Ali Ataie – Addressing Muhammad (PBUH)s Motive Wealth, Power, or a Greater Purpose
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AI: Transcript ©
In this age of ad hominem attacks against our Holy Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam, I'd like to address a few
issues that are quite prevalent in the popular discourse. And these
are things that we've heard as a Muslim Ummah for hundreds and
hundreds of years. But because of our contexts in the contemporary
society, these things are sort of mentioned again, with a renewed
sense of fervor and satanic influence. One of the things I
wanted to mention is this idea of questioning the sincerity of the
holy prophets have a lot of you send them a lot of people are
making the argument that he was motivated by wealth and power and
things like that. Now, the first systematic, sort of refutation, if
you will, of the rissalah of the Prophet salallahu Salam was done
by a man named John Damascene or John of Damascus. He lived in the
eighth century, in in Syria. And then after him, you have a period
of monk scholars who are attacking the Prophet sallallaahu Salam
during the medieval period. For example, the abbot of Cluny,
Peter, the so called venerable, he said in most of these are just out
and out lies are things taken out of context. He said, for example,
the Prophet sallallaahu Salam, he died in the year 666, which is a
total lie, right? But you are accustomed to hearing these types
of things. And then you come into the period of the classical
Orientalist.
Most of these people are military officers, many of them are
ethnographers, or Europeans who go into the Middle East and into the
Orient. And they write these books about Muslim society and so on and
so forth. This was also the time when the first translation of the
Quran from Arabic into English was done by a man named Alexander
Ross, that translation that is very, very terrible. And then we
come to the modern period, the period of the Neo orientalist, of
course, the Neo orientalist, don't like to be called New orientalist,
because the term Orientalism is quite pejorative and its
connotation. So they prefer the title Mid East expert. Right? So
these people are quite disingenuous in the way they do
hermeneutics of Muslim sources, they pick and choose, they ascribe
the most evil of intentions to the Holy Prophets of Allah, who it it
was Sunday, and of course, it's quite lucrative. Some of these
people have made millions and millions of dollars since 2001.
defaming and denigrating and assassinating the character of the
Holy Prophets of Allah who I knew it was salam so I just want to
speak to this one in particular then we'll go to different issues
as well. This issue of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam motivated by
wealth, status and or power. So this hadith of Akhmat, Abuja,
Allah as bizarre, which indicate that an angel descended to the
Prophet salallahu Salam, and asked him would you like to be a king
prophet or a servant prophet? And he said, salatu salam, I would
rather be a servant prophet, and the Prophet salallahu Salam, he
lived in a state, he lived in a self imposed state of poverty.
This is how we chose to live SallAllahu I knew he would it was
selling them. Of course, we know in the second period, when the
Quraysh came to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam and offered them
all of these ephemeral things, gold and wealth and silver and
leadership, and kingdom and all of these things. And if he was in
this for that reason, then this would have been the perfect
opportunity to seize upon it. But the Prophet sallallahu synonymy
says Allah What do I shamsur Philea Nene Well, a comma raffia
sorry, I took a handle, Amara, Hatha youth hero, Allahu au Alika
Duna. Matter of two who I'll come back Allah Allah Who Salatu was
Salam. He says, even if they put the sun in my right hand, and the
moon in my left hand, which is impossible, but he's using a
hyperbolic example. Even if they give me everything, the heavens
and the earth, if it was in their ability, I would never abandon
this mission until Allah subhanho wa taala. He makes it victorious
iron ore I'm destroyed in the process. He's willing to give his
life and limb for this message. SallAllahu I know he was out he
was sending them. We were told during the medina period, that
three months would go by this hadith mentioned in the in the
Shamal and Nebia. But you must agree Sir Timothy, and many other
sources. The three months would go by when fire was not seen coming
from his house. sallallahu alayhi wa Salatu was Salam which means
they weren't cooking any meals for three months, and the Sahaba they
went to our mother Ayesha, or the Allah Tala Anna and they said to
her, what are you subsisting on? And she said is what Dane, dates
and water the Prophet sallallaahu Salam subsisted months on end on
dates and water so Allah who either he what it was Sunday them
used to tie rocks around his stomach to stave off hunger pangs.
