Truth did not need a sword to announce itself. If something was true, it could stand on its own once the mind understood it. A man who needed a sword in order to make his argument was usually admitting that his argument had already collapsed.
Arif insisted that they use pressure, but only as theater. They would flood social media with videos suggesting that they had access to weapons, that they were in contact with suppliers, and that an armed force was gathering. This was not because they intended to fight. It was because Antar, his preachers, and his soldiers understood only one language: fear.
Arif knew that Antar was already terrified. The strain of losing control had left the self-proclaimed god with little room for maneuver. Once Qandil had revealed Samson's identity and had openly joined Arif and the researchers, they also knew that Samson would pressure Antar to negotiate. And Arif pushed the threat even further. They would not merely demand a negotiation. They would demand a trial.
Antar claimed that he would one day judge them in a supposed afterlife, for their sins and disobedience. Fine. Then, Arif argued, they had every right to judge him in this life and ask him to prove his claim to divinity while he could still be seen and heard.
Arif understood Samson perfectly. The sorcerer was selfish and opportunistic. He always moved toward whoever held the stronger hand. Now that Antar's star seemed to be fading, Arif suspected that Samson would change sides—or at least pretend to—in order to save himself. After all, Antar was only a puppet the sorcerer had created. If the puppet was about to fall apart, the man behind the curtain would naturally look for another stage.
So Arif struck exactly where he knew Samson and Antar were most vulnerable. He increased the volume of the videos, the threats, the hashtags, and the recruitment. They made it appear that a crowd would soon gather near Antar's palace carrying weapons and preparing for a direct confrontation. They claimed that they had sold everything they owned to obtain arms and that suppliers were already standing behind them.
The technological uprising had an effect far greater than Arif had expected.
People began abandoning the faith in increasing numbers. Many of them had never believed out of conviction in the first place. Fear had been the glue holding their belief together. Once fear loosened its grip, belief began to fall away with it.
More and more people openly turned their backs on Antar, his religion, and his three preachers. They no longer trembled at the mention of his name. They no longer expected his punishment around every corner. They no longer saw his sword as the final word.
Antar's palace, meanwhile, turned into a madhouse.
He paced like a wounded lion trapped inside its own den. Then came the blow that nearly finished him: Arif and the researchers informed him that Minister Qandil was in their custody, that they had taken him, and that he had chosen to join them. Worse, Qandil had told them everything.
He had exposed Samson.
He had told them that Antar was nothing more than a statue—a puppet, an idol, a constructed figure fashioned by the evil sorcerer. He had exposed the machinery behind the miracle, and with it the machinery behind the throne.
Antar suddenly realized that the last nail had been driven into the coffin of his invented divinity. His funeral had already begun. The mourners had not yet buried him, but they were lining up outside his throne room.
Samson hurried from his private wing in the palace. In recent weeks he had scarcely left Antar's side. Antar's fear had become so obvious that he had begun to cling to the sorcerer who had created him. Samson had always served as a giant curtain behind which he could hide. The larger and more impressive Antar became, the safer Samson felt behind him.
But Samson himself had never truly felt safe. That had always been the weakness beneath his strategy.
He approached Antar cautiously, lowered his voice, and whispered:
"My lord, there is no longer any alternative. We have to surrender. We need to bow our heads to the wind before the coming storm sweeps away what little we have left. Otherwise we will end up in the wilderness, forgotten and despised."
Antar's eyes flashed. He exploded.
"What are you saying, Samson? Have you lost your mind? I am Antar! The creator and owner of everything! The creator of Antartoto itself! You want me to surrender to those riffraff? Those lowlifes? They belong in prison!"
He clenched his fists until his knuckles whitened.
"If I could get my hands on them now, I would crush them between my fingers like insects. I would grind them beneath my feet."
"There is no time for these fantasies anymore," Samson replied. "You and I know what is behind the curtain. We cannot go on lying to ourselves by telling one lie and then believing it because we have repeated it long enough. There is no time left for arrogance.
"When a storm is coming, you lower your head. Otherwise the wind carries you away, and all that remains of you is a pile of ash."
"Especially now that Qandil has told them everything. He betrayed us. They know what happened. They know what we built."
Antar's voice cracked with rage.
"That wretch! How dare he expose me? I should never have told him anything about us."
Then he turned on Samson.
"This is your fault. You were the one who told him. You wanted to boast about your magic, your work, your genius. You thought he had too much invested in us to betray us. And now he has spoken. He is against us. He must have been waiting for his chance. He hated you from the beginning."
"I only frightened him," Samson said. "He needed to know what I could do. He needed to understand that I could curse him, hide him, or destroy him if I wished."
Antar gave a bitter laugh.
"And look how terrified he was. So terrified that he told them everything. He no longer fears you. He no longer fears me."
Samson's eyes narrowed.
"He is an opportunist. When he saw the strength on the other side—the strength of those young people and their leader, Arif—he changed direction. They must have reassured him. They must have convinced him, using the very things they trust: science, logic, reason. They convinced him that I could not hurt him anymore.
"He was only waiting for the right moment to settle his old score against me.
"That is why deception is our only remaining option. Many believers have already been shaken by the threats on social media. They have begun moving toward Arif. Some have abandoned your religion altogether. Those researchers have done something dangerous: they have restored the minds of your believers.
"For years faith had kept those minds asleep. It taught them to treat thinking as an enemy. Now the seal has broken. Fear is leaving their bodies, and once fear leaves, the puppeteer loses his strings.
"We must lure Arif and his people here under the cover of a truce, negotiation, or debate. Bring them into the palace and then close the trap. Once they are inside our reach, we will deal with them.
"We have no other weapon left. Fear has run away from the hearts of your followers like a coward fleeing a beast. It is not coming back on its own.
"So let them believe that you have accepted their demand. Let them think they have won a seat at the table. Then we will show them what the god Antar is really capable of. They will either return to the fold—heads bowed, minds closed, trembling in worship—or they will taste the hell you have spent years promising them."
Antar listened in silence.
Samson's words seemed to lift a weight from his chest. At last he could see a path that did not end with a broken throne and an exposed puppet.
"All right," he said. "We will do it your way. We will pretend to agree. We will invite them in. Let them imagine that they have forced the god Antar to negotiate."
Samson smiled.
"Exactly."
And so the trap was prepared.
Word spread through the networks that Antar had accepted the researchers' demand for a public debate. The announcement was wrapped in grand language about tolerance, wisdom, and the sacred right to dialogue. It was exactly the kind of language tyrants discovered whenever they wanted to buy time.
Arif and his friends knew there was a trap somewhere. They simply did not know where.
That suited them perfectly.
They had no intention of walking blindly into the palace. They would turn the negotiation itself into another battlefield—one fought with words, evidence, and public attention.
The palace prepared for the spectacle as though an emperor were preparing for war. Guards were stationed everywhere. Curtains were inspected. Doors were watched. Every corridor was treated like a military frontier.
Meanwhile, Arif's side prepared their own weapons: documents, research, testimonies, public questions, recordings, and the confidence that no sorcerer could erase a fact once enough people had seen it.
The great debate was coming.
And somewhere behind the walls of the palace, Antar waited in hiding, terrified that the very stage he had ordered built to glorify him might become the stage on which his divinity was finally dismantled.
The date was set.
The audience gathered.
And the curtain rose on what everyone would soon call the trial of the century.
"If you say the Creator can enter any place on Antartoto—or any other world He made—without papers, visas, effort, or even the inconvenience of knocking," Ibn Marra al-Hilwa continued, "then surely you can see why ordinary creatures cannot be measured by the same standard.
"And if we turn to another of His defining attributes—that He neither begot nor was begotten—then again no living creature qualifies as His equal. Every human being comes from a father and mother, and later becomes a father or mother in turn. But the God I believe in has no father, no mother, no wife, no sons, and no daughters. He has no equivalent. That is why you must not confuse Him with His creation. He created them; they can never be His equal."
Arif waited until he finished.
"And if you tell me the sacred book is not scientific, while science is the real authority on the universe, I have another question," Ibn Marra al-Hilwa continued. "Suppose you own a machine but have never opened it. Can you explain precisely how it was assembled, where every component came from, and how the mechanism works internally? Of course not. The one who built it can. A scientist who learns about the machine from its maker comes second: first comes the inventor, then the investigator.
"That is the difference between God, who created the universe, and scientists, who study it afterward. The scientist can investigate the creation, but the Creator already knows its construction. And science, unlike revelation, is incomplete. It changes. It grows. It admits that it does not know everything. The Creator does not."
Then he smiled as though he had just drawn the winning card.
"You boast that science proved Antartoto is round rather than flat. Fine. The sacred book said so first. You say the universe began from a primordial state and expanded violently—the famous Big Bang. Fine again. The sacred writings said that the heavens and the world were once joined and were then separated. So tell me: which deserves your loyalty more? The science that arrived later, or the Creator who supposedly knew everything from the beginning?"
Arif's expression changed. His smile was sharp enough to cut.
"First, I refuse to call this a debate anymore," he said. "Live, before everyone watching, I am changing its name. This is a trial. An urgent trial.
"For generations, we were told that we would be judged by this invisible god. Today I am asking a simpler question: by what right does this god put us on trial at all? Where is the proof that he deserves the title? Why should we accept a verdict from an entity whose existence has never been established?"
Somewhere inside his hiding place, Antar snarled.
The joy he had briefly felt while listening to Ibn Marra al-Hilwa defend him disappeared. The trial had changed the rules. The god who was supposed to judge everyone was suddenly being summoned to court.
Antar told himself that this was only part of Samson's plan. He would endure it. He would wait. Eventually the trap would close.
But Samson, as always, was already calculating which side would survive.
Arif turned back toward his opponent.
"You claimed at the beginning that I invented a false image of God," he said. "You said that if God possessed the human traits I attributed to him—anger, revenge, cruelty, hunger, and the rest—you would reject such a being yourself.
"Fine. Then let me ask the first question.
"What does this god supposedly know about the universe he created?"
He paused deliberately.
"Before you bury the answer under another mountain of theological patchwork, I will take your own sacred book and test its claims. According to that book, the god you say knows everything seems to have a remarkably narrow view of the cosmos.
"Your scripture repeatedly describes our world as spread out and extended, while observation tells us we live on a globe. So what exactly is this God's relationship with the universe? Did he fail to notice its shape? Did he not understand the world he created? Was he in a hurry? Distracted? Or perhaps he never got around to taking the relevant class?"
A few people laughed.
Arif continued.
"And if the book gives one small region of this enormous planet special attention, while claiming that its god is the God of every world and every creature, what are we supposed to make of that? An all-knowing deity who behaves as though most of his own universe were outside the service area?
"Then comes the strangest part. This god supposedly created human beings, announced himself as their master, and promptly disappeared. He hides because, we are told, we could not bear the sight of his divine majesty.
"Really? Is he protecting us from the shock, or protecting himself from inspection?"
The room stirred.
"Perhaps he is embarrassed," Arif said dryly. "Perhaps he blushes when his creatures look at him too closely. Perhaps his divinity is something too delicate to survive a proper examination.
"But that creates another problem. You say he wants to be known, worshiped, loved, feared, and obeyed. Yet the moment we ask for evidence, he vanishes behind the curtain. Then he punishes people for asking where he went.
"That is not revelation. That is a disappearing act."
He looked toward the believers.
"You call that faith. I call it a system designed so that the absence of evidence becomes evidence of spiritual purity."
He moved on.
"Let us return to the body. You praised the so-called 'fine-tuning' of the human design. You called it evidence of a perfect designer.
"Then let us inspect the product.
"Start with the eye."
He raised a hand.
"The human field of vision is limited. There is a blind spot built into the system. The optic nerve passes through the retina instead of sitting neatly behind it, creating a point where no image is detected. Engineers would call that a design problem.
"And it matters. A human being driving a vehicle can fail to see something in precisely the wrong place and at precisely the wrong moment. A blind spot is not a proof of perfect design. It is a feature of evolutionary history.
"Yet we are told that an infinitely intelligent designer made the system deliberately. So why this awkward architecture?
"Nature never claimed to be omnipotent. Evolution never announced itself as a perfect engineer. It simply works with what already exists, modifying inherited structures over immense stretches of time.
"That is why imperfections are exactly what we expect from evolution.
"What we do not expect is an omniscient, omnipotent designer producing a system full of historical leftovers and then demanding applause for it."
Arif paused, then added with a grin:
"And before anyone asks whether a human being can build an eye, let me make something clear: I never claimed to be God. I never claimed to be perfect. So if I cannot manufacture a fly, that proves nothing about a deity.
"The real question is this: why would a perfect designer choose the fly as one of his proudest products?"
He continued before Ibn Marra al-Hilwa could answer.
"A fly feeds around garbage, carries microbes, contaminates food, and can spread disease. A mosquito does the same on a different schedule, with a much more impressive body count.
"You tell me the human body is a masterpiece. Fine. Then why does a tiny accident—swallowing a grain of rice the wrong way—have the power to kill a person? Why are the reproductive, digestive, and urinary systems packed into one crowded neighborhood? Why is the spine vulnerable to pain and injury? Why do diseases exploit the very organisms you claim were deliberately designed for worship?
"If we inspected a factory that repeatedly produced fragile machines requiring constant repair, we would not praise the factory manager for his genius. We would ask what went wrong.
"And humanity has indeed spent centuries repairing what biology gave us—not by praying over the defects, but by studying them. Medicine, surgery, antibiotics, vaccines, and technology have saved lives by understanding nature rather than pretending every flaw is a miracle."
Arif then turned to the issue of childbirth.
"Here is another problem. Women endure severe pain during childbirth. Animals do too. Why?
"The religious answer offered to explain this is that the suffering was imposed on women because the first woman disobeyed God. So a woman who is born thousands of generations later inherits the penalty for a crime she did not commit. And the same punishment appears in animals that supposedly had nothing to do with that original disobedience.
"A chicken is not responsible for anyone eating forbidden fruit. Yet she still pays for it with pain when she lays an egg.
"Call that justice if you like. I call it inherited punishment dressed up as divine wisdom."
He went further.
"The same sacred narrative contains descriptions of human reproduction that do not match modern anatomy. Sperm does not come from some mystical region of the back and ribs. Biology describes reproductive cells through actual organs and measurable processes. The female reproductive system has its own anatomy. There is no need to drag the rib cage into the laboratory simply because ancient poetry once did.
"And then there is the heart. Blood vessels are arranged through an extraordinarily complicated inherited structure. Other animals have solutions that function in strikingly different ways. Evolution explains such arrangements as modifications of what came before. The claim of perfect design turns every awkward feature into a theological crisis.
"If this really is the best possible design, why does the world contain organisms with sensory systems superior to ours in particular respects? Why does an octopus possess remarkable vision while humans live with a blind spot?
"Where, exactly, is the promised 'best possible form'?"
Arif looked at the audience.
"The answer is not that nature is stupid. Nature never promised perfection. It does not sit on a throne demanding praise. It works through processes that accumulate over time.
"But the moment you place an allegedly perfect designer behind every structure, you inherit responsibility for every defect.
"That is the trap of intelligent design as a proof. You take the existence of complexity, assume intention, and then declare that the intention proves the designer. But if the result is flawed, you suddenly invent another explanation—perhaps it is a test, perhaps it is wisdom, perhaps we are too ignorant to understand it.
"At that point, nothing can possibly disprove the claim. Every defect becomes 'wisdom' and every contradiction becomes 'mystery.' That is not evidence. It is a shield."
The argument now reached the heart of the matter.
"Then there is the question of the five righteous men," Arif said. "Your story turns them into saints, then into enemies, then into pieces in Antar's political theater. And now you expect the same people who were told to trust tradition to abandon their own experience whenever the official story changes.
"That is exactly how propaganda works. First, tell people what happened. Then tell them why it happened. Finally, tell them that questioning the explanation is itself a moral crime.
"Once you reach that point, the system no longer needs evidence. It only needs obedient listeners."
He smiled.
"And that is why you keep calling me an enemy of faith. I am not afraid of faith. I am afraid of a system in which asking a question is treated as an act of war."
The hall fell unusually quiet.
Arif looked toward the hidden throne where Antar was listening.
"You wanted to be a god," he said. "Fine. Then stand up and answer for the design."
Arif went on.
"What happened in reality is much simpler. Human beings inherited a body shaped by earlier life forms. Nature continued working with that inherited material. It did not begin from a blank page, because nature never claimed to possess unlimited power. It does not call itself a perfect designer. It does not demand worship. It modifies what already exists.
"But you assign every feature to an all-powerful, all-wise creator and then call every awkward feature a miracle. That is where the absurdity begins.
"And nowhere is the absurdity more painful than in childbirth. Why is giving birth so difficult? Why does a woman endure such severe pain before and during delivery? What possible reason requires this much suffering?
"The religious explanation is somehow even worse: women suffer because the first woman disobeyed God. One woman supposedly ate forbidden fruit, and therefore women for generations are punished for a crime they never committed. The punishment is then extended even to female animals and birds. A hen lays an egg and suffers, apparently paying a debt for a story in which she never took part.
"If that is justice, it is a remarkably confused version of justice."
He paused.
"And then we encounter scientific claims about reproduction that do not match anatomy. The male reproductive cells are produced by the reproductive system; they do not descend from some mystical location in the back. The female reproductive system has its own organs and functions. The anatomy is complicated, yes, but it does not require ancient poetry to turn the back and chest into reproductive factories.
"Now look at the heart and circulatory system. The arrangement of arteries and veins carries the marks of biological history. Evolution modifies what it inherits. It does not redesign the entire organism from scratch each time. That is why structures can be workable without being optimal.
"Yet we are told that the same system was intentionally designed in its absolute best possible form.
"Best possible? Compared with what?
"An octopus, for example, possesses remarkable visual abilities. Some animals have sensory systems that outperform ours in particular ways. So where is the universal masterpiece? Why are there so many compromises if the designer is supposed to be perfect?"
Arif smiled.
"I think we are better off without this particular god. The moment we stopped treating ourselves as his property, something remarkable happened: we began to feel free.
"We left a religion divided into three major traditions, each insisting that its version possessed the truth while the others were wrong. The confusion itself became useful. As long as everyone argued about which version was correct, nobody looked behind the curtain.
"I am better off without that system. So is my fiancée, because she was expected to live under a structure that told her, in one form or another, that her freedom was secondary to male authority. It claimed to protect her while constantly reminding her that she was lesser.
"When we left, we began to build our relationship with our families without the machinery of religious fear standing between us. We could think, speak, question, disagree, and walk away from inherited beliefs without expecting someone to threaten us with hell.
"We are free to accept an idea—or reject it.
"And now I have one question you may find difficult to patch.
"Why does the need for God seem to shrink every time knowledge expands?
"Whenever science investigates honestly, openly, and without trying to protect a sacred conclusion, where is the evidence for Antar—or for any other supernatural ruler? Why is there no direct evidence, no independent signature, not even a clear trace?
"You describe this god as compassionate and all-knowing. Surely an all-knowing god would understand that human beings need evidence if they are expected to commit their entire lives to him. Instead, he disappears and then blames them for failing to find him.
"We searched through observation, reason, and science. We looked for even the smallest sign. Nothing.
"Is he playing hard to get?" Arif asked, and the audience laughed.
"Does he enjoy watching people wander through a maze while he hides above them and smiles? Does he enjoy testing how long someone can remain loyal to an invisible being who refuses to appear?
"And what about the person who finally gives up—not because he hates God, but because he has genuinely searched and found no reason to believe? Is that person guilty merely because he wanted to believe on the basis of knowledge rather than inherited fear?
"That believer is not necessarily rebellious. He may simply be exhausted.
"Yet your system treats the honest questioner as the enemy and rewards the person who is most frightened.
"Love is not enough. Curiosity is dangerous. Evidence is suspicious. Fear is holy.
"What kind of god is that?"
Ibn Marra al-Hilwa did not answer immediately.
Arif continued.
"And there is another absurdity. You say your faith encourages knowledge. Then you cite scientific facts as proof that your scripture knew them first.
"You mention the mosquito. You claim that scientists discovered astonishing details about its anatomy and that this somehow proves divine foreknowledge. But scientific discovery does not prove that a text containing a poetic reference was secretly written by the creator of the mosquito.
"You mention statements about the number of joints in the human body and then point to later anatomical counts as proof. This is the same trick again: find a resemblance, declare it a miracle, and ignore every statement that does not fit.
"That is not science. It is confirmation bias dressed as a laboratory coat."
He looked directly at his opponent.
"You also keep returning to the argument from design. But the fact that a machine is complicated does not tell us automatically who built it. And even when we know a machine has an engineer, we know that because we have independent evidence of engineers and manufacturing.
"You are doing something different. You observe nature, assume that your preferred designer exists, and then use nature as evidence that the designer exists. The conclusion is hiding inside the premise.
"That is circular reasoning."
The audience grew quieter.
Arif then attacked another weakness.
"You tell me that the universe cannot exist without a cause. Fine. Then I ask: why does the same rule stop applying when we reach God?
"If everything requires a cause, God needs one too. If God does not need a cause, then not everything needs a cause. You cannot change the rule when the argument reaches the answer you already wanted.
"You tell me the universe came from nothing. Perhaps. Perhaps not. But ignorance about what happened before the universe—or about whether 'before' even has meaning at that scale—is not evidence for Antar.
'We do not know' is a legitimate scientific sentence.
'Therefore my invisible god did it' is not."
He took a breath.
"And finally, language. You argue that abstract concepts—repentance, honesty, regret, anger—must have been implanted in the human mind by a deity because nature deals in physical objects.
"But abstraction is precisely what human cognition can do. We create concepts, compare them, combine them, communicate them, revise them. Language develops through social learning. A child raised without human language does not spontaneously speak a supernatural language. The child learns from other minds.
"You tell me that this proves God because the first humans supposedly received words from him. But that is simply another story being used to prove the story itself.
"The pattern never changes: assume the conclusion, then use the conclusion to prove itself."
Arif smiled.
"And now we have reached the true heart of this trial. You have not brought me evidence. You have brought me stories, analogies, scripture, fear, and conclusions that were already built into the assumptions.
"I am asking for something much simpler.
"Show me the god."
Ibn Marra al-Hilwa raised his voice again, refusing to surrender the floor.
"Look at the human body before you dismiss what I have said. The ear, the nervous system, the circulation, the eyes, the tongue, the heart, the muscles, the bones—everywhere you look there are details so precise that one could spend a lifetime studying a single organ and still discover new marvels.
"Take the ear. When a driver hears a horn from behind, the sound reaches one ear a fraction of a moment before the other. The brain uses that tiny difference to locate the source. Is that not extraordinary?
"Or consider the white blood cells. They behave like an army defending the body. They recognize invading organisms, distinguish threats from harmless material, and mobilize against infection. How can such a system be nothing but blind accident?"
He leaned forward with the confidence of a man who believed he had finally cornered his opponent.
"And now, evolution. You people use evolution to deny the Creator. I will use evolution to prove Him.
"There are three kinds of change, as I see it. There is natural development, such as growth and maturation. There is self-directed change, in which a creature supposedly chooses what it wants to become—say, wishing for wings and producing them—which obviously does not happen. And then there is external change, which requires a force directing the process.
"You say the first forms of life began as simple cells. But a cell has no mind. It has no awareness. It merely divides. Two cells become four, four become eight, and so on. If neither the cell nor chance possesses intelligence, what is directing the process?
"You answer with natural laws. But laws are not conscious beings either. A physical law cannot decide to create a universe. When you discovered that the laws themselves cannot explain everything, you hid behind another word: chance.
"Chance is not intelligent. Nature is not intelligent. Yet something must stand behind the process. We believers know what that something is: God, the eternal source of power and order.
"So evolution, properly understood, does not eliminate God. It points toward Him."
He then offered what he considered an even stronger example.
"Some forms of mosquito produce material immediately after emerging. Without ever being taught, they perform complex behaviors suited to their environment. Certain water birds do the same. A bird raised among chickens can hatch and instinctively head toward water. Who taught it?
"Who gave it the information it needed before it had ever seen its mother?"
He spread his hands triumphantly.
"Only God can explain that."
Arif listened without interrupting.
Ibn Marra al-Hilwa moved on to his three-step proof.
"First," he said, "religion begins with the unity of God. Our third and final sacred tradition places particular emphasis on one God, and this is the correct and purified form of faith. The other traditions worship the same deity through lesser intermediaries, but the final tradition restores true monotheism.
"Second, the messengers. Either they were honest and righteous, or they were liars who deceived people by claiming to speak for God. Yet people trusted them before witnessing their miracles. They knew them as truthful men. Their honesty, their message, and the signs that followed confirm the reality of revelation.
"Third, the final religion confirms what came before it. Earlier scriptures predicted the arrival of the final messenger. Therefore the chain supports itself: earlier revelation confirms the later revelation, and the later revelation confirms the earlier promise.
"And if you ask why God remains hidden, that is precisely what proves His transcendence. You complain because you cannot see Him. But perhaps the problem is not God's absence. Perhaps your eyesight—or your reasoning—is the defective part.
"Make sure you still have a mind before accusing the universe of having no Creator."
The audience murmured.
"And if you still insist that the universe made itself," he continued, "consider something simpler. If I told you that a book wrote itself, or a pen manufactured itself, you would laugh. So why should the universe be different? The trail proves the traveler. The footprint proves the foot that made it."
He turned toward Arif with a final burst of confidence.
"And if you deny the afterlife, you cannot escape the possibility of eternal punishment. Even if you laugh at heaven and hell, the believer loses little by believing and may gain everything. The unbeliever may gain only the pleasures of this life and risk eternal loss.
"That is the wisdom behind Pascal's wager."
For a moment, Ibn Marra al-Hilwa seemed pleased with himself.
Then Arif rose again.
"Your entire argument," he said, "is one long circle with three favorite tricks painted over it.
"Cherry-picking. Circular reasoning. Straw-man arguments.
"Let us begin with your final messenger. You said everyone believed him and no one rejected him. That is not what your own historical tradition says. He was opposed, mocked, accused, and rejected by many people. Your version conveniently selects the believers who accepted him and erases everyone who did not.
"That is cherry-picking."
He continued.
"You also use your scripture as proof that your scripture is true. The book says God is real, therefore God is real. Why? Because the book is from God. And how do you know the book is from God? Because God says so in the book.
"That is not proof. That is a locked room with no door.
"Then you shift the burden of proof. You claim your god exists, yet you demand that I prove he does not. I do not carry that burden. The person who makes a positive claim must provide evidence for the claim.
"If I tell you there is an invisible creature sitting in this room, I cannot demand that you prove its nonexistence. You are allowed to ask me for evidence.
"You repeatedly refuse to do that.
"Then comes the straw man. You attacked a version of evolution I never argued for. I did not say human beings are descended from the monkeys living around us. I said humans and other primates share common ancestry. Those are not the same claim.
"You replaced my argument with a caricature and then defeated the caricature.
"That is not winning a debate. That is arguing with a scarecrow."
Arif looked around the room.
"And now let us discuss your favorite insurance policy: Pascal's wager.
"You pretend the universe gives us only four choices: God exists or does not exist, and I believe or I do not believe. But there are thousands of religions and countless incompatible concepts of God.
"If the supposed prize depends on choosing the correct religion, then your wager immediately becomes much less comforting. Which god? Which scripture? Which sect? Which interpretation? Which rituals? Which theology?
"What if the real God rewards ethical behavior rather than belief? What if he judges character rather than affiliation? What if no god exists? What if there are gods in some form entirely outside the religious choices you listed?
"The moment you add the real possibilities, your neat little wager begins to look less like mathematics and more like a casino ticket printed by a frightened believer."
A laugh ran through the audience.
Arif continued.
"You claim that the chance of choosing the right faith is one in a handful of possibilities. But your own world contains thousands of competing religions and numerous sects within them. That makes your promised infinite payoff radically less certain.
"And there is another problem: even if a person chooses a religion correctly by accident, what guarantees that he performs every required ritual correctly? What guarantees that he interpreted the sacred law correctly? What guarantees that the deity's actual criterion is belief at all?
"Your wager is built on assumptions that have not been established."
He leaned toward Ibn Marra al-Hilwa.
"You keep telling me that faith and science are friends. Then use science honestly.
"Do not search for one sentence in a sacred book that resembles a modern scientific fact and call it a miracle. That is how confirmation bias works. You begin with a conclusion, search selectively for supporting details, and quietly ignore everything that does not fit.
"And then you accuse your critics of cherry-picking while doing exactly the same thing."
He paused before landing another blow.
"You also gave me a false choice. You said that if I reject religious law, I must want chaos. That is another fallacy.
"There are secular systems of law built around human rights, ethics, accountability, and social responsibility. A society does not require a divine ruler in order to prohibit murder, theft, abuse, or corruption.
"You turned the world into two colors: believer and criminal; sacred law and moral collapse.
"But there are many colors in between.
"That is the false dilemma."
Arif's voice grew calmer.
"And when you describe God, you rely on a second circular trick. You define God by scripture, then use scripture to prove your definition of God.
"Ask me whether your book is trustworthy and you answer, 'Yes, because God gave it to us.' Ask you how you know God gave it to us and you answer, 'Because the book says so.'
"Again, the circle closes."
He turned toward the audience.
"People deserve better than arguments designed to prevent them from asking questions.
"Questioning is not corruption. Doubt is not a crime. Knowledge is not a disease.
"And a person does not become immoral merely because he refuses to place his conscience in the hands of a book he has not been given reason to trust."
Ibn Marra al-Hilwa tried one last time to reinforce his argument, but Arif was already dismantling it piece by piece.
"You say God has no partner, no equal, no likeness, and that he was neither born nor fathered. Then I ask: what proves these attributes? Your answer is that they appear in the sacred book. And why should I trust the book? Because it comes from God. And how do you know it comes from God? Because the book says it does.
"That is the perfect circle: A is true because B proves it, and B is true because A proves it. You can walk around that circle forever and never leave the starting point.
"Then you make the same mistake with science. You say you care about science, but when you need proof that your scripture anticipated modern discoveries, you reach back into the scripture and select passages that sound vaguely similar to scientific ideas. You use science to praise the book, then the book to certify science. Again, the circle closes.
"And you keep laughing at me for refusing to believe in Antar while forgetting who actually carries the burden of proof. You claim the god exists. Therefore, you must show evidence that he exists. You cannot reverse the burden and demand that I prove your invisible ruler does not exist.
"If I claim there is an invisible creature sitting beside us, I do not get to say, 'Prove that it is not there.' I have to show you why I believe it is there.
"That is basic reasoning."
He took a breath.
"You also created a straw man. Earlier you attacked the claim that humans are descended directly from modern monkeys. I never argued that. I said humans and other primates share common ancestors. Each lineage followed its own evolutionary path.
"You ignored that distinction, invented a weaker argument, and then celebrated after defeating it. You did not defeat my position. You defeated a character you invented for the occasion.
"That is the straw man fallacy."
Arif turned toward the audience.
"At this point, there is no reason to continue pretending this is a normal debate. We are going to put the god of this kingdom on trial."
Ibn Marra al-Hilwa faltered. He had spent his entire career patching holes in arguments, but now the holes were opening faster than he could cover them.
Arif addressed the hidden throne.
"And if the alleged god Antar truly exists, let him answer for himself. He is supposedly all-powerful. Surely he does not need a preacher to protect him from a scientist."
The hall erupted in murmurs.
The trial officially began.
"On behalf of reason, logic, and science, we open the case against the alleged god-ruler Antar," Arif announced. "Everyone will remain calm and allow the accused to answer."
He turned toward the place from which Antar's voice came.
"State your name. State your profession. And state your age."
Antar answered from behind the curtain.
"I am Antar, the one true God. My profession is ruler of Antartoto, the universe, and every world beyond it. As for my age, I have existed forever. I am beyond numbers. I have no beginning and no end."
Arif raised an eyebrow.
"That is an unusually creative way of avoiding the question. Let us continue. Where exactly do you live?"
"Everywhere," Antar replied. "I am not confined to my throne. I exist in every place—in every world, in every home, even in your pocket and in your breath. You cannot see me, but I am everywhere."
"So the accused has no fixed address," Arif said. "A cosmic drifter."
Antar growled.
"How dare you? You are creatures I made, and you presume to put your creator on trial?"
"You may speak when recognized," Arif replied.
Antar muttered angrily to himself that after the ordeal was over, he would have Arif arrested, tortured, and buried in a prison from which death itself would be a mercy he would not receive.
Arif continued.
"You have also adopted many names. Which one is actually yours? Antar? Baal? Allah? Another name attached to another religion? You have different names, different personalities, different attributes, and different stories depending on which religious tradition is speaking.
"You move between these religions like a performer changing costumes. In each one, your followers insist their version is the only true one, while the others are corrupt.
"Do you enjoy the confusion?
"Because from where we stand, it looks remarkably useful. While your followers fight over which version of you is authentic, nobody looks closely at the machinery behind the throne.
"That is the old partnership between politics and religion: keep the public divided, keep them frightened, keep them arguing, and the ruler stays safely behind the curtain.
"The victim is always the same—the ordinary person who has been trained to obey without thinking."
Arif then moved to the body of evidence.
"Let us return to your claim of perfect design. You call the human body the finest possible form. Yet the body contains structures that are fragile, awkward, and full of inherited compromises. The eye contains a blind spot. The spine is vulnerable to severe pain and injury. The reproductive system is crowded into a design that creates major biological risks. Diseases can attack the same body you supposedly designed as your masterpiece.
"If you were an engineer and delivered a product requiring constant repairs, causing preventable failures, and leaving obvious structural compromises, customers would not call you omnipotent.
"They would ask for a refund."
Laughter spread through the audience.
Arif continued.
"You also claim that your design is so superior that human beings should marvel at every component. Yet other creatures outperform humans in particular senses. An octopus has remarkable vision. Certain animals possess sensory systems better suited to their environments than ours.
"Nature explains this beautifully. Evolution does not aim for perfection. It modifies what already exists. It works through constraints. It builds on history.
"But a perfect designer should not need history to explain why the design looks patched together."
He turned toward the witnesses.
"And now we have the matter of fear. Your system taught people that fear of Antar was itself a badge of righteousness. The more frightened a believer became, the more faithful he was considered.
"A strange religion indeed: courage is suspicious, doubt is sinful, curiosity is dangerous, but terror is holy."
He paused.
"And the so-called afterlife? We were promised eternal paradise and eternal punishment. Those promises kept people obedient while the ruler enjoyed this life.
"You told the poor to wait. You told them their reward would come later. You told them poverty could be a test, suffering could be preparation, and obedience would eventually be compensated. Meanwhile, the ruler consumed the wealth of the living.
"That is not compassion. It is political management wrapped in metaphysics."
Qandil continued his confession.
"Antar's messengers told the people that he would take revenge on anyone who refused to believe in him. He threatened them with the same punishments he had inflicted on other regions of Antartoto. People trembled for themselves, their children, and their families. They obeyed because they were afraid.
"Over time, something terrible happened: people began to believe the lie simply because they had lived inside it for so long. Fear became a pillar of faith. The more frightened a person was of Antar, the more righteous he was considered.
"Antar did not want their love. He wanted their fear.
"The sacred verses preached constantly about fear, punishment, and obedience. Fear itself became proof of faith. A believer was praised for being terrified.
"And yes—I admit before this court that I helped create that system.
"Samson and I invented the idea of an afterlife filled with eternal reward and eternal punishment. We presented it to Antar. I then carried the idea to the three preachers—Shaher, Maher, and Qaher—and they carried it to the people.
"The believers were trapped between the stick and the carrot. They were promised paradise if they obeyed and hell if they resisted. They were encouraged to sacrifice the life they actually possessed for a future life we had invented.
"They were taught to treat poverty as a test, suffering as purification, and obedience as the only road to salvation. Meanwhile, Antar postponed every reward that could have improved their lives and accelerated everything that served his own power.
"He took their world and taught them to despise it while he enjoyed it."
Qandil's voice hardened.
"I also accuse Antar of turning religion into a justification for violence. The sacred book was written to support his wars and to label those who resisted him as enemies of God. We wrote passages praising what he called holy struggle and presented murder and destruction as acts of devotion.
"We taught the believers that true faith required submission so complete that it erased reason. A faithful servant had to love Antar more than himself, more than his family, more than his own life.
"Thinking became suspicious. Questioning became rebellion. Obedience became virtue.
"That was the real meaning of the system we built."
He looked toward Antar's hidden chamber.
"And I accuse him of lying about prayer. He told people, 'Call upon me and I will answer you,' but he rarely answered anything. He focused on his own desires. When people begged for help in the middle of the night, he laughed at them and told us to assure them that their reward would come later—in an afterlife that did not exist.
"We created that afterlife to keep them obedient. We taught them to run like donkeys after a carrot while fearing the stick behind them.
"That was the whole mechanism: keep them hungry for reward and terrified of punishment, and they will never demand their rights in this life.
"Antar postponed everything that served them and hurried everything that served himself."
The hall remained silent.
Qandil lowered his head.
"For years, Antartoto suffered famine, disease, and war while Antar lived in luxury. He cared about one thing: obedience to him and the execution of his religious commands.
"He exploited women as brutally as he exploited everyone else. The religion we wrote with his approval reduced women to property, servants, and sexual objects. It claimed to protect them while placing their lives under male authority.
"It was not protection. It was possession."
Qandil drew a long breath.
"As a minister, I was never sent to perform a genuine act of humanity. I was sent to punish, intimidate, destroy, imprison, and terrorize people who questioned Antar. When a region rejected his divinity, we sent armies, disease, floods, or other forms of destruction against it.
"Samson was behind the planning. Antar approved it. I executed it."
Arif looked at him.
"And now you have admitted all of it."
"Yes," Qandil answered. "And I will admit one more thing. Antar was never the god he claimed to be.
"I knew the truth because Samson told me himself."
A tremor passed through the crowd.
"Samson told me that he had been a homeless orphan as a child. He found an old book of magic and taught himself its rituals. He learned to animate statues, transform stones, summon spirits, and conceal himself from sight.
"One day he found a huge stone figure in an ancient cave. It was larger than the others. He decided to use it. Through his magic he transformed the statue into a living being.
"He named him Antar.
"Then he convinced Antar that he should rule this new world.
"Antartoto itself already existed through natural processes. Samson did not create the planet. He simply created a ruler and then built a story around him.
"He turned Antar from a stone figure into a ruler, from a ruler into a tyrant, and from a tyrant into a god.
"He remained behind the curtain and moved the puppet."
The admission struck the audience like thunder.
Arif turned toward Samson.
"And now, sorcerer, what do you say to the charges?"
Samson stared at him in silence. The hatred in his eyes was unmistakable, but he tried to disguise it beneath a posture of weakness.
"My lord," he began, "I was forced into everything that happened. Circumstances left me no choice. I was trying to preserve order and security. The world was unstable. People were beginning to rebel, and I believed a stronger idea was needed to restrain them.
"So I created the idea of a god greater than the ruler. It gave Antar the power he needed and gave the people a reason to obey.
"I only wanted to prevent chaos."
Arif almost laughed.
"You created a god to prevent chaos?"
Samson hesitated.
"When I found Antar in that cave, he was only a statue. I gave him life. Then I transformed other statues into human beings—men and women. That is how the population of Antartoto grew.
"I wanted to make the empty world alive. I wanted a kingdom instead of a wasteland."
Arif shook his head.
"You did not create life. You animated stones. Your magic did not produce evolution, biology, reproduction, or ecosystems. You confused movement with creation.
"The planet, the cells, the environment, and the processes of life were already there. Nature shaped life over immense spans of time. You turned a statue into a moving creature. That does not make you the creator of life.
"And your motive was never really order. You wanted power. You wanted to stay behind the curtain while Antar stood in front and took the blame, hatred, and fear.
"You built yourself a shield made of flesh and stone."
Samson lowered his head.
"I am willing to help you now," he said. "I can use my magic for your cause. I can serve you and your friends. I can prove that I did not mean harm. I always stand with the stronger side."
Arif smiled.
"That is precisely why I do not need you.
"Your magic belongs to the world of deception, superstition, and trickery. Science does not work that way. Science requires evidence, repeatability, observation, and reason.
"We cannot build a future on spells that disappear when the magician does.
"Magic and science may run in parallel worlds, but they do not meet at the same destination."
Arif then faced the crowd.
"You have heard the evidence. Antar hid behind a curtain. Samson created the machinery. Qandil admits he helped write the religious system and enforce it.
"Now the decision belongs to you."
The answer rose like a wave.
"Long live science! Down with ignorance! Down with superstition! Down with Antar!"
The crowd surged toward the palace.
They brought hammers, axes, and heavy tools. They broke through the doors, smashed the rooms, tore down the symbols of power, and burned the palace to the ground.
Then they turned toward Antar.
He stood frozen, staring at the people who no longer feared him.
They surrounded him and attacked. Under the blows, the illusion finally failed. The living figure collapsed into what he had been before the sorcerer's spell: a massive stone statue.
The crowd stared for a moment.
Then the chanting began again.
"Long live science! Down with ignorance! Down with superstition! Down with the false god!"
They brought the hammers down on the stone until pieces of the statue scattered across the ground.
Abu al-Hikma stood among them, laughing bitterly and repeating the same words:
"Down with the god. Long live science."
The people remembered the years of humiliation, hunger, fear, punishment, and blind obedience. For generations they had lived inside a prison built from faith, threat, and submission.
Now the walls were coming down.
Arif stood beside Hind, their hands tightly clasped. Their faces were bright with relief, hope, and the promise of a different future.
The palace was gone.
In its place, after the ruins were cleared, a great scientific research complex was built. Arif and the young researchers supervised its construction and filled it with laboratories, instruments, books, and equipment.
The planet itself received a new name: Ilmanio—a world devoted to science and reason.
Justice, humanity, honor, and moral conscience became guiding principles alongside scientific knowledge. Science became the engine of progress rather than superstition, and the people began building a civilization based on inquiry instead of fear.
Then, suddenly, a glass laboratory bottle slipped from a table and shattered on the floor.
The sound woke Arif.
He opened his eyes in a modern laboratory, still seated in a chair. He had been asleep after a long night of research.
Beside him stood Hind, now his research colleague. She had been working in the neighboring room while he slept.
"I've been here for nearly two hours," she said. "I came to continue our research and found you asleep in that chair. You looked exhausted, so I left you alone and went next door to review the scientific references."
Arif rubbed his eyes.
"I needed the rest. Apparently my sleep came with a very long dream."
"What were you dreaming about?" Hind asked. "I heard you shouting in your sleep: 'Down with the god! Long live science!'"
Arif smiled.
He took a long breath, as if he had finally set down a burden he had carried for years.
Then he said:
"It reminded me of something Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: every truth passes through three stages. First it is mocked and ridiculed. Then it is opposed fiercely. Finally, it becomes obvious, accepted, and inevitable."
He looked at the research spread across the laboratory table.
Then he and Hind returned to their work.
The dream was over.
The question remained.