Question: The following question, which is said to belong to a non-Muslim, is asked: You believe your Prophet to be a compassion for the whole creation and know him to be higher than everyone else. Is he also higher than scientists, e.g., Bill Gates?
ANSWER
A non-Muslim with a holy book does not ask, cannot ask, this question because the disbelievers with a holy book (Ahl-i Kitâb) can only ask whether the prophethood of Hadrat Muhammad is true or not. They say, “If it is true, he can do many things.” For example, Hadrat ‘Îsâ resurrected the dead and cured the blind and many irremediable diseases. Hadrat Műsâ, too, exhibited many mu’jiza (prophetic miracles). They know that those miracles were exhibited with the power of Allah. Therefore, only atheists ask this question. They, in turn, do not believe in Allahu ta’âlâ, not in our master the Prophet. If they believe in Allah and know Allahu ta’âlâ’s omnipotence, then they will not ask such a nonsensical question. Another atheist says, “If I do not take a bath for days, my hair will be dirty and get infested with lice. So I am the creator of lice.” Atheists do not know what creating is.
Creating is of two kinds:
1. His creating out of nothing: Allahu ta’âlâ is the Creator of everything, e.g., the Earth, the heavens, planets, stars, the Moon, the Sun, water, air, mountains, seas, metals, atoms, electrons, molecules, and their movements. That is, He is the Creator of all things that were brought into existence from nothing. (Sűrat-ul-An’âm, 101)
Mu’jiza, karâmah, and magic are the things He creates out of nothing, too. When Allahu ta’âlâ wants to create a thing, He says to it “Be!” and it is. (Sűrat-u Yâsîn, 82)
2. His creating something out of something else He has created: By uniting together or breaking apart elements, oxides, acids, alkalis, and salts, He forms millions of organic and inorganic substances; that is, He creates them. The one hundred and five elements which we know today used to be nonexistent. He created all these afterwards. Allahu ta’âlâ created Hadrat Âdam from soil (Âl-l ‘Imrân Sűra:59), humans from sperm (Nahl Sűra:4), genies from the flames of fire (Rahman Sűra:15), and the living beings from water (Anbiyâ Sűra:30). The Creator of the movements and actions of humans, animals, and plants is Allahu ta’âlâ, too (Saffât Sűra: 96). His creating a tree from a seed and fruit from this tree is as such. This means to say that it is also creating to transform existing things into different forms with different properties by means of physicochemical, physiological, or metaphysical laws.
It is Allahu ta’âlâ’s ‘âdat (habit) to create everything through some cause or medium. He alone creates, makes the causes, and gives them activity and effective power. The physical and chemical properties of substances, physical, chemical and biological events, and reactions are the means by which He creates. He has created as causes forms of energy, electricity, heat, mechanics, light and chemistry, and the various forms of energy that make reactions. As He has made these causes intermediaries for His creating substances, so He has made human’s mind and power intermediaries for His creating. For example, the heating of coal up to the ignition temperature and the beginning of the event of its burning are caused by the flames of a match; yet He is the One who creates the oxidization, the burning of the coal. The match is not the creator of the event termed burning.
Likewise, when zinc dissolves in hydrochloric acid, a compound named chloride of zinc appears, which has a new property. This net of ions cannot be said to be created by the atoms of zinc and the molecules of acid because zinc and acid has no responsibility in the exchange of electrons during the formation of the ions of zinc and chlorine in the net of ions called chloride of zinc or its causes, e.g., forces of attraction and repulsion among ions. The man has merely watched the formation of the chloride of zinc, the reaction, the properties, and the energies that form the net of ions have been created by Allahu ta’âlâ.
This means to say that man’s mind and power, like other natural forces, are nothing but a cause, an intermediary for the creation of a new balance, order, or system by changing the conditions, the equilibria among the substances, the elements, the properties, the powers and the energies which Allahu ta’âlâ has created in advance. Then, Archimedes did no create a law, but only was able to see a relation between the properties that had already existed. Likewise, a married man has gotten things ready for having a child. Or else, he does not create the child. The atheist whose hair has become dirty and gotten infested with lice does not create lice, either. By the same token, Edison, who made the latest improvements on devices, such as megaphones and bulbs, did not create or make them, but caused them to be made. It is Allahu ta’âlâ who created these.
It is Allah who gives causes activity and effective power Apart from the things He has created out of nothing, Allahu ta’âlâ has made other things causes for His creating something. If there is human power among the things that cause the creation of something, the thing which is created is called artificial, e.g., glass, a television, a computer, etc. If there is no human power among the things that cause the creation of some substance, the substance created by this means is called natural, e.g., petroleum, leather, a tree, etc. Though human power does not interfere with the creation of a natural substance, human power can be a cause in its being turned into an available state. It cannot be said, “Nature created …” about natural substances and “Humans created …” about artificial substances. It will be like saying that bees created honey or soil created wheat or parents created children, which is wrong. In fact, these do not create them; rather, they cause their being created.
Allahu ta’âlâ creates everything through causes. In this way, He puts social life in order. Were He to create without causes, this universe would not have its present order. As microbes cause diseases, clouds bring rains, catalysts aid chemical reactions, animals change vegetable substances into meat, milk, honey, and leaves synthesize organic substances, likewise, humans cause aeroplanes, automobiles, medicine and many other things to be made. Allahu ta’âlâ is the One who gives power and effectiveness to all these causes. Calling the causes and means creators comes to mean, “There is no creator; everything happens by itself.” It would be an ignorant and nonsensical statement because coming into existence from nonexistence is a work and, according to the laws of physics and chemistry, every work is done by a force.
