The False Religions Formed By Materialism

As mentioned in the previous section, materialism is a dangerous ideological movement that destroys spiritual values and distances people from religion. A vast majority of the societies of our day, consciously or not, remain under the influence of the materialist mind-set. However, one point deserves special mention: adherence to the materialist outlook does not necessarily mean rejecting the existence of God. A large majority of people accept His existence yet adhere to a materialist outlook. The Qur'an provides many verses about those who have such a rationale:

"Say, 'Who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? Or who controls hearing and sight and who brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living and who arranges [every] matter?' They will say, 'Allah,' so say, 'Then will you not fear Him?' For that is Allah, your Lord, the Truth. And what can be beyond truth except error? So how are you averted?"(Surah Yunus, 10:31-32) 17

"Say, 'To whom belongs the earth and whoever is in it, if you should know?' They will say, 'To Allah.' Say, 'Then will you not remember?' Say, 'Who is Lord of the seven heavens and Lord of the Great Throne?' They will say, '[They belong] to Allah.' Say, 'Then will you not fear Him?' Say, 'In whose hand is the realm of all things - and He protects while none can protect against Him - if you should know?' They will say, '[All belongs] to Allah.' Say, 'Then how are you deluded?' Rather, We have brought them the truth, and indeed they are liars." (Surah al-Mu'minun, 23:84-90) 18

"And if you asked them, 'Who created the heavens and the earth?' they would surely say, 'Allah.' Say, 'Then have you considered what you invoke besides Allah? If Allah intended me harm, are they removers of His harm; or if He intended me mercy, are they withholders of His mercy?' Say, 'Sufficient for me is Allah; upon Him [alone] rely the [wise] reliers.' (Surah az-Zumar, 39:38) 19

As seen in the verses above, these people claim that they believe in God and His religion. However, they fail to show due appreciation of His might and ascribe equals to Him. Such people are the members of false religions formed through outlooks on life far removed from the true religion. As it was in the past, many today also adhere to artificial religions and keep themselves distant from the true religion based on Allah's revelations.

Apart from the people mentioned above there are some who openly deny Allah and the Hereafter. They exert effort to influence others to disbelief and call on others to join them. The methods employed by materialists in societies embracing a traditional understanding of religion (in which people acknowledge the existence of God yet fail to appreciate His attributes) differ from those employed in societies that are more inclined to atheism. Materialists lead people away from the religion revealed to Allah's messengers by means of invented religions tailored to each society and mixed with inspirations derived from the belief that matter is absolute.

It is surely unimaginable that those who adhere to a religion far removed from its original teachings can struggle against disbelief and render it ineffective. An erroneous religious understanding would, intentionally or not, provide further support for disbelief. That is why, if one wants to enter a serious contest with disbelief, he must acquire both a precise knowledge of Allah's religion and an accurate understanding of the aspects of false religions established on the basis of materialistic views and become conversant with these deviant religions.

In the following pages some attributes of the materialist and evolutionist religions will be discussed. The striking similarities between the structures inherent in the beliefs of these false religions and those of idolatrous beliefs related in the Qur'an will be dealt with in particular.

Idolaters of the 20th Century

Allah informs us in the Qur'an about people who worshipped beings other than Him and took statues as deities, giving detailed accounts of His prophets' struggles with those people. Many assume that societies of the past that worshipped idols had a primitive lifestyle and therefore held such a religious view. Consequently, they think that some African tribes currently worship totems because of their primitiveness.

However, on closer examination of the beliefs and viewpoints of societies identified as idolatrous in the Qur'an, it is noticed that those societies bear striking similarities to some contemporary ones. Just as the peoples of the past took lifeless statues or wooden and stone objects as deities, the rationale that accepts lifeless matter as a form of deity is also prevalent in our day. Before proceeding with comparisons between past and contemporary rationales, some information provided in the Qur'an about idolatrous societies should first be reviewed.

One of the communities identified in the Qur'an is that of Prophet Abraham:

"[Mention] when he said to his father, 'O my Father, why do you worship that which does not hear and does not see and will not benefit you at all?"(Surah Maryam, 19:42.) 20

"When he said to his father and his people, 'What are these statues you are devoted?' they said, 'We found our fathers worshipping them.' He said, 'You were certainly, you and your fathers, in manifest error."(Surah al-Anbiya', 21:52-54) 21

As stated in the verses above, Prophet Abraham's father and people embraced lifeless matter as deities which they themselves made with their own hands and which lack any power to create. Considering anything to be a deity means the attribution to it (either in part or in full) of the powers of creation, sustenance, blessing, healing, reckoning, and controlling natural occurrences. The idolaters at the time of Prophet Abraham believed that the lifeless statues carved by their own hands possessed such faculties and prostrated before them in worship.

The Idolatrous Belief That Dominates Societies of Today

Idolaters of the past claimed that lifeless statues carved from wood and stone, unable to speak or move, possessed power and even that they created the universe and exercise control over it, so they bowed before them and called on them for health, sustenance and blessings. In light of these facts, it is obvious that people in our day hold the same idolatrous rationale as did idolaters of the past who worshipped lifeless statues. Materialists and evolutionists believe that inanimate substances formed of unconscious atoms possess power. They claim that as a result of chance, lifeless matter organized itself to create complete and complex living beings.

Furthermore, they attribute all occurrences in the universe to lifeless and unconscious atoms in nature. For example, materialists and evolutionists imply that a tornado or an earthquake (which they call "the wrath of mother nature" or "a calamity of nature") occurs at the discretion of "nature." However, they fail to explain what this force called "nature" is or from where it springs. The elements they call "mother nature" or "nature" are actually no different from deities of past idolatrous societies called "earth mother" or "fertility goddess." Only their symbols have been removed; divinity is now attributed to invisible, inanimate matter and to coincidence, which are believed to possess the power of creation.

Pierre Paul Grassé, a French zoologist and fervent evolutionist, explains the hidden gods of evolutionists and materialists as follows:

Chance becomes a sort of providence, which, under the cover of atheism, is not named but which is secretly worshipped. 22

Attribution of the power of creation to inanimate materials and unconscious atoms is surely a serious defect in logic. Just as idolaters believed that lifeless idols created all beings, evolutionists and materialists of today believe that lifeless matter spontaneously evolved into living beings, meaning that inanimate substances are beings of mind and consciousness and that they can decide and act upon decisions. From this standpoint they consider everything divine.

For example, evolutionists consider a rose blooming in its vivid red color out of muddy soil divine because they believe that the rose came into being all by itself or that the inanimate elements constituting a rose can spontaneously design and form the flower. Similarly, the evolutionists view oranges, apples, strawberries, bananas, grapevines, flowers, deer, lions, elephants, ants, honeybees, flies, marine animals, melons, and parsley, in brief, all living as well as non-living beings to have been capable of creating themselves since they claim that all of these beings and millions of others developed to their current physical states through their own will and consciousness.

In another example the evolutionists' claim is that a honeybee, previously "another" living being, somehow at one point in time decided to become a honeybee and thereafter started forming mechanisms in its body capable of producing honey. They claim that flies were initially unable to fly, but then they formed a pair of wings for themselves and simply started to fly. Furthermore, these flies equipped themselves with perfect flight mechanisms superior to modern technology employed in the airplanes and helicopters of today.

Evolutionists can tell countless similar stories about the billions of living beings dwelling on earth. All of them have one striking point in common: that the lifeless atoms constituting living beings or "nature" in which they dwell have consciousness and wisdom. Terms such as "natural selection," "random mutation," and "geographical isolation," which provide a so-called scientific touch, embellish the scenarios produced by evolutionists. What they ultimately advocate, in fact, is that lifeless matter in nature can spontaneously form perfect living beings: a banana, an orange, a fly, a stem of parsley, a cat, a carnation, a whale, a giraffe, an ostrich, a butterfly, a spider, an acacia, a mandarin, an ant, an elephant, a violet - as well as their next generations.

According to evolutionists, the unconscious atoms making up various elements designed the atmosphere perfectly, organized and produced it. Thus, the atmosphere was able to become a protective ceiling for the world and formed whatever was essential for life on earth. That is to say, those who idolize matter attribute to it particular powers. According to them, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and iron are all deities.

Again, according to this ridiculous belief, blind atoms first came together, then somehow organized themselves to form an eye that can see. Their behavioral pattern was so calculated and conscious that it ensured the organization of other atoms which would form the eye cavity and patiently waited for the coincidences which would shape the eye cavity before forming the eye. Evolutionists see the atoms that constitute the eye as deities because they assume them "capable" of creating such a perfect organ. Just as peoples of the past adopted deities associated with rain, the evolutionists also adopted deities - the atoms making up an eye.

From this standpoint one may conclude that the religion of materialists and evolutionists has more than billions times billions times billions of gods to revere. To claim that every being in the universe came into existence spontaneously through coincidence is to accept each one of those beings and forces as a creator. This is no different from the failure of logic which makes one prostrate himself before totems or call on wooden statues for health and prosperity; however, with one difference - the age in which the idolaters happen to live.

The False Gods of Evolutionists: Unconscious Atoms

Whatever we step on, whether a rock, soil or asphalt, a chair in which we rest, the air we inhale, the food we ingest to survive, water constituting more than two thirds of our bodies, and everything inside and outside of our bodies, both animate and inanimate, is all made up of atoms. In addition, galaxies, stars, suns, and the earth we live on are made up of atoms just like ourselves. There are atoms everywhere, in every corner you rest, in every building in the city, in particles of dust, and the air you breathe.

Living beings including man are made up of atoms of various elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, magnesium and iron. Darwinism asserts that the atoms gathered together as a result of unconscious coincidences. That is, the evolutionist rationale commands that heaps of unconscious atoms exercised a decision-making mechanism and formed, for instance, a nuclear engineer who is specialized in atoms.

A closer examination of this senseless assertion leads to the following conclusion: under the effect of a force of unknown origin, various atoms came into existence, which later coincidentally gathered together to generate stars and planets, in brief, all celestial bodies. Then, through a coincidental conglomeration of the same atoms, a living cell of an extremely complex structure was generated. This living cell then went through a process of evolution and formed many living beings with extraordinary systems, and ultimately a man of ultimate consciousness. A human being, owing his existence solely to coincidences, again discovered the atoms making up his body by means of tools, an electron microscope, for instance, which were also invented by coincidence. This is exactly what Darwinism asserts as a scientific thesis, and the theory of evolution, then, evidently accepts each atom as a "god."

Atoms making up a man who has wisdom and intellect have no consciousness or will of their own. However, evolutionists somehow assert that these inanimate atoms came together to form a human being, and then this "conglomeration of atoms" decided to go to school or to graduate from college. According to the same assertion, atoms possess very interesting skills as well; these atoms eat foods that are also made up of atoms and taste them; they smell a rose made up of atoms and enjoy smelling. The very same atoms can also sense the warmth of the air surrounding them. Meanwhile, atoms also listen to the sound waves transmitted from an audio tape and tune to the rhythm of the music. According to evolutionists, numerous atoms randomly coming together can think, miss someone, become happy or sad, and can laugh while watching a comedy film. The idolaters of the past claimed that pieces of wood possessed particular powers, whereas evolutionists of today attribute these powers to unconscious atoms.

However, it is plainly obvious that nothing in the universe can be attributed to coincidences, that a superior consciousness and will is responsible for the life on earth. Every detail of the human body and of nature itself abounds with signs of a great wisdom. The owner of this wisdom is Allah, Lord of the heavens and earth.

Allah informs us that He will render the acts of those who worship false gods void and that their ways are destined to destruction:

And We took the children of Israel across the sea; then they came upon a people intent in devotion to [some] idols of theirs. They [the Children of Israel] said, 'O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods.' He said, 'Indeed, you are a people behaving ignorantly. Indeed, those [worshippers] - destroyed is that in which they are [engaged], and worthless is whatever they were doing.' He said, 'Is it other than Allah I should desire for you as a deity while He has preferred you over the worlds?"(Surah al-A'raf, 7:138-140) 23

Worship of the Sun

Another similarity between today's materialists and evolutionists and the idolaters of ancient societies is a doctrine based on worship of the sun, which has existed from ancient times. As the source of light and energy, people often assumed that they owed their existence to the sun and deified it accordingly. Throughout history this perverted belief has kept many societies away from the true religion of Allah. The Qur'an addresses this issue and introduces us to the people of Saba' at the time of Prophet Solomon, who were worshippers of the sun:

[The hoopoe said], 'I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah, and Satan has made their deeds pleasing to them and averted them from the [right] way, so they are not guided. Should they not prostrate to Allah, who brings forth what is hidden within the heavens and the earth and knows what you conceal and what you declare." (Surah an-Naml, 27:24-25) 24

