Islam for Non-Muslims

• RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
• 1 The Present State of the World Religions
• 2 Religious System as a Historical Reality
• 3 The Evidences of God across the Universe
• 4 The Absolute Oneness of God
• 5 The Reality of the Afterlife
• 6 The Growth of Irreligious Ideas
• 7 Worshipping Natural Elements
• 8 Worshipping Imaginary Idols
• 9 Worshipping Human Beings
• 10 Inventing Relationship to God
• 11 Inventing the Idea of Reincarnation
• 12 Inventing the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism)
• 13 Inventing ‘Nature’ as the Creator of the Universe
• 14 Importance of Religion in this Secular World
• ISLAM AS A RELIGION
• 15 Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
• 16 Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
• 17 The Quran as the Original Divine Book
• 18 The Quranic Reality in Archeological Findings
• 19 Muhammad (pbuh) as the Great Prophet
• 20 Islam as the True Religion
• 21 Islam as the Universal Religion
• 22 Islam as the Eternal Religion
• 23 Islam as a Practicable Religion
• 24 Islam as an Enjoyable Religion
• 25 Islam as the Peaceful & Savior Religion
• 26 Islam as the Progressive & Rational Religion
• 27 Islam in Health & Hygiene
• 28 Islam in Promotion of Science
• 29 Muslims in Practices of Science
• 30 Islam & Other Monotheisms: Similarities & Differences
• 31 Islamic Tolerance for Other Religions
• 32 Islamic Rights for Non-Muslim Citizens
• ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
• 33 Islamic System vs. Human Ideologies
• 34 Moral & Social Impacts of Islamic Rituals
• 35 Moral Discipline in Islam
• 36 Sinning of 3 W’s: Women, Wine and Wealth
• 37 Dignity & Equality of Man in Islam
• 38 Human Rights in Islam
• 39 Social Duties in Islam
• 40 Dignity & Rights of Labor in Islam
• 41 Dignity of Women in Islam
• 42 Rights of Women in Islam
• 43 Marriage & Family Life in Islam
• 44 Political Philosophy in Islam
• 45 Economic Principles in Islam
• 46 Islamic Economy vs. Capitalism & Communism
• 47 Patriotism & Internationalism in Islam
• 48 Understanding Controversial Issues in Islam
• 49 Conversion to Islam: Problems & Prospects
• 50 Conclusive Message to the Non-Muslims

4:  THE ABSOLUTE ONENESS OF GOD

Introduction: The existence of God is a crystal-clear reality, so is His single entity.  All monotheistic religions were originally based on belief in one God. The prophets of God came up with the common message that “there is no God” except Him (21:25). But later their deviated followers introduced the concept of multiple gods. Now we present some points favoring monotheism and dismissing polytheism.

The Arguments in Favor of One God:

(1) Documentary Evidences: Historical searches cannot come up with any reliable documents supporting polytheism or multiple-gods theory. By contrast, documentary evidences favoring divine unity are laid bare in the true scripture Quran, “Your God is One God. Do not take two (or many) gods, for He is just One. Can you possibly bear witness that there is another god besides God?” (22:34; 16:51; 6:19) Since God introduces Himself as the only One, anyone else telling a different story about Him cannot be acceptable from the logical standpoint.  

(2) Common Elements in Prophetic Messages: Given the reality of One God, His messengers coming to this earth, one after another, propagated simply different versions of His same religious theme.  In consequence, despite their separation from one another through time and place gap, they came up with similar descriptions about One God.  These prophets received revelations through common Angel Gabriel coming from the same God. Originating from the same God, life systems introduced by different prophets showed remarkable resemblance.  They spoke in unified voice in favor of morality and against the culture of sins.  Their revelations have many things in common including existence of Satan, Paradise and Hell, descent of mankind from Adam and Eve, historic sacrifices of Abraham, the great flood during Noah and so on.  This is because God “said nothing to you (the Prophet of Islam) that was not said to earlier prophets” (41:43).  

(3) All Prophets Spoke about One God: There had been no prophets in history who ever said that “besides God, there is another God” (6:19).  Had there been many gods, not only different prophets would have told about their own differentiable gods, but also the same prophet would have narrated about different gods.  Thus historical investigation of facts only confirms the “common revelations” suggesting that “our Lord and your Lord is One" (29:46).

(4) Diverse Attributes Can Consist in a Single God: Many polytheists split the office of one god among many entities on the assumption that the contrasting qualities such as creative and destructive powers cannot combine in a single God.  This simply defies our commonsense. A humble creature like man can combine contrasting qualities (like anger and mildness, wickedness and innocence etc.) in a single body. So why will it be impossible for the Almighty God to embody diverse attributes?

(5) Problems of Coordination among Many Gods:  Inventing many gods on the basis of their actions (like creation, preservation, destruction etc.) is likely to generate severe coordination problems. This will mean they would be dangerously interdependent in carrying out a mission which could be impracticable due to consensus problem. For example, in managing a solar system, when one god would want the sun to rise, the other would like it to set.  Likewise, when one god would decide to keep a man alive, the other one may like to make him dead and so on.  In this way, differences in opinions among gods are likely to result in chaos and “confusion” in the Universe (21:22).  

(6) Many Gods Would Fight in the Single Universe:  It sounds impractical to think of many gods living in the single Universe.  In this case, many gods “will differ among themselves” and “would have competed for the Throne of Lordship” (12:39; 17:42).  Such differences of opinion and competition could develop into a fierce fighting among them which might continue until all the gods are destroyed except the victorious one who will be the ruling god.  Thus the fantasy of many gods would end up in the reality of One God.

(7) Single Entities by a Single God:  The existence of single heavenly bodies (like one earth, one sun or one moon etc.) points to the possibility that God is One.  If there were many gods, each god would have liked to create one of the above for individual use.  In such case, the presence of multiple bodies (say 2 earths, 3 suns etc.) in the single Universe could be a possibility with resultant clashes. Their owner gods would want “to take away what he had created and some would have lorded it over others"(23:91).  Since none of these ever happened, the Unity of God appears to be the only likelihood.

Conclusion: All of the above arguments simply establish the fact of one God or monotheism.  Under the system of One God, the universe is being governed smoothly and there is no breach of discipline or any other types of complaints.  All these support the fact that God is undoubtedly One and the Only One.