Does God Exist? Reasons to Believe

If you are an atheist or an agnostic, you may expect a religious website to tell you simply to believe. The Qur’an does something different: again and again it asks its readers to look, reflect and think. This article tries to follow that example — calmly, without mockery, and with respect for anyone who honestly asks whether God exists.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Everything we see around us depends on something else for its existence. You depend on your parents, on air and food; the earth depends on the sun; stars depend on the physics that formed them. Nothing in the universe explains its own existence.

Most cosmologists today also accept that our universe had a beginning: a hot, dense state from which space, time and matter as we know them unfolded. Whatever began to exist needs an explanation outside itself. And a chain of things that each depend on something else cannot go back forever without anything to support it — just as a line of falling dominoes needs something that did not itself need to be pushed.

The Qur’an puts this reasoning in a few short questions:

أَمْ خُلِقُوا۟ مِنْ غَيْرِ شَىْءٍ أَمْ هُمُ ٱلْخَٰلِقُونَ ﴿٣٥﴾ أَمْ خَلَقُوا۟ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ ۚ بَل لَّا يُوقِنُونَ ﴿٣٦﴾

³⁵Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]? ³⁶Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain.

There are only three options: we came from nothing, we created ourselves, or we were created. The first two do not hold up. Muslims believe the most reasonable answer is the third: a Creator who exists by His own nature, who was never created and depends on nothing.

“But then who created God?” It is a fair question. The answer is that the chain of causes must end in something that does not need a cause — otherwise nothing would exist at all. God, by definition, is not a thing that came into existence; He is the uncreated source of everything that did.

Order, laws and a universe fit for life

The universe is not chaos. It follows precise laws that can be written in mathematics — so precise that we can land a probe on a comet. Many scientists, believers and non-believers alike, have also noticed that some of the basic constants of nature fall within a narrow range that allows stars, chemistry and life to exist.

Some respond that we might be one universe among countless others. That is a serious idea, but it has not been observed, and it still leaves the question of where the laws behind those universes came from. Muslims see in this order the work of a wise Designer, and the Qur’an describes reflecting on it as a form of worship:

إِنَّ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ ﴿١٩٠﴾ ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمًۭا وَقُعُودًۭا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَٰطِلًۭا سُبْحَٰنَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ ﴿١٩١﴾

¹⁹⁰Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. ¹⁹¹Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.

The compass within: fitrah

Across history, in nearly every culture, human beings have sensed that there is something greater than themselves. Many people who do not believe still find themselves crying out to God in a moment of danger. Islam calls this inner compass fitrah — the natural disposition with which every person is created:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًۭا ۚ فِطْرَتَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِى فَطَرَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْقَيِّمُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾

So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.

In the Muslim view, belief in God is not something foreign imposed on the mind. It is closer to remembering something we already knew.

Morality and meaning

Almost everyone agrees that some things are truly wrong — torturing a child for fun, for example — not just unpopular or inconvenient. But if the universe is only matter in motion, it is hard to explain where such real, binding moral truths come from. Belief in a good and just God gives morality a firm foundation.

The same is true of meaning. If we are an accident, then love, sacrifice and the search for truth have no purpose beyond themselves. The Qur’an asks a gentle but searching question:

أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَٰكُمْ عَبَثًۭا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿١١٥﴾

Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be returned?"

Islam’s answer is that life has a purpose: to know our Creator, to worship Him and to do good. You can explore this further in The Purpose of Life.

What these reasons can and cannot do

None of these arguments is a laboratory proof, and we will not pretend otherwise. Thoughtful people have discussed them for centuries. But taken together — existence itself, the order of the universe, the inner sense of God, and the reality of morality and meaning — they form a strong and reasonable case. The Qur’an promises that the signs will keep appearing to anyone who looks:

سَنُرِيهِمْ ءَايَٰتِنَا فِى ٱلْءَافَاقِ وَفِىٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۗ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ شَهِيدٌ ﴿٥٣﴾

We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?

If you are searching, we would suggest something simple: keep thinking honestly, and if you feel able, quietly ask, “God, if You are there, guide me to the truth.” Muslims believe that no sincere seeker is ignored. When you are ready, you may want to read Who Is Allah? to learn how Islam describes the God it believes in.