Student life can be a life changing experience.

For many universe came from, and what will happen to us when
'freshers'it will be the first time at university being both we die. ln order to answer these questions we need to
excited and a little nervous not knowing quite what to prove whether a Creator exists and whether the Ouran is
expect. For others it will be a new year closer to their the word of the Creator. These two aspects of belief are
final goal in achieving a degree class and thoughts of the basis upon which the Shahada (declaration of
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XE g 'life after Uni'. So when questions are raised on what is lslamic belief) is built.
kspg the purpose of life or whether a Creator exists or not, it
seems out of place. These questions although natural are Can science answer the question - 'ls there a Creator?'
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I ignored for a variety of reasons. Some say these
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questions can never be answered so why stop and Some argue science disproves the need for the Creator
% e ponder upon them. 0thers say its not important whether and hence there is no need to resort to a set of religious
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a Creator exists or not because'l am here to have fun' or beliefs. They say this because they believe that science
has answered the questions as to how things came into
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that 'l here to better my career prospects'. No matter
what the reasons given one thing is clear, understanding existence and that this precluded the need for a Creator'
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your purpose in life shapes how one will undertake his
or her actions in life. As an example would someone play ln reality science does not deal with 'why' things exist as
#8 football while missing his university exams? 0r would they do but 'how' they exist. For example science can
explain 'how gravity affects movement of bodies', but it
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someone stay out all night at a party the day before he
has to hand in vital coursework? The answer for most cannot explain 'why gravity exists'' Science may explain
people will be 'no', because students who want to obtain the charge of an electron but it fundamentally cannot
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a degree know what their purpose is while being at explain why has a negative charge. Hence science has
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university. So we find that comprehending our purpose limited application to explain how the universe operates'
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& at university would shape what actions we do and when. ln addition science requires to test and experiment the
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we would do them. thing it wishes to understand, therefore the issue of a
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Creator will be beyond the ability to test and experiment
reg So what about life? Surely it is of greater importance to upon thus the question of a Creator is beyond the remit
{ know what our purpose is if this will directly affect how of science. ln order to illustrate this if we were to look at
ry we live it? Clearly then we need to think and a painting in the light of science, then science can
%, contemplate how we see life. This then leads us to ask explain the different colours, the components that make

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some difficult questions on how man, life and even the
universe came Into existence, and what is going to
the colours, the material used to make the canvas etc.
But science could not explain that a painter was needed
happen to us after we die. lt's from answering these to produce the painting. Therefore science is limited to
@ fundamental questions can we know our purpose in life only studying that which is within the universe and can
and how this will affect our actions. be tested and so it is invalid to use this approach in
answering the question of whether a Creator exists or
%qee For Muslims we believe that a Creator exists and that not.
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this Creator has assigned a criterion from which we base
our actions. Furthermore we will be accountable for all As Muslims we would use a different method to
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of our actions we perform. Hence, lslam is of paramount establish our thoughts about the existence of a Creator
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and this method is termed as the 'rational method of
*lEM concern for Muslims, for it shapes his viewpoint on life
as well as his actions. lslam seeks to answer the question thinking'. By this we mean that rational thought is built
drylai upon four components that is; the reality, the senses
of life through the use of the mind. Therefore following
*w blindly the religion of our forefathers or celebrities is that transmit the reality, the distinguishing brain and
wrong according to lslam. Each one of us must establish previous information. Therefore, the process of rational
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za his or her belief through the use the mind. thought is where one senses the reality using his senses
that transmit it to the brain, which links the reality that
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gN in the creation of the heovens and the eorth ond
'Verity is sensed to the previous information, hence producing
a thought. lf we return back to the example of the
# in the olternotion of night ond doy, there ore indeed
signs people who think deeply'Ouran 3:190 painting when we sense the painting we realise that the
paint does not necessarily fall into an intricate pattern
It is through this deep thinking that Muslims must that produces the painting instead something other
establish the belief in where humanity, life and the than the painting is also required to produce the
painting - that is a painter.
So usrng this rational method of thinking we can discuss
the rational proof for a Creator.
The rational proof for the existence of the Creator
In order to understand the question of whether there
exist a Creator or not we first have to sense the universe
around us. By doing so we come to the clear conclusion
that everything withrn the universe is defined by certain
attributes and that these attributes are quantifiable. So
whether we sense water with its particular boiling point,
or the sun with its particular size, shape and
temperature, or if it's an atom wrth its particular atomic
number all of these are defrnable and quantiftable -
hence we would term these things limited'. So no
matter what is sensed withrn the universe all things are
ultimately limited. Further the universe is the sum of ail
that exists, and because all that exists is quantifiable and
definable then the universe is the sum of all that is
quantifiable hence the universe ls also quant fiable. A
further point to note is that all limited things that are
sensed cannot exist on its own accord, that they also
require other limited things to exist. For example, this
paper has a certain size and shape, thus we will term it
limited but the paper also required wood to exist. Wood
is also iimited and also requires trees to exist in crder for'
rt to exist, and trees require sunlight and carbon dioxide
for it to exist, the sun requires the fusion of hydrogen
for it to also exist. ln truth anything we observe or sense
within the universe are limited and dependant, whtch ts
they requrre other things to exist in order for it to exist.
This leads us to three possible conclusions.
1) Everything depends upon each other in an
infinite chain of interdependent limrted things.
2) Everything depends upon other things in an
elaborate cycle such that they achieve mutual
dependence, without the need for somethlng to
initiate it.
3) There needs to exist something independent
that initiates creation i.e. a Creator.
Firstly, it is impossible for
everything to depend upon
other thrngs in an infinite chain. To prove this potnt
imagine a row of dominos, for the last domino to fall
over it needs to wait for the proceeding domino to fall
first, and for that domino to fall over it also needs to
wait for its'proceedtng domino to also fall first. Now if
there were an infinite chain of dominoes, meaning that
there is no beginning domino to initiate the fall of
dominoes, then would any of the dominoes fall over? 0f
course not. ln realrty an infinite number of dominos
means each domino would have to wait for an infinite
amount of time, meaning they would have to wait
forever. Therefore if everything in the universe depends
upon another thing and this chain goes on forever then
nothing would exist as theY would continually wait for
the proceeding thing to exist. Therefore a chain of
interoependent things thal goes on [orever cannol exist.
As for the second possibility that everything depends
upon every other thing in an elaborate cycle we can also
show that this cannot occur. lf we return to the analogy
of the water cycle then we can say that for water to
exist it depends upon rain and for rain to exist it
depends upon clouds and clouds depend upon
evaporation of water. However water does not exist as
yet, hence nothing in the cycle exrsts untrl something
rnrtiates the cycle. Further we can understand this point
by another srmple rllustration by statrng that A depends
upon B and B depends upon A this is a form of mutual
dependence. So for A to exist B needs to exist but B
doesn't exist until A exists, therefore nothing wouid
exist. Thts simple demonstration pro'ves that things
cannot depend upon other things in a form of a cycie t.e.
mutual depencience without somethinq external first
initiating the cycle.
Hence this ieads to the final possibility as the only
possibility to explain the universe around us. That rs
something rndependent requires to exist upon which
every other thing ultimately depends upon. For this
rndependent force to exist then it must be other than
limited, i.e. other than quantifiable and definable.
Therefore this independent thing must be unlimited. Thts
necessitates that this unlimited, independent force
chose to create and was not forced to create. Choice
signifies willand intelligence. As a result we come to the
rational conclusion that an independent, unlimrted,
intelligent force created the universe. For Muslims we
call this Creator, Allah (swt).
Therefore the first question of where we came from has
ultimately been answered by understanding thai a
Creator exists and has created us, however we still need
to understand what the Creator created us for. For this
we need a communicatlon from the Creator to tell us
why we exist.
ln part two we wrll discuss the message sent by the
Creator to humans, the message being the Ouran ancj
the one who brought it to us was Muhammed (saw).
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