سید عبدالله حسینی

سلسله نشست های دوره "فلسفه عقاید؛ نگاهی منطقی و استدلالی به دین" توسط حجت الاسلام و المسلمین دکتر سید عبدالله حسینی با حضور دانشجویان غیر ایرانی و خارجیان مقیم تهران و ایرانیان علاقمند به زبان انگلیسی در روزهای پنجشنبه بعد از اذان مغرب و عشاء (نیمه دوم سال) با اقامه نماز جماعت و قرائت دعای کمیل در تالار اشراق ایوان شمس برگزار می گردد

جلسه پنجم:

A'udhu Billahi min ash-shaytaan-i'r rajeem. Bismillah-i'r Rahman-i'r Raheem.

The topic of our discussion today is the necessary being argument for God’s existence; and argument that proves the necessity of God’s existence. This is the continuation of the series of talks on philosophy of Islam from logical and rational point of view. 

On this topic I need your full attention because I have really been busy yesterday and today, the whole day, prepared this discussion. It is a very fine discussion and we need your concentration on this subject because this is the foundation of all talks and discussions that we are going to have. And Alhamdulillah we have got here a lot of educated and knowledgeable brothers and sisters which makes it for me very difficult also to speak. Here we have Dr. Ali Dorostkar, the great presenter of TV, my very close friend. We have doctors and professors from universities. We have Dr. Sharbaf, one of the directors at the university and the faculty of World Studies. Daughter of Martyr Navab-Safavi is here with us; and a lot of brothers and sisters that I really don’t know the names. I welcome all of you brothers and sisters to this program.

The discussion is concerning the proof of existence of God. First of all I have to talk about the development of this theory and the history of the argument, where it started and where we are at the moment.

The first person who has formulated this very important argument is Abu-Nasr Farabi. His photo is on the left (in the PowerPoint slide). As a thinker, philosopher, a very great scientist he has done a lot of research on Islam, has offered a lot of theories and discussions, especially in the field of Kalaam کلامand philosophy. He is one of those mighty minds, really mighty thinkers. He is the one who has for the first time offered and formulated this theory and the argument. 

Avicenna has taken the idea from Abu-Nasr Farabi and has added some particular additions to the formula and presented it in a better manner, in his book Esharat اشارات.

And the issue went to Ghazali. Ghazali in the book تهافت الفلاسفه and other books has mentioned about this theory. And then Ibn-Roshd has taken this issue to his books and then, very ironically, a Jewish scholar called Mūsā ibn Maymūn has translated Ibn-Roshd’s books into English and that is the first time where the western philosophers and scholars are coming to get familiar with the formula which was formulated by Abu-Nasr Farabi and developed by two other scholars.

A person like Thomas Aquinas is the first person who gets into the field of business and reads this theory and starts talking about it, and for the first time the west now knows about this theory, but unfortunately the translation was not very good. 

Up to this moment that we are talking still the west doesn’t know about this theory. And that’s one of the poor sides that we have. Unfortunately we have Islamic revolution here which has greatly contributed to the culture of the world, but these things haven’t been translated. So simple. A lot of good theories that we have.

You know we have a lot of conflicts at the moment between atheist and theist people around the world. A lot of people are fighting, the debates are going on all over the world, but the world doesn’t know about the formula. And if they know, they know very little about it, and not the proper and true translation of the words and the argument. 

Insha’Allah if we can manage after we finish this discussion, for these studies to be translated and then offered to the western countries, it will be a great contribution because this is something that we need.

We have Pope debating with an atheist and unfortunately because he doesn’t have access to such information he gets defeated by some physicians. And if we can manage to have these formula and arguments properly presented and translated it will be a great contribution to the western culture and the western world.

For me to be able to discuss about this issue I have to first of all explain about some terms and some words. If we don’t know the meanings of these words, we are not going to understand this issue very well. I want you to pay attention to the words and the translation for us to have a proper understanding of those terminologies and the expressions and the words, and then we will tackle the formula and the argument.

