Do We Need God?

Good question!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Assalamualaikum wbt.

1. My answer to that question would be in a form of pantun (a Malay traditional poem). Err.. I mean, in a form of another question instead i.e:

2. Does God need us?

3. Ok it's done there. That's my answer. I hope it answers your question, thank you.

4. What? 

5. Right, let me share with you this one ayah (verse) in the Quran. Allah SWT says:

"I do not want from them any provision. Nor do I want them to feed me."

Surah Az-Zariyat, ayah number 57.

6. Do you know what is so interesting about this particular verse?

7. The verse before it!

8. Allah SWT says:

"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me."

Surah Az-Zariyat, ayah number 56.

9. So do we need God?

10. To those who don't believe in the need for God, I hope I have firstly made it clear above, that we the believers of God in Islam believe firmly that God is free of all needs. He doesn't need us AT ALL.

11. Now going back to your question, the straight forward answer is yes we need God.

12. But I begin by including the above verse to explicitly explain the purpose of creation, that implies our need for God, while trying to acknowledge the critical importance of denying a misunderstanding that may arise from it i.e do we need God because God needs us? By now you should know that the answer is BIG NO NO.

13. Think of a relationship between a shop owner and a customer. The shop owner needs the customer's money, and the customer needs the shop owner's goods. They both need each other. However this type of relationship doesn't apply to Creator-creation relationship. No symbiosis. No interdependence. Period.

14. Now, to substantiate my answer, let me divert you to another different way of looking at your question.

15. Instead of asking do we need God, what about asking this: Do we (mankind) have any needs?

16. And going a wee bit further than that, who then provides us these needs?

17. Based on these newly constructed queries, I will elaborate on why eventually no one can deny the need for God.

18. Are you hungry?

19. Then you need food.

20. Assuming that you don't want to cook, or don't know how to cook or don't have time to cook (please choose one LOL) then you have to buy food from outside. Say, a restaurant.

21. Now reflect on this, who provides the food? You have to make a deep reflection here and you'll see how astoundingly a large numbers of people are involved in making the food available for you.

22. I'll break it down for you extensively, but I'll try to make it as short as possible insya Allah (God willing).

23. First, you need money to buy food. Who gives you the money? Your employer. Or if you are a student, then the money is from your parents' employers. Where does he get that money from? Well, possibly from a bank. Then who prints the money? The government maybe.

24. Now do you drive a car to get to the restaurant? Who build the road? The car? And all components of the car? The engine? The steering wheel? The foot pedal?

25. The food itself, who cooks it?

26. What kind of food is it? Say, a pizza. What makes a pizza? A flour maybe? Where do you get the flour? From a plant. Who grows the plant? A farmer.

27. The list goes on and on and by now it is never possible for you to deny the fact that you need the employer, the cook, the road builder, the farmer and not to forget you need the land on which the farmer use to grow the plant you get your flour, hence pizza from.

28. If you don't just stop there, you should be able to ask, what if all the people and things I mention above do not exist? Your needs are not fulfilled and eventually you will die.

29. So the next relevant question to ask here is that, who or what causes all of them to exist?

30. And here is when you will realize the relevance of asking on the existence of God, hence the need for Him.

31. Because without Him, all the people and the things that you need will not be there, and this consequently easily proves that because what you need also have the need to be created by God, then you need God.

32. Or if I were to put this in one simple sentence, say you need a car to go to work, and the car needs a road to travel on, automatically it means that you also need the road, no matter how indirect.

33. But it doesn't work that way with God. Our need for God isn't indirect. Instead, we always believe that our need for God is more direct than any direct need for others, because indeed, He to us is the nearest. The Quran says:

"And when My servants ask you (O Muhammad) concerning Me, indeed I am near..."

Surah Al-Baqarah, ayah number 186

34. Previously you ask this question. Do we need God? Let me now ask you my question instead. 

Do you need a break? LOL. If so, then go take a break, but please do not break anyone's heart, and then come back again here to continue with our discussion.

35. Now, let's continue.

36. In short, what I intend to bring forward here is that if we use our sound and healthy mind, we will realize that denying the need for God is like denying our own needs.

37. Imagine a tree made of LEGO.

38. It doesn't need anything to grow. Well because in fact it doesn't grow.

39. But to make the tree larger, you ought to add more LEGO bricks on it and this means that someone and not the tree itself has to do that for it.

40. However what about the real tree? How does it grow?

41. Who provides all nutrients it needs to grow? Mankind? Have you counted how many trees, and leaves for that matter, that exist in this world? Do you think men can really manage to take care of every single one of them?

42. Also, have you heard of a virgin forest? It is 'virgin' because it not 'touched' by mankind.

43. But undoubtedly, this type of forest is greener and more beautiful in comparison to others. The question is, who designs it, sustains it and causes it to grow?

44. Now how about animals in the wild land? Who feeds them? Or do they go to school to learn some survival skills?

45. Compare this with those captured and kept in zoos. The zoo keepers have to feed them regularly or otherwise the animals will die. 

46. And if you think of this world as a gigantic zoo with no real boundaries, then you will realize that there is a 'hand' involved in making provision to all these animals to live. And I as a Muslim believes as also prescribed in the Quran, that the One who provides these needs to the animals is Him, God Almighty.

"And there is no creature on earth but that upon Allah is its provision, and He knows its place of dwelling and place of storage. All is in a clear register."

Surah Hud, ayah number 6.

47. Actually, a very important question you need to ask before you question the need for God is actually whether God exists in the first place.

48. And then reflect upon your own existence in this world. Think about it. Who created you? Did you self-create?

49. Al-Quran poses the same question, yet in a more eloquent way:

"Were they created by nothing, or were they themselves the creators? Or they create the Heavens and the earth? Nay, but they have no firm belief."

Surah At-Tur, ayah number 35-36

50. Think about that. You are the one with question. And you are the one with uncertainties. We instead, already found the answers of all mysteries surrounding our life, through the teaching of Quran. This is our belief, our way of life, called Islam.

51. Before I wrap up, let me touch on two more things here, very quickly.

52. First, our job as a Muslim is simple that we share Islam with the world, but Islam is not a religion of force.

53. Having said that, we believe that who ever that has come across the message of Islam, has to make a firm decision on whether to accept it. For that, I kindly want to share how the Quran describes those who rejected the message, when they (as we believe) are burnt in Hell fire in the Hereafter.

"Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not (now) be amongst the Companions of the Blazing Fire."

Surah Al-Mulk, ayah number 10

54. Plenty other verses (ayah) in the Quran explain exactly about the same subject, on how terrible and enormous is the regret or remorse of the people who (for what ever reasons they have) rejected Islam when they are alive on earth.

55. I shall end by talking about our heart. Yes, it's an organ that pumps blood throughout our body. 

56. And let's ask a simple question here. Our heart, does it exist? And secondly, do we need it?

57. We do not see our heart. I've never heard of anyone who has seen his own heart. I mean seeing it live. I don't know, maybe someone has.

58. But it does exist right?

59. What about its need? Do we need it? 

60. Of course we do right? But do we think of our NEED for it everyday?

61. Take a deep breath and think hard now, do you agree with me that there are many things in life, that they exist and we need them but we seldom acknowledge their existence and their importance? Or maybe most of the times we simply forget that we have them?

62. Until?

63. Until we lose them!

64. How many people wake up in the morning and then he counts how many organs are still intact with his body?

65. What about a person who's got an eye sore?

66. He will be reminded of his eye, for as long as the eye sore is there!

67. It is pain (and in a way could also mean absence) of something that would make we start to appreciate what we have.

68. Likewise, we grossly take things for granted when we forget this earth that we live on today are in full harmony and in perfect order. As if we deny the existence, hence the need for its Designer and Sustainer, without whom life on earth is never possible.

69. And for some people, they keep asking blatantly, "O God, if you really exist, why do we have so many sufferings on earth? What are you actually doing? Sleeping?"

70. Although the real question they should be asking is, "O God, if you really exist, why don't you just vanish me to mere dust, and make me perish when I deny your existence and when I deny my total need for you?"

71. Because if you think you should have asked that second question instead, by right you should now FEEL the huge Mercy of Him, that even at a time when you deny His existence, He is giving you a chance to come back to Him.

72. Now the choice is yours. You have intellect. You have a brain. You have a decision to make.

73. Having said all the above, I am closing this article by throwing back the same question to you.

"What do you think? Do we need God?"

74. Allahuaklam. (Truly Allah knows best). Wassalamualaikum wbt. (And peace be with you)

75. P/S: You may read another article (in Malay language though) about an almost similar subject i.e Does God Exist? or Benarkah Allah Wujud? here. Thanks and take care ;-)

-Ibnu Hanaffi

Ex-IMU