something from nothing?

traversinginfinity said:

The topic has been brought up in another thread: Is it possible for something to come from nothing?

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While I don't fault your question, I think it could be that you're looking at the subject the wrong way.

You rightly observe causality, which would seem to rule out "something from nothing." However, I would offer the following two points for consideration.

1) That Al'lah (swt)/"God" is the only true Existence - that is implicit to the first part of the Islamic confession of faith - lā ilāha illā-llāh. While this is often translated as "there is no god but Al'lah" or "there is none worthy of worship but Al'lah", those translations are incomplete - the original Arabic involves a much deeper idea. Namely, that there is no power, no strength, nothing to be looked to or relied upon in and of itself, save Al'lah (swt). Even those who have been given to us as custodians and authority figures (like parents) are not ends in and of themselves - our obedience to them, even, is an obedience to Al'lah, glory and praise be to Him. Further, that is the only good reason to do anything - in relation to the Lord of all things. This is why while we say that a creature (or the creation as a whole, whehter it be the Angels or the soil beneath our feet) has existence, only Al'lah (swt) "Exists". The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) has the same idea - "YHWH" means "He Who Lives/Exists", with the implication (according to the Hebrew speaking authors I've read) of also being the One Who makes "existence".

2) God is "nothing" if you think carefully - no-thing. Not even the mightiest of the Angels or the most awesome spectacle in the Heavens is comparable to Him.

So to say that the creation comes from no-thing, is not a denial of causality. This is an area where people all too often get themselves tripped up, and they've been doing this since almost the beginning of the human race - they attribute to the creation a kind of existence which it does not in fact have. The existence of the creation is entirely dependent, at every moment, upon the Perfect Will and Power of Al'lah (swt) - He is the one giving it reality.