The philosophy of pantheism and its relationship to the name Allah or Rahman
The philosophical epistemological summary of the idea.
- This research aims to provide a comprehensive Qur’anic philosophical reading of the concept of belief in existence and its intrinsic relationship with the name Allah or Rahman, as the mental conceptualization that represents the principle and the destination in the cognitive and existential structure of the universe. The researcher starts from the premise that divine existence is not an object that pure reason can prove or disprove within the frameworks of the empirical method, because in the Qur’anic conceptualization, God is the source of laws, not the subject of them, and He is the Absolute, not limited by time or space.
Through seven interrelated themes, the research seeks to analyze the relationship between innate knowledge and rational perception, and between cosmic law and the divine mercy that governs it, tracing how the Qur’an reformulates the philosophical concept of existence based on the “good names”, especially the names of Allah and Rahman, as the full manifestation of the abstract concept and the figurative meaning.
- The study shows that faith in the sense of belief and mental conceptualization is not a dialectical position between mind and matter, but a state of cosmic consciousness that stems from man’s innate nature (Rum: 30). The relationship between perceived nothingness and existence is also highlighted through the concept of “central zero,” which symbolizes the balance of beginnings and endings in the divine order of the universe. In the end, the paper concludes that contemporary atheism is not a rejection of the true God as an existence or an idea, but rather a rejection of the distorted image created by earthly religions, and that the return to “the Rahman” is a return to the supreme law of existence itself.
Philosophical introduction
Since the dawn of human consciousness, the question of existence has been the most present question in the human mind. In a moment of existential reflection, man realized that the world he sees is neither subjective nor self-sufficient, but is governed by a system of subtle laws that could not have been created by chance or by blind matter.
But the dilemma was not in questioning the existence of the Creator, but in how to perceive Him, as the mind is helpless before the Absolute, because its tools are limited by time and space, while God is the Creator of both time and space.
At a time when scientific, materialist, and religious explanations are in conflict, this paper presents a philosophical vision based on the Qur’anic text alone, without any human references, to show that belief in existence is not a product of proof, but rather a manifestation of the innate consciousness that God has deposited in the soul. Fitrah, as the Qur’an expresses it, is the “divine program” implanted in the structure of man since creation, which directs his consciousness towards the knowledge of his Creator, as in the words of Almighty God:
{Set your face to the righteous religion, which is the nature of God’s instincts that He instilled in mankind. There is no alteration of the creation of God, but most people do not know it}[Surah al-Rum: 30].
This study seeks to explore the philosophy of faith through the intrinsic relationship between “existence” and God’s names “Al-Rahman” as the keys to understanding the mystery of creation; existence is a manifestation of mercy, and mercy is the soul of existence.
Through seven integrated analytical axes, the research addresses: The limits of knowledge, the meaning of the impossible, the unity of the divine names, the philosophy of nothingness, and the reason for the formation of atheism in light of the deviation from instinct.
Chapter one: Why can’t God’s existence be scientifically proven or disproven?
Leading philosophers and thinkers agree that the existence of God cannot be scientifically proven or disproven. Science, with its empirical approach, is based on observation and measurement, that is, on what can be subjected to sensation or experience. However, in the Qur’anic conceptualization, God is not part of the natural world to be the object of measurement, but the one who created the world with all its laws that organize matter.
He says:
“And they argue with Allah, and He is very hard.” (Al-Ra’d: 13).
“Extremely impossible” – as the researcher contemplates it – is not an adjective of anger, but of the impossibility of comprehension; that is, the human mind cannot subject the Absolute to its limited laws. Science investigates what can be observed, while God is the one who made observation possible.
Even the greatest scientific theories, from relativity to quantum mechanics, implicitly recognize that the universe is infinite and that there are unobservable levels of existence. In this context, the inability to scientifically prove God becomes evidence of his transcendence and transcendence and release, not his absence and non-existence.
The Qur’an refers to this fact in the words of Almighty God:
{Futter of the heavens and the earth, He has made for you from yourselves a husbandࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰࣰ and from plants and animals. He is not like anything like Himself; He is the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing {[Surah al-Shura: 11]
{Blessed be Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, [Surah Al-A’raf: 54].
