Ali Ataie – The Courageous 5 Prophet Jesus, Part 1

Ali Ataie
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the use of the word "verence" in the Bible, with a focus on the deification of Christ's name as the father of the beast. They also discuss the history of the Bible, including the use of "verence" to describe a relationship between the creator and his followers, and the importance of the Bible's use of "verence" to describe a relationship between the creator and his followers.
AI: Transcript ©
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This is Ali Atawi, lecturer of comparative theologies

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at Setuna College.

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We have reached in our Ramadan series entitled

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the courageous 5, the great iconoclastic

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prophets. We have reached our master, Isa alaihi

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salam, the prophet Jesus Christ, peace be upon

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him, Isa ibn Maryam alayhi mas salam, Jesus

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the son of Mary, peace be upon both

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of them.

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Jesus, peace be upon him, is unique amongst

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these 5 in the sense that he was

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actually deified by many of his followers.

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And today,

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the belief that Risa alaihi salam is God,

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is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

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is far and away the dominant theology

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amongst the Christian community.

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The verse that I'm going to use to

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set the stage, as it were, for this

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session is at the end of Surah Al

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Maidah, I number 116,

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which Allah

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says,

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1st of all, the particle

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according to Imam Atuntawi

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is a particle of futurity.

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However, the the verb that comes directly after

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ivqala,

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is past tense. It's perfect tense.

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However, the meaning is future.

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So this is called a prophetic past tense.

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This happens from time to time in the

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Quran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, for example,

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And usually, this is translated, the believers will

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prevail or will win. But here the verb

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is past perfect. Or Allah

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says, speaking directly to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu

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alaihi wasallam,

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in a'utayna kal kawthar.

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A'ata is past tense, but usually translated,

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we will give you kawthar. What is kawthar?

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One of the meanings is nahrun filjannah, a

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river in Jannah. But the prophet, shalallahu alaihi

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wa sallam, does not have access to this

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river while he's living in Mecca. So what

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is the import of this prophetic past? We

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also find it in the Hebrew bible, in

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Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. It says,

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indeed a son or a child will be

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given to us. But this verb in the

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Hebrew,

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is

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perfect

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passive, but it's translated in the future.

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What is the rhetorical import of the prophetic

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past? Is that it represents

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a guarantee

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a guarantee from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that

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this conversation will take place

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between Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the Isa

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alaihi salaam. When will it take place?

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According to Imam al Suyuti, fir qiyama,

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on the day of judgment in front of

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the whole of humanity, Allah

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will say,

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God will say, oh Jesus, the son of

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Mary. And interestingly, ibn Maryam, this guttural alif,

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is retained in the orthography,

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to emphasize as it were that Isa alaihi

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salam is not the literal son of god.

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He is a son of Maryam,

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and Maryam alayhis salam is great in her

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own right.

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In fact, Imam ibn Hazm and Imam al

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Khortubi, both of them insist that Maryam, alayhis

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salam, was actually

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a prophet.

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So what is the question that Allah Subhanahu

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Wa Ta'ala is going to pose to Isa,

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alayhis salam, in front of the whole of

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humanity. He says,

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this hamza at the beginning of this statement

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is Istif Hamiyya.

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In other words, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is

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asking a question here. And he says,

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very interesting

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in its syntax, in its construction here. The

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verb, kulta, the morphology of this verb suggests

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second person masculine singular.

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Right? Did you say? But Allah subhanahu wa

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ta'ala here, he says, also.

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This seems somewhat redundant

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but the rhetorical import of that is to

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stress, did you actually say? Did you say

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to humanity?

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What did he say?

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What is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asking?

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Did you ever say to the people? In

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form

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8, it's reflexive.

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Did you ever say take me

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for yourselves

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and my mother as deities

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other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?

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Imam, Abdullah ibn Alawih al Hadad

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as well as Imam al Suyuti,

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both of them say here that when this

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question is posed to Isa alaihis salam, he

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begins to tremble. He be he begins to

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shake and quake from the force of the

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question.

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Now interestingly here, western polemicists,

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they look at this eye of the Quran

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and they say, Look, the Quran has it

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wrong. The Quran has

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a strange conception, an erroneous conception of the

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trinity, that the Quran conceives it as being

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somewhat of a holy family, the father, son,

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and the holy mother. But this is not

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a necessary conclusion.

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I don't see this verse as denouncing the

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trinity, at least not in this verse.

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I see this verse as denouncing what's known

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as Christolatry,

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the deification

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of Christ alayhis salam, and mariolatry,

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the deification of Maryam alaihis salam. And we're

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gonna talk about how Christ was deified, but

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how was Maryam alaihis salam deified? A quick

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example, the 3rd ecumenical council and 4 31

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of the common era, the Council of Ephesus.

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It was voted upon by the proto orthodox

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bishops

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that Maryam alayhi salam is Theotakas,

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which some have translated as the mother of

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God, but a more accurate translation is

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the bearer or carrier of God. So to

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suggest that an entity

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has the power or capacity

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to carry or bear God, to handle God,

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is to impute upon that entity a divine

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quality.

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So I don't see this verse as denouncing

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the trinity

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nor intermediacy

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through Maryam nor even the explicit worship of

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Mary, but rather assigning Mary divine attributes,

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deifying Maryam,

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Maryam alayhis salaam. Now listen to the response

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of Isa alayhis salaam.

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He says, Glory be to you. And linguistically

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here, this is called,

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an absolute an infinitive absolute for an apocopated

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verb. So it's very direct. It's very exclamatory.

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Glory be to you. Now I'm reminded of

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Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23, and

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the parallel of this is found in Luke

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chapter 13, which means it originated from the

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q source document, which scholars of Western Academy

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believe to be the best and most accurate,

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source of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and

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Luke. This is what Jesus is reported to

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have said in Matthew 721

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to 23.

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He says, not everyone who says to me,

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kurie kurie in the Greek,

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master, master

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shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only

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the one

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hapoyon thilematu patras,

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but only the one who does the will

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of the father. Now let's take a quick

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excursion here to talk about the term father

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in the New Testament.

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Imam al Ghazali,

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as well as Ahmad ibn Alawi, they both

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say that when you read the term father

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in the Injeel, in the New Testament,

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think Rab. Ab means Rab.

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Who is your Rab? The Rab is the

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one who

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takes care of you in stages,

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as our parents take care of us in

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stages.

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So there's a relationship

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here

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between the Reb and Ab.

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Interestingly enough, if you look at these 5

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great prophets, at least 4 of them did

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not have their biological fathers in their lives.

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If you look for example

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at, Adam alai at,

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at Ibrahim alaihis salam. Ibrahim alaihis salam, his

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father was not Azaar, that was his uncle,

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and it's permissible to call your uncle Ab.

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Like he says in Surah Maryam, he says,

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According to ibn Hisham, the name of the

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father of Ibrahim alaihi salam was Tarikh or

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Tarah as he's called in the book of

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Genesis.

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So Ibrahim alaihi salam has

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who

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raised him. In that sense, Ibrahim alaihis salam

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is the son of God. In that metaphorical

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sense, not in the literal sense. And this

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is what Imam al Ghazali is trying to

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impart upon us. If you look at Musa

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alaihi salam, he did not have his biological

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father. He was raised in the house of

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Firaun, but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala took care

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of him and raised him. He is Tarbiyar

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Rabaniyah.

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Isa alaihis salam did not have a father

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to begin with. Tarbiyar Rabaniyah.

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The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, his

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father died before he was born. He was

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raised by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in that

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sense that Allah was taking care of him.

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Alam tarakayfa fa alarabuka

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bi ashaabilfil

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Allah speaking to him directly, the verb is

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second masculine,

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singular. Rabuka, have you not seen or understood

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the significance of your Lord as to what

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he did to the companions of the elephant?

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In other words, why do you think I

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did that? I was taking care of you.

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That was the year that you were going

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to be born. Alam yajid kayateeman faawa wawajadaka

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ghadwalan fahadah?

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Did he not find you an orphan and

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give you shelter? Did he not find you

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searching and enamored and give you guidance? Allah

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Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is reminding the prophet sallallahu

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alaihi wa sallam that he raised him up

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in stages. This is the meaning according to

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the New Testament of

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of pater, of abba, of father. It means

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dharab, the one who takes care of you.

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It denotes God imminent.

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And we find this analogy,

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this this terminology in the Old and New

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Testament.

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In the New Testament, of course, Isa alaihi

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salam is reported to have said in the

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Sermon on the Mount in Syriac, his actual

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language, he said,

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our father who art in heaven. All of

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us, our father who art in heaven, hallowed

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be thy name. If we look into Psalm

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826,

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it says, kullekhem bene elion.

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All of you are sons of the most

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high God. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 64,

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one of the prayers of the prophet Isaiah

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is ata Adonai Avinu,

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You are the Lord our Father.

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So this is very Hebraic type language and

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it's meant to be majaz. It's meant to

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be figurative language denoting an intimate relationship

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between Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and his servants.

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So let's go back to Matthew 721.

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Only those who do the will of the

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father. He continues,

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on that

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day, many will come to me and say,

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master, master, did we not prophesize

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in your name, cast out demons in your

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name, and in your name perform many dunamis,

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which is a Greek word, means miracles of

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power, you know, healings, raising the dead, walking

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on water.

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Listen to the response of Isa alaihis salam

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as recorded by Matthew.

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He says, Then I will tell them plainly,

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Never did I know you. Apokorote

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apemu. Apokorote,

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present, active, imperative.

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In Greek

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it calls for the action to be prolonged,

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meaning depart from me and stay away from

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me.

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You workers of lawlessness,

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of a nomos,

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you antinomians,

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you rejecters of the Sharia. You see without

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the Sharia

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to ground them in sound theology,

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many took to deifying

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Isa Alaihi Salam. Some have dubbed this as

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Ghazalian mirror Christology,

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that when

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the light of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reflected

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off the purified heart of Isa alaihis salam,

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those who weren't grounded in sound theology, those

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who did not follow the Sharia, they didn't

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know the mitzvot of Bani Israel, When they

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saw that reflection, they mistook

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the illuminated

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reflection for the illuminating

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source, and began to deify Isa Alaihi Salam.

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It is as if they saw the,

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reflection of the moon in a still lake

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and jumped into the lake and hoped of

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grabbing the moon only to find themselves drowning.

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Yet how great is the difference between the

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actual moon and its reflection in the lake?

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How much more vast is the difference between

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Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and a human being?

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There's nothing like the likes of Allah Subhanahu

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Wa Ta'ala whatsoever. We'll continue with this discussion

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next time.

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