Sheikh Abdurraheem Green – Muslim Question Time
Abdurraheem Green – Muslim Question Time
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of finding out who God is and what religion he is associated with to understand one's beliefs. They stress the need for individuals to consider their religion and learn about their religion to understand their own beliefs. The challenges of learning Arabic language and activism address issues such as climate crisis. The speakers emphasize the importance of respecting people and natural tendencies, as it is crucial to achieve success in life.
AI: Summary ©
Okay, everyone.
I'd like to begin by praising Allah, we praise Him, we seek his help, and we ask for his forgiveness, and we take refuge with God, from the evil of ourselves. And from the evil consequence of our evil actions, anyone whom God guides, no one can misguide. But anybody whom God leaves to go straight, no one can guide. And I testify that Allah alone, God alone, the one creator alone is worthy of worship, and that Muhammad is His Messenger. I've done a few of these Q and A's in my time.
And one of the things that I think is really important, there's two things I want to
start before I actually go into answering or trying to answer some of the questions.
And the first thing that I want to mention is just to emphasize the importance of thinking about where, what are your sources of information and knowledge, that's what I really want you to think about. And since you I think you're all students here at university, I'm sure that to some degree or another, it wasn't a play on that degree.
It was totally unintentional, to some degree or another,
you have to understand the importance of
where do you get your information from. So if you're studying a particular subject, that I'm sure of you, I'm sure all of you understand the importance of being able to access the most accurate information about that subject. that's highly important to your success.
So it sort of begs the question, then,
when it comes to
Islam, or the religion of Islam, or perhaps any religion, or any ideology, or any way of life, what is the best source from which to take information? Now I don't, I don't really think I'm going to answer that for you. But that's something you need to think about.
You need to think about that. Where do I get my information about snap? Well, the fact that you're here today, and handling the praise to God shows that at least in your spectrum, is I want to I want to find out what Muslims themselves have to say about their religion.
And I think that's a good thing. So I really just want to emphasize that
I could really get diverted on this subject. But personally, in my journey in life,
one of the biggest
epiphanies for me was something that opened my mind so profoundly, to question on a very, very fundamental level, everything that I was being taught
about life, about what was the purpose of life? Why am I here, about politics, about what was going on in the world? There were things that happened to me, that made me question all of those paradigms that I was being fed. And I think that was a huge part of my own personal journey in life. And I do think everybody should have those questions, including Muslims, by the way,
I don't think you can help it. The second thing that I want to mention this, this may seem like a cop out, really.
But it's not. It's it's just logical. It's just pure logic. So I want everybody to understand where I'm coming from. I say where I'm coming from. I would like to say that where every Muslim is coming from, but I, you know, maybe that would be a bit presumptuous. And I know for a fact that not everyone who calls himself Muslim comes from this position that I'm going to describe to you. But I do think that what I'm going to describe to you is what the religion of Islam teaches. So very briefly,
what does the word Islam mean? Now a lot of people think that the word Islam means peace, but actually the word Islam. Its its original meaning or its origin comes from the the idea of submission and surrender. So Islam could be translated as
the way of submission or surrender to God. And the Muslim is someone
who submits and surrenders his or her will to God's will.
And that is really epitomized for me personally.
In the story of Abraham,
for me, Abraham is probably
one of the greatest human beings who ever lived.
Personally,
I find him a hugely inspirational figure.
And even we find the end is even our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is directed to look towards the pattern and the behavior of Abraham as an example.
In fact, the Quran tells us that if whoever
chooses some other motive behavior, other than Abraham's motive behavior is someone who's really lost it. I mean, that's my paraphrase. Doesn't say quite like that. So what is what is very special about Abraham. And what is very special about Abraham is, in fact his, on questioning of obedience to God. Now, in this day and age,
that itself seems to be questionable. The idea that you should unquestioningly surrender yourself to the commands of God, for many people comes with a whole load of problems. And I'm sympathetic to that I can understand. I mean, we have had examples in recent modern history of mass murders, taking place in the name of someone who was inspired by God.
Diana, for example, is famous for two things.
One of them is the the longest pontoon bridge in the world that stretches across the river near the Capitol. And the other is for the largest mass suicide in history, which happened in the jungle there.
And so, there are many things that people say and do in the name of God.
That raises a very fair enough question. And
people may question that approach of complete submission to the Word of God. And of course, one of the favorite.
How can I say narrations of the atheist says, you know, look how much evil has been done in the name of religion? Actually, that's an understatement. I mean, you know that they prefer to say, all the world's Evil has been done in the name of religion,
which is, of course, not really accurate. But there's no doubt a lot of bad things have been done in the name of religion. But however, the fact remains is there is to me an indisputable logic to this. And here's the logic.
If there is a God, so he This is the premise, the premise is that the universe has a creator.
That's the premise, the universe has a creator.
The rational justification for that premise is very simple. The universe works according to laws and patterns, sophisticated laws and patterns, where we see things working according to laws and patterns. Our universal human experience tells us that those laws and patterns and systems have been imposed by something that is intelligent and powerful.
So if we look at the systems of the universe and the laws of the universe, we can understand something about how amazingly intelligent and powerful its creator must be. For me, it's a simple, rational conclusion. It's not if there is a God, there is a God there is a creator.
So the next if is, if this creator has chosen to reveal to us some knowledge and some information.
How would it be rational or logical for a human being once they know that some knowledge has come from this creator, to reject it or turn away from it?
That that is not logical OR rational at all? Surely, if there is a God, and surely if this God has revealed to us knowledge from his wisdom and intelligence,
the finite limited,
really finite, limited in our power and our intelligence human being has no rational choice except to submit and to surrender themselves to that knowledge and to do their best to follow it.
That is the base
I believe of, of, of religion, that certainly monotheistic religion, that's the basis of Abraham's religion. That's the basis of the religion of Moses. That's the basis I believe, of the religion of Jesus. And that's the basis I believe, of the religion of Mohammed, that belief that the universe has a creator, that this creator has chosen certain human beings, to be vehicles of Revelation.
And that our logical and irrational imperative of human as human beings is that once we know that, it's to follow it and to do our best to follow it.
Of course, there is a struggle within us between our desires, our, what we call our animal impulses,
and our rational understanding of the need to submit ourselves to God. And that's where the struggle takes place, the struggle takes place between our desires and our impulses, and our understanding that God should be obeyed. So, really, in many ways, the only correct answer to many questions people have about Islam is well, that's what God tells us to do.
Because
what is our position? Otherwise? Are we supposed to subject
the knowledge of God
to the thinkings of our
human minds? Are we going to compare our knowledge individually and collectively to God's knowledge? That just doesn't make any sense? Surely? Is that really logical? Is that really rational to do that?
And the funny thing is, is that if you look and examine our human behavior, we don't behave like that.
I mean, yes, we may have questions, we may, of course, we ask questions. But our normal human behavior is that, you know, we seek advice from people we believe to be experts. If one of you has a medical problem, and you're not in any way learned in medicine, you go to a doctor, you go to someone you believe has knowledge, of ailments and illnesses. And almost always you're except the guidance of that doctor. Even though you know, doctors get it wrong a lot of the time, but still,
you know that his knowledge is greater than yours. And you'll happily submit to what that doctor says, Well, how about if we amplify that almost? Well, we do amplify that an infinite amount of times to God's knowledge. So what I'm trying to say here is that really,
for many, many questions, people ask about Islam.
