Why did Allah create us if He does not need us?

- Why do we exist and why did Allah create us if He does not need us?

Dear Brother / Sister,

- Need: It means a gap that is necessary to fill and something incomplete that is necessary to be completed. It means to do something as a needy being, to fill any gap and to complete any incomplete thing.

In that case, Allah is not needy due to the following reasons:  

a) Allah is a pre-eternal being. He does not need to be existent; He does not have any incomplete things. For, incompleteness and needs are peculiar to the created beings. 

b) Not everything is done because of a need. For instance, a poet does not write poems because he is in need. For, he does not meet a need when he writes a poem.

Similarly, an artist does not paint because he needs something. On the contrary, this poet writes a poem and this artist paints a picture in order to put their skill into action.

Likewise, Allah does not need our existence. He did not feel such a need. However, Allah wanted to see the manifestations and decorations of his one thousand and one names and attributes like His endless power, knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, -so to speak- He created thousands of beings.

c) Yes, a person who has a skill wants to see and show his skill; likewise, Allah wanted to see His beautiful and perfect attributes Himself first and created beings to watch them. Then, He showed His art to conscious beings.  

- Besides, there is not only one reason why Allah created the universe.

Those explanations are the aspect of it that we can understand. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Allah, who has endless names and attributes, has endless purposes in creation.

d) However, there is a sacred pleasure, a sacred gratification in creation.

That is, Allah created beings not because He needed them but because He felt a sacred and pure gratification peculiar to Him.

Let us listen to Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, who is an expert of this issue:

“Just as the activity of creatures arises from appetite, desire, and pleasure, and there is a definite pleasure in all activity; indeed, all activity is a sort of pleasure; so too, in a suitable way and form appropriate to His essential self-sufficiency and absolute riches and in a manner fitting for His absolute perfection, the Necessarily Existent One has boundless sacred compassion and infinite holy love.

And He feels a boundless sacred ardor arising from that sacred compassion and holy love, and an endless holy joy arising from that sacred ardor, and, if one may say so, an infinite sacred pleasure arising from the sacred joy.

And pertaining to that Merciful and Compassionate One, is, if the term is permissible, a boundless sacred gratification and infinite holy pride arising from the boundless feeling of compassion that springs from the sacred pleasure, sacred gratification and pride which arise from the gratitude and perfections of creatures which result from their abilities emerging from the potential to the actual and their developing within the activity of power. It is these which necessitate in boundless fashion, an endless activity.” (see Mektubat, p. 86-87)

- Our last advice to you is to read Risale-i Nur Collection.

All of your delusions regarding the issue will be eliminated - with the help of Allah - if you want it sincerely.

Questions on Islam