The Creator?

At first:Can It Be Matter?

A very popular question among atheists is, ‘Granted that the existence of temporal things necessitates the existence of an eternal cause, why should that cause be the God of religion?  Why can’t matter be eternal and be therefore in no need of an eternal creator?’ 

 I shall argue, on an Islamic basis but at the same time also on a rational basis, that the attribute of eternity entails other attributes, which matter does not and cannot have, and cannot, in view of this, play the role of the original and ultimate cause of temporal things.  Muslim theologians say that eternity of existence logically implies everlastingness.  This is true because, if something is eternal then it does not depend for its existence on anything outside itself.  If this is so then it can never pass away, because only those things pass away that lose some of the external conditions on which they depend for their existence.  If the ultimate cause of temporal things is eternal and everlasting, it must of necessity be self-sufficient, [in Arabic] qayyoom and ghanee.