PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
A person who disputes the existence of God is one
who refuses to look past the end of his nose. For example, the
person who wants to buy a garment will not argue that before he can
buy it, it has to be made from cloth which requires a tailor or
seamstress to take the cloth, cut it out, and sew the garment
together. Similarly, the one who goes into a desert and finds no house
built, waits for mud to turn into bricks and be laid to form a house
without a builder, would be called mad, stupid, or ignorant.
So what can one say who looks at the universe with
all the planets, the stars, the sun and the moon moving in great
precision. It is obvious that it has to have a Creator, and if someone
thinks about the human body developing from an infant to an adult,
maintaining the complex human body, this could not happen by chance.
It had to have a Creator. For just as you cannot have a house without
a builder, you cannot have this world or living beings without a
Creator.
Nevertheless, there are those who insist on denying
the existence of the Creator. Everyone who denies the existence of the
Creator can be classified into one of two groups. The first group
consists of those who deny the existence of God and deny that the
world has a beginning. The second group are those who deny the
existence of God, but admit that the world has a beginning. Now, let
us turn our attention to the first group and prove that the world has
a beginning, then the two groups will have merged, since both groups
will be forced to admit that the world has a beginning, though they
still maintain that God does not exist.
Before proceeding, let us define some terminology.
An event is anything which has a beginning. According to this
definition the motion of a moving hand is an event, and the hand
itself is an event. As you can see the world is a huge set of events.
We ourselves are events as we develop from birth to death. Our
emotions, the seasons and growing plants are all events.
To show that the world has a beginning, let us
consider this example. If someone promises to give you a dollar with
the condition that he is not going to give you a dollar unless
he gave you a dollar before, and the previous dollar has the same
condition (that you received a dollar from him), and this dollar and
each previous dollar promised has the same condition. Now the question
is, ˇ§Will you ever get the dollar he promised?ˇ¨ The answer is
simply, ˇ§No!ˇ¨
In the same way, the events that make up the
world are like the dollar and could never have happened unless there
is a beginning. If these events had no beginning, then we would not be
able to reach the present event, in this case, the moment during which
you are reading this essay. Thus, if someone says that the world has
no beginning, he is saying that no event took place, which is
obviously contradictory, and there is no way to get out of this
contradiction except by admitting that the world has a beginning.
Another example to clarify this point is that if
someone tells you to go to a wall, but says you have to take an
infinite number of steps to reach the wall, he is saying you will
never reach it. Because infinity, by definition does not end, you can
never reach the wall. This is exactly what the person who claims that
the world has no beginning is saying one must do to reach the event we
are now experiencing. Since we have reached this event, the person who
claims the world has no beginning has been proven wrong.
Mathematically if you consider the year 1066 and
this year and ask what is the difference between them the one who
claims that the world does not have a beginning will have to answer
none. Because if you look at the year 1066 and now. You can express it
in a formula where now (a) and 1066 is also (a). However if you
consider it carefully Now is 1066 plus the number of years from 1066
till Now (b). In other words the one who claims that the world has no
beginning are saying the a+b=a where b is a non-zero number. A
beginning algebra student will tell you that it canˇ¦t be. So this
proves that the world has to have a beginning
So as promised, we have proven that this world has
a beginning. Now we will turn our attention to prove that the Creator
exists to those who deny His existence but admit that the world has a
beginning.
Before proceeding, there are some facts that must
be faced. Those who insist on denying the existence of God must first
understand that there are things which are possible to the mind and
things which are impossible to the mind. For example, it is impossible
for the mind to accept that a person could fit into a normal cup.
However, it is possible for the mind to accept that a cup could be
made large enough for a person to fit inside it. So, one must be
rational and accept only things which are possible to the sound
intellect. Keeping this point in mind, let us proceed with our
discussion.
People who deny the existence of God can be divided
into three groups. One group says the world created itself, one group
says the world happened by chance, and one group says nature created
the world.
For those who claim that the world created itself,
they claim a logical contradiction. Because, if somebody says Mr. X
created himself that means that he had to exist and not exist
simultaneously. According to their claim, for Mr. X to create himself,
he has to exist already, while to be created he does not yet exist.
This is impossible, and this same principle applies to the world.
Another proof of this point is that if someone is
sitting in a room, knows that there is a book on the table, leaves the
room and when he returns, finds the book on the chair, he will not say
that the book moved by itself, because being able to move is not an
attribute of the book. In the same way creating is not an attribute of
the world. So the world cannot create.
Now, for those who maintain that the world exists
by chance, we donˇ¦t have to pass the human body to see the great
order and precision in the world, much less looking at the universe
and the precise movement of the stars, sun and moon. Statistically,
you cannot get such order from randomness. It is like a man who stands
by a river with logs in it. No one will accept that the logs will come
together and form a raft to take him to the other side by chance. So
if one cannot accept this small bit of order from randomness, how can
he accept the order of the entire universe or the human body as
occurring by chance? It is impossible.
As for those who claim that the world was created
by nature, it is obvious that nature is a part of the world. We
observe and marvel at it. Since nature is a part of the world, it is
as if they are saying a part of the world created the entire world. To
these people we refer them back to those who say that the world
created itself, and as we have already proved, this cannot be.
Having discussed and disproved what some people
might claim to be how the world originated, it is more than obvious
that the world has to have a Creator. It is further evident that the
Creator does not resemble any of His creations. It is important to
note that God is not His attributes, nor is He other than them. So God
has the attribute of power but He is not power.
It is required for us to believe in God and His
Messengers. The first Prophet was the first man, Adam (may
Allah increase his honor), and the last Prophet was Muhammad
(may Allah increase his honor). To believe properly in God, one must
believe in all the Prophets and Messengers. To have the proper belief
in God, one must be Muslim. One becomes Muslim by believing and
saying, ˇ§I firmly believe that there exists only one Creator, His
name is Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet and Messenger,ˇ¨
with the intent in oneˇ¦s heart to become Muslim and leave anything
contrary to this belief.