In other words, God is not a creature to be measured against, but the Creator who perceives everything and nothing perceives Him (Al-An’am: 103).
Hence, the belief and inner need for the existence of this omniscient power is not a deductive mental process, but an innate realization in which the mind meets the consciousness expressed in the text by the soul, not in proving existence but in recognizing it.
When the researcher contemplates the nature of human existence, he realizes that he is limited by the structure on which he was created; everything we know passes through the senses, and the mind works only on what it receives from its inputs. Therefore, so Realizing the same existence is a philosophical impossibility before it is a religious one, because God is the absolute perfection at which all possibilities end. He says:
{Say: “Say: Allah is One (1), Allah is the steadfast (2), He was not born, nor was He born (3), nor did He have any other equivalent (4)” [Surah Al-Ikhlaas: 1-4].
Here, oneness does not refer to the number “1”, but to the first existential unity that is impossible to measure, because everything else is possible and limited.
And in the words of the Almighty:
{Did not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the earth were once a firmament, so we opened them and made everything alive out of water, and do they not believe }[Surah Al-Anbiya: 30]
The text refers to the first moment of creation in which the material existence formed was separated from its non-material, non-nothing existence, or rather, from the total unity that preceded creation.
This “cosmic hernia” is the beginning of possible realization, because before it there is no time, space, or matter, i.e. science cannot go beyond it. Hence the philosophy of the impossible: To surround ourselves with what surrounds us.
Since ancient times, man has sought to “know God” with reason, but the more he advances in science, the more he becomes aware of his ignorance in the face of infinity. He said:
“And you have little knowledge of science” (Al-Israa’: 85).
The cognitive deficiency here is not a defect in man, but an innate system that prevents the realization of the Absolute in order to protect the essence of faith and belief. Because full knowledge of God eliminates the meaning of believing in Him, while true faith is the recognition of the greatness of the divine unknown.
Chapter Two: Divine names, the dialectic of Allah and Rahman, and the system of the Great Law
All the divine names in the Qur’an – such as al-‘Alim, al-Qadir, al-Muhayman, and al-‘Aziz – are but manifestations of a single cosmic law, the Universal Law of Being, which combines comprehensiveness and unity. However, the names “Allah” and “Rahman” occupy a unique metaphysical position in this pattern, because they encompass all names and attributes and together form the two poles of the cosmic order: Matter and the cause of its existence.
He says:
Say: “Call upon Allah or call upon the Merciful, whichever you call upon, He has the best names.” (Al-Israa’: 110).
This verse draws the boundaries of similarity between the two names on the one hand, and complementarity between them on the other; “Allah” is the universal name that refers to the absolute totality of existence, while “Al-Rahman” is the name of the divine action that gives existence its perceived meaning and continuity.
Mercy is not an emotional emotion, but an existential law by which forces are balanced, and by which the possibility of life and creation is realized, just as the female womb incubates the fertilized egg. The Qur’an emphasizes this meaning by saying:
“The Lord sits on the throne and is exalted” (Taha: 5).
In other words, the cosmic order (the throne) is based on the law of mercy, not on power, chaotic domination, or conflict, which undermines the old metaphysical notion that existence is based on “eternal conflict” between opposing forces.
All other divine attributes – such as power, knowledge and wisdom – fall within the duality of “God the Merciful,” because God is the source, and the Merciful is the active manifestation.
This concept is summarized in the Qur’an:
“God, there is no god but Him, and He has the best names” (Taha: 8).
In this way, the divine names become an existential map that shows how unity is manifested in multiplicity, and how multiple attributes are united into one integrated pattern, the base of which is the acidity of the true existence of birth.
Awareness of this dialectic between “God” and “Rahman” makes believing and believing in Him an act of cosmic realization that is not separated from science, but exceeds it towards wisdom. The believer sees in the laws of the universe a picture of the womb that embraces everything.
Throughout history, humans have tended to liken God to what they know, or to represent Him in a physical form that enables them to communicate with Him. But this seemingly natural tendency leads to the most dangerous kind of epistemological error: The objectification of the Absolute.
The Almighty says in no uncertain terms:
“There is nothing like him, and he is all-hearing and all-seeing” (Shura: 11).
This verse cuts off all materialistic conceptualization of God, and redraws the relationship between the Creator and the created on the basis of total transcendence. God cannot be perceived by the senses, nor by the mind that has been shaped by the senses, because they are part of the world of creation, while God is the One who has surrounded everything with knowledge (Al-An’am: 101).
The Qur’an’s choice of “hearing and sight” at the end of the verse has a philosophical significance; they are the tools of perception in man, and by them knowledge is gained. They are the tools of perception in man, and by them he acquires knowledge. But he, God, is a hearing that is not like hearing, and a sight that is not like sight, as he is not limited by direction, time, quantity, quality, or mass:
Allah brought you out of the womb of your mothers, not knowing anything, and made for you hearing, sight, sight, sight and understanding (al-Nahl): 78).
In this verse, it is understood that man is not born knowing, but is given the tools of knowledge gradually, and that his knowledge is relative and limited, and cannot approach the divine release. If “God is a greater law transcending the like,” it means that whatever is measured by Him is canceled by Him. Hence the Qur’anic prohibition against analogies and personification, because God is not an idea to be drawn or defined, but an absolute principle that governs all existence with truth.
Chapter three : Faith and Atheism Between Existence, Program and Function
Many contemporary thinkers make the mistake of thinking that atheism is the opposite of faith, by which we mean belief. In fact, as the researcher sees it, atheism is an inverted form of faith; both arise from the same question, but atheism goes astray when it tries to reduce God to a mental concept or sensory experience, failing to recognize it and rejecting it.
The Qur’an has indicated that the function of the divine messages was not to prove the existence of God, but to reveal the divine law that organizes life:
The issue is not the existence of God but the understanding of his “function” in the world. Atheism is essentially a rejection of God’s program in history, not a rejection of his absolute existence. When some atheists object to Qur’anic rulings such as jihad, qisas, etc., their objection stems from a failure to recognize the overall structure of divine law, which links every ruling to its merciful and cosmic purposes.
He says:
“There is no compulsion in religion.” (Al-Baqarah: 256).
“Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve” (Al-Kahf: 29).
This recognition of freedom of belief emphasizes that faith, by which is meant belief and conviction, is not imposed from the outside, but is born from within, i.e. from the instinct that God has instilled in people (Rum: 30).
When nature goes awry, atheism appears as a spiritual pathology rather than an intellectual proof. With this understanding, faith becomes a cosmic law that connects the righteous man to his source and returns him to his function in the universe: Worship through knowledge and science through mercy.
One of the most confusing concepts in contemporary philosophical thought is that of nothingness. Many confuse “nothingness” with “nothingness,” while the Qur’an offers a different vision, making nothingness an existential state of unformed force, rather than a negation of existence. Nothingness is not an absolute negation, but rather the stillness of existence at its first center, the point at which beginning and end, existence and obliteration, abundance and unity are balanced. Nothingness in the sense of absolute negation is a mere illusion, since there was no such thing as a nihilistic station either before or after. He says:
“He is the First and the Last, the First and the Last, the Outer and the Inner, and He is all-knowing” (Al-Hadid: 3).
This verse is the philosophical key to understanding the “cosmic zero” that mediates all dimensions. God is the first, the principle of existence, the last, the end of existence, the manifest in the manifestation of the universe, and the hidden in its secret.
Hence, all existence acquires its meaning only in relation to the First and the Other, that is, to the Divine Principle and Fate.
In modern physics, zero is understood as the balance point between opposing forces; no positive or negative value can exist without the presence of the zero that limits it. This is manifested in the digital system, which is the only common language between humans, as no number can carry the value of its content without the presence of the constant zero, of which the number “1” is a true description.
In this context, it cannot be said that the universe was created “out of nothing,” because nothing produces nothing. Rather, it was created out of the invisible will of existence, which manifested itself in mercy. It is well established in science that matter is indestructible and cannot be created out of nothing. Just as zero is neither seen nor understood as a value but establishes the entire digital system, mercy is invisible but establishes the harmony in the entire cosmic system. It is the gateway through which the divine power passes into existence, and death and destruction are not annihilation but a return to that central point from which we began and to which we return:
{When We fold the heavens like the folding of the book of books, as we started the first creation, we will repeat it again, a promise upon Us, that We were the doers of it}[Surah Al-Anbiya’: 104].
