“It is Allah who sends the winds, which stir up clouds. He spreads them across the sky as He wills and breaks them into masses, and you see the rain coming forth from within them. When He causes it to fall upon whichever of His servants He wills, they rejoice, although just before it was sent down upon them, they had been in despair. So look at the effects of Allah’s mercy—how He revives the earth after its death. Surely He is the One who will revive the dead, and He has power over all things.” [al-Rūm: 48–50]

And He, Exalted is He, says:

“O people, a parable is presented, so listen to it: those you invoke besides Allah could never create a fly, even if they gathered together to do so. And if a fly snatches something from them, they cannot recover it. Weak are both the seeker and the sought.” [al-Hajj: 73]

And He says:

“He presents to you a parable drawn from your own lives: do you have, among those whom your right hands possess, any partners who share equally in what We have provided for you, whom you fear as you fear one another? Thus We explain the signs in detail for people” [al-Rūm: 28].

And He, Almighty and Majestic, says:

“Have you not considered the one who disputed with Abraham about his Lord because Allah had granted him kingship? When Abraham said, ‘My Lord is the One who gives life and causes death,’ he replied, ‘I give life and cause death.’ Abraham said, ‘Allah brings the sun from the east, so bring it from the west.’ Thus the disbeliever was confounded. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.” [al-Baqarah: 258]

Section

Abraham’s moving from his initial argument—that Allah gives life and causes death—to the fact that He brings the sun from the east was not a transition from one proof to another. Such a transition would signify an inability to silence his opponent with the proof with which he began, and that cannot be correct. Rather, he silenced the disbeliever with the very proof he had initially advanced, without departing from it for another. For he ascribed lordship only to the One capable of creating and originating actions. He therefore said that Allah gives life and causes death—that is,