Translated from the book Kubrā al-Yaqīniyyāt al-Kawniyyah (The Greatest Universal Sureties) by Imam Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī, may Allah have mercy on him, (Damascus, Dār al-Fikr, 1428/2008), p.77-107

The Top Down Way

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Faith in the existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is the foundation of all creedal issues, and from it all other doctrinal matters which necessarily stimulate the intellect to contemplate them and then have faith in them branch out.In other words, we say all the realities of the universe that you see are only the effect of one great reality, and that is the Essence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. It is impossible to grasp what the lesser, secondary issues are before grasping their primary source and foundation, thus there is no way to familiarise yourself with the universe without first familiarising yourself with its Creator.You might say, ‘But I do not believe in the Creator.’ My answer to you would be, ‘Then you must investigate the subject of His existence thoroughly and verify the notion that you do not believe in Him, and that is so that you do not eventually make a mistake in your understanding of the universe and the meaning of your existence therein.’Let us begin the course by following the method that we have clarified:‘The existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic’ is a scientific claim connected to science while at the same time it is not subject to experience and observation.’Therefore, the path to verifying it is by one of two ways:The first way is to verify the existence of Allah directly according to the method we have mentioned with regards to scientific matters that are not observable, such that if that is established with us through indisputable proofs, His existence demonstrates to us that He has not created anything in this universe in vain, which in turn shows us the veracity of the Messengers and Prophets with regards to the commandments they were sent with. Faith in the Messengers leads us to faith in the Books and that the Qurʾān is the speech of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Then faith in the speech of Allah leads us to have faith in everything it contains by way of its various reports, rulings, commands and prohibitions…we call this path the top down path.The second path is to leave investigating the essence of Allah and start by looking at a report that has been transmitted to us about the reality of this Book that is in front of us and which is called the Qurʾān, such that if we know with indisputable proof that is connected to the verification of transmissions and reports that it has reached us via Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he says that it was revealed to him from Allah, Mighty and Majestic, we verify the meaning of revelation as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, himself has explained it with the scientific proofs that are harmonious with this claim, which are clear circumstantial evidence and analogy in accordance with what we have mentioned and its conditions above, such as thorough investigation and so forth.Thus, if we have established for ourselves the veracity of the Messenger’s claim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and that the revelation is a fact in which the Messenger has no choice and is not something emotional originating from his being, we investigate to see what could be the source of this revelation, using circumstantial evidence based on thorough investigation. Then, if we have established for ourselves by way of examination that no one but Allah, may His majesty be manifest, could have sent down this revelation, this demonstrates to us that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, exists, and with that our faith increases in all the phases that we have already passed in the investigation. We call this way the bottom up way. Let us start by looking at the first way:Every scientific fact, no matter how trivial, must eventually depend on a necessary fact (i.e. self-evident) that is not in need of proof. If not, the researcher remains seeking one proof after another in a never-ending sequence. Thus, ignorance is not removed and knowledge does not take its place.Thus, what are the self-evident facts that need no proof, and upon which the evidence for Allah’s existence, may His majesty be manifest, rests?In answering this, we place in front of you a group of instinctive facts and principles which scholars have compiled because they are necessary and because they are proofs in and of themselves, and upon them we establish direct proof for his existence, Glorified and Exalted is He, by way of clear circumstantial evidence, which you have seen in the method of research. These facts are:The falsity of something being preferred without anyone preferring itThe falsity of infinite regressionThe falsity of alternationThe law of causation [1] The meaning of something being preferred without anyone preferring it is that the thing is proceeding in a certain manner and then it changes from its manner and diverts away from it without there being any one to change it or divert it whatsoever. This is a matter that is clearly false. Every sane person knows that the foundation remains upon what it was upon, and in order for it to divert from its previous state there has to be someone to divert it and influence it and impose upon it a new state and abrogate the old one.If you understand this, then let us apply this proof to the issue of Allah’s existence, Mighty and Majestic is He:All the matters and forms that are presumed in the mind can only be ascribed with one of three attributes: necessity, impossibility and possibility.That which is ascribed necessity is that which the intellect deems impossible not to exist. That which is ascribed impossibility is that which the intellect deems impossible to exist. That which is ascribed possibility is that which the intellect deems possible to exist or not exist.This universe which we see in its entirety falls under the category of possible. In other words, the intellect is absolutely certain that it would not be impossible to presume its non-existence and sees it as possible that the means of its non-existence exist from its foundation, without necessitating anything impossible that the intellect cannot accept. Therefore, the existence of the universe as such is not necessary. It is not indispensable. Everything that has this nature must have an external influencer that prefers one of the two sides of possibility and removes the other. This means that this universe, which from its foundation could equally exist or not exist, must have a force external to it that influences it and has specified it to exist, and that force is the force of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.If you say, ‘I assume that it was brought into existence by itself without any external force influencing it’, this assumption of yours necessitates that something can be preferred without anyone preferring it, which is false, as you know, and the hypothesis that necessitated it is also false.We can clarify this issue further and say there is no doubt that there was point in time when this universe was not something remembered, as absolute non-existence was in place of today’s existence. This means that at that time the side of existence was what was preferred, and it continued as such. Then the matter was inverted and the side of existence was preferred over the side of absolute non-existence. If you say that the world was brought into existence by means of an intrinsic force without the need for an originator, then that means that you are saying that the side of existence can be preferred over the side of non-existence and the matter that continuing as such was inverted without there being any factor influencing this preference or unforeseen inversion. This is something that man knows instinctively to be false.If you went and claimed that you had held a scale by its accurate beam and you had put the same weight on each side without adding anything to either of them, and then, while the two sides were even, all of sudden one of them went down while the other went up without any external influence that the mind could conceive–everyone would abandon you, worrying about your cogitation and intellect. So what if you said to them that you had placed a weight on one of the two sides and while you were holding the scale from its beam and the heavy side was being weighed down, all of a sudden the situation changed: the heavy side went up and the light side sank, despite its lightness?Indeed, saying the continuous, absolute non-existence suddenly transformed into existence, which interacts and reproduces, without any external cause for this transformation–is no less impossible and strange than the claim of the person with the scale.However, you know that all of this is based on the presumption that the one who doubt’s Allah’s existence says, as most sane people firmly believe, that the world is contingent, i.e. it was preceded by non-existence, regardless of the age of this prolonged existence.But what if it were said to us, after this clear, self-evident proof, ‘I presume that the world always existed the way it does now. It has no beginning and it was not preceded by non-existence, and thus there is only one side and you have no proof to make me agree with what you are saying’?Here we move on to the second instinctive fact:At that point we say, ‘You mean, therefore, that this world is continuing according to the rule of self-procreation that has no beginning. This presumption necessitates infinite regression, and all sane people know instinctively that infinite regression is impossible, and thus the impossibility of the hypothesis that led to it is also made clear.The meaning of infinite regression is the presumption that all created beings are endlessly reproduced from one another, such that each one of them is caused by what came before it and is the cause of what comes after it without this chain eventually originating from a cause that exists by necessity which grants the effect of reproduction to all the other links in the chain.This presumption is false. The intellect necessarily deems it impossible, as the chain of possible created beings, however long it may be, its ongoing length cannot escape the fact that its existence is only possible, and possible things, in order form to be preferred to exist or not exist, must have someone who makes that preference, as we have said. This long chain, which you say stretches back into a deep cave that never ends, is comprised of links each of which would not exist were it not for the link before it giving it life and existence, and it itself gives life as well. Therefore, all the links of the chain, none of them have any intrinsic influence, however long the chain may be, and therefore, in order to affirm that it exists, we must wait for the emergence of an external influencer who provided with the chain this life that has been transferred from one link to the next. If not, then we have to decisively affirm one of two matters: either this entire chain does not exist, as the existence of whoever initially gave it life is not established, or it exists but it eventually originates from an essence that exists by necessity and it influences it and is not influenced by it at all. As for the first matter, it is patently false, because perception and observation deny it. The world exists and the reproduction of causes is something seen and witnessed. The second matter remains, and it is that you are certain that there must be an essential source that gave it life and the ability to develop and reproduce. Thus, the abovementioned regression is false.Let us give some examples of this issue that are smaller than the vastness of the world so that that the matter can be clearer and more self-evident.If I were to stand in front of you claiming that I know a scientific fact for certain, and when you asked me about the evidence I mentioned to you some proof which itself is a unknown proof that depends on a proof, and when you asked me for the proof of this proof, I brought you a proof just like it that depended on another proof…and so on with no end, i.e. without all these proofs eventually ending up at a necessary reality that is known intuitively, you would deny my claim to certainty regarding this fact. Indeed, you would deny that it exists at all, as there is no proof established for it yet and all the continuous proofs that we had assumed to be endless are nothing but shadows waiting for their original source. If that source does not exist then these shadows themselves do not exist, and thus this claimed fact also does not; exist.If you see a long mathematical number in which a large number of zeros are joined together, you would quickly look, before anything else, look at the first, essential number that has all the zeros on its right. As long as your eyes have not seen that number, you will not give those zeros any mathematical value. Why?This is because you know that a zero by itself had no numerical value. It only draws it value from the zero that is next to it, and that zero draws its numerical value from a third zero, and then a fourth, and then a fifth, until the zeros end up at a numerical number like one or more. It is this number that has the essential value inside of it. It is the one that gives life and value to the continuous zeros next to it. If we presumed that the chain of zeros did not end up at a numerical number possessing some essential value, these zeros would be devoid of any value. Indeed, they would be devoid of any meaning of existence, and the presumption of an endless sequence is something that ipso facto never changes and is never given any value.You see in your friend’s house a place that has beautiful flowers and a pure fragrance. When you ask him where these beautiful flowers come from, he says that they are a branch that he took from a root by his neighbour’s house. When you ask the neighbour, he in turn answers you by saying that what he has is just a part that he took from a friend’s house. Then the third person gives you the same answer the second person gave you, and you get the same answer from the fourth, fifth and sixth. Each one of them answers you by saying that what they have is just a part from someone else, and in vain you follow this sequence looking for the source of this plant and its progenitor that gave it appearance and structure and enabled it to branch out for the very beginning. If it were said to you that the sequence of this branching out and splitting up continues endlessly, what would your intellect conclude with the least amount of thinking?There is no doubt that you would conclude that this speech is a lie, because branching out, regardless of how much it reproduces and increases, can only be the result of the existence of a source that is established in and of itself and which gives those branches existence or life. If it were said that there is no source for it and we assume the speaker to be truthful, that would mean that it still has not been born, and therefore these claimed branches also have no existence whatsoever. As for if you were to see the plants’ branches with your own eyes that would mean that there is an essential source that gave all these branches existence, regardless of how remote this source and regardless of whether you have thought about it or inquired about it.Any sane person understands that a sequence of causes that acquire the ability to cause comes from the causes that come before it, such as the sequence of zeros or the sequence of the plants’ branches or the sequence of the abovementioned proofs. Therefore, no sane person can claim that the entire existence of the world is based on nothing other than a reproducing sequence without being preceded by an essential influencer that is external to its reality and exists by necessity. Otherwise, it would be valid to claim that the value of one million is only comprised of successive zeros alternating the value amongst themselves without relying on an essential number coming before them, or to claim that the flowers found in the gardens and houses are originally nothing but branches taken from one another without going back to a source that provided them with the foundation of existence.In this regard, we say what the majestic scholar, ash-Shaykh Muṣṭafā Ṣabrī said in his lofty book‘If you say to an atheist, “What is the cause of the existence of this existence that needs a cause that brings it into existence?”, he will answer by saying that it is the existence of another existence that preceded it. Then you say to him, “What is the cause of the existence of that existence that preceded it?” He will answer by saying that the existence of a third existence existed before it, and like the second it needs a cause that brings it into existence. This chain of answers in this way will never end, no matter how long it goes on for and how you far you make it in questioning–so know that this antagonist is deceiving you, misleading you and distracting you with his answers as they actually contain no answer whatsoever, just as he is deceiving, misleading and distracting himself before doing so to you. What I mean is that he cannot show you the cause of the existence of that existence whose cause of existence you asked him about first, and thus he flees from answering your question without knowing that he is fleeing. Then he tries to hide the fact that he is fleeing from answering by turning the matter into layers of continuous darkness that have no beginning. He makes you think that there is a cause before a cause and then continues with this delusion until you have a chain of causes that have no beginning, and thus none of it can be a cause as it has no source and it has not existence.’ [3] After all of this is, the presumption of infinite regression is destroyed by perception and observation itself, because we all know that there are specific created beings that have died out and become extinct, and thus if it were true that existent beings were part of an endless chain, such that each link was caused by the link before it and causes the link after it, these existent beings would not die out. How can any of them die out when they are the cause of what comes after them? When perception and observation show us that they die out and they do not continue reproducing, we know that the last link was only caused and was not a cause like the one before it. This is a violation of this claimed chain system and its nature, and is evidence that there is an external influencer influencing the monotonous chain system.Then we presume that the doubter thinks for a while and then says, ‘I go back to the position that the world is temporal, like I said before. It has a cause that influenced its coming into existence, but this cause is not embodied in anything more than gradual, self-produced interaction. At the beginning of its origination, the universe was nothing more than air filling empty space. Then there was the mist from which specific gases and vapours coagulated, and then from that the primary elements of life reached completion, such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Then, from that, organic compounds came together without limit. Millions of years passed during which these things interacted with each other, moving from one phase to another through the factor of time and continuation, until eventually the elements of living beings and others reached completion. Thus the world is temporal, but that which causes its temporality [4] and existence is this interaction that started with the simplest of beings and advanced into more complex and higher forms.’The answer is that this presumption necessitates the position of alternation, and alternation is a false hypothesis that has not been proven true by consensus of reasonable people.The meaning of false alternation is that something depends, in its absolute existence or its specific forming, on something else, except that this thing, in that existence and forming, depends at the same time on that first thing. Thus it is impossible for both this thing and that thing to be brought into existence or formed. You cannot find a sane person who will say, ‘Indeed they cooperated and each one brought the other into existence.’An example of this would be to imagine that you tried to study at a teachers’ college and it was said to you that you had to be an employee in an official teaching organisation. Then, when you tried to join the teaching organisation they told you that you had to be a graduate of the teachers’ college. It is self-evident you would not be able to achieve either option for yourself as long as that is the case.Another example would be to say that the existence of the egg depends on the existence of the chicken and then say that the existence of the chicken itself depends on the egg, and we assume that neither has any means of existence other than this way. Thus, it is self-evident that both remain non-existent until an external influencer comes and breaks the circle of this alternation. [5] If this is known, we say to the one who affirms the temporality of the world and that it came into existence by influencing itself, ‘What is the first nucleus or atom from the atoms of the world that appeared in existence before everything else?’ Whatever this thing may be, we say, ‘What is the cause that brought it into existence and raised it from the darkness of nothingness and put it on the first steps of existence?’Your statement that it is self-produced interaction means that the cause influenced its own coming into existence. In other words, when it was in the darkness of absolute non-existence, its existence depended on it being brought forth out of the depths of this non-existence it was in. When it had been brought forth and had appeared in the field of existence, it was ready for it because it had become the cause of its own existence. This is what has happened. This small atom was brought forth first from the depths of non-existence and by doing so became the cause of its own coming into existence! This is alternation in the clearest of its forms.Can you retain any atom of intellect in your head and then affirm a statement like this?This falsehood never changes, or this impossibility never becomes possible, by you deceiving yourself and giving it a sleeker and wittier way of expressing, such as the word “interaction” or “self-producing procreation” and other similar phrases. If terms and expressions had the power to change and transform meanings then the words “nature” or “natural selection” or “survival of the fittest” and so forth would abrogate necessary realities and turn knowledge into ignorance and ignorance into knowledge. People would be free of bearing the burdens of knowledge and studying the realities of things, as they would have the commodities of terms and the freedom to formulate them however they wish, instead of bearing that effort for which there is no need.However, all reasonable people know that terms and phrases come behind facts. It is not the facts that are drawn out to be subject to the will of the terms.Now it is clear to you that the position that the world came into being with a single jump without any cause influencing it is false, because it necessitates a hypothesis that is self-evidently false, which is that something cannot be preferred [6] without someone preferring it.It is clear to you that the position that the universe is eternal is false because it necessitates an endless chain of things that are merely possible, and infinite regression is also self-evidently false.It is clear to you that the position that the world is its own cause and that it influenced its own coming into existence necessitates the position of alternation, which is also a matter that is necessarily false.What, then, remains? What remains is that the world must have an independent creator who brought it into existence, and this Creator does not need someone to bring Him into existence. He is what we call the essence that exists by necessity, and He is Allah, Glorified and Exalted.The existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has become manifest with indisputable evidence based on the proof of circumstantial evidence concentrated on thorough investigation.After this, let us move from circumstantial evidence on to analogy.We put before you another absolute, established, self-evident fact and upon it we base another decisive proof for the existence of the One who exists by necessity, may His majesty be manifest, by way of indisputable, primary analogy based on thorough investigation.This fact is what we can correctly call ‘the final cause evidence’ or the evidence of wisdom and universal order. [7] We will explain this fact to you and its meaning, starting with a small example, then a bigger one and then the topic that we are actually discussing, which is the manifestation of this world.1. Imagine that you are looking at a vessel in front of you, and you find inside it scattered fragments from various tiny instruments. After deep contemplation, you start to realise the connection of harmony and familiarity between the particles of these tools, and you discover that each single part of it has an exact structural place in relation to the others. Thus, you start gathering these parts together and combining them according to this structure that it was designed on the basis of. When you have finished placing the last instrument in its place, you are surprised by a precise, monotonous sound being emitted steadily from inside those instruments that had turned into a complete appliance. You contemplate and realise that it is a timepiece that precisely determines the course of time and its movement–so what made you realise this after all of that?You realise, without doubt, that every single one of those tiny instruments has a particular, specific objective for which it was prepared to realise, and that in combination they have one specific objective, which is the determining of time.And with this you realise–again without doubt–that there is a planner behind the pushing of these tiny instruments towards realising that specific, greater objective.2. Imagine that you have entered a huge international airport and you have your luggage with you, occupying both of your hands. As you approach the closed glass doors, you are surprised to see both of them open in front of you automatically.Then you go through them and they close again, going back to the way they were, while you thank this wondrous, automatic coincidence, looking back at the doors in astonishment and amazement. Then they open again as someone else, just like you, approaches them. At that point, you put down your bags and contemplate, and you see that this matter is repeated according to a system, which is whenever someone approaches and there is a need for it.When you go back and look for the reality of the matter, motivated by your inquisitiveness, you realise that the door is mounted on a device hidden beneath it that is instantly stimulated when someone is walking above it, and this is what makes the doors split up and open.Your mind spontaneously comes to the conclusion that this device and its movement have a final cause, which is to facilitate the passing of travellers who might not have a free hand–due to carrying their luggage–to open the door. As long as this admirable, humane objective is not something that can depend on inanimate instruments that do not perceive or possess intellect, then this design must come from the planning of some thinking people.This notion that appears to you in these two examples applies to all similar examples, as there is no specific structural group that co-ordinates towards realising an objective, driving towards realising it, except that behind this group there is a planning intellect. As an example you can look at all the various diverse appliances and at what is called manufactured goods, such as clothes, furnishings, household effects, houses and so forth.This is the self-evident fact that is called the ‘final cause evidence’ or the evidence of wisdom and order in something, and it is the foundation of the issue of proving Allah’s existence, based on an influencing cause established by thorough investigation.If you move on after that and look at the structure of this amazing universe, you will see how its parts are superimposed on one another, how the parts of those parts are superimposed on one another, and how its tiny atoms are superimposed on one another without splitting, fully congruent down to the tiniest measure that can be imagined. You will see the small parts therein moving towards realising specific ends in harmony with other parts. You will see, after that, all the parts and particles moving towards realising certain lofty ends within exact circumstances and conditions, such that if any part of it were to make the slightest deviation that can possibly be imagined, those ends would not be realised. Indeed, all of it would be ruined.If you were to go and continue to describe the phenomena of order and harmony between all the existent beings that you see in front of you, a lifetime would not be sufficient to examine and elucidate it. You would come back with your mind spurned and exhausted from the splendour of the amazing planning that flows, starting from the electrons of atoms to the earth and all the things existing upon it, to the sky and all the celestial bodies it contains; all of them proceeding according to a monotonous system, none of them lagging behind, and all of them concentrated on wondrous, magnificent objectives, most of which end up serving man and his interests.Contemplate the earth and you will find that it has a specific weight which gives it a certain amount of gravitational pull. Contemplate this gravitational pull and you will find that it has been measured to the right amount that man needs to establish an ordered life upon it.If the weight of the earth were increased, its gravitational pull would increase, and if its gravitational pull were increased man would not be able to move about in its surface. He would be stuck to it and would only be able to drag himself across it. If the earth weighed less, its gravitational pull would decrease, and man would not be able to settle on it as he pleases. This clearly shows you that the earth has an objective, which is to be an abode and place of rest for man upon which he finds safety and stability.Contemplate your seeing eyes and you will find that, in general and in their detail, they are based on the most exact laws of sight, which scientists are still helpless at understanding. Then look and you will find that the laws of light in the universe have been facilitated from them [8] and the path had been subjugated for them from before. Thus, you will not doubt that this and that have been gathered for a specific purpose, which is that with these two eyes you can see the entire visible world. This meaning is embodied in front of you when you listen to any scientist describe the intricacies of the eye, for example, and how it is structured. You will find him giving an explanation of why something is as such in every sentence he says. You will find him talking about the nerves that extend from the brain to the eye, that they are connected to it so that it can transfer to ‘the icy moisture therein’ news of incoming images and thus impress them therein. The pupil is nothing but that black husk under the cornea, coloured black so that it can restrict diaphanous objects behind it and thus whatever light is obtained from them does not spread therein. The cornea is limited so that it can gather images inside, and so forth. Thus, the researcher cannot analyse and describe without having to explain and justify why things are the way they are. However, what is it that pushes us towards this justification that is one of the most complex procedures of will and comprehension? Can the intellect imagine, even for one moment, that all these moistures and viscidities and nerves are the ones expressing will, then combining, then mediating and then causing?Contemplate your lung and you will find that it is in harmony with the proportion of oxygen that is in the air, such that if it were to increase or decrease, it would no longer be fully capable of keeping you alive. Thus, there is no doubt that these two phenomena come together to realise an objective that is connected to fully realising the means of your life.Contemplate yourself and the capacities for intelligence that have been placed inside you (and you are a part of this universe, as you know) and you will find that you have been given a weapon that is ceaselessly amazing by its very nature and all of creation still do not fully understand it. Contemplate and you will know that the existence of this capacity has a specific objective, which is to use it to subjugate all the existent beings that you see around you; with it you can possess the keys of benefitting from them