ALLAH CREATED ALL OF US
You
often hear people referring to "Allah." They usually form
sentences such as, "May Allah bless you," "If Allah wills,"
"Insha'Allah," "May Allah forgive you" and so on.
These are the statements that are used when
one remembers Allah, prays to Him or exalts Him.
For example, "May Allah protect you" expresses
the fact that Allah has infinite power over you and every
being-animate or inanimate-around you. It is Allah Who can
save you, your mother, father and your friends from evil.
For this reason, this phrase is often used when mentioning
a natural disaster or similar unwelcome event. Think for a
moment: Could your mother, father or anyone else you know
prevent a natural disaster, for example, a flood? They certainly
could not, because only Allah makes such events happen to
man and, similarly, only He can prevent them.
The word "insha'Allah" means "if Allah wills."
Therefore, when we say that we are going to do something or
not going to do something, it is essential we say, "Insha'Allah."
This is because only Allah knows the future and thus creates
it as He wills. Nothing happens except what He wills.
When one of our friends, for instance, says,
"I will certainly go to school tomorrow," he or she is making
a mistake, because we cannot know what Allah wills him or
her to do in the future. Maybe he or she will be sick and
unable to go to school, or atrocious weather conditions may
suspend classes.
For
this reason we say "insha'Allah" when expressing our intentions
for the future, and thereby acknowledge that Allah knows everything,
that everything happens only by His Will and that we can never
know anything beyond what Allah teaches us. This way, we show
due respect to our Lord, Who possesses infinite might and
knowledge.
In the verses of the Qur'an, Allah informs us
that He wants us to say "insha'Allah" (If Allah wills):
Never say about anything, "I am doing that
tomorrow," without adding "If Allah wills." Remember your
Lord when you forget, and say, "Hopefully my Lord will guide
me to something closer to right guidance than this." (Surat
al-Kahf: 23-24)
You may not know a lot about these issues,
but that is not really important. In order for you to come
to know Allah, all you need to do is to look around and think.
Everywhere is full of beauty showing us the
attributes of Allah and His infinite might. Think about a
lovely white rabbit, the smiling faces of dolphins, the glorious
colours of butterfly wings or the blue seas, green forests,
various kinds of flowers and the other innumerable beauties
in the world. It is Allah Who creates all of these. Allah
has created the entire universe you see-the world and the
creatures in it-from nothing. Therefore, looking at the beauty
that He creates, you can see His infinite might.
It is a fact that our own existence is evidence
of Allah's existence. So let us first think about our existence
and how Allah has created us so perfectly.
The Existence of Man
Have
you ever wondered how man came into existence? You will probably
say, "Everyone has a mother and father." But that answer is
inadequate. After all, it does not explain how the first mother
and father, that is, the first man, came into being. You will
most probably have heard some stories on this subject at school
or from people around you. Yet the only accurate answer is
that it is Allah Who created you. We will dwell on this issue
in detail in the coming chapters. For now, there is one thing
we must all know; The first human being who appeared on earth
was the Prophet Adam, peace be upon him. All human beings
are descended from him.
Adam, peace be upon him, was, just like us,
a man who walked, talked, prayed and worshipped Allah. Allah
first created him and then his wife. Then their children spread
all over the world.
Never forget that Allah only needs to give a
command in order to create. When He wishes something to be,
He gives the command "Be!" and it comes into being. He has
enough power to do anything. For example, He created Adam
from clay. This is easy for Allah.
However, never forget that there are also people
who deny Allah's existence. These people give other answers
to the question of how people came into existence. They do
not search for the truth.
If the boy in this cartoon says, "My picture here has
been drawn by ink being spilt on a white sheet of paper
by pure chance," this will just sound strange, since we
know that it is an artist who drew this picture. Similarly,
a man sounds strange if he fails to accept that Allah
created him. |
If a cartoon character said, "I came into existence
when ink was spilt on the paper by chance. The paints were
also spilt by chance and formed the colours. That is to say,
I do not need anyone to draw my picture or shape me. I can
come into being myself, by chance," you would surely not take
it seriously. You know that the perfect lines, colours and
actions in cartoons cannot be formed by randomly spilling
paint here and there, since knocking over an ink bottle only
makes a mess; It never forms a fine picture made up of regular
lines. For something meaningful and with a purpose to come
into being, someone has to think about it, design it and draw
it.
Everyone knows that a cartoonist drew all the attributes
of cartoon characters, their shapes, colours, and their
faculties such as walking, running and jumping.
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To understand all this, you do not need to see
the artist and the painter. You automatically understand that
the cartoonist has given this character its attributes, shapes
and colours, and the faculty of speaking, walking or jumping.
After this example, think seriously about the
following: Someone who does not accept that Allah created
him is also lying, just like that cartoon character.
Now let's assume that such a person talks to
us. Let's see how this man tries to explain how he and everyone
else came into existence:
"I, my mother, father, their parents and the
very first parents who lived from time immemorial all came
into existence by chance. Coincidences created our bodies,
eyes, ears and all organs."
