I hope this helps you understand that reason and logic behind faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. A friend of mine at a Muslim forum authored it.
The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks
one of his new students to stand.
"You're a Muslim, aren't you, son?"
"Yes, sir."
"So you believe in God?"
"Absolutely."
"Is God good?"
"Of course! "
"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"
"Yes."
The professor grins knowingly and considers for a moment.
"Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and
you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help them, Would you try?"
"Yes sir, I would."
"So you're good...!"
"I wouldn't say that."
"Why not say that? You would help a sick and maimed person if you
could ...in fact most of us would if we could... God doesn't.
[No answer.]
"He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Muslim who died of cancer even
though he prayed to God to heal him. How is this God good? Hmmm?
Can you answer that one?"
[No answer]
The elderly man is sympathetic. "No, you can't, can you?"
He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student
time to relax.
In philosophy, you have to go easy with the new ones.
Let's start again, young fella." "Is God good?"
"Er... Yes."
"Is Satan good?"
"No."
"Where does Satan come from?" The student falters.
"From... God..."
"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he?" The elderly man turns to the smirking,
student audience.
"I think we're going to have a lot of fun this semester, ladies and gentlemen."
He turns back to the Muslim. "Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"
"Yes, sir."
"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? Did God make everything?"
"Yes."
"Who created evil?
[No answer]
"Is there sickness in this world? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness?
All the terrible things - do they exist in this world?"
The student squirms on his feet. "Yes."
"Who created them? "
[No answer]
The professor suddenly shouts at his student.
"WHO CREATED THEM? TELL ME, PLEASE!
"The professor closes in for the kill and climbs into the Muslim's face.
In a still small voice: "God created all evil, didn't He, son?"
[No answer]
The student tries to hold the steady, experienced gaze and fails.
Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace the front of the classroom
like an aging panther. The class is mesmerized.
"Tell me," he continues,
"How is it that this God is good if He created all evil throughout all time?"
The professor swishes his arms around to encompass the wickedness of the world.
"All the hatred, the brutality, all the pain, all the torture, all
the death and ugliness and all the suffering created by this good God is all
over the world, isn't it, young man?"
[No answer]
"Don't you see it all over the place? Huh?"
Pause.
"Don't you?" The professor leans into the student's face again and whispers,
"Is God good?"
[No answer]
"Do you believe in God, son?"
The student's voice betrays him and cracks.
"Yes, professor. I do."
The old man shakes his head sadly. "Science says you have five senses
you use to identify and observe the world around you.
"You have never seen God, Have you? "
"No, sir. I've never seen Him."
"Then tell us if you've ever heard your God?"
"No, sir. I have not."
"Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God or smelt your
God...infact, do you have any sensory perception of your God
whatsoever?"
[No answer]
"Answer me, please."
"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."
"You're AFRAID... you haven't?"
"No, sir."
"Yet you still believe in him?"
"...yes..."
"That takes FAITH!" The professor smiles sagely at the underling.
"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable
protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to
that, son? Where is your God now?"
[The student doesn't answer]
"Sit down, please."
The Muslim sits...Defeated.
Another Muslim raises his hand. "Professor, may I address the class?"
The professor turns and smiles. "Ah, another Muslim in the vanguard!
Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom to the gathering."
The Muslim looks around the room. "Some interesting points you are
making, sir. Now I've got a question for you. Is there such thing as heat?"
"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."
"Is there such a thing as cold?"
"Yes, son, there's cold too."
"No, sir, there isn't."
The professor's grin freezes. The room suddenly goes very cold.
The second Muslim continues. "You can have lots of heat, even more
heat, super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat
but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit 458 degrees
below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that.
There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be able to
go colder than -458 - - You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to
describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can
measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the
opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."
Silence.
"Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"
"That's a dumb question, son. What is night if it isn't darkness?
What are you getting at...?"
"So you say there is such a thing as darkness?"
"Yes..."
"You're wrong again, sir.
Darkness is not something, it is the absence of something.
You can have low light, normal light, bright light,
flashing light but if you have no light constantly you have
nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it?
That's the meaning we use to define the word.
In reality, Darkness isn't.
If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker and give me a jar of it.
Can you...give me a jar of darker darkness, professor?"
Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young effrontery before him.
This will indeed be a good semester. "Would you mind telling
us what your point is, young man?"
"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed
to start with and so your conclusion must be in error...."
The professor goes toxic. "Flawed...? How dare you...!""
"Sir, may I explain what I mean?"
The class is all ears.
"Explain... oh, explain..." The professor makes an admirable effort to regain control.
Suddenly he is affability itself. He waves his hand to silence the class, for the student to continue.
"You are working on the premise of duality," the Muslim explains.
"That for example there is life and then there's death;
a good God and a bad God.
You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, science cannot even explain a thought.
It uses electricity and magnetism but has never seen,
much less fully understood them.
To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist
as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, merely the absence of it."
The young man holds up a newspaper he takes from the desk of a
neighbor who has been reading it.
"Here is one of the most disgusting tabloids this country hosts,
professor. Is there such a thing as immorality?"
"Of course there is, now look..."
"Wrong again, sir. You see, immorality is merely the absence of morality.
Is there such thing as injustice? No. Injustice is the absence of justice.
Is there such a thing as evil?"
The Muslim pauses. "Isn't evil the absence of good?"
The professor's face has turned an alarming color.
He is so angry he is temporarily speechless.
The Muslim continues.
"If there is evil in the world, professor, and we all agree there is,
then God, if he exists, must be accomplishing a work through the agency of evil.
What is that work, God is accomplishing?
Islam tells us it is to see if each one of us will choose good over evil."
