The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason

by Ali A. Rizvi

Hi, Amber. Thank you for your message. I am so sorry for your loss. My father died over a decade ago, and the question you asked ran through my mind then as well. After struggling for a while with trying to make sense of it all, I eventually decided to approach it by separating my thoughts into two categories: what I know, and what I don’t know. I know that we’re alive through our offspring. You are physically an embodiment of your father’s biological and genetic essence. This includes everything from how you look to many of the behavioral and personality traits you have. In other words—and this is not an exaggeration—your father is literally alive through you, as mine is through me. For me, knowing that is incredibly powerful and comforting. I know that we continue to exist through the Earth. This is my attempt at being euphemistic about your fertilizer theory. As part of this huge reservoir of terrestrial carbon, we die and become part of the Earth, which gives rise to new life, as it once gave rise to us. That is also very powerful to me, in a more collective, worldly sense. I also know that I’ve only been conscious for some forty years out of the 13.8 billion years that the universe has been in existence. Everything from plankton, to dinosaurs, to the formation of the U.N., to the moon landing happened before I was even remotely self-aware. I don’t miss those things, nor do I recall that huge chunk of time as horrible or upsetting. I simply can’t recall it at all—becau...