That is, a source of force certainly has to exist beforehand according to the scientific point of view, too. All the created things show the existence of a non-created Creator. There cannot be the creator of the Creator because a created thing is a creature. However, nothing can come into being without a creator. There must be a non-created Being to whom creating belongs. If it does not belong to Him, it means that there is not a thing, for nothing can come into existence by itself. In other words, the existence of all things manifests the fact that they have been created.
The existence of Hadrat Âdam, the first human being, can easily be understood after this reasoning. If Hadrat Âdam, our father, had not existed and humans’ fathers had been infinite, there would have been no human being on the earth; for if the number of fathers had been infinite, there would have been neither the first father nor his children, that is, humankind. Since human beings exist, the first human being has to have existed. If he does not exist, it comes to mean that there is not a beginning for the existing human beings. Those who do not have a beginning, in turn, cannot be existent. Just as there is a maker of artificial substances, so there is the Creator of natural substances. As one cannot say that artificial substances come into existence by themselves, so it will be wrong to say that natural substances come into existence by themselves. Even a naturalist affirms inadvertently that everything has its maker.
Atheists, after understanding the fact that this stupendous order cannot be the result of coincidental events, accept willy-nilly the existence of a Creator and then ask, “Who created the Creator then?” They deem it necessary that there should be the creator of the Creator. But this supposition of theirs gets caught in a vicious circle, and when they fail to settle the matter, they fall victim to their wrong reasoning. Their mistake is that they try to comprehend the Creator by likening Him to creatures. But when they accept the “creator of the creator” idea, they realize that this chain goes back up to infinity, which, they think, is impossible. That is, the Creator cannot be a created Being. If there were the creator of the creator, this chain would continue endlessly. That the Creator has to be a non-created Being manifests itself clearly. All things other than Allah are mumkin al-wujűd, that is, any of them may or may not exist. But, if Allahu ta’âlâ, who is wâjib al-wujűd (the Indispensable Being), were nonexistent, nothing would exist and the existing order would end. The explanations given here are in accord with the following verses: “Allah exists and is one. He does not need anything; everything needs Him. He is not a creature. Nothing can be equal to Him.”
Mu’jiza is different from science
We have given the necessary answer to the question of atheists “Is your prophet higher than even Bill Gates?” We should also add this that when you compare two things, it is necessary that they should share some common aspects with regard to their functions and qualities. For example, it cannot be asked whether a car or a bulldozer is superior, because the former is superior in speed while the latter is superior in knocking down buildings. Likewise, a person who is the king of gamble is not compared with a swimming champion. A wrestling champion weighing 51 kg cannot be compared with a heavyweight champion. So is the case with a prophet’s being compared with a scientist. A scientist develops new devices by combining the objects created by Allahu ta’âlâ. A prophet, on the other hand, causes many miracles to take place with the power of Allah. For instance, the blessed cold water flowing from the blessed fingers of our master the Prophet satisfied the need of the whole army.
Today you can send documents and pictures to faraway places via the Internet, but it is not possible for you to go to those places in person. During the Mi’râj event, however, our master the Prophet himself went to stars, planets, which were billions of light years away, Hell, and Paradise. He went and came back in a moment. The then dwellers of Mecca, who were polytheists, could not believe it and asked him such questions as “What places and via what way did you go?” He answered, “I also paid a visit to Jerusalem and performed namâz there.” Thereupon, they asked him questions about the mosque of Jerusalem, where he had never gone before, “How many windows and pillars does it have?” When he answered all of their questions correctly, many people converted to Islam. Nevertheless, the polytheists and atheists disbelieved it. Can this event be compared with the Internet? While pictures and documents go to other places on the Internet, in the Mi’râj event the Prophet himself went. Now such a thing, termed teleportation, is imaginary, fictional. But the Mi’râj event took place in real life.
This may come to mind: Why didn’t our master the Prophet communicate the knowledge of science? One day his Ashâb-i kirâm asked our Prophet, “The people in Yemen bud the date trees in a different ways and got better dates. Shall we bud our trees as our fathers have been doing or as they do in Yemen, thus getting better and more plentiful dates?” Our master Rasűlullah could have answered them, “Wait a bit! When Jabrâil (Gabriel) “alaihis-salâm” comes, I will ask him and tell you what I learn,” or I must think for a while; Allah lets my heart know the truth.” Instead, he said, “Try it! Bud some of the trees with your fathers’ method and others with the method you saw being used in Yemen! Then always use the method which gives better dates.” In other words, he commanded us to experiment and to rely on experimentation, which is the basis of science. He could have learned it from the angel, or no doubt it might have materialized in his blessed heart. But he pointed out that all over the world Muslims that will exist until the end of the world should rely on experimentation and science and should work under a certain system.
Who created the earth, the heavens, and all that is in them? Needless to say, Bill did not create them. On the other hand, the One who is capable of creating all these can teach everything to His Prophet, His most beloved born slave, and can make him do everything. Allah is not impotent. Atheists, who do not know of the Allahu ta’âlâ’s omnipotence, may consider a scientist superior to the Prophet. Indeed, it is not possible for those who disbelieve Allahu ta’âlâ to accept His Prophet and to understand his mission and purpose. The reason is that their malady is different.
Atheists, simply because it is contrary to Islam, give credence to the theory that they evolved from monkeys. But they cannot think that monkeys, too, were created by Allah. The atheist biologists observe the difference between the human and the monkey only with respect to matter. However, the greatest difference between humans and animals is humans’ souls; humans have souls. The honor of humanity comes only from this soul. This soul was given to Hadrat Âdam first. This soul peculiar to human beings does not exist in animals. Materialists and philosophers, knowing nothing of the soul, may suppose that humans are close to monkeys. Even though humans resemble monkeys, humans are humans because they have souls. Monkeys are animals because they are devoid of both the soul and the superiorities given by it.
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