PROVING
THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH (SWT) TO AN ATHEIST
by
Dr. Zakir Naik
CONGRATULATING
AN ATHEIST
Normally,
when I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and
say, " My special congratulations to you", because most of the people
who believe in God are doing blind belief - he is a Christian, because his
father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the
majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of their
fathers. An atheist, on the other hand, even though he may belong to a
religious family, uses his intellect to deny the existence of God; what ever
concept or qualities of God he may have learnt in his religion may not seem to
be logical to him.
My
Muslim brothers may question me, "Zakir, why are you congratulating an
atheist?" The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he
agrees with the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’ -
meaning ‘there is no God’. So half my job is already done; now the only part
left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah. With others
(who are not atheists) I have to first remove from their minds the wrong
concept of God they may have and then put the correct concept of one true God.
LOGICAL
CONCEPT OF GOD
My
first question to the atheist will be: "What is the definition of
God?" For a person to say there is no God, he should know what is the
meaning of God. If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite
person to say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a
pen, even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I
am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at least
know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no God’, he
should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would be derived
from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large number of people
worship has got human qualities - therefore he does not believe in such a god.
Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not believe in such false gods.
If
a non-Muslim believes that Islam is a merciless religion with something to do
with terrorism; a religion which does not give rights to women; a religion
which contradicts science; in his limited sense that non-Muslim is correct to
reject such Islam. The problem is he has a wrong picture of Islam. Even I
reject such a false picture of Islam, but at the same time, it becomes my duty
as a Muslim to present the correct picture of Islam to that non-Muslim i.e.
Islam is a merciful religion, it gives equal rights to the women, it is not
incompatible with logic, reason and science; if I present the correct facts
about Islam, that non-Muslim may Inshallah accept Islam.
Similarly
the atheist rejects the false gods and the duty of every Muslim is to present
the correct concept of God which he shall Insha Allah not refuse.
(You
may refer to my article, ‘Concept of God in Islam’, for more details)
QUR’AN
AND MODERN SCIENCE
The
methods of proving the existence of God with usage of the material provided in
the ‘Concept of God in Islam’ to an atheist may satisfy some but not all.
Many
atheists demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today
is the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill
two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and simultaneously
prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God.
If
a new object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of
before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked,
" Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the
mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will reply,
‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while others may say
‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep it in your mind,
the answer will always be either the creator, the producer, the manufacturer or
some what of the same meaning, i.e. the person who has made it or created it.
Don’t grapple with words, whatever answer he gives, the meaning will be same,
therefore accept it.
SCIENTIFIC
FACTS MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN: for details on this subject please refer to my
book, ‘THE QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE – COMPATIBLE OR INCOMPATIBLE?
THEORY
OF PROBABILITY
In
mathematics there is a theory known as ‘Theory of Probability’. If you have two
options, out of which one is right, and one is wrong, the chances that you will
chose the right one is half, i.e. one out of the two will be correct. You have
50% chances of being correct. Similarly if you toss a coin the chances that
your guess will be correct is 50% (1 out of 2) i.e. 1/2. If you toss a coin the
second time, the chances that you will be correct in the second toss is again
50% i.e. half. But the chances that you will be correct in both the tosses is
half multiplied by half (1/2 x 1/2) which is equal to 1/4 i.e. 50% of 50% which
is equal to 25%. If you toss a coin the third time, chances that you will be
correct all three times is (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2) that is 1/8 or 50% of 50% of 50%
that is 12½%.
A
dice has got six sides. If you throw a dice and guess any number between 1 to
6, the chances that your guess will be correct is 1/6. If you throw the dice
the second time, the chances that your guess will be correct in both the throws
is (1/6 x 1/6) which is equal to 1/36. If you throw the dice the third time,
the chances that all your three guesses are correct is (1/6 x 1/6 x 1/6) is
equal to 1/216 that is less than 0.5 %.
Let
us apply this theory of probability to the Qur’an, and assume that a person has
guessed all the information that is mentioned in the Qur’an which was unknown
at that time. Let us discuss the probability of all the guesses being
simultaneously correct.
At
the time when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there
are several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular,
it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal,
spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the shape
of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a guess the
chances of the guess being correct is 1/30.
The
light of the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly
says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be
correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth is
spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 = 1/60.
Further,
the Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living
thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel, silver,
gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete, etc. The
options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that everything is made
up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/10,000
and the probability of all the three guesses i.e. the earth is spherical, light
of moon is reflected light and everything is created from water being correct
is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which is equal to about .0017%.
The
Qur’an speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time
of its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it upto
you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown facts were
guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses simultaneously and
there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond human capacity to make all
correct guesses without a single mistake, which itself is sufficient to prove
to a logical person that the origin of the Qur’an is Divine.
CREATOR
IS THE AUTHOR OF THE QUR’AN
The
only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all these
scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is exactly the
same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to the question who
will be the first person who will be able to tell the mechanism of the unknown
object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the Manufacturer of the whole
universe and its contents. In the English language He is ‘God’, or more
appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’.
QUR’AN
IS A BOOK OF SIGNS AND NOT SCIENCE
Let
me remind you that the Qur’an is not a book of Science, ‘S-C-I-E-N-C-E’ but a
book of Signs ‘S-I-G-N-S’ i.e. a book of ayaats. The Qur’an contains more than
6,000 ayaats, i.e. ‘signs’, out of which more than a thousand speak about
Science. I am not trying to prove that the Qur’an is the word of God using
scientific knowledge as a yard stick because any yardstick is supposed to be
more superior than what is being checked or verified. For us Muslims the Qur’an
is the Furqan i.e. criteria to judge right from wrong and the ultimate
yardstick which is more superior to scientific knowledge.
But
for an educated man who is an atheist, scientific knowledge is the ultimate
test which he believes in. We do know that science many a times takes ‘U’
turns, therefore I have restricted the examples only to scientific facts which
have sufficient proof and evidence and not scientific theories based on
assumptions. Using the ultimate yardstick of the atheist, I am trying to prove
to him that the Qur’an is the word of God and it contains the scientific
knowledge which is his yardstick which was discovered recently, while the
Qur’an was revealed 1400 year ago. At the end of the discussion, we both come
to the same conclusion that God though superior to science, is not incompatible
with it.
SCIENCE
IS ELIMINATING MODELS OF GOD BUT NOT GOD
Francis
Bacon, the famous philosopher, has rightly said that a little knowledge of
science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a
believer in God. Scientists today are eliminating models of God, but they are
not eliminating God. If you translate this into Arabic, it is La illaha illal
la, There is no god, (god with a small ‘g’ that is fake god) but God (with a
capital ‘G’).
Surah
Fussilat:
"Soon
We will show them our signs in the (farthest) regions (of the earth), and in
their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is
it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?"
[Al-Quran
41:53]
Reference:
http://www.irf.net/irf/comparativereligion/index.htm
