Ch 4 — The Universe Testifies to God's Existence / Lesson from a Train Journey
God And The Universe — Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
On April 18, 1986, I embarked on a journey to Bhopal, travelling by Tamil Nadu Express, and my return journey was by air. On the morning of April 19, when I woke up, our train was racing through the countryside, through the fields of Madhya Pradesh. There was greenery all around. The morning sun had risen and was lighting up the sky. p. 211
I started thinking that for such a world to come into existence is the most wondrous thing among all wonders—a world where there is abundant greenery, where the sun delivers light and heat in specific proportions, and where uncountable causes come together that make it possible for a train to be manufactured and then for it to race at high speed on the surface of the Earth. p. 211
The Maker has made this world in a truly remarkable manner. Here, innumerable phenomena are visible, but the One who has brought them into being is invisible. The signs of creation are spread out all around, but our physical eyes cannot see the Creator amidst them. This situation has made many people question and even deny the existence of God. They argue, “When we do not see God, how can we accept Him?” But this argument has no solid basis at all. p. 212original + quote
The train in which I was travelling was racing at the speed of perhaps over 100 kilometres an hour. I was sitting inside it and heading towards my destination. I had not seen the train’s driver; I did not even know his name. But I could be sure that the train had a driver and that he was driving it. p. 212
Why do we have this certainty about a train driver we haven’t seen? Deniers of God would say that this is because although we have not seen the train driver, we can see him if we want to. For us, it is possible to get off at a station on the way where the train might halt for a while, walk up to the train engine, and see the driver there. But this argument does not hold. p. 212original + quote
If we get off at a station and go to the engine and see the driver of the train there, then what will we see? We will see only a human body with hands and feet. But is this visible body driving the train? Certainly not! The one driving the train is a mind, which is not visible to us and not an external human body that we can see with our eyes. And so, after his death, the driver’s body will remain intact, but it cannot drive a train. So, it can be said that we accept there to be a train driver without actually seeing the driver in the real sense. p. 212
We are ready to believe that there is indeed a driver of a train without seeing him in the real sense. The same logic should apply concerning the existence of God, too. p. 213
Deniers of God say that this world came into being by chance and has no originator or creator. But for this vast universe, which is so meaningful, to come into being through mere chance is just not possible. It would be much more unlikely an occurrence than an entire train coming into existence from an explosion that happened by chance in a rubbish dump! p. 213original + quote