Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – God, Islam and Atheism
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hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen
wa salatu salam ala Murthy Ramadan Nila Alameen
were either early he was Safi or Baraka was seldom at the Sleeman
Cathedral on Ilario Medina,
a mother had called Allahu Baraka with the Isla Quran emoji they
will for corneal Hamid where Illa who can either who are
either ill who are Rahman Rahim Bacala Tyra Allahu Allah Illa Illa
who Allah you will pay you later who who Cena to one unknown
Bacala Tada Atlanta La ilaha illa who Allah Aziz al Hakim Okada,
tada. Valley Kamala horombo comme la ilaha illa who heard the cuckoo
militia in Ferragudo well who are the militia you will kill
my dear respected brothers and sisters do your honor my dear
friends
finally after I don't know how many years I mean, Dustin,
heard so much about Dustin whether that be called facts fiction.
Yeah, fictions Yeah.
Come all the way to Walsall but never to Dallas than not sure if I
came to drop somebody off once. But I've heard so much about you
or your your Masjid your community. And this Masjid is like
the Nuneaton masjid, right. Just smaller scale. I think it's a bit
smaller.
So alhamdulillah we're here today and we pray to Allah subhanaw
taala that Allah subhanaw taala make this a blessing.
Match this for us Mashallah. MashAllah Adam sub he already
chased Allah Shayateen away, right with the La ilaha illallah Amin I
don't think any shouting could have carried on with that and be
sustained Mashallah. The powerful Kadima of Allah, the powerful
formula of faith La ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah.
Now the difficulty in discussing atheism to a group of Muslims is
this. If I'm going to tell you about atheism, which means the
denial of God, questioning God doubts about God, then I may
actually be creating doubts. And there's no need to do that. Why I
mentioned adult for example, once the mom a shady, Rahmatullahi
alley, he went to a debate and he had some of his people with him.
And he did. Initially he didn't say anything, he let the other
person speak, the other people speak and this wasn't he was not
debating with atheists, he was debating with other sectarians
Imam actually, himself had initially started off as a
rationalist martyrs, really a deviant sect. But then later, he
had seen a dream of the Prophet sallallahu is according to various
different opinions, and he had gone into the big Masjid of bustle
and he'd said, Look, I'm no longer this and he took off his top a
shawl, or some kind of rap he was wearing and he said, just the way
I shed myself of this, likewise, I shed myself of my former beliefs,
he was actually marked to be the next star of the martyrs series.
But then mashallah, he turned and he started to then attack them, he
had the right kind of information to do that. So, he sat there and
he let the other person speak and mentioned all the doubts. And once
he finished, then he responded to them. So somebody asked that Why
did you let him speak so much? He said, Because I didn't want to
voice the doubts from my own tongue. I don't want to bring
those doubts up. So that's why it's always a bit of a complicated
issue. If you have no problem with with Allah subhanaw taala
inshallah we don't and inshallah this La ilaha illa. Allah Anna,
you know, mashallah, that just solidified in our hearts anyway.
So then there's no point. So I should just leave now.
Let me just talk about a few things. And then what I want to do
is, I want to let you ask questions, because whatever I
might say, maybe just useless to you.
Right, and may not be beneficial to you. So I'm going to mention a
few points. I'm going to try to equip us with how to deal with
questions. Because what we have to realize is that no longer do we
live in a world where religious religion is considered to be
sacred. Religion has pretty much in the western world since the
last 3040 years, maybe a bit more has been pushed out. Definitely
out of the public domain is pushed out of media. It's pushed out of
schools, it's pushed out of workplaces, even if you're
forgetter Muslim, even if you're a very strong Christian, you need to
leave your Christianity at the door. You can't go into your work
with Christianity. You can't let Christianity inform your job.
That's not objective. That's subjective.
Right, that's what they believe. So, religion in general, not just
Islam, Islam is only one that's kind of resisting. That's why the
attack seems to be against Islam more, but otherwise for the law.
last 5060 years or so, Christianity has been slowly
driven out. So for example, that's one of the most famous atheists of
the last 50 years that is responsible among the five famous
ones who is responsible for a lot of the doubts. And a lot of the
conversions are to atheism or however you want to define that.
His name is Christopher Hitchens. So even though you've got Dawkins,
you've got Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens. He's, he's an atheist,
his brother, his name is Peter Hitchens. He is a journalist, and
he seems to be a very strong Christian, or practicing
Christian. And this is something very interesting. He did a talk
recently. And what he said inside what he said in that talk, he's
talking to Christians. He is saying that soon
the world is going to be giving up secularism. Or rather He said,
materialism and consumerism.
These are just terms basically, all right, this is not posh
English.
Some people are gonna say this posh English, there's no posh is
the way you speak. Words can't be posh. It's the way you say I don't
speak like the queen anyway. That's posh. Okay? Because
generally when you come up north they start saying that that's
posh. And then you close shaytaan makes you close your ears and and
Hudson say forget I can't listen to this above my pay grades.
So I'm telling you that these are just words they just terminology
consumerism. majority of us are involved in it. Materialism,
unfortunately, the materials majority of us are involved in it.
And we don't even know how many of you don't have Amazon Prime.
You can tell us it's not humiliating to do so you know, who
doesn't have Amazon Prime? That's a minority. That's about seven,
eight people. Maximum. Right? Everybody else has got Amazon
Prime. Why have you got them? Because you consumerism you want
it next day. In fact, you want it the same day sometimes depends on
what time you order it.
And when you open that box, you know that Amazon box that come on
emblazoned with Amazon, you open it, I don't know, they put
something inside this as soon as you open it wafts in, and then you
feel really good.
You should create some of that stuff. You could use it in your
own retail shops and things like that as well. It's amazing. It
makes you feel really good when you open that box.
Don't you feel good when you open that box sisters that you know,
you know, you can just imagine the reaction,
then you have to do it all over again tomorrow. Because slowly,
slowly, what have you opened the box. And then after that,
after half a day, the the feeling of that goes and you have to do it
all over again, wait for the next box to come just feels really
good. That's why people accumulate so much.
Tomorrow's Boxing Day only go out. If you need something, like have a
list. If you need something, don't go out to try to find something to
buy. If you don't have an idea in your mind of what to buy, you
don't need it.
This is what you call consumerism. Because it's so easy in this
country. Right? I lived in America for eight years. This is not how
England was before. When I went in 2002. America before that, in my
local supermarket, there was literally one shelf of drinks you
could buy. That was the variety. And that's it. One one high shelf.
That's it. I come and when I got to America, I was shocked one
whole aisle of various different varieties. Now I come back to
England is the same thing. So it's all caught up. And when when
there's availability, and you can pay on credit card, etc, etc. And
then you get free money in this country you don't get in America
in this country get a lot of free money as well. Right? You just
they just need a signature, sometimes not even a signature
sometimes. So you know what I'm talking about, right?
So the ability to have disposable income even if you don't, to be
honest, we are living like the wealthy people of maybe 100 years
ago.
You know, baklava you can get that anywhere now, right? Baklava was
something that was specific to the Ottoman palace. That's where they
were initially invented and manufactured. It wasn't available
everywhere. But now you can literally get baklava from
anywhere, right? They don't all taste nice, but you can get them
today we live like kings, we have so much access to whatever you
want.
And we're all part of the consumer culture. All of us whether you
because that consumerism is beyond religion. It's a human problem.
It's enough's problem. It's a spiritual issue. How many? Who
among you has an eye the latest iPhone?
You got the latest one. Have you had the one before that as well?
Okay, so when you got your latest one, did you get the same
excitement that you got when you got your first iPhone? Yeah,
that's what I'm saying. So now even Apple is out of
ideas, the first iPhone that you probably got excited you much more
than some of the later ones, because there's not much more they
can put into that thing anymore. Right? It can only go so much.
This is the dunya it can only go so much. Right? Okay, look, if you
got your iPhone because your other phone was really messed up that's
justified, go and get an iPhone, that's not a problem if you need
it. And that's the phone, you want colors, it's fine. But if you're
going to just do it because you've got a blind faith, for example,
there are 2 billion Christians in the world today. There are 1.7 or
8 billion Muslims in the world today, apparently. But there's
over 2 billion followers on Facebook, there's 2 billion I
mean, you understand what I'm saying?
Though, lots of things have actually replaced faith in terms
of our affinity, our love our obsession with these things.
There's nothing wrong with having good things if you want to buy
those who like jumpers, and every time they go to Saudi or somewhere
and they've got 20 jumpers now, you don't need 20 Your bus, right?
Get rid of 10 Give them to the poor. And the next time you go for
ombre, buy a new one, if you want, that's not a problem, you got the
money, buy a new one, but give some away. So don't start
accumulating.
Think how many pairs of shoes we have these days.
Right? If you want a new pair, go ahead and get a new pair but go
give some to my welfare shop or something, right or somewhere else
go and give it someone. Nothing wrong with having new things as
long as we don't hold. And we don't love. If you haven't used
something for one year, maximum, two years, get rid of it.
Right. So all those really expensive wedding dresses that you
bought just for one day of your life, which I still don't get, but
I'm not a woman say I won't get that. But the amount of money
spent on a one day wedding dress, right? It's just crazy.
Get one that you can maybe modify and then wear again. So anyway,
that's what we're talking about consumerism, the ability, the one
to desire to get overnight, it's all based on the knifes, right?
And lots of psychology go into this the way Amazon is, is totally
designed those people who sell on Amazon, they're not very happy.
But consumers are very happy because you give, even if
even if you complain, even if there's even if the sender has
assigned proof of delivery, and you complain, you'll probably
still get your money back because they just like customers always
writes because they just want you to buy and they want to just
overtake everything. There's a lot of psychology that goes behind
this. But what Peter Hitchens is saying is that all of this is
going to end soon. Because people aren't getting satisfaction of the
heart to this, they get getting satisfaction of the knifes but
satisfaction of the knifes only works for half a day few days,
your new phone is only gonna excite you for a few days, then
it's just the same old phone. That's it. Right? Those things
won't excite you as much. That's with anything. So people are going
to go back to look for something for their heart. And what he's
saying is that Christianity, because that's been driven out,
people won't have recourse to Christianity. And he says the only
leftover Christianity is the feel good part of Christianity. All the
difficult aspects of Christianity have been literally eliminated.
And that didn't start recently. For example, it says in the Bible,
it actually says that the swine is unlawful. The pig is unlawful. So
when I discovered that one time, I contacted a friend of mine who's a
Christian who is from a Christian background, he's an expert in
Christianity. He knows quite a bit about Islam. I said, what's going
on? How come you still consume this? He said, because in the
third century, we did away with all dietary restrictions. So
within Christianity, there isn't there are no dietary laws, you can
literally eat whatever you want, as long as it's healthy or, you
know, not harmful, or whatever the case is. Whereas Jews, they still
have kosher laws, and they're actually much more difficult than
then the Muslim laws. And I've been with Jews and they can't even
eat normal vegetables. They have to get them specially watched,
especially treated in a particular way to eat them. And as they
they're not allowed to have meat and, and milk together. So if you
had, you know, cereal for breakfast within the two fatwas,
some say that you have to wait for four hours. And some say you have
to wait for eight hours. I believe the guys in Stamford Hill in
London, my area close to my area. They said effort wise eight hours
you have to wait. Jewish for two I'm talking about not missing
photo. Right? They are rabbis fatwa, and the other one is for
hours. So he's saying that people aren't going to find anything in
Christianity.
He then says, but in Islam, they'll find something. So
basically what he's saying is that since you've been pushing out
Christianity, people are going to turn to Islam, because Islam still
is a wholesome religion. But then in a very ominous way. The next
part is that but Islam could also go in that same direction, because
we also have our own set
Have progressives or extreme liberals who
want to take out a lot of things? niqab is not necessary, that's
just the first line, then hijab is not necessary. For example, if I
if somebody, there's a woman who doesn't wear hijab, a guy who
doesn't pray, and he works in the normal corporate environment, he's
gonna be saying, Why do I need to worry about people praying at
work? Muslims don't need to do it, it's okay, because I don't do
anything. But for those of you who are working in the corporate
environment, who do want to pray, he's not speaking on your behalf.
Problem is that the media gives voice to two extremes all the
time, because they're the interesting ones, the majority who
are in the middle, were boring, right? It's not interesting. They
will give to those extremists who are always saying, kill everybody
and do this and do that. And you know, kuffaar, and all the rest of
it, they give, they give voice to those people, or they give it to
the total opposite extreme that look, we should do away with
everything. There's no reason for this, you can be Muslim, as long
as you believe so in the hearts, and that's enough. But the vast
majority, they don't get a voice. So we're dealing with all of that.
So what he's saying which we should wake up to, is that soon,
consumerism people are getting tired off, so they're going to
turn towards a religion, and they're only going to find Islam.
Right. But he's also saying that Islam may go in the same
direction, because Islam does have as the Prophet sallallahu himself
said that you will follow the Jews and Christians in many of the ways
that they've gone many of the degenerations that they have
undergone. So that's the point about consumerism. Now, let's move
on to belief system.
The first thing, there's several different points I want us to just
think about. And then if you have any questions, Inshallah, we'll
take those. First and foremost,
there are,
I've dealt with a few young men and women who teenagers, at least
one was, one was about 1213 wasn't too bad, that it was the
beginning. So Hamdulillah, we discussed, then the other is one
was 1617. The other one is probably about 20. The all the
questions that they're regurgitating, it's literally a
duck leader, Richard Dawkins, the Creed means a blind following. So
the same arguments are being provided the same argument, same
question, same controversial points that they're, they're
mentioning, they're from Richard Dawkins books. Now, I don't know
if they know that Richard Dawkins book has been answered, has been
responded to, and there's numerous things that have come out to
respond to him. And he's been disgraced in general anyway,
because he's a bit crazy in the way he does things. All right. So
I'm not sure if they've read the responses. But otherwise, it's the
blind following. So it's the same regurgitation of that.
We though, whether we're in the workplace, with children in this
country, we're going to have to become a lot more understanding of
these issues, right, we're gonna have to become a lot more
understanding of these issues. And there are a number of things that
we need to keep in mind when people when you are answering
questions about Islam. So if you're at work somewhere, or at
school, or somebody else, it's no longer the time when you can say,
Brother stop or sister stop talking about this. You can't do
that anymore. Because it's very difficult
to get somebody to
you can hardly even get parents and children to think like today.
Today is the time what we call individualism. Everybody thinks
for themselves.
In the time of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi, wasallam.
Only the leader of the Oso hazards tribe became Muslim, and everybody
became Muslim because of that one person. Now, you can't even
imagine that to them. How many arguments are there in between
parents and children? They can't even think like, especially when
you've got parents from another country. And because remember,
parents from India, Pakistan, Egypt, where you from Brother
Morocco, Morocco, right? The way they think what they can their
reference points are going to be very different. It's a whole
different paradigm, to the way we would think in this country if
you're born here. So there's a massive clash of dimensions.
That's very complicated. The people have come into this country
in, they've got the Indian paradigm or Pakistani American
paradigm. They've got the Islamic paradigm. And they've got the
British paradigm. They've got three paradigms to try to work
out. Those who are born here. They've got the Islamic paradigm.
They've got the British paradigm, which is very powerful. And then
you've got what your parents are trying to tell you. How do you
work through this? It's too commonly where you decided to come
here, or our parents did, or grandparents and whoever did so
we're here now, right? We have to make it work. So now it's very
important.
When somebody asks you a question, don't just tell them. Because I've
heard this so many times that somebody has become something
else. And one of the reasons was, we did ask the imam in the masjid,
we did ask my parents or whatever they just told us don't think
about these things. You can't get people to stop thinking about
things anymore. They want to think somebody's planted a seed of
doubt, we need to be able to deal with it. But that doesn't mean
that every one of us needs to know every single answer. You don't
need to be a super Muslim. Because that's just not natural to be a
super Muslim that you just know every answer. I don't know every
answer. And most people out there will not know every answer, they
will know many answers, they will know all answers. So what you have
to remember is that one thing you should be able to say, I don't
know the answer to this, if you don't know the answer, don't try
to make something up. You just make it worse sometimes. And then
you go and find out. Right? When you answer about being a Muslim,
just because Islam has been criticized so much, it doesn't
mean that we need to bend our back and answer, we need to keep a
straight back and answer with confidence. When we do answer
that, yes, I'm a Muslim. I'll give you an example. I was in a meeting
in a town, sorry, in a in a college. And there was a Muslim
sister going to speak before me. And she had the hijab. And so she
spoke five minutes, I think. And then there was question and
answers, and then it was gonna be somebody else, then it was going
to be me. As soon as she spoke, and she finished those young
college boys and girls, they just started attacking her by saying,
Why do you wear that hijab on your head? Why do you cover your head
for why is it necessary? She gave this typical answer that many
women give, which is they think it's a wonderful answer. But to be
honest, it's not a very good answer. They think they say, Oh,
it's my choice.
Right to do that. So now the immediate next question is going
to be why is it your choice? Who made you make that choice? who
convinces you to make that choice? At the end of the day? Why'd you
make a choice? Because you've been indoctrinated to feel a certain
way? That's why you make a certain choice. Right? What the question
we have to ask her I couldn't say anything, because it wasn't my
turn. Right, and really felt sorry for her. When it became my turn,
then I must have discussed a few things. And then I just went into
that question. I said, you had that question? I don't think you
got a satisfactory answer. But the question that I'm going to ask you
Is that why even? Are you asking this question?
Why are you even agitated? by the fact that somebody covers their
head? What makes you uncomfortable about it? That you have to ask the
question, what is it deep down? That makes you feel that that
makes you ask that question? It's because you've been led to think
that covering the head is a bad thing, because you've seen it
bombarded in the media so many times. Tell me I said, which is
the line on your body? Or a woman's body after which is not
allowed to be covered? And who decided that line? If there is
such a line? Is there a line that after this? Why is it superior to
dress in jeans? And a top? Right than a head covering? And a long
flowing tunic? Why is one better than the other? Who decided that?
Who makes that what we call value judgment? Where's the statistics
behind it? Right? Why is this one better than this? Have you taken
in the laboratory? Have you done the study? Or is it just coming
purely from a blind ideology that you don't even know you hold?
That's why you're asking this question. Can you see what I'm
talking about? Right? The reason why people ask questions is
because something is so normal. So accepted, that they don't even
know that causing a problem by asking because they just think if
you're different. Everybody else is like this, then you must be
weird.
Right? Even asking, even you know, when we say oh, he looks weird, or
she looks weird. That in itself is a judgment. I remember once I said
that to a friend of mine, that that person is dressed very
rarely. He says we're all weird.
to somebody else. We're all weird, because we're just comfortable in
the way we are. So how can you make that judgment? So it's a
value judgment you make who makes that judgment? Who told you that
hijab is wrong?
Now, as soon as you get people to think of why they asked the
question,
you've turned the tables. Now you're going to get a more
productive discussion. Otherwise, you've lost already. You can't
compete with ideology unless you attack the ideology. For example,
somebody asks you another question that, why doesn't if God is so
merciful, why doesn't he help us understand him?
How would you answer that question?
How would you answer that question?
Now, if you accept that premise,
you're accepting that God hasn't helped us you say, you have to
start back. Why is he asking this question? Of course, God has
helped us. He has helped us through the prophets. He sent
prophets and books he sends both bounties he sends
punishments he send reminders within ourselves within the cosmic
system. Some people have become Muslim just by looking at various
different fruits, just the beauty of how each different fruit is
designed. Just Just compare just an orange, it looks so simple, but
the complexity of the way it's designed as compared to a banana
as compared to an Apple as compared to your mango.
Right? It's just a complete different everyone is uniquely do
and then if you go into the more exotic stuff like the mangosteen,
and the dragon fruit and all that ajeeb where that creativity comes
from, right, and everything is practical as well. It's just
completely practical in that sense. So
ideology is very important. So when you are asked the question,
never jump into answering, when somebody calls it an objection,
you have to remember not every objection is a real objection,
just because somebody calls it an objection.
Right? Just because somebody says this is an objection against Islam
doesn't mean it is you have to unravel it. If you're in a hurry,
don't answer the question, say, let's have some giant Let's have
some tea, right? or coffee or whatever you're interested in, go
relax, and then have a discussion say, Why are you asking this
question?
So let's do let's deal with one question. Right? So let's deal
with the question of art a shot of the Allahu Anhu because this one
is used a lot today. Right? Has anybody heard this issue? Why the
Prophet hasn't got married to such a young girl? Because the Nica was
then at the age of six, but she didn't move in with him until
nine, that's when she became valid and mature. So she was nine, he
got married to a mcomber carnamah. They moved to Madina, Munawwara,
three years later, that's when she actually moved in with him. So now
the question is that why did your Prophet get married at the age of
nine?
How are you going to answer that question?
So the first question is, why are you so agitated about that? What's
your problem with it? Now, clearly, you can see now where the
question is coming from people don't get people married off at
the age of nine anymore. In fact, it's illegal. But even if it's not
illegal, I wouldn't let my daughter get married at nine. I
wouldn't let my daughter get married at 15. Not even a 16.
Maybe at 17. Do you understand and know what you're, you know, ideas.
But that's my thing. Because I just don't think children are
mature enough anymore. Today.
They just about coming off this mobile phone or they take it into
the marriage. Right? They're just getting off the X boxes, you think
your son at 16 can get married.
I've seen children who come from other countries, though, who are
1213. And they can do a much better job than an 18 year old of
this country. Because they're not brought up mollycoddled in the way
that we are. They've been maybe in their father's business, okay,
maybe they didn't go to school, but they have a lot more worldly
savvy than a lot of our children. Without without a phone or a
computer. Right? Many of our children will be like,
cold turkey, they just won't know what to do. Whereas these guys,
they know what to do they know how to run a house. So number one,
what we have to realize is that you cannot judge another
community, another generation by the norms of our generation,
by the norms of our generation. Why I wouldn't allow my daughter
to be married that day, not because it's haram. And not just
because it's illegal, but because I don't think she's ready for it.
And I don't think there's a guy who would be ready for that
either. Right? But in the time of the Prophet sallallahu was a
totally different story. Just from 50 years ago, a teacher of mine
used to live in Malawi. Right. And he at that time, there were no
lights. I mean, Malawi is still quite developing. I was there a
few years ago. It's still you know, go. South Africa is way more
developed than Malawi. You're from Zambia, Zambia, similar to Malawi,
right? So, but in those days, there were hardly any lights.
Mufti Shabbat services say that after maghrib, they would be
snoozing. They couldn't wait until Aisha time so that they could go
to sleep. But they weren't allowed to see because you had to pray
isha, there was nothing to do.
In those kinds of rural communities around the world, as
it was, people either looked after sheep, or they looked after some
animals or they did some other odd jobs here and there, there was
nothing to entertain you in the evening.
There was no phone, there was no Netflix that you could just
literally watch to death. As soon as one movie finishes or one thing
finishes. The second one comes up very well designed. Soon as you
log in, Mashallah. It's just like Gallo, whatever you want. Right?
And
it tracks how you think and then gives you the right options. Hey,
that looks good. You know, they weren't dealing with any of that.
So what would they do in their free time?
They're young boys. And you know, we're still young boys and girls,
right? Hormones, that's still the same. You know, the, the estrogen.
What's other one? The testosterone, Marsha, that's
pumping. Right? That was all
Is there?
