Is There a God ?
Consider this : An archaeologist digs deep into the desert sand and finds a piece of an old clay pot. After his investigations, this archaeologist can tell us, from this little old piece of dusty clay, so much about the civilization that existed thousands of years ago that produced it; he can tell us about the types of ovens, temperatures, and dyes that they worked with, the raw materials that they used, and thus assess the level of their artistic skill and technological ability, etc. All this from a small piece of clay lying in the desert.
Did this archaeologist ever see the civilization that produced this pot ?
How does he know that it ever existed ?
He knows because he saw that the piece of clay was produced by someone who designed it, and shaped it, and had the intelligence to be able to heat it and produce the pot, and not only that, they also had the ability to colour it and make it look beautiful.
To the archaeologist the existence and intricacy of the piece of pottery is conclusive proof of the existence, intelligence and ability of the people who made it.
Look around you: at the beautiful sunset on a summer evening, at the moon and the stars on a cloudless night, at the water that you drink, at the trees and how they grow from tiny seeds. Think about yourself: your eyes with which you see, your ears with which you hear your tongues with which you taste and talk your hands and your feet, your heart and your brain. Consider how these things are so complex in themselves and yet work together in such perfect harmony.
From the movement of the galaxies to the complexities of the interaction of molecules, from the dynamics of eco-systems to the intricacies of DNA, all lead to the obvious fact of the existence of the great Wisdom, Knowledge and Power that allows our Universe to exist and function.
To any perceptive person the existence and intricacy of creation is conclusive proof of the Existence, Knowledge and Wisdom of the One who creates, organizes and sustains it.
Most people naturally recognize the existence of the Creator, and we find reference to the Creator in all cultures and religions. Even the atheists, communists and (disbelieving) scientists cannot avoid this reality, but avoid the term 'creator', for phrases like 'Mother Nature' and 'the amazing way nature has designed...'
How strange in the face of this, that many today reject the belief in the existence of the Creator. Perhaps this is due more to fashion and the desire to justify a materialistic attitude to life rather than real observation and comprehension of reality.
Something stranger still, and perhaps another reason for the trend to deny the Creator, are those who claim that a man, or men, who walked on the earth, breathed air, who had bodies and souls subject to the Laws of the Universe, are the Creator, or manifestations of the Self-Subsistent One. This is of course a complete contradiction in terms. Something cannot be the Creator and created at the same time, needing air, food and drink and being self-sufficient, being temporary and eternal!
If you are one of those who believe that a man such as Buddha, or Krishna, or Jesus is the Creator and Controller, then think again!
We were created from a drop of despised fluid, in which was a microscopic sperm, which fertilized a microscopic egg and we grew in our mother's womb in stages predetermined, over which we had no control. We came from our mother's womb, urinating and defecating, needing constant attention and care. Without food we will die, without air we will die ... and then such a one is God?
Indeed any intelligent person would recognize exactly how dependant life, the universe and everything is on its Creator. Our dire need for His help makes itself plain in times of great distress.
Imagine yourself in an airplane and you know it is going to crash...
Who do you turn to for help then?
Or on a ship in the sea, thrown helplessly up and down by towering waves...
There will have been a situation at one time or the other in your life when you called upon your Creator alone, forgetting everyone and everything else, hoping, trusting, wishing that the Being you know in your heart and soul that has power and control over all things would help you. The only One you know can save you!
O creature of God, contemplate upon these verses:
"Behold! In the creation of the Heavens and the Earth; In the alternation of the night and day; In the sailing of the ships through the Oceans for the profit of mankind; In the rain which God sends down from the skies, and the life that He therewith to an earth that is dead; In the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the Earth; In the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth - Indeed these are signs for a people that are wise." [The Qur'aan 2:164]
"It is He who has made the sun a shining glory and the moon a light of beauty and has measured out their stages, that you might know the number of years and their reckoning. Allaah did not create this but in Truth. He explains His signs in detail for people who understand. [The Qur'aan 10:5]
"He has created the heavens and the earth with Truth. Far is He above having the partners that they ascribe to him. He has created mankind from a sperm drop; and behold this (same) man becomes an open disputer! And the cattle, He has created them for you; in them is warmth (warm clothing) and numerous benefits, and of them you eat." [The Qur'aan 16:3-5]
"Blessed be He who sent down the Criterion to His servant that it may be an admonition to all creatures. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth; no son has he begotten, nor has He any partner in His dominion; It is He who created all things and gave them their due proportions. Yet they have taken besides Him gods that can create nothing but are themselves created; that have no control of hurt or good to themselves; nor do they control life nor death nor Resurrection." [The Qur'aan 25:1-3]
"Were they created by nothing or did they create themselves? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? No, they have no firm belief." [The Qur'aan 52:36]
"He it is who enables you to travel through land and sea, until, when you are in the ships and they sail with a favorable wind and you are glad about that. Then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to you from all sides and when you think that you are encircled by them, you call upon God making your faith pure for Him alone saying :'If You deliver us from this we shall truly be grateful.' But when He delivers you, behold! you rebel in the earth wrongfully. O mankind, your rebellion against God is only against your own selves - a brief enjoyment of this worldly life, then in the end unto Us is your return We shall inform you of that which you used to do." [The Qur'aan 10:22-23]
7 Comments:
hey hold on a sec,Jesus did not create the universe. It is God the Father who did it. Let me give you some insights about the Catholic faith. There is only one God. But we understand that He takes on 3 forms. Just as the sun gives light, gives warmth and is actually there, so is how we perceive God. God the Father created the universe and all it holds. Jesus came to save the people who have strayed from God. He came as a light to guid people to the Father.
Hope this might help you with your understanding of the Catholic faith.
Smiles...
May God bless you. =)
By
Anonymous, at 4:36 AM
Thank You very much for commenting on my Blog islameveryday.blogspot.com
I tried to mail my comment to you but I couldnt so here it is
First Introduce to you Position of Jesus (pbuh) in Islam:
(i) Islam is the only non-Christian faith, which makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus (pbuh). No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe in Jesus (pbuh).
(ii) We believe that he was one of the mightiest Messengers of Allah (swt).
(iii) We believe that he was born miraculously, without any male intervention, which many modern day Christians do not believe.
(iv) We believe he was the Messiah translated Christ (pbuh).
(v) We believe that he gave life to the dead with God’s permission.
(iv) We believe that he healed those born blind, and the lepers with God’s permission
Secondly A study of the Christian scriptures reveals that Jesus (pbuh) never claimed divinity. In fact there is not a single unequivocal statement in the entire Bible where Jesus (pbuh) himself says, "I am God" or where he says, "worship me". In fact the Bible contains statements attributed to Jesus (pbuh) in which he preached quite the contrary. The following statements in the Bible are attributed to Jesus Christ (pbuh):
(i) "My Father is greater than I."
[The Bible, John 14:28]
(ii) "My Father is greater than all."
[The Bible, John 10:29]
(iii) "…I cast out devils by the Spirit of God…."
[The Bible, Mathew 12:28]
(iv) "…I with the finger of God cast out devils…."
[The Bible, Luke 11:20]
(v) "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
[The Bible, John 5:30]
I hope this helps us both to understand our faith more and more :) again thanks for your comment hope to hear from yoy soon
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التعاليم السامية, at 6:46 PM
Islam, thank you for your blog. Can you tell me who the Muslims believe created the devil and why? How about other sufferings, temptations, weaknesses -- and why?
I've not found a single person / religion who's been able to explain this in a sensible, if not logical, way to me.
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Anonymous, at 10:02 PM
Firstly I would like to thank you Anonymous for visiting my blog and commenting, you are welcome anytime ofcourse :)
Secondly from which i understood from your question you want to know who in Muslims point view created the devil and all the evil and bad things, there are two parts the devil and the other evil things.
1.In Islam the devil was created before Adam(pbuh) and he was an angel at first.
Allah says : " And surely, We created you (your father Adam) and then gave you shape (the noble shape of a human being), then We told the angels, "Prostrate to Adam", and they prostrated, except Iblis (Satan), he refused to be of those who prostrate.
Allah said: "What prevented you (O Iblis) that you did not prostrate, when I commanded you?" Iblis said: "I am better than him (Adam), You created me from fire, and him You created from clay".
(Allah) said: "(O Iblis) get down from this (Paradise), it is not for you to be arrogant here. Get out, for you are of those humiliated and disgraced".
(Iblis) said: "Allow me respite till the Day they are raised up (the Day of Resurrection)".
(Allah) said: "You are of those allowed respite".
(Iblis) said: "Because You have sent me astray, surely I will sit in wait against them (human beings) on Your Straight Path.
Then I will come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left, and You will not find most of them as thankful ones (i.e. they will not be dutiful to You)".
(Allah) said (to Iblis) "Get out from this (Paradise) disgraced and expelled. Whoever of them (mankind) will follow you, then surely I will fill Hell with you all." [Quraan 07 : 11-17]
As you can see from this story here Satan had a choice either to kneel with angels or to refuse kneeling and he choosed not to kneel, thats why he is now "humiliated and disgraced" because of the way he choosed.
Allah shows us in The Quraan the right way and we have the choice to follow it or not.
2. Bad things that happen are sent from Allah to test us and sees if we are true believers or not and will we be thankful if he sent some weakness to our body ...will we still worship him ? or we just worship him when we are in good health only another example Allah sends some loss in our money to test us weather we will spent some of what remains to the poor or we will do that only when we have alot of money, again it is a test and again we have the choice :)
Hope I answered Your question and if there is any comment please feel free to tell me anytime :) thanks
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التعاليم السامية, at 12:02 AM
Thanks For Your Question I always like and encourage any question:)
Well Your first question was about Satan sin ...according to the Islamic faith Satan sinned because he disobeyed an order from God .
But I wonder how was he trying to be God if he already knew that he is created by God ??
In Islam he felt jealous from that new creation(humans) that's why Satan said to God : "I am better than him (Adam), You created me from fire, and him You created from clay."[7:12]
Your Second question was about That Satan could also cause pain to humans ...Well God says in The Quraan : And Shaitan (Satan) will say when the matter has been decided: "Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. And I too promised you, but I betrayed you. I had no authority over you except that I called you, so you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I deny your former act in associating me (Satan) as a partner with Allah (by obeying me in the life of the world). Verily, there is a painful torment for the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.)."
so as you see here Satan says "I had no authority over you" and he says that he only could call you "I called you, so you responded to me" and you have the choice to respond his call or deny it so he could not cause you pain if you deny his call and if you accepted his call it will be you who caused pain to yourself by the knowing of God too and God will be testing you to see will you resist this pain or suffer by asking God to help you and forgive you or will you deny Him and stop asking for His help
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التعاليم السامية, at 7:25 AM
Thanks allot for Your reply miriamzpporah, most of what you said is in the Quraan but with some small diffrences that wont change the purpose of the story but before I start telling them I wonder why you are focusing on the Satan sotry and his fall into earth and Adam and Eve ? I mean there are more intresting things to learn about Islam thats not in any other religion like the rights of women for example and how it was before Islam and much more intresting subjects .
Now let me start by saying that I admire that you are trying to search for the truth and not accepting what you were taught by your parents and thats what prophet Muhammad (pbuh) taught us to do he says "The ones who seek the truth and finds it will be greatly rewarded from God and the ones who seek the truth but failed to find it will be rewarded from God too"
I would like to say that in Islam it is beleived that Satan told Adam and Eve not just Eve God says in The Quraan "Then Shaitan (Satan) whispered suggestions to them both in order to uncover that which was hidden from them of their private parts (before); he said: "Your Lord did not forbid you this tree save you should become angels or become of the immortals."
so here the word "both" ofcourse ment Adam and Eve next thing that we as Muslims dont have is the story of Good and Evil tree as you see it says here that he(Satan) told them that if they ate from the tree they will become angels or immortals, so I really dont understand what will prevent God to be God, In Islam God is God no matter what happend and nothing could change this at all and God doesnt need to know something God knows everything actually, But I agree with you that Adam and Eve were power-hungry but Satan did not forget what he is he knew exactly what he wanted after he disobeyed to kneel thats why he asked God " said: "O my Lord! Give me then respite till the Day they (the dead) will be resurrected."
so he could try to make us fall into the sin ....so he never forgot what he is he always knew that God is greater than him
"So both sins come from not allowing God to be God " I really dont understand how could anything not allow God to be God . as I said before The sin of Satan came from his pride and I agree with you that he focused on himself and the sin of Adam and Eve came from thier hunger of more power.
The tempting of satan to us ...Islam looks to it so easily, God told us everything in the Quraan he told us what is prohibited and what is not so it is so easy to know right from wrong its not that easy for Satan to tempt us thats why Satan himself says talking to God "I shall indeed adorn the path of error for them on earth and I shall mislead them all " then Satan said "EXCEPT your choosen guided slaves" because he knows that deep inside him that these slaves cant be misled or misguided because they simply know what is right and what is wrong, but the ones who dont know these are the ones who could be misled and misguided and if he found our weakness and made us stumble it is so easy to get back up in Islam and we don't feel scared to confess to God and ask forgivness because God said in The Quraan: My Mercy embraces all things.
and in many verses he always encorages the ones who repent from thier sins, repentance In Islam doesnt need us to go to a Mosque and say what we did to someone to gain forgivness no because its something between me and God ...we talk directly to God we say " O God I repent to you and I return to you(from what sin I have done) and I regret what (sin) I did and I'm willing not to return to that sin again " ....thats it if you are truthful in what you say God will forgive you and as nothing happend . thats why he said "The Best sinners are the ones who repent" :)
I hope I made the picture more clear :) here is my mail if you prefer to contact me directly
abouterachess@yahoo.com
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التعاليم السامية, at 9:27 AM
Assalamualykum. Dear islam247, I have learned a lot from your blog. Specially, my understandings got better. However, I want to make a very little correction. You said that The Satan is an angel. But it's not true. Angels are made of light and they don't have any option or simply they can't sin. On the otherhand, Satan is a "Zin", which is made of fire. Satan made tremendious effort and worship and reached the level of angels. But, then he made great sin and was cursed by Allah subahanatawala. Thankyou.
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Anonymous, at 5:02 PM
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