The Hanbali jurist Ibn Al-Qayyim (d. 1350) used an example of a watermill spinning on its own, producing, harvesting and distributing its crops without anyone to guide it to argue for the existence of a creator:
"What do you say about a watermill revolving over a river in perfection?
Its tools are perfected, its parts measured with excellence, and it is so obvious such that no observer can find fault in its parts or its form. It presides over a grand garden within which are every kind of fruit and crops, watering them as needed. Within this garden, its shrubbery is gathered and its maintenance is assured for its well-being. Its produce is excellent and guaranteed, and all of its needs are well served.
Thus, nothing of it is left disordered and none of its fruit is left to rot. Then, the value of everything produced is divided according to their needs and necessities, divided by every type and distributed, and this distribution occurs in this manner at all times.
Do you find this arrangement to have a creator or harvester or manager?
Or, is the arraignment of that watermill and garden without an actor or maintainer or manager?
What do you find that your mind tells you in that case and how could you explain it?" (MiftāḥDār al-Sa'ādah wa Manshūr Wilāyat al-'Ilm wa al-Idārah)
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