Abdur Raheem Green – Islam The True Religion Of God
Date:
Channel: Abdurraheem Green
File Size: 49.30MB
Episode Notes
Every religion claim that it is the true one, are you willing to evaluate Islam and its evidences?
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of meter and water meters in measuring usage and the complexity of life and the potential for failure if the universe is too thin or hot. They stress the importance of knowing the true religion of Islam and avoiding giving up on one's own assumptions. They also highlight the significance of evaluating the logic of Islam's actions and regulations, rather than trying to guess, and stress the need for people to be aware of the teachings of Islam and not give up on their own assumptions. They also discuss the return of Jesus as the controller of the Sharia, which is part of the church's Christian faith, and explain that Christian Christians are not Je seller's Witnesses, but Je seller's controller of the earth.AI Generated Transcript ©
Salam Alaikum Abdullah
Al Hamdulillah Nakamoto in a scene on a sofa. below him in Cerulean fusina women say it Anna Maria de la who Phil mo de la la
la la
la ilaha illallah wa ala Sheree Kala well Chateau Mohammedan, Abu rasuluh that 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 consequence of our evil actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide. And whosoever Allah leaves to go astray, no one can guide Am I testify that Allah alone is worthy of worship, and that Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the last and final messenger? I've been asked to today talk about is Islam the true religion?
And so what I want to talk about is, how can we know? Can we, in fact, know that Islam is the true religion? And before we can even talk, therefore, about the subject of how can we know Islam as the true religion?
It might be worth spending a bit of time discussing the issue of how can we know something?
How can you know something?
That's a good question, right?
How do you know that you? How do we know that what's happening today is real?
How do you know that we're not all plugged into a computer like in the matrix?
And this is all an illusion, that someone's gonna come and do some amazing Kung Fu.
No, but seriously, how? How do you? How do we actually know?
How do I know this is not a dream?
Well, you know,
you don't, you can never be absolutely sure. But there are some reasons. And there are a lot of good reasons why. You might think that that's not the case. Apart from anything else, what I want to dwell upon is, what faculty do you use in order to make sense of the world around you? Well, let's put it this way.
If a man Do you have gas meters here in Norway,
do you have gas when you cook, you have gas? You don't cook with gas? I thought no, you have lots of natural gas and stuff like that?
goes to listen. Yeah.
Okay, so you will cook with electricity, then you have an electricity meter, you get free electricity.
Okay, so you have a meter, right? Do you have a meter? And there's some guy come and read the electricity meter.
So how do you know how much you're gonna, you're using? They just send it you use this much electricity, no proof, no evidence, no, nothing.
It's gonna be easy to convince you guys then.
in England's, okay, we have gas meters, electricity meters and water meters. You can see it there, how much you are using and how much you are consuming. And a guy comes around, and he knocks on your door. Okay. And he says, I've come to read the gas meter.
Right.
That's how it happens in England. No way is strange. I don't know. You just maybe just trust people a lot, but that's good. Okay, so here's a question.
Right? Here's a question. If some guy comes knocking on your door, imagine you have electricity meters. Yeah. Can you imagine that? Yeah.
hamdulillah
right. Thank thanks me too good. And some guy comes knocking on your door dressed in nothing except a pair of red underpants.
You don't have to imagine that if you don't want to. Okay. And he comes knocking on the door and he says, I've come to read the gas meter.
What's your reaction to that gonna be? What are you gonna say? Seriously? What are you gonna say to this guy?
Prime in Norway, probably nothing crazy. Oh, welcome.
Hello, know, I mean, you know, we just give you the money. We don't even just tell us how much I've used and I'll pay you
seriously
NSA.
Okay, what did what did you say? Okay? You because You know, this is a challenge. Someone is coming to your house and he's making a claim he's making a claim on you on your money on your wealth.
Right.
And so as the brother said, he said, asked for some ID because usually when someone comes to read the meter or something like that,
you know, you expect him to wear a certain uniform. He will in UK, they will come with a certain uniform. British Gas London electricity. Yeah. And he has a he has a little computer, you know, we put the data in, and he has some ID.
Okay, what is that process that we are using? In order to make sense of what is going on here is this guy, he's making a claim, what process are we using? To determine whether we should accept his claim or not?
What process are we using? What what what are we doing?
Yeah, proving involves what
involves logic, reason. You use logic and reason and common sense. Yes. true or not? Except that?
Do you accept that generally, in our life, human beings? We see the world around us, we see it, we hear it, we hear it, we feel it. Yeah, we taste it. We experience it through our senses. And that information that comes to us, we process that through our brain.
And we call that process reasoning. Yes, true or not?
Okay.
So let's use this process of reasoning, and of common sense, in order to understand the world around us.
Now, there are some principles that we could call universal principles. There are some things that human beings everywhere they accept to be true.
They're truisms universals, and it's something we call common sense common because it's common. Everybody accepts these things. I'll give you an example. Would we all accept that part of something? is less than the whole of a thing? part of something is less than the whole? Yes. There you go. Yeah, common sense. Okay. What do we also accept? Generally, from our human experience? You don't see something coming from nothing? true or not?
Yeah.
Except in Norway, and when you get your electricity?
No, you don't find something coming from nothing right? Do you find the order spontaneously arising out of chaos? Do you find that?
Oh, our human experience. In our human experience, we don't find that when we see order. When we see patterns where we see laws, our human experience, our reason, our common sense tells us that someone or something has imposed those laws made those systems made those forms through which and by which things function.
So let's look at our world. And let's look at our universe. And let's look at everything around us and apply these simple, basic, reasonable assumptions to try and make sense of the world around us. But when we do that, we see that also in our human life, in the world around us.
In the universe, we find laws, we find the order. We find things existing according to patterns, we find form, we find systems, we find order.
Therefore, it's only reasonable as a human being to presume that
an ordered systemized universe that this order and this systemization and these forms did not come from nothing, nor did they spontaneously arise.
rise out of chaos. Because there is very little if anything in human experience that would make that a reasonable assumption. Rather, it's reasonable to assume when we see things working according to laws and according to patterns, that some one or something, something with intelligence, something with power, something with will has imposed those rules and those patterns and those orders upon that thing. That's why if I was working in the desert,
excuse me,
is that you've got a mobile phone, then
you've got a mobile phone.
Can I borrow it? Please?
Thanks.
I don't need to use it yet. Okay. See, I was walking along. And you know, this is not true. But anyway, I was walking along.
Does anyone know what this mobile phone is made of? Right? two basic components. Three. It's got plastic.
It's got glass. It's got a silicon chip, right. And it's got a few precious metals. But mostly, its major components are plastic, here, and glass and silicon. Okay, where does plastic come from?
Does anyone know what plastic is from? oil? Thank you. And glass and silicon.
Sand goods. Tell me the name of a place with lots of oil and sands.
and Saudi Arabia. So there I was walking along in Saudi Arabia. And then in the middle of the desert, I found this mobile phone, a product of billions and billions of years of random events. Yeah, the oil bubbles. The earth moved, the wind blew, the sand shifted the sanction, the lightning struck, the rain fell, the wind blew a bit more the camel tribe. And after billions of years, this mobile phone formed itself by a process of random events. I turn it on. Hi, Mom.
I'm asking you a simple question. Is that reasonable to make a claim like that?
It's not it's it's, it's it's more crazy than the guy with the red underpants asking to read your electricity meter. Right? That's not reasonable. That's not a reasonable claim.
That's not a reasonable assumption to come to.
Yes, that's exactly what we are being asked to believe by some people. Some people are claiming that our universe that our solar system, that the life that exists in this planet, is a product of random events, a big explosion, leading to
order systemized forms of existence. And by the way, the most primitive cell, the most primitive cell,
the most primitive life form is much more complex than this mobile phone.
Much more complex than this mobile phone.
But the reality is what we find when we look at the world around us. And we think about it look at the alternation of the night and the day. Think about it. What if the earth was spinning? Okay, this, the Earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours. What if the earth was spinning really, really, really, really slowly? Imagine a day
right was 30 years long, and Mike's is 30 years long. So the sun is shining on one part of the earth for 30 years. The other is in darkness for 30 years, what's going to happen?
One part of the Earth's surface will be superheated the other will become super cold. Very hard to imagine how life would exist. We just happen to have the right composition of gases in the atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. This balance is essential for life to exist ozone, we have a layer of gas called ozone that just happens to filter out the harmful effects of the sun's radiation. If the ozone layer by the way was too thick, it would have a detrimental effects. If it was too thin, then the radiation would exterminate life on Earth. The crust of the earth surface happens to be just of the right consistency for life in order to be able to exist. If
it was too thick, it would be a problem it was too thin it would also be a problem. The distance of the Earth from the sun.
The same thing about being too hot.
Too cold in cosmological terms in terms of the whole size of the whole universe, you can see how finely tuned this planet is for the existence of life. And that doesn't only apply to our planets. In fact, it applies to the very conditions that bought this universe into existence in the first place. The nature of gravity, the force of gravity, if it was, if it was much stronger, I mean, stronger by something like a trillionth of a percentage, I mean, a huge,
tiny, tiny, tiny amount, if gravity had been stronger, then the universe would not have expanded. If it had been weaker, then the same either, if it had been weakened, would have just gone on and expanded too fast, and stars and galaxies would not have formed. If it had been too strong, then the universe would never have expanded.
This isn't this is just some of the fine tuning that we see in this universe, the laws through which and by which the universe exists, and life is allowed to exist. And we could mention many, many more, for example, the stronger and weaker electromagnetic force, and other things. The point is some of these things, of course, are speculation. Some of them are theory, but what does it show is that we live in an ordered systemized universe. What is there? Why is it reasonable to assume anything except that this universe must have been brought into existence by by a power and intelligence?
Now, many atheists they will say, Well, the only thing they can they can't deny this fact. They can't. So what do they say? They say things like, Well, okay, if the universe has a creator, then who created the creator?
Okay, so if that's your argument, can we just take a step back and say, Are you admitting, at least therefore the universe needs a creator?
Are you agreeing to that, are you saying, design compels us to believe in the existence of a designer?
Okay, if you agree with that, let's go from there.
There is a very logical and reasonable assumption to make the nature and this is very important.
The nature
of the intelligence and the power that has brought the universe into existence, the nature of it must be different from the universe itself. Why simple, if the nature of this force, this power, whatever, we're not going to give it a name yet,
is the same as the universe, then, in fact, if you think about it, all you have is more universe. If the nature is the same, then it is the same, then all you have is more of the same.
Right?
And that's a problem.
Because you'll say, Well, if the nature is the same, if the nature of this intelligent force is the same, then you will ask, well, who created or what created that?
And if that is not different, you'll say who created or what created that? And if that is not, and you can imagine you go on and on, you have this idea of a creator creating a creator creating a creator forever, which is a problem. And I'll tell you why. It's a problem. simple analogy. Imagine there is a sniper.
He has his target in sight. He said, radios back to the HQ. I've got my target inside. He says, Wait a minute, I have to check higher up and higher up says wait a sec, I have to check higher up and higher up says wait a sec. I have to check higher up. Yeah, so if they keep saying it, what's gonna What's this guy? Is he ever gonna file a gun? No. There has to be somewhere where it stops right? There has to be a place who is the who Where is higher up and there is no more higher up
or else the trigger will never be pulls.
It's the same thing. If you have a creator creating a creator, creating creators, creating creators creating creators, you never get anything created. You never get any creation. But here we are, right here.
That's why it's logical, rational to presume, common sense that the nature of the Creator must be different from the creation. So if the creation is temporary, the creator must be determined.
If the creation is finites, the creator must be infinite if the creation is live,
limited by space and time the creator must be unlimited by space and time. If the creation is needy, the creator must be self sufficient. Now tell me reasonably and logically, how can you have two infinite, eternal, self sufficient beings that are confined by space and time, you can't make any logical sense. There could only be one such be
all of this just goes to show that how we can rationally come to an understanding what is the most rational explanation for our universe is it must have a creator, who is one who is infinite, who is eternal and self sufficient, and who is not not like anything in the creation. I introduce all of this simply. Why? Because that is my first.
That is the first thing I offer
is ID.
The first thing I offer to show that Islam is the true religion is what Islam teaches about God.
Because Islam
is the only religion except Judaism. But it is the only religion that teaches such a concept of God without confusing and compromising this concept.
Christianity, for example, has a similar concept. But then Christianity tells us that Jesus is God.
What does that mean?
The whole way that because we agree that the nature of God must be different from the creation.
Did Jesus eat food? Did he breathe air? Was he born?
According to Christians, he's gonna die. He did die, right? And even Muslims, we believe he will die. Yeah. So that means he's needy. He's mortal. He's temporary. He was confined by space and time.
So that means Jesus is like the creation, he's part of the creation.
So by definition, how do we even know there's a God, we asked the Christian? Well, they will give the same arguments that we gave. So what do you mean, then? How can something be temporary and eternal, mortal and immortal, nearly and not needy?
At the same time, it's impossible. doesn't make any sense. So any religion that tells us that a man is God or that God became a man, or that God is everywhere in everything? I am God, you are God, the tree is God, the sun is God, the moon has got everything in the creation is God. I say, what's the proof? Where's your evidence? Bring the evidence to make a to support your claim, give me a reasoned argument, why we should believe that otherwise, our man in the red underpants go away? You ain't coming in my house. All right. Where's your evidence?
But human beings, we're left with many questions. The many questions we have are, for example.
Why is there so much suffering on earth?
You heard that one before, right? Why is there so much suffering? Why is this so much pain? If there's a God? How come babies die? And there's diseases and earthquakes and volcanoes and men and red underpants coming to read the guests me? I shouldn't make put the things together. Right. But seriously, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why?
Think about this?
Is this a logical argument? Or is it an emotional argument? Because if you think about it, the issue of why is there suffering actually has got nothing to do with the question of whether the universe has a creator or not.
The universe having a creator is logically consistent. That's what it's a rational explanation for an organized universe. Why there is suffering is a different question. The only issue here is why does this creator let suffering happen? It has nothing to do as to whether God exists or not. It's a question as to why does God let these things happen?
Why?
And then the big one,
what is the purpose of life?
Why are we here? What is life for? What is the reason for my existence? How help
Can we know the answer to this question?
How can we know?
And then the other question, what's going to happen when I die? Is there life after death?
Is there life after death? What will happen? To me when I die? How do I know the answer to these questions?
You see my brothers and sisters, behind this curtain over here. There is a room.
And in that room, there is a door.
Can anyone tell me? What is behind that door in that room?
Who can tell me?
Come on, hands up? Who can tell me what's behind that door in that room? You know? Do you know?
Do you know? What?
How do you know?
How do you know?
How can you see?
You can't see.
So who the hell can you see with your eyes? In fact, you're wrong by the way, you're actually wrong.
So what you said is wrong.
You can't see with your eyes. So Can anyone tell me?
What?
But I'm asking you, can you tell me what's in that room? Yes or no? No. Okay, the point here, my brothers and sisters is to illustrate a very important point. This is the limit of reason.
You can think well, maybe this may be that it could be this, it could be that maybe through some thinking and something you could come to an understanding. But this is what is called in malachite. It's knowledge of the it's unseen. What is the purpose of life?
It's the same thing.
Is there life after death? When we die? Is something going to happen to us? It's the same thing. You can't see that. You can't perceive it.
So this is the unseen. The point being here is that how can I know I want to know, I think everyone wants to know this, whether they admit it or not. Everyone asked this question, what's the purpose of life? Why am I here?
What's it all for? Is there life after death? Why is the suffering in the world? Why? Why Why? What are the answers to these questions? Now really, the only way we can reach certainty, we can reach certainty.
About the answers to these questions, is when the one who created this universe, this God, this one, infinite, eternal, self sufficient being who created this universe brought it into existence created us, if he tells us, this is the reason for which I exist for which you exist, this is the reason this is what is going to happen when you die. Okay, then
we can reach some certainty, then we can reach some type of complete and comprehensive understanding. But then there's another question.
How do I know?
How do I know?
Something is from God? How can I know that this information is from God? We go back to our Hidden Room.
Right? Let's give an example this hidden room.
Now, if I tell you,
okay, I can tell you what's in that room. You say how it's similar to the man in the red underpants, right?
I'm telling you, I know what's in this room. You say? How do you know? You say well, I work here. How do I know you work here? Well, here's my ID.
Right? Here's my ID. I'm the you know, I'm the engineer. And I know every single nook and cranny and I can tell you well, you know this and I can tell you that and I can tell you so many and I can give you more and more things until you say yes, I now I believe you. Right? And so I tell you Okay, what is behind that door is
you don't really want to know right?
There's two doors actually.
The ones that winner and the other is the exit is the brother said you know so and there might be another door as well. But the point being is forget the details. The point being is that I need
To give you some information to convince you. So the point being here is something that is from God's something that is from the all knowing, all wise, all seeing all hearing Creator of the heavens and earth. And we're presuming some things about God, I know that may not logically or be logically necessary, but we would expect some information that is from the Creator,
we would expect some certain things from that creator, we would expect some ideally, we would expect some qualities. No. So let's first of all,
look at what Islam says.
Islam is saying.
Actually, before we look at Islam, let's look we've got a, we've got a group of guys standing.
Okay, let's imagine there's not one. Now, here's the real situation you have in this life, you have four or five guys.
One guy is say, he's saying, there is no door.
There is no room.
And how did you come to be here in this auditorium, is just chance and coincidence, this whole place just put itself together by random events, and you will hear by random event, and don't worry about it, just have a good time and enjoy your life.
Right. So that's obviously the atheists.
Right, the materialists.
The Another one is saying, Well, what you do is when you go through the door, you go out, and then you come back in, and you sit here for a bit, and you go through the door, and you go out and you come back in, right? This is reincarnation, you know, it's the idea, but they're saying something as well, you need to be a good person, you know, if you want to keep coming back, and you know, eventually, of course,
if you are a good person, you go to a better place than this one. You you'll be better. So there are other ideas, people, ideas of reincarnation. And then of course, we have Judaism. They say, okay, there is a dog, it really leads to a really nice, beautiful place. And there's also a terrible punishment waiting for you, and God is gonna judge you who made this place is going to judge you. But you know what, you can only get to that nice place, if you are already born into the Jewish race. Right? You have to be born a Jew to get there. This is by the way, actually, what a friend of mine went to the Chief Rabbi in England and asked him if you're a non Jew, how can you get to
paradise? He said, You can't.
You there's no hope for you.
Right?
So it may it may be true, right? We might be I mean, you know, just because I don't like it. It doesn't mean it's not true, right? But it's a bit helpless for the rest of us. Right? And still, we still want to ask the question, Well, why should I believe you?
You know, why did God put me here? Why am I here? What? Why then? Okay.
The Christian will tell you something different, of course.
And we have Islam.
But at least three of these religions Judaism, Islam and Christianity have a very similar story. They are saying that God, the Creator, this creator has revealed a message he has chosen certain human beings.
And he has chosen these human beings because of some reasons.
He chose them because they're truthful, honest, trustworthy, and sincere. It's very important.
And God chose them to be the ones to whom he gave the message.
And that message from God is for all human beings, and also these messengers, these prophets, these people who God has chosen, they are not only delivering the message, they also live the message. So there are practical examples of how to follow this message from God.
If you
believe in God, and you thank God and praise God and worship God and you follow this guidance, which includes many things we will talk about very briefly. Then you
You will go to Paradise, there will be a day of judgment, God will question you about all you have done. If you believe in God and you do righteous deeds, you'll go to Paradise. If not, you will go to hell.
Three religions pretty much say, very, very similar things.
But still, we want to know, how do we know? How can we decide?
We'll certainly when we look at the profits, when we look at the messengers, and definitely we can look at Mohammed sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, one of the big differences between Islam
and Judaism and Christianity, and even Buddhism and much of Hinduism, is that Islam took place in the whole viewpoint of history. In other words, Islam, what happened? what the Quran says, what happened in the life of the Prophet Mohammed is historical.
It's not really shrouded that much in myth and legend, it took place in the full spotlight of history, in a time when human beings had begun in an unprecedented way to write down and collect in a systematic way, the experiences that were happening around them.
And that is something we don't find even in ancient civilizations.
So this is history, Islam is taking place within the view of history. So when we talk about the things that Prophet Mohammed said, and the Prophet Mohammed did,
actually, we're talking about something that is pretty much agreed upon as being historical, of course, there's differences of opinion. But by and large, much of what we have about the life of the Prophet Mohammed is agreed to be historical. in a way that's not true about the life of Moses or the life of Jesus.
And there are things that took place in the life of the Prophet Mohammed that would lead a reasonable person to assume that what he was speaking is the truth. So this is the first thing.
Mohammed, may God's peace and blessings be upon him is believable. He's believable. Because why? He's proven himself to be truthful. He's proven himself to be trustworthy. He's proven his sincerity. He's proven his honesty, and that is proven in his life. And you can see many, many examples of that.
What is very important here to understand, and this is important for Muslims, as well as people who are not yet Muslim.
Is that you can't judge the Prophet Muhammad, or Islam or any religion based upon Oh, I just don't like that. I don't like that rule. I don't like that rule. I don't like that punishment. It doesn't sound very nice to me. Yeah. Well, you know, I have a really bad toothache. And the dentist needs to give me an injection. The last time by the way, I went to the dentist, this is a person thing. You know, the dentist tried to inject me I needed a bit her finger off. Okay, because I'm so terrified of injections, right. But the point being here is that the fact that I don't like it doesn't mean it's not a necessity to have my tooth pulled out. Right? It's illogical. There's no rational basis
to say, Oh, I don't like your religion, because it has some laws that just sound a bit bloody to me. Or, you know why? Or maybe they're too soft. Other people may complain, oh, you'll lose it too soft. You don't just kill everybody for everything. That's what we do. We just, you know, someone steals killer. someone looks at me in a bad way to kill him. You know, in some societies, that may be exactly what happens. Right? So if you think about it, that's not the right way to judge. No, let's look at the man.
Let's look at the man himself.
The man who bought the message, was he truthful? Was his sincere, was he trustworthy? How did he behave throughout his life, and with Mohammed we can do that we can look at his life. I just want to give a couple of incidents because obviously, we don't have time to go through the whole of the life of the Prophet. But there's just two incidents I want to mention.
Number one, this is very early on in the mission of
Prophet Mohammed, of course, his mission was to call people to believe in the one creator, who is unlike anything in this universe, that people should not worship the creation, but they should worship the Creator, and that they should follow the guidance that God had given the creator had given through the prophets. And of course, through him being the final messenger. So this is his message.
So this is his message. So the people,
they are really resisting This, of course, because the Prophet is saying a whole lot of things that they don't like.
He's saying a whole lot of things that they don't like, like, for example, you shouldn't bury your baby daughter's alive in the sand, which was one of their customs they used to follow. I mean, not everyone used to do it. But that was one of their customs.
This is what Islam was saying, don't kill your children, because you're afraid How am I going to feed them, and the first ones they killed were girls, because they were considered weak and not very valuable. So the Prophet was saying you shouldn't do that. And the Prophet was also saying that the rich and the strong, should not take advantage of and oppress the poor and the weak. Well, the rich and the strong, didn't really like that very much.
And, of course, they were in control of the propaganda machinery of the time.
It was conflicting with their self interest.
Just rather like the world is today with the press, as we will, perhaps see,
over the course of this conference, so the Prophet Mohammed was also saying that why you worshipping idols of stone and woods?
Why do you pray to them? Why do you put your faith in them?
They didn't like that, because they thought that, well, we have these 360 idols in Mecca around the Kaaba, and if we get rid of all these gods who's going to come to Mecca, and how are we going to make money?
Yeah, so they didn't like what he was saying. doesn't make me that it wasn't true, though, does it?
So anyway, however, what they did realize is that this message of Islam, or this message that the Prophet Mohammed was bringing, was being accepted by quite a lot of people. And by the way problematically, most of the early Muslims were women and slaves and poor people, the very people that they were exploiting and oppressing.
So they decided to make the Prophet Mohammed an offer.
This is the offer, they made him, they said, if you want to be our king, now, he was, of course, from a very, very noble and important family. So they said, if you want to be our king, we'll make you our king.
If you want money, we will make you the richest man amongst us. If it's women that you desire.
You just tell us which women you want, and they will be us.
And if you know, you are sick, and you know this, this spirit that's coming to you and telling you things, you know, we will spend any amount of money until we get a cure for you. Just stop preaching this religion.
I think about it. If you're a con man, if you're a liar.
If you're a trickster, yeah.
You're gonna say, well, which offer Shall I take now? King? Money women? Yeah, that sounds good.
Right? Yeah, I think I go for the king. Yeah. I mean, do you understand?
Everything is oftens.
Okay. But what does he say? He says in one in one report, in what some of the books of Sita, it very eloquently says that. The Prophet replied, If you give me the sun in one hand, and you give me the moon, in the other hand, I will still not leave off preaching this message.
Now, think about it. Is that the words of a liar? Is that the words of a con man?
Is that the words even of a diluted person, because that's what some people say, Well, yeah, he thought he was a prophet of God. He really believed it. Of course, he wasn't a liar. He wasn't really purposefully Miss, but he just thought that this
Angel Gabriel was coming to him, and so on and so forth. So he imagined it. But, you know, it's very hard to explain.
If the Prophet Mohammed was May God's peace and blessings be upon him deluded? How, how do we explain the information in the air?
How do we explain the detailed legal injunctions in the end? How do we explain how does a man living in the desert 1400 years ago? How does he come with a book that describes the lives and the histories of the prophets that came before?
How does it describe the laws through which people should live?
How from where even many Christians and Jews they've realized this problem? And they said, well, Maha even some of the Christians they said, you know, the extent they went to they said Mohammed was actually a Christian Bishop,
a heretic, Christian Bishop who escaped to Arabia, this is they have to, because they said, this is the only way you can explain all of this knowledge and information. But we did. And there's even more amazing stuff in the Quran.
For example, let me just turn to skeletal ambia, which is the 21st Sutra. And let's turn to Isaiah 30. Okay, so circle ambia 2130. And let's just read this quite remarkable. few verses of the Quran. And let's ask this question. From where does this information Come come? This book is 1400 years old. Let's remember that 1400 years old. Okay. And I'm just gonna read the English translation of it. Okay.
Have not those who disbelieved known that the heavens and earth were joined together as one united piece, then we parted them. And we made from water, every living thing? Will they not then believe? Now,
what is remarkable is the Quran is talking about the heavens and the earth being one united piece, then we parted them.
Right? I mean, today, that's we all know, it's, you know, it's probably secondary school science, the Big Bang, the common origin of the universe.
But how does someone know that 1400 years ago, when did someone even get the idea about this 1400 years ago?
Where does this information come?
It's an It's amazing. And we, and there's many, many things, I just want to turn to the next chapter, amazingly. And that's called sort of, you know, the pseudo of the believers. And if we look at verse 14, this is amazing. It says Joker, and now the problem is, we really missed a lot out in the English translation, but here it goes, right. It says, we created men out of an extract of clay, this is talking about Adam, and then it says, and then and the word here is former former doesn't necessarily mean and then next, it means and moreover, and on top of that, or in addition to that, we made him as a motivator. Meaning the man we made man as a multiple, or not for in Arabic means a
small drop, in another verse of the Quran, in solitary insan, in the second ayah, it mentions not for judge which means mixed not for, of the male and the female looks for means a small drop. So the human being is created from it means of here is talking about the sperm but not for is referring to here, the sperm and the egg from the male and the female, not first, so although it doesn't say the egg, but that's what we know it to be. Now, a small drop of fluid from the man and a woman it says and then it goes on to say, then we made then we made this look for into an unlock. The word unlock in Arabic has three meanings. It means a plot of blood. It means a thing that clings and it means a
leech like objects. By the way, each of these terms is accurate when it comes to the first stage of human embryonic development,
This, by the way is microscopic. You can't see this with the naked eye. Yet the Quran 1400 years ago is describing this stage of human human embryonic, embryonic development as an aliquot, which means a leak, leech light object, and then it says, and then we made out of that a lump of flesh, Mandala means like a chewed piece of meats. And that's exactly what the next stage of embryonic development looks like. And then we made out of that bones, and then we closed the bones with flesh. This is amazing, because that's exactly what from this piece of chicken piece of meat, the bones grow, and then almost, and the word the Quran uses is far, which also means then, but here, it means quickly,
in Arabic means then, and it happened quickly after not like from a thermal could mean after some time, or Moreover, but thought means and then quickly, we and that's exactly what happens. And again, by the way, this is all happening a level that cannot be seen with a naked eye. And then we bought forth the human being and it took this form is it of the human being so the Quran is describing 1400 years ago, information that we have only discovered
in the last 8040 5060 7080 years. Where does information like that come from?
Well, isn't that the sort of ID? Isn't that the ID you would expect in a book that is from God? Isn't that the sort of person truthful and honest and trustworthy?
Who is whose word is believed? Who shows in his life, his truthfulness, his trustworthy and his honesty? And there is another many remarkable things about
another remarkable thing is the language of the Quran. The Arabs at the time of the Prophet Mohammed were masters of their language, masters of their language. In fact, they had a marketplace for poetry.
They had a marketplace for poems. Yet the Quran challenged these people. If you believe that this book is from anyone other than God,
than the Creator, just make one chapter one chapter like in one chapter, you know how big the smallest chapter of the Quran is. three lines, three lines Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in our attain calcofluor for suddenly Rebecca 100 in Shania Kahala, bata as the smallest chapter of the Quran, get these masters, these people who could stand up and recite poems from the top of the head for hours, they could not produce and they admitted it. They were totally unable to bring anything like the Quran. Because the Quran was not like anything the Arabs had, it wasn't poetry, they know what's poetry, and it wasn't poetry. It wasn't normal speech. It wasn't rhymed prose. It wasn't anything
that they had experienced before. Yes, they were Arabic words, the language, they understood it.
They understood the words, yet they could not make anything like it.
They knew when they heard this, that this could not be the product of a human being. And there's another thing, a really, truly extraordinary thing. And I know a lot of Muslims, you know, you don't think much of this.
But you know, it is truly remarkable
that this book, The Quran, you can go anywhere in the world.
You can go anywhere in the world, here in Norway.
You can go to Timbuktu, you can go to South Africa, you can go to Malaysia, you can go to China, you can go to Siberia, you can go to the US have a you can go to Chile, and you can find a Quran from all of those different places. In fact, you know what, you can go back 100 200 500 600 you can go about 1003 400 years. In fact, we can find manuscripts dated from very, very soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. And you can compare them with the Quran that we have today. And you know what, you will not find a difference between them in a single letter.
