Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | April 15, 2018

The distinguished mathematician, Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, who once visited Mumbai, said that God was a mathematician. This idea is not new. In the mid-twentieth century, Sir James Jeans suggested that the universe was handiwork of a mathematician. Centuries before him, Pythagoras said that all things are numbers.

To Picasso, God was an artist. "God is really another artist," he said. "He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat."

Einstein once said that the Lord is subtle and-though not malicious-is very clever. One who observes the universe is confronted with the awesome feeling that there is a being greater than himself at work in it. A mathematician comes across such high mathematics as to make him aware of the triviality of his grasp of the subject. "God is a great mathematician!" he exclaims.

To an artist, the art displayed in the universe appears so sublime as to make his art seem worthless and he spontaneously cries out, "God is the greatest artist!"

The wisdom prevailing in the universe is such as to astonish a genius; he in turn discovers that there is a genius far greater than him at work.

The truth is that God is the greatest mathematician, the greatest artist and the greatest genius. One who fails to find the manifestations of God in the universe is blind, and one who does not believe in God after having seen Him insensate.

God's might is indeed manifest in a thousand ways, but it is only those who open their minds and hearts to Him who can be truly aware of His blessings. Only those who ponder and reflect over the creation and the numerous phenomena of nature can discover the Creator in such profound and thrilling manner.