Is Allah present everywhere? Part Two

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Objections of the skeptics

These Muslims who propound a body for Allah are trapped by their own dogma and are forced to advance conflicting interpretations and ridiculous arguments to refute Allah’s Omnipresence.

1. Allah is on the 7^th sky, seated on the Arsh and does not descend to the earth

Reply

If God has a body seated on an Arsh, it raises several points:

If God with a physical body is seated on Arsh, then the Arsh has to be bigger than the body to accommodate it and therefore bigger than God. The space occupying the Arsh must be bigger than both the Arsh and God. All this means that there are at least two things bigger than Allah – Arsh and space occupying Arsh. Under the circumstances their Takbeer (Allah is the Greatest) is falsified!

Also if Allah and the Arsh will always depend on space, then it is incorrect to recite in Surah Tauheed – ‘Allah is He on Whom all depend.’ (Surah Tauheed (112): 2)

Also by confining Allah to the Arsh on 7^th sky we rule out possibility of Allah’s presence in the heavens and the earth, which goes against the clear verses of the Majestic Quran listed earlier.

2. Omnipresence of Angels

They claim – World is like an ant in front of Allah and with His size He cannot be accommodated in it, so how can He descend on the earth? They interpret verses like – ‘And certainly We created man, and We know what his mind suggests to him, and We are nearer to him than his life-vein.’ (Surah Qaaf (50): 16) as impossible for Allah.

To circumvent the omnipresence point, they advance some baseless arguments and interpretations. They claim where verses say Allah is present in the heavens and earth, the same refers to the angels.

Reply

This argument is also fraught with errors and contradictions:

1. If it refers to angels, what about the time when there were no angels and Allah was Alone? Wasn’t Allah present everywhere then? Or do they believe that angels are azali with Allah? What about the time when there will be no angels (after the Trumpet is blown), will Allah forfeit His Omnipresence?
2. Is Allah in need of His own creation to maintain omnipresence? How can Allah who is the sustainer and creator of everything be in need of his creation to maintain His omnipresence?
3. If the world is the size of an ant for Allah’s size, does this suggest that the size of the angels can be contained by the dimensions of the world? If these Muslims believe that the world can easily accommodate the angels they are mistaken. There are angels of such shapes and sizes that not even a part of their body like the wing or a foot can be accommodated in this world let alone the entire body. Their argument of Allah being unable to accommodate Himself in the world holds equally true for angels.
4. There are verses of the Noble Quran where Allah is Himself seen to be performing an action as also the angels. If only angels are permitted on the earth, why do verses talk of Allah performing an action?

‘Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep; then He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death and sends the others back till an appointed term; most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect.’ (Surah Zumar (39): 42)

Here Allah is Himself shown to be capturing the soul on earth which gives lie to the claim of these Muslims that Allah does not venture on to the earth since it’s too small for Him.

3. Capturing the soul and other duties is performed only by angels

They advance these verses:

‘Say: The Angel of Death who is given charge of you shall cause you to die…’ (Surah Sajdah (32): 11)

‘…until when death comes to one of you, Our messengers cause him to die, and they are not remiss.’ (Surah Anaam (6): 61)

Reply

While Allah does capture the souls through the angels as underlined by these verses, the 42^nd verse of Surah Zumar (39) clearly shows that Allah also captures souls Himself. The verses of Sajdah (32): Verse 11 and Anaam (6): Verse 61 do not preclude the reality of Allah capturing souls and to reject the reality of Zumar (39): 42 verse only because it does not fit into a concept of Tauheed (which is anyway without reality) is open disbelief.

Confusion about Tawassul

The duplicity of these Muslims is also apparent from the fact that when other Muslims tell them that the Prophets (a.s.) and Imams (a.s.) are means for divine mercy and one must therefore do tawassul through them to please Allah, they scoff at Tawassul and argue there is no need for waseelah and Allah can be approached directly. And when we tell them that Allah does not need His Angels to be present everywhere as He is present directly, they reject it vehemently and argue that it is the angels (waseelah) and not Allah who is present everywhere.

Correct interpretation about Allah’s Omnipresence

It is Allah who is Omnipresent and not His angels. This is amply clear in the verse:

‘Do you not see that Allah knows whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth? Nowhere is there a secret counsel between three persons but He is the fourth of them, nor (between) five but He is the sixth of them, nor less than that nor more but He is with them wheresoever they are; then He will inform them of what they did on the day of resurrection: surely Allah is Cognizant of all things.’ (Surah Mujaadilah (58): Verse 7)

According to this verse where there are creatures, even angels, be it in the heavens and the earth, Allah is with them.

They claim that what this verse implies is that if there are three men in a secret counsel on earth an angel is the fourth of them? If there are five men in a secret counsel on earth an angel is the sixth of them.

We have a question for these Muslims to refute the angel argument and prove Allah’s presence on the earth –

If there are three angels in a secret counsel on earth is Allah the fourth of them?

If there are five angels in a secret counsel on earth is Allah the sixth of them?

If they reply in the negative because Allah cannot descend on the earth then they have ventured into open disbelief for rejecting the clear and decisive verse of Mujaadilah (58): Verse 7. They have also exposed themselves to criticism for believing in a dogma that gives angels a free hand on earth with no one to watch over their activities.

If they reply in the affirmative then they must reject the concept of physical dimension for Allah which is correct Tauheed.

These Muslims claim that it is the angels who are present on this earth and not Allah. This verse rejects the argument as it clearly states that even if three entities are together be it men or angels, Allah is fourth of them. If there are five, Allah is fifth of them. This verse proves that Allah is present on the earth and does not rely on his angels to establish His omnipresence.