Ali Ataie – Comparative Theology Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism & Buddhism
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AI: Transcript ©
So before we continue, I want to explain very quickly about a
hadith what is the Hadith? Basically, there's two types of
Hadith or Hadith that are acceptable. Maqbool and then
Hadith are not a dude that are rejected. Basically a hadith
describes the, the actions of the, or gives the speech or the tacit
approvals of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ali was
selling them the alcohol the while and the takari or
so. So there's a difference now between Hadith and Sunnah, right?
Obviously, there's overlap we, we, we draw or extract the Sunnah from
the Hadith,
but they're not necessarily the same thing. There's a lot of
Hadith there's 1000s upon 1000s of Hadith, at different grades, and
we'll talk briefly about that anything that is attributed to the
Prophet Mohammed Salah body southern peace and blessings of
God be upon him is considered to be a hadith, but the Sunnah of the
Prophet, right? This is what has the sort of Prophet providential
protection, the protection of Allah subhana wa Tada.
This is the, the authoritative
or normative ethos.
The authenticated practice of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa Salatu was setting them in the function of the Sunnah as the
scholars of Islam say Allah ma, as sunnah to to first Cyril Quran
that the Sunnah, really what it does is that it exegesis if you
will, or it explains the Quran, right? So the Quran itself says in
Surah, two Nahal surah number 16 Verse 44,
Allah Subhana Allah says that indeed, we sent down this vicar
upon you, this reminder upon you, speaking directly to the Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him, need to be gentle in nasty man Mozilla
delay him, in order for you to make by yawn in order for you to
make clear, right to explicate to elucidate to commentate upon what
was revealed to them to, to to interpret the Quran, the
revelation of God, this is one of the
one of the functions of prophecy.
So just because you read something in a hadith doesn't necessarily
mean it's true, even if it's considered to be in a sound book
of Hadith. There are a lot of problems with with Hadith that are
graded as sound, there's difference of opinion about them.
You might read something that is sound, and tried to implement it
but implemented incorrectly. For example, one of my teachers years
ago, he quoted a Hadith of the Prophet used to eat dates. But
what's the proper way of eating a date? What's the proper etiquette?
You pop it in your mouth and you spit out the seed? How did the
Prophet Muhammad salallahu Salam, how did he eat a date? Right, he
would put it into his mouth with his right hand. And then he would
extract the seed by turning his left hand over with these two
fingers and push the seed out with his tongue but no one actually saw
his tongue and then he discard or he would get rid of the seed. So
he did it in a way where there's there's a lot of honor. And there
wasn't there was no question about
having you know, bad a dub or having bad comportment while while
while eating.
How does a Muslim pray? I mean, the Quran tells us to pray, but
how do we pray? Can you pray any way you want to? Can you just kind
of follow what your neighbor is doing? Or what Christians and Jews
are doing? Is that how we pray?
So the sadhana becomes absolutely indispensable
in understanding the Quran, how do we send benedictions upon the
Prophet the Quran says, Yeah, you Allah Dina Armando sodwana, he was
sending moto Selena, Oh, you who believe right? Send benedictions
of peace upon the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. But how do we
do that? We have to look at the Sunnah. Or the authenticated
Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
salam.
And it's a meticulous science. We don't have to go into it. Now.
It's a separate class. But basically for a hadith to be
sound. Right. There's a sunnah which is the chain of
transmission, it has to be more tussle, it has to be linked, there
has to be a link no missing, no gaps in the link of transmission.
The famous hadith of Mercy has 23 or 24
Links in its chain of transmission. This is the Hadith
of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is reported to
have said and you'll find it in Mr. Ashman Rafi Mooney or hammer
hammer rough man era hammelmann Fill out your Henkelman this
summer or your your hammer command for summer? Oh, come on Carla, it
is Salatu was Salam that the most compassionate shows compassion to
those who show compassion show compassion to those on earth and
the one and heaven in no anthropomorphic sense, will show
you compassion this hadith is called how do you vote Rama?
There's like I said about two dozen or so links and his chain of
transmission.
In it is indisputable. The words of the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him and this is actually the first Hadith that Muslim children
in the traditional Muslim world are taught. This would sort of set
the foundation for their education about the prophet Mohamed Salah
Lottie said them
stressing the importance of compassion, the importance of of
mercy.
So the chain of transit transmission is tussle. There's no
gaps everyone in the chain has I doubt that there's there's they
have probity. They're known as being righteous people, they have
come up to that they have intelligence, they have good
memories, there's no hidden problems, no hidden Allah. Right.
Which could be anything from like bad grammar, because the Prophet
peace be upon him, did not use bad or incorrect grammar, he was the
most eloquent of speakers.
So so this is a very meticulous science that the science of Hadith
authentication, and this is different than Syrah, right, with
Syrah, you have to be careful. A lot of things get into Syrah that
have no chain of transmission. So it's up to the aroma to go through
and sort of sift through the Syrah and extract what is authentic to
what is not. Writers of Syrah tend to exaggerate certain things. And
it's interesting because the Syrah is something that is constantly
under attack. By, for example, Christian apologists, Christian
missionaries, they tend to attack stories and Syrah. And many of
these stories are exaggerations. Even according to Muslim scholars,
some of these stories have like I said, no chain of transmission,
and no Muslim really takes them seriously. But these are the
things that are brought up by missionaries, for example. So
basically tearing down a straw man. The example that I give, the
equivalent of that is, for example, if I said something like,
if I went to a Christian, and I said, you know, why did Jesus
murder one of his teachers? Now, of course, I don't believe this at
all. Jesus peace be upon him, is a great prophet of God in the
Islamic tradition, but just to make a point here,
and he says, What What are you talking about? So no, oh, it's,
it's what it says and, and in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas? Well, he
would say, well, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is, is an
apocryphal gospel. We don't believe in that. That's what you
would say. Right? We believe in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Right. So exactly. We don't believe in that. So many of these
stories and Syrah
are just there, they're falsified stories. No Muslim takes them
seriously. There's no chain of transmission and they have nothing
to do with our faith.
But this hadith, Hadith, Gabriel Alright, this is considered to be
a sound Hadith, recorded by Imam Muslim.
It is a very famous Hadith as I said, so the Hadith begins and
armato radi Allah Tala angle, that the hadith is on the authority of
one of the greatest companions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him, whose name was our model. And our model was the second Caleb F.
In Islam, following the first Caleb Abu Bakar, one of the most
beloved human beings, to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him
in generally, well, the the, the Sunni tradition of Islam,
praise and love.
All of the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him. They
weren't all perfect, but there's, there's a there's a there's a
respect there. And that's in contrast to the sheep
that don't respect a great number or a majority of the companions of
the Prophet. So these are the two sort of major divisions in our
tradition, Sunni Islam and Shiite Islam and the really the, I would
say the differences as far as theology goes are minor, they're
neg negligible. Some would disagree with that. But the vast
majority of scholars on both sides do not anathematize either side,
they don't make tuck for you. Right.
But the major difference is really in probably, political theory,
Political Theology.
But nonetheless, you
The hadith begins by saying
b&m, a national Jurusan and the Rasulullah sallallahu sallam said
Omar is saying that one day we were sitting with the messenger of
allah sallallahu alayhi Salatu was Salam, and the title of the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam here in Arabic or Rasul Allah construct
phrase The Messenger of God. Rasul is equivalent probably to the
Greek apostle, which literally means one who has sent forth. And
of course, the word for God and Arabic is Allah. And this is
the name of God in Arabic, but there but in all Semitic
languages, the word for God begins with the Alif in the lamb or olive
and Muhammad.
So in, in Hebrew, you have ello
as the singular and Elohim, which is the plural of majesty, which we
find many, many times in the Hebrew Bible, in Aramaic or Syriac
e of Allah. Right. So Jesus peace be upon him or ISA, at least, he
would have used Allah because he spoke Aramaic or Syriac. So for
example, in Mark 115,
behold, the kingdom of God, the Mallacoota, Allah is at hand. So
Jesus would have used this name for God, Allah.
So the Quran, Arabic uses that name as well. So he's saying we
were sitting with the messenger of God, peace be upon him that to
Yeoman one day, Eva Tala, Elena Raju, lo.
And behold, a man arose among us. Right, so the Arabic here suggests
that he sort of just
seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Shadi Dubai Yaga, Thiago, he was
wearing seemingly white clothes shudder you do so on the shower.
He had exceedingly black hair, law Euro Allah He has to suffer.
The traces of travel was not seeing on him. So you know, he
didn't have he wasn't dusty. He wasn't disheveled, anything like
that. He didn't look like a traveler didn't have, you know, a
bag or something with him? Well, that yeah, it for him in that I
had one. And none of us knew who he was, but none of us recognized
him. Right.
So this is obviously the Archangel Gabriel. Right Gibreel Alayhis
Salam Jibreel in Arabic, Godfrey al in Hebrew, which means the
power of God.
And Gabriel, what often incarnate that is to say, assume human flesh
in order to teach human beings right.
So this is one of the ways in which the prophets would would
interact with angels that the angels would take human form. It's
called incarnation. Muslims do not believe that God incarnates right.
So this is a major difference of opinion, between a major
difference in theology, let's say between Hinduism and Islam, or
Christianity, and Islam and Christianity and Hinduism, there
are countless incarnations of God
is, is Hinduism, essentially a monotheistic religion? That's an
interesting question that we can talk about later. In Christianity,
God did not incarnate except for once, and that was in the person
of Christ,
according to Christians, and we'll talk about that as well. So
oftentimes, Gabriel would incarnate and he would teach the
Prophet he's the teacher of the Prophet, although Muslims believe
that the Prophet Muhammad's rank is higher than Gabriel, his rank
is actually higher than his teacher, because the Prophet is
the best of creation, he's the beloved of God. Right? So it's not
it's not all about knowledge. Right?
You can have teachers that are, that are arrogant, you have
students that surpass their teachers over time, in piety and
even in knowledge. It's very, very common.
So, so Gabriel, would come to the Prophet he would teach him
the religion, or he would bring the prophet or on to bring the
Prophet revelation. Oftentimes, Gabriel in human form, would
simply tell the prophet to repeat after him, and the Prophet would
repeat, and that's called an exterior location. Other times the
angel would come to the prophet, but was not seen by him. And the
angel would dictate to the Prophet internally, the prophet would,
would perceive words, internally, sounds forming words or
vibrations, forming words. And he would perceive that and then he
would just repeat that and
It's called an interior location. So the Quran would come to the
Prophet in both ways. And on rare occasion the Quran would come to
the Prophet without any angelic mediation, right so interior
location without angelic mediation and our scholars like Mr. Masucci
and others,
scholars of aroma the Quran or the sciences, or using the word
science and sort of the pre 1800 Like disciplines of the Quran,
they would say that, for example, the last two is an Bacara were
revealed to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, by Allah
Subhana Allah to Allah by God Glorified and Exalted is He
through interior location without angelic mediation?
And they mentioned others to well do how a Laylee either such sort
of 93 and the Sunnah that follows it. Alumna Shakalaka Sadat. Hola
Hola, Adam.
So here we have Gabrielle peace be upon him, the great Archangel.
He's taken on human form. He's wearing white clothes, very white
clothes, he has exceedingly black hair, and no one recognizes him.
So he comes and say the Armada continues. He says hi to jealous
Ilan nubby, so that he sits right in front of the Prophet peace be
upon him.
For us, nada rock parte de la Rocha T, to the point where he
sort of touches or links his knees against his, so he's sitting right
in front of the Prophet peace be upon him. Well, well, what the Art
Cafe, Allah fuckery they, and then Gabriel puts his hands on his
thighs, on his own thighs. And he's listening intently
to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. So here Gabriel appears
to be teaching us proper, sort of proper etiquette or comportment
with the Prophet. And this is very important
for Muslims, that we Show proper respect towards all the prophets
of God, right. And of course, the Quran mentions about 25 of them.
But the Hadith indicates that there are 1000s of prophets 25
mentioned in the Quran, and all of them are respected and loved by
Muslims. Right. So these include, even Adam, Adam, his son, Adam is
considered a prophet in Islam.
Noah is considered a prophet in Islam.
Moses, peace be upon him.
And
before that, Ibrahim Ali Salam, and or Abraham and Ishmael and
Isaac, both of them considered prophets, in the Islamic
tradition, both of them beloved, by Muslims, both of them
respected, both of them considered a legitimate prophets, and
righteous, even Jacob is considered a prophet in Islam. So
the stories that are mentioned about, for example, Jacob in the
book of Genesis, where he's really depicted
in a very negative way, right, basically as this kind of
trickster.
And that's a kind of common sort of
literary device or
literary character in ancient literature that there's this
trickster trickster figure, who is considered to be very clever and
gets his way by obviously,
tricking people and this is sort of traced in the book of Genesis
that God has this type of unconditional love for Jacob,
despite all of his faults, so things like that Muslims will not
confirm. So the dominant opinion and we'll talk more about this as
well, is that when the Quran speaks of the Torah that was
revealed to Moses peace be upon him, it's not talking about what
is today considered the Torah. Right, because clearly, there's
stories in the so called torah of today that are unacceptable from a
theological standpoint, from an Islamic theological standpoint.
There are many things in the Torah that we consider to be accurate
and even true.
But at the end of the day, Muslims don't rely on any other
scriptures. All of the scriptures from the perspective of the Quran
and Islam have been abrogated. Islam has its own scripture, it is
the Quran. Islam has its own sacred law, which is derived from
the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him.
So anyway,
we were talking about proper comportment with the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him
The Imam of Medina in the second century, second half of the second
century,
or right in the middle of the second century after Hijra was
Imam Malik even uns
who died I believe 179 Hijiri. Students would come to him, and
they would study ship, they would study jurisprudence, and they
would study Hadith. And when they would study FIP, he would
immediately begin teaching that. But if they wanted to study
Hadith, he would prepare himself. Oftentimes he would go and he
would take a shower, he would wear white clothes, you tie his turban,
he would burn some incense. Right put on some musk, why would he do
that is because he's going to teach the words of the Master
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So out of respect for the
words of the Prophet Muhammad salallahu Salam
Ibnu. Mubarak mentioned something interesting. He mentions that one
time, Imam Malik of new Anna's, as we said, the Imam of Madina,
Munawwara he was teaching his famous Hadith book, and mulata.
And, as he was, as he was relating a hadith of the Messenger of God,
peace be upon him, they noticed that he would, he would cringe in
his Facebook turn pale. And this would happen over and over again
when he wouldn't stop the Hadith of the Prophet. So
after he was done with the Hadith, he told his students look between
my shirt and my back, and they saw that a scorpion had lashed him
something like 1415 or 16 times, but he didn't want to cut off the
speech of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. So he continued
with the Hadith.
So Gabriel, he sits in front of the Prophet peace be upon him sort
of locking his knees and listening intently. And then he says,
however, ya Mohammed, so he calls to the Prophet peace be upon him
by using his his first name, right? And this was something that
is prohibited to do that companions did not do that. Right,
they use the title of the Prophet even God in the Quran, does not
address the Prophet salallahu Salam directly, by using his first
name, he speaks about the profit by using his name
in the third person, right, how muddled also the law for example,
why man will have my daughter in law Rasool for example. But when
Allah Subhan Allah to Allah is speaking directly to the prophets
of Allah. He said, Allah, Allah subhana wa to either use as a
title. Yeah, you have Rasul? Yeah, you have never you Why does Allah
subhanaw taala do that? Is because Allah subhanho wa Taala is
teaching the ummah of the Prophet salallahu Salam, how to address
the Prophet. So here, however, Gabriel is saying, Yeah, Mohammad,
so the MSA here that Gabriel is posing as a better way to conceal
his identity. Because the better when we're a bit gruff, they were
a bit rough around the edges or the aroma say that this
prohibition is not for the angels, but only for the human believers
in the Prophet peace be upon him. So in that sense, then Gabrielle
is actually sort of suddenly revealing his identity.
Nonetheless, he says, Yeah, Mohammed, Bernie and Islam tell me
about Al Islam. Of course, this is the name of the religion, but in
this hadith, according to the scholars of Hadith, this seems to
be
a reference to the sort of exoteric or exterior aspects of
the religion, what sometimes philosophers of religion call the
sort of lateral or horizontal aspect of the religion.
Of course, it means submission submission unto God for color
Salahi salatu salam, and then the Prophet responded to Gabriel by
saying Al Islam mu, and TASH hada at La ilaha illAllah. Right. So
Islam is to witness or to testify that there is no ILA there is no
deity. There is no God. Except Allah.
Except Allah subhanahu wa taala.
So there's no ILA nothing deserves worship, other than Allah.
Nothing deserves worship. Nothing other than God has divine
attributes.
Nothing other than God has the intrinsic ability to help and or
harm you. So this is what is testified on the tongue. Right. So
this is the first pillar of Islam, Islam, and TASH had shahada to
testify in his done upon the tongue. La ilaha illAllah Muhammad
rasool Allah, this is when this is this is.
When a convert wants to become Muslim, a proselyte becomes
Muslim, they will utter that she had the shahada will say ash, how
do I witness I testify, and La ilaha illAllah. There's no ILA
there's no deity, there is no divinity. There is no other person
that has divine attributes that deserves or merits worship other
than Allah Subhana Allah, wa shadow under Muhammad Rasul Allah.
And I bear witness that there's another witness that the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him is the messenger of God. So the Prophet
himself, this is what he says here at Islam, number one and touch
adda at La ilaha illAllah. Wa and Muhammad Rasool Allah, is to
testify that there is no deity other than Allah subhanho wa
taala.
And that Muhammad salallahu Salam is the messenger of God. It's one
of my teachers, he said, here this is, this isn't something
interesting. Let you law ha. Right. That's atheism. There is no
god in law Allah except Allah Subhana wa.or accept God, capital
G. So we're moving from atheism into deism now that there is a God
and that this God is the sort of great architect of the universe,
the Creator of all things.
Why now Muhammad Rasul Allah, and now we move into theism. So for
atheism, to deism to theism, so deism, God is just impersonal,
right? That when we say Muhammad Rasul Allah, and Mohammed is a
messenger of God, this reveals the personal aspect of God. How does
it do that?
Well, it's, it shows or it is, it is evidence of God's loving
nature, that he sends human messengers for the guidance of
humanity. Right. So, through His prophets, Divine Eminence, is is
revealed this kind of closeness that God has to his creation. It
is through the prophets.
This is how God reveals His loving nature. So the Quran says, well,
not out of Sun NACA Illa. Rahmatullah Alameen. Right. I
always refer to this as sort of the equivalent of John 316. In the
Quran, this is 21 107 of the Quran, which the Prophet in which
Allah kind of what's added, speaking directly to the Prophet,
Muhammad, peace be upon him. And he says, we did not send you
except as a mercy to all the worlds, right? That the Prophet
peace be upon him, is the greatest manifestation of God's mercy
because the Prophet is the greatest messenger of God. He
brings us total guidance, guidance for all the world until the end of
time. And of course, all the prophets are, are manifestations
of God's mercy, want to use that term incarnations of God's mercy?
Right, not incarnations of God's person, that's a Christian belief.
Right.
That is intimated at least in the New Testament Gospels, especially
the Gospel of John, but that's a Christian belief. So the prophets
are are examples of God's mercy in the Islamic tradition, even Jesus
peace be upon him in the Quran is also called a mercy. Well, he
Nigella who I attend Warahmatullah Mina that we will make Jesus and a
sign of God a great sign and a mercy from Us.
Right, so we're moving from atheism. And of course, atheism.
Isn't is a position of belief. So there's a difference between a
position of knowledge and a position of belief. Right? There
are two positions of knowledge. There's Gnosticism, and
agnosticism. All right.
So most atheists, for example, the late Christopher Hitchens, famous
atheist, author of this book, God is not great.
Which has been definitively refuted, by the way by Berlinski,
his book, David Berlinski, which you should get. And John Lennox
also has an extraordinary book as well. Nonetheless, Hitchens always
used to refer to himself as an agnostic atheist, meaning that
that he is going to live his life under the assumption that there is
no god but He doesn't know for sure, cannot prove that there is
no God. So he's an agnostic, atheist, right. It's very rare to
get a gnostic atheist. In other words, an atheist who, who knows
with certitude that there is no God. And then of course, you
out agnostic believers and agnostic believers as well.
So then, that's the first pillar that right there is no God but
Allah, and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is a messenger
of God. What took him was salah, he says and to end to establish
the prayer. So this is the second pillar, right and the prayer a
Salah comes from a root word which means to connect. So, the prayer
is our connection to God with to Zika, and to give zakat to give
charity. And the word Zeca comes from a word meaning purification.
So this is a type of a spiritual purification. Let's assume out
Ramadan and to fast the month of Ramadan.
Right 123 This is the fourth pillar, Muslims that are able to
fast the month of Ramadan, the nine month of the Muslim calendar
as really a commemoration of the Quran which was which, whose
revelation commenced during the month of Ramadan.
What the Hogen bait and to make a pilgrimage in is the Tata isa
Villa if you're able to do so, and that's the final pillar of Islam
to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.
So this is the prophets answer for what is Islam. Right. And again,
in this context, seems to be referring to sort of the exterior
aspect of the religion it is to say upon the tongue, there is no
God but Allah, the prophets of Allah, they send a messenger of
God to establish the prayer to give the charity, faster Ramadan
and to make Hajj, if one is able to do so. And then Allah saw Dr.
Gabriel said you've answered correctly, or it confirms his
answer, and say, No, I'm not he said for IG Bundala. Who Yes, I
know who you said people who that was surprising to us that this
person is asking the Prophet a question. And then he confirms his
answer. Right. And this was, you know, you can call this sort of
the Socratic method, right? Where the, the teacher already knows the
answer. But the teacher wants to honor the student and have the
student
give the correct answer
on a building on an E mat.
Now the second question tell me about Allah Eman and which is
oftentimes translated as faith. Right? The man literally means to
cause safety
right safeguard your soul it's it's related to the Hebrew mo na.
Right so for example, the famous treatise of my Montes is called
the shadow shot, I shot it got a mo na, by the 13 principles of
Jewish faith. Right. And of course, the word I mean is related
to this as well, so to safeguard your soul, right, so this isn't,
you know, blind Eman doesn't mean that you just believe in something
blindly believe without evidence, you know, belief without evidence.
That's not what it is. It means to accept something
because the evidence points in that direction and by doing so,
you safeguard your soul in the afterlife.
So here in this context, so we have Islam it's being contrasted
with Islam, it seems to be referring to sort of the inward
aspect or vertical aspect of the religion. Right So the Prophet
peace be upon him.
He said in Hadith which is sound, Hadith, Muslim Ummah and Selim and
Muslim Munna melissani, he had to come up that the quintessential
Muslim, right submitter is the one that is Is he from whose hands and
feet sorry hands and tongue and hands and tongue, other Muslims
remain safe? In other words, the true Muslim is not harming he's
not violent, with other Muslims, and he's not slandering and
backbiting and being callous towards other Muslims. That's the
quintessential Muslim. And then the Prophet also said, I mean,
right, the quintessential believer, right? The
quintessential believer, man, Amina, who Natsu Isla de deny him
or unworthy him. Oh Kumbhakarna that the quintessential movement,
the lever, right, the one who internalizes
the faith is the one that humanity humanity trusts, with their
literally blood and possessions, lives and property lives and
possessions. Right? So the sort of field of compassion
Passion.
And love is expanded, begins with oneself. That's what it means to
be selfish. That's what the word idiot means. idios means self.
Right? The idiot only cares about himself and then it expands
obviously to the family and the community and, and then to the
Muslims and then to whole, the whole of humanity. Right, the
whole of humanity. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him.
He said in a famous Hadith, which is in Bukhari and Muslim
rigorously authenticated law, you know, had to come Hatta you hit
valley as he might, you're able enough, see, oh, come up on it,
that that
none of you truly believe until he loves for his brother, what he
loves for himself.
Right? So he loves his brother, but he loves for himself. And
this, that hadith I just mentioned, is the source of the
Hadith, as I said, is Bukhari and Muslim imam. And now we also
included it as Hadith number 13. I believe in his autobiography, and
his famous collection of 40. Hadith. And in his commentaries,
he defines what does it mean? Who is your brother? Right? None of
you truly believe until you love until he loves where his brother
had to use the key? What does that mean? He goes on to say in his
commentary, that means your brother, Muslim, or Jew or
Christian, really your brother and Benny Adam, right in humanity.
Right? But he makes that point. And one of my teachers said that
there are some manuscripts of Imam not always
a commentary, where that sentence where where the Imam says Jews and
Christians is taken out
of, of his, of his, out of his commentary. He's apparently
there are some Muslims who don't want other Muslims to think of
Jews and Christians as being their brothers, which is unfortunate. So
you have this, this tampering with these with these commentaries. But
that's an authentic saying from the Imam.
And that sort of sound Hadith from the Prophet. So you continue. So
what is Al Imam? What is faith? Right? What does it mean to
safeguard your soul?
Allah The Prophet said, and took me a Billahi while Mala Ekati he
will go to be heroes, Li while your mill after.
It is to believe in God, right? Literally to safeguard yourself by
means of God.
Right? We can just say to believe in God, and it's not simply to
accept the rational proposition that there is a God.
Right? That's what that's what Satan did. Satan accepts
that there is a God. Right? You accept that full hearted
wholeheartedly. But what what is missing from Satan? Why does the
Quran call him a catheter, which means infidel, if you want as a
Catholic word, unbeliever, I reject her of faith is because
Satan does not have a Kaboul and Yvonne, right? He doesn't have
acceptance. He doesn't accept the guidance that comes from the
Prophets. He doesn't have submissiveness or humility towards
God. Right.
One of the books in the New Testament, which is very close to
Islamic teaching, is the Epistle of James. James, obviously, the
successor of Jesus, according to Christian history.
You probably didn't write this epistle, but it certainly sounds
like something that he would have written.
Seems like someone in his sort of school of thought, wrote this
epistle. But he says in there that, that even demons believe in
God. Right? Right. So it's not just about what one accepts
rationally, or just sort of, accepts in oneself but has no has
no
motivation to manifest that faith in action.
Right. So faith and action, very, very important. So to believe in
God that means not simply to accept things on reason, but to
but to show one's faith as it were, right, to perform righteous
actions,
believe in God and in his angels and in His books, His scriptures,
and in His messengers, and in the last day of the Day of Judgment,
yeomen after
this Day of Judgment, as it has different names in the pot on
Yama, the piano like the day of standing your Medina, the Day of
Judgment
And then after the final day, the last day,
etc.
So, the profit here then gives us the sort of six articles of faith.
Right? Believe in God believe in angels. And there are four major
Archangels Gabriel and Michael Jabri, Gibreel. And then Mikael or
mica yield, is Rafi which I believe is Sarah feel, and the
Bible or in Israelite tradition, and then is raw eel, is raw eel is
not Israel, that Israel, Israel is also the angel of death. And there
are other angels mentioned in the tradition as well. As far as the
scriptures go, Muslims believe
in four major scriptures, and many minor scriptures that are sort of
indicated as well. The four major scriptures are the Torah of Moses,
and the Psalms of David the suborder, the Injeel, the Gospel
given to Jesus peace be upon him. Is that the same as the Christian
gospel? Is it the same as the New Testament, the four Gospels? It's
not an easy question to answer.
The dominant opinion from Muslim scholars is that those books,
that what the Christians are calling the gospel
is not the pristine the gospel is not the actual revelation, given
that Jesus peace be upon him, although some of the sayings of
Jesus could certainly have been preserved in these four books. But
that these books, they contradict each other.
And they're written in Greek, which is a foreign language to
Jesus, this is sort of the dominant opinion of Muslim
scholars. And
they're written to late decades later. Of course, there are
different ways of looking at these things or counter arguments to
those to those points as well. But this is the dominant opinion.
All right.
So for example,
well, there are indications in the Quran that that
fabrications, textual fabrications, were committed by
Christian scribes and Jewish scribes.
And
it seems like there's evidence of this.
If you talk to textual critics of the New Testament, for example,
there are
there are manuscripts of the gospel of Mark that ended chapter
16, verse eight, right. And according to eminent textual
critics of the New Testament, that's actually the true ending of
Mark, the oldest and best Greek manuscripts. And at Mark 16,
eight, what does it say Mark 16, eight? Well, it says that on
Easter Sunday, a group of women three women, they go to the tomb
with a sub liqueur,
and they find that the stone has been moved away. And there's an
angel sitting inside the tomb. And the angel says to the women,
you're seeking Jesus, who has risen, he's gotten ahead of you to
Nazareth or to Galilee. Right? And then Mark says, whoever wrote this
gospel, he doesn't identify himself, but tradition calls him
Mark. Mark says that the women ran away and they were afraid, and
they said nothing to no one. And that's the end of the gospel.
Right. So what I what happened, it seems like a cliffhanger was Jesus
actually resurrected,
if he survived the crucifixion and flee the city because he's afraid
of authorities.
What happened?
And then,
a century or so later, a few decades later, lo and behold, you
have subsequent manuscripts of the gospel of Mark where there's now
a, a longer ending, as it's called, verses nine through 20,
where Jesus actually appears to the disciples to male disciples,
and He Commission's them to go into all the world, he tells them
that they can handle poisonous snakes and drink poison, and no
harm would come to them.
That's just one example.
So Muslims believe in God. And we'll talk next week we'll talk
about we'll give a little bit of a little lesson on theology. What do
Muslims actually believe about God? Theology fails and Lagace
right, means speech about God. What do Muslims say about God who
has got to do Muslims believe that God is one, a sort of
rigid type of Unitarian monotheism, you've got to believe
that there's a plurality if you will, in the quote, unquote.ad as
Christians do
Muslims believe that God has attributes, what are the
attributes, we'll go into a little bit of that again, we want to keep
it very basic belief in God, angels, the revelations given to
the Prophets and their original form.
And messengers of God, right?
Well Rasul Lee, according to Muslim tradition, there have been
about 124,000 or so prophets, although that number is disputed,
as I mentioned, 25 of them mentioned explicitly 25 or so
mentioned in the Quran and belief in the final day.
Alright, so belief in God,
angels, Revelations, messengers, Day of Judgment, what took me not
bill Kadri Fady he was shorter he and that's the sixth Article of
Faith.
Yeah, and that you believe in other and other
is difficult to translate divine decree. Right, some people,
sometimes translated as destiny,
like Divine Decree or divine apportionment. And notice here the
Prophet he repeats and taught me that that you believe he repeats
that verb.
Because
Potter is very hard to grasp. Right? It's a difficult thing to
grasp,
that you believe in the the Divine Decree, the good and evil of it.
Right, that everything is from
everything is from God. Right. So there's two terms in theology,
there's called God and there's called da. And some of the
scholars say that these terms are synonymous.
Other say that other is sort of the measuring out divine
apportionment, as we said, God determines all things. And then
the cabal is the playing out, if you will, of that, of that divine
decree in space time in the world, right. So.
So you had groups in the past that were known as the jabariya.
Absolute determinists who said things like, human beings have no
free will.
And so God cannot punish cannot possibly punish human beings,
because we have zero volition. Then you have the other extreme.
The Padania or the absolute libertarians, we're not talking
about political libertarianism, which believes that government
should not have a lot of intervention, if any, in our
lives. No, we're talking about philosophical or theological
libertarianism, which espoused that, that human beings have
absolute free will.
They create their own actions. In fact, God doesn't even know the
juice yet, or the
the particulars of of, of, of things, you only know sort of the
essences of things. So the truth is somewhere in the middle, as
they say, Now, as Muslims, we believe that everything is decreed
by God, God has perfect knowledge, right. But at the same time, human
beings are held accountable for their choices. Sometimes this is
called soft determinism, or compassion. compatibilism. Right?
That even though everything is determined by God, even though God
knows everything, and has the power to do whatever he wants,
if an action
is if an action originated within a person, themselves,
from that person's wants and desires, and there are moral
implications to that action, then that person is, is taken to
account for that action.
Ultimately, it's difficult to understand, ultimately, it's
impossible to understand, right? So that's why the Scholars say
here that, that the Prophet repeats the verb and took me not
that you believed because this is a difficult thing to believe.
And it's difficult to think in terms of
God's power and knowledge. Yet he allows us to do certain things and
then takes account for our actions. It's very difficult
thing to grasp.
But
it's, it's sort of like explaining,
you know, calculus to a toddler, or to like a fifth grader, right?
They'll get something, they'll get something from it. There's a very,
very limited understanding, but at the end of the day,
The intellect really has to make such depth because it has to make
a frustration to God. Because God's cause
his divine decree is beyond our ability to comprehend. Right?
If God didn't know what we were going to do, then he wouldn't be
God, that's not a solution to anything. Right?
But this is
this is something that we can discuss later as well. So it's,
it's akin to what philosophers would call like this, this type of
soft determinism, right, that you're still taken to account for
your choices, but your choices are indeed limited. Right.
Okay, so I think that's a good place to stop for tonight and
Charlotte will finish the Hadith next time. And then I'll give you
a little bit of theology as well, basic theology and the Islamic
tradition.
And that'll complete next week.
That'll complete our section on basic beliefs of Islam and then
we'll move in week three into Judaism inshallah. Also last year
Mohammed didn't want to add he was secular. So number hamdulillahi
rabbil Alameen. wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah
wa salam ala Muhammad Anwar Ali, he was a Marine. So panna cotta
and Milena Ilana antenna in the animal animal Hakeem Hola, hola,
La Quwata illa biLlah Hill Ali La name As salam o Alaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh This is the second session
of our class entitled, The basics of the world religions, inshallah
to Allah. Today we're going to
talk about the religion of Islam. We're going to finish our
discussion on the religion of Islam Inshallah, to Allah. And
then we're going to move next week into Judaism in sha Allah Tada. So
last week, we began reading the famous Hadith Jibreel alayhis.
Salam, the tradition of Gabriel peace be upon him, and we covered
most of the Hadith. Just to give you a quick recap. We said that
Gabriel peace be upon him the archangel
incar, incarnated, basically,
became a man and came to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam in the presence of the companions of some of the
companions, and sat in front of the Prophet salallahu Salam, and
asked him a series of questions, asked him about Islam, which of
course is the name of the religion itself, but we said that in the
context of this hadith, it seems to be a reference to the exterior
element of the religion, that which has to do with the body and
then the prophets of the body so the answer the question by by
explaining or listing the five pillars of Islam, and then you
build Ali Salam asked the Prophet salallahu Salam, a second question
about Al Eman. What is faith and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he
described the six articles of faith. And that's where we left
off. Allah so doctor, then Jabril Ali Salam, he says to the Prophet
salallahu, salam, you have spoken the truth, a bit on the Anil, Anil
son. So now we continue the Hadith, famous Hadith.
And there's a third question that Gibreel Ali Salam asks the Prophet
salatu salam, what is Al Hassan? Right. And the root word here is
beauty. Yes, Sun is translated in a number of ways. Spiritual
excellence is one way of translating it. So we said that
Islam is a reference to sort of the horizontal aspect of the
religion while Eman is a reference to the vertical aspect of religion
or that which has to do with the body and the mind. And finally, we
have yes on the transcendental aspect of the religion or the
relational aspect, or you can say, the soul of the religion itself.
And your son, a technical term for Alia Hassan is to sow Wolf,
according to many of the aroma. They are. It's it's the same. It's
the same thing. They're they're synonymous, sometimes called
Sufism. When we talk about Sufism, we're talking about Sufism, in the
context of both Islam and Eman, right.
We're talking about spirituality.
With a cognizance that the true that a
True spirituality from the context of our religion is grounded in
Islam, as well as eemaan.
So to start with is just a technical term for your son,
right?
The aim, if you will, or the, the sort of, if we use Aristotelian
nomenclature, the, the, the final cause of the human being in the
Islamic tradition is to actualize we lie right or friendship with
Allah subhanho wa Taala in other words to make oneself beloved to
Allah subhana wa to Allah. And this is the aim of Alia son of
Islamic spirituality and different Muslim metaphysicians and
scholars, they describe the process Imana zali, for example,
who writes about to sell a family,
a practical Sufism, if you will. He recommends that Muslims must
sit with scholars they must sit with the spiritual masters and
take from their prescriptions take from their Epcot take from their
different litanies and eulogies and remembrance of Allah subhanho
wa taala. One of those, one of the great scholars Ahmed zoetrope, he
said that if you don't have a spiritual master, then take a
Salah Island Nabhi as your spiritual master, take the
benedictions upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, as your spiritual master and ALLAH SubhanA wa, Allah will
guide you spiritually by means of the Salah and maybe because the
Prophet salallahu Salam was the greatest of spiritual masters.
So,
your Mama loves Allah He talks about, you know, this sort of
three step process of, of purging, if you will, the lower self the
knifes of vice, right? This is called a kenosis in Greek or
catharsis, via Perga Teva in the Catholic tradition,
to purge oneself to get rid of these vices, right, what are what
are some of these vices, what are the vices, these are diseases of
the heart? The UModel gloob the major ones are Kibito like
arrogance, and hasard envy, Ria, right ostentation.
So disciplining the lower self emptying the self of these of
these vices, but also then ornamenting the self
with virtue. This is so the first one he calls tattly. This one he
calls Talia right to ornament the self to take on a virtue. And of
course we know the cardinal virtues
of you know, I dalla and Shuja and hikma IFA, but you also have these
theological virtues Imam Al Ghazali,
enumerates 19 or 21 theological virtues like Toba like Saba, like
repentance, like like patience,
Raja hope, so on and so forth.
And then you find that you have something called Talia. Right this
is to sort of manifest the divine ethos at a human level, right.
This is when the abd becomes a woody if you will, a friend of
God, because he mirrors the divine attributes the divine names and
attributes at a level at the level of a human being. Right. So the
perfect mirror, if you will, at a human level of Gods names and
attributes was the prophet muhammad sallallahu Sallam and
Allah Subhana Allah to Allah in the Quran intimates this, when he
calls the prophet by to have his own names, like on the Jetta
kumara Solonian and physical as he's when I lay him out, I need to
hurry soon aliquam bill more meaning or for him. Rather the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam there has come on to you and Messenger
from among yourselves, a grieves him that you should perish deeply
concerned is he about you to the believers he is kind and merciful.
Right so Allah Subhana Allah to Allah is arose and r Rahim with
the definite article. Right in this sort of absolute sense and a
sense that is beyond human capability beyond human
comprehension.
But something of that attribute right is reflected in the
character. The beautiful character of Mohamed Salah Allahu Allah, he
it was seldom and he said in a hadith and there's weakness in the
Hadith, but it's true and its meaning to Haluk will be a halacha
Allah, that to adorn yourself with the character if you will of God.
Right. And the Prophet sallallaahu Salam is mentioned in the Quran,
Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks to him directly in the Quran.
What inocula Allah Who Lukin Alvine verily, verily, you
dominate right Isla hook Isla is usually used in grammar to denote
something physical like upon the desk, or upon the floor or
something like that upon the roof. But if there's an abstract noun
that follows Isla then this denotes a type of mastery or
Timucuan. So, indeed you have mastered hook alim, great
character magnificent character because he is a reflection of the
divine names and attributes
at the human level, right so Allah Subhana Allah says, speaking to
the prophet in the Quran, Rama Amara Mehta is run at Willa Qin
Allah ha Rama you did not throw when you through Allah through
right before the Battle of Budda, you know, the famous story, the
Prophet sallallahu sallam, he picks up some pebbles and he
throws them into the direction of the Mushrikeen. Allah Subhana
Allah says to him, You did not throw when you threw, right very
interesting, but Allah through what does this mean? Does this
mean that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada incarnated into the Prophet
sallallahu sallam, and undertook this action that's not what it
means. It means that all of the actions of the Prophet salallahu
Salam, however mundane they might seem, all of them are guided by
Allah subhanho wa taala. Right, he's a sanctified agent of the
Divine. And this is the goal for all of us. Obviously, we cannot
attain the maklumat of the prophets, but we can attain we
cannot be prophets we cannot attain Naboo but we can attain
Wilaya right we can become from the Alia of Allah subhanahu wa to
Allah and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he intimated this In
another Hadith, which is in Behati, which is Hadith number 41
of the Autobot ain, or by humans 40 But Imam another we include a
two more Hadith, right where Hadith number 41 where he reports
from the Prophet where the prophet salaallah alayhi salam is reported
to have said that you had to come Hatter Yeah. Hakuna Hawa, who Tada
and the magic to be
on if you truly believe until his howa is howa is his desires, his
Caprice his Hawa is in perfect accordance with what I have taught
and what did the Prophet sallallahu Sallam bring? He
brought the Quran and his ethos to sunnah. In other words, he brought
alHuda he brought the guidance from Allah subhanho wa taala.
Right, and that is perfect. That's perfect Eman. That's that's an
actualized type of of faith is that your desires and wants are
perfectly aligned with what Allah and His Messenger wants. This is a
definition, if you will, of Wilaya reminds me of something. Confucius
says and the Analects the loon you are he says, at 50 years old, I
understood the mandate of heaven. And at 70 years old.
He says, at seven years old I followed my heart's desire without
overstepping the line. Right? So he's describing this type of
Wilaya. And Confucius did believe in God. And there, the jury is out
whether I mean, he certainly could have been a prophet. There's a
good case to make I think.
Being Confucius Allahu Allah, just as there's a good case to be made,
for Siddhartha, Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha, being a fiver
mentioned in the Quran, Allahu Allah.
So this is this is another words, this is mystical union, right?
When your desires align with the guidance of Allah Subhana. What's
added the term for that is mystical union.
And there's other Hadith that intimate this this phenomenon,
Hadith number 38, for example, in the onboarding, also from Behati,
where the Prophet sallallaahu Salam is reported to have said,
let me look at that really quickly here. So this hadith would see
this as a sacred Hadith where Allah subhana was Adam will speak
in the first person.
So Abby Herrera Radi Allahu Anhu is reported from Abu Huraira may
Allah be pleased with him called out us with Allah he's Allah buddy
Salam in Allah to Allah Allah, that Allah subhanho wa Taala said
monad when men idly while en facut advanta who will Harbor that Allah
says whoever antagonizes or shows enmity towards my wali towards my
friend, right? Again we lie is the final cause of the human being,
according to
the philosophy of Islam, if you will, or the psychology of Islam,
the one who antagonizes this friend of God, and I have
announced to him war from me Allah subhanho wa Taala
declares war on the person
who antagonizes the Friends of God is interesting you have a you know
a plethora of, of Christian and Christians and atheists who are
basically working full time on the internet, trying to discredit and
denounce the Prophet sallallaahu Salam. Basically it's it's a it's
an every day, verbal assault you have YouTube channels with 1000s
upon 1000s of, of prescribers. This is something that ALLAH
SubhanA wa Tala or subscribers. This is something that Allah
subhanho wa Taala
tells us about in the Quran, this is what he says is going to
happen. This is just natural. Well, that's just my own. I mean
that Avena would Kitab
minicabco Amina Latina, Silla qu and then kathira. That Indeed,
indeed, well, that's a Smyrna in Arabic is a lot of emphasis.
Indeed, indeed, you will hear a lot from those who received the
revelation before you the added key tab. And the machete keen,
which is interesting, the Quran doesn't necessarily affirm
atheism. There were very, very, very few atheists in the, in the
ancient world. There were a few but the Quran does not entertain
atheism. everyone worships something. You're either from
added keytab, or you're a believer, or you're a mushrik.
Right. So if you say for example, the universe created itself.
you're assigning to the universe, a quality of Allah subhanaw taala,
you're saying that the universe created itself, it's the holodeck
of it, or it's the holodeck, first of all. But then he said, No, the
universe didn't create itself, the universe always existed. It has a
sort of
internal pre eternality that's called a vanity and essential pre
eternality. That's an attribute of Allah Subhana Allah. So these are
Mushrikeen basically, that Scott Skald shook, right? So you're
going to hear a lot from people of different faiths, from people that
are Mushrikeen that is going to grieve you and then cathedra a lot
of sort of white noise Interspiritual tut, Dakota in
Nevada given as an illegal motor. But if you show patience, great
theological virtue, and you guard against evil, right? You guard
yourself from this type of thing, then that will be the determining
factor of all affairs. And this doesn't mean that you can't ask
questions to seek, you know, clarifications, asking questions
does not necessarily does not necessarily come from a place of
doubt. Right? We have to remember that as well. Someone asking
questions, even if they're difficult questions, does not
necessarily mean that this person is having issues with their Eman
or something like that. That we should constantly seek to fortify
our Eman but anyway Can you continuing the Hadith, this hadith
glitzy Walmart ACARA Ilya Abdi be che in a heartbeat Ilya IMMAF
mimma if Tara to who I lay, that my servant does not draw close
unto me now again, the speaker here is Allah Subhana Allah to
Allah, on the tongue of our Master Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, my
servant does not draw closer into me with anything more beloved by
me than his photo ID right his obligatory acts of worship.
And he continued, well I as an idea, terrible delay have been no
awful.
And he continues to draw close unto me with his no often with his
supererogatory acts of worship, right? So you have the five
pillars of Islam, these are the Fatah and then you have no effort
you have extra, you have the for example, the five days
right most of the hub days or sooner
but and you have sadaqa extra, you have the Hajj, which is thought
you have ombre, which is extra, that leaves one pillar, the
Shahada. shahada is essentially a form of decode. You sit on the
tongue as we said, you testify on the tongue what is the Nafi law of
the Shahada? It is Earth car it is a vicar, vicar of Allah subhanaw
taala and additional Salah Island maybe it is eulogies and
benedictions upon the Prophet sallallahu Sallam right, so the
love of actions.
But then this, the Hadith Guzzi says drawn year on to Allah
subhana wa Taala with the extra credit as you will then know awful
hard to hit ba until I love him or her. The masculine is used here.
Right? The female gender is encapsulated in the masculine
gender, it's understood to be there until I
Love Him, until this is God speaking until I love him. And
then he says, And when I love him when to some are who I like to
your smart Ruby
and when I love him, right for either, who, when I love him I
become his hearing, by which he sees and his total, and by which
he's sorry his hearing by which he hears in his sight by which sees
what you know who allottee your potential behalf and his hand by
which he strikes and his foot is original, Allah TMG Bihar by which
he walks and if you were to ask anything from me, I shall surely
give it to him. Right? If you were to ask anything from me, I shall
surely give it to him.
And he continues, if you were to ask me for refuge, I should surely
grant him it. Right. So this that hadith is in Behati sound Hadith
Hadith Gotse
so going back to the hadith of Gibreel Alayhis Salam
okay
the sort of Adi Salam, this is the this
gives here a beautiful Shin
haka and Nikka Tara,
first of all, he says, Alia Hassan spiritual
occasion
section of the soul, the relational aspect of the religion,
the soul of the religion.
It is to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala as though we see him as if
you see him
in lamp off in New York, if you if you don't see him, deed he sees
you. Right? So
as if one is rapture, and the beatific vision of Allah subhanho
wa Taala give you a basic worldly example. If your boss comes into
office, and says, make a sale right now. And he sits down in
your office, and he watches you how excellent of a sales call will
you make? Right? That's just your boss at work. Right? Who you might
not even like very much as a person.
But when you worship,
worship Allah, Allah to Allah as if you can see Allah subhana wa
Tada and we cannot see Allah subhanho wa taala. But then No,
no, in your very being. That Allah subhana wa Taala sees you.
And then he says for aka Bernie and his PSA. Right. So there's a
fourth question. Sometimes we can push the pause button on this
hadith, Islam Eman.
But there's one more question.
One more major question is actually five questions. But one
more major question. What? So tell me about OSI the hour ie the Day
of Judgment. The hour right? The word hour in English comes from
the Greek hora. This is the same word that's used for the day of
judgment in the New Testament, for example, which is written in
Greek.
So it begins with a omega but there's rough breathing, so hold
on that's why there's an H. When we say our
so tell me about the hour and he understood this question to mean
when is the hour right now the hour is close to profit so the
lady Saddam
Hussein and he put up these two fingers. So the lower it it was
Saddam, the our and my office very close like this. So he is the
eschatological Prophet he is the first of the major signs of His
coming is the first major sign of a PSA. Right? When you look at the
entire history of humanity, it's very, very close. So the Prophet
sallallahu CEMs answer is monogamous, ooo. Unhappy, Alam
Inessa. Ill the mess ool the one who's being asked the question,
right, the one who's being questioned knows no more than the
questioner the SAT the SAT, meaning Gibreel Ali Salam, nobody
knows the exact time of the SAT. This is a secret that Allah
subhanho wa Taala has kept for himself. Right? In the Quran, it
says they asked you concerning the PSA. When will it be established?
Called in nama al Maha Endora be? Allah Subhana Allah to Allah
commands the prophets of the body send them to say, the knowledge of
the Sangha is only with my Lord. The knowledge of the site is only
with my lord so nobody knows. Nobody knows when
It is in fact, in the New Testament, you have the saying
that it's attributed to a silent Salah in the Gospel of Matthew
chapter 24, verse 36, when he says of that day, right of that day, no
if no man, not the angels, not even the sun, but only the Father.
Now, before we continue, we have to understand here that these
terms, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, these are Hebrew isms, you
actually find these terms, the sort of ingredients of the
Trinity, the ingredients of the Trinity, right, not the doctrine
of the Trinity ingredients in these terms, and Klaich er of
Trinitarian. Christianity is found in the Old Testament, but they
have different meanings. So the early Christians did is they took
terms he appropriated them and redefine them through a
Trinitarian lens. So in the Old Testament, in Jewish texts, even
at the time of Isa Ali Salam, this is this is a a Jewish prophet in a
Jewish environment. Right? When Jews called Allah subhanho wa
Taala the Father, what that meant was, I'm sorry, what that meant
was Rob. So up father means Rob. Right. Isaiah, chapter 6416, at
Adonai Avino, You are the Lord our father. This is totally my jazz is
figurative language. Right? It's figurative, no one is this. No
Jewish prophet Isaiah did not mean that in a literal sense, that God
is a literal father, or God is my literal father, or the god is a
literal father of anyone. And when I say literal father, I not only
mean in the literal physical sense, but I mean any that
anyone's shares a nature with Allah subhanaw taala. Anyone find
quality with ALLAH SubhanA wa, tada. Nobody does. And we'll get
into some of this theology, and then the word, son, right? You
find this in the Old Testament, Israel is my son, even my
firstborn in the Psalms, God says to David, you are My Son, this day
I have begotten you. What does that mean? What does it mean to be
a
bin I deny bin Elohim? Right? Even though law what is what does that
mean? In a Jewish context, it simply means Abdi it means slave
or servant. Right? And it's a great McCombe to be a servant of
Allah is a great station to be the servant of Allah. It's not like
when we you know, we use the term slave people think of, you know,
slave in the American context like chattel slavery. That's what it
is. Right? Because in that type of relationship, the slave is
dehumanize, humiliated and the only one that benefits as a slave
master, but in the relationship with Allah subhanho wa taala, the
slave is honored. And he benefits the slave benefits we cannot
benefit Allah Subhan Allah to Allah one iota, there's nothing
that we can do that can possibly benefit him. We take all the
benefit. So it's a great MACOM to be the Abdi par excellence. And
the Prophet sallallahu Sallam took great pride in the sense that
Allah subhanho wa Taala frequently refers to him in the Quran as his
abdomen. Oh Ha, Isla de ma. Oh, ha. Right.
So, son, in a Jewish context, son means apt means servant EViD don't
die, right.
And Father, in the Jewish context, means Rob. Right? So we have to
keep that in mind. So what does it mean for Jesus to be the Son?
Right? Because in the New Testament, He refers to himself,
more often than not as the Son of Man.
And there's different ways of interpreting that it seems to be
a, a way of stressing his humanity or just a way of saying prophet or
just human being, but sometimes this son now this could be
obviously, there could be
alterations that the text has suffered, but again, keeping
things in a Jewish context, if he's does, son, right, so first of
all, he says, we're all children of God. Right Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew, chapter five, also in the book of Luke, in the Aramaic,
he says, a wound of Ishmael Our Father who art in heaven, they
asked him, How do we pray you pray like this? A wound of Hushmail Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be hallowed be thy name. Right,
our father, not just his father, all of us. And again, ob means
Rob. So I would actually translate that the meaning of that as Rob
BANA Rabbana Oh our Lord, that's what it means. Right? So what does
it mean that for Jesus to be the son or, you know, mono game as we
EOS you know, the one of a kind son? What does that mean? Well,
Christians take that to mean that he's the second person of a triune
godhead, but it simply means that he's the Messiah.
All right, Isa Ali Salam has this unique title. He's a unique ABD
and the Prophet salallahu Salam is also a unique to Avid and Musa Ali
Salam is a unique to add right unique apt unique slave of Gods so
anyway, going back to this idea of the PSA I have to explain this
sort of before we get into this. So Matthew 2436 He says,
of that Day no with no man, right not the angels who day haha we us
in the Greek, not even the sun, not even the Messiah, not even
this unique servant of Allah subhanho wa Taala meaning himself,
but only the Father only the rub. Only the rub knows this the the
side, the day he calls it al Yom Yom Alvine.
So essentially Salam here, according to a Christian texts,
which is a canonical texts, authoritative texts, the Gospel of
Matthew the most, the most popular gospel in all of antiquity, admits
he doesn't know Now what's really interesting is later scribes, they
removed that that statement all day, halfway Eos, from manuscripts
of Matthew's Gospel. Later Greek manuscripts, they omit that. So
Jesus says, of that day, knoweth, no man, not the angels in heaven,
but only the Father. Which still doesn't help really, because the
son is not the father, you can't say that the Father is the same
person as the son. That's a violation of Trinitarian theology.
But these scribes, whenever they were probably second, third
century, they found it very troubling that Jesus who's
supposed to be God doesn't know something because Ellen mutlak,
right? Very important concept. God has these sort of Omni attributes,
right? He's omniscient. He knows everything he's all knowing.
Right? This is called a qualitative attribute of God. God
has certain attributes
that qualify him as being deity. One of them is omniscience. I see
fat 190 We call them an Arabic. Right? At the moment lock perfect,
knowledge doesn't increase doesn't decrease. It's perfect. So the
fact that Eastside acnm According to this Christian text, whether
it's authentic or not, Allahu item, it doesn't really make a
difference to us. Right?
Whether it's authentic or not, but according to this text, he admits
that he doesn't know something. And if he's God, he's supposed to
know everything.
Of course, the numbers 2319. This is in the Torah, or the modern day
Torah, numbers 2319. It says low each a God is not a man. Right
that he should lie. Numbers. 2319 God is not a man is just three
words. I always have my students memorize it low each ale. God is
not a man. No, each ale not a man is that he should lie is the rest
of that statement. So Christians, how do Christians deal with the
statement God is not a man that he should lie. They say, Yeah, God is
not a man that he should lie. In other words, God can become a man
and he did become a man. He became Jesus peace be upon him. And Jesus
never lied about that. Right. But that's not the actual meaning of
that verse in Hebrew. And this is something that rabbinical
authorities point out in their debates with Christians. This goes
all the way back to like the third century, Rabbi Abba, who have said
Surya, who used to debate Christian apologists, he said,
That's not the meaning of it. The meaning is, whoever claims any man
who claims to be God, he's a liar.
Right? So that's the meaning of it. God is on a man that he should
lie. Any man any human being, who claims to be God is a liar. And
that's not the only place you have Hosea chapter 11, verse nine, key
I know he alle Villo ish. Indeed, I am God and not a man. They are
two mutually exclusive
entities. Right. So the prophets have a lot he said them he's a man
masu and have the Atlanta Minister actually the one who is being
questioned those no more than the questioner.
And he continues, so now we have
yet another question. So Islam eemaan Right. Yes, on a PSA. Now a
fifth question and clarifying question number five, maybe just
you know, for for a question for a
building on a Marathi ha. So tell me about the you don't know when
is the south, but tell me it's signs importance. Right. So why is
this important? Because we need to recognize the signs of our times.
Right? And be able to guard or protect ourselves against evil.
That's why there's a
are a fairly large corpus of what's known as eschatological
literature in our tradition, the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he
spoke a lot about the importance of the PSA, and the fitten the
trials and tribulations that are going to manifest towards the end
of time, because the prophets a little odd, he said them he's not
just a Bashir. He's He's not just a bear of glad tidings. Yeah, you
hadn't to be your inner son like a Shah. He doesn't mumble but she
didn't wanna Vera. Shah, he didn't want me Bashir. It gives the
Bushra one Avira and a warner. He's here to warn us about things.
What Darrian Illallah hibi in the knee, we'll see Raja monniera So
the Prophet sallallahu Sallam He gives us warning. This is part of
his vocation, as a prophet. So what does the Prophet sallallaahu
Salam? What does he say? He says intelli the AMA Tura butter ha.
A jeep statement.
He says that the slave girl or the low born bass born girl will give
birth to her mistress mistress means female master. Right? That a
girl will give birth to her mistress or master. So the URL
Amma they have differences of opinion about this, but generally
they say that the meaning of this is that towards the PSA, there's
going to be sort of a flood of what's known as filial
recalcitrance, the opposite the opposite of veteran Whitey Dane,
the opposite of filial piety, which is so important and
everything starts at home. All of Confucius's philosophy begins with
beautiful validate. Right, you know, so, it's bolsters or
buttresses our case for Lookman and Hakeem as being looked at as
being Confucius because he's giving advice to Yagoona yah, yah
yah brunette LA to Shrek Bella in the shurkin, a woman or the
Yagoona, right, he's teaching his chill his son is children.
So feeling cat recalcitrance. So you have this idea. Now, this kind
of postmodern philosophy that's floating around in colleges and
universities.
society in general, this idea of radical absolute egalitarianism in
the society, which has never worked, history has shown it's
never worked.
hierarchical structures are very important to society, those work,
and they're, they're tried and they're tested, that there's
always going to be when you can't equalize people, it's just not
going to happen. People have different abilities. People are
born into different types of class and status and wealth. There's
always going to be a Hoss and an arm, there's always going to be,
you know, a noble class or a nobility, the nobles, if you will,
influential, wealthy and then there's going to be the the arm
the laity are the commoners. That's how it works, hierarchies
work, they work in the workplace, they work in educational
institutions. And they work in the family this the the study that I
cite, oftentimes, Charles University in Prague, where the
researchers discovered that, that households where one spouse is
dominant over the other, those households tend to be happier and
have more children. What do I mean by dominant? I don't mean that one
spouse is oppressing the other one. I mean, there's a clear sort
of social hierarchy within the family, a chain of command, where
the person at the top they are, they're magnanimous in the way
that they treat their family but the buck as it were stopped at
that person. They have the sort of final say, within the household.
And this This study found that 72% of those happy families were male
dominated. So there's a reason why Allah subhanho wa Taala says, I've
reached out to our moolah, Allah Nisa, you know, the Quran is not
trying to be misogynistic, and,
and, you know, because that's, you know, this whole whole idea of
patriarchy, and we need to smash it and build up. I mean, good luck
with that these things are not going to work. Right.
So this idea of, you know, children now, ruling their
parents, right.
I just saw thing on the news the other day, there's a show on
Netflix, I think it's called the baby sitters club or something
like that, where you have this eight year old boy who's in the
hospital, biological boy. And you have these doctors that are
treating this patient as as a boy. And then one of one of his friends
or someone a girl comes in and says can I talk to you two doctors
outside? And this girl who's like 10 years old or something, the
friend of this boy who's sick begins to just lecture these these
grown adult physicians. I don't care what your chart says.
Look at her it's a girl you know treat her like a girl you're being
violent or something you're creating an unsafe space for this
girl it's actually a girl. So now we just kind of live and make
believe land and the doctors are sitting there doctors physicians
in their 50s listening to this 10 year old girl lecture them Okay,
you're right you're right. Very very strange
Okay, so and then he says, Well Antara and profanity erotica Allah
RIA SHA II Toluna fillable Nyan, so that's the first one he says
the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he says, the slave girl will give
birth to her master. And then he says something interesting, you
will see the barefooted naked, destitute herdsmen,
competing
in the construction of lofty buildings,
right. So,
why are these two signs why are these two portends so that the
scholars say that well, one will come very quickly and one will
come later or one will come within the family and one will manifest
in the society. The barefoot naked destitute shepherds herdsmen,
competing in the construction of lofty buildings, right? So in
other words, but dunya love of the world, the New Testaments
love, love of Mammon, right? That's how easily Islam at least
according to the New Testament puts it. You know, the Hadith says
Herbert dunya love of the world. Right so Cooley Hardy,
is the head of every type of sin, love of the world. Right? So this
idea of you know, shepherds, naked, barefoot, now competing and
lofty buildings. It means that hurt but dunya can take root, even
in the most unlikely of places. In the most unlikely of places,
simple shepherds, Bedouins living in the desert in tents are now
fully engrossed and love of Mammon as it were love of the world.
Right? There's a surah of the Quran that
that we, we know very well, but we seldom contemplate Surah 102
Attack catheter. What does a catheter mean? It comes from a
theater, it's form six verb which denotes this kind of reciprocal
action. So you have this sort of mutual competition or rivalry,
right? For stuff for Kathira for a lot of stuff, and Hakuna Matata
cathode. The Quran says
that this this mutual competition or consumerism amongst yourselves,
deludes you or distracts you right it distracts you al Hakim with the
Carrefour hut azul tamale macabre until you visit the graves. Right.
And the meaning is either until you go into your grave. And that's
really when you wake up. Because said it said human beings are
asleep or when they die they wake up. That's when the Yaqeen to
McCullough sofa to Isla moon. So Mikayla sofa to alimony, low tide,
low tide, I'm gonna marry again letterwinner Jehane. Or it means
that you should go to the graveyard when you actually go
visit a graveyard. That's when people start putting things in
perspective, right? That's why we should go to funerals, somebody
dies in your community, and there's a Janaza prayer go to the
graveyard go look at the burial. Right? And this, you know, to
cathode, this idea of, of competition, you know, you have a
perfectly good phone, you know, you got to buy another phone.
Because your your cousin has a the latest iPhone, your phone is
perfectly good. But no, you have to compete with this person. And
that's just in one little gadget. There people like this, they spend
their entire lives just to CAFO.
Very interesting. So the Prophet Soleimani send them his two
portends that he gives us, right? He tells us basically number one,
there's going to be a major breakdown of social structures.
Right? We're going to enter into a type of social chaos.
And then we're going to there's going to be a sort of dominance of
materialism people will fall into total materialism. Right. And
another thing he said is not mentioned in the Hadith here, and
the Hadith of Gibreel. But the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he said
that there are other signs, other portions of the PSA, that coming
of the Antichrist is one of them.
If you look at ISA Ali Salam, if you look at our Christology, Isa
Ali Salam, according to the Hadith of the Prophet salallahu Salam
here
His message is is growly it's, it's otherworldly, right? He's
talking about moat about death. He's talking about aka. He's
talking about purifying the self. You know, he says the dunya is
like a bridge, hurry up and cross over it. He says, The world is
like a man whose See, trapped on a on a boat, completely lost. See,
he starts taking handful after a handful of seawater into his
mouth, which is representative symbolical for the dunya the more
he drinks, the more thirstier he gets, and then it kills him.
Right?
He says, The world is like a haggard old prostitute, who sticks
her hand out from behind a wall, which is all you know, be jeweled
with rings and,
and nail polish and bangles and wave it over to her. So the men,
they go, and they look around the corner, and then she grabs them
and slaughters them. That's the nature of the dunya.
Right, so the Antichrist, then the Missy, de jaal, is message is the
is the polar opposite of Si de Sena
is that salvation is through materialism. This is all there is.
So just enjoy your life. Right. And this is, you know, the
barefooted naked destitute herdsmen competing in the
construction of lofty buildings. That's how the Prophet sallallaahu
Salam described this, this phenomenon, very dramatic sort of
way of putting it
and then he says filmer in Tala ca for the birth to Malian
singer Omar he says then this man left and I stayed for a while and
the the prophets of the body suddenly came to me and said,
Yeah, Omar a tad Did he mannessah
Do you realize who the questioner was?
And say no, I'm not he says Allah who was sort of who I am. Allah
and His Messenger know best
for him to who? Gibreel
indeed, he was Jabril de Salam.
Yes, the age of Horus. Indeed. This is what Crowley says in the
libre. legis Aleister Crowley, one of these sort of hidden figures
that have so much that has influenced American western
society, now world, the world in such an incredible way, the
founder of the modern religion of Thelema, which is a type of
Satanism.
Right, he wrote this book called The libre legis, which he claimed
was dictated to him by a shaytaan by a demon named a wuss, which is
interesting sounds like what it was. And in that book, he says,
you know, Crowley says that we're going to enter into the age of
Horus the age of the child, right? The dominance of the child, in
other words, and in an age of, of a lack of discipline, an age of,
of just, just following the house.
Right, following the knifes an age that where it's unreasonable,
because the purpose of the acha acha means to bind something.
Yeah, kill means to like the to the hobble a camel. Yeah, couldn't
have the Prophet sallallahu sallam said about the camel running
around outside the Masjid. So whose camel is that? The Bedouin
said, That's my camel. That's what Coco Allah I've trusted Allah. He
said, tie her down. Right? The intellect is supposed to talk down
and control, the knifes the how the Caprice? It goes all the way
back to Plato. We mentioned this before. The rational soul has to
has to be in the driver's seat to keep the appetitive soul and the
striving soul in check.
But it's the age of Horus
I'm sorry if there's problems with the audio.
I'm the only one here today inshallah we can work that out.
God, God incarnate is an Aryan and Greco Roman concept.
Well,
Arianism is
it's hard to it's hard to pin down. Aryan Christology, it's God
incarnate is certainly a Trinitarian belief. That's
Orthodox Christianity. Right?
In Qatar, not to suggest it is in the Nicene Creed. It says in the
Nicene Constantinopolitan creed that God came down and assumed
flesh. That's what that means incarnation. What did Arias
actually believe?
Most of his writings are lost with the exception of
most of our information about areas comes from his opponent.
thence, which you can't really trust, can you really trust your
opponents to reproduce? Even the Cournot mo tomb Christian
theologian who wrote the book?
It's a very good book, if I can think of the title,
classic classical Trinitarian theology.
Right, he says in that book tomb T O M, he says that it's, it's known
that many early church fathers, they would they would be lie areas
they would they would misquote him, they would quote him out of
context.
But something seems to be Arius because it's in the Nicene Creed
is the belief, that Eastside a Salam that Jesus Christ peace be
upon him, that the Son of God in he used that term, but then the
Trinitarian sense, Son of God, there was a time when the son did
not exist, right? That sort of the credo of the of the errands. It's
according to the Nicene Creed. In Greek and pateo, hottie Luke ain,
there was a time when he was not, there was a time when he the son
of God was not an Arias refer to Christ as the cutest smart
creation, the sun is created term. Right?
So that's sort of one way of looking at Arianism. The other way
of looking at it is, well, okay, that might have been true. But did
Arias somehow still
give the son some sort of smile, divine or demigod status?
To the I mean, that's certainly how some of the early church
fathers portray him, that the early church fathers, ironically,
are defending monotheism, in the face of what they believe is a
type of by theism, which is being espoused by the Aryans. So terian
theism for the early church fathers is a real type of
monotheism whereas what Arias was saying is Arias is trying to
propose that they're actually two Gods the Father and the Son. I
think that misrepresentation of Arianism I think areas believed
based on
what cursed me as far as my research that areas believed that
the sun was was created at some point that Curtis Martelly on he
calls him the best of creation right that was that was Eric
okay
so anyway, he says that was Gabriel in the hood you bill
attack on you i limo container calm he came to you to teach you
your religion. And that's the end of the Hadith. Right.
Now, I only have a few minutes left I want to just
read a few statements from the beautiful creed, a very ecumenical
popular creed of Imam Abu Jaffa to how we
the world famous creed which is derived from the Quran, the motto
water of a multiple attested hadith of our master Mohammad
salatu salam and the edge map, the consensus of the first three
generations the sell off of the Muslim ummah.
Just read very quickly here, he says. So number one, and of
course, creed, the Creed comes from the Latin credo, which means
I believe, right?
So creed in Arabic is Aveda, which is related to the Hebrew word aka
Ada, like the binding of isaac Genesis 22, right to bind to
something that's what the root is, why don't open that Tamil the
Sunni, right release the sort of, not from my tongue, which is the
prayer of Musa. So these are these are beliefs that are binding upon
Us. It's just a list, a list of our beliefs. This is the aim of
the creedal. theologian. Right The aim of the creedal theologian is
simply to articulate our basic beliefs just a list of our
beliefs, and it's different than animal Qalam. Right animal Kalam
or dialectical theology, or possibly a better translation, I
don't like speculative theology, but a discursive theology, the aim
of the discursive theologian, the multicolumn, is to reconcile our
belief, our sacred texts with reason, right. So it's not just,
you know, we believe in God and this is who God is. It's, you
know, is belief in God reasonable is belief in Revelation reasonable
is belief in angels reasonable, right. So hearing Mamata Howey
he's assumed the role of a of a creedal field
origin, right? So he's not going to get into a lot of discussion, a
lot of
dialectics, if you will. So he begins by saying, in Allah, why
don't lash out eCola God is one, and he has no partner.
And some of the elements say here that white here denotes a sort of
internal oneness of God, that is one quote unquote person, using
the person as an entity which has a personality, one entity, right
persona, or hypothesis in Greek. In other words, this sort of
Godhead in Islam as a simple unity, rigidly one, Unitarian
monotheism, and Christianity,
when it comes to the essence, attributes and actions of God, so
in our tradition, no one shares in the essence and attributes and
actions of God. No one has the essence attributes or actions of
Allah subhanho wa taala, except Allah subhanho wa taala, who is
rigidly one, in internal oneness is wide. And Christianity, three
hypotheses, three persons share in the essence, the attributes, and
actions of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's why Allah
subhanaw taala He says, When I tell Hulu salata
don't say three, so that that doesn't mean Trinity. It could
mean Trinity.
But it means three, don't say three, whether it's three gods,
right, and other like a sort of Neoplatonic, or middle platonic
hierarchy of being where there's, it's really more Heno theistic,
where there's one major God, but then there's two sort of minor
gods that are that are effects of the major God or the one. Right,
so the Godhead is sort of three distinct gods that have similar
essence. Don't say that. Well, that took who said, that don't
say, one essence and three persons.
So this verse, well, that's a quote with the latter. The way
that it's worded is is incredible, because not only is it denouncing,
Trinitarian, monotheism, but also these types of middle platonic
Haendel theistic try theism, all of these types of things, because
that was also very popular. This predates Christianity, middle,
platonic philosophers. They talked about the one they talked about
the, you know, who, who caused from his being the logos, they use
that term or the noose, the word, and through self intellection,
this kind of emanation, and then you have another emanation from
the from the logos from the news that created this, the what they
call the su que the psyche, the Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
right, Christianity is heavily influenced by middle and Neo
Platonism, to the point where in the Gospel of John, you see that
word, and arcane holla. us in the beginning was the logos, and the
Word was with God and the Word was God.
Again, we so what we have with Christianity, you have an
appropriation of Jewish terminology, redefined the
Trinitarian lens, you also have an appropriation of Hellenistic
philosophy and theology
redefined through a Trinitarian lens. Right. So with the New
Testament books, especially John, you have sort of one hand on Plato
and Aristotle and the other hand on the Tanakh, the Old Testament,
and it's really sort of marrying the two together.
This is why Imam Al Ghazali warns us in the two half with one
philosopher, that it's very, very dangerous to get into these to get
into Hellenistic metaphysics. He's not an anti scholastic Imam Al
Ghazali says in that text, he says, I'm not against, you know,
you know, you know, the hard sciences and natural science that
has nothing to do with your religion. Right? He says, if if a
if a scientist comes up to you and says, you can predict
the the eclipse of the moon or something, that's fine, don't
argue with him.
But steer clear of Hellenistic metaphysics, because look what it
did to Christianity, and liquidity to Judaism as well. Philo of
Alexandria, highly influenced, middle Platonic Philosopher who
talks about a deutero stay off a second God that he calls the
logos, right? lived in Egypt in Alexandria. That's probably where
the Gospel of John was written as well. Anyways, I'm out of time
in hola Hawaii doing last year eCola. That's the essence of the
theology.
Well, who Allahu Ahad Allahu Samad lemmya, Ledwell and Mulan, well,
I'm on level one.
So next week, Allah to Allah will continue and we'll go into
Judaism.
Well Salah Mohammed and Allah Allah He was actually a Salam.
Welcome
Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa sallahu
wa Rahmatullah he was born out of menorah him.
Satan Muhammad in one early he was a huge Marine, satanic Allah and
Milena. Ilana alum tena in Inwood Hakim Mala Hola, La Quwata illa
Allah Hill allele Adim Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh.
This is our third class
in sha Allah, covering the basic concepts of the world's major
religions. So, the first week we spoke of our tradition of Islam,
as well as the second week, so today in sha Allah tonight,
inshallah to Allah, we're going to begin
the first part of the religion of Judaism.
So, it's difficult to distill a religion down to
a couple of sessions, but I'll do my best in sha Allah to Allah.
Also at 820 or so we'll take a break, maybe seven or eight
minutes.
So we can pray Maghrib Inshallah, to Allah for those of us on West
Coast time.
So,
I thought a good
thing to look at, when it comes to Judaism is the famous creed of my
manatees. So my monitor is famous rabbi and philosopher. He died in
the early 13th century.
He was buried InfraStop in Egypt.
Moshe had been my mon is his name. And Jews refer to him as the
Rambam. That's the sort of acronym means Rabbi Moshe been my Mon.
He was an incredible scholar. He was a great scholastic. He was a
great synthesizer of,
of
Jewish thought, as well as Aristotelian ethics. And we'll
talk a little bit about that as well. He believed that revelation
and reason go hand in hand, he was a natural theologian,
meaning that he believed that one could engage in Reason and
philosophy as evidence of God.
He was a champion of what's known as negative theology. And we'll
explain that as well. In sha Allah, he he wrote, quite
extensively, probably his two greatest works are the and he
wrote them in Arabic. At least the first one was an Arabic Delilah
twill Hierin, which is oftentimes translated as The Guide for the
Perplexed.
It's called the modern Neville cream in Hebrew, three volumes,
and basically the aim of the Guide for the Perplexed, who are the
perplexed? Who are these people in a state of hierarchy? These are
people that cannot reconcile knuckle with aka.
They can't reconcile the revelation with reason. So again,
that's sort of the job as it were, as we said last week, of the
dialectic theologian to reconcile the two.
So that's what he attempts to do in the famous Guide for the
Perplexed is second famous texts is called the Mishnah Torah, which
is a commentary on the Torah,
Jewish law, and Scripture.
And in his Mishnah Torah,
My motto is articulated basic creed, right? So his creed is 13
principles. That's all it is 13 lines. And it's taken from the
tunnel off in the tunnel mode. So we sort of have to get familiar
again, with our terminology. What are we talking about when we say
turn off is another acronym
that the Tao comes from tota. There's a noon in there, which is
from Naveen means prophets. And then the calf which is more
guttural in Hebrew.
So tonna comes from kitto beam, the writings, so
it's basically the Hebrew Bible, right, Tanaka and Hebrew Bible are
synonymous. Of course Christians would call this the Old Testament.
Right? So the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible,
the Tanakh these are all synonymous of course the term old
Old Testament is Christian terminology.
Jews, at least Orthodox Jews would find the term Old Testament to be
a bit offensive,
which implies that the the covenant that God made with Moses
and the Israelites on Sinai has been abrogated.
So so that's the Tanakh. Right? So you have the Torah. So what do we
mean by Torah? What do they mean by Torah? They mean the Five Books
of Moses, right?
This is called also called in Hebrew, the whole nosh, because
the term Torah is a bit ambiguous, right? Sometimes when Jews use the
word torah, they're talking about the Five Books of Moses, sometimes
they're talking about the entire Old Testament, the entire Tanakh.
Sometimes they're talking about all of the sacred literature,
including the Talmud, and we'll talk about that. So the term Torah
is a bit ambiguous. But when we say who much which comes from
which is related to the Arabic word Hamsa, like Penta tuk in
Greek, here, we're talking about the first five books of the
turnoff, right? The books that are traditionally ascribed to Musa
alayhis salam, and Orthodox Jews believe in fact, that Musa today
so them wrote these five books on Mount Sinai
some 3500 years ago, he wrote them over 40 nights, he was in sort of
a trance, he did not sleep, he did not eat, he did not drink. He was
simply receiving these five books, what are these five books called?
Well, in Hebrew, the first book is called that a sheath, which comes
from the very first word, and that's how they're all called in
Hebrew. It's the first a word or so a word in the first verse of
the first chapter of that book. In this case, Genesis, right is
called bet a sheath because the book begins bet a sheath about
Elohim, Hashem ion, and hit our hearts, that in the beginning, God
created the heavens in the earth, right?
However, it's called Genesis in English,
which is taken from Greek. So the titles of the books that we know
are taken from Latin and Greek and of course, they're, they're taken
into the English language.
So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These are
the five books of Moses, this is the whole much, right, this is the
first five books of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, the orthodox
belief, again, that Moses himself, Musa SNM, wrote these books.
They are equivalent to our conception of the Quran, as far as
the Quran being
a dictate from Allah subhanaw taala. So Musa alayhis salam is
not being inspired. These are not His words, he's not receiving some
sort of inspiration or He ha, and then he's articulating the wording
himself, the left is not is right, just like with the Quran, the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu. It it was setting them is receiving the
words either through exterior or interior location. And he's simply
repeating those words that he's hearing from outside of himself or
that he's perceiving within himself.
So that is the status of the homage Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, right. And then we have the Nadeem at the
prophets. Now, so there's another set of books in the Old Testament
that are called after certain prophets, right? So you have books
like Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and Isaiah and Amos,
Zephaniah, etc. Like,
right? So, these books are believed by Jews to be inspired by
God, right? So it's not a system of Verba you know, word for word
dictate. It's more like Hadith. If there's something comparable in
our tradition, inspired words of God where a prophet would receive
inspiration, but that prophet would use his own words, he would
articulate that inspiration. And then you have a third class of
Revelation. Right? So or degree of revelation in the Old Testament,
which is called the kitto beam.
The writings are hagiography, and these are books that are authored
by nonprofits. For example, Proverbs, so Jews don't believe
that David and Solomon are prophets. This is a difference of
opinion that we have with them. So the Psalms For example, is kitto
beam. So a lower degree of revelation still sacred writings
canonical and sacred, but not as high right? Not
Not as great as the writings of Isaiah. And Isaiah is not as great
as or exalted as the writings of Moses, which are not even the
words of Moses. They are the words of God spoken by, by Moses.
So my motto is creed is taken from the turnoff, aka Old Testament, as
well as something called the Talmud. The word Talmud is related
to
the Arabic till need, right? Until meat means like a pupil, right? So
the tongue wood is sort of the pupil or the little student of the
Torah. The Orthodox believe the Talmud is also sacred writing,
right? So it has a status that we would the equivalent in our
tradition would be something like Ill harm right or Ihar, which is
non prophetic revelation, so not ye, ye according to our scholars
like imamo so UT and Zetta, Kashi and others.
The term Ye is prophetic revelation. So Musa Ali Salam in
our tradition, Ibrahim Ali Salam, Elisa Elisa, they receive the ye.
Right, but saints are nonprofits. The Quran says that the Hawala
Yun, the disciples of Isa Ali salaam received e ha, non
prophetic revelation inspiration inspired revelation.
Right? So that the Talmud then has two parts, the Talmud is made up
of the Mishnah and Gomorrah, right? Mishnah and Gomorrah.
So the Mishnah, according to Judaism, is the Oral Law of Moses
that was finally reduced to writing. So here's something
interesting that a lot of people don't know, even a lot of secular
Jews don't know is that in the Orthodox tradition, Jews, Orthodox
Jews believe that Moses received a two Toros on Mount Sinai, he
received the first five books, which is the very words of God.
But He also received inspiration
that, that he eventually would articulate piecemeal over his
life, in his own words.
So essentially a commentary of the Written Torah. Right, so receive
the first five books, and then Musa alayhis, salam, Moses, peace
be upon him according to Judaism, he has, as he would live his life
and situations would arise with the Israelites in the Sinai
wilderness, he would, he would comment, commentate or interpret
what was written in the first five books with his own words. And
those words were eventually written down in the first century
of a common era.
So it's kind of like the hadith of Musa thy son on his Tafseer, if
you will, of the homage. So it was written down
and called the Mishnah. Right. And then between the second and
seventh centuries of the Common Era, second and seventh century,
second and eighth century,
rabbis began to
write commentaries on the Mishnah. Right, and that was called the
Gomorrah. So Gomorrah means completion. So you have the
Tanakh, right, the Old Testament, which is the torah, the homage, in
other words, then the beam the profits that get to beam the
writings, and then you have the Talmud, which is made up of the
Mishnah, the oral law that Moses received that was eventually
reduced to writing in the first century, because a temple had been
destroyed and now the religion was in danger to the rabbi's decided
to write it down. And then you have rabbinical commentaries
written on the Mishnah that occurred primarily in two
locations at the rabbinical Academy in Babylon or Iraq and as
well as the rabbinical Academy
in, in Palestine. So really have two versions then of the Talmud.
You have the Babylonian Talmud, and you have the Palestinian
Talmud.
Okay.
Okay, so.
So my motto is then, the genius of my model is, is that he's able to
take this massive corpus of literature. I mean, you look at
the, the Tanakh and the Talmud, I mean,
Millions of words, and he's able to distill it and give us the bare
bones of Jewish theology. And that's what he does here with his
13 articles of Jewish faith 13 principles of Jewish faith. And he
says very clearly that if you don't believe in any one of these,
you are a cofell Quite a catheter, in his opinion now there's some
difference of opinion amongst Jewish theologians, Joseph Alba,
for example, a 15th century Spain, Spanish rabbi said that only three
of the 13 are essential in my modern easy confused, which is
essential with that which is derivative. But generally, my
monitor is is articulation of the crit is accepted by my Jews the
world over. Right. So
he called these the shoulder Sha Sha, if curry and Muna, which
literally means the 13 principles of Jewish faith. So at this point,
we're going to take maybe a seven minute break, inshallah. And we're
going to pray the Maghrib and then we'll come back. And we'll begin
with the first couple of principles as articulated by my
monitors in Sharla.
A lot of them are in Savalas, and Muhammad and one earlier he was a
huge Marine. So now continuing to principle number one, or number
one, as articulated by my manatees, he says,
says, I believe, with full faith with perfect faith or sound faith,
that the Creator lets it be his name. And the Hebrew here is
if you know Arabic, you could pick up Hebrew quite easily is only my
mean. The Emona Shalina Shahab for youth Baraka, Shimo Annie Anna, me
known
Eman Salima, I believe with sound faith that the body Albury that
the Creator East Proxima to Baraka is smooth, bless it be his name.
He creates, he says, and He guides all of creation.
And he by himself did and is doing and will do all actions. And it's
very poetic here the way that he that he frames it using the OROSEI
via
ASA OROSEI. Yeah, I saw so uses the perfect tense verb then he
uses the active participle. And then he uses the imperfect tense
verb. So basically what he's saying in this principle, the
first principle of the 13th is that God alone is the creator and
direct DOER of all things. That God is the primary cause he's the
efficient cause of all things, which is contra Aristotle, right?
For Aristotle. God is not the efficient cause. Because Aristotle
believed that the universe is pre eternal. Right?
So, for Aristotle God, the unmoved mover is kind of like a giant
cosmic magnet, that who draws all things unto himself so there's
sort of an unconscious pull towards God. And God did not
create XV Hilo according to Aristotle's metaphysics.
So God is only the final cause for Aristotle, but now in in Judeo
Christian Islamic tradition.
God is ultimately the final cause, but he's also the efficient cause,
meaning that there was a sort of conscious push, that he is the
beginning of the ontological origin of all things universe is
not pre eternal in the past universe was created from nothing.
XV Hilo, the creator of the universe was created from nothing
by God, right? God is the efficient cause the primary cause.
So he says that God by himself, right he did and is doing and will
do all actions. Right. So you can think about here no one does God's
actions up to God, none.
No one can create anything except for God. Right. So if you examine
the rationalists, the Martez ILA claim is controversial.
huncle afterall, the creator
is that the rationalists were highly influenced by Greek
Philosophy.
They said that due to our absolutely free will,
we create our own actions. We are the creators of our own actions,
that our actions, in effect, inform God himself. So God only
knows what we decide to do. So things are not predetermined. So
you have rationalist elements
in the Jewish world as well. And it seems that my monitor is a lot
of these, or you can argue all of the 13 principles has a polemical
aspect
to them. In other words, he is trying to argue against a position
that he believes to be heretical, this idea that God does not create
everything that we create some of our actions that God does not know
everything, he doesn't know particulars, he only knows you
know, essences.
So this is soundly refuted by minorities in his writings, as
well as the theologians of Athens sunnah. Well, Gemini, they also
had to deal with this idea. And our theologians they would quote
from the Koran, right, well, Allah Who holla Coco Mamata, Maroun,
that God created you and your actions, right? Allah subhana wa
Tada is the only real creator. Right Allah Who hottie who, che,
that Allah subhana, Allah to Allah is the creator of every thing. So
these are some of the proof texts that our theologians would use. My
monitors would quote from the book of Isaiah, for example, which is
in the new beam, the prophets, that middle section of the homage
to Isaiah chapter 45, or six and seven, where God is the speaker.
In Isaiah is speaking the words of God, although Isaiah is choosing
the wording, according again, to the to the Jewish tradition, where
he says, I make peace and need or say shalom, who for a rock, and I
create evil, right? God says, I make peace, but I create evil. He
creates everything, even evil. The notice how he says it, I make
peace, I'm the doer of peace, and I create evil. Right? So even
though God is the creator of evil, and ultimately he is the doer of
every action, the way that it's worded in Scripture
is a way that we should think about it.
And then he says, I need I don't I are set called La that I am the
Lord and I do all of these things. I do all of these things. So GOD,
ALLAH SubhanA, WA Tada for my monitor is God, a Buddha, the
creator, is the only creator. He's the only creator and he's a doer
of all actions. So God's omnipotence includes the power to
will that which is evil, from our perspective, right. So this is an
important concept, God's omnipotence, his Quadra includes
the power to will that which is evil, at least from our
perspective, so the rationalists they denied this, and they said
things like good and evil, have intrinsic properties. And that,
that the intellect knows, and that God is bound to act with it.
Right, so good and evil exist outside of God, as absolute
things,
they have intrinsic properties. And so God is bound to be good
according to what is good. So this whole idea is is a is a
philosophical
argument that is brought out by Plato,
the Euthyphro dilemma, right? Are things good because God says
they're good?
Or does God say they're good, so therefore they're good. This
argument ultimately, ultimately,
ALLAH SubhanA, what to Allah is the standard of good, right? Good
and Evil do not exist as they don't have any type of sort of
ontological existence up there in the ether somewhere distinct from
Allah subhanahu, WA, to Allah that Allah Subhana Allah is the one to
determine what is good and what is evil.
So this is what he's getting at here.
Just to give some more notes here, from the Orthodox tradition of
Judaism, the rabbi's say that, that faith emaan, which they call
a Munna, it requires the idea or element knowledge or Mandisa.
In other words, credulity, believing in something without
evidence is actually blameworthy. Right. So you must know that God
exists, you must know that within yourself, right? You have to prove
it to yourself that God exists. You have to find evidence of God's
existence find them. And now who? La ilaha illallah, as the Quran
says, know that there is no God, but Allah subhanahu wa taala.
Right, so the article, the article comes first, the article in Hebrew
is called the second. And it is a necessary condition of, of
knuckles. And we would concur with this. Right in order for you to be
tasked to believe in the revelation of God the knuckle, you
have to have intellect, it's a necessary condition. It's not a
sufficient condition because there are other conditions. Right? But
it certainly isn't necessary. So it's necessary for you to be able
to understand at least, like what is the difference if if we say for
example, God has neither Tathra or i Dad, my God has no no
multiplicity whatsoever, with respect to Kathrada, or i Dad,
right? To understand what that means, you know, like, this is one
pen, right? But this pen is composed of multiple things.
That's called Kathrada. So this has nothing to do with Allah
subhanaw taala you might have, you might have two pens, right? So a
plural of numbers, this has nothing to do with Allah subhanaw
taala men have three similar pets you have not have three pens that
in essence there, they have tennis, right, but one is blue,
one is red and one is black. So different attributes have one
essence that has nothing to do with Allah Subhana Allah to Allah.
So that's important. We'll get back to that idea as well. When we
talk about the rigid Oneness of Allah subhanho wa taala.
So
the rabbi's say that and Munna begins with the XFL. And so faith
begins, where the intellect stops, right, but the Sahel leads you to
faith, the Ockel the intellect leads you to faith, they are not
in conflict. Right, the XFL is not a hindrance to God, it can be
trusted, to a certain degree. When you lose, we use logic at some
point, logic will break down especially when we talk about God
we talked about that metaphysics. Allah subhanho wa taala. God is
greater than human logic. But we still use logic. So it's really a
faith based on evidence. Right? It's reasonable faith. Right, like
Richard Dawkins is incorrect. When he says that faith is belief
without evidence. That's not what it is at all. Right? You believe
because it is reasonable to believe it's reasonable to believe
in God again, that's the task of the dialectical theologian. That's
the task of my manatees in the delta delta A little higher in the
Guide for the Perplexed, why is it reasonable to believe in God?
Right? How is belief consistent with reason? It goes all the way
back to the pre Socratic the pre Socratics. Someone like
Heraclitus, who just looked at nature and in the Koran, we are
encouraged to look at nature. Look at what Heraclitus called logos we
talked about this last week as well. There's there's an ordering
principle in nature, things are ordered. Things are predictable in
nature. Right? He called that Lagace or logos the Quran says
AlFalah young Verona Illa EBk for holy thoughts, do they not look at
the camels and how they're created? Right look at the
creation of the camel it's incredible. Right?
Look at the heavens how we raised them hi, how we made the the earth
appear like a carpet. These are great signs. Look at Nature's
evidence of God, the island, right? That's what the world is
called. The island is related to the high Lama. It's a great sign
of Allah subhanho wa taala. So that's,
that's important. So Heraclitus he looked around, and he saw logos
now, later on another philosopher that's still pre Socratic. And
Sagaris I believe. He said, Look, if there's logos in nature, if
there's order in nature, then someone must have ordered it.
Right? There must be some grand intellect and he called it the
noose. The intellect the noose is the one who ordered the universe.
So that's what his intellect that's what his reason
compelled him to admit that there's order in the universe and
someone must have put it there. There must be some
intelligence that has ordered the universe.
Alright, so the rabbi's they speak of Ibrahim it is set up and they
call him up
I have a vino, our father Abraham, that he looked at creation. And he
came to know that God exists. Right? So Abraham, according to
the Jewish tradition was a type of evidential list,
right? That you look at evidence to arrive at faith in God. And
there's something of this in the Quran as well we find in sudo and
Ibrahim alayhi salam, looking at a star and najem have a rugby This
is my Lord, Fela, Fela. And then it said, This is not my lord.
Right? And then he saw the moon, this is my Lord hyva rugby and
then it said, Allah unless Allah Subhana Allah guides me I shall be
of those who are lost. And he saw the chumps the sun, I had to hear
up, this is my Lord, salam, I felt that and then it said, Alright, so
don't get the wrong idea here. There is no question of Ibrahim it
is
even entertaining the thought of worshipping these celestial
bodies. Right? This is his argument against his people. He's
trying to demonstrate to them the futility. In the worship of things
that are mutable, things that change, something is changing.
It's constantly changing, even if it's predictable. If it's
changing, then it's not eternal. If it's not eternal, then it
cannot be worshipped in its right. It's not a man who would be happy.
Right? So this is Allahu Allah, this is the point. This is what we
get from the argumentation. This is this is in a Mamata, but he
says there's a bit of sarcasm here that this is the argument he's
presenting to his people that you're worshipping these celestial
bodies. Right? He's trying to understand your thought process,
explain it to them and and try to drive home the futility of worship
have of creation.
Right, God cannot change because God is perfect, and you can't
improve on on perfection. Right. So the answer the anthropic
principle, right, the teleological argument.
Some people call this the argument, the argument for
intelligent design or fine tuning the great watchmaker analogy,
going back to William Paley.
So the Midrash, which is the word for Tafseer, in Hebrew, the
Midrash says that Ibrahim Ali Salam as a child, he figured this
out, by listening to his name Shama, this is a term in Hebrew
nation, which is trapped in his mind.
It's more like fitrah. Right, I would say kind of a theological or
moral compass, the level of the Soul that sort of pulls you
towards a greater understanding of the Divine. And this is the
purpose of
the Shabbat Yom Shabbat, Yama supped.
According
Judaism, set when the body is not working, you can listen to your
nation, you can listen to your moral compass, if you will, and
you reflect upon God and His greatness. Listen to your soul
without any type of worldly distractions. So this is a bit
akin to the match odd position of AKA, call that the Ockel Is there
enough evidence for the ACO to arrive at a creator god? Right.
But the intellect must be aided with Nakata to know the Shediac
the sacred law although the one could argue that there are Maroof
whether things are simply known through the intellect through
things through innate knowledge that's still given by Allah
subhana wa Tada it's given the by the and what up one who bestows.
That's a long a long argument about whether we have innate
knowledge or
whether we don't. Okay, so that's basically the first
the first point here, the first principle, just to recap it again,
God alone as a creator
is only one Creator. He is the direct DOER of all things the
primary cause the efficient cause That's principle number one.
Principle number two for my monitors. He says the same
beginning He says, I believe with sound faith, that the Creator
blessed be his name.
He says who Yeah, it hoo wah wah had I brought you mom at the how
is first statement in Lulla Washington la sharika. Alright, so
here I'm on it. He says God is ye feed which is why hid that's the
cognate he is one he is uniquely one. And then he continues there
and Yuffie doors como who assumed on him and there is not a human
weakness or oneness, like him, in any way, shape or form,
right, any way, shape or form, so a lot of emphasis, he continues to
say, and he by himself is our God who was, is, and will be, or that
that was our God, oh, and is our God and always will be our God
again very poetic here using the perfect tense and then immediately
the active participle, then the imperfect tense.
So basically here then, in this with this principle, God is
unique, and he's radically one and immutable. Right? He doesn't
change. Right now like a chapter three, verse six, I am the Lord
and I change not right? That Allah subhanaw taala is a Salam. Right.
And this is one of the words this is one of the names of God
according to the rabbinical tradition as well. It doesn't mean
the peace it means the perfect, God is perfect, he doesn't change
because he is perfect, and you cannot improve on perfection.
So the commentators also say here that God does not incarnate
into human flesh and become a human being. This would compromise
his radical uniqueness and his immutability.
He is also transcendent of space time and matter. Right.
So the word for uniqueness or an Arabic word Dunia,
the Hebrew equivalent is yucky, do your feet do what Ania. Right. And
the great statement in the Torah, the great,
monotheistic statement of the Torah is Deuteronomy six, four. So
remember Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the whole much. The fifth book of the
Five Books of Moses is called Deuteronomy. That's the that's the
English name taken from the Latin
or Greek, meaning second law. Six four of Deuteronomy, Shema
Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai. Aha, this is like their Shahada.
Right? So when one enters into Judaism, and one can convert into
Judaism,
there's there's an there's some sort of misunderstanding, popular
misunderstanding that Judaism does not allow proselyte or converts.
That's not true at all. You can convert to Judaism. And when one
does convert to Judaism, one will recite the Shema, the Shema,
Deuteronomy six, four, Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord
is one, right? And
devout Jews, they try to recite this as much as they can, they
want it to be the last words on their tongue before they die.
That God is a hot Adonai Eloheinu Adonai, a hard the word The Hebrew
word ephod is spelled exactly the same as I had, although Allahu
Ahad God is one.
And there's some interesting, curious parallels
to Plato, in the park amenities, for example, Plato refers to God
as to hen the one, right? Of course, Plotinus, who wrote a
neotys, who was the great formulator of Neo Platonism, which
is a third century religious interpretation of Plato, we have
this whole system, he's a system builder, the hierarchy of being
and so on, and so forth, and the Godhead consisting of the the one
that he said, talk, and then you have the logos, then you have the
Suquet, the spirit, right? We'll talk more about that when we get
to Christianity, because Christians borrowed from this
idea.
But even if you go back to Plato again, in the Timaeus, right, one
of his dialogues, he says that God looked around the world. And he
said, it was good. Right?
And that is very curious parallel to something we find in Genesis
one, when God is creating in stages on these different
what is the plural of Yeoman? In Hebrew? I think it's your meme. I
think it's a sound plural. We say I am an Arabic, God is when God is
creating different things on these yomim. After each day, he says key
tool. It is good. It is good. And this is something that Plato says,
And the time is there. Is this a legend, right? This is sort of ad
hoc. There's no strong evidence of this. But there's this legend,
very interesting that Plato was captured at Syracuse, and he was
enslaved, and he was brought to Egypt and Egypt at the time of
Plato.
at a pretty sizable Jewish population. I mean, Alexandria in
Egypt, would be one of the great Jewish capitals of the world, the
first place where the Torah was translated into Greek into any
other language. The first language was Greek, was in Alexandria,
Egypt in 250, before the Common Era. So there's there's a sizable
population of Jews living in Egypt. And the legend is that
Plato in Egypt, read the books of Moses. And he was highly
influenced in his metaphysics, right? Again, there's no evidence
of this conjecture, but it's an interesting theory. Of course,
Plato is much more metaphysical than someone like Aristotle, even
though Aristotle studied under Plato, if you've ever seen that
great painting of Raphael, right, it's called the academy, where you
have all these philosophers. And then right in the middle, on the
left side, I believe you have Plato, who's holding the Timaeus.
Right, his most metaphysical work, and he's pointing up like this,
because for Plato,
reality, that I mean, the real essences of things are found in
the celestial realm. What we have here are just shadows on the wall,
if you will. Right. So here, the famous theory of ideal forms, in
the celestial realm, the essences of things, right.
And, of course, the essence or the form of the good to agathon Is God
is the form of the good for Plato, this idea would be bothered would
be borrowed by middle Platanus, who are religious, and they would
say all of these forms
God's mind, right.
But Aristotle in that, in that painting, is to the right and he's
holding his ethics. And he's got his hand over the earth like this,
he's not pointing up, he's pointing parallel to the, to the
earth, because Aristotle is an empiricist. and a high, low
amorphous, and he believed that the essences are forms of things
are in matter itself, form or essence and matter are not
separate, as, as Plato taught. So that was a major difference of
opinion that Aristotle had with his teacher, Plato.
But nonetheless,
whatever happened here, it's an interesting curious parallel
between Genesis and some of the Platonic dialogues.
So Shema, right so the Shema, right there shahada begins with
hear,
Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one. And to hear
doesn't just mean to hear it means to receive to accept, really, it
means to obey, right? So the five senses, the five physical senses,
they correlate to different spiritual senses, if you will.
Right, there's sort of a correlation, dealing with
spirituality. So in Scripture to give you an example,
hearing something means to obey.
Right? Well call do some Yeah, now Wattana. They said, We believe we
hear and we obey. So this is these are synonymous. This is synonymic.
juxtaposition here. Right? They're synonyms. To hear something means
to obey, to see something means to understand. It's interesting I in
the Quran into the room, Illa, Houda, lyase. Maru.
Allah subhana, Allah to Allah speaking to the prophets of the
body, so when you call them to guidance, right? They don't hear,
what does it mean they don't hear. It didn't hear the words of the
Prophet said a lot. He said, No, of course, they've heard him. They
don't obey him. What taught our home young Dodona Ilica whether
you've grown, and you see them looking at you, but they didn't
see. You see them looking at you, but they don't see.
Right? To see something means to understand something, right? You
say that in English, so I'm gonna explain something to you because,
Ah, I see. Right?
And then you have three different degrees of experience, smell,
touch and taste, smell something, right. You don't quite touch it,
but you get something of it. And you touch something. That's a
deeper level of experience. And then you taste it. That's the
deepest. Right? You take it into your body, you accept it
completely. It's zoek. Imam Ghazali talks about this soap to
taste to one's faith. There's Hadith that mentioned the
sweetness of faith, the taste, right, the sweetness of faith.
So the shimmer
Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is One doesn't just mean
here. It means to obey.
Obey the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Right? So the rabbi's say that Hashem a heart, God is one. Yes.
It's not enough to just accept the rational proposition that God is
one. Just to give it some ear service, one must prove one's
faith. They say, by following the commandments, the myths vote, this
is the Hebrew term that's used in the Bible. mitzvot are
commandments.
Alright, right. So there are three requirements for the new convert.
Right? And I think the, the misunderstanding comes from
the idea that in Orthodox Judaism, as well as conservative Judaism,
it is not necessary for one to convert to Judaism in order to be
successful in both worlds. This is very interesting. Right? So Jews
and the Orthodox tradition, and the conservative tradition and
tradition and other reform as well. Although when we get to
Reformed Judaism, many of them don't even believe in God. So
we'll just talk about the Orthodox tradition.
There are seven laws that they call the Noah Hitec laws, the
Noahide laws and Noahide laws, they're called the,
the Shava. Myths for time, Bunny know off the seven laws of the
children of Noah,
for non Jews. So if you're born outside of the Jewish faith, or
your mother is not Jewish, if your mother is Jewish, then you have to
follow all 613 of the commandments. There's no way out
of it. You can't say I converted to Islam. Therefore, I'm just
going to follow the seven Noahide laws, and I'll be fine. That
conversion is not acceptable. If your mother is Jewish, you are
Jewish. So in Judaism,
the Jewish faith is path matrilineal ly the tribe comes
from the Father. You know, whatever you're trying to tribe of
Judah, the tribe of Levi, right? The tribe of Simeon is a car,
whoever you're whoever it might be the 12 tribes, but Jewishness is
passed through the mother. All right. Well, let's just say that
you're.
You're an Iranian like me, right? My mother is not Jewish. So if I
believed if and I kept the seven Noahide laws, and these so seven
Noahide laws.
Jews would argue our models, they're known, they're innate.
They're axiomatic. Right? Everybody knows them.
They are God is one or sometimes they explain it by saying that
there's the people know innately the futility of worshipping idols,
the futility of worshipping material things they know innately
that's wrong, even though a lot of people do that. It goes against
the fitrah. And of course, the fitrah can be
God is one not to steal, not to commit adultery, right
now,
not to murder, right?
Not to
normal, while it's still alive, basically what that means is
respect creation, respect, animals, respect all of creation,
set up Courts of Justice, is one of them as well.
See if I can I think I'm missing one here.
Oh, don't blaspheme God. Right. So, recognize there's a single
creator god, that's the first one and then not to blaspheme God or
curse God. So one recognizes that God is a creator, and he's all
powerful, and he's in he's the creator of us. He's the creator of
everything. And one knows not to dis be disrespectful towards God.
So those are the seven. So according to Judaism, if one if a
Gentile that's the word for non Jew or goy and Ebru if a goy
follows these seven Noahide laws, they will be successful in this
life and the next and the next life is what takes precedence.
They call it the alarm about the world to come. This is the alarm
Jose, this is this world. Right? And then there's an alarm haba
becoming world, right. What was he seven or eight o'clock so
rabbis are trained. If someone comes to them if a goy comes to
them and says I want to convert to Judaism, the rabbi's are trained
to turn that person away three times because for them
There's no need to convert to Judaism. If you follow the seven
Noahide laws, you'll be successful.
Right? But they say, if you become a Jew,
that the burden of spreading the light of L Earhart falls down on
your shoulders, now you have a great responsibility to spread the
light of monotheism to all the nations.
And you're going to fall short of that. And oftentimes in Jewish
history, you have what's known as collective punishment. You have
the Jewish nation being punished as a whole. So the rabbi's will
tell the proselyte if you want to convert, get ready for a lot of
trials and tribulations and musi bat, and so on and so forth. It's
not going to be easy. Or you can remain a non Jew, follow the seven
Noahide laws, and you'll go to the next life and you'll be in a good
state. So what's then the incentive for becoming a Jew?
Then? Why would anyone convert to Judah? Well, if you convert to
Judaism, and you keep all 613 commandments, right? And you do
them and you suffer in this world, you will have the highest of
stations and the next life. That's the incentive. So there's degrees
in the alarm about in the world to come.
I'm out of time. We'll continue talking about these principles
next time in sha Allah to Allah.
wa salam ala Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam, Al hamdu
Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salam alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh. So tonight, we're going to finish our section on the
religion of Judaism, inshallah. So last time, we ended
by looking at the first and second principles of Jewish faith as
articulated by Monty's in his mission on Torah.
So just to recap very quickly, he said, the first one is that God
alone is the creator and the direct DOER of all things. He's a
primary cause and efficient cause of all things.
And then number two, he said that God is unique and radically one
and immutable.
Right. So just by way of commentary, we talked about the
Shema is something equivalent, in some respects to our shahada,
Deuteronomy six four we mentioned that last time here or Israel, the
LORD our God, the Lord is one the great specification of the oneness
of God. So, the rabbi's say that one should say the Shema with
cover knock of another very important concept. In Judaism,
it means something like focus or humility or devotion, kind of
similar to what we would say is who Sure, or F loss. It's very
difficult to translate. Rabbi Akiva, according to the Gomorrah,
remember Gomorrah now is the rabbinical commentaries on the
mission of the oral law or the second half of the tongue. But
Rabbi Akiva, he is famous for reciting the Shema at his death,
he was actually killed by the Romans during the failed Bar
Kokhba revolt. In 135 of the Common Era, he actually endorsed
this man Simon Bar Kokhba as being the true Jewish Messiah. And Bar
Kokhba actually was able to
defeat the Roman
legions at Fort Antonia in Jerusalem was actually able to
seize the temple at some point, but he was killed thereafter in
battle. But according to the Gomorrah, Akiva, his final words
were the Shema. According to many eyewitnesses, many of the Jews
that were going to a gas chambers during the Holocaust, they were
heard reciting the Shema, again, that's Deuteronomy six, four. So
the Emona of Adel had the faith or the belief in one God, this is,
according to Jews, the Jewish contribution to the world, right?
That they brought the light of Tawheed to all the nations to the
game. So we would have issues very problematic statement. We would
say, for example, that I mean,
the term Judaism as we said, it's anachronistic to use at the time
of Abraham or Noah. There was no such thing as Judaism at the time
of, of Ibrahim Ali salaam, the term Judaism. The eponym of
Judaism is Judah, who's or Yehuda, who's one of the the old
The older sons of Jacob, of course, Jacob is the grandson of
Ibrahim of Abraham.
So in the Quran makes this clear Makana Ibrahim Oh yah hoo Dee and
that Abraham was not a Jew. It doesn't make sense to call him a
Jew. It's anachronistic. It's kind of like saying
George Washington was a fan of the Washington Nationals. Right? There
was no such thing as major league baseball at the time. It's
anachronistic. It's a bit ridiculous to say that. Right? So
we would say that all of these prophets, Abraham, no, Adam, all
of them were Muslim. They were submitters unto God, but this is
Jewish theology. So the Jews believed that he had monotheism.
Yes, he does. monotheism is the Jewish contribution to the world,
and that the Jews were chosen to bring the light of the One God to
the world. So this is the essence, this is the definition of their
chosen pneus. Right? We hear this phrase, the chosen people, why are
they chosen? They're chosen to bring to hate to the nations to
the world, right? This is the nature of their chosen. So it's,
it's really seeing now as a burden, and something that
that is a major responsibility. That's how they actually look at
it. Right? The poet said how odd of God to choose the Jews, right?
Just two lines of poetry, quick poetry. And this is mentioned in
the Quran, only Fidel to whom Allah al Amin, right where Allah
subhanaw taala speaks in the first person and I chose you. Yeah,
Benny is Salah, ILAs the context, and I chose you, above all of the
nations. Right? Why were they chosen? What's the nature of this
chosen this? They were chosen to bring the light of monotheism to
the nations but certainly monotheism existed in our
conception of sacred history. Way before Benny Surah Al way before
Musar days, even before Abraham, Ibrahim Ali Salam.