and you can plunge their depths and arrive at their roots and the forces of activity that they contain.Use what I have mentioned to you as an analogy and apply it to the various phenomena of the universe that you see or that you can think about. You will see that all of them proceed towards certain objectives that give this existence the most accurate illustrations of harmony and order, and they give man mercy and the ability to conduct his various affairs.If you know this then there is no doubt that you will be certain of the following:Just as we say the emergence of the final cause in appliances and the various manufactured goods produced by man are a decisive evidence for the existence of a planner who designed them in this way, as inanimate appliances do not have the ability to think and direct themselves towards certain objectives–then the emergence of the final cause is this greatest apparatus, which is the universe, with this amazing appearance, is decisive proof that behind it there is a planner that is pushing it towards these objectives that it has. They are objectives that all human equipment, working together, would not be able to aim for the like of.This clear fact, which forms another indisputable proof for Allah’s existence, may His majesty be manifest, and what Westerners call ‘the final cause’ and what the scholars of [9] call ‘the evidence of wisdom and harmony’ is that which the Qurʾān continues to direct intellects towards by way of various wonderful styles that are understood by people regardless of their level and education.It is a proof that holds the atheists’ tongues and saps them of all their strength. However, whomever Allah, Mighty and Majestic, wants to bring down His eternal punishment upon (as they are not grateful for the blessing of intellect that is in their heads and thus use it for free inquiry), Allah veils his intellect from all of these, decisive self-evident proofs. Therefore, do not be surprised if you find one of them saying:‘It is possible that everything you are saying is just a coincidence.’ Then he will continue and give examples of how this could be possible. He will say, ‘If we scattered a large amount of printed letters on a vast surface hoping that they would form the collection of poems of Homer or Victor Hugo, and this attempt was repeated for several years, millions of years, then maybe once or twice scattering these letters would form one part or another of these poems, and so on and so forth until the collection of poems was completed over a long period of time.’If you reflect on what is being said, you will find the person to be delirious and without intellect. Indeed you will be amazed at the level of folly this person reaches while at the same time feigning research and thought.I give you an illustration of this folly in what the great scholar and teacher Muṣṭafā Ṣabrī said in critique of such a person in his book‘This person should be responded to by saying that an absence of order will never turn into order by itself, not in a million years. Rather, over time it would become more muddled and tangled. It does not benefit them to imagine the possibility of one part from a collection of poems being formed in each period of time, as they do not have the right to assume that the formed part will be maintained and everything aside from it will be scattered the second time until another part is formed, and so on until all the poems have taken shape. Rather, one must assume that each scattering will include all the letters that were scattered the first time, which includes the letters that made up the formed part. Thus, whatever was formed the first time will be nullified by the second time, and if something is formed that second time it will be nullified by the third time. If we do not presume this to be the case, then the maintaining of the formed letters whenever they occur and preventing them from being scattered again would be an intended order, which would be the opposite of what is being presumed, i.e. there is no intended order.’ [10] This is not the full extent of this folly of theirs. They go to extremes, such as denying that our eyes were created so that we could see, our ears so that we could hear, our minds so that we could think and understand, because if they did not deny these it would necessitate them to say that they were created for final causes, and thus they would be made for this benefit by a maker acting of his will. Therefore, they flee from this necessity. If they were to be made responsible for it, they would take on contentious burdens that the intellect cannot imagine. Thus you see them saying, ‘The eye coming together with sight is a mere coincidence. The ear coming together with hearing is also a mere coincidence. This brain inside your head coming together with thought is also a mere coincidence.’And I say: By my life and by the True Lord, this folly itself is the most profound proof articulating Allah’s existence! The intellect cannot be hindered from being guided to anything clearer than what is clearly in front of it, if the process it follows towards understanding things is like a machine. As for when it is hindered from understanding, despite being present and all the elements of understanding being present (after the person had inclined towards denying Allah’s essence and had become too haughty to contemplate justly), this is the most profound evidence that this capacity can only come from the planning of a Wise Originator who has prevented it from producing in the head of this haughty person, as a reward for his haughtiness and realising the cause of his eternal punishment on the Day of Standing.If you contemplate these proofs that we have presented, you will realise that the word ‘atheism’ [11] means nothing more than opposing the intellect, regardless of what type of atheism it is and its source and regardless of its philosophy or its motives.However, you will not find a type of atheism more obstinate and more antagonistic to the intellect than the type that is based on materialistic philosophy, which claims that matter is the mother of existence and its father, and that all the phenomena of the universe only originate and increase by way of contradictions coming together and clashing, such that whatever is superior prevails while the other falls into nothingness. It is a philosophy that developed and flourished one day in certain parts of the world. Then it sank, withered and disappeared and the intellectual structure that it was based on was demolished. All that remained was the political skeleton, one half clinging on to the other half and the other half clinging on to it: one half clinging on so it can be the pillar that establishes it and the other clinging on so that it can be the megaphone that assists it.This philosophy has proofs–in any case–and they are all the proofs that we have mentioned. Then, after that, it is also backed up by the clearest, self-evident, accepted truths, which are based on resistance and opposition to it.We will discuss both branches of this philosophy as they are known by their masters:We start by discussing the first branch and we say:One of the accepted truths that the intellect believes in, regardless of what head it is inside of, is that two opposites cannot come together at one time and in one place and one cannot be reproduced from the other. Thus, black and non-black are opposites and therefore it is not possible for them to come together at one specific time, such that one could truthfully describe a specific place at a certain moment as being both dark black and brilliant white, and that is why dark black can never originate from brilliant whiteness, as that would necessitate something being reproduced from its opposite, and the two of them coming together, even for a moment, is clearly impossible. [12] It is known that matter is what exists, it is inanimate and does not perceive, and it is the opposite of the spirit, which is present and it senses and perceives. If we thus claim that the foundation of life in the universe, or indeed the foundation of everything in existence, is matter–then that means that the life that flows in our bodies can only originate from inanimate matter, which is the opposite of life…When looking for any meaning to this speech, it is unavoidable that only one of two meanings can be understood. There is no third.Either the meaning is to persist in saying that inanimate matter and life are contradictory and despite that they came together, or indeed the first of them originated the second, and it is clear that this meaning is an amazing opposition to the intellect.Or the meaning is that matter is not, as we presume, the opposite of life. Rather, they come together in one, essential reality. Therefore, why do they insist that the foundation of life is matter and not say that the foundation of matter is life? What is the difference between the two expressions as long as matter is not (according to this meaning) not the opposite of life but instead come together in an essence and in a common plateau?This question remains unanswered as long as it is not in the hands of the materialists and in their ideas there is no constitution explaining why it is that life is what originated from matter and the opposite is not what took place.The position that matter is the source of life becomes imbecilic, and is not based on any proof or preference.And this is how the incoherence of their position becomes clear to you: matter is the source of all existence, regardless of whether we explain it according to the first meaning or according to the second meaning, and you will never, ever find any third meaning.Then, after that, this philosophy is proven by the demonstrable fact of tangible experience. If life is nothing but one of the fruits of inanimate matter, then why do they not understand the secret of life? Why can they not bring life into existence by way of chemical reaction? Why do they not understand the material elements that life is made up of?The horizons of knowledge [13] have spread to the extent that they include the intricacies of matter, its secrets and its atoms, and science has even brought the intricacies of the atom to light and the reservoir of energies that it contains. How can we comprehend science’s authority spreading to this extent regarding matter, which is the origin and source, and then this authority shrinks completely and is totally lost when it comes to life, which is a fruit and a branch?Can a person believe that a scientist knows the exact analysis of a tree from its deepest roots to its highest leaves but when he wants some knowledge about its fruits, the matter is completely incomprehensible to him and he does not understand a thing about them?You might say: how do you know that they have not investigated life and they do not understand a thing about it?The answer is that all scientists agree that science has not arrived at understanding anything about the reality of life, and the topic of the spirit is included with unseen matters that science has no authority over.