Even artificial high-tech robot organs remain very rough
and primitive compared to the organs of human beings.
Allah created man perfectly and every detail in the
human body manifests this perfection.
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These words of this man, who denies that Allah
created him, are very much like the words of the cartoon character.
The only difference is that the character is made up of lines
and paint on a sheet of paper. The person who utters these
words, on the other hand, is a man made up of cells. But does
this make any difference? Isn't the man who utters these words
a highly complex organism more perfect than the cartoon character?
Doesn't he have more organs? In other words, if it is impossible
for a cartoon character to come into being by chance, then
it is even more unlikely for this man to have come into being
by chance. Now, let's ask this man the following question:
"You have a very wonderful body that functions
flawlessly. Your hands can hold objects with great delicacy-much
better than the most developed machines. You can run on your
feet. You have perfect eyesight, sharper than the highest
quality cameras. You never hear a hissing sound in your ears;
No hi-fi can produce such a clear sound. Many organs of which
you are unaware work together to keep you alive. For instance,
although you have no control whatsoever over the functioning
of your heart, kidneys or liver, they continually operate
flawlessly. Today, hundreds of scientists and engineers are
working strenuously to design machines similar to these organs.
However, their efforts have achieved nothing. That is to say,
you are a flawless creature, the like of which cannot be manufactured
by man. How do you account for all this?"
The
man who denies that Allah creates these things will probably
say:
"I also know that we have a flawless body and
perfect organs. But I believe in the following: inanimate
and unconscious atoms came together by coincidence to form
our organs and bodies."
You will doubtless have noticed that these words
sound unreasonable and odd. Whatever age he may be or occupation
he may have, a person who puts forward such claims obviously
fails to think clearly and has mistaken ideas. Surprisingly,
one frequently comes across people who believe in such irrational
notions.
Since even the simplest machine has a designer,
a complex system like man could not have come into existence
by chance. There is no doubt that Allah created the first
human being. Allah also created the systems within the body
of the first man to enable reproduction and the appearance
of succeeding generations. Allah ensured the human race would
continue by means of a programme inserted in its cells. We
also came into existence thanks to this programme created
by Allah, and continue to grow up in line with it. What you
read about this subject in the following pages will enable
you to attain a better understanding of the fact that Allah,
Our Creator, possesses infinite power and wisdom.
The flawless programme in the human body
Despite some superficial distinctions between races, everyone
shares such basic, unchanging features as the mouth, nose,
eyes and ears. Due to the different programmes that Allah
put in the human body, everyone enjoys the same fundamental
characteristics, although they may look superficially
different. |
In the previous page, we mentioned a perfect
programme Allah inserted into the human body. Thanks to this
programme, every human being has eyes, ears, arms and teeth.
Again thanks to this programme, despite some differences in
their appearances, all human beings look reasonably similar.
We resemble our relatives, and some peoples have their own
distinctive characteristics because of this programme. For
instance, the Chinese and Japanese generally resemble one
another, and Africans have their unique skin colours, facial
features, and mouth and eye structures.
In
order for a computer to operate, software called a "programme"
is needed. A person lives thanks to the information similar
to software that Allah has placed in our genes.
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Now let's explain what this programme is like
with the following example:
You must have an idea of the way computers operate.
An expert designs the computer. Experts in special factories
with the help of advanced technologies also produce complementary
components such as the microprocessor, monitor, keyboard,
CD, loudspeakers and so on. Now, you have a machine capable
of processing highly complex operations. You can either play
games or write whatever you want. But for all this to happen,
you need software called "programmes." Without these programmes,
which are specially prepared by experts, your computer would
fail to operate.
Furthermore,
we know that not every programme is compatible with every
type of computer, which means that the programmer must know
both the computer and the software compatible with it. As
we have seen, one needs both a machine and a proper programme
to operate a computer. But more importantly, if nobody designed
and produced all these things, your computer would again fail
to work.
The human body has a highly complex system far superior
to and much more complex than a computer. While nobody
claims that this computer came into existence by chance,
some people claim that our bodies have acquired these
features by chance. |
The human body is similar to a computer. As
we said earlier, there is a programme in our cells that brings
about our existence. Now the question is, how did it happen
that this programme came into existence? The answer is obvious:
Allah,
the Almighty, specially creates every human being. It is Allah
Who has created our bodies as well as the programme that shapes
them.
But don't get me wrong. From another point of
view, it is quite impossible to compare the human body to
a computer. Our bodies are infinitely superior to the most
complex computer. Our brain alone, for instance, is many times
more complex than a computer.
Now let's see how a baby is born into this world:
Initially, there exists a tiny piece of flesh
in your mother's womb. In the course of time, this tiny piece
of flesh expands and takes shape.
Your height, the colour of your eyes, your eyebrows,
the shape of your hands and hundreds of other features are
all predetermined from the very first moment of your existence.
All this information is stored in that initial programme Allah
placed in your cells. This programme is so flawless and detailed
that scientists have only recently come close to understanding
how it operates.
