Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – God, Belief, Conviction and Doubt
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
salatu salam or others say you didn't mursaleen
what are the early he was the hero Baraka was seldom at the Sleeman
Guthrie Iran in Iommi been Amma beret called Allahu Tabata kava
Tara for the Quran in Nigeria well for Kenyan Hamid in nama Illa who
come in nama Illa who como la la de la ilaha illa, who was in
Aquila che in Alma
what call the Terra verde como la hora Bukom the whole milk la Illa
Illa. Who fun to Surah phone
call the Terra verde como la hora bukem Holly Coco Lee che la ilaha
illa who are in for Khun?
So my dear respective friends.
This is a bit of a difficult topic.
Because the title was about God, belief, conviction and doubt.
So while it's a difficult topic, but it's relevant one reason why
it's relevant is because in the last two to three months,
I've had to, I've been requested to,
to speak about this topic
in at least five to seven different places. I was in Sri
Lanka, then in India, I had to deal with the same topic. The
reason is that currently, the custom, the trend
is of liberalism. The trend is of consumerism, capitalism. This is
what many of us are influenced by whether we like it or not.
Consumerism, just the ability to purchase things to want to buy
things, whether you need them or not. We've just passed Christmas,
Christmas time when there's a lot of sales. And at Christmas time,
many people they go to the sale, even if they don't need anything,
we might find something to buy, they say
what is if you need something,
then you make a list. And then you go and you look for it, you find
the best price, the best option, the most suitable product, you buy
it, and then you fulfill your needs. But then the other one is
where you go browsing, you don't really need anything, but you're
looking to buy something you want that your money is itching you.
So you need to spend it in to get rid of it.
So do you guys have Amazon here?
You have Amazon, you don't have Amazon, not the Amazon jungle,
which is in South America and you don't know about Amazon. The main
thing is that today to go and buy things purchase things, the
purchase power of the individual is quite strong. So that means we
just go and buy whatever we want. Even if there's practicing
Muslims, when it comes to consumerism, capitalism, in
spending, Amara, the Allahu anhu, one saw somebody with a package in
his hand and he said what is this he said how the last one is the 82
who forgot her language to hate to Who first 32 This is some meat
which I
desired to buy. So I purchased it. So Omar the alarm said to him, he
said, couldn't do much the hate is straight. Everything you desire,
you just buy, just because you've got a desire for it, you buy it.
Today, the way the our consumerism works, is that we have access
today to things which only the very, very wealthy had access to
about 100 years ago.
It doesn't matter as long as you've got the money, disposable
income, you can literally buy whatever you want. There's nothing
that is prohibited from you from buying it. There are many, many
things which would have only been purchased by the very elite
before. So today, it's in the hands of everybody and we're just,
we're just feeding our knifes we're just feeding our desire
because of that. You feel like you want this you'll just buy it. Now
there's nothing wrong with buying things. Don't get me wrong. I'm
not saying you shouldn't buy anything. Go and buy you need
something going by gone by the best of it. That's not a problem.
But let's not bring it home and hoard it. If you've got something
you haven't worn for one year or two years, get rid of it.
Don't buy new things and accumulate accumulate How many
pairs of shoes do we have?
If you've got more than I mean if I say if you've only got three
pairs of shoes, some of you say those that that's necessary. I
need one for every different outfit I have.
How many shall I say is the maximum pair of shoes you should
have?
If I tell you maximum pair of shoes you must have is 10 Some
people might get offended
You can buy new things, but give away the old things.
It's fine. If you want to buy new things, you want something new,
it's helpful to buy it.
But get rid of the old things, get rid of the other things, don't
hold them in your house.
So the only reason it would become haram to buy something as if it
was haram to buy, or if we're doing it to show off, or if we're
doing it because we're pressured to do so, because it's a status
symbol. Somebody contacted me once he says, Should I buy an iPhone?
Or is it a Samsung, I can't remember which one it was at the
time. This was about two years ago, three years ago. And I said,
what what kind of a question is this, he says, because if I don't
have the latest phone, then people are going to speak about it.
And if you're forced to do that, then that's a problem.
Now, there's a famous atheists, one of the five famous atheists of
the past 4050 years one was called you everybody's heard of Doc, many
people would have heard I don't want to give him that much
position. But the problem is that he's been very influential. The
several people I've had to deal with, who had some problem with
their faith. The arguments they were putting forward were
literally copy and pasted from Dawkins.
Right. I don't think they even believe them themselves. They will
literally just took them from Dawkins and they said the same
things. They just haven't read any of the answers to Dawkins, that's
the problem. Dawkins has been refuted over and over again, and
he's done some crazy things himself as well. That's why his
popularity has dropped anyway. So he was he was very influential.
He may be a good scientist, right? He may be a good, you know, he may
be good in some things. But then when you take science into the
realm of God, you're going into a realm where science does not even
cover it. Because Allah God and everything is, is dealing with
metaphysics. Meta means beyond physics, beyond the natural world
that you can see and experience. What you can see, science you have
to remember that science has Islam has never had a problem with
science.
Islam has never had a problem with science Christianity has they've
got a whole history of it. But Islam has never In fact, some of
our greatest some of the greatest scientists of the Middle Ages were
Muslim. You know, your kidneys, and the HIA. And, and all these
others. They were science so that we've never had a problem with
science and science has shouldn't have a problem with religion. But
the problem is that just like in everything else, you have people
with biases, you have human beings. Science is not a problem.
But scientists, those who do science, so you have an engineer,
and then you have engine, you have engineering, engineering has got
nothing to do with religion. But then you could have engineers,
right? You got psychology, and you've got psychologists, you've
got science. And you've got scientists say you have to
remember if there's anybody here who believes that there is pure
objectivity in the world, who believes is pure objectivity in
the world. Does anybody believe that?
Anybody believe in pure objectivity, that's a that's a
misnomer. You just got don't get that everybody's got subjectivity,
based on either person experiences based on personal study based on
environment based on in experience growing up, you're going to have a
biased, I know of people who have been married, both men and women.
I can't understand how some men just hate women. Like it just
doesn't, I don't get it. Because I've had a wonderful experience
with women. My mother was a wonderful woman, my sister's a
decent woman, and my wife is one of the best women in the world. So
I have no problems like, what's your problem? I know you get bad
women. But why do you think all women are like that?
Then you've got some women
who just have a problem with men.
And
because they've had a bad experience,
because they've had a bad experience. They've just written
men off as though every man is like that. They've tasted one man.
Or maybe they've tasted two men, tasty men experience. So now all
men are problematic. Can you not understand human beings are very
different. I may have five friends and they all gonna be different. I
have three brothers. They're all different. I'm not joking. I've
got three brothers. They are all different in a very distinctive
way.
My three brothers are very different. I've got three uncles
from my dad's side. They are very different from my dad. That's
brothers.
Siblings brought up in the same house.
same food, same parents, same schools, everything, but they're
different. This is the uniqueness of the human being, how can you
discount everybody else because of your bad experiences one or two
people or five people, even 10 people? The world is bigger than
that. Come on, give yourself a chance. Why allow the shaytaan?
Why allow the devil to take you away from the seriously? I mean,
who else does this? Who else divides people? Who else is it
that causes people to think everybody is bad? The Prophet
sallallahu Sallam himself said that if you think everybody's
messed up, then you're the most messed up of them. That's not the
word he used. He said, If you think everybody is destroyed,
Holika right, harlech everybody is destroyed, corrupt, messed up.
This is just the word I'm using in slang, then you are a Lego whom
you're the most messed up of them because of the way you think.
Be positive, be optimistic.
I mean, it does seem like I'm going all over the place. Right.
But that's the discussion for today is all over the place.
Because I want, there is no one point to discuss today. Because
there are so many different things. I want to discuss several
different things as just points of reflection and thought, just throw
them out there. Then I want to open it up to questions. Because I
don't want to create doubt where there's no doubt. Right? That's
not what I want to do. Because that's I don't want to be guilty
of that. There is no pure objectivity in the world.
Everybody has subjectivity. I've had people coming to me Muslims,
saying I don't want to marry, okay. Somebody's Indian or
Pakistani, I don't want to marry Indians and Pakistanis. Why not?
Because they come with baggage.
Who do you want to marry them? Okay, I want to marry from this
background. But don't they come with a baggage as well? It's just
the different baggage to yours. Right? They may not come with
Indian or Pakistani baggage. They'll come with Somali baggage.
If it's Somalian Somalians, don't you have baggage? Right? Everybody
has baggage Come on. Right. In fact, some people take one person
he says I don't want to get married. I want to get married to
a convert. So why? Because Muslims come with baggage.
don't convert come with a different type of baggage. I come
with baggage. Come on, man. Everybody comes in baggage. But do
you understand baggage? Right? Do you guys say the same thing in
Norway? In Norway in you guys say the same thing? baggage. Right?
Human beings sometimes this is the way we think. So it basically this
person is saying that among those who are already Muslim from the
various different backgrounds, whether they're Turkish Indian,
Egyptian Pakistani, Somali, I can't find any decent person, I
must find somebody who's a convert. I maybe they just enjoy a
different type of baggage. That's what they're trying to say.