So what would they do there? Get married, produce children, let's,
you know, do something with your life. People got married early. So
what we have to realize is that it's only changed in the last 100
years. In fact, they
somebody's looked into the historical facts here and they've
gone back and they found that the first person to criticize the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam for marrying a young girl
was Margiela who was an Oxford I think preacher and an academic I
think he called it an ill informed Union. This was in 19, early
1900s 19 something before that, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam has
been criticized for centuries. The Quran mentions criticisms that the
people of Makkah had for the prophets of Allah and they call
him Sahil. They called him soothsayer. They called him
fortune. They call him all sorts of things. So don't think the
processor is only been is only being
criticized now. He's been criticized throughout the
centuries. But why did nobody bring this criticism? I shudder,
the Allahu anha was actually fixed up with somebody else, Abu Lahab
son, if I remember correctly, before the Prophet salallahu
Salam, and then because Alba kind of became Muslim, they broke it
off, it was normal. In fact,
she was then proposed by two or three other people. And the
Prophet saw some did not propose to somebody else, thought it was a
good idea and came to the poster and said that Abu Bakr, the young
man's daughter, it wasn't even something the progress allowed,
some went for himself. But it was quite normal in those days to get
married to young girls, meaning as long as as long as they were
mature enough. And then we've got a whole corpus of Hadith to show
because she is one of the most prolific narrators of Hadith more
than her father, her father has less Hadith than she does. And
some really, you can understand her into intellect, you can
understand her practicality. In fact, the oldest wife of the
prophets, Allah, someone who is she,
aside from Saudi Arabia, who passed away, was sold out of the
Allahu Ana. She was the oldest in fact, the prophets Allah was even
going to divorce her. And she said, Look, just keep me but I'll
give my night over to Aisha so I shouldn't have two nights. She was
scared of I should have the Allah one once they made a plan to do
something. And so they said I was so scared of you that I was going
to say even before the time there was something she had to say to
the Barcelona salon. That was Aisha a young girl, right? But
mashallah very savvy, very on it. She knew exactly. And she was the
right person to be one of the Mahajan Momineen, to allow the
feminine, feminine aspect, the female aspect of religion to pass
through because she's got more narrator's than in more narrations
than anybody else. Any other women, at least for that matter.
So you can tell she was very intelligent, she was right for
that. And there was no problem with it. But there was one thing
they criticize him about. There's a hadith in Bukhari, etc, which
mentioned that before he got married to her, he was shown in a
dream that God is on came to him. And he was shown in a silicone
cloth or something, her picture. Now from that he knew what this
meant. So that's mentioned in a hadith. So their criticism was
that he was fantasizing about her.
Not that he got married to her, that wasn't a problem. That only
became a problem in this century. So when you look at things like
this, you understand now because even Muslims when they asked, Why
did you probably get married? And nine they are, they feel like they
don't know how to answer this. You can't judge. There's a specific
term in psychology for this, that you are in, in anthropology for
this where I forget what it's called, you can't project your
culture on another culture, because they work on a different
paradigm completely. I'll give you an example. Once I was sitting in
the bus in London, and there were these two teenage girls sitting
behind me, I could hear them speaking and they're speaking
they're not dressed very well. Right. And they said that they
went to or they met some Indians or something like that. They all
are Pakistanis, or something. And they were very well covered up and
everything. And they were just remarking that, look how they
dress right now. You know, they don't know. I'm listening. But
they're speaking. I'm not trying to listen to them. It's just
they're speaking loud enough for people around them to hear. And
they were talking about this. So
what they eventually said, these are some really good girls, it
seems because they said yeah, we think that's all we are, don't we
but they will probably think where we are because they probably think
we dress like slots. They literally said that
before for a woman to have a short skirt, long boots, that would be
only prostitutes. But now that's the norm. Right? And our own women
are going in that direction. Because it starts off. You know,
Asians, they find it very difficult to show their legs.
They'll show their hair all day long. But they can't show their
legs. Arabs. They have no problem in showing the legs but they don't
like uncovering the hijab. I'm not doing I'm Arabs. I'm doing Middle
East
Then I don't know about Moroccans, right? Because in America, that's
what I was dealing with. But what happens slowly, slowly is this is
just the steps of shaytan. And I'm not picking on women, I'm just
merely mentioning how shaytaan starts. It says, Allah says letter
tiberiu, whatever the shaytaan don't follow in the footsteps of
shaytaan. What that means is that shaytan is not going to tell you
to do Zina straightaway. shaytaan is not going to tell you to steal
straightaway, it's going to start slowly, getting opening the doors,
removing the taboos, removing the bad thoughts, until eventually it
becomes okay to do it. So you first start off with
what do you call it? leggings, thick leggings, that's okay. Then
it starts off with thinner ones, then shorter ones, and then
eventually, you know, the trajectory of where that goes.
That's the way shaytaan works. So
what we have to always do is don't project the ideas and norms of one
generation, one people on to another because people think
differently. All right. That's why, you know, the same question
going back to which is the part of the body after which is wrong to
cover? Who's going to decide that now, you say, it's this, I say,
it's that who makes the decision? We're both human beings. We have
no science behind this. Right? We got as though sciences like some
kind of, you know, science doesn't limit Let me you know, for those
who are confused about science, science with Islam has no problem.
Okay, let's be on record to say, there is no problem with science.
Islam has never had a problem in science the church has, but Islam
has never had a problem in science. We had many scientist.
Today, we have many scientists, but they're not sitting in Muslim
countries. They're sitting in America and Europe, so many
Egyptians, so many Palestinians, so many Pakistani scientists,
they're sitting in those countries, because their countries
don't value them. So they're in the major laboratories and the big
businesses and and companies in the West, right? There are a lot
of good Muslims. And I know, several of these people, right,
who are doing some very good things, right. So
science has never had an issue, because we've had a huge
scientists that have developed so many things. Just currently, the
Muslim world is on a defense mode. They don't have money to put
behind new innovations, new research, do you understand
they're most likely in defense mode, many of the problems we see
in the Muslim countries, our money is all spent on relief work. We're
not being proactive. We're always being defensive, reactive. We
don't know even in this country to campaign, we only get upset once
the laws are made about us afterwards. But we never I mean,
now we're waking up to it, and we are campaigning a bit. But going
back to science, science has no problem with religion, because
science does not deal with the realm of religion. Science doesn't
deal with a number of things. It does not deal with aesthetics.
Something being beautiful or not beautiful is not the realm of
science.
Right? More morality, that's not the realm of science. Science is
observance, empirical empiricism, which is if I see the same thing
happening so many times and I can say, Okay, this is what happens.
put it simply, it's not as simple as that, right? But science
doesn't deal with morality, it shouldn't do anyway, science
should not deal with aesthetics, and philosophies. That's why
physics is science. Physics deals with the physical world, the
natural world. But
our belief is in the metaphysical world, metaphysics means beyond
the natural world. When we talk about Allah subhanaw taala. He is
beyond physics. The angels are beyond physics. Science can't deal
with that. That's not it's round philosophy is the realm of that
not science, then why is science so blameworthy? It's because we
have scientists, right, who are not neutral.
We have scientists who are not objective. They carry biases, and
have an anti religious bias. So they read into their science, that
which is incorrect. And they make science problematic because of
their reading into it. For example, if you're if you've got
if you've got an interest in understanding evolution from a
Muslim perspective, and a critique of the, the, the mainstream
understanding of evolution, they did a survey I think it was in
Yale or Princeton, they did a survey that what do you think is
the religion is as a atheists within the scientific community?
How does it compare to atheist in the normal community? And the two
studies they did? The conclusion was that it's the same. So if
there's 20% of atheists in the mainstream community, there'll be
20% in the real in the science community, it's not more
and that it's just the same representation. But I was saying
that if you want to understand evolution, which is confusing, so
many people have lost their faith because of it, because most
Muslims, they follow the Christian perspective on evolution, which is
that it's all wrong. But there are aspects of evolution which are not
problematic. And you can accept, the biggest problem we have is
with the issue of other medicinal coming from other creatures, you
know, evolving from there. There's no proof for it at all. It's all a
theory. I read a book. It's called, it's by Ben Miller. It's
called, it's not rocket science. And anybody who's interesting
understanding science for Dummies, this is a wonderful book, it's a
very well written book makes it very easy to understand many
different aspects of science, including astronomy, food,
science, and so on.
I agree with everything in there except the evolution because it
was only in the evolution where he said, although we can't prove X, Y
and Zed, but because there's a near consensus on this, we must
accept it. That's not science. That's not scientific. And I was
like, Man, you messed it up for me. I said, I enjoyed your book
until now. Right? You've just messed it up for me. Like you've
I've just lost trust in you. Well, at least you told me that there's
no proof for it. At least he was honest. Like that.
Mufti is Amina Rahman and Mahna Mahna Mahna. Osman is doing a PhD
in biology right now. And Matthias Amin Rahman was in Cambridge doing
a medical degree then he went became Ottoman mufti, they both
done on zamzam. academy.com There's about four lectures and
you should listen to them. Both these shows how and Manasa they
show how in the college and university level books on
evolution, they show the same pictures that have been
discredited as being wrong and manipulations. They still show
those same pictures. And because it's such a dominant idea that
nobody questions it, you questioning and makes you look
silly.
That's why what they say is custom is king. Whatever becomes the
custom for you to go against the custom is very difficult. You
know, like sometimes if you want to go against Pakistani culture,
which are the culture, you're going to be in big trouble.
Nobody's gonna listen to you. Right? Custom is very strong. And
that's the Western custom. That makes it so difficult. But Allah
subhanaw taala says
you have Adina own style you know, be somebody was salah,
or people who believe you need to seek assistance in Allah with sub
with patience, because you're going to feel helpless. How am I
going to deal with this stuff? I can see it's wrong. How do I deal
with it, but be patient, and with solid and solid, and then Allah
says one, two will Ilona in control Momineen you will remain
elevated as long as you are truly believers, not just in name, but
truly believers in really having that belief in Allah. subhanaw
taala. Finally, what I mentioned before I open it up, is that Imam
Ghazali Rahmatullahi Ali, he is one of our one of our greatest
thinkers that we've had, we've had many others, but the reason why he
becomes the greatest if I mean, one of the greatest, if not the
greatest is because we have a lot of his works that are very clear
about these about these topics. Right? So
he's written his own biography called Al mancave minute Bala,
which basically means deliverance from error. Because although he
became one of the great scholars of the Muslim world, but then he
started having questions because he was a thinker. Right? Most
people are not thinkers, they're followers. Not a thing, because
they have to be very careful. Because if they think and shaytaan
takes them on the wrong track, they can take a lot of people
astray. And if you're, if you have to fake from Allah, then your
thinking will be good, and inshallah you can do some
wonderful things in this world. So he said this question, he said,
Look, I'm born in a Muslim household. So I'm very convinced
about my faith. A Christian kid is born in a Christian household
very, very convinced about Christianity. I don't know if any
more but at least that was the case, then, likewise, a Jewish kid
who's born in a Jewish household. So that doesn't prove anything,
does it? If you've got conviction in your religion, I've got
conviction my religion, that doesn't make my religion bad news.
You understand because just conviction based on something
else. So he said that I decided to explore and find out. So he said,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to start with the own with
absolutes, only things which everybody agrees on what they call
axiomatic understandings, right? Things that nobody disagrees. Do
you disagree that two is greater than one.
Does everybody agree that one is half of two?
Or you got some doubts here? Right? Do you know what I'm
saying? Two is greater than one that's an axiomatic believe things
that are so basically everybody knows, you don't have to prove it.
As soon as you say people agree, let me start with that.
But then he said that when I started looking at that
I started getting doubts about those things as well. And in the
world, those who want to doubt who want to go onto the trajectory of
doubt, they will they you can doubt till you die. For example,
somebody asked you the question, prove it that you are your
husband, your father's child.
Right, you need to prove to me that You are your father's child.
How are you going to prove it? Forget DNA that's complicated.
What are you going to start with first? And you got a birth
certificate?
Yeah, I mean, you start off with a birthday, you don't go to DNA
straightaway, right.
So you start off with a birth certificate. He's gonna say this
can be doctored. Right? I'm sure you can. I mean, in India, you can
probably do it anyway. But even in this country, I'm sure somebody
that I don't think they do passports, why can't they do birth
certificates? Right? So and then only when you're gonna do
skepticism, then even a bursary was problem? Okay, let's go to a
DNA then. Right? Now we get to DNA.
So now in DNA is not never 100%.
Right? It's 99 point something percent. Right. I think you can
use DNA to disprove something, but I don't think you can use it to
prove something recently, a friend of mine, his wife is leads this
fertility clinic. And they had a really strange case where they did
the IVF. And then the man, he after the god, the baby is saying
that's not my child. So they had to do numerous checks. And then to
find out if anything had been crossed, common, contaminated, the
DNA verified, they had to actually consult one of the top DNA
scientists in the world. And they found that this is a very unusual
case.
Very unusual case. Right? So DNA can't be 100% proof, especially
for a skeptic for most of us. Okay, call us. That's enough. But
for a skeptic to say no, that's not 100% 100%.
I mean, for these people, only the Dunda works, they say generally,
right, because they've got a psychological problem. It's like
an OCD issue. Right guys who have dealt with who come to move these
with OCD problems, Allahu Akbar, Allah give them therapy because it
I won't want that even on my enemy. They asked you a question.
Right? I said this to my wife. Is it a divorce? I said, No, it's not
a divorce. Okay, you got your answer? No, they will ask the same
question in a different way. said no, that's still it's not a
divorce. It's okay, a third way to change the sum. And then the last,
then now I'm, I think I'm trained enough to understand it's OCD. So
I said, Look, you've got OCD. I've been getting a question for the
last three, four months from this individual.
I answered it the first time that it was about various thoughts he
has about Allah, are these COFRA? I said, No. If they involuntary
isn't the knockoff? Same question next week, the next week, the next
week. And I know he's got OCD. So I'm not even responding to him
because I can't help him. I'm not trained to deal with OCD. Allah ma
not trained to deal with OCD. This is a medical condition. Right?
He's asking the same question just in different words. Then finally,
I felt sorry for him again, because now then he must have
contacted this guy called Asim Hakeem. And he gave him a very
rough answer. So then he writes that to me, he says, Look, this is
what he's saying. I said, Well, I don't blame him. But I didn't. I
didn't say that to him. Then I get an email
with CC to about 35 Different people around the world asking
them the same. He's like, you can tell he's frustrated, but I can't
help you. Right. And then he writes me this very long email
that look, I've got OCD. And the way to help me is to answer my
questions.
So then I said, Okay, fine. So now just last week, just few days ago,
I responded to him, and I said, Look, I completely understand I'm
not trained or to deal with you. Right? You don't need a fatwa.
Right? You need medical, but he's telling me that the medical guys
are telling him that it's, he needs to deal with a religious
person. I think they just kind of throwing, you know, the
responsibility. I said, I answered your question the first time
around, you ask the same question just in different words. So what
you do is anytime you have a potential any problem, just go and
look at the first answer. Don't ask it again, just it's the same
answer. Because the only other answer I've got is that yes, you
have done, Cofer. There's only two ways about it. You want me to tell
you that? No, I don't want you to tell me that. This is
psychological complexes that people deal with. And sometimes
skepticism is one of those things, they will even deny their own
paternity. Because what is going to prove 100% So you mama has
already heard that. He said, I went through the same thing, even
absolutes, things that you don't need evidence for they started, I
started questioning them.
And he said it was then only the Rama of Allah, that I managed to
come out of this. That's why Allah says a Furman Shara. Hello
southern Halal Islam, for who are the newly Mirabell it's the one
who Allah has expanded his * for Islam, that he is on the newer
he is on the new from his Lord. Otherwise. I give you one other
example in America last year the year before that there's these
I think the Indian Pakistani they
become atheist. one's name is Muhammad. Muhammad. The eighth is
like such an oxymoron. Like, how would you get Muhammad who's an
atheist, but he's one of them. And they've been going around to
universities to explain to them their story. Right like a
roadshow, I read an interview. So one of the people asked, one of
the interviewer asked him that, wouldn't it just be how your
family says, obviously, this owned us? We're not with our family
anymore? Said, how does that feel to you? So that feels very bad for
us? You know, we feel so bad that our families don't speak to us. He
says that, wouldn't it be easier for you to believe? Solid
question, right? Why wouldn't would it be easier for you to
believe? said yes, but we can't believe
we can't it's something blocking us from believing.
That's why when, last year in our we've got a course on
on zum zum, Academy, SRA on white thread Institute. It's called the
faith foundations course is something theology course anybody
can take it, it goes through all of these various different
ideologies. And we went through all of the various different
proofs for the existence of God, the teleological, cosmological
arguments, right? The ontological arguments, we went through all of
them. And at that time, you know, we were asking the question that
we should undertake a study to see which of these arguments work best
for atheist, like, which are the most convincing. But by the end of
it, I think we became convinced that it doesn't matter. If the, if
the Hidayat and the guidance is not written, then you could bring
all the arguments in the world, and they won't work. But that
doesn't mean it's a cop out that we shouldn't try, we should try.
We need to know arguments, we need to know why certain things happen.
Right?
So one, because already he says, I came to a point where everything
was doubtful, there were no absolutes anymore, white is not
white. Black is not like black, because it's all relative. So he
said that Allah saved me. And he gives a wonderful example, the
example he gives. So he said, think of this idea. Right? He
said, Then eventually, I thought that when a person is having a
dream, right? When you're having a dream,
how real does that dream for you?
Especially if, for example, you've just had an accident, or, you
know, you lost your job or something like that. It feels so
real. You could be sweating, and it feels so long. And then
suddenly you wake up and you feel Alhamdulillah that was just a
dream? Or will the bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim, spit to your
left? And Hamdulillah you get? But while you were in the dream, did
you have a doubt you're in the dream?
Did anybody have a doubt that they're in their dream? Now, he
says now that when you're in your dream, and you think it's such a
reality, and then you wake up and you find that it was all nothing?
So then he says that if you're going to be skeptical about
things, then why aren't you also doubtful about this world reality
that you're living in right now?
Why is this not a dream tomorrow? You could wake up from this and
find was this was all a dream. Like we're sitting here together
today. How do you know this is a reality? How do you know we're not
going to wake up from this and say, this was a dream, not a
nightmare, but it was a dream.
Just the same way. So he says that's when he stopped. Because he
said, If I'm going to create doubt, there is no reality then
there will be certain things you must and you ask for Allah. That's
why anybody who's got a doubt they ask ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada, Allah
will give them. Allah has benefited so many people who are
even non Muslim who started off as non Muslims.
They were shown either the prophets of Allah and they were
shown to Zan or something like that. People who are looking for
guidance. If you read a lot of these convert stories, somewhere
along the line, they were looking for something they were looking
for reality and Allah subhanaw taala guided them. The fact that
most of us were born in Muslim households, right? I'm not even
going to question that idea. I'm just so thankful that that was the
case that we didn't have to search. Right? I am really
thankful to Allah subhana wa Tada for what he's given me I'm very
confident about where I am, right? And what you have to realize is
that you can learn Islam through intellectual arguments.
But somebody would come up with a better intellectual argument and
create doubt in you because intellectual arguments actually
Delisle as we call them, they can be broken by a superior Achilles
heel. But what will never be broken? Which Imam has already
comes to the conclusion of because he says then eventually, the most
conviction I found was in the way of the Sufis. What he means by
that is when you've actually experienced waking up in tahajud,
and feeling the closeness of Allah, feeling that coolness in
your heart, when you do vicar and when Allah subhanaw taala has
given you satisfaction and may
Do feel good. There's nothing that's going to shake that.
If you don't personalize your faith and spiritualize your faith,
and feel the benefit of that feel the coolness in your prayer as the
prophesy. Lawson said, the gladness and coolness of my eyes
is in my prayer.
That is the way to get the perfect Yaqeen. Because we are keen,
nothing is a problem anymore. And that's why we need your team. If
you have your team, then nothing is confusing anymore. You can ride
through the worst of storms. And right now we do have an atheistic
storm out there. Right. But inshallah there's hope for the
future as I go with Peter Osborne's words, which is that at
least the Muslims still have some of the tough things that still
make their religion a viable religion and not just a feel good
factor religion, as unfortunately, Christian Christianity has become,
you see, it was in the 1960s or so that modernity began. And then we
have postmodernity right now, which is that religion must not
inform anything, because religion is discouraged. And one of the
reasons why religion was discredited in Europe, because
number one, you have to realize that Europe never had a profit. At
least we don't know of any profit that came to Europe, they imported
one, which was Jesus peace be upon him. But unfortunately, the church
did a lot of persecutions and aggression in the name of the
church in Europe, especially in France, especially in France. So
when, basically the world wars and everything that they saw all the
problems and everything, they just said, We don't like religion
anymore. Right? We don't like religion anymore. The Russians
were the worst meaning the Soviets were the worst. They just didn't
even allow religion. The French don't know how to deal with
religion. hamdulillah at least the British allow religion. So were we
happy that it wasn't the Russians or the French, or others? It was
the British because at least is better off. I mean, we're in it's
a reality now. So you can't even argue about it. Right. But
what's very interesting is that Turkey is on a totally different
Turkey has been colonized by their own.
Right, they were not never colonized from outside. And the
Resurgence is amazing today in Turkey. We last year, we had a
scholars and a Muslim leaders tour to Turkey, we went to all the
prominent organizations, and it was just amazing the kind of loss
and sincerity and motivation they have, even though many of us would
judge them because they don't have a beard or something. Right. And
we went into an imam Hadebe School, which is one of the Muslim
schools. So Sheikh Haytham was with us, right? Pray for him. He's
got cancer, may Allah give him Shiva.
He asked one of the 1213 year old kids, I think he's about 13 years
old, that inshallah you need to be like Mohammed bin 30.
So if somebody says that, okay, okay, we'll be like that. Right?
He said, In sha Allah, but what about you?
Can you imagine the answer? Like, what about you?
So, there are about 3 million Syrians there. They don't even let
you call them refugees, they call them
would you call it they call them guests? Right? They've given so
many of them citizenship, they're not all stuck in a camp somewhere.
And I G mashallah, they have an all the organizations that we went
to the islands, I asked them, I said, Where is this coming from?
Is this coming from
your scholars, your Orlova? Is this coming from your politicians?
Or is this this
a mutant? Ottoman gene, right, that is now rearing its head and,
you know, it's just, you know, the turul as everybody's going on
about
a toggle editorial is alright.
You can say the Turkish way. But mashallah, they they are doing
what many other countries are not doing and may Allah subhanaw
taala, granting them strength, because a lot of the inferiority
complex, and the reason why a lot of people are turning away from
the faith is because they don't see Islam cool anymore. Because
we're constantly bombarded with attacks against Islam, we have, we
do have bad members who do crazy things. And then of course, if you
have a few people in your family who have done something weird here
and there, right, you've never thought about it too much. And you
think I've got a very good family from this gum, that gum, that
village, whatever. But then somebody starts saying, man, your
village is bad. You're going to be defensive first, then he's going
to say, but you know, that guy from your village and that guy
from yours, he did this. Now you start accepting that, right? And
then you start realizing that I'm not that good as I thought I was.
This is happening with Islam. The amount of attacks in the media
against Islam is huge. And a lot of people with weak faith who
don't have that experience of Islam. They're going to start
feeling I guess, some so to be honest, most people who don't care
about their faith, they're not atheists. Atheists just tend to be
louder. But there are minority is very difficult to completely
reject God. It's not easy, because God Allah is such an essential
reality for you to completely give up. That's very
difficult. Some people do that most either agnostic, which means
I'm still looking, or majority are probably suffering from apathy.
Apathy means indifference. I don't care. I've got my Amazon, I've got
my Netflix, I've got this, I've got that I don't need to care
about it. Apathy is a bigger problem.
They just feel I don't need religion, I'm secure. I've got
money to buy things. I've got security, you need three things,
you need security, you need your daily provision. And you need
health. If you have those three things, the prophets Allah, some
said that you've got the whole world. But the delusion in that is
that you think you're so secure, you don't need God. That's the
problem. That's why most times the people that followed first
prophets were the weaker people, the wealthy people they couldn't
understand. That's why even today,
if you go to these universities, and you've got students there from
Pakistan, for example, the elite who have come to study in UCL and
Imperial College and all these colleges, they can't believe it
when they see British born, intellectual boys and girls at
these universities, hijab praying, focused on the religion, because
in Pakistan, for example, at least as far as I know, religion is not
for the elite.
