Page 208 - Islam and Buddhism

Islam and Buddhism

scious and lifeless atoms suddenly decided to come together and

form a universe that functions with a flawless system of organization,
discipline, reason, and consciousness; a planet named Earth with all
of its features so perfectly suited to life; and living things full of
countless complex systems.
In fact, the Qur'an relates the incident of Prophet Moses and

Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheistic philoso-
phies actually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told
about the true religion, he told Prophet Moses to meet with his own
magicians. When Moses did so, he told them to demonstrate their
abilities first. The verses continue:
He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on

the people's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They
produced an extremely powerful magic. (Qur'an, 7: 116)
As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive
everyone, apart from Moses and those who believed in him.
However, his evidence broke the spell, or "swallowed up what they

had forged," as the verse puts it.
We revealed to Moses, "Throw down your staff." And it immedi-
ately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place
and what they did was shown to be false. (Qur'an, 7: 117-119)
As we can see, when people realized that a spell had been cast
upon them and that what they saw was just an illusion, Pharaoh's

magicians lost all credibility. In the present day too, unless those who,
under the influence of a similar spell, believe in these ridiculous
claims under their scientific disguise and spend their lives defending
them, abandon their superstitious beliefs, they also will be humiliated
when the full truth emerges and the spell is broken. In fact, Malcolm

Muggeridge, an atheist philosopher and supporter of evolution, ad-

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