Challenging the Existence of God

Challenging the Existence of God

Opening Praise and Salutations

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the most noble of prophets and messengers, and upon his family and companions. As for what follows:

Introduction: The Challenge to Prophethood

The title that I have been given to share with you about challenging God through challenging the Prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ. Actually, I'd like to feed off of what our beloved Shaykh Mukhtar elaborated so beautifully and kind of summarize it because I need that to feed off of and to actually discuss with you a few things that I have in mind on this topic.

Personal Experience with Faith and Doubt

Essentially, in my personal experiences, this is not something based on books and research. It is based entirely on anecdotal, personal experience. My own journey towards faith and friends and others that I've met along the way that have had conversations with me about trouble in believing in God and things like that.

Two Core Issues of Atheism

First Issue: How We View Creation

Basically, atheism boils down to two issues where people of faith and people not of faith see things very differently as far as I'm concerned and I think one of them was almost completely dealt with in Shaykh Mukhtar's talk and that is the idea of how we view creation. The idea that a believer sees creation very differently. We're looking at the same sun, the same moon, the same earth, the same existence, the creation of our own selves down to the same protein, but the conclusions we're reaching are very, very different.

For an atheist, it is essentially chalked up to chance and chaos and has no purpose of conscience in and of itself. The entire universe is without conscience and therefore it is easy to extrapolate from that that human beings themselves don't possess a conscience. So the entire idea of right and wrong and morality all of it can be washed away because it is entirely up to us to decide what is right and wrong, etc.

So a consequence of believing in this chaos is actually it brings the chaos to human existence. In other words, we're not answerable to anyone and we don't have to have any order in our lives. So there are consequences to this beyond just an academic exercise about the origins of the universe. They have direct impact on how we see our own lives.

Second Issue: The Attributes of God and Justice

The second most common discussion and there are obviously branches that come out of these discussions but the second major one is essentially the matter of attributes of God. And if there is a God, how is he so unfair? And this thing boils down to - I'm being again very unacademic as I explain this to you - it's either a personal matter or it's an observational matter.

Personal Matters of Justice

So in a personal sense, if God is so awesome how come I was diagnosed with cancer? How come I lost my job? What did my child ever deserve to die? How come the tornado hit my house, not the next door house? Basically matters of justice - God and his relationship with justice. How come this injustice happened to me?

So it's some kind of a personal trauma which was alluded to in the previous talk as psychological origins of atheism, right? There's a personal experience with some kind of bad experience and you blame God for it, how come he didn't protect me from it? How come he didn't come to my aid? I even prayed to him so many times and I still failed and I didn't get into medical school, etc, etc and therefore I'm having a crisis of faith. That's on a personal side.

Observational Matters of Justice

On the observational side is how come there is war? How come there is disease? How come there are diseases that have no cure yet, or whatever? Or how come there are catastrophes where innocent people are dying? And all of this, look around you, where do you see justice? How can you believe in a God that lets all of these kinds of things happen?

The Real Issue Behind Criticism of Revelation

Now, my subject is not where atheism comes from but rather one of the superficial criticisms of people of faith is actually not a conversation about God or about the validity of an existence of God or a God or Allah with perfect attributes but rather a conversation about how silly it is to believe this thing people call revelation.

How can you people believe that there's a man who God speaks to and gives a message to and this message is supposed to be absolutely followed and this man had no scientific exploits and he was living in pre-modern times in the middle of a desert or even those before him, the other prophets that came before him, and they're supposed to have a message that's relevant to all of us even though we're living in the age where discovery and information is now more evolved and more expanded than ever before in human history? How is he supposed to know better how we live our life? And he lived in a primitive desert where they didn't even have brick construction. How is he supposed to tell us how to live our lives?

The Underlying Problem: Denial of Allah

The argument I'm trying to present to you is if someone's already having a problem with the ultimate authority, Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal), then having a problem with his ambassador to the earth and having a problem with his message sent to the earth and his messengers is only a secondary issue. That's only a secondary issue. Even if you resolve this issue, the underlying issue is a denial of Allah himself. That doesn't go away.

The Trap of Apologetic Debates

So a lot of times, young Muslim people and I've seen this in my own experience when I was younger and a lot dumber and I'm still climbing out of the well of stupidity myself, I see a lot of young people still caught up in this thing and they're really fired up about their da'wah and things like that and an atheist comes or a Daniel Pipes comes or some other writers come and they say, look, the Qur'an has contradictions or it has this or that or the other or you people believe this Prophet Muhammad says this. They don't call him prophet. They don't say salallahu alayhi wa sallam. We do, right?

And he says, this is found in Bukhari and this is found in Muslim. How do you explain this and how do you explain that? And we get so fired up and we need to answer all of those criticisms. And we feel the urge to say, no, no, no. There's no contradiction here. There's nothing here. You're actually looking at it the wrong way. And they label all of our responses as apologetics. All of our responses are basically us finding one way or the other to rationalize what is inherently flawed. That's how they view it.

The problem with all of this is we're getting caught up in a game that is designed for us to lose. It's by design. The nature of this game is no matter what you come up with. (لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ - la yu'minun). And it's not (لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالرِّسَالَةِ - la yu'minun bir-risalah). It's not a matter of rejecting revelation. It's a matter of rejecting Allah Himself. Allah Himself.

Quranic Perspective on Atheism

Now let's turn to the Qur'an for some guidelines on this. On atheism, I would consider myself finally maybe a beginner student of Qur'an now after maybe 15 years of trying to understand this book. And I can tell you one thing with some level of confidence: Atheism is not a subject in the Qur'an. Atheism is not a subject in the Qur'an.

Qur'an does discuss doubt. It absolutely does. It does discuss doubt. But it discusses doubt in revelation. It discusses doubt in messengers. It discusses doubt in the afterlife. All the things, all the aspects of our faith that stem from believing in Allah. The conclusions you're supposed to reach if you truly do believe in God. There are some conclusions you're supposed to reach on your own. Like this God would not have left me without guidance. This God cannot be unjust. There must be some mechanism of justice. All those conclusions people doubt. And those are discussed.

Allah's Rhetorical Question About Doubt

And when it comes to Allah and doubt, Allah just asks the rhetorical question as though it's not even a valid concern:

Is there even doubt in Allah? And even that's not أَفِي وُجُودِ اللَّهِ شَكٍّ . It's not even "Is it in the existence of God there is doubt?" But rather أفي الله شكٍّ . That can even be understood as "Are you doubting His justice? His mercy? His love? His care? His guidance? In what He's telling you? Are you doubting any attribute of His?" Not His existence. His existence is not questioned in the Qur'an.

The Natural Belief in Allah

And the answer to that that Sheikh Mukhtar referred to from Surah Al-A'raf just hands it to us. Because it's a natural part of our being. It was instilled inside of us. The belief in Allah. We have to work to exercise it out of our system. That's our view. Our view of ourselves and our view of the universe around us is fundamentally different. It's fundamentally different.

The Miracle of the Qur'an

Finally I want to talk to you about the miracle of the Qur'an and the miracles given to previous prophets. And these conversations have been in our tradition for a very long time. And you've heard some version of this either in a (حلقة - halqa) or in a (خطبة - khutba), Sunday school before you passed out. But somehow or another you've been exposed to the idea that the Qur'an is a miracle.

Different Dimensions of the Qur'anic Miracle

When it comes to the miracle of the Qur'an, what's usually done is that it is - the idea of the Qur'an being divine, right? Here's proof that it cannot be the product of the human mind. Here's conclusive evidence. It is usually presented from one dimension or another. Perhaps it's the scientific knowledge it contained. Perhaps it's linguistic perfection. Perhaps it's legal depth. You know how comprehensively it covers issues like inheritance in such brief language. Perhaps it's brevity in speech. Perhaps it's its imagery. Perhaps it's its power on human beings, its psychological effects. Perhaps it's the impact it had on human history. What other document has had that kind of impact on human history? Perhaps it's its readership or the effects it has on a person individually. Perhaps it's its spiritual power.

