Nature Bears Witness

Nature Bears Witness

1991 3 March 13-14 Nature Bears Witness (448) If one were to say that by mixing crushed pieces of stone and wood, petrol would be produced, that would only make people laugh. Certainly no ordinary human being has the power to make such things happen. But far stranger and more complex events of a similar nature take place in this world every day. Nature’s chemistry is constantly producing phenomena which, to the uninitiated, appear unintelligible mysteries.

Let us take hydrogen and oxygen, for example. When nature mixes up these two gases in a particular ratio: the resulting combination takes the form of a liquid – crystal-clear water. When carbon and hydrogen are mixed together under particular conditions, another very precious fluid is formed – crude oil. When certain salts and minerals are mixed with carbon, life comes into existence. When a magnetic field and movement are brought together, the astonishing force called electricity is produced. 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 becomes transformed with wood, leaves, flowers and fruits, etc.

Innumerable miracles of this type keep occurring in this world, at every moment, and man is dumbfounded on seeing them. He is a witness to the fact that neither do these objects have any power in them to come into existence on their own, nor does man possess the power to create anything by himself. Then how is all this happening? In an attempt to explain these happenings, he says that all phenomena are a part of God. It is God Himself who is manifesting himself in innumerable forms.

The Qur’an, however, rejects such explanations as misleading. According to the Qur’an, natural phenomena are not part of God, but have come into existence at His command. Rather than God manifesting himself in these forms He has created them with His divine powers.

Since time immemorial poets have been inspired by the beauty of the stars and man from ancient times has seen the moon as a god.

The truth, however, is quite the reverse. The stars are huge balls of fire, while the moon and other planets are just rocks, bereft of water and of plant life. Despite being imaginably vast, the universe is hostile to the existence of a creature like man. In all the known universe only the earth favours man’s survival and permits him to bring a civilization into being. The earth, standing out as an exception in the limitless universe, is a clear proof of the existence of an intelligent being who consciously created such circumstances here on earth, as would remain favourable to the continuing existence of the human species.