NATURE BEARS WITNESS

To the Glory of God

I F one were to claim that by mixing crushed pieces of stone with wood, petrol can be produced, people would laugh at the suggestion. No man has in him the power to make such things happen. But far stranger events of such a nature take place in this world every day. Nature’s chemistry causes innumerable occurrences, which remain only as an unintelligible mystery to the uninitiated.

Take hydrogen and oxygen, for example. Nature blends these two gases in a particular proportion and the resulting combination takes the form of a liquid—crystal clear water. When carbon and hydrogen are mixed together under certain conditions, crude oil, a very precious thing, is formed. When certain salts and minerals are mixed with carbon, life comes into existence. A magnetic field and movement brought together gives the astonishing force called electricity. In a similar way, when a magnetic field and electricity are brought together, an immensely powerful movement comes into being. When a seed is sown in the soil, it is transformed into wood, leaves, flowers and fruits.

In all the known universe, only the earth permits man
to survive and bring a civilization into being

Innumerable miracles like these keep occurring at any given moment. On seeing them, man is dumbfounded. He realises that none of these objects have any power to come into existence on their own, nor does man possess the power to create any of these things.

How, then, is all this happening? In an attempt to explain this, some people claim that all of this is a part or component (Ansh) of God. It is God Himself Who is manifesting in innumerable forms.

The Quran, however, rejects such explanations as misleading. According to the Quran, these things are not part of God, but are created at His command (hukm). God has created them by His power, rather than manifesting Himself in those forms. For ages, the stars have remained at the centre of the romantic imagination of poets. Since antiquity, man has considered the sun and moon as gods. The truth, however, is that these are nothing of the sort.

The stars are huge balls of fire, while the moon and the other planets are just dry rocks, bereft of even a drop of water or plant life. Despite being unimaginably vast, the universe is extremely unfavourable for a creature like man. In all the known universe, only the earth permits man to survive and bring a civilization into being. The exception of the earth in the limitless universe is a clear proof of the existence of an intelligent Being who has consciously created the exceptional circumstances that prevail on earth.