Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?
Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Surely, they have no
firm belief.
Or are the treasures of your Lord with them, or have they control over
them? (At-Tur, 35-37)

The first error a prejudiced person makes is trying to evaluate
religion without giving thought to Allah. Sociologists, for example,
who do research on religion, can write thousands of books on how
religions arose and how they affected societies sociologically. Yet,
in spite of all these great academic studies, they cannot understand
religion even to a minute extent when compared with those who lead
their lives within the boundaries of religion.

Such people are not capable of comprehending the reality of Allah’s
unity, which is the basis of religion. Anyone who decides to learn
about Islam needs first to understand the existence of Allah. If he
does not believe in Allah, he will simply be investigating the Qur’an
and Muslims in terms of his own limited vision of life.

The Qur’an thus expresses disapproval of such people: “They disbelieve
what they cannot grasp, for they have not yet seen its prophecy
fulfilled.” (Yunus, 39) Islam is not a man-made ideology about which
half-baked ideas and baseless conclusions can be put forth from the
outside. The individual can understand what Islam is about only when
he understands the existence of Allah and lives his life as enjoined
in the Qur’an.

Essentially, the existence of Allah and the reality that there is no
deity other than Allah are crystal clear facts. But in “the society of
ignorance” where people fail to use their reasoning due to their habit
of indifference and indolence, they grow blind and cannot comprehend
this reality. As a matter of fact, that is the reason why they were
stigmatized as a “society of ignorance” (Jahilliyah).

One of the many Qur'anic verses about pondering on the existence of
Allah records the Almighty’s advice to the Prophet on how he should
address the ignorant:

“Say: ‘Think, you, if Allah took away your hearing and your sight, and
sealed up your hearts, who - a god other than Allah - could restore
them to you?’” The same verse goes on to say: “See how We explain the
signs by various symbols; yet they turn aside.” (Al-Anaam, 46)

A brief example can help us enrich our views and remove our innate
ignorance.

Let’s assume that there is a person from whose memory everything,
including the knowledge of his self-being and his body, has been wiped
out. If he found himself on a place like earth, what would he feel
like? He would undoubtedly be so amazed and so astonished as to lose
his mind out of curiosity. The first thing he would notice would
probably be his body. He would not be aware that his body in fact
belonged to him in the first place, thinking of it as an external
object, like the other things in the scene. Then it would be very
interesting for him to be able to control his body parts and make them
do what he wanted them to do. He would probably try to figure out the
use of his arm by moving it up and down for a while.

He would find very suitable surroundings for his body, the reason for
the existence of which would still be unknown to him. There would be
safe ground to stand on, a clear image to view, beautiful fragrances
to smell, various animals, a proper air temperature exactly suitable
to the body, an atmosphere suitable for breathing, and thousands of
other sensitive balances. Edible fruits to satisfy his hunger, pure
and clear water to cool his parched throat and many more things.

For a moment, let us put ourselves in his position and reflect for a
while. In a place like this, would we just go and enjoy ourselves, or
be wise enough to ask ourselves some very crucial questions? Would we
try to understand who we were, why we were there, what the reason for
our existence was, what the reason for the existence of the present
order was or, would we simply ignore these questions and be concerned
with how much we enjoyed our lives? Would not the first questions come
to our minds be as follows:

Who am I?

Who has created me, who has created this perfect body of mine?

Who has created this great order which surrounds me?

What does He, who created everything, want from me? What does He want
to show me?

Even an individual with a weak mind would think that there is nothing
more important than finding answers to these questions. Someone who
pays no attention to them, preferring rather to spend his life in
fulfilling his physical needs, amusing himself during the day and
sleeping at nights, would undoubtedly be a creature of no
understanding at all. Someone must have created his body and his
surroundings, and they must have come into being all of a sudden. Once
he was created, every second of the rest of his life must also have
been dependent on that Superior Being, Who had initially created him.
What could be more important than knowing about this Superior Being,
Who obviously possesses a great power?

Let us continue with our example and assume that he reaches a city
after walking through the land for a while. There are various types of
people there, most of whom are pretty vulgar, ambitious and insincere.
And almost nobody is thinking about his Owner or the place he is
living in. Although everyone has a job, an aim or an ideology, the
people of the city cannot bring good order to the city, with which
everyone would be content.

Let’s assume he meets some people whom the denizens of the city
dislike, and towards whom they feel rage and enmity. As to what these
people are like, he sees that they are significantly different from
the others in many ways. He feels that, as human beings, they are
amiable reasonable, and trustworthy. They look humble and they speak
in a clear, moderate and sensible manner. He can easily see that there
is nothing wrong with them, so he becomes confused and has doubts as
to why the citizenry think otherwise.

Let’s assume he starts a conversation with them and they tell him: “We
have a different view of life and think differently from other people
because we are aware that there is an Owner of this place and
everything in it. We are also aware that His power is above everything
and He has created this place and everything else to test and educate
us until the day comes when we will leave this place. We have a book
which we have received from Him, and we are leading our lives in
accordance with this book.”

In such a situation, he might not be a hundred per cent sure whether
these people were really telling the truth or not. But he would
probably understand that what they were talking about was quite
important. He would feel there was nothing more important than
obtaining further information about these people at that moment, and
he would be extremely curious about the book they were talking about,
would he not?

The only thing that stops us from being as sensible as the person in
this example is our having been on this earth for a longer period of
time.
We have experienced a growth process instead of coming into being as
an adult all of a sudden, like the person in the story. Consequently,
we have to admit that most of us are in a position similar to that of
the town people in the example due to our disregard of such questions
in our lives. What we should further bear in mind is that almost none
of the people in this city actually thought about the questions cited
above, found some consistent answers on their own, and finally turned
away from the Superior Being, Who created them. In fact, most of them
did not even go through these steps, but simply pushed these questions
aside and stopped thinking about them, because of their “collective
ignorance”.

Are we aware of the fact that the “society of ignorance” we are living
in prevents us from answering those crucial questions mentioned above
by keeping us occupied with questions like: “What shall I eat tonight,
which dress should I wear tomorrow?” or “What is she thinking about
me, what should I say to him?”? Unfortunately, this shows nothing but
abysmal ignorance although we claim to be living in the “information
age”.

Now, you have a chance! Think about the complete ignorance you might
have been exposed to by such a “society of ignorance” and ask
yourselves the following question, which so far you might not have
thought over, or might have brushed aside with insufficient
explanations: How did I come into existence?

In order to be able to answer this question, it would be useful to
start with the physical beginning of our existence and think about
that extraordinary event - “birth”.

The brief history of birth can be summarized as follows:

Sperms are produced literally ‘outside’ of a man’s body. The reason
for this is the fact that sperm production can occur only in a
suitable environment with a temperature of about 35 degrees Celsius,
which is two degrees below the average body temperature. Male
testicles are the only body parts with this temperature, as they are
rightly placed outside of the body. To bring the temperature to the
required level, another mechanism is activated. The skin covering the
testicles shrinks when it is cold and sweats when it is hot to keep
the temperature of this area stable. Approximately a thousand sperms
are produced per minute, and they have a special design that eases
their long journey from the man’s testicles to the woman’s egg. A
sperm comprises a head, a neck and a tail by the use of which a fish-
like movement towards the mother’s uterus takes place.

The head part, which carries the genetic code of the future human
being, is covered with a special protective armour. The benefit of
this armor is noticed at the entrance of the mother’s uterus. This
place is very acidic to protect the mother from microbes and other
alien particles like sperms, but by the use of this armor, most sperms
manage to stay alive.

Not only sperms are ejaculated to the uterus. Semen is a mixture that
consists of many other liquids. These liquids contain sugar that
supplies energy to the sperms. Semen, which is a base in its chemical
form, neutralizes the acidic environment at the entrance of the uterus
and creates a safe environment for sperms. It also makes the
environment slippery so that sperms can move along easily. Sperms make
a difficult journey inside the body of the mother until they reach the
egg. No matter how hard they try to survive, only a thousand sperms
out of 200-300 million can make it to the egg.

In the light of this brief information, let’s try to find the answers
to some questions that cross our minds: How can a sperm make itself so
suitable for entry into the mother’s uterus, about which it knows
nothing beforehand? How can a sperm be produced in the male body in a
way that it can survive and find its way to the egg in the female
uterus in spite of the protective mechanisms of the female body, about
which the sperm had no previous idea? How can this happen?

Since a sperm lacks the ability to adapt itself to an unknown
environment in advance, the only possible answer to these questions is
that it is actually created that way.

Let’s continue with the brief story of birth:

An egg is about half the size of a salt grain. The place where an egg
and a sperm meet is called the Fallopian tube. The egg secretes a
special fluid that leads the sperms to the egg. As they come closer to
the egg, their protective armor is melted by another fluid secreted by
the egg. As a result, solvent enzyme sachets appear on the cover of
the sperms’ heads. By the use of these enzymes, the sperm that is to
fertilize the egg, penetrates the membrane of the egg. When the sperms
surround the egg, they race one another to enter to the egg. Mostly,
only one sperm fertilizes the egg and from that time on, there is no
possibility for another sperm to enter it. Before fertilization, the
electric charge of the sperms and the egg are opposite, therefore they
attract each other. However, after the entrance of the first sperm,
the electrical charge of the egg changes, acquiring a pushing effect
on the rest of the sperms.

Finally, the DNA of the male present in the sperm combines with the
DNA of the female. At this moment, there forms a new cell (the
zygote), that is, a new human being inside the mother’s womb.

After considering this bit of information, a new question comes to our
minds: How is it that an egg is prepared to welcome a sperm as if it
“knew” that it would meet the sperm? How can this happen? The only
possible answer to this question is that the egg is created to be
suitable to the sperm by the will of a Creator who has also created
the sperms and controls both the sperm and the egg.

The extraordinary nature of birth does not finish with all this. The
fertilized egg clings on to the womb by its special knobbly surface.
The small protuberances on the surface of the egg jut out and
penetrate deep into the mother’s womb like the roots of plants in the
ground. The zygote starts to develop through hormones secreted by the
mother. The egg keeps receiving nutrition provided by the mother.

With time, the cells divide and grow in number by the two-four-eight-
sixteen model. In the beginning, all cells that are formed by the
division of old ones have the same properties as each other. Then, all
of a sudden, newly formed cells somehow start differentiating, showing
separate characteristics, as they are to form different organs of the
fetus. The science of today still lacks the competence to give a
satisfactory answer to the question of why and how exactly this
differentiation of cells takes place and how they form different
organs with such perfect organization.

As time passes, a drastic change takes place in the jelly-like fetus.
Relatively rough bones start to form inside that soft structure, all
of them surprisingly, in their proper places. What’s amazing here, is
that while all the cells carry exactly the same characteristics at the
beginning, through the differentiating process, some of them turn out
to be eye cells sensitive to light, others become nerve cells that
perceive heat while yet others form those cells that detect sound
vibrations.

Finally the fetus’ construction is completed and a new baby is born
into the world. At this stage, it is 100 million times bigger and 6
billion times heavier than its initial form when it was a fertilized
egg.

This “brief history” mentioned above concerns us, because it is the
story of how we came into being. For us, what can be more important
than finding the ultimate Cause and Owner of that great, extraordinary
and complex event of our existence? When we glance at this short
history, we come across many other questions to which science, which
is under the influence of materialism, has not yet found any answers.

But there are still many questions that need to be answered. One of
these is: How can cells of the same structure start to gather in
groups and form different organs of the body while they multiply?

Actually, there is no answer to these questions about birth other than
accepting the presence of a Creator. It would be a great mistake to
think that all of these complex operations occur on their own or by
chance. How can cells agree to form “human organs”? Let’s think about
this a little further. Let’s assume that there are two wise adults who
come together and decide to work on an engineering project. Even
between these two persons, some misunderstandings will unavoidably
occur and this will put the success of the project at risk. Then, how
can thousands and millions of cells work together to form an
absolutely perfect organization without any mishap? Who would dare to
say an answer to this question: “It may be possible by chance”? Some
atheist “scientists” of today explain this marvelous occurrence as the
“magic of nature”. What does this mean? Who or what is nature? Has not
nature also been created?

Another attempt to answer this question might be to refer to the
mother and the father—which would be meaningless. The role of parents
in this event is in fact, neglible. Neither mother nor the father is
aware what goes on within them in the production of gender cells,
fertilization and development of fetus. The exact date of birth is
unknown to mother who has no control over delivery. In spite of this,
mother and father are seen as the “origin of one’s life”? But are they
so?

The mother and father are very important to their child, as they play
a role in his existence. On the other hand, one never, or only rarely,
thinks about ones real Creator. Is not the real Creator, who has the
ultimate power and control ones everything including birth, life and
death, worth more love and respect? His existence is clear and the
existence of any other thing without Him is not possible. No one but
Allah can create anyone or any matter on his own, while He neither
begets nor is begotten as is stated in the third verse of Al-Ikhlas 3.

The creation is explained in the Qur’an as follows;

“We created man from a quintessence (of clay);
Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly
fixed;
Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that
clot We made a (fetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones and
clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another
creature. So blessed be Allah, the noblest of Creators!” (Al-Mumenoon,
12-14)

This being so, it is clear that there is no difference between
ourselves and that man in the story, who was “suddenly” created and
become curious about who had created him and everything around him. Of
course, he found himself as an adult and without any parents who gave
birth to him and raised him. But now that we also know that our coming
into existence can in no way be explained by parents, we can consider
our situation similar to that of the man in the story.

In such a situation, the most important thing to do is to search
exclusively for the truth, to listen to those who claim they have
knowledge and evidence about the truth and then to think over what we
have been told. Take the man in the story again. As we know, he meets
some people in the city who tell him that they can make known to him
the Creator Who has created himself and everything around and that
there is a book from Him. What do you think he would do? Would he
listen to them, or would he simply turn away from them and prefer to
be involved with such ordinary, everyday questions like: “What shall I
wear tonight, what shall I say to him?” that are daily repeated and
will one day become meaningless when death comes to him. Which one of
these two choices is the more rational, logical and conscientious?
You, without doubt, know the correct answer for this man. But, what
about yourself?

What leads up to the event of creation is specifically described in
certain other verses of the Quran;

“Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled, without purpose?
Was he not a drop of sperm emitted in lowly form?
Then he became a leech-like clot; then Allah made and fashioned him in
due proportion. And of him He made two sexes, male and female.
Has not He, the same, the power to give life to the dead?” (Al-Qiyama,
36-40)

“Allah created you from dust; then from a sperm-drop; then He made you
in pairs. No female conceives, or lays down her load, but with His
knowledge. No man is long-lived, nor is a part cut off from his life,
but in accordance with His Decree. All this is easy to Allah.” (Fatir,
11)

The human is a being created by Allah and as a created entity, he
cannot change this fact. He cannot bring any other explanation to his
own existence. Since he has been created, he would not be left
uncontrolled and irresponsible as emphasized in the above verses.
There is, of course, a purpose for creation. Where then will he find
the answer?

There is only one answer to this question and that is in the book that
Allah has sent down to him.