The Factors That Lead People to Disbelief and to Faith

M. Fethullah Gülen · Manisa, 14 February 1975 · The first sermon of the "Proofs of Tawhid" series

"I don't believe in what I can't see with my own eyes." These words were spoken with the same confidence in 1975 as they are today. Before turning to the proofs of tawhid (Divine Unity), Hocaefendi lays the groundwork in this sermon: what distances a person from faith, and what leads to it?

This article follows the video above section by section. The account is for everyone; comparisons, terms and sources are in expandable boxes.

I — The universe tells of Him

God created the universe so that it would make Him known

God has no need of angels, of human beings, or of the universe. His speech, power, knowledge, hearing and sight are His own. Yet He created us: to see Himself and show Himself through our eyes, to make Himself heard through our ears. He gave us awareness so that we might know Him and attain Him.

The universe, the Qur'an and the prophets tell of Him; everything speaks of Him like the sweet music of a symphony. If the words spoken find no echo in the heart, they bounce back as if they had struck a stone.

II — "I don't believe what I can't see"

The logic of illogic

According to Hocaefendi, there is no difference in the basic issue between the disbeliever of yesterday and the disbeliever of today: accept what is seen by the eye, held by the hand, heard by the ear, and reject the rest. Before Jesus, Epicurus and Democritus said the same thing. In a way this seems logical, but it is the logic of illogic.

For there are many things whose existence we believe in yet never see. We accept them through our reason, which combines what we do see.

III — The task of reason

The senses gather the material, reason is the judge

Reason cannot resolve humanity's great questions on its own; but it is an instrument. The eye sees, the ear hears; reason assesses these and reaches a verdict. When the meanings in the universe, in the human face, in human speech and voice come into the hands of reason, reason emerges with this verdict: "It is God who created these."

The senses, logic and reason are each instruments. Whoever does not know what each is good for cannot use them in their proper place, and goes from one sophistry to another.

IV — "I could not see God"

The Russian cosmonaut and the teacher in the classroom

The Russian cosmonaut who circled the earth and came back announced to the whole world, "I did not come across God" — as if God, who holds the universe in His hand, were located somewhere around the earth. Hocaefendi gives three answers to this.

The same logic is set up in the classroom: "Do you see me, the blackboard, the pencil? Yes. Because they exist. Do you see God? No. Then He does not exist." If this sophistry is not confronted with the logic of the Qur'an and of the Messenger of God, the same words will go on being fed to our children at school, on the radio and on television.

V — The way out

Reading the universe like a book

The way to be saved from this illogic is to turn, like the pages of a book, the existence and understanding given to us and the universe spread before us like a table; to identify the works that belong to God and, with logic as judge, reach the verdict "God exists." This must first be told at home, to one's family and children, and then spread by mingling among the people like bees.

Hocaefendi's diagnosis is clear: what leads to disbelief is not knowledge, thought, reason or logic. At the root of disbelief lie illogic, lack of knowledge, ignorance and unreason — even at a university.

VI — The first factor: Ignorance

Not knowing that you don't know

The reason a community of five hundred million has drifted away from God is ignorance: not knowing its Qur'an, what tells of God, or its Prophet. The great truth cannot be explained with "supposedly"s like "man supposedly came about at the water's edge, then supposedly became this, then that."

To those who say, "If only God would speak with us!" the Qur'an recalls that those before them said the same: their hearts are alike (Al-Baqarah 2:118). Whoever does not know that electricity is generated in a power plant looks for it only in the wires and the lamp, and goes wrong. They know only the outward face of the worldly life (Ar-Rum 30:7).

VII — The second factor: Selfish desire (hawa)

The one who takes his desires as his god

Desires wholly surround a person: desires for offspring, family, homeland and home pile up, and a person becomes a "monument of desires." Whoever cannot overcome these desires is left stranded on the way. The Qur'an asks: "Have you seen the one who has taken his own desire as his god?" (Al-Furqan 25:43)

Such a person cannot raise his head and look at the smiling face of the universe, cannot turn inward, cannot assess events, so as to see God. Just as Pharaoh said, "Build me a tower so that I may look at the god of Moses" (Ghafir 40:36-37), the person of today, weighed down by sins, clings to absurd proofs.

VIII — The third factor: Arrogance and obstinacy

Arrogance leads to disbelief, obstinacy to a closed heart

In a hadith qudsi, God declares that grandeur is His cloak. Whoever else claims greatness has entered a wrong path. Satan was deprived of mercy because he looked down on Adam and was arrogant (Al-Baqarah 2:34). Those who said, "If only angels had come down to us, if only we saw our Lord!" had grown arrogant within themselves (Al-Furqan 25:21).

Another disease born of arrogance is obstinacy. The obstinate one, even if he accepts the truth logically, looks for ways to reject it: "We will not believe you until you make a spring gush forth from the earth for us" (Al-Isra 17:90). According to Hocaefendi, disbelief is a death in human life, and the terrible disease that breeds this death is arrogance.

IX — The fourth factor: Injustice

Transgressing limits against God and people

Whoever makes injustice his way will, if not today then tomorrow, be deprived of the light of faith. Both the one who tramples God's rights and the one who wrongs people are pushed step by step toward disbelief. God will not forgive those who disbelieve and do injustice, nor guide them to any road but the road to Hell (An-Nisa 4:168-169).

The Children of Israel, who said "Show us God," were struck by the thunderbolt because of their injustice (An-Nisa 4:153). If a state wrongs its people, or a nation wrongs itself, its descendants, its children, it means thunderbolts are ready to strike that nation's head.

X — The fifth factor: Fear

Fleeing a fly and walking into a snake's mouth

Fearing what there is no need to fear has driven many out of religion and forced them to condone disbelief. The one who fears losing his position makes concessions to the disbeliever; fleeing a fly, he falls into the snake's mouth, into the lap of his carnal self and of Satan. The hypocrites, too, side with the believers out of fear (At-Tawbah 9:56).

The believer, however, even if the whole world gathers against him, says, "God is sufficient for us, and what an excellent Guardian He is" (Al Imran 3:173). The sorcerers threatened by Pharaoh answered in the same way: "You can only pass judgment in this worldly life" (Ta-Ha 20:72).

XI — What leads to faith

Reason, thought and knowledge

"A little knowledge makes a person faithless; much knowledge binds him to God." Half-knowledge strikes at the very heart of a nation, just as a half-doctor takes a life. The factors that lead to faith are reason, thought and knowledge: the Qur'an says there are signs for "those who use reason," "those who reflect" and "those who know" (Ar-Ra'd 13:3-4, Ar-Rum 30:22).

The purpose of creation is to know God. Like a bee, the believer alights on everything from the atom to the solar system, from the stars to the human face; from each he takes a flower of the knowledge of God, returns and says, "Everything tells of You." Seen this way, Islam can never be regarded as opposed to science and reflection.

The purpose of creation is to know God.

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