This happened on two occasions when there was the micarta there
was the boycott or sanctions on the Bani Hashim imposed by the
Quraysh in the Prophet sallallahu sallam said this is this is from
this the fact of the job, the job if you don't agree with his
policy, you're not going to eat very, very into
Testing Hadith of the Prophet Sall Allahu Allah He, when it was sent
to him, this was one occasion. The other occasion was during the hunt
duck, because what 100 When they were digging the trench around the
city because 10,000 Confederates were about to attack the city of
Medina to Munawwara, the city of the Prophet salallahu Salam, and
the Hadith of Abu Talhah which is also mentioned in the Shema Island
number we have Abu isa Timothy radula tonight who he says Shoko
to Isla Rasulullah Salallahu, salam, Allah joueur we complain to
the Prophet salallahu Salam because of hunger, whatever an
Ambu TuneIn and Hotjar Hotjar and we showed him that each one of us
had a stone tied around our stomachs. Well, Rafa, Otto Sula,
he salatu salam, and the botany he Hajra rain, and the Prophet
sallallahu Sallam he lifted up his shirt and we saw he had two rocks,
two stones tied to his stomach SallAllahu sallam. Some of the
more had the thing say this narration is weak. It's naive,
because the prophets of Allah He said them used to fast days on
end. And when Sahaba tried to emulate this practice, he said,
Don't do that my constitution is different than yours, My Lord
gives me to eat and drink in the night. So you shouldn't do that.
But other onomah say no, the hadith is strong. But the Prophet
sallallahu Sallam simply chose not to eat or drink out of solidarity
and have empathy for his own Ma. They mentioned a beautiful
parable. They say imagine a mother who knows she has starving
children in her house, and she's out searching for food. And she
finds some food. Can she eat the food? Knowing her children are
starving back at home? Can she eat it? Of course she can't eat it.
This is the state of our Prophet Sall Allahu alayhi. Salatu was
Salam who was like a father father figure to us. The verses and Nabil
Allah meaning the men and footsy him there's a reading that is
Shabda that is unreliable in the most half of even Mr. Rude but it
has a strength of a hadith that says who Abdullah whom he is their
father was module Maha to whom and his wives are their mothers. He is
like a father to us on Allah who I knew it was said of them. So while
he has given to eat and drink from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. You could
not do it out of love for the ummah. sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. Imam, a know what we relate to Hadith in Riyadh, the
salah Hain that wants the Prophet salallahu Salam that the Sahaba in
salata, Lhasa, and immediately after the prayer, he got up and
left the masjid very quickly. He went to his house very quickly.
And the Sahaba asked him Why did you leave so quickly? He said
there was a deal hum, one did hum in my house that was bothering me.
There was a silver coin in my house that was bothering me. And I
had to go quickly and give it FISA be the law he kept no money in his
house. So Allah who I knew who it was Saddam does it sound like a
man who was motivated by wealth and power are stuff that Allah He
fed at least 70 people fed them, clothe them,
give them shelter in the masjid at least 70 people inside the masjid
for over 10 years in the masjid. And if you do the math, this comes
out to over 1 million meals that he gave to these people 1 million
meals. So Allahu aunty it was Saddam yet he's trying to rocks
around his own stomach. So Allahu Allah, He went out he was setting
him even Mr. Rude. You mentioned that hadith and Timothy YBNL
magia. He says another Salalah alayhi salatu salam namah Allah
hacia that the Prophet sallallahu I knew he would it was setting
them used to sleep on a straw mat. And then he says if a coma will
cut SNF he just said D. And then he stood up, and we saw that on
his body were the markings of the mat. There's another Hadith
there's similar Hadith related by saying the Amato were the prophets
of Allah He said them he saw the markings on the on the on the just
said, A Sharif of the Prophet salallahu Salam and say no, I'm I
began to weep. And he began to weep. And the Prophet sallallahu
Sallam looked at him and smiled and said, Don't you know these
things are for the people of dunya? Because he said, you know,
Kisara and Keiser, you know, the king of Persia and the Roman
emperor. They have these lavish bedrooms. He said, those are those
are the people of dunya. Those are the people of dunya, who is saying
this, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he's the one
saying this, the best of creation, hated heikkila lived and lived in
these types of conditions. We should take this to heart, we
should think about this. So this is one of the issues I wanted to
raise. Another thing I wanted to talk about switching gears is this
issue of women's rights is very quickly. I'm touching on a lot of
topics here. But the Christian right, especially these neocon
ideologues, they mentioned a lot of things about Islam with
relation to women. I want to mention a few things by
comparison, with not a lot of commentary because we don't have a
lot of time. But Islam gave women the right to vote and inherent in
own property and businesses, initiate divorces choose and
refuse husbands, equal status with men in the eyes of Allah subhanho
wa taala. So many of these practices like FGM mutilation of
women and things like that honor killings, preventing women to be
educated. These things are cultural practices that are
Nothing to do with the Islamic tradition. These are things that
are perpetrated by Muslims in Muslim majority societies. There
was a brother one time who had was in a habit of beating his wife and
kids, and not in this community. And we approached the brother and
we said, while you're doing this, he says, part of my culture,
that's how I was raised. My father did it to us, right? So I said,
you know, brother, this part of your culture is complete garbage.
We have to be frank with people. If it contradicts the religion,
then your trip Rasulullah Salallahu Salam, Brd, he che and
caught the prophets of Allah Lisa did not strike anything with his
hand. So Allah lism Illa and Yuja hit a few CBD law, except if he
was engaged in Jihad visa vie de la wala imra tan Hula, hula man,
Walla Walla, done, did not strike a woman not one time, nor a child,
nor a servant, sallallahu alayhi wa, he was setting them. So we
might have to make these things clear to people, the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says in the final pilgrimage, Hajj
littered with that, and you can imagine one of his central themes
of his final pilgrimage sermon, because he knows there's hundreds
of 1000s of people there. And this is what's going to be remembered
and transmitted, the last words of a person, or what's going to be
transmitted. One of the central themes of the Farewell Pilgrimage
sermon, the chutzpah was women. And he said, it's those who've
been Nissa Hara, treat women well treat women well. So the Allahu
alayhi wa sallam, he said, there are three things from the dunya
three things from the world that I like a good smell, the prayer and
women and he's not talking about anything less sensuous, or
anything like that, like the orientalist have said he's talking
about the feminine qualities that he himself Salallahu Alaihe Salam,
he embodies these Jamali qualities. When the father of
Zeytinburnu Hatha came to claim him. Zaid, who is the indentured
servant, slave, whatever you want to call him, the adopted son of
the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he wanted to stay with the Prophet
sallallahu sallam. So the father of zayde said you choose slavery
over freedom. I'm your father. I'm your father. And Zaid said he is
my father and my mother, about the Prophet sallallahu. I knew he it
was southern because he was nurturing because he did not raise
his voice for be Marathi Minella he didn't tell her home. It is
part of the Mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala that you have
lien that you have gentleness sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he
has riff, he has gentleness SallAllahu sallam, he has his
feminine qualities. He has mercy. Well my other son tequila Rama 10.
Rama 10 is a feminine noun. He is mercy ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada didn't
say well, my other son Akela and Tottenham, Allah Allah mean or
something like that. You didn't say we have not raised you except
that you might show mercy and use a feral, use a verb, he says, You
are mercy. You are rough mutton that who Rama is very essence is
Rama SallAllahu. I know he was, he was salam. So this is very
interesting. Because if we read the Torah, for example, the book
of Genesis, the book of very sheath, chapter three, the fall of
man is very clearly blamed on the woman. It's very, very clear. So
what does it say? When Adam is confronted by God? This is what he
says to God in the Hebrew language. He says, a shot I shall
not Tata in Mardi. This is because of the woman that you gave me.
Right? This is because of the woman and there's an emphasis on
you, a TA, and Ta. This is because of you. He's actually blaming God.
This is the narrative and the Torah is very interesting. And
then God goes to the woman and says, Missouri, I see it. What did
you do? What did you do?
So then God punishes the woman with painful childbirth. And then
he punishes the man. Why? He says, Because you heated the voice of
your wife. The lesson don't listen to your wife, according to the
Torah is not the Quran. This is the book of Genesis. This is in
the Torah, the book of Betty sheath, because you heat it the
voice of your wife, curses the ground for your sake. Very
interesting. What does the Quran say? Fidella. Who maybe who wrote
that? shaytaan Houma This is Muthana. This is an object
pronoun. Right? It's dual. That shaytaan he diluted both of them.
Both of them, not one of them, both of them, and they may Toba
when they may Toba, they made it in the plural Rabindranath alumna
and fossa now when I'm talking to Lana, Lana Kwinana Minahasa it in
this is in the plural. Both of them are making this Toba and of
course we don't believe that Adam it is to them because he's a
prophet willfully disobeyed ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. This is
impossible for a prophet the prophets are assume they're
incapable of consciously disobeying Allah subhanaw taala.
