Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 101

Overview (Verses 101 - 102)

A Clear Concept of the Creator
 
The sūrah puts these allegations face to face against the absolute truth of God. It makes its arguments against these misconceptions in such a way that reveals how hollow they are: “He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a child when He has never had a consort? He has created everything and has full knowledge of all things.” (Verse 101)
 
He who originates the whole universe out of nothing is in no need of a son. Offspring are needed by mortals as an extension of their existence and they are needed by the weak who want help and by the dull who can invent nothing. Moreover, those inventors were aware of how procreation takes place. Anyone who desires offspring must have a mate or a female consort from his own species. How, then, can God have a son when He has never had a consort, and when He is one, single, and has no similarities with anyone or anything? How can any offspring be born without a mate?
 
Here the sūrah makes use of a recognized fact in order to address their minds, giving them examples that are relevant to their own lives and what they see around them. Moreover, the sūrah gives special emphasis to the fact that all beings are created in order to disprove any suggestions of a multiplicity of gods. What is created can never be a partner to the Creator. The essence of the Creator and that of the created are totally different. The sūrah speaks of God’s knowledge as absolute, while the unbelievers’ knowledge is based on delusions and guesswork: “He has created everything and has full knowledge of all things.” (Verse 101)
 
The same truth of creation is re-emphasized in order to assert another aspect. It tells that the One who is worshipped and obeyed and to whom submission is made is the creator of all things. Hence, there is no deity save Him, the only Lord in the universe: “Such is God, your Lord; there is no deity other than Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him alone. He is the Guardian of everything.” (Verse 102)
 
The fact that God, the Almighty, is the only Creator makes Him the only sovereign of the universe, and that, consequently, makes Him the only one who takes full care of His creation. As He is the Creator of all, He also provides sustenance to all using resources in which He has no partners. Whatever all creatures eat and whatever they enjoy in this life is part of what is the sole property of God. When it has been confirmed that God has all these qualities of creation, sovereignty and provision of sustenance, another fact is also established; that is, His Lordship of the universe. No one else shares with Him these qualities: He controls everything, His is the authority to which everything submits, and He operates the system by which He takes care of His servants. So He is the One to be worshipped in the full sense of the word, which denotes obedience and full submission.
 
In their days of ignorance, the Arabs did not deny that God was the Creator of the universe and human beings. Nor did they deny that He was the One who provided sustenance to all of them, or that there was no place or dominion other than His from where to obtain provisions and sustenance. Other deviant communities did not deny these facts either, apart from a few Greek philosophers who advocated materialism. The materialist creeds of today have spread much wider than those advanced by Greek philosophers. This meant that in Arabia Islam faced the sort of deviation which allowed worship to be offered to different deities, who were claimed to be God’s partners, in the hope that they would intercede with God on behalf of those who worshipped them. It also faced the other form of deviation by which people received their legislation and traditions from other sources. In other words, Islam did not face in Arabia the sort of atheism which some people profess today. Such people deny the very existence of God, making boastful claims that have no basis in knowledge, and no guidance or revelation on which they are founded.
 
The truth remains that those who argue about the existence of God are few, and they will remain so. The basic deviation continues to be the same as that which prevailed in the days of pre-Islamic ignorance — that people receive legislations and laws concerning their lives from sources other than God. This is the traditional and basic form of idolatry that flourished in ignorant Arabia, and indeed in all jāhiliyyah communities.
 
The deviant minority which today disputes God’s existence may boast about being scientific, but they have no scientific basis for their claims. Human knowledge cannot justify atheism or prove it, and cannot provide evidence for it based on science or the nature of the universe. It is all a misconception caused initially by the desire to break with the Church and its God whom it tried to impose on people and by means of which it subjugated them in a way that could not be approved of by faith. There is also the added reason of the nature of those who advance these arguments, which leads to a disuse of the basic functions of human beings.
 
The truth of creation and its deliberate design, as well as the truth of the origination of life, are not cited in the Qur’ān in order to prove God’s existence. Arguments against His existence are too petty to merit any attention by the Qur’ān. Instead, these truths are given in order to help people return to the path of truth, so that they can implement in their lives what is entailed by the fact that God is the only God and the only Lord who has power and control over all things. This means that they have to submit to Him alone and worship Him alone, associating with Him no partners whatsoever. Nevertheless, the truths of creation and the origination of life provide irrefutable arguments against those who dispute God’s existence. Confronted with this, they have no escape except through boastfulness and futile argument which borders on absolute stupidity.
 
We do not wish to refer such people who grope in the dark to the Qur’ān, nor do we wish to impose on them our logic which is guided by the Qur’ān. We refer them to some eminent scientists who make a serious and rational approach to this whole question based on human knowledge.
 
John Cleveland Cothran, Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of Science and Mathematics Division, Duluth Branch, University of Minnesota, says: Can any informed and reasoning intellect possibly believe that insensible and mindless matter just chanced to originate itself and all this system, then chanced to impose the system upon itself, whereafter this system just chances to remain imposed? Surely the answer is “No!” When energy transforms into “new” matter, the transformation proceeds “according to law” and the resulting matter obeys the same laws that apply to the matter already existing.
 
Chemistry discloses that matter is ceasing to exist, some varieties exceedingly slowly, others exceedingly swiftly. Therefore the existence of matter is not eternal. Consequently matter must have had a beginning. Evidence from chemistry and other sciences indicates that this beginning was not slow and gradual; on the contrary, it was sudden, and the evidence even indicates the approximate time when it occurred. Thus at some rather definite time the material realm was created and ever since has been obeying law, not the dictates of chance.
 
Now, the material realm not being able to create itself and its governing laws, the act of creation must have been performed by some non-material agent. The stupendous marvels accomplished in that act show that this agent must possess superlative intelligence, an attribute of mind. But to bring mind into action in the material realm, as, for example, in the practice of medicine and in the field of parapsychology, the exercise of will is required, and this can be exerted only by a person. Hence our logical and inescapable conclusion is not only that creation occurred but that it was brought about according to the plan and will of a Person endowed with supreme intelligence and knowledge (omniscience), and the power to bring it about and keep it running according to plan (omnipotence). That is to say, we accept unhesitatingly the fact of the existence of “the supreme spiritual Being, God, the Creator and Director of the universe,” mentioned in the beginning of this chapter.
 
The advances that have occurred in science since Lord Kelvin’s day would enable him to state more emphatically than ever: “If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to believe in God.”
 
A further quotation from biophysicist Frank Allen is also useful:
 
It has often been made to appear that the material universe has not needed a Creator. It is undeniable, however, that the universe exists. Four solutions of its origin may be proposed: first, that it is an illusion — contrary to the preceding statement; second, that it spontaneously arose out of nothing; third, that it had no origin but has existed eternally; fourth, that it was created.
 
The first proposed solution asserts that there is no problem to solve except the metaphysical one of human consciousness, which has occasionally itself been considered an illusion! The hypothesis of illusion has been lately revived in physical science by Sir James Jeans who states that from the concepts of modern physics “the universe cannot admit of material representation, and the reason, I think, is that it has become a mere mental concept.” Accordingly, one may say that illusory trains apparently filled with imaginary passengers cross unreal rivers on immaterial bridges formed of mental concepts!
 
The second concept, that the world of matter and energy arose of itself out of nothing, is likewise too absurd a supposition for any consideration.
 
The third concept, that the universe existed eternally, has one element in common with the concept of creation: either inanimate matter with its incorporated energy, or a Personal Creator, is eternal. No greater intellectual difficulty exists in the one concept than in the other. But the laws of thermodynamics (heat) indicate that the universe is running down to a condition when all bodies will be at the same extremely low temperature and no energy will be available. Life would then be impossible. In infinite time this state of entropy would already have happened. The hot sun and stars, the earth with its wealth of life, are complete evidence that the origin of the universe has occurred in time, at a fixed point of time, and therefore the universe must have been created. A great First Cause, an eternal, all-knowing and all-powerful Creator must exist, and the universe is His handiwork.
 
The fact that God is the Creator of all and that He is the only deity in the universe is the basic rule given in the Qur’ān for the need to worship and submit to God alone. It explains the fact that He is the Lord who controls everything and directs the whole universe: “Such is God, your Lord; there is no deity other than Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him alone. He is the Guardian of everything.” (Verse 102) He not only controls human beings; rather, He controls everything, since He has created all things. This is the reason for stating this fact which the unbelievers do not deny. They simply do not recognize what it entails: submission to God, obedience of His laws and acknowledgement of His absolute authority.