There are all of these different dimensions of what makes the Qur'an miraculous. The problem however is when we phrase it incorrectly. When you phrase it incorrectly, you're saying the Qur'an is a miracle because of these reasons. That in my humble opinion is phrasing it incorrectly.

Personal Experience of the Miracle

The Qur'an is miraculous in more ways than you and I can understand or perhaps even appreciate in a lifetime. But what I find - I'm phrasing it the way I think it should be phrased - what I find particularly miraculous about the Qur'an is... and then you fill it in. What I am left dumbfound with is this. What captures me more than anything else is this.

You see the miracle of the Qur'an experienced by Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه when he was listening to the ayat as a disbeliever hiding behind the veil of the Kaaba and listening to the ayat being recited by Rasulullah ﷺ. That could pretty much even read his mind. He was thinking something in his mind. The Prophet doesn't know he's there. He's just reciting the words. He says this is a pretty beautiful recitation. This is good poetry.

It's not the word of a poet. And he didn't say it out loud, but the Qur'an is being recited saying it's not the word of a poet. He goes, "I read my mind."

It's not the word of a mind reader. "Whoa, read that too."

Individual Appreciation of the Miracle

If you were to ask him at that moment, "What is the miracle of the Qur'an?" He'd say, "These ayat. These are the miracle of the Qur'an." In other words, the miraculous power of the Qur'an is appreciated at an individual level. It is appreciated at an individual level. It is not one dimension or the other that is blasted across humanity and everybody will believe it or appreciate its power in the same way. It doesn't work that way.

Two Dimensions of Quranic Reflection

And the evidence of that I want to present to you from the Quranic perspective and I'll sit down. You see, belief in Allah is a composite of two things to us. It's a spiritual reality and an intellectual reality, yes? Belief in Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal) is on the one hand a spiritual truth. It is something that rests in the heart of the believer. But at the same time it is something that we call to (على بصيرة - ala basira) - with eyes open. There are fundamental, philosophical, rational, commonsensical evidences based on which we believe in Allah. Some of which very eloquently and very comprehensively you heard in the last talk.

The same is true of the Qur'an. Reflection on the Qur'an and a complaint by Allah عز وجل that reflection is not happening as it should - tadabbur is not happening as it should - is iterated a couple of times in the Qur'an. And once it is mentioned as a spiritual problem and the other time it is mentioned as an intellectual problem. It's incredible.

Spiritual Reflection

Allah complains about the lack of reflection on the Qur'an and questions whether is it the hearts that have their own locks placed on them. That's a long discussion I'm not gonna explain the ayah or discuss things from the ayah. But what I'm gonna get to is Allah argues in the ayah. He complains that people don't reflect on the Qur'an enough because there's a problem where? In the hearts. Yes? In the hearts.

Intellectual Reflection

Another place in Qur'an Allah عز وجل says:

Don't they reflect upon the Qur'an? And had it been from other than Allah, they would have found a lot of contradiction in it. Now when you're looking for contradictions in a text, is that a spiritual exercise or an intellectual exercise? That's an intellectual exercise.

The Need for Sincere Reflection

The reflection on the Qur'an on the one hand Allah claims it doesn't happen because people - their hearts aren't in it. Their hearts are not in it. But if their heart was in it and they were seriously looking into the Qur'an and reflecting, then they would discover that it absolutely has no criticism, no contradiction.

The question about people who say "I've read the Qur'an and it's got a lot of contradictions" - I've read your Qur'an, I live in Texas now, I can't help it - "I've read the Qur'an, it's got a lot of contradictions." You've read it but you haven't what? Reflected. You haven't reflected. And when you reflect you will only discover that there is no contradiction. But who is going to spend time reflecting on the Qur'an? Except someone who is deeply, genuinely from their heart looking for guidance. Otherwise you'll do a casual read, pick out the things you'd like to criticize and move on.

