Episode 14 – Does Being Unseen Make God’s Existence Uncertain?

Peace be upon you.

Introduction: A Mistaken Understanding of the Unseen

One mistaken and dangerous notion is that because faith concerns the unseen, it must be uncertain: highly probable, perhaps, but never completely certain. People tell you that no one can decisively affirm the truth of his own position and the error of another because the matter is ultimately unseen.

Some apply this idea even to the greatest question, the existence of God Almighty. They say that faith means believing something without possessing all the decisive and conclusive evidence for it. Faith, they claim, requires a "leap of faith" toward something that cannot be conclusively proven—a courageous leap into the void.

Such statements portray belief in God and the unseen generally as intuitive, speculative, and inconclusive: a matter of strong probability but not complete certainty. Is belief in God really like this within the Islamic system?

Belief in God's Existence: Certainty Without Doubt

Certainly not. Belief in God's existence is belief in what the evidence establishes decisively and conclusively, admitting neither doubt nor hesitation. Being unseen never means that something cannot be known with certainty. Unseen does not mean vague or obscure, nor does it mean that belief in God is a purely emotional act of submission. It is a demonstrative, evidential, innate, and rational position.

Belief in God's existence is a conviction to which reason and the fitrah guide you, unless sickness of the heart or obedience to desire prevents you. Strangely, this matter, among Islam's foremost self-evident truths, remains unclear even to some who set themselves up to confront atheism.

If belief in God among followers of some other religions has become mixed with a distorted image of God Almighty and His attributes, forcing them to leap into the void and submit without rational foundations, we have no need for that in Islam, praise be to God.

This episode is for Muslims and also for doubters who may imagine that we call them to an intuitive, emotional, submissive faith. We instead call them to a demonstrated faith grounded in reason and the fitrah. Nor is the submission to which we invite people submission concerning God's existence. Submission applies to details within Islam and rests upon a demonstrated faith grounded in reason and the fitrah.

Quranic Evidence That God's Existence Is Self-Evident

The Verse from Al-Hujurat: Faith Without Doubt

The Quran to which we call says: “The believers are only the ones who have believed in Allah and His Messenger and then doubt not.” [Al-Hujurat 49:15]. This means that they believe with firm conviction unmixed with doubt—not through mere probability, precautionary faith, or an arbitrary belief held while considering the evidence for God's existence inconclusive.

God Is the Truth

The Islamic system affirms that God's existence is the greatest reality. Indeed, God Himself is the Truth: “That is because Allah is the Truth, and that what they call upon other than Him is falsehood.” [Al-Hajj 22:62].

God's existence is so self-evident that the Quran does not make this question the central subject of its proofs and discussions. It instead demonstrates matters beyond bare existence, such as divine oneness and God's attributes. Existence itself is settled.

The Verse from Ibrahim: Can There Be Doubt About God?

“Their messengers said, ‘Can there be doubt about Allah, Creator of the heavens and earth?’” [Ibrahim 14:10]. This verse contains both the innate evidence and the rational evidence. Can there be doubt about God—doubt about His existence or His oneness? His existence and oneness are innate truths implanted in the soul and not reasonably doubted. The rational proof is that He originated the heavens and earth; everything in the universe points a sound mind and healthy heart toward the Creator's existence.

Moses' Debate with Pharaoh

In Moses' argument with Pharaoh: “Pharaoh said, ‘And what is the Lord of the worlds?’” [Ash-Shuara 26:23]. “[Moses] said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and earth and that between them, if you should be convinced.’” [Ash-Shuara 26:24]. By looking at these beings, the Lord of the worlds is too well known to be denied and too manifest to be doubted. "If you are certain" means that if you possess certainty about anything, certainty about this Lord takes precedence over every other certainty. If you claim to possess certainty about nothing, you are lying, because every human being necessarily has certainty about self-evident and indispensable truths.

Pharaoh then said: “Indeed, your ‘messenger’ who has been sent to you is mad.” [Ash-Shuara 26:27]. Moses answered him: “Lord of the east and the west and that between them, if you were to reason.” [Ash-Shuara 26:28]. In other words, if you deny God, you are more deserving of being called mad because you have been deprived of useful reason. What is reason? At its foundation, it consists of necessary knowledge such as the principle of causality, which points to the Creator, glory be to Him. If you possess certainty, you will know God; if you possess reason, you will know God.

Verses from Al-Jathiyah: Certainty and Reason

With the same meaning, reflect with me upon the opening of Surat Al-Jathiyah: “Indeed, within the heavens and earth are signs for the believers.” [Al-Jathiyah 45:3] “And in the creation of yourselves and what He disperses of moving creatures are signs for people who are certain [in faith].” [Al-Jathiyah 45:4] “And [in] the alternation of night and day and [in] what Allah sends down from the sky of provision and gives life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and [in His] directing of the winds are signs for a people who reason.” [Al-Jathiyah 45:5] “These are the verses of Allah which We recite to you in truth. Then in what statement after Allah and His verses will they believe?” [Al-Jathiyah 45:6]

These are the same concepts found in Moses' debate with Pharaoh: those who possess certainty should know that the foremost certainty is certainty in God and His cosmic signs; those who reason will not deny their Lord and will have no difficulty believing in the unseen. Then: “Then in what statement after Allah and His verses will they believe?” [Al-Jathiyah 45:6]. Whoever does not believe in God and His cosmic signs despite how manifest they are would be expected to believe in nothing at all, because God and His signs are the most manifest realities in which a person can believe.

“And in yourselves. Then will you not see?” [Adh-Dhariyat 51:21] “[There are] signs for a people who listen.” [Yunus 10:67]

Whoever does not believe in God is as though he has neither seen, heard, sensed, nor reasoned.

Conclusion: The Conclusive Argument

God Almighty also says: “Say, ‘With Allah is the far-reaching argument. If He had willed, He would have guided you all.’” [Al-Anam 6:149]. God possesses the conclusive argument demonstrating the truth of His words—an argument that reaches its intended purpose by overcoming the opponent and invalidating his case. All of this concerns the proof of God's attributes, His oneness, and details of His religion. How much more certain, then, is God's own existence? Is it not the first and foremost certainty?

In the coming episodes, God willing, we will explain further why God's existence is the foremost rational self-evident truth.

Peace and God's mercy be upon you.