MY ISLAM INFO

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The Arabic words used to denote Cause in the following verses of the Qur’an are:

• badi’, which means “originator”, “initiator” and “creator out of nonentity”
• bari’, which mean “creator” and “one who creates flawlessly out of nothing”
• fatir, which means “creator”, “maker”, “originator”, “initiator”, “one who splits” and “one who brings into being”
• khaliq, which means “creator”, “maker” and “originator”
• al-khallaq, which means “creator” and “supreme maker”

The Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a matter He only says to it, “Be” – and it is.[1]

He [God] is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have children when He has no wife? He created all things and He is the All-Knower of everything.[2]

And [remember] when Musa [Prophet Moses] said to his people, “O my people! Verily you have wronged yourselves by worshipping the calf. So turn in repentance to your Creator and kill yourselves [the innocent kill the wrongdoers among you], that will be better for you with your Creator.” Then He [God] accepted your repentance. Truly He is the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.[3]

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He [Allah] begets not, nor was He begotten.[1]

The Qur’an confirms the rationally derived attribute of God – that of being uncaused.

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Christianity was founded by Prophet Jesus on whose teachings the beliefs of Christians are based.

Christianity is now made up of three main denominations:

• Roman Catholicism
• Eastern Orthodoxy
• Protestantism

The purported teachings of Prophet Jesus are codified in the New Testament. However, the Christian Bible, which is the foundation of their belief, also includes the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

The New Testament is made up of four books, all originally written in Greek, not the language of Aramaic which is believed to be the language of Prophet Jesus:

• The Gospels
• Acts of the Apostles, which is the history of the early Christian Church and work of the Apostles, the twelve followers of Prophet Jesus
• Epistles, which are letters that contained Gospel interpretations, solutions to local problems and advice on how to live Christian lives
• Revelation, which has to do with the end of the world and the events that take place before the end comes

The Gospels are testimonies of belief about Prophet Jesus and each Gospel is believed to have been authored by one of the Apostles, the twelve followers of Prophet Jesus, or by one of their disciples.

There are four Gospels:

1. Mark
2. Matthew
3. Luke
4. John

The first three are collectively called the Synoptic Gospels, because they are very similar in form and content. The Gospel of John differs materially from the Synoptic Gospels because it contains information not found in the latter and presents a different history of the ministry of Prophet Jesus.

Epistles are letters that contained Gospel interpretations, solutions to local problems and advice on how to live Christian lives. They were mainly written by Paul and given such names as I and II Timothy.

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According to Biblical tradition, Judaism was founded at least 3,000 years ago when the nation of Israel was formed by Prophet Abraham and his descendants in the land of Palestine in the Middle East.

The beliefs of Judaism are based on the Hebrew Bible which consists of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings and on the teachings of Prophets Abraham and Moses.

The Law or Torah narrates the story of creation, God’s covenant with the descendants of Prophet Abraham and the creation of the nation of Israel as an example to all other nations.

The Law is made up of five books:

1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

The Prophets or Neviʾim reports the interpretations of the Law and frequent condemnations and declarations of divine punishment by ancient Israelite prophets of their nation’s behaviour.

The Former Prophets include:

• Joshua
• Judges
• Samuel
• Kings

The Latter Prophets include:

• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Ezekiel
• The Twelve or Minor Prophets such as Malachi

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Since God can only be One, the only valid religion(s) must be monotheistic.

Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one god, polytheism is the belief in the existence of many gods, and atheism is the belief that there is no god.

There are purportedly only three monotheistic religions in the world today:

1. Judaism
2. Christianity
3. Islam

To evaluate the compatibility of each religion with our rational understanding of God, I suggest a Nature of God test.

The stated belief in God must be compatible with the deduced nature of God.

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After deducing the existence of One God, we can now finalise our rational understanding of His Nature. However, the initial deduction of His Nature is arrived at by negation, that is, we know what God cannot be, and, therefore, by implication what He must be. I call these attributes of the first-order.

God is:

• the Creator, because He is the Uncaused sole Cause and therefore cannot be caused or created
• eternal, because He created time and cannot be temporal
• immaterial, because He created matter and energy and cannot be material
• transcendent, because He created space and cannot be spatial

From these first-order divine attributes, we can further deduce second-order divine attributes that God is:

• one, by Ockham’s Razor, absence of immaterial conceptual differences and finite regression
• self-sufficient from all material causes, because He created all material things, and from all immaterial causes, by finite regression
• is not immanent, because He would then cease to be immaterial
• is all-powerful, because the universe was created without a material cause
• is personal with an independent Will, because He chose to create the universe at a particular time
• is all-knowing, because He created matter, energy, space and time, and therefore must know everything about them before He created them

We can now elaborate further on eternality. Eternality can be defined as:

• infinite-omnitemporality, which is existence at every point in infinite time
• timelessness, which is simply existence beyond time

God cannot be infinite-omnitemporal because He created time and therefore cannot exist in time, in the same way that God cannot exist in the material universe because He created matter, energy and space and therefore must be immaterial and transcendent. Infinite-omnitemporality would mean that God created Himself. This would mean simultaneous existence-nonexistence which violates the law of non-contradiction and is a logical impossibility. God can, however, be timeless-eternal, because He transcends His creation. He transcends time. He exists beyond time in the same way that He exists beyond matter, energy and space, all of which He created. Therefore, God is timeless-eternal.

