Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Mercy of God and His Attributes (Islamic Perspective)
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AI: Transcript ©
still learning
how to rely on salatu salam ala see even more serene, early, he
was on video about constant limit, assuming you rely on each other.
So you guys are nocturnal. So I thought maybe you'll stop, you'll
understand Arabic. So I'm starting off with Arabic.
Actually, this is a very interesting room, because you've
got a fusion on the modern and an old. And we just look into those
walls. You wonder what's happened here? Many, many centuries ago,
possibly. Today, it's our time. Tomorrow, it's gonna be somebody
else's. So it's kind of very interesting. I mean, you could
probably go online and on YouTube, which is probably the biggest
repository out there of whatever you want to learn about. You want
to know how to do something in Photoshop, you can check it up on
YouTube. And if you want to know if there's a live show, you can
find out on YouTube as well. But there's a difference with us
coming together actually, as human beings, especially in this time,
and age of technology, and distances.
It's really nice to come together, actually, there's a different
experience in doing something alone and then coming together,
regardless of how the talk is going to end up, whether it
inspires you or not, but just the experience of having come
together. Hopefully, that will be something great as human beings as
humans, that's something that's we need to celebrate. So I pray to
God to make this useful hour and a half or two hours, or however long
we have here. I'm not going to try to go into establish the existence
of God, and the proofs of his existence, because that is a whole
other subject. And the title already assumes that we believe
that. And he's, I believe that, and
just here at the end of your week of learning about various things
about his life, if you've attended any of the other classes
of what is the Muslim concept of God, of Allah? And why is that
important? I personally, I mean, it couldn't be important. I mean,
you're here because it's,
there must be some reason we're here. And a ton of other people
who probably heard about the course are not here. But I can
only tell you about why I'm here today, all the way from London.
And the reason why this fascinates me. Islamic theology, I think
where this question would find its roots is something of interest to
me. What is one that God's interaction with this world, of
course, that's after I've assumed and, and believe that there is a
God. So in this time and age, the God of the Muslims has been
selected, unfortunately,
there is, God can generally for a lot of people to understand their
concept of God.
The followers tend to be,
tend to be those who embody that belief, and are supposed to
express that belief. And unfortunately, in the recent
times, in the last 1520 years, which is probably as far back as
most of us generally tend to think and go back.
We've just seen
some really non positive contribution from some Muslims who
are absolutely a minute point 00 Something percentage, if you look
at the statistics, and as people in Oxford University University,
we shouldn't be doing that.
They've created an idea or given an idea, given an impression of
this God, which most people, many people actually think is very
different from the Christian God.
The, the God of the Jews, the god of any other religion out there
that believes in a God. And while our concepts of God will differ
few here, theologically, if you look in books of creed, and
theology, and you look at the Jewish definition of God, can we
take his name, and so on, you look at the Christian definition of
God, and the Muslim it's gonna differ. But from a Muslim
perspective, the god we're talking about is the Creator.
And if that's who Christians are also speaking about, in some sense
that He is the Creator, however they define that we're referring
to the same being the same entity, the same essence.
So I'm here at the end of your request. I personally believe that
this should have been the first topic
but I think it's actually I'm not sure if that was planned. Or
If it was by design, but I think it's wonderful that it's actually
the last thing, because hopefully we, the concept of our God has
been solid by the actions of the few. And thus, this entire week of
lectures, hopefully managed to clarify a number of things, and
thus
demystifying, and hopefully put into some positive light,
our God religion, and thus today, I can then hopefully give you a
better idea. Personally, I would like to just just be silent right
now. And then you ask questions. But I think that would be
a bit premature, because I have a feeling that I have, I would love
to actually share with you at least some aspects of what God
defines himself as through the holy book the Quran. So if you
bear with me, I'm going to do that. And then hopefully, we'll
try to
take the questions that we have, and hopefully try to help out with
that with those. I'm going to, quote a verse of the Quran. The
Quran is the book that Muslims believe God, inspired to Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him.
When we say peace be upon him, I would like to add peace be upon
him, and all of his brothers in prophecy, which means Abraham,
actually starting from Adam, Abraham,
Joseph, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, and all the other prophets that God
appointed in this world. So peace and blessings be upon them all,
because we do have a respect for all of them.
Okay, the question, the quote I'm gonna give you first is from the
Quran. For those who who know the chapters from Sao Paulo,
and this is actually from Moses, this is Moses, his exchange with
the Pharaoh with Pharaoh.
Now those who have an idea of the biblical version of that and have
some idea about that we, historically speaking, you have
Moses peace be upon him, and you have the pharaohs. So this is an
encounter of Moses was actually brought up in Coincidentally, he
was actually brought up by Pharaoh as a struggle,
whatever, however you want to define that, but now he grows up,
and he receives his messenger ship, his office of Office of
prophecy, and he comes along and he goes to speak to Pharaoh. He
needs to take the Israelites out of Pharaoh slavery. So he
challenges in a sense, Pharaoh, Pharaoh sees him as somebody who's
being ungrateful. Pharaoh says to him, so who is your Lord?
overdosage who is your alarm bouquet? Musa? Or Thurman? rabuka
Hamza. So Moses answers
Barlaam gonna let the color shine in Hong Kong. So my header.
