Five broad issues that I had a tough time with, will be the subject of the articles here. The five master topics that I have been dealing with since 2009; the issues which caused my intellectual exit from Islam in 2014; the very same issues which, once cleared, finally led me back to Islam in 2021!
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- The concepts and laws of Islam which seem to be archaic, insane, or objectionable, like Jihad, women’s rights, apostasy laws, gay rights, etc.
I would take you through the objections to these and the answers, developed by myself or by other researchers and writers, which brought me intellectual conviction and strengthened my faith.
The answer would be of two types. Bird’s eye view answer that would summarize the issue in a broad logical perspective and settle the issue in one article, without going into the specific details of the individual cases (laws, concepts, etc.). For people with a philosophical bent of mind, this one article should suffice to provide assurance of faith and a sense of confidence in the validity and relevance of Islam even in this ultra-modern third decade of the 21st century.
Then there would be a series of answers tackling minutely individual cases like jihad, women’s rights, etc. This would be useful for people desperately looking for answers to one or more specific issues which disturb them the most.
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- The ambiguity of the Islamic scriptures which causes differences of opinion amongst the experts of the religion. The texts of the Qur’an and the ahadith (the literature which records the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad) are malleable in nature and thus give in to multiple interpretations which causes differences in understanding of the religion! This question bogged me very hard and a lot of people are troubled by this issue. Here again, the answers would be of two types. A bird’s eye view treatment and then a series of specific cases.
- The evidence for the Prophethood of Muhammad and the Truth of Islam.
- The issue of free will versus predestination or fatalism.
- The issue of the existence of God.
In my experience, the first one is the easiest, the last one is the most difficult, and quite amazingly, no.3 is the decisive one which settles all the others! How? That’s what this website aims to demonstrate. But why this particular order? Why the concepts and laws of Islam at no.1 and the existence of God at last? Is there any significance to this enumeration or is it random?
The order of the issues here is according to their chronology of occurrence in my life, as in, the first issue listed here is the one that I started tackling first in my intellectual journey with Islam and philosophy. The first big issue that I started digging deep into was the commonly criticized concept of Islamic jihad, since, as narrated in my long bio, jihad was the topic that jolted me into the serious study of Islam as early as the age of thirteen!
Then my study of the books ‘Islam: The Misunderstood Religion’ by Muhammad Qutb and ‘The West versus Islam’ by Maulana Maududi; Zakir Naik’s popular lecture titled ‘The misconceptions about Islam’; and similar other books and articles for and against Islam, plunged me into the field of defense of the laws and concepts of Islam. This brought me, quite naturally, to the second issue, that is, the question as to why are differences so rampant among the experts of Islam, on almost every other issue!
Take for example the issue of jihad. There is an ongoing debate on whether the acts of organizations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban have any basis in the Islamic sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the established practices of the Prophet Muhammad). The sympathizers of these groups interpret Islam as allowing the killing of civilians as collateral damage in situations of war or as retaliation to similar acts against Muslims. But most of the scholars of Islam opine otherwise. My second book, ‘The scourge of terrorism: Does Islam promote it?’ which I wrote when I was an agnostic, deals with this very impasse. Thus from dealing with the issue of jihad I subsequently moved to the issue of differences of opinion on it!
Take another example, the age of A’aishah, the Prophet’s wife, at the time she got married to the Prophet, a thorny issue these days. A large section of Muslims routinely apologizes for the majority opinion (that she was six years old at the time of marriage and nine years old at the time of consummation) as it sounds disgusting to modern ears! So I delved into this topic to find or formulate a rational justification and defense of this aspect of Islamic history. But then I found that there are two opinions on this. The majority opinion says she was a six-year-old at the time of marriage and nine year old at the time of consummation! The minority but not insignificant opinion says she was 14 or 15 during marriage and 18 or 19 during consummation. Which one is correct?
Again, from dealing with the issue of A’aishah’s early marriage to the Prophet, I subsequently drifted to the issue of differences of opinion on it! The point is, issue no. 1 automatically leads to issue no.2; hence I have chosen this chronology and sequence for my presentation to you here in this website! Now, serious differences of opinion can be found disturbingly galore in Islam! But why? Is it because the Qur’an and the ahadith are not clear? If yes, then why are they not clear enough? Aren’t they supposed to be absolutely clear as they are purported to be the ultimate sources of guidance for all of mankind!??! This obviously is a deeply critical question which if left unanswered satisfactorily can seriously damage the faith of Muslims, as had indeed happened in my personal case!
