In Islam, God is neither part of the universe nor is the universe considered to be a part of God. God is completely different to His creation. The Qur'an says, "And there is none like unto Him." [QUR'AN, 112:4] The Prophet Muhammad said that whatever one imagines God to be, that is not God, meaning that God's Self and Essence are beyond our imagination and comprehension.

We can further clarify the point that "God is not part of the universe" by giving an analogy. Let us assume there is a book and every word in this book is intelligent, just like a person. A word can only see letters, other words, sentences, paragraphs and pages, because only these entities exist in the realm of a book. A particular word stops and thinks. He looks at himself, and realises he is composed of letters that are put together in a particular order to give a meaning. He then looks at sentences, paragraphs and pages realising that even greater order and meaning can be observed. Hence, he concludes this book that he is in must have an author. He then extrapolates, saying, "I wonder what my author looks like?" At this point, the word will start to make mistaken conjectures, because he will try to liken the author to pages, paragraphs and other features of the book, as these are the only things he knows in his own world of existence. In reality though, the author is completely different to the book.

In a similar manner, the universe is like a book. The earth is like a page and we are like the words of the book. Just as a book has an author, the universe must have a Creator. And, just as an author of a book is completely different to the book itself, God is completely different to His creation. If a person starts to imagine the essence of God or tries to give certain images to God, he will always be in error, since we are all limited by our knowledge of this universe and God is completely unlike anything in His creation or in the universe. The existence of human-like and animal-like gods in some religions is a result of this great mistake.

When we talk about God's names and attributes manifesting in the universe, we mean that those qualities reflect themselves in the works of God. For example, God has the name Al-Jameel (The Beautiful). The beauty of a flower or of spectacular scenery is a reflection of this name. God has the name Al-Adl (The Just). The balance and equilibrium that we see in nature and the universe is a reflection of this name. Another name is Ar-Rahman (The Most Compassionate). The caring a monstrous crocodile gives its young is a manifestation of this name. Thus, each name of God given in the Qur'an informs us of an innate "skill" or "quality" of God.