ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Seeking the Straight Path: Reflections of a New Muslim Is It Good To Be A Muslim? A philosopher may debate whether there is such thing as absolute truth, or truth with a capital T. Another may say that all paths lead to God, i.e., that all religions or philosophies are equal. If that were the case, then it would not matter if I were Christian, or Muslim, or Atheist, or even if I were an Adolf Hitler, a Karl Marx or Mother Teresa.

Each religion would have its own truths, and each person’s deeds within the context of their own philosophies would be equally valid. There then becomes no agreeable standard for determining right and wrong. A Muslim scholar once said that we are given the capacity within ourselves to determine right and wrong. That is plausible, because even from when we are very little, scientists report that we have ideas about fairness that are very unlikely to have been taught to us by our parents.

However, I personally believe that the God-given ability to determine right and wrong can become impaired, or diseased, if we are not careful. Once it is diseased, as I imagine it is for most of us to some extent, it becomes difficult to make it well again. Thus, it is difficult for someone, as an example, raised in the West and surrounded by Western ideals, to see all the impairments in the judgment of their society concerning right and wrong.

What a person is used to seeing, hearing, and believing seems fair to them. “He [Satan or Iblis] said: My Lord! Because Thou hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth….” Qu’ran 15:039 If we wish to examine our belief systems, the determining factor for right and wrong can only come from the source of absolute truth. In turn, I contend that absolute truth can only come from the One who created all things.

To an Atheist, perhaps that would mean that absolute truth is an inherent characteristic of the Universe. But then where did the matter of the Universe come from, and who endowed it with that characteristic? Are these questions unanswerable because science does not have the means to prove from whence the universe came? Scientists used to be called natural philosophers and they tried to logically prove the existence of God.

My favorite of their arguments is thus: Imagine that you are walking along and find a watch.