Ashraf Schneider – Dawah Training #10 – Revelation

			As Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Peace, blessings and mercy be upon you all. Welcome to
the 10th episode of dow Thursdays. And in our episode today we are going to be looking at the our
portion within the group methodology of dharma. And that itself is revelation. Now in order for us
to speak about the revelation portion within the direct methodology of Dharma, it is very important
to first speak about the G and the O, God's existence and his oneness. And once we've gained
confirmation with the person that we speak to, regarding these two points, that they believe in this
Almighty Creator that is all powerful, all knowing and self sufficient, that they believe the first
		

			creator is one without a second, then we can continue and speak about the revelation. Why is there a
need for revelation in the first place, if we contemplate and think about everything in life comes
with an instruction. For instance, if you purchase a new product, or if you want to go in a specific
field of study or in work, it will come with an instruction as to how to use the product or how to
educate yourself in order to be within that field. Now, if we contemplate about this concept, it
would be rational to think that this creator that has created this universe out of nothing that has
put us upon this planet with a specific purpose will give us an instruction as to how to live our
		

			lives, how to glorify and worship Him, and how to understand him within his names and attributes.
Therefore, it is completely irrational to think that this creator will give us guidance, but the
question remains, for us to be objective, we need to decide which of these revelations is directly
from this God. Now way in which I personally introduced the Holy Quran to the individuals that I
speak to, is I tell them to sit and contemplate something with me. Imagine we had all the
revelations in front of us the Vedas, which were the first human descriptions, we had the Taoist
revelation, the Buddhist revelation, the sentence revelation, we had the biblical text and the
		

			Quran. In order for us to decide which of these revelations is from God, we would look at three
things. The first thing we'd be looking for within this revelation is how this revelation represents
the Almighty Creator. For instance, if a revelation were to say that God is a monkey, or the
Goddess, a human being, or goddess, a tree, both you and I would agree that this revelation cannot
be from God, because a monkey a human being, and a tree is not all powerful, not all knowing and not
self sufficient, and therefore it cannot be this God. The second thing we'd be looking for is
internal and external consistency. Internally, this revelation should not contradict itself, because
		

			God would not contradict himself. Externally, we would look for consistency. When this revelation
speaks about the creation of the Almighty Creator, it is consistent. For instance, if a revelation
were to say that the Earth was flat, or that the universe is only 6000 years old, then both you and
I would agree that this revelation cannot be from God. Now, the third thing I would mention is that
this revelation in itself has to have some form of divine inspiration. If we look at this
revelation, objectively, we can say that surely this revelation must have been inspired by an
Almighty Creator, that a human mind could not have found or thought about these verses. And then of
		

			course, I would apply all these three points to the Holy Quran and speak with them through it. So
the first point is that when the Holy Quran speaks about this Almighty Creator, that it represents
him in maximally perfect names and attributes, then he is Almighty is all knowing he is self
sufficient, his most loving, most forgiving, Most Merciful, he's the Guardian, the protector, the
sustainable provider, and all the different names and attributes of this Almighty Creator that we
find within the Holy Quran is maximally perfect and beautiful. And if we look at internal and
external consistency, we find that internally this revelation does not contradict itself and
		

			externally, when it speaks about the creation of this Almighty Creator. It is consistent with
regards to established facts. Now the third point is with regards to some form of divine
inspiration. Now you can use your own knowledge and understanding of the Holy Quran. Genuinely, when
I speak to individuals, I like to speak about established facts that we understand and comprehend of
the universe that is around us. So when I would speak about the section of divine inspiration, I
would speak about things that I established fact within our universe. For instance, within the Holy
Quran in chapter 78, verse 67, the Almighty Creator speaks and he says that we created the earth as
		

			a wide expanse, or we placed mountains as pegs within the ground. Now, if we were to think about it,
if you and I were to take a peg, and we were to hit it into the ground,
		

			we would only see the tip of the peg and the rest of the peg will be underneath the surface of the
earth. Now the Almighty Creator is saying that he created the mountains as pegs. And just recently,
geologists have discovered that when two tectonic plates push against one another, there's one plate
that pushes upwards, and there's one plate that pushes downwards, that actually creates the roots of
the mountain. Now, when geologists speak about this phenomenon, they speak about steaks or pegs to
describe it. Now, why do we ask the individuals that I speak to I would give them two or three of
these examples within w Quran? And then I would ask them that who could have revealed this 1500
		

			years ago? Could this have been done by human mind or was this divinely inspired by God?
		

			Now when I asked him this question a lot of people come to the understanding that a human mind could
not have conceived but it had been inspired by the Almighty Creator. This methodology in itself is
very good way of introducing the Quran to the individuals that you speak to. I hope that you enjoyed
today's episode, and if you have, please leave a like and share this with your friends. I look
forward to seeing you at the next one. All the best Blessings to you and your family does Akela here