QUESTION:
A doctor colleague of mine is an Atheist. I have had a rather unfruitful discussion with him about God’s existence and the legitimacy of religion. Despite that, I am hopeful the debate was a positive step forward. I believe that any blessing granted to a person would only come from Ahl-al Bayt (peace be upon them). To that end, I have handed him a copy of ‘Tuhaf al-Uqool’, translated to English, considering that it is narrated of Ahl-al Bayt (peace be upon them). In return, he offered me ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins.
I regularly watch your programs. By coincidence, I watched your series on atheism and other matters on faith. I am seeking your advice on which other books I should recommend to my colleague. I intend to offer him the following books:
The Bible, Qur’an and Science by Maurice Bucaille – a none-Shi’a individual- describing the scientific miracle of the Qur’an.
Also, the book, ‘There is no God’ by Antony Flew, an Atheist who turned believer at the end of his life. You have mentioned this book in one of the episodes of your series.
Of course, the books need to be in the English language.
ANSWER:
In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.
May Allah bless Muhammad and his Family and damn their enemies.
We recommend directing your friend to read a series of books on debates that occurred between Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) and heretics, such as Ibn Abi al-’Awja, Abdullah Bin al-Muqfi’a and others. We also recommend the book you have mentioned by the author, Flew, who wrote a book titled, ‘There is no God’, yet later denounced his book and wrote ‘There is no God’, to refute his assumptions about the existence of God.
The Office of Sheikh al-Habib