Allah’s Omniscience

More knowledge- more benefit?

Mighty and powerful bulldozers which are used in building, and which have various important uses, bear witness to the knowledge of their designer and makers. We must agree that the inventor was very well acquainted with the laws of mechanics the various alloys of metals and the formula of physics. All that is made by man reflects the intelligence and knowledge of its maker. The better and more efficient the product the wider and more complete the knowledge of its maker.

Something beyond compare

The grandeur and mystery of creation cannot be compared to a bulldozer or other man-made artifacts. The infinite details seen in the beings and objects of the universe indicate the unlimited knowledge of God. Let us examine the following:

1. Newton said that a study of the components of the ear and the eye would lead us to understand that the maker of the ear was thoroughly acquainted with the laws of light and vision: A study of the heavenly bodies, he said, would lead us to understand the Truth, which governs the universe.
2. The physiology of the bat is full of amazing things. In order to be able to find its way in the dark without flying into obstacles, the animal sends out ultrasonic waves in front of itself rather like radar. If there is an obstacle in the way the sound waves reach it and are reflected back, and thus the bat can steer clear of the obstacle.
3. Although  insects  are  very  small,  they  are  very  delicate  and wonderful in their structure. For example, some of them, instead of eyes with one lens, have compound eyes made up of individual visual units called ommatids every one of which has three parts: a cornea, a lens and a retina.
   The number of ommatids varies between insects. Glow-worms have about 2,500, but in others there can be between 10,000 and 28,000. Because insects cannot rotate their heads, they can be permitted, by these compound eyes, to see things which happen beside them or behind them.
   The above examples show that the creator of the world undertook His creation in His perfect wisdom and infinite knowledge. Now we must ask if God knows all the things after He has created them. And the answer is, yes, of course He does. God knows about things, whatever their place and whenever they happen. He is aware of the shining of the furthest star in the highest heaven, of the tempestuousness of the foaming blue waves breaking on the furthest shores of the ocean, of the most mysterious hollows of the most remote valleys in the folds of the mountains of the rustling of even one leaf in the gentle breeze, He is aware of the doleful coo of the owl in the deepest silence of the forest, of the flicker of the glow-worm among the leaves, of the innumerable fish with their infinite colours and variety in all the waters of the world, of the birth of the fawn of the honey-colored gazelle in the depths of the forest, of the falling of the clear, pearly dewdrop from the petal of the half-opened rosebud in the recess of the rocks. He knows the height of the mountains, the covering of the sky, the expanse of the lands and the seas and the treasures of the mines, the hidden depths of the caves and of all and everything. How beautiful is the word of God!

وَعِندَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا إِلَّا هُوَ۔ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ۔ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِن وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا وَلَا حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الْأَرْضِ وَلَا رَطْبٍ وَلَا يَابِسٍ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ ﴿٥٩﴾

He knows what is in the land and sea; not a leaf falls, but He knows it. Not a grain in the earths shadows, Not a thing, fresh or withered, but it is in a Book Manifest. (S.6, V. 59)

The reason for God’s knowledge

He who creates and gives existence is aware of His creation and always attends to it, in the same way, as we are not unaware of the forms we create in our own imaginations. As long as we wish them to exist, they remain in our minds, but when we turn our attention away from them, they cease to exist. If you imagine a person, you are necessarily aware of all his movements and his resting, and His actions are never hidden from your mind, because this imaginary person is your creation, that is, he did not exist before you thought of him, and you brought him into existence by your imagination.

God, who created the world and all of creation, whose existence comes from Him, oversees it all and is never unmindful of it. Of course the difference between us, who imagine various forms in our minds, and God, who created the universe, is that we ourselves depend on God for our existence, and our existence comes from Him. However, God is independent of all things and has given existence to all things. It is for this reason that we call only Him the real creator.

The difference between Creator and Maker

The maker of the computer is not the creator and did not give it its existence; his only skill was that he gave a new form to what was already in existence. He was not aware of the computations and the information that will be stored in it in the future. Similarly, other inventors, discoverers and artisans are not informed of all the minutiae of the movements and resting of what they have made, because they have not given existence to them, they have not brought them from non-existence into existence. The raw materials were already in existence in the world. Only, by analysing and constructing, they have changed their form. Take the case of the aeroplane, which is made from raw materials in mines, which were extracted, smelted and forged and made into the finished product.

Clearly, then, the makers did not create what they made; they only changed the form of the materials. For this reason they are not permanently aware of their artifacts, and one cannot, therefore, properly call them creators. If, in some cases they have to be called creators, they have only been called so figuratively, not literally.

But God, Who has given existence to all things, is always aware and knowledgeable of their actions, because He is the real and true creator. The Holy Qur’an says:

اَلَا یَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَق

“Shall He not know who created?” (S.67, V.14)

Now we have understood that we ourselves and all the creatures of this world are not separated from the glorified presence of God. Wherever we are, and to whatever land we travel, in the depths of the oceans, in the outer reaches of space, in the narrow places of the valleys, we are not hidden from Him. He sees the smallest of our good or bad deeds, and rewards and punishes accordingly.

Can someone who has such a God and believes in Him ever fall prey to sin?