teachings and study them then Allah guides you to the correct meanings of things, then when you act upon these teachings then the knowledge of these teachings takes on a very different reality and they manifest themselves differently. So learn and act upon Islam and forget these philosophical debates. Argue upon the Qur'an and Sunnah as well as Ahadith of the Holy Prophet (saw) and then you will be able to give the correct answers.

 

[- Qatada -]

:salamext:

Say astaghfirullah alot and try to do the things which make u feel happy with Allah. So your emotions become positive.

Also avoid all philosophical debates and simply look at the heart-softening Prophetic sayings.

 

[Jerbi]

Walaikum assalaam,

Asking the question such as "Why does God exist" is similar to asking, "Who created Allah?" which is forbidden by the Holy Prophet (saw). He said that people will keep asking questions until they ask this. Seek refuge in Allah and desist from this line of questioning.

We are limited beings with limited understanding of nature and the universe. What we know is very insignificant to what is really out there in the universe and as to the reality behind much of what goes on in nature. Our observations themselves are very limited.

So how can we ask about Allah when we are not able to see Him? All we know is His attributes. To inquire about Him beyond the knowledge He has given us about Himself is wrong no matter how you look at it. We cannot know what He is exactly, because we simply do not know. Our inferences are limited to our own observations on nature around us and our limited knowledge on life.

The simple truth is that you should know one thing about Allah: "There is nothing like unto Him" (42:11)

Also, "He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him." (112:3-4)

So how can you possibly know about Him beyond what He tells you? There is nothing in our knowledge that we could have that would ever allow us to probe into what Allah is, how He is, and why He is what He is. All we know is from what He told us what He is, but only to the limited extent of what the linguistic meanings of those words are. We cannot probe philosophically into this because it is like saying that we know something about Allah which we do not know. Remember, the hands, the tongue and the eyes will all be taken into account. Our secret hidden thoughts will be taken into account. So on the Day of Judgment, you would have to tell Allah that you said things about Him which were not true. What will you say then?

So I would refrain from this line of questioning if I were you. I am telling you this based upon the knowledge of the Qur'an as I have stated for you above. "There is nothing like unto Him" (42:11) is a very decisive statement, and it means what it says. It means: "You cannot possibly know anything about Allah besides what He told us about Himself because nothing in our knowledge can grasp what He is in any sense beyond what He communicates to us. He is beyond anything we know."

And if we cannot even imagine what Heaven is like and its enjoyments, of which our minds cannot conceive, and it is something which we have never heard of before nor could we have ever imagined or thought of it in how it will really be, then when just the mere sight of Allah is the ultimate pleasure of Paradise, how much so knowing anything more about Him?

Get close to Allah and become His close friend through prayer and beyond that Nawafil prayers. Fast often and read Qur'an often. Then learn the Qur'an in memorization and meaning and teach it to others, be a good example to other Muslims, stay up at night and offer Tahajjud prayers. Do what you can to be closer to Him and then His reality will open to you. But it will not be much and it will not be beyond what we can conceive. We cannot conceive of Allah more than what we know. But you can get closer to Him and thus know Him in that way only. Perhaps you will learn of His affection and His ways better towards us humans. But what else can you know besides understanding what has been revealed to the Holy Prophet (saw)?

Also, what you are attempting to do, if you continue after I told you what the Holy Prophet (saw) said, would be the height of arrogance. Because then you would be attempting to know something about Allah which only He knows, and that is like trying to compete with Him in His knowledge of Himself, and you would be trying to put yourself above the knowledge of the Holy Prophet (saw), when he knew Allah better than any of His creation does. He said to not inquire in something useless such as "Who created Allah?" Surah Al-Ikhlas gives the answer that Allah is not created, otherwise He would have been creation. He is the Creator because when everything is created they must logically have a Creator of some sort. He revealed to us that He is the Creator. Plain and simple.

