Ours is the age of atheism, or so we’re told. With faithlessness championed as never before, millions worldwide have abandoned God. Disbelief is spreading particularly in the West, with the masses asking: Did God ever exist? Is He still a force to be reckoned with? Does He even care about us? Here, in the first of a four-part series, we explore the mystery of God.

Source: pressahmadiyya.com

God. Perhaps a giant on a cloud. Or perhaps a capricious being prone to the same failings as the worst of us. Or, at best, perhaps a Lord who fathered a son by an unmarried human and then allowed – even encouraged – the slaughter of His own child.

With such cartoonish depictions, it is little wonder the western world increasingly views God not as a being to be believed in, but as a concept to be mocked. A study published in April by Pew Research Center predicted the number of atheist, agnostic and non-religious people will continue to rise in the coming decades. In fact, by 2050 this group will constitute the majority in formerly Christian nations such as France, the Netherlands and New Zealand. From an Islamic perspective, one root cause of this trend is a failure to appropriately describe God. Therefore, any discussion of a higher power must start by defining Him correctly.

Naturally, the Quran begins in exactly this fashion and we are introduced to ‘Allah’ in the very first verse. In Arabic, Allah is the personal name for God and is never used for anyone else. Uniquely, the word can not be pluralised (unlike ‘gods’ in English). So immediately, the Quran emphasises the oneness of God. The book goes on to describe its author’s attributes in detail: “In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. The Gracious, the Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment.” (1:1-2)

Notably, Allah’s Mercy is emphasised twice in this opening chapter and immediately prior to mentioning He is the ‘Master of the Day of Judgement’. The use of the word Maalik or Master, is intriguing. Many words could have been used instead to mean ‘judge’, but a judge is limited in his powers and must enforce the law. However a Maalik can apply Mercy in an unlimited fashion at His own discretion. As the Holy Prophet Muhammad^sa has said: “Whosoever intended to perform a good deed, but did not do it, then Allah writes it down with Himself as a complete good deed. And if he intended to perform it and then did perform it, then Allah writes it down with Himself as from ten good deeds up to seven hundred times, up to many times multiplied. And if he intended to perform an evil deed, but did not do it, then Allah writes it down with Himself as a complete good deed. And if he intended it [i.e., the evil deed] and then performed it, then Allah writes it down as one evil deed.” (Bukhari)

The Quran expands on this theme, repeatedly saying: “Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful” and Allah further adds: “I will inflict My punishment on whom I will; but My mercy encompasses all things” (7:157)

With this in mind, we read the following tradition:

“There was a man from among a nation before you who killed ninety-nine people and then made an inquiry about the most learned person on the earth. He was directed to a monk. He came to him and told him that he had killed ninety-nine people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He replied in the negative and the man killed him also completing one hundred. He then asked about the most learned man in the earth. He was directed to a scholar. He told him that he had killed one hundred people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He replied in the affirmative and asked: ‘Who stands between you and repentance? Go to such and such land; there (you will find) people devoted to prayer and worship of Allah, join them in worship, and do not come back to your land because it is an evil place.’ So he went away and hardly had he covered half the distance when death overtook him; and there was a dispute between the angels of mercy and the angels of torment. The angels of mercy pleaded: ‘This man has come with a repenting heart to Allah,’ and the angels of punishment argued: ‘He never did a virtuous deed in his life.’ Then there appeared another angel in the form of a human being and the contending angels agreed to make him arbiter between them. He said: ‘Measure the distance between the two lands. He will be considered belonging to the land to which he is nearer.’…Allah commanded (the land which he wanted to leave) to move away and commanded the other land (his destination) to draw nearer and then He said: “Now measure the distance between them.’ It was found that he was nearer to his goal by a hand’s span and was thus forgiven.” (Bukhari)

More details of God’s attributes are provided by the Quran elsewhere:

“The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How can He have a son when He has no consort, and when He has created everything and has knowledge of all things? Such is Allah, your Lord. There is no God but He, the Creator of all things, so worship Him. And He is Guardian over everything. Eyes cannot reach Him but He reaches the eyes. And He is the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware.” (6:102-104)

“He is the Mighty, the Wise. His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives life and He causes death; and He has power over all things. He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden” (57:2-4)

Having thus formed an outline of God, we may ask what role Allah plays in our lives. Those who subscribe to the theory of deism acknowledge the existence and arrangement of the natural world points to a divine creator. However, they reject the concept of a personal God who answers prayers and interacts or intervenes in the affairs of His creation. The Quran dismisses this theory:

“When My servants ask thee about Me, say: ‘I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way.’” (2:187)

“I have not created the Jinn and the men but that they may worship Me. I desire no sustenance from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me. Surely, it is Allah Himself Who is the Great Sustainer, the Powerful, the Strong.” (51:57-59)

In relation to this, some raise the objection that they have prayed and their requests were not granted. Here we must remember God is the master and we are His servants, not the other way around. It is His decision how and when he accepts prayers. Moreover, as the verses quoted earlier highlighted, God is All Knowing. He is aware of what is best for us; when a very young child sees the beautiful light of a fire and reaches to touch it his mother prevents him from doing so. The denied child may cry, but it is the mother whose decision is proven to be correct.

Indeed, the example of a loving mother is apt as the Quran repeatedly emphasises how Allah loves his people. Allah goes so far as to say: “When My servant draws close to Me by the span of a palm, I draw close to him by the cubit and when he draws close to Me by the cubit, I draw close to him by the space (covered) by two armspans, and when he comes to me walking, I go in a hurry towards him.” (Muslim) Again we read: “My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing voluntary prayer till I love him. When I love him I become his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his leg with which he walks.” (Bukhari)

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) . .

Islamic teachings clearly illustrate a personal God, but does He remain so in our modern age? The founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, writes: “Our God is that God who is alive even now as He was alive before. He speaks even now as He used to speak before. And even now He hears as He used to hear earlier. It is a false notion that in these times He does hear but does not speak. But He hears and speaks, too. All His Attributes are eternal and everlasting. None of His Attributes is in abeyance, nor will it ever be.” (The Will)

With this brief introduction to the Islamic concept of God, we will continue next time with the fundamental argument on whether or not He actually exists.