Atheism for Islam

As compared to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism & Buddhism

Naseem Z Jamali

• Publisher: Emmanuel Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780578558097
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Ateísmo

This book is not just for Muslims. Islam is in deep turmoil affecting all people and cultures around the world.Muslim countries Afghanistan, Iraq and now Iran are engaged in military conflict with Western powers that field mostly Christian soldiers. Shia Iran is in proxy conflict with Sunni Saudi Arabia in Yemen. Muslim minority Rohingya in Burma face atrocities and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Buddhist majority in Burma. The Hindu nationalist party in India that won the recent national election is hostile to the 100 plus million Muslim minority. Terrorism and fraternal armed clashes are the norm in in Africa. Above all Islam was implicated in 9/11 attacks which continues to exact a heavy price on travel and commerce throughout the world.

Tis book is unique forn the long history of Islamic literature and civilization no atheistic work or movement ever materialized whereas in Christianity experimental observations of Galileo gave rise to Enlightenment and Age of Reason.As a consequence the past few centuries have witnessed an increasing distancing of beliefs in the Christian West. A theism for Islam that delves deep in the Quran and scriptures can serve as the springboard for finally y liberating the Muslim mind.

Mots arguments against God's existence are original and unuque, Some other proffs can easily apply to other religions. A bonus of the book is the argument against the existence of soull that plays a central role in most religions. The book argues that the essence of a person is not an immaterial soul but his or her body. Further it demosntrates the key function of the soull, that of carrying his or her identity throughout their career, is pbetter erformed a by the material DNA molecule. The 75 to 100 trillion cells that constitute the same body throughout his or her existence is mediated by identical copies of of DNA as tatconception. Needless to say that ithis view of identity has a drmaticeffect how life and death is perceived.

Chapter 1
My Drift Towards Atheism

My personal story of becoming an atheist may only be typical in the sense that most portraits of atheists often recount how they had a religious upbringing or grew up with an unquestioning belief in God. More interestingly, one also learns the circumstances that led those individuals to leave their comfort zones and opt for the discomfiting position sometimes fraught with peril. But there is no harm in subscribing to the popular view that biography reveals in more ways than one why we end up believing what we believe.

I grew up in a Muslim household with nine siblings. As was the custom in my Muslim country, I was expected by my parents and the community to offer prayers five times a day, each time preceded by ablutions. A hadith describes these as procedures when a Muslim “washes hands 3 times, rinses mouth, sniffs water into nostrils and expels it, washes face, arms to elbows. Rubs his wet hand through hair, touch his ears, wash his feet. Sand and dust can be used if water is not available; excess is beaten off after striking dust, and goes through the motion of washing.”¹ Offering prayers in Islam is not a simple act of meditating, listening to a sermon or engaging in non-strenuous movements of the body. It requires quite a bit of contortions, first one stands erect while reciting select verses from the Quran then bends half way with hands on the knees, after which one stands up again and later dives to prostrate on the floor all the while reciting prescribed prayers or incantations at each phase. This procedure is repeated several times during one prayer and if multiplied five times a day one gets quite a workout. I have heard claims from the faithful, with some justification, that practicing Islam is good for your health because of physical exertions involved in prayers. I would only observe that if I wanted to exercise I would find more convenient methods and better time slots for such exertions. As children we found it difficult not to pass gas during bending and prostrating - an infraction that in principle nullified the purity attained from ablution requiring that one restart the cycle of washing and praying. Of course I never saw anyone perform such corrective measures. I also did not come across discussions of whether adults have similar mishaps during prostration and have certainly not witnessed them repeat ablutions or prayers. As is common in all practices related to Islam, the believer is the sole judge of what is the right and wrong belief and its practices.

