# If God made the laws of nature, can He break them? *Is God bound by the laws of nature, or did He set them by choice?* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hiu1gjszg1e/s/8/ - Date: 2020-10-13 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Discussion on Miracles: A fallacy against God | Mufti Abu Layth (31:16–37:20) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIU1GJSzg1E&t=1876s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hiu1gjszg1e/ **Topics:** Reason and revelation; God and the divine attributes; Quran and evolution **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** God is not stuck with the laws of nature; He created them by choice and keeps to them, just as He keeps His promises about salvation. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says God is not stuck with the laws of nature but created them by choice. **Evidence, his words at 32:36:** “it's not that god is stuck with them he has rather created them uh so he's created them obviously by choice” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIU1GJSzg1E&t=1956s) ## Longer summary The caller asks whether Mufti Abu Layth is saying God must abide by the rules of this universe. Mufti says God has set rules that He does things by: from the beginning of existence the laws of physics were set in motion and God created them, so He is not stuck with them but chose them. The caller cites a speaker's example that chance is only human ignorance of all the forces on a coin. Mufti asks whether, if God keeping His own rules limits Him, the rule that belief and righteous deeds lead to paradise would also limit Him; the caller distinguishes grace from rules and says God does not have to create humans through a man, a woman and a womb. ## Sources and names cited - sunnat Allah (God's unchanging way) ## Transcript (machine tier, 31:16–37:20) [30:38] source of all life this this pond or whatever it is the quran also mentions that you know every single living thing came from this source of water now i'm saying what's wrong with that with that belief why is that belief problematic that all living things are created are from one source the problem with that would be the limitation of allah azzawajal saying in order for allah to do what he's doing he has to abide by his creation this universe how we see things now how things make logically sense to us [31:15] now uh that's how it seems like what what you're saying like rules yes is that what we're saying yes but then does allah so you're saying allah himself has to abide by the rules is that what you're saying you're saying that you know what it means is that allah cannot do something outside the rules of this world this creation this universe why is this is saying okay let me reframe that could that not equally be that allah has set rules which he does things by [31:56] you see because you're saying it as though the rules are being forced onto god what i'm saying it as though god has with creation so when you see when creation let's say if we're going not with the multiverse theory with the general so just pre b big bang as this this existence comes into creation this energy from energy the moment it comes into existence uh you know within a a fraction of a you know of a fraction of a second you will have several laws are being set into motion of physics um and you will and then from [32:36] energy comes mata matter is created from energy now and and these laws are created by god he's created these laws of things like whether you're going to have the law of elector you know of electromagnetism of these forces of these different things it's not that god is stuck with them he has rather created them uh so he's created them obviously by choice have to abide by those laws yeah but but if he wants to what's the problem for example like i don't believe there's a certain there's a thing as a chance you know the probability uh i was listening to farah zahabi and he gave a perfect example [33:15] of when you're you know tossing a coin in the air you know it's 50 head or 50 tails but if as humans we had the capability ability to account for all the forces acting on the coin then we could make the coin land 100 times heads 100 times tails but since we don't have we have limitation we call it chance but there is no such thing as chance that's our limitation yeah i'm i'm not arguing with the laws of chance here uh i'm saying that look this what we're discussing here is that the world the cosmos has laws [33:54] rules has rules within forces not beyond humans i would say that you know light and these things have they have kind of certain laws we interpret them as laws obviously to them yes has to abide by a rule or a law sure allah azzawajal is not made of material no he's not and we're not saying allah has to allah is not for example being held down by gravity he's not being he's not doing what we're saying here is the fact that he's made rules somehow that you're saying the fact that he's made rules that's a problem is that what you're saying oh the fact i see is that for me i just believe [34:34] i don't have to have uh the idea that you know the only way it's going to make sense is for it to be through evolution that the fact that he's powerful that he could make everything out of nothing so let's let me get this let me get this right the fact that a lot of subhanallah so powerful it could be that islam is just wrong and he's just said it's right but it will just be wrong afterwards he'll change his mind no because he said it's not wrong that's different though yes no but why what let's let's get this right then why is that why would that be different that if you're saying god can make a rule and he can change it he which i believe [35:12] he can change but you're saying if he doesn't change it somehow shows he's incapacitated because he hasn't changed the rule because otherwise he's he's stuck so god says if you believe if you believe in my messengers and if you do righteous actions you'll go to heaven now is that a rule that not necessarily because uh prophet muhammad peace be upon him he was asking for forgiveness you know 67 70 times a day and sahabah said why i don't yeah i don't mean from the grace perspective i mean is that a rule though of thumb are we saying that so for muslims like they they will [35:52] if you embrace the message it goes to salvation is that a rule i don't mean obviously everything is up to the grace of god so by god having this rule has he placed limitations on himself to say that uh to say that god that only way because you're saying that no because you're saying that god by placing rules and just following them has limited himself but then you're saying to accept islam as the way of the truth and to attain salvation is a rule that god has made to attain salvation then thereby unless god breaks this rule [36:30] he has limited himself no no no that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying but that follows that naturally follows does it not no i don't believe it does what i'm saying is that uh god does not have to follow the idea in order to create you need to have a man and a woman you need to have you have to fertilize it in a womb and from that uh he has to create a human being because that's that's the nature of this world god doesn't have to do that right okay but does he do that though no i don't believe that no okay so ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment HIU1GJSzg1E/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hiu1gjszg1e/s/8/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.