Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

In the very beginning of the Quran we read:

This is the perfect Book, free from all doubt; it is guidance for those who are straightforward and call a spade a spade, who believe in the unseen, observe prayer and spend out of whatsoever We have bestowed on them. (Al Quran 2:2-3)

What is this unseen that someone has to believe in to be guided by God. Different commentators have tried to explain this. One good way of looking at it is to understand the converse, someone who does not believe in the unseen. In recent times that concept has been precisely defined by the atheists, for the atheists. It is called metaphysical naturalism.

Metaphysical naturalism (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by the natural sciences. Methodological naturalism is a philosophical basis for science, for which metaphysical naturalism provides only one possible ontological foundation. Broadly, the corresponding theological perspective is religious naturalism or spiritual naturalism. More specifically, metaphysical naturalism rejects the supernatural concepts and explanations that are part of many religions.

According to Steven Schafersman, geologist and president of Texas Citizens for Science, metaphysical naturalism is a philosophy that proposes that: 1. Nature encompasses all that exists throughout space and time; 2. Nature (the universe or cosmos) consists only of natural elements, that is, of spatiotemporal physical substance—mass–energy. Non-physical or quasi-physical substance, such as information, ideas, values, logic, mathematics, intellect, and other emergent phenomena, either supervene upon the physical or can be reduced to a physical account; 3. Nature operates by the laws of physics and in principle, can be explained and understood by science and philosophy; and 4. the supernatural does not exist, i.e., only nature is real. Naturalism is therefore a metaphysical philosophy opposed primarily by Biblical creationism.^[1]

In Carl Sagan’s words: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.”^[2]

According to Arthur C. Danto, naturalism, in recent usage, is a species of philosophical monism according to which whatever exists or happens is natural in the sense of being susceptible to explanation through methods which, although paradigmatically exemplified in the natural sciences, are continuous from domain to domain of objects and events. Hence, naturalism is polemically defined as repudiating the view that there exists or could exist any entities which lie, in principle, beyond the scope of scientific explanation.^[3]

Once someone strongly believes in metaphysical naturalism then he or she cannot be shown any evidence for God, who is beyond nature, or beyond time, space and matter. For, such a person simply does not conceptualize the Transcendent at all and whatever a Theist may suggest the one with complete faith in metaphysical naturalism, an easy example being Richard Dawkins, will favor any natural explanation, however remote, rather than Theism.

This is what is suggested in the above verses of the Quran that a belief in the unseen is necessary for someone to be guided.

Now, let me share a non-religious example of the unseen.

 Jim Holt wrote for the New York Times in 2008:

A physicist, a biologist and a mathematician walk into a bar. Bartender says, “Any of you believe in God?” Which of the three is most likely to say yes? Answer: the mathematician. Mathematicians believe in God at a rate two and a half times that of biologists, a survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences a decade ago revealed. Admittedly, this rate is not very high in absolute terms. Only 14.6 percent of the mathematicians embraced the God hypothesis (versus 5.5 percent of the biologists).

But here is something you probably didn’t know. Most mathematicians believe in heaven. Not a heaven with angels, but one populated by the abstract objects they devote themselves to studying: perfect spheres, infinite numbers, the square root of minus one and the like. Moreover, they believe they commune with this realm of timeless entities through a sort of extrasensory perception. Mathematicians who buy into this fantasy are called “Platonists,” since their mathematical heaven resembles the realm of the Good and the True described in Plato’s “Republic.” Some years ago, while giving a lecture to an international audience of elite mathematicians in Berkeley, I asked how many of them were Platonists. About three-quarters raised their hands. So you might say that mathematicians are no strangers to belief in the unseen. (Of course, mathematicians don’t drag their beliefs into the public square, let alone fly planes into buildings.)[1]

The emphasis in the quote has been added by me.

Read on and in the words of Sir Francis Bacon, “Read not to contradict … but to weigh and consider.”

Like the 75% mathematician, if we remain open to the unseen then there are several ways that we could be led to the ultimate truth. I will draw your attention to the Quranic verses about the acceptance of prayers:

And when My servants ask you (Muhammad) about Me, say: ‘I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way.’ (Al Quran 2:186)

Say, “Who delivers you from the calamities of the land and the sea, when you call upon Him in humility and in secret, saying, ‘If He deliver us from this, we will surely be of those who are grateful?’ ” (Al Quran 6:63)

Who is it that answers the distressed when they call upon Him? Who removes their suffering? Who makes you successors in the earth? Is it another god beside God? Little notice you take! (Al Quran 27:62)

It is He who enables you to travel on land and sea until, when you are sailing on ships and rejoicing in the favoring wind, a storm arrives: waves come at those on board from all sides and they feel there is no escape. Then they pray to God, professing sincere devotion to Him, ‘If You save us from this we shall be truly thankful.’ Yet no sooner does He save them than, back on land, they behave outrageously against all that is right. People! Your outrageous behavior only works against yourselves. Take your little enjoyment in this present life; in the end you will return to Us and We shall confront you with everything you have done. (Al Quran 10:22-23)

[People], it is your Lord who makes ships go smoothly for you on the sea so that you can seek His bounty: He is most merciful towards you. When you get into distress at sea, those you pray to besides Him desert you, but when He brings you back safe to land you turn away: man is ever ungrateful. Can you be sure that God will not have you swallowed up into the earth when you are back on land, or that He will not send a sandstorm against you? Then you will find no one to protect you. Or can you be sure that He will not send you back out to sea, and send a violent storm against you to drown you for being so ungrateful? You will find no helper against Us there. (Al Quran 17:66-69)

You may not have the desire to pray today, but, please simply save it as a possibility for the rainy day.

Additional reading and viewing

Video: Cat Stevens’ Path to Islam

1984 Rare TV Interview With Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)

If the Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins!