“Eyes cannot reach Him but
He reaches the eyes. And He is the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware.” (Al-Anam, 6: 104).
In
this verse, God draws the attention of man to the fact that his eyes are not capable
of seeing Him, for He is Subtle and subtle things cannot be perceived by the
eyes. What then is the way of knowing God? He answers this question by saying; “but He reaches
the eyes”, i.e., though the eye of man
is not capable of seeing Him, yet He reveals Himself to man by a display of His
powers and by a manifestation of His attributes. Manifold are the ways in which
He reveals Himself to man. He displays His unlimited power, sometimes by
terror-striking signs, sometimes through prophets, sometimes by signs of mercy,
and sometimes by accepting prayer.
Of all
the doctrines and beliefs that have been subjected to in this age of
materialism, the greatest is the belief in the existence of God. The idolater
sets up other gods with God, but he believes at least in the existence of God.
The atheist, however, denies the very existence of the Supreme Being. As in the
present day science everything is based on observation, hence the demand of the
Atheist is: If there is a God, show Him to
us. How can we believe in Him without seeing Him?
As
Western influences have gone a long way towards effacing from the hearts of
many young people the imprint of the Divine Being and hundreds of college
students, barristers, etc., have begun to deny the existence of God, and there
are thousands of persons, who, through refraining from an open declaration of
their views through fear of the community, have really no faith in Him,
therefore Allah inspired me to write this sermon so that some fortunate soul
may derive benefit from it.
The
first demand which an atheist makes is that: If
you show God to us, we will believe in Him. Man knows different
things by means of different senses. Some things we know by means of seeing,
some by touching, some by smelling, some by hearing and some by tasting. A
colour is known by seeing, not by smelling, touching or tasting. If anybody
says that he will acknowledge a colour only if he is made to hear the sound of
it, will not such a man be regarded as a fool? Similarly, fragrance is known by
means of smelling.
Now,
if anybody says that he will take a rose to be fragrant only if he is made to
taste its fragrance, will such a person be regarded as wise? On the other hand,
if anybody seeks to know by smelling things which can be known by tasting such
as sourness, sweetness, bitterness and saltiness, he will never be able to do
so. So it is not right that we should accept those things only which we can
behold with our eyes and disbelieve those things which are not cognizable by
the eye. If it be right to do so, then we shall have to deny the fragrance of
the rose, the sourness of the lemon, the sweetness of honey, the hardness of
iron and the melodiousness of sound, for these are things which we cannot
perceive with the aid of the eye.
How absurd is then the demand that God must
be shown to us before we believe in Him! Do those who make such a demand
believe in the fragrance of the rose or sweetness of honey because they have
seen it? Why do they then, in the case of the Supreme Being, propose the seeing
of God as a necessary condition of their accepting Him?
Moreover,
there are certain things in man himself the existence of which he recognises
without having seen them. Does man believe in his heart, liver, brain, bowels,
lungs and spleen after having seen them? If these things be taken out of his
body to be shown to him he will die before he has time to look on them. I have
given these illustrations in order to show that we do not know all things
merely by seeing but that they are known by means of five different senses.
Now
I will show that there are many things which are not knowable even by the five
senses, there being another way of knowing them. For instance reason, memory
and intelligence are things which are not denied by anybody in the world but
nobody has ever seen, heard, tasted, smelt or touched them. How did we then
seem to know that there is such a thing as reason, or memory or intelligence?
Or take energy for instance, which is possessed more or less, by every person
whether weak or strong. But has anybody ever seen, smelt, touched, or tasted
energy? Even the simplest man can see that we have not known these things by
means of five senses, but that there are other evidences that have led us to take
conscience of their existence.
But
God is subtlest of all things. How unjust is it then to say that we cannot
believe in the existence of God unless He is shown to us. Has anybody ever seen
electricity? But can we then deny the transmission of messages and signals to
long distances, lighting and the working of machinery by means of electricity?
The discovery of either has brought about a revolution in the domain of
physical science, but has any scientist been able to find it by means of
seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or touching? But if we deny its existence,
we find ourselves unable to explain how the rays of the sun reach the Earth.
How unjust is then the demand that in order to believe in God, He must be
visible to the eye, while there are so many things which are believed in but
they are not visible to the eye or perceptible by any other of the five senses.
God is visible but only to the eyes that are capable of seeing Him. But if
anybody is desirous of seeing Him, He is before the whole world through His powers
and in spite of His being hidden, He is the most apparent of all. This fact has
been briefly but very exquisitely mentioned in the Holy Quran like I explained
at the beginning of my sermon.
The
existence of God evident from the Holy Quran is this:
“And that to your Lord
(Allah) is the End (Return of everything).
And that it is He Who makes (whom He
wills) laugh, and makes (whom He wills) weep;
And that it is He Who causes
death and gives life;
And that He (Allah) creates the pairs, male and female,
from
a sperm-drop when it is emitted.” (An-Najm 53: 43-47).
In
these verses God draws the attention of man to the fact that every action must
have an agent and therefore if we ponder over the whole universe, we shall be
led to the conclusion that God is the end of all things and that it is He Who
is directing the universe. If a person thinks over this huge creation, he has
no choice but to accept the existence of a Being Who brought this universe into
being.
May
Allah help mankind to recognise and feel His existence through their inner self
and through the many signs apparent in this universe, which extols His glorious
presence amongst us all. Insha-Allah,
Ameen.
---Friday Sermon of 28
October 2016 ~(26 Muharram 1438 AH) delivered by Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius.