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Islamic
Divine Creation: Creation Ex-Nihilo Creation Out of Nothing
Many Qur’anic Surahs, replicating and professing the first verse of Genesis, defend creation ex-nihilo, with a recitation to Zacharias: “I created you beforehand, when you were nothing” (Q19, 4). That is, “non-existent.” Indubitably, Allah’s Divine Will, arbitrary and sole measure of creation, “creates whatever He wishes” (Q3, 47), and as sole Creator of all things out of nothing, Allah’s Word and decree suffices to create reality. “When God decrees a thing, He only has to say to it, Be! And it is!” (Q2, 117; Q 3, 47; 19,35). “When He says “Be!... then His Word is Reality” (Q6, 73). Moreover, the creation of man “out of potter’s clay,” and not “from potter’s clay,” simply denotes the matter with which these created beings are created, and not a pre-existent matter.73
The creative Word, never a “flatus vocis,” says Arangdezi, brings about being in factual truth.74 Creation has, too, a purpose, although God does not need anything apart from Himself for He is sufficient unto Himself (Q 46, 6). Indeed, He is learned, wise, living, and determined; He is also Al-Khaliq (Creator), Al-Bari, (Producer), Al-Musawwir (Fashioner).75 It is Allah 3⁄4 God, Creator and Maker 3⁄4 the sole creator of the World; yet, the more. Unlike Plato’s Demiurge, and Plotinus’ One, Allah neither
73 Arangdezi. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam. “Creation.” 982-983.
74 Arangdezi. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam. “Creation.” 982.
75 Al-Ghazali. The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God. Cambridge: The Islamic Text Society, 2009. 49.
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