Imam Ali and the Atheist Group

by Shaykh Nazim Al Haqqani


Once upon a time, there was a group of atheist. They requested to visit Sayyidina Ali (Allah blessings be upon him) in order to discuss an issue with him. They told the imam 'we are coming to visit you and we want to have a discussion.'

Sayyidina Ali replied ' We can have a discussion but if you want to have an argument then I don't have time because arguments are forbidden, but discussions are acceptable. The atheists made an agreement. The atheists started by saying 'You are an Imam, an Imam of Muslims. You are saying that there is another life on earth? You claim that this is a short life and beyond it there is an eternal life? You have faith in such a thing and you claim that in this world there are laws which dictate what is halal (lawful) and what is haram (forbidden). On top of that you pray, meditate and fast and practice other religious rituals. We see all these rituals to be a burden that only waste time, and restrict you from real freedom.

As you know freedom is very beautiful. In order to live freely you should have no restrictions on what is halal (lawful) and what is haram (forbidden) . Everything should halal (lawful), nothing should be haram (forbidden). This is our philosophical belief. With all these restrictions in your beliefs, you have go through so many difficulties. In our philosophical thought, we live freely without any restrictions. We do whatever we like. What do have left to say?'

Sayyidina Ali replied by questioning the atheists' accusations 'I am going to ask you one question. You claim that you are happy with your life because you are free to do anything you want and nothing is preventing you from fulfilling your egos? Is this the case? On top of that you accuse of us Muslims of carrying a heavy burden since we have laws on what is haram (forbidden) ? Then you add that on top of our restrictions we have services to commit such as praying, we fasting, giving charity, perform hajj etc ? Is this what you are concluding? ", Sayyidina Ali continued, 'One question! Do you ponder of day when we are going to leave this world and no longer be able practice this so called freedom?'

The atheist began thinking.

'Now people are either following laws and doing good or doing whatever they want. They continue doing this till their deaths.

The atheists replied ' Go on'.

"That means your freedom is going to come to an end one day. Are you getting pleasure from this freedom which is going to end one day? Are you aware this freedom has its limits ? You claim we are placing a burden on our selves by following religious rituals like praying, fasting, giving charity etc? Just like how the day of pleasure will end one day, our services to Allah has its deadline. The Imam continued "o unbelievers, materialists, and atheist people you are saying, there is nothing beyond our life and that and we are equal. But you must think since we service ourselves to Allah we also believe as result, we are going to go into a realm of endless pleasures instead of staying in realm of limited pleasure. Think about yourselves. What is going be a result when your pleasure days are over?' Imam Ali got the atheist to think deeper. What is going to happen when you die, and you discover there is a hell and a heaven? What would your position be? How did you prepare for the next world? In the next world if there is no hell and heaven then you and equal in status. But if there is a hell and a paradise then us believing in it is going get us into paradise and whereas you as result will be in loss. This loss will be a pathway to hell. Think about it!"

The atheists contemplated and said "O Imam. You are so right. Your opinion, what you saying, it is just 100% filling into our mentalities. Now that are beginning to understand, and we must take the safe route. The safe route is your way. The wrong way is our way and our philosophical thoughts.

We are now going to declare 'ashadu an la ilaha illallah, illallah, illallah, wa ashadu sayyidina Muhammadan abduhu wa habibihu wa rasulu sallallahu alayhi wa sal'lam"

Fatiha.