You know, why do you not eat? Let me take an example. Why don't you eat pork?
Well, I don't eat pork, because God tells me not to eat pork. That's the simple answer.
Now, I know lots of Muslims, they like other types of answers. Like, well, pork carries all of these diseases.
And, you know, for example, pork is more like human flesh than any other flesh. And oh, yeah, pork digests its food within two hours. Right? And, okay, these may all be really sound reasons I'm not I you know, but that I always like to pose the hypothetical argument, okay. If you are saying that's the reason you don't eat pork, if I can, if I can produce a pig if I can get a pig, and I can breed this pig on a farm, and this farm has such conditions that we can prove, you know, without reasonable doubt that this pig contains no disease. In fact, we implant in the pig, nutrients and vitamins, and we can show that that this particular product is really beneficial and healthy for you
to eat. has it become halau for us? does it become more full?
So no.
So what's the reason we don't eat pig because God tells us don't eat pig.
I really sorry.
To explain it that way. And it's so simple. I I've said I remember saying this 20 something years ago in Oxford and people are so disappointed.
sight, you know, you know, can we have something else, please? You know, and it's like, well, but that's it. Really. I'm sorry, but
That's the bottom line.
And why is Abraham the example for that? Because I can guarantee you that whatever thing you can think of think of anything that you may find objectionable or whatever. How about killing your own son? How does that right in you're like, how about killing your own son? Where would you put that in your sort of scale of pretty horrific things to do?
How high? It's interesting because Christians are going to be faced with the same problem here. Because, according to them, God kills his own son. Right? And, but But Abraham, Abraham, is told to kill his son. Now that's something that every Jew and every Christian and every Muslim accepts, and what does Abraham do?
He goes ahead and he does it. Okay, God stops him to, you know, the last millisecond.
But that's it. You know, that the judge that by any standard of morality, that you can think of, imagine that on the headline of the sun, the times the independent, The Guardian, whatever,
you know, mad guy, you know, listens to God telling him kill his own son.
That's got a rate pretty high in sort of crazy things to do.
But that's what God tells Abraham today.
Okay, there's no media there. There's no, it's in the middle of nowhere. But
But the point here is that if we go back to where I started, and then we asked the question, Well, okay, is there a god? And Did God really talk to Abraham? Because if we can accept, there's a God, and we can accept that God really did tell Abraham to do that? Well, then it doesn't become that difficult.
To understand, well, you know, God knows something about this boy that I don't know.
Right?
Maybe he's going to do this. So maybe he's going to do that. Or maybe he I don't know, what's the consequence of not doing what God says it could be huge.
So brothers and sisters, friends, this, this is really something really, really important. I can try and give you logical explanations to things. And I will try. But ultimately, the question a Muslim is asking him or herself is, what is God's will? What does God want me to do? Because that's, that's the basis. That's what our religion is based upon. What it means to be a Muslim, to submit yourself to God, the real question we have to ask ourselves is, is this the Word of God? Is this what these are genuine questions? Does God really want us to do that? Does God really want us to behave in that way?
Is there a difference between how God wanted the Prophet Mohammed to behave 1400 years ago? And how God expects us to behave today? Well, that's that's a genuine question.
What is God's will? And how does God want us to behave in any particular time or any given circumstance, but, but it all comes down to that trying to understand the will of God?
So some of the questions I've got here really are connected with that fundamental question like, how can we how can we be sure the Quran is unchanged and the truth, for example?
Why? Why are Muslims so steadfast on their faith, despite all the attention and heat they get? What is it that keeps them going?
That's a good question.
What is gluten
is genuinely there, right?
It's an inside joke.
Mary Jo, can you share it with me please? You have to be
inshallah so? Well, I know. I'm glad I read it anyway. So.
So, I think, you know, I think that
some of those, some of those questions,
other religions have religious authorities, for example, a pope and so on. What about Islam? So some, some of the, you know, some of the questions are connected to that fundamental question.
Some of the questions are connected to that fundamental question. So, there are questions, the real question, I think, and the only valid question, actually, I'll be honest, the
only valid question, in my opinion,
is really having after what I said, the only really valid question is okay, well, that's fair enough. But if someone thinks it's not fair enough, that's fine. challenge it.
But if that is our basis, and that's our paradigm, then surely the only question, Well, let me ask you what you think surely the only really valid question is going to be?
what's the what's the only really valid question to ask Muslims? From the point of view of the way they see the world?
Yeah.
Okay, so that something like that, how do you know your religion is true? How do you know there's a God? How do you know your answers from God? How do you know Mohammed is a prophet?
How do you really know? Can you convince me?
If someone can find full to my logic, in the logic of the argument, I'd be very, very willing to hear it. But you know, I don't see. I think I know, there's a discussion about how I can see this discussion about how do you interpret God's Word? How do you know how do we, you know, how do we know that you know, the language that God talks to us? God talks to us in human language, which is by its nature limited, and I accept all of that these are, these are also bigger discussions. But that really comes down to Well, how do we know God's will? But the fundamental question really, isn't it?
How do we know there's a God? Well, you know, I can't I mean, I could give lots more reasons why I think we might know this. But I think that's the core of it.
It comes down to that we live in an organized systemize universe, it's the most rational explanation that it has an organizer and systemize it that's intelligent and powerful. How do we know that? Is God a lot? You know? Well, that's a good question.
It comes down to how do we know the Quran is from God?
Well, how do we know the Quran is from God?
I don't want to dwell on this for too long.
And it's something that, you know, needs a bit of research and a bit of looking into. But I think that there are two main things that I'd like to put forward. two main things that I'd like to put forward to to illustrate why the end might be from God. The first is what the Quran says about God.
What the Quran actually says about God?
Why do I propose that as the first reason to accept the Quran is from God, is because it is perhaps the only book that I you know, it's the only book that I've come across, and I've studied a few in this particular field in my time, that really gives us a clear description of who and God of who and what God is.
That does not contradict himself.
So I think there are some rational ways that we can come to understand some things about God.
And what the Quran teaches us is very much in line with that.
The second reason I'd like to put forward is something that put and mentions itself, okay to two things. Actually. One, the court says that if this book was from other than God, you would find within it many discrepancies is the meaning of the statement of the court.
itself like a falsification test, I'm sure any of you who study science, you're familiar with the idea of falsification test, it's very easy to come up with a scientific theory. It's not difficult to do that, to come up with a theory of lots of different things. What's not so easy is to show why that theory is compelling, and why that theory should be true. So one of the things scientists are often asked to do is to provide a full certification test. So if you can show this and this and this, that will show that my theory is not true. But if you can't show those things, then it indicates that my theory is right. So why is this a good falsification test because it is to do with
knowledge is to do with knowledge. And since Islam is about submitting to God's knowledge, it it sort of makes sense that if this book was from other than God, you will find within it many discrepancies, because that's the nature of human beings is that we forget the nature of human beings as they were inconsistent.
