FITRAH - It is Natural to Believe in God - Dawah to atheist

FITRAH

It is Natural to Believe in God

For deists, there is no need to worship because our purpose in this world is unknown. We find our own purposes and whatever we do is okay as long as we do not harm others. The way to deal with this belief is to stress that the need to worship is a natural instinct in all human beings.

The Prophet (r) related that when Allaah created Aadam, He took a covenant from him in a place called Na‘maan on the day of ‘Arafah. (The 9th of the 12th lunar month known as Dhul-Hijjah.) Then He extracted from him all of his descendants who would be born until the end of the world, generation after generation, and spread them out in front of Him in order to take a covenant from them also. He spoke to them face to face saying: “Am I not your Lord?” and they all replied, “Yes, we testify to it.” Allaah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He was their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, “That was in case you (mankind) should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Surely we were unaware of all this. We had no idea that You, Allaah, were our God. No one told us that we were supposed to worship You alone.” Allaah went on to explain that it was also in case some people would say: “It was our ancestors who made partners (with Allaah) and we are only their descendants; will You, then destroy us for what those liars did?"" [Soorah al-A‘raaf, (7):172-3. The hadeeth is from asaheeh (authentic) narration of Ibn ‘Abbaas collected by Ahmad. See al-Albaanee’s Silsilah al-Ahaadeeth as-Saheehah,(Kuwait: ad-Daar as-Salafeeyah and Amman: al-Maktabah al-Islaameeyah, 2nd ed., 1983) vol.4, p.158, no.1623.]

This was the Prophet’s (r) explanation of the Qur’anic verse in which Allaah said:

 “When your Lord drew forth from the loins of the children of Aadam their descendant and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): ‘Am I not your Lord?’ they said, ‘Yes, we testify to it.’ (This) in case you say should say on the Day of Judgement, ‘We were unaware of this.” Or in case you should say, ‘It was our ancestors who made partners (with Allaah) and we are only their descendants. Will you then destroy us for what those liars did?’” Soorah al-A‘raaf, (7):172-3.

The verse and prophetic explanation confirm the fact that everyone is responsible for belief in God and on the Day of Judgement excuses will not be accepted. Every human being has the belief in God imprinted on his soul and Allaah shows every idolator, during the course of his life, signs that his idol is not God. Hence, every sane human being is required to believe in One God who is without partners.

Man’s Natural Disposition : the Fitrah

Since Allaah made all human beings wear to His Godhood when He created Aadam, this oath is printed on the human soul even before it enters the fetus in the fifth month of pregnancy. So when a child is born, it has with it a natural belief in Allaah. This natural belief is called in Arabic the fitrah. (Al-‘Aqeedah at-Tahaaweeyah, (8th ed., 1984), p.245.)

If the child were left alone, it would grow up aware of Allaah in His unity, but all children are affected by the pressures of their environment whether directly or indirectly. The Prophet (r) reported that Allaah said, I created My servants in the right religion but the devils made them go astray. (Sahih Muslim (English Trans.), vol.4, p.1488, no.6853.)

The Prophet (r) also said, Each child is born in a state of fitrah, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It is like the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any (young animal) born mutilated before you mutilate them? (Collected by Muslim, [Sahih Muslim(English Trans.), vol.4, p.1398, no.6423) and al-Bukhaaree (Sahih Al-Bukhari (Arabic-English), vol.8, pp.389-90, no.597)]

So just as the child’s body submits to the physical laws which Allaah has put in nature, its soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allaah is its Lord and Creator. However, its parents try to make it follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its parents.

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to be continued....

Belief in God also means that God alone deserves human worship

Belief in God also means that 
God alone deserves human worship.

From an Islamic perspective, worship is not merely praising, honoring and offering sacrifices to a deity. To call on the deity for help is a fundamental part of worship. Consequently, calling on anyone other than Allaah in prayer is to worship them. The Prophet’s companion, Nu‘maan ibn Basheer quoted him as saying, “[Calling on anyone in] prayer is worship.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, vol. 1, p. 387, no. 1474). If one believes that nothing takes place except by God’s will alone, it makes no sense to call on anyone other than God. (The Moral Foundations of Islamic Culture, pp.)

Design Indicates a Designer

The variety and complexity of the intricate systems which constitute the fabric of both human beings and the world in which they exist indicate that there must have been a Supreme Being who created them. Design indicates a designer. When human beings come across footprints on a beach, they immediately conclude that a human being had walked by there some time previously. No one imagines that the waves from the sea settled in the sand and by chance produced a depression looking exactly like human footprints. Nor do humans instinctively conclude that they were brought into existence without a purpose. Since purposeful action is a natural product of human intelligence, humans conclude that the Supreme Intelligent Being who created them must have done so for a specific purpose. Therefore, human beings need to know the purpose for their existence in order to make sense of this life and to do what is ultimately beneficial for them.

Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God. Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements. Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man?” had and still has no answer. According to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast majority of humankind over the ages has believed and continues to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a purpose. For them, it was and still is important to know about the Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings. (The Purpose of Creation, pp. 5-6.)

Many others, as was previously mentioned, claimed and continue to claim that there is no purpose at all. Human existence is merely a product of chance. There can be no purpose if life evolved from inanimate matter which only became animate by pure luck. Humankind’s supposed ‘cousins’, the monkey and apes are not bothered with questions of existence, so why should human beings be bothered with them? (Ibid., pp. 7-8.)

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Belief in God includes........

 Belief in God includes the belief that

God alone is the Creator and Sustainer of this world.

Nothing takes place in the universe without His permission. No good can be obtained nor harm avoided unless Allaah decrees it. Humans are enjoined to seek refuge in the Lord of the Dawn from the evil of what He created. (Soorah al-Falaq (113):1-2). Allaah does not attribute evil directly to Himself, because He is Good and all which comes from His is Good. The evil which comes from Allaah is relative evil. It may be good from other perspectives but evil in one perspective.

For example, sunshine is essential for plants to grow and synthesize chlorophyll, yet it causes the rivers and lakes to dry up leading to drought, famine and death. Rain is also essential for plants to grow, yet it also causes floods, drowning and death. Pure evil, on the other hand, is a result of human activity. Humans think evil and, if Allaah permits it, they do evil. Allaah on the other hand does not oppress anyone.

 “Your Lord does no wrong to anyone.” Soorah al-Kahf (18):49

The evil which humans do is by Allaah’s permission, so that that degree it is from Allaah. But humans are responsible for their evil because it is a product of their choice. Regarding God’s permission, Muslim scholars of the past have distinguished between God’s wish and His will. His wish is sometimes referred to as His Legal Wish, meaning that He wishes for humans Islaam; the right way of life consisting of submission to whatever God has instructed. However, He also gave humans the ability to accept His wish or reject it. Consequently, humans may go against God’s Legal Wish. His will, on the other hand, is referred to as His Creational Will, meaning that what takes place is by his permission alone. Among the things which take place are events beyond human will and events which are in accordance with human will. For example, humans are governed by the laws of “nature” which they cannot escape. If one jumps up, he or she must fall back down. If one’s knee is struck by the doctor, the foot kicks out, no matter how hard the mind fights the reaction. Humans cannot go against Allaah’s Creational Will.

When those who deny God’s existence are asked why they are successful and others who have made similar or greater efforts are not, they reply that it is due to their good-fortune and the others’ bad fortune. And when human life is analyzed it is easily concluded that all of it is controlled by good and bad luck. Consequently, life is looked at as being controlled by the goddess of chance, Tyche, in Greek religion, and Fortuna in Roman. Religious rites involve, knocking on wood, crossing fingers, wearing amulets like four-leaf clovers, rabbits’ feet, and horse shoes, while, at the same time, avoiding black cats, breaking mirrors, spilling salt, and the number 13. The goddess of fortune is more appealing to Western atheism because it is a blind force which does not require obedience nor assign obligations.

As a result of modern Western Civilization’s preoccupation with good luck, business men like Donald Trump, have been reported to fly over Feng Shui experts from Main-land China to guide their architects in the design of their buildings. And the commander of Apollo 13 responded to questions about any doubts he had concerning the lift-off by insisting that he should have known it was going to happen because the flight was Apollo number 13, which took off at 1300 hours (i.e. 1 o’clock) on Friday the 13^th. Likewise, most high rise hotels, apartment buildings and office blocks do not have 13^th floors, nor are houses numbered 13. Instead, floor 13 is renamed 14, and house 13 is labeled 12 ½.