There is only one cor en Yes, the style of writing the font, if you like has changed. There have been the vowel marks to help people who are not Arabic.
announced the code and correctly but the words, the actual words, the same, a book that has not changed for 1400 years.
And another amazing thing.
Another amazing thing, there are kids as young as four years old, and many of the ages of seven, and hundreds of 1000s, if not millions of Muslims living today, and throughout the whole of our history, who have memorized this entire book, from cover to cover, have memorized it and couldn't recite it from memory.
How is that possible? How is that possible?
These are the signs, these are the indicators. These are the things that could lead a reasonable, rational thinking person
to look at the Prophet Mohammed, to look at his life, to look at the Quran. And to conclude and to understand that this must really be what it claims to be the true religion of God.
Having said that, what does the religion of Islam teach? It teaches you want to speak the truth and not lie. To make your product to keep your promises and don't break them. When someone trusts you at something.
You keep the trust. Be good to your neighbors, obey your parents, and treat them respectfully.
Look after the poor and the weak and the needy, enjoying what is right and forbid what is wrong.
Live chaste, moral, decent lives,
then you should pray to God, five times a day at regular times. You should discipline yourself spiritually.
train your mind
to be aware of God's
train your consciousness through prayer,
through charity to cure you have stinginess and through fasting, not eating and drinking in the month of Ramadan from dawn until sunset. Because if you can control your appetites, you can control your eating, you're drinking, it proves you can control yourself. You have self control. You learn patience,
and the once in your lifetime if you can afford it, you should make pilgrimage to Mecca, where you will stand with people of every race of every color of every creed. And it doesn't matter whether you're a king, you're a millionaire, whether you're famous or not. Whether your people think you're beautiful or not. None of that matters because you're just wearing two pieces of cloth.
Because God does not look to your outward appearance. God does not look to what car you're driving. God does not look to what house you live in. God does not look to whether you have designer clothes or not. God is looking in your heart to see whether you are sincere. Whether you are a person who loves him and worships Him, whether you are a truthful, honest person or not. That is what is important to God. And that is what you know at Hajj, it doesn't matter whether you're black or white, Arab or non Arab. It makes no difference to God. What is important to God?
Is your piety. Do you fear Him? Do you love him? Do you obey Him? Have you surrendered yourself and followed the guidance that he has sent down with his final messenger Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him?
These are the ways and the means through which a person who thinks the person who ponders the person who reflects can know that Islam truly is the religion that has been revealed by God for the guidance of all of humanity. My brothers and sisters, may Allah guide you may Allah guide me all of us upon the path of truth. May Allah bless all of you salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah him
monokuma.
Now the object of the exercise is to get people who are
are not yet Muslims. People who don't understand, maybe you know the purpose. Maybe they're a bit confused. Maybe they don't know enough about Islam. Maybe they'd like to clear up misconceptions to ask the questions first. Okay, so, preference will be given to those people to come to the mic first and foremost, if on the other hands like me a few years ago, and even today, you feel a little bit embarrassed, a bit shy, you know, maybe you're thinking that a lot of Muslims are going to come and blow you up afterwards, you know, you know, your army because that's what the media says, you know, a bunch of terrorists wearing white hats kissing, you know, black box in the desert, you know, horns
growing out of our heads. If you are like that, why don't you write that's the Vikings uses. Oh, that's the Vikings. Okay. But you know, like a Viking greeny he doesn't even like your Viking
helmets. Okay. Matter of fact, there's quite a few air hostesses yesterday speaking to him in the native language and I suddenly realized they don't, he's English, right? Very English anyway. So if you can't, you know, come to the front. Now, please write your questions down. Okay. Now, don't give any lectures. We don't want any lectures, guys, or sisters, no lectures, okay. Around 30 to 40 seconds is enough for a question, and sha Allah. And also,
please refrain from attacking Abdur Rahim because we love him too much. But if you said anything, which is really awful, then no questions should be too difficult for him to answer because if it's the truth, and Islam is the truth, then surely he should have an answer. Right. Okay, so we're gonna start off with the sisters. Are we? Do we have a sister? We know. And guess what? The sisters has done it again. They beaten you guys.
Ladies first.
Salaam Alaikum. This question is from non Muslim? And the question is, is this is death penalty wrong according to the hotel? Or can the government judge a murder to death? If they follow the Quran? Like the government?
I think after my whole lecture, yeah. And I think even
either, you know, my English was too complicated, or someone didn't quite get the message. But you know, when I said that, you can't judge whether the religion is true or not. Because the religion happens to have some rules that you don't like the sound off? Remember, I said that? Yeah, I think you will know what I was getting at. Right?
Okay, so the point is, is that the point I want to make here is whether Islam has the death penalty or not, for a crime or not? What has that got to do with the Quran? and Islam being from a law or not? Right?
I don't understand the importance of the question. You see, if I, if I said to you, and if I say to you, yes, it does. Or no, it doesn't. What what's the issue? I'm not really sure what's the point of even discussing it? Because from the point of view of a Muslim, if you are a Muslim, if you are a Muslim, then you believe that the Quran is from God. And that whatever God says is from his knowledge, yes. So whose knowledge is better? Your knowledge or God's knowledge, God's knowledge, you don't even have to be a Muslim to understand the logic of that. Right? Even someone who's not a Muslim, can understand the compelling logic of the knowledge of God being far superior to even any
collection of human individuals knowledge. So the important thing here is that we have to assess is the Quran from God or not? If you are a Muslim, and I when I say a Muslim, if you're actually a person who understands that being a Muslim means submitting yourself to God, as opposed to a person who happens to be originally from Pakistan or Bangladesh or Somalia or Morocco or wherever. And Islam happens to be the religion of your people and Islam for you is just
You know a bit of your culture, like you eat some muscle as some basa. Okay, that you know, you you're a Muslim, right? And you know, you You may think that female genital mutilation, forced marriage marrying your cousin is part of Islam even though those things have got nothing to do with Islam, you may think it is because you don't know the difference between Islam and culture. And they you may think that when you come to Norway, that you can just sort of fit Islam and sort of have a sort of Norwegian version of Islam. Right? And just fit that into, you know, I mean, as a Muslim, of course, we're going to always respect the laws of any society in which we live. That's part of what
Islam demands from us as Muslims living in a land that's not the Islamic lens. There's a difference between that and what I actually say no, if I'm a Muslim, what God says I accept it. Now, if this is strange, I would like to refer everybody even if you're not Muslim, I'm sure the story of Abraham
or Ebrahim is very familiar to you. Yes.
Now, Abraham is given in the Quran or Abraham is given in the Quran, as a paradigm, or as an example
for every true believer,
and the Quran says, who turns away from the deen or the way of life or from the understanding of Ebrahim except to fool now,
Abraham was ordered by God
to kill his own son.
true or not? I think everyone knows that story, right?
So what did Abraham do?
Does he obey God or disobey God?
Okay, he obeys God.
Now, I'll ask you to logically justify that for me, please give me the logic. What's the logic behind killing your son?
There is no logic.
Except that that's what God told me to do. That's the only logic there is. And in fact, by the way, that is the supreme logical conclusion. It's the most logical conclusion, if the one who created the whole universe, the one who is going to determine what is going to happen to me for the eternity or forever, for the eternity of the life after, as well as the one who has complete control of every single thing that is going to happen to me in my life. A sensible logical person would do whatever it takes to seek the pleasure of this creator, and not to displease this creator. Right. So that is the basis.
So I really unless the one who actually wants to ask the question will come and ask and discuss. That's my answer. My answer is, let's not get caught up in whether the Quran says this. And I could give a whole long list, right, chopping the hands of the stoning adulterers and adulterers to death, the punishment for adultery for homosexuality, for for highway robbery, for drunkenness, for taking drugs for dealing and drugs, you know, and a whole range of other things that Islam has. The question is, okay, all of these things, all of these issues that people have about Islam, but my question is, What has that got to do with the issue of whether the Quran is from God or not? What do
you got to do with this?
Because you know, what I will tell you, if this book is not from God, if Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is not the prophet of God, why do I want to follow it? Why? Why do I want to pray five times a day and fast Ramadan and not eat and drink anything from doing until? I mean, there may be some I'm sure there are lots of good reasons why it might not be it might be a good discipline, right? But why why do I want to not have fun and enjoy my life and have as many girlfriends as I like and you know, just have four wives instead of hundreds of girlfriends? Oops, okay. And, or just have one wife because I'm afraid I might do injustice. Why would I want to restrict myself in my
life? Amazingly, they accuse us but who has an unrestricted life who can do anything they like drink can foreigner Kate, and whatever why
For what? What? Just because I don't know, it's my culture. It's not my culture.
It's not my culture.
No, I follow this for one reason, because I believe this is from God. If this is not from God, I have no interest in. Okay, then I would say, Mohammed, you know, he was a nice guy who was a clever guy, he was whatever, I'm sure the Quran has some interesting things to say. And so lots of other books. But why would I follow Islam?
I follow it because I believe it's from God. That is the important question. Is this book from God or not? That's the issue we need to address. That's the issue we addressed today. That is what I thought I gave some pretty conclusive rational reasons for a intelligent person to believe that the Quran is from Allah.
Okay, thank you very much. Abdur Rahim. jazak Allah here. I think that probably wraps that question up. Now. What about the brothers? Where are you? Where are you brothers? I thought is any questions from the brothers? Would you like to come forward, sir? Excellent. That's brilliant. I think we should give him a round of applause for that.
Yes, thank you very much.
My first tell it in
English, the word always can makeda tala man, the Buddha. Also the minimum Thomasina Bobby clairton token Dr. auditoria to sophistic. They are found to talk to the larger media for sure we don't come on first, all the good or maybe smoking for stolen material. In English, I think it's impossible to understand the things from God, the behind the reality. I studied physics, theoretical physics. And it's not even impossible. It's impossible to understand the material world who can do that by logic.
Even if you speak very convincing. So my question is, where is the heart? For me? Is the heart who is give the connection and give the proof of God or the connection to God? Okay. That's a very, very good point. I really appreciate that point.
You know, however, right?
I always go back to the man in the red underpants. Yeah. I mean, the guys knocking on your door and you say, let me feel in my heart. You know, let me see, you know, let me feel. Yeah, I think.
No, right. I mean, at the end of the day, my point was, that's why I started, why what again, give me the funny thing is even to say that, where's the hots, you need to bring some reasoned explanation as to why you should use the hot to make this decision. Why is it this is a completely? You know, it's very strange to me, that when it comes to God, when it comes to religion, suddenly logic and reason goes out of the window. It does at a certain stage. I agree. Right? It does at a certain stage. I agree. But when we understand the basics, is there a god? Is there a god?
Okay, but you see, this issue of Is there a God does? Is there actually a creator? I agree with the gentleman from one angle. I agree with one angle. I don't, I don't believe I can prove conclusively, philosophically, through reason that God exists. I didn't even claim that. In fact, I began by saying, how do we even know? How do we even know that we exist right now? How do we know this is not a dream? I just did that to illustrate that, what can we prove? Through logic and reason? Okay, we can only prove so much. But what I tried to show was that the most reasonable and rational conclusion
of the rational mind is that number one, the universe has a creator.
Number two, the creator is not like the creation, the creator is different from the creation. A number three, there are things that we can examine
the character of the Prophet, we can examine that through reason, we can look at the book itself. Isn't it reasonable to assume that a book that is from God would not contradict itself all the time?
It is not reasonable to assume that yes or no. A Buddhist from God should not be full of contradictions.
Yeah. would you expect a book that is from God, to say, the Earth is resting on an elephant, which is standing on a tortoise, which was swimming in a sea? would you expect your book that's from God to say that, what you would say, the one who wrote that does not know much about the universe, right? That's just using our reason and our logic. So we have to use our reason and logic to understand some things. And I was presenting those things that we could use our reason and logic, in order to see how much we could know about God, and how much we could know about the claims that people make about God, and about what they have been from God. So I do believe and I still say that
we have to use reason. I think after that the issue of the heart comes in. Because I agree, I agree that
a person may say, okay, Islam makes logical sense. It's rational, that there is a God, it's rational, that God is different from the creation, it makes sense that Mohammed is a prophet from what you tell me. And it seems like, well, the Quran must be from God, I can't think of a decent explanation of how there are statements that we've only discovered things in the last 80 years in a book 1400 years old. I can't think of another logical reason why the Arabs were totally unable, despite their brilliance in poetry to produce one chapter like
i i that you say, bots, how do I know how do I still really know that? I would say, look,
I'd say there has to be a stage where the issue of logic can only get you so far.
Then you have to take another stage, the next step that you have to take beyond logic, is experiential knowledge. You have to experience Islam.
And that is why I don't want to talk about, you know, punishments in Islam and this and that, and whatever. You know what, it's irrelevant. What's the point in talking about those things? Because unless you can experience living Islam, the brothers and sisters in this room,
those people who get so upset, and sometimes it's not right, the levels to which they go, but they get so upset, when people insults the Prophet Mohammed, why? Why do Muslims get so upset? I tell you why. Because a Muslim experiences Islam, that's the hot that you want to know about the hot. That's the hot when I live Islam every day when I experienced the profound beauty and pleasure and bliss, of worshipping Allah alone, and living my life, according to the guidance of gods. When I experienced that, that's the heart. This is where the heart comes in. This is my experiential knowledge. I am so grateful to Allah. And I love the Prophet Mohammed so much because he's the one
who was he, it's through him that I got this information. He lived this life of Islam. That's why we love the Prophet Mohammed salam o, he was so much that's to do with our heart. And that's to do with our experience. So I give the example you said, Thank you. Okay.
Okay, I know what you're trying to do. But the more you try and hurry me on, the more I'm going to take time to answer my question. Okay. Anyway,
I nearly finished, you know, someone asked me, can you make your question your answer short, I said, No.
You know why? It's a trust. It's a trust. When someone asks you a question. It's a trust. Right, giving an answer that I don't feel happy about is betraying my trust. Yeah. So I'd rather give two long answers than 20 short ones that I don't feel I really explained myself. So finally.
Finally, the thing I want to say, and you've probably heard this example before. I think my favorite fruits on earth is mango.
Yeah, I think
it is an inshallah. I'm sure there'll be lots in general inshallah even more delicious, okay. Alhamdulillah mango is
I don't know that has to be this for me the supreme fruit. Now imagine someone who'd never saw a mango before and never tasted a mango before. And you're trying to persuade that person to eat a mango.
Right? And they feel nervous. And you say, look, it's orange and oranges orange right? So don't worry the colors not too bad. And you know what? It's it's taste is it's so sweet. It's so succulent. I've been eating all my life. It didn't do me any harm. You know, look how handsome I am. You know? And, and you're and you're trying to persuade them about and you even cut it and look smell right?
But will a person ever know what the mango is? Like? Unless they actually taste it?
Do you understand? You'll never know what Islam is like until you actually live Islam. Your logic will get you so far then you have to experience it then you have to taste it then you have to feel it. Right. Okay, and to live Islam means to know God and to know God means to love God. That's where the heart comes in my friend. Thank you very much for your beautiful question.
You finished now abderrahim Please go on. Okay, now I mean, I don't want to you know, beautiful answer Mashallah. Very beautiful. Alhamdulillah when I turn it on, when I turn and look at you at smile and pause for like five seconds, that generally means I finished use if you have never finished Mr. Green inshallah.
Right, we've got some other questions. Got one. Should we? Are there any sisters over there? Yes. Okay. Any yet to be Muslims?
Yes, Father, go ahead.
Assalamualaikum.
This question is from a non Muslim, you were first a Christian, then a Buddhist for three years ago. Okay. What made you change your mind so radically, from to be a Buddhist Muslim would happen. And the second question is, what do you think about Sufi? Isn't that a part of Islam?
Wow. I mean, don't ask me to give a short answer to that one. I mean, that's
that's two separate lectures, but I will try. I will try to keep it reasonable. Okay. Okay. It's very interesting. I was just talking to a gentleman about this issue of Buddhism.
Okay.
The, my main problem with Buddhism was, my main problems are number one.
I don't agree with the premise of Buddha. The premise of Buddha is that life is suffering. Okay. And in order to escape from, sorry, life is suffering. Suffering is caused by the ego.
The mee mee mee mee, yeah, so that's the problem. The problems the suffering in life is caused by the ego. So therefore, the way to escape suffering is by annihilating the ego.
That means the word Nirvana actually means annihilation. It means annihilation of yourself. You are no longer identifiable as a you, you are just you are just that's why I remember usip talking about his journey to Islam had a similar experience. And he went and asked a Buddhist what's the purpose of life? And the British replied to him contemplating the supreme nothingness. Right. contem. And really, that's what it is. Because as the idea of Buddha is to annihilate yourself
to self annihilation, you no longer have the concept for a Westerner is so hard to even begin to comprehend.
Yeah. So
the issue I have is, number one, my first issue is this. There is suffering in life, but is life suffering.
That's wrong from the beginning to say life is suffering. There is suffering in life, but there is joy in life, there is happiness in life.
It's the same as the fallacious approach of the atheist. There is so much evil in the world, but there's almost so much good in the world as well. Right? How can you only see the evil? How can you only see the suffering? So this is the first thing, the claim that there is suffering in life? As if that's all there is? No, there's suffering in life and there is joy and bliss in life also, number two, I don't believe that the answer is in annihilating the self. The answer is in
Controlling, and being in control of yourself. Right? That is what is important. The self, in essence is what motivates you to eat, to drink to procreate to live, you know, these are actually not only healthy but essential instincts. The problem is, is when we go over the top, when we go too far when we go beyond the bounds, of course, for us, the Quran gives us God gives us the bounds, God gives us the limits. And the religion of Islam teaches us the system through which we can control ourselves. That's why partly we pray five times a day. That's why we give the charity that's why we fast, it helps to teach us self control, to be in control of consciousness, and to live a god
centered life not a self centered life. So the other problem with Buddhism for me is that it ignores the issue, the whole issue, and the question of God and the existence of God, this is highly problematic. So those are some of the issues that I would say I had philosophically with Buddhism, and what was the other part of the question? Sorry.
Soup is okay, Sophie's Okay, that's a big, big subject. You know, the problem with Sufism is the term Sufism
covers a broad range of things. There are some sooth these who are not Muslim. They actually say that Sufism was before Islam, and that's actually true. It's actually true. Okay.
So Sufism is really a form of mysticism and mysticism claims that the way to know God is experienced through experience right, is that you don't know God through studying and so on and reading which you know, God through experience. So Muslim Sophie's would claim that what is important is to do lots of worship, lots of prayers, lots of fasting, okay? Lots of you know, the liver, very ascetic, simple life that is free from, you know, worldly trappings to make a lot of Vicar, a lot of remembrance of gods. Okay, so this is what by and large Sufi would claim, okay, however, actually, what the prophet Muhammad taught and what Jesus taught and what you can find in the Quran, is that
no knowledge is very, very important. Indeed, the Quran says bu Rabbani Hoon Rabbani Yun means scholars, and it's an appeal to everybody, everyone to have knowledge, those who know or not like those who do not know and knowledge is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, comes from studying. So there are two extremes here. There's the extreme of the people who study and seek knowledge just for the sake of information that is not right. knowledge in Islam is studied so that one can act upon it, but how do we worship God? How do we remember God? How should we behave as believers in God, this is only going to come through knowledge and the deeper your knowledge, the
deeper your study of the Quran, then the more and the greater your appreciation of that, that is also therefore matched by worship, prayer, fasting, remembrance of God and so on and so forth. So there is a balance here, Sufism, unfortunately, today has gone to an extreme, it's gone to an extreme. And that's the problem with many things, just like there are some people who concentrate on fighting, fighting, fighting, you know, yes, Islam has some rules about fighting. Yes, the early Muslims did have to fight in order to fight for their survival and defend themselves and defend their land. But then some people imagined that this is all that Islam is about this is the most
important thing. And then they start end up doing crazy things like you know, killing women and children and all sorts of things that are forbidden by the religion. And they think this is something that religion is teaching. This is the problem. This is extremism, much of what is Sufism is also a type of extremism. Okay, it's but it's in another direction. Okay, where they have gone to extremes in asceticism in you know, making Vicar and even inventing things and doing crazy things like you know, dancing around and twirling and, you know, getting to ecstatic states and, you know, like if you could imagine the Prophet Mohammed and his companions, right, twirling around in the
masjid and getting to you know, ecstatic states and this is not the religion
Religion is the beautiful middle way, you see, so we should avoid we should not be extremists at all. In fact, the prophet Mohammed may God's peace and blessings be upon him, avoided that. So if by Sufism we mean to remember God to live a simple life to do worship 100 is nothing wrong with that. But we do have to be aware of people who call themselves to fees, but they sell another extreme version of Islam, we really need to tread the middle path. And that is the Serato monster team. And that is the way that leads to Allah subhanho wa Taala, the evening nurture Sokoloff emulator.
And we have another question from a yet to be from here now.
That's not what they told me wrong. Sorry.
Excellent.
I don't know whether I can go ahead and ask you three questions. Okay. One,
you say you had a friend in the UK when asked
whether he would go to Paradise?
So the question is, why would you practice Islam or Christianity?
The differences here is that being the difference here is,
of course as Muslims we, we look at Judaism, from the point of view of religious belief. No, the Jew does not look at it from the point of view of a religious belief. Yeah, being a Jew is not only a religion, it's also meat. You can't really technically not all Jews, by the way, say this. I have to say, not all Jews say this. Yeah. But there are Orthodox Jews. I mean, an orthodox means they claim that this is the proper way to understand the religion. Yeah. They claim that being a Jew necessitates that you Your mother is Jewish. You can't be a Jew unless you're born of a Jewish woman. Yeah, so it's not only an even in England, by the way, Judaism being a Jew is not a religious
definition. It's a race. Jews are defined as a race. Do you understand? Okay, so and this corresponds to what with what many Jews believe? Yeah. So do you see how it's highly problematic? It means that you have to be born of a particular, you know, from a particular race, not depending on your deeds or your actions or your belief. Yeah. So that's, that's the problem with it. I say. Yeah. Okay.
Thank you very much. Second question. Okay. The Middle East? Yes. And the rest of the world, okay. Which they live in this world? Because the Middle East changed the entire course of history, Islam and the Bible. Straight away question.
The Quran talks about brotherhood. Yes. The Bible.
Pretty much talks about brotherhood. Yes. Why is it that we don't see brotherhood being practiced in the Middle East?
I, to be honest, yeah. Some of the actually, many of the best Muslims I know,
many of the best Muslims. I know, personally.
Are people from the Middle East. When they are good. Martial Law, they are so good. Yeah. Because they have the language they have the culture. You know, there is I don't know, maybe even something in the desert air or something. I don't know. You understand? So when they are good, they are really good. And when they are bad, they are very, very bad.
Okay. And, and sadly at the moment, yeah, the bad is big, you know, really is probably overtaking the goods. Yeah, that's the real problem. Yeah. So, you know, this is really what you find, you can find, Mashallah, really, really beautiful and good Muslims in the Middle East, you know, but like I said, the problem here is because when people don't follow the religion, you see, I give the example of, you know, a barrel of water, you can take a barrel of water, and you can take that barrel of water, and you can give people who are dying of thirst drink. Or you can take the same barrel of water, and you can drown someone in the barrel of water. Is that the fault of the water?
Is that the Fall is the water's fault. No, there is
religion of Islam has been sending us guidance from Allah to give life to the hearts and the lives of human beings. If we follow this guidance properly Alhamdulillah we will experience that life and that beauty. But just like the water, you can take the religion, you can abuse it, you can misuse it, you can miss apply it, it can become a tool of oppression. Yeah. So that that's the case the religion can be used properly, or it can be abused and misused. So that's the case with the Middle East or anywhere else. And the problem is we're not following our religion. Anyway, brother, I want to say, you know, to everyone in this room, it's always very easy to point your finger. And to look,
you know, my mom used to teach me. My mom used to say, Don't look at your brother's plates. Look at your own plates. You know, you ever see that? You know, you got your plate of food, but you're always eyeing up what everyone else has got. Right? It's like you got your plate of food on your plate, a few food. The thing is, yeah, if I look at myself, if I look at myself, I will surely say I have so many sins. I have so many problems. I am so far from Allah. I'm so far from being a good Muslim. How can I have time to look at the faults of others? That's why there's a saying blessing is the one who is so busy with their own faults. They don't have time to look at the faults of others.
Eye contact five seconds or more. Right.
Look, you know, there's so many sisters up there and I feel so sorry for them, don't you brothers? Is it okay? Brother God, I know you had a third
one Okay, brother. Once one from the sisters. We don't want to make them my sisters on the topic, please not away from the topic. You know, Islam the true religion of God.
As Lama Aleikum, I want to ask a question on behalf of non Muslim and Muslims. It is said that Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam was the last prophet and other prophets came as long as with him to guide us and show us the right away. So and the Quran was completed on the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam on the time of his period on that time, so I asked why is it necessary and very is a very in Quran it is mentioned that Jesus will return which is the major science of Judgment Day. And why is it a new prophet? Or Jesus came? will come after Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam completed the Quran and completed his professor at some he was the last prophet Why is it Why is
Jesus coming again? Okay, that's well, okay, first of all, yes, it is true Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the first prophet. Where does it say in the Quran that Jesus will return it
delight Mashallah, good. You're listening. Alhamdulillah okay. Maria correction is aka Lucha brothers, that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the last prophet. That is true.
And there is no more religion, there is no new religion. There is no new book going to be revealed after the Quran. This is what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, As for the return of Jesus, it is not mentioned directly in the Quran. However, it is hinted at, it is hinted at in the Quran. However, Muslims do not consider the Quran to be the only source of information about our religion.
This is very important to understand.
There is not only the Quran, but as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I have been given the Quran and something like it along with it.
So, knowledge was also given to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam other than what is contained in the Quran. And that knowledge has been preserved in those sayings of the Prophet which have been rigorously authenticated. This is a big subject, we don't have time to go into it now. So most of the information that we have about the return of Jesus is based upon the information in the rigorously authenticated Hadith which the details of which in sha Allah das
The know is coming on we're gonna split. Okay. Dr. Abu Amina, I thought you didn't know yet you know. So Dr. Abu Amina bow Phillips will be covering on Monday on his talk the science of the last day of the job. So he will talk about definitely he will talk about Isa in that talk, however, why? First of all I want to mention Isa alayhis salam is not coming as a prophets. Jesus is not coming again, as a prophet, he is coming as a follower of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That is why when he comes and he descends with his hands on the shoulders of the angels in the white minaret and Damascus, and then he travels to Allah codes, he will pray behind the leader of the
Muslims, he will pray behind the leader of the Muslims, he is coming as a follower of the Sharia, that is given to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and even when he breaks the cross and kills the, the swine and abolishes the jizya. Okay, which it's not, you know, the jizya, of course, is part of the Sharia. But he but the Prophet said he will abolish it. So the fact that Isa will come and abolish it, it's part of our Deen. So he does not come as a prophet. He comes in the capacity of a follower of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now why, why? Why does Jesus have to come back again? Anyway, the reason for this is quite important, from the point of
view of Jewish and Christian theology, especially from the point of view, from the point of view of Judaism, very briefly, no Jew could accept Jesus as the Messiah. One of the main reasons is because if Christians claim that Jesus was killed and crucified, that is sufficient proof that Jesus from the Jewish point of view can't be the Messiah.
Because the Jews know from their books, what their books prophesied, what God prophesied to them, is that the Messiah would come.
And he would establish the kingdom of God on earth. That means that he would establish the Sharia the law of God, and the worship of the One God on the face of the whole earth. And that's what the Messiah would do.
Right? So God sent Jesus, but however, the people, many of them were treacherous to Jesus. Okay, so they did not fulfill their destiny. That is why Allah raised Jesus up, he would not let him be killed. So this The point here is Jesus was not killed, and he was not crucified, because he is the Messiah. And those things that God said would happen, that he would rule the Messiah would rule the earth. And he would rule the earth and the Kingdom of God will happen, because Jesus will return. And as we know, as Muslims, he will rule on the earth as a just ruler for 40 years. And there will be no other religion except the religion of the worship of the one God, which is the religion of
Islam. So that is why Jesus needs to return to fulfill those prophecies that were there that were given to the Jews, and God does never God never breaks his promise. That is why my brother and sisters, that's going to happen.
You know, Abdur Rahim, another question, which is sort of related to that topic. Okay.
Really, essentially, can you be this is a written question, as you may have guessed, is not from me. Can you be a Christian? Practicing monotheism?
Yes, you you can. Because the early Christians, certainly, the early Christians were monotheists. In fact, throughout the whole of the history of Christianity, there have been Unitarian monotheistic Christians who did not believe that Jesus is God. They do not believe that Jesus in any simple literal sense is the Son of God. Until today, for example, maybe it's not a good example. But until today, you have the Jehovah's Witnesses, who reject the idea of the Trinity, who claim quite rightly, that it's essentially a pagan concept that Jesus that God became a man. So they reject this concept. But there have been Christians and there are other Christians, Unitarian Christians as well
who are not Jehovah's Witnesses. So this idea or this belief system has been existing historically, throughout the history of Christianity at certain times. Now, I mean, perhaps it's not really my place to comment. Of course, a Christian a Trinitarian Christian would buy it.
Large generally claim that if you don't believe that Jesus is God in flesh, and that God is a try Yun God or a trinity, then you're not a Christian. It doesn't matter what you can call yourself whatever you like, but you're not a Christian. That's what orthodox generally Orthodox Christians would claim. But historically, as I said, the the idea of, you know, and in fact, by the way, before Islam, there were large numbers, maybe even a majority of Christians who were Unitarians, but the fact is that many of them, if not most of them, when Islam came, they became Muslim. That is why you don't find so many of them today, because most of the Unitarian Christians realized that the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was indeed what he claimed to be the final messenger of Allah. And so if you are a Unitarian Christian, I would very, very,
I would encourage you so much to study the Quran, to study the life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and to see for yourself that he is the natural successor to the true message of Jesus alayhis salaam.
Unfortunately, Well, fortunately, we're going to pray Maghrib so it's fortunate, but it's unfortunate because of course, we can't we don't have time to answer the numerous questions that I'm sure that you guys have all got on your tongues over there, on pieces of paper here, etc, as always the case so we'll be returning brothers and sisters for the shake who's saying ye Salaam Alaikum