Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Put this question to the obstinate denier: What would you say about a water-wheel set on a river, its mechanisms precisely engineered, its parts flawlessly assembled, every tool measured with the utmost accuracy so that an observer detects no defect in its substance or form? The wheel irrigates a vast garden that contains every kind of fruit and crop, giving each plant the water it needs. In that garden there is someone who trims its stray branches, tends it with care, and looks after all its interests so that nothing is left neglected. At harvest time he divides its yield in the finest manner, according to people’s needs and necessities, assigning to every group exactly what befits it, and he does so continuously without interruption.

Would you maintain that all this came about purely by chance—without a maker, a chooser, or an overseer? That the wheel, the garden, and everything within them simply appeared without any agent, caretaker, or manager? What, then, does your intellect—if it exists—tell you? What verdict does it render? To what insight does it guide you?

Yet by the wisdom of the Almighty, the All-Wise, He has created hearts that are blind, deprived of inner sight, so they witness these manifest signs no differently from how brute animals perceive them—just as He has created eyes that see without vision.”

End of his words—may Allah have mercy on him.