There must have been a time when there was no universe. Can we call this the 'zero' point with regard to existence?
Islam certainly encourages reflection on the creation of the universe and its inhabitants. Numerous are the Qur'anic verses which invite human beings to contemplate their own creation and the creation of the world around them.
To give just one example, God says in the Qur'an: "In the earth are many signs for people with certainty of belief, and so also within your own selves; would you not see?" (51: 20-21). So your reflection and questioning is commendable, because it leads to stronger faith.
However, the line of questioning you have taken has a basic weakness in the sense that it considers time as we know it to apply throughout the universe, when it does not. Any scientist would speak about a day on Venus or Mercury being much shorter than our days of 24 hours.
By the same token, days on other planets within our solar system are much longer, because these planets take much longer to complete a full turn as they go in their orbits. You may appreciate that the days and seasons we experience are the result of the earth going in its orbit round the sun once a year, and its revolving on its axis once every 24 hours. Now why should this phenomenon of days and nights on the one hand and seasons and years on the other apply to the whole universe when it is so accidental to the earth and its position in relation to the sun?
The point here is that we cannot apply time in this very narrow acceptance to the whole universe or the Creator of the universe. There was a time when the earth and the solar system were not in existence. Hence, there was no time of days and years. Indeed there was a time when the whole universe, with all its vast galaxies, was not in existence. Then God created all that. How, when and why are questions to which we may be unable to find easy answers. We know, however, that this whole universe could not have come about by itself or by coincidence, as atheists want us to believe.
God has been there before the start of time? This may sound difficult to understand, because we cannot separate the two notions of existence and life on the one hand and time on the other.
God is the Eternal in the sense that time does not apply to Him, and He has been there before any beginning. Again this may be incomprehensible, but this is because our minds are finite and God is The Infinite. Hence our mind is unable to visualize this. As the English poet, John Dryden, says: "How can finite reach infinity?"
When we start to apply our thinking to the nature of God, we find some questions that cannot have easy answers. Yet the fact that there must be a Creator who has made all the universe and determined its laws and set them into operation remains so powerfully imprinted in our minds. Hence we should concentrate on God's attributes, rather than His nature. We know, for example, that He is the Creator and we say that He has created everything in the universe.
We know that He is Eternal, and we say that He continues in existence permanently and there will not be a time when He is not controlling the universe. I hope I have been able to set your thinking on the right lines.
• Unlawful earnings: In the past
A trading company which obtained interest based banking facilities for conducting its business made a good profit which was paid to the shareholders. The general manager, who at the same time was a major partner, bought some land and real estate with what he had received from the company. His investment has multiplied over the years to about six times its original value. However, when he realized that Islam forbids interest, he resigned and left his job. What worries him now is what to do with the assets and real estate he possesses, as they were acquired out of the income of interest-based trade operations.
This is a tricky question, because I take it that it is pretty impossible for the man concerned to know how much of his original earnings came from the facilities the company received from the bank and what percentage of that profit was the result of the direct investment of his money and how much of it was due to his own efforts. You may have a situation where a company could hope to make a net profit of, say, 20,000 Riyals a year if its trading is confined to the money the partners have paid in as capital. However, with banking facilities, the company may make a much greater profit, which is not proportionate to the actual interest it pays or receives. Moreover, the company in such conditions does not receive interest, but pays it in return for the facilities which it receives from the bank. These may be in the shape of loans or some other facilities such as letters of credit and so on. The operations of the company may be all very legitimate, but its profits have a doubtful aspect as a result of receiving such banking facilities and paying interest on them.
We certainly cannot condemn all the income this person received from his company as unlawful. Otherwise, we would be saying that all the efforts he and his partners put in the work of the company have no value. You realize that the efforts are more important in the work of the company, and indeed, from the Islamic point of view.
What I would tell this gentleman is that the fact that he has left the company because of the nature of its operations is highly commendable. Within the context of usury, Allah says: "He who receives admonition from his Lord and stops (his usurious activities) may have what he earned in the past, and Allah will make His decision in this case." But I will also recommend this person to be very charitable and pay whatever he can to poor and needy people. I hope by so doing, i.e. having nothing more to do with usury and being very charitable, the reward he receives will offset his past mistakes. Certainly, by repenting of his past sins he has taken the first step and by being charitable he takes a positive second step which will undoubtedly bring him forgiveness by Allah.
• Unlawful earnings: Its effects on wife and children
If a man makes a great deal of unlawful earnings, will that affect his wife and children? How can he escape punishment on the Day of Judgment?
There is a basic rule in Islam which tells us that everyone is responsible for his or her own actions. No one shares the burden of another. However, if this man's wife and children (if they are adults) know of his unlawful earnings and accept them or indeed encourage him in his unlawful actions, then they share his sin. That is not because they are his wife and children, but because they know of his action and they encourage him to proceed with it. They are responsible for that encouragement.
What this means in effect is that if the wife is ignorant of her husband's activities and if the children are too young to know or judge their father's practice, they are free of blame. Allah does not punish one person by inflicting suffering on another. This man is certainly responsible for what he does, but the way Allah punishes him is not by inflicting that punishment on his children or his wife. Allah is the most just of judges and He does not punish one person for another person's mistake.
Having said that, I have to point out that such a person deprives his dependents, whom Allah has entrusted to his care, of the benefits of living on lawfully earned money. What is lawful brings goodness and enhances talents and abilities. With what is forbidden comes gloom and a stifling atmosphere.
To escape punishment by Allah for such a sin, the first thing this man should do is repent of his action. His repentance must be sincere and combined with a resolve not to indulge in such an activity again. Secondly, and equally important, he should return to everyone what he got from him by unlawful means. It is open to him to return these in any way which is suitable and which does not land him in trouble. If he cannot identify those who have claims against him, then he should isolate unlawful earnings and give them away as charity. He must not keep them with him.