Ali Ataie – Our Prophet () of Abrahamic Restoration
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AI: Transcript ©
All praise belongs to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
the Lord of the worlds,
the one and only true God,
the most compassionate,
the merciful.
There is nothing like him whatsoever.
He is the all hearing, yet he is
the all hearing and the all seeing.
And peace and blessings be upon our master,
Muhammad,
the final messenger of God,
the seal of the prophets, the commander of
the righteous,
the leader of the messengers, and the beloved
of the Lord of the worlds.
In the next, couple of days, Insha'Allah,
we will enter the month of Dhul Hijjah.
Inshallah, this is the month of the blessed
Hajj,
the pilgrimage.
Of course, the rights of the Hajj, go
back to our father,
the prophet Ibrahim
whose name literally means the father of nations,
the one who is called the friend of
Allah
Khalilullah
in the Torah, in the Injeel, and in
the Quran.
The Hajj is Abrahamic.
It has nothing to do with, paganism.
It has everything to do with Tawhid.
So in the spirit of this season, as
it were, I would like to,
look at a beautiful passage
in the Quran, a passage that I refer
to as the Abrahamic monologue.
This is found in Surah 26 of the
Quran verses 75 to 89,
and it has 2 sections.
So both sections
are essentially
didactic,
meaning that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
through the prophet Ibrahim Alaihi Salam is teaching
us something.
So what is he teaching us? He's teaching
us theology,
the proper understanding of
Allah This is Usulud Din. This is the
most noble
of sciences in our tradition because it deals
with Allah
So in the first section, Ibrahim, Alaihi Salam,
he's speaking to his people about Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
His people are the ancient Chaldeans, the ancient
Babylonians
who worshiped a pantheon of gods. They were
mushrikeen.
They were polytheists.
And then in the second section,
Ibrahim
is speaking directly to Allah
Allah in the form of supplication,
a du'a.
But you will see how Ibrahim alayhis salam
speech is transhistorical.
In other words,
how his speech is absolutely
relevant
for us today. It is timeless.
So his speech
begins.
Have you really considered
what you worship?
Have you really considered what you worship, you
and your ancestors?
They are all enemies to me except the
Lord of the worlds.
And our master, Mufassir, Fakhruddin al Razi, he
says here something interesting in his tafsir.
He says that these verses are one of
the strongest proofs against
what's known as theological taqid
and a proof for istidlal.
So taqleed
is blind conformance
or uncritical faith.
It's
following someone without due inquiry
or to believe without evidence.
So taqid in matters of creed or theology
is unacceptable.
Don't just follow someone because someone told you
to follow someone or because someone is charismatic
or popular.
You have to actually believe what you claim
to believe.
So this is very important,
and you have to be able to explain
your beliefs,
even if it's just at a basic level.
This is called being discursive in our theology.
You have to be able, even to a
small extent, to provide the evidence or proofs
of your iman
to other people.
You don't have to be a theologian, but
you have to know something.
You know, Socrates is famous for saying the
unexamined life is not worth living.
In our tradition, we can say the unexamined
faith is not real believing.
You should be able to explain to an
atheist
why God exists and why God is 1
using philosophical
and rational proofs.
We should be able to explain to the
Christian
why Isa
is not divine
using rational and scriptural proofs.
We should be able to explain why we
believe that the prophet Muhammad
is
the messenger of God and why the Quran
is the word of God using rational, logical,
historical, linguistic, and scriptural proofs.
We believe because it is rational.
Belief in God is rational.
All of the commandments of God, all of
the commandments of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala are
rational.
Imam Al Qurtubi, he points out that due
to Ibrahim Alaihi Salam statement,
all of them are my enemies
except the Lord of the world. He says
that this indicates
that the ancient Babylonians,
like the Quraish at the time of the
Prophet SAW,
did believe in Allah
in some sense, but they attributed some falsehood
to him.
There was a large population of Semites living
in ancient Babylon
at that time who, like the Quraysh, understood
that
they were inheritors of a prophetic
legacy or tradition.
