How Do We Know That the Necessary Being is the God of Islam?

Q. I have a question. I just finished listening to lesson 6 about Surat al-Ikhlas. In my notes, I wrote down, "The One who needs no one, and everyone needs Him-- الصَّمَد." I understand that this means Allah is a necessary being, and I understand the rational argument for the existence of a necessary being, which you explained in previous lessons, but what I don't understand is how we know that this necessary being (Allah) is the Islamic Allah and not the one that people from other faiths believe in?

(Note: To understand the concept of a necessary being, watch God Exists.)

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate

People from other faiths don’t believe in the necessary being that we believe in. 

Take, for example, Christianity--the world’s biggest religion. Christians believe that Jesus--a human being--became God. A human being is contingent, not necessary. The Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus means that the God that they believe in is not the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas, the one “who needs no one and who is needed by everyone else.” (al-samad).

The next biggest religion (if we exclude Islam) is Hinduism. The average Hindu is a polytheist who believes that the idols he worships are divine. Idols, too are contingent, not necessary. Hindu elites, on the other hand, believe in one transcendent God, but they believe that God can assume different forms in the universe (such as the forms of idols). This is just like the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus. Therefore Hindus, too, don’t believe in the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas.

The next biggest religion is Buddhism. Buddhists don’t believe in God at all (let alone a necessary being). The same applies to Jainism and Confucianism. None of these Eastern religions focus on the fact that the universe needs God to exist. They focus instead on either escape from suffering (Buddhism and Jainism) or on practical wisdom in daily life (Confucianism). None of them therefore believes in the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas.

Shintoism and other animist religions attribute divinity to things in the universe. The things in the universe are contingent. Therefore they, too, don’t believe in the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas.

The two religions whose conception of God is closest to Islam are Sikhism and Judaism. 

Sikhs affirm belief in a transcendent God who is a necessary being. But it is sometimes unclear from what they say whether or not they believe that He is literally “inside” the things in the universe. If they do believe that he is “inside” the things in the universe, then they would no longer believe in God as a necessary being. And it is well-known that the semblance of transcendent monotheism that they adhere to derives from the influence of Islam on their founder Guru Nanak. 

Jews today no longer have a common belief in the same conception of God. A number of them have a highly anthropomorphic conception of God (this was the widely-held conception of God among Jews in Muslim lands in the early period of Islamic history). Many prominent modern Jews have even been atheists. But classical Jewish belief in God is closer to the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas than any other religion. The major theological reference for classical Judaism is the Arabic-speaking and turban-wearing Maimonedes (d. 1204), who was born in Muslim Spain, lived in present-day Morocco, and died in Egypt. Maimonedes was heavily influenced by traditional Muslim theologians.

Let’s put aside the Islamic influence on Sikhism and Judaism. Then let’s assume that the Sikh and classical Jewish concept of God is the same as the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas. (And I doubt that will be the case if you delve deeper into their theologies.) Let’s assume also that there is someone who follows the traditional Muslim argument for the existence of a necessary being and believes in that necessary being without becoming Muslim. This is where your question arises: how do we know that the necessary being that all of these people have come to believe in (and who, in fact, exists), how do we know that necessary being is the one who is speaking to us in the Quran?

The way that we know that the necessary being of Surat al-Ikhlas is the one who is speaking to us in the Quran is by coming to an evidence-based conclusion regarding the genuine messengerhood of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). In other words, seeing that the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) is a messenger from that necessary being is the same thing as seeing that that necessary being is the one who speaks to us in the Quran.

We will insha’allah examine the evidence for the fact that the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) is a genuine messenger of God in the second half of this course.

Every week, Hamza Karamali will select one of your questions to answer in this space. If you’ve any questions that you’d like to ask, please submit them here.