Islam honors your mind. Explore the logical proofs for the Creator, and why believing with understanding matters more than believing blindly.
Most of us inherit our beliefs the way we inherit our names. Parents hand them down, and most rarely ask why. In Chapter 4 of Mastering Tawhid, I argue that this is exactly the problem: if you cannot explain why you believe, a challenge can leave you defenseless. Islam does not ask for blind belief. It invites you to use your mind first.
A compass built into every mind
Tap a small child on the shoulder from behind, and the child turns around to see who did it. No one has to teach that child that a tap needs a tapper. Every action has a doer: every building has a builder, every painting a painter, every sentence a writer.
The chapter’s central claim is that the same compass that finds the tapper points to the belief in the Creator of the universe. Islam holds that its core beliefs can be established by the sound mind alone, even before you cite a single verse.
The debate with the boat
The book retells a well-known story from the early centuries of Islam. An atheist challenged a Muslim caliph, claiming he could disprove God’s existence. The caliph called upon the great scholar Imam Abu Hanifah, who agreed to meet him publicly, and arrived late on purpose.
When the atheist demanded to know why, Abu Hanifah said, in effect: What if I said I was on the far side of the Tigris River with no boat. Then a tree shed its wood all of the sudden, and those pieces cut themselves into planks and assembled into a boat with no carpenter. I crossed on it, and that is why I’m late.
The atheist immediately said that is a lie and very absurd: a boat cannot make itself. The scholar replied: you cannot accept that one boat made itself, yet you accept that the entire universe, with all its order, made itself?
The story is simple, and so is the logic. It leaves no room for pretending that an effect needs no cause.
Look at what you do not control
The book asks readers to look at their own bodies. We do not make our hearts beat, our eyes blink, or our food digest. Even in deep sleep, our breathing is regulated. A woman once said on television, “I can’t even manage my own life, yet the sun still rises and sets, and I’m not doing it!” The book calls that an excellent observation.
Imam ash-Shafi^iyy offered a famous example from nature: the mulberry tree. Deer eat its leaves and produce musk. Silkworms eat the same leaves and produce silk. Sheep eat them and produce milk. Bees feed on the tree and produce honey. One source, four very different outcomes, each requiring a Maker with perfect knowledge, power, and will.
Why creations cannot be God
The second half of the chapter asks what are the attributes the Creator must have. Everything we see shares one trait: it had a beginning. People, animals, the sun, the moon, and the oceans are all events that began, and none of them created themselves. Because they share the same weaknesses, needs, and mortality, no creation is worthy of worship.
The Creator, therefore, must be unlike creation in every aspect. If God resembled a person, a body, or a place, God would share their limits and needs. Anything that needs something else can never be the One who created everything. The book explains, too, why change is the clearest sign of imperfection. Proper Perfection does not improve, and it does not change.
A question every religion should answer
Many religions claim to believe in God. How does a person decide? The book gives a simple test to consider:
- The right belief is the one that agrees with the sound mind.
- Any belief that attributes needs, change, and/or weakness to God contradicts the very idea of a Perfect Creator.
The takeaway
You do not have to see air to breathe it, and you do not have to see God to believe in Him. Look at creation with fresh eyes, without arrogance, and the conclusion arrives on its own.
In the next article, I turn to a part of creation most people cannot see at all: the angels.
Question for you: If a boat cannot make itself, what is your answer for the universe and everything in it? What does the sound reasoning say loudly in your head?
Mastering Tawhid: The Key to Paradise is a free download here:
https://bookhip.com/JTWQQCQ. If you enjoy it, I’d welcome your honest review.