Blaise Pascal....a thief?

[MajiC]

(bismillah)

I am reading 'Tradition of Myrobalan Fruit' of Imam Jaffer al-Sadiq (as) and I stumbled upon something familiar in philosophy, supposedly 'Pascals' Wager! - a philosophical argument for belief in God, it states that:

*You may believe in God, and God exists, in which case you go to heaven.

*You may believe in God, and God doesn't exist, in which case you gain nothing.

*You may not believe in God, and God doesn't exist, in which you gain nothing again.

*You may not believe in God, and God may exist, in which case you will be *punished.

Therefore, the only possible loser is the atheist!

In 'Tradition of Myrobalan Fruit' (i've extended it to include some context so it is more intelligable):

.......Have you seen Allah, heard His voice, smelled Him, tasted Him with your tongue, or touched Him with your hands or feet? How could one realize Him?”

“Your denial of Allah, then is", said I, “because, you have not felt Him with the senses given to us for knowing objects, I too have not felt Him with either of them. But my belief is as strong as your disbelief, both cannot be right; do you admit this?”

“Most certainly” he replied. “Either you are mistaken or I am”.

“Very well”, said I, “If you are right, there is no danger for me in threatening you with Allah's displeasure for your disbelief”.

“No”, said he, “You shall be in no danger.”

“If I am right”, asked I, “Do you not think that you will suffer the punishment for your disbelief, and I shall receive a reward, for being away from your opinions?”

“Quite possibly” he replied.

“Will you tell me”, I asked, “which of us is the wiser, granting the possibility of both the situations?” :o

“Oh”, He replied. “Your belief is a presumption, a groundless assertion, while mine is a truth, based upon common sense. I do not perceive Him by my senses, therefore He does not exist”.

“When your senses”, said I “could not perceive Allah, you disbelieved Him, While I, on the contrary, believed in Him, because my senses failed to discern Him. The very theory that made you disbelieve, compelled me to believe in Him”.

.........ooo0000ooo........

Now this dude who supposedly invented this argument was a famous Christian Mathematician & Philosopher who lived in the 17th.C (born 1623).

Whereas, our beloved Imam Jaffer al-Sadiq (as) lived in the 8th.C. :unsure:

I think Mr Blaise Pascal has attributed the Imams argument to himself, correct?

Theif :Hijabi:

[Renaissance_Man]

(bismillah)

(salam)

Possible, but I'm sure people had thought about that a long time ago. Pascal was an enemy of Islam though, so I doubt he had ever studied the works of Muslim scholars let alone Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (as).

Christian scholars in the latter part of the middle ages borrowed a lot from from Islam. Thomas Aquinas' theology came from the Mutazilites who in turn were influenced by Ahl al-Bayt (as).