The battle of wits between the advocates of Faith and Skepticism never advanced much beyond the argument that Hazrat Ali, Radiyallahu Anhu, put forward 1400 years ago.
Hazrat Ali wrote a little couplet in which he said this – he was a great poet and literary figure by the way, among so many other things:
“The physicist and the physician both claimed,
There was no resurrection and no day of judgment.
To this I said: Fine, have it your way!
If, I then pointed out,
Things after death turn out the way you say,
I will not be in any trouble at all;
But if, on the other hand,
Should things turn out the way I say,
Imagine what your fate will be.”
This debate between Belief and Disbelief is a matter of considerable personal interest to me and I have followed it keenly over several decades in person and over centuries in books.
And let me say two things:
a) First of all, Hazrat Ali’s argument is as calm, cool and rational as it can be.
b) Second, I have not seen either the physicist or the physician, as Hazrat Ali, Radiyallahu Anhu, calls them, or anyone else, come up with a satisfactory counter to this most eloquent argument by Hazrat Ali.
So far as I can judge, the ball is still in the court of the Skeptics.
As for that Haiku-type little poem by Hazrat Ali, Radiyallahu Anhu, here it is in original Arabic:
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at] AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
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