To know God is an intellectual venture
Islam is the religion that links belief with reason. Belief in God is an intellectual venture rather than an enterprise of blind faith. The reasoning is the core proposition of the Quranic narrative relating humans to believing God. The Quran Links Belief with Reason and challenges its readers to use reasoning as the tool to decide God’s existence.
After all, there should not be anything in existence. Yet, We are, and the universe is real and existing. Neither did we create ourselves, nor did we make the galaxies, the dark-matters, and the dark-energies. Not to mention that we were not the ones who caused the big bang and the development of the laws of nature is not our innovations. “Someone must have started the ball rolling for the existence of mass, the origin of energy, and the development of the laws which govern those entities. Someone must have encoded the messages in our DNA. He also gave the electron, proton, neutron, positron characteristics, which they follow with precision. If we use our reasoning, we can see the logic, why do we believe in a higher power. This is to explain the world and the rules in our existence using our capacity to reason.”
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The Quran describes God’s attributes, often referred to as His ninety-nine names. These attributes reflect God’s status as the Creator-Originator, the One who evolves His creations, One who sustains its activities, plans the intricacies of the creation, and fashions His creation and the universe*.
The Creator: Al-Khaleq. The Originator: Al- Mubdi. The One who evolves the intricacy of the creation: Al-Bari. The One who fashions creations and the universe: (Al-Musawwir).
Observe, reason and think
The Quran emphasizes human beings to observe the universe around them and to look inside themselves to recognize the signs which God has embedded within them. The Quran requires reasoning as a tool to recognize the truth of God’s existence. While citing God’s signs in nature, the Quran continually reminds humans of critical thinking to reach an informed decision about God.
The narrative “Afala ta’qilun” (Do you not reason?) is repeated in the Quran no less than 13 times in various contexts. The verb “Aqala” which means reasoning, has been repeated about 50 times in the Quran
Signs (Ayah) from God
In fact, God has disseminated His signs in nature. Likewise, the Quran describes many of them for us to reflect. Though the meaning of many of these Quranic narratives is clear to us, yet some others are subtle. The subtle and metaphorical verses may not be intelligible to a particular generation of people*. It is important to realize that Muslims believe in God’s signs mentioned in the Quran in its completeness. God promises in the Quran that His signatures will be apparent within human beings and across the universe, confirming the Truth and clarifying the Divine message*.
“Quran 41:53 “We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?”
“Quran 3:7 “…It is He who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses which are entirely precise in meaning – they are the foundation of the Book- and the others allegorical. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is allegorical, seeking discord and seeking for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah….”
Intuition and preconception inhibit reasoning
When we travel, the road signs direct us to the destination of our choice. Travelers following appropriate signs reach their destination; those who fail to follow the direction do not reach their intended goal. When reflected upon and pondered, the natural world’s phenomenons will lead human intelligence to the ultimate Truth, the Creator. In the formation of humans, the creation of the universe, the bees, the oceans, and the plants, someone with reasoning power will not ignore the possibility of an intangible planner, unless they decide to dismiss the case out of their visceral intuition. The barrier between humans’ reasoning and the concept of a Creator is their intuition and preconception.
Quran 45:3-5 “Surely, within the heavens and the earth are signs for the believers. And in your creation and the fact that living creatures are dispersed through the earth are signs for those who have assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day and the fact that God sends down Sustenance from the sky and revive therewith the earth after its death, and in the change of the winds are signs for those who are wise.”
The Quran 30:22. “Among His signs are the creation of Heaven and Earth, as well as the diversity in your tongues and colors. In that are signs for those who know.”
Theist meets an atheist
What is in a belief? Atheists believe that there is no God because they have neither seen Him nor has God made appearances to prove His presence. They consider life a product of chance, without a planner and a purpose, and convince themselves that their analysis and belief are well-grounded. They place the trillions of galaxies with all the laws of nature in a box of a meaningless accident.
DNA, the blueprint for life
Atheism considers DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), the blueprint of life, as an unwitting coincidence. They “believe” that more “unwitting coincidences” kept happening, resulting in DNA to encrypt precise genetic information, the RNA to transfer that information to Ribosomes and Ribosomes to translate those data to produce the exact kinds of proteins which made life possible. They congratulate themselves on their “logical” approach, but in fact, all for the wrong reasons.
Data are not produced in a vacuum.
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules are double helix, twisted ladder pattern chemical structures inside a living cell’s nucleus. The turns and the twists of these microscopic structures are full of information. RNA (Ribonucleic acid) molecules are the transcribers of information from DNA and translate them into “language” with great precision to Ribosomes. Ribosomes are the microscopic factories to produce protein molecules from Amino acids. These protein molecules run the works needed for our bodies to survive and reproduce.
