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Wood is also limited and also requires trees to exist in order for it to exist; trees require sunlight and carbon dioxide for it to exist; the sun requires the fusion of hydrogen for it to also exist. In truth, everything we observe or sense within the universe is limited and dependant, i.e. they require other things to exist in order for it to exist. This leads us to three possible conclusions. 1. Everything depends upon each other in an infinite chain of interdependent limited things. 2. Everything depends upon other things in an elaborate cycle such that they achieve mutual dependence, without the need for something to initiate it. 3. There needs to exist something independent that initiates creation i.e. a Creator. Firstly, it is impossible for everything to depend upon other things in an infinite chain. To prove this point imagine a row of dominoes, for the last domino to fall it needs to wait for the previous domino to fall first, and for that domino to fall over it also needs to wait for its previous domino to also fall first. Now if there were an infinite chain of dominoes, meaning that there is no beginning domino to initiate the fall of dominoes, then would any of the dominoes fall over? Of course not! In reality an infinite number of dominoes mean each domino would have to wait for an infinite amount of time, meaning they would have to wait forever. Therefore if everything in the universe depends upon another thing and this chain goes on forever then nothing would exist as they would continually wait for the preceding thing to exist. Therefore a chain of interdependent things that goes on forever cannot exist. As for the second possibility that everything depends upon every other thing in an elaborate cycle, we can also show that this cannot occur. If we return to the analogy of the water cycle then we can say that for water to exist it depends upon rain and for rain to exist it depends upon clouds and clouds depend upon evaporation of water. However, water does not exist as yet; hence nothing in the cycle exists until something initiates the cycle. Furthermore, we can understand this point by another simple illustration by stating that A depends upon B and B depends upon A, this is a form
of mutual dependence. For A to exist B needs to exist but B doesnt exist until A exists, therefore nothing would exist! This simple demonstration proves that things cannot depend upon other things in a form of a cycle, i.e. mutual dependence without something external first initiating the cycle. Hence this leads to the final possibility as the only possibility to explain the universe around us. That is something independent requires to exist upon which every other thing ultimately depends upon. For this independent force to exist then it must be other than limited, i.e. other than quantifiable and definable. Therefore this independent thing must be unlimited. This necessitates that this unlimited, independent force chose to create and was not forced to create. Choice signifies will and intelligence. As a result we come to the rational conclusion that an independent, unlimited, intelligent force created the universe. For Muslims we call this Creator, Allah (swt). Say, Allah is one, who is self sufficient, neither He begets, nor was He begotten and nothing is comparable unto Him. [Quran 112] Therefore the first question of where we came from has ultimately been answered by understanding that a Creator exists and has created us; however we still need to understand what the Creator created us for. For this we need a communication from the Creator to tell us why we exist. In part two we discuss the message sent by the Creator to humans, the message being the Quran and the one who brought it to us; Muhammad (saw).
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establish his/her belief through the use the mind. Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for people who think deeply. [Quran 3:190] It is through this deep thinking that Muslims must establish the belief in where humanity, life and the universe came from, and what will happen to us when we die. In order to answer these questions we need to prove whether a Creator exists and whether the Quran is the word of the Creator. These two aspects of belief are the basis upon which the Shahada (declaration of Islamic belief) is built.
As Muslims we would use a different method to establish our thoughts about the existence of a Creator and this method is termed the rational method of thinking. By this we mean that rational thought is built upon four components: the reality, the senses that transmit the reality, the distinguishing brain and previous information. Therefore, the process of rational thought is where one senses the reality using his senses that transmit it to the brain, which links the reality that is sensed to the previous information, hence producing a thought. If we return back to the example of the painting when we sense the painting we realise that the paint does not necessarily fall into an intricate pattern that produces the painting instead something other than the painting is also required to produce the painting -that is a painter. So using this rational method of thinking we can discuss the rational proof for a Creator.