Aslam

Praise be to Allah.Atheism, in

modern terminology, means denying the Creator altogether, denying that He

exists and not acknowledging Him, may He be glorified and exalted. The

universe and everything in it, according to their claims, came about purely

by chance. This is a strange view which is contrary to sound human nature,

reason and logic, and is contrary to simple logic and indisputable facts.

As for shirk

(polytheism or associating others with Allah), it implies belief in Allah,

may He be glorified and exalted, and affirmation of Him, but it also

includes belief in a partner to Allah in His creation, who creates or grants

provision or brings benefit or wards off harm. This is shirk al-ruboobiyyah

(ascribing partners to Allah in His Lordship). Or it means belief in a

partner to whom some kind of worship is devoted as an act of love and

veneration, as it is devoted to that person or thing as it should to devoted

to Allah, may He be glorified and exalted. This is shirk al-‘ibaadah

(associating others with Allah in worship). By studying these two

deviations, we may see that each of them involves sin and evil which tells

us that they are bad and we see how Allah described them as being like dumb

animals.

Allah says

(interpretation of the meaning):

“Have you

(O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) seen him

who has taken as his ilaah (god) his own vain desire? Would you then be a

Wakeel (a disposer of his affairs or a watcher) over him?

44. Or do

you think that most of them hear or understand? They are only like cattle

nay,

they are even farther astray from the Path (i.e. even worse than cattle)”

[al-Furqaan 25:43-44]

“And

surely, We have created many of the jinn and mankind for Hell. They have

hearts wherewith they understand not, and they have eyes wherewith they see

not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like

cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones”

[al-A’raaf 7:179].

Nevertheless, the atheist who denies the existence of Allah and rejects His

Messengers and disbelieves in the Last Day, is in a greater state of kufr

and his beliefs are more reprehensible than the one who believes in Allah

and the Hereafter, but he associates something of His creation with Him. The

former is stubborn and arrogant to an extent that can not be imagined or

accepted by sound human nature. Such a person would transgress every sacred

limit and fall into every sin; his worldview would be distorted to an

inconceivable level. Yet many scholars who discussed the issue of atheism

doubted that this has deep roots in the hearts of the atheists, and they

affirmed that the atheist is only professing atheism outwardly; deep down he

believes in one God.

Shaykh

al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said a great deal which indicates that this group of

atheists who deny and reject the existence of God are in a worse state of

kufr than the mushrikeen who associate partners with Him. We will quote a

little of what we have come across:

He (may

Allah have mercy on him) said: Kufr (disbelief) means not believing in Allah

and His Messengers, whether it involves rejecting or it consists of doubt

and uncertainty about the issue or ignoring the issue altogether, out of

envy or arrogance or following whims and desires that divert a person from

following the Message. However, the kaafir who rejects and disbelieves is in

a state of greater kufr, although the one who rejects and denies out of

envy, even though he believes that the Messengers brought the message of

truth, is also in a state of kufr. End quote.

Majmoo’

al-Fataawa, 17/291

He also

said:

The one who

denies the Hereafter but believes that this universe is created is described

by Allah as a kaafir. The one who denies it and says that this universe

existed from eternity is a worse kaafir in the sight of Allah, may He be

exalted. End quote.

Majmoo’

al-Fataawa, 17/291

He said (may

Allah have mercy on him) refuting those who deny the Divine attributes:

(Denying the

Divine attributes) implies complete denial which reaches the point that

says: There is nothing that must exist and cannot have not existed. If he

believes that and says: I do not affirm either existence or non-existence,

then the answer to that is: Suppose you state that verbally and in your

heart you do not believe either of the two; rather you turn away from

knowing Allah and worshipping and remembering Him, so you never remember

Him, worship Him, call upon Him, put your hope in Him or fear Him; (in that

case) your denial of Him is worse than that of Iblees who (at least)

acknowledged Him. End quote.

Majmoo’

al-Fataawa, 5/356.

And he (may

Allah have mercy on him) said:

The arrogant

one is the one who does not acknowledge Allah outwardly, like Pharaoh. He is

in a worse state of kufr than them (meaning the mushrik Arabs). Iblees, who

enjoins all of that and loves it and is too arrogant to worship his Lord and

obey him, is in a worse state of kufr than them (the mushrikeen), even

though he was aware of the existence and might of Allah, just as Pharaoh was

also aware of the existence of Allah. End quote.

Majmoo’

al-Fataawa, 7/633

He also

said:

The view of

the philosophers -- those who say that the universe is eternal and that it

is dependent on that which inevitably must exist -- came from the minds and

hearts of those who worshipped heavenly bodies and made images of them on

Earth, such as Aristotle and his followers. This view is worse kufr and is

more misguided than that of the Arab mushrikeen who believed that Allah

created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days by

His will and power, but they attribute falsely without knowledge sons and

daughters to Him (cf. al-An’am 6:100) and joined others in worship with

Allaah, for which He had sent no authority (cf. Aal ‘Imraan 3:151).

Similarly, the permissive people, who do not believe in any command or

prohibition at all and refer to the Divine will and decree as an excuse for

their evil deeds, are worse off than the Jews, Christians and Arab

mushrikeen, because even though the latter are kaafirs, they still believe

in some kind of command and prohibition, and the promise and warning (i.e.,

the Hereafter), but they had partners with Allaah (false gods) who

instituted for them a religion which Allaah had not ordained (cf. al-Shoora

42:21), unlike the permissive people who ignore all laws altogether. They

are only pleased with whatever suits their whims and desires, and they get

angry on the basis of their whims and desires; they do not get pleased for

the sake of Allah, or angry for the sake of Allah, or love for the sake of

Allah, or hate for the sake of Allah; they do not enjoin that which Allah

has enjoined and they do not forbid that which Allah has forbidden, unless

that suits their whims and desires, in which case they do it for that

purpose and not as an act of obedience to their Lord. Hence they do not

denounce what takes place of kufr, evil doing and sin unless it goes against

their whims and desires, in which case they will denounce it, prompted by

their devilish nature and not prompted by sharee’ah and love of Allah. Hence

the devils plunge them deeper into error, and they never stop short (cf.

al-A’raaf 7:202), and the devils may show themselves to them and address

them and help them with some of their whims and desires, as the devils used

to do with the mushrikeen who worshipped idols. End quote.

Majmoo’

al-Fataawa, 8/457-458.

Shaykh Ibn

Baaz (may Allah be pleased with him) said: It is shirk to worship something

other than Allah completely; that may be called shirk or kufr. Whoever turns

away from Allah altogether and directs his worship to something other than

Allah, such as trees, rocks, idols, the jinn or some of the dead, those whom

they call awliya’ (“saints”), worshipping them or praying to them or fasting

for them, and forgetting Allah altogether -- and this is the worst kind of

kufr and shirk. We ask Allah to keep us safe and sound.

The same

applies to denying the existence of Allah and saying that there is no God

and life is material, like the Communists and atheists who deny the

existence of Allah. These are the worst disbelievers among mankind, the most

astray, the most involved in shirk and the most misguided. We ask Allah to

keep us safe and sound. End quote.

Majmoo’

Fataawa Ibn Baaz, 4/32-33

He also said

(may Allah have mercy on him):

Meat

slaughtered by Communists is haraam and is like the meat of the Magians and

idol worshippers; in fact their meat is even more haraam, because their

degree of kufr is greater due to their atheism and denial of the Creator

(may He be glorified and exalted) and His Messenger, and other kinds of

kufr. End quote.

Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn Baaz, 23/30

And Allah knows best.