Question Summary:
Can Allah create another Allah?

Question Detail:

I have come across a question and an answer from an Islamic website.  Kindly confirm if the answer given is in accordance with the correct belief of Ahlus Sunnah was Jamaah?
 
Some atheists ask questions such as, “If Allah is able to do all things, can He
create another god like Himself?”
 
Praise be to Allah.
 
This question – and others like it – contain a great contradiction.  This question is not valid at all because the power of Allah is not connected to irrationalities.
 
This argument is one of the oldest specious arguments offered by the atheists,
and the scholars have a well known answer to it, which may be summed up as:
 
The power of Allah – which is undoubtedly absolute and unlimited – is
connected to things that are rationally possible, not things that are rationally
impossible. No matter how absolute and limitless His power, it must still remain
within the bounds of possibility, and it is not connected to irrationalities. This is
not a limitation of it. In order to clarify this point we will give some examples:
 
We ask all of these bishops and theologians: Can God create another god like
Him? If they say yes, we say to them: How can this created being be a god if he
is created? How can he be like God when he has a beginning, whereas God
exists from eternity? In fact the phrase “creating a god” is a sophism or false
argument, and is a contradiction in terms, because the mere fact that something
is created means that it cannot be a god. This question is like asking could God
create “a god who is not a god”? it is self-evident that the answer can only be:
The power of Allah has nothing to do with that, because the idea that
something can be a god and not a god is illogical and is irrational, and the power
of Allah has nothing to do with irrationalities.
 
Another example: We may also ask them: Can God really expel anyone from
under His control? If they say yes, they have imposed a limit on the control of
Allah, and if they say no – which is correct – they have agreed with us that the
power of Allah is absolute and has nothing to do with irrationalities, because it
is rationally impossible for any created being to be expelled from the control of
its Creator.
 
The atheist only wants to cast aspersions on the general meaning of the words
of Allah, “Allah has power over all things” [al-Talaaq 65:12]. So he says, if He
has power over all things, why does He not have the power to do this?
The answer is: Because it is impossible, it is nothing.
 
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: As for Ahl
al-Sunnah, in their view Allah, may He be exalted, has power over all things,
and everything that is possible is included in that. As for that which is inherently
impossible, such as a thing both existing and being non-existent, there is no
reality in it and its existence cannot be imagined, so it cannot be called a “thing”
according to the consensus of the wise. This includes the idea of creating
another like Himself, and so on (Manhaaj al-Sunnah (2/294).
 
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Shifa’ al-‘Aleel (p. 374):
Because that which is impossible is not a “thing”, so His Power has nothing to
do with it. Allah has power over all things and no possible thing is beyond His
power.

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
The question “can Allah create another God like Himself?” is an invalid question.
Allah’s existence is pre-eternal. Anything that is “created” is not pre-eternal and thus cannot be a “God”. Hence, the idea of something being “created” and being a “God” simultaneously is irrational. The limitless power of Allah applies to things that are rational; the limitless power of Allah cannot be applied to things that are irrational. 
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Maaz Chati
Student Darul Iftaa
Blackburn, England, UK
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
 
Thus there is no deficiency in the power of Allah; rather there is an absurdity and inanity in the premise of the question.
 
فالله عز وجل قادر مقتدر قدير على كل ممكن يقبل الوجود والعدم
تفسير القرطبي (224/1)
 
ثم صفات الذات الحياة والعلم والقدرة والإرادة والكلام والسمع والبصر قديمة بالإجماع
شرح بدء الأمالي (28) 
 
وهو على كل شيء قدير لان نسبة ذاته المقتضية للقدرة الى كل ممكن على السواء
التفسير المظهري (311/9) 
 
وهو سبحانه المتميز بالقدرة الشاملة لكل شيء فهو جل وعز قادر مقتدر قدير على كل ممكن يقبل الوجود والعدم
التفسير المنير للزحيلي (94/1) 
 
وذلك أن قوله خلقنا كل شيء بقدر لا يريد به خلقنا كل ما يقع عليه اسم شيء لأنه تعالى لم يخلق الممكنات غير المتناهية ويقع على كل واحد منها اسم شيء فكل شيء في هذه الآية ليس كما في قوله تعالى والله على كل شيء قدير لأن معناه أنه قادر على كل ممكن غير متناه
شرح القسطلاني
 
إنه لا شيء له الألوهية والعبادة إلا الذي خلق كل شيء
تفسير الطبري 
 
والله قادر على كل ممكن وهذه أشياء ممكنة
تفسير الرازي
 
قوله ومثل ذي إرادة أي ومثل القدرة إرادة فاسم الإشارة عائد للقدرة فالمعنى: أن إرادة الله تعالى مثل قدرته في الأمور الثلاثة المتقدمة التي هي تعلقها بكل ممكن وعدم تناهي متعلقاتها وإيجاب الوحده لها بلا تفاوت بينهما ... فإن القدرة إنما تتعلق بالممكنات تعلق الإيجاد والإعدام
تحفة المريد شرح جوهرة التوحيد (199) مكتبة دار البيروني
 
أي المستحيل في حقه تعالى وعرفوه بأنه ما لا يتصور في العقل وجوده ... وهو قسمان ضروري كخلو الجرم عن الحركة والسكون معا ونظري كالشريك له تعالى
تحفة المريد شرح جوهرة التوحيد (89) مكتبة دار البيروني