The life of the patriarch Ibrahim, alayhis salam,
is often mirrored in the life of our
master, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So even today,
most people believe in God,
but their theology needs refinement. It needs correction.
That's the relevance.
And then he says,
the one who created me and guides me.
Now he begins his theological
monologue that Allah
is the creator.
He is the only creator in reality
because logic tells us that there can only
be one true creator.
To ask the question, who created the creator,
is total nonsense.
Why? Because by definition, the creator is uncreated.
If the creator was created, then he is
not the creator. He doesn't merit the title
creator. If there was no beginning to the
universe,
okay, if there was not creation x nihilo
out of nothing, then we are stuck in
infinite regress,
which is repugnant to the intellect.
It is intelligent to believe in one creator
who created from nothing.
And huwa, He guides me, he says. The
emphasis on the huwa, He alone.
This verb is imperfect. He alone guides me
and continues to guide me.
So Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is the majestic,
all powerful, and timeless creator,
but he is also in some sense
personal,
intimate,
close to his creation.
He is Qarib. He shows us the way.
He's not some impersonal distant or or removed
God. He's not the God of the Greek
philosophers.
He's personal.
When my servants ask you concerning me, say
I am close to them. I answer every
supplication of every supplicant should he call upon
me.
That indeed we created the human being and
we are well acquainted with what his soul
suggests to him.
And we are closer to the human being
than his jugular vein. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says,
That he is the one
who created the heavens and the earth in
6 days. And then he istawaalalarsh,
and he knows what goes into the earth
and what comes out of the earth. He
knows what comes down from the sky and
what goes up to the sky. And he
is with you wherever you are. And Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala with respect to what you're
doing is well a well. Al busir,
he is all seeing.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is neither totally imminent
nor totally transcendent. He crashes the binary
Laysa. This is amazing.
And then he says, while levy who are
you to imony why you're skin. He is
the one who feeds me and gives me
to drink.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the only source
of life, the ultimate sustainer
of our existence.
The outward meaning is food and water.
Ibn Ajeeba, however, says in his beautiful tafsir
al Bahr al Madid, which is an esoteric
exegesis of the Koran. This is perfectly permissible
as long as the thawhidi, the botany meaning
doesn't contradict the thawhidi meaning. He says, this
refers to the food of Ma'arifah
and the drink of Mahaba, the food of
gnosis
and the drink of love. That this is
what the Quran provides us.
Knowledge of God leading to his love, our
spiritual sustenance. So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
the source of our physical sustenance as well
as our spiritual sustenance.
Waydha maritu
fahuwa yashfin.
Ibrahim alayhis salam continues. And when I am
sick, he heals me.
And sicknesses are of 2 types. The first
type is psychosomatic,
dealing with the mind and body, but there's
also spiritual
diseases. Imam Jafar as Saadiq radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
He said, when I am sick due to
sin, he heals me with tawba, with repentance.
The Quran says about Ibrahim alayhis salam, for
nadura nadura ten finnujum
He casted a glance towards the stars and
he said, indeed, I am sick.
Ibn Kathir, he says that the idolatry of
his people made his heart feel sick
and this was out of his compassion.
The compassionate Ibrahim alayhis salam that he loved
people so much that just the thought of
their punishment would make him ill, and the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam was the same
way and we should be the same way.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks directly in the
Quran to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
by extension to all of us.
Perhaps you might worry yourself to death
over them
if they do not believe in this message.
But Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, tells him time
and again,
and by extension to all of us,
You cannot guide all whom you love,
but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will guide them
whomever he chooses.
It is not upon you to guide
them. But Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the
ultimate guide.
Society might make us sick to our stomachs,
and right now what's going on in society
is making us sick to our stomachs,
but we have to trust in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Now so far in this passage, by the
way,
from a linguistic standpoint, we have 3 defective
verb. This is for like the linguistic
nerds or geeks, whatever. We have 3 defective
verbs in juxtaposition
with 3 strong verbs in the Arabic.
This adds to the incredible eloquence
of the Abrahamic monologue. It's very subtle, but
the Arab shuara, the poets would have picked
up on this. By the way, this monologue
is in a surah called a shuara, the
poets.
