“If there is a God, who came before Him?” “How do you know nothing came before Him?” These are some of the most infamous questions one will hear from atheists and agnostics. Theists too may ask this question too out of curiosity.

This can be tackled in several ways:

1. Logically, there has to be an end. Imagine in a police department, you are a lieutenant and have an issue. You go to the captain. If the captain doesn’t have the answer, he goes to the major. What if he doesn’t? That can go on and on! When will the issue get resolved? Will you keep saying, “Let me go to the higher authority” or expect there to be an end eventually?
2. When you ask such a question, you are never going to address the matter itself – whether God exists or not. You have to face that first and foremost. The rest is all secondary. If God exists, you better find His True Religion and then follow it. Otherwise, there will be consequences. Why get lost in what-ifs? Very often, people will ask “Who came before God?” and not tackle the more fundamental questions of life. If you don’t even do that, what are you prioritizing?
3. In Islam, the texts suggest that God created time and/or has control of it. See the examples below. If that is the case, and if time is different in the “realm” of God and the hereafter, then we can’t ask questions like “What came before God?” That is because time isn’t a factor to warrant such a question. The word “before” doesn’t apply anymore because God is and has been there for eternity!
   • “And He it is Who has created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each in an orbit floating” [Qur’an 21:33]
   • Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah the Almighty said: The son of Adam abuses me. He curses time and I am time, for in my hand are the night and day.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4549, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2246] “I am time” is, of course, a figure of speech.
   • “And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count.” [Qur’an 22:47] So time is different to God!

Why do we have morals? That’s a loaded question that every philosopher has to deal with in his or her career.

Let’s start off with some basics. For one, we cannot say that it’s due to evolution. Why would animals evolve to have morals? There’s no benefit. In fact, if “survival of the fittest” is the entire purpose of existence (according to some evolutionists), then we would all be killing each other. Why have a comprehensive sense of right and wrong? Why not just steal someone’s money to better our situations? One can say “Well, there’s consequences!” Regardless, if we look at it from an evolutionary point of view hundreds of thousands years ago, where societies and civilizations did not exist like they do now, what would be the benefit of having morals and restraining yourself?

And whether you are an atheist or not, you can admit that a human being’s comprehension of morality – even that of a 3-year old – is much higher than that of other animals! Why? To be frank, there are not great answers. However, there are several theistic arguments. One is simple – we feel good when justice is served and bad when something bad is done and that is because God put those in us. Then some may ask, don’t people have different definitions of morality and justice? Of course! But the concept is still there!

Now let’s look at it in another angle – the concept of morality is objective. Yup, objective! If you read in the news that a man murdered an innocent child for absolutely no reason, would you agree that the criminal’s action is morally wrong? You, and probably everyone else, would say yes. Then if you are asked, “Was it objectively morally wrong?” Again, you, and probably everyone else, would say yes. It is as objective as the fact that 1+1 = 2. But why? Can we prove it? 

If the idea of morality is truly subjective, that opens a can of worms. No one would need to follow laws and there will be no accountability, BUT the simplest of societies throughout time have had the concept of justice and people would abide by them. In Islam, it is explained that the sense of justice comes from one’s “Fitrah” or “natural disposition” that God put in all of us. It can be corrupted, but we are all born with it. Thus, when looking at the big picture and many studies suggesting that humans do have natural and moral tendencies, the concept of Fitrah does make sense! However, that’s the topic for another article!