The Quran

قُل أَرَأَيتُم ما تَدعونَ مِن دونِ اللَّهِ أَروني ماذا خَلَقوا مِنَ الأَرضِ أَم لَهُم شِركٌ فِي السَّماواتِ ۖ ائتوني بِكِتابٍ مِن قَبلِ هٰذا أَو أَثارَةٍ مِن عِلمٍ إِن كُنتُم صادِقينَ

Ali Unal

Say: “Do you not consider what those are whom (you deify and) invoke apart from God? Show me what they have created of the earth. Or do they have a share in (the creation and maintenance of) the heavens? Bring me a Book (revealed) before this one (the Qur’ān), or some remnant of knowledge (accurately preserved and transmitted),¹ if you are truthful (in your claims).”

The Qur’ān never makes it a cause of polemics that true knowledge is what God has revealed, or the revealed knowledge. It always challenges its opponents to bring forth accurate or certified knowledge for their denial. Denial has two forms or kinds: one is “acceptance of non-existence” or willful rejection; and the other is mere “non-acceptance.” The latter is doubt. It can be removed through evidence, provided it is not a willful attitude; if it is a willful attitude, then it becomes a judgment. As for the former, it is a conclusion, a judgment, which must be based on evidence or knowledge: for example, claiming that there is no God; or that God has never sent a Prophet or a Book; or that there is no afterlife; or that God has some partners; or that things are formed by themselves, or causes have brought these about, or nature requires these (to be so) – all of such claims are conclusion and judgment which, therefore, must be based on evidence and knowledge. Any assertion or conclusion that is not based on evidence and knowledge is to be rejected. However, in whatever form it is, (willful) denial cannot be based on any knowledge and evidence, and is arbitrary negation, repudiation, rejection which, therefore, it has no weight. Muslims must follow the Qur’ān in their response to the trends of denial, and accept the Revelation as the first and certain source of knowledge, without feeling any discomfiture.
Any claim of objectivity on this subject is, in essence, non-objectivity. Objective reasoning means impartial judgment, but “impartial” judgment means siding with the opponents or deniers and following temporary unbelief because it starts from the this proposition: Let us not accept the Existence of God, or of Revelation, or of afterlife, and so on. So it is temporary unbelief and siding with unbelief. Therefore, what a denier should do is to falsify all the evidence upon which the pillars of faith are founded; yet this is impossible. For while a single proof is enough for the establishment of the existence of something, proving its non-existence is not possible at all. In conclusion, there is, and can be, no evidence on which denial can be based; it is, thus, mere conjecture, and a baseless assertion.