Behind Enemy Lines
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Channel: Bilal Philips
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AI Generated Summary ©
The transcript discusses the importance of learning Islam and bringing it into one's life, as it is often portrayed in films and media. The speakers emphasize the need for practice and guidance in learning to be a good person, as it is often difficult to learn the language of Islam. The rise of the Islamist movement and the differences between western and Islamist movements highlight the need for guidance and guidance in learning to be a good person. The importance of fasting and the use of Arabic language for understanding Islam is also emphasized. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for a product.AI Generated Transcript ©
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Karim.
Allah Allah was Harvey.
Omani standard disunity he laomi Deen
I'll present you to ally melas Peace and blessings on the last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
and all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day
behind
enemy lines
a very intriguing topic.
In 1991,
Iraq
invaded Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia
fearing
the invasion
of its own
kingdom
invited half a million American troops into
the country.
They concentrated in the Eastern Province
Khobar
the man.
And
as they prepared
to
decimate
the Iraqi military
a soldier from the Saudi
military
Sergeant
began to develop
a close relationship with some of the Americans.
He didn't know very much English.
But he was just a friendly kind of a guy.
So he mixed with them,
took them into town to get things that they needed, etc.
even slept in the tents with them.
His intention was dour.
When he was able to befriend a sufficient amount of them,
it was now time to actually present something to them because they were asking him about Islam. But he couldn't explain very much to them because his English was just too weak.
So he
saw sought me out.
I was in reality at the time
and
brought me
to the American camps.
And they arranged some open sessions for the troops who wanted to ask some questions about Islam.
Before
addressing their questions, I gave them a brief idea about
what Islam is.
basic teachings.
Not real
Tao in the sense of
compassion, comparative, getting into Bible and these kinds of things, just presenting, what is this now?
But keeping in mind that they were Westerners
and
the way that Westerners think
I presented it, according to that.
In the course of these presentations,
a couple of them accepted Islam Hamdulillah.
But we didn't have very much time.
Because the war then began shortly after my first visits
After the war was over,
and it was quite short
the troops had to be processed out of Saudi Arabia, back to the US, you know, had half a million troops.
And it was going to take time to get them out.
So they move them from
attended area that they were in before into some
towered areas that have been built
many years before
a region they call them Khobar Towers, this, these buildings have been built, huge high rise
20 storeys, 25 storey building, but enough to make up what would have been a community, quite a large area. And these had been built originally for veterans. The idea was to bring them in off the desert and settle them. And after the government built them up, and everything, the veterans came in and looked around, check them out, say no, no, we don't want this.
We prefer to live out in the desert where we're living.
And they built these outside of Jeddah and other parts, and they were unanimous and not living there.
So they remained empty for years, just sitting there.
So the American troops were put in there, they occupied that area. And there was a huge open area, the buildings were all around this open area there. And then that open area, between the buildings, various businesses in Saudi entrepreneurs, wanting to sell gold jewelry, T shirts, everything, they came to set up tents, here, there and everywhere, right.
And
we requested that we get attend also, for just
presenting the message. The tent was called, it was quite large, you know, almost the length of this Masjid here.
It was called had a big label on the side. It's called the Saudi Arabian cultural information tent.
We are going to explain Saudi culture.
And the American military authorities, they're very happy to facilitate it for us because it couldn't happen without their permission.
Because the people were there. And it was going to take time for them to be processed out the country. So anything that could be done to keep them occupied.
They were in favor of or supportive off. Because usually when American troops go into a country, whether it's Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Thailand, they're going to these places, they
turn the
country or the neighboring areas into brothels.
They know
they have money.
The women of that area would then prostitute themselves. This would be an r&r situation for the American troops. That was the norm. And of course, it wasn't happening in Saudi Arabia.
It just wasn't happening.
There are no women available.
So they had to do some things to keep these guys occupied.
So we set up the tent
have the louring got a team together of other American brothers.
And
we began the process of giving Dawa to them behind enemy lines.
How did we set up the tent
when you first came in the tent?
From this side, say for example, so the main entrance come in, we had a series of tables with books about Saudi Arabian culture,
about the desert, about the animals,
about the dress of the people and all these types of books. In the middle of the books, there would be some What is Islam, pamphlets and booklets there.
And after that we had another table where we had
Korans in English
because we noted that many of them had wanted to get copies of the Quran.
They wanted to take it back as a souvenir. You know, when you're going to different countries, as tourists, you want to take back a souvenir from the
country something when you come back, your friends ask, okay, so what do you bring back because they write this I got this book, it's their holy book, I brought it back.
Some people actually objected. They said, No, we can't give these people the Quran.
Of course, it's English, it's translated, the translated version, some of them had the texts also.
And, of course, the scholars are already
identified what constitutes Quran and what doesn't constitute Quran.
The basic definition that they made was
where the words of ALLAH
i less than the words of man, it is no longer considered Quran
because the term Quran can reverse refer to a verse,
a group of verses or Surah, or the whole Quran.
So that's what they said,
was the distinguishing point.
What distinguish between tafsir and cron, because the issues of will do being in a state of will do with cron, giving it to non Muslims, this was a critical point to understand. So
many of them came and they bought copies of the Quran, we sold it to them, not for profit, it wasn't a business, it was just making it available, cover the costs.
Maybe anywhere from around 80,000 copies
were sold
6070 80,000 in that region resolved.
They took it back home with them.
And we know we expected the majority of them would never read it, they would just put it in the shelf,
you know, as a curiosity piece, which they could point to when their friends ask them. So what did you bring back from Saudi Arabia?
And we were okay with that. Because
there have been a number of cases of people who became Muslims
simply by coming across a Quran
at a time when their curiosity was
open, and they took that advantage.
So we figured, okay, he puts it in his house, maybe his wife will video, maybe his kid will read it. Maybe his father when he comes over to visit or maybe a generation later somebody will pick it up and open it. We said at least we got it into the hole.
There then we had some stance where they would come and sit,
you know.
And we had a brother from New York
who call himself the Latin from Manhattan.
He was a former radio announcer.
So he knew how to warm up. Listeners, right? So that's what he would do, because they would all come in, you know, these are all military people. They're coming in groups of them. They're curious, but at the same time, they're a little suspicious, you know, a little uneasy. Maybe an Iraqi might come running in with a bomb and
blew himself up.
So
he would then begin to warm them up.
He would
chat with them, play with them, joke with them till they felt comfortable. Okay, there. Okay, this is all right, we can relate to him, you know, then I would come in.
And there was sort of like a mat in
Saudi Majlis, on the ground there. And I would sit there. And I will give the same basic introduction to Islam. what Islam is basic teachings brief,
then we will just throw the floor open to questions.
They will could ask anything they wanted to ask no limitations. You don't have to be on the topic, anything that comes to your head.
And Americans are very curious, you know, we tried to do this with the British. But they didn't even allow us into the British areas. British officers not
not interested.
Americans, they're more open. Curious. Yeah.
So hamdulillah good. Actually, one of the things we did, we made a skit.
It was called and we recorded it. It's a cassette. It's called Saudi culture.
And in it,
a American was brought into
a Saudis home, this is the scene of the skit.
So he comes into the home and you know, he chats with the host. And
there are a couple of us that are there in gauged in the conversation with him. And it was done in a light, funny style. The American was played by a brother by the name of a file from Philadelphia.
He till today has a program on Saudi TV
Youth Program, which he
does with Saudi youth, you know, Abdullah, is a funny guy. So he played the part of the curious American, you know, voicing their curiosity. And we had a Saudi run losing, which was pretty good, he would responding. And we would also back up and add other points this was distributed amongst them to listen to is also a means of acquainting them to Islam through the culture.
