A Journey To The Fact

God Or Nature

F Have you thought of yesterday’s talk about nature?

S Certainly Dad, I thought deeply. That talk has left a great impact on my heart and mind. I have thoroughly reviewed my concepts. In my deep spirit I am searching for that evidence or innate proof as you named it. I suffered a lot at the beginning as I was examining that huge amount of thoughts that I have learned throughout my life. And then I have had to get rid of all that I’ve inherited from the past and acquired from people. Then I went deeper and deeper as if I wanted to find out a small valuable ring that had fallen in a deep well as if I had to empty that well of water completely to find that ring which rests at the bottom.

F Well done...

S Finally when I reached the bottom of the well after removing all the things which I’ve inherited or gained through my life, I faced my soul bare from all the social habits and cultural teachings and instructions. I met a genuine inclination, but a very strong one. Yet that genuine inclination is attached to an ultimate Power, which is capable of doing everything and knows everything. I also felt that this Power is very close to me, can hear my inner deep thoughts and even feel my heart beat.

Also Dad, I felt that this Power loves me and I love this power too. I recognized that Power. It was that Power which saved me from those high waves of uncertainty where I was about to drown into when you started talking to me. So I’ve found it father, I’ve found it... found it...

F What you have reached through this journey of diving into the depth of your nature is the unshakable faith which is firmly tied into the depth of every human being.

S Then how can some people deny His existence glory to Him?

F They do this through falsification or deceit, which the Holy Quran refers to as follows: “And they rejected those Signs in iniquity and arrogance, though their souls were convinced thereof.”

S Woe to those people!! Alas! What a pity!!

F Don’t feel sorry for those people.

S Denial of God needs a lot of falsification, and shameless boldness. It also needs boldness to turn away from the call of both soul and mind and away from nature and conscience of human beings.

F Nobody can deny the existence of God, my son. But they give God other names, or describe Him differently.

S How is that, Dad? How do you say that? The official textbooks are full of talking about nature. Yes, nature ñ as they call it ñ dominates the entire universe and organizes its rules very wisely and perfectly.

F They give God another name. They call Him “Nature” either unconsciously or obstinately. Therefore, when you ask them about nature, they will say, “It is the power which dominates the universe, has an ultimate capability, absolute knowledge and great wisdom.”

As you see, all these characteristics cannot be found but in

the Creator of the universe. The difference between them and us is only in the terminology. They call the Creator, “Nature”, while we call him “God.”

S There is another difference father.

F What is it?

S We worship God, but they don’t worship nature.

F I think they do worship nature, son.

S How is that Dad?

F Sanctifying something and submission before its greatness is the core of worship. Those people sanctify nature and get humble before its greatness, thus, they worship it. Devil has embellished their deeds and turned them away from the real path.

S And what turned them away from God, who created them?

F If they admit to His existence, glory be to Him, they would oblige themselves to obey Him. But they don’t want this. They only go after their desires. Therefore, they worship their desires, while we worship God.

S Would you mind explaining this in detail Dad? You have just said that the meaning of worship is sanctifying the worshipped.

F And the other meaning is the obedience to the worshipped. So, if we obey, we worship Him. And if we obey our desires, we worship them. Haven’t you read in the Holy Quran: “Then sees thou such a one as takes as his god his own vain desire?”

So the person who obeys his/her desires makes these

desires his/her god. It means that he/she worships his/her vain desire. Everyone or everything obeyed (except God) is a god in this perspective.

S Then there are many meanings for the word ‘worship’, and the word ‘God’, aren’t there?

F Yes, there are. We shall come to this subject in detail later.

S Now, let’s go back to the main issue about the innate proof which leads every human being to God, glory to Him. I’ve searched the Quran for the verses which talk about the innate proof particularly the paragraph which relates to the sea journey.

F Have you found this proof in this verse about the trip in sea?

S Yes, Dad. I found it in a certain paragraph in Younis sura.

In verse No.22, God says: “He it is Who enabled you to traverse through land and sea; so that ye even board ships;- they sail with them with a favorable wind, and they rejoice thereat; then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to them from all sides, and they think they are being overwhelmed: they cry unto Allah, sincerely offering (their) duty unto Him saying, “If thou dost deliver us from this, we shall truly show our gratitude!”

F In the dictionary of Quran you find all verses that talk about traveling by sea on the same page. Most of them talk about monotheism in one way or another.