So the rabbi's go on to say
that
that physicality has nothing to do with God, physicality implies
limitation. God is not physical, he's not corporeal.
Right. So there may be one US president, but he is not unique.
Right. There's one Wahid US President. But he's not a had.
He's not unique. So he's flesh and blood, all like all other mammals.
Use in space time. So again, getting to this, this
differentiation between distinction between Wocket and
ahead. And again, many of our theologians say that they're
absolutely synonymous. But others would say no, God is, for example,
wide in a sea fat has attributes but I had in his essence, we
mentioned last time, probably the Hebrew equivalent to why it is
yeah, feed, which is a term that's used by manatees, it's from the
same exact route. And it can, it can denote this type of eternal
oneness with God that he's one person, meaning one consciousness,
that there's no multiplicity in the so called God had a simple
unity. Of course, by simple we don't mean unintelligent, we mean
indivisible, radically one, right? Whereas I had, which the quote the
equivalent is in Deuteronomy six four in the Shema, if God exists
again the same exact word, from the same root, denotes His
external oneness, that he his utter uniqueness, right that
nothing in creation resembles him whatsoever. Right well qualified
to kneel, however, if other dissimilarity to creation.
Now the rabbi's go on to say that it is permissible for Jews to pray
in a mosque as long as they face the quotes Euro Shalom Jerusalem.
It is not considered idolatry because Muslims worship a heart.
Muslims worship the one true God. Right. So for the most part, our
theology is correct. They have issues with our Prophet ology.
Right. And our Aqeedah with respect to sacred texts, and we'll
talk about that, but our theology really I would say that the
differences are, are minor.
However, they mentioned that the she louche that's the Hebrew term
she louche Arabic is a tat. What is the Arabic term?
Leaf leaf right? Well, that's a call with Eliza test the Trinity.
She loses the Trinity is
considered idolatry according to almost all the consensus of at
least a classical Jewish authorities, they call this
evidence Zara of who does Zara who does a bad Zara means false?
Right? So false worship or idolatry because the Trinity and
we'll talk about the Trinity next week in sha Allah and the week
after that the Trinity involves what's known as hypostatic
multiplicity, this idea that there are multiple persons of God, that
there are three separate and distinct persons of God, and that
all three are co eternal and CO substantial. CO equal, this is
highly problematic for my monitors so he doesn't consider this to be
correct theology by any means.
So all of the major rabbis they say that belief in the truth or
the solution is Apple does Zara is in Shrek. The Rabbi's are famous
for saying to you smile, to had Ishmael Velocita had a dome. We
would rather live under Ishmael meaning the Arabs or Muslims
rather than under a dome or Rome or the Christians. If you look
throughout Jewish history, the Jews really flourished under
Muslim caliphates. Especially when we look at Muslim Spain Muslim
North Africa. Jewish systematic theology was born in Muslim Spain.
Right. My mom oddities. Joseph albeau, Judah Halevy. sadya. Guy
on these are the great Jewish thinkers and philosophers
systematic theologians. Most of them actually wrote in Arabic,
that was their primary language. My monitor is wrote the,
the, the Guide for the Perplexed to the Latin high ed, and he wrote
it actually in Arabic, it was translated later into Hebrew. But
if you look at Jewish communities living in Christendom, or
Christian Europe, it was very precarious. And oftentimes, they
were pilgrims set against them that sort of state sponsored
terrorism or persecution. They were exiled several times, twice
from England twice from France, a couple of times, they think also
from Austria. The plague was blamed on them. Because
Jewish communities that wet were more that were actually living in
their own cloistered communities at the time, they did not mix with
the going in until much, much later, we're talking maybe, you
know, 17th 18th centuries 17th or 18th century when they actually
started to intermix and live among the Gentiles. But in the Middle
Ages, you have the Christians dying, you know, something like
40%, of, of Christendom was decimated by the Black Plague, the
bubonic plague, but the Jewish community is relatively
unaffected. So of course they escaped go to this is because of
you, your killers of Christ, this type of thing, you've cursed us.
And the reason why the Jews weren't dying from the plague is
because there's a Seder, there's a chapter in the Mishnah, which is
called toe rot, which babble taharah right? So the Jews had
these ideas of cleanliness of horsell of wudu of no Jassa right
and that's where the disease you know, from fleas and from rats and
things like that.
So there's that famous statement we'd rather live under each my
alias married IDs and I'm Arabs are usually the Muslims are
referred to in rabbinical literature. As Ishmael Ishmael
lights. I monitor these refers to the prophet as that Ishmael light
for example, in the Mishnah Torah.
The Rabbi say something interesting to say Christianity is
like a pig. The pig appears to be kosher. So what is kosher
according to you know, we say kosher cash route. What is what is
halal for a Jew to eat? At least for the Orthodox and conservative
animals that have a cloven hoof and chew the cud?
Right, so like an animal that can eat food, it's called a ruminant.
It can bring it back up and chew it later, like a cow, or a goat. A
sheep can do that a giraffe can do that giraffe is actually kosher.
But camels don't camel is not kosher.
So they're saying Christianity is like a pig. You know, the pig has
a split hoof but it does not chew the cud. So in other words, we're
saying Christianity looks great. It sounds great on the outside.
Right? It looks good on the outside, but it's deceptive.
Right? So Christianity, you know, if you if you talk to Christians,
there's a strong emphasis on relationship and love of God,
which is great, you know, we believe in those things as well.
But when the Shetty is,
is not emphasized, and there's nothing to ground you, then you
start saying deviant things, right. So there's that famous
statement of
Imam Malik even when as the Imam of Medina, who said that whoever
studies
to so wolf when you use that term, right, we say Sufism and not
necessarily like that or to so with Ali Hassan animus Sulu, right
Alma Tez Kia it has different Esma
according to them Abadi al Asha
for the signs of have to sell off. He said whoever studies to soloth
but did not engage in fic in Sharia socket to Zen Dhaka right
that he will be he will become a xindi that he will become a
heretic. That's what the word is in deaath means or an unbeliever.
Right. So it's very dangerous state, but whoever studies FIP
Chetty Ah, but did not study to so wolf socket to first suck up will
become a facet, which is not as bad as as India, right? It's
better to err on the side of the Shediac. Right? It says, whoever,
woman the gem, Albina, Houma, Taka, Taka, Taka and Whoever joins
the two will actualize the truth. Right.
So
the rabbi's also mentioned, for example, you shouldn't walk next
to a church. Right? I mean, it's not an official mitzvah. Right?
The 613 mitzvot are in the Torah. And the Talmud, really, in the
Torah, they're all they're going to my Montes is his
enumeration of the 613 commandments. But this is a strong
recommendation given by the rabbi's. That if you're walking
down the street and you see a church, you should cross the
street, because it's good to keep a safe distance from all from all
idolatry. So it's actually prohibited for a Jew to walk into
a church. And the Orthodox would even say it's prohibited to go for
for an orthodox rabbi or an Orthodox Jew to go into a reform
synagogue, because there isn't a total commitment to all of the
mitzvot in the reformed in the reformed synagogue, reformed
temple.
Questions about the kippah the Kipper is the small skullcap that
Jewish men tend to wear.
And this is a mitzvah it is a commandment. It's called the
kippah in Hebrew, which means to cover it's called a yarmulke, in
Yiddish, which is a sort of kind of a dead language, but it was
spoken by Jews in Eastern Europe in the second century.
The purpose of it is to remind the Jewish man that there's something
above him at all times, and Jewish women are also supposed to wear a
something to cover their head, something like a hijab. Sometimes,
if you go to a an Orthodox community on the east coast,
the cultural practices that girls would get married, and then they
would shave their heads and wear a wig. Right? So it's kind of a
so the point is not to show your real hair.
Okay.
So that's the second principle then God is unique and radically
one and immutable. Before we move on a couple more things I want to
say about that.
That's more focused on the theology rather than the practice.
We mentioned last week that my Montes was a negative theologian.
Right? He was a negative theologian, and many of the great
systematic theologians of Judaism, Joseph albeau, and others by EBU
pakoda they tended to be
negative theologians, apophatic theologians, right?
So they would they would engage the theological approach of
negation, and this is called Allahu Sundby, and Arabic, and
it's generally considered to be a safer way to theology dies, what
does it mean to theology dies, right? theosophy means God. Lagace
means many things, word or reason, so to speak reasonably, so to
speak about God, it's better to talk about in other words, it's
better to talk about who or what God is not rather than who or what
God is. Right? So even Hinduism has a theological approach that is
akin to negative theology is called near guna Brahmanism. And
we'll talk about that in sha Allah when we get to Hinduism, it
Shankara calls it neti neti theology, he sort of the champion
of of what's called Trans personalism or near guna
Brahmanism, which means not this, not this, nothing in nothing that
you see in the so called Creation
is and I said so called Creation. We'll talk about what that means
in Judaism, sorry, in Hinduism, because everything is ultimately
an allusion in Hinduism. Nothing is actually God. That you see.
Right. He is utterly transcendent.
So why theologies like this, again to uphold God's radical
uniqueness, right? His UFC dudes, his wife dionaea, because God's
nature is holy other. So if you look at the first two
commandments, right, so we talked about, you know, a 10 commandments
famous movie made
in the 19, I guess was in the late 50s, Charlton Heston is Moses, the
10 commandments, I think they made another, a couple more Moses
movies after that they weren't very good. And that movie is not
very good. It's not very accurate, according to the Bible anyway. But
everyone has heard of the 10 commandments, but that's only 10
of them. Those are the sort of attainment and main commandments
but as we said, Jews believed that there are 613 commandments. But
let's look at the first two commandments. So you will find
this in the book of Exodus chapter 20, right at the beginning of
chapter 20, to remember x Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, the five books, the Pentateuch, the whole mash, right?
The five scrolls of Moses, this is the second book, Moses is on the
mountain. And God says to him, that I am the Lord thy God, right,
who brought you out of the house of bondage out of Egypt at
Mitzrayim. And then he says, Lo, yeh laka Elohim al openeye, you
shall not have any other gods before me. Right? So this is the
first commandment, that the God that brought the Israelites out of
Egypt, he's the only God. Right? And when it says, You shall have
no other gods, you know, that doesn't mean that there are other
gods. Right? What that means is, that you shall have no other so
called Gods You shall not worship anything else other than me
because the God that is bringing you out of Egypt is the only true
God right? So we find that term Alia in the Quran also, like the
people of Abraham, it is to them. They were devoted to their adding
their gods, those aren't really Gods so called Gods. Right? So
that's the first commandment. And then he says, low to high c'est la
Ficelle the quilter Mona Asha, Misha,
Misha mining Niall. So now we're getting into the second
commandment, it's kind of a long one. He says, God again speaking
directly to Moses, and by extension, so luck out. So this is
the capital V top, so speaking in second person masculine singular
to Moses. But as we as Imam Shafi says about the Quran, whenever
Allah speaks to the prophets of Soleimani, Salam in the Quran
directly.
It is also by extension to the OMA unless it's very obvious that it's
only speaking to him. Right? So in this case, the rabbi's would say
to Moses, and by extension, the arm, you said, I have the bunnies
slide, right? The children of Israel.
So he says, You shall not make unto yourself the likeness of any
image, which is in the heavens.
Above you reminded the ASHA audits the target, or the likeness or the
image of anything, which is in the earth or on the earth below you.
But Asha, the Mei Yin, with the audits, or the likeness, or the
image of anything that is in the water beneath the earth, right. So
that covers everything that covers the universe, everything above the
Earth, on or in the earth below the earth, right? There's nothing
like God, there's the first two commandments of Exodus.
Right? We talked about numbers 2319, or we talked about that low
Eesh Ale, God is not a man that he should lie. And we mentioned that
Rabbi a bottle of says Urrea, who died in 320.
of the Common Era who was actually a, a brilliant orator and a
defender of, of Jewish faith in the face of the Christians.
He was sort of an anti Christian polemicist, or apologist Jewish
apologist. He said, the meaning of that is that whoever claims to be
God as a liar, that's that's what the Hebrew actually means.
According to Rabbi, a bottle of Cezary. Right, we talked about
Hosea 11, nine, key and ova live Hello Eesh Indeed, I am God and
not a man. mutually exclusive. God and man, right.
Isaiah 55 Eight is a very famous verse of transcendence, all of
deutero Isaiah So according to you
historians of the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah actually has
three authors. It was authored at three different times. So you have
proto Isaiah from chapter one, to chapter 39. And then chapters 40
to 66 is called deutero. Isaiah, and it's really an deutero Isaiah
where you get a strong teaching of God's transcendence. And then
after that you have treato, Isaiah, a third Isaiah until the
end of the book, but in deutero, Isaiah, basically,
if you believe that God exists,
literally within the four elements, then you're a mushrik.
Then you're an idolatry. God is transcendent. So 55, eight of
Isaiah is right there. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are
My ways your ways. Right? Or Isaiah 40 Chapter 20. Sorry,
chapter 40 Verse 25. To whom will you like in me? Right? It's a
rhetorical question. Nothing is like God. In fact, the name
Michael in Arabic. Sorry, the name Michael in Hebrew. It's Hebrew in
origin. It's also you know, me cat or Mikael, it's in the Quran. The
name of one of the archangels but its origin is Hebrew. Mi ka al mi
means man, who in Arabic, and then CA is the calf. Calf Leticia BIA,
like we say Lisa, calm Miss Li che one. Right? So man, cha, ale ail
Allah, or ILA who was like God, it's a rhetorical question. It
doesn't mean a man's a man whose name is Michael is like God, it
doesn't mean that it's his name is a rhetorical question who is like
God? Nobody is the answer. It's already understood that you know
the answer. That's the point of a stiff hammer chocolatier. You
already know the answer to the question. It's really just a
reminder. Right?
Okay, so negative theology.
So according to my mind at ease, right, when referring to God's
nature or essence,
right, so, according to my monitors, the name of God's
essence, is the tetragrammaton.
The four letter word, those are the four letters that you find all
throughout the Hebrew Bible. Right? That's the sort of initials
of God's name, right? Yod Hey, Vav Hey, yo, hey, Vav Hey, right. So
you'll see that in the Hebrew you'll see it. Usually in English,
it's just translated as Lord with a capital L. Or Lord, all letters,
bow in caps. But that's actually the four letter name of God are
the initials of God. Now, how do you articulate your Hey vav Hey,
the articulation is not known for sure.
Once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of
the Jewish calendar, the high priests of the temple who was
called the hot Cohan, a duel, you would go into the
Kadosh shim the holy of holies inside the temple, right, the
Beit, what's called the Beit Mikdash need to knock this in
Jerusalem, you would go into the innermost chamber on Yom Kippur
war, and he would pronounce the the holy name of God the actual
small album of God. Right, the initials of which are Yod. Hey vav
Hey yhW H. So the high priest knew the name. And he would make a a
Toba on behalf of all of Israel by calling on God's most sacred name
to tshuva or Toba repentance. And then he would pass knowledge of
the name to his successor and he would pass it to his successor and
so on and so forth. But since the temple is destroyed, and 70 by the
Romans, General Titus, the priesthood is gone. No more
sacrifices. Right? The name has become lost.
But my monitor is the yard. Hey, Vav. Hey, the tetragrammaton, the
Shem, Hama frosh, as it's called in Hebrew, this is the name of
God's essence.
All right, and generally, the Orthodox agree with him. The
Kabbalah a text of Jewish mysticism. It disagrees with this
and says that the actual name of God's essence is ain solf, which
means the one who was without limit. The limitless that's the
name of God's essence. Other rabbis they use the name ma hoot.
Now, hoot so
right in the middle of Mahieu, do you have the who are the letters
in Hebrew? Hey involve? Or ha and wow. And in Arabic? Also, if you
look at that tetragrammaton again, your Hey vav Hey, right in the
middle again, you have the Pooh bah. Right? So these are the
prominent letters of the sacred name of God. And oftentimes in the
Hebrew Bible, the tetragrammaton is shortened by just who, right?
For example, the name Elijah. Elijah in Hebrew is Eliyahu. Le
means my god, Yahoo is Yahoo. Right? Which is, again, a
shortened
way of articulating a yawn. Hey, Vav, Hey, but how to actually
articulate all four letters is not decisively known, of course, and
it's actually impermissible and a mortal sin for Jews to try to
articulate
that tetragrammaton
the Christians of course, they don't have these religious
scruples. So you'll find for example, Jehovah Witnesses, their
their claim to fame, is that the yod Hey, Vav, Hey, is pronounced
Jehovah. Right? So they'll come to your door and they say, Do you
know the name of God? And you know, the country of Muslim house
and the Muslims say Allah? And they you know, that's not a name.
That's a title. Of course, we say no, it's actually a name. And
there's a debate.
But they're trained that No, Allah is a title. It's from the God and
that's a minority opinion.
Anyhow, so we can ask them, How do you get Jehovah? And they say,
well, from the tetragrammaton Yod. Hey, Vav Hey, why h w h. So we
asked him then, okay, those are four consonants. How do you know
how to vowel it?
And 100% of the time 100% of the time, the Jehovah's witness will
have no answer for you.
And then you say, Okay, fine. That's how you vowel it. So,
Jehovah. So Jehovah with a J, and they say, yes, but this is a yoed
in Hebrew. How do you go from a Yoda to A J? And again, 90 90% of
the time, they won't have an answer for so it's conjecture,
they really don't know. Right? Others will say Yahoo a lot. You
hear that? A lot to Yahoo way. Right? It just seems to roll off
the tongue. So that might be what it is.
My My opinion is it's probably yes, that
yes, that is a fairly modern era. It's a present tense verb, in
perfect tense, which means he is right. So verb meaning he is and
continues to be.
Right? And then the shortened form of it who are who are is the third
person masculine pronoun, which again means he is but it's a
pronoun, this time, it's not an actual verb. Right? Even r&b. He
says ha hoot. As a possible name of the essence of God.
Hoot. So again, that Hua is in the middle. Imam Razi suggests that
who is and Israel Adam, Allahu La Isla Illa Hua, there is no god but
who are called who are Allah Who Allahu Ahad say Who is Allah Ahad?
Hua that's the Isml Adam, Allahu Allah, there's difference of
opinion.
Nonetheless, according to my Montes, when referring to God's
essence or nature, there are three main attributes existing
theologians would agree that the CIFA to Neff Sia, sort of the
the core attribute of God is existence and it's not an
accident. The attributes and accidents are different. A God
doesn't have accidents is an essence and attributes. Right, the
attributes are necessary, X accidents are not net are not
necessary. So it was an accident that
I was born Iranian
and have a white beard now that's an accident. If I was not born
Iranian, and my beard was black, I would still be me. It's not
essential to my nature. That's an accident. But the fact that I have
an intellect that is an attribute of me if I do not have intellect,
and I wouldn't be classified as the rational animal, right, as the
human being the homo sapiens, the homo sapiens means the the
rational
A human being, right. So intellect is an attribute of the human
being, whereas skin color, eye color, so on and so forth. All of
these things are accidents, they're only possible they're not
necessary. It could have been different. If I had different
color eyes, if I had no eyes, I would still be a human being that
was blind and still be a human being.
Okay?
So, existence, unity and eternity, three main attributes, according
to my manatees, and even these, he says we should understand them
negatively. So it's better to say, God is not non existent. It's
better to put things negatively. It's better to say that God that
with God, there is no plurality or multiplicity
associated with him whatsoever, we talked about Kathira and added and
so on and so forth. It's better to say that God is not bound by time
right. So, so, even these core attributes is articulated by month
by month, these are better to put them negatively however, he says,
when we may speak of God positively. So, in other words,
cada fatica Lee, so, if apophatic negatively, katha fatik positively
for the notetakers, you can make Katha phatic expressions, positive
expressions of God, but only in reference to a divine action in
Scripture. So, for my monitor is one cannot speak positively about
God in any way, shape, or form, unless one relates relates it to
an action that was done in in Scripture. I'll give you an
example. So, if you say for example, God is good in any
language. So in Hebrew, right, you would say I do Knight Tov, or Tov
Elohim right. So, in English, God is good. So, God, there is the
subject and ted.is is called the copula to verb, the linking verb
and and good is the predicate or the Hubble, this is a cat of fatik
expression.
My modernities would say that expression is schicke. It is
idolatry, to make that statement, God is good period, idolatry,
because we did not relate it to an action. And also you can say mo
che Tov in Hebrew, Moses,
Shalom,
shalom alive or Allah His salam, peace be upon him. Moses is good.
So good, the predicate good, the word good. The the, the noun good,
can be predicated of many things.
Right? So how can you possibly use the same predicate for God and
Moses?
Alright, so for my mind, it is that's a big problem to do from a
Aki to standpoint, your qualifying God, the same noun that your
qualifying Moses are saying, using the same noun. So that's
problematic. So from my mind, as you would have to say something
like God is good or he is all good because he led the Jews out of
Egypt and defeated the Pharaoh or something like that.
So you can make a cattle static expression, you can make a
positive statement about God as long as you use it in sort of the
superlative and then relate it to something that God actually did in
Scripture. So the Divine Names for my monitors are simply and
strictly descriptions of God's actions. That's all they are. The
Divine Names of God, in the Tanakh in the Hebrew Bible, are simply
and strictly descriptions of God's actions. So referring to God as
king like Meles, right, while not referencing an action in Scripture
is shidduch is idolatry. According to my Montes, because King can be
predicated of many different human beings. Right.
Dahveed Ha, Mela, King David Shlomo Hamelech King Solomon,
right. So it's it's God's action that makes him unique, not his
names. No one can do God's actions. Solomon and David, not
even Moses can bring the has the power intrinsically, to bring
anyone out of Egypt and defeat the Pharaoh. Moses didn't do that.
Moses was the vehicle through which God actually did it.
Remember, God is the doer of all actions. He's on file free agent,
as my monitor is articulated in his first principle.
Okay. My monitor he says something interesting. He says if you
You praise a king who possesses millions of gold pieces for
possessing millions of silver pieces, then you're actually
disparaging and insulting the king. Even though your intention
is to Praise the king, look at this king. He has so many millions
of silver pieces while he actually has gold pieces. Your intention is
to praise him but you're actually insulting and disparaging him.
Aquinas said even the praise of God is extremely remote from his
reality and praising God actually requires a repentance, the praise
of God, forget about the cursing of God, disbelief in God. So one
is over the praising of God because you're using language and
language is created God is uncreated.
Right?
So positive attributes may not be assigned to God, unless these
refer to God's actions in Scripture. God is powerful because
he did this. He saved us from the Pharaoh. Right? So all divine
names are derived from God's actions in Scripture, according to
my monitor. These are the words Jews cannot say that these names
of God and this is my mind and his opinion, these names of God had no
reality until after the creation of the world, according to my
manatees. So God is King like Meles and shepherd, Rory, and Sal
and God is the rock. You know.
The exception to that is the tetragrammaton. The Yoda gave off
Hey, because my monitor is that that actually refers to God's
essence. And God's essence was was existent. It's a necessary
existence, obviously, before creation, but if you say before
creation, that God was many olam is the king of Rabbul aalameen.
Medical, I mean, for example, then that is too speculative. For my
monitors. It's, you know, it's true in principle, but my monitor
is just does not want to go there. It's too conjectural because these
names are describing God's actions.
That's what they're doing. So we cannot talk about God's essence by
using these names before he actually the action. Of course,
you mama to how he says something very interesting in his creed. He
says that God can be his most Soufan be Jimmy see fatty, he mean
as a leader, that, that God Allah subhanaw taala is can be described
by all of his attributes from tree eternality because the capacity to
create is always with God is always with all
right.
So
so he says, it's the hotpot is smell Harlock herbal Hulk, he
merits he deserves the name.
The Creator even before creation, He merits the name Rob even before
mirboo He merits the name Lord, even before anything to lord over
any creation, he means because the divine
omnipotence, the potential, the full potential and capacity is
there to create. So I'm sitting right now, or this one, the
learning method and there's just an example to sort of, maybe bring
our understandings
I'm sitting right now. But you can still describe me as I call him
the standard because I have an ability to stand. Now that ability
could be taken away from me. Right? Because Allah subhana was
allah God is in control of all things. He can incapacitate me
look at Allah. But the fact that I'm sitting now doesn't mean that
I can't stand that you can't describe me as a stander, you can
describe me as a standard because I have that ability. So with with
God, just because he did not create he merits the name Holic
and nothing can incapacitate him. So he makes a decision out of his
absolute volition within his nature to create nothing can stop
his Iraida right, he is intrinsically independent.
Right? So my monitors would disagree with that. And say that's
just too speculative. Don't talk about God's essence. Before
creation. That's that's conjecture. Don't go there. The
names of God are describing his actions and scriptures full stop.
Okay.
Now returning now, so that was now we can go to the third principle
where he begins by saying the same way anymore. I mean, the Omona
Shalina. Should have voted if Barack schmo I believe with
With complete faith that the Creator blessed be his name.
He says
you know, goof that he's not a body It just
ain't low soon demyan color and there is there is not for him any
likeness whatsoever
right? He's not a a body he's not matter. Like it just America but
compounded, compounded body does not he's not composed of anything.
There's nothing like him what's so at least a committee he shaylen.
And what's interesting is that this statement was actually a bit
controversial in 12th century Judaism, because many rabbis
tended to be literalists they were thought ear when it came to the
turnoff, right? They were majeste Sima they were anthropomorphise.
So they actually denied that the Bible has the Hebrew Bible had a
Modjadji meaning didn't have a figurative meaning. Everything was
happy. Everything was literal. It's very problematic. Moses has
been Tuku, for example, was one of the famous anthropomorphise
rabbis. He died in 1290.
A few decades after the death of my manatees, where he said, The
Tanaka is happy. It's absolutely literal. Like in Psalm 18, it
says, God has ears is he? Yeah, he has ears. And, you know, they're,
they're, they're, you know, physical ears. And he has, you
know, it says, smoke exuded from the nostrils of God in the Psalms.
Right? It says, Yeah, that's exactly literally what happened.
How does how do how does my monitors deal with with chap with
passages like this? Well, the tunnel has what we would call work
on that and with the shabby hat, and these terms are Quranic right?
More Commands or verses. So I yet work on that. We're all
hieromartyr shabby hat. Right? So and I am with the shabby Ha, is a
verse in the Quran that is on the face very clearly understood kind
of one dimensional, even in translation very clearly
understood.
What can that and you know, as the name suggests that there's,
there's the verse of legal import, right? Or what we would say in
what Jews would say in Judaism. It's halakhic. It relates to the
Holocaust, right? There's a juristic aspect to that.
And then you have much a shabby hat, which are obscure verses or
polyvalent verses that are not easily grasped. They require some
study, they require commentary. They may be theological, they may
be anthropomorphic, right? Yadda yadda, Allah He FOCA ad and the
yet of God is above their hands, and yet is usually translated his
hands, what does it mean God has a hand, God's hand is above their
hand. What does that mean? God has a physical hand. Right? No, it
doesn't mean that at least it can mean for the day one. So
the best examples, the quintessential example of an ion
with a Shabbiha, right of a pistol, which is the word for it
in Hebrew. That is anthropomorphic, in the Torah is
Exodus 3323. Right? The quintessential anthropomorphic
verse. So this is when this is when Moses asks to see God's face.
He said, Let me see your * in your face. And God says, you'll
see my whole, you'll see my back. So what does this mean? So my
monitor is engages, and we'll chat we esoteric exegesis of the, of
the tourism with the shabby hat. In other words, he interprets
these verses in light of God's transcendence. Right? And this is
the whole project of the guide of his magnum opus, delighted to
write the modern Neville theme, the Guide for the Perplexed, what
is he trying to do? He's trying to bring together knuckle inocle
Revelation and reason. Right, and preserve 10 Z, preserve
transcendence of God.
So,
this is what he says. Now, before we get to my monitors.
There was a another theologian that preceded my monitors. He died
in the 10th century. His name was Sathya gyaan. And he was probably
the very first Jewish systematic theologian, very, very famous,
wrote in Arabic also, his book is called beliefs and opinions.
Kitab Al Anon.
not Well, yeah, the car that I believe is the actual title. And
then it was later translated as safer MO Not or something like
that. I don't remember exactly the Hebrew title. But sadly a guy on
he lived in Iraq, he also did an incredible translation of the
entire Hebrew Bible into Arabic. And Hebrew and Arabic are very
close. It is by far the best translation of the Hebrew ever
done.
So how to Sadie a guy on how does he deal with this? You know,
you'll see you won't see my face, you'll see my back. So he says,
seeing the back of God means
seeing, it means
seeing a creative light,
right, which which he calls the Shekinah, which is related to the
Arabic Sakina. The sheffey now represents God's presence on
Earth. It's a symbol of God's presence. It doesn't mean it's not
God's presence, literally, it symbolizes God's presence or
tofield. Right, this created light that Moses would see, when he
would go into the Mishcon, the tabernacle of meeting, the sort of
portable temple. The prefigure ment of the actual Temple in
Jerusalem, right temple that Moses would go into in the Sinai
Peninsula, and he would speak with God. A Saudia says, When God
wanted to speak to Moses, he would create a light in front of Moses,
telling Moses getting his attention, essentially, right in
this light is called the Sheffy na.
And this light was so brilliant that Moses could not look at it.
He can only look at it when the light was sort of leaving, and he
would sort of see the tail end of it. And Saudia says that sort of
tail end of the light. That's the whole, I don't know, that's the
back of God. So he takes the passage as total majaz. It's,
it's, it's a figurative expression. Seeing the back of God
for Moses means that he saw I created light that God would
manifest in the tabernacle of meaning, and after some point, and
actually says, an exodus, that Moses had to wear a veil over his
face, because the light was beginning to shine off his own
face, and it was a blinding light. So he would wear a veil.
Right? So the cheffing Act is an intermediary between God and human
beings, during prophetic encounters. Now my monitor is he
agrees with Sandia, with respect to the Shekinah.
But he adds an interesting esoteric dimension, by the way,
the rabbi's quote from the Talmud, that says, the sages, meaning the
rabbinical sages, they teach that the Torah speaks in the language
of man.
Right, so this is why there's with a shabby hat, in the Hebrew Bible,
this is why there's anthropomorphic verses in the
Bible.
Right? Because it's trying to communicate something true that
you can understand, but it's not literally true.
It's, it's its rhetoric, it's very effective form of rhetoric. Right,
and God has to, in a sense, condescend, as it were, to speak
to us, as one of my teacher said, like a mother has to sort of
condescend to speak to her, her young child, if a mother wants a
toddler to, you know, finish his meal, you know, you can't sit down
and reason with a toddler, you have to eat this because it's
nutritious. And, you know, so you can't do that you have to sort of
make a game out of it, or you have to sort of use different in
donations and things like that. So, so in order for us to
understand right
theology and understand the will of God, God has to use expressions
that we can relate to.
And that's that's the purpose of these anthropomorphic verses, but
they have to be interpreted in the light of transcendence. I'll be
done in five minutes. Inshallah. So then my monnalisa, he adds a
interesting, esoteric dimension. So he says, yes, the back of the
Sheki. Now that's true. But what is the Panay? I do nine, what is
the face of logical law? What is the face of God? My mind it says,
the face of God refers to an intense, clear knowledge
or a complete apprehension or comprehension of God. So it
comprehension of God is impossible for any human being. That yeah,
only for Allah Illallah no one really comp, no one really
comprehends has it DRock Allah of Allah subhanho wa Taala other than
God himself, so it's impossible. You know, Moses is at can ice can
I comprehend you as you comprehend yourself? Right. And of course
From an Islamic standpoint, that's a problematic request. According
to many of the theologians, the prophet would not ask for
something that's impossible. Inconceivable, considered bad
Adam, but this is the opinion of my manatees. Whereas the back of
God the whole Adonai
is a reference to the knowledge of God which man can no
man's capacity is to only know the quote back of God, to have mattify
of God. Right. So in other words, Moses seeing the back of God means
that Moses had the most naughty federal law, the most
Gnosis
the most intimate knowledge of God that is possible for a human being
to have, right
yeah.
So none of the none of the rules of physics apply to God.
Certainly not Newtonian physics. He transcends physicality
completely.
Getting into a little bit of the Halacha Jewish law, no iconography
of God or even human beings or even celestial bodies are allowed
in Orthodox Holika. So even like painting pictures of planets, or
human beings, animals are okay, it's it seems as long as there's
something sort of left off like an eye is left off, and there's some
deformity given.
Most rabbis were against to swear photography, even with the dolls,
you know, the cut the nose off or something, or missing finger no
complete image is allowed. That's the Holocaust. So Hashem the God,
right? God is not the four elements fire, water, earth and
wind. So the rabbi's say, you know, it says in the Psalms, God
has an outstretched arm, right? And the the the eyes use, like arm
the.in, the Hebrew zodat. And the meaning of this means that he's
the savior. Not that he's a physical arm. Right? He lends a
hand as it were, right?
So the Torah speaks to us in the language of human beings.
I think that's a good place to stop. So I'm almost so yeah.
I mean, we're done with Judaism, we have to move on. There's a lot
more to say obviously, that's only the third out of 13 principles.
Maybe we can do a second part of this course later. But we are
going to move I gave you the basics of Jewish theology.
So we're going to move next week in sha Allah to Christianity.
So look at the New Testament, what is the New Testament look at are
you sadly salam from a from a Christian perspective?
And look at the Trinity what is the Trinity? What does it not?
It's important for us to understand what is the Trinity?
What do Christians actually believe? At least what do their
books
how do their classical traditional books, find the Trinity it's very
important for us to understand that. So see you next week,
Inshallah, to Allah Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. All
the cinema aleikum wa rahmatullah Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. This
is Thursday evening, August 18. We are live from MCC
for our class, the basics of the world religions.
Inshallah, tonight, we're going to start a two part program or
session on
Christianity. So we finished Judaism
last week controller, so we're going to start Christianity. And
we're going to begin tonight by talking about the New Testament.
That is to say the Christian scriptures.
And then, next week, next Tuesday, Inshallah,
we're going to look at the Nicene Creed, Orthodox Christian creed,
Trinitarian creed,
as well as the Trinity.
So that's the plan for Christianity. And again, we are
live. I'm looking at the chat box here. So if there are any
questions, I forgot to mention this in weeks past unfortunately.
But if there are people that want to ask questions, you can go ahead
and type them into the chat box and I'll answer them if they're
appropriate. I'll answer them on the on the air inshallah.
Okay, so
last week, we said that the primary text of Judaism
is the Old Testament, of course, again, Old Testament, it's
Christian terminology.
It's called the Tanakh in Hebrew
Which of course, again stands for Torah and the beam kettleby, the
Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books, the prophets like
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the writings like Psalms and Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, First and Second Kings, so on and so forth. Okay.
With the New Testament,
we have something interesting. So so the Christians now, they
believe in the Old Testament, right?
They believe it to be the word of God, however, they have their own
set of primary scriptures. And these scriptures are not affirmed
by the Jews.
So doesn't look like the video is working here. Inshallah, it'll
come back.
So I can, if people have questions we can deal with that inshallah.
Tada. So New Testament, right? It's called the Hey, Cain, IDFA,
the FA, K, literally the New Testament. Now, the phrase New
Testament is actually in the Old Testament, it's in Jeremiah 3131,
where there's this promise of God that I'm going to establish what's
called the Biddy Tada, SHA, and Hebrew, which literally means New
Testament. Of course, the Jews take that to mean something
completely different than the Christians.
In Jewish circles, Jeremiah is prophesizing, that towards the end
of time, during the reign of the Messiah, the Messiah will
implement the Jewish law. And that's going to be new for most
people, because most people are not Jews. And it's going to also
be sort of a renewal for Jews that weren't practicing the law. But
nonetheless, this is the name of the Christian scriptures, the New
Testament. So what is the essence of the Old Testament and the Old
bit eat? The word pitied means testament? It basically is the
following it is if you adhere to the law of Moses, if you follow
the law of Moses, then you will gain salvation. Right? That's,
that's basically the essence of the law.
The essence of the law in a nutshell, let me just quickly try
something here.
So I can
try this again.