It's just human fantasies, humans, the way they look at things. And
it's just self deception at the end of the day. So now going back
to the whole science thing. You've got scientists who are supposed to
be objective, and in the postmodern world we're living in
right the what characterizes the postmodern world. Currently, we
are in post modernity or even beyond that. What characterizes
it, especially in Europe is that they have taken away religion,
from public spaces. Right? Religion should not be in the
public space. Religion should not be in school. Religion should not
be in the workplace. If you are a Christian, then keep your
Christianity at the door. Don't bring it inside.
If you're a Christian, don't let it come into your teaching. Don't
let it come into your work. So slowly, slowly, religion because
it was a Europe was Christian, primarily Christian. They were
they were ruled by Christian, the Christian church. Much of much of
Europe. I can't speak for every area, but much of Europe was ruled
by Norway, was it rolled out? Was it a Christian? The church? Was it
the same thing? Right? I don't know do I know about France and
England and the mainland, but I'm not sure about Scandinavia. So
they've had a bad experience. The church did a lot of problems. Some
Muslims have also caused problems in the world, you know, and
because not every ruler, who claims to be a Muslim is a good
Muslim religion is as good as you practice it. The religion of Islam
is wonderful. I can keep going around and declaring that to
everybody, but it's only as good as me practicing it. If I practice
it properly. It's a wonderful thing. Otherwise, it's just the
claim. But Christianity, they did quite a bit of persecution. Quite
a bit of oppression was done in the name of Christianity in
Europe. And probably the worst place where that happened was in
France. That's why today you see France is probably the most
antagonistic towards religion. That's why they have an extreme
form of secularism.
An extreme form of liberalism, which is a militant liberalism, a
militant secularism. Right? Secularism is supposed to be that
let all ideas flourish. Let all ideas be exhibited and displayed.
But no, not if it's religious. That's becoming militant now.
That's why they don't allow women to go to beaches with clothing on.
Because that's against liberal values, according to my
definition, according to their definition of liberal values. So
what you have is you have unfortunately, you have some
scientists, like Dawkins and others who have an agenda. So
then, because science is very powerful today, because one of the
most dominant themes today is of science. This is the scientific
age. All right. So anybody who does science is given a very high
position, he's a scientist, wow, this is not rocket science. We use
this even in our, you know, in our expression to say something it's
not, this is not rocket science. So science is like the biggest
thing in the world, right? Science has told us many great things.
So now, if anybody is a scientist, and he's got grudges, he can abuse
science for that reason. I'll give you an example. I would say I'm
not an expert on this, right. So I'll make it very clear when I'm,
you know, done. I'm not an expert on these things. But evolution has
confused a lot of people. Reason is confused a lot of people is
because there are many fallacies that have been built into
evolution, the full theory, and have been taken as fact now and
not to be questioned. Now I can immediately sense that there are
people who are maybe sitting here like what he's talking about why
he's saying that for right.
If you don't believe me, there are two lectures, I would suggest you
go and watch because I said I'm not an expert on this, but I know
enough of this to be convinced about this fact. Right? And listen
to the lectures and then you we can speak. One is by Mufti is
Emilio Rahman, and the other one is by Osman Ali Molyneux Smita. He
is doing PhD in biology. And with these, Emile, he was a medical
student candidate at Cambridge. Then he became an ottoman Mufti.
They've done two lectures, they've done a series of lectures on
evolution. And they've shown how high school and college books on
evolution with the various depictions of how the evolution
would you call it progressed, where the those pictures and so on
have been debunked, have been shown to be false, but they still
continue to publish them.
Right, they still, I give you my personal example, I was reading a
book called, it's not rocket science. Literally, that's the
name of the book. It's by Ben Miller. So wonderful book, those
of us who are not into who are not from a science background, and you
want to understand science, like in a very easy format, astronomy,
food, food science, really good for those who like to cook, right.
I learned a lot from food science, right? Astronomy, and all that
it's wonderful when he got to the DNA, etc. When he got to the
section evolution. He said, while these facts cannot be proven,
right, but to question you can't question them, because they've
been agreed by the experts.
I would like this is where you lost me. This is where you've just
lost my trust. But at least you are, at least you are honest
enough to say that there is no proof for this. But it has to be
taken as No, he didn't say is no proof for it. He said though this
is a theory. And it's not fact. But it has to be taken as fact,
because I'm not I don't want to paraphrase. I don't want to
mention his exact words, because I can't remember them right now. But
that's where he mentioned that at least he was honest enough to
mention that fact. But he was saying you can't question this.
When there's a you see, what you have to remember is that when
there's a culture of something, a dominant idea that prevails, it's
very difficult for people to speak counter to that narrative. Because
everybody's gonna say you're stupid. Are you crazy? That's a
knee jerk reaction. That's the way humans react. That's why
some cultures are very bad cultures. If cultures are
oppressive cultures, like a culture, we have some cultures
where they're very oppressive towards their daughter in laws,
very difficult for people to break out of them. Now we can see that
clearly that that's a problematic culture. And it's only the very
brave and the very strong that will be able to come against that
culture. Otherwise everybody will say the same thing. And everybody
will do the same thing. So same kind of thing here.
If you look at evolutionary the proper objective mine and I'm not
saying that evolution is all wrong, there are many aspects of
evolution we as Muslims have or not like a lot of people because
they don't understand the whole evolution thing properly. They
just say what the Christian what some Christians say that all
evening
tradition is wrong. And the reason why Christians have to say that is
because in the Old Testament, there is a there is a statement
there of when the world 6000 Or seven, I can't remember how many
1000 years ago it was supposed to be created. And the whole
evolution theory goes against that. So because it goes against
the Bible, they have to literally throw the whole thing out. Now
there are certain aspects about evolution that you cannot deny,
that are clearly you know, clearly marked, but then to go back, and
then to theorize, and then you say, that's fact, that's highly
problematic, especially about the creation of Adam, at least some of
the first human being, that is a very, that is a very contentious
area. And that's where we can't negotiate at all right, and
there's no proof anyway, because it's going back too far. Right? To
project things like that in the past. So we're not saying that we
disregard everything of it. No, there are certain things that are
quite clear. But there are other things which are not clear, just
because some things are clear, you can't say everything is clear and
accept the whole thing. The fear of evolution is a massive, very
widespread theory. It's not just one thing. There are, it spans
several different, several different, what do you call it,
sciences and disciplines in which that has to be discussed. So
I would suggest anybody who's interested in that topic, because
I'm not a specialist on the, you would go to some, some
academy.com. And listen to those lectures, to give you that
understanding, all right, to look at it, and then you can discuss
it. So now what we have is that we have scientists who have an
agenda, who have some animosity, whether that'd be against
Christians, or Muslims or religions, they use their position
in science to, to basically
express that criticism. And people think now science is problematic.
Science is not necessarily problematic is scientists, those
who do science who have an agenda sometimes. Now, where this all
began from is that we we've got Richard Dawkins, as I'm trying to
go back and tie it all up now, right, so I don't leave any loose
ends. If I do, then please remind me of those loose ends, and then
I'll try to tie it up. So I started this point from in the
last 56 years is about five major atheists who have caused a lot of
confusion among people because they were very eloquent and then
the world of YouTube. And so we're talking about Sam Harris,
Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and then a few others.
Now, what's very interesting is that
Christopher Hitchens is an atheist. He's got a brother in
England, who's a Christian, and he's a journalist, his name is
Peter Hitchens, very interesting guy, he gave a talk a few months
ago.
And he was talking about how in the West religion has been pushed
out of the public space of public life, right from the media, from
work from other places, right. And he says, that soon, people are
tiring of consumerism, consumerism, which I started
talking about, is enough's issue is an ego issue. It's feeding the
self it's feeding one person's avarice and greed. Right? Just to
buy whatever you want. Looking for the next phone, looking for the
next product, the next upgrade the next update, right the next
handbag, and so on. For example, in America, there's one community
that I know and one of the the women they all their husbands are
like these doctors and engineers and they're always out of work.
And the women Pakistani women Indian women, you know they
they're at home and to keep you know, their husbands indulge them
right they make all the money and they said okay spend so one of
them was bought SUV a Mercedes SUV
and the Mercedes SUV are supposed to be very safe car. So because
the women are taking out the kids so okay SUV now
because she bought it her husband bought it for her all the others.
Now they also want their husbands to buy it for them. Right? You
This is humans we copy one another men do this women do this
everybody does this, right? This is humans what they do.
Consumerism
is not going to give the heart anything it just gives the ego
something. When you receive your Amazon order, and you open the
box. How do you feel?
Don't you feel really nice when you open the box? I don't know
what did you know what they put inside there? You work in Amazon?
What's the Deus they put inside that when it makes you feel really
good and euphoric? What is it that they put inside? Is it secret?
There's no secret that can we buy that stuff from Amazon?
Because if you could buy that we won't have to buy anything. We'll
just smell that dust every day. You know, I don't understand how
people buy things on credit. And then they pay for the next 10
years you bought some sofas in the house.
US, and you have to pay for the next five years, next 10 years. By
that time, by the time you finish paying, or before you finish
paying, you're gonna get one out. Or you buy a TV, a big TV, or
whatever, and I personally don't buy anything I don't have the
money for, I'd rather have it and enjoy it feeling I don't owe
anything on this, just this weird idea that just forcing us because
the whole economy works on how many people go to the shops at
Christmas, on a Black Friday. And other times, that is how they look
at the health of the economy today. And so we have to do this
we have to buy, right? So
he's saying that soon, though, people are going to get tired of
this whole thing. They're already getting tired, because it doesn't
give you it doesn't give you a real soul and your heart anything.
You need spirituality, you need something to sustain Allah,
basically Allah, He taught my inner Kulu. So then what he is
saying Peter Hitchens, he's saying that when that happens, and people
are going to look for some spirituality, Christianity will
not be a candidate anymore. The reason two reasons. One is it has
been taken out of the public, it has been taken out of society. And
number two, any Christianity which is left is a feel good religion
now. None of the difficult aspects of Christianity remains anymore.
All of that has been watered down. Right? Oh, that's just the spirit
that we just look at the Bible in a spiritual way. Right? We just
look at it as there are. I remember once when I came across a
quote from the Bible, saying that the swine is unlawful is the flesh
of pig is unlawful. So I was quite surprised if it's so clearly, you
know, for us, if there's something clearly in the Quran, you're not
going to have Muslims in at least the majority saying it's okay.
You'll have a few maybe who still say it's okay. But the majority
will never say that. That's the kind of we're used to. Right.
We're used to that kind of an attitude. So then I've got a
friend who is quite an expert in Christianity. He is from that
tradition. He also knows a lot about Islam. So I asked him the
question. And he said, Well, the reason is that in the third
century, they decided to excise do away with all dietary
restrictions. So I'm not sure what the rules are now, I guess if it's
healthy, it's fine. If it's not healthy, it's not you know, maybe
that's the modern rule. But there is nothing like the Jewish faith
and the Islamic faith, we still have a lot of dietary
restrictions, we have Halal have kosher and believe me, kosher is
much more difficult than halal. We can at least go outside and buy a
vegetarian dish. They can't even do that they have to get a kosher
vegetarian dish. Because even the vegetables have to be treated in a
particular way. They can't have meat and milk together. So for
example, if you had cereal for breakfast, you can't have meat,
according to one photo of this for eight hours. And the other photo
is four hours is a bit lenient fatwa, right, one photo is eight
hours difference. The other one is four hours difference. Ours is not
that difficult, believe me, we think it's difficult, right? Our
Hala laws and we can't buy this, we can't buy that. But there's our
even more difficult because I've I've I've been with, you know,
Jewish colleagues,
you know, several times, and it's very, very difficult for them.
So
Christianity, what's left of Christianity is just the feel good
religion, in fact, many churches what they're doing, and I don't
know about here, but in America and other places, to attract
people to come to church, nobody wants to come for worship anymore.
That doesn't sound modern enough to us anymore. Right? They do
relief work. And relief work is a very altruistic human demand,
though. And people come for that. Right. Otherwise, all the
difficulties have been taken out. So then Peter Hitchens says, he
says, Islam, people are going to look towards Islam, he said,
because Christianity is pushed out is become a feel good religion.
Chris, Islam is still a viable religion with all you know,
wholesome religion. He goes, people are going to look for look
in Islam. But then he gives a warning. And he's talking to
Christians. He's not talking to Muslims. But he's saying but
Muslims have to be careful because they've also got people who are
trying to water down their religion.
Right? You know, you've got fatwas hijab is not necessary. You got a
you don't need to pray. You don't need to do this. We got that fatwa
as well. Now, anybody who's got that kind of an idea and who finds
Islam difficult, personally, I would just advise them start a new
religion. And good luck to you.
Don't try to change this, you know, religion, the way we have
it, because I'm quite satisfied with it. I enjoy it, and a lot of
other people do as well. So I don't want you touching my
religion, the way it's been understood for 1400 years. But if
you don't like an aspect of it, we'll just make another one up.
Nobody's stopping you. post modernism, right, which means
relative truth. You do what you want. I do what I want. As long as
I don't harm you. I'm fine. That's what post modernism tells you to
do. What is post modernism that if you
believe in something well let you believe in that. As long as you
don't harm me with it, it's fine. Right? Modernity said there should
be one truth. But they discovered soon that they couldn't be one
truth. So then they went to postman and like relative truth,
your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth. And that is what
creates much of the difficulty today in Muslims. And I know that
for you guys in Norway, somewhat more challenging than in England.
We've got challenges as well, there's challenges even in Muslim
countries. So don't think there's any place in the world right now
that I know of where there's no challenges, maybe Turkey is
probably the best place so far. They have their own challenges.
But
England we have challenges. But I, from my experience coming back and
forth to Norway, both here, Berg and other places. I've heard that
in schools, they really challenge faith here. They really ask
questions, because when we've had questions before, even the last
time I came in, before that the questions were very, about faith,
how to, you know, reconcile faith with liberalism, with secularism
today, right, Islam. Now, the reason why that's so difficult to
deal with is because Islam or any religion should have some very
fixed ideas. Alright, follow a follow me on this. They have
fundamentals, axiomatic beliefs, an orthodox substratum of beliefs
that are non negotiable. Right, you know, we have some, some
issues in Islam, which are open to interpretation. There's a lot
there's a difference of opinion. But there are other things which
the world over Muslims, whether you'd be in Africa, subcontinent,
India, Pakistan, the West, every Muslim will believe in that same
thing. It's not negotiable, right? There are we have non negotiables
axiomatic fundamental beliefs.
What are the fundamental beliefs of secularism?
Something that was taboo 30 years ago,
and the Prime Minister of the UK condemned it, today is completely
fine. And if you condemn it, you are you are a problem.
Today, what is considered to be taboo? In 30 years, we don't know
what that's gonna be. incestual relationships, be sociality are
considered taboo today.
But in 20 years, 30 years, we just need the right effort. And there's
books about how to indoctrinate and change the, you know, what's
going on with Google, with, with Facebook, and that Cambridge
analytical, and the changing of perceptions. There are millions if
not billions of pounds being spent behind mind games influence,
right, and we need to wake up to the fact that we just don't become
part of that whole game, that we don't even think for ourselves
anymore. We have to think for ourselves. So when we have
liberalism and secularism, which is supposed to have no principles,
because everything is fluid, believe me, homosexuality, that
didn't take me by surprise, because that's something that
people have been involved in to certain degree, as you know, back
as you know, quite back. There's always been, you know, there's
always been people who've been, we've it's mentioned in the Quran,
etc. But the one thing, which really, really took me by
surprise, is gender fluidity. Children confused about the
agenda.
That took me by surprise. I don't know about you guys. But I that
was like, Wow, where did that come from?
How do you get away with that? But again, is because there's no
fundamentals. As long as you can get the public to start
tolerating something and then agreeing to it, it's fine.
Then the rest of us have to suffer with it. And that exposes those of
us who don't want that attitude, to, for example, come in front of
our children.
There's a there was an interview recently of this mother.
married for 20 years or something, and then a husband decided he's a
woman now.
Right?
And she says, look, what she's saying is I'm
I have I have experienced this. I'm in the middle of this.
Generally, the media puts out stories of individuals, and
celebrates them as the wow, you came out. That's wonderful. But
what about the whole families that they've destroyed?
Nobody speaks about that. It's not a fair game. And I'm trying to
say, and most of us don't care to research. We just take it. Okay,
good. Finished. I'm getting my food every day. I can buy whatever
I want every day. My life is good. My house is good. Right? My
marriage is okay, fine.
I don't need to look at this.
You could hear the sorrow, the anguish, the destruction in her in
her life that this is what's
happened to my husband? What do what do we do now? So secularism
has no fundamentals, as long as you can rile up enough support by
discussions and debates and so on is difficult in the first, but
eventually people get to accept these things. It becomes
permissible.
And that's because humans are making the decision. And the other
reason for that is, we have a course at white thread Institute,
we have a course called
The Islamic theology course, the faith foundations course. So in
the one module was the, the proofs for the existence of God, proofs
for the existence of God. Now, traditionally speaking, there's
been several proofs for the existence of God, the cosmological
proof, and you can search this online, you'll find them right.
There's various iterations of the cosmological proof for the
existence of God, basically, using the cosmic system, the whole world
and the universe to point towards the God. That's one proof. Another
one is called the teleological proof for the existence of God.
And then you've got the ontological proof for the
existence of God, these are three famous ones, and then you have
several other proofs for the existence of God. Right. So when
we were undergoing this study, I was thinking that maybe we should
devise, and this is a premature idea. Maybe we should devise an
experiment, like in a proper scientific way. Take 200, atheists
or people with confusion, and then expose them to each one of these
proofs for the existence of God and see which one is most
effective.
Right, but by the end of it, what I realized very clearly, is that
it will not be a sound experiment. The reason is, that every human
being is unique,
especially in this time of individualism, is he in the time
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, if you read the Sira,
the history of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, one of the
lead, there were two famous tribes in Madina Munawwara, the Arab
tribes, there were two famous Arab tribes, and who actually
essentially one from their forefathers, and there were three
Jewish tribes. And there were two famous Arab tribes, these two Arab
tribes, one of the leaders was Sadiq, no more earth, and the
other one is sad. IGNOU roba.
Right. One of the leaders became Muslim, he embraced Islam. And you
know what happened? The entire tribe, embrace Islam, because of
him embracing Islam.
Imagine, God forbid, your father came home one day and had some
other totally different idea.
You would find it difficult today for even children to follow their
own parents today. We're living in a time of individualism. Everybody
has their own thought. How many of you here? How many of you sitting
here, especially if your parents were or your children? I mean, we
could be other way. Right? If you're from We're originally from
one country, and you've come here, and the rest of us are born in the
West, different paradigms? How many of us think I know I don't
think 100% alike as my father? I know, I don't. How many of you do,
or your children for that matter? How many of you think completely
alike?
When they living in a time of individualism, that time was the
time of tribalism, it had its problems. But the one benefit of
it was that when one guy got it, right, everybody got it, right.
But today, that's not the case anymore.
So that is the experience of that time. But today, it's a it's a
totally different story. So as I said, science doesn't have a
problem, because science does not deal with several science can't
tell you how beautiful something is. That's not science. A statics
is not science. That's that's a philosophy. That's not science,
right? Science can't tell you about God, because God is matter
is above that. So science doesn't even have the realm of God in
there. Right? It's silent about God, it neither says yes or no,
God is a different. God is beyond that. But when scientists begin to
speak about God than they, as a scientist, that's a problem.
Right? That's a problem.
For let's take another simple example.
One of the biggest examples I've had this question posed to me
about three weeks ago, if God is merciful, right, these are cookie
cutter questions by the objections, right. If God is all
merciful, then why does He allow children to suffer?
Have you ever thought about that question, right? Why does he allow
children to suffer? Why does he allow anybody to suffer like why
children but what's wrong with adults? Right? Why should adults
suffer? Right? We always say the children, right? Well, what about
adults? Nobody should suffer if you don't want suffering. Now,
again, this is a question that is quite simple to understand. Number
one, this question is coming from a Christian perspective, not from
a Muslim perspective.
Right, so wake up and understand what the Muslim understanding of
Allah is. And this question will dissipate straightaway. Why don't
we know that Allah subhana wa Tada has at least 99 names? Have you
ever looked at those names? Carefully? Yes, Allah is Rahman.
And Rahim, merciful, gracious, Allah is where dude, the very
loving, right? Allah has many names of beauty mercy. Allah has
those names. But that's not the only Names of Allah. He also says
that all harm comes from him. He also says that he's the Avenger.
He will avenge. He's also the mighty one. Right, he is also the
one who will vanquish and who will take about, you know, when he has
to.
So
to think that, if there's a good merciful God,
you can't have suffering.
And that can't be reconciled is because your definition of God is
problematic is limited is restricted. Our God has many names
and all of those names can manifest themselves. So a simple
example that I give from a person experiences once myself and my
friend, we were standing in front of the Victoria Falls in Zambia,
right, you can see from the Zambia Zimbabwe inside the absolutely
beautiful, stunning display of that cascade of water that's
coming out is amazing. So either he said First he said, Look at the
beauty of Allah. I said look at the Majesty of Allah. beauty and
majesty are two opposing ideas, but they were reconcilable. The
Majesty, the whole majestic body of water, just plunging down, it
just kill anybody. But then it was beautiful at the same time. That's
Allah expect Allah's beauty and majesty being demonstrated in a
single in a single phenomenon idea.
Then, number two, who said that suffering was a problem? Why is
suffering a problem? If the imagine a world without suffering?
Would there be happiness than
if there was no suffering concept of suffering at all? Would you
ever have happiness? would we all be automations? Just going about
with no emotion?
Suffering is an emotion because the opposite of joy and happiness
and excitement?
There would be none of that everybody would be the same we a
boring world to be honest. People you see, I don't think people even
ask this question. even think of it too careful, carefully. They
just hear it Oh, yeah, that means God isn't there. I don't want to
believe in God, it's too difficult to believe in God. That's why,
right. So let me this is my argument against God.
The other thing is that, let's just say that there's a person who
doesn't believe in God and uses this as an idea. And he's got a
mother or an auntie who suffers for 10 years from cancer.
10 years suffering. I, God forbid that on anybody. Right. But it's a
reality. My mother suffered from Kansas, I know, now suffered in
cancer.
What is your worldview, about why she is suffering, why she is
suffering for if there is no afterlife, and there shouldn't be
suffering, but there is I mean, it's a suffering is reality. So
you know, you can hypothetically question it as much as you want,
but it's a reality. So let's deal with it. All right.
What is your view of why she's suffering? I know what my view is.
What is your view is she's suffering for no reason.
What a miserable world. For us as Muslims suffering
requires support and patience, and patience and perseverance and
endurance
is one of the most rewarded acts in Islam. Allah Bashir is Sabreen.
In NAMA, you were for sabe Runa eduroam vileda He sub
look at what Allah says, especially sabihin in give glad
tidings to those who are patient. Allah doesn't mince words in the
Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala doesn't use superfluous he does
not verbose. Right? He is very particular. It doesn't waste
words. But here he says, whatever shade is Siberian give glad
tidings to those who are patient and Latina Eva Asaba to masiva
Kalu in LA he were in Ida urogen. Those whom when a calamity strikes
them, they say we're for Allah right we are for Allah we belong
to Allah ourselves, and we're going to return to Him. So if my
water fell over I'm saying in that Allahu Ananda Roger mean that why
should I suffer so much as my water falling down? Or my handbag
becoming? What do you call it? Somebody dropped tea over it. Nice
Louie Vuitton bag. Somebody dropped tea over it. God forbid,
right? 500 pounds. bag and then somebody drops tea over it, or
somebody scratches your car. I'm gonna
To go back to Allah myself, it gives you a way to calm yourself
and deal with it.
They say in that Allah, Allah Iike him sort of atom. These are the
people upon whom our blessings. Allah loves these people so much
that it gives them blessings, Salah to Mirabeau him Rama and
mercy, what will our Eco home we'll move on. And these are the
guided ones because they know what to do. If you've got two people in
the world who are suffering, and one thinks that I'm going to be
rewarded for it, the other one doesn't know why he's suffering,
which one is better off?
Which one is better off? Do you think? From the way to deal with
it?
You guys don't know what Come on, man. Give me an answer. You want
me to do all the talking? Wake up?
The way in waiting for reward, at least he's got an idea. That Okay,
I'm gonna get something for this. Now, you know, the counter
question to this is like, that's just the that's just the theory.
Why should you believe what's the proof for that? You know what? I
have enough proof for that myself. But I'd rather have that than
nothing. They say that's just the feel good factor. Well, what's
wrong with having a feel good factor for human beings? Is that a
crime? To feel that you've got a theory? Is that a crime to believe
in that? Why should it be a problem to believe in that? Humans
need solace and comfort? And this is a mean that Allah has provided,
you can't prove you can't
prove that it is not being provided by God either. Just
because you deny God you deny all of this, you have to because if
you deny God, you can't, you can't accept free will. You can't accept
paradise and *, you can't expect reward and punishment, all
of that has to go down, then you're gonna have to try to answer
how people's experience of free will is to be explained.
I'd rather have that theory. So why did your Why did your auntie
suffer for 10 years for us? I know that my mother when she suffered
and she passed away from it Rahim Allah I know she's a shahid
because I've been told that anybody who dies in a sickness,
right one is dying on the battleground. That's a that's
difficult, but for people who die in an accident, there are 70
categories mentioned in the hadith of people who die when various
different ailments and sicknesses and accidents that they are
shaheed in terms of the Hereafter they will rise and they have
judgment as a shade. The benefit is that all their sins are
forgiven. The Prophet saw some said in a hadith in Sahih, Al
Bukhari, Al Maktoum who Shahidan the one who dies from a stomach
problem, a woman who dies, giving birth in pregnancy, or four due to
pregnancy is a shaheed. Now, at least, you know, we don't know
what's going to happen after we go. Right? Nobody can prove that
right now. From a you know, experiential perspective, but at
least for the people, she's left behind, they're going to feel
hamdulillah she died at a heat.
You see what I'm saying? Rather than somebody who has no theories,
like why did you die for?
Right as a miserable world? Why did she die for so all suffering
isn't. The other thing is that when there's a catastrophe that
hits an area, like a tsunami, or anything else, there will be some
people there whose lives have been miserable for a very long time.
Right? There's been miserable for a very long time. Now, this is, I
think, the you can say one of the fundamental points that we have we
as Muslims should bring to the forefront of our mind to resolve a
lot of these issues. And you know what that point is?
The point is that this world is only a testing ground, it is not
our final about
the hereafter is, this is just the test. If you can make that a
reality of our understanding, a lot of these questions will be
dealt with. That is why Allah has never promised that you will have
full joy in this world, that you will never that you will never
have a difficulty. The Prophet salallahu Salam our Prophet was
made to go through difficulties before he died. His sickness his
terminal illness before he died, he suffered such a degree his
daughter couldn't bear it Fatima the Allah and she said worker
Baba, oh, what pains that my father is experiencing? But her
father consoled her saying La Karbala became the herculean,
there will be no pain on your father after this day. Why did the
Prophet saw some have to go through pain? Why
when he was forgiven anyway. But you see, another thing that pain
does from a spiritual perspective, is that every bit that we
tolerate, our status is elevated in the sight of Allah. Now I know
that's a god aspect, right? So that you're gonna have to be a
believer together, but hamdulillah it makes me feel good. Right? So
the Prophet salallahu Salam is going to leave this world anyway.
He's even made to suffer so that his status is even more elevated.
And I think the other wisdom is that, as Omar had mentioned, that
if you are ever going through suffering, remember your Prophet
that he also said
Have it. Remember your prophet, he also suffered?
Right, he also suffered. I just want to clarify that, you know, a
lot of people say that when you're good person, your death will be
good. So how come the Prophet saw the loss and suffered, He was the
best of people? Well, there's two things here. One is the illness
from a worldly perspective, the body, the physical bio biology,
right physiologically, the illness that you have to undertake, that's
a worldly thing. But what when it says that a good person will have
a good death, that will be very easy. That's actually the
extraction of the soul. That is different to the sickness of this
world. Even prophets have undergone so many pains. That's
why when the prophets Allah, some in the 10th year, lost both his
first wife Khadija, the Allahu anha, and his uncle, who are
basically internal support his internal pillar, and Abu Talib,
his uncle was his outside support, he lost both of them in the first
year. That's why they call that animal whose name the year of the
two sorrows, he was made to suffer all the difficulties, because
suffering is not the sign of anything in this world.
But his death is how you go from this word happy that I'm finally
departing this world. And death then is a gift for the believer
because they finally going to God. So when a tsunami or anything else
takes place, for some people, they lifted out of their misery of this
world, and now they're enjoying the bliss. Now, if you remember
the talk I gave last time I came here about 1415 months ago, which
is about the journey of the soul after death, if I remember
correctly, where the soul goes, right, that should tie in with
this, that our belief of that is that if you die as a good person,
then it's all bliss for you until the day of judgment, then you go
to Paradise Alhamdulillah
Hamed, Hamdulillah, right, all praises to Allah for that.
But if you don't believe in the if you don't believe in that, then
you can't. Now there are some people there who are criminals. So
this is a punishment for them. For that first group of people, it was
mercy for the second group of people, it is a punishment, then
there's going to be neutral people in between Allah, Allah just
wanted to take them at the end of the way end of the day, we're
going to die one day, whether that be why is it necessary to die
after 70?
Generally, people do that, because we live in a predictable world
generally that people die around that age, but you can died, you
know, five, you can die at 10. What's wrong with that?
At the end of the day, the main thing is that any children who do
die, one thing we know for sure, children who die in any state, our
belief is whether they were Muslim, or non Muslim majority
opinion is that they will go to paradise.
Children of believers and children of non believers as well. The
stronger opinion is that both of these will go to Paradise reason
is that they did not come to an age of discernment, where they
became responsible for making a judgment of right and wrong. They
are innocent, so they innocent people will not be punished ever.
So what I would suggest is I'm going to, I think I'm going to
I'm going to maybe mentioned one or two more points, and I'm going
to stop here. And then I want to hear from you. Right? Because I
want to be able to answer your questions. And I don't want to be
like just telling you about stuff I think about and maybe irrelevant
to you. So that's why I want to open it up to questions. But the
main thing is this. You've heard of Imam Ghazali Abu Hamad Al
Ghazali. He died in 505 Hijiri. He's considered the revival of
that central century. He was a absolute master in philosophy and
theology in spirituality. I mean, he's just the genius, absolute
genius. He died when he was only 55. And universities are still
discussing him today. Right? Just absolute amazing individual.
He came to a point where he started saying that we as Muslims
are born in Muslim households. That's why we're convinced about
Islam. Christians who are born in Christian households, they brought
up as Christians, so they're convinced about Christianity,
do juice, same thing that doesn't make them right, just because
you're convinced about something that doesn't actually make it
right. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to go to the bare
fundamentals. And I'm going to use those as my guiding lights, just
the bare fundamentals, absolute fundamentals, and I'm going to use
that to try to understand what is the truth?
So he said, Okay, let me figure out first, what are the absolute
axiomatic beliefs? For example, does everybody agree that two is
greater than one?
Right? One half of two. That's an axiomatic belief. It's something
nobody has to prove. It's like, okay, everybody gets that. Right.
So, he said, let me start from that, but he says slowly
slowly when I opened up my mind to skepticism, this is what you call
skepticism to analyze something in a skeptical way to be skeptic.
Now, this is a philosophy, this is the skeptics. This is a
philosophy, this is an idea. You will have arch skeptics. If May
Allah protect us from becoming,
what do you call it overcome by skepticism? Because believe me,
then you will question everything.
For example, you will, somebody comes to you in questions, who
your paternity
prove to me that you are the child of your father?
How would you prove that? How few guys, anybody here was challenged
that prove that you are your father's son or daughter? How
would you prove it?
What What would be your first proof sisters? Yeah, that's a bit
complicated. They cost money. There's easier way, isn't it?
Birth Certificate. There you go.
What can you do online? Yeah, but then birth certificate is easy,
right? You have them in your house? No.
But you can Doctor birth certificates, you can you can make
one up. I could probably make one up for you. If I'm good at
typography. And if you go to Pakistan, they'll do it for you
anyway. All right. Maybe Somalia as well, maybe you can make birth
certificate in Somalia. A lot of them.
Okay, DNA test. Now those of you who know about DNA, it's
mashallah, it's it's an overwhelming type of evidence, but
it's not 100%. It's 99 point something.
Somebody I know whose wife is the head of a fertility clinic. They
had a case recently where they dealt with a couple who had come
in, and a very careful to have very particular procedures in
place. They had the IVF treatment, they had the child and then the
husband, the man, he's rejected denying the child.
And that basically brought in a big problem for the clinic.
Because does that mean this cross contamination then if it's, we use
your sperm? So how can it not be yours? So it was a very, they had
to bring in, they had to basically consult some of the top experts on
DNA in this case. And they found that this was an abnormal case.
This is a really weird case. So even genetic genetics can have a
problem and abnormality in there. So nothing is 100. But what I'm
trying to say is that if you want to be a skeptic, you will even
denies DNA, you will deny everything. All right. So if you
want to be a skeptic, that you will have no absolutes, no axiom
axiomatic beliefs, no fixed ideas, everything is open to doubt. And
there's people who have that kind of thing, that everything is open
to doubt. And that's why you know, if somebody suffers from OCD,
Allah, God forbid, I saw somebody like the inner will do in the
masjid, about two weeks ago. And literally, he's like, 1234, and
then still, right, taking so long to just watch one hand, and I'm
trying to tell him brother, it's enough. It's fine. You won't even
listen to me. He's so focused.
It's these are psychological, mental problems, right? Allah
relieve us and Allah protects us from them.
So what Imam Ghazali said is that when I started trying to look at
things from an absolute perspective, even the absolutes
became open to question. Even I started becoming suspicious of and
doubting the absolutes. And then he gives the following example,
which really hits the point home, he said, that
when you have a dream,
and you guys had a dream recently, a realistic seeming dream, where
you are being chased by a dog maybe you're in an accident or
some weird dream like that, and you feel like it's so true. You
even sweat everything. And then suddenly you wake up and it's like
Al Hamdulillah that was a dream.
Well, if you're good you'll say Alhamdulillah that was your
otherwise you will be freaking out you will tell the whole world I
saw this dream on our an interpretation and the Prophet saw
some said local Hulu Mina shaytaan. Bad dreams are from the
shaytaan all you have to do when you wake up and say I was a
bIllahi min ash shaytaan I seek refuge in Allah from you turn
around, ignore him and go to sleep. That's the best remedy. But
as soon as you get obsessed by it, you start telling everybody is
then like the guy that people bully in the playground. If you
know people, bullies try to bully people, but if the person they're
trying to bully deals with it, and just like shrugs it off and
ignores it. They don't feel like bullying that person because it's
not entertaining. But the guy who gets bullied who gets sensitive.
People like bullying them more. It's sad, right? People like
bullying them more because you get fun out of it. That's what shaytan
does. Ignore that
Dream. But when you were in the dream, didn't you think it was a
reality?
Did you have even a doubt that this was not real? You are
freaking out? You were scared. When you woke up at hamdulillah
suddenly everything was fine.
Right? You understand what I'm saying? So let me ask you a
question. Now. What about if this is a dream as well?
What about if this is a dream as well? And one day we're going to
wake up from this and all of this is a dream. How do you know that
something happened
this early Rahmatullah here today when he said that when I thought
about that, it was only Allah who helped me afterwards. Because when
you get to that level of doubt, where you just doubt everything,
then your life becomes miserable. Then the question is, what about
it? This is not even real. And there are people who deny this as
a reality. These are just illusions.
They This is not a reality.
So how far do you want to go?
So he said it was only Allah who saved me that's where Allah says
in the Quran, FM and sha Allah who saw the holy Lisa me for who are
already Mirabai that it is the one who Allah has expanded the breast,
for for, for the light of Allah.
Lil Islam, for Islam for submission, they are on the light
from the Lord. They are on the light from the Lord.
That's why I was watching. I was reading about an an article that
was written about these atheist guys in America, Muslims would
become atheists. They were ex Muslims. And they were going
around universities explaining their story. one's name was
Muhammad. Actually, Muhammad the eighth is such an oxymoron. What a
weird idea. That is, right?
So one of them, or one of them was asked by the reporter. What about
your families? He said, The families have disowned us. And you
know, we're not in touch with our families and everything. How do
you feel about that? I feel very bad. You know, everybody wants
family. So we feel very bad about that. So then he asked him a
question. He says, wouldn't he have been easier just to believe
them? said yes, but we can't.
Yes, but we can't. That, that struck me a lot. Because at the
end of the day, while we do look for arguments and proofs, and
everything else, at the end of the day,
there is a bit of Divine Decree here.
And if there is a person who has doubts, they need to really and
they want to believe because there are people I've had, they've come
to you that we've got these doubts, but we want to believe we
need to try to help. One person became one person sent a question
to me saying, I don't feel any pleasure in my prayer. So I don't
want to pray anymore. Because I don't believe that because of
that. Another person says, I don't feel any pleasure in my prayer.
Can you help me find that pleasure in my prayer? Why would one person
have that perspective? Why would you have the other perspective?
See what I'm saying? This again, you know, Allah says in the Quran,
Allah BL Ron, Allah could obey Him, but taba Allahu Allah could
be him. Right? Allah has sealed their hearts. Sometimes we've done
something which is so serious, that we stop feeling like wanting
to do good, good things. A seal is placed on the heart. That's why
you know, the Hadith says that whoever misses three June was
three Fridays, taking them lightly. Not considering
significant most people say they become careful but that's not what
the Hadith says. The hadith says that Allah puts a veil on their
heart, a seal on their heart, so then they just don't feel like
doing anything afterwards. So maybe it's a sin make Toba to
Allah subhana wa Tada. Allah will always guide those who sincerely
look for him. Anybody who sincerely searching, God will
guide them if they're sincere. But you know what, Islam is difficult.
Any faith is difficult, because it goes against your whole ability to
do whatever you want. Any religion is like the if you want to be
serious about religion,
especially Islam, right? You're gonna have to give up and
sacrifice and giving up and making sacrifice is difficult. It's just
easier not to believe. That's why I'll tell you something from the
statistics. I most people who don't care about their faith are
not atheists. They don't necessarily deny God. But you know
what they are, they are apathy lists.
They have apathy. Apathy means indifference. I don't care
attitude, who cares? I've got my food, I've got my sustenance, I've
got my clothing. I've got my car, I've got my life. I don't need to
care about these things. Why do I need to believe
this is some of the problems that we're incurring. We ask Allah
subhanaw taala to guide us We ask Allah to guide us and give us
strength and save us from doubt. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa
taala to
protect us our progeny until the day of joy
judgment and give us satisfaction because, you know, I talked about
the I talked to you about the intellectual proofs for the
existence of God.
To be honest, there's always somebody who can counter a proof.
Right? Intellectual gymnastics, is just whoever gives the better
argument. But one thing, which will never be put into doubt is
experience. If you can wake up in the middle of the nights and do
vicar and actually feel the presence of Allah with no
distraction,
that person is never going to be that person is never going to be
taken away. That person is never going to have a doubt. If you felt
the coolness of your, your heart in prayer, if your prayers have
been answered, If you've made an effort, and Allah subhanaw taala
has given you the pleasure and the Halawa to Iman, that is the
biggest proof because that's experiential proof. Nobody can
deny that. So don't let your religion just be an intellectual
religion. Let it be a spiritual religion where you actually make
an effort to have it come to the heart, because Allah says we're
Latina. Ermanno Asha Hogben. Linda, that those people who
believe they love, they are the most intense lovers of Allah. When
that happens, Allah opens it up to you. Right? Then I'm saying this
from a believers perspective, because this won't go down well,
from an unbelief perspective, right? I'm saying this purely for
believers, right, that this is what it is. You want more strength
in conviction, you need to show your love to Allah subhanaw taala
he will give you more love. Right? We ask Allah to make that easy for
us. Welcome to that run on hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. Right. So
there is that? Why didn't God
just make it that everybody just feels his presence? Right? That
would have been easier? Personally. Yeah, it would have
been easier. Like if everybody could just directly feel that
presence easily. Now look, people can feel his presence and Allah
does he let his presence be felt, there's no doubt about that.
People were, you know, when I said at the end, you must feel His
presence. And that will just make it so much easier when you've
tasted it. Now, if we could just give that to everybody as a
default, whether you like it or not, then this world would not be
the test. We have to not forget that. Remember, I mentioned
earlier that the off the hereafter is the main world forever. This
world is a temporary world 1015 20 100 years, maybe that's
temporary compared to infinity? I know, it's difficult to grasp that
in our mind. Because we think this world is the end all of
everything. This is it. You only live once you do only live once.
All right. But basically, the idea is that if that was the case, then
the other Why don't you go one step further. That why didn't you
just make everybody Muslim? Okay, forget that. Why didn't you just
Allah didn't leave Adam and Hawaii in Paradise, and just keep shaitan
out of the picture. So they would never have been Miss LED. And we
would have never had to do this. These are all hypothetical
questions that are basically probably useless at the end of it.
Because really, at the end of the day, we're living a reality of
some sort. We're living a reality here. And we have to try to find
the best thing that fits this, not something that fits a hypothesis,
that is not a reality. So the reason why Allah sent a man and
not for example, an angel which he mentions in the Quran himself,
right, that if I'd sent an angel, people are gonna say, we can't
relate to angels. They don't need they don't drink. They don't
sleep. But it's a man like you. Look, he's from your own people.
And then the fact that he was Arab? Well, as we can see, you're
in no way. Am I speaking Arabic but I'm not speaking to you in
Arabic. I'm speaking to an English right? Here, the system is there
for propagating this faith from Arabia. You can't say Islam is an
Arab faith anymore. Because in if you just look at India, forget
Pakistan and Bangladesh and Indonesia, if you just look at
India, where Muslims only 15% of the population 15% as 200 million
Muslims, more than the whole Middle East put together more than
Muslims in the Middle East.
And most of them don't speak Arabic. So the fact that Allah has
provided for the Dawa, for the invitation to reach even without
us, but the main thing is that this is a question against the
reality of something. This, the main answer really, is that this
world is a test. And Allah wants you to design it this way. We
can't question him about it. We're part of that test. That's our
belief. All right. Now you're gonna say but that might not
convince him. It's not my job to convince you. It's not anybody's
job to convince everybody. If there's one person who came, who
mentioned that, you know, what I've got a colleague is a man and
his colleagues, a woman said, I've been giving her dower for two
years, and she doesn't she won't accept what should I do? I said,
don't do anything. Go and talk with somebody else. Why are you
obsessed with this woman?
We're gonna marry her or something. And that's not your
problem. But I'm saying that's that problem, right? There's so
many other people you can give Dawa to, nobody is required to be
a super Muslim, like a Superman Muslim, that I can give you any
answer. There are cases when people have come to me, I don't
know the answer, I don't know the answer, I will try to find out for
you. But you don't have to be a super Muslim. And you can't
convince everybody. You can sometimes husbands can't convince
their wives wives can't convince their husbands or other ideas.
This is just another one of those things. We do our best, right? We
do. But the main thing is that this world is a test ground.
That's Allah, he chose to do it this way. And we're going to have
to deal with it that way. But we have a theory that makes sense.
And it's worked. Because there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world,
at least among the 7 billion population of the world, it must
mean something, then you're going to say, how come if it was true,
how come? It's not the majority?
That's another question. Right?
If Islam was the truth, how come it's not a majority? Well,
the majority, what kalido mean? arriba. The Ushiku does Allah
says, unfortunately, most people get in this test world. Most
people they get misled. They get misled because of their knifes and
their desires. And the very few serious ones. When I say few, I
mean, there's a good proportion anyways, like 1/3 of the 1/3.
Right, majority is not approved for anything, haven't you seen in
countries where the majority voted for something and then they found
out he was messed up afterwards? Right? Democracy, that's one of
the problems with democracy. Democracy is great. It has other
benefits. But that's one of the problems that the media can
convince you, like they did in England about the referendum.
Right, and Brexit and everything. And now Now, a lot of them are
regretting it, except the very arch diehard Brexiteers. Right.
Okay, let's move on. What is your response to people who say I
believe in God, but not in religion? I'm spiritual, but not
religious? Why not? Because it's easy. I would like to know why
not? What makes you not want to religion? People might say, Well,
it's because religions I've seen him fighting. Well, it's not
religions that fight. It's individuals who use religion to
fight if you really look down, that's what you'll see. There are
greedy people, and religion did not make them greedy. They just
religion is one of the best excuses. That's the problem.
Religion is one of the best excuses to get by to get your, you
know, to get your give your cause the legitimacy. Right. That's just
a misunderstanding of religion. That's a fitna that said, that's a
trial. All right. So you have to really find out.
Is it because you don't want strictures? You don't want bounds
boundaries? I believe in God, okay, what does that mean? What
are you supposed to do, then if you believe in God, if you don't
believe in a religion, religion is just a cohesive way of believing
God. Just telling you what God is telling you. That's what it is. So
come on out of all of the various different interpret religions,
pick one, pick Islam, because that's the latest one, right?
After Christianity, Judaism and Christianity, and so on and so
forth.
I'm just being very fast we could, to be honest, uh, you know what?
These questions are very difficult to answer. Because they're loaded
questions. And there's a whole thought process of where these
questions come from. That's why whenever your colleague at work,
or university asked you a question like this, don't jump to answer
the question. Say, if you don't have the time, then say, well,
let's go and sit down and have a cup of Jay.
Do you know what Jay is? Right? And if you can't bring them home
to make a proper dcgi, then take him for a chai latte? They do them
in places, right? You know what I mean? You need to be relaxed. And
then you need to ask them why do you ask this question? Where is it
coming from? What's the background to this? Then you can help them or
otherwise? A lot of the time we get stuck in a question, and it's
not going to get you anywhere? Right? That's why I find these
questions very difficult to explain. Sometimes I can we can
give some general answers, but they don't work for everybody,
because everybody has separate experience experience. What are
the reasons for rejection of faith, arrogance, fear,
justification, or following knifes all of them?
All of them? I explained before that some people have an
intellectual problem because they haven't seen the arguments from
other side. For some people. It's a spiritual problem. In fact,
there are a lot of people who are atheists have given up religion
because of the bad experience because of overly strict parents,
overly script scholars, overly script, overly strict culture
control demands. One woman who was about 40 or so when she called me
she was married to a non Muslim, Pakistani woman, right, married to
a non Muslim. And she asked me a question. So I said, How did you
we got talking and then I said, How did you end up marrying a non
Muslim because clearly she had a conscious and she was worried. So
why did you do that versus that? Well, when I was much younger
My family forced me to marry my cousin or somebody, you know, you
know the story, right? And we had no compatibility, nothing,
whatever. And basically, they tell you that this is Islam. They don't
take anything out. They don't pray nothing in the house. But when it
comes to marrying your cousin, that's Islam.
So for that child who doesn't know anything else about Islam, except
that you must marry your cousin, then that's a very interesting
Islam, isn't it? That's a crazy Islam that they have. I'm not it's
not a simplistic always like that. But a lot of the time all atheists
need is pastoral care. They're looking for some they've had a bad
experience, not talking about everybody I'm talking about. A lot
of them are like that. And some people, they just don't want to
they apathy, I don't care. I've got I've got my, you know, my job,
I've got my life, I don't need to worry about all of these things.
One day, then the emptiness hits them. So it could be many, many
different reasons. Number three, how should Muslims give Dawa to
atheists? Is this a fourth or fourth key fire?
I mean, whether to atheists, non atheists, whatever, let's not
blame atheists for everything, all right.
There's a requirement for everybody to give Dawa. In fact,
according to some major scholars, even in the UK and other places,
one of the justifications for us even being here is that we must
share our faith. So I think it's to some level everybody's
responsibility. When I mean responsibility, I don't mean that
you become like Jehovah's Witnesses and start leaving
leaflets everywhere.
That's not what I mean. And going on knocking on people's doors. The
best hour is that you find out more about your own faith
and carry your faith on you. In terms of trustworthiness, honesty,
beauty, right? I don't mean just looking good. But Beauty means
beautiful character, helping people compassion, empathy,
reflecting the profits or the loss in your life, that is the best
hour you can have, because people are looking for that. Not cheating
the system and messing around and basically just being selfish. So
yes, everybody has that responsibility.
How should what is your advice to people who are sincerely searching
for the right path, I've heard that men and Muslims claiming that
they have been searching only to end up as agnostics
that they have to genuinely seek, I've never been once icon, you
know, I,
I can only pray for them. But I can, I can say for sure, from the
very numerous verses in the Quran, etc, that if somebody sincerely
looks, and then sincerely reflects that, what's stopping me from
taking this on?
For a lot of people, what's stopping them is that they just
don't want to, oh, you're gonna have to pray five times a day,
you're gonna have to stop.
Whether you call it dating, you're gonna have to stop drinking. I
love you know, my sharing your wine or whatever, you know,
there's sometimes really small issues that are stopping people
from the whole thing. There's one Hindu woman who became a
girlfriend of a Muslim guy. And then she got interested in Islam.
And he said he would marry her. But then it didn't work out.
His parents didn't allow it. Now, she said that I did not want to
become Muslim just for his sake, because he wouldn't marry me in
that time. Otherwise, anyway. I wanted to do it for myself. So
then, I said, Look, anytime you need help, let me know. About
several months later, she sends me a message that look, I'm at a
point now I need to do something that man was out of the picture.
Now. She had read the Quran. Now. She got to the end of reading the
Quran. And she says, Now I can't go back to what I used to believe.
And there's no way I can do that. And there's no way I can go
further on without embracing Islam. But I have to come to the
point where I must do it and Al Hamdulillah within the next day or
so she became Muslim. Right? I as another guy in America.
He attended every single one of our classes in the masjid for
about seven months more than even the local Muslims. He was there
for every program.
He was not a Muslim. I let him be. I never told him believe believe
like I never said that because you can't force somebody to believe
belief has to come from your own self. I just entertained these
questions. One day, I was at home and I get a condiment was a knock
on the door call or whatever that so and so no one seemed very it
was like what happened now? He was like, that's it. I need to take
the faith. Now. It takes a while for some people.
But if they're genuinely sincere, they will keep looking one day
they will get it Inshallah, but find out why you don't want to do
it, I would say find out why you what is bothering you. Right? What
is bothering you? Why don't you want to do it?
Okay. Okay, that's, I'm glad you brought that question up.
There's a simple answer to it. No, no, no, never fear it. So what the
brother is asking is that
Muslims are cutting people's heads off. Muslims are terrorists, most
of the terrorism in the world is done by Muslims.
Let me let me tell you let me this is what they say. Right? How do
you answer that? How would you guys answer that? Tell me what's
the best answer today? Most of us will say, yeah, man, this bad day,
the bad apples. They're the bad group of the family. That's what
you're gonna say. Is that, isn't that the answer? You're gonna
give? That's your best answer. But that is not the answer at all. Do
you know why? Because it's the wrong question. In the first
place, it's a false question. Muslims are not the biggest
terrorists in the world.
But when somebody asks you that question, because I'll tell you
what it is. How many shootings have there been in America in the
last two years? Think about it. How many shootings? Have they been
in America in the last two years?
Right. Tons of them.
But which one of them when it's a Muslim? When it's a non Muslim,
they'll talk about it for one day, two days, three days, and then
after we they'll give you a roundup of it, maybe and they'll
say, oh, whatever, you know, when it's a Muslim, Oh, no. Now
terrorists, that word comes up. It's never a terrorist. Otherwise,
oh, that word comes up. The
analysts come in all these big experts, they bring them in and
the whole day they talk about it for weeks on end. So then you
suddenly start feeling man, this is the biggest catastrophe
even though the more people that died otherwise, two guys died here
three guys. It's too much too many already. But they make that seem
to be the worst thing. Right. And, you know, there's not just the
emotional claim. They've done research that shows that Islam has
been linked whenever they mentioned Islam, backwardness,
Islam,
violence, Islam, evil, Islam, and psychologically you know,
everybody's happier proud about your your Sudanese, Gambia you're
proud of the Gambia, right. But there are bad people in Gambia,
like, you've got bad people in Gambia. Now, if somebody says
Gambians are bad people are gonna say, no, they're not bad people.
People are gonna tell you Pakistanis are bad people. Right?
Indians are bad people like, no, they're not. That's my first
reaction. They're gonna say no, but you know, don't, don't you
remember so and so in Pakistan. Right, so and so in Gambia, the
previous you know, whatever, right. And you're gonna say, A,
slowly, slowly, you're gonna start getting convinced. Muslims have
maybe been made convinced that you're bad people that you're
terrorists, and is part of the religion, in fact, to a certain
degree.
What you need to answer that question that I found to be the
most effective is statistics.
Go and look at the statistics online of terrorists and
proportion of various religions, ideologies. And you'll see that
yes, Muslims have had terrorists, no denying that. But there are a
minority when you look at all the terrorism in the world.
Without statistics, you are lost. The way to answer this is
statistics. Because statistics is science. People are infatuated
with science, you're going to have to use it. Right. Another
question, similar one. Just want to another question. Similar one.
Why don't you muslim? Speak out?
Something's just happened. Something's been bombed. Why don't
you muslim speak out. Now, you're already troubled. You need
condolence. All right. And you're like, I don't know. Alhamdulillah,
there's a website, I forgotten the name of it. But if anybody wants
it, I can, I can give it to them. They've listed on that website. I
think it's even a non Muslim have done this. listed all of the major
scholars and nearly all the major scholars names on the everybody
from
Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, to move the ALI Jumeau, to bemba's to all
the big names, Tucker use money, where they've condemned and
they've got the links and everything is a massive list. But
when you don't have this at your fingertips, and I know we as Imam
should be telling you this from the members, right so that you
have the knowledge to be able to respond to this, then you will be
confident whenever you have to answer questions, answer questions
with your back straight, never like oh, yeah, that's a bad
problem. But for that, you're gonna have to educate yourself. So
that's why whoever organized this, may Allah bless you for doing
this. Next question.
Yes, the question Brother is asking is a very spiritual
question, right.
The question is that a lot of this goes down to
enough's the soul, the ego, the weakness of the self. So how do
you improve that? Tell me if I'm if I'm not right, how would you
improve that? What are the steps you can take? Now? I've got
several answers to that several lectures on that seven steps to
corrupt to
correcting the corrupt enough. So something on some sites, numerous
lectures on the right, we've done several lectures on May Allah
accept them and make them useful. But the main thing is that we as
Muslims, I think, what we need to do, we really need to do, I'm glad
you asked, we really need to do something about this. Aside from
our prayers, I think we need a daily litany a time with Allah,
we're not connected to Allah. This is our problem. I know we kind of
going away from philosophy, theology, and creed to
spirituality, but it's, this is what it is. There's a blog online,
they had run a run a course on atheism 10 weeks, I had the last
session, and that was about spirituality. And it's because the
answer is in Imam Al Ghazali, the same person I told you who was
searching, he said he found the answer in spirituality, which is
that you did take some time to get to know your gods, by sitting and
doing vicar of Allah, it's with the Dhikr of Allah, your heart
will become calm. So I would suggest for example, every day you
do at least 100 Stick far. Because that will remove the sins which
prevent us from getting close. A stock fear Allah stuff will 100
times morning and 200 times in the evening, then do 100 Durood Sharif
Salawat morning and evening that will invoke the blessings. Read
some Quran with some thought and reflection, even if a page even
half a page, then sit for at least five minutes and just
meditate about Allah.
If we don't give time to Allah, it's a big trouble. Another thing
that I would suggest, I'm glad you asked this question. These are
three books that I would really really suggest. Firstly, we've got
the saviors of Islamic spirits.
A lot of the
demoralization, the feeling that man, Islam is being attacked right
now we are literally in you know, we are suffering at this point.
Allah has brought us in this generation that we're suffering.
But it's not been the this is not the worst. We've had so many times
that have been so much worse than this. But when you don't know
that, you feel like, this is the worst. This book I read when I was
about 20. So then we published this, after working on it for
about 10 years, because they had an old translation of the 1950s.
That sounded archaic. So we've modernized it with an
introduction. And I believe this is an answer to a lot of
understanding of what's going on in the world. It talks about this
first volume, this this book, it talks about the first seven
centuries, the ups and downs of the ummah. And some of that time,
there was a time in muscle AXA, where there was no prayer there
for over 90 years, it had been overcome, there was a cross on top
of the copper to Sahara, and there was no other no prayer, no
Muslims, right? Today, it's a depressing when you look at what's
going on there, but it's been worse. And in here, it shows the
ups, the downs, and then Alhamdulillah, the up, down and
then the up. This gives you a real good way to look at and reconnect
and re understand the wisdom behind things. Number two more in
general issues of what Islam is. A lot of us
if I tell you that your understanding of Islam is from two
sources,
maybe three, one because you're most of you who are born in a
Muslim house, that is what your parents told you as Islam. That's
your first source. Your second source is the local mall reserve
that you went to study by. Right? Generally they teach a bit, right?
Number three, maybe from lectures and bonds and, you know, programs.
Have anybody done a formal research of Islam, like read a
proper book about Islam? Why should a Muslim read a book about
Islam? You're already Muslim. To understand converts are much
better sometimes than us who are born as Muslims. That's why this
book I read this book is done by a principality who's a he's the
cousin of the King of Jordan. But he's a scholar. He's got two PhDs
as a serious guy, one one PhD from us one PhD from Princeton
University. Right? And this book is one of the most amazing books
I've read, because he goes and gives an understanding of what
Islam is in this modern century. And he was brought up in the West
though he's Arab, he speaks English better than Arabic. Right
but mashallah, he's a very religious person, and I can vouch
for that because I know him personally. I would suggest
anybody serious should read this book seriously. And number three
is this al Hizbul album which is a book of doors. You want
spirituality. I believe that the reason the Ummah
basically the Muslim ummah they survived through many ups and
downs.
The reason is I think that they all would read something. Aside
from their daily prayers and everything. This collection of
doors here is so powerful that it's got all the doors in there of
everything we should be asking from Allah subhanaw taala. Even if
you don't realize it's important to ask, When do I in the O Allah
saved me from evil old age? We don't even think about that right
now. Oh Allah make the best of my days, my final days, right? We
don't even think about that. If you can read this book and even
finish it once. You want to read it more often maybe finish it
every two months or three months read just two pages a day. Right?
Then in sha Allah, it will help to develop the spirituality we have
to make an effort. If we don't make an effort, then and then we
want it to come for free. It's difficult. Especially just answer
this. Yes. Okay. Very quickly. Then. You mentioned that people
can become shaheed based on what they died from. I was told by
friends and families that my brother and his family that died
of fire in the Grenfell tower Yeah, Allah, data Shaheed in sha
Allah there, there are 70 people in sha Allah there's a book that
was written by one of my teachers in order to do about those 17
people. And I don't think there's anything like that in English I
want to inshallah make do I want to bring that into English.
Alright, so that people will know the 70 categories of people. So
definitely, if you died in an accident, you are a type of
Shaheed in sha Allah Alhamdulillah I had the belief in God, Allah
since I was little, but I don't see that in one of my daughters,
and it worries me very much. What can you do if your children refuse
to believe and follow Islam besides making dua, you have to
show them the beauty of Islam
that somebody else is showing them the beauty of something else,
maybe we haven't shown them the beauty of Islam, we're gonna have
to change our tactic. Change the whole of the way we do things,
we're gonna have to become more spiritual and more explanatory of
why we pray, why we fast why we do good things. What happens if you
do the good things not that you must train you must do this and
you must cover and this, that and the other. We're going to have to
change our attitude completely. Learn more about the Quran, look
at the Hadith, and
be more effective, and of course, carry on with your DUA.
But anyway, just like Allah here for all of you sitting here, may
Allah bless you all. May Allah bless us all. We're just trying
our best. We're trying our best. So let's make a quick die in sha
Allah and then we'll finish Allah Amanda salaam Inca salaam debark
to the rigidity with the Quran. Allah Who Maria del Jalali will
economia UMX Yeah, Hana Yama, Nan La Ilaha illa Allah subhana Inaka
nanobody mean, O Allah, we ask You for Your Mercy of Allah We want
your mercy we want your forgiveness We want your attention
of Allah turned to us with your special attention. Oh Allah
without you we would be nothing Oh Allah do not let let our hearts
remain devoid of your of your love of Allah do not deprive us of your
love of Allah we know we can't offer you too much of Allah we
know we have many challenges out there. But Oh Allah, we want to be
close to you make that easy for us. Oh Allah make your obedience
beloved to our hearts. Make your disobedience hated in our hearts.
Oh Allah we ask that you forgive us all of the sins that we have
committed, whether we remember them or whether we forgotten them,
whether they have become part of our life and we don't even know
that their sins anymore. Oh Allah give us understanding make us
better people. Oh Allah make us true diaries. Oh Allah make us of
those who are considered to be valuable and productive in this
world. Save us from wasting our time. Oh Allah, allow us to be the
guides of the guided ones. Oh Allah allow us to be forces of
good in this world. protect us from being forces of evil. Oh
Allah protect us from our knifes and the consumerism. And oh Allah
being overcome by all of the desires of this world, oh Allah
help us of Allah assist us. And Oh Allah, us and our children and our
progeny. Oh Allah, keep a steadfast on your faith, keep a
steadfast on your faith, and don't allow us to be taken over by
doubts. And Oh Allah, we ask that You grant us the Karim, Allah
Allah Allah Allah on our deathbed and our Allah you reward all of
those who are here today and who have listened today. And Oh Allah,
those who have organized this program and organizers who've
allowed this place to be used and everything else and Oh Allah, we
ask that you give them a great reward and do not let any of us
being turned away from here without being completely forgiven
of Allah send you abundant blessings on our messenger
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Subhan Allah because
mobilicity and mercy former Salam and Omarosa you know Al
Hamdulillah here