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Since a human being does not have all of these divine attributes, he cannot comprehend the nature of the God simply by thinking about Him. Since human beings are also different, their opinions on the nature of God will also be different as history attests.

As God in the Qur’an explains,

He [God] knows what is happens to them in this world and what will happen to them, but they will never compass anything of His Knowledge.[1]

Therefore, the only way for human beings to know God is for God Himself to reveal His Nature.

Muslims believe this divine revelation to be the Qur’an. On the basis that the Qur’an is indeed the Speech of God, God must therefore be One because He says so in the Qur’an:

Say, ‘He is Allah (swt) [God], [the] One.’[2]

God is the Uncaused Cause of the universe and is personal with a will. Therefore, God must be able to impose His Will independently of all causes.

If, say, two personal gods exist and one wishes to create the universe but the other does not, then:

1. either one god wins and the other does not
2. neither win
3. both win

The second possibility cannot be true because this would mean the universe is neither created nor uncreated, and this is a logical impossibility.

The third possibility cannot similarly be true because the universe cannot be created and uncreated, and this is again is a logical impossibility.

In the first possibility, the one god who can impose his will must be God because He is the Cause of the universe and He is the First Cause, whereas the other god is not the First Cause and cannot prevent God from causing something. Therefore logically God can only be One because only One God can impose His Will independently of all other gods, of all causes. Only One God can, therefore, be the Cause of the universe.

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The argument is made up as follows:

1. Everything that begins to exist has an external cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has an external cause.

If the first two premises above are true, then the conclusion must necessarily be true.

If either premise is false, however, then the conclusion must be false, as well.

This premise is false if and only if there is something that begins to exist without an external cause, and this can only happen in two scenarios:

In other words, something creates itself.

This is impossible, because in order to create itself it must already exist, but in order to be created, it cannot exist. In other words, it must exist and not exist at the same time, and this violates the law of non-contradiction and is, therefore, logically impossible. Or to put it in symbolic notation, where p is existence, we would have,

This cannot be true, because the law of non-contradiction states this proposition is false:

This self-creation problem means that the scenario is false.

In other words, something is created by nothing.

This is also logically impossible, because nothing produces nothing or in Latin ex nihilo nihil fit. Nothing means “not anything” and, therefore, has no properties, and this includes the property to bring into existence or create anything.

The logical argument for the proposition that nothing produces nothing is as follows:

1. If anything can begin to exist, then it is possible that anything exists.
2. If not anything exists, then it is not possible that anything exists.
3. If it is not possible that anything exists, then anything cannot begin to exist.
4. Therefore, if not anything exists, anything cannot begin to exist or in other words, not anything cannot bring into existence anything.
5. Not anything is nothing.
6. Therefore, nothing cannot bring into existence anything.
7. Therefore, ex nihilo nihil fit.

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Formal logic is the a priori study of statements called propositions and of deductive arguments by way of identifying structures or logical forms in these elements and expressing them in symbolic notation in order to test their validity. Therefore, formal logic is not empirical study because it does not depend on a posteriori observations for data.

A deductive argument is one in which the conclusion, a proposition, follows necessarily from the premises, another proposition or set of propositions such that denying the conclusion would be inconsistent or contradictory.

In order to prove the truth of the conclusion of a deductive argument,

• the premises must be true;
• the deduction must be logically correct.

If a deductive argument meets these conditions, it is called sound.

Whilst formal logic will deal with the first condition, it cannot determine the truth or falsity of the premises where the propositions are a posteriori, contingent or synthetic. The truth or falsity of the premises, in this case, rests with the empiricist.

Therefore in proving the soundness of the deductive argument for the existence of God I shall use both formal logic to prove the deduction and both innate and empirical evidence to prove the truth of the premises from which the existence of God as a conclusion necessarily follows.

If, however, only the first condition, that the conclusion is logically deducible from its premises, the argument is said to be deductively valid even though the premises are false or not known to be true. However, the argument would be unsound.

For example, the argument that:

• Every dog is a mammal.
• Some quadrupeds are dogs.
• Therefore, some quadrupeds are mammals.

is valid, because they can expressed in the same valid logical inference form:

• Every X is a Y.
• Some Z’s are X’s.
• Therefore, some Z’s are Y’s.

However, the soundness of each argument depends also on whether the premises are true or false, and this is outside the scope of formal logic if the propositions a posteriori, contingent or synthetic.

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