Anyway, in the tent, as I said, we opened up for any questions they wanted. And they asked about everything. Of course, many of them were shocked when they came to Saudi Arabia, because they were coming, thinking they were going to be in the middle of the desert, there would be seeing camels going by left and right, you know, camel crossings. And then it came, they saw all these cars and city built up and Burger King and McDonald's and what, what is this? You know, they're quite shocked. So they had a lot of curious questions to ask. And of course, sometimes we have to go back and do research to find out how to answer these questions.
Among the questions that they asked was,
why some
people wore red and white scarves.
You know, the Ultra, others were black and white. On others only wore white, what does this mean?
So we gave them the background, the different areas of the Arab world, and these are just styles that no real significant.
Then they asked about the call that is worn on this carbs when they first asked and I said, Okay, I'll get back to you on that one.
I went and I asked Saudi friends, where did this thing come from?
All of a sudden, they didn't have any answers. Nobody knew. We all we just were it, you know,
I don't know where it came from. So eventually, I got to talk with some of the elders and they were able to explain that oh, this originally
was the hobbling chord of the camel. I talked about it in July today. So they explain where it came from.
And then, after you hobbled your camel,
you need to get back on and ride. You have this hoop of rope what to do with it,
twist it, put it on your head,
keeps your scarf in place as you're writing, you know, that doesn't fly off your head. It's multi purpose, right?
So I'm the law. They like that.
They asked many questions. Sometimes they asked about
what they called the BM O's.
You all know about UFOs? Right. UFO, unidentified flying objects? Well, they had developed this phrase they call GMOs, right? What are the GMOs black moving objects? This was in reference to Saudi women wearing full abayas and they would just be moving, they would see that move, boy, what was that? You know?
So
they're curious about these black moving objects.
So we give them the background, and we took them into Saudi homes, and the women, especially the women would, would sit with them
and get to know who was behind these
veils, right. And of course, they were shocked because we put them in the homes of Saudis who had studied in the West, so the women could speak good English, they were educated, you know, and they were living lives like queens. Tell the women were just aghast. Wow. I wish I was like you, you know.
You know, they were really impressed at how much the woman was honored. And she had this position in the home and people looking after her, you know, somebody to drive her wherever she needed to go.
Then
we took groups of men into the masjids. A first one, we took the first group, we want to bring him into the master this Oh, no.
You can't go in there. said why? Said because the officers told us that we should not come within 30 meters of any mosque
means you go walking around, don't go near these places.
So that's what they told us. He said, No, it's okay.
We got orders that we can't do this. And we have to talk back with the officers clarified and get the Okay. Give them the Okay, they can go in. So we started taking groups of them into the master. And of course, when we first took them into the masjid, you know, we try to take them a times when
in the morning when people weren't praying there, but of course, occasionally, some Saudis would come in. What are these guys doing here? How far? Now just get them out of the must be weird. Hold on, hold on us. Okay.
Because we had to inform the mom, you know, listen, these things happen. You gotta control your people here. You know, let them know that it is Archie halaal.
Fact Prophet Muhammad did it. He met
delegations in the masjid. delegations of kuffaar They came in the masjid met with them even tied up one of the prisoners from the battle of I think it was a hard tie them up in the masjid for three days and nights. So it was but most people never heard about this. They don't know it all they know it's in the middle in the middle. MashAllah goon alleges
zit.
So we are to clarify this point. Anyway, they would come in, take off their boots outside and come in.
Sit down and we clarify for them. Well, yes. You see, this is the mosque. We don't have an altar on which we slaughter Christians, despite the what you've been told, right? We don't do human sacrifices in here. No, it's just a place of prayer.
Right. Very simple.
We were impressed. Because the masjids Saudi Arabia in general, they're very plain
very plain. And actually,
though we tend to look at the fancy masters with all the colors and carvings and calligraphy and all these different things as being something really beautiful.
The Prophet SAW Salem had said that one of the signs of the last days would be the beautification of the masjids.
Because that's not the purpose of the Masjid. The Masjid is for prayer
for remembering Allah.
And prophets are seldom when he used to wear garments, which had lines or whatever on it.
And it caught his attention, after the prayer gave away the garments. He didn't want things that would
distract him from prayer.
So even the rugs, right? With all these designs and things on it, this is actually counterproductive.
And I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You stand there praying, you look and you see these lines, and then they start to move and you think you see things crawling there, and you know,
really,
the rug should be playing.
That is closer to this.
Anyway, point is
they came in we explained to them about the different elements of the mask, the merabh its purpose, the member, the minaret, we explained the different
parts of the mask, and they would ask questions. So how do you pray? We showed them?
What do you say in your prayer, you told them
and
they would stay until the time
and they would observe Salatin zoar sitting at the back
the observed salon.
And you know, so many of them afterwards would come up to me and the other brothers and say,
you know,
we've seen real prayer.
You guys are really praying.
What we're doing back home, and the church
stopped prayer.
If you've ever seen
the churches in America,
they have basically a disco atmosphere.
The minister is like the lead singer. Right? He has a choir, which is, you know, his backup singers. And they got musical instruments, their guitar, piano drums, the whole shot, you know, and everybody's swaying and you know.
And they call it prayer. But these guys after seeing that seeing the calmness, the prayer, the quiet the Masjid.
It left a big impression on them.
Really.
We also in the course of explaining, answering questions.
We had questions that would come up about Christianity, because of course, some of them were more practicing Christian Christians. You know, they'd heard stories about Muslims and their beliefs and they would feel that yes, we need to take the message of Christianity to these people. So some of them would try to evangelize.
But whenever those kinds of discussions would arise, I used to cut them short. If it was simple enough, I could give a few words, answer response.
I would do it. If it I could see they want to get in deep. Then we I would stop this and say listen, we had connected to our tent, another tent, a smaller tent. I say for those who want to get into deep, you know, religious discussion, then we have the other tent over there. So they would get up and they would go into that tent. Because it's sad because, you know, I and everybody was happy with that because most people really didn't want to get into deep religious discussions. They just were curious about what's going on in this country. What what
Are the people like, why do they all drive? You know, Nissan pickup trucks?
Why?
Why is it so common? Everybody seems to have a Nissan pickup truck. This was the favorite of the Bedouins. Right? They like this and pickup trucks.
So in that tent, we had a brother from Sri Lanka.
A big, tall brother with a huge beard.
He had an interesting story.
He was
studying to be a minister, Christian minister.
And when he had finished a certain level of his studies, he was going to work in the field to do some field work.
And he chose what was supposed to be the most difficult field to do
evangelical work.
He heard that the Arabs are the most difficult people to convert most difficult. They've been trying for years and never managed to convert a single Saudi.
So he's a bold kind of guy. He said that's where I want to go.
So he went in as a, an accountant. He had training in accountancy. So he went in as an accountant, but of course, his main goal was
Dawa.
So when he got there, you know, is getting accustomed acclimated to the situation. He decided he was better by himself for crime. And because he's got a big job ahead of him, and needs to know this book, backwards and forwards. I mean, he'd studied it when he's doing the ministry studies. He had studied portions that had been presented to him by the teachers, professors.
But he wanted to get the book and we did from cover to cover, he said,
so he got his crime.
And in the evening, after he finished work, he started reading.
You read
and he read, and he read to the finish the whole crime.
Not too many people read the whole Quran. I mean from Fatiha to NAS.
When he finished reading the Quran,
he went looking for Muslims, and said to them, I want to take Shahada. I want to be a Muslim.
And they took him
to one of the
Muslim Brothers who
took him to one of the offices and he took shahada.
He went up to a sim for a while they gave him some training Islamic teaching background. And then they turned him loose.
And he was a downward Dynamo.
I mean, I've never seen anybody like him.
He used to come to Riyadh.
And from the airport, he would take a taxi
and come to my house visit me before going into the city. I lived on the outskirts of Riyadh.
And invariably, whenever he came, he would bring the taxi driver in with him to take Shahada.
From the airport to my place, given him enough Tao is ready to take shahada
regularly,
you know, he was said he was a Dawa Dynamo.
And
he used to tell me, you know, he says
if the night came,
and I hadn't given the shahada, I felt uneasy.
What what did I do wrong? What did I miss out on today?
This was Muhammad Sharif
from syriaca.
So when we put the team together out there, and the mom Khobar
We brought him along.
And he was the one waiting in the tent.
Right.
And he used to have this big suitcase with him, right? So when the people would come in, and they would sit down with him.
And they said, Yeah, we want to talk about the gospel.
You know, the Bible. He said, Okay, fine. Which Bible?
Which Bible you want to talk about? The Bible is just one Bible. No, there isn't. You'd open up his suitcase, and whip out for them about 15 different Bibles
that whoa, whoa.
We didn't know about that.
And then from there, you would
wipe them out.
Those that didn't succumb to his Dawa, they would say, we'd better go back and talk to our chaplain chaplain was the,
the religious representative from the different
religious groups as part of military American military policy, that they have religious,
because call them religious guides, or representatives. So each sect would have the representative of the major sects actually, they even had a representative for Satan worshippers.
Yeah.
There are recognized and accepted sects of worshipers in America, second, Satan worship. They have their own Bible called Satan's Bible.
And they had their representative there. Anyway, the point is that a number of them would go back and they would bring their chaplains to do battle with Muhammad Sharif Alhamdulillah. In the course of our six months, they're in love 11 chaplains gave shahada
Hamdulillah
11 chaplains took shahada.
The numbers of people from our Dawa and the main tent
started to grow the numbers of people who are accepting Islam
235 10 Till we are hitting numbers like 20 a day, this continued half months, we ended up with over 3000 people accepting Islam from the Saudi Arabian cultural information tents.
Of course, the tent became known very quickly as the conversion tents.
And the chaplains wanted to shut it down. You know, because the word spread, they wanted to stop it. But the officers, the senior officers and said no, you know, people are free if they want to go their business.
The only thing they could do is that
sometimes when they're walking by they would have these, you know,
dollar books, their dollar books, and they would just walk by the entrance and throw it inside, keep walking. So sometimes in the course of lectures, we just see a book come flying in.
That's all they could do.
hamdulillah some of them
accepted Islam because when they're out on maneuvers, they would come across Bedouins out in the desert. You know, nobody for miles that come across this Bedouin there
with this tent,
it's got sheep, goats, whatever.
And he would see them, they're all geared down, you know, they got their big packs, and you know, the weapons, they're marching.
They would see him and he would say
Check, check that side, check outside, maybe it's a trap, whatever. So no, it's just him by himself.
They would come over
sit down. Then you would take out some tea. Offer them they
heat up the tea.
Drink. He doesn't know a word of English.
Part like the brother
At least he knew a few words these guys would know nothing.
But just their, how they carried themselves. Their hospitality was just enough.
Many of them told me afterwards he said, You know, we've been stationed around the world. And we have never experienced hospitality like this.
Never
so friendly. And, you know, it's just mind blowing mind boggling for them.
Usually, when they deal with
some societies that they land in, people are trying to make money off them, rip them off, and whatever, they're haggling this. It's just, you know, nobody's inviting them into their homes, that situation.
So it had a big impact on.
So Hamdulillah
that group
went back to America.
And, of course, the troops, those who accepted Islam, they kept the dollar going inside of the military itself. So their numbers multiplied and multiplied. When they went back to the states, they started an organization they're called the mmm Muslim members of the military. And eventually, they requested Muslim chaplains.
The numbers were big enough that they had to be recognized. So you had Muslim chaplains were appointed for the Army, for the Navy, for the Air Force, you know, big changes took place. How many now?
A couple of years later,
whilst this process was going on, we know that Muslims in Bosnia were being slaughtered.
The Serbs were wiping them out.
And they were calling on the Muslim world to help them.
Muslim world was unable to provide support for them. People sent in stuff to the Red Cross food, medicines, etc. But to militarily support them, they couldn't
enable.
This was when
some Muslim brothers from different parts of the world went in and join them fought along with them. Well, some of those Americans who
returned home
and left the American military
came together,
formed a teams of specialists,
went back into Bosnia,
trained the Bosnians and fought alongside them till the war was over.
Allahu Akbar.
They originally came to America, from America to Saudi Arabia with one purpose and Allah brought them back, brought them into Islam and brought them back to the Muslim world to help Muslims defend themselves.
This is the greatness of Allah
the last thing that we have to take from this
is that we have to look at the various circumstances that we find ourselves in
as Dawa opportunities of course people are arguing should these American troops have been here in Saudi Arabia and this and that and the scholars and the this and all kinds of stuff develop Hebrew complaining etc.
Kfar cetera.
Et didn't change the reality. They still came in, they left.
So it was up to us. Either we take advantage of the opportunity since the Muslim world had not taken Islam to America. Allah brought Americans half a million of them into the middle of the Muslim world and said,
teach them
it's about looking at the glass half full or half empty.
And that's how we have to treat
The various dour circumstances that we might find ourselves in most of you are coming from
many different countries in the Muslim world.
And
there are dour opportunities in each and every country.
And it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to carry the message of Islam to those who haven't heard that message.
It is not just
a recommended practice act.
to spread the word, it is an obligation.
It is on our shoulders.
Prophet Muhammad wa sallam
I told us
man Katama Illman
al Gemma hula Billy jammin in and now
whoever hides knowledge, Allah will put a bridle of fire over his head on the day of judgment
and those of you that have studied physics also will
they know that whenever the consequence of an act
is punishment with the Hellfire
then that act must be an obligatory act. That to not fulfill it means haram. You have that punch.
It is no
and the last month Allah in the Quran
he said very clearly
in the Leatherneck to Muna Manzil nominal value natural Huda embodiment by now holy Nassif al Kitab.
Hula aka Latina woman law we allow
those to whom the clear messages of Islam have come
it has been explained to them
and they hide it from
people
such will be cursed by a law
and cursed by all who would curse
and again soon
if an act the consequence of an act is the curse of Allah
because the scholars of tafsir have explained that the curses ref is in reference to a
pond of fire in the Hellfire pit of fire. Well
so if Allah's curse is on a person for an octave means that that act is haram. It is haram to hide the knowledge of Islam.
Now, some people say well, I'm not hiding it. I'm just not liking Dawa. Well, hiding can be active, or it can be passive.
active or passive, active. For example, an American comes and ask you about Islam. You say no. I'm not gonna tell you anything about Islam. You're killing my brothers in Afghanistan. You don't deserve to know anything.
That's active.
Passive is to know this person.
To work with him. To go to school with him.
To live next to him.
Your neighbor.
You talk to him about everything under the sun.
Everything you talk about except his love.
You talk about kids talk about why you talk about vacation. You talk about car house,
the job your boss
shopping,
the best deals, sales. You talk about everything except Islam.
You have passively hidden Islam from them.
By default, you are a hider of Islam
What do you think on the damn judgement when we are raised up?
And that neighbor, that classmate friend
is asked by a law.
Why he didn't accept this law and why didn't say he's going to point the finger at you.
And he's going to say, Oh Allah. He had the knowledge and he talked to me about everything under the sun except this lab, please give him
10 times the punishment.
He will curse you. He is your friend smiling in your face today, on the Day of Resurrection, He will curse you.
You will be cursed.
So we have an obligation,
an obligation to carry the message of Islam to those around us. Of course, some people say well, you need to be knowledgeable.
*a does Shay liabilty
you don't have something What can you give?
