The Daily Brew — 1 Idea Tafsir, No. 10

Faith on Trial:

Two common statements I encountered :-

I Don’t Understand This Part.
This doesn’t make any sense.

Therefore, Should I Become an Atheist?

This is a question that must be answered. Many people get turned away from religion or spirituality, and I was initially shy of it, or don’t want to adhere to a structured religion because they see believers as “irrational” and still “believing” in the face of clearly “contradictory” evidence. I personally shied away from organised religion (initially) for what I saw as “fanatical” “barbaric” and “blind” belief which did not adhere to “reason”.

This becomes even more stark in the face of religious violence we see in the world today.

Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3:7, 3:60 and 3:191)

Two Verses, One Question

Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3:7) distinguishes between clear, foundational verses and those requiring careful interpretation.

هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ عَلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ مِنْهُ ءَايَـٰتٌ مُّحْكَمَـٰتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَـٰبِهَـٰتٌ ۖ فَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَـٰبَهَ مِنْهُ ٱبْتِغَآءَ ٱلْفِتْنَةِ وَٱبْتِغَآءَ تَأْوِيلِهِۦ ۗ وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ ۗ وَٱلرَّٰسِخُونَ فِى ٱلْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ ءَامَنَّا بِهِۦ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ رَبِّنَا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّآ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ ٧
He is the One Who has revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ the Book, of which some verses are precise—they are the foundation of the Book—while others are elusive. Those with deviant hearts follow the elusive verses seeking ˹to spread˺ doubt through their ˹false˺ interpretations—but none grasps their ˹full˺ meaning except Allah. As for those well-grounded in knowledge, they say, “We believe in this ˹Quran˺—it is all from our Lord.” But none will be mindful ˹of this˺ except people of reason.

Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3:191) describes people who contemplate the heavens and Earth, declaring that Allah did not create them without purpose.

ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَـٰذَا بَـٰطِلًا سُبْحَـٰنَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ ١٩١
˹They are˺ those who remember Allah while standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth ˹and pray˺, “Our Lord! You have not created ˹all of˺ this without purpose. Glory be to You! Protect us from the torment of the Fire.

One concerns the interpretation of revelation.

The other invites contemplation of creation.

But what happens when the two appear contradictory?

1. The Courtroom: An Analogy

Imagine a courtroom in London or Brussels.

A witness insists that a fleeing vehicle was blue. CCTV footage shows a red car.

A contradiction.

The lawyers investigate. Was the lighting misleading? Was the witness mistaken Was the video unreliable?

Or was one account simply wrong?

A contradiction cannot be ignored. But it does not necessarily invalidate every other independently established fact. In this case, it does not invalidate a car was present.

There is an important limitation to this analogy.

Courts examine historical events through testimony and evidence, applying specific legal standards. Science tests explanations against observation and experiment. Theology also considers revelation, metaphysics and the unseen.

These are different methods of establishing knowledge. A religious claim cannot be made true simply by accumulating favourable evidence while dismissing a decisive contradiction.[1]

Now imagine me examining my faith.

2. Exhibit A: The Sun Prostrating

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (3199), the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ describes the Sun travelling until it prostrates beneath Allah’s Throne, receives permission to continue and eventually rises from the west.

The Prophet (ﷺ) asked me at sunset, “Do you know where the sun goes (at the time of sunset)?” I replied, “Allah and His Apostle know better.” He said, “It goes (i.e. travels) till it prostrates Itself underneath the Throne and takes the permission to rise again, and it is permitted and then (a time will come when) it will be about to prostrate itself but its prostration will not be accepted, and it will ask permission to go on its course but it will not be permitted, but it will be ordered to return whence it has come and so it will rise in the west. And that is the interpretation of the Statement of Allah: “And the sun Runs its fixed course For a term (decreed). that is The Decree of (Allah) The Exalted in Might, The All- Knowing.” (36.38)

My immediate reaction?

“This doesn’t make any sense.”

Modern astronomy establishes that sunset occurs because Earth rotates.

Could prostration describe submission rather than human-like physical movement? The Qur’an describes mountains, stars and other created things prostrating (22:18).

Could travel be observational language?

Possibly.

But that interpretation does not explain every detail. So then we move to the next possibility.

“I can’t understand this.”

Before drawing conclusions, however, three questions must be separated:

Authentication: Was the narration reliably transmitted? Sunni hadith scholarship classifies this narration as authentic.

Interpretation: What do its Arabic wording, context and classical commentary establish? A sound chain does not automatically resolve the meaning.

Truth: Does the correctly understood claim correspond to reality? Historical authentication and scientific verification are different inquiries.

Other difficult passages include the setting Sun (18:86), the splitting Moon (54:1), and divine descent during the night (Bukhārī 1145).[2]

These questions deserve examination—not automatic rejection or automatic rationalisation.

3. Exhibit B: Newton’s Universe Should Have Collapsed

In 1687, Newton published his Principia, transforming physics.

But five years later, Richard Bentley raised an extraordinary question now known as Bentley’s Paradox.

If gravity attracts every piece of matter towards every other piece, why does the universe not collapse into itself?

Newton acknowledged the difficulty. His reply was also interesting for someone today seen as a “rational” scientist strictly.

Newton claimed that God prevented the collapse by making “constant minute corrections”; “a continual miracle is needed to prevent the Sun and the fixt stars from rushing together through gravity.”

Einstein later confronted a related problem, initially assuming a static universe.

Then Friedmann, Lemaître and Hubble helped establish cosmic expansion.

The universe was not static.

Yet Newton’s laws survived.

NASA confirms that engineers still use Newton’s laws to design and predict rocket flight.[4]

Strictly, Newton’s three laws of motion did not themselves predict universal collapse. The problem arose from universal gravitation combined with assumptions about a static cosmos.

That distinction is fundamental.

Science retained what continued to work and revised what did not.

4. Exhibit C: The Cumulative Case for Belief

Consider the physical universe: coherent mathematical laws, fine-tuning questions, stable matter and conditions permitting life.

Consider biology: eyes converting light into neural signals, kidneys regulating blood chemistry, and cells sustaining life through metabolic energy.

Evolution and physiology explain much of how these systems develop and operate.

But why does an intelligible universe capable of supporting such systems exist?

For me, its order, contingency and the existence of consciousness contribute to a philosophical case for a Creator.

Then consider Islamic teachings.

The Prophet ﷺ instructed people not to enter or leave plague-stricken territory (Bukhārī 5728), centuries before germ theory.

The Qur’an established inheritance shares for women, condemned female infanticide, encouraged freeing enslaved people and commanded justice even towards enemies.

These teachings require historical qualification; they are not unique scientific proofs of Islam.[5]

5. Exhibit D: The Psychology of Fiṭrah

The Prophet ﷺ taught that every child is born upon fiṭrah—the original human disposition.

In 2011, Oxford-associated researchers reported that human cognition exhibits tendencies towards supernatural belief.

Their international project involved 57 researchers, more than 40 studies and 20 countries.[6]

Children may intuitively perceive purpose and supernatural agency.

This resembles aspects of Islamic teaching about fiṭrah, though the research did not prove innate Islamic monotheism.

6. Exhibit E: The Peace We Actually Experience

There is another witness: lived experience.

When I stand for ṣalāh, temporarily leaving behind work, uncertainty and the endless demands of life, the experience can be one of profound peace.

The Qur’an says in Sūrat ar-Raʿd (13:28) that hearts find tranquillity through remembrance of Allah.

Does neuroscience recognise anything resembling this?

Yes.

A 2014 study of 30 Muslim men found increased EEG alpha activity and changes in heart-rate variability consistent with greater parasympathetic activity during ṣalāh.[7]

A systematic review of 44 studies examining Qur’an-based mental-health interventions identified research reporting reduced anxiety, depression and stress.[8]

Neuroimaging research in other religious traditions also suggests that personal prayer engages brain networks involved in social cognition and perceived interpersonal connection.[9]

These findings are interesting.

But prayer-related relaxation can involve attention, breathing, posture, expectation and meaning. Comparable benefits occur in some non-religious practices.

The feeling of peace is real as an experience. It is not, by itself, proof of the theological explanation for that experience.

Yet lived religion cannot simply be excluded from examining why people believe.

7. The Verdict: What Do I Actually Know?

Mortality makes that inquiry consequential. Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3:185) reminds us that every soul will taste death, while Sūrat al-Mulk (67:2) describes life as a test.

My unresolved questions will not guarantee me another day on Earth.

And neither will refusing to investigate them.

Truth stands on its own merit—not because contradictory evidence is irrelevant, but because truth can withstand honest examination.

I do not understand everything.

I still believe and will up until my dying breath (In sha Allah) and I can leave room for my understanding to improve.

Footnotes and References

All Qur’anic passages and Prophetic statements mentioned above are reproduced in full meaning below, with their references. English renderings are independently phrased.

1. The analogy’s limits and standards of evidence

The Crown Prosecution Service evaluates whether evidence is admissible, reliable and credible, and whether other evidence undermines a case. In criminal trials, reasonable doubt can be decisive.

This differs from scientific reasoning, which depends upon testable predictions, reproducible observations and explanatory models.

A religious claim involves another distinction: the authenticity of its textual transmission, its intended meaning, and the truth of what it asserts.

These questions should not be conflated.

Reference: Crown Prosecution Service — Code for Crown Prosecutors.

2. Difficult passages: complete texts

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3199 — The Sun

Abū Dharr narrated that the Prophet ﷺ asked him at sunset whether he knew where the Sun went. He replied that Allah and His Messenger knew best. The Prophet explained that it travels until it prostrates beneath the Throne, requests permission and receives it. Eventually its prostration will not be accepted and permission will be refused. It will be commanded to return from where it came, and it will rise from the west. The Prophet connected this narration to Qur’an 36:38.

Qur’an 36:38: “The Sun travels towards its appointed resting place or term. Such is the determination of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.”

Qur’an 22:18: “Have you not considered that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on Earth prostrates to Allah, as do the Sun, Moon, stars, mountains, trees, animals and many people? Yet many others deserve punishment. Whoever Allah humiliates has none to honour him. Allah does whatever He wills.”

Qur’an 18:86: “When he reached the place where the Sun appeared to set, he found it setting in a dark, muddy spring, and found people nearby. We said: O Dhū al-Qarnayn, you may punish them or treat them with kindness.”

Qur’an 54:1: “The Hour has drawn near, and the Moon has split.”

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1145 — Divine descent

Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said that our Lord descends to the nearest heaven during the final third of each night, calling upon people to supplicate so that He may answer, to ask so that He may grant their requests, and to seek forgiveness so that He may forgive them.

Sources: Bukhārī 3199; Bukhārī 1145; Qur’an 36:38; 22:18; 18:86; 54:1.

3. Newton, Bentley and Einstein

Newton’s 1692–1693 letters to Richard Bentley concern the gravitational instability of certain static distributions of matter.

In January 1693, Newton compared maintaining perfect equilibrium with balancing countless needles upon their points.

He also attributed the original planetary arrangement to an intelligent agent.

However, Newton did not prove that God must continually correct planetary orbits.

Einstein’s static model of 1917 was later superseded by expanding-universe cosmology developed through Friedmann’s theoretical work, Lemaître’s model and Hubble’s observations.

Primary references: Newton to Bentley, 10 December 1692; 17 January 1692/93.

4. Newtonian mechanics remains central to engineering

Newton’s first law concerns inertia, his second describes the relationship between force and changing motion, and his third states that interacting bodies exert equal and opposite forces upon one another.

NASA confirms their continuing application to aircraft and rocket flight.

Relativity provides a deeper framework for gravity and extreme conditions, but Newtonian mechanics remains accurate and practical for many ordinary engineering applications.

Reference: NASA Glenn Research Center — Newton’s Laws of Motion.

5. Quarantine and the social teachings: full texts

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5728

The Prophet ﷺ said that if people heard of plague in a land, they should not enter it; if plague occurred while they were already there, they should not leave it.

Isolation practices existed before Islam, but this instruction remains a significant early public-health principle.

Qur’an 4:7: “Men have an appointed share in the estate left by parents and close relatives, and women have an appointed share in the estate left by parents and close relatives, whether it is little or much—a prescribed share.”

Qur’an 81:8–9: “When the girl buried alive is questioned: For what offence was she killed?”

Qur’an 90:13: “The freeing of an enslaved person.”

Sources: Bukhārī 5728; Qur’an 4:7; 81:8–9; 90:13; 5:8.

6. Fiṭrah and Oxford’s research

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1358

Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet ﷺ taught that every child is born upon fiṭrah. Parents subsequently raise the child as Jewish, Christian or Magian, just as an animal gives birth to an intact offspring. The Prophet asked whether people observed the newborn animal already mutilated. Abū Hurayrah then cited Qur’an 30:30.

The Cognition, Religion and Theology Project, directed by Oxford-associated researchers Justin Barrett and Roger Trigg, reported findings in 2011 from more than 40 studies conducted by 57 researchers across 20 countries.

It suggested tendencies towards supernatural belief and perceived purpose, not universal innate monotheism.

Cognitive scientists also examine religious learning, cultural transmission and anthropomorphic reasoning about supernatural minds.

References: Bukhārī 1358; Qur’an 30:30; Oxford research report; How Children and Adults Represent God’s Mind.

7. Neuroscience of ṣalāh: EEG and autonomic activity

Doufesh and colleagues published a study in 2014 examining 30 healthy Muslim men before, during and after ṣalāh.

They recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and heart-rate variability (HRV).

During ṣalāh, relative alpha power increased in certain brain regions, alongside measures consistent with increased parasympathetic activity and reduced sympathetic activity.

These findings are consistent with a relaxation response.

However, the study was small, involved only men, and did not establish which effects resulted specifically from belief, recitation, attention, movement or posture.

Reference: Doufesh et al. (2014), Effect of Muslim Prayer (Salat) on α Electroencephalography and Its Relationship with Autonomic Nervous System Activity.

8. Religious practice and psychological well-being

A 2023 systematic scoping review examined 44 studies of Qur’an-based mental-health interventions.

The interventions included ṣalāh, supplication, reading, listening to and memorising the Qur’an.

The studies reported potential benefits for anxiety, stress, depression, coping and quality of life.

But a scoping review maps existing evidence rather than establishing a single pooled causal effect. The researchers identified gaps in study design and the consideration of social and cultural factors.

The broader psychological literature also recognises that religious experiences may be comforting for some people while involving guilt, anxiety or negative religious coping for others.

Reference: Interventions Using the Qur’an to Promote Mental Health: A Systematic Scoping Review.

9. Neuroscience of personal prayer

Schjoedt and colleagues (2009) used functional MRI to examine prayer among highly religious Danish Christians.

Personal prayer recruited brain regions associated with social cognition, suggesting that believers neurologically process prayer in ways resembling interpersonal communication.

The study did not demonstrate that God was objectively participating in the communication.

The distinction is central: neuroscience can investigate the brain’s activity during religious experience without establishing or disproving the supernatural explanation of that experience.

Reference: Schjoedt et al. (2009), Highly Religious Participants Recruit Areas of Social Cognition in Personal Prayer.

10. The Qur’an on peace, knowledge and the heart

Qur’an 13:28: “Those who believe and whose hearts find reassurance through remembering Allah. Surely, through the remembrance of Allah, hearts find reassurance.”

Qur’an 22:46: “Have they not travelled through the land so that they may have hearts with which to reason and ears with which to hear? It is not the eyes that become blind, but the hearts within the breasts that become blind.”

These passages concern spiritual and moral experience. They do not establish that the anatomical heart performs the neurological functions of the brain.

The grammatical pause concerning who knows the interpretation is discussed in classical tafsīr.

Qur’an 3:60: “The truth comes from your Lord, so do not be among those who doubt.”

Qur’an 3:191: “Those who remember Allah while standing, sitting and reclining upon their sides, and contemplate the creation of the heavens and Earth, saying: Our Lord, You did not create this without purpose. Glory be to You; protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”

Qur’an 47:19: “Know that there is no deity except Allah. Seek forgiveness for your own sin and for believing men and women. Allah knows your movements and your places of rest.”

Qur’an 41:53: “We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient as a witness over everything?”

Qur’an 3:185: “Every soul shall taste death. You will receive your full recompense on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is kept away from the Fire and admitted into Paradise has succeeded. The worldly life is only a deceptive temporary enjoyment.”

Qur’an 67:2: “He created death and life to test which of you is best in deeds. He is the Almighty, the Most Forgiving.”

Sources: 13:28; 22:46; 3:7; 3:60; 3:191; 47:19; 41:53; 3:185; 67:2.

Epilogue: The Heart That Delivers the Verdict (not the Mind)

Evidence may be presented by Faith.

Objections may be presented by Doubt.

Reason must examine both.

And the heart, in the Qur’anic language of understanding, intention and moral responsibility, must respond to what it sincerely recognises as true.

I conclude with the narration of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (رضي الله عنه).

The Final Hadith — Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2655

English

“Verily, the hearts of the children of Adam, all of them, are between the two fingers of the Merciful as one heart. He directs them wherever He wills.”

Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“O Allah, the Director of the hearts, turn our hearts to Your obedience.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2655, The Book of Destiny. Authentic (ṣaḥīḥ).