The realities of life that of my childhood included play and studies and very often exempted youngsters from carrying out their religious duties, though the Friday noon prayer requirements were regularly enforced. The adherence to practices, offering prayers and others such as giving a percentage of income to charity was loosey-goosey in my household. Requirements for Quranic studies were fulfilled either by attending the neighborhood madrassa or a cleric or a parent providing home schooling. Children rarely offered prayers five times a day; some adults fulfilled these duties by offering prayers in mosques, while others went about their business without much excuse. But Islam allows flexibility relating to adherence to the five pillars of belief with the exception of one. That is the first principle (shahada) that requires a Muslim to utter with utmost sincerity the words “There is no god (allah) but God(Allah) and Mohammad is his prophet” at least once in their life and as often as possible. My father, who came from a land-holding and correspondingly a religious leadership family, offered daily prayers five times more often than not. Being a doctor, he would take a break from examining patients to spread his prayer mat in a corner of the clinic and pray. Though he practiced Western medicine he did not hesitate to provide religious prescriptions to his patients or seek herbal medicine for himself or his family. Despite the relaxed attitude towards daily religious duties we were practicing Muslims, perhaps a tad more observant than the norm. I clearly recall occasions when as an adolescent I had to wake-up before sunrise in winters, walk some distance to offer prayers in the mosque in semi-darkness all the while shivering with cold. After arriving at the mosque, I washed up (performed ablution) with cold water which made my shivering not only intense but also reinforced my commitment and devotion. Sure enough, during these exertions I experienced an elevated sense of awareness, fortitude, as well as a sense of moral superiority. Yes, I even felt the presence of, and had communion with a spiritual being about whom I had no doubt was Allah.

But while I was experiencing religious sublimation at home, I was also attending a school run by Jesuit Christians where the instructions were conducted in English. Such schools in post-colonial countries attracted children of parents with deep financial resources and high ambition for their future. The expectation was that the Western education acquired in these schools gave the students a solid formation to become part of the elite later in life, which, based on my knowledge, it often did though it did not turn out that way for me personally. But, there were several aspects of the school experience that left a mark on me. One was: we were absolutely prohibited from talking in our native tongue at school which was especially difficult during recess and play-time. (Looking back, it seems to me that the Jesuits in applying this practice had stumbled on the immersion method of teaching foreign languages.) During outdoor recesses, school appointed student-monitors eavesdropped on conversations and in game talks between students. Violators apprehended speaking in their mother tongue were reported to the principal’s office that resulted in the caning of the offenders in front of the whole school assembly the next day. This gave me an insight from later readings on how the network of spies worked in the Russian gulag or other authoritarian settings. As well, it gave me a sense of the terror and humiliation of public lashing conducted by Islamist regimes in my own country and some other Islamic countries. I am happy to recall I received Christian lashing only once since I had become quite fluent in English.

Another aspect of my Christian education was the kind of learning that occurred in the required course on “catechism.” In this class we learnt to say Christian prayers by heart, mastered various ethical puzzles and answered questions that required a good comprehension of the Christian dogma and ethics. Even today, I occasionally surprise my Western friends when so many years later I can rattle off on demand the prayers “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …” But the interesting thing was that the prayers and catechisms were taught in English which due to forced-feeding of English in the class-room and play period, enabled me to understand them moderately well. Of course no harm was done, or perceived, since answering properly helped to improve my grade average. At home, by contrast, we memorized the Quran in Arabic and regurgitated prayers in Arabic without a clue about the meaning of what we were saying. But youngsters like me and my siblings grew up absolutely persuaded that whatever was said and whatever it meant (though we did not comprehend it) was the absolute truth. At school, being of Muslim background we were not asked, nor were we expected, to attend church which, it so happened was located on school grounds.( On a recent visit to my school I also stepped in the church and was surprised to realize how small and cozy it was.) Neither do I think parents would have tolerated such an open attempt at proselytizing. But we learnt to interpret Christian ethics in our catechism classes. I believe this was my first introduction to the use of reason (albeit limited and biased) in dealing with questions of conduct and ethics. In retrospect I think this exposure to reasoning in understanding morality and ethics ultimately led me to embrace atheism. I have not subjected myself to psychoanalysis on this question, but it is plausible that the conflict between blind faith and reason sparked an intellectual awakening that prompted me to pursue intellectual pursuits in later life rather than drift to worldly career-path. It seems plausible as some historians have argued that when Christian prayers were allowed to be uttered in native languages of the worshippers rather than the obligatory Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek or Latin of earlier eras, Christian faith became open to common understanding and consequently to questioning or rejection of the faith by many.² It is useful to remember that a monopoly of religious knowledge and language by priestly classes and their patrons, whether in Christianity or Hinduism, greatly facilitated their rule. In Islam which does not have priesthood, feudal lords in the past and capitalists in the present simply assume patronage and even leadership of Islam. For Christianity, a breach of rigid controls occurred when Martin Luther translated the New Testament from Greek to German in 1522 while in protective custody in Wartburg Castle, Germany.³ Soon after, translations in Dutch and French appeared further weakening the stranglehold of the church and clergy while making the supposed sanctified word of God accessible to the vulgar populace.⁴ Islam, by contrast does not permit the translation of the Quran and prayers from Arabic to other languages, which perhaps may be a reason why it still has an iron hold on many of its adherents. Due to the unintelligibility of the Quran by ordinary Muslims, a mystery is created when it is recited (the word Quran itself means recitation.) It is quite another matter that the unfathomable mystery can and does lend itself to a closed mind, exploitation and coercion of the faithful.

