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III. GOD'S WORKS IN CREATION AND
PROVIDENCE
1. We have already seen that the Qur'an
teaches that God alone is the Self-subsisting, the Eternal.
This implies that all else has come into existence,
and must therefore have a Creator, and that this Creator
is none other than God. Muhammad does not in any part
of the Qur'an thus reason logically, but the passages
which speak of God as the Creator are many. It will
not be necessary to do more than quote a few of them.
'Praise be to God, who hath created the Heavens
and the Earth, and ordained the darkness and the light!'
1 'Will they not look forth on the realms
of the Heaven and of the Earth, and on all things which
God hath made, to see whether haply their end be not
drawing on?' 2 'It is God who hath
created the Heavens and the Earth.' 3
2. God is not only the cause of all, that is, He is
the direct Creator. All that is external to
Him is the works of His hands. None assisted Him, nor
did He depute any part of the work of creation to those
higher etherial beings whom He brought into existence
before the worlds were framed. He is the sole Creator.
'Yet have they assigned the Djinn to God as His
associates,
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though He created them; . . . Sole Maker of the
Heavens and of the Earth! how, when He hath no consort,
should He have a Son? He hath created everything, and
He knoweth everything!' 1 'Say: What
think ye? As for those whom ye invoke beside God, show
me what part of the Earth it is which they have created.
Had they a share in the Heavens?' 2 'This
is the creation of God: shew me now what others than
He have created. Ah! the ungodly are in a manifest delusion.'
3
3. The work of creation was not a labour and a toil
whereby some giant putting forth the utmost of his strength
succeeded at last in achieving the purpose he had in
mind. God was not wearied in bringing the universe into
existence. All to Him was simple and easy. ' See
they not that God who created the Heavens .and the Earth,
and was not wearied with their creation, is of power
to quicken the dead? Yea, He is for all things Potent.'
4 'We created the Heavens and the Earth
and all that is between them in six days, and no weariness
touched us.' 5
Nor did creation in any way exhaust the divine power.
It is not, therefore, in any sense, merely the exhibition
or expression of His self-manifestation. It is an
expression of His will, but not the expression
of His will. 'Do they not perceive that God, who
created the Heavens and the Earth, is able to create
their like?' 6 Seest thou not that in
truth hath God created the
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