Sorry about that.
Okay, I think we're okay now.
Yes, so let me just reiterate.
It's Tuesday, August 18, Tuesday evening, we are live for people
out there that want to ask me a question. Feel free to type that
into the chat box inshallah to Allah. Okay, so the, the essence
of the Old Testament is, or the Mosaic covenant, which is
preferred language, according to Jews, is that if you follow the
law of God, you follow the myths vote, right, and you will be
saved, you will gain salvation. And this is interesting, because
this is the answer of Jesus peace be upon him, at least according to
the New Testament Gospels. And we'll talk more about these, what
are these gospels? There are four gospels in the Christian New
Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you have this particular
p or this, this story in three Gospels where a Jewish scribe
comes to Jesus and he says to him, Good Master, what must I do to
gain eternal life? And then Jesus says to him, why are you calling
me good? There's no one good, but one, and that is God. And then he
continues, follow the commandments, and you shall enter
the life. Right? There's variations. I mean, that's the the
reading and Mark. That's how Mark has it. There's slight variations
in Matthew and Luke, let's mark 1018. And you haven't and Luke
1818 and Mark, Matthew 1917. So here, Jesus peace be upon him,
according to this Christian texts, these Christian texts, is
affirming the old Biddy to the Mosaic Covenant, but then by
gospels end, right. Later on in the Gospel, Mark 14, Matthew 26,
and Luke 22. We are told that Jesus celebrates the Passover, the
last supper with His disciples, and He takes the bread and he
gives it to them and says, This is my bread and the wine. It says,
This is my body. This is my blood of the new covenant, right of the
New Testament. So now he's establishing a new covenant,
right, a new agreement. So what that means is now is that the old
covenant that God made with the Israelites at Sinai, this covenant
has been revoked. It is abrogated, right and now
Um, one has to simply believe in Jesus as Lord, as Paul says, and
that God raised Him from the dead, and you shall be saved. Right? So
that's the essence.
Paul states This, I believe in First Corinthians. That's the
essence of this New Covenant then.
Okay, so let's take a closer look then at the New Testament. So,
there are 39 books. In the Old Testament, there are 27 books, in
the New Testament, called a canon of 27 books.
There are four, four major types of books in the New Testament, the
first major type of book is called a gospel. So a gospel is basically
a narrative about Jesus that really focuses on the passion,
right?
The last week of Jesus's life, according to these texts, so
they're basically for extended passion narratives. The real focus
is on the suffering and death resurrection of Jesus. That's
really where the focus is. So you have you have gospels, one of the
types of books of the New Testament there, four of them,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we'll talk more about them.
Inshallah, then you have a book of history, one book of history. And
the New Testament is the fifth book of the New Testament. It's
called the Book of Acts, a CTS, also called acts of the apostles
in the Catholic
the Catholic version, English versions. So basically, this is
early Ecclesiastical History, early church history.
There are three main characters, really two main characters,
there's Peter, and there's Paul. But there's also James Wright,
Acts chapter 15. You have the famous Jerusalem council, this is
really this sort of seminal event
in the early Christian movement,
and the sort of prototype of the later church councils ecumenical
church councils that are going to follow in the fourth century, all
the way into the 21st century,
or 20th century, we haven't had one. There hasn't been an
ecumenical church council. And the 21st century, the last one was in
the 1960s, called Vatican two. So the sort of
prototype of that the archetype was the Jerusalem Council and Acts
chapter 15. And the issue of that time was how much of the Mosaic
Law is required for these Gentile Prophet lights? For these Greeks,
the Greeks are becoming Christian, how much of the Law of Moses
should we impose upon them? That's why they held the council
basically. So you have early church history, the book of Acts,
and then you have something called the epistles, which simply means
letters, and there are 21 of them. So for gospels, there's one book
of history called the Book of Acts. Then you have 21, epistles
or letters. And these are written by various apostles, right,
various apostolic authorities, various disciples of Jesus, at
least according to Christian Christian tradition. So these
epistles, they deal with doctrine, they deal with council
instructions.
They deal with just different issues that arise in various
congregations.
According to historians,
seven of these 21 epistles were genuinely written by Paul, right,
the apostle Paul will talk about him in sha Allah.
So scholars agree almost by consensus that seven of them are
written by Paul, seven of them. Another seven of them are
disputed, but claimed to have been written by Paul. Right, in other
words, someone pretending to be Paul.
So scholars have deemed these to be pseudo Paul line, which is sort
of a nice way of saying they're forgeries, right? Someone is
writing these letters pretending to be Paul, and they're not Paul.
They're forging these letters pretending to be Paul. And then
you have seven what are known as Catholic epistles, not Catholic
with a capital C, not Roman Catholic, but Catholic with a
lowercase c, which simply means universal epistles, and these are
written by various apostles as well like James and Peter and John
and Jude, although again, the vast majority of historians do not
believe that these men actually wrote these books that bear their
names. These are also four
juries
when it comes to the Gospels, they're called Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. But in reality, they are anonymous. None of the authors
identify themselves. church tradition assigns them or
attributes these books to two disciples of Jesus, Matthew, the
tax collector was also called Levi, and John Johanan, the son of
Zebedee, who's one of the disciples of Jesus, the beloved
disciple, according to the Gospel of John, although it's disputed
whether John, the son of Zebedee is the beloved disciple, that's
the dominant opinion.
Historians do not believe that these two men actually wrote these
gospels. And then you have the gospel of Mark. Mark was,
according to church tradition, he was a student of Peter.
So he's like a tabby. And then you have the Gospel of Luke, who is a,
a friend of Paul or Paul's traveling companion. So this is
very interesting, we noticed that you have the gospel of Mark, which
is accepted by the church is totally canonical,
and written around, according to the vast majority of historians,
probably around 70 of the Common Era or so. Most historians put the
day even many confessional Christian scholars, they placed
the date of Mark's Gospel around 70, around the time of the
destruction of the temple.
But there's also something called the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of
Peter is not accepted as canon. And the reason is, well, it's just
too late. That's one sort of way of looking at it. Another way of
looking at it is that it contains material that is that is offensive
to the early Christian movement. So in the Gospel of Peter, it
states that Jesus, when they were crucifying Him, He was silent, as
if he felt no pain. So that doesn't work with the early
church, because for the early church, at least, the early Paul
line church, Jesus needs to suffer, it really needs to hurt.
You know, his pain is our gain, as they say. It's the most painful
death ever. He's bearing the sins of the world. He's smitten and
afflicted, he's bruised for our iniquities, he's crushed for our
transgressions, as Isaiah chapter 353, says, which Christians
believe to be referencing Jesus. So it seems like in the Gospel of
Peter, he's just, he's not feeling pain, or perhaps his soul has left
his body there, crucifying an empty shell, something's going on
there. The church didn't like it. So the Gospel of Peter is
rejected. But the gospel of Mark who's who's Peter student is
accepted. Right, as canonical.
And then the Gospel of John.
There's good reasons for placing John around 70, or even earlier as
well. But the vast majority of historians placed the Gospel of
John, anywhere from about 90 to 110. of the Common Era, if we just
take the low number, right. The earliest date of 90,
right?
It's, that's called the terminus post quem. Right, the earliest
date 90, so let's, you know, gospel, the the the apostle John,
who wrote the gospel was probably let's say he was, I don't know, 30
years old, at the crucifixion around the age of Jesus, probably
the same age. Right? The disciples were probably not old men. They
were probably young men around the age of Jesus is 30 years old,
right in the year 30. So he waited then 60 years, right? To write his
gospel, around 90, again, we're taking the low end date of 90, so
he's 90 years old. Right? And he's writing this gospel, and he's
writing it in Greek. And it's quite sophisticated Greek. And
John, the son of Zebedee is supposed to be a Galilean
fisherman. And 95% probably, of people in Palestine at the time,
certainly, you know, fishermen and peasants, they were illiterate,
they could not read or write, or they were unlettered. So how is it
that he can produce this gospel where he's talking about
referencing the logos, which is a Hellenistic philosophical idea
that goes back to Heraclitus, maybe studied for 60 years, but it
still doesn't make a lot of sense that he would write it in Greek
and not in Aramaic or in Syriac. Another issue is that in John, so
if you ask a Christian, where does Jesus claimed to be God in the New
Testament, and the four Gospels, right, invariably, the Christian
will quote something from the gods.
Full of John. Right? It is the highest Christology. So a
Christian would say, Well, John 1030 The father and I are one.
There you go. John 858 Before Abraham was I am right. So print
print Abraham, good Guinness they Aygo, me, right present tense.
Before Abraham was I am I already was before Abraham. So here,
Jesus, he's intimating his pre eternality that he predates
Abraham.
Oh, they'll say,
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, right John 14, six. So you
have these im statements. That's what these are called the famous
im statements of the Johansson, or Gospel of John, the Johanna, and
gospel. We find none of these im statements in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, these three gospels, which are called the Synoptic Gospels,
right? synoptic meaning one is basically that Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, they follow basically the same chronology of events in the
life of Jesus. Whereas in John, we have this drastic departure from
the synoptic chronology, not only in chronology, but in content. So
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the preferred method of teaching, his
preferred pedagogical method of teaching is through parable. But
in John, He is giving these very long
monologues about his relationship with the Father making big big
claims he's, he's engaged in these long, and sometimes very tense
debates with the Jews, as it says, right, the Jews, that it's very
clear in the Gospel of John, that the enemies of Jesus are not
scribes and Pharisees, right? I mean, you find that language in
Matthew, which is written around 70, or 8085. But by the time John
comes around, there's there's a clear departure. You have
Christians and you have Jews, right? In earliest Christianity,
the Christians were a sect of Judaism. They're called the note
serene, or the Nazarene ins or the FPU name, which means like the
spiritual poppers, the poor people, but now we have a
definitive split. In the late first century, these are Jews. So
it's very clear, if you read the Gospel of John Hoyt, you will die,
right? The Jews are the enemies of Jesus, and Jesus is always butting
heads with the Jews.
So it's very, very interesting.
But the main point I was going to make is
that these I am statements which are supposed to be divine claims
of Jesus, Jesus is claiming to be God in these I am statements. If
he truly made these statements, then we really have to sort of
give an F to Matthew, Mark and Luke, for how they wrote their
gospels.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke mentioned all three of you mention that
Jesus, he rode a donkey into Jerusalem. When he came into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he wrote a donkey into Jerusalem, all three
of them mentioned that, right? You might think, well, is that really
important? Apparently, there's something in the book of Zechariah
or Zephaniah that says, you know, the king of Zion comes to you,
seated humbly upon a donkey. So it's a fulfillment of prophecy.
Okay, still doesn't seem very important. But if Jesus is making
a divine claim, he's claiming to be God. He said, Before Abraham
was I am the Father and I are one.
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life I am the good shepherd, I am
the door, right? These big, big claims that he's making in the
Gospel of John,
Matthew, Mark and Luke 100%, failed in recording these divine
claims, how can they not record these divine claims of Jesus?
So the answer is they're completely inept. And they've done
a horrible job at writing their gospels, or Jesus never made those
statements. Right. And the majority of historians nowadays,
they believe that the latter is actually true that the Gospel of
John is really an a historical document. It's really just sort of
a Christological meditation of a certain community of Christians
called the Johanne and community.
And, you know, this this community if you read the Gospel of John,
for example,
he and he's aware that you have Matthew, Mark and Luke floating
around
In that in the Mediterranean, but he at times deliberately
contradicts the synoptics. Right? For example, in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, it says Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover, which is a
strange day to be crucified. But John says that he was crucified on
the Eve of Passover.
So the question then becomes
who's right? And they both be right. Whether to crucifixions,
how can these texts be inerrant. Right? And this is the position of
like, fundamentalist Bible colleges like the Moody Bible
Institute, probably Liberty University, Oral Roberts
University, that these books are inerrant. How can both of these be
true? Was Jesus crucified on Passover or the Eve of Passover?
Which isn't whether to crucifixions, somebody got it
wrong?
Or there they both got it wrong? Right.
It says in a Synoptic Gospels, that when Jesus was
going to be crucified, for no apparent reason, the Romans pulled
a random guy out of the crowd named Simon of Cyrene and
compelled him to bear the cross. Right, so he took the cross of
Jesus with probably the cross beam. Its estado switch is like a
steak or a beam, probably just a crossbar,
and made him bear the cross while Jesus sort of just followed in
front or behind it, I remember what it says in the synoptics. But
that's an Matthew, Mark and Luke, John knows this. But John goes out
of his way to contradict the synoptics. And he says Jesus bore
his own cross, to Golgotha, the place of the school where the
Romans used to crucify Jews insurrectionist Jews or
troublemaking Jews. So why does John do that? Right? Well, there's
probably some sort of Christological or polemical reason
why he does that.
Now, we know that there were early Christian groups that denied the
crucifixion of Jesus. One such group was the were the best
Philadelphians named after facilities, I might have mentioned
him in the past. He was a Christian teacher in Egypt,
Alexandria, in the first quarter of the second century, and
facilities. His opinion was that Simon of Cyrene was transfigured.
Right, he uses that word in Latin, transfigured autumn, transfigured
to look like Jesus. And Jesus, the maid, was transfigured to look
like him. And so the Romans grabbed, you know, the apparent
Jesus. So this is called substitution theory, supernatural
identity transference.
And so Jesus was able to escape the crucifixion. So it seems like
John is familiar with this belief around the time when he's writing
at 90 CEE or at 100 CE, possibly 110 C. So what he does is he
completely eliminates the entire episode of Simon of Cyrene for a
Christological reason, even though he knows he's contradicting the
synoptics, even though his readers will eventually know that he's
contradicting the synoptics. Right? But his whole point is to
teach you is is not to give you accurate history. John admits at
the end of the gospel, these things have been written to
convince you that Jesus is the Son of God. Right? That's the whole
aim. That's to tell us that's his MCSA of writing his gospel is to
convince you by any means necessary, that Jesus is the Son
of God. Right?
That He died for your sins, so don't get it twisted. He wasn't
substituted, died on the cross. And then John tells us something
else at the Crucifixion scene. So Matthew, Mark and Luke were told
that Jesus is on the cross for a few hours, and markets maybe three
hours in the swipe pilot marveled Pontius Pilate, the Roman
governor, this man has died already. After just a few hours on
the cross. Pontius Pilate made a career of crucifying Jews. So if
he's astonished and he's he's marveling that this man has died
already, then there's something happening, there's something to
look into how can he be dead already? And of course, Christians
will say that Well, Jesus, you know, he was beaten beyond
recognition and you know, he was flogged front and back down to his
bowels. I mean, his intestines were falling out. You read things
like this and in Christian polemical writings like by Joshua
McDowell and, and others. Michael Okona, and
Things like that. So he's just you know, he's a * * mess
you know he's going into his body is going into shock and, and so
three hours surprising even lasted three hours Why is pilot shocked
pilot is an expert do killer he's an expert do crucify fire and he
is says he marveled this man is dead after three hours. Are you
sure he's dead? How can he be dead? And he oversaw all of you
know these so called beatings and floggings and so on and so forth.
I mean, nowhere in Matthew Mark, and Luke doesn't say that he was
nailed to a cross. Right? That's not mentioned in the synoptic
tradition. We find that in John and it's not mentioned directly.
It's when you know, in the upper room where the you know, the
doubting Thomas of Jesus shows his hands, you know, in his feet,
apparently the marks of the crucifixion. So we find that in
John, right. But something else that happens in John is, Jesus is
on the cross, and he's impaled on the cross.
We don't find this in Matthew, Mark and Luke, why didn't Matthew,
Mark and Luke, If Matthew is an eyewitness, this is what
Christians believe, at least traditional Christians. Matthew is
an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus. Right?
Why didn't Matthew say, well, he first took Jesus and fled. I mean,
that's what it says. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, when Jesus was on
it was in the, on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of
Gethsemane, the Jewish
Temple Guard came to arrest him and his all of his disciples for
sick forsook him and fled. So Matthew wasn't there. Okay, but
Matthew could have there were there were people that were there,
Matthew could have interviewed somebody, and I witnessed how what
happened that the crucifixion, and Matthew seems to know a lot about
what happened at the crucifixion, even though he wasn't there.
Matthew records the final words of Jesus on the cross. I didn't even
know that somebody told him, why didn't somebody tell him that
Jesus was impaled on the cross?
John, that's what John says, writing in 90 or 100.
Well, it probably didn't happen. That's why it's not historical.
Why does John say that Jesus was impaled on the cross. Because
apparently there might have been Christians who had the belief that
Jesus was put on a cross, but he didn't actually die. You might
have swooned, he might have survived the cross right
there that's that's why he was seen alive in his fleshy body
after the suppose it is suppose a death? Well, John eliminates this
type of
heresy according to him and says, no, no, no, no, don't get it
twisted. He was impaled on the cross. He's dead. There's no doubt
about it. Alright.
So basically,
okay, so when a little bit off course here,
but that's okay. So we said that there's four gospels, there's the
book of Acts. There's
21 epistles, and then we have one. Apocalypse, right. Apocalypse is a
Greek word, epochal.
Meaning an
unveiling or a disclosure, cash. It's called metabolismo cash.
And this is sort of
a book that describes visions of the eschaton, the SAT towards the
end of time. It's very, very cryptic. It's very symbolic. Very,
very strange, very enigmatic. I mean, you have, you know, the Four
Horsemen and you have, you know, the lake of fire. And it's very
strange book, you have the mark of the beast,
the mark of the theory on in Greek,
which is 666. It's stated in Revelation, chapter 13, verse 18.
So this book is called the Book of Revelation. Right? In the Catholic
version, it's called the apocalypse. Of all these strange
things happening. The mark of the beast, the Antichrist is 666.
Nobody knows what that means. Some people believe it's the numerical
value of his name. Some scholars believe that it's a reference to
Nero, the Roman Emperor, who was who, who was compared today by
Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump.
He said, I think he said Sanders said today, what did he say? He
said, When Rome was burning,
Nero was was playing his fiddle, but Trump was golfing. Right.
So Nero is sort of seen as this, this
this sort
of prototypical horrible leader, right.
So some scholars believe that the numerical value of
Emperor Nero is 666.
Okay.
So you have these 27 books. Okay. Now, the first books of the New
Testament to be written, were not the Gospels. Okay. The first books
chronologically of the New Testament.
Were the Paul line epistles. Right, the letters written by
Paul. So who is Paul? So Paul is actual name is Saul of Tarsus. He
was a Benjamin eight Jew from Sicily, who was also a Pharisee,
who early on was a very zealous Christian persecuting Pharisee. So
he would persecute the earliest of Christians, like the disciples,
right before they were actually called Christian. They were they
were the Nazarene. Right? So Jews who happen to believe that Jesus
was the Messiah, Paul was the
the man that the high priests would call upon to, according to
his own words, he would bind them up, capture them, and bring them
back to Jerusalem for for trial.
So he was a persecutor of the early Jesus movement.
And then, according to Paul, he had some sort of conversion
experience on the road to Damascus, where he claims that he
had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, who
commissioned him to go into all nations, and admonished the
Gentiles. Right, so he's the apostle to the Gentiles. So then
Paul goes to different major metropolitan areas around the
Mediterranean. And he begins to preach what he calls my gospel.
That's what he says, My Gospel, remember, Jesus of the seed of
David rose from the dead, according to my gospel, he says,
And he uses that phrase three times, in his in his,
in his letters, two of them are genuinely written by Paul, one of
them is pseudo Paul. So when Paul says My Gospel, it seems like he's
making a distinction between what he is saying and what this other
gospel is saying. And he actually says that, in the book of
Galatians, he chastises his congregation in Galatia, which is
in Turkey, for believing in quote, another gospel. So there's another
God.
According to Christian historians, the story is this, Paul went to
Galatia. And he made a lot of converts to his gospel, his
understanding of the gospel, that Jesus was the divine Son of God,
and that He died for your sins.
And that's the new that's the new covenant. And, and, and then he
left Galatia. And then a group of apostles from Jerusalem sent by
James, who is Jesus's brother or cousin. It's not really clear what
Brother means half brother or cousin, possibly step brother.
Nonetheless, the book of Acts tells us that James is the leader
of the Jerusalem apostles, he sends messengers, other apostles
into Galatia to correct Paul's deviant teachings.
Right? And so they're able to convince these Galatians
that Paul was wrong about many fundamental issues. So then Paul
writes, now the book of gluttony, his letter to the Galatians where
he chastises the Galatians How dare you believe in this other
gospel? Right, we didn't bring this gospel. And then he goes on
to accuse Peter, James and Barnabas of hypocrisy in the book
of Galatians. So Paul is butting heads. He has fundamental, big
issues with actual disciples of any side as he admits this in the
book of Galatians. He refers to them sarcastically, so called
pillars. That's what he says these so called pillars of the church.
He says, these these super apostles, who did they think they
are the super apostles? This is his sarcasm. Who is he talking
about? He's talking about actual disciples of Versailles. They
sunnah. He says, I don't need a letter of recommendation. You
know, I have my I have my experience. I experienced the
resurrected Jesus. What does he mean? I don't need a letter.
letter of recommendation according to New Testament scholars, these
apostles that are coming into the cities in Paul's wake and
correcting his deviant gospel, have actual Ijaz that they have
these teaching licenses that they've brought from Jerusalem
signed by James, who is the leader of the Nazarene, the early
Christian movement. Paul has no such letter, because he's a
freelance self appointed apostle. So he says to his congregations, I
don't need a letter. I had this experience, and he's any Brad's I
don't I didn't take this teaching from any human being from any man.
I took it directly from Christ. This is what he says yet he is at
odds
ik time, fundamental issues, he's butting heads with the actual
disciples of a silent Salam.
All right. So Paul is a highly problematic person, to say the
least.
So
So then, so Paul began writing around 52 is his first letter was
to his congregation, at fest Salonika, a major Greek city,
right, it's called First Thessalonians. And in First
Thessalonians, Paul is very clear. And there's certain central Paul
line themes. This is how scholars like textual critics can tell if
this is written by Paul or not. So you have these 14 A pistols that
are claimed to have been written by Paul, According to historians,
seven of them are by Paul, because, you know, they, they
would
analyze the text through certain textual measures. And the other
seven are deemed to be forgeries in the name of Paul. Right. So the
seven genuine letters, the first genuine letter is called First
Thessalonians. And then you have Galatians, five Lehmann, First
Corinthians, Second Corinthians Philippians, and Romans. And in
these seven letters, you have these central Paul line themes,
the second coming of Jesus will be in his lifetime. This is
absolutely fundamental, to Paul's understanding of his gospel, what
he is claiming he has taken from Jesus, for absolutely fundamental.
We're going to be
transformed in the twinkling of an eye, he says, in First
Thessalonians caught up in the clouds, with the Lord. And all of
his advice, on marriage celibacy, on a commerce all of it is
predicated upon his belief that at any moment,
Jesus will manifest in a second coming and set up His kingdom of
God on earth. Right? As as the Jews believed the Jewish Messiah
would do. Right?
And of course, this never happened.
It never happened. You know, so we have here, ay,
ay, ay, ay falsify, falsifiable claim of Paul. Paul is very, very
clear, he believes the second coming will occur in his lifetime.
In fact, the author of Mark's gospel and these four gospels, so
obviously, we have the Paul line letters that are written between,
you know, 52, and 65, or something, and then you have the
first gospel mark. So the four Gospels are highly influenced by
Paul line doctrine.
Right? And again, that's why and these four gospels, I mean,
they're basically for extended passion narratives. Because the
cross is so central for Paul. Paul says in First Corinthians, If
Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain. If Christ did not raise
from the dead, if he was not resurrected, our faith is in vain.
There is no point to this religion.
Right? So you can see how Christians are oftentimes offended
by the Muslim suggestion.
That Eastside a Salam was never crucified. He's never crucified,
he's never killed, he's never resurrected, and Christianity is
in vain.
With this is what Paul says in First First Corinthians.
So now in Mark, right, you have Jesus saying that among those
standing here, right, he says, there are some standing here, that
shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in the
clouds.
Right. And for Mark,
the son of man seems to be
Ay, ay.
Ay ay ay title of Jesus Himself. coming in the clouds, he's
paraphrasing something found the book of Daniel chapter seven, the
apocalyptic Son of Man, which Christians or mark at this point
believes to be a prophecy of the Jewish Messiah, the bar, a Nash,
Son of man was exceedingly powerful on the earth. Jesus is
saying, there's some standing here, he's telling this to Jews
around 29 or 30 of the Common Era. There are people here now alive,
that will see me coming with great power in the clouds.
Now, we cannot possibly attribute such a statement to recite a
salon, because that would make him a false prophet.
And true prophets do not make false prophecies.
Right? Christians have ways of sort of working around these
things.
But what's very interesting is Mark wrote that around 70, so
he's, you know, he's taking a big risk. Because, you know, if, if
there are a few people alive in the generation of Jesus, around
70, of the Common Era, but it seems like Mark believes, because
because of what's happening in Jerusalem, around the time of
Mark's composition, Mark believes it is the end of the world, what's
happening in Jerusalem between 67 and 73. It's the Jewish war that
Josephus writes about. So you have an all out assault upon the Jews
in Palestine, by the Roman war machine. Right, so there was an
insurrection by the,
the economy kinda in the,
the Zealots, or the proto zealots. These were Jewish insurrectionists
that tried to seize the land,
and implement Jewish law from the heathen colonizers, the Romans,
they were absolutely crushed. Over this six year period, the Romans
started in the north in Galilee, where Jesus was raised, and they
just swept right down the entire country, destroyed the temple and
70 and massacred
you know, men, women and children the of that mass suicide that
happened at the fortress in Masada, around 73, of the Common
Era. So Mark believes this is the end of the world. Right? So this
is the end of the world, then the second coming of Jesus is
imminent. So he has no problem saying, putting the words into the
mouth of Jesus, there are some standing here that shall not taste
death. And so until they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds
with great power.
All right, we will not attribute this false prophecy to a true
prophet inside a center. Mark is influenced by Paul who made this
false prophecy. Paul believed the Second Coming was imminent, it did
not materialize.
Paul also believes in justification by faith alone. He
believes that the law of Moses was abrogated
almost completely.
And he believes in vicarious atonement, this idea that Jesus
was a savior, man, God, a divine Son of God, who died for your
sins. Alright.
What's also interesting about Paul, is that he does not mention
anything about the historical Jesus. Paul does not quote Jesus
accurately one time, in any of his letters, whether they're genuine
Paul or pseudo Paul, Paul never mentions a miracle that Jesus
performed, like these exorcisms that are such a big part of the
synoptic tradition, the healings, right? The resurrection of
Lazarus.
He doesn't mention any of these things. Paul does not mention
anything about the historical Jesus. He's completely focused on
the crucifixion and resurrection, the significance of the death of a
savior, man, God, that's what his attention is almost exclusively
focused on. Right?
He doesn't mention the virgin birth of Jesus.
Why wouldn't he mention that? Very, very strange. He actually
says Jesus, who was of the seed of David, mean, it seems like he
believes that Jesus was just born
as a descendant of David in the conventional sense, right? Why
wouldn't you mention these things he doesn't quote, or he sadly
Islam isn't, quote, the Jesus of the Gospels. If there's an oral
tradition, floating around, where Jesus is making divine claims that
are recorded by John Paul doesn't seem to quote it. He doesn't quote
them. Why doesn't he quote
that, either he doesn't care that Jesus claimed to be God, and I
think he would care. Or these statements did not exist.
And John invented them out of whole cloth
in order to convince his audience that Jesus is the Son of God.
Now, Paul does something quite radical.
What he does is he appropriates an old pagan motif.
Okay, this is known as the dying and rising savior, man God, motif.
So this was a motif a belief that predated Christianity by hundreds
and hundreds of years, this idea that
some sort of incarnation, a divine Son of God comes to the earth
suffers and dies for the sins of humanity. It's very beautiful
story. You have a personal Savior. Right? What Paul does is that he
gives it a Jewish makeover.
And he uses it to explain what he believes to be the gospel.
Right. So what Paul basically does, I liken it to like a
Christmas tree,
a Christmas tree, right? So we have this tree, which is brought
into the home, which is what the ancient pagans used to do. I mean,
in Jeremiah, I think, chapter 10, verse two, he says, imitate not
the way of the heathen, the infidel, who brings a tree into
their house, and decks it out with gold and silver. That's what the
tree worshipers used to do. Today, we call them tree huggers. No, I'm
just kidding. But that's what they used to do. Right?
What Paul is doing is basically he's taking a tree at Christmas
tree, a, a symbol of paganism that says Foundation, and he's putting
a Star of David at the top of it.
Right.
So he takes paganism. He takes paganism as his foundation, and he
kind of dresses it up with the trappings of Judaism.
Before Christianity,
you had Osiris, the Savior man god of Egypt, Adonis of Syria, Romulus
of Rome, Salem, Oxus of Thrace was mentioned by Heraclitus, and its
histories in honor of Samaria, who's a female, daughter of God.
And of course, Mithras, the Persian Son God who although he
didn't actually die, he did suffer for the sins of His people.
There's a book called The World, the world's 16th crucified saviors
by Kersey graves, written 1875. There are some problematic
elements to this book from a historical standpoint, but it's an
interesting book.
Christianity before Christ is the subtitle there's another book by
Tom Harper called the pagan Christ which is quite interesting as
well. So Osiris Adonis, Romulus, a Marxist II Nona. Mithras, all save
your gods, all sons of God with the exception of Manana, who is
the daughter of God, but basically all you know children of God, but
not the God. They are not the God. Right. So all of these traditions
are what's known as Heno theistic.
And I am convinced that Paul himself was a hetero theist, I do
not believe that Paul is a mono theist. Right. Paul believes that
Jesus is a second deity. Paul is highly highly influenced by
Hellenistic philosophy. Hellenistic motifs like this one
here, the dying and rising savior, man God motif, but also this idea
of, you know, this middle platonic idea that the Godhead is three
unique deities
where there's a hierarchy of being the one, the word, the logos, and
the spirit. Right? All three are divine. The latter two are the
effect of the cause. Who is the one he's the, the the, the source
and origin of everything, even though the logos and the spirit.
So even though the logos in spirit, are from the very essence,
your x Dale, they're from the very essence of God, they are not as
exalted as the one who is without origin. Right? Who is the origin
and and is the cause of the others. So you have this hierarchy
of gods. Right. So Paul is borrowing this idea
So as John John directly calls Jesus the logos, all right. So
it's hard to it's very difficult. I mean, eventually
Christian apologists and a third and fourth century, they had a way
of sort of working out how this is still monotheism. It's not
monotheism according to the Islamic definition of monotheism.
But they, they sort of took these middle, platonic and Neo platonic
ideas of a hierarchy of Gods of a hierarchy within the Godhead and
said, there's really no hierarchy of being just a person. So kind of
sleight of hand. We'll talk about that next week. In sha Allah to
Allah.
But anyway, you have the Savior min gods, they all undergo a
passion, some sort of suffering, and the obtain victory over death
is very interesting. You know, the Koran says that the Christians
say, and mercy Herban Allah, that Christ is the Son of God, that he
Kokkola whom be of why he him, you draw who Napoleon Lavina come from
in Kabul, that is a saying that issues from their mouths in this
day, but imitate what the unbelievers of all these ancient
pagans used to say, all the way back, hundreds and hundreds of
years.
And of course, Hellenistic religion tended to be syncretistic
right, they would mix and match different elements. So like the
cult of Mithras was an amalgamation of Hellenistic
meaning Greek, as well as Persian beliefs.
The cult of dying ICS was an amalgamation of Hellenistic as
well as Phoenician beliefs. The cult of
Paul line Christianity is an amalgamation of Hellenistic and
Jewish beliefs. So now you have this kind of new hybrid religion.
And when that happened, now you have this definitive split all set
the foundation right in the middle of the first century, by the end
of the first century, you have this definitive split these are
not Jews. These are separate religion they're called Christians
they worship Christ as a god right.
So that's,
so you have these 27 books that just to wrap up inshallah
four gospels, one book of Acts 21 epistles one, one apocalypse.
Okay.
I think that's
good for tonight, inshallah. So we will see you next time. I think
that's a good place to stop. I don't want to start any I know
there's a few minutes left here, but I don't want to get into a new
topic because it's going to take a bit of explaining to do. So we'll
save that for next time. We'll talk we'll finish our discussion
on the Gospels. There's one more thing I wanted to say about about
what's known as backward Christology which is very very
interesting that we find in the four gospels Christology in the
making James done this idea. We'll talk about that and then we'll go
into the Nicene Creed and talk about the Trinity inshallah. Okay,
so they called
him
solo SUTA Mohammedan. While early he was a huge marine
Subhanak Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah tena indica Antal I'm
allemaal Hakeem. Hola, hola, wala Quwata illa biLlah Hill Ali loving
Him As salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
So this is our
final session on Christianity.
So last time, we talked about the four Gospels,
and something of the Christology Christology is a academic term
meaning,
belief about Christ, we talked about the Christology that's found
in each gospel.
The story historians have noticed that, through the years, the
Christology of of the Christians has become higher and higher. So
it throughout the Gospels, so in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is peace
be upon him according to
he is a a prophet. He's the hidden Messiah. He is.
It's a very, very short gospel. His statements are very brief. And
then in Matthew, He is now the open saya.
He fulfills all of these prophecies in the Old Testament.
Many times Matthew takes a lot of liberties as to how
He's
interpreting Old Testament
stories and texts and applying them to Jesus. It seems at times
he is simply making things up. For example, He says, in, in at the
beginning towards the beginning of his gospel, that because Jesus
came from Nazareth, this is so that it might be fulfilled what
was what was written by the prophet, he shall be called the
Nazarene. He shall be called a Nazarene, Matthew was presenting
the statement as if it's from the Old Testament from the Tanakh. But
there is no such statement. In the Old Testament.
And the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is called as Soto in Greek, which
means Savior.
Although there's different ways of understanding that term in Luke,
but the main thing about Luke is Jesus becomes now this universal
messenger.
Universal profit.
Jesus becomes this sort of quasi Aristotelian philosopher
where he is expounding truths through parable. I mean, we get
some of that, obviously, Matthew, and mark as well, but especially
in Luke, because Luke is trying to appeal to a Gentile audience, a
Greco Roman audience. And then finally, in the Gospel of John,
Jesus is called the word, the Lagace.
The word made flesh, a divine incarnation.
So
today, then we're going to look at
the Nicene Creed, this is an Orthodox Christian creed. When I
say Orthodox, I'm talking about Trinitarian Christianity.
And this creed was ratified in the early fourth century, of the
Common Era,
following the Council of Nicaea and 325, of the Common Era, before
the Council of Nicaea, you have many different types of
Christians, many different types of Christianity's
too numerous. to even mention here, it would take a seminar to
mention what was happening in the first three or four centuries of
the Christian era with the Christian religion.
You had Christians who believed that, or you saw a Salam that
Jesus peace be upon him was only a human. You had other Christians
who believed that he was only God.
You have Christians who believed that he was one of many gods.
You have Christians who believed that he was the only God.
You have Christians who believed that he didn't have a physical
body. He was a phantasm.
There were Christians who believed that he was both divine and human.
You are Christians who believed that not only was he both divine
and human, that he became divine at his birth. You're Christians
who believe that he became divine at His baptism.
There were Christians who believed that he became divine at his
resurrection. It's called exaltation Christology.
Yet Christians who believed that he was always divine
right, that he was the pre existent or pre eternal Son, that
He was the logos again, this is a unique idea.
You had Christians who believed that they were three gods.
You had Christians who believed there was one God. But this God
had three different modes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's like
God putting on three different masks one person of God, who has
sort of three modes, so he father and then he became, totally became
the Son. And then he becomes the spirit, resurrects the son, he
becomes the son again, and then he becomes the father again.
This type of Christology is called modal monarchy anism or scibelli
anism. So you have many, many types of Christianity.
Now, Constantine, who was the first Christian emperor, he wanted
unity in his empire.
And so after defeating his rivals to the throne,
he called for this council the Council of Nicaea very important
council 325 of the Common Era,
the first so called ecumenical world church council, although all
of the bishops that attended Nicaea believed already that Jesus
some peace be upon him was divine in some way. Right.
