Is there a God?

What’s the point of life?

Islam motivates people to ask and answer probably the most fundamental question of life – what is the purpose of my life?

And to answer that question, you have to ask the question ‘was I created?’ – because if you were, perhaps you were created for a reason.

إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people of intelligence. (3:190)

It’s not easy to answer this question.

But to begin the journey allow yourself to use your own powers of reason and being able to break down complicated things.

When you do this, you’ll notice two things about everything you see and sense:

1. everything has limits
2. everything is dependent on something in some way, and so nothing can sustain itself

One – everything has a beginning and an end

Look around, taking anything you see as an example, a leaf, a pen, your clothes – and you’ll notice that it has a starting point and an end point.

Put another way, physically speaking, it is not unlimited.

Take something else, and you’ll notice the same thing. Even the very big things have a beginning and an end – oceans, planets, stars and so on.

Let’s look at each other and we know we were born, we know we will only grow up to a particular size and no more, and we know we will die.

Top tip! The important thing when you are looking at things around us, is to think about things you can see, touch and feel, because this allows you to judge for yourself.

Rather than going down the line of ‘what ifs’, stick with what you know for yourself to be fact. And no matter how hard we search, we cannot find anything that is not limited.

Two – Nothing can sustain itself

The second quality you’ll notice is that everything relies on another thing to keep it going – everything is dependent on something else.

A leaf can’t sustain itself without the tree to support it, and the tree needs the sun, and the sun needs the chemicals it contains to react in a certain way to burn, and so on.

You need food and water to survive, like plants and animals depend on a water cycle which in turn depends on the sun etc etc.

Nothing that you can sense can come about and sustain itself, independent of other things.

So who created all these limited and interdependent things?

The fact that comes out of noticing these two qualities in all the things around you is that ultimately there has to be a Creator or initiator for it all. Why?

Because all of the things we noticed are ultimately – if you go down the chain long enough, dependant on something to start, and then sustain it.

We see in things that nothing exists of its own nature as independent and in complete control of its own creation, or able to sustain itself.

There can only be one solution to the question of creation, that an unlimited Creator has accounted for all you see and sense.

That’s why there has to be a Creator – a Beginner. And the quality of this creator is that it itself can’t be limited and dependent.

Challenge yourself – surely all limited and dependent things are created?

A Creator to start things off

If everything is limited and dependant we can only explain the beginning of creation in two ways – there is no third option.

1. Everything limited and dependant depends on something else for its existence, which in turn depends on still another limited and dependant thing, which in turn depends on another limited and dependent thing – and this cycle goes on forever and ever.

Or –

2. Everything ultimately derives its existence from a creator, that exists by its own nature and that is accordingly eternal, unlimited.

The first option doesn’t make sense because it does not say how anything came into existence to begin with, it just puts off giving a reason. It therefore doesn’t answer the question, how did it all begin?

So we’re left with the second option. That all limited and dependant things depend ultimately on something that is NOT limited or dependent and is unlimited and independent.

We have a name for something like this – God

Muslims believe this God is called Allah (s) because it says so in the Qur’an – a message from God to humans.
“In the creation of the heavens and the earth,
and the difference of night and day,
and the ships which sail the seas to people’s benefit,
and the water which Allah sends down from the sky –
by which He brings the earth to life when it is dead
and scatters about in it creatures of every kind –
and the varying direction of the winds,
and the clouds subservient between heaven and earth,
there are signs for people who use their intellect.” (2:164)