Later on, after I could not reconcile in my mind the teaching at home that Islam was the one true religion and the lessons imparted in classroom at school that Christianity had true answers to questions that troubled my burgeoning intellect, I read Bertrand Russell’s book “Why I Am Not A Christian”⁵ as a Philosophy student in college. Philosophy, as a subject, was not well regarded and only students with less than stellar academic achievements ended majoring in it. I, on the other hand, was a top science major in high school which earned me the high honor of getting my picture published in major national newspapers upon graduation. However, when I applied for admission in lowly humanities in college, I was twice asked to furnish written permission from my parents that they were OK with my committing the equivalent of future career suicide. At college itself, though there were a sufficient number of courses offered in logic and Western philosophy, heavy emphasis was on Islamic thought. Courses in Islamic philosophy were devoid of debate or critical analysis; we were expected to master the fine points and virtues of the thought of Al Farabi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn-e-Sina and others. Looking back I feel a philosophy major was expected to become a skilled apologist for Islam. There certainly was no room for questioning Islam or for a disciplined atheistic perspective. Though initially Russell’s book satisfied one part of my dilemma, namely why I am not a Christian, I gradually realized that Russell’s arguments could be applied to Islam as well. But whereas Russell’s argument were succinct and well-formed, my own were improvised and often flippant. But it led me to sticky situations on many occasions. Once I got a kick and felt a rush of rebellious accomplishment upon learning that the mother of a friend had admonished him not to associate with me since I had turned into a heretic – a very risky persona indeed in the Islamic republic. But more seriously, on more than one occasion some of my interlocutors tried to strangle me in the heat of the argument when I showed off my stuff by claiming that there was no God, that Mohammad was a mere human and the Quran a flawed book. Luckily when faced with imminent harm, I clearly felt mortal fear and saw my life flashing before my eyes. But I was able to avoid testing the limit of my dare by making an about-face, admitting there was a God and Mohammad was his prophet. I learnt two life-long lessons (a) it is not necessary to risk one’s life in the defense of the doctrine of nonexistence of God. If one is convinced there is no such entity, giving up one’s life in the defense of this conviction will not make it more nonexistent - I would simply add myself to many such nonexistence’s. I have the feeling that religious zealots who get so worked up about their fundamental beliefs that some of them are willing to put their own lives and that of others on the line have lost their arguments and their minds with it, but are trying as a last resort to validate their mistaken beliefs by other means. Not surprisingly, most religions, including Islam, exhort the faithful to mount a strong defense of their beliefs whereas atheists do not show such a fervor or mission. Lesson (b) is: cowardice is a better survival instinct or skill than bravery, especially when deep-rooted emotions come into play leaving no room for objective inquiry or a calm and rational discourse.

