Praise be to Allah, who has created brought into being darkness and light; yet those equals to their Lord. It is He who has created you out of clay, and then has decreed a term (for you), and there is another term known only to Him. Yet you are still in doubt.
He alone is Allah in the heavens and on earth. He has full knowledge of all that you keep secret and all that you reveal. He knows what you earn.
(Cattle, Al-An'aam:6: 1-3)
We have commented on these three verses which open the sixth surah of the Qur'an pointing out their meaning and referring to the attempts of Zionism and other forces hostile to Islam to divert Muslims away from their faith, trying to spread atheism and employing regimes which pay lip service to Islam while undermining concepts and values.
In this opening of the surah, the evidence of creation and life is placed in powerful confrontation with atheism. When it is put to atheists, they find themselves forced to resort to force and devious arguments.
When we consider the existence of this universe and the system that governs it, we are bound to conclude that, naturally and logically, it is the work of a Creator who has devised its elaborate system. It is impossible for us to perceive that something comes into existence out of nothing, unless we acknowledge the existence of a deity who creates, originates and brings into existence. Atheists, however, try to mend the flaws in their argument through adopting an over waning attitude. They say that it is not necessary to suppose that non-existence had preceded existence. One of those came to be known the philosopher of spiritualism, defending it against materialism. Some naive Muslims may speak highly of him and quote him in support of their faith as if they want to support the faith Allah has revealed by a statement of one of His servants. This philosopher was a Jew who claims that the existence of the universe was not preceded by a non-existence. It is a shortcoming of the human intellect, he argues, that it cannot conceive of existence except as a nullification of non-existence. What basis does he have for his claims'? Does he rely on the human intellect? Certainly not. He himself admits that intellect can only perceive of existence coming after non-existence. Does he rely on inspiration from Allah? He makes no such claim, although he has come to the conclusion of the existence of edition. (The deity he talk about is not Allah, as we conceive of Him. The deity, to him, is life.)
On what other source does he rely, then, to prove his theory? We simply do not know.
We must always come back the acknowledgement of the existence of a creator who has made this universe and brought it into existence. We cannot simply explain the existence of the universe 'without resorting to this concept, the point, however, is not merely that the universe exists, but it operates according to laws and measures which never fail. Every possibility is calculated accurately in devising these laws. After long contemplation, a human mind, at best comprehends only a small portion of it.
The same applies to life. We cannot explain how the gulf between life and matter whatever definition we give to matter, including radioactivity -- is crossed unless we admit it to be the work of a deity who creates according to a deliberate scheme. He has created the universe in a condition which allows the emergence and the sustain ability of life. With all the remarkable characteristics which distinguish human life, it has to be classified as higher than animal life. Man, however, has been created of clay, which means that he is made of the same material as this earth. There must have been a will which has given him life as well as his human characteristics according to a deliberate purpose.
All attempts atheists have tried to explain the emergence of life have failed, even by the standards of the human mind itself. The latest I have read in this field was an attempt by the American philosopher Durant to draw some sort of analogy between the type of movement within the nucleus, which he calls a degree of life, and the type of life which we know. He makes a great effort indeed to bridge the gap between dull matter and active life, only to enable him to negate the concept of the creator who gives life to what is lifeless.
His tireless efforts have not availed him or other materialists anything. If we were to presume that life is an innate quality within matter, and that there is no other power endowed with a will to originate life, we have to explain why does life which is within matter manifest itself in several degrees, some of which are higher and more sophisticated than others? We need to explain why does life manifest itself in a mechanical, unintelligent movement in the nucleus, while it manifests itself in an organic form in plants and a more sophisticated organic form in other living things. If all matters have an innate quality of life, how is it that some matters take of this quality more than others, in the absence of a will and deliberate planning? How is it that life has several degrees? We can understand this gradation if it is the work of a conscious will which plans and chooses. If it is left to matter, assuming that it has life, to do according to its own designs, our human intellect cannot understand or explain this gradation.
The Islamic view of the origin of life in its different grades is the only acceptable explanation of this phenomenon which cannot be explained by the materialists, no matter how they try. In this commentary, we do not move away from the Qur'anic method. Hence, we confine ourselves to confronting the fallacies of atheism by the evidence of creation, life and deliberate planning.
(1) Those in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who tried to break loose from the tyranny exercised by the church in the name of God, concentrated all their efforts on denying the existence of God.
The idealists among them tried to give reasons for all the qualities and attributes of Allah while the materialists accorded these attributes to nature. Both groups had no option but to come up with something higher than man to give it credit for everything that takes place in the universe. All their aim was to deny Allah in order to break away from the tyranny of the church.