Does God Exist? Akhtar–Nadvi Debate Ignites Faith Firestorm
Gaza airstrikes leave buildings destroyed, says UNRWA !
The Javed Akhtar–Mufti Shamail Nadvi debate at Delhi’s Constitution Club turns into a moral referendum on God, Gaza killings and modern conscience
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, December 25, 2025 — The argumentative dual between poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and Islamic scholar Mufti Shamail Nadvi has taken the YouTube by storm. The faith questioning debate has lit a firestorm as YouTubers weigh arguments of the two protagonists in a high-voltage discussion hosted by Lallan Top at the Constitution Club in New Delhi.
Akhtar is a self-declared atheist. Nadvi is an Islamic scholar. The audience during the question-and-answer session probed the defence of Nadvi over the Gaza killings of children. Akhtar asked: “If the god is merciful, then why over 40000 children died brutal deaths in Gaza.” Nadvi said that the “faith has the scope of recompenses.”
The audience seemed unconvinced. Akhtar tested the “omnipotent and omniscient” god’s relevance in “degraded conditions of human beings in most parts of the world.”
“The only place where the people can freely question and live a life of dignity is the geography commanded by the Scandinavian countries and the western Europe,” remarked Akhtar. He added the “churches are empty in the western Europe.”
The debate—Do God Exists—has also unleashed a major outpouring of commentary in the mainstream media. Commentators have weighed the arguments on the face of immediacy and moral compass. Some have even argued that the event was “diversionary” in aims.
While the discourse swung between metaphysical and real-world problem arguments, the Gaza killings hung heavily. The audience suggested that god should have intervened in the unravelling of the geopolitics and stopped Israel from reckless bombing of the Gaza strip.
Ironically, Israel and Gaza are ruled by extreme right-wing dispensations—fighting avowedly against “existential threats.” Each wants a total annihilation of the other. Threat for them is endemic. For the Hamas, the ruler of the Gaza, the existence of Israel is an existential threat. For Israel, the Hamas poses an existential threat.
The geopolitics irony for the faith further compounds, as the Gaza has almost been deserted by the Islamic nations. Neighbouring Egypt refused to open the border to allow the fleeing Gaza residents to take shelter from the bombings of Israel. The twist in the tale is the deepening I2U2 alliance, which has Israel and the United Arab Emirates as two constituents.
Importantly, the war is ravaging the children in Ukraine also. The faith defenders further face the quandary—why an orthodox Christian Russia is killing children and men and women belonging to the same faith in Ukraine.
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