So who cares if these questions linger, you will understand everything better through both knowledge and then obedience. Islam is the way it is because there is great wisdom behind it. When you know the teachings and study them then Allah guides you to the correct meanings of things, then when you act upon these teachings then the knowledge of these teachings takes on a very different reality and they manifest themselves differently. So learn and act upon Islam and forget these philosophical debates. Argue upon the Qur'an and Sunnah as well as Ahadith of the Holy Prophet (saw) and then you will be able to give the correct answers.

Thanks for the answer.
I don't think I wrote anything in my post in the line of asking what is God like? Anyway , in case I gave the impression that I did , then I must apologize. Such a question is futile and pointless , since it is not required to know Allah. Matter of fact I pointed out in my post that God is nothing like His creation , and based my arguments on this.
As for who cares if these questions linger , excuse me brother I do. These four questions bothered me and had to be dealt with , and Alhamdulillah I was able to answer them. Otherwise why did God give us brains and intellect if we were not to use them? Why did God on multiple occasions call on the disbelievers to use their minds and to think. Am I to believe that God who called on the disbelievers to think , forbids us believers from thinking? And as I said , my questions were not in the line of that pseudo problem : "what is God like?" All I asked were questions required by faith and by Islam and God will hold us accountable for our belief in Him.

 

[Abz2000]

Assalamu'alaikum wr wb brother,
I am amazed that you believe you found an answer to that question when I find it hard to believe even the Prophet pbuh could have answered it - genius no doubt

Certain things are totally beyond our comprehension, just like it is impossible for us to fully understand Qadr or the Eternal Presence of Allah.
Your pondering or confusion in a certain atmosphere is understandable though,
I would assume it would be felt by one who grew up without actually feeling the presence of God and suddenly, hey presto, he realises that God does exist, but the problem is that the "why" cannot be attributed to Him because He does exist and has always existed.
It may be understandable to try to comprehend the reason for the existence of something that has been brought into existence and SERVES a purpose, but not for the One Who Is Eternal, Creator of all that exists, wasn't made to exist and has given no answer, and says He needs to give no answer. He hasn't even told us why the Spirit exists, let alone the fact that His presence is too lofty for our puny, unclean, imperfect, and disposable minds.
The only answer that comes to mind if someone actually asks is that He is Who He is. (if you can derive anything from that - great

لا يُسـَٔلُ عَمّا يَفعَلُ وَهُم يُسـَٔلونَ

He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs).

Quran 21:23

Not that one can say it is even an act for Him to exist. well anyway, it feels uncomfortable even discussing this topic now, it's like trying to explain how He's Eternal when we know He obviously is and nothing is above Him.
You can't answer the existence of ONE that wasn't brought into existence,
maybe it just suddenly felt like that because He suddenly existed after having not existed in your mind.
when in reality, you became aware of His presense.

I'll leave you with these verses which He allows you to ask:

أَم خُلِقوا مِن غَيرِ شَيءٍ أَم هُمُ الخٰلِقونَ

Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?

Quran 52:35


ءَأَنتُم تَخلُقونَهُ أَم نَحنُ الخٰلِقونَ

Is it ye who create it, or are We the Creators?

Quran 56:59


You have a foundation from where to start with those questions, you're not eternal, otherwise you can only conjecture.

Q:
egg first or chicken first?
A: God Always.

 

[Nur Student]

I read all the above posts. I think the problem is with the wording of your questions, Brother Jerbi. You asked "Why does God exist?" but you answered "What is the proof for His existence? or How do we know that He exists?" They are very different things.

Same with the 2nd and 4th questions. "Why is God one?" == "Is He one or not? / What is the proof for His Oneness?". And "Why is God Allah?" == "Is it Allah who is the One God and who created everything?"

By the way, your answers are nice, but I am sure you can further improve them.

