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Specialist Dawah Training Course SPECIALIST DAWAH TRAINING COURSE COURSE NOTES FITRAH AND FIRST PRINCIPLES EVERYTHING HAS FIRST PRINCIPLES 2 There is no such thing as a metaphysics-free enquiry. There is always the need to start with something nonnegotiable to understand anything. Without first principles we are somewhat blind; they are like the lenses we put on to comprehend the world around us. Although the idea of metaphysics may be a subject that is considered ‘dead’, it always seems to resurrect itself—many times disguised as science or common sense. Every field of enquiry has first principles, including science. Science presumes nature is uniform. This means that there is uniformity in the causes that function in physical world. In other words, the same causes come into play in related situations and these causes are predictable. For example, science assumes that the gravitational forces at work on a falling ball are related to those at work on other falling objects. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Logical Reasoning Imagine you had to explain to your friend that a married bachelor is logically impossible, only to have him retort, “Well, I believe it is possible. Why can’t you have logical contradictions?” How do you respond? How do you begin to explain that p and not p (logically: p ∧ ¬p) is impossible? You just have to assume the principle is true; you accept the rules-that’s why it makes sense. However, if someone doesn’t accept the rules, there’s not much you can do. The tools of rationality and logic cannot prove or disprove the principle because it is outside of rationality and logic in some way. Just like the rules of the game are not the game. They only allow the game to happen. Any rational or logical system must have something outside of itself in order to work. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 3 AWAKEN THE FITRAH! When it comes to giving dawah, it is important to note that any rational arguments we give for the existence of God are a means, not an end. This is because the ultimate aim for our dawah is to The whole basis for our da’wah (i.e. ”the end goal”) is to awaken the truth from within; in other words, awaken the fitrah! _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ The Fitrah – The Natural State The Prophet Muhammad .(ف ط ر) Fitrah comes from the Arabic triliteral stem fa-ṭa-ra said, “every child is born in a state of fiṭrah. Then his parents make him a Jew, a ﷺ Christian or a Magian…” (Muslim). Furthermore, Allah points to this natural state of a human being in the Quran: Can there be doubt about God, Creator of the heavens and Earth?” (14:10) and “[Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.” (30:30) In such instances, the fitrah of a non-Muslim that has become clouded (i.e. corrupted) and therefore, our duty– by the will of Allah - to use the means He has made available to us to uncloud it once again. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 4 DEFINITION & HISTORY OF ATHEISM 5 DEFINITION OF AN ATHEIST INTRODUCTION Atheism: not a theist; someone who does not believe in a god or gods. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ● Academically, there is no consensus for a specific definition of atheism, but from a practical viewpoint, to disbelieve in a God or gods can yield certain types/classifications. For example: 1. Positive Atheism. ● This is a positive assertion by an atheist that there is no God/gods (i.e. In this sense, an atheist is someone who makes a knowledge claim – “there is no god.” ● However, this positive assertion requires justification or a sound argument to support it (i.e. this type of atheist must provide evidence for their position) _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 2. Veiled Agnosticism ● This is an atheist who is not convinced by any theist arguments. This seems to be far removed from atheism and is entering into the realm of agnosticism. ● It would imply that, if a strong argument for God’s existence were given, they would accept it (i.e. A valid argument + their sincerity = their acceptance in the existence of God.) _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 3. Does not believe in any gods. ● This is a belief based on mere choice – an absence of any rational investigation. If this is the case, then one may question - how does that differ from any other belief, whether it is the belief in fairies or astrology? (NOTE: the practical definitions proposed here are not binary; there are varying degrees of each type of atheist. They can also be described as having one or a combination of these definitions.) _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Misotheism. a hatred of an intervening god or gods ● Although not necessarily considered a form of atheism or rejecting God’s existence; rather, they hate God and wish He not exist. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 6 _________________________________________________________________________ ● Some may argue that misothiesm is the psychological basis for certain types of atheism. ● Associate Professor Bernard Schweizer, through his extensive research of prominent thinkers and writers, concludes that misothiests all struggle with, and question, the idea of a loving, compassionate God in a world of evil and suffering. ● In short, the misothiest is motivated by a key question: What has humanity done to deserve God and all the evil and suffering that He allows to occur? “The situation is different for the misotheist. To him, the incompatibility of widespread evil with the image of a benevolent God is a real problem, not merely a case of hair-splitting theological arguments. Misotheists are genuine accusers of God, and they will hold him accountable for random evil and undeserved suffering. Thus, atheists and misotheists come to the question of God’s role in human suffering from opposed directions: the unbeliever would say that the misotheist makes an invalid claim based on fiction. To the misotheist himself, precisely because he is a believer, God is not a scapegoat but an accomplice or an instigator of evil.” (Bernard Schweizer) – Schweizer, B. (2010). Hating God: The Untold Story of Misotheism. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 28. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ATHEISM AND PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM ● Like atheism, Philosophical Naturalism is a concept that denies the Divine and the supernatural; in other words, the natural world is all there is and all phenomena within the universe can be explained via physical processes. ● These physical processes are blind and non-rational (i.e. life is an unplanned product of blind natural processes). ● They reject all supernatural claims, whilst some argue that
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