The Contingency Argument Points Beyond the Universe
The universe exists, but it did not have to. This simple observation that the cosmos is contingent rather than necessary is one of the oldest and most powerful arguments for the existence of God.
"Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. The universe exists. Therefore, the explanation of the universe's existence is God." William Lane Craig
The argument is elegant because it does not depend on how old the universe is, whether it had a temporal beginning, or any specific scientific finding. It rests on a single question: is the universe the kind of thing that must exist, or is it the kind of thing that could have not existed? If it could have not existed if its non-existence is logically possible then something outside it must account for why it exists at all. That something must itself be a necessary being: one whose non-existence is impossible.
What would such a necessary cause look like? It must be spaceless (since it created space), immaterial (since matter requires space), uncaused (since it exists by necessity), and personal (since the only known immaterial causes are minds, not abstract objects, which are causally inert). This is not an argument from ignorance or a "God of the gaps." It follows from the logical structure of contingency itself.
Muslim theologians engaged with versions of this argument for over a millennium. The Quran itself repeatedly draws attention to contingency: "Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose." The classical Islamic position holds that questions about the universe's existence are not about how it was caused to begin but about its ontological dependence why does anything continue to exist at all? This is not a question science can answer, because science investigates regularities within the universe, not the ground of the universe's being.
Takeaway: The question is not what caused the Big Bang but why there is anything at all and contingency points to a necessary, transcendent ground of existence.
See also: Faith Is Not Opposed to Reason | Modernity Replaced God With the Human Subject | Atheism Is Not the Default Position