Chapter Four: The distortions of religious perceptions and their role in pushing people toward atheism
In its modern form, atheism is not so much a rejection of God as it is a rejection of the image of God painted by historical religious discourses. Many people do not deny the Creator, but rather the God who has been presented to them as authoritarian, contradictory, or divorced from justice and mercy.
The researcher believes that the essence of the crisis lies in the deviation of the religious concept from the Qur’anic concept; the Qur’an presents God as a single creator for all people, not a god for one group over another, as Almighty God said:
“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul” (Al-Nisa: 1).
This original unity eliminates all racial or religious distinctions in essence, and redefines the relationship between human beings on the basis of piety and knowledge, not affiliation or form, as the Almighty has said:
“The most honorable of you before God is the most pious of you.” (Al-Hujrat: 13).
When religious discourse fails to represent this balance, people are alienated by their image of God, not by God himself. Modern atheism is a reaction to the distortion of belief in existence, not to belief itself.
In many stages, religion has turned into an authority that excludes, not a mercy that includes, while God described himself as the merciful and compassionate, and made his mercy wider than everything. Hence, the treatment of atheism is not by argument or preaching, but by reforming the image of God in human consciousness, to return to its pure Qur’anic origin that combines justice, mercy and rationality.
Conclusion.
After this intellectual journey, it can be said that believing and believing in existence is not a temporary mental attitude, but a state of consciousness rooted in the existential structure of the human being. The mind, despite its greatness, is incapable of fully realizing God, because God is the one who created the mind and surrounded it. Hence, faith is not a belief without evidence, but a transcendence of evidence to its source: the consciousness of the instinct that knows God without mediation.
It turns out that the names “Allah” and “Rahman” constitute the greatest law of existence, which governs the relationship between the Creator and the creature: “God” is the principle, and “Rahman” is the action; “God” is the absolute existence, and “Rahman” is the womb that gives it meaning and continuity.
When contemplating the philosophy of imagined nothingness, we realize that what we call “nothingness” is another face of existence, and that zero is not a void but the center of balance between beginning and end.
As for atheism, it is in essence a search for God in a different way, but it goes astray when it looks for God in creatures rather than in itself, because God is closer to it than a vein:
{We will show them Our signs in the horizon and in their souls until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth; or is it not enough for your Lord that He is over all thingsࣲ [Surah Faslat: 53]?
We have created man and we know what his soul whispers; and We are nearer to him than the cord of a vein {[Surah Q: 16].
{He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six daysࣲ and then rested on the throne; He knows what goes into the earth and what comes out of it, and what comes down from the sky and what goes up in it, and He is with you wherever you are. and what comes out of it, and what goes down from the sky and what comes up in it; and He is with you wherever you are, and God is all-seeing of what you do}
[Surah al-Hadid: 4]
{And to Allah belongs the east and the west, so wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah, for Allah is all-knowing and all-encompassing}
[Surah Al-Baqarah: 115]
When man realizes this proximity between himself and the divine presence, the question of God’s existence turns into an awareness of His presence, and controversy turns into stillness, and research into witnessing. In light of all the above, the main findings of this research can be summarized in the following points:
- Reason cannot scientifically prove or disprove the existence of God, because God is above science itself.
- The severity of the impossible is not a cognitive deficit, but an expression of the greatness of the Divine Absolute.
- The names “Allah” and “Rahman” form the law of existence and mercy that binds the whole to the One.
- Faith is an innate awareness of harmony with divine law, not a theoretical argument.
- Nothingness in the Quranic concept is not absolute negation and annihilation, but the center of the cosmic balance in which oneness is manifested.
- Atheism is the result of the deviation of religious perceptions from the Qur’anic origin.
- A return to God is a return to mercy, and mercy is the essence of existence.
At the conclusion of this meditative path, I recall the words of the Almighty, as if they were the epitome of all faith consciousness:
“Is there any doubt in Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?” (Ibrahim: 10).
With this earth-shattering interrogative question, God brings man back to his first instinct, where faith, belief and conviction are not obligatory, but rather a presence and awareness of the soul. Do you realize how the mother’s womb played its role towards you while you were inside it, creating and forming from a sperm, a leech and an embryo until you emerged from it as a child? Let alone the cosmic, existential womb.
