What Was God Like Before He Created Anything? This single question is enough to collapse the entire theological structure of Islamic tawhid. Islam and Common Sense is a rigorous, unflinching philosophical examination of the Islamic concept of God - written by a former Muslim who converted to traditional Catholicism, and who knows both sides of this debate from the inside. The author does not write from a place of detachment. Born into a Muslim family and educated in Catholic schools, he spent years in relativism and New Age spirituality before returning, with full conviction, to the pre-conciliar Catholic faith. That journey gave him a rare vantage point: he knows what it feels like to sincerely believe in Islamic monotheism, and he knows precisely where that construction begins to crack. A Philosophical Challenge, Not a Polite Dialogue This is not an interfaith dialogue book. It does not seek common ground between Islam and Christianity. It is a work of Catholic apologetics - systematic, documented, and direct - that demonstrates why the Islamic concept of God cannot be sustained on philosophical and theological grounds. Across twelve chapters, the book builds a layered, interconnected argument: Chapter 2 - The fatal flaw of unitarian tawhid: a solitary God who existed alone before creation is, by definition, an imperfect God. Chapter 3 - Why the Quranic answer to "Why did God create?" reveals a narcissistic deity who needs worship to complete Himself. Chapters 4 & 5 - How the Islamic doctrine of tanzih (absolute divine transcendence) makes Allah ultimately unknowable - and therefore unable to be genuinely worshipped. Chapter 6 - Why Allah's perfection is a verbal label, not substantiated by the created order Islam itself describes. Chapter 7 - Why "God is love" is an ontological statement in Christianity but an empty claim in Islam. Chapter 8 - How the Euthyphro Dilemma exposes Islamic morality as arbitrary and potentially capable of sanctioning objectively evil commands. Chapter 9 - The Mu'tazilite-Ash'arite conflict: Islam's own bloody internal crisis that it was never able to resolve - and what that reveals about the fragility of its theological foundations. Chapter 10 - The Trinity is not a mathematical contradiction. It is the only philosophically coherent concept of a perfect God - and the logical consequence of God being the Creator of life. Chapter 11 - The ultimate argument: applying the logic of Solomon's wisdom to determine which God is real. The answer is written in blood on a wooden cross. For Catholics, Christians, and Honest Seekers This book is written for Catholics - especially those living in Muslim-majority contexts who face theological challenges daily and lack the tools to respond. It is also written for Christians of other denominations, for Muslim readers willing to follow an argument wherever it leads, and for anyone who is tired of the relativism that passes for wisdom in our age. Arguments are evaluated on their merits, not on academic credentials. The author is a layperson - as were Saint Justin Martyr and G. K. Chesterton before him. The tradition of lay apologetics is as old as the Church itself. Islam and Common Sense is planned as a trilogy. This first volume addresses the most foundational question of all: Who is God? Volume Two will examine Islamic doctrine and teaching. Volume Three will address the prophethood of Muhammad. Each volume can be read independently, but together they form a single, unified argument: that the entire edifice of Islam, when tested against a consistent standard of common sense, cannot sustain its claims to truth. Truth is not always comfortable. But truth is the only foundation worthy of being stood upon. And it is upon that foundation that this book was written.
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