Atheism Is A Myth – (1) the Introductory Article
Published in October 6, 2017
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Firstly: the Arabic root l/h/d of the word (ilhad) i.e., atheism in modern Arabic has a widely different meaning as a term in the Quranic text:
1- We refer readers to our earlier article (in English) covering the same topic on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=14224). We assert here that the derivations of the Arabic root l/h/d from which we derive the modern Arabic term ilhad (i.e., atheism) occur in the Quranic text three times to denote a different meaning: distortion and deviation.
1/1: The Qorayish disbelievers in Mecca assumed falsely that Muhammad has been taught the Quran by a foreign person; God refutes this claim in this verse: "We are well aware that they say, "It is a human being who is teaching him." But the tongue of him they allude to is foreign, while this is a clear Arabic tongue." (16:103). The Arabic/Quranic word for the underlined verb is derived from the root l/h/d to denote the false accusation leveled at Muhammad, as they had ascribed to him being taught the Quran by a foreign person, and not by God.
1/2: Those who distort and blaspheme against the Holy Epithets of God are mentioned in this verse: "To God belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call Him by them, and disregard those who blaspheme His names. They will be repaid for what they used to do." (7:180). Again, Arabic/Quranic word for the underlined verb is derived from the root l/h/d to denote distortion and blasphemy by ascribing to God epithets that people have invented. The Muhammadans are experts in such type of distortion and falsehood as they ascribe to the Almighty God Arabic epithets that does NOT suit Him and never mentioned in the Quran; for instance, Mawjoud (literally, the one who was made to exist) as they name some male children as Abdel-Mawjoud. This is blasphemous as it implies that God has been 'created' by a greater creating force! Another corrupt, blasphemous epithet is Sattar (literally, the one who covers and hides things) as they name some male children as Abdel-Sattar, and the term Maqsoud (literally, the one people resort to), as they as they name some male children as Abdel-Maqsoud. This topic of such names/epithets will be tackled in detail within a separate article.
1/3: The sin of ilhad (i.e., distortion) committed by the Muhammadans is linked to the Quran as they distort the meanings of its verses through the so-called interpretations and Naskh (i.e., the claim that hadiths replace Quranic sharia legislations). Of course, God the Omniscient in the Quran predicts the occurrence of this sin and He warns these sinners against painful torment in Hell, in case they do not repent. Thus, those sinners are absolutely free to do whatever they like and choose, and they cannot evade the judgment on the Last Day: "Those who distort meanings of Our verses are not hidden from Us. Is he who is hurled into the Fire better? Or he who arrives safely on the Day of Resurrection? Do as you please; He is Seeing of everything you do." (41:40). Again, Again, Arabic/Quranic word for the underlined verb is derived from the root l/h/d to denote distortion.
Secondly: reasons of the dominance of atheism among the Muhammadans of our modern era today:
1- Atheism, or ilhad in modern Arabic, is to deny God's existence and therefore to deny religions. Atheism in this sense spread in Europe gradually centuries ago as a reaction to the corrupt power and authority of the Catholic Church that dominated and controlled European societies and persecuted and put to death heretics who opposed its doctrine; Europeans opposed the Church as it allied itself to tyrannical rulers/kings and as it caused religious wars to break out. Europeans have managed to control all churches (Catholic and otherwise) by imposing curfews on them; i.e., not to allow them to have roles in politics and aspects of life, while confining their roles to charity. Hence, Europeans roamed the Earth to discover new lands and to make scientific advances that benefit all humanity until the present moment. The invaluable lesson drawn from this European experience is that when an earthly, man-made religion (e.g., Catholicism) dominates people somewhere, it corrupts countries and people. This is the tragedy of Muhammadans in their history, past and present.
2- Sadly, the (Arab and non-Arab) Muhammadans have never drawn any lessons from the European experience; they are still enslaved by the earthly, man-made religions (i.e., the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi ones) that corrupt and ruin their lives. When the Sunnite Sufism dominated for centuries, it has planted inside the minds obscurantism, ignorance, and the myths of saints as most people believed in their so-called miracles; such a wicked religion has made people learn to submit totally to tyrants, bearing patiently with grave injustices and being oppressed and subjugated within passivity and inclination to peaceful behavior. The Wahabi religion of Satan emerged as a political power when the first Saudi state was established (1745 – 1818 A.D.). Wahabism is the revival of the worst, most extremist Sunnite doctrine called the Ibn Hanbal doctrine that urges bloodshed and massacres. Thus, the Saudi royal family that embraced and propagated Wahabism spread bloodbaths and massacres all over Arabia (and regions around it) at the time. This stopped when the Egyptian army, led by the son of its king, M. Ali Pacha, destroyed the first Saudi state and its capital in 1818 A.D. When the second Saudi state was established, it was very weak, and the Saudi family members fought among one another till the state collapsed. The third, current Saudi state (i.e., the KSA of today) has been established through wars and conquests within the period 1901 – 1932, and the KSA was proclaimed and announced formally in 1932 A.D. Soon enough, oil has been discovered there, and the KSA allied itself to the USA. This allowed the filthily rich Saudi family members to spread Wahabism among most Muhammadans worldwide, causing wars, civil strife, and bloodshed to occur many times in many locations in the last decades. Islam should have been distanced from all such havoc and corruption if Wahabis would have adhered to Wahabism as the ideology behind their deed; sadly, they insist on hijacking the name of Islam to justify their crimes. This major sin/crime has led to the fact that Islam (the religion of mercy, peace, justice, freedom, and human dignity) is now accused of being the cause of terrorism, extremism, bigotry, fanaticism, obscurantism, acts of violence, and injustices. These accusations should have been leveled at Sunnite Wahabism, NOT at Islam (which is ONLY the Quran, of course).
3- Wahabism has hindered the democratic transition within the countries of the Muhammadans, because the struggle/conflict essentially has been between tyrants (whose overt religion is Sunnite Wahabism) and those who oppose and rebel against them (e.g., the Wahabi terrorist MB, among other Wahabi theocracy-seeking groups). Of course, both Wahabi tyrants and Wahabi opposition movements are against the democratic transition; besides, the alternative is very weak; i.e., the dreamers of democracy among thinkers and the cultural elite members who support all higher values and human rights, but they are peaceful people whose influence on the common people in Arab cities is nonexistent; thus, they are not strong or powerful to stand firmly against enemies of democracy and humanity (i.e., tyrants and Wahabis).
4- For more than half a century, Wahabis have managed to teach several generations that Wahabism is Islam. This falsehood has been taught all the time until now in mosques, media, education, religious societies and centers, etc. funded by the Saudi petrodollars. It is a grave sin/crime in the media worldwide to describe such Wahabis as 'Islamists' and their political theocracy-seeking trends as 'Islamism' or 'Islamist' movements. Yet, many youths within countries of the Muhammadans have embraced Wahabism as if it were Islam, and a minority of these youths rejected the Wahabi religion and the Quran to embrace atheism (i.e., ilhad in the modern sense of the Arabic term: to deny God, the Last Day, and the Quran). This reaction has been based on the wrong idea that Islam (not Wahabism) is held accountable for bloodbaths that took place because of Wahabis in Algeria, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. This minority of youths are ignorant persons regarding the Quran; they know nothing about it at all. This is why they have directed their rejection and feelings of hatred toward Islam/the Quran instead of Wahabism itself, as Wahabis have hijacked the name of Islam and falsely ascribe to it their heinous crimes.
5- Quranists have emerged to preach reform on all levels, and they assert that Wahabism contracted Islam (i.e., the Quran) in sharia laws, roots, origins, method, and all branches and details. Of course, Quranists pose as a veritable danger for Wahabism and as a threat to make it vanish, only if Quranists would have 1% of the media outlets available to Wahabis of today. Quranists are peaceful thinkers and cultured persons who are also impecunious, helpless, powerless, and weak on this Earth. Quranists adhere only to God's Book, the Quran, while intellectually facing Wahabism and tyrannical rulers. Quranists oppose all international alliances and entities that support Wahabis and tyrants; this is why no great or smaller powers on Earth support Quranists at all, and this is the reason behind the media black-out imposed on Quranists worldwide and that their peaceful intellectual call for religious reform is hindered and impeded by haters of the Quran. This is why the voice of Quranists has not reached the deluded youths of both types: Wahabis and atheists.
Thirdly: historical facts refute that people denied God's existence (reality denies atheism):
Atheism/ilhad in the sense of denying God's existence and denying His religion is a mere false claim refuted by historical facts, as we argue in the points below.
1- Before the emergence of Marxism and establishing the USSR, Christian churches and doctrines dominated Europe; Christianity is an earthly, man-made religion that ascribes a deified son to Almighty God, a grave sin against Him as per the verse 6:100, and this religion deifies other mortals as a well (i.e., clergy and the so-called 'saints'). Marxists in their attempt to control people of Europe and Asia tried to uproot and eradicate the earthly, man-made religions from minds and hearts of people and to urge them to deny God the Creator (and the other gods), but these attempts were never successful; once communism collapsed and the USSR ended, many people returned to their previous earthly, man-made religions and churches and introduced new ones as the need for spirituality increased. Besides, Christian extremism emerged in the Balkans by the Christian Serbs and Croats who massacred the Muhammadans of Bosnia and Herzegovina who in their turn returned to their earthly, man-made religion despite the dominance of communism within the rule of Tito and others.