Even if I could have the possibility of calm and principled discussion on atheism as it pertains to Islam, there was no publication or author which could serve a guide for my unconventional ruminations. All these years later I have not yet found a serious publication of that nature nor do I know of a movement questioning the foundation of Islam though there are plenty of nasty people throwing mud and spouting racist slogans at Muslims. I have decided to fill that gap.

In later years after, I think, I developed a more mature and responsible outlook, I have become more tolerant of religious people if not of their religions. One person in particular who probably at long last got some gratification from my supposed religious re-orientation was my mother. She had known that I had stopped practicing many Islamic rituals and probably had a sense that I had turned a heretic. But she never gave up hope. Each time I went back home, she would entreat me that if I did not pray five times daily, I should at least go to the mosque for Friday prayers which I still managed to evade. Then as years passed she modified her request that I should at least pray for her or to give her satisfaction. After some initial hesitation I started complying. Though, it was physically taxing – with all that bending and prostrating as well as sitting with legs bent underneath - I began to get a certain satisfaction not unlike the satisfaction when as a child I prayed on dark cold winter mornings. As a child I felt I was doing god in the service of God, now I felt good because I made my mother happy. But if in conversation with friends who were aware of my atheistic bent of mind, I happened to mention going to Friday prayers I was immediately accused of being a fraud, or worse, a hypocrite. My response, which undoubtedly sounded glib at the time, was that to me my mother was more real than God. But over time that glibness has given way to a sense of defensible reasoning. My mother’s happiness was no different than the satisfaction that believers experience when they pray: they and their enraptured experiences are all real. An atheist has to take that into account but crucially he has to separate the tangible feelings from the untenable objects of those feelings. Our dreams or some drug induced euphoria may be real but their objects are not, and all plans or projections based on those feelings are bound to crumble in the glare of reality. Too often religious people are disappointed when the promise and hopes of their prayers do not bear fruit which they cover-up by intricate denials and elaborate rationalizations.

My sense of tolerance of religious people has been reinforced by my awareness and acknowledgement of many good works that some of them engage in. An atheist would be foolish to dismiss, for instance, Mother Teresa’s work for the children of Calcutta. That she did incredible amount of good is undeniable and if she was motivated by Christian sense of charity, which some people find as having tainted her mission, goals and objectives, that is beside the point. Atheists⁶ like Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti,⁷ Aroup Chatterjee⁸ and Tariq Ali have dismissed her work because she was against abortion, engaged in proselytizing and encouraged the “spiritual goodness” of poverty. They forget that in practical life one can accept good deeds from people who otherwise have wrong beliefs about other matters. As an atheist one should not accept or condone proselytizing or advocating belief in God, Allah or Vishnu, but denying the goodness of ministering to the sick, poor, orphaned and dying is wrong and counter-intuitive. A utilitarian secularist can base his judgment on the calculation that helping someone in distress is on balance good and it would be irrelevant to the soundness of his judgment if the person in question also professes to be an atheist or a believer. Of course a fuller portrait of an ethical response involves duties which for a believer originate from his religious faith and for an atheist from perceived human rights (beyond the legally defined human rights.) But they all can be elements of the value calculus. This point has been brought home to me on many occasions of political campaigns I have participated in. Focus on the achievement of the goal did not deter me or the group I happened to be associated with from making a united front with other individuals or groups I vehemently disagreed with on other policies. I recall a situation in a strategy session of an anti-war campaign where a priest amongst us, the head of a large parish, was asked if he would organize the clergy opposed to war. Half-jokingly, I asked my priest friend if he would accept an atheist in his group and was surprised to hear his earnest response “of course.” He and I both saw what was at stake at that moment, namely, building opposition to war, and our differences on faith, the church and existence of God had no bearing on our venture. That is the kind of attitude I want to carry in a discourse with Muslim scholars and activist. If I find myself allied with Islamist in the strug...