Why believe in God?
What Keeps a Person From the Truth?
Before looking at the signs of God, there is another question worth asking: what can prevent a person from recognizing the truth when it is in front of them?
Ibn al-Qayyim often describes two broad obstacles: shubuhāt and shahawāt.
Shubuhāt are doubts, misconceptions, and false ideas that distort what a person understands.
Shahawāt are desires and attachments that distort what a person wants.
One affects the mind. The other affects the will.
A person may therefore reject the truth because they genuinely misunderstand it. Perhaps they have been given a false picture of God, religion, revelation, or Islam. Their problem is intellectual: the truth has become obscured by doubt.
But a person may also recognize that something is true and still resist it because of what accepting it would require. Truth may challenge a way of life, an attachment, a habit, a sense of independence, or something the person does not want to give up.
The Qur’an speaks about both.
It calls people to think, reflect, and seek knowledge, because false ideas must be corrected. But it also repeatedly speaks about arrogance, desire, and the refusal to submit, because knowing the truth is not always the same as wanting it.
This is why the search for God is not purely an intellectual exercise.
We need to ask two questions:
Am I seeing the truth clearly?
And:
Am I willing to follow it if I find it?
The sections that follow deal with the first question by looking at the signs within creation. But those signs are most beneficial to the person who approaches them sincerely, willing to be led wherever the truth points.
Look at Creation
The Qur’an does not merely tell us that God exists. It tells us to look.
إِنَّ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَـٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍۢ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمًۭا وَقُعُودًۭا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَـٰذَا بَـٰطِلًۭا
“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and day are signs for people of understanding, who remember Allah while standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: ‘Our Lord, You have not created all this without purpose.’”
Notice the movement of the verse. They look at creation, they reflect upon it, and what they see leads them to recognize that it was not made without purpose.
This is tafakkur: not simply seeing the world, but thinking about what the world shows.
Look at the earth. Look at yourself.
وَفِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ءَايَـٰتٌۭ لِّلْمُوقِنِينَ وَفِىٓ أَنفُسِكُمْ ۚ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ
“On the earth are signs for those of sure faith, and within yourselves. Will you not then see?”
The Qur’an calls these things āyāt, signs. The same word is used for the verses of the Qur’an. Both are meant to be read.
When we reflect on creation, we find things arranged with remarkable wisdom and suitability. The eye is suited for sight. The lungs for breathing. The earth produces what living things need. Water descends, plants grow, animals are sustained, night gives way to day, and countless systems work together in ways no creature designed for itself.
The Qur’an repeatedly directs our attention to these things:
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءًۭ ۖ لَّكُم مِّنْهُ شَرَابٌۭ وَمِنْهُ شَجَرٌۭ فِيهِ تُسِيمُونَ يُنۢبِتُ لَكُم بِهِ ٱلزَّرْعَ وَٱلزَّيْتُونَ وَٱلنَّخِيلَ وَٱلْأَعْنَـٰبَ وَمِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“He sends down rain from the sky, from which you drink and by which plants grow on which you pasture your cattle. Through it He produces for you crops, olives, palm trees, grapevines, and every kind of fruit. Surely in this is a sign for those who reflect.”
Creation, then, is not merely something to observe. It is something to read.
Its order points beyond itself. Its suitability points beyond itself. Its wondrous construction points beyond itself. These are āyāt, and an āyah signifies something beyond the sign itself.
Creation signifies its Creator.
But the Qur’an does not leave us with the vague conclusion that “something must have made all this.” It directs us to the One Creator upon whom everything depends.
ٱللَّهُ خَـٰلِقُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ ۖ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ وَكِيلٌۭ
“Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the Guardian over all things.”
The people described in the Qur’an reflect upon creation and then say:
رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَـٰذَا بَـٰطِلًۭا سُبْحَـٰنَكَ
“Our Lord, You have not created all this without purpose. Glory be to You.”
Reflection ends in recognition, and recognition turns the heart toward its Creator.
We look at creation. We reflect upon it. We recognize its signs. And through those signs, we are led to the One who made them.
That is why the Qur’an calls us to look.
Creation Depends Upon Its Creator
Creation does not only display order. It also displays need.
Everything around us exists through conditions it did not provide for itself. We need air, water, food, warmth, and the earth beneath us. A tree depends upon sunlight, water, soil, and an environment it did not create. The earth itself depends upon conditions beyond it.
Everything within creation is needy.
Follow that dependency far enough and we are left with a question: what does everything ultimately depend upon?
It cannot terminate in yet another dependent thing. An ultimate source cannot itself be waiting upon something prior to give it existence.
The Qur’an answers this with one of its shortest chapters:
قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌۢ
“Say: He is Allah, One. Allah, al-Ṣamad. He neither begets nor is born. And there is none comparable to Him.”
Each verse tells us something about the One upon whom creation ultimately depends.
“Allah, al-Ṣamad.”
Al-Ṣamad is the One to whom creation turns in its need, while He Himself is in need of none. Everything depends upon Him; He depends upon nothing.
“He neither begets nor is born.”
Allah did not come from something before Him. He was not produced, caused, or brought into existence. The chain of dependency ends with One who was never dependent in the first place.
And this ultimate source is not one god among several:
“He is Allah, One.”
There are not competing independent creators behind reality. Creation ultimately returns to One.
Nor is He simply a greater version of the things within creation:
“And there is none comparable to Him.”
Everything we know within creation is limited, dependent, and in need. Allah is unlike His creation. He is the One upon whom everything depends, while nothing sustains, produces, or completes Him.
This is why the Qur’an says:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
“O humanity! You are those in need of Allah, while Allah is the One free of all need, the Praiseworthy.”
Creation is needy. Its Creator is not.
And because all things ultimately depend upon Him, while He depends upon none, He alone is worthy of worship.
The question, then, is not only whether there are signs pointing to God, but whether we are willing to recognize what they point to. Doubts can cloud what we see, and desires can make us resist what we see clearly. The Qur’an calls us to remove both obstacles: to reflect honestly, follow the signs where they lead, and be willing to submit to the truth once it becomes clear. Guidance requires both a mind that seeks the truth and a heart willing to accept it.