2- Things have been worse in the republics of Central Asia that were parts of the former USSR; their peoples have returned to the Sunnite religion and Wahabism spread there funded by the KSA, and this has caused the danger of terrorism. Besides, these regions in Central Asia have its long history of spreading and authoring books of the Sunnite religion and its doctrines; most deified imams of the Sunnite religion were born and raised in these regions: Al-Bokhary, Moslem, Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Maja, Al-Tirmizy, Al-Nisaa'i, etc.
3- Communists and Marxists attempted to uproot and eradicate these earthly, man-made religions and the brainwash led some people to deny God's existence, and soon enough communism established other mortal deities: Stalin, Lenin, Mao Zedong, etc. and each of them has massacred millions of people. Thus, when communism collapsed, the earthly, man-made religions re-emerged soon enough.
4- In Turkey, Kemal Atatürk led a secular, atheism campaign to chase away all aspects and signs of the Sunnite Sufism, which has been the religion of the Ottoman caliphate that ended in 1924 A.H. Of course, the attempts of Atatürk to eradicate religion from turkey have failed; the Sunnite Sufism has been revived by the imam-cum-politician Gülen who has invested on that religion for political reasons, then Sunnite Wahabism has been propagated by the late Erbakan and the current Erdoğan.
Fourthly: atheism in the sense of denying religions and God is a falsehood refuted by the reality we live now:
1- Those who claim to be atheists and follow their whims and desires and seek fame and distinction change their stance suddenly once they face a life-threatening situation or any ordeal that might bring about the end of their lives, when they are seized by the fear of being on the verge of death; e.g., when they suffer constriction or diarrhea, or when a piece of bread, a fishbone, or a drop of water falls into their trachea. At such situations, those atheists implore God the Creator faithfully and piously (within monotheism) for deliverance, while forgetting their previous arrogance and haughtiness that led them to embrace atheism.
2- The above point in real-life situations is asserted by God in the Quran; in times of grave ordeals/calamities and life-threatening situations, people invoke God for deliverance and forget their man-made deities, and when they are saved and delivered, they return to their arrogance of disbelief, polytheism, or atheism.
2/1: God says in the Quran: "When affliction touches the people, they call on their Lord, turning to Him in repentance. But then, when He gives them a taste of His mercy, some of them attribute partners to their Lord. To disbelieve in what We have given them. Indulge yourselves - you will surely know." (30:33-34); "When some adversity touches the human being, he prays to his Lord, repenting to Him. But then, when He confers on him a grace of His, he forgets what he was praying for before, and he attributes partners to God, in order to lead astray from His way. Say, "Enjoy your disbelief for a little while; you will be among the dwellers of the Fire."" (39:8). Thus, however arrogant one is within the claim of being an atheist who denies God's existence, this atheist person will implore God alone and forget other forged gods and all their arrogance, haughtiness, whims, and desires, while weeping and beseeching the Lord God for deliverance, once they face life-threatening situations.
2/2: We exemplify these situations as follows: when an atheist man's wife suffers during labor and fright is shown in the faces of ER doctors and nurses, when an atheist man is inside a prison cell where he is tortured by several cruel ways, or when this atheist man's body is consumed by a serious illness (e.g., cancer, kidney failure, or angina). In such cases, those atheists seek the aid of our Lord God and implore and beseech Him for deliverance as they never bear this pain/fright. Yet, once they are saved, they return to their arrogance and disbelief in God!
2/3: God says in the Quran: "It is He who transports you across land and sea. Until, when you are on ships, sailing in a favorable wind, and rejoicing in it, a raging wind arrives. The waves surge over them from every side, and they realize that they are besieged. Thereupon they pray to God, professing sincere devotion to Him: "If You save us from this, we will be among the appreciative." But then, when He has saved them, they commit violations on earth, and oppose justice. O people! Your violations are against your own souls. It is the enjoyment of the present life. Then to Us is your return, and We will inform you of what you used to do." (10:22-23). In this great parable, we see that people turn monotheistic and implore God sincerely in piety and fear once they face life-threatening situations, and they forget their polytheism/disbelief or atheism, as they scream to seek God's aid.
Lastly:
1- Readers of this article must be sure they will go through some of the above-mentioned ordeals/tests during their lifetimes; no one can escape Almighty God.
2- It is certainly useful for readers to ponder deeply on the following verses: "Your Lord is He who propels for you the ships at sea, that you may seek of His bounty. He is towards you Most Merciful. When harm afflicts you at sea, those you pray to vanish, except for Him. But when He saves you to land, you turn away. Most human being are disbelievers. Are you confident that He will not cause a track of land to cave in beneath you, or unleash a tornado against you, and then you find no protector? Or are you confident that He will not return you to it once again, and unleash a hurricane against you, and drown you for your disbelief? Then you will find no helper against Us." (17:66-69). As always, God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.