Crisis of Faith

My Dear Readers,

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of Allah be upon you)
  

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ

وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

(See end note in the first post)

Crisis of Faith:

Young people all over the world, including Muslim youth, are going through what should be best described as a crisis of faith. Our youth are increasingly treating belief in God as archaic, primitive or something for the ignorant masses, and not for the intellectuals. There is the enigmatic and enamoring Science that is all-pervading and all knowing. It is implicitly (although I might say incorrectly) assumed that Science rejects belief in God, the Hereafter and the like. And since science is so amazing, and has contributed so much to humankind, and it "all makes sense". Whether it is Hawking or Dawkins, sufficient doubts have been raised in their minds, so as to question belief in religion, and subsequently God. Rather than being held-back by their supposedly "primitive" belief structure, the youth are embracing this new found mantra of skepticism as their own.

They are certainly not to be blamed, because our society is dogmatic in its defense of these belief structures without offering any explanations. Many of us are ill-equipped to handle the highly nuanced arguments of the Dawkins' of the world. We are guilty of believing in religion in auto-cruise or auto-pilot mode, whereby we are unable to handle even a slight disturbance. So with nowhere to turn to, the youth are unable to open up for fear of criticism and ostracism within Muslim societies. Hence they, keep this to themselves, or to a select few amongst their circles, and frequently rely on Internet sources to inform themselves.

Although dealing with skepticism and atheism has been sufficiently treated by Muslim (as well as Christian and Jewish) thinkers for over a millennium, yet these resources are not easily accessible online, whether in English, or in simple words, as compared to the resources in favor of skepticism and atheism. Many of arguments in favor of existence of God are grade school level, and not appealing to our youth, or for that manner for anybody. Our so called scholars are busy with juridical (fiqhi) issues, completely oblivious to the rejection of belief in God, which is increasingly in vogue amongst the so called "new" intellectuals worldwide.

The issue is complex, and cannot be overly simplified. Traditionally, it is understood that once you believe in Allah and the Messenger (ﷺ) , then in whatever you receive from them, you should not entertain any doubt. This is good, and reasonable if people believe after convincing themselves thoroughly. However, most of us have belief handed down to us, and we are too young to question, and once we do have questions, they are not answered, or worse, are not asked for fear of ostracism. We should be concerned that if we are not convinced in our belief in Allah and the the Messenger(ﷺ),  the foundation of our worldview itself is unstable, and a simple shake can cause it to collapse.

In order to have a strong foundation, we should start with convincing ourselves first about belief in Allah, His Messenger(ﷺ) , all Prophets (عليهم السلام), the Hereafter etc. Once we have made our choice, then we can either choose to accept or reject the teachings completely. Unfortunately, this is hardly ever done, or encouraged, or even taught.

Muslim youth in particular carry the burden of a lot of short-comings in our societies, and look up to the developed countries for answers. And even in this matter, they are provided with ample avenues, and freedom to think, and decide for themselves. However, they cannot use the same freedom within their own societies, and hence the crisis. It can be tragically observed that many of our youth are outwardly Muslim, but inwardly either not fully convinced, disturbed, skeptical, or much worse atheists. And we do not have serious attempts to help alleviate this suffering, resolve these conflicts or address the problem head-on.

What should we do?

I myself am not qualified to handle this, as it is beyond my abilities. In this post I can only share why I am a believer. Despite having a background in Science and Engineering, and having read the philosophy of Science, and the Hawkings of our time, I still believe, and even more so.


About those who reject God, He says in the Qur'an 39:67 below:

وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَالْأَرْضُ جَمِيعًا قَبْضَتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَالسَّماوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ

 (audio)
39:67. And no true understanding of God have they, inasmuch as the whole of the earth will be as a [mere] handful to Him on Resurrection Day, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand:  limitless is He in His glory, and sublimely exalted above anything to which they may ascribe a share in His divinity! -

I will start with some assumptions in which I believe in myself, and if not agreeable to the reader, I welcome comments and discussions regarding the same.

1. We do not know everything, and there might be things out there, but not in our knowledge, and then there might be things beyond our knowledge and ability to either know, or comprehend.

2. Every one must have their own worldview, and I have mine, that continuously gets enhanced or may even get transformed.

3. Prior to formulating and consolidating our basic world-view we have to spend some effort in researching and understanding what is out there, before we convince ourselves to take a particular route to it.

One of my classmates had changed his belief structure (to what? We can see.), and was keen on convincing me to the same effect.

He started off criticizing Islam, and saying that he does not like this or that about the Prophet (ﷺ) . I wanted to establish whether he had a problem with Islam itself, or all religions. He said that he did not believe in any religion. After discussing further, I tried to establish whether he believed in God, and it was plainly stated by him, that he did not. He argued that Science had proved that God does not exist, and that we should not waste our time with it. He also did not believe in Scientology, so it was clear that his worldview was atheistic. I asked him about the foundation of his worldview, and he said scientific thought.

As you can see, had I started defending Islam, or the Prophet (ﷺ) , it would not have been fruitful, since, for him, the issue was much more deep-rooted than that. Also, the nature of the debate changes based on the world-view of the debaters.

I debated with him based on scientific thought, but since he had come from an Asian education system like me, he was also not well-trained in induction or deduction, so there was a lot of pointless going round in circles.

However, for the reader, I will put forth the points rooted in my assumptions above.

• Does Science have the answer to everything? No. Any rational scientist will tell you that everyday is a new discovery and there is still so much that we do not know, and scientists never claim to know everything. It is the believers in science who show blind faith in science and scientists, much like the believers in religion believe in their doctrines and their priests etc. For example, with the telescopes at our disposal, we can see far into the milky way, certainly beyond our solar system.  But is there any sane scientist who would claim that beyond what we see in our most powerful telescopes, nothing exists, because it cannot be seen?  Or is there anyone insane enough to claim that beyond doubt anything which cannot be seen by us does not exist? Perhaps it is common sense to admit that there are things/places/concepts beyond our reach right now, but as time passes we have the possibility of discovering them, or unraveling them.

• Does Science truly follow the scientific method of experiments and observations in everything? No. A lot of times, we are required "believe" in the opinions, theories and speculations of the "priests" of science. Especially as we scale down to the atom and within, or the outer space and beyond. For example, it was a common approach by scientists to extend what we observe here to beyond the realms of the solar system, and this has now been proven as a naive and incorrect approach. The Universe continues to throw surprises our way, case in point being "black holes".

• Does Science have the answer about life and death? Including what will happen after we die? So far no scientific theory or experiment has come even close to conclusively prove that either there is life after death, or there isn't.

The only epistemological entry point in this area comes from the long chain of Prophets (عليهم السلام), who , as upright people, consistently and across the history have asserted that there is life after death, and there will be Judgment.

We need to ask ourselves, if we have to believe in someone, should we believe in scientists, or in prophets?

For Muslims, you should start with whether the Prophet (ﷺ) , was a prophet, and a true prophet? What are the evidences (دلائل النبوة)?

For others, who are still sitting on the fence, we need to ask what is the proof that God exists? Also, if there is no conclusive proof that God exists, does it mean that God does not exist, or is there a possibility that God might exist and we do not know of it yet, scientifically?

What it means that atheists who reject even the possibility that God does not are equally dogmatic as our people who blindly assert that God exists. It is therefore seen that majority of the scientists worldwide either believe in a personal God, or Force, or merely state that at this point in time, we cannot conclusively prove either ways. There is a vocal minority who reject the notion altogether, but the arguments are not science, but dogma.

والله أعلم   
 Wa Allahu 'Alam (And Allah is the All-Knowing)