S I will come back to the subject of the Quran index at another time, but now I have some inquiries.

F Go ahead. Ask about everything you like, because the key to knowledge is inquiry.

S Now, I have two questions;

First: Has the Quran presented any evidence other than the innate reasoning to proof the existence of God?

Second: How does the Quran argue with the disbelievers? And a third question has just jumped into my mind, no... no, two questions are enough for me now.

F No, No, son. Don’t leave any queries about religion hidden in your mind without seeking answers. Let it out.

S But, Dad, there are so many questions, some I have heard from my friends, and some from my teachers in school, those who don’t believe in God. I also read some of them here and there in different books and magazines, or I heard them in the media, and much more which raise suspicions about different aspects of the religion and, frankly, can shake the faith.

F That’s why I encourage you to ask questions and keep those queries outspoken without any hesitation, shame or fear.

S But, Dad, I heard that the habit of asking many questions is not recommended, and God had prohibited this habit in the Quran. Haven’t you heard of this verse: “O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble.”

Moreover, there was the story of the Cow and the people of Israel and how they were put to the test and stricken because they were importunate with queries.

F Listen to me, son. This is a completely different subject.

Queries are forbidden if they cause harm; queries which are not about the ideology of the religion, but are details that would be of no help to anyone, if not damaging. An example of that is the story of the cow in Surah of al- Baqarah. God asked the people of Israel to sacrifice a cow. It was sufficient to obey the command and to sacrifice any cow available. If they had done what they were commanded, it would have been for their own good, but they started asking question after question about the cow’s features, color and nature. So when God saw their hesitation, disobedience, and delay in performing the command, which revealed their deviation and desire to postpone and disagree, He narrowed the choice scope as a penalty for their disagreement and delay of fulfilling God’s command, glory and praise be to Him. These types of questions are forbidden.

However, questioning about the religion and especially the ideological aspects that originate from a person’s concern to know, understand and perceive instead of following others blindly, is one of the holiest tasks that human beings can adhere to. So ask anything you want, my son, and don’t hesitate. There is nothing we are afraid of in our religion whether addressed by youth or old.

S OK Dad! Will you answer my former two questions or shall I present the third one?

F As you like, I don’t want to put any pressure or restrict your thoughts even with the types of questions you ask or with their sequence. You know that influencing your thoughts is not good and rejected by human’s natures. It represents a weak weapon against the different intellectual streams and is not any longer possible in the twenty first century where accessing all kinds of information is feasible now even to a little boy living in any part of the world. One can get any sort of information about anything by a single click. So how do the narrow-minded apply their intellectual tutelage on youth? Ask and don’t be afraid.

S First of all, answer my first two questions, please.

F OK! Your question was: has the Quran presented any proof other than the innate reasoning to prove the existence of God? The answer is that it leads to other proofs too. The most important ones are:

(1) The organization proof. (2) The purpose proof.

The response to the other question which was about the way Quran argues with infidels about God:

Most of the infidels didn’t explicitly deny belief in God.

They disclaimed Heavenly religions. The discussion about God’s existence was very rare. For example, Pharaoh and Nimrod were among those who claimed to be gods. There were some interesting discussions between them and the prophets about this subject. Apart from that, most of the discussions with the prophets were about prophecy and its legitimacy; there were debates about what the prophet brought of laws and instructions that should be obeyed by people in order to be granted Paradise and be saved from hell in the hereafter. The infidel’s attitude was denying the prophecy to free themselves of responsibilities and disclaiming the hereafter to hide their nature, which fears God’s punishment.

S Dad, I’d like to hear the discussion that took place between Pharaoh and Moses about monotheism.

F Pharaoh said to his people “I am your great lord.” But Moses and his brother faced Pharaoh fatefully and defeated him thoroughly when they addressed him as ‘God’s servant’. They were commanded to deliver a specific message from God:

“Verily we are apostles sent by thy Lord: Send forth,

therefore, the Children of Israel with us, and afflict them not: with a Sign, indeed, have we come from thy Lord! And peace to all who follow guidance!”

Pharaoh was shocked by falsifying his claims about being the great lord. So he tried to change the course of discussion by asking them: “Who is your God, Moses?” Moses replied:

“Our Lord is He Who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature, and further, gave (it) guidance.” This way Moses gave his ideology a comprehensive universal dimension. Thus Pharaoh tried to change the subject again so he queried about the past generations: what about the first generation?

