Had There Been Other Gods

And the other to point out comes before that: verse 22. There is no time to go into it in depth, but it is a very important evidence of the oneness of Allah.

He says law kāna fīhimā ālihatun illā Allāhu la-fasadatā: had there been in the two — in the heavens and the earth — a multiplicity of gods, had there been more than one god, then both would have fallen into chaos. But we see that the earth and the heavens are not in chaos.

The notion it means to invoke is that whenever more than one person, or more than one party, is charged with the care of something, it ends in chaos. Too many cooks spoil the broth. It is difficult to have two managers at the same level, or two chiefs at the same level. Partnerships are difficult. So Allah says: look at it in the case of the heavens and the earth — that when you look at the heavens and the earth there is no chaos in them.

And this, as has been said, is something set out in the books of theology. Looked at from that point of view, everything proceeds in order. We have the greenhouse gases and the difficulties of the ozone layer, yes; but that is because human beings make a difficulty there. From the point of view of the governing of it, the earth and the heavens are, mā shāʾ Allāh, in complete order. That may be looked at for oneself.