Among the names of Allah Almighty is al-Qayyum – “The Sustainer of All.” What is the meaning of this name? “Allah! There is no God other than He, the Living, the Sustainer of All” (2:255, 3:2). That is: the Sustainer of the universes, Who controls them as He wishes and organizes them as He likes. Nothing at all moves except by His Sustainment (qayyumiyya). That is the meaning of the word qayyum. Is there any efficacy left for causes after this?
Our Almighty Lord says: “And of His signs is this: The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command” (30:35). It means that what you can behold of the movement of the celestial spheres – those we see and those we do not, – the ordering of the earth, all that is between the heaven and the earth, and all that lies within this universe, seen and unseen – it is one of His signs that “The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command.” It means that if you see in them causes and effects (asbab wa musabbabat), who is the one who threaded together these causes and effects, joining the former with the latter? It is Allah Exalted and Glorified!
To elaborate: the nature of combustion in fire – so to speak, for there is no such thing as “nature”2 but we have to make what we say intelligible through approximations – that nature does not exist inside fire. It is but a divine Force (quwwa rabbaniyya) that has marshalled fire for its purpose. So it is Allah Who is the author of combustion (al-muhriq), not the fire. Our Exalted Lord says: “Lo! Allah grasps the heavens and the earth, lest they cease, and if they were to cease there is not one that could grasp them after Him” (35:41). It means that the existence of these spheres suspended in their orbits, these arrangements by which He has made these orbits stand together with the earth, these cosmic laws and patterns which we see all around us, from the farthest celestial bodies to the earth and thereunder – all that is by Allah Almighty’s arrangement. “Lo! Allah grasps the heavens and the earth, lest they cease, and if they were to cease there is not one that could grasp them after Him.” If you believe – and believe firmly – that this is Allah’s speech, is there any efficay left for causes?
Our Exalted Lord says in His explicit disclosure: “And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship” (36:41). Have you reflected upon these words? The ship, externally, is a cause. Therefore it is the ship, apparently, which carries the people who board it, is it not? In our understanding, the phrasing should have been: “And a token unto them is that the laden ship bears them.” However, the divine disclosure came in a different form. “And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship.” Who, then, is the carrier for those who sought refuge in the ship? Is it the ship or is it Allah? So then, the ship possesses no efficacy.
What does Allah say? “A token unto them is the dead earth. We revive it, and We bring forth from it grain so that they eat thereof; And We have placed therein gardens of the date palm and grapes, and We have caused springs of water to gush forth therein. That they may eat of the fruit thereof, and their hands made it not. Will they not, then, give thanks? Glory be to Him Who created all the sexual pairs, of that which the earth grows, and of themselves, and of that which they know not!” (36:33-36) In all this discourse you will notice that Allah attributes all these things to Himself while we find the causes present: we find the earth, we find agriculture, but Allah attributes all this to Himself.
Allah says in Sura Nuh, as He speaks of the means by which He has saved our master Nuh ( and those who were with him: “And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails, That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected.” (54:13) Consider well these words. Notice that what we aim to do by citing this evidence is to make firm our awareness and our certitude that the causes which we see have no efficacy in themselves. That is what we are aiming for. Allah is here recounting in a succinct and quick manner our master Nuh’s situation. When he was besieged and harmed by his people, what did he do? “So he cried unto his Lord, saying: I am vanquished, so give help.” (54:10). Two words: “I am vanquished,” and “so give help.” “Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose. And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails, That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected.” (54:11-13) “We carried him” – He did not say: “It is the ship that carried him.” Further, He did not even use the word “ship” in His wording. What did He say? “And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails.” [That is] “We carried him upon some planks and nails which were assembled” – so as to minimize the status of that ship and make it clear for you that the ship itself is less than [deserving of] being the one that rescued and the one that saved. Thus He first said: “And We carried him.” He did not attribute the carrying to our master Nuh nor to the ship. Then He said “upon a thing of planks and nails” to let you see that some planks which were put together are not strong enough to save those people from a perpetual deluge unknown to humanity heretofore nor hereafter.
So then we have before us positive evidence that the creator of causes is Allah and that causes, all of them, melt under the authority of Allah’s Lordship. That is a truth which you are free to express in whatever theological fashion you wish. But that is what Allah Almighty’s Disclosure states. Nay, the vast majority of the Muslims hold that Allah has not deposited into these causes the least efficacy, unlike what some have said – such as the Mu`tazila – at one point. No, not at all! Allah did not deposit into fire the secret of combustion, thereafter leaving fire in charge of its mission, which consists in combustion. A simile would be a human being’s disposal of artificial intelligence, which is then left by him to do its job. No! The reality is certainly not so. Yet to some people, even among Muslims, this is imagined to be true. The latter say: “Fire burns by virtue of the force which Allah has deposited in it. Water quenches thirst by virtue of the force which Allah has deposited in it. Medicine heals by virtue of the force which Allah has deposited in it. Poison kills by virtue of the force which Allah has deposited in it.” Are these statements correct? Never.
We do not charge [them] with disbelief. However, even scientifically, these statements are incorrect. The reason is that, if one believes that Allah has deposited healing within medicine and then left it so that medicine heals in permanence, it would mean that Allah now has a partner, which is this secret that He deposited within the medicine. As much as the Creator disassociates Himself from that medicine, the latter [allegedly] still performs its work, without the continuance (istimrariyya) of Allah Almighty’s efficacy. That is the meaning of that “deposited force.” We seek refuge in Allah from such belief! What have we done with “The Sustainer of All”? Similarly, if you say: “Fire burns by virtue of the efficacy which Allah Almighty has deposited in it.” The outcome of this statement is that Allah Almighty has deposited that secret – combustion – inside fire, then left fire so that the latter burns in perpetuity. So then that secret has become a partner with Allah! If Allah has left fire alone after depositing in it that secret, then [they claim] there is no problem with that: it shall always burn. That position is false, incorrect, and scientifically incorrect in any way one looks at it. Combustion only takes effect by the act of Allah at the time of contact between fire and the matter it burns.
Allah creates satiation at the time you ingest food. Who is it that created satiation? Allah. If He wished, He could make you eat, and eat, and eat, and not be sated. Allah created quenchedness for you at the time you drink beverage. There are not, in these things, forces-in-residence which Allah has left alone so that they do their work. No – it is a mistake to think so. The Pious Predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih), the People of the Way of the Prophet and the Congregation of the Companions (ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a) hold otherwise.3 Just look at Allah’s words: “And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship” (36:41). If some self-sufficient physiological force had been deposited into the ship so that ships perform their tasks always, regardless to what extent Allah disconnects Himself from them – then His saying would no longer be correct that “And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship.” But He continues: “And if We will, We drown them, and there is no help for them, neither can they be saved” (36:43).