Actually, he said he was with his brother. So former Rob buku Nyan,
who is the load of YouTube him and his brother Aaron. They were
together peacefully upon them. He said, I will know our Lord is He
who gave to everything, its particular creation, and then
guidance.
So he's essentially saying that God created everything. Now I know
I'm quoting, a prophet that is generally referred to as the
Prophet of the Jews. But what are those mentioned in the Quran from
any of these prophets, then it is what Muslims consider to be
an absolute source of knowledge. So
this is not just something that would be restricted to the
Israelites. But this is something that Muslims would benefit from
this particular verse. So in this verbal confrontation between
Prophet Moses, Pharaoh is asking who is your God?
Pharaoh is obviously assuming
that God is a person, that God is not a person. Because he said for
men rock bakoma in Arabic with someone who is I mean, it doesn't
have to be the person. But God is transcendent, totally different
from everything. That's why in another verse in the Quran, God
says laser carefully shape, there is nothing like unto him, he is
completely dissimilar to everything.
That's why one of the five essential attributes of God
if I just quickly, one is beginning lessness, Muslims
believe that God has beginningless is God is beginning is without
beginning, he's always existed because he created time and
anything logically that is beginningless. And I'm not going
to I'm not going into the rational process.
But, but anything that is supposed to be beginningless in past
eternity needs to be endless in post eternity of eternity rather
than as opposed to eternity. So that means we've just established
two characteristics for God. One is beginningless and endlessness
ancient without beginning and everlasting without and that's
what books of creed generally say. Then to establish a lot of these
actually negating attributes because what they do is they
negate the beginning and they they get to an end.
So they're not like Paul did not like additional tangible qualities
of such they actually just negating
a meaning from God saying he doesn't have a beginning. Then you
have another one which is mentioned in this verse, which is
he is unlikely to anything, he is dissimilar to everything. Again,
it is negating any similarity.
He is negating any similarity.
When we believe that God is then one,
then that is what you are we call whadda, Nina, oneness. And again,
oneness is not an additional quality of the tangible nature.
It's, again a negative attribute. It's negating what I'm indicating
when we say something is one and unique. We're negating partners,
we're negating
a second, when negating an equal, we're negating anything similar.
So we're saying he is one in the sense that
there is nothing else like so it's oneness and absolute oneness and
how they define oneness. As Imam Abu Hanifa says one of the great
scholars proposed he says not one in terms of just number 1234
That's boring, right? That's my words.
One in the sense that he has nothing like him in his essence.
So, in terms of who God is essentially what he is who he is,
in terms of his entity, there is no other entity like it what
somebody might say okay fine, we may agree with that, no entity
like him, but maybe there are others who hold similar or possess
similar characteristics.
So
this oneness goes beyond entity and says okay, one in entity, one
in characteristics, so unique in his characteristics and
attributes. Okay, five,
one, in essence, one in characteristics. Nobody likes him
in that sense, but maybe not in action. Maybe there are people who
can do things like God can do, can equal him. So no, not even in
action. God is one and unique and oneness him is unique. So there is
no parallel. In that sense. That's the Muslim concept of oneness of
God, without beginning without an absolutely one.
Now,
there's another verse,
which is just before the verse that I quoted about Moses, he
says, La ilaha illa, who there is no God except he
which means he is the only God.
And again, Allah means some an object worthy of worship.
So an object to worthy of worship, why would you worship something? I
mean, if you worship anything, and everybody worship something or the
other, whether that means they worship Manchester United, right,
or Liverpool? Or I mean just stop people from living without fear.
But what are the other results that haven't seen anybody to
oxygen? Is there a TV and I'm not into football?
So if I mentioned your team, apologize,
they don't like to discriminate anyway.
So everybody, whether that be money or whatever the case is to
some level of worship means your give yourself to it. I mean, what
what why, why is it that you never see a Mac? That is a dirty?
Why do people punish their Macs?
Because it's who they are. It makes them who they are.
You see PCs in the old, dirty old place when it comes to like, I'm
not a math guy. And this is the only Mac product that I own.
Right? I don't really care about it. Okay, so I'm not a Mac that my
phone I have a PC. My phone is an Android, so I'm not into Mac, but
people who like them, who can stand outside of Mexico for seven
hours in the cold just to get the first Mac just to get the next
iPhone, and they could have got it a week, a week afterwards.
Bragging rights, just the fact that I've got it. I mean, this is,
I guess, getting into sentiments and emotions and things of that
nature. But you
God says about himself, there is nothing like unto him.
La ilaha illa, there is no God except he there is no deity worthy
of worship except him. And then he says, when he lie in love with a
smile reduced now, to Him belong, the most beautiful names. Now,
that's wonderful. Because for a person who wants to believe now,
who's on a journey to discover God, how is he going to understand
God? God, and Islam is not an icon, right? I mean, I've been to
the Vatican. I've been to the Church of the ascension, in
Jerusalem, right? The Holy Scripture, I've been there. I've
been to all of these places, but for for Muslims, God cannot be
reduced to anything. He is beyond anything. And when I say he does,
well, I'm not putting him into the male agenda. I'm just using that
because that's the dominant discourse, and the term that's
been useful. Otherwise, it's very clear that God is neither he nor
she. But we generally just use the masculine
for God. And I know there's a book that was written about why don't
we see why don't we say she who arose, right instead? I mean, I
know there's that discussion. But
so God has beautiful names. What does that mean?
Now this is where we can really define God. And why this is very
important, is because if we studied the names of God, and how
many names of God are there?
Maintenance, I mean, that's the common answer. You're gonna hear
from SIM hub names. Are they gonna say? 99? Right? Does he have any
more than eight domain names? Okay.
Some people Yes, some people not sure. Right? Well, let me put it
this way. You know, that 99 name, Hadith, which is in southern
activity, be one of the collections.
That is just a package deal. God says, Look, if you want to
understand me, take this 99 names from a Daffy foreman? What is it
from haffi lucha de Hello agenda, right. Whoever preserves them,
memorizes them understands them, however, you want to translate
that they will enter paradise. The idea is that through these 99
names, you will get to know who God is. Otherwise, God is not
something Allah is not something that you can understand. Except
through these names. There are a number of names in the Quran that
are not part of the 99 book.
Right? That's just a package deal. In fact, there's another narration
that gives you another set of 99, which is not as commonly known as
the one that we're referring to a rockburn are human medical
produce. But if somebody wants to know God, God tells you, this is
the way you're going to know Him.
Now, if you look at the names, you're gonna find something quite
amazing.
Both the
current Archbishop of Canterbury, and the previous one, and
especially the previous one, which I know more about, is quite a
good, excellent theologian. But I remember that when catastrophe
happened somewhere in the world, both have said, and I made this a
point of note that our faith shook at the amount of carnage or misery
that was caused by this.
Personally, the way
the reason I think that this is the reaction in these cases, is
because if you reduce God, to a certain very specific concept, as
to who God is, that anything that's happening in the world that
seems to go against that, and contradict that, it will shake
your faith, because it shakes the faith in the One who you believe
to be the source and creator of everything.
That's why I believe that what Islam provides as as the source of
knowledge of what God is, and who he is, it's very comprehensive. It
allows for every event in history that has ever taken place. You
don't have to ignore any event, you don't have to superficially
explain any event the way God is very much there. The concept of
God that we have is very much there in every single major
events, whether that be a negative event or a positive event. And
because we're just humans and the world is the world that we live
in, and many central many generations of pastors, similar
things are going to happen again. Similar things will take place in
the future, and thus be able to explain everything. My faith does
not shake. When these kinds of things happen. Yes, I feel
battled. I feel aggrieved. I feel sorrowful for the loss of life,
but my faith is not shaken gone away. Because we can look at these
99 names. We don't have the time to go through all of them. But
just as God says that
He is the first of those names is who Allah will Liqua what is the
first of those names?
Who are
now on Rama is the app is the first of those 99 main collection
that we have on Rocket Man. And that's why I take great pride that
that is part of my name. My name is Abdul Rahman. Right? For those
who want to translate the rock man with a soft edge, right? It's
just, I mean, I'm only proud of this name because it means servant
of the Most Merciful One. All right, man means the Most Merciful
One. So adult means servant of I'm assuming the Most Merciful Now,
the other thing which
is very interested in Islam is that the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him, he always encouraged people to have good names. Not
exotic names. You know, a lot of people today they want to name
their children exotic leaves, because they think they're going
to be the next Madonna. Madonna is a nice name, actually.
It's got a Christian kind of background to whatever.
Anyway, it's not a bad deal. But you know, people want the most
exotic needs because they expect that they're that child that this
is going to become the next pop star or whatever. And she better
have a good name so she doesn't have to rebrand
from Jennifer Lopez to J. Lo. And then I don't know where it's gonna
go after that. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him, he actually changed certain people that one person comes up
and his knee was hasn't
grief, sorrow, said you're not hasn't, that's not a nice thing.
It doesn't matter what happened, why you're called that's just not
a nice name, have a positive name. Because I believe that when you
have a good name, and you're called by that name, there's a
there's an effect, words have effect.
That's why the greeting of the Muslim between each other is a
salaam aleykum, not empty words that don't mean anything. And it's
just the word means peace be upon you.
So anytime I will see I mean, there's a lot of Muslims here who
I've never met before. But when I meet them for the first time, a
Salaam Alaikum, peace be upon you. And we believe that if just one of
those accepted, you know, just to re re keep reviving this world as
much as possible, we hope that there's going to be some peace
that will engender from that. But anyway, going back to my name,
several of the Most Merciful One. Our one is the, among the 99 names
by the way.
Many, most people think that the 99 names are all unique to God.
But they're not they are names that can be used for others as
well, but in a different with with a slightly lesser definition. But
right now, for example, he has the name
which then can be used by others.
Let's just say
as he is as he sees the Mighty One, now a king
somebody great can be called as easy as well. It's not a problem
as usual. Mr. We have that in the Quran, right? The Minister of Mr.
Or the governor of missing or whatever of Egypt, but God is
Allah Aziz, the ice is the mighty one. You know, there's something
in the
butt, right? None is an E that nobody else can have on its own. I
cannot be called ramen. That's why a lot of people if they call you a
hero of mine, that's very wrong. Because I'm not Brockman. I am the
servant of Rama.
Rahim which is another one with a very, from the same root letters
for me, which means mercy, that one can be used for anybody.
The Prophet has been called Rahim. And people can have their people
can be described as being Rahim. But rush man is an intense form a
unique form of mercy that nobody else has. And it's through this
rough man, mercy, that God created this world.
And what he says here in that verse is he gave everything its
creation, its individual creation. And then he nurtures them.
He nurtures them. Now, you know, to really benefit from this, if,
if if we can get away from just believing whether there's a God or
not, that will continuously encumber our understanding of
this, I just want you to take the journey with me, regardless of
your belief, whatever. That's that's fine.
So the 99 names of God are those names. So you have right now, and
Rocky, and these are probably the most prolific Names of God. God
tells us, every Muslim we'll probably use those names how many
times in a day
all right, Lady writing how many times does a practicing nominally
practicing Muslim how many times would they use that name?
In a day
at least just just rough figure,
sorry,
50 to 100 times a normal Muslim, if he is just practicing and just
praying five daily prayers, they will say this name, at least that
many times, because in every prayer that we do we start off
with the first chapter of the Quran. And in that is that
Hamdulillah you have been a rock man, Rahim, most merciful, God is
reminding you of His mercy.
Now, it's really sad that those people who don't act with that
mercy, Don't ponder organisms. Because if they did, then they
would see that what they're doing is completely devoid of mercy.
There's a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. It
says that after God created the world,
and the people, he decided, he he, he saw that
if I'm going to deal with people, just through justice, you know,
keep it according to law, a point system, you don't mistake you get
punished to do a good deed you get rewarded. Clearly that system
exists, but not in the sense of being so absolute. There was some
Ultra rationalists called the martyr zeolites, a sectarian group
many centuries ago, who believed that God also had a system he had
to follow. And thus, if there was somebody who had done a certain
number of good deeds, a certain number of bad deeds, he could not
give bonuses.
People couldn't intercede for somebody else. God couldn't just
forgive somebody for if they hadn't sought forgiveness before.
But the God that the mainstream orthodox being the loving God,
this is a very strong, this is a very strong point of belief. So
a Christian
talks to a Muslim and says,
Yes, Your God is not loving God. So the Muslim said, He is a loving
God.
Our man Rahim, most merciful, Most Gracious, that's merciful. That's
not loving.
That's that was the response. So the Muslim thinks where it says
no, no, hold on.
We do have another day under a dude.
That means loving, specifically loving. No Mercy is out of love.
You can't be merciful without love. I mean, you have to
constantly if you understand love, and there's a great book that I
would suggest that people read if they want to understand love in
general, it's called Loving the Quran by principalities. Besides
Principality of Jordan, right he's written again it's off thesis PhD
thesis was on loving the Quran. And he's really gone into the
depth of defining what love is in general. And then understanding
that through the Quran and understanding and explaining who
God is in terms of his love
so
this was only things are great on one route the very intensity
loving God
so
friend says to him, no, no, I don't trust your definition.
Right? I don't trust your definition. The friendly banter
exchange this okay, I'll show you from the dictionary. So he picks
up an Arabic dictionary and says okay, oh, dude, what is it?
Cathedral.
abundant in love. Now that's a Muslim is dictionary. I don't
trust that. Okay, fine. Let's pick up the Mungiu. There's a there's a
famous Arabic to Arabic dictionary called a lone genius recipe. It
was actually originally written by a Christian minister. An Arab Yes,
he was. I think it was Arabic. But he wrote a really good English to
sorry, Arabic Arabic dictionary and Minjun. Okay, let's look at
the annual cathedral hope abundantly loving. So while God is
merciful, extremely merciful, gracious, Clement, forbearing.
Loving, but then at the same time, you've got names that's telling
you something completely different
quote that from the Quran. Allah says love feeding them carbene toe
shedding you don't actually they're a power
with Tony law, you know in the law.
That means half it is them the forgiven of sin, possibility
though acceptor of repentance,
but shedding due to be called
severe in his punishment. So God has they're talking about
punishment.
Now generally no concept of God if he's on mercy, we're going to
punishment fit into that. But I think that
problem is with a narrative that we bought into.
I mean, this is where it all reduces down to what is our
narrative that we have accepted on who God is supposed to be. Now
many people who are not followers of Christ, not followers of
Christianity, they still brought into this idea that if there is a
God, he must be just merciful. And how then do you reconcile this
now, if you believe that God is only merciful as such, and I mean,
I don't want to go into the
it gets a bit complicated because even within his punishment, we
believe His mercy exists, there's a certain reason, because for some
people, right, I mean, the way I look at calamities around the
world, let's just say,
the tsunami, there are some people who died in there who are
miserable in life anyway. Right. And when you as Muslims, we
believe in an afterlife, which is actually the true life than the
real life, and the everlasting life. Now, once you have that
belief, this will become a simple place to live in. Because it's not
just about what happens in this world, it's not just about your
achievements, that you only got a few days to live, what is it you
only live once? Right, I hate to use the other term, right?
You only live once, no, you don't live only once. Yes, you only live
only once in this world. But we believe in a full full fledged
life in the hereafter. And the Muslims, their concept of a belief
in the hereafter is that in this world, we believe that our bodies,
our physical bodies, are primary and are solely secondary. So
though we have a soul, but secondary in terms of what it
experiences, the body is our first primary form of primary locus of
experience, then, in the grave,
that soul becomes primary, the body is secondary. So it doesn't
matter if the if there's if there's no body, if it's been
mauled by an animal consumed or cremated or whatever, the soul
becomes primary because the soul continues to exist. And if anybody
wants more detail on that, I've got a whole series of lectures on
that on zamzam. academy.com, then in paradise, a hellfire, both body
and soul become primary. And that's why we believe that in
paradise, a person will experience the highest levels of pleasure
that cannot be experienced here. And that is actually one of the
reasons for God creating a paradise because of how he wants
to reward the good doers, out of His mercy, this word is too
restrictive,
to really limit it, to be able, and we are we're not programmed
for that. So in Paradise will be the place and thus the way he
wants to punish people in Russia that comes into the equation as
well. This one is too limited for that punishment. And thus, there's
a Hellfire that exists. So for most things, is very easy to
reconcile that God in some cases will be, there will be some
calamities that will take place in the world, for the people who have
been affected by that calamity. Some for some people, this will be
a source of delivery from misery, they've been poor, they've been
struggling. And Muslims believe that anybody who dies in a
calamity, whatever currency that is, whether it's a pregnant woman
died during pregnancy, whether it's in a plane crash, whether
it's being mauled by a lion, whether it is through cancer, a
disease, a debilitating disease, you are a martyr. And a martyr
means that you will have a special status in the Hereafter, Your sins
are forgiven.
Because illness is a purifier of sorts.
So for some people, it's just out of the misery of this world, and
the in a better place. For some people, it's a punishment. They
were evil people.
It's just about how we react the rest of the people in the world
how we react to things. So I remember once I'm sitting in an
interfaith program, and each person around the table was
supposed to bring something from their tradition. So what I brought
was, there's a saying of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him, it says that, for the believer, for the Muslim,
regardless of what state you're in, it's all good. What does that
mean? If you experience something good, and prosperity,
and then you do the right thing? What is that you'll be great.
You'll be grateful to God, then that is good for you. If something
sad happened, some adversity takes place and you are patient. And you
bear patiently understanding that this is the nature of the world.
Things do happen that are not favorable in this world.
And you are patient, then that is good for you as well. Because
every human being in this world is going to be either in adversity or
full prosperity, or somewhere in between. It's just about how you
deal
With those with those situations, so the names of God, there's a
name that says adore source of harm. And hence, when harm takes
place in the world, it's just a manifestation of God. I remember
once about four years ago, and with a friend at Victoria Falls in
Zambia, right. Has anybody been to Niagara Falls?
Yeah, they've been to Niagara Falls, but that's nothing has to.
It's just straight from this portion falls, right? Very
commercialized. If you really want to see some falls go to Victoria
Falls, right? And go both Zimbabwe and Zambia, both sides, amazing.
While unfolds, totally awesome. So we're there. And there's this huge
curtain of water. We're at the top of the cliff, and the fall is on
the other side. And it's just this huge, raw and curtain of water
just going down. So my friend, he says, what a beautiful sight. I
said, No, what a majestic sight.
He sees the beauty of God and I see the majesty of God.
And that's who God is for us. God is the beautiful one. Allah says,
the prophets Allah, the Prophet said, that in the larger needle,
you can go to jamaa Allah is beautiful elegance, and he loves
beauty. But then those names, those 99 names can be split and
categorized into the names of majesty,
that those of power of
have control of Lordship, sovereign, right, and then the
other ones, which are the German beauty, clemency, softness,
gentleness, compassion. So that's how you have both of these names.
They, you need all of these names to understand what happens in the
world. That's why whatever I see in the world, it doesn't shock me.
Yes, it's shocking in terms of human suffering. It's shocking in
terms of what happens, of course, but it doesn't question my
belief in God.
Just maybe a few more things before I open it up to your
questions.
So we have the Quran.
After the Quran, we have the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon
the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace, are very, very
important forces. What are they, during the course of the life of
the prophet Muhammad peace, we are in those who are around them.
Those people who he met his wives, his friends, his companions,
whatever they saw, whatever happened during that time,
incidents that took place, they recorded these things. Now, of
course,
they started then transmitting these, relating these stories on,
of course, this is not a foolproof system to start that, you know, to
have allowed it to continue that way. Because lots of people going
to make things up, or the Prophet Muhammad said this, about my
triumph over my city or about this, that or the other. So the
whole science then,
was created and developed to sift through all of these sayings to
determine these, no doubt of its authenticity, these
absolutely authentic, these most likely authentic, this one is
weak. This one definitely fabricated. How you study who said
it, you study who they say they heard it from. And it's this
really in depth, very complicated, sophisticated science. And you
have a separate point.
When I go to sit by any scholar who's teaching Hadith tradition,
and how many Hadees Do you think they are in existence? There are,
there are probably a few 100,000 At least, you know, I'm
acknowledging 101 of the great scholars of the past, he had
memorized a million narrations. But when you say a million
durations, that means not unique narrations, but the transmission
chains were all unique, because you have one message from the
prophets, but it could have been transmitted through a different
chain a different change. If there's one message of the Prophet
transmitted through 10 different chains of narration going back to
two different people, then you can increase its veracity. So he knew
a million of these durations by heart. Right. And there were many
scholars you knew like 100,000 Because a lot of it was oral at
the time and oral tradition. Anyway,
the first narration, like if somebody comes to me today to
study Hadith, which is the traditional Prophet Mohammed, you
know, the first narration that I will relate to them, is this one,
called the use of Allah Azza wa sallam, or Rafi Munna Your humble
Moroccan
Handelman fill out you have Henkelman for summer.
Now those who understand Arabic will pick out that rocking rock
and rocking rocking is several times in this. What does it mean?
It means
a rocky moon, those who show mercy to others. You're having trouble
right now. The Most Merciful One right man will have mercy on them.
You show mercy to others, God will be mercy on you. In hammelmann,
fill out, show mercy deal with mercy to those on Earth. You have
hemco Memphis summer, and those in the heavens will show mercy to
you. So you got mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. That is the first
tradition. And this goes back centuries that had the any student
wanting to start to study tradition, Hadith, they will
generally hear this first because I have heard this hadith first
from most of my teachers, if not all of them, they have heard this
narration first from pretty much all of their teachers all the way
back to, I think the second century of Islam.
Now, from this, you can understand how they're supposed to be a
concept of mercy that is proliferating through, but
unfortunately, it's the people who do the heinous crimes and heinous
acts that seem to take all of the limelight, even though they are
absent fraction. And then it requires us to try to clarify. So
I'm going to stop here
might let you ask any questions today.
There's many ways to know about of course.
But I think one of the ways definitely needs to be through a
good study of the names of God. Because I mean, give you an
example. God has the name half here, right? Because often nothing
is done, which is in the Quran. There's another name with a food.
And there's another name Kafar they actually all come from the
same room, they all mean Forgiver. But what's interesting here is
that the word is often in Arabic just means the one figures, right?
The world figures, gentlemen,
love for means a certain type of forgiveness. The one who
constantly gives forgiveness, you sin you do wrong, you ask him for
forgiveness, he'll forgive you. You messed around again and you go
back and you will forgive you again. So the four means the one
will forgive you over and over and over and over again. And the
laughter doesn't necessarily denote that whereas the fool does.
Then you have a far what does that mean? abundantly forgiving could
mean He will forgive you for the greatest things that you think you
will never do that he will never forgive you. So for example is
another verse in the Quran it says
kuliah Eva everybody Alina, so for the unforeseen.
Who may Rachmat in love. You know, for example, if
if, if a child has been misbehaving at home and really
messing the mother up,
really naughty.
The mother's love for the child is generally seen as greater than the
Father's love for the child fathers always have the
magisterium position. The mothers have the beauty position. Right?
So the feminine, the masculine, and
the mother will never disappoint her kids. But you know, they've
been messing around and father comes home in the traditional
family. You know, the classic, you know, Father comes on. How's
everything? Oh, your son did this to your daughter was doing this?
It's not your daughter.
Today, she is not my daughter today. She isn't he's not my son
today is your son. But look at God when He speaks to us. In the
Quran. He says, oh my son's like man, yeah, arriba de meisterplan
to have transgressed against themselves. Do not ever become
despondent of the mercy of a rock learn of the Most Merciful One.
Because he forgives everything. So now going back to that, you know,
when you read the Quran, you will see that at the end of verses he
says, For Allahu Rahim, Allah, Allah Aziz and Hakeem,
there was an Orientalist. I forget which one.
He said, these were just rhetorical flourishes. They were
just there just to make it look nice. But
any study of a book of commentary of the Quran will show you that
it's apt. It's completely perfect the usages of that. So if you know
the names of God, if you've studied them, when you read the
Quran, you will be able to pick up these new ones doing so.
between multiple full of warrants on, and of course, then the Hadith
help us on. So
what is God fearing this? Right? But why is God fearing this and
that is a person's
a person developing such a relationship with God and a self
introspection that they believe God is looking at them and
watching them at all times, because we believe God is
omniscient. God is omnipresent. God is all seeing, or hearing and
all knowing. So that that's there, whether we believe that or not,
that is what the Muslims believe in as long as we've got is, but
then it's for a believer, to inculcate the consciousness of
that, because most people don't have that consciousness. Because
if we did, then we would never do anything wrong. So taco means that
you've developed such a awareness of God watching us that we would
never put a foot wrong. That's the way I will define taco. But of
course, there are more elaborate explanations of taco but this is
what it is God fearing us to such a degree that you will never do
anything wrong, because you know, God is watching.
The that's a good question. God
has mercy that encompasses everyone.
And that is why he created the way that is why he feeds those, and
gives sustenance to those who outright deny you for getting on
video, who outright reject Him who call out and say there is no God,
His feeds those that is His mercy to everybody. Write to all beings,
then we believe that there are certain manifestations of His
mercy based on acts that people will do that will invoke a certain
type of mercy from him. So certain types of mercies, in that sense
will be reserved for certain types of people. But otherwise, in
general, God cannot be said, to not be merciful to any single
person in any way whatsoever. There is a level of mercy that
everybody is enjoying of God, the mere fact that we are
existing in this world and continue to thrive, despite what
we do what we say.
That's the short answer.
Why did God create us?
There's a number of answers to that. One of them is based on a
tradition which says that I created people so that I could be
recognized.
I could be recognized God is the same he's not. We believe that God
hasn't changed in any way, shape, or form, or enhanced by creating
us. God wanted us to be wanted to create beings that would recognize
it.
That's the simple answer today.
So everybody, the wonderful thing about Islam is that you can be
wherever you are, you can be who you are, you can develop a
connection with God. You don't have to go through anybody Of
course, it helps to go through people who are connected already.
So you can understand, you can learn I mean, we need sources to
tell us how to connect just like you're asking the question right
now, the best way to connect to God is what Lena, Arlen assured do
have been Linda, those people who believe they are most intensely in
Love of God with God
what the scholars who have experienced this divine love,
right and I'm getting into the very spiritual relativity right so
you have to take a leap if that's not kind of what you talk about
every day. But what they say is that we again will have to study
what love is but loving someone
eugenic What Why do you love somebody for? Like, why would you
love someone? I know it's not always I know it's a kind of a
Supra Nash irrational kind of, but generally, you can take it down to
you love somebody because of the Excellence in something, right
invites you to like limb, and thus then start loving them. You love
somebody for their beauty. You can love somebody for their wealth.
You can love somebody for their knowledge, for their position,
their savvy, whatever. These are various things you will love
people love people for. We believe that God will all of his beautiful
names and everything has the greatest has the most varied and
most comprehensive
collection of attributes that would make somebody loving you so
that's why white people who love God now how do we inculcate that
God that love is you remember him?
You remember, it's not just a claim, you can't just claim
minutes long claims don't form anything. It's about what you make
of yourself. There's a Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad peace theory
says that the all mankind, humankind are the bondsman of God.
And
those who are best to God spawn bail bondsman are the closest to
God.
So by giving service to others, proves that you love God because
God is infinitely generous. If you try to inculcate godly traits
within us, being Clement, merciful, loving,
nor Welcome, we are allowed to revenge because God takes revenge.
He's the one Dottie that's the name, she means the one who takes
revenge, right? But generally, the dominant state is a merciful
state, then you will be closer to God. So you get closer to God by
practice. And then of course, by taking his name and remembering
him. What does God want to me to do in this particular situation?
Everything in this world is definitely a representation of
God. But what do we mean by that? Meaning?
Actually, that's a very good question. It wasn't bad before.
It's
in it's in Arabic, everything of this world is locked under the
term island of
Ireland. That's why the hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen.
All praise is to Allah, Who is the Lord of All the Worlds worlds here
means just categories of everything, whether it means the
world of humans, the world of animals, the world of birds, the
world of
inanimate objects, and so on, so forth. Everything you and I, and
everything else, and everybody's expression, whatever they do, is
honor them. But you know what other means? We translate it as
worlds, right? But you know, what it really means from an Arabic
perspective,
anybody
it means the same. Or that means a sign in Ireland a sign
a signpost. And the idea is that everything in this world, if you
think carefully of it, it tells you eventually of its makeup. So
you see beauty, and you're supposed to see the beauty of
Allah.
You see
greatness in something, and you know that God is greater. So
everything in that, in that sense, is a representation, meaning it's
the same towards God.
And just to demystify the word Allah, I didn't do that, right?
And what is Allah, Allah is just an Arabic term. It's a proper name
for God. It doesn't have a route. Some people do say comes from
Allah, which means God. But Allah is a proper name, just like a
rock, none is of God. But what it means is that Lord, who is the
creator of everything, possessed of all of his beautiful names and
his attributes. So God is a very comprehensive term that says that
entity who is the Lord creator, and all the other things that the
beautiful names signify that word signifies all of them. And that's
why this word can't be given to anybody else. Whereas God is a
generic term. Allah is a particular term. So for example,
that's right. What's your name?
So, yeah,
love
the video. Okay.
So that's your property. Right? I hope you don't mind me saying,
that's your proper name. But you are a human being. You're a human.
You're a woman. Right? Likewise,
the word God is a generic term like you will be.
Whereas Allah is the proper name. For him. That means something. And
it's not like my name, Abdul Rahman, which is just optimistic,
that hopefully he is the son of the mercy. Well, you better be
right. You know, it's an optimistic name. But God, we
believe it's a realistic definition of who God is and why
God doesn't have a definition, but that's what representation it is.
Whereas God, you can have Gods goddesses, whereas Allah can be
pluralized it doesn't become masculine or feminine. It's just
goddess.
Yes.
Yeah, no, we're not ready. Let me just repeat that question.
So if we're saying that God can't become a man that we we are then
reducing God, restricted or other restricting them, that he may have
a choice to become a man. And thus we've just reduced that
we've
not restricted him at all. Because we can you see, the one thing
about God is why did I do those negating characteristics in the
beginning, because God is very difficult, it's impossible to
define in a full way. Whatever we say, and whatever we believe has
to be from the source. I can't make up anything about God. If I
say something about God that is not sourced in the Quran, or the
Hadith, then it is incorrect. So when I say that he will not become
a man, then that is from the sources. It says, God says in the
Quran, they say that God took on a son, what a blast for me. So he is
making that very clear that he cannot hit. He couldn't do Allah
who
say that God is one. Alongside that. God is the self serve Allah,
the self subsisting one is not in need of anyone else. But the word
somebody in Arabic means everybody is subsisting on him, he doesn't
subsist on anything else. Neither does he get to know his he got.
And he doesn't reduce himself to anything that's not in there. But
then God says another place, the people of Mecca used to say that
the angels are the daughters of God. He said, again, they don't
like to have and this was Iran, this was really bad, because they
had a formula having daughters, when the Prophet started his
mission to mission peace be upon him, that is really, really,
really repugnant practice in the Arabian Peninsula of burying their
daughters. Because they had this crazy idea that daughters would
grow up and go marry, somebody else changed their name, and
they've left your tribe and you've worked hard on the money life. So
it was something some crazy narrative, you said, this is the
problem of narratives, when you believe in the wrong narrative,
then all your intellect goes down the drain. Right? As clever Nobel
Peace winner, you may be, you know, so they're saying God has
daughters. So God is telling them in a in their own terms as such,
that you don't like to have daughters yourself. You think God
has taught us like, what's your problem? So we can whatever we say
about God, we can only say from the sources. And that's why in
some things, we have to use negating characteristics, because
we don't know what the affirmative characteristics are.
Right? So he's just like, we can tell you this is normal college,
and this is not goddess. That's what we can tell you. We can't
tell you exactly what he is in that aspect. But he's definitely
not this or that.
Absolutely, yeah. But certainly, it's another good question. So the
question is that the there's a hadith, which is related from God,
as God's saying that I am with myself as he or she thinks of me.
Right? So how does that relate to this whole
discussion? What that means is,
we are told to have a good opinion about God, that He will show us
mercy, not
not a lazy form of entertainment of God's mercy, that we continue
to do wrong and say God is forgiving, because if people like
me, God is forgiving, God will forgive you. If it gives
everything we just continue to do wrongs. That's wrong. But a
serious effort we make and if we stumble, we make a mistake we
earn. We have the best opinion about God. So it is to allay
hopelessness. It is to allay,
despondency. That's why God
condemned those people are Vaughn, Nina Billahi, Vana. So those
people who held bad opinions about God,
those who held bad and restrictive opinions about God, know your
opinion about God that He will help you and assist you needs to
be very open. Because as the verse I quoted earlier, says that
doesn't matter how much of a transgressor you've been, God's
door is always open. Doesn't matter how much you've sinned or
done wrong. God is always open for you.
In fact, it says that anybody who does not ask God, God gets angry.
Now for us, it's like, somebody comes to for us to ask for a
favor. You might have them once they have the second time you can
borrow your car again, it's your problem and yet you're wrong.
But we've got come to him as much as you want because we he says,
Well, yeah, he has a you know, somewhat your heart, for God is
the treasures of the heavens and the earth. Nothing delivered to
them. As much as you want, you can ask him, you're only limited by
your own restriction, your own limitations. God can give you
whatever you want to have the greatest opinion about God.
Are we done? There was another hand somewhere if we're done thank
you very much.
Hello thank you very much for listening