“Everything besides Allah is False!”

Have You Ever Wondered Why?

The Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, may peace and blessing be upon him, is reported to have said:

“The truest words ever uttered are (that), ‘Everything besides Allah is False!’”

— Sahih Bukhari

Islamic Doctrine informs the Muslim, as its fundamental premise, that every around us does not, of itself, exist. We exist only solely by the will and intent of Allah, this divine being more than adequate a reason for the creation of all being.

The existence of the world is thus a shadow existence in so far as a shadow cannot exist without the object, which is in itself real and true. The existence of the shadow cannot in anyway be denied, but it is contingent on the existence of the image too is completely different and separate from the real existence of the object.

Similarly, the existence of the world is a ‘shadow’ existence, different and separate from the real existence of Allah. The important thing that has to be noted in this regard is that the shadow of a thing is not the thing itself. It is different from the object numerically as well as qualitatively.

The world is, in essence, unreal. What imparts to it a ‘shadow existence’, a semblance of reality, and elevates it from absolute nothingness and gives it a permanence and stability, is the reflection of Allah’s existence and attributes on it: Allah decree that it be:

“For when he intends that a thing be, He merely declares, ‘BE’ and it becomes.”

— (2:117)