 

[Jerbi]

Assalamu'alaikum wr wb brother,
I am amazed that you believe you found an answer to that question when I find it hard to believe even the Prophet pbuh could have answered it - genius no doubt

Certain things are totally beyond our comprehension, just like it is impossible for us to fully understand Qadr or the Eternal Presence of Allah.
Your pondering or confusion in a certain atmosphere is understandable though,
I would assume it would be felt by one who grew up without actually feeling the presence of God and suddenly, hey presto, he realises that God does exist, but the problem is that the "why" cannot be attributed to Him because He does exist and has always existed.
It may be understandable to try to comprehend the reason for the existence of something that has been brought into existence and SERVES a purpose, but not for the One Who Is Eternal, Creator of all that exists, wasn't made to exist and has given no answer, and says He needs to give no answer. He hasn't even told us why the Spirit exists, let alone the fact that His presence is too lofty for our puny, unclean, imperfect, and disposable minds.
The only answer that comes to mind if someone actually asks is that He is Who He is. (if you can derive anything from that - great

لا يُسـَٔلُ عَمّا يَفعَلُ وَهُم يُسـَٔلونَ

He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs).

Quran 21:23

Not that one can say it is even an act for Him to exist. well anyway, it feels uncomfortable even discussing this topic now, it's like trying to explain how He's Eternal when we know He obviously is and nothing is above Him.
You can't answer the existence of ONE that wasn't brought into existence,
maybe it just suddenly felt like that because He suddenly existed after having not existed in your mind.
when in reality, you became aware of His presense.

I'll leave you with these verses which He allows you to ask:

أَم خُلِقوا مِن غَيرِ شَيءٍ أَم هُمُ الخٰلِقونَ

Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?

Quran 52:35


ءَأَنتُم تَخلُقونَهُ أَم نَحنُ الخٰلِقونَ

Is it ye who create it, or are We the Creators?

Quran 56:59


You have a foundation from where to start with those questions, you're not eternal, otherwise you can only conjecture.

Q:
egg first or chicken first?
A: God Always.

thanks for the answer brother :statisfie
The prophet PBUH knows - no doubt - better than anyone.
As for the question I asked : "why does God exist" i didn't mean what purpose is there for him to exist , God forbid that question is like applying a notion befitting a creature to its creator. What I meant was like Why do we say that God exists , Why do we say that he is One and only , and why do we adhere to Islam.
All we need to know about Him is in Surat Al-Ikhlas.

 

[Jerbi]

I read all the above posts. I think the problem is with the wording of your questions, Brother Jerbi. You asked "Why does God exist?" but you answered "What is the proof for His existence? or How do we know that He exists?" They are very different things.

Same with the 2nd and 4th questions. "Why is God one?" == "Is He one or not? / What is the proof for His Oneness?". And "Why is God Allah?" == "Is it Allah who is the One God and who created everything?"

By the way, your answers are nice, but I am sure you can further improve them.

thanks for the reply.
Yes I made a phenomenal error with the wording - English is not my mother tongue. hew

I hope I did not cause any inconvenience.
I did not come up with all of this , in many parts I had a good help from the Internet. Particularly the second question.

 

[Abz2000]

You're welcome dear brother, my mistake also for not understanding your intent,
My head was just spinning at the idea of someone trying to explain for what purpose He exists lol,

Nice to see someone actually going back to the most fundamental questions a non-Muslim might have and doing their best to answer them. Delving deep into other issues sometimes causes one to assume it's no longer a question, but then when it turns into a debate it also feels like falling off a ladder or walking into a marsh and struggling to get back up again.
there are some wonderful debates with atheists on YouTube (hamza tzortzis usually does quite well) which I hope to post here for reference purposes inshaAllah if no one does so before me (hope someone does) once I get back on a pc. New answers appear all the time and one never ceases to learn something new.
Peace

 

[Jerbi]

You're welcome dear brother, my mistake also for not understanding your intent,
My head was just spinning at the idea of someone trying to explain for what purpose He exists lol,

Nice to see someone actually going back to the most fundamental questions a non-Muslim might have and doing their best to answer them. Delving deep into other issues sometimes causes one to assume it's no longer a question, but then when it turns into a debate it also feels like falling off a ladder or walking into a marsh and struggling to get back up again.
there are some wonderful debates with atheists on YouTube (hamza tzortzis usually does quite well) which I hope to post here for reference purposes inshaAllah if no one does so before me (hope someone does) once I get back on a pc. New answers appear all the time and one never ceases to learn something new.
Peace

