The mistake that atheists make here is thinking that faith, both in Islam and Christianity, is somehow an epistemological category. Epistemology has to do with how you know something and the nature and limitations of knowledge. So for example, a relevant epistemological question would be how you would know that God exists, or how do you come to know mathematical truths, how are they accessed, and how do you know they are truths in the first place? 

If we define faith or īmān as strictly a form of belief, then faith would be an epistemological category. However, this isn’t how faith is defined in Islam and Christianity - this is a total misunderstanding by both atheists and uneducated laymen and laywomen.  

Faith or īmān in Islam is a deep relationship of trust that you have with God. It is to trust that everything He says is true, including Prophethood and the Day of Judgment among other things. It is also to trust that He is our ultimate nurturer, sustainer and caretaker. It a relationship which at its core level brings about inner peace and tranquility. Al-Mu’min is one of Allah’s names which means the granter of inner peace and security.  

So faith or īmān in Islam is not an epistemological category, it is a moral category. As a moral category, it is the proper and right way that one should approach and interact with God. This is separate from the issue of proving God’s existence, which itself requires evidence.  

To learn more, please tune into the full version of this lesson.