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]
by Dr. Zakir Naik
http://www.irf.net/irf/comparativereligion/index.htm

On May 27, 9:54*am, hamada wrote:

snip

Jesus loves you.

Joevpl

In ,
Joe spewed forth:
On May 27, 9:54 am, hamada wrote:

snip

Jesus loves you.

Joevpl

But everyone elsee thinks he's an assholeg