Atheism

Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.

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Universe . Atheism . God (Allah)

How does one answer atheists who ask why God needed to create us in the first place and what was the reason behind creating the universe?

Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 5 years ago

The reason of our creation by Allah is to shower on us His Mercy and bounties.

Our existence is a great bounty from our Creator Allah (SWT). All human beings know that their life is the most important for them, and it is in fact a bounty from Allah (SWT).

Wassalam.

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Atheism . God (Allah) . Sunni-Shi'a

I am on the cusp of atheism. How am I supposed to know God exists, that Islam is right and that Shia Islam, despite being the minority, is also right?

Zoheir Ali Esmail, Shaykh Zoheir Ali Esmail has a Bsc in Accounting and Finance from the LSE in London, and an MA in Islamic Studies from Middlesex University. He studied Arabic at Damascus University and holds a PhD... Answered 5 years ago

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. Although such broad questions would require a series of discussions rather than an online answer, the question of knowing largely comes down to a number of presumptions about how things are known. Most people do not actually know what they have presumed or the nature of how presumptions are evaluated and that is how they can get into intellectual predicaments as our presumptions can simply arise from those that dominate the intellectual environment that we live in and digest through the arts.

For example, if we have presumed that all that can be reliably known must be known by the five senses, then with that presumption it is impossible to know that God exists. But why should someone take that presumption over the presumption that a human can know more than what their physical sense perception accounts for? If we presume that we can know through other than our physical sense, then we can know God through our other senses and trust those senses in the way that we can trust what we already know to be limited physical senses. So once the issue of presumptions is solved a person can rationally move towards establishing the existence of God and answering the other questions you have posed.

God is also known through a deep connection and feeling within the soul.

If you would like to discuss your questions further please feel free to reach out on social media via my Facebook account.

May you always be successful

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Ramadan . Atheism . Sawm (Fasting)

I was born a Shia Muslim but became an atheist and did not fast during Ramadhan. I have since returned to becoming a Muslim. Will Allah forgive me and should I make up for the fasts that I didn't do?

Allah is The Most Merciful, The Most companionate and The best Forgiver.

When Allah knows your sincere repenting feelings, He will grant His mercy on you.

You need to make up (Qadha) all the missed worships.

Wassalam.

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Atheism . Doubt . Faith (Iman)

As a student in the UK I have come across some material promoting atheism and as a result I have begun doubting everything. How can I get the doubts out of my mind and strengthen my faith?

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. Both sides of the God debate have their own arguments and rebuttals and so if a certain argument has caused confusion you should seek its response from those who have been well trained in the intellectual sciences. It is also important to consider the role of religious experience when forming the presumptions to your intellectual framework and to realize that atheists also recognize the validity of theist arguments based on the presuppositions of theists.

May you always be successful.

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Marriage . Conversion to Islam . Atheism

Can a Muslim man marry an atheist if she accepts Islam before marriage?

Seyed Ali Shobayri, Seyed Ali Shobayri is of mixed Iranian and Scottish descent who found the path of the Ahlul Bayt (a) by his own research. He holds a BA in Islamic Studies from Middlesex University through the... Answered 5 years ago

Bismillah,

Asalamu Alaykom,

If this woman you are getting to know says that she will accept Islam, then you can marry her. If she chooses to stay atheist, then all types of marriage (temporary and permanent) are not allowed with her.

So before marrying her, she must accept Islam and sincerely utter the testimony of faith.

May Allah grant you success

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God (Allah) . Atheism

I am a 16 year old boy and am wondering if you can help me understand why we need God and why do we need to believe in Him? I understand that everything needs a creator but why does it stop at God?

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. We need God as without Him a human cannot reach their spiritual and material perfection. Wealth and position are not perfections for a human, but wisdom, knowledge and purity are. Our need for Him is based on an internal yearning, which is not always sensed, but a person will feel that yearning within them at certain times strongly. That yearning stems from the natural connection we have with Him as His creatures. Without God life loses purpose and meaning. We need Him because without Him we live a life of falsehood and we will bear the consequences of that falsehood when we leave the blindness of the material realm and the overwhelming truth of God is manifest.

As for why this should be God rather than any other creator, it is because God possesses every beautiful attribute. We worship and serve Him because He is worthy of that, and His Unlimited nature doesn't leave room for glory to belong to anything else. Any perfection that you see attributed to any person or being belongs to God. He is the origin of all and unlimited in His perfection. Therefore, it stops at God because in truth God encompasses all. All created beings finally need a creator who is not created, and that is God.

May you always be successful

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Animals . Mankind . Atheism

It is said that humans share about 98% of their DNA with chimpanzees. If this is true, does it not imply that we are hardly different from animals and just an advanced breed of monkeys? How can religion justify considering humans special in any way?

Amina Inloes, Amina Inloes is originally from the US and has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter on Shi'a hadith. She is the program leader for the MA Islamic Studies program at the... Answer updated 5 years ago

The Islamic tradition does not say that human beings are fully different from animals. Like animals, human beings eat, drink, move around, sleep, mate, fight, grow up, and have social communities. Allah says of animals: "There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end." Animals have their own ways of praising Allah just as human beings have their own ways.

However, what makes human beings special or different is not their similarities with animals but rather their differences, especially the human soul. Allah speaks of breathing some aspect of the divine spirit into the human being. As a result, the human being has free will, a strong intellect and capacity for abstraction, can develop or devolve spiritually to very high or low levels, can rise higher than the angels, and can manifest a variety of the names of Allah. It is the human being that took on the risk/responsibility for these things, as mentioned in the Qur'an, whereas animals did not. Therefore there is a difference between the human being and other animals, even though there are also some similarities.

