Our universe is the work of a Creator. It was fashioned by Him according to a plan and, in its functioning, all instrumentality is His alone. Just as every atom of the universe is obedient to the will of God, so also does it behove human beings to lead their lives in submission to His wishes. All of God’s prophets, without exception, were sent to exhort human beings to follow this course. This, indeed, is the message unremittingly conveyed to us by the entire universe. And this, in fact, is what is meant by monotheism, a concept which will be further elucidated in the following pages.

‘Is there any doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?’ (10:14). Here the Quran appears to be posing a question, but it is, of course, a rhetorical one. It indicates that the very existence of the heavens and the earth are concrete evidence of God’s creativity, thus proving His existence beyond any shadow of a doubt. This idea is further elaborated upon in the Quran. ‘Do not those, who disbelieve, see that the heavens and the earth were one piece joined together, then we cleaved them asunder?’ (21:30).

It has been estimated that the present radius of the universe is at least ten thousand million light years. Cosmology has revealed that the universe is not static, but is expanding at an even speed on all sides in an ever-­continuing process. It has been deduced from this that the universe must at some stage in the past have been in an embryonic stage. According to certain cosmologists, the entire universe was initially in the form of a ‘super atom’, all of whose elements were pulled inwards by irresistible forces. About fifteen billion years ago, this primary matter under­went an explosion, or ‘energy release,’ as a result of which the particles of the ‘super atom’ broke away from their centre and started expanding on all sides in such a way that the present universe was brought into being. The forces operating inside the super atom before the ‘energy release were consistently those of pulling and shrinking inwards. The outward journey of the particles, in contravention of their own principles, could only be the result of interference by an outside force or agency. This extraordinary occurrence compels one - to accept the existence of an independent power, extraneous to the universe, which is the source of all powers and which, by deliberate design, caused this other­wise inexplicable movement of primary matter. ‘Had there been in them (the heavens and earth) gods beside the One God, there would have been disorder in both of them.’ (The Quran, 21:22).

These Quranic words would appear to refer to this particular occurrence in the universe and prove that this supernal power, although multiple in form, is one in essence. For those who have never made a study of this subject, it may seem a matter of astonishment that all of the physical sciences confirm the universe’s being subject to a single law. It follows that the laws that operate on this earth also hold good for all of the heavenly bodies. It was this basic assumption, which gave human beings the impetus to spend billions and billions on the construction of space machines, and also gave them the courage to land them on the Moon and Mars according to an organized and well thought-out plan. If there had been no such single law operative in the entire universe with such perfect exactitude, the telescopes on earth would not have been able to scan a distance of eight thousand million light years. Without this law, our physical sciences would suddenly lose all relevance. The fact of the universe being governed by such a unified law points unmistakably to the conclusion that it has been designed, and is controlled, by one God alone. Had it been controlled by several gods (or ‘forces’), it would surely have been plagued by disorder, it would have been disorganized by the inevitable conflicts between several ‘gods’. There would have been one law operating on this earth and quite different laws on other planets. But our physical observation confirms that a single law governs all objects, and that the entire universe adheres strictly to this principle. The Quran expresses it thus: ‘It is He (God) who has created everything and has determined the due proportion of everything’ (25:2).

Ian Roxburgh, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Queen Mary College, London, observes: ‘The universe is astonish­ingly uniform. No matter which way we look, the universe has the same constituents in the same proportions. The laws of physics discovered on earth contain arbitrary numbers, like the ratio of an electron to the mass of a proton, which is roughly 1840 to one. But these turn out to be the same in all places at all times. Did a creator arbitrarily choose these numbers? Or must these numbers have the particular uniform value we observe for the universe to exist?’1

1. The Sunday Times, London, December 4, 1977; further details in the paper, ‘The Cosmic Mystery’ in the Encyclopaedia of Ignorance by Ronald Duncan and Weston Smith, Oxford, Pergamon, 1978, pp. 37- 45.

This fact clearly indicates that the universe is forever under the control of a supreme being – its Creator and Sovereign: God.

‘If there is a God, why is He not visible to us?’ This is a question often put by atheists and nihilists, because they feel that there being no possible answers to this question within the framework of the physical sciences, this in itself is a kind of proof that there is no God. But they forget that we are living in a world where we have no choice but to believe in many things, which are quite beyond observation. The neutrino is a case in point. This particle, which is one of the group of particles making up an atom, is believed to have no electric charge in it, and to have no mass. As a scientist would put it, ‘The neutrino is a tiny bundle of nothing.’ Why do we feel compelled to accept the existence of a particle that is a ‘bundle of nothing?’ The reason is that the atom has certain properties, which cannot be accounted for in any other way except by that of presuming that a non-particle is contained in the fabric of each atom. One of the amazing properties of the supposed neutrino is its capacity to penetrate any body of mass unhindered. It is claimed that it can pass through the whole of the globe in its progress. In the U.S. experiments are under way to harness this property of the neutrino for the benefit of mankind. Scientists believe that if this property of the neutrino can be used, the world of communications will be revolutionized.

‘Seeing’ things in the universe, in a purely optical sense, is so impossible scientifically that scientific philosophers are divided in their opinions as to whether the universe should be regarded as an objective reality or just a subjective phenomenon.

Mere belief in God has never been as difficult for human beings as forming a correct view of Him. Human beings have believed in God from time immemorial, and even today the vast majority of the population on this globe affirms its faith in the existence of God. But the main error committed by human beings is the adulteration of their belief in God to such a degree that it becomes indistinguishable from disbelief. Some who profess faith in God apprehend Him in such a way that even His independent existence becomes suspect. Others attribute ‘companions’, ‘associates’ and even ‘attor­neys’ to Him, which render His godhead inconsequential.

The reason that human beings have often erred in forming a true concept of God is simply that they have tried to comprehend God through analogies based on the facts of the universe as understood by them. Human beings, for instance, have sons and daughters. They, therefore, presumed God in like manner to have offspring. In this way, they proceeded to invent a whole divine family for God.

Earthly kings have courtiers and intermediaries, and so God was also presumed to have attorneys to consult and delegate His powers to. In this way the whole gamut of an imaginary divine elite was invented. The many splendid and powerful objects – the sun, the stars, the rivers etc. ­observed to exist in the universe, were all presumed to be associates of God and to be ‘running’ the ‘empire’ jointly with Him. God’s administration of the world was thus reduced to a sort of ‘corporate business.’ It was this tendency to be influenced by outward manifestations that led to the formulation and acceptance of pantheistic philosophies. The way they were arrived at was through human observation of a universe teeming with innumerable objects, from the human beings below to the stars above: where was the unity in this scattered and awesome diversity? It was concluded that a single, absolute God made Himself manifest in these proliferating forms, and this God consequently became an abstract idea, with no objective existence, from whom flowed all things and with whom they finally commingled. This view also gave birth to the concept of ‘human gods;’ it was presumed that certain individuals, through sustained medita­tion, could achieve negation of their worldly existence and become a living part of God in this life: a distinction others would achieve only after death!

With the advent of Islam, all these unnatural growths, distortions of and additions to the concept of God were rooted out, and all ideas concerning God were rectified and placed in the correct perspective. It was made plain by Islam that previous human conjectures which had led to the invention of a whole panoply of state for God had been, in fact, a negation of true faith. God is He who is in every way unique, who is free of all associations with His Being and attributes. ‘Say: God is one and Only. God is the Eternal and Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. Nor is there anyone like of Him’ (112:1- 4).