Although that is
debatable, but certainly, there were no EB unites, present at the
council, you know, Nazarene. They weren't any Jewish Christians that
were at the Council, the Jewish Christians were extinct by this
time. And if they were still practicing, and there were pockets
of them, they certainly were not going to be invited to the Council
of Nicaea. So it's not really an ecumenical or universal or world
church council. So Constantine called for this,
this council, and there's a lot of sort of misinformation as to what
actually happened. At this council, Dan Brown wrote a book
called The Davinci Code in which he is gives a lot of false
information as to what happened.
But at the end of the council, and, and whether Constantine was
actually Christian or not, during this council is actually open to
debate. It's not clear. Certainly his mother was Christian. His
mother was a very hardcore Christian. But it seems like
Constantine called the Council for more political reasons he wanted
unity in the empire.
So at the end of the council, after deliberations upon
deliberations, the bishops draft
this creed, and it's a short creed. So we'll just go through
it. The creedal exposition of the 318 Fathers, right, that means the
bishops that attended the council.
So they say,
and it begins, and it's written in Greek, right?
Whether a Saudi Salam spoke Greek or not, is open to debate.
It seems like he probably knew some Greek
because it was the lingua franca
of the Mediterranean at the time.
So
the New Testament
documents, the New Testament books are all written in Greek. Those
are original documents. Originally written in Greek, Paul wrote his
letters in Greek, he did not write them in Syriac or Hebrew.
Right, the original documents are in Greek. So Eastside A salaam,
you know, he grew up in a very eclectic environment in the north
of Palestine, and a province called Galilee.
So no doubt he knew Hebrew that was the language of the synagogue
liturgy. He was a rabbi, you have to know Hebrew, it's like being a
chef today and not knowing Arabic doesn't make any sense. Or just
being an item and not knowing, not knowing Arabic. So you know,
Hebrew, the new Aramaic or Syriac Syriac is sort of late Aramaic or
sometimes called Christian Aramaic. It's related Semitic
language related to Hebrew and Arabic, the language of the sort
of masses, right, the sort of amnio. So he certainly knew that
as well.
He probably knew some Latin, which was the official language of the
Roman Empire. And of course, Palestine at the time, was a
colony of Rome. And then, and then Greek as well, which was widely
spoken in that area, even the Romans adopted Greek, in that area
in the Middle East in the ancient Near East. So the Romans spoke
Latin and Greek, so are you sila salaam, and many of the Jews at
the time, probably spoke Greek as well.
But since the New Testament was written in Greek and coin, a
Greek, which is also called Alexandrian, Greek, so this is the
language of Alexander. But don't forget what Alexander did is that
he conquered
all of North Africa and, and the Ancient Near East during his time,
and his influence in that region was still very much alive in the
first century of the Common Era. It's called Hellenization, right
Greek influence and all spheres of life and many disciplines,
including theology and philosophy, but also cultural aspects, right
linguistic aspects, very heavy
influence.
So the Creed begins like this. And if you're watching live, you can
feel free to ask questions, Inshallah, in the chat box, and I
will get to them in sha Allah. It begins by saying, to stay well,
amen, we believe, a Santa Fe on Putera panto Cateura so that's the
Greek. It says we believe that's how the Creed begins. We believe
in one God, the Father Pantocrator Torah means the panto creator, the
sort of creator of all sometimes that's translated as the almighty
In the Latin says could I do most in autumn day on Patreon, Omni
put.
So they translate tanto pantokrator, pentacle Torah as
basically omnipotent, and that's why we get the English all mighty.
So the Father, we believe in one God, the Father, the Creator of
all, it continues, the Maker of all things seen and unseen.
And we believe he says, or they say Asthana Kurian AAACN Kristin,
to an hoian to Theo. We also believe in one board. kudu, Yan
means Lord in Greek. Now this word, Lord
is a tricky word. Because the word Lord can apply to both God and man
in New Testament, Greek, right, Philip in the Gospel of John,
somebody comes to Philip and says, cu da, cu da, right, Lord, Lord,
now Philip is certainly not God. Philip was a disciple of Jesus.
But in the Creed, the fathers don't mean it like that. The
fathers mean to say that Jesus is God, he has a divine right. So
it's important for us when reading this creed that we understand
these terms, as they were understood how they were
understood at the time they were written. So we have to be a bit of
an originalist when it comes to these reads, right? Just as when
we read things in the New Testament,
when a Saudi Salam is called Lord hood EOS in Matthew For example,
you can make a good case that Jews are not referring to Jesus as Lord
God Why would you do that? A Jew comes to Jesus cootie a cootie a
like the Lord God, Lord God. All right, that's that's cool for
that's apostasy, a Jew would not do that. So, looking at the sort
of context, the social location of a site A salaam, himself, the word
is a bit ambiguous. CU da can simply mean master or even rabbi,
even the word rabbi. Rob be right means my lord. Right? You know,
Rabbi, Shmuley bow talk. You know, he's not the Lord God, when people
refer to him as rob the rabbi. They mean to say, Master Teacher,
right.
But here in the Creed, they're taking kudos to be a divine title.
And we believe and want and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
that's what they say here, the Son of God. And then it says, Get a
center act to Pat Rossmann again, A, which means begotten from the
Father uniquely.
And they say this is from the essence of the Father. Right? This
is from the EU see us to Petra Ross. So what does it mean then
Jesus is the Son of God, according to Trinitarian Christianity, what
do Trinitarians mean by that? It's important for us not to build a
straw man, and say, Oh, Christians believe that when that that God
had relations with Mary, physical relations, and Jesus was
the offspring of God and Mary, in that, that physical sense, that's
not what Christians believe, at least not what Trinitarian
Christians believe. Mormons, on the other hand, do believe that
but Mormonism is a very strange form of Christianity, if we can
even call it Christianity. Certainly Orthodox Christians,
whether they're Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, Catholic,
would probably not consider Mormons to be true Christians, any
more than they would consider Muslims to be Christians.
But what they mean by Son of God, is that the father generated the
son. So we have to be careful about our language generated not
created, the Son of God was not created. That's a heresy. Right,
that was arias. His position was also at the Council of Nicaea, by
the way, and whether Arias believed that Jesus or the sun was
a semi deity somehow is open to debate.
But certainly, from what has survived from his writings, and
what we can take from his opponents, albeit with a grain of
salt. It seems as though Arias believed that the Son of God was
created by the Father. So that's not the Trinitarian position. The
Trinitarian position is that when they say Jesus is the Son of God,
or and they say we believe in the Son of God, right?
That the meaning of that is that God generated or caused the son to
be from his very essence.
right from the goose EOS to Patras, as it says, In the Creed,
so God did not so the father did not create the son out of nothing.
X ne Hilo. Right? That's a heresy. The Father created the world out
of nothing. But the father generated, or B got, that's the
term they use B got, which of course has a lot of baggage to it.
Because we think, Okay, this father B got this son, and this,
this man B got this, this child. So we sort of take it in this
physical sense. But it's not meant to be taken physically.
Right that God generated the sun from his own being. And this was
done in pre eternality. This is their position. So in other words,
there was never a time when the father was sort of alone by
himself. And then the sun came after him, there's no before or
after. This is in pre eternality there is no time when this
happened. Even my language cannot cap because I'm saying when this
there was no when, when this happened, right? So this is their
position. He's the son of God in the sense that he shares an
essential essence. Right essence is called that in Arabic. You
know, we say in our theology, no one shares with Allah's that is
essence is see fat is attributes, and his fit, no one can do the
actions of God. Right? Or, as a Christian say, No, God shares God
is three persons. And these, these three persons share God's essence
actions and attributes.
One God, but three persons, right? The essence of the son is
identical to the essence of the father. But there are different
persons, what does it mean to be a different person, meaning they
have different attributes.
Right. For example, the Son has the attribute of begotten Enos,
he's an effect of the Father who is his cause.
So the father has uncaused nation, the son is cause but they're
equal, in essence, because the father generated or produced the
son from his very own essence. This is their position.
Obviously, they're, they're very problematic. From our perspective,
the whole idea of a pre eternal sun
seems like a bit of a contradiction. Pre eternal sun.
Well, the sun is always an effective father. So it comes
after but you're saying he's pre eternal. So pre eternal sun seems
like a bit of a oxymoron.
Nonetheless, this is their position. And this was to avoid
this idea that Chris that you'd like us, other Christians of the
time, and other and Jews and pagans, were saying about the
early Christians, you're worshipping two Gods just admit
it. You're saying that this God is a son of God, he has a father.
That's two gods, right? Even if this was done before time, the
fact that the sun is an effect of the Father, the fact that the the
father is uncaused, and produces a son, even if it's done before
time.
In pre terminology, the fact that the Father is uncaused means that
he is ontologically, superior to the son.
He's a higher state of being right and so like a Neoplatonist, or
middle Platanus, would make that argument. The middle Platanus
would also say that the one generated the logos from his
being, he's X deal, but the logos was also Divine is not as divine
as the one because the Logos is the effect of the one of the
cause. All right.
I think the camera just panned out.
For some reason, there we go.
Again, people that are watching, you can ask questions, for
clarification, or
questions that are related to this topic in sha Allah.
So that's what they mean by Son of God be gotten from the Father
uniquely, this is from the essence of the Father, and they continue
and say, describing the son, how do they describe the son say on X
day you God from God, God, capital G from God, capital G,
force, X photons, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, is a very famous phrase here begotten, not
made, right? Again, a center point eighth center in the Greek, what
does it mean begotten, that Nate meaning generated or caused
naturally not created? The son is not created. What am I what am I
mean when it says Son? Am I talking about Jesus of Nazareth?
No, I'm not talking about Jesus was Cree.
hated. Jesus was a human being. That's not the Christian. The
Christians are not saying that Jesus is uncreated.
Right? Jesus was a human being. We're talking about the Son of God
that incarnated into Jesus of Nazareth.
The essence that dwelt within
the flesh of the man Jesus
is pre eternal is God. This is their position. Right?
So, the sun was not willed into existence. Right? That's Judaism.
Right that that God chooses, and wills something to exist, couldn't
play a goon, either, either the Amaranth into my Apolo bonfire
goon, whenever He decrees the matter, he merely says to be and
it is,
right. That's not what happened with the sun. He wasn't willed
into existence. And it wasn't sort of this involuntary emanation.
That happened. That's the sort of Neoplatonic idea. That's how the
logos in Neo Platonism and middle Platonism came to exist, that God,
the One was sort of thinking about his own thoughts,
as they say, and there was an involuntary sort of spillage of
light. Right? And this light became the Logos, the second
tier of being in this hierarchy of being right, so it wasn't, it
wasn't something willed, it wasn't involuntary. They use the word
naturally, the son was born just naturally from the Father. What
they mean is, is just who God is. God is naturally a father, he's
always been a father. Right? That's just who he is. God is
personal. He's social. He is He is in relationships, right this type
of thing.
begotten, not made, then they say co substantial with the Father.
And this is also a famous phrase Hama, ooh, Seon, Tama, Lucien are
home. Oh, Lucien. So again, a little bit of
a Greek lesson. I didn't want to get to, I didn't intend to get so
technical with these classes. I was told to keep it very, very
simple. But
I don't think it's too difficult. But we do have to sort of
push ourselves a little bit. To get more of a substantive
understanding of these things. It's still not difficult, I think.
So if we look at the word, homo, Luciano, H, H, O Mo, homo means
same, right? Like homosexual, right? Everyone knows that word.
So that's from a Greek, homo, same humble in Latin means man, like a
Homo erectus? erectus, right? Like the man who stands up right?
Right. So that's a different language. So how about worship, so
Hama means same or home in St. Lucia, dos means essence. Same
essence. This is the position of the Trinitarian it's called
Humboldt Lucien. Christology, that word Houma. Lucien isn't mentioned
here. In the Nicene Creed, it is not mentioned anywhere in the New
Testament.
Right?
This term is so important.
Yet it is not mentioned in the New Testament. Now Christians will
counter here and say, oh, yeah, well, what's the most important
theological concept in Islam we say Tawheed. And the Christian
will say, take the Quran and show me the word tau hate in the Quran.
It's not in the Quran. So the Christian point here is that the
concept of Tawheed is in the Quran, just as the concept of
Hama, Lucien, same essence Christology is found in the New
Testament. And that's, the latter obviously is open to debate.
That
Christians certainly take that position.
The Aryans certainly did not take that position. The early
Christians did not take that position, or at least the
Christians in the second century that did not believe that the son
was equal to the Father. They still revered these four texts. I
mean, the Aryans still believe in the gospel of John. Jesus says in
John 1030, remember those im statements we talked about last
week, that logic tells us we're probably never uttered by Jesus.
But let's just entertain the text for now. Let's say he did say that
the Father and I are one. So Trinitarians they say, Ah, you
see, the father and I are one. They're the same essence. Right? I
mean, that's sort of a
it is a giant leap to go from a statement the Father and I are one
to saying that they're the same essence Jesus is 100% God, he is
CO substantially God. The Aryans also believed in that statement.
What
Did they? How did they interpret that statement? Well, they would
look at it in its context. Right? So
he's Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he's saying that,
you know, the, I'm watching over my disciples, no one can *
them out of My hand. In other words, no one can take them out of
my protection. I'm watching over them. And then he says, the father
who was greater than all is also watching over them. And no one can
* them out of his hand.
Eggo Kai, pothead Moo, hen Usman the Father and I are one. So one
in purpose, one in
in
right, not one in essence,
one in, in, in,
in objective to protect the disciples from the enemies right
so would read it in its context.
So anyway, so you have homo Lucien Christology, and then you have
something homeboy, Lucien
H O, M, O, I, just an E OTA in Greek. So the difference between
the words homo and homage homeboy, H O moi, is a difference of one EO
to one iota.
But it makes a difference in theology. So well, homo, Lucien
Christology means that the father and son are exactly the same
essence.
Whereas homeboy Lucien Christology, which could have been
the position of Arias, I don't think it was but some have argued
that, that the Son is similar in his essence to the Father. He's
still divine but he's not as divine as the Father but he's
still not the same. He's not like a human being. Right? He's, he's
sort of in this middle space.
Right? So homeboy means similar Hamam means the same and then of
course, you have hetero, Lucien, hetero like again, heterosexual,
hetero Lucien, had terasse in Greek means another. Right,
another essence. And this is the position
of Unitarian Christians, that the Son of God, the Son of God, that's
a title it's honorific. It's tuck, Remi is my jazz I figurative, is
just a way of sort of exalting Eastside A salaam, it's not to be
taken literal in any way, shape, or form. Right. And that Jesus is
essence is other than God, the Father, my father, they mean,
again, the rub the Lord, that's also a figurative expression.
Okay.
And then they say here,
so co substantial with the Father, through whom all things in heaven
and earth became
the one meaning the Son, the Son of God, who for the sake of us,
human beings, and for the sake of our salvation, came down
and became flesh
and
dwelled in man.
Right. And I'm thrilled pay Santa is the Greek but the Latin
translation says encouter, NATOs. Asked, right in Carnotaurus.
incarnate. In means in Coronae means flesh. Like if you ever had
some chili con carne, chili with meat or flesh, right? So the Son
of God, he descended from the metaphysical realm and incarnated
into a human being Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago, according
to
Trinitarian, Christianity,
and then they continue,
became flesh and dwelt in man, we said, that suffered and rose on
the third day, ascended into the heavens, and will come to judge
the living in the dead.
So, belief in a second coming well, he will basically be the
judge on the Yeoman cuyama.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, so that's all the Holy Spirit gets
in the Nicene Creed. He just gets that one little thing at the end.
And by the way, we believe in the Holy Spirit, because the Holy
Spirit is not on the table for discussion at the Council of
Nicaea. That's going to come at the next council.
Right? What happened at Nicaea is they're simply dealing with
The Son of God is the Son of God, the same essence as the father or
a different essence or a similar essence. That's, that's what's on
the table. And of course, they voted, and Christians,
Christians believe that. And Catholics still believe this,
that at the Council of Nicaea.
There were actually 319 persons there. So 318 bishops, and then
the Holy Spirit was there. And the Holy Spirit sort of guides the
discussion of the bishops towards the right answer, right. So,
whatever doctrine or dogma is hammered out at these Ecumenical
Councils, and there have been 2022 of them, I believe. The last one
was the 1960s called thinking too.
So the the first seven of them are believed to are accepted by
Protestant Christians, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox.
And then after that, from eight to 21, or 22, those are only those
are, the decisions are believed by Catholics only.
So the Eastern Orthodox stop after seven, and so do the Protestant
Christians.
So, in other words, all Trinitarian Christians believe
that whatever came out of the Council of Nicaea, which was the
first Ecumenical Council, it is infallible, because it was, it was
a product of the providence of the Holy Spirit, who was also the
third person of the Trinity. We don't get that here in the Creed
yet, but we will get that later.
And then, the very last part of the Creed here, they actually
quote, the proto orthodox Trinitarian. I mean, they're not
Trinitarian at this point, again, so I'm using Trinitarian, as
somewhat anachronistic, right?
So
we can say proto, the proto orthodox bishops, they quote their
theological opponents here, and say, as for those who say there
was once when he was not,
right, so they're actually quoting the Aryans. This was a sort of
credito of the Aryans
in the early fourth century, and of course, again, Arias is present
at the council. What did they used to say ain't potty hottie UHC aim.
There was a time when he was not there was a time when the Son of
God did not exist. Right. So the son that is not pre eternal.
They're saying those who say that, and then they quote a few other
things,
that the Aryans were saying out of non being he became and
the sun is changeable, or alterable. These the universal and
apostolic Church deems a curse ID anathematize. is I mean, that's,
that's the Greek word
on on a semi TSI, which is where we get the word anathematize. In
other words, they're saying that we are pronouncing Kufa, we're
making tuck field, right of the Aryans now
that that the Aryan position, that the Son of God is not pre eternal
and not fully God is
right. So that's the that's the Nicene Creed.
Now,
a few years later, and 381
they held another Council.
It's called the Council of Constantinople. Right? So they're
both in Turkey. Constantinople means the polis of Constantine,
the city of Constantine, which is now assembled in Turkey.
So now the Roman Emperor is Theodosius the first. And he's
definitely a Christian.
There's no doubt about it. 115 bishops are present. So what's the
issue now? So the issue at or the problem for the proto orthodox at
Nicaea was these Aryans who are saying that the Son of God is
inferior to the Father. So they put it to vote and majority rules.
And the son of God officially becomes God the Son after the
Council of Nicaea and 381. Now the issue is what about the Holy
Spirit?
So now you have Christians who are saying, Okay, fine.
The son and father are Humboldt Lucien
They are the same essence. But the Holy Spirit is inferior to both of
them.
So you have, you don't have a trinity. You have, I don't even
know what the word is. You have a by unity because Trinity comes
from triune, and then unity. So they're saying now there's the
Father and the Son, that's the true God. And then beneath them,
you have the Holy Spirit, who's not quite God. Right.
And, and then you have the rest of creation beneath the Holy Spirit.
Right. So these enemies were dubbed pneumo. To Makins by the
proto orthodox these are, that literally means the Spirit
fighters, those who are fighting against the Holy Spirit, and will
not recognize the full divinity of the Holy Spirit.
So Theodosia is the first he called for this council. And
after again, many deliberations, they came to the conclusion that
indeed, the Holy Spirit is also God.
Hama, Lucianne, Pneumatology. Holy Spirit, shares and essential
essence with the Father and the Son, although he's a different
person, we have three persons, one essence,
three persons, one essence, there was a Christian theologian in the
Middle Ages, Hilary of Poitiers, who came up with this diagram. And
it's a very famous diagram, basically, it's a triangle, right.
And this is supposed to sort of be
a diagram, if you will, of the Trinity. So you have a triangle.
At each point, you have Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
right.
And so imagine that,
on on each side of the triangle,
you have the words is not, is not equal lateral, equal lateral
triangle. And at each point, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then
written along the lines of all three sides, is not so in other
words, the son is not the father, you're a different person, the
father is not the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the
son.
Right? So this is their belief, three separate and distinct
persons. Now imagine three lines, three arrows
coming or pointing towards the middle of the triangle from each
corner,
and at the center.
And on the lines of these arrows, is is. So in other words, the son
is God, the Holy Spirit is God, the Father is God. Right?
Probably would have been better if I brought visual aids of some
sort. But you can Google this, Hilary of Poitiers, AE, that you
triangle diagram of the Trinity,
right?
Persons separate and distinct,
who are all three God because they share and they share, in essence,
the analogy that we can maybe use here, and there's no there's no
adequate analogy.
But Christians have,
you know, they've tried to posit approximations, like, for example,
a water, right.
You have water that can exist in three different states.
You have liquid vapor, and ice. And all three are h2o,
essentially, one essence, three forms.
The problem with that is
that you can't get all three forms at the same time in place. That's
what I'm told at least. So it's inadequate. Another example is or
analogy is like an egg is very famous analogy. They say God is
like an egg.
So there's three parts. There's a shell, there's a yolk, and there's
a white.
Get it's one egg. The problem with this analogy is that if I just
took the shell of the egg, and I put it off to the corner, can I
still call that egg?
I can't now it's just shell. But if I took the Son of God and
isolated him, he's totally 100% in and of himself God. So that
analogy doesn't quite work either.
So three persons that share in essence, it's like,
it's like three species
have the same Janiero. So imagine you had
imagine you had three species of shark
right?
So what makes a shark? How do we know what a shark is? We have to
abstract the essence from attributes. A shark. In other
words, a shark has certain attributes. And if it doesn't have
those attributes, it doesn't qualify as being a shark.
A shark has a dorsal fin. A shark has is made of cartilage. A shark
has teeth, it has the sort of dots on its nose where it can sort of
detect motion in the water.
It has
it has a vertical tail, right? If a shark didn't have one of these
things, it's not a shark.
Right, so So that's how we establish the essence of shark or
shark Enos. Right, so imagine you have a hammerhead shark. You have
a great white shark. And you have a bowl shark, right. So you have
you have
you have three, as it were persons of shark that all share and the
essence of shark Enos
three persons of God so the bull shark by itself is totally shark,
even though it lacks an attribute of the Great White,
right, or it lacks an attribute of the Hammerhead, the bull shark's
head is not like a hammer. But it is 100% sharp.
Right.
This analogy also doesn't work because each one of these sharks
has its own consciousness. Right, what a great white shark is over
eating something. This bull shark over here is I don't know just
swimming around. But with the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit
are inseparable and action and thought. It's called petticoat
asis, in Greek, whatever the sun is doing, it necessitates the
participation at some level of the father in the Holy Spirit. So the
great white shark is eating something. The bull shark has no
idea what that shark is doing.
So maybe a better analogy is imagine three people that all
share a mind.
Right, if three different people, let's say,
I don't know. You have Peter, Paul and Mary. Right. And, but they all
share a mind that it's one consciousness. So if Peter as a
thought Mary and Paul have that thought, if Peter, you know, is
hungry, the other two as well, if Peter stubbed his toe, the other
to feel it as well, one mind one consciousness.
Right.
So the Son of God, according Christians, according to
Trinitarians, does not have the attribute of on causation.
Only the Father has that.
But Christians will argue that still does not deny him his
godness the essence of godness just as, again, using this crude
analogy, just as the the the fact that the great white shark doesn't
have a hammerhead does not deny the great white shark of its full
sharpness, as it were,
right.
Okay.
I mean, the big question is, you know, how did we get here?
How do you? How did they get from, you know, a basic and simple
message of Tawheed being in northern Palestine by a Jewish
prophet
to, you know, three Hypostases, one, Lucia Perico, races, Hamid
Lucianne, this type of thing?
I would say, it's from Hellenistic influence. Right? We have to be
careful about that.
Because, as we said, in the past,
the Greeks were very gifted. I mean, the Arab say, I'll hit my
NASA that eyelid Falada that wisdom descended upon three
people, the Greeks, the Chinese and the Arabs. Of course, the
Arabs also had wacky
what hecklers not walking, but it's but it's very close. It's a
great type of wisdom. They were given. So there's a lot of truth
in what they're saying. I mean, Aristotle was incredible
intellect, Plato and into an incredible intellect. Right? So we
can take from Greek
thought and you know, logic, ethics even as long as it doesn't
contradict our our Essentials, but Greek metaphysics we have to be
careful about
right.
And this is what was Ali says was Ali was not antiskid
Gnostic.
He didn't condemn all things Greek or Hellenistic. He was he, he was
a great proponent of logic. The Stossel will step in, right and
his texts,
as the testosterone was stuck in is the is the intellect is reason.
When Allah says in the Quran, judge by a just balance, because
Ali says that's using your reason, using logic he'll argue that the
prophet in the Quran the appeal to logic, logic, arguments, he
brought him on Islam is appealing to logic. When he's when he's
telling Nim rude, that, you know, bring bring the sun from the east
from the west and put it in the east. He's teaching him a lesson
that you're not God, you have let you have a very limited volition.
You don't have you're not omnipotent.
Right?
So when it comes to metaphysics, we have to be careful. So that's
that's what I would say is that
a, a significant influence of Hellenistic metaphysics, just
saturated, the early proto Orthodox Christians, many of whom
were basically pagan philosophers, pagan philosophers, before they
became Christian, like Justin Martyr, as an example.
So they took these concepts and they apply it to the basically the
Judaism, the toe, heed that Islam that was by the prophet inside a
salon. And of course, if you don't have a basis in Shediac, you don't
have a basis in law. You don't have a basis
in theology, correct theology,
then you're going to make these theological and metaphysical
mistakes.
Okay,
so just have a few minutes, the Council of Constantinople revised
the Council of Nicaea. And now we have something called the
Gneisenau, Constantino Polit Constantinopolitan creed, the
Nicene Constantinopolitan creed of 381, which is the first truly
Trinitarian creed, because all three constituents are now dealt
with Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So now 381 of the Common Era, you
have Trinitarianism officially.
Now this is sort of a Nicene Creed 2.0 It's very much similar. There
are some additions. We believe in one God, the Father, the Creator,
the maker of heaven and earth and all things seen and unseen. We
believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God. Now they
add the one begotten from the Father before all the ages. Right?
So they're, they're not just stressing the pre temporality of
the Sun, which seems to have been the Aryan position. Area says,
Okay, fine, the sun, the sun predates time. He's the first
creation, right? That still doesn't make him God, just the
first creation. But what they're saying here in this creed is no,
it's not he's not pre temporal, he's pre eternal, the son shares
an essential pre eternality with the Father. So he's not a possible
being. So you know, if the Son is the first of creation, that he's
still just a possible being. But if he has an essential pre
eternality, then he's a necessary being. There's two types of being
right, there's their monkey, not possible beings. And then there's
logical Whoo, dude, there's the necessary being the necessary
existent. So that's what they're saying here. He's an absolutely
necessary, Light from Light, true God from true God, that's now
they're saying they're going back to the Nicene Creed begotten, not
made ko substantial, so on and so forth. And then they say he became
flesh, and then they add by the Holy Spirit and marry the Virgin.
So they mentioned here, the sort of parents as it were, of, of
Jesus.
Mary is mentioned explicitly now in the Creed so the status of Mary
keeps climbing by the next Ecumenical Council for 31 Council
of Ephesus, Mary will be given the title of field service, which is
sometimes translated as Mother of God, but that's not a good
translation. It really means the bearer or carrier of God. Right.
And then, in the eighth, 19th and 20th centuries, at the strictly
Roman Catholic councils, marry.
The Catholics believe that Mary was assumed into heaven. She never
died, she was carried into heaven. And they also
espoused the the belief in what's known as the Immaculate
Conception that Mary was conceived without sin, she never had
Original Sin.
Those are much later developments
and then they can
Tinu
and they say something now that's not a Nicene Creed, he was
crucified. You notice the Nicene Creed did not say crucified, the
Nicene Creed said suffered and rose on the third day. So they
want to make it. That doesn't mean that the bishops at Nicaea did not
believe Jesus was crucified. Of course, they believe Jesus was
crucified. But they just want to be more explicit here. He was
crucified, for our sake under Pontius Pilate. Now they mentioned
explicitly, the Roman governor of Judea, who was punches pilots. So
they want to situate it seems Jesus in history that he was
really crucified. It is historical. It's not a myth. It
wasn't a rumor.
Right? He was crucified by Pontius Pilate, right. It's not just it's
not just saying he suffered, what'd he mean, he suffered. It's
so vague and okay, fine, he was crucified. But, you know, can
anyone corroborate that? Here's Yes, he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried, so they do mention
suffering too, and was buried. That's something new. We get here
in this creed, so it seems like they want to say that it was an
actual body. Right? Because you have different types of literal
Docetism is another term for you. Docetism, very common.
Christology. Christological belief in the first few centuries of
Christianity, you have no set agnosticism
that espouse that Jesus never had a physical body.
So you can't you can't bury a Phantasm that's what he was, he
was just, he was just a sort of ghost.
You have to Sadek, do static substitution, ism.
This belief that Jesus's body somehow escaped the crucifixion.
Someone else was crucified, right? It's called the substitution
theory. Someone else. Facilities believe that Simon of Cyrene was
supernaturally transferred. Transformed. transfigured, is the
term he uses transfigured autumn
that Jesus was transfigured to look like Simon and vice versa.
That's called the ascetic substitution ism. You also have
those settings separation ism,
also a belief of some of the Gnostics that okay, Jesus had a
flesh body. And okay, you know, They're crucifying Him. But at
some point, his soul left his body before his body died. So his body
didn't actually.
So he didn't actually feel the pain as it were, of the
crucifixion. They simply crucified an empty shell of a body.
Right? So they're saying here,
he was buried, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he was
suffered and he was buried, the body was underground, or he was in
the tomb in this case, and rose on the third day. And then they add,
according to the Scriptures, it didn't say that in the Nicene
Creed. So this is very important for them, fulfillment of Scripture
that this was foretold to happen. Right, the Jews at the time they
had this belief, and I also believe that what the Jews were
expecting about the Messiah, by the way, was erroneous, but their
belief was, this Messiah will be a military leader, that he will come
and he will, you know, he will take up the sword, and he will
completely annihilate these heathens, these Romans, and purify
the land that God gave us
as an inheritance, right, so, so
obviously, Jesus didn't do that.
So the Jews were going to the early Christians and saying, what
kind of Messiah is this? You know, he gets killed. You know, what are
you talking about? How can this be the Messiah? So the Christian
retort can only be well, you're Miss reading your scripture. And I
think the Jews were Miss reading the scripture. But then now we
have compounded Miss readings, where the Christians are saying,
Oh, look over here in Isaiah 53. There's this prophecy of someone
who's going to be
crushed for our iniquities, the suffering servant, and this is
about the Jewish Messiah. Right? Of course, nowhere in that text,
doesn't even mention the word Messiah at all. But Christians
would go back into these texts, and they would sort of rework them
and interpret them to fit in with what they believed happened to
Jesus, Isaiah 53, you know,
This person, whoever this person is, who's being tortured, is is
saying, he says I was I led as a lamb to the slaughter.
They cut me off from the land of the living. That's from Isaiah 53.
And the Christians say, Yes, that's exactly what happened in
Jesus.
But if you read the, if you read the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah
actually says those words, and applies it to himself. I was as a
dumb lamb led to the slaughter, I opened not my mouth, I was cut off
from the land of the living. So it seems whoever wrote Isaiah 53 was
sitting in Babylon after the exile, and was remembering the
words of Jeremiah, Jeremiah is the suffering servant.
I mean, it just works out completely by looking at the text.
But this is how to justify what happened to Jesus. Right? That it
was they say, according to the Scriptures, and ascended to
heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and He will come again with glory. So they add that part to be seated
at the right hand of the Father. Not that like he's seated next to
the Father, like, vizier or something. No, he's seated on the
same level, they share a throne. That's what they mean by this.
The judge living in a debt to GDP, according to them will be gently
your multi ama in the Quran says ALLAH SubhanA wa deitel Yeah, you
said no, Maria, and totally not. Me. Well, OMYA Elohiym even doing
a lot Did you ever say to the people that you are your mother or
divinities
Jesus not judging anyone. On your monthly AMA, you will be
questioned in front of the whole of humanity, according to the
Quran
of course his response to panic.
Laurie Beecher you never did I say what I had no right to say I said
in the law hold up your optical fiber do Heather
so let's see how we're doing on time. Yeah, it's nine o'clock now.
There's a few more things mentioned in the Creed but the
basically they just repeat the Nicene Creed. So we've we've come
to the end of our section on Christianity.
As you can see that it's quite involved and requires I hope these
sessions just sort of inspire you to do some more research
inshallah. So next week, we're going to get into Hinduism go way
back in time, and look at the basic tenants and beliefs of
Hinduism. Inshallah. Salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.
Spin around or him
sort of RSA to Muhammad in one early he will sacrilege Marine,
satanic Allah and Milena Ilana ilm, tena Intel animal Hakeem
Valhalla La Quwata illa biLlah Hill alley la Alim
Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
challah to Allah. Tonight we're going to discuss the basics
theological basics of the religion of Hinduism. Inshallah.
So, we covered the Islamic tradition, we've covered
Judaism, Christianity, so there's two weeks of this class left
tonight and next week, so Hinduism and Buddhism next week inshallah
to Allah.
Again, we are live here on
Tuesday night. This is September 1 2020. If you're watching live
if you have questions, you can go ahead and
type them into the chat box inshallah to Allah.
Okay.
So Hinduism,
the term Hinduism is a neologism. It was probably invented by the
British
or British Orientalist.
It comes from the Greek word Indus, like the Indus Valley. So
the ancient Sanskrit name of the religion is Sanatana, dharma
Sanatana Dharma, which means something like
the eternal way or the eternal duty, something like that.
Now, there's different schools of thought in Hinduism, different
philosophies, right. Probably the most common or popular philosophy
is called the Vedanta philosophy. And Vedanta philosophy, espouses
three propositions, okay. So number one, first and foremost,
our real nature is divine.
Right. And you're going to see how Hinduism is quite different.
then the,
the Abrahamic religious tradition. That's the first proposition, our
nature our real nature is divine, our collective soul is God. Right
is Brahman. Brahman is the term Sanskrit, that I'm going to use
interchangeably with God.
So we are all God, right? That's the first proposition. Number two,
the aim or tell us of our lives. Right? The goal of our lives is to
realize this divinity within us
come to this realization, this actualization, right? This tap
peak, if you will, to take a Arabic term, this realization that
we are divine, right? So not everyone, not everyone realizes,
in fact, most people don't realize that they're actually God that
there Brahman. So that realization in Sanskrit is called Milk shot
Moksha which has been translated various ways. Transcendental
liberation, self actualization, we'll get to this term, Inshallah,
but that's the second proposition of Vedanta philosophy. The third
is that all major religions are essentially in agreement. Right.
So, Hinduism is a perennial list philosophy, all major world
religions are
essentially in agreement, because the goal of all of the major
religions is the same. So Hinduism is looking at the total loss, not
necessarily at the method, right. So the method is important, and
some methods are better than others, and we'll talk about that
inshallah. But it's because of this, what's what Aldous Huxley
called the highest common factor, right, that these religions these
major religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism,
that they share this highest common factor and that is the
unitive mystical experience with God so mystical union with God.
Any major religion that preaches mystical union with God as its
goal in this life is a true religion according to Vedanta
philosophy.
Now, in Hinduism, there are two major theological approaches. And
this might surprise some people.
But there are two major approaches. The first major
approach and by the way, both of these are considered to be
correct, right. I mean, Hindus consider Judaism to be a correct
religion. So within their own tradition, there are two ways of
attaining this self actualization, what they call moksha.
The first way is called the near guna Brahmanism. And I RG una near
Guna. Brahmanism. It's also called Trans personalism. God
transcendent, right. So what what I mean by God Transcendent is God
is not represented by anything physical, not that God is an
imminent, not that God isn't close or khateeb. He is imminent, but
he's just not represented. Right.
And the champion of trans personalism was a Hindu sage,
named Adi Shankara, very famous Shankara. He died in the ninth
century of the Common Era. He's as popular or not quite, but he's
somewhat comparable to like Azhar Lee's position in Islam or Aquinas
in Catholicism.