We make money
stakes, whereas we would imagine that something that was revealed revealed by God would be consistent, it will be consistent with God's knowledge. So this is another reason. So this is something that is put forward in itself. The third reason is
to do with the
it's a historical, it's something we have to examine historically. And it's to do with what we could call the linguistic miracle of
the Quran actually puts forward a challenge that if this book was from other than God,
God challenges human beings to bring or to make something that is comparable to it. Now, this challenge is often misunderstood by people. And they think it's just, you know, like, Well, okay, so look, and it's beautiful, right? So the Arabs thought it was nice, and it sounded beautiful. But you know, Shakespeare is nice as well, and we have lots of poets, they make nice poets. So what that doesn't mean, it's from God, which is a fair enough point. But that's not what the Quran is saying.
And whoever says that doesn't understand the context of this challenge. And the context of this challenge is that Arabic In the time of the Prophet Mohammed, the Arabic language, in the time of the Prophet Mohammed in that location,
was something that was clearly defined in respect to its compartments of speech. So there were different types of speech. There was poetry, there was Ryan's prose.
There was rhetoric, there was normal speech, there was another type of speech called citizen, which was a type of is how soothsayers they used to talk and a special type of speech. And whenever someone spoken Arabic, it was vague, you could define which one of these categories that person was speaking in poetry itself was divided into 16, or 17, Bihar, so that's 16 forms of poetry in Arabic as well. So what's interesting about the Quran is that it didn't conform to any of those patterns, it was itself a unique pattern. It was a new and unique pattern of speech, a unique format, so to speak.
And this is a very specific challenge of the Quran,
not just to produce something eloquent and beautiful.
But to bring a format of speech,
of Arabic speech,
that is of comparable beauty and impact.
So this is what left the Arabs of the time, by the way until today,
unable to respond, until today, unable to respond.
The Quran still retains that position of being a unique form of the language, no one has been able to produce something of its eloquence, and its unique format.
So this is the challenge of the Quran, it was particularly poignant, because the Arabs at the time of the Prophet Mohammed were truly masters of their language, they were masters of their language.
I mean, I want to give you an example.
And this always sticks in my mind, because this was told to me by an Arab friend of mine, he was actually reading a book, a book of poems, and this, this book of poems,
was written by a man, a poet, who had, he had an issue with another tribe.
And his way of dealing with this issue is writing poetry against them.
And my friend was reading this book, I remember it until this day, and he was reading a book here and he says, Oh my god, he killed them. Oh my god, he destroyed them. Or he finished them you know, like you've made these extra. So after passage Now, listen, bro, one who killed who destroyed Who did you know what's going on here? And he said, this is a poem this this man would I don't remember the poet's name. He wrote this poem against the truck. He said, Do you know about him until this day, the tribe pulls itself by a different name. Because they don't want people to say, oh, you're from the tribe.
But this is the power of their language. This was the power of their language.
Yet the Quran came, and their best poets, their best literary geniuses were unable they were literally speechless. In fact, one of the greatest poets,
one of the greatest poets names slipped my mind right now. And I think it was at No, it wasn't even
But
anyway, his name sits my mind. He's one of the great recognized as being one of the greatest poets and he, of the Arabic language and he was alive during the time of the Prophet, he actually gave up poetry.
He said, I can't often look for an icon. I can't recite poetry anymore. They asked him recite some poetry said what, after the court, there's nothing to recite.
So it had a very profound impact. And it's something you can study, historically, you can see that and you can study it. And until today, you can study the Arabic language, and you can see this. So these are my there are many, many other things I could put forward as well about the Prophet Mohammed himself, his truthfulness, his trustworthiness, his honesty,
seeking an explanation for the psychology of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu lism, seek, seek a compelling psychological explanation, except he was truthful in what he claimed to be
sick find it.
Because you won't, you won't be able to justify him being a liar, you won't be able to justify him being diluted.
So how will you justify? And how would you explain his life and his teachings and how he behaved and how what he said, and I think that if you study his life, you will be compelled to admit that he was really he claimed to be a prophet of God. And there are many other things, I'm just giving you a few insights. So this is what I offer. It's something that needs to be read and studied. There's a very nice book that we produced, called the eternal challenge that talks specifically about the the eloquence of the Quran a little bit about the Prophet Muhammad. So it's produced by IRA, you can either get it maybe the brothers who have it, I'm sure they have? No, we have it, they have it over
there. If you want something a little bit more easy to read, there's another book we produce called the man in the red underpants. Okay. That's, I would say, slightly more easy reading than the eternal challenge. So again, you can download that. And they contain similar things. The manual read on the pencil is a bit more wide ranging and comprehensive, but not as detailed.
Why is
why did God choose Arabic? language? What Why?
Why Arabic?
I think, again, this is, you know, all I can do is give you the reasons that I think
I think one of the reasons that Allah chose Arabic to be the vehicle
for his final revelation.
And one of the most important and profound reasons is that Arabic has the capacity to, to carry a vast amount of meaning in very few words.
That's one of the reasons
it's one of the amazing things about the Quran is that you can read it over and over and over and over. And every time you read it, you'll come across something new that you never came across before. It's quite, it's one of the extraordinary qualities of the Quran. And that's partly to do with the depth of the Arabic language. So the Quran manages to be really quite sure it's not a long book, it's only about 100,000, depends how you count the words, but it's about 100,000 words, it's not very long. But yet at the same time, it manages to carry a huge depth of meaning, you just need to walk into a, you know, a small size Muslim library to see the huge numbers of books that you
know, like volumes written on just explaining the end. So that's one reason. The other reason i think is to do the purity of the Arabic language is that the Arabs had very, very jealously guarded their language, they were very proud of it. And they had you know, jealously guarded their language. So it was a language that was relative, not completely, there's not that there are not some non Arabic words in Arabic. But just like in any language, they become Incorporated, but they, they It was very fiercely protected. And that sort of stays true until today. I think compared to how other languages have evolved, you will find that Arabic is still very much true to its origins. And it's
you know, it's it is different. It hasn't it's it's
Not right to say it's unchanged, but it still is very true to his origins, maybe more than many other languages. So these are the reasons these are some of the reasons that the Quran was revealed in Arabic, I think,
give some advice, some of the
importance of learning the language.
Yeah, I think I think that it depends. You know, it depends where you want to be and what you want to achieve, I'll be absolutely honest with you, it would be great if we could all learn Arabic, it will be fantastic. You know, traditionally, it's been a lingua franca for us, the Muslim world. And that was a time when it was the language of communication. But that was quite a long time ago, to be honest.
I think it really depends where you want to be, to be honest.
If you want to be a scholar, if you want to, if you want to reach the level of scholarship, where you're taken seriously, as a scholar, you have to learn Arabic You can't claim to be. And really, people shouldn't be claiming that you are some type of
real authority if you don't speak Arabic. So that's essentially if you want to go down that path, you have to learn Arabic, there's no choice but for you to learn Arabic. And the other really good reason to learn Arabic, is just a much, much simpler reason, really. And that is for you to be able to understand the court. And when it's when you're reading it. And when it's being recited, I mean, especially in Ramadan, the difference between you being able to stand in the prayer, and to be able to understand what is being recited. And for you just to hear some sounds be albeit very beautiful and moving sounds, but still not to know what they are actually saying, Well, I'm sure you can
understand the difference is huge. So I do think that, you know, we should have an ambition, personal ambition, at least, to get the you know, the minimum Arabic, we should all know, the minimum is we should all at least understand what we're saying in our press. That's really the minimum. You know, your prayers really should not be mumbling some words that you don't know what they mean. That's not prayer.
Okay, that's the minimum.
More than that, I think, trying to grasp enough knowledge of the Arabic so that when the Quran is recited, you can, you know, you can understand what's being said
that, I think that's, you know, I'm sure you've all heard of Noam alikhan. And Albion Institute, you know, he has an ambition, he wants every Muslim to at least have that amount of Arabic so that they when they hear that, and they can understand it. And I think that's, I think that's something that at least we should all aim for.
And I think that's a very practical reason.
Not everyone is going to be a scholar.
It's just not everyone is going to be a scholar. Yeah, and a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing as well. So, you know, we have to be cautious of that. Being a scholar does take some real serious dedication. But for that reason, rather, yes, I think it's good for us to learn Arabic inshallah.
an ultra rationalist approach to bronzer, they want to explain everything given for the mystery. And all they
want to understand everything contained in one.
I just don't think that might be
understanding called would be.
We want to basically mortgage our own 21st century prejudice
to the scientific approach.
Yeah, I think that's a problem.
It's been a problem. It's discussed a little bit in the eternal challenge. And it's something that in AI era we've been raising.
And to be fair, it's it's been, it's not us. It's not ourselves who raised this question. It's Christians and atheists who have challenged us about certain things that have been purported to be scientific miracles in the end.
And I think the whole even the statement, scientific miracle is a is really highly problematic.
Because it's actually you know, scientific and miracle are two different paradigms, really, if you think about it.
You know, and if you understand what science is, then you know, you could
Don't really equate the two things. So Well, I think we very simply, we have to understand that science is very useful, but it's also changing. So we find that science is always changing its theories always changing its ideas.
I'm just reading a book on psychology right now. And it's incredible to see within even the last 10 years, the dramatic changes that have taken place, about theories about the human mind, for example, I mean, diametrically different ideas. So things that were considered, you know, laughable. 10 years ago, people didn't even It was so off the scale that they didn't even include it in research. And now it's considered mainstream. So this is the problem with science. So when we start saying something, or an agrees with science, well, the problem is science may change its opinion about something, and it may change it back again.
So how then do we use science as a benchmark through which and by which to judge the court? That that's a problem?
So from that point of view, I think it's it's problematic I do think it's no doubt that when you read the Quran, there are some things that are remarkable. They do seem to be amazing.
That How is this book saying something that we seem to have discovered recently, but again, it's it's to call it a miracle, as atheists have pointed out, and Christians have pointed out? Well, you know, it's it isn't really about how you interpret language.
So unless you can definitively show where that is the Tafseer of this, and that the Prophet Muhammad said, This verse actually means that so how can we say, this is talking about this particular scientific thing? Or this is talking about that? But how can we be so sure, if we don't have a clear statement from the Prophet saying that we can't really be sure, can we, we're just, we're just using our understanding of language and our present understanding of how things are, and that's our interpretation that we've put on it. So that's all it is, really. And I think that's very important to understand. So what the brother I think is highlighting and is very important to understand is
that really what the Quran is asking us to do is to think deeply, to think deeply within ourselves, and to think deeply about the world around us. The verses in the Quran, that talk about the universe, that talk about the world that talk about ourselves, they're fundamentally there, to draw our attention to the power of God, the knowledge of God, the majesty of God, the compassion of God, the wisdom of God, whatever it may be the the subtle awareness of God, whatever one of the creators names and attributes, it is there to draw our attention to it so that we can think more deeply and contemplate more deeply. So that's fundamentally the purpose of the course is to get us to think on
that level.
We have a question here
in
the press,
example, prevent arises, etc.
etc. What is our responsibility as youth? So
what is he doing?
Okay.
Shoulder?
Okay.
That's a very, very big question.
That's a very big question.
But I would like to
my immediate gut reaction
is to say, every Muslim needs to be an activist. That's what I do really think that deep down, we all should be activists,
where every one of us needs to be involved in society.
That's what we need to be actively involved in positive change.
It takes courage to be like that. It does. It takes courage. It takes, you know, you have to be able to stand out from the crowd. You have to be able to go against the grain. You have to swim against the tide, you're going to have to do that. There's no doubt about that. It can be intimidating.
But I think we all need to be.
We need to be activists. I think you MW is a good example.
of a place that shows
How we need to think about activism.
I mean, I just prayed with how many do you think there were of us pre market? About
200 150 of us?
I don't know, it seemed a lot. Right. was more than 50 right.
Now, I was just overwhelmed. Right? You know, but it was it well, 50 people praying outside on plastic sheets. Yeah. In a university in England in 2016.
I just sorry to say there's just something not right there.
That just doesn't, you know, I,
when I was doing the tours of universities, and I was doing giving talks like these literally every day, or sometimes twice a day.
You know, it wasn't like this. It wasn't like this. I don't know how it became like this, really. So yeah, it needs it needs activism. So
I do think that there are some things that are happening, prevent, we mentioned, prevent, for example,
I think every one of us in this room. inshallah I'm sure, every one of this, I hope that every one of us in this room
is interested in stopping terrorism.
None of us if we are Muslims, and I'm sure the non Muslims also
think or believe that committing acts of terror, killing women and children, civilians destroying property, that this is, this is the correct way to go about changing anything.
I hope that no one in this room thinks that and if they do, you know, let's have a discussion.
A private one.
And I will do my best to change. I'll do my best to change your mind. It's, you know, I think it's very clear for anyone who studies what the prophet Mohammed said, you know, so Allahu alayhi wa sallam don't kill women don't kill children don't kill old men don't kill the workers in the fields, don't chop down the fruit bearing trees don't put poison the water supplies.
You know, fighting is between combatants. That's actually you know, that's something that Sam laid down. Fighting is between combat, you know, soldiers by soldiers. That's, that's the way we've been taught.
Now, in the time of the Prophet, things were different. So the idea that, well, you know, they do this to us, so we can do it back to them. But this is not the prophetic methodology. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions were not like that. They didn't didn't think like that.
Yeah.
One of the questions just just to finish the issue rolling just yeah. So the point being is that I think we all want to prevent terrorism is the question is how
I don't think by criminalizing the Muslim community by people spying on each other by reporting, you know, kids, I mean, the stuff that we've been hearing, you know, a kid wearing a pro Palestinian band, you know, you know, raising awareness in a school about Palestine being reported to prevent, I mean, what the, you know, this is the stuff I you know, when I was when I was I, when I was your age, right? I lived there, I lived in a time when we lived under the, you know, we we lived with the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR,
a communist totalitarian state.
And, you know, the stuff that we're beginning to see happening in England today, was the stuff that we used to be told the Russians were doing
that not the Russians, the Soviets.
You know, we used to think, Oh, my God, those poor people living under that dictatorship.
But we find some of the same tactics that were used by a star z, and by that being implemented here, I'm not saying it's the same, but we're talking about some of the you know, it doesn't happen like that overnight.
So, I'm really glad to see by the way the government is doing a review of prevent and the strategy so that's a good move in the right direction. Maybe they're beginning to realize it's not working. You know, we hope there is actually some genuine sincerity there. Okay.
What do I think is very quickly wrong? What do I think is a solution activism, but I think more importantly, brothers and sisters, I'll say one word to you down.
Now, I truly believe that this is one
of if not the most important things I mean, after our essential acts of worship that we should be involved in, as Muslims living in this country. If you want some proof of it, I just invite you to read the paper and read it.
Read Out, read the Quran and tell me what you find a lot of talking about the profits, whether it's Abraham, whether it's Moses, whether it's Jesus, whether it's Muhammad, sallAllahu, Alayhi, wasallam, you find again, and again and again, the thing that they are concerned about the most is passing on the message, letting people know, what is the truth? What is the truth about God? What is the truth about revelation? What is the truth about the way we should live our life? So, brothers and sisters, if you want to know what I think you should do, you should get yourself involved in that. Sorry to go on with it.
One of the questions?
Why are more prone to extremists in other religion? Why is this the case? I think it's a question before most of many of our audiences.
I just don't think that's true. There's no evidence for that. I mean, that's the interesting thing is actually if you
if you actually look for academic research, you will find this is not the truth.
Muslims are actually much less prone to terrorism than virtually any other religion.
Except maybe Buddhism. Do you know do you know which group they found out was the it's not even it's a sect, it's a Christian sect, guess which, I mean, the group of people I will tell you who this is, from academic studies, were found to be the most ready to kill women and children and civilians. Were in fact moments.
They were the group from academic studies, who are found to be most ready to kill women and children and civilians to justify it. Muslims were actually the least
as a group.
Okay.
Recently, a study was done about acts of terror in Europe, you'd never imagined this.
But something like
78% if not more, I can I can, you know, we can post the daily Dinny Hussein from five pillars, did an interview on our TV with a there was a Danish female journalist complaining about certain things happening. And he quoted this statistic. Then he quoted this statistic
that the vast majority were talking about, you know, I can't remember if it was 78%, or 90 something percent of terrorist acts committed in Europe were actually done by far right groups, not by Muslims. Vast means but you don't read about it. You don't. You know, you don't read about it. You don't hear it on the newspapers, here on the newspaper or radio on the newspapers or here on the TV. It's not mentioned.
So yeah, it's not true. Well, it's just simply not true. And it's not true historically, either, by the way, so I don't think Muslims have a propensity to extremism, any more than any other religion, idea, even religion.
We just need to look at Dawkins and his ilk, you got atheist extremists, you know, you got extremists of all sorts of varieties where you wherever you look, you find extremists.
So yeah, people do believe things passionately. And sometimes that warps their judgment. There's no doubt about that, that happens everywhere.
And why would it be reliable? And this is, again, just walk into one Muslim friends. And if Mohammed's was given the Quran,
on his own kind of depicts a private event that can be tested historically in public. How can you see those reliable?
I have to clarify a little bit what you mean.
I mean, my simple answer is because he was a truthful person who spoke the truth. That's the simple answer. You study his life and you will find that you'll be very hard pressed to be able to accuse him fairly of being a liar.
So what's your suggestion? So the point why this is important? Yeah. Okay. What's, what's his suggestion that you're making is the suggestion that you're making the Mohammed was a liar. Fair enough. Make the suggestion. He lied. He pretended to be a prophet. He pretended to get revelations from God this quarter, and that he claimed that was revelation. It was just a lie. He just made it all up.
That's one possibility. Right?
Anyone who makes a claim, let's examine his claim. If I come along today or you come along, when Ilan comes along and says, I'm a prophet of God, you know, God is speaking to me, it's perfectly reasonable and rational for you to test that claim. Why should you just believe me? Because I'm saying, if that's what you mean, that's fine. You know, we can ask that question. That's why I did invite people to study the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Because it's very interesting that you'll find it very hard to justify claiming him being a liar. In fact, his life shows because consistently, his truthfulness, his honesty and is trustworthiness. So okay, maybe we could propose
that he is diluted. He's a mad guy, you know, he thought God was speaking to him, he thought this angel was coming him and to him and giving him this, you know, this revelation. And you know, he wasn't lying, he wasn't out to deceive anybody, he genuinely really believed it. But again, let's look at his life. Let's look at how he behaved. So that's from that angle. That's how we're going to make a judgement. We can't, you know, test the other any other way? Because it all comes down to do we believe Mohammed or not, I agree with you. But if you mean, how was the actual text of the Quran preserved? That's a different, that's a different question. How is the text of the Quran preserved?
So we we, again, it comes down to trusting testimony, to some degree, it comes down to trust in testimony, it comes down to the degree to which we trust his companions, did they accurately
write down and preserve his message, but we have some other really strong indications, some really strong indications that the book that we have today is genuinely the same book that Muhammad taught. So this is irrespective of the discussion of the origins of it, right? Whether he made it up or whether it's a revelation from God? How do we know this is a historically accurate text the historicity of it? This is another question. Well, there's that there's a couple of reasons to believe that the Quran is extremely accurate, historically, that we can have a lot of confidence that the book that the Muslims have today, is pretty much exactly the same as the one that existed
in the time of the Prophet. Okay. And there's two ways we can know that right? Number one, is through oral transmission of the Quran. So one of the remarkable things about the Quran, this is not, this would not be an impossible challenge to actually do. What you can do is you can go throughout the whole Muslim world. And you could actually do this historically, you can find this historically, right? That you have countless 1000s and I say countless 1000s of people who have memorized the entire Quran for generations and generations back to the time of the Prophet. Okay, so we have this what is called multiple water transmission. So there is a transmission of the text by
so many people on so many different levels, it is inconceivable that they could have come together as so many of them, how could we imagine that they came to conspire to make a conspiracy to invent this text? It's just would be incredible to accept that it wouldn't be rational. Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing is the existence of documentation. Although that's not our primary point of reference, there is documentation, including, by the way, and I don't, you know, we haven't been able to examine this particular text up until now. So it's still something that's open for dispute. But this is something that non Muslims are claiming that there is a text in Birmingham of
all cases. Yeah, they claim they have a text of the Quran in Birmingham that non Muslim scholars believe, dates to the time of Abu Bakar. And Abu Bakar, was the first ruler of the Muslims after the Prophet Muhammad. So beyond that, in terms of being able to verify it, 100% historically, you know, you I can't say we can do that, because we don't have texts existing from the actual time when the Prophet was alive, but his direct descendant aboubaker, who, as far as I know, only rule for two years, he only lived for two years after the time of the Prophet saws, and that's a pretty short time period. That's a pretty short time period. So we have text that is, those are two things that
give us a lot of confidence to believe that the text that we have today
is the same as the text that existed in a time of the Prophet. Why our creators
get
punished?
Yeah.
You see the problem with this question, right? Whenever this question of destiny comes up,
part of the problem is that
the part of the problem is language, right words, words come preloaded
with an idea that we have attached to it. So if I say destiny, right, we with that word destiny comes a pre loaded concept.
That pre loaded concept is like it's an inevitable product of fate that you can't escape. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, I think it's very important to remove those concepts. Okay. And if you want to understand the Islamic concept of,
of Qatar, Al Qaeda, which is the correct Arabic terminology for it, okay, then again, you need to study what are the essential concepts and the very simple, I'll go through it very quickly. And, you know, maybe this is more for the benefit of the Muslims, right? Just a few things. Number one, Allah. Number one, Allah knows everything. That's the first thing. Allah subhanaw taala caused everything to be written down 50,000 years before the creation, everything that was going to happen was written down. So Allah knows it, Allah caused it to be written down. The third thing is that Allah has power over everything. And nothing can happen unless Allah allows it to happen, unless he
decrees it unless he commands it to happen unless he creates it, and he allows it to happen. So this is important. This is the this is the the power of Allah subhanaw taala. Right. So nothing happens unless he allows it and he has created everything. And he's created everything that we do. Right?
One of the things that Allah has allowed us allowed to happen is he has allowed us to choose whether we should obey Him or disobey Him. Of course, you can't obey God, and thus he allows you to obey Him. So you're obeying Him is still under his permission for you to obey Him or disobey Him. So you he, he allows you to obey Him, and He allows you to disobey Him.
That doesn't mean that Allah compelled you to sin, or compelled you to obedience, Allah, God gave you the choice, he gave you the choice to obey or disobey, based upon the choice that you make, whether you obey or disobey, you will be judged, and you will be judged accordingly, whether you obeyed or whether you disobeyed, because that's the choice that you made.
And he allowed you to make that choice. Now, the mistake that people make is equating God's knowing everything with his thing, you presume that there's an equivalence between God knowing something, and God writing it, and you doing it. But that's a fallacy, even by human standards, we know that I'll give you a simple example. Right? And I'm not comparing us to God, I'm just giving you a conceptual example, to show how conceptually, this can exist amongst us. So even more, so it could be true about God, right? So for example, imagine I'm your T shirt. Right? Okay, and you are my students. And based upon my observing you and my observation of you, right, and my knowledge of you,
and how you behave and your academic capabilities, I write down and I predict the grades that I think you are going to get.
Now, here's the question, Does my knowing that and writing that force you to get those grades, yes or no?
Is that? Is there a connection between my writing those down? And you getting those grades? Yes or no? No, it's still ultimately your choice, right? I mean, I, if my knowledge was more, and my insight was greater, my prediction will be more accurate. But that doesn't mean I forced you in any way shape or form to obey, or to disobey or to pass or to fail. That's the mistake that people make. It's still your choice to obey God or disobey God, but his knowledge is perfect and his knowledge of us perfect. So based upon that perfect knowledge, he wrote down what was going to happen, but it's writing it down does not mean that he forced you into obedience of disobedience. That's still your
choice. That's the best way
I can explain it. How can you worship a creator?
suffering?
from Africa? Okay.
I think my last question sort of answers that question. Right. And it's to do with choice, right? Is that the problem is the question here is, you know, when do you want God to intervene? Exactly?
At what stage Do you want God to intervene?
Tell me, what's that stage of intervention that you, you know, is a dilemma that faces, let's, let's imagine that America and the West is truly compassionate, right? And they would want to intervene in world affairs in order to stop suffering. While they try that they'll say, we tried that in Iraq, and we tried the here and there and the world hates us. So we'll just let everyone slaughter each other in Syria, because, you know, anytime we try and do something people say, you're just killing everybody. So, I mean, it's a good point, it shows us where you want intervention to take place. Right? Because if you think about it, well, okay, now, I think * is the thing. Okay, so God
intervenes and stops that happening. Right. Okay. So how about something just a little bit less than that? Why not, you know, just, it's still psychologically really, really damages the child, right? Well, how about you know, you just slap your child once out of anger? You know, Why didn't God intervene? Or no, I got a thorn in my foot. Why didn't God intervene? At what stage? Are you going to? If you think about it, the intervention criteria will just get less and less and less, until you're basically saying, Well, why didn't God just put us in paradise?
That's what you're really saying. Right?
But you know, that goes to a deeper question, Well, why did God create us the way He created us? Why did God create the universe? So the question here, right, if you think about it, is nothing to do with whether there's a god or not, or even as to whether God deserves worship, right? Because the question is, why? Why did God create the world like this? Why did God give us free will? Why didn't God just well create us and put us in paradise or what God has created creatures that obey him perfectly? angels, he has creatures that they never disobey God ever. It's impossible for them to disobey God.
In our theology, we don't believe that devil is a fallen angel because angels can't fall they are always obeying God, always worshipping God. So God has creatures like that that exist already. Okay, so this is a deeper, more profound question. And it's the answer to this question, I believe, right? Is that
it is how can the question is how is God known?
How is God now?
So if we think about this question, how can you know what is good? If there is no evil, think about it? How can you know what is good?
If there is no evil, let me take an example from your own life. Right? Who is feeling pretty much 100% healthy right now? Pretty much it will say, you know, hands up who feels pretty one? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Let me ask you another question. Right. When you get flu, you know, the bad flu that just knocks you out? Yeah.
Are you appreciating right now, how healthy you are compared to that? Now, it's only when you have that flu, and then you start thinking, you know what?
It was so nice when I was healthy, and when I was fit, and you know, but not one time, you probably even said 100 I don't have flu today? Yeah, who said who said that today? Seriously. He said, 100 lighter had cancer, and 100 I have two legs and two arms. Alhamdulilah. And see, I sat down with a brother the other day from the death Muslims Association.
Subhan Allah, this guy, you know, it was just I was just, you know, he just made me think I've never thought about the stuff that he started telling me we have this problem and that problem, and deaf people call this and I was just like, I never thought of that. I never thought what a blessing it is to be able to hear what difficulty a person has. It didn't even cross my mind. Some of this stuff is fake. And every now and then I started going on the internet and I was trying to figure out how the deaf people figure out how to sign.
How do you figure out how to read Do you remember how you were taught to read?
Or
are in comparing how the * do you teach a deaf person to read
Come on how? They don't hear it. Do you think about I was just, I was looking. I was going on Google, Google helped me.
It was like, seriously, and it was like, then I came across this article. And this even the guy who was deaf, who knew how to read couldn't explain it.
Just amazing. Do you even think about that? You don't do you? Right? So this is the point. Right? The point is, you don't really know something except by its opposite. You don't know what is peace and tranquility without suffering and stress. Right?
So the and how will you know, who Allah is? How do you know unless forgiving, I tell you, you the only way you can know that Allah is Forgiving, is when you commit sins.
If you don't commit sins, you'll never know that Allah is Forgiving, because the only way you can know. You can know it may be intellectually, but the only way you can know it experientially. And that's the real knowledge, the real knowledge is the experiential knowledge. The only way you can know Allah is Forgiving,
is when you commit a sin, you do something that is displeasing to Allah, and then you turn to Him, and you're a pen to him, and you bet and you plead him, and then you experience His forgiveness, you experience it.
Right? So this is why Allah has created us the way he's created us in the world that he's created it, you know, if you when you come to think about this deeply and profoundly, it's something very, very deep.
You know, when you begin to see everything in your life, you begin to see what it's really all about.
It's all just a test, how are you going to behave? Are you going to be grateful to Allah? Are you going to see, are you going to be able to use this experience to understand something about you and your relationship with Allah?
And I think about till you get a personal example, right? It just literally came to my mind today to do with money. It's like,
I mean, I'm sure you guys will get that moment where there's literally zero in your account.
