‫ إسلام آباد‬، ‫الجامعة الإسلامية العالمية‬

Topic: Atheism
Prepared by:
Bassil Ahmed Qureshi
7134-FU/BS/F20
Submitted to:
Dr Ajmal Farooq
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‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

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 Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgement

2. Summary

3. Introduction

4. Atheism: Its Definition, History and Growth

5. Life Without God: The Implications of Atheism

6. A Dialogue with atheist?

7. Self-Evident Why Atheism Is Unnatural?

8. The Qur’anic argument

9. Conclusion

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 Acknowledgement

A special thanks to most respected

teacher Dr. Ajmal Farooq for

inspiring me to write this detailed

report.

I would like to thank my family

especially my father and mother for

supporting me throughout my life.

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 Summary

In this report, first I discussed the definitions of

atheism from different perspectives. As it is a good

method to have a basic understanding of what we are

dealing with. Then I briefly described the history of

atheism from both Islamic and western perspective. Then

a detailed argument is laid why atheism is not the

solution.

The methodology that I used is qualitative method for

writing this report.

What I found is that atheism is the most illogical way of

living life and I laid a solid argument proving my point.

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 Introduction

I choose to write on this topic because this is the most

demanding topic of this time as many young people are

leaving their religion and are becoming atheists. The

reason behind their leaving of religion is that they find

atheism a solution to their problems.

In this report I tried to discuss this issue of clash between

atheism and religious beliefs and tried to prove that

atheism is not the solution for their problems. The only

solution for all the problems of humanity lies within

belief in one and only god.

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Atheism: Its Definition, History and

Growth

Definition

Atheism linguistically means ‘not a theist’; in other

words, someone who does not believe in a God or gods.

The prefix a means none or not, and theism, coming from

the word theos, denotes a ‘belief in the existence of an

intervening God or gods.

In general, the critique and denial of metaphysical beliefs

in God or spiritual beings is known as atheism. As such,

it is usually distinguished from theism, which affirms the

reality of the divine and often seeks to demonstrate its

existence. Atheism is also distinguished from

agnosticism, which leaves open the question whether

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there is a god or not, professing to find the questions

unanswered or unanswerable.

Atheist in practical

So, here’s a summary of what it practically means to be

an atheist. Firstly, there is the negative assertion that one

is simply a disbeliever in a God or gods. Secondly, there

is the view that the current arguments for God’s

existence are not convincing, which implies agnosticism.

Finally, there is the positive assertion that there are no

gods. Such an assertion requires an argument. Many

atheists are atheists simply because they are not

convinced by any argument in favor of the Divine. This

means that most atheists are not really atheists at all, but

closet agnostics.

Islamic definition

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The traditional Islamic term for atheism is ilhaad, which

literally means ‘deviation’, best translated as

‘godlessness’. The term ilhaad comes from the Arabic

word lahad, which is used to describe a type of Islamic

grave where a hole is dug, and a side pocket is made for

the deceased. In this sense the lahad is a deviation from

the main hole that is dug. Linguistically, this implies that

atheism is a deviation of what is natural and rational. The

Prophet Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬taught that all human beings are

born with an innate nature or primordial state that

essentially acknowledges God and has an affinity to

worship the Divine. This Prophetic teaching provides a

clear basis for the Islamic belief that atheism is unnatural

and an aberration of the human psyche.

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History

In Islam

Atheism was not a major social and intellectual threat

until the emergence of the 8th century Dahriyya. These

thinkers were empiricists who believed that all

knowledge could only be acquired via the empirical

method. They believed that the cosmos was eternal and

composed of four qualities, which were responsible for

everything that existed. They argued that everything had

always existed and did not require any creator or maker.

According to Kitab al-Aghani by Faraj al-Isfahani, Abu

Hanifa, the famous jurist and founder of one of the

traditional schools of thought, debated a Dahri in the 8th

century. Abu Hanifa was known to have intellectually

hammered the Dahriyya in public debates. Many of the

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Islamic scholars responded to the claims of the Dahriyya,

including Al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Jaḥiẓ, Muhammad

b. Shabib, Ibn Qutayba, and Abu ‘Isa al-Warraq. In Al-

Ghazali’s book, Kimiyaʾ-yi-sa‘adat, he describes the

Dahriyya as reductionists who do not have a holistic

understanding of the universe and its purpose. He asserts

that they are like ants on a piece of paper that cannot lift

their eyes from the ink or the pen they see before them,

thus failing to see who is writing.

In West

Atheism was not a popular movement in antiquity, and it

did not have a substantial following. According to

historians, all we have in this period are individuals

(cases of exception) “who dared to voice [their] disbelief

or bold philosophers who proposed intellectual theories

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about coming into existence of the gods without,

normally, putting their theories into practice or rejecting

religious practice altogether.” The first use of the term

atheism can be traced back to the Greek scholar Sir John

Cheke in a translation of Plutarch’s On Superstition. In

France during the 1600s, atheism inspired polemical

writings and socio-political measures against its

worldview. Atheism was perceived as a threat even as

early as the 1700s in Britain. The celebrated playwright

and essayist Joseph Addison wrote a book titled The

Evidence of the Christian Religion, which had a section

against atheism.

During the 19th century, an important figure in the fight

to make atheism acceptable was Charles Bradlaugh. A

member of the British parliament, he fought a long battle

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to make atheism acceptable to society. Although he did

not achieve his goals, by the end of the 19th century he

paved the way for others to continue the battle for

acceptability and respect.

The growth of Atheism

In spite of these factors, atheism is now one of the fastest-

growing social and intellectual movements. The past

twenty years have featured an increase in people who

describe themselves as atheists or nonreligious. This

movement, also known as new atheism, has begun to

articulate a case for atheism and secularism (generally

considered the political manifestation of atheism).

Modern atheist writers and academics, including Richard

Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Dan

Dennet, have extensively promoted this movement.

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Their books have become bestsellers, and thousands

have viewed their public lectures. However, some would

argue that their rhetoric has been nasty, circular and quite

un nuanced.

Life Without God: The Implications of

Atheism

Atheism is not an intellectual position that exists in a

bubble. If its claims are true, then one would have to

make some inevitable existential and logical conclusions

that are very bleak. Under atheism, life is ludicrous. The

following discussion may not provide a rational case for

God, nor does it follow that God exists simply because

life without God seems absurd. However, it does provide

the fertile ground in which the rational arguments in this

book take root.

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Following are some of the implications of atheism in

daily life:

● No ultimate hope

● No ultimate purpose

● No ultimate value

● No eternal and meaningful happiness

A Dialogue with atheist?

Atheist: “There is no evidence for the existence of God.

Belief in God is irrational.”

Muslim: “That’s an interesting assertion. Before we

continue, can I ask you, do you believe that you have

rational faculties? In other words, do you believe you can

reason?”

Atheist: “Obviously. Any rational person would deny

God. There’s simply no evidence.”

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Muslim: “Okay, great. So, can I ask, how do you explain

your rational faculties under atheism?”

Atheist: “What do you mean?”

Muslim: “Well, do you believe all phenomena can be

explained via physical stuff? And do you believe that

there is no supernatural?”

Atheist: “Sure.”

Muslim: “Physical stuff is just blind and non-rational. So

how can rationality come from non-rationality? How can

anything arise from something that does not contain it or

have the potential to give rise to it? How can we form

rational insights based on blind physical processes? In

this light, how can you explain your ability to reason?”

Atheist: “Well, we have a brain that has evolved.”

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Muslim: “Okay, and according to atheism an evolved

brain is based on physical stuff too, no?”

Atheist: “Yes, but our brains have evolved to be rational,

because the more you know about the world the more

likely

you are to survive.”

Muslim: “That’s not true; holding non-rational beliefs

about the world can lead to survival too.”

Self-Evident Why Atheism Is Unnatural?

Imagine A theist invites his atheist friend for dinner, and

during the meal the atheist asserts, “You know, God does

not exist. There’s no evidence for his existence.” The

theist replies with a barrage of different arguments for

God’s existence. However, has the theist adopted the

right strategy? Before we present a positive case for

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God’s existence, shouldn’t we be probing why

questioning God’s existence is the assumed default

question? It shouldn’t be: Does God exist? Rather, it

should be: What reasons do we have to reject His

existence?

Self-evident truths

We consider many beliefs to be self-evidently true. This

means the belief can be described as natural or true by

default. Some of them include:

● The uniformity of nature

● The law of causality

● The reality of the past

● The validity of our reasoning

● The existence of other minds

● The existence of an external world

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These truths are self-evident because they are

characterized by being:

● Universal

● Untaught

● Natural

● Intuitive

The Qur’anic argument

The Qur’an provides a powerful argument for God’s

existence: “Or were they created by nothing? Or were

they the creators [of themselves]? Or did they create the

heavens and Earth? Rather, they are not certain.”

(Al-Tur 35-56)

Now let us break down the argument. The Qur’an

mentions four possibilities to explain how something

was created or came into being or existence:

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 ● Created by nothing: “or were they created by

nothing?”

● Self-created: “or were they the creators of

themselves?”

● Created by something created: “or did they create

the heavens and the Earth?”, which implies a created

thing being ultimately created by something else

created.

● Created by something uncreated: “Rather, they are

not certain”, implying that the denial of God is

baseless, and therefore the statement implies that

there is an uncreated creator.

This argument can also be turned into a universal

formula that does not require reference to scripture:

1. The universe is finite.

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2. Finite things could have come from nothing, created

themselves, been ultimately created by something

created, or been created by something uncreated.

3. They could not have come from nothing, created

themselves, or have been ultimately created by

something created.

4. Therefore, they were created by something

uncreated.

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 Conclusion

In our universe, there are animals that can withstand their

own body weight many times over and seeds that can

germinate from the heat of fire. We live on a planet with

over 6,000 languages and over eight million species. We

live in a universe where the human mind can discover

weapons that can wipe out the Earth and produce ideas

that can prevent those weapons from firing. We live in a

universe that, if one of its innumerable atoms is split, can

release an immense amount of energy. We live on a

planet which, if hearts are united, can use that energy for

peace.

Yet some of us are not compelled to give God- who

created the universe and everything within it- a standing

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ovation; to stand, glorify and praise Him.We are deluded,

deceived and forgetful of God, the one who created us:

“O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your

Lord, the Generous?”

God is truly great.

If we do not feel the urge to praise our creator and

connect with Him, there is something wrong with our

hearts. We have a spiritual disease that requires spiritual

medicine. This disease is the ego; the medicine is Islam.

To take this medicine, and therefore be eligible for

Divine mercy and God’s special love, we have to believe,

internalize, understand and submit to the implications of

the following profound statement:

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“There is no deity worthy of worship except God (Allah),

and Muhammad is His final servant and messenger.”

It is my hope that this report will help you to start the

process of healing.

May God guide and shower you with His special love.

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 References

• Wikipedia

• Encyclopedia Britannica

• The Divine Reality: God, Islam, and The Mirage of

Atheism by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis

• The Modernist Menace to Islam by Daniel

Haqiqatjou

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‫جزاكم هللا خيرا‬

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