The professor bridles. "As a philosophical scientist, I don't view
this matter as having anything to do with any choice;
as a realist, I absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or any other
theological factor as being part of the world equation because God is not observable."
"I would have thought that the absence of God's moral code in this world
is probably one of the most observable phenomena going," the Muslim replies.
"Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting it every week!
Tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"
"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man,
yes, of course I do."
"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"
The professor makes a sucking sound with his teeth and gives his
student a silent, stony stare.
"Professor. Since no-one has ever observed the process of evolution
at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor,
are you not teaching your opinion, sir?
Are you now not a scientist, but a priest?"
"I will overlook your impudence in the light of our philosophical discussion.
Now, have you quite finished?" the professor hisses.
"So you don't accept God's moral code to do what is righteous?"
"I believe in what is - that's science!"
"Ahh! SCIENCE!" the student's face splits into a grin.
"Sir, you rightly state that science is the study of observed phenomena.
Science too is a premise which is flawed..."
"SCIENCE IS FLAWED..?" the professor splutters.
The class is in uproar.
The Muslim remains standing until the commotion has subsided.
"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student,
may I give you an example of what I mean?"
The professor wisely keeps silent. The Muslim looks around the room.
"Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen air, Oxygen,
molecules, atoms, the professor's brain?"
The class breaks out in laughter.
The Muslim points towards his elderly, crumbling tutor.
"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain...
felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain?"
No one appears to have done so. The Muslim shakes his head sadly.
"It appears no-one here has had any sensory perception of the
professor's brain whatsoever. Well, according to the rules of
empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science,
I DECLARE that the professor has no brain."
Al Haq (The Truth)
In regards to Sclorch?s post last night, which I read before going to bed, I am going to attempt to explain why we believe, and what happens after we embrace Allah.
I'd really like to know what a believer experiences. If it would change my views, then aren't you doing yourself a disservice by witholding this information?
While none of the physical senses we are given in the world can detect God, there is an inner nature within all humans that incline certain people to seek refuge in Allah. According to Islam, Allah guides only whom He wills into the truth, while the others are considered unworthy of being guided for obvious reasons. From my personal experience, I did not experience God until this past year when I embraced Islam. I was raised a Christian in the United Church as a child, but I never considered myself Christian because I didn?t believe in it, and I came to hate it for awhile in my early teens when I was very anti-religion. While it?s difficult to explain in words what believers experience, it can be described as true peace, uncomparable to any other state of mind that exists. I approached God by embracing His mercy for one thing. In other words, believers experience the truth. They see the truth with their inner nature, it's indescribable.
Why did I convert to Islam? I was interested in the religion, and on a mushroom trip it was almost as if Allah had decided to guide me into the truth immediately. I describe it literally as a revelation, or a miracle from Allah that guides those who listen to their inner nature. Now, what I experienced on mushrooms occurred about seven times since, the revelation exactly the same, all were on high dose non-game trips, and the presence of God existed throughout these perils, external from me. There is also prayer. When a believer remembers Allah, the more the better, the more at peace he will be. Have you ever seen a Christian cry with joy? Or on CNN, during the last Hajj, an old woman was shown praying, crying softly. These people are experiencing Allah.
When someone believes in Allah and His Messengers, God allows them to see the truth with their souls. This is a miracle experienced by every believer, and this is why people of deen are preachy, steadfast in belief and prayer. The faith is not blind, and because of this, a very very large portion of the globe are either Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. The two main faiths that Allah has established as guidance for mankind are Christianity and Islam. Both of these religions are clashing for a specific reason that only Allah knows. Everything in the world today is structured in by Allah so that it is either very easy for a soul to surrender to Allah, or very difficult if they are decieved by shaytaan.
Don't tell me about the AFTERLIFE. I want to know why believing (in Islam) is so necessary in THIS LIFE. How does it change my life for the better? I mean, do I start to feel much happier than I feel now (BTW, I'm pretty happy right now)?
Sclorch, if you were to open your heart to Allah, you would feel more than happy. Like I said before, it is a feeling of true peace that can?t be compared to any other feeling. Why is Islam so necessary? Besides the aspect of the afterlife, the lifestyle of surrendering to Allah is extremely beneficial in the world. Allah guides believers with ease throughout life, with small tests on the road, but never the hardship the disbelievers go through in life (this is how the kufr only benefit the believers by rejecting Allah). You would never look back if you experienced what believers experience. You don?t just blindly believe, but with belief comes the revealed truth. You see everything for what it is. This is very hard to actually describe in words.
infidelGOD wrote:
hehe, now you know how it feels.
Maybe. I can tolerate a Christian telling me I'm going to hell. I understand profoundly they are experiencing Allah, and that is why they remain Christians.
Traveller wrote:
ok then! ALLAH the all merciful forgives all AS LONG AS YOU BELIEVE, yes? thus those who BELIEVE in allah and go on to slaughter as many people as they can before committing suicide will be forgiven and go to paradise, while those who try to live good lives and do not believe will burn in the fires of hell?
The 9/11 hijackers are surely doomed to Jahannum. Yes, they did believe, but they all committed suicide, so therefore Paradise is forbidden to them. They also killed other Muslims, along with other women, children, and non-combatants. If you kill unjustly in Islam, the family members of the victim must forgive you first before Allah forgives you for the murder. While murdering carries a heavy punishment in the next life, the act does not forbid Paradise to someone. Mind you, it carries a very long sentence in Hell.
Islam is very hard, if not impossible to contradict. Unlike Christianity where science often conflicts with the scripture, science is supported within Islam.
A good web site where you can compare science and Islam is http://www.it-is-truth.org
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