But then Ibrahim alayhis salam, he continues,
The one who causes me to die and
causes me to live. Imam Fakhruddin al Razi
said that only a being capable of the
acts listed in these series of verses,
78 to 81 of Ashura,
only a being
capable of these acts
is worthy and deserving of worship, is.
What are these acts? Creation,
guidance,
sustaining,
causing health and sickness, causing death and life.
And then he says,
and the one who I hope will forgive
my sins on the day of judgment. Mujah
had said that this could be a reference
to,
2,163
in the Koran in which Ibrahim Alaihi Salam
quote unquote lied to his people and said
that the largest idol smashed all the other
idols. But Imam al Razi, he says, this
was not actually a lie because his intention
was not deception.
His intention was to demonstrate an absurdity
in their belief that Ibrahim alaihis salam was
demonstrating the dangers and follies
of theological
taqleed.
Ask your average Christian, why do you believe
in the doctrine of the trinity?
He'll probably say it's in the bible.
And as Muslims, we have to have enough
knowledge to follow this answer with where is
it. Show me where in that the show
me where in the Bible that the Trinity
is explicitly taught in the bible. Produce book,
chapter, and verse.
And after finding nothing in the bible, many
Christians come to the realization that the only
reason why they believed in the Trinity was
because of theological taqlid, blind imitation
of their leaders. They were told to believe
that God was 3 without seeing the evidence.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran,
in the context of Christianity,
he says,
SubhanAllah.
Say, oh people of the book. Again, speaking
in the first instance to the Christians, do
not exaggerate in your religion beyond the truth
and do not follow the desires and caprices
of a people who went astray and thus
led many other people astray
and continued to stray from the right path.
Golal is mentioned in this ayah three times.
So the Christian leaders who invented the trinity
went astray.
Then with their theology,
they led 1,000,000 more astray.
Then the Christians at the time of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and even today, reject
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam because he did
not teach the trinity
and thus they continue to go astray.
Continued
compounded
balal. But the Quran wants to ask the
Christians,
have you really considered
what you worship?
It's the same question Ibrahim Alaihi Salam asked
his people. And like the people of Ibrahim
Alaihi Salam, the Christians in principle worship Allah,
the God of Abraham, but they need correction
in their theology.
And then he says,
Oh, my lord, grant me a judgment process
and bind me to the righteous.
And this begins the second section of the
Abrahamic monologue, his supplication to Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, which is still didactic.
He's teaching us theology through du'a.
And he says,
Rubi. Rubi denotes a personal deity. The Rub
is the one who takes care of you,
loves you, sustains you, protects you. Habili
grant me. This is called a fir du'a.
It's not an amr. We don't give an
amr to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's a
firn of supplication.
Haveli grant me. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
al Wahab. He is the one who gives
things even though we are undeserving.
Grant me what? Hukman, a judgment process
by which I might recognize the truth.
In other words, a stronger sense of discernment.
All of us are born with with with
a conscience. The word conscience comes from con
in science
with knowledge.
We all have the ability to intuit
to a certain degree what is good, what
is bad, what is beneficial, what is harmful,
what is beautiful and ugly. We have this
disobedience
and shaitan
can delude and deceive us even to the
point where the bad is seen as good,
the ugly is seen as beautiful, and the
harmful is seen as healthy. And this is
happening today all over our society.
So we need reminders. That's why the Quran
is adhikr, the reminder. We ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to grant us a sustained and
sharp process of judgment
by which we might see the reality behind
the form.
In this vein, the prophet, salallahu alaihi wasallani,
supplicated
A beautiful dua. Oh our Lord, oh Allah.
Show us the truth as truth and give
us the ability to follow what warazukna
and show us the falsehood as falsehood
and give us the ability to shun it.
And then Ibrahim Alay Salami says,
and attribute to me a tongue of truthfulness
among the later generations.
In other words, when people speak of me
in later times,
may their tongues speak truthfully about me.
Imams are to be an Imam or Razi.
