Every human being contemplates about these major questions at some point in life: “Is there a god? What is the purpose of man and of my existence?” This lecture focuses on these essential questions and their answers from an Islamic perspective.
Abdur Raheem Green – Does God Exist
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss various topics related to worship, religion, and national culture, including the worship of war, faith, and national culture. They stress the importance of following laws and regulations to avoid dangerous behavior and the need for a unique creator. The discussion also touches on the worship of the God of Lust, the worship of the God of Lust, and the worship of the God of Lust. The importance of praying to the Prophet Muhammad and other Muslims to receive the blessings of Islam, as well as the worship of the God of Lust, the worship of the God of Lust, and the worship of the God of Lust. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the impact of global warming on society and the importance of trusting one's faith in technology and technology.
AI: Summary ©
We begin by praising Allah, we praise Him we seek His help and we ask for his forgiveness. And we take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves, and from the evil consequences of our evil actions, who serve Allah guides, there is none to misguide. And whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray, there is no one to guide. And I testify that Indeed, Allah alone is worthy of worship, and that Mohammed, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, is the servant of Allah and His final messenger.
Before we actually answer the question
of today's lecture, is there a god?
So the question, is there a god,
it might be useful
to explore the meaning of some words.
So the first thing that we would like to ask is, what is a god?
Actually, I'd like to ask you that question.
What is a god? I am not asking you?
What is the God?
I'm asking? What is a god?
What makes something a god?
So there you go. So question.
Question needs an answer. I can sit here all night.
So we can try and answer my question. What is if you don't answer me, I'll just pick on people and say you give me something. So either you can volunteer, right? And you can put your hand up Give me the other one sister. Yes.
Okay, I specifically said although Jazakallah for for that and very courageous for, you know, being the first person but I did specifically say, I didn't want to know what is the God?
Yeah, didn't I say that? I want to know what is a God. So for example,
did
did
Ganesh create the universe?
did do Hindus believe that Ganesh created the universe?
Hmm.
No, no, I mean, that he didn't they don't right. Or, you know, Aphrodite? Here the goddess of love. Do they believe that? She created the universe? No. Okay. But she's still a goddess. And he Krishna or whoever or Ganesha is thought of God. So I'm not asking for a definition of the Creator. I'm asking what is a god? Not the God? Yes. system.
Okay, something that you worship or something that is worshipped. Okay, that's a good start. That's a very good start. It's still not enough that we want something else what we want to know. Okay, is why do people worship things then?
It's very important.
Why do people worship things? Why do they worship these gods?
Come on everyone. Good. First brother. Amazing. Yeah, going.
Okay.
So they believe in a higher being than themselves. Right? Some people may imagine that David Beckham is being themselves actually some people might worship David Beckham. But certainly they might believe his superior some things but it's still okay. So, okay, all you've made now is we've gone back a bit and we've answered or we've gone back to
what is a god? It's something that people believe is a higher being but we've moved on a bit because the sister handler Mashallah she said something which quite rightly, it's something that people worship. So now we want to explore why do people worship things? What's worship all about? What is it involve worship?
Good. That's very good. Okay, excellent. People worship these gods because they think that those Gods can give them something. They think that by worshipping these things, they can get something from those gods. So they imagined that by worshipping this thing, or they believe that this God can give them what they want and what they need. So, a god, a god is something that people believe
can give them what they want and what they need.
That's what a God is.
Right? Okay.
Now often in religions, people have different gods for different things. Right? So in some religions, you will find that they have a particular God that if you, you know, if you're fighting a war and you want to win, then you worship the God of War, right? Like Mars, for example, originally was a god of war. Right? Mars is one of the gods of war of the ancient Greeks, okay. And any, by the way, can everyone please turn their mobile phones off, or put them on silent? The brother forgot to mention that.
Yeah.
Or, for example, if you want the rain to fall, they worship the rain God, if they, you know, want to someone to love them, they might worship the god or goddess of love, right? So people often in some religions, they have different gods for different things, they worship this God. And they think that by worshiping it, they're gonna get what they want and get what they need. I used to be a Roman Catholic, in the in, in the Roman Catholic faith, they had different Saints for different things. the patron saint of travel, the patron saint of art,
if you lost something, they used to tell us, if you've lost something, pray to Saint Anthony, and he'll help you find it.
He was the saint of lost things. Okay. So it's the same really, there's no difference from praying to saints or praying to, because at the end of the day, when they pray, whatever you pray to whatever you worship, you think that that thing by worshiping and praying and sacrificing and serving that God, that's how you will get what you want and what you need. And usually there is a set of rituals or set of functions, it may be prayer, it may be sacrifice, it may be giving offerings, you know, and these things can reach extremes, including, for example, human sacrifice, in some religions, you know, humans were sacrificed to these gods, like the Aztecs, for example,
they used to practice human sacrifice. So this is the religion This is the religion, the worship of these gods, is the ritualized behavior, the things that people do in order to get what they want from those gods. Yeah.
Okay.
So this is these are the gods, and this is the religion, this is the worship of those gods, right? Okay. So this is what a God is a God is what people believe is going to give them what they want, and what they need. And so people worship those gods, and they pray to them, sacrifice them, and so on and so forth. So if we think now let's go back and answer our question, is there a god?
Right? Well, no one could deny that there's not only a god, there are actually
probably countless millions of gods. Because whatever people put their faith in, and they're hoping and that trust in whatever people believe, is going to give them what they want, and what they need that say, God, so everybody has a god, of some degree or another because everybody puts their faith. And these gods are not always idols. They're not always saints. They're not always, you know, people or things. Often these gods can also be ideas, they can be concepts.
Because people put their faith and trust in many different things.
Not only idols and saints and prophets, and so on and so forth. No, they also put their faith and trust in ideologies, communism,
you know, science.
Right. So these also can be gods.
Let me give you an example. You see, I myself, I myself, as you've heard, I was brought up in, you know, although you might not know that now, but if you met me 20 years ago, you'd have no doubt from what sort of background I came from. So as the brother mentioned in the introduction, I was sent to a Roman Catholic monastic boarding school, a place called Ampleforth college. Ampleforth college is like the Catholic version of Eton. It is the top Roman Catholic boarding school. My mother had actually, you know, written me down to go there even before I was born, you know, so she had no doubt about where I was going to go Ampleforth college, okay, and it was a monastic boarding school.
So it was run by monks. Now. My mother, my parents, my dad today, my dad's pretty chilled out, but I mean, you know, my dad, his family, have for generations been in the colonial service. So my dad himself was a colonial administer.
In Tanzania, which is where I was born,
my grandfather was a high court judge in Bombay.
And that's as far back as I know, but so we, you know, my, my dad's family have been in the colonial service. And my mum, actually is polish, but she was brought up in Kenya. And she's more English than English people. And she's very, very,
you know, concerned with the etiquettes, and the manners of being very correct.
And so I was brought up very strictly not just as a Catholic, but you know, my mom was not very strict about her Catholicism. I suppose she expected that I would get that from the school. But she was very strict about our manners.
How we should behave, that we should use the right words.
Okay, my dad taught me the etiquettes of how to dress, for example, very specific rules about dress.
And, you know, I can look at someone straight away until today. And I could know how well brought up that person is or badly bought up they are by looking at the way they dressed, by looking at the type of shoes that they were, you know, for example, my dad would teach me You never wear brown shoes with black?
Oh, dear.
You never wear brown shoes that you don't, you know, it's just he said, and you just don't do that is just not done? You know, how do you What's the correct way to wear your tie? What was the correct way to put your handkerchief in your pocket, you never fold your handkerchief in the pocket. Never. That's that, you know, that was a you will they say they used to say it's not you, it's just a meaning it is not a the right way to do things.
These are the type of details. And as for eating, you know that dinner was a you know, sort of major ritual.
And even down to how do you eat your bread roll,
even to how you eat your bread roll, you know, everything had to be correct, you have to take a bit of butter from the butter dish with the knife that was the butter dish in life, and then put it on your side plate. And then return that knife to the butter dish and then take your own personal butter knife. which is you know, that's because it's the small one, right, and then you break your bread roll not in the air.
But on the plate, and you take a piece of butter, that piece of bread roll on the plate, and then lift it to your mouth and eat it.
Woe betide The one who gets a bit of butter, butter, butter, you know, and and so this, you know, the and what is all of this about? It's because they believe that by following these rituals.
And that's what it is that type of rituals. It's a type of In fact, a type of religion, because they believe that by following these rituals, you will be identified as being a member of the upper middle classes. And when people know that you're a member of the upper middle classes are those open for you that would never open otherwise. In other words, they believe that this is the way
and this is the thing that will get you what you want, and what you need. So therefore it becomes a
a type of God.
Right, becomes a type of God, because people put their faith in it, and they trust in it, and they're hoping it.
And they imagine that these are the things that will make them successful in life. And of course, like any god that people worship, if you ask Hindus, or Buddhists or any people who worship idols, they will tell you stories about how they pray to that God and this thing happened and how they offered things to that God and the god drank from the you know, Ganesh drinking milk, do you remember that when Ganesha all around the world started drinking milk? Yeah. Well, those miracles, and you must have heard of the Virgin Mary crying and, you know, and the crucified Jesus dripping with blood, you must have heard about all of these things. Right? So all of these things, you know,
they say, these are the miracles and these show that our gods are real, and it's the same. It's the same with belonging to the upper middle class. People say, Well, our experience tells us that you know, and it's true. In some cases, it's true, that you will get a job
just by virtue of what school you went to. There are certain newspapers in this country. And this is very telling, by the way, if you think about the whole idea of so called the free press and free speech that they talk about, no the people who
Write for newspapers are a very carefully selected bunch of people, by and large, who belong to a particular elite, who have most of them studied in a particular group of schools, and who conform to a particular way of thinking about how the world should be.
So it's very important to understand this. People have gods, everybody has a god, most people have many gods. So the real question we need to be asking today is not Is there a god?
But rather, because the answer to that simply is, there are millions of gods, countless millions of Gods? But actually, the real question is, out of all the things that people worship, and put their faith in and put their trust in? Are any of these things truly worthy of it? In other words, are they really capable of giving people what they want, and what they need? And so what I'm going to do today, is I am going to use the end
to analyze all the different things that people worship. Now you may say, okay, could we have a cup of coffee? Now, this is going to be quite a long time to go through the millions and millions of, of course, I'm not going to go through every individual God, that people worship, or have worshipped? Of course not. But what we can do is we can divide these gods into broad categories, we can categorize them.
And this is what the Quran we can see. And does. The Quran uses certain examples allow you God uses certain examples in the Quran, to identify certain types
of religion, certain types of worship certain types of gods, and then the end shows us why these things are not worthy of worship. And what method does the Quran use?
You know, it's very beautiful.
The Quran really appeals to something
that all human beings have it now not every human being is a philosopher,
who has the capability of being a philosopher. Not every human being is a theologian.
And no, are they all capable of being a theologian, not every human being is capable of becoming a mystic and an ascetic in order to become enlightened with spiritual truths, because most human beings have to just get on with their life in order to survive. Buddhism, for example, if you look at the teachings of Buddha,
and you look at the life of Buddha, Buddha teaches that in order to achieve enlightenment, you have to abandon the world and live in a monastery.
Now, if everybody abandoned the world and lived in a monastery, the people even in the monastery would have no way to live.
So it's not a very inclusive type of religion. Although some Buddhist countries are sort of worked out a rota that everyone spends a couple of years in the monastery, you know, like you have military service, they have a couple of years in the monastery, but it's not really that's not what enlightenment really is supposed to be about.
However,
so what we find is that these are not really practical solutions. If you want to appeal to someone, how can we know the truth and the full set, you can't expect everybody
to be a philosopher or a theologian or mystic or whatever. So we find that the Quran, which is a book for everybody, it's a book for the philosopher, the Theologian, the mystic and the ordinary people.
Because this is a book that we believe that is from the creator of ordinary people, which appeals to ordinary people.
And so we're not really concerned whether these arguments impress the philosophers or the theologians or the mystics
because at the end of the day,
at the end of the day, the Quran appeals to something that is common to humanity and what is common to humanity. Actually, something we call common sense, not logic, because logic is a systemized way of thinking. So we're gonna call it logic. We could call it reason but even reason
is not necessarily what we're talking about what we are talking about something even more fundamental. And that is common sense. and common sense is called common sense because it's common, every single human being
agrees about those things.
There are certain, there are certain things that every human being agrees about. The only people who don't agree with it are people who are either insane. And that's why we call them insane. Yeah, or perhaps, philosophers. I'm not suggesting that philosophers are insane, or some on some people might, but you know, but they don't agree with these things. Because they're just, you know, contentious. They think it's their job to argue about everything. But otherwise,
no, these are things that people, let me give you an example. Let me give you an example.
Isn't it a universal truth that every human being agrees about? That part of something is less than the whole? Yeah, a part of something is less than the whole of that thing. True? Isn't that a universal truth?
So that's an example of a universal type of truth. Let me give you another example of the universal truth. You don't get something coming from nothing.
true or not? Do you get something just spontaneously coming from nothing? Do we have you ever, in the totality of human experience? Heard of something spontaneously appearing out of nothing?
No.
That goes against common sense. I mean, okay, we've all seen a magician pull rabbits out of hats and stuff like that. But we know it's a trick. We know, he's not really doing we go ooh, you know, because he's made us believe for a moment that he's done something impossible, because our common sense. And our common experience tells us that that's not possible. But we do know that you can't get something from nothing, we know it's a trick.
Right?
Okay. So we have these types of things. And we could list other ones, you could argue that something, but you know, other ones that you know, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
And so on and so forth. There are collective things that are that are common experiences of human beings, that wherever we are, as long as we call ourselves, human, we experience these things when we can agree about these things. Yes.
Now, I want to make an important point.
This is very important.
One of the things that human beings actually don't agree about a lot of things to do with ethics and morals.
In fact, one of the things that is extraordinary diverse amongst human beings are things to do with ethics and morality, how we should behave the things that we shouldn't and shouldn't do the type of punishments that we should have.
Okay, so, for one society to say, Oh, this society is backward and primitive or this religion is wrong, because it practices polygamy, whereas the right way to behave is monogamy. Right? Actually, this is not a valid means through which by which to judge anyone or anything, because upon what basis is monogamy right? And polygamy wrong? having one wife only became the normal mode of behavior to tell you the truth in the Northern Hemisphere.
And these were only based upon survival strategies and cold countries, it was just a lot easier to survive as human beings in cold countries, with one wife and a few children.
So the idea of just having a few kids
and having one wife and a few kids was actually something that became established as part of the culture in this part of the world, mostly due to geography and climates, not to do with any moral superiority. And because it's more moral, it's just about that it was easier to survive like that, but due to the conditions in hot countries,
okay, the survival strategies employed there were very, very different. So, it is fallacious to say that we should make judgments about another culture or another religion based upon some aspects.
Their morality. I'm not saying this absolutely. Because actually, there are some things that are very common. Human beings universally, almost always agree that it's wrong to murder, it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to cheat, it's wrong to lie, so on and so forth. I mean, these things are pretty universally agreed upon. But you know, apart from some basic moral structures, actually, human beings have pretty diverse ideas about what should be the norms of a society. And I'm only saying that, because you know, what, what you will find is that most people who criticize Islam, don't criticize Islam on the basis of the fundamentals of what our religion teaches. And the reason simply
is, as I hope, by the end of today, I will show you is that the fundamentals of what Islam teaches are so firmly rooted in reason and common sense that it is really virtually impossible to produce any type of effective argument against it.
So therefore, the only manner or means in which they can try and make some capital out of criticizing Islam is about are some aspects of its morality. But I it's a false way to make a criticism.
Because it's not really a valid means it's not based upon universal principles. So let's go back, let's use our common sense. And let's look at some of the stories and the examples that the Quran uses. And just let's see how very much based upon common sense these things are. So let's take the first category of people, the first category of people are those people who, and these are very few, by the way, historically, even until today, the amount of people who actually say, I believe that is not a god, that there is not a creator, that there is no being that has bought this universe into existence, that it's just a product of random events, or whatever. It's just time that destroys us,
there were people in the time of the prophet who made claims like that.
And there are people today who make claims like that, but historically, amongst humanity, there have been very, very few.
And societies that have actually made such claims have either not existed at all, or have lasted such a short time that they have evaporated in history, like for example, Soviet, the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was a self declared atheist society. In other words, the belief system of the Soviet Union was that there is not a god.
And this is what they attempted to force upon people. And you can see how long that society lasted.
A mere, you know, what,
you know,
80 years, something like that. That's not very long in terms of human history, right? Barely a bleep.
So, similarly, you will find the old cultures. Even though most primitive culture, so called primitive cultures have this concept of a transcendent being that has created the universe and has brought it into existence.
The Abner Aborigines of Australia, the Zulus, you can go and look at different cultures. And you will find the idea of this created this being that is different from the creation that is transcendent. This idea of this transcendent creator is universal in human culture. And the reason is, is because it is so fundamentally rooted in common sense.
It's a common human experience.
And so these things are not difficult to understand. Dr. Ahn, for example, poses a series of rhetorical questions. a rhetorical question is a question that is not supposed to have an answer. When someone asks a rhetorical question, they're not expecting you to answer it.
In fact, the question in itself has an answer, for example, look for answers concerning or to those people who claim that there is not a god, that there is not a creator being who has bought this universe into existence. The Quran asked the rhetorical question, did it come from nothing? This universe? Did the universe come from nothing? That is a rhetorical question
because it's obvious that you can't get something
Coming from nothing, as I've already stated, there is nothing in the totality of human experience that leads us to believe that you get something coming from nothing, or that you get order spontaneously arising out of chaos.
Rather, human experience tells us that where we see things working according to laws, according to patterns, according to a systems, laws and patterns and systems have been imposed upon that thing.
Right.
That's why if you were walking in the desert in Saudi Arabia, right, and you found a mobile phone, what are the essential components of a mobile phone?
The essential components of a mobile phone are plastic. Does anyone know?
What is the base material from which plastic is made?
No, it's not sand. It's petroleum. It's oil. However, there is something else that comes from sand. And that's the silicon chip. silicon is in fact, sent.
silicon chip its base material is sent. So two important things. A mobile phone is made out of sand and oil. But no one picks up a mobile phone in the desert and says, Look, a product of billions of years of chance and coincidence. Yeah, the oil bubbled. Yeah, the wind blew the sunshine. The lightning struck the camel trod Yeah. And after billions and billions of years of these things happening. by an amazing coincidence, this mobile phone formed itself plant oil, and sand. And I pressed it and Oh, Hi, mom.
What a chance and coincidence, let alone that these all these mobile phones talk to each other and you can send a signal and you see how ridiculous is.
So common human experience tells us even something more simple a piece of pottery, a piece of pottery,
which is clay.
When an archaeologist finds a little piece of pottery, he doesn't say oh my gosh, chance and coincidence, he knows someone has made this. Someone has heated it, someone has treated it, someone has painted it. And in fact, this archaeologist could tell you so many things about that civilization from this one piece of pottery.
He could theorize so many things, he could tell you about the state of knowledge that technology, so many things you could understand from one piece of pottery.
That is why the core n
keeps asking us to look at the alternation of the night and the day.
Look at the sun, the moon, the stars, the winds, the ships in which you sail the animals that you ride and you eat.
Look at yourselves, travel through the earth. See how Allah boasts about the creation. In all of these things are Signs for those who are wise and for those who understand, they point us to one very, very obvious conclusion
that this incredibly organized systemized universe and world in which we live with so many intricately
coordinated mechanisms. We find this symbiosis we find how one thing relies and depends upon another and we can think of so many examples, we can think of so many examples. You know, I remember seeing until this day, when I was a little kid, David Attenborough going down a termite mound. Now termites, a little creatures rather like ants, and they build, they build these incredible mounds of mud. So you can imagine in the equator, in Africa, extremely hot, and even in the nighttime, by the way, it gets really cold. Yet an amazing thing. These termites build at the base of this mount a series of rings out of mud, they build a series of rings and also they have vents. And what this
does is it keeps the heat there keeps the temperature of this mount constant, it only fluctuates between a few degrees
and this is also includes the body heat of the termites and the air.
Have a certain place in the termite mound, where they grow a certain fungus, which they live on a farm, a fungus, these are termites. Now, these termites are not intelligent beings, they don't have brains. From where did they get this knowledge and this information to build such a perfectly
amazingly intricately working mechanism. And they cooperate all together in order to do this.
And we find these type of systems existing even between animals and inanimate objects, we look at our Earth. Is it just coincidence that the earth is at an optimal distance from the Sun, if we were in astronomical terms, and I'm not talking about three or four miles, okay. In astronomical terms, by the way, our our galaxy, is 100, the Milky Way the galaxy in which we live is 100,000 light years across, that means, if you lived for 100,000 years, and you travelled non stop at the speed of light, that's how long it would take to cross our galaxy. And our galaxy is one of millions in the known universe, which is, I think, 10 billion light years across. Right?
So can you imagine the type of distances involved in the in the universe, right. So therefore, understand that our earth when I say it's an optimal, I'm not talking about a couple of miles, when something is within a couple of 1000 or 100,000 miles in terms of the size of the universe, that's precise, try and shrink that down in human terms.
Imagine if you put that into terms how precise I don't think we could think of a mechanism in existence built by human beings, that has the precision of the distance of the earth being from the sun.
If we were much closer to the sun, then
the outer planet will be too hot. If it was much further, it will be too cold.
So in terms of the distance from the Sun, the sight and the earth is at an optimal distance for life to exist. The size of the Earth also is important. If the earth was much bigger, the gravitational forces would be too overwhelming. If it was much smaller, there would be not not enough gravity. This is another point. How about the combination of gases on our planet, not only oxygen, vital for the existence of life, but also carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It is this combination of gases, pure oxygen is poisonous.
If you breathe just pure oxygen for long enough, it will poison you. You need a balance of gases.
We need carbon dioxide, plants need carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is important for fertilizing the soil, ozone another guess the ozone layer actually filters out the harmful rays of the sun's radiation. That's why they've been making a big fuss about the depletion of the ozone layer. And the increase in skin cancer in Australia and other places where the ozone layers become depleted. Because the sun's rays are not being blocked anymore, and they're starting to cause cancers. So does life exist without an ozone layer? It would not. It would be radiated out of existence. Look at these optimal conditions, the Earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours. Imagine that Earth was going really,
really, really, really slow.
Right? really slow. So the sun is shining on one part of the earth surface for say 20 years. That's how slowly the Earth is spinning. What would happen? One part of the Earth's surface would be superheated, another part of the Earth's surface would be supercooled.
And I could go on and on we could talk about water, how water has an incredible quality, if water did not have the quality that it did, life would not exist.
So what we find is a super precise mechanism. I invite anyone to find me an example made by human beings have such a precise mechanism. You'll not find it.
How could such if we saw such a precise mechanism
and we found one we would automatically presume that some
super intelligent person or group of people had managed to make this thing.
It is therefore only common sense that when we look around us, when we see these things, that we conclude there must be some intelligence, some power behind this. And this power must be very powerful, very wise, very intelligence. And it's also common sense to realize that this being cannot be like the creation, this being cannot be like the creation, because if this being was like the creation, then that being would not be the Creator, that being would just be another creation, and that would need another creator. And we only end up with the same dilemma. We have creators creating creators forever. And that's actually not possible.
And the reason it's not possible, just to tell you briefly, why it's not possible. And I'll give you an example, I'll give you an analogy. If I said to someone, oh, can you help me lift up this podium? I can't do it by myself. And you say, Sure, I will help you lift up the podium, but I need someone else to help me. And that person says, Well, I'll help you only if you help me. And so if everyone makes the condition that I will only help if someone ever helps.
Will this podium ever be lifted?
will never be lifted, right? So if you have creators, creating creators, creating creators ad infinitum, you never get anything created. Right?
Okay.
So it makes sense that the Creator is infinite, eternal, without beginning without end. The Creator is self sufficient. We will summarize all of this by saying transcendent that the Creator is not like anything in this universe. And that How could you have more than one transcendent being?
And even again, common sense tells us that the precision, the precision that we find, and the unity that we find in the creational process, makes us understand that could only be one mastermind behind this, if there were different creators, in fact, what we would find would be chaos and disunity, not this type of consistent precision throughout our universe.
And this is why really, it makes so much sense to believe it's common sense to believe that there is one God that there is one wise, powerful, intelligent creator, that is unique, who has bought this universe into existence.
This is common sense. This is reason this is why human beings, as I said, everywhere, historically, you will find in every culture, there is this belief in the transcendent creator.
You see, the Quran says that, in fact, the real problem with the human beings is not that they don't believe in God. Most human beings believe in God, and they believe that there is one God meaning they believe that there is one creator. But what they do is they actually give to the creative things, some of the powers or the knowledge that in fact, only rightly belongs to God. So they attribute to the creation.
They imagine that some things in the creation have powers the only God has, or sometimes they also attribute to God, some of the deficiencies and the shortcomings in the creation. And the reason they do this is because they speak about God without knowledge. they invent things, because actually, the truth is that what we can know about God, through reason and common sense is in fact, severely limited.
Now, some people, when they are faced with that limitation, they've come up with different ideas. If you look at the philosophical tradition and the western philosophical tradition, okay. You have a group of people who lived and they were very influential. In the last last 200 years, they were called deists. De ists believed that there was a creator. They believe that it was extremely logical to believe that this universe had a creator, but they did not believe in a personal God. In other words, they didn't believe that God actually really cared about human beings. So is this God created the universe but about us, and the idea that we could have some sort of contact and relationship
With this God, they consider that to be, you know, they didn't believe that. Okay? they dismiss this. But philosophically, they understood the power of this belief in this idea that there was this supreme be other, many other people came to this same type of conclusion. But what they believed is that, no, we could communicate with God, but not directly. God is so different from us that, you know, you can't have any direct communication with God. And then what they obviously did is they began to imagine and this is where they begin to start thinking that God has some of the deficiencies of the creation. And they start to imagine that God is like a creative thing, which
actually contradicts their original premise, they end up contradicting themselves, but for example, idol worship is
most intelligent idol worshipers don't actually claim that the idol itself that they are worshiping, actually has any power.
They believe that somehow these idols represent spirits or powers are beings that can be intermediate trees, or intercessors, between them and God. And they give an example they say, for example,
look, if you want to go and see Tony Blair. Yeah, I'm not saying this is exactly the example they give. But you know, if you want to go and see Tony Blair, you don't just go out and say, Hey, Tony, you know, can I have a chat with you?
It's one of those Muslims. Okay? No, I mean, you know, they will say, No, you have to go through Tony's cronies. Yeah. You have to go through the cronies of Tony, right? If you want to get to him. So you have to go to those people who he knows. Or even you have to go through the cronies of the cronies or the cronies of the colonies of the cronies, depending? Yeah. You know, if you're really like, just a nobody. But of course, if you're rich and middle class, you know, you could probably get some straight away. If you have enough money, he might even come to visit you. Yeah, but few ordinary people. Muslims. Yeah. Especially those veiled women, it could take your veil off, then
maybe we'll talk to you.
Yeah. Okay. No, no, no, you know, you have to go through special channels. And so it's like that with God. You see, you can't just talk straight to God, you have to go through those people who are close to God, you have to go to the priest who will then talk to, you know, this super sort of semi God who will pass on the message bit by bit you have to go through. So the imagine God is like a king or a prime minister or something, you know, surrounded by all these cronies and these sort of demigods and these things you have, that's how you have to get to God. That's how they portray it.
Okay, of course, the problem with this, is that immediately, these people have pursued presumed that God suffers from the limitations and the deficiencies of the human beings.
Right?
Because why does Tony need cronies? Can anyone tell me? Why does Tony need cronies?
Cuz he's a human being. He's afraid of being assassinated. He's afraid of terrorists. He's also afraid he's not also not afraid. He just simply doesn't have enough time to deal with the complaint of every single individual person, right? He has to eat his dinner, he has to spend time with Jerry and his family. Right? He has to go on holiday, usually at the expense of some rich friend of his, you know, nothing wrong with that. Actually, I don't think there's anything well, personally, I think there's nothing wrong with that at all.
How could I my parents who was you know, helping me go on holiday and visit them and stuff like that. But anyway, that side?
You know, so he has to have people see, is this really worth me dealing with? If every single person wanted to personally complain to the Prime Minister about every single little problem that they had? Would he be able to deal with that?
course he wouldn't, because he's human. He has 24 hours in a day. He's limited. You see, but God is not limited like that.
Allah, God, the Creator, who has created this whole universe, can hear the complaints of every single human being and
Not only that an incredible thing, if every single human being complained to God, all at the same time, God could hear every voice of every human being, and God could give every one of them what they wanted. And that would be easy for God.
Right? Now, how about the human beings? If you will start talking to me at the same time? Could I understand what you're going on about? Could I
could I know I can't. And the reason I can't is because I'm human.
Let's think about what that means. In respect to those people who pray to saints and prophets. There are even some Muslims who do this.
And now we can see how people start to make others equal with Allah.
So now let's say that I am praying to St. Anthony or some Muslim is praying to Abdulkadir, Jelani, or prophet Mohammed, or Prophet Jesus. Okay, or whatever. Right? salallahu alayhi wasallam alayhis salam?
Are you telling me that's not just me, by the way? Oh, let's just say that 1 million Muslims all at the same time, are asking and calling upon the Prophet Mohammed, or 1 million Catholics all at the same time are calling upon St. Anthony. Are you telling me that St. Anthony can hear 1 million voices all at the same time?
If you're telling me that he can, then actually you are not describing a human being anymore. You are saying that he has powers that are actually divine powers. You are now beginning to make that person equal with Allah with God.
Whether it's the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or Prophet Isa, or St. Anthony or Abdullah causa Jelani, if you first of all put aside the argument of whether the dead can even hear the living.
Okay, let's put that aside.
Although I believe that the dead cannot hear the living, that's why it's called bazik. calling upon a dead person is like calling upon a brick.
But let's put that aside, let's say they can hear you saying they can hear these multiple voices all at the same time.
You're not really saying the human anymore.
And they could deal with all these prayers and all of these applications.
That's a divine attribute. And this is how people either they imagined that God, Allah is limited.
See, they've they've given to Allah limitations, and they've given to human beings exaggerations. This is how people start to make and worship things and they put and listen, if I pray to Saint Anthony, don't I hope that he's going to hear me. Don't I trust that he's going to answer my prayers. I don't I don't I put them faith and hope and trust. And I believe that he's going to give me what I want and what I need. Or if I pray to Prophet Mohammed, or Jesus or whoever it may be.
Isn't that therefore doesn't it therefore become a god an object of worship?
It does. Of course it does.
And occur and deals with this. Actually, there's something more foolish about idolatry. And the basic reason why it's foolish is because of simple common sense any human being who spent some time thinking about it would realize, this is foolishness and again, the appeals to common sense. A beautiful story is the story of Abraham.
See Prophet Abraham. He is well known for smashing idols.
Bit of a radical Can you imagine that these days?
Prophet Abraham
tried so hard to convince his people. You see from a young age he was brought up his father's house, he was watching his father used to make idols so he used to see his dad, get a piece of wood. Chop up the piece of wood and make an idol. Use the you know, the chippings to heat the fire to cook their food. Yeah. And then this idol which he made, he would see his dad give it to the people and the people would pray to it. And he realized this is the same thing we were cooking our dinner with.
Right And now the people are worshiping it. He's bought up realizing the What is this? And then he noticed the people that worshipping the sun, the moon and the stars, but he's looking, he's seeing all the stars are there and then the moon comes out and out shines the stars and then the sun comes
And the outside is everything, and then the sunsets and why are we worshipping things that obviously, are controlled by something else, it doesn't make any sense to worship them. They don't have the power. They're under the power of something else. And he realizes that these things are not true gods, they shouldn't be worshipped. Why should we worship these things that come and go and temporary, because if they can go, that means they can let us down. The time we really need them is when they're not there.
So why should I worship that? Why should I put my faith in that? Why should I put my trust in that? So one day, he's determined, he says to his people, I'm going to show you I'm going to prove to you that your worship of the idols is false.
So when his people have gone, you know, it's their festivity. And it's their religious festival, he doesn't want to participate in it, because he doesn't want to be involved in the idol worship at all. So he says to them, I'm sick.
He says, I'm sick, meaning Actually, he was sick of what they're doing. So when they were doing this, he went into the temple, and he smashed all the idols, except the chief idle, he took his axe and he hung it around the neck of the chief idle. Now, when the people came back, they were outraged. Who has committed this blasphemy who has done this to our gods? And they, some people said was, you remember that young man, Abraham, he was saying that he was going to prove our idols are false. So the king, he brings Abraham in front of the people, he says, Abraham, did you do this to our gods? So Abraham says, Ask the big one,
I asked him.
So then they look at each other and they say to Abraham, you know, Abraham, you know, that our gods can't talk to us? He says, Why do you worship something
that can bring you no benefit? And no harm? At this? This idol can't even protect itself? How is it going to protect you? Isn't that common sense? Isn't that just common sense? Isn't it our common everyday experience? You who are students here in Buckinghamshire and children university? Yeah. When when you want to study in a university? Not these days, you need loans, right? You need money, because you have to pay for some of it. Right? Okay, where did you go to get the money? Did you go to the guy begging on the street sitting outside the railway station? Excuse me? May I need to go to university? Can I borrow a couple of 1000 quid?
Did you do that? And it did anyone do that? I don't think so. Because if this guy can't help himself, how is he going to help you? When Kuwait was invaded by Iraq? Who did they appeal to for help?
Bangladesh,
Bangladesh with one helicopter. I have nothing against Bangladesh. But you know, if you want military aid, Bangladesh had one at the time I remember reading they had one helicopter. Right? They couldn't cope with the floods in their own country? How would they possibly be able to supply military aid to Kuwait?
And nothing against Bangladesh? Nothing? Is the guide begging in the street. It's just common sense. You don't ask someone who can't help themselves. Right? Common Sense. That's all it is common sense. So if the idol cannot do anything for itself, how is it going to be able to do something for you? I mean, isn't extraordinary. You go to the shop. Excuse me, I'd like that idol over there.
Okay, he brings the idol down. This idol Can't you might think it might fly down itself, right? No, he, he brings it down. And he pays money for the idol. And she pays money to get the idol. And then he carries it home not the idol doesn't carry him. So that's it now I'm your God your carry, you know, he carries the idol. How many puts it up on the shelf, you know? And if it fell down again, you have to put it up again. Right? And then he says, oh, such and such help me.
Give me this Give me that.
Does that make any sense?
Same thing, Muslims do it. A person dies, they wash him, he can't wash himself. They shroud him he can't shroud himself. They carry him to the grave and they bury him in the grave. And they say oh such and such do this and that for us.
Extraordinary.
Does this make any sense? And online is just appealing to common sense. So this is one broad category. These are false gods. These are things that we should not wish it. They cannot give you what you need and what you want. They can't even help them.
Here is the argument, whatever things you could say, oh, sometimes my prayers were answered. It's just coincidence.
And there are many reasons to explain, okay, why they amazing things can happen to these idols, but nothing could go against this common sense.
Okay, let's look at another category. The other category is the category of the man God. There are many religions throughout history who have believed that some human being is actually God.
Now, the example occur and uses is the example of Christianity.
There are Christians who claim that Jesus is Allah,
that he is not just the son of Allah, but He is Allah. He is one and part and the same as God. And the core an appeals to such beautiful common sensical things the Quran says, didn't Jesus and his mother,
because some people also worship Mary, and there was some Christians who used to believe also Mary, was God even Catholic say that Mary is the mother of God, the mother of God. God had a mommy.
So God, Mama Mama, right?
Changing God's nappy, yeah.
Cleaning God's bum, when he's done a poo? This is what what's that Mother of God?
feeding God?
What is this?
To say that some human being is equal with God?
Didn't he walk on the earth and breathe air and eat food and they went to the marketplace, you know, they needed to buy things, they went to the marketplace? See how our makes things clear.
See how people are diluted away from the truth?
What is this? Allah asks us in the end, if God wanted to destroy Jesus, and Mary, and everything in the whole earth who could stop it? Of course, no one. That means that Allah has power over Jesus and Mary.
If God has power over them, and they are under the authority of God, they can't be the same as God. They can't be. What does that mean anyway? To say that something is man and God at the same time, it's an impossibility. To say that something by definition God is infinite, self sufficient, and eternal. Human beings, by definition, are temporary, mortal, and needy. How can something be eternal and temporary? both at the same time? How can something be self sufficient and needy, both at the same time? How can something be eternal and finite, both at the same time?
It's an it's not a paradox. a paradox means something that seems impossible, but it's not. No, it is an impossibility by definition.
Now, there are things that Christians say God can do anything.
Well, I mean, this raises a whole load of crest questions.
God can do anything I will say, Well, do you believe God can do something evil? Either they will say, No, God can't do something evil? Or they'll say, Well, he can if he wanted to, but he would never do something evil.
I say why not? They say because God is good. God only does good things. I say exactly. It is the nature of God. The nature of God is that God is good. And a good God does not do evil things. It is also the nature of God that God is eternal. So an eternal God doesn't become temporary. It's the nature of God that He is self sufficient free of any wants or needs. So God does not become needy.
Because that contradicts the nature of God.
It's that simple.
Doesn't that make sense? Isn't that just common sense?
Now, you know, the whole idea that God becomes a man. Okay. You see, the problem is this. If you have a piece of string, yeah. And the piece of string is in the shape of a square. Yeah. Let's say the square represents the the the attributes of God.
Right? I'm not saying that God is like, I'm just saying it represents so the square we replace
Infinite, eternal, self sufficient.
And we just, instead of all of those words, we just have a square. Yeah. And the circle represents the qualities of a human being needy, temporary, finite, mortal. You know, we're born we die, we forget, we need to eat, we need to breathe. So these are out. And let's say all of these, we forget those words, we just use it as a circle. Now, just theoretically, what we could do perhaps, is we could get the piece of string and change the shape of the piece of string from a square to a circle. So perhaps you could make the square into a circle. And you could make the circle into a square. But what you can't do is make the square into a circle, and it's still a square at the same time. Right?
Something can't be blue and red and still be blue. It can't You can't make blue, red, and it's still blue.
The circle can't be made a square and still be a circle. But that's what they're trying to say. God became a man, but we still got
doesn't make any sense. It's an impossibility. And wait a minute, these Christians are telling everybody in the world that you're going to go to * forever. If you don't believe something impossible.
If God is telling us according to their religion, if we don't believe something absolutely impossible, you'll go to * forever. So I have to believe something impossible without any proof, because by definition, you can never prove an impossibility. How can you prove something impossible? You can't.
So as to believe something impossible without proof is simple.
I tell you something, this is what I always say to every Christian. I say you're telling me during the day of judgment, I stand in front of God. And God says to me, why didn't you believe that I became a man, I will say, How can I believe that you Allah, the eternal, self sufficient Creator of the heavens and the earth? was a temporary, mortal, needy man, how could I believe such a thing you are far above that? If God then puts me in * forever, I will never feel for one moment of eternity, that God has treated me fairly or justly.
But if a Christian is asked by God, how did you could you say that I was equal, that this human being was me. This human being that ate my food, this human being that breathed my air, this human that depended upon me for my entire for his entire existence, you're saying that this human being was equal to me? If that person goes to * forever, they will know that they deserve to be there.
They will know it.
That's justice.
That is justice. There's one other thing I want us to think about.
And I like to give this as an example. Right?
modern science has made us appreciate something really remarkable. And that remarkable thing is exactly how minute we are actually 1400 years ago, the Prophet Muhammad
okay was also in reflection of the words of the Quran, reminding us of our humble origins core and reminds us that you came from a sperm drop a despised fluid, and reminds us of our bass origins. The Prophet Mohammed even mentioned that the universe compared to the courtesy
was coo coo coo summer words, he will allow us to see his pedestal extends over the heavens on the earth, how the Prophet Mohammed said, The universe is like a ring in the desert compared to the courtesy a ring in the desert. Think about that. Think about a ring in the desert, how big is the desert and how small is the ring
and the courtesy compared to the Amish. And the ultra means the throne of God is also like a ring in the desert.
Our universe is like a speck
like a speck. Now
we are on Earth, which is a speck in a gas solar system, which is a speck on the outer spiral of our galaxy, which itself is a speck in the universe which is a speck before the courtesy which is a speck before the ash.
Now if I said to anyone, boy speck,
even if I said it nicely, oh beloved spec.
Oh noble spec. Oh, good spec.
If I call you a spec, it doesn't matter how many nice things I caught with it. Cool.
per person, a spec is not a nice thing. But you know what?
We are specs. I wouldn't be lying if I called you a spec and you wouldn't be lying if you called me a spec. But still, we don't like it.
How about then if we said that God
is like a spec?
Who's whose cracy extends over the heavens and earth,
which is like a ring before His throne. So how about God? You say that God is like a speck.
In fact, you said God became a speck on a speck in a speck in a speck. That's equal with God.
That is insulting God.
Common Sense.
That is common sense.
Now, some people say no, we don't believe that Jesus God, we believe he's the son of God. But that's not any better.
That's not any better. Saying that God has a son is not much better. That's still insulting God. That's still saying that the child of God, the Son of God, is what some insignificant creature, some speck on earth. And I don't mean here to belittle Jesus alayhis salam.
Okay, of course, with Allah, He is an honored slave. But that's what we are. We are creatures of God, we are the creation of God. We are the slaves of God. The only difference is, what sort of person are you? Do you believe in God? Do you insult God? Or do you honor God? Do you obey God? Are you disobey God? That is the only difference between the human beings, not your caste? Not your color. Not whether you're middle class, upper class, lower class. Okay, none of those things matter to Allah a tune? What matters is, are you faithful? Do you honor God? Do you praise God? Do you obey God? That's it. If you do that, God loves you. If you don't, he doesn't. It's that simple. It's that
simple.
So you're either one or the other.
All the other things are artificial, and have no concern to God.
So this is what is important.
So we're all creatures of God, but what does it mean Son of God? Think about that.
I mean, I remember there was a Anglican priests, who came to the same conclusion, he was saying, What on earth? Is this supposed to mean Son of God?
He thought about it himself. And he realized that What is that supposed to mean? You see, when we use the term son, what do you mean by that? My son, right? So first meaning is the literal meaning, but gotten Sung, the word forgotten means born of the act of sexual *, always saying that God had * with a woman and had sons.
Allah does not God does not have sons and daughters. God does not have intimate relations with an and this is why the Quran asks if God had a son, who is God's wife, because presumably, God would not make fornication and adultery, illegal for us and then practice it himself.
There's God, but of course, the even the concept of God having * is absurd. So obviously, God did not have a literal Son, God did not have the get a son.
Right? Because my son is human like me. By the way, if you have any doubts, you can study, early Christian theology. Some early Christians, one of the evidences they actually bought to claim that Jesus was God is exactly this argument. They said, My son is human like me. Therefore God's son must be divine like God. That's exactly the argument they bought.
Meaning they actually had this idea that God must have literally forgotten literally forgotten a song.
With which is ascribing a calamity.
Allah refutes this time and time and time. In fact, one of the reasons that the Quran has been revealed
is to refute those people who say that Allah has a son, this is actually mentioned.
Allah mentions this in certain calf. Though one of the reasons why Allah has revealed
is to refute those people and by the way, this is not
thing that many pagans had this idea. Many pagans had this idea Zeus, for example, Zeus had mistresses and wives and some gods and, you know, so for example, Hercules was the son of Zeus. So they had this idea that their sons would marry and, you know, have mistresses from amongst women of the earth, and these half Gods would be born, and so on and so forth. This was their idea. So pagan idea. It's not a monotheistic idea.
Which by the way indicates that really Christianity is so much of it taken from paganism.
Anyway, I don't want to get I could go quite far into talking about that. But it's another topic. So the Son of God, okay, so we say, most Christians, you actually sit down on a we don't believe that God, of course, we don't believe God is, you know, that Jesus literally is the actual but you know, literally forgotten Son of God. So we say, Well, what do you mean? Do you mean God adopted Jesus as a son? Again, it doesn't make any sense. Let me give you an example. Right? If I bought with me today,
a goldfish? Yeah, I have a little thing. I bring with me a goldfish. And I say, everybody, this is Jonah. My son.
So please, it's a goldfish. Well, this is my son.
He is with me at the table, the that he has a bedroom in the house. And according to the new adoption laws that they've just passed in England, very liberal, he, the papers are coming through next week, he's my son.
Now, you would say Look, that's a fish. You're a human being, you can't have a fish as your son, because the fish is not like you.
But let me ask another question, then. How is a human being like God,
the human beings who aspects on Earth, it is a speck. In fact, isn't it true that I am actually more like a fish than I'm like God? Isn't it true that any human being has more similarity to a fish than they have to God?
You see, the fish is born and the fish dies. Human beings are born and human beings die, the fish need to eat and they need to get rid of what they eat. Human beings need to eat and they get rid of what they eat. Right? The limit, the vision of the fish is limited. My vision is limited. The fish can only remember so much I can only remember so much.
My knowledge is limited. My powers are limited. My ability is limited. This is what I share in common with the fish whereas God, His seeing is without limits. His knowledge is perfect. God is never born and God never ties. God is eternal. How am I like God? And what way am I like God?
Even a fish, maybe not a fish, but certainly an animal can even show compassion to its child. I don't know. I saw the most remarkable program. Nature program. I can't even remember where I saw it. And I was absolutely transfixed. It was about the will the crossing in the Serengeti, you have two parts you have Masai Mara, and you have this the plains where all the animals are in Kenya and Tanzania. And there's this famous place where the will the beast and all that not just the Wallabies, all the animals, the zebras, the wildebeest, they cross the river and the crocodiles get them You must have seen that amazing thing. There was one and they were following this one baby will
the beast was crossing with its mother. And we know how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that you know that Allah has divided his mercy into 100 parts. One part he put on this earth now the one part of Allah's mercy is even sold the the love that the the mother has for the child, right.
And I saw in this thing how this baby will the beast couldn't climb up to the other side. He couldn't this baby wildebeest could not reach to the other side of the river. And in fact, climbing kind of fell down and it ended up being washed down the street. Somehow the crocodile didn't eat it, and it ended up going right back to the other side. The mother had made it Do you know what this mother did? You know, the mother will Denise did. She went back across the river. She went back across the river facing the hippopotamuses right which were attacking them the crocodiles which were eating them, did she care? No, she went right back across to go off to her little baby.
That is the compassion in an animal in a creature so even animals can have compassion
doesn't make them divine.
So what do we mean Son of God? What is this mean?
Again, no, we are creatures of God, we are the creatures of God. We are the servants of God.
These all of this is to show us look at the things that people worship, look at the things they put their faith in their shot. These are the false gods, none of these things are truly worthy of us worshiping them. Now,
I've got two more things that I want to mention. Only two more things that I won't dwell on them for long.
But two more categories. The next category I want to deal with is
race,
tribalism. This is a full squad as well.
And the people that are used in the Qur'an as an example, are not the only people who have this quality, but the ones that who are used an example for this are the Jews.
Because amongst them are many who think that they are better purely because of being a Jew.
It's racism. They think they are God's chosen favorite people purely by virtue of their ancestry.
And God refused this utterly and completely in the Quran.
And he has been completely and utterly refuted by the prophet Mohammed, no human being is better than another human being based upon who they are descended from. And of course, the Jews are not the only people who suffer this delusion. And of course, I mean to say, by the way, not all the Jews because a true pious Jew would never believe such a thing.
But in fact, the Prophet Muhammad said that you Muslims, the ones that you Muslims, you resemble mostly, you have the closest resemblance to are the children of Israel.
You are most like them. And you find Unfortunately, many Muslims have the same idea. I'm better because my ancestors were Muslim. Not because of me, and what sort of Muslim I am and how I follow my religion. No Midas. What do you know, you're a new Muslim? I mean, this is what I've seen it myself firsthand. 20 years I've been a Muslim, and I experienced a lot of it from the Muslim community. What do you know, you're a new Muslim, my ancestors were Muslims, my great, great, whatever. As if so what what's that got to do with anything? So however, Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, the first time he publicly called people to Islam, he called the
different tribes, these tribes who he was related to, he called his own tribe, even his own daughter, his own daughter, Fatima, he said, I cannot help you at all against Allah.
Meaning you being my daughter, will not help you one single little bit against Allah.
When you meet Allah, the fact that you're my daughter is not going to help you.
If that's Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, how about everybody else? sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but this is a delusion. Many people suffer this delusion racism. We are better because we're British. Get rid of the Packers get rid of the niggas get them out. Yeah, Britain will be great again. You've heard all of that, haven't you? I've got I can just imagine them cutting them cutting and pasting that one. Yeah.
racist, Muslim, BMP Muslim, you know?
You heard that as if what? being white makes you better?
Why?
What is better about being white, or being brown or being anything? Why would a color of your skin have anything to do with making you a better person? But there are many people who suffer this delusion. And it is a type of idolatry. It's a type of shirt. It's a type of false god, because that's what they think. You see, these BMP Nazi people imagine, right? That when we get rid of such and such undesirable people, everyone who's not white, who's not British, when we get rid of them, we will be great and we will be successful. So they imagine that being British is the way that you get what you want and get what you need. It's a good becomes a religion.
Think about that. When they call us to Britishness
and most of what they say is perfectly acceptable. hamdulillah you know, tolerance and
You know,
decency, and you know, fair play. And those are the things that you know, the good qualities we think and queuing, you know, being polite. Oh, seriously, those are good qualities.
You know, there's a few other qualities, though, however, we could say I'm not such good qualities. And that is the ones that Muslims tend to have problems with, you know, emerging at two o'clock in the morning from pubs and nightclubs, and puking up and fighting, and, you know, and a whole bunch of other things that really are not really desirable. Even from the point of view of being a policeman, those things are not very desirable.
And that's quite widespread. Unfortunately, even in Europe, British people have got the reputation of being yobs. And it's not me. It's not what I said. It's what they said in the British newspapers even.
So the point being that your race has got nothing to do with it. Okay, it's not only of course, the Ben Israel or the Jews who have that attitude, lots of people have it.
Okay, and it's a full squad. Now, the final thing is the biggest false god of all,
the longest running the biggest one, the most worshipped one. And that is the God of materialism.
The idea that science, power, wealth, technology, these are the things that are going to make you successful in life.
I wonder I didn't bring it with me. Did anyone see
the newspaper today? The London paper or whatever it is, or you don't have High Wycombe, of course. But right before you read about it tomorrow, I'm sure. Robbie Williams.
Yeah, how much is that money is that guy earn 30 million a year or a day. And he is on anti depressants. He's just gone into a clinic. And we are being told every day, we need to be wealthier as this country, we need to be richer. Money, money, work harder, make more money.
What it did for him is 30 million a year.
Does wealth equal happiness? Put that on a broad scale? Because we have been told, you know, we can all live the American dream? No, we can't. If every human being on this planet, live the way an American the average American, the average American, if every human being lived the way an average american lived, we would need something like three and a half planets in order to be able to provide all the resources for that.
That's the footprint of your average american, they say you He is consuming that you would need three and a half planets for every human being to live the way you live, you'd need three and a half planets.
You can't all live the American dream. The claim that we can all enjoy our lives. materialistically is a lie. And the and the claim that it is the weight of success is a falsehood. The idea that science will produce the solutions Tony Blair right here we're confronted with global warming, the biggest catastrophe, the chief scientist in this country said forget terrorism. The worst disaster that is going to hit the world is global warming. It's going to make terrorism look like nothing.
I don't notice any war on global warming, a few little cries here. All we need to reduce a few carbon emissions, but not on my holiday. Yeah. Right.
Yes. But we're ready to send soldiers to die in Iraq to fight terrorism, which isn't even there anyway, in the first place.
You know, doesn't that make you think just a little bit?
The really dangerous things in the world?
Okay, global warming. Chief Scientist. That's what he's saying.
But how much effort Are we ready to expand upon that? We're ready to spend a lot of effort fighting a few. Let's be honest, a few crazed individuals, because that's really what they are. I'm not saying I haven't got reasons to be mad, but they're not good enough reasons to go around blowing up women and children. So they are crazed. Sorry, but that's the fact.
Yeah, all of this effort, all of these laws being passed, so many laws restricting our freedoms, indefinite detention,
because you might be suspected somehow of encouraging somebody in some particular way.
You know, and so on and so forth. stripping away our freedoms in the name of protecting our freedoms.
Okay.
You know, we should think about this. What's it all really about?
But you know what the truth is?
Science is not going to find the answer. And if you think we're the first people who fought that we're not believe me, every civilization you can look, the Romans, the Greeks, the Babylonians,
the Byzantines, the Chaldeans, you've ever heard of the Chaldeans, by the way? Anyone heard of?
Does anyone speak Chaldean today? Do you know Chaldean used to be spoken virtually across the world? Did you know that? English is today? They used to have schools across the world. So people could learn childcare. This was in ancient times. This is how influential the Chaldeans were. And now you haven't even heard of them.
You haven't even heard of them.
You know, one day, you know what I suggest you don't have to go far. Go up, drive up to the north of England and go and stand on Hadrian's Wall. Still there little bits of it. Hadrian's Wall. I used to do that quite often. And then I would stay on Hadrian's Wall. I wouldn't look North up to Scotland, I'd look south. And I think you know what, once upon a time,
a Roman legionnaire stood right here. And he probably thought to himself, as far as I can travel, and as far as I can go is Rome.
The Empire of Rome, was left of the empire of Rome. What's left of Greece, of Babylon, of ancient Egypt.
Allah says in the Quran, travel the earth, and see what happened to those people. See what happened to those civilizations? And believe me, you study they thought they had all the answers. They thought their technology, their science, their industry, they thought that they were masters of everything. But what is left?
That is the pipe dream of materialism.
It is the pipe dream. The full Scott, the biggest, full scalable. The idea that in money and wealth and science and technology
is the true answer to all of our problems. In it, we put our faith in our trust, see on the dollar bill In God We Trust should be in this dollar bill and trust. This is the God
will be the Prophet said to the worshipper of the dinar and the Durham because you can worship money, just like anything else.
That's really the end of my talk. Except for one final and very important thing that I want you to think about.
And this is the conclusion.
Okay. The final thing
is when we talk about knowledge when we talk about knowing something.
Okay, most of us think and imagine it means the thinking process. But let me give you an example. Imagine this is very hot, red hot. Yeah. If I pick it, what do I do? Do? Do I have to think about dropping that thing? Do I think about it? Or do I just what is it called when I just go like that? What do we call it? It's
instincts. It's an instinct, an instinctive reaction.
But isn't that a type of knowledge? Also?
Imagine if we didn't have those instinctive reactions. Imagine if you have to actually think Wait a minute. This is hot. Oh, you know, the by the time we actually thought about it, there's a reason why it happens instinctively. And it's a type of knowledge,
an essential type of knowledge for our survival.
Scientists would say we have evolved it. But you know, there's another very interesting type of instinctive knowledge. And you only find the people who really talk about it or Muslims is the same. Like when you pick up something very hot, when human beings are in a condition of extreme distress. I don't mean like a little bit warm but extreme distress. And the Qur'an gives the example of a boat that is on the sea. And imagine the waves are crashing over this boat like the roof of a tent. This is how the waves are this storm. And the people know that they are about to be doomed. So now what you know the captain is not going to save them. The captain has been washed overboard. The
technology is not going to save them the boat itself is breaking up. Do people think that money is going to help them now?
The British passport is that going to help them that cost the color of their skin
tried that from
all those gods, all those things that they put their faith and they put their hope and they put their trust in, they forget them and what do they do? They start calling upon that one being that they know instinctively they know it is knowledge from inside themselves, that there is one being this being is not anything in this universe, no, this being has power over everything in the universe.
It's not the name here that is important, but the one they are calling to is truly Allah is truly the Creator, the one who has power over all things. And then Allah asks them, and you know that that's true. Every human being they know in their heart, that that is true, then why
in that moment, when you have complete faith in Allah.
Why then, do you put your faith and your trust in your hope in other than Allah? Why do you worship other than your Lord?
Because ultimately, all those things, they are false, because at that moment, the one that you rely upon and hoping completely and utterly is Allah, the creator alone. This is the beautiful, simple message of Islam. This is the beautiful, simple message of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam of Jesus, the true message of Jesus alayhis salam
of Moosa, the true message of Moses alayhis salaam
of Abraham
and his Salaam, this is the true message of all the prophets, that we should abandon the worship the full skirts, and in fact we should worship the one true God, which is Allah subhana wa Taala brothers and sisters Jazakallah heard the talk went on really quite long. In sha Allah is awful affair for listening. I hope we all benefited from it as salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh may God's peace and blessings be upon you all and May Allah guide all of us closer to the truth.