Belief in Allaah requires the purification of the heart from any dependency on these and similar superstitions.

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to be continued....

DEFINITION OF ATHEISTS AND DEISTS - DA‘WAH TO ATHEISTIS

DA’WAH TO THE ATHEISTS AND DEISTS

Atheist is one who believes that there is no God. A little philosophy inclineth men’s minds to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds to religion – Bacon

By night an atheist half believes a God – Young (Webster’s, p. 118)

Deism.

1.        The belief that God exists and created the world but thereafter assumed no control over it or the lives of people.

2.      In philosophy, the belief that reason is sufficient to prove the existence of God, with the consequent rejection of revelation and authority. (Webster’s, p. 479)

Agnostic.

1.        One who thinks it is impossible to know whether there is a God or a future life, or anything beyond material phenomena. The name was suggested by Huxley in 1869.

2.      Agnosticism. In theology, the doctrine that God is unknown and unknowable.

3.       In philosophy, the doctrine that a first cause and the essential nature of things are unknowable to man.

By agnosticism, I understand a theory of things which abstains from either affirming or denying the existence of God; all it undertakes to affirm is that, upon existing evidence, the being of God is unknown. – G. J. Romanes (Webster’s, p. 37)

Source

to be continued....

Fear & Desires - Mankind and Satan

Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, has explained to us in the Noble Qur’an what the devil do to his companion, in the glorious Ayah saying (what means):

“For he had said, ‘I will surely take from among Your servants a specific portion. And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them [sinful] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.’ And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss. Satan promises them and arouses desire in them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion.” [An-Nisâ’, 4:118-120]

That is what the devil do to his companions:  first he misleads them, meaning to remove them away from the true doctrine, and corrupt this doctrine for them. As for the saying of Satan: “I will arouse in them false desires”, the devil makes sins look attractive in the eyes of man, thus he craves to commit them. He deludes him into thinking that they are not sins, but rather a blessing.  Regarding the matter of cattle, and changing the creation of Allah, all praise and glory is to Him: the perfection of creation is what Allah has created; every creature of Allah has a mission in life, and each is created to find easy the performance of its mission, thus changing creation corrupts this mission.

 

Those who used to slit the ears of cattle based on the belief that they were dedicated to the idols and at their service, had thus removed the creation of Allah from its mission, for cattle are created to be man’s property: on their backs he can carry his burdens, eat from their meat, make use of their leather and wool, but they are of no avail to the idols. It is as if the devil craves to diverge the creation of Allah from the course they were created for, and in order to do so, he employs his companions.

If we look into our contemporary time, we find some experiments that bring the leg of a dog and transplant it in the body of a frog, and such sorts of experiments, which is of no avail  to humanity; what can humanity benefit from a frog with a dog’s leg, the frog was created for a certain mission in worldly life, and being created the way they are is for the perfection of fulfilling its mission. But man came to spoil such mission, without realizing anything, the same applies to all the experiments that are done to produce a maimed human being, these experiments do nothing but corrupt the creation of Allah, to no avail. The same applies to all forms of abuse that occur to dominate the human mind, which rather spoils its mission in the universe.

In order to reveal to us the triviality of what Satan can do, Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, informs us that the devil uses the weapon of fear to enslave man, saying (what means):

“That is only Satan who frightens [you] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are [indeed] believers.” [Âl-‘Imrân, 3: 175]

But how does the devil dominate man through fear? If man gives charity, the devil will frighten him of poverty; if he wants to give a truthful testimony, he will intimidate him by the despotism of his unjust employers; if he wants to go to perform prayers, he will frighten him with the idea that he will lose such and such worldly interests; if he fights for the Cause of Allah, the devil will frighten him with the power of the disbelievers, casting into his heart the fear of getting killed at the beginning of the battle; if he wants to perform benevolent deeds, the devil will cast into him fears of wasting his time and interests; even if he wants to forbid people from doing evil, the devil will cast into him the fear that he would be harmed. 

Thus, any benevolent act that occurs to the self, Satan frightens man away from doing it, by scaring him with the idea that it will get him into trouble; whether this trouble be in his wealth, his self, his children, job, trade, or any other worldly concern. Through this weapon, namely that of fear, Satan casts terror into the human self as regards good deeds.

Source: (Book) Mankind and Satan