These type of questions attempt to lead the discussion to an endless maze because they were about unknown topics that no one had ever heard of. Also, answering such questions wouldn’t be useful to the actual debate. So Moses replied with a gently and wisely and brought him back to the main subject when he said:

“The knowledge of what you have asked only God knows about, in a Book where my God neither goes wrong nor forgets.” Then Moses continued his talk about God as follows: “has made for you the Earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky.” With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants, each different from the others.”

When Pharaoh, just like anyone who fears for his worldly life, found no way to escape that embarrassing situation, he turned to his audience, shouting cheap accusations calling Moses names: liar, magician, saying: “(Pharaoh) said to the Chiefs around him: This is indeed a sorcerer well-versed.”

He also added: “Truly your apostle who has been sent to you is a veritable madman!”

Refuting the accusation, Moses responded politely and in a prophetic eloquence: “Lord of the East and the West, and all between! If ye only had sense.”

And then he addresses the audience: “Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers!” That means if you believe that Pharaoh is your god then who was your God before the birth of Pharaoh? Who was your ancestors’ god?

S How nice is this talk! It is a combination of simplicity and depth, power in inference and conciseness in style.

F This is the language of prophets and those who follow their ways. While the followers of Pharaoh chose the language of accusations, discrediting, and lying they also mobilized the general public to make them enemies of prophets and pious people. You can find the same debate between Nimrod and Abraham (Peace Be Upon him)

S Dad! Please tell me more about the dialogue between Nimrod and the father of all prophets (Abraham).

F Abraham stated the domination of God over all mankind and His control of their lives and death, as follows: “My God is the one who grants life and bring death, and this is a rational proof of His Lordship (Praise and glory be to Him). It is He Who possesses all that concerns human beings from the beginning to the end.” No liar pseudo-god can survive against this powerful rational proof by false pretence and fabrication. He could only cheat simple public by claiming that he’s able to bring life and death.

To prove that Nimrod called for two prisoners who were sentenced to death; he pardoned one and set him free; then he said: I granted him life because I saved him from death. Then he killed the other and said: I killed this one so I’m the one who grants life and death. When Abraham found himself in front of a great humbugger who used forgery and falsification to keep his control over public’s minds, he resorted to a different way that revealed Nimrod’s deception before the nation: “But it is Allah that caused the sun to rise from the East: Do thou then cause him to rise from the West.” Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected faith.” So this process uncovered the fact that leads to believe in the real God and displays Nimrod’s lies.

S Peace be upon the Father of Prophets. I feel special love for this great Prophet, who destroyed the idols, hung the hatchet on the neck of the biggest idol, and said: “Nay, this was done by him- this is their biggest one.” I’m very fond in his style of enlightening the public about the true facts of faith.

F But you know that guiding and enlightening people about true faith is a dangerous process for those who are practicing it. You’ve seen how that led them to throw Abraham in fire but God saved him by His will.

S Also it led Pharaoh and his soldiers to pursue Moses and his followers. But death overtook Pharaoh and his soldiers who were drowned in the sea.

F Yes son. Prophets and their followers bear hardships for the sake of God, and God in return disgrace their enemies. Eventually, the fruitful outcome is to the believers.

S And Abraham’s name remains dear to me

F Do you like the name “Abraham” very much?

S Yes! By all means, Dad!

F So, do you like to be called “Abu Abraham?”

S Ah... well, actually I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but...

F But what? It’s preferred to call a person with “Abu...” So you are Abu Abraham from now on.

S Thank you Dad, but...

F But what? What about Um Abraham you mean?!

S No, No... I didn’t mean that.

F I mean that son... you’ll find Um Abraham yourself at the right time.

S May God bless you Dad, but I don’t mean this. I’m still young.

F You’re not young... anyway; we’ll leave this subject to another time. Generally the Quran urges marriage and the Prophet’s Sunnah recommends early marriage too. But this doesn’t mean a hasty marriage at all. It definitely means not to delay marriage without a good reason. Getting married is fulfilling half of one’s religious duties. And if one delays his marriage because of fear of financial difficulties, it means that he has misunderstood God’s will. God, praise and glory be to Him, said: “if they are in poverty, Allah will give them means out of His grace: for Allah encompasseth all, and he knoweth all things.”

S I have another question.

F About a wife and a son?!

S No! About the One who has neither wife nor son.

F Postpone this subject to another time.