Ali Ataie – Candid Conversations Conquering Doubts & Defending Islam Getting To Know

AI: Summary ©
The discussion of the Bible and its origins is complex and evolving, with various theories and cultural and political implications discussed. The worship of Jesus is a source of comfort for those who believe in the Bible, and the worship of Islam is a topic of discussion. The worship of Jesus is also discussed with confusion and confusion with the worship of Islam, with some cultural and political implications being discussed.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa salam.
Rabbana aatina fil dunya hasana wa fil aakhirati
hasana wa qina a'dab al naar.
Rabb ishrah li sadri wa yassir li amri
wahlu l'uqadata min lisani yafqahu qawli.
Salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillah, it's a great pleasure for us to
have Dr. Ali here with us.
Whenever we have Dr. Ali, it's always a
great pleasure.
A man who knows, mashallah, many different languages
and has been doing a great service, a
great khidmat to this community for several decades.
Today, inshallah, we're going to have a discussion.
Rather than it be a lecture, it will
be more so like a discussion between the
both of us on the topic of conquering
doubts and defending Islam.
A topic which is of utmost importance in
today's age, especially given the western, liberal, secular
society in which we live in, in which
new ideas are being crafted every single day.
A society in which religion is really undermined
and one in which religion is starting to
wither.
So today, inshallah, we'll be discussing this topic
with Dr. Ali.
And so, Dr. Ali, the first question that
I wanted for us to open up with
is that in the postmodern age, religion is
perceived as something which is backwards, something which
is seen as misogynistic.
It's seen as something in which it doesn't
really bring any value to the world and
it's something in which modernity is attempting to
remove.
Do you mind just commenting on this age
that we live in and maybe what are
some of the undergirding assumptions within the society
and how it's perceiving religion?
Yes.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
Wassalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Yeah, so it's becoming very difficult for young
people of faith, everyone of faith, to maintain
their faith.
And there's an epidemic of apostasy, especially amongst
Christians.
I think biblical criticism has really dealt a
severe blow to Christianity, the state of the
Bible, historical critical method, right?
Certain Christian beliefs that are difficult to explain
to say the least, right?
This has led to a mass apostasy.
A lot of people are turning to Islam.
But yeah, you're right, religion in general is
being attacked.
And so religion is important because religion really
gives us the why of the universe, basically.
You know, there's a Harvard scholar named Stephen
Jay Gould who said that, you know, he
claims to have solved the age-old conflict
between science and religion.
He said the answer is in non-overlapping
magisterium, which means that science really deals with
what and how, whereas religion deals with the
why question.
So he has this as a sort of
a dichotomy.
I don't think it's an absolute dichotomy.
It doesn't work completely.
But it's an interesting paradigm that he's using.
So like, for example, you know, William Chittick,
he uses the example of like a painting,
like the Mona Lisa.
If you ask a scientist to analyze the
Mona Lisa, he'll take, you know, do a
battery of tests on the canvas, on the
paint.
This paint is from Florence in the 15th
century or something like this.
He'll give you the what and the how.
But if you ask a philosopher or a
theologian, you know, to analyze a painting, he'll
wonder what is the author trying to say?
What's the sort of purpose?
What's to tell us?
So this is what religion gives us, teleology.
Without religion, we're going to be stuck in
this quagmire of nihilism, you know, that everything
is meaningless.
And this is what Nietzsche—Nietzsche was a bit
of a visionary.
I mean, he was crazy, right?
But he got this right.
I mean, he actually—he realized, you know, that
the path that the West is going on,
at least, with Christianity and the Bible, there's
going to be what he called the death
of God.
And by that, he meant the death of
religion, the death of Christianity.
And when that happens, people are going to
enter into an utter state of despair and
depression, this type of nihilism, that nothing—there's no
meaning to life, right?
And so the Qur'an is unique in
the sense that the Qur'an tells us
directly in an ayah of the Qur'an
the meaning of our life, the why question.
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنُ وَالْإِنسِ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ That I
did not create jinn kind or mankind except
to worship.
And, of course, we know the famous statement
of Ibn Abbas, رضي الله عنهما, where he
said, لِيَعْبُدُونَ means لِيَعْرِفُونَ because to worship Allah
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى with ihsan means that you really
know you have ma'rifah of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ
وَتَعَالَى, you know who Allah is.
And then he says, if you knew Allah,
then you would love Allah, right?
So this is to tell us, this is
our teleology, what's the point of our life,
is to love Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى and to
basically be people of shukr, right?
This gives our life purpose, right?
So that's important.
The why question will never go away.
People want to know why, you know.
And science can't, I mean, it's just...
I mean, scientists, a lot of them are
just material productionists.
In other words, this is just atoms and
stardust.
So I use the analogy of on atheism,
at least on materialistic atheism, there is no
such thing as being immoral because science is
fundamentally non-moral.
It's not immoral, it's just non-moral, right?
And so that's an interesting world view because
then it becomes, okay, it's basically my morality
against yours.
It becomes like subjective.
Exactly, so we need like a moral anchor.
We need a lawgiver, a divine lawgiver, right?
Otherwise, it's completely subjective.
So like on atheism, we're just atoms and
fizzing stardust, right?
And so, you know, imagine a boulder rolling
down a hill.
The boulder strikes the mountain.
That's just atoms colliding with atoms.
There's nothing moral about that.
Now imagine a man stabbing another man with
a knife.
It's the same thing on atheism, just atoms
colliding with atoms.
There's no moral component.
It's just not, you know, it's not socially
acceptable to do that.
But what if it was socially acceptable to
do that?
What if there's a society where it's socially
acceptable to like kill women or to abuse
a certain race, right?
And if there's no theological anchor, then we're
left with this type of society, you know.
Yeah, so I think the point that you
brought up about Nietzsche is really important because
he was one of the western philosophers who
understood where these ideas are going to lead
us because ideas have consequences, right?
And so he saw that like what Dr.
Early is outlining.
Once you remove God from society, it's not
as simple as just simply we've removed God
and we'll continue to live our lives.
But he signed that the anchor that governs
our life is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
is God.
And when that's removed, that's when you begin
to see like what Dr. Early is saying,
this immoral consistency and so forth.
And I think the reason why this is
such an important question is that we live
in arguably the wealthiest country in maybe the
history of humanity.
And with California being arguably maybe the richest
state.
And so in terms of dunya, this state
has everything.
And you would assume that when individuals have
all of this material success, when they have
safety, then you'd see the highest potential of
a human being.
And yet what we see is the opposite.
We see these high rates of nihilism.
We see these high rates of depression.
Love of dunya, love of the world.
People are raging against death.
You have now 20-year-old people getting
Botox.
20 years old.
I was at a man's house in Houston
for a fundraiser.
I spoke at his house and he had
this mansion.
And it was like underground and it was
like this river or something in his house.
Like this multi-millionaire.
So I asked, what does this man do
for a living?
Plastic surgery.
It's big money.
The unwillingness to accept death.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he said, remember the
destroyer of pleasures.
And by that he meant death.
He said, I exhort you to remember death
20 times in your day.
And the Prophet ﷺ, as our teachers say,
the point is not to be sort of
fixated morbidly on death.
The point is when you bring death to
remembrance.
Book 40 of what is it called?
Dhikr al-mawt wa ma ba'dahu.
Exactly.
The book of the remembrance of death and
what comes after.
That's the last book of the Ihyad al
-Madin.
That's what he finished on.
When you remember death, like if you leave
your house in the morning and you say
salam to your spouse and you remember this
could be the last time I see my
wife.
So in that sense, you stop sleepwalking through
life.
Because dhikr of death is essentially dhikr of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is going to resurrect you.
And so the Prophet ﷺ said, the difference
between one who remembers his Lord and doesn't
is like the difference between the one who's
alive and dead.
So if people just sleepwalking through lives, just
walking around in their own coffins, just wasting
their lives.
Time, years, decades go by.
So by the remembrance of death, we actually
begin to live.
And enjoy our life.
Exactly.
And to comment on this crisis that the
society is facing, I was once in one
of my university classes, not at Zaytuna, before
Zaytuna.
And the professor had passed around these pieces
of papers saying that I wanted to get
to know my students a bit more.
And there was 150 people inside the classroom.
And after she had collected all of the
forms, she began to read them one by
one.
And so finally she stopped her lecture.
And you can see that she was almost
about to sob.
She was almost like about to cry.
And she said, I didn't realize how many
of my students were suicidal.
How many of them were in nihilism.
Who felt like there was no meaning in
life at all.
And this is one of the most prestigious
universities in the West.
And so what type of society are we
living in, in which you can go to
one of the top universities, that you can
have all this wealth, but at the same
time, you have all of these problems, and
you feel that there is no purpose to
existence.
There is no reason why I should be
alive.
And it is within that context in which
we are discussing religion.
And why religion, and especially Islam, unlike any
other religion, is able to fill that void.
And as Dr. Ali said, this is a
void that will always be there, from the
beginning of mankind until the end, because the
nafs doesn't change.
Yeah, and people will fill that void with
something else.
You know, people always, everyone, they seek like
heightened states of consciousness.
You know, there was a famous atheist, who
used to debate people of religion.
And he was a raging alcoholic.
Right?
You know, because he wanted to transcend, you
know, this kind of mundane existence into a
higher state.
So, people fill that void.
Whatever it is, *, drugs, rock and roll,
you know, whatever it is.
They check out of reality, you know, alternate
reality, this type of thing.
And so, there is something in our fitzah,
there is something in our nature, that seeks
the transcendent.
Right?
As human beings.
And it comes from our ruh.
Right?
And that's something, consciousness is such a mystery.
No scientist can explain consciousness.
No one can figure it out.
How do you go from, there is a
three pound lump of flesh in my skull.
How does this become self-aware?
Like, how is this actually happening right now?
This is just, it's just matter.
How can I think?
How do I have memories of the past?
Right?
That's from the ruh.
Right?
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He says
in the Quran, they ask you concerning the
ruh.
And say, the ruh is under the command
of my Lord, and we have not been
given much of knowledge.
In other words, as one of my teachers
said, even if we were given knowledge of
the ruh, we wouldn't understand it.
Because it's above our pay grade.
You know?
So, consciousness itself is a metaphysical experience.
Right?
Itself.
People don't, they don't think about that.
You know?
It's really a miracle.
And this is why AI will never become
self-aware.
Because there is no ruh.
Although I do have one of my teachers
as a Catholic professor, and he said maybe
somehow the jinn or something, or demons, will
control computers or something.
Control the internet somehow.
Control technology.
Because we believe in jinn.
And so in that sense, they might become
self-aware.
Because the jinn have arwah.
Allahu alam.
It's really a miracle.
Life is just a miracle when people don't,
they don't think about these things.
And you know, one of the hallmarks of
Islam is that Islam brings sakinah.
It brings contentment.
And that's why in the Quran, Allah SWT
says, أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنَّ الْقُلُوبِ That with
the remembrance of Allah, the hearts, they find
peace.
And what's very interesting is that if you
just take like, if you do a study
of all of these western philosophers, these secularists,
these atheists, and you just look at their
lives, it's filled with depression, suicide.
I mean, Nietzsche went crazy.
But if you compare this to the prophets
and to the ulama, you see that there
are people, even though they have all these
tribulations that afflict them, you can see that
they're living with peace.
They're living in that state of contentment because
they know, ultimately, the end is Allah SWT.
And so they're not living in that constant
state of fear that these western thinkers are.
And so this is really the void that
Islam and religion fulfills and which is why
the Prophet ﷺ said that if the son
of man was given a valley of gold,
that he would ask for another one because
he wouldn't be content with wealth.
And this really is the false notion in
society today is that the pursuit of wealth
is ultimately the pursuit of happiness.
But the pursuit of happiness only comes through
the pursuit of the sharia and through the
pursuit of Islam and it's a state of
being.
Correct?
Yeah.
Alhamdulillah.
أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُوا الْقُلُوبِ And the word
qalb in the Qur'an, and there's a
difference of opinion, but some say the word
qalb is synonymous with the aqal.
In other words, the qalb is not the
physical heart.
So when Allah SWT says في قلوبه مرض
He's not talking about physiological diseases in your
physical heart.
He's talking about a spiritual heart.
That's the qalb.
And so the qalb according to one understanding
has four chambers.
So in other words, Allah SWT has different
names in the Qur'an for the qalb
according to what He wants to emphasize.
And so the qalb is called sadr.
The sadr is like the first layer of
the spiritual heart.
In the seat of courage.
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ Did we not expand
for you your courage?
رَبِّ شْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي Musa A.S. said,
expand for me my courage.
أَلَّذِي وَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ So the shayateen,
they can whisper into the sudur.
And what do they whisper?
Because the sadr is the seat of courage.
So they want to make us cowards.
They want us to fear men more than
Allah.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he said to one
of his companions, he said, give me advice.
He said, قُلِ الْحَقُّ وَإِن كَانَ مُرًّا وَلَا
تَخَفِّ اللَّهِ لَوْمَ تَلَائِمُ He said, say the
truth even if it's bitter.
And don't be afraid of people who reproach
you for your religion.
We have to have shaja'a.
And the seat of that is the sadr.
So that's another word for qalb.
And then the other word is the fu
'ad.
The fu'ad, the af'ida.
So this is the seat of emotion.
And so on the Day of Judgment, Allah
SWT says that the af'ida are going
to be questioned.
So this is the emotive or the emotional
aspect of the qalb.
So no one on the Day of Judgment
can say, oh, I abused that person because
I became so emotional.
The fu'ad will be questioned.
And so the Prophet ﷺ was the most
courageous of human beings.
He was the most emotionally intelligent of human
beings.
ما زاغ البصر What is it?
ما كذب الفؤاد ما رأى That his heart
did not, his emotional heart did not falsify
what he saw.
Even during the mi'raj, he said exactly
what he saw.
He was completely truthful.
He didn't let his emotions get the better
of him.
And then you have the aql.
And the proof of this in the Qur
'an, Allah SWT says, لهم قلوب لا يفقهون
بها لهم قلوب يعقلون بها They have hearts
with which they don't understand.
You understand with your heart.
They have hearts with which they understand.
So the aql is important.
And then you have the lub, which is
like the heart of hearts, as they say,
in my heart of hearts.
And this is the seat of intuitive understanding
and deep ma'rifah of Allah SWT.
So to make a long story short, أَلَا
بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُوا الْقُلُوبِ Only in the remembrance
of Allah does the qalb, the quloob, find
satisfaction.
The sadr, the aql, the fu'ad, and
the lub.
And this is what gives us sakinah.
And you know, we should, it's very important
for us to ask questions.
People say don't ask questions in religion.
Questions with a good intention, with the intention
of wanting to learn are encouraged.
It's only when you're trying to test someone's
knowledge or trying to play like devil's advocate.
Because the Prophet SAW, he said, نصف العلم
حسن السؤال Half of knowledge is a good
question.
And so Ibrahim A.S. who had the
highest level of yaqeen, he's Ibrahim Khalilullah.
He asked Allah, how do you raise the
dead?
So that question is not coming from shak,
you know, from doubt, or from some sort
of, you know, some sort of bad intention.
He wants the proof, right?
Because he wants a higher understanding.
And then Allah says, أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنُ Do you
not believe?
And Allah knows the answer.
He says, yeah, I believe, but I want
اِتْمِنَانِ in my قلب in the Quran.
There's a verse in the Quran.
I want that سكينة, that tranquility in my
spiritual heart.
In other words, I want peace of mind.
So maybe one way we can translate قلب
is mind, right?
I want that peace of mind.
So we should be a little bit, I
always say, we should be a little bit
discursive in how we understand our religion.
Discursive means, we should be able to explain
why we believe what we believe.
Even if it's at a basic level.
No one needs to be a theologian.
But every Muslim, whether they're an architect, an
engineer, whether they're, you know, they work at
a restaurant, whatever they're doing, if someone asks
you, why do you believe the Quran is
a word of God?
Why do you believe the Prophet, peace be
upon him, is a messenger?
We should be able to say something, right?
Because we want to avoid this kind of
circular reasoning.
I believe it because it's in the Quran.
Well, okay.
And the Quran is a word of God.
Well, where does it say that?
The Quran says that.
That's called circular reasoning.
Right?
And so, nurun ala nur.
As Imam al-Razi, you know, he interprets
that phrase, nurun ala nur, is the aql
upon the naql, is the intellect upon the
revelation.
There's really no contradiction.
Ibn Taymiyyah says this as well.
There's no contradiction between human reason and the
revelation because both of them come from Allah
subhana wa ta'ala.
So, you know, they say false, you know,
these new atheists, they say, oh, faith is
belief without evidence.
That's not my definition of faith.
Right?
No, faith is trusting the evidence.
Faith means to trust.
The root of the word faith, or iman
means to be safe or to trust.
Also in Hebrew, it's the same, emunah, iman.
The Jews say emunah.
Right?
To trust the evidence.
Everyone has faith in something.
You know, Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, when
they get on an airplane, right, they have
faith based on evidence.
Right?
They trust the pilot will not crash the
plane.
They trust, you know, the plane won't malfunction.
And they trust it with their lives.
That's a type of faith.
When we get into an elevator, we have
faith in the engineers and architects that made
this elevator that it won't crash.
Everybody has faith in something.
But it's faith that's based on evidence.
We don't have blind faith.
It's called taqleed.
Taqleed, we don't want taqleed in aqeedah.
In fiqh, it's okay because we don't want
to reinvent the wheel.
Right?
You're going to waste your time.
Right?
But in aqeedah, you have to believe what
you believe.
And you have to be able to give
dalail.
And I think that's an amazing transition to
the next point, which is Islam is unlike
other religions in that Islam is a thinking
person's religion.
Islam is a religion that it's the only
religion that I know, and we have an
expert right here who can clarify, that the
book itself challenges the reader to find holes
in it.
Is it the only book?
Yeah, it's amazing.
The Quran is a bahar, as Imam al
-Ghazali says.
The Quran is an absolute ocean.
Just take one aspect, the linguistic aspect of
the Quran, just one aspect.
The Quran is an ocean of rhetoric.
You know, if a student at Zaytuna writes
a paper and incorporates three or four rhetorical
devices, we think, oh, he's a good writer.
The Quran is an absolute ocean of rhetoric.
Just linguistically, you know, there's high-level studies
done on the Quran, what's known as stylometric
analysis, where basically the text is analyzed through
a computer system, and it was determined that
the entire Quran is from one author, right?
And you apply this like the Book of
Mormon, there's multiple authors.
And this is based on vocabulary, syntax, grammar.
So the Quran has one author, right?
And, you know, this was applied to like
the New Testament Gospels or the letters of
Paul, right?
So 13 letters in the New Testament attributed
to Paul.
But when stylometric analysis is applied to the
letters, six of them were discovered to be
forgeries.
And this is like the consensus of historians,
that there's forgeries in the New Testament in
Paul's name.
And then another type of analysis was done
on the Hadith, at least in Bukhari.
And this was done by a researcher in
Algeria.
It's really cutting-edge stuff.
And it discovered, based on the data, that
the speaker in Bukhari is different than the
Quran.
There's two different speakers.
In other words, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is not the author of the Quran.
And this is what the highest type of
analysis shows.
That's just looking at the Quran linguistically.
And there's many other things we can say
about that.
Even little things like how the Quran avoids
the historical errors of the Bible.
Because the common trope amongst the Orientalists is
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wrote the Quran,
he copied the Bible.
He plagiarized the Bible.
And this charge is mentioned in the Quran
itself.
They were just a forger.
بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ The majority
of them don't know.
So for example, if you ask an Egyptologist
about ancient Egypt, when were the kings of
Egypt first called pharaohs?
An Egyptologist will tell you by the 18th
or 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom.
In other words, the king at the time
of Yusuf A.S., who was 15th or
16th dynasty, the king was not called pharaoh.
He was just called king, whatever the word
is.
Now in Genesis, the king is called pharaoh
at the time of Joseph.
So that's an error.
That's called an anachronism, a historical error.
An anachronism is something outside of its time
frame.
It's like you watch a movie sometimes, a
movie that's based in the Middle Ages and
you see an actor wearing a Rolex.
That's an anachronism.
It shouldn't be there.
Or it's like if I say George Washington
was a Mormon.
That's an anachronism.
There were no such things as Mormons at
the time of George Washington.
So the Bible has this historical error.
Interestingly, the story of Yusuf is in the
Quran.
But in Surah Yusuf, the king is called
malik.
He's not called pharaoh.
And then when we get to Musa A
.S., 18th dynasty or 19th, depending on who
you think the pharaoh is, Thutmose III or
Ramesses II, I think Thutmose III.
But, إِذْ هَبِ لَ فِرْعَوْنِ إِنَّهُ تَغَىٰ So
it's interesting the Quran confirms aspects of these
biblical stories, but then it avoids these historical
problems.
And there's many examples like this.
And so, building on this topic, one of
the common arguments against Islam today is this
idea that Islam is plagiarizing from these different
scriptures.
And so, you mentioned one instance, but are
there other instances in which people claim that
the Quran has copied from the New Testament
or Old Testament?
Yeah.
So, initially, when Western Orientalists, they would engage
with the Quran, they didn't understand the rhetoric
of the Quran.
They didn't understand Semitic rhetoric in general.
And the Quran is a very advanced type
of rhetoric.
It's not linear.
It's circular.
Right?
So a lot of chiasmus in the Quran,
things like that, returning to themes.
So initially, it was, this is a jumbled
mess.
It's not in chronological order.
You know, there's, the tense keeps changing.
It's called iltifat.
Right?
They don't understand these things.
And then, when they actually studied the Quran's
rhetoric, the pendulum swung to the other side,
to the point where they're like, okay, this
is an absolute masterpiece.
He could not have written this.
First it was, this is just, you know,
a forgery, and done by someone who wasn't
very educated, and now it's, this is an
absolute masterpiece.
Right?
It's very interesting.
And so you have people like John Wandsborough
in the 1970s, University of London, SOAS, who
said that, he said that the Quran was
composed by, by a court of, a council
of scholars in the court of the Abbasids,
that it's eighth century.
And I think the reason he said that
is because he understood the masterpiece of the
Quran.
There's no way one man could have produced
this text.
Right?
So his position was, the Quran is actually
a product of the eighth century in Iraq.
Right?
And at the time, we didn't have any
seventh century manuscripts.
I mean, we had them, but they weren't
dated properly.
And then, in the 1990s and early 2000s,
researchers with better dating methods, they went back,
same manuscripts that they had, and retested them,
and the entire Quran is found in seventh
century manuscripts.
So the Quran comes from the seventh century.
It's Hijaz, from the Hijaz.
Right?
And it has one author.
Right?
But this, this is common trope.
Right?
There's nothing, there's not a single verse in
the Quran that's copied from the Bible.
There's nothing like that.
You know, but if you compare 2 Kings
19 with Isaiah, what is it?
Isaiah 46, I think.
Something in Deuteronomy, it is word for word
the same.
So somebody's copying from someone.
And if you look at Matthew, Matthew has
Mark on his desk when he's writing his
gospel.
This is according to consensus.
Even many Christian scholars admit this.
And Matthew, at times, copies verbatim from Mark.
So the question is, if Matthew is a
disciple of Jesus, and Mark isn't, why is
a disciple copying from someone who wasn't even
there?
This is a big problem.
This is why people are leaving Christianity.
This is what Nietzsche, who was exposed to
historical, I mean, Nietzsche was a linguist.
He was brilliant.
He knew Greek and Latin, and he actually
made a joke.
He quipped, he said something along the lines
of, it's so nice of God that he
decided to learn Greek to write something, but
he's far outshined by Plato and Aristotle.
Something along those lines.
In other words, the Greek of the New
Testament is not very good.
It's koine Greek, whereas Aristotle, who is not
a prophet, you know, his Greek is incredibly
sophisticated.
So nobody can say that about the Qur
'an.
The Qur'an is the height of the
Arabic language.
There's nothing close to the Arabic of the
Qur'an.
And if anybody was going to challenge the
Qur'an, it would have been the pre
-Islamic poets.
But if you read the pre-Islamic poets
who are considered the greatest poets and linguists
in the history of Arabic, even until today,
people like Labid.
Labid was once asked during the rule of
Omar, that Omar wrote him a letter and
said, recite to me some of the old
lines from the Muallaqat.
And he responded and he said, Ya Omar,
Ya Amirul Mu'mineen, after I heard Surat Al
-Kawthar, I lost all taste in writing poetry
and reading poetry.
And his poetry was the top one that
was hung on the Kaaba.
But after hearing Surat Al-Kawthar and Surat
Al-Baqarah, he said that Allah SWT replaced
all of my poetry with Surat Al-Baqarah.
MashaAllah.
Yeah, this is one of the proofs.
Circumstantial proof, but a proof no less of
the Quran's divine origin, divine provenance, is the
fact that all of the greatest poets of
the Arabian Peninsula eventually kind of just threw
their hands up and said, we can't answer
this challenge.
This is an open challenge, by the way.
And it's an objective challenge.
It's not subjective.
It's not like, okay, I can write something
beautiful and I can take it to like
a...
The Christians actually did this in the late
90s.
I mean, I was, you know, an undergrad
when this happened.
This was a big deal when it happened.
The Christians, they wrote something called Furqanul Haqq,
an imitation Quran to answer the challenge.
The Quran says, وَإِن كُنْتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا
نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأَتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاكُمْ
مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ If you're
in doubt about what we revealed to our
servant, the Prophet ﷺ, from time to time,
then produce one surah like unto it and
call to your aid, your witnesses, if you
speak the truth.
So they claimed to have answered this challenge
with this book Furqanul Haqq, right, written by
these two guys that use these false names.
And so, and this was, like I said,
this was a big deal.
This was going to be a game changer.
And they took it to Ivy League professors
of Arabic and they said, yeah, it sounds
like the Quran.
But if you actually look at the text,
half of it is plagiarized word for word
from the Quran.
Half of it is plagiarized.
So that's not answering the challenge.
Because I can do that as well.
I'm about to rival William Shakespeare.
Okay, are you ready?
To exist or not to exist, that is
the inquiry.
Have I just rivaled Shakespeare?
Because I changed a few words around.
Am I as great as Shakespeare?
Of course not.
It's ridiculous.
So this book now is just, it's collecting
dust, it's in the car, it's in the
garbage heap of history, it's in the basements
of churches all around America.
And so, they seem to have given up
with this challenge.
But it's an open challenge.
And the thing about this is called the
tahaddi, the challenge, is that the ajaz, the
incapacitating mechanism is internal to the Quran.
In other words, our belief as Sunnis is
that it's simply impossible for humans to imitate
the Quran.
Because there's another opinion, the Ma'tazila, they had
the opinion that it's possible for a human
being to imitate the Quran, but Allah will
divert that person.
It's called the sarfa, yusrifuhum.
He'll divert them.
But our position is that, no, it's actually
not even within human ability to imitate the
Quran.
It's the height, I mean, it's the first
book in Arabic, the first two books in
Arabic, the Quran and the muwattah of Imam
Malik.
Quran and sunnah is our foundation.
And you know, one of the things that
I think as Muslims we don't really value,
but it's usually people who convert to the
religion who really bring out this miracle of
Islam, is the memorization of the Quran.
And if you read...
We're so, I'm sorry, we're so jaded.
We don't see the miracle in these things.
This is incredible.
When I first heard about this, because I
didn't start practicing Islam until I was 19.
I mean, I call myself Muslim at 15,
but it wasn't until 19 when I started
to pray and things like that.
And I heard about this.
I went to a mosque and they said,
this 15-year-old boy, he has the
entire Quran memorized.
And I just refused to believe it.
I said, there's no way possible.
And I said, well, is he Arab?
And he said, no, he's from Pakistan.
I said, does he understand Arabic?
He said, no, not really.
I said, how is this even possible?
This is incredible.
Just think about this.
Imagine a kid from Scotland who memorized the
Analects of Confucius in Chinese.
Just think about that for a minute.
You would say, this is a miracle.
The Analects are much shorter than the Quran.
Exactly.
And Arabic is a difficult language.
The Quran says, in Surah Al-Qamar, we
have made this Quran easy.
It's ajeeb.
And just building off of that, you know,
if you were to burn every single Quran
on the planet, if you brought all the
Qurans together and you burned them, not a
single Muslim will panic.
But if you do that with the New
Testament, the Old Testament, the only thing left
to do is to forge new versions of
them.
Imam al-Qurtubi says in his tafsir that
there was a certain man who wanted to
test these religions.
So he copied a portion of the Torah,
but he made an intentional change.
And he gave it to a rabbi.
He said, what do you think about this?
He said, it's good, it's Torah.
And then he copied something from the New
Testament and he made an intentional change.
And he gave it to a pastor or
a bishop or something or a priest or
something like that.
He said, what do you think about this?
He said, oh, it's good, it's the New
Testament.
And then he did the same thing with
the Quran and he gave it to a
sheikh and the sheikh said, you have to
burn this.
Because it's preserved.
The Quran began as an audio book.
It was an audio book.
So this is something that thousands of Sahaba
might have heard mass transmitted living tradition.
It's impossible to forge the Quran.
Impossible.
And you know, what I find to be
an even bigger miracle of the memorization of
the Quran in today's society is how you
can have all these children and youth who
are in social media and now have their
brains rewired because of Tik Tok and so
forth and yet still they have the ability
to memorize this book.
Yeah.
It's really a miracle.
Again, I think we're jaded.
We don't understand that.
But if you explain this like a non
-Muslim, they'll be like, what are you talking?
This is impossible.
But it's true.
Speaking of football.
So Dr. Ali, in relation to Islam, the
two most popular religions in the society tend
to be Christianity and Judaism with Christianity appearing
to be the most prominent.
The Quran has a lot to say regarding
Ahlul Kitab, the people of the book, and
the Quran has a lot to say regarding
Jesus, peace be upon him.
And the Quran differs with the Christology, the
understanding of Jesus in the New Testament.
But what are the secular academic scholars saying,
the so-called objective ones?
Are they finding that Islam is closer, is
the Islamic conception of Jesus closer or are
the Christians closer?
Yeah, it's an interesting question.
The majority of historians, and again, there's no
consensus.
I think there's something approaching a near consensus
now about who Jesus was historically.
So for example, if you asked Dale Martin
at Yale or Bart Ehrman at the University
of North Carolina, they'll say something along the
lines of Jesus was someone who believed he
was a prophet, he probably claimed to be
the Messiah, never claimed to be God, and
that he proclaimed someone to come after him
called the Son of Man who's going to
come and set up his kingdom of Tauhid
on the earth and then Jesus would come
back later and rule as king of that
kingdom.
That's sort of the bare bones of what
historians believe was the teachings of the actual
Jesus of Nazareth.
It's very interesting that our Christology is very
close to that, whereas Christian Christology from a
historical standpoint is highly implausible.
It's highly implausible because just think about a
rabbi walking around the Galilee in Palestine claiming
to be God, which is the Christian claim.
It's just highly unlikely that who would believe
him.
It's total blasphemy for a man to claim
God is not a man, Numbers 23, 19.
So our Christology is much closer according to
historians to what they're saying was the actual
claims of the historical Isa, peace be upon
him.
So you're saying that the Muslim conception of
Jesus today is actually much closer than the
Christian conception?
Yes, exactly.
And the Qur'an is 600 years later.
And the Qur'an corrects the Christian narrative.
The most controversial aspect of this is the
crucifixion.
And so it's interesting.
The Qur'an says that they did not
kill him or crucify him, but it was
made to appear so unto them, and that
they don't follow ilm, they follow dhan.
They don't have certain knowledge, which is like
eyewitness testimony.
Because if you ask a Christian, they'll say
this is mutawatir, the crucifixion.
The Qur'an says, no, they're following dhan.
Dhan is conjecture, hearsay, right?
This eye was revealed in Medina in 627
or something like that of the Common Era.
And obviously at that time, the Christians were
saying, well, the Gospel of Matthew was written
by Matthew.
He's an eyewitness.
The Gospel of John was written by John,
the son of Zebedee.
He's an eyewitness.
He's standing at the foot of the cross.
And now today, almost all historical scholars maintain
that these books are anonymous and they're not
written by eyewitnesses.
So the Qur'an is vindicated.
It's vindicated through time.
Enough time goes by, the Qur'an is
vindicated.
SubhanAllah.
And I think one of the things we
tend to forget in this clash between Islam
and science is that this is not a
new clash.
Even during the early period, Aristotle was a
great scientist of the age.
And you even had some Muslims who defaulted
to Aristotle over the Qur'an, like Ibn
Sina and so forth.
Yeah, they wanted to be...
There was a certain type of prestige to
be in the Greek sort of trajectory.
Right?
So yeah, so some of them, they would
gravitate towards Greek metaphysics.
And Imam al-Ghazali, rahimahullah, in his Tahafatul
Falasifah, Incoherence of the Philosophers, he attacked some
of their beliefs.
Now, he's not an anti-scholastic.
This is a bad rap that Imam al
-Ghazali gets.
He actually says in the Incoherence that if
a scientist tells you that you can predict
like an eclipse, he says, that has nothing
to do with your religion.
Right?
That's fine.
But he says there are certain things that
they're saying that are clearly against the naqal,
against the revelation.
So the Murtazila philosophers, taking from Aristotle, tended
to say that the universe is pre-eternal
in the past.
The universe is eternal in the past.
And this is called the steady state model.
This was a dominant opinion at that time.
And Ghazali says, look, the Quran says that
Allah created everything.
And that only Allah is eternal.
Right?
So he was in the minority back then.
But this is what the Quran says.
Nowadays, almost every scientist takes this position that
the universe came into being, space, time and
matter, at a point in the past.
From nothing.
You know.
So the lesson being is these ideas come
and go but the Quran remains.
Yeah, the Quran.
Yeah, you know.
That's why it's a bit dangerous, I think,
to apply scientific theories to the Quran.
There are certain things in science that are
observable and won't change.
Like, for example, the mountains as being pegs.
Awtad.
This is proven.
The mountains.
Like Mount Everest is 9 kilometers but 27
kilometers into the crust, the mantle of the
earth.
Because it stabilizes the earth.
Like a peg.
Or like the atmosphere is, you know, NASA
calls it you know, the planet's protective blanket
or something like that.
The Quran says that the samaa, the atmosphere,
the sky, protects the earth.
Right?
Things like that.
The universe is expanding.
We are the expanders.
Right?
So things like that probably won't change.
And I think the Quran does allude to
things like that.
But scientific theories like where did the moon
come from?
Right?
This is kind of conjectural.
So there used to be a popular theory
like in the 50s that the moon broke
off from the earth causing a crater that
eventually became the Pacific Ocean.
It's called the fission theory.
So you can imagine like in the 1950s
if a mufassir of the Quran said this
is in the Quran and then that's falsified
or it's proven false or it falls out
of favor.
Now you're attributing this error to the Quran.
Right?
Because that's not the scientific that's not the
dominant opinion now.
Right?
So, but there are certain things that are
observable that we can see that the Quran
is confirming.
Iron coming Allah says that he sent down
iron.
Anzala.
He sent it down.
The vast majority of iron hadid on this
planet did not come is not from the
earth.
It came from asteroids.
This is just proven.
Yeah.
And so just going back to Christianity there's
this new idea that's been floating around that
Jesus had a brother named James.
And that apparently Jesus' brother James was actually
teaching something very similar to what Islam was
teaching.
Yeah.
So this is I think most Christians don't
know this actually.
You ask an average church-going Christian you
know who was James the just?
Ya'quf al-sadiq.
al-sadiq too his laqab is the same
as the successor of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam.
So James is considered according to the New
Testament but also according to historical sources outside
the New Testament Jesus had a brother.
Whatever brother means.
It could mean stepbrother it could mean half
-brother that Maryam alayhi wa sallam got married
after she gave birth to Isa alayhi wa
sallam.
Or it could mean his cousin.
But the successor of Isa alayhi wa sallam
was a man named James.
And he was the head of the Nasara
al-Nusrim.
They're called the Jamesian Nusrim.
For 30 years until his martyrdom in 62
of the Common Era.
And it's very interesting.
James' Christology is very similar if not identical
to the Christology in the Quran.
So in other words the Quran vindicated James'
Christology.
And it's interesting because the Quran says that
Isa alayhi wa sallam asked the Hawariyun man
ansari ilallah who's going to help me to
do the work of Allah.
And then the Hawariyun said we'll help you.
And then a ta'ifa from Bani Israel
believed and another ta'ifa disbelieved.
A group.
A group, right.
And Ibn Kathir he says that these two
groups are Jews who disbelieved in Jesus like
rabbinical authorities like mainstream rabbinical Judaism.
And then those Jews who believed in Jesus
but then eventually went astray.
But Imam al-Razi says something different.
And this is based on a hadith that
a statement attributed to Ibn Abbas radiallahu anhuma
that these are both these ta'ifatan they
actually both believed in Jesus in some way.
But one group said Jesus is Ibnullah and
one group said Abdullah.
This is Paul and James.
Right.
So Pauline Christianity highly influenced by you know
sort of Greek metaphysics Greek philosophy.
And then these sort of pagan ideas that
were floating around the Mediterranean at the time.
And then Jamesian Christianity which is coming directly
from Jesus' successor which is vindicated in the
Quran.
فَأَيَّدْنَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَىٰ عَدُوِّهِمْ فَأَسْبَحُوا ظَاهِرِينَ The
meaning of that according to Imam al-Razi
is that those Christians that were marginalized they
were given victory by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam revelation of the Quran.
Subhanallah.
And so these so after Jesus these academics
today are saying that Jesus' true successor was
James and not Paul.
James.
And now they begin to link James to
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Islam.
What exactly is their theory that justifies how
Islam arrived at those conclusions?
Yeah, it's a good question.
So these are secular historians.
So like Jeffrey Butz and Robert Eisenman and
James Tabor they'll say there's a direct trajectory
from Jesus, James to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam.
Right?
But they're trying to be secular.
Secular means they're not trying to basically they're
not going to consider supernatural evidence.
So Robert Eisenman, for example who actually is
an atheist his theory is that there must
have been like Jamesian Christians or Ebionites living
in caves in Mecca and the Prophet would
go in and he'd listen to their teaching
and then he'd recite what they had said
in a language that is like impossible to
imitate.
So he was saying that the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam would go into the caves
and there was somebody there that he was
learning from who still had the true teachings
of Jesus.
Yeah, exactly.
Because he can't appeal to scripture.
So he has to account for the Quran
naturalistically.
He doesn't want to appeal to a supernatural
source.
Despite the absurdity that it results.
It's completely absurd.
Subhanallah.
So as we wrap up before Salah I
think just the last question I wanted to
ask is on the topic of conquering doubts
and defending Islam it seems to be that
the more evidence that's coming out really on
every single topic whether it's in physics in
mathematics in biblical studies in social science in
archaeology it all seems to bolster the notion
that Islam is true.
Do you think that's a correct assessment?
Yeah, I think so.
I think this is the sort of destiny
if you will of Islam.
I mean Islam is rapidly becoming the last
religion standing.
And last traditional religion standing.
Because if you go to churches now at
random you go into churches and you find
things that are not only against traditional beliefs
and practices of Christians but against the scripture
itself.
And this is something the Quran highlights is
that the Quran says that the Jews and
the Christians the Ahl al-Kitab they took
their religious leaders as Arbaba min Dunilla theological
lords.
And the Prophet was asked what do you
mean by that?
And the Prophet said that you follow the
precepts and commandments of men over God.
You cancel the Sharia.
You cancel the Wahi for the opinions of
human beings.
And that in a sense you're putting these
men over Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And you see this everywhere.
Most Jews are reformed.
Vast majority.
Many of them don't believe in God.
We had an interfaith dialogue in that room
with a rabbi and that brother right there
brother Omar and the rabbi a female rabbi
first of all which is completely against Judaism
traditional Judaism.
So that's one thing.
But then she said she said she said
I'm an atheist.
And I remember the crowd started laughing.
And we thought it was a joke.
I know she's an atheist rabbi.
So they've gone to the point where they
don't even believe in God.
Right?
And then you go to like Christian churches
at random and you'll find all kinds of
strange beliefs you know that are completely antithetical
to the teachings of Isa a.s. You
know Isa a.s. he sent his in
Matthew chapter 10 he sent his disciples on
missions of preaching and healing.
And he said you know preach the gospel
and if those people reject the gospel shake
the dust of that city off of your
sandals because the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
will fare better than that city on the
day of judgment.
In other words their punishment is going to
be so severe it's even worse than Sodom
and Gomorrah.
And we know why they're guilty.
قوم اللوت This is from Matthew 10.
Right?
So this becomes a problem.
People fear.
This is why again courage شجاع is so
important.
So we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala
to strengthen our صدور strengthen our قلوب but
especially the صدور give us this type of
شجاع to not fear human beings.
This life is too short to fear human
beings.
Right?
Don't worry about the opinions of human beings.
People are going to be gone.
Right?
Who's going to remember you in a hundred
years?
Only Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Unless you're some world famous celebrity.
But who cares about that?
We only care about the opinions.
That's why the Prophet ﷺ at Ta'if
he said if you are not angry with
me فلا أبالي then I don't mind.
If I have to go through torture but
you're not angry with me I'm okay with
that.
His only concern is Allah's opinion.
That's it.
No one else's opinion.
وَلَا تَخَفِّ اللَّهِ لَوْمَ تَلَائِن Right?
Don't fear the opinions of human beings.
Life is too short for that.
Be principled.
قُلْ آمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ ثُمَ اسْتَقِمْ Say, I believe
in Allah and be upright upon that.
Stand up straight for that.
Don't be wishy-washy and bend over backwards
for people.
Be strong.
JazakAllah khair, Dr. Ali.
There's a lot more that can be said.
InshaAllah after Salah we will continue for a
Q&A and so we will take questions
from online and from in person inshaAllah.
JazakAllah khair.
Assalamualaikum.
Walaikum.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa sallam.
Alhamdulillah we will now begin the Q&A
portion of this talk.
So we will begin by giving preference to
the audience first and then going with the
questions that are online.
So is there anybody in the audience that
has a question?
Alright and I have the mic.
So just raise your hand and I'll come
right over to you.
I think we need to build up our
momentum in the room.
Maybe start with some online questions.
So we'll begin with the online questions.
So the first question, Dr. Ali.
Somebody is asking, what do you think about
the Gospel of Barnabas as it states Jesus
was not crucified and it also mentions the
existence of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam?
Yeah, that's a good question.
It's a very common question I get.
The Gospel of Barnabas is very late.
It's, I think the oldest manuscript is like
15th century.
It's written in Italian and there's no evidence
of it before that time.
And so it's probably a pious fraud.
I think it was probably written by an
Italian Muslim or a Spanish Muslim.
But I don't put a lot of weight
in it.
It's just too late.
And there's problems with it as well.
It says the Prophet is the Messiah.
It says the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam is the Messiah.
And that's just factually wrong.
Unless we take a sort of a broader,
more nuanced sort of interpretation of the word
Messiah.
But I don't think it's doing that.
And then there's certain anachronisms that appear in
that Gospel as well.
Now, there was a Pope in the 5th
century who did mention one of the banned
books.
He called it the Evangelium Barnabe, the Gospel
of Barnabas.
But that was probably something different than what
was written in the 15th century or so
in Italian.
There is something called the Epistle of Barnabas.
That's completely different than the Gospel of Barnabas.
The Epistle of Barnabas is in the oldest
New Testament canon or New Testament codex ever
discovered, the Codex Sinaiticus.
And some Muslims, they conflate the two and
say the Gospel of Barnabas is found in
the oldest complete Bible.
That's completely different.
The Epistle of Barnabas is completely different than
the Gospel of Barnabas.
We don't need the Gospel of Barnabas.
There's enough evidence that makes it plausible historically
that Jesus wasn't crucified.
We don't have half of the story of
the early Christians.
We only have Paul's letters and his adherents,
which is basically the New Testament.
We have nothing from James, that side.
And we know that the crucifixion was a
major cause of fitna in the Pauline congregations
in Corinth and in Galatia.
So there's definitely ikhtilaf, as the Quran says,
about the crucifixion.
At the time of Paul.
So the Gospel of Barnabas, this isn't inside
the New Testament?
No, it's not in the New Testament at
all.
So are there other Gospel books that are
not part of the New Testament?
And if they weren't, why weren't they added?
It's a good question.
So there's probably over 30 or 40 Gospels,
right?
And so one group of Christian theologians, because
of their influence in the region, they tended
to rise to the top of the power
pyramid, whatever you want to call it.
And so their scriptures were given precedence.
And so in the ancient world, you have
to copy things by hand.
So if you want your book to become
popular, you have to get a bunch of
scribes that just copy it out.
And so there were Pauline bishops and priests
and scribes who liked certain Gospels over others
for various reasons that agreed with their own
understanding of Christ.
And so those books were copied.
But you do have other Gospels that are
outside the canon.
The Gospel of Thomas, for example, discovered in
1945, just basically a list of ahadith attributed
to Isa alayhis salaam, nothing about a crucifixion,
nothing about a resurrection.
The Gospel of Peter also, attributed to Peter,
right, but did not make it into the
canon because it says in the Gospel of
Peter that when they were crucifying Jesus, he
was silent as if he felt no pain.
And so the Pauline Christians, they didn't like
that, that he was silent.
Maybe his ruh had left him and they're
crucifying an empty body, right?
So there was this touch of what's known
as docetism.
Maybe he wasn't really crucified in some way.
So they rejected that Gospel as well.
But yeah, there were over 30.
And the other thing is the Christian canon
did not become, you know, these 27 books,
did not become highly recognized until the 4th
century.
Before that time, there was no canon.
So whoever wrote Thomas believed that this, you
know, maybe he believed that he was being
inspired.
And those Christians who would champion the Gospel
of Peter or Thomas, they most likely believed
these are inspired, these are scriptural texts, these
are true.
And I think a comparison with the Quran
is really what displays the miracle of Islam
because during the time of the Prophet ﷺ,
the entire Quran is already written.
It's just not compiled.
And during the time of the companions is
really when they compile it.
But we know from archaeological history that we
have the entire Quran in the same century
that the Prophet ﷺ lived.
But when we look at the biblical corpus,
it's the exact opposite in which you're saying
it took almost 3 to 400 years after
Jesus died that they decided on what the
books are.
Yeah, and also if we had a time
machine and we went back in time to
Galilee in the year 30 and if we
were to meet Isa ﷺ in the year
30 and if I would have asked him,
you know, can you quote Matthew chapter 5?
He wouldn't know what I was talking about.
What's Matthew chapter 5?
Or I said, quote 1 Corinthians 15.
What's 1 Corinthians?
It's written by Paul.
Who's Paul?
But if we went back to Medina in
630 and we were to meet the Prophet
ﷺ and we said, you know, if we
asked him, could you please recite Surah Yasin?
He would know exactly what Surah Yasin was,
what is Al-Baqarah, what is Ayatul Kursi.
So there's a big difference.
In the Gospels, like in Gospel of Matthew,
it says Jesus went to a certain place
and he preached the Gospel.
So my question to Christians is, what was
he preaching?
What's the Gospel?
Did he have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
and 1 Corinthians and Galatians and the Book
of Revelation?
No, he didn't.
So what is he saying?
His message, that's the Injil.
This was before Matthew was written, before Mark
was written.
Now something of the teachings of Jesus might
be in these books.
Something is probably preserved.
But we don't know what is preserved and
what is not unless you have some sort
of criterion.
And we do.
It's called the Furqan, which is the Qur
'an.
And the Qur'an is preserved.
And so the equivalent, if this were to
happen in Islam, would basically be like a
bunch of surahs not being included in the
Qur'an.
And then some scholars saying, yeah, we didn't
include these surahs because they went against the
teachings.
Yeah, exactly.
Which would make no sense.
It would be nonsensical.
Yeah, and you know, you have these Western,
you know, sort of critics of Islam that
are looking for lost surah of the Qur
'an and things like that.
You know, it's just not going to happen.
Because they always find these things in archaeological
sites.
They find like lost Gospels and they find
the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi Library.
And you know, they keep finding these things.
And the more manuscripts of the Qur'an
they're finding is only confirming the narrative, right?
It's only confirming, yeah.
Yeah, so even like someone like Marin Van
Putten, who's probably the foremost sort of linguist
or textual scholar of the Qur'an, a
European scholar, he basically endorses the standard narrative
of the Muslims that Uthman codified the Qur
'an around 650, the Common Era.
He standardized the text of the Qur'an.
And so does Theodore Noldeke in the history
of the Qur'an.
You know, that's our standard narrative.
That's where all the evidence points to.
SubhanAllah.
So we have another question online which is
talking about what lessons can we extract from
the life of the Prophet ﷺ in his
da'wah with Ahlul Kitab, with the Christians
and the Jews of his time?
Yeah, so the Qur'an actually gives us
a method by which we make da'wah.
Right, so ادعو إلى سبيل ربك بالحكمة والمعيذة
الحسنة واجادلهم بالتي هي أحسن So, ادعو, right,
means to call, right?
So da'wah is related to this.
And a da'wah is an invitation.
So when you invite someone, right, you do
it in a beautiful way.
You don't force people.
You don't do it in an ugly way.
If you're gonna invite someone to like your
nikah or something like that, you send them
a card.
It's handwritten preferably.
It's beautiful, right?
So, we call to the way of your
Lord.
إلى سبيل ربك سبيل here, according to the
is Islam.
