God Has No Children And Here Is Why
The power of God and how He uses it are among the issues religious people pay attention to and how they view it shapes their other beliefs. The creation of heavens and earth is described in relation to this attribute of God. Verse 117 of Surah Al-Baqarah says: “God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. Whenever He decides to do anything, He just commands it to exist and it comes into existence.”
This is in a way an answer to those in Christianity and Judaism who believed God has children. Some of them would say Uzair (AS) was the son of God. Others believed Jesus (AS) was the son of God.
Allameh Tabatabaei, in his Al-Mizan Exegesis of the Holy Quran, has deduced from this verse two reasons why God has no children. The first is that having a child is possible when a natural being separates parts of its being and after gradual development makes it like itself. God is not physical and whatever there is in heavens and earth are dependent on Him. So how can anything or anyone be His child and have His attributes?
The second reason, based on this verse, is that God is creator of heavens and earth. He creates everything without having a model. What He does is not based on imitation and is not gradual like what others do. He needs no means to do what He wills to do. As soon as He says “Be”, that thing comes into existence. So we cannot say He has children because having children requires gradual development.
God’s will is based on Hikma (wisdom) and for something to come to existence only God’s will is required and there is no other condition needed.
According to the Noor Interpretation of the Quran, this verse has two messages:
1-God’s creation is always original (Badi’i)
2- God can create all the existence in just one second though His Hikma necessitates that there should be series of causes and gradual creation.
By Hossein Allahverdi
