The State of Atheists in Adversity

When a catastrophe befalls people, whether believers, disbelievers,priests, profligates, they become unable to stand or bear it and they donot seek protection or refuge from any of these creatures. Rather, theyresort to Unseen Power beyond these creatures. They do not see such power,but feel it through their souls and hearts. Each nerve of theirs realizesthe existence of this Power, Mighty and Glory, even if they do not openlyor frankly express this. This particularly happens to the patients whentheir pains intensify and medicine becomes of no avail. They all returnto their Lord and hasten to His worship. Did you ask yourself, why suchcases and others similar to it happen? Why do we find everyone who is overcomeby adversities, trials or catastrophes return to Allah? We may remember thedays of the World War II and World War I also, why did people return to religeonand resort to Allah, even presidents and leaders led the prayer in the templesand called the soldiers to pray and stirred up the incentives of faith andbelief into the souls.I have read an article in (Al-Mukhtar, Reader’s Digest) concerning thestory of a soldier who was a member of the paratroopers unit during WorldWar II. At this time, parachutes were something new and very strange. Thissoldier narrated his story saying, “He was brought up in a house in whichthere was no one who prayed or remembered Allah. He studied in secularistschools and led a life like that of the animals, i.e., he lived to satisfyhis lusts. But when he descended down for the first time and saw himselfswinging in the space and before the parachute was open, he found himselfsaying, O Allah, O Lord and he earnestly invoked his Lord and wondered fromwhere this belief descended upon him. “Moreover, newspapers reported that,the daughter of Joseph Stalin recently published their notes and in themshe mentioned how she returned to religeon after she was brought up underthe umbrella of atheism. She herself wondered how this happened? In fact,there is no wonder in this, because belief is something rested in every soul.It is an instinctive desire which is implanted in the depths of the purehuman-soul such as the instinct hunger, thirst and sex. The human being isa religious animal who cannot escape the inclinations of this instincts whichis continuously seeking faith.4This pure instinct may be covered by the lusts, fog of desires, demandsand materialistic requirements. But when fears, adversities and dangers shakethe soul, this instinct, throws off whatever is covering it and will appearin its pristine form. For this reason, “the disbeliever” was called “coverer”as we previously mentioned. In the Dictionary of Lisan Al-Arab (The ArabicLanguage), the word “disbeliever” means “the one who covers something withanother”. It is odd to find support for this meaning in two statements whichare distant in time, place, circumstance and aim, but they are very closein meaning. The first is for a well known virtuous worshiper Rabi’ah Al-Adawiyyah,and the second is for a well known atheist French writer Anatoul France.In displaying his atheism and disbelief, he says, “The man believes whenhe discovers that, through chemical analysis of his urine, he suffers fromthe disease of diabetes in the time where anthouline was not known. “OnceRabi’ah Al-Adawiyyah said, “Such person bring a thousand proofs about theexistence of Allah. She laughed and said, “One proof is enough” she was asked,what is it? She replied, “If you were walking in the desert alone and yourfoot tripped and you fell in a well from which you are not able to get out.What would you then do? He replied, “I would call, O Allah?” She replied,“This is the Proof”. Moreover, it was Stalin who said “There is no god andlife is material and the religion is a fly which sucks the blood of the peoples”.When the became weak before the horrors and blazing fire of World War II,he ordered the priests to be released from the prisons to supplicate Allahfor him to achieve victory. The same thing was done by him due to the seriouspains of the disease and the trials of the death.5