And he was actually accused of teaching Buddhism because the
Buddha was an iconoclast, right? He rejected these what are known
as ish tos and modalities, these sorts of icons representing God
and its various forms, or idols representing God.
However, for Shankara ish does, we're not incorrect, right?
They're just not the optimal way. So again, Hinduism is religiously
pluralistic, right, but it's not relativistic. So there's a
difference between being a religious pluralist, where you say
that there's truth and other religions and many of these other
religions will get to your goal. And a relativist. When you say
these, it doesn't make a difference that all of these
religions are on the same plane, as it were, they're all the same
on the same level.
But Hindus do believe that all religions are valid. And the
analogy that's used by Shankara is like a man trying to get to the
top of his house if that's his goal, he can use a ladder. He can
climb a rope, he can take stairs, he I mean, there's different ways
of doing that. Some ways are easier. So for Shankara the
easiest and quickest way
way, most effective way is through Hinduism, whereas the other the
other ways represent the other religions.
So no major world religion is invalid again, why? Because they
have the same goal, the unitive experience with God, right. So
there are good ways of getting to God and there are better ways,
right? If a religion does not preach this unitive experience
with God, then it would be considered an incorrect religion.
Now, so what is this? What is this unit of experience, mugshot? It's
called Moksha in Sanskrit, and Arabic is called a jemar. Right?
Which means to join mystical union is usually how it's translated.
It's O'Neill Mystica in Latin, right? So that's the Catholics
that would call it Neo Mystica. It's called a Theosis in Greek,
right? And it's called Devey coot in Hebrew, if it could means to
cling to God. Right. So all of these major religions have this
idea.
Now Shankara said that the only accurate description of Brahman of
God is neti neti, not this, not this, right.
And we of course, accurate according to this approach. So
imagine, you know, like flying through the universe. You see the
sun, you see the moon and neti neti, this is not God, this is not
God. You pass by the I don't know the Andromeda Galaxy, this is not
God, this is not God, until you basically have eliminated the
whole of the cosmos. Right. So the world, right, which is called the
Jagat, the world the phenomenal world is a set a set means unreal,
it's not real. It doesn't really have an ontological reality. Like,
you know, like some philosophers would say that evil is not real.
There's no ontological reality to evil. It's just the absence of
good, right? Or like there's no such thing as, as as cold. I mean,
we call them we call something cold, but it doesn't have a
reality ontological, there's no essential thing called Cold is
just the absence of heat. Right? So the world is unreal, and we are
under an illusion.
Right? The world is a set unreal, and we are under an illusion. An
illusion is called Maya, in Sanskrit, very important concept.
So it is our association with matter and mind. Right? That
deludes us away from the truth, which is a realization that we are
in fact, Brahman, matter in mind, this is called Brock treaty, in,
in Sanskrit, so probably the best text to study
to get a sort of firm hold, or comprehensive understanding, I
mean, Hinduism is an extremely vast religion, right. And again,
it's very, very difficult to distill an entire religion in one
hour. But some books are better than others, like in Buddhism, the
Dhamma PATA is, is basically all you need, unless you want to go
into more advanced studies, in Buddhism, in Hinduism, the
Bhagavad Gita is the best text, right and all of these ideas are
discussed, you should get a good commentary as well though maybe
study it with a guru or a Swami. But a very important concept is
that mind and matter called proclivity is what causes the
illusion. So what does matter that which is material like this table
here, this computer, my own body, right, that's an illusion, it's
not really there, by mind, they mean individual or subjective
psychological constraints or constructs I should say, right
subjective psychological constructs, they are not real,
right.
So these delude us into thinking, that we are a separate existence
consisting of an individual body and mind so that is an illusion.
Right? So behind the, I guess, veil of this world, there was one
seamless, unchanging, eternal reality, and that's called
Brahman. Everything is actually Brahman. Brahman is the real
Ramana Brahman is sucked as a tea cup capital SAP. The world is a
set, it is unreal, it is only Brahman, that is real, and we are
under an illusion thinking that it is real. It's not really there.
There's no ontological reality, to anything other than Brahman.
Matter is not real. So this this is called metaphysical idealism.
By the way, this is the technical term in Western philosophy,
metaphysical idealism that this idea that only our ideas and some
of our ideas in our minds are real or can be real. Only some of our,
some of our ideas in our minds have the potential of being real.
If and it's a big if if our minds are purified of its subjectivity.
Right.
So Hinduism is basically teaching us how to think correctly, how to
step out of our subjective psychological constructs. And
think about reality. And when we could we can tap into reality, we
tap into the Brahman
okay?
So,
Brahman, according to near guna Brahmanism
is Sat Chit Ananda, very important, right? He is SAT Essay
T, he is what is that He is real. Uh huh. He is real. He is infinite
being, that's a better way to translate Sut he is CIT, which
means knowledge, infinite knowledge, and Ananda, which means
infinite bliss. This is taken from the apana shots, which is another
very important Hindu text, the apana shots.
So these are not His attributes, right? We're not saying that
Brahman
has existence.
What they're saying is Brahman is existence. He is existence itself
is the ground of being.
We're not saying that he has knowledge, he is knowledge.
They're not saying that he is bliss, he is infinite bliss. So
these are describing the very essence of Brahman, right and he
cannot be described in any other way. Except neti neti, according
to near guna Brahmanism. And this includes calling him creator and
destroyer, and sustainer. Right. So they're gonna Brahmanism then
is essentially a form of apophatic theology. Remember this term
apophatic When we talked about the theological
positions of my modernities or his method, that he was a negative
theologian via negative apophatic, theologian, right lo Huzzah.
salby, as they say, in Arabic, right.
So not this not this. God is none of these things. And the only
three,
the only three names that you can reference to or predicate to the
Deity Brahman is infinite Sat Chit Ananda. Now, according to nirguna,
Brahmanism, the atman
Atman is loosely translated as soul.
Right like rule, it's not a one to one, right. But if we have to
think of a word to use, it would be soul, the human soul. The soul
eventually becomes completely identified with Brahman with God.
And in doing so, loses every trace of its former distinctness which
again was only illusory, to begin with. So distinction, right? And
duality, this idea that I am not you, you are not me, this idea
that there's heaven and earth, this idea that there's God and
creation, that is illusory, according to your guna Brahmanism.
It's Maya. It's an illusion. So here we're gonna Brahmanism
mystical union then, mystical union moksha. With Brahman is non
dualistic.
It's a realization. It's not a realization that there is God.
Right? And you're a human being, and you keep your identity and God
stays God. That would be a type of dualistic realization in Hinduism
Moksha in your guna Brahmanism. No. Moksha is non dualistic,
right, total annihilation in God's essence. So dualism and all
apparent multiplicity will fall away, right? You are Brahman, it's
like a drop of fresh water into a lake total disillusion. Right
atman equals Brahman. If you want to put it sort of mathematically
You're gonna Brahmanism espouses X Men equals Brahman Shimelle calls
this the, the mysticism of infinity.
So while this method right is one of affirming transcendence, neti
neti, Transcendence, 10 z in Arabic, the goal is a realization
of absolute imminence of absolute touch be right? The method is one
of the method is one of affirming transcendence, while the goal is a
realization of absolute imminence, because what is the goal? It is a
realization that you are in fact Brahman.
So let's talk more about moksha. Then Moksha is the term that is
used to describe this. This liberation is transcendental
liberation, self actualization.
I think it was translated a state of super consciousness. Moksha
comes from Moog in Sanskrit, which means to loosen or to set free to
release. It's not related to mucus, a lot of people make that
mistake. Mucus is from a Latin etymology.
Moksha is transcendental liberation, spiritual release from
samsara. Samsara literally means the wheel, right? Or it means to
wander around, what is samsara? This endless cycle of birth, and
rebirth, right. So, in in the Kabbalah, it's called Gilgal Hana
Shama, which means sort of the rolling of the soul, right? In
Plato, it's called mettam. Psychosis. Right? In Latin, it's
called reincarnation.
Right? Reincarnation. So Hindus believe in reincarnation. The
Buddhists believe in reincarnation. And a lot of people
don't know this. I don't know if I talked about this, but most
Orthodox Jews, most Orthodox Jews,
believe in reincarnation,
right metrum psychosis, so it is released from the finitude that
restricts us
to identify the true self, the soul the automatic, right, with
Brahman with God, so atman Brahman identity,
the word Brahman as a dual etymology, the word that is used
for God in Sanskrit,
or dual etymology there's better be R, which means to breathe. In
maybe the word breathe comes from Sanskrit, I don't know Allahu
Adam, but then also Bray, Bray in Sanskrit means to be great, right.
So the great breadth, meaning, you know life or existence itself, get
Brahman is the ground of being, right.
infinite, eternal, non contingent existence.
Now, Moksha is what's known as the fourth Purusha artha Purusha artha
means a stage of life, right. So, Hindus believe in these stages of
life on Earth.
So, they begin with karma, karma means pleasure. And karma is to be
sought but not hedonistic ly, right? It should be tempered and
sought intelligently. So like, you know, the Kama Sutra is written
for young married couples. It's not written for people so they can
go live a Cavalier lifestyle of the sensuousness and fornication.
So there's comma, and then you advanced to our thought, which is
the next stage comma, then artha weight which is described as
worldly success, you reach your 30s you reach your 40s, right, you
come into some wealth, but again, this is not as an end, but as a
means to an enriched life. And then you have Dharma and dharma is
more of a perennial stage. Dharma means duty, right? And so to
participate in the social structure, basically, to do one's
role, and this is throughout your life, right?
And then finally, we have mugshot.
So when a person becomes around 60 years old or so, it's expected
that this person will now sort of settle down, retire, and pursue
Moksha pursue other worldly types of
enlightenment.
So that's the ultimate goal then is to actualize Brahman.
Atman is the incorruptible soul, or the spiritual substance within
the body. Again, there's different ways of thinking about Atman. Some
would say the Supreme Being residing in every heart,
the God within to be actualized, the Divine Spark, right?
So like the name, Mahatma, right? Mahatma Gandhi, right? Mahatma is
a compound word it comes from Maha, which means big are great.
And then atman soul. So Mahatma means the great sold one, the one
with a big or great soul. The Ottoman according to the school of
nirvana. Brahmanism is Brahman, right? Your soul. And my soul or
actually the very same substance is the very same thing. And that
thing is Brahman, we just simply need to realize that well, that
simply, it's not so simple, but we need to realize that according to
Hinduism, our individual mortal souls, or selves, right are
individual consciousnesses, our subjective selves, those are not
called ottoman, those are called jivas. Right, and that's in the
plural, so does one Atman. My Atman is the same as yours. Right?
There's one soul because that soul is actually Brahman, but we have
individual jivas. Right, the Jeeva is the term for the Atman, when it
is bound to proclivity right when it is bound to what to matter in
mind.
And
matter in mind, in the Hindu conception, is made of three
elements. They're called such wild rajas, and tamas. These are called
the gunas.
I don't want to get too technical here. But again, I highly
recommend getting the Bhagavad Gita with a good commentary. But
basically, it is the Gunas that create these psychological
constructs. Right? Which is half of curiosity, that matter in mind,
that fool us into thinking that we know reality but in reality, in
real reality, capital, our all of our psychological constructs are
an illusion. They're not real, right?
So the Jeeva then is the term for the Ottoman that is still
unenlightened has not reached moksha. So one needs to transcend
the gunas. And the Gunas are represented by we said such well
rajas and tamas, tranquility, action and agitation. So this is
the state of our minds, when one of these three states were either
in a state of tranquility, or were an action or striving or an
agitation. Right. So again, we have this idea of this kind of
tripartite soul or lower self we see that in right we see it in
Plato. We see it in Christianity, even in Islam, I mean, obviously,
again, it's not a one to one, right, but you have this idea of
knifes Allah wama nefs will motivate in right
knifes next what amount of ASUW this tripartite division of the
knifes
Okay, so that is to say, that the person will actualize the God
within.
And then when that happens, the Jeeva,
right? Free of the impediments of proclivity will realize its
divinity, and that's called Moshe.
Okay,
so the world is not real. It is an illusion. It's like a
psychological construct, like when you're dreaming. This is this is
a, an analogy that is used by Hindu by Hindus. When you're
dreaming you, you accept the reality, even if it's fantastical,
even if strange, very strange. Things that are breaking natural
law are happening. And sometimes people in their dream, realize
that they're dreaming. But they go on with that reality.
Right? So that's like the world. So we perceive the world and our
individual selves, as ultimate
and nature as real but only Brahman is real. And we are all
Brahman. So once again, I'm speaking in the first person, I
don't mean to say we as Muslims are saying this. Don't take these
things out of context. These are not things that I necessarily
believe in. But I'm speaking of
First person because I'm representing it's a more sort of
effective way of speaking, the the tradition.
So everything is Brahman, right? Everything is Brahman, everything
is one,
when you reach Moksha
Okay, so are jivas right again the Jeeva is the what? The individual
mortal soul, or the Brahman, clothed in proclivity in matter
and mind, that Jeeva must be transcended in order to unite with
the Atman, which is the incorruptible soul which is
Brahman.
In other words, when our atman realizes that it is Brahman,
it is in reality, Brahman self actualizing, right, is Brahman
actualizing himself.
So, it is the Jeeva with all of its acquired karma, that will
reincarnate right, what is karma, karma. So, just as there is, you
know, the physical law of cause and effect, you have the moral law
of cause and effect.
All right. So, the karma, so, the Jeeva with its acquired karma will
reincarnate, should it not reach Moksha and this can go on
indefinitely, when one reaches moksha, all multiplicity and
materiality
and illusion will vanish.
And one will come to the realization that there is only
one, the Brahman, so, this is Florida classify this, what type
of theology is this? So, this is probably best described as pen N
theistic molinism.
Right pantheistic molinism. So, what does it mean pan N theistic,
everything is in God. Right, God is sorry, all is in God, and
molinism
God is all there is in reality.
Right.
So,
Kabbalistic Judaism also espouses this type of pen in theism.
But unlike Kabbalistic Judaism in their guna Brahmanism the world
the Jagat is totally illusory. It is not created XV Hilo. It's not
created out of nothing. It wasn't created at all right? It's not
actually there. Everything is actually Brahman, and we're just
blinded by illusion. So in Kabbalistic, Judaism, the universe
exists, and is created, but God is greater than the universe,
although the universe is nothing other than God. So in capitalism,
we have this paradoxical language, which is basically used to
communicate the idea that God is both ontologically superior to his
creation, and simultaneously, mysteriously inseparable from his
creation. Right.
But at the end of the day, both Hinduism and Qabalistic Judaism,
and not all Jews believe in the Kabbalah. But at the end of the
day, both religions Hinduism, and cannibalism, would seem to agree
with a statement in the Torah, where God has called a node, that
there's nothing else but him. There's a there's a verse in
Deuteronomy, chapter four, verse 39, which is used as a proof text
by Qabalistic. Jews who believe in Penon, theistic molinism, this
idea that everything is actually God. This verse says, I am the
Lord and there is none else. Right? So it's not I am the Lord
and there are no other gods. I mean, their verses like this is
your theme. They're called in Hebrew, in the Tanakh, and the
Hebrew Bible, but this particular verse says, I am God, I am the
Lord, and there is nothing else. It is only God God is all in all
right. So in this tradition of Kabbalistic, Judaism, as well as
in Hinduism, to say that God is separated from creation, to say
that God is definitively separated from his creation is to put a
limit on God is to say that there is some sort of existence separate
from God's existence. And that's to put a limit on God, so that
can't be true.
Okay.
Okay, but Hindu scholars
and new scholars, they say,
most people need sort of pointers, right? They need to put their love
in
Some place or upon some form, right, something tangible,
something visible.
Hence, you have these, this idea, this concept of the avatars,
right? The dash of Uttara in Sanskrit means the 10 incarnations
of Vishnu. Vishnu was just one of the, one of the manifestations of
Brahman. Right? So
according to this other understanding that we're going to
get to, called saguna Brahmanism s ag una.
Brahman does have attributes and they're positive attributes and
you can describe God as having positive attributes member in
there. Guna Brahmanism. He sat chit ananda, infinite being bliss
and knowledge or knowledge and bliss, right. And that's it,
everything else is neti neti, but in Suguna Brahmanism. This allows
for more Katha phatic positive expression about Brahman. So the
Brahman is now described as creator and sustainer and
destroyer Brahma Shiva, Vishnu
or Brahma, Vishnu Shiva. Vishnu is the sustainer. Right? So you have
like the ILA, and you have the rub. And this is how it's,
this is how it's taught. Right? This is not three gods, right?
This is these are manifestations of attributes of Brahman.
This is in these aren't actual people. Right? So Hindus don't
believe that Krishna, for example, who was, you know, the, what is it
the ninth or eighth? I don't remember. He's one of the
incarnations of Vishnu. They don't believe that he was actually a
historical personage, maybe some of them do. Right.
But these stories are our mythos. It's a myth. It's a myth that's
teaching a lesson about God. Right? So what does it mean to be
an incarnation of Vishnu? Again, Vishnu represents the attribute of
Brahman describing Brahmins
concern and his ability to sustain
the world. Right. So in other words, drop, right just like
there's an e la isla, the word Ilan Arabic denotes the
transcendent God, whereas the rub denotes the one who's close to
you, the one who takes care of you come out of Bayani Saphira. We use
this What about Europe between someone who takes care of you?
Alright, your Merapi is your the person who raises you, right.
So, the avatars are then
revered and worshipped by
most Hindus, right. And they also have, and how are they worship?
Well, they set up idols, they have iconography, right? Because,
again, according to Hindu scholars, most people need these
kind of pointers. They need to see something it's hard for. It's hard
for them to conceptualize things. They need to represent them with
some sort of physical form.
It's like CS Lewis, the famous Christian author, he says that he
has a story where he was a little boy and he was at his, he was not,
you know, he's gonna go to sleep and they make a prayer with his
parents. And,
you know, he asked his parents, you know, what is God and either
his father or his mother said to him, God is formless and infinite.
Alright, and then CS Lewis, he wrote, years later that
immediately I started thinking about this is infinite ocean of
tapioca pudding. That's where his brain went as a child, right?
Because he spiritually immature, infant infinity, how do you
conceptualize infinity? Right? Formless, formless infinity, what
are you talking about? His brain immediately what needed a visual?
This leads us then to our second theological approach. And this is
sort of the Hinduism of the masses. And this is what most
people think is actually all of Hinduism, but it is not, but it is
the approach of saguna Brahmanism SHA de una saguna Brahmanism, also
known as personalism, right, the Hindu of the masses.
So here
Oh, there's one more point I wanted to make.
Going back to this idea of
trying to conceptualize things versus
Representing them. So remember when we talked about the Trinity?
Right? Remember the,
the, the diagram of the Trinity that I try to explain although not
very effectively, the triangle of Peter of plati as he said it the
triangles equal lateral at every point. There's a person of God
Father, Son spirit, in the middle is God three who's one? What?
So that's good for starters, but it's also very inadequate compared
to the concept in the mind. Right? And the concept is nothing
compared to the reality.
Right? Because the reality is ineffable it is.
It is beyond speech. You have this idea of representation,
conceptualization and actualization, right?
So
I'll be Rooney
who was a great Muslim scholar
he's called El Bolognaise. I think in Latin Abu Abu right hand and
the Rooney
he was arguably the founder, the law there, right? If you're going
to use you know, the if you're going to do a,
a paper on the 10 foundations of comparative religion, the Mumbai
Dr. Asha
Alby Rooney would be probably in this is by admission of Western
scholars as well. Alberto Aeneas would be the founder at wha there
of that topic.
And so he has a very famous book called Teddy Hynde write the
history of India.
And in this book, he distinguishes between what he calls the Hamas,
like the elites and the Ummah, the vulgar or the masses, right, just
like ordinary Hindu believers, and this is this model is still used
today. It's called the two tiered model of religion.
Right? So, what does he say about this? He says, the ladder, the
Ummah, the vulgar, because they are not philosophically adept.
They needed concrete manifestations, or representations
of the higher being.
Therefore shidduch, or polytheism, became an accidental deviation and
in hate off is the word that he uses from Hinduism essence, which
according to Allah be ruining is monotheistic at the essence of the
religion?
Because everything is Brahman, one God, right?
It's a monistic religion, everything is the same substance,
and that is God. So he's saying here, so it is, it is. In other
words, it is Tawheed at its sort of
elite philosophical core, but schicke at its popular level.
In other words, polytheism is caused by common people's
inability to understand non symbolic language, or non symbolic
philosophical and theological matters, they need symbols.
For the elites, the religious tradition is monotheistic, but at
the popular level, it is manifested as polytheistic and
highly anthropomorphic.
Right.
The Scottish philosopher, famous Scottish philosopher, David Hume,
actually agrees with lb Rooney. In his essay, he wrote an essay he
was an atheist, but he wrote an essay the natural history of
religion,
where he says that he says the intellectual and cultural
limitations among the masses concerning original monotheism
caused the vulgar to fall into anthropomorphism and the need for
representation. So he says that the whole thing, the whole, the
whole history of religion is characterized by quote, the
tension between theistic and polytheistic polytheistic ways of
thinking, right, this two tiered model
Okay, so that leads us now to the second approach saguna Brahmanism.
We said personalism. So here God is Ishvara.
Ishvara means Lord, right. So that's, that's the that's the
focus of this approach is the
use Rubia, if you will, the lordship of God, the proximity and
nearness of God. Ishvara
is personal with attributes that correspond to
He's concerned for humanity. He's loving, merciful, sustaining, so
on and so forth. He assumes unlimited forms incarnations
called avatars.
And of course, we said the most famous of these is Krishna.
Right Krishna,
who is a major character in the Bhagavad Gita, right. He is the
charioteer and interlocutor of our Juna,
who is sort of the protagonist of the story. The Bhagavad Gita is,
the entire book is a discourse, or dialogue really between two men,
between Otto junuh, who is going to fight in the battle of
Kurukshetra, this is a famous battle that might have been
historical 1000s of years ago, in India, a massive battle, the
winners would be winner take all he was on one side of the
battlefield, and then there was other, his cousins and whatnot,
called the code of us he was from the Pandavas against the code of
us, you'd have to read the text to get the details. But anyway, his
charioteer was Krishna. And Arjuna doesn't know it. But Krishna is a
divine incarnation of Vishnu
the attribute of Brahmas lordship right
and then they have this incredible dialogue
culminating with our June because he doesn't want to fight he said
these are my brothers I don't want to fight and he's actually
convinced that he should fight because sometimes fighting is
necessary to create peace.
Some people they miss misinterpret the text and say that it's a text
that advocating violence, this text was was quoted by
Oppenheimer, very famously one of the chief
engineer engineers of the Manhattan Project that develop the
hydrogen bomb.
They have completely missed the point the point is, you have to do
your duty, do your dharma, right? You have to do your duty.
Okay, according to saguna Brahmanism
be perceived a differentiation or duality, then between God and the
soul will always remain, right this is indispensable in order to
bask in God's beatific vision. Right. So like, how would you
appreciate? How would you appreciate the Grand Canyon? If
you are the Grand Canyon? You can appreciate it. Right? How does the
sun enjoy a beautiful sunset? These are things might like one of
my professors, a Hindu professor, he was giving me these analogies.
Right? How does the sun enjoy a beautiful sunset, it can't enjoy
it, it can't experience a sunset it is the sun.
So in order to experience God's Beatific Vision, one must not know
that one is God. So this is not a total dissolution of the
individual consciousness. Right? The perception of duality is
indispensable, it remains and it will punish shots. The analogy is
a single salt crystal dropped into a freshwater lake.
Right.
So the salt only appears to dissolve completely in the
vastness of the water.
But something of its existence, however, infinitesimally small,
however, infinitesimally small enjoy remains to enjoy the water.
The question here,
hearing about the philosophy of the Hindus makes me think of the
philosophy of the Muslims. They're also different understandings
about shit
between the two groups. Yeah, I mean, this two tiered approach,
right? I think it's across the board.
Right. And you'll notice that people who
do not safeguard their Arcada it's very important to study Arcada.
Right, because things can creep into the religion. Sometimes
they're harmless. So like the belief that
the belief that the Prophet salallahu Salam is the initial
creation
and that all of creation is derived from his light. That's a
permissible belief is not you know, it's not it's not haram to
believe that I should have to believe that because one still
maintains that he is creation right?
So it's job is to believe that but the Hadith that the that that is
based upon mean there's indications and other things in
the Quran and, and things like that enough.
thing explicit, but the explicit mention of that in the hadith
is almost universally believed, or maintained by the Mahad. The theme
as being Maduro, it's a fabricated Hadith. It could still be true. It
doesn't mean it's definitely false. Right?
But that's an example of something, something coming in to
the masses that was embraced. And, but that's a different situation,
because it's still a permissible belief. But there are other things
that could come in cultural ideas can come into the religion, right?
That
could impact one's sound Arcada. Right. The beautiful thing about
Islam though, is that
the fundamentals of the religion can be understood,
even by the simplest of people. That doesn't mean that the
religion is simple, right?
But it means that the religion is really comprehensive and speaks to
all of humanity. And it speaks to people in different ways. Right?
So a simple Bedouin can grasp. Although Allahu Ahad Allah Summit,
Lamia did well I knew that one of my teachers told me what he said
that he was a convert, and he said that he was overseas. And he said
that
one of the Bedouin sent said to him, what were you before you were
Muslim? And he said, I was my teacher. He said, I was a
Christian. And and when the Bedouin said, what do they
believe? And he said, Well, they believe that Jesus is the Son of
God. And then the Bedouin said, well, that kind of makes sense,
because Jesus didn't have a father. And then he said, the
other Bedouin hit him with his stick, and said, lamb Yeah, did
well, um, you lead, right? And he said, Oh, yeah, I knew that.
Right? So, so that's, that's, that's simple. God does not be get
nor does he be No, God does not be getting or was he begotten? Now
you can write a 500 page dissertation on the theological
intricacies and nuances of pseudo floss. That's fine. But that's not
necessary. Hinduism, however, such as it's such a deep philosophical
religion, right? I mean, the question is, how does one get to
moksha? It's really a type of, of, of meditative learning. That is
very difficult for the fast majority of the people. And that's
why you have these casts, right, the jati system, the caste system,
which is, you know, in theory abolished, but still practiced.
In India,
I mean, that the consciousness of the caste system, still very much
there. So, like the Brahmins up the top, these are sort of the
scholars and so they don't have to do I mean, they're just sort of,
they have comfortable lives, they can they can, they can take time
and read and study and practice these yogas. Right, because it's
expected for them to enter into a state of moksha. Quickly, whereas
the people below them, especially people at the bottom of the caste
system, right. And the caste Brahmins shut today as vices and
shoulders, the shoulders are sort of the servants, the unskilled
laborers. I mean, what type of meditation can they do? So what So
the the yoga that's prescribed for them is really a type of worship
or devotion to these representations of Brahman? Right,
so this worshiping idols, right, but the higher ways,
the more enlightened ways, is a type of learning and meditation.
And then you have the deletes under them The Untouchables, which
is a sort of new cast
that we'll
maybe talk about in a minute here.
Yeah.
So definitely this two tiered approach.
You know, you know, it's, it's a, it there's also a type of, I would
say, type of providential
protection
for the Muslims, right. I mean, there's there's several Hadith
where the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, I don't fear shit for
you after me. And he's Hadees when I like him,
right? He's the most covetous or he's the he's, he has the most
concern for us, the ultimate meaning for him. So he's giving us
this advice as good advice coming from him, obviously, that I don't
really I don't feel Shattuck for you. It doesn't mean that people
won't enter into shidduch it's just not a major concern. But I
fear these, you know, these fitten in these
In these, these other areas, right?
So,
I mean nobody in the history of Islam, no sect or group that claim
to be upon Islam ever came out and said we worship the Prophet.
That's our Aveda
this God is protected the profit from that. I mean people have come
out and worship Satan to ally. Right the either we believe that
he's God he's a divine incarnation. He's an avatar of
Allah, this type of thing has happened with it but not with the
profit. Right. So we see a type of, you know, a type of
preservation. God protects the Koran. He protects the OMA. Right.
Okay.
Thank you for your question.
And then the other question, oh, are you the one who debated David
Wood? Yes, I debate I did debated.
Woody as I call them.
2007. A long time ago. I debated David Wood.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the question then becomes
how can both approaches be true at the same time.
So you have near Gouda Brahman is saying that God is transcendent.
He's not represented by idols, he doesn't incarnate. You have the
saguna. Brahman is saying God has personal attributes. He can be
represented by modalities, and he does and avatars. And so either
Brahman, so either Ottoman is Brahman, or he's not right.
God is either represented or he's not. Now the truth is, according
to Hindus, that Brahman is above representation, and Atman is
Brahman. Because the world is at the end of the day, illusory, and
ultimately, God is all in all. However, this method of of, of
saguna Brahmanism.
And this realization
are not necessarily
a requisite of moksha, according to Hinduism.
In other words, what I'm trying to say is, because representation
and continuing to conceive of Brahman as other, can and does
lead to moksha, then it cannot be wrong.
It's just not the higher way, it's not the best way.
Right. So there's two ways to Brahman one is better.
Because it's more philosophical,
requires more thinking, more thought, more meditation.
But the other way saguna Brahmanism.
The way to God through devotion is also a valid way because it does
lead to moksha.
The Achiever of Moksha is called a son. Eosin is usually an old man
sannyasin.
And
he's described in the Bhagavad Gita, one who neither hates or
loves anything cut off from the world like a wild goose, no fixed
home but wanders north and south and the lakes in the skies. So
basically, he becomes like a homeless, mendicant, right, taking
no thought of the future and indifferent about the present. He
lives identified with the eternal self, and beholds, nothing else.
So in Islamic sort of Sufi terms, we would say like, there's no
Bekaa, but identify that, again, funnel back Fana is not the same
as mug shot. Right? It's, it's, it's not there's some
similarities, but it's not it's not a one to one. But just to use
the term, the terms in technical terms of the people have to solve.
There's no sobriety, there's no coming back to one senses, right?
After one experiences annihilation and God.
So one remains either raptured in the Beatific Vision, if his method
was saguna Brahm Brahmanism or you immersed, still rock immersed in
the thought of divine realization, if his method was near guna
Brahmanism.
Okay, the last thing I'll mention here, how do you get to Moshe the
for yoga is yoga means a path the four total if you want, or Madonna
hip and what are they are called New Yana yoga spelled with a J J n
a n a Miana yo
Gaza, which is usually practiced by the Brahmins, then you have
Raja Yoga, which is practiced by the cachette. Today as then you
have Karma Yoga, which is practiced by the vase, yas who's
those are farmers and artisans. And then you have bhakti yoga,
which is practiced by the should that us the servants and unskilled
laborers, the vast majority of the people, right, so what are these
four yogas represent? Basically, the Yana yoga is experiencing
Moksha through knowledge, learning, studying, meditating,
Karma Yoga, sorry, Raja Yoga is through these sort of psycho
somatic experiences where there's reading coupled with movements of
the body.
Karma Yoga is through work, right, finding God through labor. And
then bhakti yoga is through love, right or devotion, the worship of
representations of the Brahman.
So we'll stop here in sha Allah.
I, again, I highly recommend,
if you're interested in learning more about Hinduism,
getting the Bhagavad Gita with a good commentary, and reading it in
sha Allah so next week, we're going to finish our course with
our final class, and it's going to be on a religion that is derived
from Hinduism like Christianity derived from its mother religion,
duty Judaism, and that is the religion of Buddhism Inshallah, to
Allah Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah Rahim.
Sobre la Serda Mohammed and while early he was fbH, marine
Subhanak Allah Subhana Allah and Milena Elana ILM tena in the
candle animate Hakeem.
Hola Hola, La Quwata illa Billahi Lolly Adim Salam alaykum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
This is our final session
of this course in sha Allah to Allah.
So we will be looking at our final religion,
which is the religion of
Buddhism and sha Allah.
Just seeing if I can get to the video here so I can
follow along with the questions and comments.
Doesn't seem to be coming up. I'll check back again and shortly.
So Buddhism,
like Hinduism is an extremely vast, vast and nuanced religion.
We'll just touch on some basics Inshallah, to Allah.
It is a, a sort of Hindu, Protestant,
reformed mu movement, if you will.
Like Islam is a Judeo Christian reform movement. So Islam as kind
of like a legalistic reformation of Judaism as well as a
theological reformation of Christianity.
So, Buddha is sometimes referred to as the Martin Luther, of
Hinduism. You know, the great or former.
The word Buddhism comes from Buddha, which is a Pali word Pali
is an ancient Indian language, it's related to Sanskrit. It's
kind of the language of the masses, the Amiga language,
whereas Sanskrit is more language of the elite the language of
Scripture.
It comes from buld which means to wake up or to know something,
right. So Buddha can be translated as the enlightened one.
The Awakened One postmodernist might say the woke one
so like Islam, Buddhism is named after the attribute, it seeks to
cultivate, right? So with Islam,
okay, bringing up the video now.
So there's very few people watching live but you're free to
ask questions inshallah data.
So Islam hopes to engender submission to Allah Subhana Allah
to Allah. And so Buddhism hopes to engender a type of enlightenment.
Okay, so Buddhism is not named after the Buddha. Right? That's a
common misconception. Like Christianity is named after
Christ. Judaism is named after Juda. Buddhism is named after the
enlightened state, that or state of mind state of being that the
Buddha experienced. So first of all, who is the Buddha
When the Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in 564, before
the Common Era, this was in a time, the sixth century before the
common era where you have this kind of proliferation of prophets
all around the world, really, and sages. It's really called the
Axial Age. I mean, that's a
a term that a German philosopher, coined a shin Zeit in German the
Axial Age. So you have for example, the Buddha here in India,
the Mahavira also in India, you have Confucius and China, you have
Zora Astor, and Iran are in Persia. And then you have a a fair
amount of profits in ancient Palestine
during this time, so he was born in Lumbini, which is modern day in
Nepal, it's near the Indian border. He wasn't Prince his
parents were royalty. His father was King sudo Donna and his mother
was Queen Maya. They they were the royalty of a family of a small
kingdom called Shakya. They were of the cachette Talia caste,
that's the administrative and ruling caste. You can read about
the the biography of the Buddha
in in books, but according to His biographers, or his Syrah, if you
will, the sacred history of the Buddha. The Buddha's mother, Queen
Maya had a dream one night that a white elephant offered her a lotus
flower, and then the elephant entered into the side of her body.
Now Buddhists do not believe that this was some kind of miraculous
conception like a virginal birth of Christ or something like that.
They accept that King SOTA. Donna was the Buddha's biological
father. The Dream simply made Maya aware of her pregnancy and
certainly of its importance. So the queen had her dream
interpreted by Brahman diviners. These are kind of spiritual
fortune tellers. They were the intellectual class, and she was
told that her son would become either the what's known as that
chakra Vartan, which is kind of the universal king of India, the
one who would unite all 16 kingdoms of India, or he would
become one of the greatest spiritual masters. So either super
king or super sage, but not both. So Prince Siddhartha Gautama was
born and according to his biography, he was born with 32
distinct birthmarks on his body, which was interpreted by the
Diviners to mean that indeed, he was sort of destined or marked as
it were, for some sort of future greatness. Buddhas hagiographies
also mentioned that Siddhartha actually began walking immediately
upon birth, and wherever his foot touched, a lotus flower would
spring up. And he also spoke as an infant, according to his
biography, and he's reported to have said, I am the chief of the
world, I am foremost in the world. So we have these kind of highly
realized I am statements, you know, not unlike what we saw, for
example, in the Gospel of John.
The Brahmin seers told his father, that if Siddhartha remained close
to the palace, right, if he remained attached to palace life,
if he, if he sheltered his son within the confines of the palace,
then he would indeed become the universal King. Right? He'd become
the chocolate avartan. And they, so they said to him, basically,
you need to keep him interested in the throne in political power. So
surround him with beautiful young and healthy people don't let him
see the true society, the problems of society. So Siddhartha had a
luxurious upbringing, he had three palaces, he had access to
40,000 40,000 dancing girls. He was very handsome, yet he was
profoundly unhappy. Okay, so his father thought, well, we'll get
him married off, maybe that'll cheer him up. So he was married at
16 years old, to a girl named Yosa Daraa. And so his father concealed
from him three things, right? Because he was advised to buy the
Brahmin diviners, so his father can steal from him sickness,
decrepitude, and death. And the servants were literally literally
instructed that when that they would do a quick kind of a clean
sweep of the area, whenever Siddhartha would go out on his
daily chariot ride with his charioteer, Chun dukkah.
