Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
What do you think of Harun Yahya’s book titled “Eternity has already begun.” In this book he talks about how everything is just an illusion and is created within our brain and nothing is “real.” It all makes very good sense and seems quite logical. Should we from this take that nothing is “real.” What about all the universe Allah said he created in Quran? I know of certain sufis having said that nothing is “real” except Allah.
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
This returns to the understanding of Being: in reality, only the being of Allah is absolute, unconditioned, and independent.
The being of everything else is conditioned, and dependant on the being of Allah. Its origin is nothingness, and its end is nothingness. If not for Allah’s creating it and then sustaining at every moment, it would cease to be.
It is from this perspective that some scholars have declared that things do not have being in reality: what they mean is that they do not have true, independent, unconditioned being, for that is only Allah’s. When they compare the ‘being’ of creation to the Being of the Creator, the former is too paltry to even be referred to as being.
However, these scholars do not deny creation, nor do they deny that things have an existence through Allah’s creating and sustaining them.
Their emphasis on the ‘nothingness’ of things is to turn people’s hearts away from the worldliness that has busied them, and to direct themselves, through righteous actions and hearts bursting with sincerity, reverence, love, and thankfulness, towards the truly Real, Allah Most High.
This is why the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said that the truest words a poet ever said were the words of Labid (Allah be pleased with him),
“Truly, everything besides Allah is perishing.” [Bukhari and Muslim]
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And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani