Although Christians say that "Allahu ta'ala knows things," on various occasions they impute ignorance to Him. For instance, the Holy Bible, which they claim to have remained intact and which is being read in churches today, reads as follows in the first chapter of Genesis, in the Old Testament: "God created the first heaven, that is, the sky and the earth. The earth was desolate and dark. He said: Let light be. Light was. God saw that light was beautiful. God created heaven and earth. He saw that they were good and beautiful. ... Then He created that, and saw it was beautiful, good, and then that, and then that... ."

[O Christians!] Be reasonable, Supposing a civil engineer wanted to build a house; would he begin the construction before making a project and seeing whether it would be lovely enough? Of course, he would not. [Today also, before the construction of a building begins, an architect designs a plan so that the building will becomely and well-proportioned. In this plan he lays down the measurements of all the contents of the building. And the building is constructed according to this plan. Could a well-shaped building be made by piling up cement, stones, sand and bricks in a haphazard way? Has anyone attempted to make a house without a plan?] Is the knowledge that Allahu ta'ala has even shorter [may Allahu ta'ala protect us from saying so] than that of an engineer, a powerless born servant of His?

It is stated as follows about Allahu ta'ala in the sixth and later verses of the sixth chapter of Genesis, in the Old Testament: "God saw that man's evils spread over the earth. He repented having created man on the earth and felt compunction in His heart, and God said: I shall wipe out man, beasts and reptiles that I have created from the earth. For I repent having created them." Moreover, it is written in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis that Allahu ta'ala commanded Nuh 'alaihis-salam' to make a ship and live on this ship with his followers, that He annihilated all human beings and all the living except those who boarded the ship, that a flood inundated everywhere, it rained for forty days and forty nights and then the flood subsided, and that Allahu ta'ala remembered Nuh 'alaihis-salam' hundred and fifty days later.

It stands to reason that if an imbecile did something of vital importance he would not forget it for forty years. How could it ever be possible for Allahu ta'ala. Creator of all 'alams, to have forgotten Nuh 'alaihis-salam' and those who were with him? Ignorance that Christians impute to Allahu ta'ala is beyond limits of measurement.

According to Muslims' belief and the teachings of the 'Ulama of Kalam, all things that have happened and will happen are every moment within the knowledge of Allahu ta'ala. Allahu ta'ala knows everything, no matter whether it is existent or nonexistent, possible to exist or impossible. There is not a tiniest mote outside the knowledge of Allahu ta'ala. Muslims have proved this fact with very many mental proofs.

Deeds of Allahu ta'ala are Muhkam (Thorough, above reproach). They are far from defects or imperfection. There are numerous uses and hikmats in everything He creates. The Person whose Deeds are unchangeable and perfect is certainly the Creator of the universe. When a person sees the orderly systems in heavens and on earth, creation of heavens from nothing, qualities and peculiarities in substances, so many kinds of fruits, vegetables, plants, metals, and innumerable genera of animals, He will realize that the Deeds of Allahu ta'ala are unchangeable and perfect. Upon meditating over the fact that all these things have been created with certain calculations and rules, the human mind will be stupefied. Allahu ta'ala has created many a thing which the human mind falls short of comprehending in this universe.

[From his early childhood, man begins to make enquiries about where the things he sees around him have come from. As the child grows, he gradually realizes what a tremendous work of art this earth is on which he is living, and the more he realizes the greater his bewilderment. By the time he enters upon higher education and begins to learn about the subtleties in all these things and creatures around him, his bewilderment turns into admiration. What a stupendous miracle it is that only owing to the gravitation of the earth men are living on a fire-cored, round (somewhat low on both poles) globe traveling by itself with a great speed in an orbit in space. What a great power it is that makes all these mountains, rocks, seas, living creatures, plants around us, improves them and gives them innumerable peculiarities. While some animals walk on the earth, some of them fly in the sky, and others live in water. The sun, sending its lights unto us, provides the highest heat we could conceive of, which causes development, of plants and effects chemical changes in some of them, which results in the formation of such substances as flour, sugar, and many others. On the other hand, our earthly globe is, as we know, only a tiny particle in the universe. The solar system, which consists of planets evolving round the sun and of which our globe is a member, is only one of the very many universal systems whose number is beyond our knowledge. Let us give a small example to explain the power and energy in the universe: The latest gigantic source of energy is the atomic bomb, which men have obtained by splitting (heavy) atomic nuclei. Yet when the energy released by great earthquakes is compared with the energy of an atomic bomb, which men consider to be "the greatest source of energy", it will ben seen that the former type of energy is equal to tens of thousands of atomic energy.

Man is mostly unaware of what a tremendous factory, an immaculate laboratory his body is. In fact, respiration alone is a terrific chemical event. The oxygen inhaled from the air is burned in the body and then exhaled in the form of carbon dioxide.

The alimentary (digestive) system, on the other hand, is a colossal factory. Nutritive received through the mouth are decomposed and assimilated in the stomach and bowels, the salutary essence extracted is transfused into the blood by way of the intestines, and waste matter is discharged. This fantastic event is automatically accomplished with super precision, and thus the body functions like a factory].

Neither paper nor pens would suffice to write the details of these events. This fact is more obvious than the sun to scientists such as astronomers, anatomists, zoologists and botanists. [And the Creator of all these phenomena is ALLAHU TA'ALA, who is the owner of very great power, who never changes and who is eternal.]

Especially the Awliya-i-kiram, that is, people who have attained to high grades in the world of souls, see very clearly how perfectly systematic the Deeds of Allahu ta'ala are. And perfect, systematic deeds, in their turn, signify that their owner is highly knowledgeable. For instance, when a person sees a beautiful handwriting, he will infer that the person who wrote it is learned and skilled in calligraphy. As a matter of fact, the hundred and sixty-fourth ayat of Baqara sura purports, "Certainly, creation of heavens, [garnished with stars], and earth, [embroidered with mountains, seas, plants]; nights and days following one another; ships traveling on the sea and carrying to people what they need; rains which Allahu ta'ala pours from heaven and thus resuscitates the plants after the earth has dried up; all sorts of animals which He spreads over the earth; winds which He makes blow from all directions; clouds which float between heaven and earth with the command of Allahu ta'ala; all (these things) bear evidences and lessons concerning the power and greatness of Allahu ta'ala for those who have reason, wisdom and discernment." The fifty-third ayat of Fussilat sura purports, "We shall show them [Meccans] our ayats [the sun, moon, stars, trees, winds, rains, formation of a baby's limbs in its mother's womb, which signify our greatness] both in the afaq [in heavens and on earth] and in their very nafs [the exquisite qualities and dissimilitude in their creations]. At last it shall be evident to them that what He [Qur'an al-karim and Rasulullah] said, is true."

The expression 'ayats in the afaq' in this ayat al-karima is used to mean the worldly signs which denote the power of Allahu ta'ala, such as heavens, stars, night and day, rays of the sun, darkness, shades, water, fire, earth, air. And what is meant by the 'ayats [signs] in the enfus' is those which are inside man, such as formation of child's limbs in mother's womb, [accomplishment of tremendous phenomena in an automatically and exceedingly fantastic manner, such as taking the oxygen from the air, burning it in the body, and expelling it in the form of carbon dioxide, taking substances of nutrition and drinks through the mouth, decomposing and digesting them, extracting their essence useful to body in the intestines and transferring it into blood, discharging their useless parts, functioning of the heart, the kidneys' filtering harmful matter from blood, ... etc.]. The hikmat of expressing the afaqi (objective) and enfusee (subjective) proofs in these ayat al-karimas is to make them know, [have iman in, and worship] Allahu ta'ala, who is far from being opposite from or identical with His born servants, who knows everything, who is the owner of hikmat, and who is Almighty. In short, these immaculate and orderly Deeds signify that Allahu ta'ala, their Owner and the Creator of all these phenomena, has perfect knowledge and power. The 'Ulama of Kalam have proved this by various evidences. For instance:

1 - Allahu ta'ala is abstract. That is, He is not substantial [or material. He is not an element. He is not an alloy or a compound. He is not numerable. He cannot be measured. He cannot be calculated. No change occurs in Him. He is not dependent upon space. He is not at or in a place. He is not dependent upon time. He does not have an antecedent, a consequence, front, back, top, bottom, right, left. Therefore, the human thought, the human knowledge, the human mind cannot comprehend anything concerning Him]. And He, who is abstract, knows everything.

2 - Allahu ta'ala, whose Person is sublime, knows His own Person. A creator who has this capacity knows others as well. Man's knowing means his mentally visualizing the essences of really existent objects in a manner free of their material beings. There is nothing unknown to Allahu ta'ala. He knows the true essence of His Person. It is a known fact that he who knows himself will know others, too.

Allahu ta'ala has created everything except Himself with or without a means. Knowing the creatures necessitates knowing the existence of a creator.