[نسيم الفجر]

CHAPTER ONE

The Creator:

The name Allah (God) in Islam is the personal name of God. The most concise definition of God in Islam is given in four verses of Surah Al-Ikhlaas in the Holy Qur'an:
1. Say (O Muhammad): "He is Allâh, (the) One.
2. "Allâh-us-Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither eats nor drinks).
3. "He begetteth not not, nor is He begotten;
4. "And there is none Like unto Him., Al Ikhlas ( Faith) 112: 1-4

To Muslims, this four-line definition of Almighty God serves as the touchstone of the study of God. Any candidate to divinity must be subjected to this ‘acid test' and since the attributes of The Creator given in this chapter are unique, false gods and pretenders to divinity can be easily dismissed using these verses.
i) The first criterion is «"Say, He is Allah, one and only". »
Can there be more than one god? This verse tells us that The Creator is the only one who has total and absolute power, unique in His names and attributes.
ii) The second criterion is, «'Allah is absolute and eternal’»
The word that is translated as “The Eternal, Absolute” from Arabic is something that can be attributed only to The Creator as all the other existent beings temporal or conditional??. It also means that Allah is not dependant on any person or thing, but all persons and things are dependant on Him.
iii) The third criterion is «‘He begets not, nor is He begotten’».
This means God was not born, nor does He give birth and share his divinity with others. Nor does He have a family or relationship with another being.
(iv) The fourth test, - which is the most stringent - is, «"There is none like unto Him". »
The moment you can imagine or compare ‘God’ to anything, then he (the candidate to divinity) is not God. It is not possible to conjure up a mental picture of the One True God because of the simple fact, as creation, we only know creation.
The Muslims prefer calling the Supreme Creator, 'Allah', instead of the English word ‘God’. The Arabic word, ‘Allah’, is pure and unique, unlike the English word ‘God’, which can be played around with. For example, If you add ‘s’ to the word God, it becomes ‘Gods’, that is the plural of God. Allah is one and singular, there is no plural of Allah. If you add the word ‘father’ to ‘God’ it becomes ‘God-father’. God-father means someone who is a guardian. There is no word like ‘Allah-father’. If you add the word ‘mother’ to ‘God’, it becomes ‘God-mother’. There is nothing like ‘Allah-mother’ in Islam. Allah is a unique word, which does not conjure up any mental picture nor can it be played around with. Therefore, the Muslims prefer using the Arabic word ‘Allah’ for the Almighty.


Unity of God:

Some people pretend that the existence of more than one God is not illogical. Let us point out to them that if there were more than one God, they would dispute with one another for each god tries to fulfill his will against the will of the other gods. This can be seen in the mythology of the polytheistic and pantheistic religions.
If a ‘God’ is defeated or unable to defeat the others, he is surely not the one true God. It is also popular among polytheistic religions the idea of many Gods for each one is having different responsibilities. Each one would be responsible for a part of man’s existence e.g. a Sun-God, a Rain-God, etc. This indicates that one ‘God’ is incompetent of certain acts, and moreover, he is also ignorant of the other Gods’ powers, duties, functions and responsibilities. It cannot be an ignorant and incapable God. If there were more than one God, it would surely lead to confusion, disorder, chaos and destruction in the universe. But the universe is in complete harmony. The Glorious Qur’an says:
If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been ruin in both! But glory to Allah, The Lord of the Throne: (High is He) above what they attribute to Him!, Al-Anbiya ( the Prophets) 21: 22

If there were more than one God, they would have taken away what they created. The Holy Qur'an says:

No son did Allah beget, nor is there any god along with Him: (if there were many gods), behold, each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others! Glory to Allah! (He is free) from the (sort of) things they attribute to Him!, Al Muminun (The Believers) 23:91
Thus the existence of one True, Unique, Supreme, Almighty God, is the only logical concept of God.


What are the proofs that betokens Allah Almighty's existence?

Allah, to Whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty, has made demonstrations in this universe to enunciate His existence and His singleness.
He has made the signs in the universe as his elementary device to let the human being grasp by his/her brain. The reason can perceive the existence of Allah Almighty by the use of the rational evidence which is put in the world by the Creator.

