and during the rattling of the chests and the reaching of the souls to the collarbones, or while they are in the swelling sea, carried by one of the plowing vessels, having faced the blowing of the fierce storms that began descending them into the depths and raising them to the peaks. At that time, and upon that occasion which is most grim for the evil souls, you see that very atheist who yesterday used to mock at the mention of the Majestic Expression, and discuss with all foolishness the existence of its Named One—you see him resorting to its mention with his tongue, crying out to it for help to save him from what has befallen him and what he is proceeding toward. And here is Pharaoh, who was arrogant and transgressed, and called out to his people:[ “And said, 'I am your most exalted lord,'”] ¹

; he says and insists when the drowning overtook him: [“He said, 'I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims.'”] ² .

Exalted is Allah, transcending above the sayings of the deniers with great sublimity. And the issue of the existence of Allah, the Creator of this universe, is a reality that the revealed Books mentioned and stated openly; and when presenting it to the intellect—just as Allah commanded us in many verses of the Quran—you find that its affirmation does not constitute an intellectual contradiction. Rather, its denial constitutes an intellectual contradiction, because it makes the generated, effected world exist without a cause and without an agent, and this is an impossibility that constitutes a flagrant intellectual contradiction—or it makes the effect the very same as the cause, and this also is an impossibility that constitutes a flagrant intellectual contradiction. And of these two impossibilities, the Quran expressed through His saying:[“Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]?”] ³ .