Introduction: Faith in the existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is the foundation of all creedal issues, and from it all other doctrinal matters which necessarily stimulate the intellect to contemplate them and then have faith in them branch out.
In other words, we say all the realities of the universe that you see are only the effect of one great reality, and that is the Essence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. It is impossible to grasp what the lesser, secondary issues are before grasping their primary source and foundation, thus there is no way to familiarise yourself with the universe without first familiarising yourself with its Creator.
You might say, ‘But I do not believe in the Creator.’ My answer to you would be, ‘Then you must investigate the subject of His existence thoroughly and verify the notion that you do not believe in Him, and that is so that you do not eventually make a mistake in your understanding of the universe and the meaning of your existence therein.’
Let us begin the course by following the method that we have clarified:
‘The existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic’ is a scientific claim connected to science while at the same time it is not subject to experience and observation.’
Therefore, the path to verifying it is by one of two ways:
The first way is to verify the existence of Allah directly according to the method we have mentioned with regards to scientific matters that are not observable, such that if that is established with us through indisputable proofs, His existence demonstrates to us that He has not created anything in this universe in vain, which in turn shows us the veracity of the Messengers and Prophets with regards to the commandments they were sent with. Faith in the Messengers leads us to faith in the Books and that the Qurʾān is the speech of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Then faith in the speech of Allah leads us to have faith in everything it contains by way of its various reports, rulings, commands and prohibitions…we call this path the top down path.
The second path is to leave investigating the essence of Allah and start by looking at a report that has been transmitted to us about the reality of this Book that is in front of us and which is called the Qurʾān, such that if we know with indisputable proof that is connected to the verification of transmissions and reports that it has reached us via Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he says that it was revealed to him from Allah, Mighty and Majestic, we verify the meaning of revelation as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, himself has explained it with the scientific proofs that are harmonious with this claim, which are clear circumstantial evidence and analogy in accordance with what we have mentioned and its conditions above, such as thorough investigation and so forth.
Thus, if we have established for ourselves the veracity of the Messenger’s claim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and that the revelation is a fact in which the Messenger has no choice and is not something emotional originating from his being, we investigate to see what could be the source of this revelation, using circumstantial evidence based on thorough investigation. Then, if we have established for ourselves by way of examination that no one but Allah, may His majesty be manifest, could have sent down this revelation, this demonstrates to us that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, exists, and with that our faith increases in all the phases that we have already passed in the investigation. We call this way the bottom up way. Let us start by looking at the first way:
The Top Down Way
Every scientific fact, no matter how trivial, must eventually depend on a necessary fact (i.e. self-evident) that is not in need of proof. If not, the researcher remains seeking one proof after another in a never-ending sequence. Thus, ignorance is not removed and knowledge does not take its place.
Thus, what are the self-evident facts that need no proof, and upon which the evidence for Allah’s existence, may His majesty be manifest, rests?
In answering this, we place in front of you a group of instinctive facts and principles which scholars have compiled because they are necessary and because they are proofs in and of themselves, and upon them we establish direct proof for his existence, Glorified and Exalted is He, by way of clear circumstantial evidence, which you have seen in the method of research. These facts are:
The falsity of something being preferred without anyone preferring it
The falsity of infinite regression
The falsity of alternation
The law of causation
[1]1. The proof of the falsity of something being preferred without anyone preferring it: The meaning of something being preferred without anyone preferring it is that the thing is proceeding in a certain manner and then it changes from its manner and diverts away from it without there being any one to change it or divert it whatsoever. This is a matter that is clearly false. Every sane person knows that the foundation remains upon what it was upon, and in order for it to divert from its previous state there has to be someone to divert it and influence it and impose upon it a new state and abrogate the old one.
If you understand this, then let us apply this proof to the issue of Allah’s existence, Mighty and Majestic is He:
All the matters and forms that are presumed in the mind can only be ascribed with one of three attributes: necessity, impossibility and possibility.
That which is ascribed necessity is that which the intellect deems impossible not to exist. That which is ascribed impossibility is that which the intellect deems impossible to exist. That which is ascribed possibility is that which the intellect deems possible to exist or not exist.