Otherwise one could also say that human beings are similar to piles of dirt, because all the elements that make up the human being come from the earth, and yet it is this quality of life and soul that make a human being different from a pile of elements.

How much this relates to DNA is an open question, but it is my own understanding that at least some of what distinguishes the human soul is not material in origin and does not come from DNA.

Animals . Mankind . Atheism

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. If we assume the facts of the question as true, the question presupposes that volume equals importance. If the 2% difference gives rise to very distinct and important differences then monkeys and humans are not the same, as is clear from the difference in the way monkeys and humans live in this world. Another assumption is that all that is involved in being human is contained in DNA, and not just a human's physical aspects, which is something that is not established.

May you always be successful

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Universe . Atheism

What is the response to a cosmologist who says that the universe is not designed at all and is a place full of chaos and a product of accidents?

The above answer is an excellent theological argument. Additional thoughts:

It is difficult to convince someone whose mind is already made up. If the prophets could not convince all people during their lifetimes, we can't have any hope of that! Sometimes the best thing you can do is just to try try or even just simply be an example with your faith and differing viewpoint.

It should be self-evident that the very fact that accidents can create order and beauty (such as in fractal geometry) itself requires a higher intelligence and some sort of plan.

I suspect that many astronomers/cosmologists who profess atheism and who reject religion actually don't wholly reject the idea that the universe could have a creative force, inherent meaning, or inherent purpose. I think it is near-impossible to study the heavens without having some sort of awe and sense of mystery. I think it is more common that they reject the form of organized religion they were exposed to growing up because it was unsophisticated, insufficient, or unhealthy. For instance, sometimes, in some places, children are given the mental picture of God as a bearded, angry white man. Or, they may have had negative experiences with provincialness or hypocrisy in a religious community. Religion may simply not have been discussed with a depth that was compelling. Of course this isn't everyone, but I think it happens more often than not. Otherwise, throughout most of history, science was associated with theism or some sort of religious/metaphysical belief. Certain, it was in the Islamic heritage.

Here is an interesting podcast about Jesuit astronomers. Of course, it is from a Christian perspective, but it discusses their work as a way of finding God in all things, and I am sure it is possible to compare and contrast issues with an Islamic perspective. https://onbeing.org/programs/guy-consolmagno-george-coyne-asteroids-stars-and-the-love-of-god/ Some interesting quotations from it:

* It’s only human beings that have this curiosity to understand: What’s that up in the sky? How do we fit into that? Who are we? Where do we come from? And this is a hunger that is as deep and as important as a hunger for food because if you starve a person in that sense, you’re depriving them of their humanity. And being able to feed this, being able to make a person more human or make them welcome into the great adventure of the human race for the 20^th century — going to the moon, things like that — that was really important to them and really important to everybody I talked to. And suddenly — oh, that’s why we do this.

* Those classic scientists believed that understanding the natural world was the best way to understand the mind of its maker.

Universe . Atheism

What is the response to a cosmologist who says that the universe is not designed at all and is a place full of chaos and a product of accidents?

Abbas Di Palma, Shaykh Abbas Di Palma holds a BA and an MA degree in Islamic Studies, and certifications from the Language Institute of Damascus University. He has also studied traditional Islamic sciences in... Answered 5 years ago

as salam alaikum

the order present in the universe is an empirical fact that no sound mind can dispute. The earth, the sky, the clouds, the rain, the sun, the moon, etc., and all the living beings on the planet, all interact with each others and works according to specific sets of rules and criterions. This indicates, at least indirectly, the presence of a Creator who created and sustains the world.

Also, if the world was just the product of accidents we may ask ourselves: who/what created those accidents? Who/what put them into motion? A thing cannot be created by itself because it would imply its existence before its existence which is an impossibility. We cannot also suppose that physical matter always existed with no cause because corporeality depends on temporary qualities such place, color, movement, stasis, etc. that need to be caused by some external agent (otherwise they would be already attached to their subjects). We conclude therefore that there is one Creator for the whole universe upon Whom the whole creation depends.

With prayers for your success.

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Doubt . Atheism . God (Allah) . Faith (Iman)

There are many atheists whose words have created doubt in my mind about God. What should I do to strengthen my faith?

Rebecca Masterton, Dr Rebecca Masterton graduated with a BA in Japanese Language and Literature; an MA in Comparative East Asian and African Literature and a PhD in Islamic literature of West Africa. She has been... Answered 6 years ago

There are many scientists (particularly physicists), who, on a scientific basis, conclude that there must be a conscious transcendent being behind creation. If we look at the work of scientists and why they conclude that there is a God, this can help to strengthen our UNDERSTANDING (and not just our faith). The work of Wolfgang Smith is interesting. He is a scientist who has pointed out the philosophical errors that form the basis of today's (mainly post-Enlightenment) science. His books include 'The Quantum Enigma' and 'Cosmos and Transcendence'. It is also useful to explore a range of theodicies (arguments that tackle the question of the suffering of the innocent and the justice of God). For those that argue that there is no life after death: there are millions of anecdotal accounts that testify to people encountering those that have died in one way or another - and these cut across all cultures. There is certainly evidence that some way of existing continues after our bodies have expired. So far I haven't come across good explanations for this by atheists.

Doubt . Atheism . God (Allah) . Faith (Iman)

There are many atheists whose words have created doubt in my mind about God. What should I do to strengthen my faith?

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. It is important to be well equipped to deal with the arguments of atheists especially if their arguments and opinions have an effect on your faith. In order to do this you should seek out scholars who specialise in the intellectual sciences and speak to them about the issues and questions that remain unanswered for you. They should also be able to help you construct a framework for your beliefs as well as show you the weaknesses in the presuppositions of atheistic beliefs. In the modern study of the philosophy of religion it is well accepted that religious belief is justified.

May you always be successful