Allah The Exalted — Page 16
16 tians attribute to God Almighty by way of His Glory is a matter which can be determined by a single question. God Almighty, Who is Perfect and Eternal and Self- Sufficient and Non-Dependent, had carried on all His great works through eternity by Himself. He alone cre- ated the universe without the aid of a father or son and bestowed upon souls and bodies all the powers that they needed and is Himself the Guardian, Supporter and Con- troller of the universe. He brought into being, through His attribute of Ra h m a niyyat , all that souls and bodies were to need without waiting for any action on their part, and created the sun and the moon and numberless stars and the earth and thousands of bounties contained therein out of His pure grace, without the assistance of any son. Then the same Perfect God in the latter days, discarding all His glory and power, became dependent upon a son to make provision for the salvation and forgiveness of man- kind, and that son so inferior as to possess no kind of similarity to the Father. He did not create like the Father any portion of heaven or earth which should bear testi- mony to his godhead. The Gospel of Mark 8. 12, describes his helplessness in the words that he sighed and said: ‘Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. ’ When he was put upon the cross, the Jews said that if he would come back to life they would believe in him. But he did not show them this sign, nor did he prove his god- head and perfect power in any other way. Such miracles as he worked had been worked in large numbers by pre- vious Prophets and even the water of a pond possessed properties that manifested similar miracles (See chapter 5 of the Gospel of St. John). As he himself confessed, he was not able to show any sign in support of his godhead.