6 THE QUR'ANIC DOCTRINE OF GOD

is united by one purpose, and directed by one almighty and omniscient will, and thus there cannot be gods many and lords many whose conflicting purposes and whose contending wills would manifest themselves in opposing tendencies and discord in the world in which man finds himself.

The object of Muhammad's argument, then, is that God is One, and is Lord of all, sole Maker, Director, and Governor of Nature and of mankind.

Passing on, we shall first consider what the Qur'an teaches as to the Nature of God.

God (Allah), the evidences of whose existence lie all around us, is no mere Abstract Idea, the conception of the human mind trying to solve the problem of the world in which man lives; nor is God the Personification of the Law and Order of the world. Far from being regarded as any indefinite and indefinable 'Force' or 'Power', He is a real Being. He is par excellence the Being, the Living One (El-Hayyu). 'God! There is no God but He; the Living, the Eternal; Nor slumber seizeth Him, nor sleep; His, whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the Earth! Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own permission? He knoweth what hath been before them and what shall be after them; yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He willeth. His Throne reacheth over the Heavens and the Earth, and the upholding of both burdeneth Him not; and He is the High, the Great!' 1 'God! there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal! ' 2

1 Suratu'l-Baqara (ii) 256.
2 Suratu Ali 'Imran (iii) 1. Rodwell wrongly translates here, 'the Merciful'.
THE NATURE OF GOD 7

'And put thou thy trust in Him that liveth and dieth not, and celebrate His praise; (He fully knoweth the faults of His servants); who in six days created the Heavens and the Earth, and whatever is between them, then mounted His Throne: the God of Mercy!' 1

In His Nature and mode of existence, He is immeasurably above anything that man can conceive. He knows all things, but man can never know Him except in so far as He reveals something of Himself. 2 The words 'yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He willeth', may mean that man can never understand the extent and comprehension of the divine knowledge, except in so far as God desires him to know; but the phrase more probably means that man can never attain to a knowledge of Him, except in so far as He reveals Himself. What He is and how He is, can never be fully comprehended by the puny mind of man. 'Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?' 3

The Qur'an clearly distinguishes between the Creator and the world which He has created, so that it cannot be truly said that there is in the Qur'an even a suspicion that the world is but the self-manifestation of Himself. It is the work of His hands. He is in the world; yet not a part of it: for He is its Creator and Governor.

The Qur'an never represents the forces of Nature as being in any way divine, or as being a manifestation of the divine activity. They too are the creation of God, the servants whereby He works out His purpose.

1 Suratu'l-Furqan (xxv) 60. 2 ii. 256. 3 Job xi, 7.