Searching for god

Searching for god


FACE TO FACE WITH REALITY

Like countless millions before you, you must have asked yourself such questions as: Who am I? Where do I come from? How did the world and the universe come into being? What am I doing in this world? Can I do what I want to, how I want to, when I want to? Where do I go from here, from this seemingly earth-bound existence? Where do we all go from here?
These are questions about life and about the meaning and purpose of life. These are questions about the universe and our place in it.

WORLDVIEWS

The answers you give to these questions help to shape your worldview. A worldview is the way in which a person sees and explains the world and his place in it. Your worldview not only affects the way you think. It also affects the way you act or behave. Your worldview shapes the quality of your life.
In the long history of mankind, there have been many different ways of explaining the world, how it came about, how it works, and what is man's place in it.
Some people have seen the world as a mysterious place, with dark and evil forces at work. In such a worldview, a person's life is ruled by superstition and fear.
Others have seen the world as a bright, rich and beautiful place. They do not show concern about how it came about or about what will happen to it. They are happy "to make the most of it" , to eat, drink and enjoy life. If they do think of life and death at all, they might just say, "We live and die and nothing causes our death except time,"
Some people have seen the universe as a battleground of good and evil, of light and darkness, of positive and negative. Among some Chinese, for example, there are idea of yin and yang. Yang is light and heat and goodness. Yin is dark and cold and damp and bad. In some forms of Zoroastrain religion, there is Ahura Maazda, the force of good, battling with Angra Mainyu, the force of evil, for control of the world.
Some people get their worldview from religions which hold that there is a creator or maker of the universe or a supreme being. Religions differ about the nature of this supreme being. Some say this being has absolute power – he can do whatever he wishes and no other has a share in his power. Others associate this being with other gods, demons and spirits.
Nowadays, many people have turned away from religions and belief in God. Many feel that the idea of God and creator is an invention of man's imagination anyway. They feel that man has the power and the right to decide what is best for him. Such people are called atheists, agnostics or humanists. An atheist is one who denies the existence of God. An agnostic is one who says that he does not know whether God exists or not. He may even go further and say that he does not care. He is really quite close to the atheist. A humanist ( who may be an atheist or an agnostic ) insists that human beings alone must decide what is best for them for there is no such thing as Divine laws.
At the same time as they turn to humanism, many now turn to "Science" and the scientific method for their understanding of the world and man's place in it. They may have a notion of science as something exact and precise and of the scientific method – of gathering data, experimentation, observation and deduction – as the only way of gaining knowledge, of determining what is true and what is false.
Some people pick and choose to form their own worldview. For some questions they may turn to a religion, especially in times of distress. For other answers they turn to an astrologer, the horoscope in their daily or weekly newspaper, a popular guru, or a fashionable ideology like Marxism. For certain questions they would invoke the name of science. And so on.

FALSE AND TRUE

From this brief look at various worldviews, it would seem that human beings as a whole are totally mixed up and confused without any hope of finding out what is right or true. It may seem that we are groping in the dark, not really knowing where we are, from where we came and where we are going. In this situation we may well wonder if there is any way of knowing what is true from what is false.
Clearly, all the ways of looking at the world cannot all be true. Some appear to have some things in common but each is different from the other in important ways.

Of any worldview, we may ask:

1- Does it portray the truth and is it at least reasonable? We should not be content with a worldview that is false and that is not supported by reason and logic.
2- Is it capable of explaining reality as a whole? We should not be content with a worldview that can only explain or furnish knowledge on a part of reality.
3- So far as human beings are concerned, does the worldview cater for and can it satisfy human needs and potentials?
4- Does it provide proper values to live by and valid goals to strive for? Which of the worldviews that have shaped people's lives can thus be described as valid and reasonable, complete and logically satisfy?

SCIENCE – A LIMITED WORLDVIEW

No single person on his own, no matter how clever he is, can give complete, valid and satisfying answers to the questions about the origins of the world and man's place in it, about life and destiny. No group of persons can do so either. For example, all the knowledge of the world and the universe amassed by scientists throughout the ages is knowledge of only a small part of reality. However much scientists in future may come to know, there will always be a point where they must say, " We do not know." From the standpoint of science, the universe is like an old book the first and last pages of which have been lost. Neither the beginning nor the end is known. Thus, the worldview of science is a knowledge of the part, not the whole.
Science, as the word is now widely understood, acquaints us with the situation of some parts of the universe; it cannot explain the essential character of the whole universe, its origin or its destiny. The scientist's worldview is like the knowledge about the elephant gained by those who touched it in the dark. The one who felt the elephant's ear supposed the animal to be shaped like a fan; the one who felt its leg supposed it to be shaped like a column; and the one who felt its back supposed it to be shaped like a throne. Science it has been said is like a powerful searchlight in the long winter night, lighting up small area in its beam but unable to shed light beyond its border. This is not to pronounce on its usefulness or otherwise; it is only to say that it is limited.

THE POWER OF REASON

Fortunately, in our quest for a true and valid worldview, human beings do have a special gift or power – the power of reason and logic. Of course, we must realize that this power is in itself limited: it is like a precision balance which you might use for weighing gold but you would be vain and foolish to think of using it to weigh mountains. Still, if reason is properly used, it could point to some of the real answers about our place in this world. At the very least, this power of reason could be used to show which theory or which worldview is false or inadequate.
We shall thus try to use reason to answer the most important of the questions listed at the very beginning, which is: Where do we come from?

WHERE DO WE COME FROM

For everything, like man, that has a beginning in time, there can be only three ways of trying to explain how it came to be.
1- Either, it was made, or created, or caused by nothing at all. In other words, it came out of nothing.
2- Or, it created itself.
3- Or, it has a creator, cause, or maker outside itself.
The first and second explanations are obviously impossible. It is inconceivable for something that has a beginning in time to come out of or be made of nothing at all. It is also inconceivable that it should bring itself into being. The universe and all that is in it, therefore, could not have created itself nor did it come about by chance.
The conclusion then is clear. The universe and all that is in it owe its existence to a Creator or Maker outside itself. You, as a human being, as part of the universe, owe your existence to such a Creator.
To say, as many do, that human beings came from or evolved from other creatures or that they originated from water, or that there was a big bang and everything just happened to fall in place, does not really answer the question about the origin of the universe and all that is in it, including human beings.
We can therefore conclude that any worldview that denies or does not accept the existence of a Creator of the universe is false worldview.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE CREATOR?

The Creator must be of a different nature from all that has been created. This is because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will need to have a beginning in time and will therefore need a maker. One word for " to have a beginning in time " is " temporal ".
If the Maker r Creator is not temporal, He must be eternal. Eternal means to have no beginning or end in time.
If the Maker is eternal, He cannot be caused and if nothing caused him to come into existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which means that he must be self-sufficient. Self-sufficient means that he does not depend on anyone or anything to exist.
And if he does not depend on anything to exist, then his existence can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting.
If the Creator is eternal and everlasting, then all His qualities must be eternal and everlasting. This means, for example, that if He is powerful, He must always be powerful. He cannot cease to be powerful. If He is all-knowing, He must always be all-knowing. If He is wise, He must always be wise. If He is kind and just, He must always be kind and just.
The Creator then does not lose or get any new qualities. Qualities that do not change and that last forever are absolute qualities. Another name for qualities are attributes.
Can there be more than one creator with such absolute attributes? Can there for example be two absolutely powerful creator? This is not possible. Why?
If a Maker is absolutely powerful, it follows that he is absolutely free to do whatever he likes. But if another maker with similar powers exists and they differ over the making of something, then one of two things can happen. Either, one will overcome the other, in which case the latter cannot be absolutely powerful. Or, they will neutralize each other, in which case the powers of both are limited.
Even if we assume that the two powers agree on everything or complement each other, they cannot both be absolutely powerful because in doing anything one at least will need to assume that the other will not interfere or is not capable of interfering. In other words, one will need to assume that the function of the other is redundant, or that the power of the other is limited.
The creator then must be One. There cannot be any other like Him so He must be Unique. The Creator must be all Powerful and must be able to do whatever He wills.
From the above, it is valid and reasonable to assert that the Creator must be Eternal and Everlasting, Self-Sufficient and All-Powerful, One and Unique. There are some of the qualities or attributes of the Creator that we must have in mind when we use the word God. We must also remember that His attributes or qualities are absolute and do not change.
There must then be a clear separation between the Creator and the created. It follows that no man can be God. God cannot have a mother or a father. He cannot have a son or daughter. The sun, the moon or the stars or any heavenly bodies cannot be God.
No part of creation whether it be a mountain, a tree or a fire can be God and does not deserve to be worshipped as God.
Any religion or any worldview which regards any human being or any part of creation as God or part of God must be a false religion or worldview.
Also, any religion or any worldview which regards god as having human characteristics, for example having a human shape and suffering from tiredness and needing rest and sleep, must be a false religion or worldview.

NATURAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE CREATOR

From what we have said, it is reasonable and natural for man to acknowledge the existence and power of the Creator. It is natural and reasonable for man to acknowledge that all creation is preserved through God's will and grace – what is called in English " providence ". If for an instance this providence were to be withdrawn from this world, it would cease to be. It is therefore natural and reasonable for the human being to give thanks or show gratitude to the Creator for all the favours of life.

GOD AND CREATION

We know that creation is amazingly vast and intricate. From the tiniest and invisible protons neutrons to the vast galaxies, it inspires wonder and awe. It is not only vast; it is well-ordered.
However, Reality according to the Qur'an is not only made up of matter, of the things we can see and hear and smell and feel and taste. It is not only made up of the vast observable universe. There are parts of God's creation which is beyond the knowledge and experience of any human being. The Qur'an mentions the seven heavens, periods in time when man was not even a thing mentioned. It speaks of angels created from light and jinns made from fire. It speaks of another world – the Aakhirah – which is better and more lasting than this world. To disbelieve or reject the existence of all these simply because we cannot now perceive them is to doubt the creative power of the Creator. It is like looking down a single street and denying that anything exists around the street corners simply because that is outside our field of vision.
Creation is also not a one-off thing. God did not just create the world and go to rest or to sleep. He would not be God if He did so. God continues to sustain His creation and He has the power to bring to an end or to cause new life or creation as He wills.
The Qur'an speaks of everything in the universe as being created according to a measure which is set by the Creator. The sun moves in a path of its own and "may not overtake the moon". All heavenly bodies float through space according to the laws set by God. Plants need sunlight to grow and flourish. Birds and bees have been inspired by the Creator with amazing sense of direction to enable them to obtain food. People need oxygen to survive. Each creation follows or obeys the special laws or norms built into it. A bee cannot live in the sea. A fish cannot live on land. Each lives according to the laws set by the Creator. Each lives in a state of submission. This is precisely the meaning of the Arabic word "islam". Anything which follows the laws measured out for it by the Creator lives in state of submission or islam and is thus a "muslim" which literally means "one who submits".
We may use the world islam with a small "i" to denote the state of submission of all creation and the word "muslim" with small "m" to refer to all creation submitting, as they must, to the laws by which each was created.
Every created being, whether it is the sun with its life-giving light and warmth or the moon in its orbit, daffodils shooting up in the spring, golden leaves falling in the autumn to merge in the earth once more, a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim or any other person breathing air – each, in a fundamental sense, is a muslim, that is, one who submits to the laws and norms of God.
Human beings however are different from other creation in one respect. While they must obey natural laws relating to birth, life, and death, they have been given the power of intellect which gives them the capacity to understand the universe and to shape their environment. More than that, they have been given the freedom to choose, whether to go against their inherently good nature and the purpose for which they were created.
If human beings use this freedom to acknowledge God and follow his guidance, they then live consciously in a state of Isam. They are no longer just passive muslims like the rest of creation but conscious Muslims as well.
When we speak of Islam with a capital "I", we refer to the worldview described by the Qur'an in the first instance and the totality of guidance it contains. A Muslim ( with a capital "M") is one who consciously accepts this worldview and follows the guidance it contains.

( Islam the natural way – AbdulWahid Hamid )