This universe which we see in its entirety falls under the category of possible. In other words, the intellect is absolutely certain that it would not be impossible to presume its non-existence and sees it as possible that the means of its non-existence exist from its foundation, without necessitating anything impossible that the intellect cannot accept. Therefore, the existence of the universe as such is not necessary. It is not indispensable. Everything that has this nature must have an external influencer that prefers one of the two sides of possibility and removes the other. This means that this universe, which from its foundation could equally exist or not exist, must have a force external to it that influences it and has specified it to exist, and that force is the force of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
If you say, ‘I assume that it was brought into existence by itself without any external force influencing it’, this assumption of yours necessitates that something can be preferred without anyone preferring it, which is false, as you know, and the hypothesis that necessitated it is also false.
We can clarify this issue further and say there is no doubt that there was point in time when this universe was not something remembered, as absolute non-existence was in place of today’s existence. This means that at that time the side of existence was what was preferred, and it continued as such. Then the matter was inverted and the side of existence was preferred over the side of absolute non-existence. If you say that the world was brought into existence by means of an intrinsic force without the need for an originator, then that means that you are saying that the side of existence can be preferred over the side of non-existence and the matter that continuing as such was inverted without there being any factor influencing this preference or unforeseen inversion. This is something that man knows instinctively to be false.
If you went and claimed that you had held a scale by its accurate beam and you had put the same weight on each side without adding anything to either of them, and then, while the two sides were even, all of sudden one of them went down while the other went up without any external influence that the mind could conceive–everyone would abandon you, worrying about your cogitation and intellect. So what if you said to them that you had placed a weight on one of the two sides and while you were holding the scale from its beam and the heavy side was being weighed down, all of a sudden the situation changed: the heavy side went up and the light side sank, despite its lightness?
Indeed, saying the continuous, absolute non-existence suddenly transformed into existence, which interacts and reproduces, without any external cause for this transformation–is no less impossible and strange than the claim of the person with the scale.
However, you know that all of this is based on the presumption that the one who doubt’s Allah’s existence says, as most sane people firmly believe, that the world is contingent, i.e. it was preceded by non-existence, regardless of the age of this prolonged existence.
But what if it were said to us, after this clear, self-evident proof, ‘I presume that the world always existed the way it does now. It has no beginning and it was not preceded by non-existence, and thus there is only one side and you have no proof to make me agree with what you are saying’?
Here we move on to the second instinctive fact:
2. The proof of the falsity of infinite regression At that point we say, ‘You mean, therefore, that this world is continuing according to the rule of self-procreation that has no beginning. This presumption necessitates infinite regression, and all sane people know instinctively that infinite regression is impossible, and thus the impossibility of the hypothesis that led to it is also made clear.
The meaning of infinite regression is the presumption that all created beings are endlessly reproduced from one another, such that each one of them is caused by what came before it and is the cause of what comes after it without this chain eventually originating from a cause that exists by necessity which grants the effect of reproduction to all the other links in the chain.
This presumption is false. The intellect necessarily deems it impossible, as the chain of possible created beings, however long it may be, its ongoing length cannot escape the fact that its existence is only possible, and possible things, in order form to be preferred to exist or not exist, must have someone who makes that preference, as we have said. This long chain, which you say stretches back into a deep cave that never ends, is comprised of links each of which would not exist were it not for the link before it giving it life and existence, and it itself gives life as well. Therefore, all the links of the chain, none of them have any intrinsic influence, however long the chain may be, and therefore, in order to affirm that it exists, we must wait for the emergence of an external influencer who provided with the chain this life that has been transferred from one link to the next. If not, then we have to decisively affirm one of two matters: either this entire chain does not exist, as the existence of whoever initially gave it life is not established, or it exists but it eventually originates from an essence that exists by necessity and it influences it and is not influenced by it at all. As for the first matter, it is patently false, because perception and observation deny it. The world exists and the reproduction of causes is something seen and witnessed. The second matter remains, and it is that you are certain that there must be an essential source that gave it life and the ability to develop and reproduce. Thus, the abovementioned regression is false.
Let us give some examples of this issue that are smaller than the vastness of the world so that that the matter can be clearer and more self-evident.
If I were to stand in front of you claiming that I know a scientific fact for certain, and when you asked me about the evidence I mentioned to you some proof which itself is a unknown proof that depends on a proof, and when you asked me for the proof of this proof, I brought you a proof just like it that depended on another proof…and so on with no end, i.e. without all these proofs eventually ending up at a necessary reality that is known intuitively, you would deny my claim to certainty regarding this fact. Indeed, you would deny that it exists at all, as there is no proof established for it yet and all the continuous proofs that we had assumed to be endless are nothing but shadows waiting for their original source. If that source does not exist then these shadows themselves do not exist, and thus this claimed fact also does not; exist.
