Roots of Contemporary Atheism: A Reading of the Historical Al-Qayrawani Treatise

Whoever contemplates contemporary atheistic discourse realizes with certainty that the propositions presented today under the guise of modernity and scientism are, in reality, nothing but a regurgitation of ancient doubts rooted deep in history. The idea of casting doubt on revelation and nullifying religious laws has historical precedents recorded by scholars and historians centuries ago.

Among the clearest examples of this is what appeared at the beginning of the 4th century AH, where we find a revealing historical document represented in the letter of Ubayd Allah ibn al-Hasan al-Qayrawani to his companion Sulayman al-Janani, which included a systematic methodology for demolishing the pillars of faith, stating verbatim:

I enjoin you to make people doubt the Qur’an, the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel, and to call them to the nullification of religious laws, the nullification of the Return and the Resurrection from the graves, the nullification of angels in heaven, and the nullification of jinn on earth. I enjoin you to call them to the saying that there were many humans before Adam, for that is an aid to you in asserting the eternity of the world.

Source: (Al-Tafsir wa al-Mufassirun, Vol. 2, p. 178)

It is clear from this historical text that attempts to sow doubt in the name of research or investigating the first origins (such as the claim of the existence of humans before Adam to reach the assertion of the eternity of the world) is an ancient strategy aimed essentially at undermining faith in the Creator and the Last Day. What we see today of attempts to employ certain scientific theories in an atheistic context is but an extension of this historical methodology of skepticism.