The Qur'an Reveals Itself to the Sincere

Qur'an makes its miraculous nature clear to the one who gives it a fair chance. If you give it a fair chance, it'll make itself clear to you. So the argument you're having outside of your MSA room with the philosophy club guy - that argument will go on forever. It started when I was there in the MSA back when I could barely grow beard hair and I was discussing God with a guy across from the other room. And now it's another guy who's barely growing his beard hair and he's arguing with another guy. And the arguments haven't actually changed. They haven't actually changed. The size of our cellphones have, but you know, it's cyclical. We're caught in this cycle. We have to understand there's something more.

Personal Fascination with Quranic Language

And that if we present the miraculous power of the Qur'an in a blanket way, the final issue with this is going to be it creates a problem. For example, I'm a student of language. One of the things that fascinates me about the Qur'an more than anything else is the incredible language of the Qur'an. It's just mind-boggling how intricate the language of the Qur'an is. As a student of language, as a student of linguistics, and then a student of Qur'an, you are left just dumbfound. You're just left dumbfound.

Example: Satan's Attack Directions

You know the ayat about shaitan - what directions he will attack from? And even if you don't know the Arabic, what directions will he attack from? From the front? From behind? From the right and the left. Okay.

Now the thing is, I've got to finish this talk because this is too interesting. Have a seat everybody. So shaitan attacks from how many directions? The devil attacks from how many directions? Four. From in front, from behind. But then - not - he changes the preposition. Now in the English language it says from in front, from behind, from the right, from the left. But the kind of "from" used when the right and the left are mentioned is changed. The kind of "from" used in the Arabic for the front and the back is the same, and the right and the left has been altered. It's "an," it's not "min," which again in translation would come across as "from." You wouldn't notice the difference.

Except "an" linguistically eludes to further distance. It eludes to more distance. "Min" is actually immediate, mubashir. It's immediate, direct. And "an" is more distant. On the right and the left there are angels of us, yes? And he has to get through them. So it's a little bit more of a distance. Of the many explanations of the "an" and the ayah, just down to the prepositions.

Personally I'm fascinated by this stuff. I'm mind blown by this stuff. But I will not go out and say, "Here's the reason why the Quran is a miracle." I will say, "Here is why, here is what impacts me from the miracles of the Quran. Here's what makes the Quran beautiful to me, overwhelming to me. I'd like to share some of that with you." I'm not interested in a debate.

The Problem with Debates

And that's the last thing here. I know when Muslims think believers, atheists, then it's, in your mind you see like a boxing ring, you know, in a showdown. It's not a showdown, it's not a match. Debate is the probably the worst kind of exercise you can do when it comes to this issue.

Debating is kind of like a fight. Nobody goes into a match ready to lose. You don't go into a match ready to lose. You go into a match to take the other one out. And if they tell you something that stumps you - meaning you prepared your arguments and the other came with arguments and it seems like they overwhelmed your arguments - it's not like you're going to say, "You win, I'm a believer now" or "You win, I'm an atheist now." No, no, no, I'm going to go back to the drawing board and I'm going to come up with a way to punch you right back.

In other words, the attitude in a debate is not one of accepting the other. It is one of crushing the other. So if you're already getting into a debate, then no, you're not heading down a productive road. You're just not heading down a productive road. We can have discussion. We can have an exchange of ideas. But you should have the common sense to know when it's turning into a debate and stop yourself because it's just not productive. It doesn't bring any good. It doesn't have any good.

Conclusion: A Universal Problem

May Allah help us understand this topic and its roots. And I pray that the youth among us that are kind of taken in sometimes by these kinds of arguments - it's not just our faith, by the way. Islam is the easy target nowadays as far as being criticized. But young people across faiths are actually losing faith. And that is not just their problem. I'm worried about the Muslim kids. Actually, that's a universal problem.

Because Islam, if you look at the Qur'an, it actually called people that already had some kind of faith which Islam considered in need of adjustment, in need of refinement. And then it purified it. Even the mushrik had a kind of faith, didn't he? He had some kind of faith. It just needed to be cleansed. It just needed tazkiyah. To have that premise to work with, that baseline to work with, that is where the invitation of Islam begins.

So it is a problem across the board that people are losing faith, not just Muslims. And it is something that we have to try and address from its intellectual roots, from its social roots, from its psychological roots.