Is It Possible for God to Create Another God?

Answered by Ustadh Mohammed Tayssir Safi

Question: Assalam alaykum

I had a discussion with an atheist and he wanted an answer to this: If Allah can do anything, so can He create another God more powerful than Himself? If one answers yes, that means Allah is not The Most Powerful. If one answers no, then that means Allah can’t do everything (not omnipotent).

How would we answer this?

Answer: As-salaamu ‘alaykum,

Questions like this are born out of a lack of understanding of what Allah’s power (omnipotence) is, what it relates to, and ultimately what the terms, ‘rational possibility,’ and, ‘rational impossibility,’ actually mean.

The question that was posed to you is commonly used to prove a point, but it is ultimately illogical and incoherent. It is as though the questioner is asking: Is it possible for the impossible to be possible? Can God, Who has unlimited and unchecked power, create another being that checks His Own power and will? In other words, can God make Himself no longer God? Can
He render the rationally necessary (His unchecked and unlimited power and will) rationally possible? Can He render the rationally impossible (that there be another omnipotent deity) possible? Of course, all such questions are ridiculous contradictions and show an inherent lack of understanding of what words mean as well as a lack of consistency of logic and first principles.

The answer to such an illogical question is not to respond with a yes or no but rather to point out that the question is incoherent. If someone were to ask you, ‘Can you hand me the book that is inside of the house that is also outside of the same house?’ You would not reply to this question with a, ‘yes or no,’ answer, rather you would say that the question is incoherent and the questioner is contradicting themselves. You are left confused thinking, is the book inside of the house or outside of it? Similarly, if someone were to ask you, ‘Are you 27 years old and about to turn 28 while being 45?’ Again, this question does not deserve a, ‘yes or no,’ response because it is incoherent and does not make sense. Is the questioner positing that you are 27 or 45? How can you be both? These types of questions defy the most basic rules of language, logic and first principles and leave the listener baffled by the contradiction.

Allah’s attribute of power applies only to that which is rationally possible, not that which is impossible. The rationally impossible is that which the mind cannot conceive the existence of. God’s not being able to do the rationally impossible does not vitiate His omnipotence. It is not a condition of God’s omnipotence that He be able to do that which is rationally absurd. Therefore, when someone essentially asks you, ‘Is it possible for the impossible to be possible?’ or, ‘Can God make Himself no longer God?’ the answer to these absurdities is not, ‘yes or no,’ but rather to highlight the contradiction.

I pray this answers your question. May Allah fill your heart with knowledge and certitude.

I leave you in Allah’s care,
[Ustadh] Mohammed Tayssir Safi

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani