What is Your Approach?

[Rayaan]

Don't you start!

If Allah created everything, isn't Allah also in nature? Wouldn't nature be made of the substance that created it? Or do you believe that creation and Allah are separate?

1. I don't believe that the Creator and creation are necessarily made of the same substance.

2. I agree that Allah is in nature (and everywhere, for that matter), but He has a much greater and a deeper meaning than just "Nature." The word "nature" sounds too simplistic and impersonal. It seems to be more strongly associated with the material world and/or with physical environments.

In Islam, one of the attributes of Allah is called "Al-Haqq," and this particular term has simultaneous meanings which can be translated as "The Truth" and the "The Reality." Al-Haqq = the Truth, the Reality. Therefore, based on those definitions, Allah being the truth essentially refers to the obvious reality that one must answer to Him eventually.

Not only that, but the name "Al-Haqq" has even more layers of meanings that are all complementary with the first two meanings (as listed below):

From the root h-q-q which has the following classical Arabic connotations:

to be suitable to the requirements of wisdom, justice, truth or fact
to be in accord with the needs of the situation
to be true, right, correct, just, proper
to be genuine, authentic, real, sound, substantial
to be established, confirmed as fact
to be necessary, requisite, justified
to be unavoidable, inevitable, due
to be binding, obligatory, incumbent upon
to happen without doubt or uncertainty

So, unlike the common understanding of reality, we believe that this "reality" that the Quran speaks of - "Al-Haqq" - has a personality and has a mind of its own which are suggested by the other definitions of "Al-Haqq" in addition to the other names or attributes of Allah. This shows that the Arabic names that point to the attributes of Allah are so rich in meanings that oftentimes it is not possible to find a perfect, single translation for them.

"God is nature" is technically correct, yes, but it is incomplete and misleading because it ignores the personal attributes of His existence.