They say this could be understood as a
prayer for a great prophet to come in
the later days. So So in other words,
something like raise up the speech of a
truthful prophet in the later generations
concerning me. And of course, this Sadiq, this
Asadiqul
Amin was the holy prophet Muhammad sallallahu anaihi
wal ari waslam. The final messenger of God.
He is the prophet of the Abrahamic
restoration.
And I'll tell you this my brothers and
sisters, I'm gonna tell you something. I have
a little bit of time. I studied the
sacred texts of the Jews and the Christians.
Believe it or not, for 25 years, many
people said I wasted my time, and I've
studied their normative
exegetical tradition and even their sacred languages
according to their own books, according to the
book of Daniel
in the Hebrew Bible. This is in the
Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. A greatly praised nation,
an Umma led by a leader highly beloved
to God
will come and conquer the 4th beast of
Daniel's visions. The prophet Daniel had a vision
of 4 beasts. These are symbols.
The 4th beast was interpreted
as the Roman empire by the most authoritative
Jewish exigits, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks,
and the Romans.
Now, Daniel also said that one of the
Roman emperors will fight and oppress the monotheistic
believers
and commit an act of unimaginable
blasphemy.
And I believe that when you look at
the evidence, this emperor was clearly Hadrian,
who fought against and expelled all the Jews
and the Jewish Christians, the people of Tawhid
from Jerusalem and placed a statue of Zeus
on the temple mount. However, Daniel says that
this beast will be killed
by this coming great nation in
1335
years. It actually gives a time and exact
date.
Hadrian became emperor on August 11, 1 17
of the common era. The prophecy says that
during the Roman period,
a powerful and holy prophet
called the Bar enas
in Aramaic, the son of man, will come
with a nation of saints who will definitively
end the Roman Empire,
the 4th beast. Now the Christians say, this
is us. The Christians claim, this is our
nation. But Hellenistic Christianity, starting with Constantine,
converted the Roman Empire. They did not conquer
it. They became an extension of the 4th
beast. By 381 of the common era, Trinitarian
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman
Empire. So now Kufur and shirk that had
corrupted the message of Isa alaihis salam, was
all over the empire. And the true Muwahhidun,
the true monotheist,
the Jews and the Unitarian or Ebionite Christians
were being marginalized and persecuted.
Then Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, raised the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
with the pure tawhid,
the tawhid of the prophets of old, he
is the prophet of the Abrahamic restoration.
1 by 1, the major cities of Byzantium,
the Eastern Roman Empire fell to the Muslims.
This was the great universal monotheistic
ummah that Daniel foresaw in his vision. And
on May 25,
14
53, Constantinople,
the the the city of Constantine was conquered
by the Ottomans.
And this was officially
this officially and definitively ended the Roman Empire.
This was exactly 1,000,
1335
years after Hadrian became emperor.
It's amazing. August 11, 1 17th May 29,
14 53 is 1335
years, 9 months and 18 days.
Is Ajid. This is in their books. The
Quran says, Muhammad
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam and those with
him, his ummah are fierce against unbelievers
yet compassionate among themselves.
You will see them bowing, prostrating,
seeking grace from God and his pleasure. Their
marks on their faces is from the traces
of their worship.
That is their similitude
in the Jewish scriptures.
A nation of holy saints who conquer disbelieving
nations. That's their similitude
in the Torah.
In the Jewish scriptures that Daniel chapter 7.
Says, don't clothe truth with falsehood
nor could conceal the truth when you have
knowledge of the truth.
And just to finish the monologue of Ibrahim
alaihis salam, and then he says,
SubhanAllah.
And make me from the inheritors of the
garden of bliss, and forgive my father, he
was from the wrongdoers,
And do not disgrace me on the day
that the dead are raised, on the day
that neither children nor wealth will benefit
except the one who brought to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
a sound heart.
A Qalb Saleem.
And the exegistim of Fasil in the Quran,
they say a heart. This means a free
heart of shirk and dunya and full of
love and reverence for Allah and his messenger.
May Allah
grant us such hearts.