They were tricked. They were deceived. They were made to forget
by the shaytaan. That's how we understand the story. Want to
quote some
think interesting. This is from Tertullian of Carthage. A second
century Christian polemicists, and heresy ologists. This is what he
says in his commentary on Genesis. He says, you speaking to women
directly, you are the devil's gateway. You are the first
deserter of the Divine Law. You are she who persuaded him Adam,
whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack you destroyed so
easily God's image man, on account of your desert, that is death,
even the Son of God had to die a Staffan Allah. In other words,
women are guilty of deicide. You understand deicide God had to die
because of woman. This is a this is a a exegesis of a pre Nicene
major Christian scholar, looking at Genesis chapter three. Very,
very interesting. There's other things we can talk about as well.
But we're running short on time. It's a little too graphic. We'll
look in the New Testament though, because that's Old Testament.
Let's look in the Christian scriptures because Christians
believe in the Old Testament, but everything's been abrogated the
outcome all of the outcome. And the Old Testament is monsoon
according to Christian theology. So first Timothy chapter two, this
is Paul writing now, he says, A woman must learn in silence and in
all subjugation. She cannot teach men it's a usurpation of authority
for Adam was made before ease. Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in transgression. Very interesting.
Women cannot teach men anything. Of course, in our tradition, one
of the foundations of the deen of Islam, especially after Sunnah wa
Gemma is another Aisha Rhodiola Tana Anna, who's one of the six
Sahaba who related over 1000 Hadith, our deen is built upon her
Rhodiola Anna Anna, she's one of the 750s there are 750s at the
time of the Prophet sallallahu anybody who sent him, okay fatwa,
the only seven of them not all of them. There were 750s Six men and
one woman and she used to give fatwa behind the hijab to male
Sahaba that are twice her age, probably Allah Anna Anna, this was
an amazing intellect. And then Paul says, this is the Greek he
says so they said thi de deities techno Guney is very interesting,
not translated well, in the vast majority of English translations.
He says she can become saved, she can go to heaven, if she bears
children. According to Paul, how does a woman go to paradise? You
stay silent and pregnant?
First Corinthians chapter 11. The head of the woman is the man. The
woman was created for the man. She must cover her head in church. If
not, it should be shaved. Speaking in church is shameful. I'll tell
you is interesting, true story. I was in a church one time called
St. Paul Methodist Church, and I was on stage with the pastor. And
we were talking about prophecy, Old Testament prophecy. I think it
was something Deuteronomy 18 or something is that the prophesy
sentiments at Eastside so now we're having a very congenial
friendly academic debate, this woman in the back stands up and
starts shouting at me shouting in the back of the church.
And this is interesting, because you know this, she's interrupting
the entire
event. And so she was shouting out on the top of her lungs. And I
couldn't really make out what she was saying. When she had finished.
I said, You know what, the namesake of this churches? What is
the namesake of this church? She says St. Paul. And I found that
later, she was actually a physician is a highly educated
woman. At St. Paul Methodist. I said, You know what Paul says?
What does Paul say what you just did is shameful. You need to sit
down. And if and if we if we catch you praying without your head
covered, I'm going to order one of the press butters to come shave
your head. Because we're following St. Paul. That's what Paul says to
do. And she was saying something all I heard was the prot the name
of the province says I'm a few times and I didn't think God I
didn't hear what she was saying. Very, very interesting.
The last thing I wanted to talk about, I know I'm kind of jumping
all over the place here. But this is something to think about
something that is important for Muslims to understand, is this
myth that America was founded as a Christian nation. I want to talk
about this for a minute. This is a myth is a statement that is
perpetuated primarily by the Christian, right. And because it
implies that non Christians in America are not quite as American,
as Christian Americans, that's why they perpetuate it. Then if you're
non Christian in America, you're not quite as American as a
Christian American. So here's a fact. The fact is, this country
was founded upon the principle of separation of church and state.
This is one of the founding principles of the country. One of
the
primary intentions of the founding fathers was to avoid what had
happened in England. What was happening in England King George,
the Anglican Church ruled everything
there was massive, massive oppression of Enlightenment
thinkers, they weren't allowed to express their opinions. You have a
monarchy. So the Founding Fathers said no monarchy, democracy, no,
no church and government separation of church and state.
This is one of the founding principles of this country is to
be the antithesis, the antithesis of what happened in Christendom,
of what happened in Christian Europe to be the opposite of that.