In compliance with the programme Allah has placed in our
bodies, we grow gradually. The sight of a newborn baby
suddenly turning into an old person before our very eyes
would certainly astonish us. |
In accordance with the programme Allah placed
in our bodies, we grow gradually. That is why the growth of
our body does not seem odd to us. It takes us years to grow.
We would no doubt be astonished if this programme worked faster.
The sight of a newborn baby suddenly turning into an old man
before our very eyes would be quite amazing.
How Did Other Living Things Come Into Existence?
Human beings are not by any means the only creatures
who exist on earth. There are thousands of other living things,
some of which you know and many others you do not. Some of
them are all around you; you see them everywhere. Some of
them, however, are so far away that you only have the chance
to see them in books or movies. But a closer look at these
beings would show you that they all have one feature in common.
Can you guess what that feature is? We can call it "compatibility."
Now, let's enumerate what a living thing is compatible with.
They are compatible with:
The environment in which they live,
Other living things with which they co-exist,
The elements that maintain the balance of nature,
The factors that provide benefits for human beings.
Allah
created every living being in an environment in which
it can survive. Fish can breathe in water, birds can fly
in the sky and mammals can live on land. |
Before expanding on these, let us take a simple
example to clarify the meaning of "compatibility." Think about
the sockets and plugs in your home. They are perfectly compatible
with one another. But how can you tell that they are perfectly
compatible with one another? Because there are openings in
the socket into which the prongs of the plug fit. Do you think
these are enough? The width of the plug's metal prongs is
just the same as the width of the openings in the socket.
If this were not the case, the plug would never fit the socket.
The distance between the plug's prongs and the distance between
the socket's openings are also the same. If they were not
the same, the plug would never fit in the socket. However,
these features alone would not be enough to establish the
compatibility of the plug and the socket. If the plug were
very long, this would again be a failure in terms of compatibility.
If the prongs of the plug were non-metallic, they would fail
to conduct the electricity in the socket. If the plug were
not made of plastic, then every time you held it you would
receive an electric shock. As you see, a lack of compatibility
in even the simplest device renders that device inoperative.
This means that the same person designed the plug and the
socket. And he designed them to be compatible with one another.
He made them functional. It is unlikely that the metal and
plastic could have come together by coincidence and that they
were planned separately and independently of each other, because
in that case you could never find a socket and plug compatible
with one another.
Bees
carry the pollen of the flowers they visit to other flowers.
This is the process that ensures the reproduction of flowers.
Similarly, cleaning fish clean larger fish. |
The compatibility of living things is far more
complicated than the compatibility in a socket and plug, because
living things contain thousands of systems and organs that
have to co-exist harmoniously and work together flawlessly.
Any attempt to write down these systems one by one would fill
a library of hundreds of books. Therefore, in the following
pages we will dwell in brief on these flawless features of
the living things created by Allah:
Living things are compatible with the environment in which
they live
There
is a balance in the creation of living things in nature.
Owing to this flawless balance, they can survive as species
for millions of years. |
Every living thing, whether on land or in the
air, is perfectly compatible with its habitat. This is how
they are created. Various perfect systems secure the nutrition,
protection and reproduction of living things. That is to say,
each living thing is specially designed in accordance with
its habitat.
The organs and the lifestyles of living things
are all compatible with the conditions in their environment.
For instance, birds have perfect wings to fly in the sky.
Fish have specially created gills with which to breathe under
water. If they had lungs like us, they would drown.
Living things are compatible with other living things with
which they co-exist
We
need nutrients such as meat, milk, eggs, chicken, honey,
vegetables and fruit every day. Many other fundamental
sources of nutrition are blessings Allah created for us,
in return for which we need to give thanks to Him.
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Some birds and insects contribute to the reproduction
of plants. That means that, although they are unaware of it,
they help the growth of plants. For instance, while visiting
one flower after another, bees carry pollen. Thanks to this
process, plants are able to reproduce. In some cases, animals
perform actions that are beneficial to other animals. Cleaning
fish, for instance, clean micro-organisms off the skins of
big fish and thus provide the basis for a healthy life for
them. This is another form of compatibility.
Living things are compatible with the elements that secure
the balance of nature
No living thing, apart from man, disturbs the
balance in nature. Furthermore, they are created with features
that maintain that balance. Yet, the balance of the earth
is always vulnerable to man's ignorant behaviour. For instance,
if man hunts a species beyond reasonable limits, that species
becomes extinct. The extinction of that species causes its
prey to increase in numbers far too much, which in time endangers
the lives of human beings and even nature itself. So, there
is an innate balance in the creation of living things; They
are totally compatible with the balance of nature, but man
alone has the potential to destroy that delicate balance.
Living things are compatible with the factors that provide
benefits for human beings.
For instance, think about how good honey is
for you. How do bees know that you need such a type of nutrition,
and how do they produce it? Could a chicken, cow or sheep
know the nutritional needs of human beings and produce perfect
nutrients to meet those needs? Of course not.
This astonishing harmony between living things
is obvious evidence that a single Creator creates them. It
is thanks to the flawless creation of Allah that these balances
exist on earth.
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