Creatio Ex Nihilo

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله تعالى على خاتم النبيين

What distinguishes Islam from the false religions of the world is the doctrine of the creation of the world. The Baha’i cult, for example, teaches: “Bahá’u’lláh says, The universe hath neither beginning nor ending.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace)

Thus, not only does the Baha’i cult deny the creation and origin of the universe, it likewise denies its end and destruction. The belief in the eternality of the universe is associated with the falsehood of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. It is repudiated in the Scriptures and the teachings of the Prophets of God. The first verse of the Torah says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The holy Quran states repeatedly that Allah is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, indeed, that He is the “Creator of everything” (Surah 6:102; 13:16; 39:62; 40:62). Creatio ex nihilo, meaning creation from nothing, is clearly taught in Islam as evident in its most sacred and holy text, the Quran. For example, Allah Most High says:

بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُن فَيَكُونُ

Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, “Be,” and it is

(Surah 2:117)

The expression كن فيكون used throughout the Quran expresses the idea of Allah having the power to bring into existence anything He wishes from a state of non-existence. This is also the meaning of one of His Names الواجد ‘the One Who brings into existence.’ Likewise, Islam teaches that God not only has the power to create something from nothingness, but that He has the power to destroy anything, so that it returns to nothingness:

يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُثْبِتُ ۖ

Allah eliminates what He wills, and confirms (what He wills)

(Surah 13:39)

The word مَحَا used in this verse, meaning “to erase, to blot out” is derived from the trilateral root م ح و which connotes: “to wipe out, to eradicate, to disappear completely, to be effaced, to be featureless” (Arabic-English Dictionary of Quranic Usage p.871). It is only recently, in the 20^th century, that modern science, physics and cosmology, has more or less confirmed the idea of the universe having a beginning, and coming into existence from a state of non-existence. This is the widely held theory of the Big Bang. But despite this amazing modern, scientific discovery, the Baha’is and other false religions like the Mormons and the Arya Samaj, continue to believe the universe is without beginning, or did not come into existence from a state of non-existence. According to the Arya Samaj: “The word Creator is used in the sense of Maker as according to the Vedic philosophy there is no such thing as creation or the evolution of something out of nothing” (Light of Truth: An English Translation of the Satyarth Prakash; ch.1, p.5, footnote).

Mormonism, the cult founded by the false prophet Joseph Smith (1805-1844), teaches: “The elements are eternal” (Doctrine and Covenants; section 93). Another Mormon false prophet, Brigham Young (Joseph Smith’s successor), said: “God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law by which the worlds were, are, or will exist. There is an eternity before us, and it is full of matter” (Journal of Discourses v.14, p.116). According to Mormon belief: “matter or element is self-existent and eternal in nature, creation being merely the organization and reorganization of that substance” (McConkie, Bruce R.; Mormon Doctrine).

And due to the corrosive influence of Aristotelian philosophy, some so-called Muslim theologians, notably Ibn Rushd, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, likewise believed in the eternality of the cosmos, denying the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. They were effectively and decisively refuted by al-Ghazali in his famous work the Incoherence of the Philosophers.