The Upbringing of Muslim Children in the Republic of South Africa: Challenges and Suggested Solutions

Abstract

This thesis studies Ibn Taymiyyah’s criticism of atheism in a contemporary light. The subject of atheism in Muslim circles has never been more important than now. With globalization and increasing clash of Islamic culture with western civilization, Muslim communities continue to witness a rise in the spate of faithful adherents abandoning faith for non-belief. Although, it is not the first time the topic of atheism has been addressed in Islamic history, what makes it interesting now is that atheism is branded as a scientific, rational enterprise while Islamic spirituality is presented with dogmatism and backwardness. The focus of this work is to reverse that narrative by looking back into the rich Islamic tradition to unearth gemstones for combating these ideologies from a reliable rational point of view without watering down foundational Islamic mores. The mystifying garb of science and scholarship with which modern atheism presents itself makes it necessary to tackle the latter with an equivalent level of sophistication and erudition domiciled in the House of Islamic philosophy. Ibn Taymiyyah stands tall in the lineage of indefatigable figures with documented wealth of knowledge and expertise in this field. Standing on the shoulders of 14th Century scholarly giant, this work aims to offer compelling rational and philosophical proofs for the existence of God after systematically critiquing the basis for modern atheism. It reviews primary and secondary sources on Ibn Taymiyyah’s extensive corpus to summarize his most powerful rebuttals to contemporary and classical atheism. This study found Ibn Taymiyyah’s arguments to be coherent under reason, revelation, signs, design, rational demonstration, and fitrah. Although Ibn Taymiyyah recognizes the need for rational demonstration, he advocates this as a last resort; all of which is described in this humble effort. This study concludes that it is possible to demonstrate using classical and modern resources compatible with reason and spirituality that God’s existence is unequivocal without much recourse for philosophical proofs.