As shown, worship of the sun is a consequence of ignorance and thoughtlessness. It is true that the sun sends out heat and light to the earth, but one must offer gratitude not to the sun but to Allah, who created it. The sun is but a mass of matter without consciousness that Allah created from nothing. One day it will consume its energy and die, or perhaps Allah will reduce it to insignificance before that. Because Allah created the sun and all other celestial bodies from nothing, it is He who should be praised for those beings. This fact is stated as follows:

And of His signs are the night and day and the sun and moon. Do not prostrate to the sun or to the moon, but prostrate to Allah, who created them, if you should worship Him. (Surah Fussilat, 41:37) 25

Interestingly, evolutionists of today recite the very same fundamental tenet of this ancient religion of sun-worship by claiming that we owe our existence to the sun. According to evolutionist sources, the origin of life on earth is attributed to the sun, and rays emitted from the sun sparked life on earth. Solar energy was also claimed responsible for the generation of other living species and solar rays for mutations producing change. This approach was described by Carl Sagan, the famous American atheist astronomer, who wrote in his book, Cosmos:

Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were far from foolish... If we must worship a power greater than ourselves, does it not make sense to revere the Sun and stars? 26

Harlow Shapley, the evolutionist astronomer who was a mentor of Carl Sagan, is known for his words: "Some piously record, 'In the beginning God,' but I say, 'In the beginning hydrogen.'" That is, Shapley believed that with time hydrogen gas evolved into animals, trees and human beings. As is seen, the deification of matter and nature underlies all the senseless views put forward by evolutionists. The "religion" of evolutionists is based on worship of matter and nature.

On the other hand, a man of wisdom comprehends that the universe and nature cannot be the works of inanimate and unconscious materials. On the contrary, he sees an awesome consciousness, precise plan, and artistry in every detail and perceives the grandeur of Allah's creation. Nonetheless, many people in our day remain blind to this fact and continue to worship matter. That is because, like the people of Saba', "?Satan has made their deeds pleasing to them and averted them from the [right] way, so they are not guided."

The Disease of Materialism and Naturalism

In the Risale-i-Nur collection, a Qur'anic commentary by Said Nursi, known as Bediüzzaman (Wonder of the Age) and one of the greatest Islamic scholars of the 20th century, there is extensive reference to the defects of materialism and naturalism. Materialism can be defined as "accepting the existence of matter as the only reality." Naturalism, on the other hand, is the worship of nature. With these terms Bediüzzaman draws attention to materialism and Darwinism, the foundations of disbelief, and gives a detailed account of defects in the logic of these irreligious movements:

Or do they imagine as did the pharaoh-like materialists that "they came into being by themselves, feed themselves, and by themselves create everything they need" so that they refrain from belief and worship? That means they all suppose themselves to be the creator, whereas the creator of one thing has to be the Creator of everything. That is to say, their pride and conceit have made them so utterly stupid that they imagine someone to be a possessor of absolute power who is absolutely impotent and can be defeated by a fly or a microbe.

The materialists, whose use of reason is limited to what is immediately apparent to them, have, in their nonsensical philosophies which are based on foundations of futility, taken the transformation of particles, which they regard as the result of coincidence, to be the fundamental basis of all their principles and have shown that divine works and creatures result from those transformations. Anyone with a grain of intelligence would know how unreasonable it is to attribute creatures adorned with infinite examples of wisdom to something based on a purposeless, meaningless coincidence, which is quite without order. 27

In the statement above Bediüzzaman draws attention to the fact that it is sheer nonsense for a person to attribute divinity to himself and stresses that as a feeble and helpless being, man's attributing his own existence and that of the flawless universe to "coincidences" and his denial of Allah's existence is a great ingratitude on his part. Bediüzzaman remarks that there will be an extensive embrace of such irreligious movements in our time and that people must be saved from this religion of irreligion:

A tyrannical current born of naturalist and materialist philosophy will gradually become strong and spread toward the end of time... reaching such a degree that it denies God... It is clear just what foolish buffoonery it is for impotent man, who can be destroyed by a fly and cannot create even a fly's wing, to claim godhood. 28

As stressed by Bediüzzaman, it is beyond reason and logic to believe that lifeless matter created the universe and life by itself. It is impossible to say that a man of such belief has wisdom and faculty of reason. Indeed, Prophet Abraham expressed the foolish attitude of those who prostrate themselves before idols carved of wood:

He said, 'Then do you worship instead of Allah that which does not benefit you at all or harm you? Shame on you and what you worship instead of Allah. Then will you not use reason?' (Surah al-Anbiya', 21:66-67.) 29

False Religions Formed by the Materialist and Evolutionist Outlook on Life

The foregoing exposition should have given a clear conception of the ambition of materialists to raise masses of people who deny Allah and His religion and produce a type of man who assumes he is not accountable to anyone. At the root of materialist philosophy lies the desire for a society that rejects not only the existence of Allah but spiritual and moral values, so they must implant atheist ideology into people's minds and spread it within society. While rejecting Allah's religion, they can still accept an altered form of religion compatible with materialist views. George Gaylord Simpson, one of the leading names in the Neo-Darwinist movement, describes the sort of religion which is acceptable to evolutionists:

Of course there are some beliefs still current, labeled as religious and involved in religious emotions, that are flatly incompatible with evolution and therefore are intellectually untenable in spite of their emotional appeal. Nevertheless, I take it as now self-evident, requiring no further special discussion, that evolution and true religion are compatible. 30

Simpson, an evolutionist, states that religion can be reconciled with the materialist outlook on life as long as it fits their definition. However, it deserves mention here that what he referred to as "true religion" is surely not religion based on the revelation of Allah but something far removed from the revealed truth, the fabrication of "irreligious" religion which is based on materialist thinking and satisfies people emotionally. In our day the majority of people who claim to have faith actually live by the false religion which is alleged by materialists to be "true religion."

In the following section some of the attributes of false religion will be outlined. It will be shown to be inclusive of distorted beliefs held extensively under the name of religion. Unaccustomed to thinking deeply, however, people often fail to notice the faults inherent in those beliefs. It is an important responsibility for sincere believers in Islam to warn people against humanly devised false religions and convey to them the message of the Qur'an, which is the unique source of wisdom that Allah sent down to guide His servants.

1. A false religion holds that God is in the sky.

Despite having faith in the existence of Allah, many people hold extremely erroneous convictions about where He is. The materialistic outlook on life accounts mainly for these convictions. Because the materialist maintains that nothing really exists except matter, he inevitably assumes that Allah has to be within the material universe yet fails to imagine the kind of space He might inhabit.

The Qur'an relates that people of the same mentality existed in the past. In order to see Allah the Pharaoh ordered a tower to be built which would extend to the heavens. His erroneous belief was the result of a failure to understand Allah's attributes and his presumption about absoluteness of matter:

And Pharaoh said, 'O eminent ones, I have not known you to have a god other than me. Then ignite for me, O Haman, [a fire] upon the clay and make for me a tower that I may look at the God of Moses. And indeed, I do think he is among the liars.' (Surah al-Qasas, 28:38.) 31

But Allah is the Creator of space, and He is unbounded by it. It is only created beings that are bound by space, and Allah is exalted above all creation, while He encompasses all of it in knowledge. 32

People under influence of the materialist view of life fail to grasp this obvious truth, assuming that Allah resides in the heavens. Some people look up into the sky while praying, but a person who knows that Allah is all-aware feels His presence wherever he turns. Allah informs us of this reality:

And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing. (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:11) 33

Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives [all] vision; and He is the Subtle, the Acquainted. (Surah al-An'am, 6:103) 34

2. A false religion is one that holds that God created the universe, including man, and then left them to their own devices.

False religion holds that Allah first created the entire universe with all its living beings and then left them on their own, simply watching from a distance. According to this understanding, people determine their destiny by themselves alone.

However, Allah is not only unbounded by space but also by time. Therefore, when He created the universe and man, He created them together with their past and future, as if in a single moment. That is to say, Allah created everything with its individual destiny. Without having experienced it, a person can never know his future. But Allah knows the future of every person and every single moment he will experience. That is because Allah creates every moment experienced, every word uttered, and every move made. So He certainly did not create the entire universe and then leave it to its own devices; rather, He created every moment of the lives of all beings from their beginnings to their ends. Everything, whether the fall of a single leaf or the events a person experiences throughout life, takes place in accordance with the destiny predetermined by Allah, who conveys this fact to man in numerous verses:

And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry [thing] but that it is [written] in a clear record. (Surah al-An'am, 6:59) 35

And Allah created you and that which you do?(Surah al- Saffat 37:96.) 36

3. A false religion is one without belief in the existence of Paradise and Hellfire.

Some people under the influence of materialist thinking do not believe in Paradise and Hell although they might believe in Allah. The major reason for this is the claim that they cannot be sure about the existence of anything they are unable to see with their eyes or touch with their hands.

For a man of wisdom and intellect there are countless signs pointing to the existence of Allah and the Hereafter, such as the present heavens and earth, created with flawless design and unique harmony, and the cell, building block of all living beings. Nature, which sustains all living beings, abounds with the signs of Allah's creation. Any person of sound mind can readily understand that Allah created all living beings initially and thus He is able to bring them to life again after their death. Those who refuse to grasp this reality are described in the Qur'an as follows:

And they say, 'When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we [truly] be resurrected as a new creation?' Say, 'Be you stones or iron or [any] creation of that which is great within your breasts.' And they will say, 'Who will restore us?' Say, 'He who brought you forth the first time.' Then they will nod their heads toward you and say, 'When is that?' Say, 'Perhaps it will be soon - on the Day He calls you and you will respond with praise of Him and think that you had not remained [in the world] except for a little.' (Surah al-Isra, 17:49-52) 37

The failure of disbelievers to conceive of resurrection after death and the doubts they harbor about this reality is again a consequence of their biased materialist beliefs. The materialist sees the distinctive formation of a human being as a result of interaction among elements. He asserts that the metaphysical aspects of man (his mind and emotions) are also generated by such interactions. Accordingly, such people interpret resurrection as the self-rebuilding of matter and thus can never imagine the possibility of this process. That is to say, they cannot accept that annihilated matter can reappear and reassemble.

Nevertheless, if what they cannot grasp is how a decomposed body can return from death, they should consider that human beings were initially created from nothing. This being the case, to question restoration after death or harbor doubts about how it could be possible shows great imprudence. In the Qur'an, Allah addresses the matter of resurrection:

Did We fail in the first creation? But they are in confusion over a new creation. And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein. (Surah Qaf, 50:15-16) 38

It is actually the soul and not the body that makes a person what he is. It is not the heap of flesh and bones that constitutes a man; it is his soul. Death puts an end to the body, while the soul continues to live for all eternity. Death is only an experience of transition for the soul to the life of the Hereafter. Allah says:

Then He proportioned him and breathed into him from His [created] soul and made for you hearing and vision and intellect; little are you grateful. And they say, 'When we are lost [i.e., disintegrated] within the earth, will we indeed be [recreated] in a new creation?' Rather, they are, in the meeting with their Lord, disbelievers. Say, 'The angel of death will take you who has been entrusted with you. Then to your Lord you will be returned. (Surah as-Sajda, 32:9-11) 39

The prejudice held by disbelievers hinders them from comprehending even the most obvious reality. In numerous verses Allah states that people who deny the Hereafter and assume that death is their end do not exercise reason:

Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to [His] knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Then will you not be reminded? And they say, 'There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time.' And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming. (Surah al-Jathiyah, 45:23-24) 40

In contrast, believers are described as follows:

[They are] those who establish prayer and give zakah, and they, of the Hereafter, are certain [in faith]. Those are on [right] guidance from their Lord, and it is those who are successful. (Surah Luqman, 31:4-5) 41

[They are] those who believe in the Unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them, and who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter are certain [in faith]. (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3-4) 42

Regarding the struggle against the religion of irreligion, there are two important matters that need to be dealt with. One is to disprove the theory of evolution from a scientific perspective so that people will know they have not come into existence as a result of coincidence but through an act of Allah's creation. The other is to inform people about the real essence of matter and thus help their understanding of the true religion. A person who understands that he is more than mere matter also comprehends the infinite ability of his creator, Allah.

That Allah encompasses all things and is unbounded by time and space, that all beings are created with their individual destinies, that Paradise and Hell already exist, and that all acts of human beings are ultimately created by Allah are facts introduced by the true religion which are easy to comprehend. However, some people are unwilling to accept these realities and try to portray it as a difficult task. This tendency stems from the fact that they, knowingly or unknowingly, act under the influence of conditioning toward the materialist outlook on life. So they need to free themselves from their prejudices and learn about the actual facts about matter. The final sections of this book, "The Truth That Defeats the Religions of Irreligion" and "The Evolution Misconception" reveal the real essence of matter and show that what have so far appeared to be complex secrets are actually simple and obvious realities.