Does God do Anything? Part 1

الَّذِي   خَلَقَنِي   فَهُوَ   يَهْدِينِ                                  

وَالَّذِي  هُوَ يُطْعِمُنِي  وَيَسْقِينِ                                    

وَإِذَا   مَرِضْتُ  فَهُوَ   يَشْفِينِ                                                                                                                                                        

  (Sura Ash-shú ara 78-82)

There were times when some people disbelieved the very existence of God. This was at the advent of the present materialistic sciences.  Dazzled by the achievements of man in the domain of matter, the atheist`s eye could not see anything beyond it or at the back of it. Matter was considered to be all in all and the whole of this stupendous, complex and intricate machinery of the Universe, the manifestation of same dead blind matter.Those times are no more. The glimmer and glitter of material sciences which had blinded man´s eyes and installed matter on the pedestal of God turned out to be a passing phase. And when that first flush of glimmer and glitter was gone, man began to question this tiding of material sciences. How could blind dead matter give such a wonderfully planned, arranged and ordered Universe as it is? If a cause could be found out from the effect, it was argued, blind matter could not possibly be the author of all this. There is nothing in this Universe, even so tiny as the eye of an ant but displays such a wonderful, such a complex, such elaborate, such well adapted mechanism as not the best of scientists of the world putting their heads together could devise or make. Could this be the offspring of just blind unthinking matter? Science, as it advanced, put on new glasses, dived deeper into the Ultimate Reality and had to come to the conclusion that all this is the manifestation, not of dead blind matter, but of a Supreme Universal Mind pervading the whole Universe. Matter was once more knocked off its false pedestal of Divinity. Mind came to be recognised the First Cause of the universe.

The atheist who was child of the material sciences had to change garb accordingly as these sciences changed their perspective. He had to give up his old position that matter was all in all. He had to admit that mind was the real thing at the back of all. This was a distinct move in the direction of religion which conceives of God as a universal mind. The atheist so far scoffing at religion as superstition pure and simple had now to surrender. But fanaticism dies hard and prejudices that once take root are very hard to eradicate. Compelled to surrender at this point, atheism managed to improvise another position behind which to entrench itself. The fight must somehow be carried on.This new citadel of atheism consists in the conception that even if God exists, He, is practically non-existent, so far as this Universe is concerned. Like a mechanic, He has made the machinery, turned the handle and given the starting kick and it goes on and on, of itself and by itself.

He has nothing to do with it now. Nor does He in any way interfere with its working. There higher up, somewhere above the heavens, He sits as an idle spectator watching and enjoying the fun of it all. This is the position mostly of modern enlightened atheism. And there are not a few educated Mussalmans whose conception of God does not go beyond this. God to them is a nonentity, for all practical purposes. If they want water, they say, they have only to turn the tap or at the most feel thankful to the Municipal Engineer. If they want light, they have just to press the button. What use is God, they ask? Everything goes on according to the chain of cause and effect which knows no change. Where does God come in? Even the Quran, they tell you, says that you must reap just as you sow. All we need do, therefore, is to sow the right thing in order to have a good harvest. And this we must do ourselves. Why pray to and prostrate before God? Where is the use of such a thing as faith in God? Faith would not turn our barley seeds into a wheat crop. Barley must come out of barley, wheat out of wheat, whether the most devout believer does the sowing or a downright atheist. Why then bother about such things as God, faith in God, prayer to God and so forth.

This is the mentality of the modern atheists. The position of the ”believer,” as summed up by the Quran in the verses at the top is just the opposite. Abraham, the great Patriarch has an argument with his people who worship the idols. What use are they to you, he says – these idols? “Do they hear you when you call? Or do they do you any good or harm?” he argues. According to the Patriarch, therefore, a deity that does not respond to our prayers or cannot do us any good or harm is no use worshipping. We must believe in and worship a God who is some use to us. And he further on defines the sort of God he worships. ”My God” he says, is the:

”One who created me with set potentialities and so he shows me the way to work them out.

”One who feeds me and gives me water to drink.”

“One who restores me to health when I am sick.”

  (Sura Ash-shú ara 78-82)

Obviously, such a God, one can quite understand, love and adore – a God who looks to all our needs. To Abraham his tumbler of water, his dish of roast meat and his medicinal herbs – all came from the hand of God. This is the Quranic significance of faith in God. Everything from God – this is the position of religion. God nothing-doing – this is the position of the modern atheist or at atheistically minded religious man of education. The one is a living reality which at once captures the hearts and commands love and adoration as the Giver of all good. The other is a cold metaphysical abstraction with little concern with the affairs of man and hence with no hold on him. Which of the two is the true position, the God of Abraham who gives man his daily food and drink or the impotent God of the atheist who is an idle spectator, which conception is borne out by reason and experience, will form the subject of our next article on the question.

M.Y.K.

(THE LIGHT     Monday, September 3, 1930)