Yup , this is REALLY not the kind of questions you want to be crawling inside your head during Salat! (trust me on this !!!!).
I didn't want to base my argumentation on how the Qur'an is a marvelous literary work , since non Muslims can't verify this themselves. I also didn't want to mention scientific facts mentioned in the Qur'an because there are always people giving arguments on how these are either luck , common knowledge ,a translator's misinterpretation or some other evasive maneuver atheists and some times Christians will use.
The first time I saw a video of Hamza Tzortzis he was explaining the answer to those who ask "who created God" , and I really liked what he said.

 

[Muhaba]

Quite an interesting post. Your points are thoughtful.

Lack of knowledge about God can cause a person to be lazy and thus don't have the desire to go to the Masjid for prayer. Reading the Quran can remove that as it gives you an idea of the accounting in the next world. God will ask us about each and every deed. He will ask whether we went to the masjid / prayed at the proper time and why or why not.

It's also important to realize the correct human - God relationship. God is the creator of the world. He is so great we can not even comprehend it. Most of the time we are blind to His Greatness. And then this sort of blindness can cause us to think or act in manners that are inappropriate. They can make us hope for mercy when we don't deserve it and can make us lazy. Therefore it's important to know our place in the universe and God's Greatness. God, the Master and Creator of everything deserves every reverence.
Just think of the Universe's size. It's Humongous. Really each one of us human beings is tinier than a grain of sand compared to God. I had read a hadith that stated that everything created from the beginning of time till the end of the world will all fit on the palm of God. That hadith, which unfortunately I lost, had such an impact on me, making me realize how little I was and how Great God was, that I just wanted to evaporate. It was the only hadith that had such an effect on me that I felt that I was going to die from awe and fear! I've read about people in the past, when they heard some things about God of the Aakhirah they went into such a state of fear that they died instantly! When I read the hadith, I realized that a lot of previously known information is missing or hidden - we don't know about it. And such ignorance of important knowledge will only cause our own loss.

 

[Ahmad H]

As for who cares if these questions linger , excuse me brother I do. These four questions bothered me and had to be dealt with , and Alhamdulillah I was able to answer them. Otherwise why did God give us brains and intellect if we were not to use them? Why did God on multiple occasions call on the disbelievers to use their minds and to think. Am I to believe that God who called on the disbelievers to think , forbids us believers from thinking? And as I said , my questions were not in the line of that pseudo problem : "what is God like?" All I asked were questions required by faith and by Islam and God will hold us accountable for our belief in Him.

That is a very relevant question. Then why did Allah give us a mind to inquire with?

The Qur'an on multiple occasions tells us to inquire on all kinds of things. However, there is a way to approach things and a way to not approach things. I was trying to tell you the difference between two things: Revelation and Rationality. We humans use rationality where we cannot get the answers that revelation gives us. Sharia law does not cover everything out of mercy. So we do use our rationality.

But with regards to questions on Who and What Allah is, that is where we have to use great caution. I didn't understand this as well till very recently because I used to do the same kind of questioning myself. My point is, most of this becomes speculation and we cannot speculate too much unless we want to come to wrong conclusions. Wrong conclusions can lead to wrong beliefs. This is where we have to be careful.

I don't want to stop you from thinking. I just want to direct you. When you want to know about Allah from what He said already, then that is how you should learn about Him rationally. Look at His attributes and then study them. Read the books about them and read what the Ulama of the past have written about them. That will give you the answers you need. Your rationality in this issue must be purely based on what is revealed by Allah to His Prophet (saw). The rationality in this case must be limited to what the revelation says, and must never go beyond it or outside of it. That then becomes baseless speculation because it is not based on facts. Nothing can be observed about Allah, so the only knowledge we have of Him is through His revelations about Himself. This is where I am directing you to look into understanding Allah. His attributes reveal a lot about Him you wouldn't otherwise know or be able to figure out philosophically as well. They tell you just how Other Allah is. When you know how much He is unlike His creation, then you understand Him better.

I don't know which scholars are better than others in explaining the attributes of Allah, but I am sure you can find some who have explained the deep lexicographical meanings behind His Names and the ways in which Allah's attributes operate. Allah is One and the Unique. He is Samad. He is the Creator, etc. You can learn about how His Khalq (creation) is different from His Amr (command). You can see in the Qur'an that He never changes His ways with humanity and see what those are, especially in the stories of the Prophets which are meant to speak of every age and time period. And unless you knew pretty much everything about His attributes, then you cannot rationally comprehend the attributes yourself. So make sure to develop a greater knowledge base.

In short: I was not stopping you from thinking. I can see why you would think that, and I fully understand since I used to think the way you do as well. But when you mature in your Islamic knowledge over some 5-7 years of intense studying then you see that you have to approach everything differently. On Allah Himself you have to be the most careful. Fear of Him is also the fear of saying anything wrong about Him about Himself. Think about it that way and I think you'll see what I mean.

 

[Ahmad H]

I didn't want to base my argumentation on how the Qur'an is a marvelous literary work , since non Muslims can't verify this themselves. I also didn't want to mention scientific facts mentioned in the Qur'an because there are always people giving arguments on how these are either luck , common knowledge ,a translator's misinterpretation or some other evasive maneuver atheists and some times Christians will use.

Sorry for writing again, I know I am taking up a lot of space. But forgetting scientific facts which can become confusing (I am actually looking into these right now myself, so I have to gain knowledge on it too and find what is reliable or not), and forgetting the literary miracle, which is based upon how the Ancient Arabs best understood it from their knowledge of poetry verse and the compilation of it - you should try to look into prophecies of the Holy Qur'an.

You will be amazed to see how many prophecies fulfilled themselves in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (saw) and how many prophecies continue to be fulfilled even now. Both the Qur'an and the Ahadith are filled with these. This was what made me strong in my faith, not scientific facts from the Qur'an or its literary miracle. You need to be deeply entrenched in Arabic knowledge in order to be able to confirm the literary miracle and the scientific miracle of the Qur'an. But many books explain the prophecies fulfilled and even some miracles of the Holy Prophet (saw) as well.

Just one example from Hadith, look at how the world today has every country competing in building taller and taller structures, this was prophesied by the Holy Prophet (saw) and is recorded in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as well as many other books of Ahadith. Who could have foretold that it would happen as well as other things in the same age such as many earthquakes? Even more accurate is that he (saw) said these buildings would be built by the barefoot camel herders. And we see how the Arabs became rich overnight and those same camel herders started building tall buildings. The psychology behind this is true since when a poor person receives large amounts of wealth, they usually go big in spending it and they don't know how to invest their wealth.

 

[greenhill]

Salaam to all,

The title was too huge and the questions (3) too wide to be able to effectively answer without it being too long, convoluted and even digressing.

With no direct 'link' between God and his subjects, it is difficult to argue on this, I find. It starts with faith. With that, we are able to piece together the clues to form a solid belief in the signs of His existence. Without faith, everything said or explained can be 'philosophically' challenged by ignorance and refusal to 'see'.

But then again, it is not our responsibility to convert everyone, but just to convey the message. Oh Allah, make this easier on us, make the words flow from our tongue in a manner that would make them see, and give us patience when it becomes difficult. Amiin.

 

[greenhill]

Why do new converts cry ? What am I missing?

I missed this earlier... but then again, when a post is very long, we cannot (more specifically), I cannot remember all the points to make.

I suppose it is that as a born muslim I have come to accept and believe in the beauty already. Very much I suppose similar to experiencing life's best from a young age..... we become indifferent to the wonderful situation we find ourselves in and perhaps even take it or granted. Someone who previously have had their life filled with doubts and stuff to finally realize the 'truth' and experience the peace and beauty might get all emotional with the discovery... which we have already known but failed to truly appreciate the blessings bestowed upon us?

Just a spur of the moment respond.

eace: