The argument from being seeks to establish God’s existence through the objective fact of existence (wujūd) and not the so-called makeup and whatness of reality which is what science essentially deals with. Whatness is called māhīya in Arabic. The argument from being argues that there are two kinds of existence, contingent and necessary.

Contingent beings do not exist in and of themselves, but exist by virtue of their relation to other things, as well as being an effect of a logically prior event. A necessary being is a being that exists in and of itself and does not exist by virtue of its relation to other things, or an event or being that is logically prior to it. It is fully existing and independent in all respects.

There cannot be an infinite chain of contingent beings, nor can there be an infinite chain of cause and effect for it leads the logical absurdity* of infinite regress*. The fact that we exist is proof that this chain of being is not infinite. The first starting point must therefore be the Necessary Being, who by virtue of bringing everything into existence, including consciousness and intelligence, must also hold something analogous to them.

The Necessary Being must be an intelligent being that is the immaterial, spaceless, timeless, eternal cause and source of all of reality. This is the definition of the Muslim God.

To learn more, please tune into the full version of this lesson.