IMAM ABU HANIFA AND THREE QUESTIONS
Posted by musliminsuffer on March 29, 2008
bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gazi Khan gazikhan@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: IMAM ABU HANIFA AND THREE QUESTIONS (every Muslim should read this)
IMAM ABU HANIFA AND THREE QUESTIONS
You’ve GOT to read this story, it’s truly inspiring
Many years ago, during the time of the Taabi’een (the generation of Muslims after the Sahabah), Baghdad was a great city of Islam. In fact, it was the capital of the Islamic Empire and because of the great number of scholars who lived there, it was the center of Islamic knowledge. One day, the ruler of Rome at that time sent an envoy to Baghdad with three challenges for the Muslims. When the messenger reached the city, he informed the Khalifah that he had three questions which he challenged the Muslims to answer. The Khalifah gathered together all the scholars of the city and the Roman messenger climbed upon a high platform and said,
I have come with three questions. If you answer them, then I will leave with you a great amount of wealth which I have brought from the king of Rome.” As for the questions, they! were: ‘What was there before Allah?’ ‘In which direction does Allah face?’ ‘What is Allah engaged in at this moment?’
The great assembly of people were silent. (Can you think of answers to these questions?) In the midst of these brilliant scholars and students of Islam, there was a man looking on with his young son. “O my dear father! I will answer him and silence him!” said the youth. So the boy sought the permission of the Khalifah to give the answers and he was given the permission to do so.
The Roman addressed the young Muslim and repeated his first question, “What was there before Allah?” The boy asked, “Do you know how to count?” “Yes,” said the man. “Then count down from ten!” So the Roman counted down, “ten, nine, eight, …” until he reached “one” and he stopped counting. “But what comes before ‘one’?” asked the boy. “There is nothing before one – that is it!” said the man. “Well then, if there obviously is nothing before the arithmetic ‘one’, then how do you expect that there should be anything before the ‘One’ who is Absolute truth, All-Eternal, Everlasting the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden?” Now the man was surprised by this direct answer which he could not dispute. So he asked, “Then tell me, in which direction is Allah facing?” “Bring a candle and light it,” said the boy, “and tell me in which direction the flame is facing.” “But the flame is just light – it spreads in each of the four directions, North, South, East and West. It does not face any one direction only,” said the man in wonderment. The boy cried, “Then if this physical light spreads in all four directions such that you cannot tell me which way it faces, then what do you expect of the Nur-us-Samawati-wal-’Ard: Allah – the Light of the Heavens and the Earth!? Light upon Light, Allah faces all directions at all times.”
The Roman was stupefied and astounded that here was a young child answering his challenges in such a way that he could not argue against the proofs. So, he desperately wanted to try his final question. But before doing so, the boy said, “Wait! You are the one who is asking the questions and I am the one who is giving the answers to these challenges. It is only fair that you should come down to where I am standing and that I should go up where you are right now, in order that the answers may be heard as clearly as the questions.” This seemed reasonable to the Roman, so he came down from where he was standing and the boy ascended the platform. Then the man repeated his final challenge, “Tell me, what is Allah doing at this moment?” The boy proudly answered, “At this moment, when Allah found upon this high platform a liar and mocker of Islam, He caused him to descend and brought him low. And as for the one who believed in the Oneness of Allah, He raised him up and established the Truth. Every day He exercises (universal) power (Surah 55 ar-Rahman, Verse 29).” The Roman had nothing to say except to leave and return back to his country, defeated.
Meanwhile, this young boy grew up to become one of the most famous scholars of Islam. Allah, the Exalted, blessed him with special wisdom and knowledge of the Deen (religion). His name was Abu Hanifah (rahmatullah alayhi – May Allah have mercy on him) and he is known today as Imam Abu Hanifah (Imam-e-Azam), the Great Imam and scholar of Islam.
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-muslim voice-
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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
Traverse Davies said
I love these rhetorical religious posts. You haven’t proven a point in any way to any one who isn’t already a believer. The whole thing is circular logic in the extreme and only serves to make you feel better about your own faith without any substantive content. There are a hundred different ways that an educated person could answer those points, for instance “Okay then, show me Allah so that I may accept him, or at least show me the slightest bit of evidence of his existence.”
For the record, I am no easier on any other faith and have posted similar arguments to Christian forms many times.
Ahmad Usman said
Once an Atheist asked a Muslim Scholar to show me God if he exist?
The Scholar replied: Can U look at the sun constantly for a few seconds?
Atheist replied: No! I will become blind.
Scholar replied: When U can’t look at the tiny creation of the creator, how will U look at the one who created it.
Hiroe Protagonist said
You think a god that is so powerful and so complex that you can not see him let alone understand him would function by rules you understand? answer prayers? be concerned with your existence at all?
A god like that could be more easily compared to any complex system then a human.
We have a word for a god like that and it’s not allah or yahweh or jesus. It’s physics, it’s reality. It’s all of existence.
Unfortunately reality follows it’s own plans and is very unlikely to answer your prayers. Anthropomorphizing something that grand and complex down to something that can interact with mere humans seems like doing it a great misjustice.
zahid said
Subhanallah.
musliminsuffer said
Sorry, you was waiting so long for my response. Yesterday, I had problem to access internet because my computer severe some disfunctions. So, today, I get an idea; I take a wood panel, slams it to the floor, and miraculously with the Allah power, it resemble itself and function became a real laptop complete with windows xp and fully function like ordinary laptop. That’s why today, I can give my answer to you.
-muslim voice-
the Atheist said
that is complete bullshit … clearly you are lying and if you aren’t i would love to see this happen again while witnessing with my own two eyes… as for the answers that Imam Abu-Hanifah has given … they are indeed circular logic AND clearly the roman had not thought about his answers before giving them. If you are familiar with negative numbers you can say, after “1″ … 0 and after recite all the negative numbers which are as you may or may not know infinite …. the second answer doesn’t prove anything either … it doesn’t prove that allah is facing in any direction unless you literally telling me it’s a candle … and if allah was even real then how come i am not able to tell he is there … why doesn’t he reveal himself to me right now? or EVER IN MY LIFE. The third one is simply a cunning little trick he used to employ to lower the roman’s self esteem, he could clearly get right back up and show that he will not “bow” to any god.
i am a former muslim … at the age of 15 i can now proudly say, “I AM AN ATHEIST” … open your eyes
musliminsuffer said
Ah ha … so finally you admitted that my story is impossible and the laptop never exist without the existent of its creator who intend to create the laptop.
So, are you still thinking that human, universe, earth and stars systems; do exist just like that miraculously without any interference from their CREATOR??????
And do you think the ALLAH swt, God the creator of universe, content of matter and essence like matter and essence that made human and universe?
Do you think that your logic is sophisticate enough to answer all problems and questions about universe?
-muslim voice-
Traverse Davies said
Actually, this is a ridiculous analogy. A straw man that reveals a lack of understanding of science, the nature of complex systems, and historical rhetoric. Maybe Muslims have had to face this sort of debate for a much shorter time than Christians, because there tends to be less mingling of secular and Muslim people than of secular and Christian people, but the Christians have used this same argument for centuries now. Not only does it fail from the perspective that a laptop is a tool that is manufactured, and has no relationship to the universe at large, the laptop is dependent on many scientific laws which show that both the Bible and the Koran cannot be literally true.
As distasteful as it may be to you, you may want to do a bit of reading on what arguments have been used in the Atheist/Christian debates around the net. If the Muslim faith can’t offer any arguments that the Christians haven’t already tried and failed with, it probably doesn’t make sense to bring those same arguments forward.
musliminsuffer said
Let’s take a simple example like a chair. Will you deny that a chair couldn’t exist without carpenter’s hand?
If a simple thing like a chair need its creator, to be exist; How could you believe the complex and sophisticated universe do exist without the creator?
Which is the most difficult to make? Making a chair or creating the earth, stars, universe and its contents?
Charles said
Absolutely a chair could exist without a carpenter. Anything which can be used for sitting is a chair. Our standard definition of the shape, size and components of an average chair is entirely arbitrary, and no such arbitrary requirements exist for naturally created objects, because they are unrelated to and unnecessary for the function of any given object, simply a product of societal norms.
If life could only manifest itself in one form, your argument that a creator is necessary would be reasonable, however this is not the case. Every more complex life form developed from a simpler one, beginning with a creature simple enough that it could be created by chance occurrences.
On top of this, the question you pose: “Which is the most difficult to make? Making a chair or creating the earth, stars, universe and its contents?”, is flawed.
It is impossible to deny that creating a universe from scratch would be more difficult than creating a chair, however only one of the two need be created. The mechanics which formed the universe are, for the most part, understood, and we have seen through the study of such matters that the universe need not be crafted – it is the necessary result of its initial state – the big bang.
musliminsuffer said
okey, i will explain to you if you never knew; a chair i mean is A piece of furniture consisting of a seat, legs, back, and often arms, designed to accommodate one person. I hope you learn one word today. So, what do you answer?
Come on, what universe are you living now? What a logic are you using, how come a simple wooden chair need carpenter to exist, but the complex and sophisticated universe no need a creator to exist?
big-bang is still debatable and in discussion until now, no one sure what happened with big-bang; you can’t argue base on lie!
The Coming Generation said
BE peace be upon you..
so for the M. Atheist, i wanted to reply after the One “1″ is the Zero “0″ which is nothing …
The Second answer proves that Allah’s Light is everywhere, In everything he created…
because M.Chair think that chair can be existed without a carpenter,so a car can be created without hands? with Robots? Robots are made by other people hands…so it goes on till we come to a Human…And we know that if i’m not here it’s because nobody created me, but if you’re here, it’s because someOne wanted You to be here…
Humanist said
As for the chair argument: if even something as simple as chair needs a creator, then how can you “explain” the creation of something much more complex: god (assuming you do agree that god is more complex than a chair)
As for the roman soldier thing: It is a funny story and can be used to stress the moral that modesty is a virtue. But apart from that, the goofs in the story:
)
1) Roman Empire was obliterated around 4 A.D. and “allah” did not come into existence until around 620 A.D
2) What before 1: How does this answer relate to allah? Numbers are humans’ way of looking at things, numbers do not “exist” in the literal sense. Assuming for a moment that there is nothing before 1, it would be so only because we humans wanted it that way, not because of any surreal being or event. Is it the same with “allah” (the assumption that there is nothing before allah, just like assumption that there is nothing before 1)? Then do you agree “allah” is just like numbers, a creation of human mind?
3) Candle in the wind: what about upward direction?
If allah is so powerful, can he create a stone which he cannot lift? If he cannot create such a stone, obviously there is an area where he is not supreme and hence not all powerful. If he indeed can make such a stone, he is not all powerful as there is one stone he cannot lift.
But, at the end of the day, it is upto each to believe in anything whatsoever he wants, but please do not “claim” your belief is superior or perfectly logical and logically perfect.
musliminsuffer said
No, the discussion about the chair and the creator is metaphor or analogy; this is not chain answer question like who create the chair creator and so on … and so on!
This is just simple single question answer: There is chair, so there is chair creator. Simple!
And there is universe which so complex; there is strong evidence the present of the universe creator almighty!
My answer to question no [1]:
Did you ever study roman empire history, do you? pity
In the late 3rd century AD, Diocletian established the practice of dividing authority between two emperors, one in the western part of the empire and one in the east, in order to better administer the vast territory. For the next century this practice continued, with occasional periods in which one emperor assumed complete control. However, after the death of Theodosius the Great in 395, no single emperor would ever again hold genuine supremacy over a united Roman Empire [7]. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 as Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer [8]. The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire endured until 1453 with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks led by Mehmed II [9]. Therefore, it is difficult to give an exact date when the Roman Empire ceased to exist, but this article will focus on the empire from 27 BC to the permanent division in AD 395. For more information, see History of the Roman Empire. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire]
My answer to question no [2]:
The human knowledge and technology at that time, proof that humanity not know yet about number 0 [zero] and also minus/negative number. Because the ’0′ [zero] was founded by muslim scientist Al Gebra.
So, Imam Abu hanifa answer/argument is absolutely right, base on human knowledge in that time. Before ’1′ is ’0′ and ’0′ is final number.
My answer to question no [3]:
There is always a number for upware direction until unlimited!
Your final question: “If allah is so powerful, can he create a stone which he cannot lift?”
Why you agnostik/atheist always repeat this dumb question! My kid in 2nd grade, smile and pity you, when I show your question to him. He comment: what kind of question is it, dad? Are they never study grammar and logic deduction?
Oh pal, you question make my stomach sick, you know. I never face dumbest question, like yours. You know why; because you so hypocrite and no sense of logic deduction at all. In a single sentence, and phrase you contradict GOD is subject or center of phrase [first], but in secend phrase GID is only object. Your bullshit is meaningless. NO ANSWER FOR WRONG QUESTION!
The analogy is “Can you tell me story that you never have?”
-muslim voice-