Beings, everything in this world logically and rationally, by the thinkers and philosophers_ not by laid persons or uneducated people_ but educated logical philosophers of the world. People like Aristotle, Plato, and then Socrates, later on the Muslim philosophers, today all philosophers of the world agree on these points because it is all logical. There is nothing there not to agree with. It is something that every logical person will relate to it and agree with the subject.

You remember we promised at the beginning that we are not going to offer Quran and Sunnah to prove our points. It’s all pure logic and we are going to apply our wisdom to find out if God exists or not. I’m not going to open Quran and say “Brothers and sisters, here is a book, revelation by God, it is written here that God is” That is not our business here. We are going to be completely talking to some atheist people who don’t have any relationship with any religion. It’s just pure logic that we are going to talk.

Every being, everything in this world cannot be out of these three categories: The first one is either and impossible being, so simply the other will be possible being, and the third one is necessary being. It is not possible to add a fourth group. Everything in this world is either one of these three, and we have to know exactly when we say impossible being, what that means. When we say, possible being, what that means; and when we say necessary being, then what is the exact meaning of necessary being. If we don’t know the translation then we are going to fail proving our points. So pay attention properly.

Impossible being, if you say “2 being an odd number” what will be your immediate reaction. I want that reaction to come loud. I claim and I say “2 is an odd number”. Is it possible or impossible? –it’s impossible. “2 being an odd number”, it is impossible. The next one “2 being bigger than 3”, is it possible or impossible? Good, it is impossible. “2 being equal to 1”, impossible; “paralleled lines being crossing lines at the same time” it is impossible. “Square being circle at the same time” it is impossible. So a little bit of understanding about impossibilities are there. We all know what is impossible.

Now… impossible beings cannot exist because it is so simple, it is impossible. It doesn’t exist. It has not existed before, and there will be no time in the future also that and impossible being is going to exist in a near or far future. There will be no time that we can say “technology is not now advanced, so 2 is not equal to 1, one day knowledge is going to be improved, science is going to be improved, universities are going to research, now scientist are working on this that one day they should make 2 equal to 1” We are not going to expect that time, it hasn’t happened, it is not going to happen. It is so simple, it is impossible. 

Now a surprise, even God cannot do impossible things. God cannot make 1 bigger than 2. God cannot make 2 equal to 3. God is powerful, very powerful, but the power of God is limited to possibility, that thing should be possible, and then God can do it.

I’m sure you will ask questions later on that ‘what about Jesus Christ giving life to dead, what about Muses going to the sea and putting the stick and then the sea is opened? What about curing all of these diseases and this and that?’ Everything which happened was possible. If something is impossible it cannot happen, by me, by you, by God. It is impossible.

So that is one although the famous saying “nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible”, but don’t believe it.

Getting to know the words. So we have an understanding of Impossibility.

Possible beings:

2 apples. Of course. It is possible. 2 computers. Possible. Two glasses. 2 audience. 3 whatever. It’s all possible. It can be 3, 4, or 1. It’s all possible.

Dinosaurs were existing. Possibly. You cannot say it’s impossible. There was also a time that Dinosaurs were not existed.  Thus Dinosaurs were existing and it’s possible that the same Dinosaurs come to exist if the reasons will be there, again.  There was a time that there was no dinosaur in this land. The reason was created then the dinosaurs also existed. Then there was a time of a big explosion, a summit hit the planet and then the generation of dinosaurs is gone. It’s possible that by collecting the DNA s of the same Dinosaurs and generating them, one day you see Dinosaurs knocking on your windows. As you see in Jurassic park. So it’s possible. You cannot say impossible.

The cake is sweet. It’s possible. It can be bitter. The same case can’t be sour. But another cake can be sour. It’s also possible so everything which can be sensed by the 5 senses you have is circulated in the circle of possibility. All possible beings need a reason for their existence. So anything for its existence or non-existence needs a reason. If there is a reason you will be sick, if not you would be healthy. Possibility is there. 

Then the third terminology, that’s Necessary being. 

Sugar is sweet. Is it possible? No, it has to be sweet. Necessarily, Sweet should be sweet. If not, it would not be sugar any more. The whole essence of sugar has to be sweet. Necessarily it should be sweet.

