from atheism to belief

Abu Hanifa [d. 767], founder of the Hanifa sect and known during his own lifetime as "al Imam al-A'zam" [The Great Scholar], strove to communicate the message of Islam and teach people God's commandments. The signs leading to faith constituted the most important method he used to spread Islam and prove God's existence. As an example of just how much importance this great scholar attached to these signs, consider the following dialogue with an atheist [a naturalist or materialist who does not believe the Hereafter]:

When Abu Hanifa, who lived on the opposite shore of Baghdad, failed to take his place at the hour for debate, various questions arose in the mind of the atheist and the crowd. Everyone wondered: "Why hasn't he come? Will he really not come? Is he afraid? Has he been unable to find any proof?" and so on. Al-Imam al-A'zam arrived shortly after the appointed time. The atheist had been encouraged by this, and his arrogance and pride had grown...

Abu Hanifa apologized and began to explain why he was late: "I could not find a boat to carry me from the other shore. I began waiting, thinking that perhaps a skiff or a raft would come... At that moment, I saw that the trees suddenly fall over, turn themselves into timber, and the timber become a skiff. And then I saw an oar and a sail create themselves and assume their proper forms. I was delighted that I would no longer have to keep you waiting and so jumped into the skiff, which then brought me here by itself..."

The atheist and the crowd were unable to understand these words. The atheist, who believed that everything was created by nature, said that it was impossible for such an event to take place... which was just what al-Imam al-A'zam had been expecting...

Smiling, he replied: "How can you accept that a tiny skiff cannot come into being of its own accord without a builder and an artist, and yet you still believe that this magnificent universe could have come into being of its own accord, without a maker or a creator? The universe is the work of God, not of itself. There is no need to initiate a debate and dispute when all this is so apparent."


:: Die, Atheism, Die! ::