Religion is for the lowly people. There's obviously exceptions in
this. It's not for the elite. It's for the downtrodden people. And
when you've got that culture, it's a very difficult culture. So they
get shocked what you guys are born here, you are our ideal. You know,
this is what we're hoping for to be, but we can't be and you guys
are religious. Remember, there's a lot of factors that play. So if
you are having doubts, or you know, somebody with doubts, sit
down and try to understand where these doubts are coming from. They
don't always come from one place. And I have to mention this before
I finish. One of the big reasons for why people get
disenfranchised, is because they've been
persecuted in the name of their religion. When I say persecuted, I
mean beaten up necessarily, but they've had a strict strict
upbringing, without any common sense understanding of their
religion. They've been told to pray or fast or whatever, without
giving them any understanding, beaten up, maybe not allowed to go
out not allowed to do this. And they just feel this is because of
Islam. In fact, in some houses, they're not even religious. But
the kids are being forced to marry their cousins. And if you don't,
you're going you're not a proper Muslim, even though they've never
practiced proper Islam. So they leave religion. There's one woman
who called me once a few years ago, and she was married to a non
Muslim,
Pakistani woman married to a non Muslim. So she had a question
about something I can't remember the question now, but I started
talking to her and I said, Well, how are you married to a non
Muslim? Because you could tell she was conscious. She was she, she
had some thoughts. I said, Well, you know, when I was much younger,
she was about 14. Now, she said, when I was much younger, my
parents got me forced married to my cousin or somebody. And we had
no compatibility. There was no compatibility. Right, I couldn't
stay with him. And that was made to make it seem like this is
Islamic. So I just took off and then married somebody else. But
now she's coming back. So a lot of the time, that is the case because
of persecution, France is suffering from that, because they
were persecuted the most by the Christian church, apparently. So
we ask Allah subhanaw taala to improve and increase our faith,
and give us an understanding, because as I said, these things,
there are so many reasons why these things could happen in
difference, confidence with what you have security with what you
have. So we ask Allah to always keep us on his path working with
that one, and in hamdu, Lillahi Rabbil aalameen.
Okay, so I appreciate that question.
Suffering.
This, these questions come from the fact that suffering is a bad
thing.
Right? The presumption behind the assumption behind this suffering a
bad thing, if God is if God is all merciful, why the suffering
exists, suffering can't go with mercy. That's why that's the
issue. Now, I'll tell you something for Muslims. This should
not even be a question. This is a Christian problem, not a Muslim
problem. Reason why it's a Christian problem. Right? Is and
I'm really glad that his brother was brave enough to ask that
question, because that must have taken a lot of courage to ask
that. So I'm really glad you did ask that question. And don't feel
don't feel bad about asking questions has bad as a sound if
they bug if they're bugging you, because otherwise you don't have
an opportunity afterwards. So nobody should laugh at people
asking questions. So where's that brother gone?
He's still here.
Oh, they're sorry. I was looking down there. Right. So I'm glad you
asked that question. So number one, you see for Christians that
God has been reduced to loving it's all about love now. Right?
There's nothing else that's why
Our previous, the previous and the current interesting, both
Archbishop's of Canterbury, the current one and the previous Ron
Williams. When the tsunami happened the first time, he said
my face shook,
because how do you have this suffering with your concept of god
of being just the merciful God?
But with Muslims, we don't have that issue. Why? Because yes, our
God is merciful. We talk about his mercy over over and again in the
daytime, Al hamdu, Lillahi Rabbil Alameen Rahmani Raheem Rahman and
Rahim which means the Merciful, the Mercy giving the
compassionate, we call him the loving one that we're doing. We
have all of these names for Allah, but are you forgetting that he
also has other names and he also has other functions. Allah is also
the mighty one. Allah subhanho wa Taala is also the punishing one.
Allah subhanaw taala is also the one from whom all harm comes. And
Allah subhanho wa Taala is also the one who takes revenge. Allah
is also the one who vanquishes people. Allah has all the power
and omnipotence in his in his. That's who he is. So sometimes we
see the manifestation of His mercy. And sometimes we see the
manifestation of His punishment. Sometimes we see the manifestation
of His might, for example, we were me and another friend, we were at
Victoria Falls, Zambia, Zimbabwe, absolutely be much better than
Niagara Falls. You've been there on the right, absolutely
beautiful. My friend remarked that mashallah, what a beauty of Allah.
I said, Wow, what a Majesty of Allah. Because you can see it
however you like. These are manifestations. So if there's
suffering in this world, suffering isn't bad. If there was no
suffering, imagine if there was no suffering. Where would you? Where
would your happiness come from? Would there be happiness if there
was no suffering? Suffering is the opposite of happiness. There just
different thoughts, different states, right. The other thing is
that when a tsunami or a storm or a destruction takes place
anywhere, then it doesn't have the same function for everybody.
Right? The poor Indonesians may Allah have mercy on them, they've
just suffered an earthquake right? Among them, there were people who
are probably suffering. So for them, this is just relieve them,
of the misery of this world. They are shaheed they are martyrs, and
in the Hereafter, they mashallah that's
a shortened way to Paradise. Of course, you have to take this on
belief, right? But without this belief, you will be suffering
anyway. For example, if an atheist says that there is no concept of
good and bad, there's no concept of suffering, and his mother died
of cancer out of five years of struggle and pain. What did she
die for? At least my mother who died from cancer Rahimullah, I
know she's a shahid. And I can feel good about that. Now you can
say, well, that's just a feel good factor, I'd rather have a feel
good factor than no feelgood factor. What's wrong with having a
feelgood factor? When I actually believe in it, you'll only find
out in the Hereafter, it'll be too late to argue about it. But at
least I've got a theory and idea that carries on beyond this world.
Right? So suffering is not a bad thing. Because the people who die
there some of them maybe being punished, some of them maybe just
being another bounty of Allah. Right? And that's why Allah has
allowed it in this world. And I've got numerous I mean, I've got
several answers to this particular question, because I'm going to
write something about it, that suffering is,
at least in the Muslim view, suffering has number of functions.
What does the Messiah do to us? It wipes away your sin. Suffering
makes you a stronger person.
Imagine a world without suffering. Could you even imagine it? Would
there be something called happiness because generally you
understand black because of white. otherwise there'd be no concept of
black there'd be no concept of white, you need to know opposites
to be able to figure things out. So for us, suffering has many
functions. It purifies it basically helps you to strengthen
yourself to get better to learn. And at the end of the day, if
somebody did die from suffering, well, if they had the right
intention, they will hamdulillah they've died as a Shaheed because
the promise also said that the one who dies in a particular
sufferings, suffering situations, they die.
They die Shaheed The other thing is that if there was no suffering,
how would they be free wielding? Because if you're saying that Why
does God allow somebody to create suffering to cause suffering?
That's created a luck allows that to be created? Because of
freewill. Does everybody agree that we got free will in this
world? Because if you didn't have freewill, you wouldn't be punished
or rewarded. The reason we're punished or rewarded freewill is
very important that we got a choice we nobody can deny freewill
not even an atheist.
Because free will is something you experience, you can tell the
difference between when you're walking on a straight ground, the
control you have on your pace. And if you're walking downhill, you
have less control. So you can understand you've got certain
amount of free will. Now for free will to be there, certain people
are going to do some weird things with that, but then they're going
to be punished for that. So Allah allows it, because that's the
system of this world. And for Allah, this is the main answer for
Allah. This is not the final world, this is a test ground.
Right. And as soon as you can get out of your head that this is our
final abode, everything becomes easier to understand that paradise
ultimately, for us is what we want, not hellfire. But this world
is just a test place. So Allah is going to allow people to do things
with their freewill. Some of that is going to cause suffering. And
nowhere was a promise there will be no suffering. So it's really a
moot question anyway, to start with. The reality is they're
suffering, right? And it fits with the God with the paradigm of Allah
in the picture. Because Allah allows the suffering, because our
God is just not merciful, is merciful. And he's also the mighty
and the one from whom all harm can come as well. So hopefully, that I
mean, it might take a while, if you, you know, to understand these
things, or to acclimate yourself with it, it could take a while to
just give it a thought.
Right. I don't know how much that does for you. But hopefully that
helps.
What's the point of trying Rafe? Is everything is written? Okay,
I'm not going to be able to answer that question now. Because that
would take me one hour and 15 minutes exactly.
Because I've done it a few times. But I will tell you that since you
brought that question up, very important question. I did a lot of
research on it. And I've got to talk online called Don't be
depressed, you don't know your future, that in sha Allah in a
very satisfying way deals with this particular question. But just
to give you just to give you some relief.
Do you know what's written in the future for you? Right, so why are
you so sure about it, that it makes us feel that we shouldn't do
anything?
Why couldn't it also be written that you will do X, Y, and Zed and
that's why that will happen?
Do you see what I'm saying?
If everything is written, then it's also written that you will do
X, Y and Zed and that will be the consequence will be produced. A
lot of people they've had a miserable past of 510 20 years. So
they feel now that the future is going to be miserable as well. But
nobody knows the future, you don't know what's written until it's
done. Do you understand? Only then do you actually know what's
written? So why are we worried about what's written? But that's
another answer. The other way to look at it is that what is written
is not written in a prescriptive way, is written in a descriptive
way. What does that mean? Allah in His omniscience, which means his
eternal knowledge of everything knows what every one of us is
going to do.
When we come into this world, he knows it even though we haven't
done it yet. So what he did like a teacher who projects the grades of
his students, but he knows even more Absolutely, right, he shows
he's told the pen to write 50,000 years before the creation of this
world, Allah created a pen, and he created a tablet. Right now we get
the idea of a tablet nowadays, right? And he said to the pen,
right? He says, What should I write? And he said, everything
that is going to occur until the day of judgment. For us, it's
become so easy to understand this Bluetooth connection. Right? And
the knowledge from ALLAH SubhanA wa, Bleu, he must have some cheap
technology beyond Bluetooth, right? That knowledge of what's
gonna happen DOJ judgment was already in what's your name?
Rice. So it was written that race is going to come to this program
today, with your free will, I'm assuming nobody forced you. Right?
He's going to come to his program, he's going to do this, he's going
to do that with his free will. When you do whatever you do, it
goes in accordance to what's written because Allah knew what
you were going to do with your free will. So now, they both go
together, but not because you're forced to do it is because you are
going to do that with your free will. He knew it. So he wrote it
down. So it's just the running commentary
of what you're going to do. Now that suddenly makes it a lot
easier, doesn't it? So don't worry about what's written because we
don't even know anyway, until we do it. That's the main thing Don't
be depressed but I would really suggest you listen to that talk
because it will satisfy a lot of your issues about this is called
Don't be depressed you don't know your future. Okay?
This doesn't sound like this doesn't sound like it's a properly
worded question you don't get a child from I'm assuming when I
heard child is like a little kid. Kids don't deny God. Right. They
they've come from the pure world. They haven't been so adulterated.
I'm assuming you're talking about like an adult teenager or
something like that. Right. Now, one thing that I missed which
discussion will bring up is that a lot of children the reason why
they've turned to this is because they've lacked some kind of
pastoral care. They feel a bit estranged. They feel a bit let
down.
and ignored. So a lot of a lot of atheists are like that they
ignored, they're looking for something. So some, it just
depends. I can't answer this question 100% for your case,
because every case is different. If you can show them love and
bring them back, and you think that's going to be effective
Alhamdulillah if it's not, and they're spoiling others, they're
also going to cause the other children to go in that direction,
then you need to take a drastic move, right, which means that you
do distance and but you, you keep an open, you keep a window open.
Alright, and again, this is a very rough answer to this because a lot
of factors dependents, but hopefully this gives you some
understanding of the parameters that you need to work you need to
work in.
So that requires a bit of a more lengthier answer. But here's a
typical question about why would you design something like this and
make them do something? So first and foremost, let's stop looking
at the verses of punishment here. Let's start looking at the
benefits. And let's also look at our position. At the end of the
day. If I wanted to create a robot that didn't have to pray, well,
that's my prerogative. But if I wanted to create a robot that I
did want to pray, well, that's my prerogative, right, that robot
can't question me. So if you're accepting that you're a robot,
then you can't question the master anyway, that again, we don't
always understand people's perspectives or why they do
things. Prayer, to be honest. I mean, unfortunately, it looks like
nobody's explained prayer. Prayer is a sanctuary. Prayer. The reason
we pray is not because we want to, I don't even
to be honest, I when I if I have, like, if I'm going to miss a
prayer, I'm not even worried about the punishment. I'm more worried
about the fact that Allah is going to miss me where he's told me to
be and I love my Allah subhanaw taala so much. Hopefully I do that
I feel bad if I don't pray, because he he's given me
everything. Right. And he all he wants me to do is remember him
five times a day and I find that actually very beneficial. Because
otherwise I get so immersed in whatever I'm doing that I forget
myself. Right? Whether that be in eating whether been watching
something, whether it be in doing some other activity, I get so
immersed that I forget even myself. Prayer gives me a
sanctuary to go back to five times a day to remember who I am to
reorient myself to refocus myself. Right and to give something thanks
to my Lord. For example,
a friend of mine used to explain it to children this and we're not
talking to children here but he has to explain to children why you
pray. He says
Do you have an auntie that you really like? Because she gives you
a lot of stuff?
One of your colors or something that gives you a lot of stuff?
Yeah, you
right? So everybody has this Auntie who's like you know,
mashallah, she gives you a lot of stuff now, every time you go to
see how old are you?
If we're taught from a young age that look if you go to your auntie
every time you go to a she gives you all this stuff, but you don't
even meet her properly, and you just run off to play on the Xbox
each time you go to the house, how would you aunty feel?
A bit a bit sad in it a bit, let down. So with Allah subhanaw
taala, he gives us everything. And then we were not even willing to
wait like, Why do you make that necessary for? Why should I meet
you for? Why should I do color color? As they say? Do you
understand? But we're looking at it from our selfish perspective,
right? We're not looking at it from their perspective that to
make somebody feel good is happiness. And for Allah, we are
basically just doing what we're supposed to do. Suddenly, we've
taken on this autonomous role of thinking that we should call the
shots and we should decide what's good and bad for us. And we
haven't even lived in this world for more than 3050 years. To
really understand what's really good and bad for us. You have to
look at something in a wholesome picture. I had to rush that answer
a bit because I'm conscious of the prayer time. But mashallah, there
was some really enjoyable questions. Hopefully it was
useful. Hopefully nobody's more doubtful than they work from
before we started, because that would be a massive failure. We ask
Allah for enlightenment and we ask Allah for baraka and blessing and
guidance in sha Allah.
Allahu Mantis Allah Monica, Ceylon developed via the generic with the
Quran Allah Who May or June dramatic Minister either love me
or Hana Yama. Nalla Illa Illa Allah subhana kinako nominal body
mean?
Oh Allah we ask You for Your Mercy or Allah we ask You for Your
blessing of Allah we ask You for Your forgiveness of Allah, we ask
you for your guidance and your help of ALLAH forgive all of our
sins. Forgive all of our wrongdoings forgive all of our
excesses, Oh ALLAH There are so many things in this world of
Allah. Give us guidance of Allah remove the doubt from us, relieve
us from the problems of Allah. Do not let our hearts be deviated
after you gave us guidance of Allah We asked you for protection
from doubt about the truth after having had conviction of Allah We
ask that only you can help us so Allah you help us
Oh Allah that you make us more closer to You grant us your love
in our hearts. Oh Allah bless all of those who are sitting here, all
of those who are listening, oh Allah make this a worthwhile
session that we have had, Oh Allah, we ask that you do not
allow us to turn away from here, except after being fully forgiven,
fully purified in our hearts and our Allah fully convinced about
our faith. Oh Allah, we ask that you reward all of those who have
made this program.
You've allowed this who've allowed who've made this program and
organize this program here. Oh Allah that You benefit all of
those who are sitting here and that you protect us and our
project is from the adults in the fitness which are out there. And
Oh Allah, we ask that you give us you give us the company of
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi salam in the hereafter and that you send
your abundant blessings on him Subhan Allah because our beloved
city and merciful no Salaam and Alamo said you know what?
hamdulillah