这样写一本关于真主、伊斯兰教与无神论的书，意义何在？哲学家、思想家和学者，来自各种宗教背景的，已经写过许多类似主题的书籍，又何必重新发明轮子呢？为了解释这一点，让我稍微谈谈我至今人生的历程。

What is the point of writing a book about God, Islam and atheism? Philosophers, thinkers and academics from various religious backgrounds have already written books on similar topics, so why reinvent the wheel? To explain this, let me elaborate a little on the journey that I have taken so far in my life.

我出生于伦敦，父母都是希腊人。两人都是在七十年代为不同的原因来到英国的。父亲主要是想逃离雅典的生活。母亲则别无选择，她是1974年土耳其入侵塞浦路斯时被赶出家园的难民。我的父母吃了许多苦，但凭着爱、耐心和决心，他们如今成为我所认识的最快乐、最有爱心、最富同情心和最宽容的两个人。能有他们相伴，我永远心怀感激。 尽管经历了种种挫折，父亲最为挂心的，是解决他所说的那种人们称之为存在主义危机的问题。他一直在寻求生命关键问题的答案。他的探索之路让他购入了大量书籍。家里有各式各样的读物供我翻阅，从《积极思考的力量》到《心灵的科学》。父亲总是沉浸在书本之中，并且不断与我们分享他的想法。我是家里三个孩子中的老二，而在当时，我们几个都还没有成熟到能够完全理解他所讲的内容。 在这样的环境中长大，我也染上了父亲的存在之痛，开始追问自身存在的根基。我至今仍记得，大约十一岁时，我会走进浴缸，坐在里面哭上一阵子。我感到非常孤独。我当时想到的是，我是唯一意识到自身存在的人（见第七章）。只有我自己知道做我是什么感觉，无论我是独自待在浴缸里，还是在公园里和朋友玩耍。这让我对他人是否拥有有意识的生命产生了怀疑。他们真的有意识吗？他们是否真实存在？他们在感受什么？当我不在场时，他们的意识体验又是怎样的？后来我才了解到，这是一种唯我论的形式，即认为你只能确定自己的心灵存在的观点。 尽管如此,那是一段极其孤独的经历,我认为正是它在情感上推动我去寻找人生中非常重要的问题的答案。这段经历让我深刻体会到,真理的概念非常重要。在寻找真理的过程中,我常常与朋友交谈,向他们询问他们的信仰。我非常幸运,能够与来自各种种族和文化背景的人建立联系。这是在伦敦哈克尼区长大所带来的福分之一。我觉得,如果不知道真理,生活似乎就是不真实的、虚幻的。许多心理学家已经指出,人类渴望自己是对的,并且在对事物不确定时,会寻求从社会规范中学习。从这个角度看,对真理的追寻非常重要,因为它提供了塑造我们自身或我们想要成为的人的可能性。

I was born in London to Greek parents. Both of them came to the UK in the seventies for different reasons. My father mainly wanted to escape life in Athens. My mother did not have much of a choice; she was a refugee driven out by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. My parents suffered many hardships, but with love, patience and determination they have become now two of the happiest, most loving, compassionate and tolerant people I know. I am eternally grateful to have them in my life. Despite all their setbacks, what concerned my father the most was solving his version of what people call an existential crisis. He was in search of answers to life’s key questions. His journey led him to acquire an array of books. At home, I had access to a wide range of literature, from The Power of Positive Thinking to The Science of the Mind. My father was always immersed in his books and constantly shared his ideas with us. I am the middle of his three children, and none of us at the time had mature enough minds to comprehensively grasp what he was saying. Being brought up in this background, I picked up my father’s existential anguish, and I began to ask questions about the basis of my own existence. I still remember how, at around the age of eleven, I would go into the bath and sit in the tub for a while, crying. I felt so lonely. What occurred to me was that I was the only one conscious of my existence (see Chapter 7). Only I knew what it was like to be me, whether I was alone in the bath or playing with friends in the park. This created a sense of doubt about the existence of other people’s conscious lives. Were they really conscious? Did they exist in a real sense? What were they feeling? What were their conscious experiences when I was not there to witness them? Later in life, I learnt that this was a form of solipsism, which is the view that you can only be certain that your mind exists. Nevertheless, it was a profoundly lonely experience, which I believe was the emotional driving force to find answers to very important questions in my life. This experience instilled within me that the concept of truth is very important. In my search for truth, I used to engage with my friends and ask them questions about their beliefs. I was so fortunate to have connections with people from myriad ethnicities and cultures. This was one of the blessings of being brought up in the London borough of Hackney. I felt that without knowing the truth, life seemed unreal and illusory. Many psychologists have acknowledged that human beings want to be right and seek to learn from social norms when they are unsure about things. From this perspective, the search for truth is very important as it offers the possibility of shaping who we are or the person we want to be.

我觉得，不去探寻真理就等同于对自己撒谎，或是默认接受一个谎言。因此，对真理的探寻就成了一种途径，让我能够对自己的存在保持真诚，因为我将借此寻求确立这一生命的真相，以及我在其中所处的位置。对我而言，坚持怀疑论者关于真理的观点（即认为根本不存在真理）是自我矛盾的。原因在于，"不存在真理"这一观念本身就是一个断言，那我又怎能声称怀疑论是真实的，而其他一切都不真实呢？这正是怀疑论观点的不一致之处：怀疑论者一边宣称怀疑论为真，一边又否认其他所有真理。因此，无论我持何种立场，最终都必须接受某种真理。

I felt that not searching for the truth was tantamount to lying to myself, or accepting a lie. Therefore, the search for truth was a means of trying to be sincere with my own existence, as I would be seeking to establish the truth of this life and my place within it. For me, holding on to the sceptical view of the truth, which argues that there is no truth, was self-defeating. This is because the concept that there is no truth is actually a claim itself, so how could I claim that scepticism is true but everything else is not? This is the inconsistency of the sceptical view; a sceptic would claim the truth of scepticism, but would deny all other truths. Consequently, no matter what position I held, I still had to accept a truth.

当我第一次了解伊斯兰教时，有两个方面令我着迷。第一是我的穆斯林朋友们身上散发出的笃定。第二是他们的社会和精神实践；这两者最终促使我接受了伊斯兰教。此处不宜详述我皈依的经过。然而，有一段时间，我在理性上已确信伊斯兰教的理性根基，却仍不足以让我接纳这一信仰。于是我开始践行两件事。首先，我开始用阿拉伯语学习《古兰经》的一些章节，并参与穆斯林精修功课中的五番拜里的几次拜功。在做叩头这一拜功的部分时，我会向真主倾诉，祈求祂的引导。我这样做，是受到哥哥的朋友阿米尔·伊斯拉希（Amir Islahi）一次精神启示的启发。他当时在大学学医，却常来我所在的校园给我们提供建议。因为我有穆斯林朋友，所以我会听他讲话；阿米尔曾引用先知穆罕默德{صلى الله عليه وسلم}的话说：你在叩头时离真主最近，所以要向祂倾诉。我觉得这句话very深刻，因为面容反映着我们是谁。很多时候，它代表着我们的自我与虚荣，而穆斯林却谦卑自己，承认自己在真主面前微不足道。在这种顺服之中，他们才真正找到自我：成为创造他们的那位独一者的仆人。在叩头这一身体上谦卑与无我的姿态中，穆斯林向真主倾诉。于是我也开始向祂说话，并恳求引导。阿米尔·伊斯拉希博士如今是我的朋友，但我想他并不知道，十五年前他对我说的那几句话产生了多大的影响。其次，我开始与中学同学莫因尔·艾哈迈德（Moynul Ahmed）有更多交谈。他会来我家，跟我讲伊斯兰教，而我会向他提问。然而，在这个过程的早期，我在理智上已经确信，我的心却仍然是死的。 我对伊斯兰真理的所知，从未真正内化于心。在努力将自己所知与所感融合的挣扎中，我于2002年10月4日在家门外遇见了Moynul，并坐进了他的车里。说实话，他对我说了什么，我已经记不清了，但我记得当时的感受。他对死亡的确定性作了一番深刻而富有诗意的描述。我无法回忆起他的确切措辞；想要复原，就像在黑暗中去捉一只黑猫。然而，那番话狠狠地触动了我，仿佛打开了一扇原本紧锁的门，让我对伊斯兰真理的确信得以进入心灵。

When I first learnt about Islam, two aspects fascinated me. The first was the certainty that emanated from my Muslim friends. The second was their social and spiritual practices; both eventually led me to accept Islam. This is not the space to go into detail about my conversion. However, there was a point when I became intellectually convinced in the rational foundations of Islam, yet it still was not enough for me to embrace the religion. So I started adopting two practices. First, I started to learn some chapters of the Qur’an in Arabic, and pray several of the five daily prayers that Muslims carry out as part of their spiritual practice. When I used to prostrate, which is a part of the Islamic prayer, I would talk to God, asking for His guidance. I did this after receiving a spiritual insight of my brother’s friend, Amir Islahi. He was studying medicine at university, but he would visit my college campus and give us advice. Since I had Muslim friends, I would listen to him; echoing the words of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, Amir once said that you are closest to God during prostration, so speak to Him. I found this profound because the face reflects who we are. Many times it represents our ego and vanity, yet Muslims humble themselves and acknowledge that they are nothing compared to God. In that submission they truly find themselves; servants of the One that created them. In prostration, the physical station of humility and egolessness, Muslims speak to God. So I started talking to Him too, and begged for guidance. Dr. Amir Islahi is now my friend, but I do not think he knows the impact of those few words he conveyed to me over 15 years ago. Second, I began to have more conversations with a school friend of mine, Moynul Ahmed. He would come to my house and speak to me about Islam, and I would ask him questions. However, early on in the process I was intellectually convinced, but my heart was dead. Nothing I knew about the truth of Islam had been internalised. In this struggle to combine what I knew with what I felt, I met Moynul outside my house and sat in his car on 4 October 2002. To be honest, I do not really remember what he told me, but I remember how I felt. He expressed a profound and poetic description of the certainty of death. I cannot recall the exact words; to do so would be like catching a black cat in the dark. However, it hit me hard and somehow opened a door that seemed to have been locked, allowing my certainty in the truth of Islam to affect my heart.

人类并不喜欢思考死亡。死亡使我们意识到，我们在这个世界上建立的所有依恋都将终止。更重要的是，它让我们痛切地认识到一个残酷的事实：我们将不再存在于这个星球上。我们必须面对一场不可避免的个人末日。 关于死亡，哲学界提出过许多理论。例如，有些思想家认为死亡就像永久的沉睡。另一些人则解释说，死亡应被视为生命的一部分，每个人都必须与之和解，才能好好地活着；它是接纳我们有限性的一部分。还有一些思想家主张，死亡是从今生到来世的过渡，其中包括借着神的慈悯而获得的永恒幸福生活，或者因为我们坚持拒绝神的慈悯与引导而承受的痛苦。

Human beings do not enjoy thinking about death. It creates the realisation within us that all of the attachments we have built in this world will cease to be. Significantly, it awakens us to the brutal fact that we will no longer exist on this planet. We have to face the reality of an inevitable personal apocalypse. There have been many philosophical theories about death. For example, some thinkers hold the view that death is like a permanent sleep. Others have explained that death is to be considered part of life, something which every person must come to terms with in order to live well; part of what is involved in accepting our finitude. Some thinkers have claimed that death is a transition from this life to an afterlife, which includes the eternal life of bliss via Divine mercy, or pain because of our insistence on rejecting the mercy and guidance of God.

无论我们对死亡持何种看法，都会同意这是一个我们思考得不够多的话题。这听起来或许有些阴郁，但反思死亡有着深远的益处——它使人认识到生命是短暂的。思考我们有限的本性，有助于削减我们的自我与私欲，那些自私的欲望也就不再那么重要了。我们对物质世界短暂的依恋得以重新审视，我们的生活也会受到追问——所有这些都带来巨大的益处。正如11世纪的神学家安萨里（Al-Ghazali）所说："……在忆念死亡之中，有回报与功德。"2 思考死亡能引发思索，给我们一个反思自身存在本质的契机。

Whatever our views on death are, we can all agree it is a subject that we do not think about enough. This may sound morbid, but there is a profound benefit in reflecting on death—it brings about the realisation that life is short. Pondering our finite nature helps diminish our egos and our selfish desires no longer seem that important. Our ephemeral attachments to the material world are put into perspective and our lives are questioned—all of which offer great benefit. As the 11th century theologian Al-Ghazali said, “…in the recollection of death there is reward and merit.”2 Contemplating death provokes thought and gives us a window of opportunity to reflect on the nature of our existence.

