I know Allah -3-

Assalaamu alaikum [Peace be to you],

This article is part of a series of articles about Allah, the God:


^{Reminder: Here We are discussing religion, a field where people always disagree. you may disagree with what I am saying here. that's fine. I respect your opinion. but I am not opening a debate here. there are forums and websites where debate lovers can discuss such things. all I am doing here is expressing my viewpoint in the matter.}

After providing evidence of the existence of an intelligent creator for this universe, now it's time to know who is this creator and what he is not.

WHAT IS A GOD?
When discussing theology, we need to make sure everything is very well defined. the first thing we'll have to ask is: "What is a god?" not what's 'the God', but what's 'a god'?
A god is simply something that's worshipped.
this leads us to the next question: "why do people worship things?"
Well, People generally worship things because they believe these things have power and can give them something.
so a god is something that people believe can give them what they want and what they need. that's what a god is.

In different religions, people have different gods for different things. they have a particular god of war, god of love, god of fertility, god of wind, god of [insert something here]...
now let's ask the question: "is there a god?"
the answer is Yes, there are many many gods.
whatever people put their faith in, their hope in, their trust in, is in fact a god. whatever thing people believe is going to give them what they want and what they need is their god. so everybody has a god. these gods are not always idols, spirits or saints. they are not always people or supernatural beings. these gods can also be ideas. they can be concepts. ideologies, science... because people put their faith and trust in many different things. these also can be gods.
People always had gods. countless of gods. everybody has a god. some people have many gods. so the real question we need to be asking is not "is there a god?" but rather "among all the things that people worship and put their faith and trust in, are there any of these things truly worthy of it?"
in other words, "are they really capable of giving people what they want and what they need?"

DIFFERENT GODS...
Now, we are going to analyze the different (non-abstract) things that people worship as gods. and since there are countless of them, we first need to divide them into broad main categories:

1- god is the universe or part of the universe:
Supposing god is the universe or part of the universe leads to a contradiction. the universe had a beginning. energy sources and science testify about it. The universe is a result of an intelligent plan, as we have seen in the last article. all intelligent designs start with a 'will' (or planning) to achieve them. the will comes before the realization. so the will of creating the universe came before the action of creation. if the will existed before the universe, then the one who willed the creation of the universe existed before it. which means, god can't be part of the universe.

2- God is an idol:
Some people worship idols made of stone or wood. these people don't generally say that the idols have power. they simply claim the idols represent spirits or beings that are intermediaries between them and the god(s). it's like this: you want to ask the president to help you, but the president is too busy, he can't meet you. you have to meet his agent or secretary and ask him instead. and his agent or secretary will help you. following this idea implies that the god is too busy or 'can't handle' all things by himself so he needs these idols as intermediaries between him and man. this means that god has some deficiencies and weaknesses. he can't hear you. he can't hear everything. and if he can't hear everything, then he can't have knowledge of everything. and if he can't have knowledge of everything, he can't be the one who created everything. makes sense, no?
Besides, all these idols are based on humans who lived and died long ago (like Gautama Buddha or Guan Yin for example). this will lead us to ask "how did god handle things before these guys came into existence to help him?"

3- God is a human (or animal):
Some people worship men, or men-gods. it's easy to prove that a man can never be a god. if god is the creator of the universe, so he must have existed before the universe. but there is no man who existed before the universe. every man has a beginning and end.
Some people may say "but God existed as a spirit and he can take the form of a man and come on earth". well, man has deficiencies and weaknesses, limitation in power and knowledge. if god becomes a man, then does he have the same qualities and limitations as man? if he doesn't (he's perfect from these deficiencies), then he's not a man. if he does (he is not perfect), then he can't be god anymore. someone can't be all-knowing and not-all-knowing at the same time. immortal and mortal at the same time. all-powerful and powerless at the same time. man and god are of two different natures.
Also man suffers from different conditions, hunger, thirst, illness, cold heat, pain, sadness... if god suffers from the same conditions, then he can't possibly help man and give man what he wants and what he needs, because this god himself would be in need. so basically god can't possibly be a man.

4- God is a super natural being
This one is the hardest one to test or check. because being a super-natural being means he is beyond our perception and understanding. so here, we need to take all the beliefs that claim god to be a supernatural being and check the concept of god in them one by one to see if they make sense or not. and more importantly, if they provide proof of their claim. for example, if a certain person claims his god to be a Flying Spaghetti Monster, we need evidence and proof. if nothing is provided, then this religion is only based on blind belief. it can't be taken seriously.
as intellectual beings, we need something that satisfies our minds as well as the hearts. faith alone may satisfy the heart. but only proof can satisfy the mind.

I am not going to analyze each and every super-natural deity of every religion (I leave that to you as a homework ). I am more interested in explaining the evidence Islam provides that Allah is the one and only true God creator of the universe. I'll discuss the concept of the God in Islam in the next article.


To be continued... in sha'Allah


IN THE DRAWING: The word Allah is written in Arabic decorative Kufi calligraphy style.


for more reading about Allah, please visit:
Knowing Allah
God Allah
Who is Allah?

I hope that was beneficial

Wassalaamu alaikum


if I am right, it's from the God. if I am wrong, it's from me.