“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” (Bill Gates).
A DNA molecule is the assimilation of commonly available molecules in nature. They generate data and information on their own. They then deliver those to the RNA and subsequently produce protein molecules in Ribosomes. All these happen with perfect unison between different biological systems towards a common goal, sustaining existing life and its propagation. Accordingly, data are continually being processed and delivered between different body organ systems with precision and coherence. Our organs “talk” and respond to each other unremittingly through the complicated transfer of neuronal or hormonal data input.
Feedback of our hormone system
If our thyroid gland fails to function normally, our pituitary gland from a distance receives the signal. Then it comes forward to help the thyroid gland to produce the correct amount of thyroid hormone. Life is not sustainable without this information feedback mechanism, resulting in an optimum thyroid hormone level in our body. The thyroid gland or the pituitary gland do not know that. A similar relationship exists between the pituitary gland and the other glands of the body. These include the adrenal gland, parathyroid gland, testicular, and ovarian sex hormone-producing glands. The pituitary gland is comparable to a command center with the continuous dispatch of information to a network of remote centers.
Blood pressure and heart function
If our blood pressure drops, our heart muscles try to keep up the circulation and keep the body functions going by increasing our heart rate. Individual heart muscles are entirely oblivious to the results of their actions. They do not have a separate identity to themselves; neither do they feel happy or sad. They nurture a sustained consciousness called life mixed with hope, pain, happiness, and sadness. We know that our simple answer is that our DNA makes all these happen. Many ignore that someone has to provide the DNA with the data to perform the art of life.
Probable or impossible?
How is the idea that the computer in your smartphone was produced by coincidence, and then by chance, it has all the icons on the screen? Then coincidentally, it started delivering you the GPS signals giving driving direction from your home to the Niagara falls? Please mind your intuition and preconceptions before you want an honest answer from yourself.
Entities exist beyond our physical perception
Human’s intellectual abilities and sensory perceptions, including seeing, and hearing, have significant natural imitations. The idea that there is no Creator because we cannot see Him or hear Him is a recklessly ignorant assumption.
1. Visible light waves: Even though we can see objects only with light’s help, we cannot see the light itself. Light is visible only when it falls on a body. Likewise, not all light waves can be detected by human eyes even after they fall on an object. The visible light spectrum that the human eyes can notice is the wavelengths from 380 to 700 nanometer. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visibleligh
2. Sound waves: Our ability to hear is limited. We are not able to listen to sounds beyond the frequency range of 20 to 20,000 Hz. It makes us aware that there exist sounds that are beyond human’s ability to hear. Some dolphins and bats, for example, can hear frequencies up to 100,000 Hz. Whales can detect as low as 7 Hz (infrasonic sounds).
3. Dark energy and dark matter: The invisible dark-energy and dark-matter occupy 95% of the universe. Only 5% of the total mass of the universe belong to the visible universe. At present, there is no scientific verification for the existence of dark-matter and dark-energy. We believe in their presence by using observational reasoning. https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter
Quantum Entanglement
4. Quantum physics shows that the reality of the visible macro world changes when we approach the subatomic micro world. The experiments on Quantum entanglement show that an object’s condition instantly influences other items entangled with it. This relation is true even they are at two different edges of the universe. This quantum phenomenon violates the principle of locality in physics and kills the philosophy of local realism. Local realism implies that reality is a direct product of its immediate surroundings. Consequently, the current scientific concepts suggest that our world has unknown influencing factors than we think.
Who created God?
“When was God created?” is a flawed question to the least. Why? The current scientific concept is that the big bang initiated time and space. Time and space are Allah’s created dimensions. Beginning and end are always within the context of time and space. Muslims believe that Allah created the concepts of beginning and end within time and space. His existence is beyond these created concepts of the beginning and the end. God is an everlasting Being, who is without the need of a beginning. He was never created, nor was He born of anyone. He was always there, and He will always Be, beyond the constraints of time and space. Indeed, God knows all the events of the past, present, and future in the same instance.
Submitting to God in peace
With peaceful submission to Allah’s loftiness (Islam), human’s ego-blended layers fall off one by one. That leaves the core of a humble human, trying to recognize good and evil without an egoistic bias. One who understands the challenges of ego, anger, and greed, all of which one needs to fight. One who nurtures the God-given natural predisposition of goodness inside himself. By relying on Allah, he knows that he can count on the Most Merciful and the powerful for help and comfort.
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