Zero, yeah, like, you know, okay. How am I going to buy lunch tomorrow? And, you know, it's like, what, how am I? It's the zero point, you know, you can see that zero point coming up, right? But, you know, my experience is, it happens to me a lot. But Allah always, always rescues me at the, you know, the, just the last minute. It's like, he takes me all the way and it's like, oh, my God, you know, like, you know, just on the point of taking out a loan and going into the river business, and you know, like, it's like that close. It's like, what am I gonna do in this life? And Allah helps me.
And I was thinking, you know, why, why? Why is always take me to that, you know, Tony, just Just let me off this time, you know, right. And then I put on you know what i thought? I said, but you know what I've done to him, that's exactly how you are. You do the same thing. You're mister last minute.com. Right. That's how you treat people. Your last minute, everything you do is the last minute the drains are blocked on last minute, I'm the word eventually, you know, the house is about to collapse from leakage. I clean it up last minute. So why am I complaining about Allah? Why?
Why am I complaining about him?
He did something that in my life, he makes me understand about myself. You see, this is your life.
So what you when you understand that, and then you begin to understand about Allah subhanaw taala you think deeply about you, Lord, how can that happen? If there is no suffering in the world? Right. And so like I said, before we go back to it, where are you going to draw the where you're going to where where's the intervention going to take place? Where are you going to make the point of intervention? No, Allah has given us freewill. This is our doing evil has appeared on the face of the lands and see because what we've done, you can't blame a lot. It's us. We've done it.
You know, we've got the choice. We can do it. We can stop all this evil, we can stop that. You know, God has given us this amazing thing. He's given us the power of the prophet to us. There's no disease, except there's a cure. They're all out there. Do you know me how many cures have been buried?
destroyed covered up? Because it's not there's not money in it?
Because the cure is so cheap pharmaceutical companies wouldn't make money anymore.
What's that got to do with God?
That's us.
And we've got the free will.
And you know what, if God forced us we complain what a tyrant. You know, God's a tyrant. That's the other one that you can't put you know, it's gone.
a tyrant.
So is he a tyrant? Or is he just you know, lets us do whatever what what do you want?
Look to yourself. Like the old saying goes, if you know yourself, you'll know God.
You know yourself, you'll know God, not because you are good, because within yourself of these reflections that makes you understand about reality.
We have more questions is?
That's a good question.
Okay, that I think there's two ways to come at this, or two ways to discuss this particular important issue.
But the way I would like us to think about it, and I am not, I am not denying the clear.
The obvious facts that historically,
there has been a movement within the Western world that has been * bent on destroying Islamic unity, there's no doubt about that, we can see the statements of politicians of military leaders,
their Glee that attempt their clear agenda to destroy the caliphate, there's no doubt about that.
However, where does responsibility lie?
When you say that today the caliphate ended? Okay. I mean, Sultan Abdul Hamid, the second I think it was or, you know, maybe that's the day that he was officially.
What do you call it? When someone's crown is taken away, you know,
come on,
deposed or whatever, there's a particular name for it. But But the thing is, is that the reality is the caliphate died, you know, years before that.
Now, the caliphate was a dying institution, way before that.
And that's something we need to think about. I mean, especially when we look today, for those calls to reform Islam,
within the Muslims.
But I'm sure from your study of history, you know, sister that that's something that was already going on within the Ottoman caliphate.
That the the, the Islamic law has already been replaced with a hybrid of Islamic and Western laws, and systems and that still exists.
I think that Muslims,
it's not, I don't think the solutions to this are easy. I don't think the solutions to our malaise are simplistic. They're very complex, they're very difficult.
But I am pretty sure that the solution does not come from,
you know, blindly imitating Western models and then trying to impose them upon
you know, the Islamic world's way of life, because it's a different way of thinking. It's, it's like, it's like scientific miracles.
It's like liberalism. And Islam, as I think I pretty much describes what is a Muslim?
What does it mean to be a Muslim means to submit to God? Right? Well, the ideas of liberalism, they're different ideas, they come from a different point of view.
So all I'm trying to say here is that I'm not sure or I'm not that I'm not sure, I'm pretty sure that the solutions are not going to come from. And it's an easy mistake to make. It's a very easy mistake to make you see, you're in a position of weakness.
Then you look at this civilization that's immensely strong. And you you and something human beings do all the time. It's called false false causality. It's one of the well known cognitive biases human beings. One of our well known cognitive bias is what's called false causality. We imagine the cause for something is something other than what it really is.
You can try it with little kids sometimes, yeah.
You know, switching on and off the light. But don't let them think the light is being switched on and off by you and get them to think that the light is being switched off by Island or some other thing or noise or, you know, when the kids do it when you press, you know, zero.
You know, the kids start to think that, you know, I press the nose and I like that, right. But they begin to think that's the coolest, the coolest of the noise is depressing the nose, right? And it's actually folds closer because one day they press it and nothing happens. They see. Eventually they figure it out. Right. So again, what's what's this got to do with the issue here? The issue is, is this what we're doing in the world? Right. We look at the materialistic success of the West, we look at that not just materialistic, by the way. I mean, the West has achieved a level of success socially, politically, economically. materialistically. Yes, it has its faults. Yes, it is. But the
reality is like we are here, right?
Anyone wants to go back to Bangladesh? Hands off.
Yeah.
Can we can we have a collection for the ticket? I know, I know. I remember the EDL or anything like that, right?
Seriously. So apart from these guys, right? Anyone want to go back to Pakistan?
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. No. Okay. I feel this day.
Actually, the funny thing is, I was asked this question. I remember in Canada, I was in a mosque full of mostly small insects and who wants to go back to Somalia?
I think you guys are different. You know, you are different.
Yeah, that seriously? I mean, my serious point is this. My serious point is, is, you know, we live in the West is comfortable and not just materialistically. Come on, let's be honest. We can knock it Yes, it's got flaws. And it's got faults, and you know, some of these things are becoming more apparent now. Right. But life is good.
Life is why many 1000s and 1000s of people are flocking, it's not just because they watch Hollywood movies, right? They are they want to come and live here. So let's be honest about this. You know, that's the first thing we need to be honest, we need to stop fooling ourselves. Right? Yes, it has flaws. Yes, it has shortcomings. But we have to understand, what are the real origins of this success? All right.
Now, here's my theory.
Right? I don't think the West success has actually got much to do with materialism,
or liberal values. I actually think that the West is like a really rich kid who's living off the wealth of his father and his grandfather.
That's what I think, you know, like super rich kids, you know, that grandfather's built massive fortunes, and they just live off it, they don't really do much, you know, the companies running this and that they, they just living off of it. Actually, what's interesting is, I think what made the West really strong and successful. And I particularly think about England, we're actually essentially strong religious, Christian values. The British Empire was built on very strong Christian morals and values, okay, towards the end, they began to question it, but that's what it was built on.
They're essentially, values based upon revelation. That's something I think needs to be thought about. And that's something that Muslims need to think about as well. We need to think about when were we intellectually, economically, socially superior. And I think you'll also find that when our religious values were strong, and I don't just mean outwardly, it's very easy to have the outward appearance of religious values. And forget what religion is really about religion is really about transforming your inner self. It's about your character. It's about how you treat other human beings. The real value of religion is how it helps us to look beyond ourselves, and connect with
others.
If we're not doing that, there's something wrong with our religion. That's very important, because this is, believe me, if you study this matter deeply, you understand it. And I'm not talking about your personal relationship with God in terms of worshipping and praising God, this is what I'm talking about. Right? Because, you know, in a sense, they don't need religion in a sense for that you just could live on a mountain and worship and pray and noble, how do we live together as human beings? You know, when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah on the day of judgment will say, oh,
son of Adam, I was sick, and you didn't visit me. And I was hungry, and you didn't feed me. And I was thirsty, and you didn't give me drink. And people will say, but you're Allah, how could you be sick? You're Allah, you're the Lord of the worlds. How could you be thirsty? You're alive? You're the Lord of the worlds. How could you be hungry? How could you be naked? You are well,
didn't you know this? That was the seven of mine. He was hungry, the seven of mine, he was thirsty, the seven of mine, he was sick, you didn't feed him, you didn't clothe him. So just as you didn't look off to that seven of mine, you abandoned me.
Right? So this, this is religion. That's the purpose of it. Right?
You see, this is a remarkable thing. So when religion is followed properly,
and that's why a lot of Muslims are happy to look at direction, that's a that's not a slam. Because instinctively, they realize that Wait a minute, this is not what religion religion is supposed to do. That's not how people say it's not about it's not about just the letter of the law. Where's the spirit? Where's the compassion? Where's the mercy? Where's the love wisdom? You know? Where is where's the people living together?
In in happiness and tranquility. That's what we instinctively understand religion fundamentally supposed to do for us? Right? So when we understood religion like that,
then yes, we will advanced socially, economically, politically, spiritually. So I think this is where we need to look back to brothers and sisters, right? So don't we shouldn't think of, you know, we shouldn't think of the success of Islam, just in social political terms. It's not merely in terms of a caliphate, or a political system or an economic Yes, sure. That's part of it. But fundamentally, it's something
much deeper than that. If we can't connect with each other, we don't care about each other. If we don't fundamentally care about each other as Muslims.
Or what Caliphate is there going to be?
What state will it be? Honestly, think about it, it's not going to be anything.
There's no magic pill like that. Brothers and sisters. So one of the things I always say is, you know, I used to work for five years in the London central mosque, and people used to come in, it is beautiful, a London central mosque, no doubt, it's beautiful. You go there, and you go, wow. But the truth is, it's so easy to build a nice, beautiful mosque.
But that's not what religion is about. Religion is not about building beautiful mosques and painting pretty pictures and illustrating court ends and beautiful recitations, and
it's about changing yourself. And that's really hard. It's, believe me, it's a lot easier, a lot easier to build a nice, beautiful mosque than it is to reform your own character and reform your inner self. That's what's really hard. But that's what we give up. We give up what religion is really about inner transformation for these outward appearances,
these outward trappings,
right, so we need to think differently, brothers and sisters. And that includes, by the way, you know, and so I'm not saying don't pray and I'm not saying don't force i'm not i'm not saying don't build muscle. I'm not saying don't make them beautiful. I'm not saying you know, we the Muslims shouldn't be united on the one ruler. I'm not saying that.
But fundamentally,
this is not what it's all about.
These are means to an end.
What you need to understand is what is the end? What's the goal? What's the real goal?
So when we understand that inshallah we'll get the success in this life and the next inshallah Allah.
But I don't I think, brothers and sisters are lies, revealing the truth to us all the time. I mean, maybe not in the sense that he sends a prophet
with a book. But you know, Allah has made signs in the heavens on Earth, the signs are all around us. The truth is there within yourself and in the world around us to see it and to find it. So
we just don't look sometimes. Is there a danger of what
submission of his submission? Yes, yes. I do understand that. It's a good question. Brothers and sisters.
Yeah.
It's a bit hard. I mean, I'll be honest with all of you.
And when I say that I haven't been dishonest. What I mean is, I'm gonna I'll tell you something about myself that I might not normally sort of say, but I, you know, I am, I am fundamentally a literalist. I admit that. You know, I know it's very unpopular these days. And you know, people like to make fun of people being
lectures but I am a naturalist I, I believe that we should take the Quran at its literal meaning unless there is a very good compelling reason. Otherwise I'm, I'm, I'm ready not to take it at its literal meaning, but you need to convince me. My default position is when the Qur'an says this, that's what it means.
And if you say no, no, it doesn't mean that it really means this, I'm ready to accept that. But you need to convince me you need to provide me some compelling reason for that. And usually, the compelling reason is going to be
something The Prophet said, or something a companion said, or some irrefutably logical statement that you can't argue with. But, but otherwise, that's how I take it. So is there a danger in that? Well, there's only a danger if we,
the real danger is if we don't follow the system that a lot is messenger have given us and the system is that there are certain things we need to leave to people of knowledge. And we need people of knowledge to guide us because there is a mistake in thinking, you can pick up a course and learn a bit of Arabic, read a few Hadees, maybe read a few books on fit, and then suddenly you think you're a scholar, and you can start interpreting Islam, even reforming Islam maybe, right? That's very dangerous, right? I mean, the Prophet Muhammad said that the the scholars, the unima are the inheritors of the prophets. That's a very big statement. Really, if you think about it, it's very
deep. So it's, it's important for us to access scholarship. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that, you know, we should accept that we just blindly follow something a scholar says, And well, a scholar said it and nothing, I don't have to think about it, that's also dangerous, there is a balance of things in between. So it means respecting scholars, respecting people have access knowledge, understanding that they are human beings, but unless you are of that level yourself of scholarship, it's really not up to you to independently start coming up with stuff. I think as long as we stick to scholarship, and we stick to what scholars have said, more or less, we're going to be
within the safe zone. The danger zone is when we step outside of that, and we think we are free to start interpreting the religion and well I'm going to do it why because God said so. Right.
That's, that's dangerous. You You need spiritual guides, you need people to guide you on the path. Right? That's very, very important. So
if that's what the question means, that's what that's my answer. That's where we need to be careful inshallah
was important to me before.
When was Salam made compulsory?
Do you know?
Does anyone know?
That's the five times premise, right? But there was still salaat. Right? And it was
still compulsory, although it was three, three times.
I mean, the profits that you see the profits, and there's a statement of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's no good in religion without regular prayer.
If we take that, then we could understand that regular prayer was something part of the religion almost, I mean, must have been from the beginning.
And Allah knows best. So but the issue of five prays five times a day, well, that's true after the Mirage after the Prophet Sal also made the Mirage that was still in Mecca, then that was when the five daily prayers were made compulsory. But before that, as far as I know, the Muslims still prayed. I think they prayed three times a day.
And it was compulsory, as far as I understand, but how do we define compulsory? You have to understand that as well, a lot of these definitions of you know, thorough done wajib and this type of stuff is something that itself evolved, you know, as practice developed. Yeah. It's very interesting that the attitude of the companions to many things was like, for example, I used to ask them is with a compulsory and they would answer Well, the prophet prayed it and told us to pray it, so we pray it.
It's like that, you know, and you still I don't know how many times I've been asked.
You know, is it? Is it watching the site? Well, the command is to say the Prophet prayed and we prayed it, you know, it's like that you understand that mindset that didn't necessarily think that they understood what the religion compelled them to do and that's what's really important.