Ali Ataie – The Courageous 5 Prophet Jesus, Part 1

Ali Ataie
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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: Summary ©

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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.