The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Here is a link. Please read under “4 Bowled over”. My quote in the post above has some extra words over and above this link. I got it from the same newspaper in yesterday’s news.

I too am among the thousands of people who became interested in astronomy through reading books by Patrick Moore, which I first did at the age of 12. I then closely followed the space missions of the 1960s and 70s, especially the Apollo missions. Mathematics being my subject, I also acquired technical understanding of the subject.

Of what I have read above about Sir Patrick Moore, he brings to mind Sir James Jeans, another British astronomer. I am told that he similarly believed in the First Cause and this is narrated by late Sir Zafarullah Khan in his book Tehdees-e-Naimat, as both were friends. Also, Wikipedia points to the same- link.

The following excerpts from various publications of Woking Mission and AAIIL further the topic at hand:

>>True Science and true Theology are one and the same. One reveals the Laws of God working in the various manifestations of the Universe, on the physical plane; the other discloses the same Laws at work in the Moral and Spiritual sphere. All these laws emanate from the same First Intelligent Cause, and cannot, therefore, admit of any mutual discrepancy. [ref: Islam and Zoroastrianism by Khwaja Kamaluddin, p. 91, Basheer Muslim Library, The Mosque, Woking, pub: 1925.]

>>The greatest height intellect can elevate us to, is that there ought to be a God. But whether He is actually there, is a question that surpasses the region of our stereotyped intellect. No amount of argumentation can bring home to the blind that light is there. What he can perceive is only this much, that there ought to be something called light, as there are so many reports to show its existence. But the law of nature, where there is a demand there is a supply, compels us to believe that there must be some solution or other of the problem. So far as man’s capacity for the acquisition of knowledge is concerned, he has two instruments, sense organs and intellect. But both of these are ineffective to take us beyond the quagmire of doubt and suspicion so far as the existence of God is concerned. The craving for first-hand sure knowledge is there. Law of nature requires the possibility of means to satisfy the craving. Sense perception and intellect, the two sources of knowledge, are not potent enough to help us out of the difficulty. Therefore, there must be some other channel of ascertaining truth, to accept which we must not be reluctant. [ref: God Speaks to Man (Revelation) by M. Muhammad Yaqub B.A., Islamic Review and Muslim India, Vol. VIII, No. 6-7, June-July 1920, p. 273, The Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust, The Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England]

>>A scientific man, too, perhaps will be able to advance some arguments for the existence of God. He will show the series of cause and effect and will ultimately terminate it, at the first cause. He will study the wonderful organization of the world, of our solar system, and will draw the conclusion that there must be a creator and organizer of this huge thing which we call the universe. But a scientific research will always prove that there must be someone, and not that there actually issomeone running this machinery. The scientific conception of a Deity is very vague, indefinite, and stern, without any personal touch, He is only a Power, devoid of all sentiments and emotions. He is inexorable and rigid. The advocates of the religion however are singularly positive about him. They feel the existence of God; they realize Him; and one of the means of their realization is miracles? The God of a religion is a personal God, full of sympathy, merciful and compassionate. He is a friend, as well as master. He gives and takes. In a word every man is associated with Him and finds solace and comfort in believing Him. He looks upon Him for help in misfortune; and gives thanks to Him in the heyday of belief. Faith is said to have a tremendous influence; but conviction is the mother of Faith. [ref: Miracles of The Holy Prophet; The Light, Lahore, Vol. 1, No. 24; December 1923]

>>…the Holy Qur-án makes it perfectly clear that Allah is the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth; that Allah’s purpose is in this world [is] just as much as in the other; and that the proper goal of man’s endeavor is to serve His holy purpose in this world intelligently; not as a blind, helpless puppet but as a khalifah, “viceroy,” possessing judgment and responsibility in all things which concern him in that office. And only by success in Allah’s service here can man attain to Paradise hereafter. His behavior cannot in any way affect Allah, but it affects himself. [Conception of God in Islam, by Marmaduke Pickthall, Islamic Review, Vol. IX, No. I, January 1921, p. 11, The Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust, The Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England]

>>Everything in the world appears to have been enchained by the Law. It follows it implicitly  Is it then other than Allah’s religion that they seek (to follow), and to Him submits whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him shall they be returned? (3:82). Nature discloses regularity, precision, punctuality, knowledge, power, command, intellect, preordination, prearrangement, precaution, and several other features that are the possessions of the mind exclusively. In their presence the universe cannot be taken as the outcome of accident; It needs an intelligent Design to precede the process of its creation. The word design is sometimes used to bore minds with skeptical tendencies, but it now carries wider connotation. It brings within it so many facts and figures recently discovered by Science that disbelief in God would amount to ignorance. [Note: “intelligent Design” referred to here has no relation to contemporary evolution debate] [ref: Introduction to Study of The Holy Quran, by Khwaja Kamaluudin, p. 21, Dar-ul-Ishahat-Kutub-Islamia, Fatamabi Court, 4th Floor, 17 M Azad Road, Jacob Circle, Bombay. 1939, 1950, 1991]