Issue no. 3 was a natural advancement from issues 1 and 2. If Islam is from God and God wants us to follow this religion then there must be some compelling pieces of evidence to convince us, isn’t it? The search for ‘the proof’ or ‘the evidence’ of Islam was my next natural step, having already ventured into the field of da’wah (sharing the message of Islam with non-Muslims) in my second year of college. This is the part that I think would interest the readers the most because the search for that one compelling piece of evidence that would seal the deal is what every seeker desires.
Is there any such decisive, deal-clinching evidence for the Truth of Islam? Bear in mind that this is the issue which if settled, would also put the other four issues to rest, more so the first two, as it’s easy to see how the first two issues are subsumed into the third one: if a religion is from God then one would expect clarity in its texts (issue no.2) and farsightedness, justice, and relevance in its laws (issue no.1)!
But ‘Allah ke marzi ke begayr ek patta bhi nahi hil sakta!’ – not even a leaf can move without God’s Will! – a common saying among Muslims of Urdu/Hindi speaking parts of India; seems to reflect the sentiment(s) expressed by the Quranic statement ‘not a leaf falls but He knows it’ (6:59)! It basically means that whatever happens, happens by the Will of God!
So, is man free or is he under the unbreakable shackles of his fate, predestined for him by God? This is a classical debate in both Islamic and non-Islamic philosophy. One of the oldest problems of philosophy they say, and now a problem in science too, and Muslims love to debate and discuss this issue! This is how I got introduced to it, while still in school, and got deeply interested in it in my second year of college.
It was a no-brainer to begin with. Man must have free will if he is to be judged according to his thoughts and deeds, as the Qura’n clearly says that this life is a test and man will be judged on the basis of how he fares in this test. If there is no freedom to will and act then there can be no accountability and hence no real significance of the concept of ultimate judgment and justice. I was a vociferous proponent of the doctrine of man’s free will and vehemently opposed those who vocalized statements like ‘Allah ke marzi ke begayr ek patta bhi nahi hil sakta!’
But then I read the Kitab-ul-Qadr, the book or part on the topic of destiny, in the hadeeth collections of Bukhari and Muslim (the two most authoritative Sunni collections of ahadeeth), and things became notoriously difficult therefrom! These books have clear narrations from the Prophet Muhammad which explicitly say that man has no freedom and does whatever he is predestined to do! Add to that the logical arguments from philosophy and science, and man seems to be nothing but a pre-programmed robot whose each and every action is dictated by factors and forces beyond his control!
We’ll look at the parts of the Qura’n and the ahadeeth, and the philosophical and scientific reasoning which lead to fatalism. But then, what about all that religious noise over doing good deeds to attain closeness to God and qualify for Paradise! Is there any way to resolve this deadlock? I was convinced that man has no free will and this was the first nail in the coffin (of my faith that is)! I turned away from Islam since its core tenet of God’s ultimate judgment in the life to come after death became vacuous and meaningless. But the good news is, I found a satisfactory way of defeating this meaninglessness amidst all this never-ending confusion in the free will versus fatalism debate, and needless to say, we’ll explore that too!
The issue of God’s existence was the final nail in the coffin. Going with a purely philosophical inspection of the issue, based on epistemology, logic, and physics, I was convinced that the case of God cannot be decided as of now, agnosticism thus being the most rational position on this issue! I became an avowed agnostic therefore and expressed this in my first book ‘God Examined’ in 2016! All my studies and articles thereafter strengthened and defended my agnostic position on God for almost half a decade! But then the turnaround occurred. The conviction I developed over issue no.3 brought me back to Islamic theism. So we’ll discuss at length how a purely philosophical analysis leads to agnosticism and then examine how to get over agnosticism, or atheism, to the peaceful lap of God and Islam!
Thus far, we have covered two things:
The broad outline of the issues you’ll get to read.
The reason behind these issues from my personal life experience.
Superb coherence!