And then we have what's known as The Legend of the passing CITES,
the legend of the four passing sites. So on one occasion in his
29th year,
Siddhartha has a
As curiosity got the better of him, and he ventured beyond the
palace grounds. And he saw a very old man hunched over who could
barely walk. So we said Chanda who Who is this what is this? And
chunda his charioteer said this is decrepitude. Right, and then
Siddhartha said to himself, well, that's going to happen to me. So
it's not like he didn't know that he that he was going to get old.
Of course, he knew that he just never really thought about it.
Until now, it's like all of us know, we're going to die. But go
into a hospice work in hospice for a few days. And you're just
surrounded by death. A Hospice is a type of hospital, that people go
in to die, it's end of life care. And, you know, it's very sobering
experience. So like, one of the positive effects of the pandemic,
is that it really forces us to remember death. And when we do
that, and it's not sort of a morbid fixation, when we remember
death, we actually begin to appreciate life, the importance of
life, right? So it really sort of hit Siddhartha like a ton of
bricks, I'm going to get old if I even get old. And then he saw a
disease man lying on the ground with boils all over his body. And
he said, what is that? And the charioteer said that is sickness.
And then he saw people carrying a corpse, wrapped in a shroud. And
he said, what is that? And he said, This is death. Those are the
three sites and then a fourth site. He saw a monk with a shaved
head, wearing a yellow robe, with a very serene appearance, and a
slashing insight, right and Epiphany, suddenly came to
Siddhartha at finding fulfillment in the physical, and the pleasures
of the flesh is in vain, because all things in the world are
impermanent, they perish. Right? Psychologists say that the
apprehension of death is really the end of childhood, when a child
suddenly comes to this realization, that they're going to
get old and die, that's really the end of their childhood, they can
never go back to that age of ignorance and bliss, and fantasy.
So
So Darfur had a son in Rahula, which he named, it means feta or
bond, like handcuffs, like ball and chain, something like that.
And the idea here was that he thought that children, the idea is
basically that children can be a source of distraction for people
who are highly intelligent. People who are very contemplative people
are very academic.
And, and being a parent is basically a full time job. So it's
seen as a distraction.
So his hedonistic lifestyle,
kind of just left him dead on the inside. And his family
responsibilities preventing him prevented him from finding
contentment. He felt like he was literally in a prison,
which is interesting. There's a hadith that says a dunya sigil
movement, the world is a prison of the believer.
Now shortly thereafter, you have what's known as a great going
forth, right? So
there's this there's a key element to the what's known as the mono
myth.
The mono myth known as the hero's journey, what is a mono myth? So a
mono myth is a series of events in a story that seem to occur in
multiple stories across multiple cultures. Right? So one of the
most common moto myths is called the hero's journey. And the hero's
journey really has three parts. The first part is called
separation. There's some sort of separation, the hero is separate.
The second part involves trials, victories, and some sort of
apotheosis, apotheosis, some sort of enlightenment experience. And
then the third part is a return. Right? So we see this in, for
example, in the story of the Buddha, we see this in The Epic of
Gilgamesh we see this in the story of the biblical Jesus, we see it
in Star Wars with Luke Skywalker, the hero's journey. So Siddhartha,
he leaves the palace, right in search of meaning in his life. He
was a she went from a sheltered Prince for wandering ascetic, he
went from being royalty to being a homeless mendicant, someone who
just begs for things. He left his wife and his child behind. He
learned Raja Yoga from Hindu sages. And eventually Hindus
claimed him and deified him, and actually became the, the ninth
Avatar of Vishnu. Even though Siddhartha was very critical of
Hinduism, at least to Hinduism of his day, and he certainly never
claimed to be divine
I, at least not in any unique way. So remember, in Hinduism, we're
all divine. We're all unrealized avatars. You know, we're all God,
but but we just don't know it. The Buddha did not claim to be an
avatar like Krishna did. In fact, he denied the very existence of
the Atman. Right. So, this is very strange, this is this is very
uninduced of the Buddha to do this, that he denied the existence
of the Atman, the eternal, divine soul within each of us. We could
talk more about that in sha Allah.
Okay.
So during this period, now, he's it's in his early 30s, he met a
small group of monks who practice an extreme form of self
mortification extreme form of zeal hood, what is self mortification,
this is when the flesh is is deliberately punished or agitated,
in order to in order for the mind to focus on the spiritual. So
fasting in every major religion has a form of self motivic
mortification, there are different degrees of it. Some are more
excessive. It's like fasting is a form of self mortification.
Abstinence is a form of self mortification. The Shi are they
flog themselves, right, the Sunnis would say that's an extreme form,
right? They have something's seen as any where they strike the
chest, it seems to be okay. And then they have something called
Zenji Zanni, where they take a chain and they they whip
themselves called Mata. And then they even have something called
karma where they take these knives and they cut themselves and they
bleed. That's certainly something that is condemned and among the
Sunnah wa Jamar.
But you see that there are different forms of self
mortification in different religions. So the Buddha he met
this group that was into this type of thing. And he thought that this
must be the answer. So he practiced a highly extreme form of
fasting.
Right? I mean, a lifestyle that was basically the polar opposite
of his previous lifestyle, 180 degrees.
So he ate according to his biography, he ate six grains of
rice a day. He's quoted as saying, when I thought that I would touch
my stomach, I took hold of my spine.
So he's basically completely emaciated he's wasting away. And
his extreme lifestyle almost killed him. There's this iconic
story that Siddhartha was on the brink of death, about to lose
consciousness, when he perceived this little girl come out of
nowhere with a bowl of rice pudding, and he and she fed him
the rice pudding and that revived him.
The experience taught him the futility of extreme self
mortification, no mugshot, remember this term mug shot
released from samsara, enlightenment, right, the
superconscious state no Moksha resulted from him torturing his
body. However, the experience also taught him the principle of the
middle way. Very important concept in Buddhism, the middle way
between prints and popper between indulgence and asceticism,
between hedonism and self mortification
between a fraud, a fraud and to freet, right, these Arabic terms,
excess and shortcoming the Middle Way is called muddy, yummy caught
in in poly Medea Mica. Right. So sensuality slowed his spiritual
progress while while mortification weakened his intellect.
Here's a question.
Somebody's asking me about
questions about Christianity on email, will I reply here, I'll
answer your email inshallah. I've been behind on my emails. I'll
answer them later after class and shoulder.
Okay, so the middle way, what is the Middle Way giving the body
what it needs to function well, and keep the intellect sharp?
Right. And more than this is considered access. So six years
after the great going forth at age 35. Okay, one night he entered a
city called Gaia in northeast India. And he sat under a fig
tree. It's called the bow tree which is short for the Buddha
tree, the tree of knowledge, the tree of enlightenment, and he
started his yoga as usual and suddenly amazingly profound truths
were revealed to him, or were intuited by him. And he sensed
enlightenment he sensed that the mystical experience was near. So
he vowed not to rise from that spot until he had achieved it. And
that spot is called the immovable spot. And Buddhists to this day
they make pilgrimage to the site. Apparently the tree the actual
tree is still
They're, some say that it's not the, the actual tree, but it's a
fig tree that grew thereafter. But they're certain that it is the
exact spot.
At least the Buddhists are. Now while meditating in that spot, the
god of pleasure and desire named karma, came to the Buddha and,
and paraded these three voluptuous women in front of him, to distract
him.
And Siddhartha remained focus, then Mara, the god of death,
assaulted him with a hurricane, falling boulders, torrential
rains, and his minions of demons shot arrows at Siddhartha, which
Siddhartha converted into flowers, and they fell harmlessly on the
ground. Now Buddha, now Buddhist scholars mentioned that karma and
Mara here, we're really just aspects of Siddhartha himself. So
these are just modalities of his own mind symbolized as gods of
temptation. Right, so Raja Yoga, so one of the steps of Raja Yoga,
the sixth step is to completely control one's thoughts. One's
Kolata, right.
Great to share with us in another way. He said, If you can pray.
And some say this is a Hadith, Allahu Alem, that if you can pray
two cycles of prayer without one strenuous thought, right.
Then, without any hotter than then you've achieved Wilaya, like
sainthood.
So with karma, we might say this was sort of his co author Neff
Sani, they're being activated and being mastered, and then with
Mara, the Culatta, shaytani, which are activated and being mastered.
So basically, he's mastering his thoughts and impulses.
Then Mara came a final time just before enlightenment and asked
him, Okay, you're almost at enlightenment, but who is going to
witness to your teaching? Right? Who's going to follow you? Right?
So like, shaytaan? He advocates nihilism, right? What's the point
of this? You know,
you know, who cares? You know, just just do what you want to do.
Just do you, you know, this type of thing. It doesn't mean
anything.
So then Siddhartha lift lifted his right index finger, and he struck
the earth with it. And the earth began to rumble and Quake, the
meaning is that the earth will bear witness to his teaching.
Then Mara fled and his constriction had passed. And he
experienced the Great Awakening the great boob, right, there's a
term for this called Nirvana that we'll talk about.
And so he was there for seven days in that spot, seven days of bliss.
And then on the eighth day, he thought, well, maybe I should
leave. So he intended to rise and then another wave of enlightened
bliss, washed over him. So 49 days total, he remained raptured in
that,
in that spot,
so that was his apotheosis, right. That was his apotheosis.
So according to the commentary, tradition of the Dhammapada, the
first words uttered by the Buddha after his awakening are actually
recorded in chapter 11, verses 153 and 154. So I'll read those
quickly.
The very famous passage, again, like like I said, last week.
And let me just read this here. middle way similar to virtue
ethics. Yeah, exactly.
It's a good way. And I forgot to mention what's happening in Greece
during this Axial Age, right? You have Plato and Aristotle. And
they're all preaching the middle way. Confucius also the golden
mean, Aristotle, the golden mean, Xaro. Astor the golden mean,
right?
You're not
kidding. My question about Thomas. Oh, yeah. I'll answer your
question about Thomas, the Lord of NEA and the God of me how to
refute it. Okay, I can answer that very quickly. Just kind of, we'll
take a break from the Dhammapada for a minute. So, in in my videos,
and in my writings and lectures, I say that there's nowhere in the
New Testament in the four Gospels where Jesus is addressed as half
AOSS. Czar god, he's called chaos. But I said that has a nuanced
meaning. It could mean a sort of sanctified agent of God and that's
how it's used in the in the New Testament and outside the canon
and Greek by Philo, etc. But now and, and John 20, I believe, verse
28. When the resurrected Jesus appears to this disciples, Thomas
is there
Air. And when Thomas realizes it's Jesus, He says, My Lord and my
God, right?
He says hot, they are small. How could ya smooth something along
those lines? So use a definite article, The God of me, the Lord
of me.
So, this this is obviously, this is obviously to Agile via its
explanatory. It doesn't mean that Thomas is calling Jesus God.
Thomas is not saying you are my God, You are my Lord. What is he
saying? Oh my God and Lord, right? If your teacher was killed, and
you thought he was killed, and you actually knew he was killed, and
then you saw him walking around three days later, what would be
your reaction? Right? Your reaction would be oh my god. So
even some Christian commentators they say that Thomas's words here
are really addressed to the Father, not to Jesus. How does
being resurrected qualify Jesus as God? A resurrected body doesn't
equate divinity. That's a non sequitur argument. There are many
people resurrected Jesus himself RESURRECTED Lazarus, when Lazarus
showed up to his friends later did they say to him, Oh, my God, oh my
god. Right. So I think it's obvious here it's this reminds me
of a scene in a movie Superman to an old movie Christopher Reeve,
Superman, or General Zod, right? He's in the he's in the Oval
Office. And he says, and he says to the President of the United
States, kneel before Zod to the president Niels and then the
President is kneeling, he says to himself, he says, Oh my God. And
then Zod says, oh, that's, that's Zod, not God. Right. So the
President was not talking to Zod, he was talking to God. Right? So
Thomas here is not is not calling Jesus God. That doesn't make any
sense. Why would he call Jesus God because Jesus was resurrected.
So I mean, that's, that's my answer for that.
So I think Daniel, Daniel Wallace, I think he calls it something like
a
evocative of a dress or something a nominative vocative. That
doesn't make any sense.
He considers that some sort of evocative, I have to look up the,
in other words, evocative is actually like calling on
somebody's calling on the father here.
Okay.
Okay, so sorry. So he said that the Buddha experienced
enlightenment, okay. And,
and after his awakening, he read he his words, the first words that
he said, are recorded in the Dhammapada. So I was going to say
that just as the Bhagavad Gita right has, is a very good
comprehensive
text very short, very comprehensive, kind of distilling
the entire religion of Hinduism into one text, the Dhammapada is
like that. For Buddhism, Buddhist, the Buddhist canon of Scripture is
extremely vast. the Dhammapada is a one stop shop, unless you want
to get more deeply into these things. But anyway, he says,
Through many births, I have wandered on and on searching for
but never finding the builder of this house. So the language here
is is is kind of veiled. It's very symbolic. You have to kind of
decode it through many berths, right, I've wandered on and on. So
he's talking about the cycle of reincarnation, it seems like
searching for but never finding by finding the commentators of the
Dhammapada say that means mastering. I never mastering the
builder of this house, the builder is desire, the house is the ego.
I've never mastered, I've never mastered the desire of my ego, to
be born again and again is suffering. And then he says house
builder. In other words, desire, you are seen and seen here means
like exposed, right? I've, I've exposed you. You will not build a
house again, you will not build a self again. So now he is selfless.
All the rafters are broken rafters meaning defilements like these
vices, and rather the globe is these diseases of the heart. These
are the rafters, they're broken. The rafters are holding up the
house, which is called ego. The rich pole that's kind of like
this, like the main sort of support destroyed. So the ritual
is ignorance, right, which holds up the ego that's destroyed. The
mind gone to the unconstructed, he says, right? So the mind has
experienced the real, I'll hop right the real with a capital R,
that which is not a
construct right the house is a construct the house is
constructed, right, the mind has
has left
the self right? The mind has destroyed the self and has gone to
the unconstructed the real, he has reached the end of craving, he
says, he has reached the end of craving.
So he has reached the end of house building or ego building, no more
ego. Right. So, after this experience, the Buddha walked over
100 miles to a place called Banaras and delivered his first
sermon.
What was the title of his sermon it was on the Four Noble Truths
and the middle way.
So, the Four Noble Truth is what he actually intuited before
reaching enlightenment, it is really the heart of his teaching,
we'll come back to in a minute, Inshallah, but with respect to the
middle way,
he this, this his way was between basically trends in Hinduism. So
at one extreme, you have being over indulgent, right, too much
focus on the first two of the Purusha Martha's remember the
stages of life in Hinduism, the first two are karma and artha. So
pleasure and wealth. So he noticed a trend among the Hindus, that
they're really focusing only on these two, really, but also the
trend of being overly superstitious, and speculative
about things. So the Buddha wants us to experience things. He
doesn't like this kind of empty, speculation and superstition. He's
not about theorizing, he's about doing. He's not about, you know,
sort of pontificating, he's about experience.
And the other trend that was developing on the other extreme,
and he had experimented with this was this extreme self
modification. And this was the way of the Mahavira, the founder of
Jainism, who was about 37 years earlier than Siddhartha, and one
of the two major sects of Jainism called Digambara, which means sky
clad, only naked male monks, who practice an absolutely extreme
form of non violence can achieve moksha only naked male monks, and
they call it Gina that's a different term they use, who
practice an extreme form of non violence, which is called a
Ahimsa, a ahimsa. Now, all dharmic religions,
by dharmic, religion, I mean, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism,
right, all of these dharmic religions, they all stress a level
of Ahimsa, they all stress the level of non violence. But with
with Jainism, I mean, you can't cook meals at night, because you
might kill an insect. When you walk, you have to sweep the
streets before you because you might kill an insect. When you
sleep, you have to be gifted carry a little broom, because if you
roll over, you might kill an insect, you have to sweep before
you roll over somehow you have to wake up Jain monks they pull their
hair out, because they think it's too luxurious, right? This type of
thing.
The Dhammapada was it was all Buddhist scriptures were written
well after the death of the Buddha, right. So, the Dhammapada
was written
several decades, several decades after, after the death of the
Buddha, it was compiled by some of his students.
But it is accepted generally, amongst all Buddhists, there may
be different versions of it.
I didn't do much textual criticism on the, the Dhammapada to prepare
for this class, but inshallah to Allah, I can expand on that later.
But nothing was really written during the lifetime of the Buddha.
If it was It wasn't compiled until much, much later.
Okay.
And that's the same with like, like, Plato didn't write anything.
Or sorry, Socrates. Socrates didn't write anything. We know
about Socrates through Plato.
Or you Sally salaam apparently did not write anything his students
wrote about him.
Okay.
So soon after the Great Awakening, Siddhartha formed actually at this
point, we're going to
Yeah, I want to get to the, the noble truths. So the heart of the
Buddha's teaching is called the Four Noble Truths, right? This
says the Buddhist path for attaining salvation.
So four noble truths, three of them are theoretical, but they're
based on experience and observation. And then one is
practical. It's a method. It's a yoga, right?
So, this is mentioned in Dhammapada, chapter 14, verses 186
to 192. Again, this is really sort of the central elements of the
faith of Buddhism right here in 14 190.
So I'll be getting actually a little bit earlier 186 to one so
186 It says, not even with a shower of gold coins would we find
satisfaction in central craving? Knowing that sensual cravings are
suffering that they bring little delight, the sage does not
rejoice, even in divine pleasures, meaning like higher heavenly
pleasures. One who delights in the end of craving is a disciple of
the fully awakened one, meaning the Buddha, one who delights in
the end of craving. People threatened by fear go to many
refuges, to mountains to forest parks, trees, and shrines. None of
these as a secure refuge, none as a supreme refuge. Not by going to
such a refuge is When released, from all suffering.
But when someone going for refuge to the Buddha, and to the Dharma,
and the Sangha, so these are very important. This is called the
Three Jewels of Buddhism, right? It's called sort of the triple
refuge of the Buddhists, you go to the Buddha, right, the master, you
go to the Dharma, the Dharma is pronounced Dhamma, in Pali, like
the Dhammapada, the path to virtue, the path to truth, right,
the Buddha the truth, are the path to truth and the Sangha the order,
the order of monks, right. So one who is going for real refuge goes
to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha sees with right insight,
the Four Noble Truths, the Four Noble Truths that lead to the end
of suffering. So what are these four noble truths? Right, okay.
So, the, okay, so first of all, to use sort of a medical analogy,
wrap our head around this type of thing. So you go to the doctor and
you say, I feel sick, I'm suffering. So doctor says, What
are your symptoms?
What are your symptoms?
And so yes, Inshallah, brother give you, like, I'll respond to
your email, so you'll have Inshallah, my contact information.
Inshallah, tada.
Can the Vedas have prophecies of the Prophet Muhammad? So the
lesson? Yeah, there's there. There are people who wrote books on
this, you know, and there's different ways of understanding
the Vedas. You're right that the Vedas are really sort of the, the,
the the most holy scriptures in Hinduism. And there have been many
studies on them. And many scholars have extracted prophecies there.
That's certainly true.
Okay, so going back to his medical analogy, so what are your
symptoms? And so you said, I have sore throat, cough and wheezing.
So he says, Ah, you have strep throat? That's called the
diagnosis. Right? So you have symptoms, diagnosis, and then you
say to a doctor, What are my chances, like, give it to me
straight and the doctor says, Good, your chances are good.
That's called the prognosis.
I say okay, well, what can I do? So he gives you antibiotics.
amoxicillin.
So that's a, it's called the prescription, just symptoms,
diagnosis, prognosis, and prescription. Okay, keep that in
mind. So Noble Truth, number one, life or existence. The world is
inherently full of evil and is suffering. And the word for
suffering is dukkha de UKKH. A, that's the Pali word Dukkha. It
literally means dislocated. It's actually used for like dislocated
joints. Right? So when your joint is dislocated, it's hard to move.
It's painful. It's frustrating. So life is like this. It is
frustrating physically, intellectually and spiritually.
In fact, this truth had a profound the first truth of the Buddha had
a profound effect on Western philosophers, especially those who
are considered pessimistic, or Neolithic philosophers. For
example, the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, who was a
great influence on
on Nietzsche.
Schopenhauer was a needless, who said that our lives are just
meaningless tragedies and we fulfill one desire just to become
a slave to another desire and his endless cycle until death.
Our very existence is a source of suffering. So death is a type of
sweet relief. For Schopenhauer. He calls it a triumph. Although he
did not. He did not advocate suicide enigmatically. So this
sounds very similar to to Buddhism.
Schopenhauer said, however, if you can practice a bit of compassion,
and engage in the arts like music, and that gives you a bit of relief
from the suffering, but it's only temporary, it's just kind of a
bandaid. So his prognosis is bad. There's no way you can get rid of
the suffering, and then you die. And that's when it goes away. But
the Buddha is more optimistic, you can overcome suffering. Right?
There is a cure for suffering.
Okay.
And these these philosophers, many of them admit,
I think Schopenhauer was the dog's name was Atman. I think he named
his dog ottoman or Jeeva. I think it was automatic.
One of those terms, so he's also highly influenced by Hinduism,
there's, you can make a case that Kant is also influenced by
Hinduism, because Hinduism talks about this illusory world that
jacket is Maya, it's not real, the real world is behind it. And Kant
talks about the, the phenomenal world phenomena, right that we see
but that's not the real real world, the real world is called
the New Middle World, which is behind that world, which you can't
have access to. So this is where Kant differs with with Hinduism.
But but there's a strong thesis that can be made that these
Western philosophers are highly influenced by Buddhism and
Hinduism.
Okay.
So according to the Buddha, there are six moments of dukkha in life
six moments of suffering. These are the symptoms of dukkha. So
trauma of birth, right for it actually denied that sickness
decrepitude. Right, like decrepitude fills you with fear
and anxiety, you know, you can seeing your bodies and intellect
sort of waste away. And this relates to the next one phobia of
death. It's called Senator phobia, fear of death, he mentions to be
tied to what one hates, you know, think about the you know, millions
of people sitting in a cubicle going to jobs that they hate.
Right, that's, that's a big, that's a big symptom of dukkha.
Right, or think of like a woman who is maybe pressured by her
family to marry some guy. And then he turns out to be abusive, so
then she becomes very bitter, she becomes very resentful, so then
she starts abusing her own
daughter in law, because she was abused.
And then finally, separation from what one loves. Separation from
what one loves.
Yeah, that's interesting, that no self of Buddhism similar to bundle
theory. Have you
ever thought about that?
We're just a bundle of ideas.
That's interesting. I'll look into that and shallow. But yeah, I
mean, the, the influence and some might say maybe they weren't
directly influenced, but sort of great minds just sort of come to
similar conclusions. And I think that's true as well.
Obviously, we disagree with David Hume on many issues.
Okay, so that's the first Noble Truth, the world is in a state of
suffering. The second noble truth, the cause is Thanh Ha. What is ton
heart desire? Selfish craving, private fulfillment, egoism,
attachment to stuff, attachment to an identity even? Right? So
that's, that's also causing suffering, an identity of some
sort. Also fake concepts, fake beliefs, or false beliefs, false
philosophies. Right. So when you're selfish, when we're self
less, we're free. Remove the ego and you'll remove the suffering.
So what is causing the symptoms? What is causing Dukkha? It's
called Tanaka. Tanaka is the diagnosis. Tanaka is the disease.
Strep throat is the disease that's causing wheezing and coughing and
that suffering, right? In other words, the only reason why you're
suffering is because you have ton, desire and attachment.
So it said that a man came to the Buddha and he said, I want
happiness. And the Buddha said, look at that sentence, I want
happiness. Remove the I, I echo in Latin and Greek. Remove the ego.
What do you have left? You said, well want happiness. Want is
tenham desire, remove the desire. What are you left with? He said
happiness. Say well, there you go. Right. So remove the ego remove
want and you're left with happiness.
Now what is the prescription? I'm sorry.
Before we get to that, the third noble truth
is
tenham can be overcome. It's the prognosis. What is the prognosis?
Hope hopeful. Right? It's hopeful that there is a cure. Right? And
this is obviously contra Schopenhauer, who said there's no
cure but only band aids. And then the fourth so that's the, that's
the third noble truth you can overcome. The fourth Noble Truth
is the prescription. What's the medicine, the eight fold path, the
Eightfold Path. This is his yoga, his method for overcoming Dukkha
by extinguishing Tenaa.
The Buddha called it the path The path is practical. It's a
treatment by training, eight step program for overcoming selfless,
selfless selfishness. Or maybe it's better to say overcoming self
identity
and thus eliminating suffering.
So there's one preliminary step before we get into the eightfold
path, the sort of prerequisite step he calls it right
Association. In other words, you have to hang out with the right
people or else the path won't work. Right. So there's a famous
parable He gives the parable of the wild elephant.
He says, How do you tame a wild elephant? The best way to do it is
to yoke it ever the word yoga is from yoke, is to yoke it to a
a tamed elephant. How do you tame a wild elephant, tie it to a tamed
elephant, and it will learn it's comportment by association?
Right. But don't punish the tamed one if the wild one makes a
mistake.
Right? So be with the truth winners. This is what the Buddha
says Hakuna last saw the theme of the Quran says be with the truth
winners, converse with them, serve them observe them, learn by
osmosis, their compassion. It said in a tradition of Essenes and um,
that the disciples asked him, How did you learn your comportment?
Right? And he said, Well, I just watched people with bad character,
and I did the opposite. Now that's a bit difficult to do. The best
way to learn your comportment is to be with people of virtue, but
he's a prophet. Right, so they won't affect him.
Okay, so step one of the Eightfold Path. Okay. Again, the fourth
noble truth of the Buddha, is the eightfold path, the prescription,
the medicine for overcoming tunda the disease. There's eight steps,
the first step is write views. That's what it's called, right
views means
to exercise reason.
Right, be reasonable, Be practical. Don't put yourself in
harm's way.
So, the self mortification of the Jains is unreasonable like pulling
out hair. You know, you know *, extreme ahimsa. That's not
reasonable. set reasonable goals for yourself have temperance. So
you'll be amazed how many perfectly rational people allow
emotion to dominate them.
So here we have to learn to be dispassionate practice apatheia.
This is a famous, this is the most cherished virtue of the Stoic
philosophers. Apathy, this doesn't mean to be like cold and
unemotional. It means to be emotional, but within reason to be
in control of your emotions. Right nowadays, the one who is
emotionally incontinent, and screams the loudest is usually the
winner of a debate. Right? That's how we're swayed. We're swayed by
emotion, the first person who cries Oh, he must be telling the
truth. Right, the one who shouts the loudest and this is this is
why children shout, right, because because they want to make an
impression.
Okay, now part and parcel to having right views is to accept
the Buddha's rejection
of the extreme existentialist positions of eternalism and
nihilism. So the Buddha rejected both of these positions,
eternalism and nihilism, he actually says, according to the
Dhammapada, kill the two warrior kings, and the commentary says
what he meant by warrior kings was eternalism and nihilism. So the
Buddha rejected eternalism what is eternalism the proposition that
anything in the world is eternal, including a soul, alright. So this
is based upon what he called a fundamental mark of existence,
along with Dukkha. So Dukkha the world is suffering is a
fundamental mark of existence. A second fundamental mark of
existence is called a kneecap, a Nicci, a anicca. impermanence.
Everything is changing, transitory and perishing, right? Thus there
is no abiding element or everlasting
are eternal thing.
Thus there is no Atman. Right? And this is the third fundamental mark
of existence. You have dukkha and Nika and not. And not tannins, no
Ataman. Right? We don't have a real self, we don't have an
immortal soul.
Well, if there's no Atman, then does that mean there's no Brahman,
or at least this is what can be concluded by induction? Because
Atman is Brahman. So is that what the Buddha is actually teaching?
Was he an atheist? Maybe, maybe not. It's hard to tell.
And there's a debate about that.
So, when the five fundas, are stripped away from the mind, what
are the five fundas these are the five aggregates, sorry, five
aggregates. These are five things that make up the self. Right? So
these are what four forms, in other words, physical bodies,
feelings, perceptions, like judgments, then mental formations,
like your ideologies and your beliefs. And finally,
consciousness itself, the fact that you're aware, these are
called the five aggregates, or the five hundreds, when the five
hundreds are stripped away from the mind, the so called self dies
and suffering ends, right.
But when that happens, what is left of the individual person?
What is left of the individual person? The answer is not much,
only what's known as residue.
So this is called SOPA. De cess on nirvana. This is what the Buddha
experienced under the Bodhi tree. So by de Sesa Nirvana. Nirvana
means extent extinction. So predecessor means with remainder,
in other words, near extinction, near extinction. So, or sometimes
it's called Nirvana with residue, the residue of the what's what
they call the fuel of the five hundreds. So something extremely
minimally residual remains of the 500 does when when when one enters
into a state of enlightenment in this world, so there's fuel but
there's no burning. In other words, there's no desire, right?
There's no greed, there's no delusion, there's no hatred,
what's known as the three fires in the Dhammapada. Right.
So the person still has a body, the person, you know, still feels
pain, the person still has a name, the person is still conscious,
obviously.
Right? So it's not a total extinction of the self. There's a
there's a residual effect, there's a residual remainder of the
hundreds that that are basically the building blocks of the self.
But when the when the aspirant reaches this state of sort of
distaste and Nirvana, he becomes a transformed, selfless, wise,
compassionate sage, a bit detached and aloof at times, but he's still
there. This is called the otter hut, ar, h a t or Arahant,
depending on Pali and Sanskrit, this is the name of the sage,
right?
So this happens when you realize that you are nothing so you let go
of everything.
Right. So the first Nirvana happens in your life, and that
makes you a sage in our hut. Then when the otter had dies, what
happens experience is what's known as new Oo, oo, oo, Pa DISA.
Nirupa, DISA Nirvana, also called para Nirvana, Nirvana without
remainder.
And that is the end of it all, his body his consciousness is
absolutely annihilated. Total distinct, total extinction, the
end of all suffering. So this is why many Western philosophers
considered Buddhism to be basically a form of existential
nihilism.
Because Buddhism culminates in Pardot Nirvana, which is entering
into a state of nothingness, emptiness is called Sunyata
nothingness, emptiness. Life is transitory there is nothing to
hold on to so just let go and be free. Goodbye permanently. So pada
Nirvana again, Nirvana means extinction, but it really means to
blow something out. Like blow your breath out, right? So it's like a
big exhale, like a big sigh of relief.
It's over, everything's done.
Now Buddhists, however, also reject the extreme position of
nihilism. Remember I said at the beginning, the Buddha said, Kill
the two warrior kings eternalism and nihilism.
But what I've what I've said subsequently is that Western
philosophers will argue that Buddhism is essentially a form of
nihilism. But Buddha's Buddhists will retort and say it's not,
they'll say that pointing out they'll point out that the process
of karma, right, or karma, the reincarnation of your, they don't
use Jeeva. I demand they don't use the term, the reincarnation of
your stream of consciousness, right along with its karmic
imprints, indicates that existence does have meaning. Existence is
not meaningless. That meaning, I mean, it can be uncertain, but
it's certainly there. They do say, however, that there are
annihilationist or Neolithic aspects of Buddhism.
Like you have to annihilate last delusion, hatred, right attachment
suffering, but because of karma, you can say that Buddhism is a
nice holistic religion per se. It's kind of like in Islam, Islam,
sort of mystical psychology. There are elements also of
annihilationism, you know, finance, law, things like that.
However, the rejoinder from critics would be well, at Potter
Nirvana, there is total annihilation, right? There is
nothingness. The Buddhist rejoinder to that is, but the
wisdom and teaching an example of the odd hot, right, the liberated
Buddha, that reached pot on nirvana is left on earth, for
people to benefit from after him.
And then again, the response to that would be why so other people
can eventually join him and the void of nothingness. Everything
leads to nothingness. Right.
Okay, so
I'm actually out of time.
Do you think Buddhism had some influence on Muslims eg Sufi
metaphysics? Yeah, it's possible.
I think Hinduism Buddhism had some influence on on Islam, definitely.
I think there was influence going both ways. I don't think the
the foundations or the school
of Islamic metaphysics was affected by anything from Buddhism
or Hinduism.
Buddhist scriptures were collected 800 years, I think, where the
rumors started reading is a good learning, but how can we identify
the real thing? Yeah, you really can't.
Like I said, there's many, many opinions about the Buddha.
So I mean, you have Theravada, and Buddhists who are total atheist,
and you have Mahayana, and Buddhists who are kind of
polytheistic. And everything in the middle.
And again, that's go back that kind of goes back to lb Rooney's
two tiered model that we talked about that this sort of ama the
masses gravitate or trend towards polytheism. And it's because
they're, they have this massive corpus of literature and all these
things attributed to the Buddha. And there were many things that
were that were
that were fabricated many, many sayings of the Buddha that were
fabricated. It's really difficult to know what's true and what's
not.
The Buddha prophesies a problem. Yeah, the the Buddha talked about
the materia, the universal mercy.
And some I've identified that he says that towards the end of time,
a bodhisattva will come will teach the Dharma.
So he's certainly prophesizing people to come in the future.
There's an opinion that the Buddha
is not necessarily a classical opinion, but there is an opinion
from modern scholars that that is in the Quran is the Buddha. Right?
It's an interesting opinion.
You know,
according to
the Salaf, was a prince
who left a left his kingdom and lived in the wilderness. He's
called clever, which, which is comes from Dr. Green, because he
used to sit on green foliage. Right? Of course, the green is the
middle color in the spectrum, the middle way, right.
Zen Buddhism can be very bewildering, right?
You're not supposed to really ask questions of your teacher. You're
just kind of supposed to submit to His guidance and do what he's
telling you and it's kind of like the karate
Good thing where the Master Zen master is teaching his Padawan, if
you will, you know, he's telling him to do all this manual labor
and the kid doesn't know what he's doing. He's doing it. He doesn't
know the significance of it. He's not supposed to ask questions. You
see that kind of discourse with Finland and Musa and sweet little
calf?
Allahu item.
Ibrahim Ibnu, Adham one of the great Sufis of the early period.
His biography is similar to Siddhartha Gautama that he was a
prince, and then he left his life of opulence. He went and lived in
the forest, both in Afghanistan, and according to his biography, he
met fifth Alayhis Salam on several occasions.
Yeah, so if the Buddha is if it is the Buddha, you know, and
look, man is Confucius people always they criticize the Quran
and say, Why is it so? Why is it so Middle Eastern centric? What
about the rest of the world? Well, Well, luckily, those who be
referred to him and Yeshua, God, he chooses whomever He wills. So
that's one answer. The other answer is yeah, that's true. But
if we look at the Koran more, more broadly, I mean, vote upon name,
probably Cyrus or Alexander. So that's, you know, the Greeks, you
know, Hellenism. You have pivotable might be the Buddha,
right? That's, you know, that entire area of
South Asia you have the Far East if Look, man, is Confucius. You
know, it's, you know, taking wisdom from all of these different
places in the world.
Anyway, I have to go now, nice talking with you, crypto cat.
So I hope you benefited from this class in sha Allah.
Please make dua for me. You're in our prayers as well. And
if there are questions, additional questions, contact MCC the Muslim
community center in the East Bay in sha Allah Allah I like to thank
the MCC for having this class. MCC is a fantastic organization here
in the Bay Area, very active, very beautiful, righteous people.
And
they are just doing incredible surface service to the world
benefiting with with their outreach programs, different types
of outreach programs. So may Allah subhana wa Tada bless the
organization and continue to bless them and bless all of us and keep
us all safe. Inshallah Donna was on the last day to Muhammad Ali he
was happy when hamdulillahi rabbil Alameen wa salam alaykum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh