Excerpt: God, as described in the Quran, is referred to by the best names and attributes. The concept of a Maximally Great Being, as discussed in the Ontological Argument, is supported by these verses. Additionally, the Quran emphasizes God’s mercy and forgiveness, highlighting His character as the Absolute Perfection and the Greatest Good.
[17:110] Say, “Call Him GOD, or call Him Most Gracious (Al-Rahman); whichever name you use, to Him belongs the best names.”
This verse alone speaks volumes. To God belongs the best names. Names are also characteristics, descriptions, attributes. A similar verse emphasizes this:
[59:24] He is the One GOD; the Creator, the Initiator, the Designer. To Him belong the most beautiful names. Glorifying Him is everything in the heavens and the earth. He is the Almighty, Most Wise.
God being the One, the Initiator, the Designer, the Creator—all of these are characteristics/attributes/descriptions of God, and they are names of God, and the best of names belong to God.
These verses speak volumes and actually confirm the Ontological Argument for God’s existence. The Ontological argument is as follows:
- It is possible that a Maximally Great Being exists.
- If it is possible that a Maximally Great Being exists, then a Maximally Great Being exists in some possible world.
- If a Maximally Great Being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
- If a Maximally Great Being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
- If a Maximally Great Being exists in the actual world, then a Maximally Great Being exists.
- Therefore, a Maximally Great Being exists.
Notice that this is modal logic. The whole thing follows necessarily from the first premise. In other words, IF the first premise is true, then the other premises follow logically and necessarily. This is because a Maximally Excellent Being, as defined, is the Greatest Conceivable Being, and the Greatest Conceivable Being is one who is necessary and thus necessarily exists in every possible world. In other words, there is no possible world that could exist that doesn’t have the Greatest Conceivable Being because that being has the attribute of being necessary–the Greatest Conceivable Being by definition has the attribute/property of existing in every possible world that could ever exist. If it didn’t have this attribute, then it is less, and not the Greatest Conceivable Being and not the Greatest Possible Being. A being who exists in all possible worlds is greater than one who exists in only some possible worlds.
As per the Quran: to God belongs the best names and the best characteristics, and thus “Maximally Excellent Being”, “Greatest Possible Being” and “Greatest Conceivable Being” are among the best names, and the Quran affirms the best names/descriptions belong to God.
Thus, God is one who exists in all possible worlds. There is no world you can imagine where God doesn’t exist as the supreme authority, the necessary being to which the world depends on.
This gets even more impressive. God is so great, that even if we were to imagine the impossible scenario of Him not existing, He is still the one most worthy of worship. No, I’m not kidding. Suppose we exist in a world where God doesn’t exist (which is impossible as per the Quran, which says God belongs the best names, and one of the best names is Him being “the Greatest Conceivable Being” or “Greatest Conceivable Being” which entails Him existing in all possible worlds since that is an inherent quality of a “Maximally Excellent Being”), even in this impossible world where God doesn’t exist, suppose you were to worship someone. Imagine a celebrity. People worship them by being amazed by “how great they are, how ‘just perfect’ they are and how they are just so admirable, have exceptional qualities and are just amazing in so many ways”. But what is greater to worship than that celebrity? We can also worship concepts and ideas. In fact, the celebrity is necessarily a concept/idea in your mind and you are worshiping that—there is no escape from your introspection—everything you think of, whether it exists or not, is necessarily a concept in your mind. What is greater than that concept/idea in your mind of that celebrity? A Maximally Excellent Being that is perfect and greater in every possible way. Even if it doesn’t exist, the mere concept of that being is far greater than anything that any possible entity can conceive of worshiping. And so still, there is nothing more worthy of worship other than God, even if He doesn’t exist (an impossible premise). The concept/idea of God being the Maximally Excellent Being, the Absolute Perfection, the necessary, the one whom which all worlds depend on to even exist is still a greater concept than that celebrity concept you are worshiping. And so, the thing most worthy of worship remains God, even in this thought experiment of an impossible world where He doesn’t exist. Can you think of anything greater to worship? This is the level of greatness of God. You can’t even escape from God, even when you make an absurd thought experiment like this one. He is the Absolute Perfection, the maximal excellence, the Lord of existence, the owner of reality, the owner of all possible realities—even when you imagine the absurd position that He doesn’t exist, He is still the concept that is most worthy of worship! This is the greatness of God. You have no idea what you are dealing with. The inescapable. The world itself thanks and glorifies God to even exist. Any concept or idea you can have, the concept of God is greater and it is most worthy of your reverence and awe. What concept is greater than the greatest conceivable one? You’re stuck worshiping inferior thoughts/concepts if you worship anything else. In reality of course, this is an impossible world since God must exist for a world to even be possible, but this thought experiment works to affirm an absurd impossibility just to show that even if we were to do that, God still remains the thing most worthy of worship. In reality, removing these absurdities of this thought experiment, when we actually touch grass, the atheist can’t just only concede that God as a concept is most worthy of worship, no, they must also recognize that God, being defined as the Greatest Conceivable Being, must exist in reality because if God existed only in the mind, then a greater being—that which exists both in the mind and in reality—could be conceived, which would contradict the definition of God as the Greatest Conceivable Being.
This ontological argument, and the Quran that confirms it, is exceptional because it forces the atheist to take a stronger position. They no longer can say “God doesn’t exist”, now, they have to say “It is impossible for God to exist”. They have to adopt an even more absurd position. They have to reject even more of their fitrah (the instinctive knowledge of God we have been blessed with) and say God isn’t even possible. The intellectual cost of their beliefs has gotten pricier. Because of the Ontological argument, the cost of the theist’s beliefs is much less—all they have to say is that God is possible, and the premises of the ontological argument follow logically and necessarily without escape. If God is possible, then God exists because God has the attribute/name of being necessary and thus exists in all possible worlds, including the actual world. This follows logically and necessarily from the 1st premise.
God is the Greatest Good.
God, to whom belongs the best names, would also have the name “The Greatest Good”. Certainly, the greatest good is greater than any lesser good. And this best name thus also belongs to God.
God being the absolute good, means everything God does and God commands or likes is necessarily good. And everything God forbids or dislikes is necessarily not good (evil). The opinion of the Greatest Possible Good is necessarily good. God is the standard of goodness and all good comes from Him. The reason morality is objective is because God exists.
The weight of God’s approval:
Is there anybody in your life that you just love so much, you think they are so amazing, and you are impressed by them, and you really care what they think of you. Imagine being in their presence and having their approval and love. Now imagine this, you face literally a being that is the greatest possible of those qualities you love, the greatest good, the Absolute Perfection and excellence. You face God on the day of judgement. You are looking ahead at a being that is the Absolute Perfection, the Absolute Good and Excellence. Everything about it is literally perfect and Maximally Amazing and Maximally Impressive and Maximally Lovable. Imagine how much of that being’s approval you would want and how painful it would be if this being of just plain Absolute Perfection rejects you or dismisses you from its presence. This is why hell, where you are dismissed from God’s grace and presence, is the worst place and most humiliating place you can possibly end up. You were rejected by a being maximally good, excellent, perfect, and lovable whose approval is most coveted by everything that exists. Is there a greater loss? And is there a greater gain other than hearing from that Maximally Great being, the maximally valuable being, “I approve”. Whose approval carries more weight? Imagine some person who you really love, has amazing qualities, is highly valued by you, and they are approving & loving of you. Now imagine the maximally valuable being, the maximally lovable being, infinitely more valuable than that person you have in mind, and they approve of you. It’s a whole level of difference.
Injustice against God = infinite crime
Suppose you commit a crime against something good and innocent like a cute puppy, a child, or a good person. The severity of the crime is greater when the victim of the crime is greater in good. So, a crime carries more weight, the greater the victim is. Now imagine a Maximally Excellent Being, the Greatest Conceivable Being. This being is so great that a crime against it is far more severe than a crime against lesser beings–that’s why God is most merciful. When we defy God’s commandments, we don’’t just commit a crime against some lowly entity, we committed a crime against the Greatest Possible Good. You didn’t just transgress against a cute puppy, a child or a righteous/good person, you transgressed against the Greatest Possible Good. It takes a being of infinite grace and enormous mercy to forgive any infraction against such a being. That is how merciful God is.
Now suppose you commit idol worship. Idol worship is an injustice against God. In fact, it is a maximal injustice. You valued God less than He is. When you associate others with God, you are putting God as a colleague, a co-op, a collaborator, an associate with an infinitely inferior being. You discredit God and God’s oneness and God’s absolute Aseity and independence and necessity and you discredit God’s complete power and control over every aspect of reality tiny and great, and you discredit how all else comes to God as a servant, completely dependent on Him for absolutely every little detail of their existence. This is not a team effort. All power and all means and all action derives from God and God is the one who acts sometimes using different vessels (angels, humans) and these vessels themselves don’t possess any of their own power, nor do they do anything except that God directly wills it, and they are merely an expression of God’s own will and power (see: verse 8:17), and God doesn’t even need to express His will/power through them at all, He can just say “be” and “is” to produce the same and better outcomes. Making God a collaborator who shares some of the power or influence that exists in the world with anything else discredits God’s most central features: Oneness, Aseity, Necessity.
How many powers or influences are in the world? Does anyone else have a say in anything? Does anyone else get to influence anything? There is only one power and one influence over all things. Assigning partners with God who also have their influence in the world is a massive discreditment to the One who is running every detail of existence. You have appraised God unjustly; you have devalued just how great God is. You are thus not worshiping the Greatest Conceivable Being at all (because a being who has complete control and influence over everything is greater than a being who has control over most things). Making God be part of a team or a collaborative effort is a massive discreditment to His maximal greatness. You are essentially saying God is not maximally great anymore.
An analogy of this is imagine you have someone who is extremely credentialed, the highest degree, the highest honors, a Ph.D. in something extremely prestigious, and you tell them that their degree is fake, and they are actually just a quack who pretends to be an expert. The greater their degree/credentials, the more incorrect and unjust your appraisal is. When you appraise an infinite being with a finite appraisal by reducing His infinite power to a finite power shared with others: how much more incorrect are you in that appraisal vs. calling a highly credentialed person a quack? You are orders of magnitude more inaccurate and more unjust in your appraisal compared to your inaccuracy/injustice of your appraisal of the Ph.D. Similarly, suppose you discredit someone’s goodness and see them as a really bad person. The more good this person is, the more inaccurate and unjust your appraisal of them is. God being the Infinitely Good and you discredit His goodness to something not-infinite means your appraisal of Him is infinitely inaccurate and infinitely unjust. You’ve made God no longer a Maximally Excellent Being in your appraisal. This is the greatest injustice. By telling a Ph.D that they are not really a scholar, you are basically dismissing 8+ years of their scholarship. You’ve denigrated them from 8+ years of higher education to 0. By telling God He is no longer the Greatest Conceivable Being, you have gone from infinity to 0. It’s a much greater denigration. It’s on a whole other level. The greater the being, the more unjust your devaluation is. (Note there are so many different modalities and senses of the word “infinite”, I’m using ‘infinite’ as a qualitative superlative modality such as how most theologians speak of these qualities—this is similar to Rashad in the introduction when he writes “God’s creatures serve Him because they appreciate His infinite magnificence” or when he translates some verses to say “God possesses infinite Mercy” or “God possesses infinite Grace”.). If this is conceptually difficult, just imagine how great God is, and thus how much more significant undervaluing God’s greatness is compared to undervaluing a Ph.D’s intelligence or a really good person’s moral integrity–it’s not even a fathomable comparison–it’s a crime at a whole different level, exceedingly severe and beyond worse than those analogies: and that’s the main point to get out of this.
So before, you committed a crime against an infinitely good being, and God is so merciful that He offers you forgiveness for that. Now you have committed an infinite crime against an infinite being. This is the analogy to committing a crime of infinite severity against an infinite being (and no analogy can really encompass how severe idol worship is): you didn’t just physically abuse an innocent child, now, you also raped and murdered the child after—that’s a whole level worse…
So now, you have committed idol worship against God…surely this infinite crime against God (an infinitely good being) means suffering an infinite punishment (infinite in severity and infinite in time) can be your sentence now?
But it’s not. God is so Gracious, so Merciful that He even forgives idol worship if you repent for it before death. This is why God is Most Gracious Most Merciful. These are not regular crimes against regular entities—these are infinite crimes against an infinitely good being. A crime is more severe when it is against a greater being (and God is the infinitely great being) and a crime is even more severe when the quality of the crime itself is more unjust/severe (idol worship undervalues God infinitely, see above). Yet God is Most Gracious and Most Merciful because He forgives sins that are this exceeding in severity. This is objectively worse than torturing, raping and murdering a child, and yet if you repent, it is forgiven. There isn’t anyone I know that would forgive any child rapist-murderer. Yet imagine the level of mercy for God to forgive infinitely greater offenses than that finite offense. Indeed, this is why even the angels were ‘surprised’ that God would give us a second chance rather than banish us all to hell:
*Footnote: 21:51 …As it turns out, this whole world was created to redeem those among us who deserve redemption. When the angels suggested that all the rebels, humans and jinns, must be banished out of God’s kingdom, ‘I know what you do not know’ (2:30)….
So, God even remains infinitely graceful and merciful by forgiving our idolatry in this world if we repent for it. But now suppose something even worse, suppose someone unrepentantly and consistently continues to commit this infinite crime against the infinitely good being despite multiple reminders to desist? This one is irredeemable. This one insists on his crime and insists on serially committing this crime. And so, this is unforgivable, if they were to come back again to this world, they would keep on insisting to do this infinite crime against an infinitely good being repetitively (see verses 6:27-6:28, 23:99-100). It would have already been perfectly fair for this person to go to hell immediately after they committed their first exceedingly severe crime against the infinitely good being, but God’s exceedingly generous grace and mercy gave him a lifelong chance to redeem himself. If it were up to anyone else, you’d already be in hell for the sins you’ve already committed. But you enjoy this respite and chance to redeem yourself because our god is God: the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Many don’t appreciate just how Merciful and Gracious God is. These attributes are so important for us, that God starts the chapters of the Quran with “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most merciful”. Many don’t comprehend the severity of a crime against God. A crime is more severe when it is against a greater being, and a crime is more severe when the extent of its injustice is more egregious. God is the maximal good, and idol worship is a crime of maximal egregiousness/injustice. It takes someone who is Most Gracious and Most Merciful to forgive such offenses of exceedingly severe magnitude.
When God is informing you of His qualities, He is just stating the facts. This is a favor out of His mercy so you worship the correct entity. Imagine I tell you “I have brown eyes”. It’s just who I am. I’m not elevating myself; I’m telling you a quality of my body. So, when God tells you He alone possess all power and is doing everything—He is just telling you the facts. It’s very important that we are worshiping the right god. Imagine this: Imagine you never met your mother, but she sends you letters, and imagine you know her to be amazing, smart, beautiful, etc, but you think your mom is Beyoncè and when you meet her you are surprised she is not and does not look anything like Beyoncè. You were not really thinking of your actual Mom if you were thinking of the wrong person. You must worship God for who He truly is, not some other concept that is not God Himself. To God belongs the best names, the best qualities.
[Quran 2:165] …all power belongs to GOD alone…
[Quran 28:68] Your Lord is the One who creates whatever He wills, and chooses; no one else does any choosing. Glory be to GOD, the Most Exalted…
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