2 is an even number. Necessarily it has to be even. 2 is bigger than 1. Necessarily. No doubt about it. It has to be. 2 have to be equal to 2. Necessarily. So what you say necessarily should be, is a Necessary being. (Existence of) apple, orange etc. is possible but sugar has to be sweet. Everything is bright but why light is bright? Because the essence of light is brightness. You can’t ask that question, then. You can ask why we can see each other. Because of light. But light itself has to be bright. It doesn’t need any reason for its existence. Necessarily sugar is sweet. Necessarily water is wet. Necessarily 2 is even number. Necessarily 2 is bigger than 1. Necessarily 2 paralel lines are not going to cross each other. 

The other term that we have to know is cause and effect. The philosophy of cause and effect.   It’s very important for us to get understanding of it:

Every effect has to have a cause but not necessarily every cause has to have an effect. 

Cause is always before the effect. My father is before me and his father is before him and my grandfather is before my father. The son can’t be before his father. It continues like that. 

This law accepted by every single thinker of the world that cause comes first and before the effect. It moves forward as I mentioned and the effect can be a cause for another effect, but not as its cause. Father can be producer of his son but son can’t be the producer of his father.

Small cause can have big effect. Look at that picture. You can see the point there. It is a microscopic particle. So small that he can’t hold it with his hand. He is using pence to hold it. That small cause that he puts then causes the first DOMINO to start moving.  And finally moves the big particle. Look at this part, it continues. There is always a beginning and then there is always an end. So there is a circle. 

Philosophers in west use this point to say everything that is countable 

everything that you can count 122-4567 even if millions the end of the day it started and it has got end and if this is countable so the quantity so you can start spending 10 years but you can count at the end of the date 510 makes big supercomputers finally it counts so don’t say no ,numbers all of these rivers, how you can count them , it is countable ,it is possible to count them  every single cells of this world if it is Trillion of the cells in this world still you can count them and as soon as something is countable it has got to start and end that is also a part of philosophy cause and effect ,every possible be need a cause if something is possible being has to have a cause it is impossible to have a possibly being with no cause it is necessity by philosophers and thinkers of the world agrees that if something is called possibly being definitely for sure 100 percent there was a cause for it there is a reason for it , the chain of cause scan go  and not go to the beginning that this chart(look at the chart) that you have this one can be because for the next one but secondly this can continue like that but this one cannot be the cause for number one that one , you can reach them but this one also fall them , there is nothing here to push , so you will  get the effect from the previous DOMINO and the you will also fall on something else.

So there is no cause there is no effect if you send your life will down. the circle is finished so the circulation of the causative……. is impossible the continuation of the chain is also impossible has to have an end logic says not me it is philosophers of the world agrees that always there is a beginning and always there is an end and cannot be start for here again so that's also to understand , these are logical terms that we accept  the chain of cause cannot continue indefinitely as I said it has to reach some if it is billion of them  trillions of them , trillions of DOMINOS , but there is an end ,,,I have been watching this for competitions on the TV, I think lost in  Australia 1015 km of the Domino's , and then the competition starts and however it continues but it ends , the circulation of causative liens is impossible these are logical tones that we accept now… Talk about the argument itself know that we understood the meaning of impossible and impossible and the necessity be and we understood fully the issue of cause and effect and the philosophy of cause and effect and is clear for us, we are going to stop talking and arguments so please pay attention, there is so many billions of things around the world now we don't know.

If these things all impossible things or it is possible been necessary because cannot be a force think it has to be one of the3 now ,we  also learned that impossible being doesn't exist because it was it was impossible so if this things are there so we can see  their existence it means it was not impossible it was possible so simply because they were possible they exist so number one is out impossible being doesn't exist impossible none of these things which happened that we can see and we sense them we hear and we touch we smell and all every single thing is one none of them can be impossible it is either possible being or it is necessity being because the first one is completely out so everything that you can see around the world is either possible being or necessity being logic says logic is not Quran and not prophet ,it's all brains of this world , Aristotle , recent philosophers before Abu Nasr Farabi , Ave Sina , Ghazali , all of them now , so things we can sense are are possible or necessity being so here you meaning that existed(موجود) in their existence or anything which is exist so I may all going to be possible being all necessity being which we call it واجب الوجود also let me put you into the pitch of the terminology , when we say a sugar is necessity sweet that is what we say but professors doesn't call sugar sugar when they want to talk about sugar they don't call it sugar philosophers when they want to talk about sugar they sayواجب الحلاوه all the something which it which its sweetness is necessity that's the terminology of the philosophers when it comes to sugar واجب الطراوه for the water so philosophers don't care about what you as a physician or chemical person are going to put the name concerning this particular they have got date on philosophy concepts so when it comes to God they instead of God they don't call him God they called him philosophical terminology is that one of them is necessity be they don't call it Allah don't call it God they don't collect this and that is on the city necessity being so everything which is there is either possible or necessity , we look everything which exist here if we find something we the characteristics of necessity being by the way that is going to be the topic of my next discussion next week we are going to talk about the characteristics of what necessity being what are those specialties and characteristics which necessity being has to have otherwise you can’t call it God, the powers the unique being unique being alone , all of those things you got to talk about that next so if we find out anything between all of these things which all over the characteristics of necessity being then we already found God and if we cannot find we check here we check there which we didn’t  find this one you found a gain another possible one here we found one possible this possible also is like this one item that is possible or it is either possible or necessity being so here going to continue our research if not then we would trace the chain of causes okay we didn’t  find also this one and  it is me and there is my father and father of my father goes up to Hazrat Adam, you your Mother your mother of your mother all of that that is all going to continue follow centuries old age is for millions of years to go to scientist is okay life of human beings as being the for millions of years we trace of back the first cause effect ,we are going to first to check the first domino now if it is our million of them but if it's five of them no matter whatever it is we will reach to the first domino to the first of the amino is being is a being which for its be a cause this one be reached with this one so we trace here we are sitting here not to go back to our father goes back to universe to million years before we reach there if that one the first domino is something which needs a cause then that is also a possible beings we reach to another possible being as if it's not a possible being if it is not an if not if possible being then the question and if not , we question the question how it move without existence of when we reach there so the question comes if it is a possible being so it needs something that has to push it because it cannot possibility automatically being pushed you cannot say so because you got people logical people will not buy that idea will not submit the same the idea that automatically one day we came out and then all of a sudden then I'll be so it's just it ‘s just moved it cannot moved automatically from within if the movement from within the we have already reached to God , because there was something which for its existing and full and did not need any force from outside there was something that is God that we will talk about  next week but here we  found something which was moved automatically from within that's God, because God is something which for its movement does not know the reason have reason from outside it has to come from within like sweetness now if there is no if that is a  possible being which we have to find out what was the cause of it is, its movement to , there is a movement you cannot ignore , and that movement happen and that movement if didn’t happen we didn’t  have a question all dominos are standing in line for millions of years because the first one didn’t move  the fact that the mere fact that the dominoes are sleeping and they fall it is there was a movement you cannot say it was automatically it was by something so that by something either coming from within from within the first one in that he's God that is something which is which we can call it this one does not have no reason it's coming from within but what if it is a possible being which need a cause and we look for another hand day to find out who was that one so logically if we say it was automatically done with this one moved we have accepted that an impossible thing happened impossible thing doesn't happen but if you say so you have accepted against the logic of every single logical person of the world you have done against Plato you have gone against …. and you have gone against your mind your own brain your conscious you own wisdom your own logic to say something impossible or impossible thing doesn't happen it cannot happen so it wasn't not something from reason or  automatically and then also we have accepted that infinite continuation of causes is possible we have proved here before that you know DOMINO that we showed you it and it has to have a beginning not see infinitely  it goes and it is no beginning and that is no logic doesn't accept logic doesn't accept so you have to come to the conclusion that the first move the first move happened by another being which that being for its existence did not need any reason existence for that being is necessary , and that is the point that no logical person has got any choice but to accept that there is a  being behind the universe as a beginner which that being did not have no reason for its existence so they call it , philosophers call it prime mover you call it God they call it necessity being واجب الوجود you call it lord they call it cause of causes you may call it رحمان  or رحیم or anything or Allah they call it prime cause , God exists logically,

Salawat.

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