Second Proof

The second proof forwarded by the Holy Qur’an for the existence of God can be found in the following verses:

1

Several verses later God says:

2

That is:

Our argument which We gave to Abraham against his people. We exalt in degrees of rank whomso We please. Thy Lord is indeed Wise, All-Knowing. And We gave him Isaac and Jacob; each did We guide aright, and Noah did We guide aright aforetime, and of his progeny, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward those who do good. And We guided Zachariah and John and Jesus and Elias; each one of them was of the virtuous. And We also guided Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot; and each one did We exalt above the people of their time.

And then:

These it is whom Allah guided aright, so follow thou their guidance.

Through these verses, God Almighty asks whether the testimony of numerous righteous people ought to be accepted and given preference to or the claims of uninformed people whose integrity cannot compare with the former. Clearly the claims of those who have, through their character and conduct, established their righteousness and piety and avoided sin and falsehood ought to be given credence to. It is, therefore, incumbent on everyone to follow them and reject their adversaries. Accordingly, we are able to see that all those who, in the past, have spread goodness and established the truth of their piety before the world through their actions, have testified to the existence of a being who across various languages is known as Allah, God or Parameshwara. In India we have the example of righteous individuals like Ramachandra(as) and Krishna(as), in Iran there is the righteousness of Zoroaster(as), in Egypt there was the righteous one of Moses(as), then the righteous Jesus(as) of Nazareth and the righteous Nanak(rh) of Punjab, and ultimately we have the Supreme Leader of the Righteous and the Light of Arabia, Muhammad(saw) the Chosen One, who in his earliest years was given the title of The Truthful by his people and who said: ‘I have lived [all] my life amongst you, can you prove even one lie against me?’3 And his people did not refute this. All these individuals and thousands more besides have, from time to time, appeared in the world and declared in unison that there is one God. Not only this, they also claim to have met Him and to have talked to Him. Even the greatest of philosophers who has clearly left his mark in the world cannot present an achievement which matches up to even a thousandth part of the accomplishments attained by these righteous individuals. In fact, if the two were compared with one another, beyond their sayings little would be found by way of deeds and actions in the lives of the philosophers. How can these philosophers compete with the righteous in terms of their demonstration of truthfulness and piety? They teach people to be honest, but do not eschew falsehood themselves. In contrast, those [righteous people] I have mentioned above endured great suffering for the sake of the truth and did not waver even for a moment in their convictions. Plans were made to kill them; they were forced into exile; many tried to humiliate them in market places and alleyways; and the whole world severed their ties with them, yet they remained firm in their claim and did not resort to lies as a means of protecting themselves. Their actions, their abhorrence for the material trappings of the world, their rejection of ostentation, demonstrated they were selfless individuals whose works were not motivated by selfish desires. Therefore, when such truthful and upright persons have, with one voice claimed to have met with God, heard His voice and witnessed His manifestations, what reason would anyone have to deny their assertions? We accept even the joint testimony of known liars and consider it to be true. Similarly, we accept the reports we read in newspapers even though we are ignorant of the circumstances of those who wrote them. Yet it seems that despite this, we are unwilling to believe the word of these righteous. People claim there is a city called London and we concur; geographers write America is a continent and we accept this truth; travellers say Siberia is a vast sparsely inhabited region and we do not deny this. Why? Because numerous people have given testimony in support of these facts. We believe them in spite of the fact that we are unaware of the circumstances of these people and whether they are tellers of truth or tellers of lies. On the other hand, those who give first-hand testimony of the existence of God Almighty are such that their honesty is as evident as daylight and they establish truth in the world at the cost of their wealth, their lives, their homeland and even their honour. It is grossly unfair to accept the assertions of travellers and geographers and at the same time refute the claims of such pious people. If the existence of London can be established through the testimony of a few people, why cannot the existence of God be similarly authenticated through the testimony of thousands of righteous people?

In short, the testimony of thousands of truthful and righteous, people who have borne witness to the existence of God on the basis of their personal observations, cannot be refuted under any circumstances. It is curious that when those who have shared in this experience are unanimous in the claim that there is a God, others who have no understanding of spirituality still call on people to reject their assertions, even though according to [established] principles regarding the processes of testimony, if two witnesses of equal integrity give [conflicting] evidence, the testimony of the eyewitness will be accepted over the other by reason of the fact that while it is possible the latter did not see anything, it is unreasonable to conclude that the former witnessed nothing, but assumed it upon himself that he had. Hence, the testimony of those who claim to have seen God stands over and above those who deny Him.