Call to Islam.
بالحكمة حكمة means with wisdom.
But Imam al-Zamakhshari, he said the meaning
here is with دلائل, with proofs.
So these are proofs, like rational proofs, linguistic
proofs, revelatory proofs, historical proofs, different types of
دلائل.
In other words, we have to do our
homework here, right?
And then, وَالْمَوْرِيدَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ with beautiful exhortation, beautiful
preaching.
This is the prophetic way.
So this is the way to make da
'wah, is that you have دلائل and you
also have good sort of adab or comportment,
beautiful preaching.
So both of these have to be there.
And so the Prophet ﷺ's da'wah was
very intellectually rigorous, right?
But he also had a very good attitude.
Like when the Christians from Najran, right?
They came to the masjid and he would
engage with them, right?
But he would do it in a beautiful
way.
And this is something that would anger his
enemies.
When he went to Ta'if, he got
a meeting with Abu Mas'ud al-Thaqafi.
But in five minutes, they rejected him, started
making fun of him, right?
Oh, God couldn't find anyone but you?
You know?
If you're a prophet, then you're too holy
for me to sit in your presence, you
know, mocking him, things like this.
So the Prophet ﷺ said, okay, so he
went outside and he stayed in Ta'if
for a few more days.
And then this massive humanity was just attracted
to him because of his beautiful comportment and
the way that he would talk to people
and preach the religion.
And so that's when they kicked him out
of the city and, you know, they basically
abused him very badly.
But that's the prophetic way.
You know, even in Medina, right?
When there was some conflict with the Bani
Israel in Medina and the Prophet ﷺ was
walking with Aisha and they said, السلام عليكم
May death be upon you.
And the Prophet immediately retorted, وعليكم and upon
you.
Because المسلم لا يدل النفس A Muslim does
not humiliate himself.
A Muslim is humble but is not humiliated.
There's a difference.
Where توادع doesn't mean you're humiliated.
A Muslim does not humiliate himself.
So the Prophet ﷺ just said, وعليكم and
kept going.
This is in his own city and that's
a threat on his life.
May death be upon you.
You're threatening his life.
Right?
But then Aisha turned around and said, وسام
عليكم وغضب الله عليكم ولعنة الله عليكم Like
this.
And the Prophet ﷺ said, مهلا And then,
you know, relax.
You know.
And he said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَفِيقٌ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقِ
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is gentle and
he loves gentleness.
So even people who are threatening him, and
this takes a lot of, this is very
difficult.
It takes a lot of discipline.
You have to have real good control over
your نفس.
So even like debating, I used to debate
a lot of Christians in my twenties.
It's very difficult to take your ego out
of...
I would say it's impossible basically to take
the ego out of the equation.
We have to mitigate it as much as
possible.
So when I used to debate, when I
had a big black beard, there were still
things on the internet.
And then I went to Yemen and one
of my teachers, he said to me, he
said, during the course of these debates, how
often do you make du'a for your
opponent?
I said, du'a?
Never.
He said, why?
He said, half of du'a is du
'a.
And so when I debated another Christian recently,
a Christian professor, on blogging theology, I found
myself just making du'a for him.
Because Allah is the changer of hearts.
Allah is مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ Allah is the one
that can change a heart in an instant.
Right?
And so that's important to have concern for
people.
And the Prophet ﷺ, حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ
means that he has a deep concern for
the believers.
بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ الرَّؤُفُ الرَّحِيمِ So حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ according to
the ulema is عَمَّة it's for all of
humanity.
That he has a deep concern for the
guidance of the whole of humanity.
But then there's a خَاصِ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ الرَّؤُفُ الرَّحِيمِ
And for the believers, there's a special kindness
and mercy.
And he's a reflection of his Lord.
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ الرَّحْمَانُ الرَّحِيمِ الرَّحْمَان means the
indiscriminately compassionate.
الرَّحِيم means the intimately loving.
Different levels of love.
And so, aside from that, what advice would
you have to people who are interested in
doing da'wah and engaging in these conversations?
Yeah, so da'wah, we have to remember,
people say sometimes I'm not an alim and
just a da'i.
But that's also a claim.
We have to be careful about claims.
So you can be a da'i, but
you have to know that when you say
you're a da'i, you're really taking one
of the titles of the Prophet ﷺ.
Because وَدَاعِيًا إِلَىٰهِ بِإِذْنِي وَسِرَاجًا مُنْيُرًا And of
course he's the da'i par excellence.
And he's a radiating lamp, right?
So we shouldn't minimize the du'at, the
da'wah.
It's very important.
We can make or break someone's life by
what we say.
You know, it's really kind of dangerous.
So we have to really have the welfare
of people, a good opinion of people.
We have concern for them.
And so, learning the prophetic ethos.
This is important.
You have to be grounded in the sunnah.
We have to learn the sunnah.
How did the Prophet interact?
And sometimes, da'wah, da'wah is in
different forms, right?
So for some people, it's speaking.
For other people, it's, you know, a smile.
Because a smile is sunnah.
Right?
So some people, you know, they can't articulate
very well.
So, they actually do more harm when they
try to make verbal da'wah.
Right?
So maybe just good character.
All of these types of things.
You know, having adab with people.
You know.
You know, like when you're on a train
or something and a woman comes, you offer.
Well, nowadays, there's a lot of feminists.
they actually might be offended if you offer
your seat.
I don't need your seat.
Do I look weak to you?
But to have, it's good to have that.
I remember when I was an undergrad in
college, our professor was an old lady, accounting
professor.
And we had a meeting in the office
and there was a few, a few limited
chairs.
And so, a female student came in and
I gave her my chair.
And this is back in the 90s.
And the professor said, chivalry is not dead.
You know.
So, on that point now, I think, often
when we talk about da'wah, we focus
on arguments.
We focus on, you know, having good akhlaq
and all of that.
But ultimately, it all comes down to whether
Allah gives hidayah to the person.
Yeah.
Guidance.
And that is something that's beyond our control.
لَيْسَ عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهِ يَهْدِي مَا يَشَىٰءُ
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتِ And according to
the ulema, this is about Abu Talib, that
you can't guide.
All whom you love, Allah guides.
Ultimately, Allah is Al-Hadi.
He is the guide in the ultimate sense.
Yeah.
So, you know, we do the best we
can.
You know.
But ultimately, we put our tawakkul in Allah
SWT.
فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ When you've made
your decision, when you've made your preparations, when
you've done your homework, then you trust in
Allah SWT.
And so, just changing gears a little bit,
there's this common notion against the Qur'an
that the Qur'an has nasq, it has
abrogation.
And there's a claim that that the god
of Islam is changing his mind.
And he's trying to get closer and closer
to the truth.
And so he changes the rulings.
This is a common polemic, especially amongst Christians
today against Islam.
You know, it's interesting you say that.
There was a Muslim couple, older parents, who
contacted me in tears.
And they said, our daughter has left Islam.
And how can you help us?
And I said, yeah.
Can I talk to her?
And usually when this happens, this happens to
me quite a lot.
I'll ask, can I talk to the person,
the child who left?
And they'll say, the child doesn't want to
talk to you.
But this time she said, yes, I want
to talk to him.
So, okay.
So, I'm talking to her.
She's a college student.
And so I said, well, what happened?
And she said, this whole idea of naskh,
abrogation, right?
You know, this ayah abrogates this other ayah.
مَن نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا نَأْدِ بِخَيْرٍ
مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ
كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٍ And the answer is right
there at the end of the ayah.
Can you translate it?
Yeah, so, none of our revelations do we
cause to be abrogated or cause to be
forgotten except that we bring something similar or
better.
Don't you know Allah has power over all
things.
And so the wisdom of naskh, and according
to Suyuti, 19, 20, 21 verses are abrogated
in the Quran by other verses in the
Quran.
And the abrogation is only in the outward
hukm of the ayah.
Right?
And verses in the Quran have different layers
of meaning.
But this is only in the exoteric sort
of dahiri meaning.
But the esoteric meanings are always valid.
So for example, the verse, don't come to
the prayer وَأَنْتُمْ سُكَارًا لَا تَقَرُّوا السَّلَاءُ وَأَنْتُمْ
سُكَارًا Don't approach the prayer while you're intoxicated.
So this verse is abrogated by the verse
in Al-Ma'idah فَجْتَنِبُوهَا Like, shun alcohol
completely.
Okay?
So the outward meaning of that has been
abrogated.
Why?
What's the wisdom of this?
Because the Quran is training an ummah.
There's a great wisdom in what's known as
gradualism or gradually implementing the sharia.
Okay?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is training
this ummah.
Our mother Aisha said that in Mecca, if
alcohol and fornication was immediately outlawed by the
Quran, very few would have become Muslim.
Because the spirit has to be willing.
And so she said to me, I can't
understand why God would change his mind.
I said, God's not changing his mind.
God is training an ummah.
Because the Quran is written for human beings.
The Quran is not...
God did not write the Quran for himself.
The Quran is not for animals, not for
angels.
The Quran is for jinn and ints.
Right?
And so the Quran speaks to our nature.
And that's why like in the Quran, Allah
even uses expressions that we understand.
Like, tulu or shams.
We know the sun doesn't actually rise.
Right?
It's the rotation of the earth.
From our perspective.
Yeah, exactly.
But he uses that expression because that's what
appears to us from our perspective.
Even the weatherman will say, sunrise tomorrow.
Right?
That's how people talk.
Right?
And so...
And she said, no, God is not changing
his mind.
And explained...
So I said to her, I said, so
you're a Christian now?
And she said, yes.
And I said to her, so you can
eat pork?
And she said, yeah.
And I said, but Leviticus chapter 3 says,
you shall not eat the flesh of swine.
And then she said, oh, but you don't
understand.
There's this New Testament.
And this New Testament, what it does is,
it replaces the old...
I said, what do you mean replace?
And she said, it replaces.
You mean it abrogates it?
And she just had a moment of clarity.
Like, oh my God.
You're right.
So in Christianity, abrogation is much more pronounced.
Most of the ahkam in the Torah are
mansukh.
Most of them.
Abrogated.
Yeah.
And so that's something that is very much
a basis of Christianity.
Right?
And I would say it's over-abrogated.
Right?
But the Quran has a bit of abrogation
because it's revealed piecemeal.
That's what a tenzil is.
Tenzil means something that comes down from time
to time.
Right?
So there's an inzal.
Inna anzalnahu.
Inzalnahu.
Inzal is the entire Quran coming down from
the lawh to the samau dunya and laylatul
qadr.
But then there's a tenzil.
So there's piecemeal.
Five verses.
Six verses.
Eight verses.
Over 23 years.
Inshallah.
We'll take questions from the audience now.
Yes, brother.
Yes, you can just...
Yeah.
We'll bring you the microphone.
Assalamu alaikum.
Wa alaikum salam.
So I apologize I was late to the
talk but I was listening to you guys
trying to listen on the live stream.
And I believe you began the talk with
how philosophy creeps into the religion or can
creep into the religion or how certain ideas
have consequences and how I think Nietzsche saw
things based on the philosophy of his day
and as a parent, I see my kids
sometimes they'll have a philosophical statement that they
make or they're following some idea and I'm
thinking, oh, I think that's bad aqidah but
I don't know.
But I think it's creeping into their lives
and it might blow up later or it
might be a problem later.
Do you have some guidance on how to
avoid those traps which seem to be just
popping up everywhere even amongst Muslims?
The thing is, these ideas come from their
friends, they come from Muslims.
Yeah.
This is a very interesting question that earlier
in the day we were actually discussing.
This idea that in economics they say that
trickle-down economics doesn't work but that trickle
-down philosophy works.
So that the elites that have a philosophy,
the academic institutions and then the schools and
media and so forth, these ideas trickle-down.
These philosophical ideas trickle-down into these short
puns and these short statements.
Like what goes around comes around.
And so now what's happened particularly now on
social media through TikTok and Instagram, you have
these nice slogans that come out which may
seem innocent but behind it is an entire
metaphysical, philosophical meaning in which the child now
embodies.
Sometimes it's comedy but the nature of these
ideas given that the society we're in, these
new slogans will continue to be created and
children will begin to embody these.
And I have a professor of mine who
just recently came to the US not too
long ago but having seen his children go
through the educational system and hearing these short
phrases that his daughter was uttering, he actually
decided that I'm actually going to move back
to where I came because I could see
where these ideas were going because at this
age they may sit for a little bit
but with time it turns into an entire
project.
So philosophy is something that our teachers say
is something that not everybody should study but
the ones who do study should recognize that
these things are all over society.
These are the poets, these are the people
controlling media and if you read this new
book by Jonathan Haidt called The Anxious Generation,
it's a bestseller right now in which the
sociologist looks at what are the issues facing
children today and the problem he identified is
that parents are putting a massive responsibility on
monitoring their children's physical interactions but a complete
neglect of their virtual interactions.
And he's saying the entire brainwashing and rewiring
is happening through the virtual world.
As we mentioned earlier, the TikTok, the 30
second rewiring that it's a shock that some
of these students can even read for more
than 10-15 minutes given the rewiring that's
going on.
And so as Muslims, for us, maybe some
of these ideas they may not appear to
be kufr inherently but if you push these
ideas to their logical end, that's essentially where
you'll arrive at because the religion of Islam
when pushed to its limit leads to shukr.
But all these ideologies, if you push them
to their limit, they usually arrive at pessimism,
hatred, and nihilism.
And this is clearly what we are seeing
today.
So how do we push back?
That's a question for Dr. Ali.
What's the solution?
You have the answer.
I think the nature of the nafs and
the nature of the soul is that no
matter how much corruption happens to it, no
matter how much indoctrination or schooling, whether it's
10 years, 12 years, 15 years, it can
always be rewired.
The brain can always be brought back because
that's how Allah SWT made the nafs and
the soul.
And so even if you have a child
who for 20 years went down a complete
rabbit hole of darkness, you can see that
if there's a jihad on nafs, a strong
inward battle, a focus on education, and a
focus on deen, you can see that they'll
escape it.
And the best modern example you'll see of
that is Malcolm X, rahimahullah, who had 20
years of just crime and was thrown in
jail.
But he really emphasized the importance of education,
the study of Islam, while he was in
prison.
So that by the time he got out,
he was able to rewire his brain to
what the Quranic worldview calls for.
So education is the key to getting out,
but also the bigger thing is that these
technologies are really a big obstacle and hurdle
right now in our children.
And if you speak to anybody right now
in Silicon Valley, anybody at Microsoft or Apple
who are building these technologies, even at OpenAI,
they'll be the first to tell you that
we would never let our children touch these
things.
Never.
And especially now with AI and ChatGPT, these
are models that if utilized correctly could bring
an immense amount of success even to the
youth.
But the problem is now that instead of
using it as a tool, they're using it
as the solution.
And so the decrease that we're seeing in
literacy amongst the new generation, all these problems
are together.
And the only way is through education, is
through tarbiyah, is through teaching proper aqidah, and
especially teaching the path of virtue that Islam
calls us towards, that the Qur'an calls
towards.
And with that, the brain could be rewired
and we can find success.
Allahu a'lam.
MashaAllah.
I would also just add to that.
Just, you know, as parents, you know, make
sure that our speech matches our actions.
Right?
This is very, very important.
This is what children remember.
Right?
And so the Prophet ﷺ, he said, Pray
as you saw me pray.
He could have explained everything.
You know, this is, you stand, then you
go to ruku, then you say this, and
then you come back.
He could have explained everything.
Just, as you've seen me pray, pray.
In other words, take me as an example.
Right?
And so this is very important.
This makes an indelible mark on children, is,
you know, the parents' attitude towards them.
Kids can spot hypocrisy very quickly.
And children also, they tend not to forget
things.
You might, you know, because, you know, they're
younger and they don't know really.
So you might do like a hundred great
things and that one time you lied or
something.
That's what they remember.
And you think, why?
I've done so many good things.
Well, that's a child.
That's what they're going to remember.
You know, and so, implementing the sunnah in
the household.
The Prophet ﷺ is a very transparent person.
He didn't have some shadow self.
We know everything about his life.
Everything's out in the open.
Right?
And so that's very important as well.
Is that, you know, Aristotle says that, that,
you know, his virtue theory is to find
the mean.
Right?
The golden mean between like foolhardiness and cowardice
is shaja'ah, is courage.
Right?
But he also said, you need some sort
of exemplar, some living moral exemplar who embodies
those virtues.
And that's the uswatun hasanah.
That's the Prophet ﷺ who has all of
these virtues.
And so, and so, we need to mirror
those virtues as parents for our children.
And that's the most powerful thing you can
do for your child.
You know, just be a good practicing Muslim.
That's it.
And I would just commend you, brother, that
you're able to make this observation.
Because just making that observation about these slogans
is step one.
And so arriving at step one, once we've
arrived at step one, it's a lot easier
to get to step two, which is the
treatment.
But if we haven't identified the problem, then
we couldn't even come up with a solution.
Do we have another question from the audience?
We'll take this one first and then the
one in the back.
Assalamu alaikum.
Walaikum assalam.
So you mentioned the crucifixion.
It seems like the, oh, I would like
to ask, what is the predominant opinion of
our ulama scholars about the crucifixion?
What happened to Isa alayhis salaam?
Because most Muslims, they say that Judas or
somebody looked like him and he died on
the cross.
But a few years ago, I heard the
opinion of Sheikh Ahmadinejad, rahmanallah, that he did
not die.
They thought he died, but they put him
in a tomb, which was a chamber, and
he woke up.
So what is your opinion?
Or what is the predominant opinion?
So, this is a good question.
There's no definitive response to your question.
There's nothing qata'i from the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam or the Qur'an.
So the ulama, the exegists, the mufassireen of
the Qur'an, they have their different sort
of opinions on this.
Nobody knows for certain.
Probably the most common opinion is called the
substitution theory.
So they're trying to analyze, walakin shubia lahum.
What does that mean?
walakin shubia lahum.
He was made to appear so crucified.
It was made to appear so.
Imam Az-Zamakhshari says that the conceptual object
here is the crucifixion event.
That some crucifixion event happened where people believed
that Isa alayhis salaam was crucified.
The whole event was made dubious to them.
Okay.
wa ma qataluhu yaqinan They did not kill
him for sure.
This is qata'i in the Qur'an.
So what actually happened?
Supernatural identity transference is probably the most prevalent
theory.
That one of his disciples maybe volunteered and
then Allah subhana wa ta'ala cast the
likeness of Isa alayhis salaam upon him.
Or Judas Iscariot who apparently was a disciple
who betrayed him.
He was cast into the likeness of Jesus.
Imam al-Razi does not like this opinion
because it downplays the importance of our hawass,
our senses.
He doesn't like that for that reason.
We have to trust our senses to a
certain degree.
So other opinions are that he might have
been put on a cross.
Right.
But he survived.
That's called the swoon theory.
This is the opinion of Ahmadida rahimahullah.
And then in the tomb they revived him.
This is also the opinion of the Ahmadiyya.
Right.
The Qadianis.
He survived the crucifixion and then he moved
to India apparently.
And that's where he died as an old
man.
Yeah.
So that's another opinion.
So we don't know what could have happened.
It could have been something as simple as
just a mistaken identity.
So the name Jesus or Yeshua is probably
the fifth most common name amongst Jewish males
in Galilee at the time.
And we're told in the Gospels that the
governor of Judea Pontius Pilate the Roman governor
he had Jewish prisoners that he planned to
crucify on the Passover.
And one of them was named Jesus Barabbas.
Yeshua Bar Abba which means Jesus son of
the father.
In other words this is a insurrectionist.
Right.
So the Romans would have called him a
terrorist an insurrectionist.
The Jews would have considered him a freedom
fighter who seems to have claimed to be
the Messiah.
Right.
And so his name is Jesus.
His title is Messiah.
He's probably from Galilee or Nazareth because that's
the Galileans were known for you know zealotry
and things like that.
And so he might have been crucified and
then people thought that was Isa Alayhis Salaam.
I mean it could be something that simple.
Allahu Alim.
We don't have a definitive answer on this.
The brother in the back.
Thank you.
So your research has unveiled a lot obviously
just in terms of like taking away grounds
for the Gospels validity and we know obviously
followers of Isa Alayhis Salaam did not consider
him son of God so on and so
forth.
But one thing that I've always I'm always
curious about is the idea or not idea
it's fact from the Quran that the Jews
and the Christians should have recognized the Prophet
Isa Alayhis Salaam as their own son.
And we know from the stories of Sunayman
and Farsi that alludes to the fact that
they knew the time and place that the
Prophet Isa Alayhis Salaam was coming.
We don't necessarily see that in like the
archaeological evidence or I don't know if we
see that.
And so I'm curious as to what you've
uncovered in your research in terms of how
would the Jews and the Christians the real
Jews and Christians would have known the time
and place of the Prophet Isa Alayhis Salaam's
arrival.
Yeah, so there are indications in the books
of Ahlul Kitab.
And certainly from the Quran in Meccan Surah
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala He says in
Surah Shu'ara which is revealed in Mecca
وَلَمْ يَكُن لَهُمْ آيَةً أَن يَعْلَمَهُ أُولُمَٓاءُ بَنِ
إِسْرَائِيلٍ Is it not a sign for these
Mushrikeen in Mecca that Ulama, that scholars Jewish
scholars are believing in the Prophet Isa Alayhis
Salaam.
So the Quran here is just it's stating
a fact that was known at the time.
Right?
In other words, you know that there are
Jewish scholars probably in the north in Medina
which was called Yathrib but we call it
Medinatul Manawrah and in Khaybar in the north
and in Syria, the Levant, the Sham who
are hearing of a Prophet in Mecca and
the Meccans are hearing news of Jews, Jewish
Ulama, Rabbis converting to Islam.
So the Quran says and in Meccan Surah,
is it not a sign that Ulama, Rabbis
are converting, are believing in the Prophet Isa
Alayhis Salaam.
Is it not a sign for you, right?
So this is interesting, the Quran gives us
a little historical tidbit as to what's happening
during the Meccan period.
We're also told in Medina, a lot of
Jews did believe in him when he entered
Medina.
There are many conversions, in fact in Bukhari
we're told that Jews would come and sneeze
on purpose in his Majlis because they wanted
the Prophet to say, This is mentioned in
Sahih Bukhari because they believed him to be
a Prophet.
Now what does that mean, they believed him
to be a Prophet?
So some of them thought he was a
Prophet but he's not for the Bani Israel.
A true Prophet but not for Bani Israel.
So that's not a correct interpretation of his
message to the Prophet Alayhis Salaam.
When they would sneeze on purpose he would
say, May Allah guide you and correct your
understandings.
And so I think the quintessential passage in
the Hebrew Bible describing the Prophet is Isaiah
42.
Isaiah chapter 42, the entire chapter is a
perfect description of him and this is supported
by a Hadith in Bukhari's Adabul Mufrad, not
Sahih Bukhari it's his other book called Adabul
Mufrad.
He relates a Hadith, it's also mentioned in
Kitab al-Shifa of Qadi Iyad, I think
it's one of the first traditions he mentions
that a Tabi'i came to Abdullah ibn
Amr ibn al-As and asked him, where
is the description of the Prophet in the
Torah?
Or can you describe some of the Sifat
of the Prophet Alayhis Salaam in the Torah?
And clearly if you read that Hadith, he
is paraphrasing Isaiah 42.
It's very, very clear.
وَلَا سَخَابًا فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ He won't raise his
voice in the marketplace.
He's my Abd, he's my Rasul.
He's a Siraj, Munira, these types of things.
So clearly a paraphrase of Isaiah 42.
And so we do have records.
I mean, Jews and Christians have been converting
to Islam ever since the beginning of Islam.
You know, this is just a fact.
You have Rabbis like Nathaniel al-Fayoumi whose
family was from Egypt but he lived in
Yemen.
He wrote this book where he said, the
Prophet is a Nabi Amit.
That means a Nabi Sadiq.
A true Prophet.
But he's only for the Gentiles.
He's not for Bani Israel.
So they have this opinion.
And the reason he said that is because
they recognize the Prophet ﷺ was the greatest
monotheist who ever lived.
And for the Jews, monotheism is their claim
to fame.
And so it's kind of a conundrum for
them.
How is this man, who's not Jewish, how
did God give him such Tawfiq that he
did more for monotheism than all of our
Prophets put together?
Ajeeb.
So we can't just call him a liar.
Right?
Because he's a champion of Tawheed.
So okay, he is a true Prophet but
he made a mistake by saying that he
came for all of humanity.
So he made an error in judgment.
But they don't ascribe takdheeb or like intentional
fabrication.
Some of them do.
But that's if they do that, then the
question is why did Allah ﷻ allow him
to be this bulwark against idolatry?
It's ajeeb.
There's a kind of stuck in a conundrum.
I think we have a question here.
As-salamu alaykum.
I just had a, it's like stepping away
from Sayyidina Isa a.s. the chronology of
that.
I had a question about the story of
Iblis and Adam a.s. and how that
works.
So from my understanding the chronology is that
Allah created Adam a.s. and then all
of the like angels at that time were
told to bow down to him and Iblis
said no, I won't do that.
So and then Allah put Adam a.s.
in Jannah and then Iblis he told Adam
a lie while he was in Jannah causing
them both to go down to earth.
So I had a question about that part.
So how could Iblis who was a jinn
at that time, and we know jinn can't
go to heaven tell Adam a lie?
Jinn can go to heaven.
There's a believing jinn.
Disbelieving jinn.
Well, wasn't Iblis...
Disbelieving, yeah.
But just to clarify your statement.
Jinn in general is possible.
Yeah, so that's a good question.
So here, this question is actually raised by
the Mufassereen of the Qur'an.
And Imam al-Razi says in his tafsir
that there's an ikhtilaf about this Jannah.
Is it on earth or is it in
the samah?
So there's some ulama who say this Jannah
where Adam and Eve lived was actually on
earth.
This is not the jannat that the believers
will go to in the afterlife.
For this reason.
It's because...
...
...
...
Don't approach this tree.
That's a prohibition.
But in Jannah, in the afterlife there are
no prohibitions.
So the ulama who take this position they
say look, it's on earth somewhere.
Maybe between the tigers and Euphrates.
Because that's where it's in Genesis.
This is where...
It's called Gan Adn.
The garden of Eden.
In Iraq.
Between the tigers in Euphrates, right?
And then also, yeah, فَأَزَلَهُمَ الشَّيْطَانُ
عَنْهَا مِمَا كَانَ فِيهِ Right, that Shaytan caused
them to slip.
So this is another piece of evidence they
use, right?
What's Shaytan doing in Jannah?
Well, this is a Jannah that's on the
earth.
So at the end of the argument, Imam
Al-Razi says, both opinions are valid, we
shouldn't be categorical.
But it's an interesting point you're making.
Your brain is along the same lines as
the Mufassireen of the Quran who also had
those questions, right?
But then the next part of the ayah,
it says, إِهْبِتُوا مِنْهَا Right?
إِهْبِتُوا بَعْدَكُمْ لِبَعْدٍ الْعَدُودِ Like Hubut means to
come down, Hubut means to descend.
So they say, okay now, no, it's talking
about a celestial garden because it says descend.
However, in other ayat in the Quran, right?
إِهْبِتُوا مِنْهَا What is it?
Misran, go down to Misr, go to Egypt,
you know, to the Bani Israel, or go
to any city because the Jews, the Israelites
were complaining in the Sinai about not having
a diversity of food.
So Allah says, إِهْبِتْ He uses that verb.
So this does not mean to descend from
the heavens.
It means to go from a high land
to a low land.
Or إِهْبِتْ to Nuha alayhi salam, مِنْ سَلَامٍ
From the Ark, the Safina.
Disembark from the Ark.
That's all on earth.
So there's an Ikhtilaf about the location of
this Jannah.
So inshallah, we'll take one last question online.
So somebody said, Would it be a correct
argument against their claim by saying that neither
the Christians nor the Muslims believe that the
Injil is the Christian Bible as the Bible
is three things.
Two things which necessarily can't be revelation as
they are letters and things related to the
companions in Paul.
The third part of the Bible, the Gospels,
also does not fulfill the definition of revelation
as it is the recollection of so-called
eyewitnesses and not the words of God Himself.
So would it be a correct argument to
claim that neither the Christians nor the Muslims
believe that the Injil is the Christian Bible?
No, I mean the question is a little
bit incoherent.
It is the Christian, the New Testament is
the Christian.
In other words, I think what he's saying
is even according to the Christian's own standards,
what they called the New Testament cannot have
come from Jesus directly because it's comprised of
things related to Paul and so forth.
Yeah, so I would say that's...
Yeah, I mean if you look at a
red letter Bible, some Bibles have, they're called
red letter Bibles, which basically means all the
words of Jesus are in red.
And you just forget about the Old Testament.
Look at the 27 books of the New
Testament.
What percentage of those words are in red?
I don't know, 1%?
Less than that maybe?
So the vast majority of what's written in
the New Testament are not the words of
Isa, right?
Yeah, the principal author of the New Testament
is Paul of Tarsus.
13 of the 27 books, more than half
are attributed to him.
And Paul is a self-proclaimed disciple or
apostle of Jesus.
He's not an eyewitness to Jesus.
He claims I've had a revelation of Jesus,
but this revelation puts him in the conflict
with actual disciples.
So we have to question that revelation.
It comes down to whose revelation are you
going to believe?
Paul or the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam?
And the revelation of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, according to most historians, is in
line with the original preachings of James, who
is a successor of Jesus, peace be upon
him.
Jazakallah khair.
We will end with that.
We thank Dr. Ali for his time and
for his khidmah.
And so, inshallah, we will have more talks
like this in the future.
And inshallah, more discussions with Dr. Ali.
So with that, we will conclude.