What would it really take to end doubt about Islam

So Islam isn't based in DNA, but it is based in the heart and the mind and exists as ideas and concepts like any set of ideas, it can be subject to misunderstanding, confusion, and doubts. It's the human component of the human container to that idea, which is the fallible part. Here's the thing, whenever we have issues or doubts, we never ask, well, what is the reason why we have doubts in the first place? Why doubts arising, it's sometimes viewed as a spontaneous thing. It just like arises in your life, like you catch a disease or you catch the cold, for example, kind of exposed to the outside world a bit too much. You know, like, you go out, you don't take a jacket, you get cold.

Muslims need certainty. And in order to generate certainty, you need to assess for yourself does Islam explain reality? And is Islam the only possible explanation for reality? No.

God Allah

Rahim, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam bakeri Muhammad Ali taipings axoneme Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

So the organizers said, Abdullah, we have a topic for you, because we know that you have made certain observations about deficiencies in the current Muslim world. So we want to talk about issues that Muslims don't want to face, any gripes you might have? And

well, our next question is, how long would you need to discuss them? And I said, Yes.

Islam isn't a race or ethnicity, it's not an ethnic group. You don't, you can, well, we're all born on the fitrah. But people can leave and people can, there's suddenly a lot of people in humanity, which are not most of them. And there are people who are born into Muslim families, and they leave and they're those who born into non Muslim families, and they embrace Islam. So Islam isn't based in DNA. And it isn't based in ancestry. But it is based in the heart and the mind, and exists as ideas and concepts. Yes, related by revelation to us, but how you possess the Quran and yourself is not that you take a Quran and you somehow implant it in your body or you eat it, you have to read it,

and it stays in your mind and inshallah it enters your heart.

But this means that, like any set of ideas, it can be subject to misunderstanding, also confusion, and doubts, as to its veracity. It's the human component of the human container to that idea, which is the fallible part. And of course, there's no guarantee that the idea is fully transmitted, and again, or fully understood. And if you don't understand the idea, then in reality, you don't actually fully possess it. So the issue is that

Muslims have really paid a lot of attention to the activity of that one, we must go out and give that our Oh, you must focus on your Eman as well. These are all things that you must do. And of course, you could focus on on reading, focus on learning, that's very good. But what are we going to give dower to what? By what sources of knowledge? By what understanding? And of course, where? Or how do we understand Islam? Then you might think to yourself, Well, surely, I just need to believe that God exists. That's sufficient. What you see, why do we have do art in the first place? Why do you have to give Dawa in the first place? Why don't you just take the Quran? Leave it on a chair,

for example, and in Speaker's Corner, and then just let it do its thing?

Yeah, just like the argument against the for wattage, who said that they didn't need to have leaders that implemented Islam. And the rebuttal of Imam Ali right. To the whole adage was, we'll take a Quran, put it on a chair and let it let it roll. Yeah, of course, the Polish like, well, it can't, can't speak. Exactly. You have to speak for it. So why is this related to things that Muslims don't want to talk about? Well, here's the thing.

Whenever we have issues or doubts, and so on and so forth, we never ask, well, what is the reason why we have doubts in the first place? Why doubts arising? It's sometimes viewed as a spontaneous thing. It just like arises in us, like you catch a disease or you catch the cold for example, or others just say, Oh, it's just being it's being kind of exposed to the outside world a bit too much. You know, like, you go out you don't take a jacket, you get cold, my country codes.

Well, it doesn't

We work like that. And it's because surely if you what you have is the truth, then it should be at a protective governmental around you wherever you go.

You're the ones that should be, quote, unquote, infecting people with the truth not being infected by falsehood yourself.

So then what's the issue? Well, the issue is this. For the last at least three to 400 years, the Islamic civilization has gone into intellectual decline, which means that we are playing catch up on all the fields of physics, biology, archaeology, history, graphical research, and so on, so forth. And so whenever we read about any of these new developments, we read it in books, which ostensibly have been researched by usually non Muslims, other civilizations, and they, a lot of the times written by people who have a particular viewpoint or prejudice, a different worldview, and we're constantly having to try to filter out or hope we could filter out the prejudice from the actual

factual observations. And many Muslims can't make that distinction. And so just this week, I was talking about movements, political move, left wing political movements, I was talking about right wing political movements, but many Muslims, were not knowing how to campaign for what Islam says Islamic system, Islamic way of life, Islamic ideas of justice, because they just simply told that Islam says you should be just, and then doesn't give you a definition of what that justice means or how it actually is practically implemented. Muslims will find it elsewhere with people who will say, we'll give you a definition of justice.

It might be freedom of the absolute freedom and sovereignty of the individual for themselves.

But every human being is the owner and master and therefore God of themselves, and therefore, good and bad is defined as simply respecting another person's godhood. And not transgressing against their sovereignty without their consent. That's the That's the measure of good and bad, or that if we were all equal, so everything, every one must be treated absolutely identically. Whereas the Sunday perspective would be your equal in value, but you're not identical. And the male is not like the females. That was the Quran says it's pretty straightforward.

So then, what's the issue?

Well, because Muslims are playing catch up, civilization, really.

What's happening is that there are many speculations by many atheist physicists, they make tons of speculations, and they call it science. The speculation is in the science part, the science is what is seen in experiments. But the speculation is usually brought in and is considered to be part of science, and you don't know the difference. And then many people get, get have doubts. And of course, Muslims themselves after 400 years of intellectual decline, misunderstand how to explain Islam, or even not even How do you know it is true in the first place. And the arguments and ideas are very, very basic, and they're not enough to convince somebody who might be a bit more skeptical

than the average person and a lot people are very skeptical. Just for example, the miracle of the Quran is huge. I've had if I lost count the amount of times the miracle of Christ explained purely as isn't it such an eloquent book, it's really adequate. It's amazingly adequate, is miraculous. And what does the non Muslims say when they hear this while Shakespeare's Marek is Shakespeare is adequate, does that make it miraculous to how would you define what how do you quantify something as miraculous in something that's so subjective?

Or there the Muslims who jump onto the latest they try to read certain science and they think they can interpret what there's miracles involved in it? And they say, for example, how did the first

the first protein form from inanimate matter from you know, like, just the flotsam and jetsam of, of Earth from basic carbon molecules or basic

amino acids? Simple amino acids? How did it for me, this is clearly miraculous. And I'm going to plant my flag and say, This is a miracle miracle, which we know for certain, and I'm gonna base my faith in it, then what if they discover later on that life can form or the first proteins can be built? And they come naturally from basic amino acids, which is what you can find on asteroids? The meaning West is quite ubiquitous. Then people gonna say well, on my I'm having Shabbat I'm having doubts

on something they didn't need to say in the first place. What does it say in the Quran? Asana that,

like the existence of life itself is a direct Marik where I last popped into existence from nothing straight from nothing. Okay, the universe Yes. But once he's built the building materials,

how do you know how he changed things?

Once he made the universe, how things are changing and produced by these changes, that speculation, and so the Muslim arguments for Islam and for theism, many of them are based on speculation. And what I've been doing, and perhaps I take, I have a bit of a reputation, that amongst some people who are involved in Dalada, I shoot down bad Dow arguments, and I say, don't use that. It's gonna be a bad idea. You're just setting yourself up to fail really badly. If in future, your future, they discover something and then they actually is the case. But what would we say we say everything that happens in universities, by Allah's Will,

everything that happens in the university panel as well. Why do you have Why you so desperate to try to speculate the additional things, which is not mandated by the Quran and Sunnah? And is there's no certainty in science anyway, for the most part, so why are you planting a flag and say, I'm going to use this as my basis for my, my faith?

Muslims need certainty.

The Muslim doesn't know for absolute certain that if they sacrifice their wealth, their health, their life, for the sake of the deen, if they don't do not have certainty that there is an afterlife, and they don't have certainty that they're going to be rewarded, then they're not going to be willing to put the maximum effort into those activities that might require that. Because they say, well, they'll take a calculated guess and say, Well, you know, maybe I think they might most likely might be so I'll risk this much, but won't resume all this. Because I don't know if I'll actually just be risking everything for nothing. But absolute certainty. See, people always make

calculations based on risk. If they don't, there's no certainty. So I'll give you an example. So let's say,

let's say you have a friend of yours, and you've trusted his friend, this friend of yours has always told you the truth, and has never ever lied to you.

That you know of. And so someone says to you, okay, I'm gonna make you a bet, right?

Are you willing to bet that your friend has never secretly cheated? You have something that you believe and you will never, you were never aware of it? And I'll bet you $10 And you say, Yeah, sure. I'll take that bet. $10 I'll bet but then $10 And my friend has never cheated on me anything, because I've never known that person to ever lie or what have you. Okay, what if I said $1,000? You said, Okay, now I still take that bet. That's $1,000. I'll just, you know, if I lose $1,000 No problem, because it's so unlikely anyway, but $1,000 is like, more than someone said, Okay, I bet you your entire life, all the money you'll ever make in your entire life. And also, you'll go into

servitude, and your family would go into servitude to that person. If that person has cheated you without you knowing it. Would you take that bet? Say well, he's Yeah, he hasn't cheated me that I know of. So yeah, I'll take you're not gonna take that. But you're like, oh, actually, am I social now? Yeah, because the stakes have been raised. So there's so that that miniscule risk becomes quite big. Yeah. So then, if Muslims don't have certainty, or they have doubts, they're not going to be they're not going to give the deen they're all

right, they're going to have one in their hearts. They're going to have fear of death, perhaps, because it's the unknown.

And they'll think I'm not absolutely certain Now,

if all my activities were worth anything, so Muslims really need to work on certainty. Now, you might say, Well, what do you mean by that? Is that just I have to go home and just keep telling my unreal read books about Hida, which just took give you a list of things to believe and that's, that's generally what books of Akita tend to do. And that's not going to give you certainty. It's just going to give you a list of doctrines to believe in. Yeah. So I need to I need to, you know, work on my Eman. And would that mean that you just go home, turn off all the lights and you just, you just chant like mantras of things that you have to believe until certainty somehow enters your

heart doesn't work like that.

So what is needed?

Well, Muslims need to intellectualize how they understand Islam because Islam is an idea. And it's an idea about reality. It's an explanation of reality.

So in order to combat

fact, kind of vectors of doubt, and in order to generate certainty, you need to assess for yourself. Does Islam explain reality? Every aspect of reality that is that we know of for certain and Islam the only possible explanation for reality and once you come to the when I convert to Islam at 14 at that time,

Islam was like a hypothesis for me. And I fought Islam as the best possible explanation for reality, and I'm obliged I believed in God, it was always a part of my faith to believe in God by for okay, you know, God's existence is pretty certain for me. So God wouldn't begrudge me I follow the best evidence I have to hand. So if I become Muslim, then that's the best hypothesis that's available. But then later on, after more, more, more research Hamdulillah, I came to the conclusion after looking at every, every every single possible permutation and variation you could ever make, to the explanation behind reality, not just all the available ones, but ones that weren't even thought

about that it's like it could only be as Islam explains reality, it could only be as Islam explains reality, I didn't even need to know the linguistic miracle of the Quran. And many rivers will become Muslim not knowing the linguistic miracle of the Quran. And they'll usually tell you that it's not made sense to me. And what they're saying to you is that the explanation of reality that Islam provides, is seems to be the only congruent one or the best one, or the only possible one.

So if we don't aim to replicate that certainty in the Muslim ummah, you're always going to have doubts, and you're always going to have half hearted efforts and unserious actions, that's going to perpetuate not just in the West, Muslims in the West, but most Muslims, certainly in the Muslim world, arguably, most of the Muslim world. They haven't even worse than that. They don't even know what Islam even gives us guidance fully. How was this? How Islam solve economic problems? They don't know what No, Reba, that's about it, no interest. It was a bit more than that.

So what is needed?

How do we resolve these issues?

And here's the word, it's not controversial, but it's just something which is even common sensical. But unfortunately, Muslims are very complacent, and they don't see how important is Muslims think we have the truth? We have the truth. So

all you need to do is just convey it. Game over?

Not really, because how well do you know the truth? And you're going to convey it to people who have understandings about reality, which has been updated in last 400 years due to science types of investigations. Due to investigations of physics, biology, due to investigations in history, we now know more about history than we ever had in the past, from archaeological evidence, and unearthed textual evidence is, the internet means that if someone knows something,

then they can make everyone in the world potentially know that one thing,

including misinformation. And so that just compounds our problem. So what do we have to do? As Muslims, we have to give serious our even say, priority funding and resources to researching and updating how the Islamic worldview and how it understands the world updating with the modern knowledge that we have today. People become Muslim, because they say that Islam explains everything. But if you don't know the latest discoveries, and developments and so on and so forth, then you can't really explain everything for them, you can't show them how the Islamic lens is compact is fully comprehensive. My people say I was taught religion, then I went to university now, my mind

open to a world of science of investigations and left wing movements for justice, which have very detailed descriptions of how justice is and what oppression is. And, and then they just, they subconsciously see that the world is bigger than Islam, or they feel the world is bigger than Islam, and then eventually, they will be nominal Muslims or even non Muslims, because people always follow the widest context. That which explains the bigger picture. You know, people say what's the definition of winning a debate? Winning a debate has been described as the side that explains the widest context that provides the biggest picture. So they come in and they say, I have an argue I

have an argument an explanation that are not only explains the evidence explains your existence, so your your positions, existence, and the whole the whole picture. So as Muslims, for example, we come in and we can explain, for example, we the big Christians, and they don't like this very much, but we can explain the why Christians have their very existence. Why did even Christianity even emerge? What deviation occurred? We can explain where the Christians, how do you from their worldview, they find it hard to explain Islam because, well, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, he's a prophet of God. Alayhis Salam, we love him Is it is Islam the work of the devil very hard to justify why the

devil would call people to loving Jesus, according to their worldview. Right And to quote a biblical argument a house divided against itself will not stand. Right. So if if

Islam is the work of the devil from the Christian perspective, why is it doing anti devil work which is

According to people to believe in the Messiah and accept Jesus as a prophet, Christians find it so hard. It's a very big issue for them in their hearts to explain Islam the way they want explained as the Antichrist or something, but it's just doesn't fit very well, it grates them. But we have a bigger explanation than them. We have a wider context and much wider context. So what is the solution then?

Sometimes you've seen, I've noticed that there are many institutions that set up and they tried to teach courses and they tried to

update people's information. And people ask, Why do I have to pay for this course? It shouldn't knowledge be free. Yeah, or like why? Why do we have to give away like, money to someone to do research? kanji, just do it in your spare time for us to be the law. I see that arguing because Muslims have a low priority to actual to research itself. They think research is unnecessary, because surely Islam is so self evident, that you could just put the Quran on a pedestal, put it in Speaker's Corner, and it will debate everyone and beat everyone in arguments. Yeah, well, doesn't really work like that. Why do think tanks exist? At what? Why does this place exist? Specifically,

and they charge money to teach? Right? And think tanks get funded? What do think tanks do? Can anyone tell me or thinks tanks do volunteer? Sorry?

But not you? You know the answer?

Everyone, anyone else think tanks? They think the same tanks as the RAND Corporation.

Anyone else with the think tanks do?

It's not rocket science? Sorry.

They think that they just sit down to think.

Sorry. They research policy. Yeah, they do research. And politicians read that research because politicians know that despite what they say to the public, they don't know everything. And then if someone who basically makes it their full time job, to go delving into all the available data, and present a report that they recommend it to decision makers, who can then make the right decisions based on the right information. Then you might say but surely, like you know, reading books and songs with conscious people do it in their spare time. Why does it have to be funded? Well, yeah, you're right. People can't do it in their spare time. But here's the problem. Every single day,

my inbox, Jake's inbox, admins inbox, chefs inbox or everyone's impotent, bombarded by Muslims who say, I have doubts. I can't sleep at night. I'm my belief is being shaken.

I met a normal someone said this to me.

I met this person sent this to me, Oh, this this apparently that new news report this new discovery that's now shaking my faith. When they took one case was like they took a dead cell. And they inputted a new nucleus to it and said we made it alive again, or they brought dead to life dead things to life again, isn't is this doesn't this shake my face? Like, excuse me? What? That's not that that's, you know, excited to explain to that person that does that doesn't really shake our faith exactly that at all. But the issue is that people have doubts today. And also Muslims need guidance today, like policymakers need guidance for for policy for campaigning for act for political

actions for economic policies. Muslims need guidance today.

The whole point of think tanks, and recent research projects that the government funds itself is to get it quickly and comprehensively.

So despite the fact there are so many Dow organizations across the world, very good. But there is so little funded research and research is boring, by the way. It's not like snazzy, it's not with like flashing lights, and you know, what have you with conferences and things where you get whether the person who donates will see something immediately the next week or something? No, it takes months to get something correct to check every reference to check every fact to consult with experts.

And people say Oh, but then we have, we have all ama we have scholars who you know they are people of knowledge. And again, the mistake is that because someone has knowledge, they have all knowledge.

They are omniscient, and they have no human here is omniscient or has all knowledge. They might be I get asked questions about fic I'm not a *head I can't I'm not move the accounts. Those questions. I'm just I'm just a data carrier. Right? That's what I do is get data on, but most of them think that any Muslim who's in public realm, speaking about Islam must know everything there is to know about Islam, or about the world generally, when giving downward like they know all the arguments that doesn't exist. Okay, we have that's why many dogs have to specialize. Right

Some only go into Christianity or they go into number different subjects.

Or they only go into atheism, they debate atheists, they only debate

the evolution or topic evolution. Some had to specialize. Right. And amongst those brothers, the ones I know, they're given that they're funded to give it full time or to study it full time, or somewhat approaching full or part time. Right. But currently, the model of Muslim research is, it's not spent full time or part time. It's spare time. And as any one of you has, who has family knows, the more knowledge you get, as you get older, you think, Okay, well, that makes it easier to do that what to do work and what have you know, because as you get older, you have more financial commitments, you have family, your time decreases. So those who can give the most who can do the

most are the youngest. But guess who has the least knowledge?

The youngest, and B, many people complain about these, they say, all this young guy do art. The young guys who die or these young do art, they just give opinions without knowledge, or they just speak and they just speculate and stuff. And that is a problem. And yes, there is indeed a problem. But guess what? Do you know what pressure many of them are under when their inboxes are full, full? Or people ask them questions in the middle of lectures, questions, which are very controversial questions which resonate, doubt amongst the audience, and then a person feels pressure to give some kind of answer less Islam seem like it can't answer the questions. Yeah. And that's all because we

don't find institutions to do full time research to write policy papers explaining how we approach a particular idea or particular argument, or how how can we show Islam is absolutely certain. And unfortunately, the organizations that some organizations that do exist that are fully funded, there, they face issues where people who are giving the funds, say we want to donate to you, but one of these people in on your org, I know a case of one organization, I won't mention names, where one of the members was very openly criticizing secularism and liberalism and so on so forth saying of Islam as a better alternative criticizing feminism. And then the organization faced pressures from people

who were funding it saying, We don't like this person, we don't like what they're saying. It's kind of it's, it's politically not convenient now to talk to talk like that in public, you know, just present Islam as a kind of liberal compliant Islam. You know, that way you won't shake, anyone's will shake any feathers will ruffle any feathers in society. And the guy had to leave that organization because organization, with its funding was being threatened by that brother simply according to a more comprehensive Islam, to comprehensive Islam.

So, I'll round it up by simply saying that, and this is, again, the things that we don't want to talk about, which is, do you know that as Muslims, you know, due to our birth rates, and simply due to and also due to conversions as Muslims, if we can simply preserve the deen in our hearts with certainty, even if we didn't do anything else. And I'm not saying not to do anything else. But even if we didn't, didn't do any other political campaigning or anything, will probably win the world, in terms of persuading the world to be Muslim, and to embrace the truth simply by dint of the fact that if we can just hold on to Akela, and we can proudly defend it, and proudly explain it. Without any

political campaigning, the deen will conquer the world, just as an idea, and people will embrace it. But if you don't pay attention to research, if you don't pay attention to updating Muslim knowledge, and showing how Islam can explain the sum total of human knowledge that we have today, then you're gonna see like the United States of America, they said about 25% As a recent Pew poll, I think it was it's a 25% of Muslims from from a Muslim background, leave Islam have left Islam in United States of America. 25%, one in four. Okay. I've lost count of the amount of people have told me, their sons, their daughters, their brothers, their sisters have left Islam, could you go speak to

them? So I'm only one person. And I only live in London, I can't meet people physically around the world. But there's anyone that has doubts and they live in Hawaii, I'm more than happy to go, if you can, if you find that more than happy to go, just you know for the sake of answering the doubts, of course.

So in essence, as Muslims we need to put priority to, to research. It's boring, but we need it we need to put priority to showing how Islam can explain the sum total of human knowledge, how it's not only the best explanation, but it is the only possible explanation. Put your kid in our hearts and when Muslims understand not only with certainty, but with the full scope of how Islam can give guidance on every aspect of human affairs, including the political and the economic and so on social media.

then you will see the change in the actions by in the Muslim world as the Quran says, Allah does not change a state of the people until they change what is within themselves. It's not your physical organs it's referring to is not further changing physical organs or and it's not talking about changing your your practices although that will come that is a natural consequence of changing what is inside your mind was inside your heart. So on that let's focus on strengthening this deen and putting our resources into preserving what Islam essentially is and defending it and and giving an exposition to Islam is which is ideas that spread through the hearts and minds of mankind and he

showed that by that it will conquer the hearts and minds of mankind.