Nature Or The Creator

Secondly, there is boundless ease in creation with respect to Divine Knowledge. Divine Determining is an aspect of Divine Knowledge, serving as an immaterial template or mould in which the specific forms of all things are fixed. That predetermined measure then serves as a plan and model for the existence of a being. When Divine Power creates, it does so with the utmost ease according to that predetermined measure.

If that being is not attributed to Qadīr-i Zul-Djelāl, the Possessor of all-encompassing, boundless, and eternal knowledge, then not merely thousands of difficulties, as described above, but hundreds of impossibilities arise. For if that predetermined measure did not exist within Divine Knowledge, then thousands of material templates and moulds with tangible existence would have to be employed within the body of even a tiny animal.

So understand one of the secrets concerning the infinite ease found in unity, and the infinite complexity found in misguidance and shirk, and realize what an essential, actual, and exalted reality is expressed in the verse:

وَمَٓا اَمْرُ السَّاعَةِ اِلَّا كَلَمْحِ الْبَصَرِ اَوْ هُوَ اَقْرَبُ

The Third Question

The person who had previously opposed the unity of Allah, but had now become a supporter of it, said:

“Philosophers today claim that nothing is created from nothing and that nothing perishes; created beings merely undergo composition and decomposition, and through this the operation of the universe is set in motion. Does this claim have any basis?”

The Answer: Since the most advanced philosophers, who observe existence without the light of the Qur’an, regard the formation of creation—as proven in this treatise—as being almost impossible when attributed to nature and causes, they have divided into two groups.

One group became sophists. They lowered themselves beneath the level of animals by abandoning the distinguishing feature of man: reason. They found it more reasonable to deny the existence of the universe, and even their own existence, than to follow the misguided path in which nature and causes are regarded as creators. Thus they denied both the universe and their own existence and fell into absolute madness.

The second group saw that attributing the creation of even a single fly or a single flower to causes and nature brings with it countless difficulties and requires a power beyond the reach of reason. They were therefore forced to deny both creation and total annihilation, saying: “Something cannot come into existence from nothing,” and, “Something that exists cannot be completely annihilated.” They imagined that everything merely combines, dissolves, gathers, and disperses by the self-motion of atoms and the stormy winds of chance.

Now look at how those who consider themselves the most intelligent have fallen to the lowest level of foolishness and ignorance. Understand how ridiculous, contemptible, and ignorant misguidance can make a person, and take a lesson from it.