对死亡的反思，解答了我应当如何看待生命的问题。它让我懂得，应当以怎样的分量去看待身外之物。通过死亡的视角审视自己的人生，我进入了一个情感与理智的空间，在那里我能够评估自己在这个星球上的处境。我是如何来到这世上的？我在此应当做什么？我将归往何处？正是死亡推动了这些至关重要的追问，因为一旦我认识到今生短暂，终有一日会断气离世，一切便都有了恰当的位置。

Reflecting on death, answered questions on how I should view life. It taught me to measure how much importance I should attach to material things. In viewing my life through the lens of death, I entered an emotional and intellectual space where I could assess my situation on this planet. How did I come to be? What should I be doing here? Where am I going? Death was the driving force behind these critical questions, because the moment I recognised that this life is short, that one day I will breathe my last, it put everything into perspective.

请你反思死亡。想象一下，你此刻还在这里，下一刻却已不复存在。你或许经历过亲人的离世；当时你有什么感受？你是否感到孤独、空虚，并且对过去曾经那么看重的事情失去了兴趣？如果你此刻就要尝到死亡的滋味，正如每个人迟早都会经历的那样，这对你意味着什么？如果你能重新回到生命中，你会在生活中做出哪些不同的改变？你会更认真对待哪些思想和观念？如果你在体会了死亡这一残酷现实之后重新度过自己的人生，你的人生观会是怎样的？

To understand what I went through, I want you to reflect on death; imagine you are here one minute and the next you are no more. You have probably experienced loved ones that have passed away; how did you feel? Did you feel loneliness, emptiness and lack of attachment to the things you used to take so seriously? Now, if you were to taste death this instant, as every human being eventually will, what would that mean to you? What would you do differently with your life if you were given the chance to go back? What thoughts and ideas would you take more seriously? What would your outlook be if you could relive your life having experienced the tragic reality of death?

死亡最令人悲伤之处在于，我们无法重来。这一认识深深地压在我心头。深入思考死亡之后，我得出结论：人生短暂，我想立即让自己的生命变得更好。第二天一早，我乘出租车来到伦敦中央清真寺，皈依了伊斯兰教。日期是2002年10月5日。

The sad thing about death is that we cannot go back. This realisation weighed heavily on my mind. Deeply reflecting on death led me to the conclusion that life is short, and that I wanted to transform it for the better without delay. The very next morning I took a taxi to London Central Mosque and embraced Islam. The date was October 5, 2002.

我对真理的渴求，转变成了向他人传达真理的愿望。出于天真，我会抓住任何我觉得能支持伊斯兰教及其理性基础的东西。我曾研读各种基督教哲学家的著作，因为当时用英语写成的此类材料，穆斯林几乎无从接触——伊斯兰教最深刻的思想著作大多是阿拉伯文的。这使我的学习过程不可避免地变得艰难。采纳基督教哲学家所主张的论证，并不是领会伊斯兰一神论的最佳途径。尽管两种信仰有许多共同之处，但其间仍存在巨大而微妙的差异。在我作为穆斯林的这些年里，我是吃一堑长一智的。我犯过许多错误和失误，本书的大部分内容便是我所吸取的教训。我的许多错误在网上都能看到。这一试错过程既有益处，也有负面后果。负面的是，我所有的过失、失误和疏忽都暴露在所有人面前。然而，通过阅读本书，你可以从我的错误中吸取教训，不必亲身去经历这些弯路。试错使我所采纳的论证得到了完善、发展和加强。这段旅程也让我体会到，宽容与慈悲是我们最崇高的美德之一。这些经历也挑战了我对自身信仰的看法，并帮助我打开了一扇门，让我发现伊斯兰教有着慈悲的传统。通过先知穆罕默德ﷺ的教导，我理解了慈悲能够美化一切。

My need to know the truth transformed into a desire to tell others about the truth. In my naivety, I would latch onto anything that I felt supported Islam and its rational foundations. I would study the works of various Christian philosophers because nothing of that sort was accessible to Muslims in the English language—most profound Islamic intellectual writings are in Arabic. This inevitably made my learning process hard. Adopting the arguments espoused by Christian philosophers was not the best way to imbibe Islamic theism. Although the two faiths have a lot in common, there are huge and subtle differences. Throughout my years as a Muslim, I have learnt things the hard way. I have made many mistakes and errors, and much of this book consists of the lessons that I have learnt. Many of my mistakes are available for all to see on the Internet. This process of trial and error has had its benefits as well as its negative consequences. The negatives are that all of my blunders, slip-ups and oversights are available for all to see. However, by reading this book, you can learn from my mistakes and you do not have to learn things the hard way. Trial and error have refined, developed and strengthened the arguments I have adopted. This journey has also made me appreciate that tolerance and compassion are among our highest virtues. These experiences also challenged my views on my own faith, and helped open the door to find out that Islam has a compassionate tradition. Through the Prophet Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم teachings, I understood compassion beautifies everything.

我与一些世界上最聪明的无神论者思想家检验过自己的观点和论证。我与来自广泛学术背景的知名无神论学者和思想家进行过辩论。与我交锋的人包括Simon Blackburn教授、Brendan Larvor博士、Stephen Law博士、Richard Norman教授、Nigel Warburton博士、Peter Simons教授、Lawrence Krauss教授、Graham Thompson教授、Peter Cave博士和Dan Barker。我甚至与Richard Dawkins教授进行过一次简短的街头讨论，但可惜被打断，Dawkins匆忙离开了。我们辩论的话题涵盖从“没有宗教，我们能否过得更好？”、“意识能否最好地由上帝的存在来解释？”到“伊斯兰教还是无神论：哪一个更有道理？”等各个方面。这些辩论帮助我完善了自己的论证。这是莫大的恩惠，熟悉我作品的人都能看到，我已从模仿分析哲学家的论证，发展到扎根于伊斯兰传统的立场。这并不意味着我“因噎废食”。正如您将在本书中看到的，我保留了所有合理、普遍且稳健的论证，同时赋予它们伊斯兰的风格，并加以修正，以确保它们在神学和理性上都是融贯的。

I have tested my ideas and arguments with some of the brightest atheist minds in the world. I have debated prominent atheist academics and thinkers from a wide range of intellectual backgrounds. Some of my interlocutors have been Professor Simon Blackburn, Dr. Brendan Larvor, Dr. Stephen Law, Professor Richard Norman, Dr. Nigel Warburton, Professor Peter Simons, Professor Lawrence Krauss, Professor Graham Thompson, Dr. Peter Cave and Dan Barker. I have even had a brief street discussion with Professor Richard Dawkins, but unfortunately we were interrupted and Dawkins made a quick exit. The topics we have debated range from “Can we live better lives without religion?”, “Can consciousness be best explained by God’s existence?” to “Islam or Atheism: Which Makes More Sense?”3 These debates have facilitated improvements to my arguments. It has been a huge blessing, and those who are familiar with my work have seen that I have evolved from mirroring the arguments of analytical philosophers to developing positions rooted in the Islamic tradition. This does not mean I have ‘thrown away the baby with the bathwater’. As you will see in this book, I have kept all the sound, universal and robust arguments, while giving them an Islamic flavour, as well as refining them to ensure that they are theologically and rationally coherent.

完成我在伦敦大学的哲学硕士学位，收获颇丰。我批判性地质疑和论证哲学观点的能力得到了提升。我目前正在攻读该领域的研究生课程，我的目标是运用所学，向广大受众有理有据、富有同理心地阐述传统伊斯兰教的主张。这些学术经历塑造并影响了本书论证的逻辑脉络与内容。它们也坚定了我的看法：以《古兰经》和先知教导为根基的伊斯兰神学、思想与哲学是直观的、融贯的、稳健的。

Completing my Master’s degree in philosophy at the University of London has proven to be very beneficial. My ability to critically challenge and support philosophical views has improved. I am currently continuing postgraduate studies in this field, and it is my intention to use what I have learnt to articulate an intelligent and compassionate case for traditional Islam to a wide range of audiences. These academic experiences have shaped and influenced the logical flow and content of the arguments presented in this book. They have also strengthened my view that Islamic theology, thought and philosophy—grounded in the Qur’an and the prophetic teachings—are intuitive, coherent and robust.

没有其他英文书籍能够既提出关于伊斯兰一神论的理性而细致的论证，又回应无神论的矛盾之处。这并非是在赞美这本书，而是说明这一主题的著述相当缺乏。在我于世界各地大学校园讲学的过程中，我与成千上万的穆斯林和非穆斯林学生及学者有过交流。这些交流，加上无神论的兴起，清楚地表明：人们对伊斯兰的真主观、启示的作用以及先知穆罕默德ﷺ的品格，有着强烈的求知渴望。本书旨在满足这一渴望，为英文读者提供一套连贯的论证：证明真主的存在、独一性，以及祂为何值得我们崇拜；其中包括关于《古兰经》和穆罕默德ﷺ先知身份的有力论证。本书还回应并讨论了大量支持否认神性的学术及大众论点与异议。

No other book available in the English language articulates an intelligent and nuanced case for Islamic theism, while addressing the incoherence of atheism. This is not to praise this book; rather, it highlights the lack of writing on this topic. During the lectures that I have delivered at university campuses all around the world, I have interacted with thousands of Muslim and non-Muslim students and academics. These interactions, in addition to the rise of atheism, have made it quite clear that people have an intellectual thirst concerning the Islamic view of God, the role of revelation and the personality of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. This book aims to quench that thirst, thereby providing an English reader with a coherent set of arguments for God’s existence, oneness and why He is worthy of our worship, including a compelling case for the Qur’an and the prophethood of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. It also responds to and addresses a wide range of academic and popular arguments and objections that favour the denial of the Divine.

本书结合了普遍性论证与伊斯兰教论证，用以证明真主的存在、《古兰经》的神圣性，以及穆罕默德ﷺ的先知身份。多年来，其中许多论证都已与学者和思想家反复检验。每一章都附有相关的伊斯兰文献依据，以说明每项论证的伊斯兰基础，从而确保这些论证不仅在哲学上站得住脚，在伊斯兰教义上也前后一致。本书约百分之五十的参考文献出自伊斯兰传统，包括《古兰经》和圣训等来源。4

This book contains a combination of universal and Islamic arguments for God’s existence, the Qur’an and the prophethood of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. Many of these arguments have been tried and tested with academics and thinkers over the years. Each chapter has relevant Islamic references to show the Islamic basis for each argument, which ensures that they are not only philosophically sound but Islamically coherent. Approximately fifty percent of the references in this book come from the Islamic tradition; this includes references from the Qur’an, the Prophetic Traditions4

（称为圣训；单数为hadith，复数为ahadith）以及伊斯兰学术传统。本书不仅聚焦于伊斯兰一神论以及对无神论的回应；它还论述了证明《古兰经》出自神圣启示的一个关键论点，并阐明：通过考察先知穆罕默德ﷺ的生平经历、教导与影响，我们只能得出结论：他是真主最后的使者。尤为重要的是，本书详细阐述了真主为何值得我们崇拜，而崇拜正是我们存在的意义。

(known as hadith; ahadith, pl) and the Islamic scholarly tradition. This book does not just focus on Islamic theism and a response to atheism; it addresses a key argument for the Divine authorship of the Qur’an and explains how, by looking at the life experiences, teachings and impact of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, we can only conclude that he was the final messenger of God. Significantly, it elaborates in detail on why God is worthy of our worship, which is the reason for our existence.

无论您认为自己是穆斯林、无神论者还是怀疑论者,我都邀请您以开放的心态和头脑阅读本书。我真诚地相信,如果您接受这一邀请,您将得出的结论之一是:无神论是一种智识上的海市蜃楼,而伊斯兰关于真主的观念是融贯且真实的。读完本书后,您将看到"智识上的海市蜃楼"这一说法恰如其分地描述了无神论。海市蜃楼是一种因大气条件而产生的光学幻象。同样,否认神性的条件建立在关于世界的错误假设之上,建立在不连贯的论证、伪智识的假说之上,这些假说掩盖了情感问题,有时还掩盖了自我中心。无神论并非建立在对理性的坚守之上;在许多方面,它恰恰是理性的对立面(见第三章)。

Irrespective of whether you consider yourself a Muslim, atheist or sceptic, I invite you to read this book with an open heart and mind. I truly believe that if you respond to this invitation, one of the conclusions you will reach is that atheism is an intellectual mirage and that the Islamic conception of God is coherent and true. Once you read this book you will see that the phrase ‘intellectual mirage’ is an apt description for atheism. A mirage is an optical illusion that we experience due to atmospheric conditions. Likewise, the conditions that facilitate the denial of the Divine are based on false assumptions about the world, incoherent arguments, pseudointellectual postulations that veil emotional issues and on occasion, egocentricity. Atheism is not based on a commitment to reason; in many ways, it is its adversary (see Chapter 3).