A founding principle. Sir Isaac Newton, who was a, you asked an
atheist who have the greatest scientist ever live, they'll say
Newton and Einstein, both of them believed in God and we're
Unitarians. By the way, believers in God and Unitarians, Sir Isaac
Newton, he history says he was a devout, devout Christian. But in
the 1920s, they found his personal journals. And he said that he
completely rejected repudiated the Trinity. But he couldn't voice
this in 18th century England. Do you know why? Because there's no
separation of church and state. And this is apostasy, which means
that he's going to be killed for this belief, he would be killed.
So he kept his he was practicing takia.
He started to practice to PA because he was afraid of the
Christian imperial powers. The monarchy very, very interesting.
Here's another fact, during the colonial period in this country,
only 15% of white people in this country 15 One five, identified
with a certain church, the vast, vast majority of them were deists.
What does deist mean? a deist in the spirit of Plato and Aristotle.
And the Neale Platanus is someone who believes in an architect of
the universe, but that the creator of the universe, but that this
creator does not have any personal relationship with his creation. He
doesn't reveal Scripture. He doesn't send messiahs. He doesn't
send prophets. He has no relationship with his creation.
This is deism. And it's really an outgrowth of the 18th century
enlightenment movement as a reaction against Christianity,
specifically against Christianity. That's just a fact. They were anti
incarnation. They are anti Trinitarian. They're anti
vicarious atonement. Their theology was based on reason. So I
don't know what these people are talking about when they say
America was founded by a Christian nation. Here's another fact for
you. None of the first six presidents of the United States
was an Orthodox Christian. None of the first six presidents United
States was an Orthodox Christian. You look at some of them, George
Washington was a Deist. He rejected the deity of Christ. He
would not take Holy Communion. John Adams was a Unitarian. He did
not believe in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, Original Sin or
vicarious atonement. Jefferson was a deist and a Unitarian anti
Trinitarian. He once wrote a letter to Timothy Pickering on his
cabinet complaining about the what did he say the incomprehensible
jargon of Trinitarian arithmetic, as those are his words.
He was anti Pauline. He said Paul corrupted Christianity. He said,
and I don't agree with this statement. I'm just giving you the
facts. He said Christianity is the most perverted system ever shown
on man. That's his words, not my words. I don't agree with it. I'm
telling you what Thomas Jefferson said, Thomas Jefferson, who was on
the $20. Bill. No, the $2. Bill. Right. This was his belief about
America about Christianity. I certainly don't agree with it. But
to those who say this country was founded as a Christian nation,
implying that non Christians in this country are somewhat less
American than Christians is a total farce. We shouldn't buy into
that. Thomas Paine, in 1776 year old common sense, which paved the
way for the Declaration of Independence. He says something
similar to Thomas Jefferson, I don't have time to go into it. The
US Constitution has no reference to God nor Jesus Christ, the US
Constitution. One of the founding documents of this country, was
transcribed or written upon the principle of separation of church
and state. Article Six, section three, no religious test shall be
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the
United States. So while God nor Jesus Christ's peace be upon him,
are mentioned in the Constitution, religion has mentioned twice,
that's one and then the First Amendment, Congress shall make no
law respecting the establishment of any type of religion,
Declaration of Independence, three references to the Deity, an
impersonal, abstract, deist God, not the Christian God. He's called
nature's God. He's called. He says, We are endowed by our
Creator. He's called the supreme judge of the world. And finally,
the TD treaty of Tripoli in 1797. You can look up this stuff. You
can check it check, shake wiki here for the meantime, but don't
trust it too much.
Shake Wikipedia. Right? But be careful about that. But look this
up, you know, there's good information, the Treaty of Tripoli
in 1797. This is very interesting signed into law by President John
Adams in 1780 7097. I'm sorry 1797 June 10 1797. This is what it says
in article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli,
as the government of the US of America is not in any sense
founded on the Christian nation, as it has in itself no character
of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquillity of muscle
men, who are Muslim men. These are mostly mean.
And as the set states never entered into any way or act of
hostility against the Mohammed, a nation, that's the Muslim ummah,
is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony
existing between the two nations, how far we have fallen, from the
words of the founding fathers. These are just things to kind of
think about Inshallah, to Allah. We're out of time though. Akula
Coda was Stanford Allah Lee welcome for SoFlo in the hall will
follow him to Ilala to up to Anina