These demonstrations are as follows:

1- The evidence of creation:
It is known that the human being does neither create her/himself nor does she/he the animals, the plants, and the earth she/he lives on.
The Holy Qur'an has stated this fact in the following verse:

Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief., At Tur ( The Mount) 52: 35-36

2- The evidence of charge:
The vestiges of Allah's attributes and the features of His magnificent creation are existing in every corner of the whole world. Everything is made in the universe is considered as a sign that betokens Allah Almighty Who has created, brought to perfection and excelled in making His creatures.
The unbeliever is the one who finds an elegant dress, and then she/he does not deduce that the existence of this dress gives evidence of the one who has made it. He imputes the existence of the dress to the " coincidence" that has interfered to make the tip of the thread to get by itself into the threading hole of the needle which moves in a counted movements to end up with the dress by all its minute wonderful details.
Is it possible that a rational person thinks that " the chance" or " the coincidence" is able to make a car that is found in front of her/his house?
Would she/he say that a wind has blown to gather the pieces of plastic upon the pieces of iron with a pinch of rubber and fragments of glass to make a car??!! ….Or would she/he wonder who has innovated this car by its capacities and accuracy?
Thus, a rational person would not accept that the universe, including its galaxies, planets, earth, seas, is simply created by an irrational nature which has neither an essence nor an existence.
Would a judicious person thinks that the human body, including its limbs whose structures and duties are accurate, is working as a thorough system depending on the creation of coincidence?

All the data of the modern science highlights of a capable and creative Creator of the world and its containing.

Were they created of nothing, Or were they themselves the creators? (At Tur ( The Mount) 52: 35)

3- The evidence of guidance:
When Pharaoh had asked the prophet Moses, peace be upon him, the answer was herewith:
( When this message was delivered). ( pharaoh) said:" Who then, O Moses, is the Lord of you two?" – Moses peace be upon him responded- He said:" Our Lord He Who gave to each (created) thing its form then, gave (it) guidance., Ta Ha 20: 49-50).
In the simple explanation of Holy Qur'an : " Moses had answered: Our Lord is He Who has given everything He has created its fitting feature to be a sign of His perfect creation. Then, He guided each creature to what is made to accomplish on earth.
Henceforth, Allah Almighty has created each genre of the creatures to be guided to its kind of life-style and to its devices she/he/it provided with.
The birds are lead to migrate thousands of kilometers and then come back to their nests of which they have been already guided to build it.
The fish is also directed to migrate thousands of kilometers and to get back by the same way to its birthplace. For example, the Salmon, which migrates from some of the American rivers to the shores of Europe, is totally capable to come back to the river where it has been born. It simply swims on the opposite direction of the river to put its eggs and to die therefore. The next generation is spontaneously able to do the same steps.
To boot, Allah has guided the animals to the way of its nutrition and the manners of hunting. Some other creatures are acquainted with the stratagems of disguise and deviousness etc.

One of the thinkers has mentioned some examples of Allah Almighty's guidance to his creatures:

- When the cat excretes, it does not leave the place unless it covers its stool with the dust.
- The amazing defense in the beehive since it is defended by its bees till the last bee dies during their fight against the hornets. One might wonder Who has taught the bees to make sacrifice of themselves to keep their hive.
- The members of the beehive, who are the workers, are used to choose among the working maggots a larva that is assumed to turn out the queen by consuming the royal nutrition in case of the queen death without progeny.
- The mosquito who is used to put its eggs as bags in the quagmires so as to buoys on the surface of water. Who has taught it the buoyancy rule of Archimedes?
-Who has taught this mosquito to get its nurture from the blood of the human being? Thus, how does it get the substance to secrete in order to stop the thrombosis of the blood and to remain fluid as soon as it inserts its suckers?
- The desert trees which engenders wings to its seeds to fly far away and through miles to look for good opportunities to be implanted over there; Who has taught these trees to make these wings and sunshades?
- Who has taught the firefly to be illuminated at night to attract the mosquitoes in order to eat them?
- And the hornet who inserts its stinger inside of the nervous center of the victim insect to be numbed and paralyzed; then, it brings it to its nest to put on it one egg….whenever it hatches, the small insect can find its nurture is fresh and ready to eat. From where does the hornet learn the surgery and the anatomy of the nervous system?

How do all these creatures get its knowledge and regulation but from its Creator?

Sheikh Muhammad Al Ghazali has written:
Whatever the human being gets through his/her effort and thought that s/he has a limited quality in comparison to what occurs in his/her worldly surroundings. I remember the time I have walked about the industries of sugar where the tunnels are abounded with juice and the ovens are full of fuel. The machines are covering a vast area of the earth. I have looked around me here and there to say spontaneously: Praise the Lord! The interior of the bee can do this duty…the duty of making the sugar without the use of all these rotary machines and the clamorous noise!
Herewith, I have imagined that the human innovations are an intelligent hint to the wonders that occur in the universe without these complex interventions and the multiple devices.
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the ships through the Ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives 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; (Here) indeed are Signs for people that are wise, Al-Baqarah (The Cow) 1: 164)