What is the Islamic response to the atheist demand for 'proof' of God?

Sources

• ✓ 6:57 · Al-An'aam

  6:57 · Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall

  قُلْ إِنِّى عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍۢ مِّن رَّبِّى وَكَذَّبْتُم بِهِۦ ۚ مَا عِندِى مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِۦٓ ۚ إِنِ ٱلْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ ۖ يَقُصُّ ٱلْحَقَّ ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ ٱلْفَٰصِلِينَ

  Say: I am (relying) on clear proof from my Lord, while ye deny Him. I have not that for which ye are impatient. The decision is for Allah only. He telleth the truth and He is the Best of Deciders.

• ✓ 27:64 · An-Naml

  27:64 · Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall

  أَمَّن يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ وَمَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ أَءِلَٰهٌۭ مَّعَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ قُلْ هَاتُوا۟ بُرْهَٰنَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ

  Is not He (best) Who produceth creation, then reproduceth it, and Who provideth for you from the heaven and the earth? Is there any Allah beside Allah? Say: Bring your proof, if ye are truthful!

• ✓ Al-Kafi 1:22

  Shia

  Al-Kafi · Book 1, Hadith 22

  The proof of God upon the servants is the Prophet, and the proof between the servants and God is intellect. — OR — Regarding the verse of Allah the Exalted and Glorious, 'The innate nature of Allah which He created mankind upon,' he said, 'He created them upon monotheism.' — OR — Water in the well is ample and nothing can spoil it except if it becomes altered by the impurity. — OR — I was with Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) in the Mosque of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) when a balcony of the mosque fell onto a man but did not harm him except it struck his leg. Abu Ja'far said: "Ask him what good deed he did today." They asked him, and he said, "I went out with dates in my sleeve. I passed a needy person, so I gave him a date in charity." Abu Ja'far said, "By this, God protected you." — OR — A man asked Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), saying: I used to frequent fighting, seeking reward and prolonging absence, but I was prevented. They said there is no fighting except with a just Imam. What do you think? He said: If you wish, I will elaborate, or if you want, I can summarize. He said: Summarize. He said: Allah will gather people on the Day of Resurrection according to their intentions. Then it seemed he wished me to summarize. I said: Summarize please. He said: What is best for you, may Allah correct you, is: I fought and encountered the polytheists, so I must fight them before I call them. He said: If they invaded, fought, and fought you, you are venturing too far. If they are a people who have not invaded or fought, you should not fight them until you call them. The man said: I called them and a respondent replied, affirming Islam in his heart but was unjust in ruling, had his sanctity violated, his wealth taken, and was oppressed. What then of the outcome when I called him? He said: You both are rewarded for that. He is with you, protecting you from behind your sanctuary, guarding your qiblah, repelling against your book, and preserving your blood. It is better than one who destroys your qiblah, violates your sanctity, sheds your blood, and burns your book. — OR — Then he turned to his companions and said, 'Whoever has a daughter is honored, and whoever has two daughters, then may Allah help him! Whoever has three, he is exempted from jihad and every disliked deed. And whoever has four, O servants of Allah, support him, lend to him, and have mercy on him.' — OR — I said to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him): If a man has a child, may he make his wealth for his relative? He said: It is his property; he may do with it what he wishes until death arrives. — OR — The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) gave a sermon in Medina, praising God and sending blessings on the Prophet and his house, then said: God the Exalted never breaks a tyrant era except after a respite and ease, and never mends a shattered bone among the nations except after destruction and affliction. O people, what you face of hardship ahead and behind is a lesson. Not every possessing a heart is wise; not every hearing one hears with; nor is every seeing one sees with. Servants of God, be good in what concerns you and observe those under whose guidance God has placed you. They were on the way of the tradition from Pharaoh’s family, owners of gardens, springs, fields, and noble place. Look then at what God concluded for them after watching, joy, command, and prohibition. For whoever among you endures, the outcome is heaven, and God is everlasting. God holds the final return of affairs. Alas! Why do I not marvel at the errors of these groups with the difference in their proofs in their religion? They do not trace the trace of a Prophet, nor follow the practice of a successor, nor believe in the unseen, nor pardon the faults that are well known among them. Every one of them is the leader of himself, taking from it what he sees with severeness, strong bonds, and firm causes, so they remain unjust and their errors only increase; they do not gain closeness and they only distance from God Almighty. They find pleasure in one another and assist each other. All that is a horror stemming from the legacy the unlettered Prophet left. They keep away from what followed by them from the news of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. They are people of regrets, caves of doubts, people of night and misguidance. Whoever God entrusts to himself and his opinion is safe among those who are ignorant of him and not suspected by those who do not know him. How similar they are to cattle, lost from their herders. How regretful are the deeds of my Shia after their close love in this day? How some of them humiliate others after me, and how they kill each other among the scattered, yet from the original stem? Each faction among them takes a branch. Wherever the branch inclines, it inclines with it. But God Almighty praises and thanks whom He wills and gathers them for a bad day against Banu Umayya as He brings together dry branches in autumn. God will unite them, then establish a pile on them, and will not overturn His tradition. A mountain collapsing will shake them in the valleys, then He will channel them to springs on earth; He will take by them from the rights of a people and strengthen others in the land of another to harass Banu Umayya and to prevent them from oppressing what they usurped. God will trample a pillar with their hands and demolish piles from Iram and fill from among them two bellies of olive oil. By Him who cleft the grain and gave life to a soul, that shall happen. I can almost hear the neighing of their horses and the noise of their men. By God, what they have in their hands will melt after their elevation and power in the land like wax melts in fire. Whoever dies among them dies lost, and to God they will return. God Almighty will accept repentance of whoever repents, and perhaps God will gather my Shia after scattering for a severe day for these, and no one has power over God in this regard. The choice is for God and all command belongs to Him. O people, those who take imamate without being worthy of it are many. Were it not that you gave up on enforcing the bitter truth and did not suppress falsehood, none unlike you would be emboldened against you nor would anyone strong overcome you in oppressing obedience and removing it from its rightful owners. But you falter as Banu Israel faltered in the time of Moses son of Imran (peace be upon him). By my life, your dereliction will multiply upon you many times the faltering of Banu Israel. By my life, had you completed after me the period of the Umayyads’ rule, you would have united around a ruling calling to misguidance and revived falsehood and left the truth behind at your backsides and cut off the closest among the Companions of Badr and reached the furthest descendants of the war of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). By my life, if what is in their hands melts, examiners of the recompense will come to us near the appointed time. The period has ended, and the star with a tail rises from the east and the bright moon shines for you. When that occurs, return to repentance and know that if you follow the rising of the east you will be led by the ways of the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), cured from blindness, deafness, muteness, relieved of charges and oppression, and bearing the great burden from the necks. God does not drive away except he who refuses, wrongs, resorts to injustice, and takes what is not his. Those who wrong will know to what return they return.