If you see a long mathematical number in which a large number of zeros are joined together, you would quickly look, before anything else, look at the first, essential number that has all the zeros on its right. As long as your eyes have not seen that number, you will not give those zeros any mathematical value. Why?
This is because you know that a zero by itself had no numerical value. It only draws it value from the zero that is next to it, and that zero draws its numerical value from a third zero, and then a fourth, and then a fifth, until the zeros end up at a numerical number like one or more. It is this number that has the essential value inside of it. It is the one that gives life and value to the continuous zeros next to it. If we presumed that the chain of zeros did not end up at a numerical number possessing some essential value, these zeros would be devoid of any value. Indeed, they would be devoid of any meaning of existence, and the presumption of an endless sequence is something that ipso facto never changes and is never given any value.
You see in your friend’s house a place that has beautiful flowers and a pure fragrance. When you ask him where these beautiful flowers come from, he says that they are a branch that he took from a root by his neighbour’s house. When you ask the neighbour, he in turn answers you by saying that what he has is just a part that he took from a friend’s house. Then the third person gives you the same answer the second person gave you, and you get the same answer from the fourth, fifth and sixth. Each one of them answers you by saying that what they have is just a part from someone else, and in vain you follow this sequence looking for the source of this plant and its progenitor that gave it appearance and structure and enabled it to branch out for the very beginning. If it were said to you that the sequence of this branching out and splitting up continues endlessly, what would your intellect conclude with the least amount of thinking?
There is no doubt that you would conclude that this speech is a lie, because branching out, regardless of how much it reproduces and increases, can only be the result of the existence of a source that is established in and of itself and which gives those branches existence or life. If it were said that there is no source for it and we assume the speaker to be truthful, that would mean that it still has not been born, and therefore these claimed branches also have no existence whatsoever. As for if you were to see the plants’ branches with your own eyes that would mean that there is an essential source that gave all these branches existence, regardless of how remote this source and regardless of whether you have thought about it or inquired about it.
Any sane person understands that a sequence of causes that acquire the ability to cause comes from the causes that come before it, such as the sequence of zeros or the sequence of the plants’ branches or the sequence of the abovementioned proofs. Therefore, no sane person can claim that the entire existence of the world is based on nothing other than a reproducing sequence without being preceded by an essential influencer that is external to its reality and exists by necessity. Otherwise, it would be valid to claim that the value of one million is only comprised of successive zeros alternating the value amongst themselves without relying on an essential number coming before them, or to claim that the flowers found in the gardens and houses are originally nothing but branches taken from one another without going back to a source that provided them with the foundation of existence.
In this regard, we say what the majestic scholar, ash-Shaykh Muṣṭafā Ṣabrī said in his lofty book
Mawqif al-ʿAql wa al-ʿIlm wa al-ʿĀlim min Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn:
[2]‘If you say to an atheist, “What is the cause of the existence of this existence that needs a cause that brings it into existence?”, he will answer by saying that it is the existence of another existence that preceded it. Then you say to him, “What is the cause of the existence of that existence that preceded it?” He will answer by saying that the existence of a third existence existed before it, and like the second it needs a cause that brings it into existence. This chain of answers in this way will never end, no matter how long it goes on for and how you far you make it in questioning–so know that this antagonist is deceiving you, misleading you and distracting you with his answers as they actually contain no answer whatsoever, just as he is deceiving, misleading and distracting himself before doing so to you. What I mean is that he cannot show you the cause of the existence of that existence whose cause of existence you asked him about first, and thus he flees from answering your question without knowing that he is fleeing. Then he tries to hide the fact that he is fleeing from answering by turning the matter into layers of continuous darkness that have no beginning. He makes you think that there is a cause before a cause and then continues with this delusion until you have a chain of causes that have no beginning, and thus none of it can be a cause as it has no source and it has not existence.’
[3]After all of this is, the presumption of infinite regression is destroyed by perception and observation itself, because we all know that there are specific created beings that have died out and become extinct, and thus if it were true that existent beings were part of an endless chain, such that each link was caused by the link before it and causes the link after it, these existent beings would not die out. How can any of them die out when they are the cause of what comes after them? When perception and observation show us that they die out and they do not continue reproducing, we know that the last link was only caused and was not a cause like the one before it. This is a violation of this claimed chain system and its nature, and is evidence that there is an external influencer influencing the monotonous chain system.