The Prophet Muhammad SAW Santa that said, ballyhoo amny walau.
Convey whatever you have learned from me, even if it's only a single verse of the Quran,
one verse
full who Allahu Ahad
we all know
full well law,
one verse,
That verse
is the answer
to all of the false religions on the earth.
It addresses the essence of their deviation and their misguidance that single verse from who Allah who
translate this verse what is Kulu? Allah had
there's no God except Allah. That's Lai La La La Mancha.
Boo Allahu Ahad say we know call me and say
Allah had
there's only one God he is one. This is a mistake that some people think Hulu Allahu Ahad means one. Allah is one
it's the same as saying Cornwall love ya.
But it's not Kulu Allahu Ahad is different from Allah.
Why?
Allah Allahu wa Han is one yes, Allah is One.
And Allah head is among Allah's names.
But I heard has a different meaning.
The scholars explained language and tafsir that I had, when you speak about a hadiya you're talking about the uniqueness of Allah as oneness is more than just one. It is a unique one. So for example, if somebody says, I have one mobile
that's why
you can have one mobile to everybody in the room can have one mobile.
But when we use the term I had, it means one, like whom there is no other.
One who is truly unique.
Nothing like him. And that's why the whole rest of the surah is explaining how unique Allah is. Allah has somebody has no need. Everything depends on him.
lamea lead,
he doesn't.
He doesn't give birth manually. While I'm you lad he's not born. While I'm Nicola hoof, one Ahad and there is nothing similar to him.
So this, verse Kulu, Allahu Ahad. It is the response to all of the deviant religions in the world today.
The biggest one is
Christianity, it strikes at the heart of Christianity.
Christianity, which is about Trinity,
God is three in one.
And when you ask the average Christian, can you explain to me how God is three and one they say?
Well,
you know,
an egg,
the egg, if you have a boiled egg,
you have a shell.
Take off the shell, you have the white, remove the white, and you have the yellow of the egg. It's one egg.
But it has three baths.
It's known as the egg theory.
We say oh,
that may be your God, Your God might be an egg God. But for us, our God is one like whom there is no other there's nothing in this world similar to him.
So some will say,
Well,
you know, water.
Water can be a liquid.
It can be a solid ice. And it can be steam.
gauges, the gas.
How about that one? is known as the water theory.
He said, No, no, no, no, no, that's a water God.
Your God is a water God, not ours. Our God is one like whom there is no other.
So there really is no explanation for Trinity how it could be.
Some
bring out another one, which is a little trickier. They say you
a man
can be a father.
You can be a brother.
And you can be a son.
How's that work?
Father, brother, and son all in one.
How's that?
Okay, what happens when the father dies?
Well, both the son and the brother die to finish. So you have a problem here doesn't work. Your God is a man God.
That's not our God.
He's like a man.
So
who Allah had? Is the answer.
There is nothing similar to him.
And that's how they've lost their way. They have made God like his creation.
And
what has happened to them is that instead of worshipping the God of Jesus, they worship Jesus as God.
That's where they ended up. All of the Trinitarian theory and explanations and fitness, philosophy, Greek logic and reason. All of it is used to justify the worship of a man
a human being.
So when you're giving Dawa,
to people of Christian backgrounds, then you should know that this is where you have to take them. This is the point that you have to cause them to think to stop and to think
you can talk about all of the other things they like to talk about a job.
They like to talk about had cutting off hands. They like to talk about polygamy.
Or they like to talk about many other topics, but in the end, and of course, when they want to speak about these things, you do have to address their questions, but
you have to know that you need to take them back to
Allah.
Was Jesus God or not? That's where we have to take.
And when you're giving Dawa to Christians
they
There is a relatively easy way to bring them to this point of understanding
if their background is normal standard,
not hardcore.
What Muhammad Sharif used to do,
is used to ask the Filipinos and Filipinos accept Islam
when compared to other
national nationalities at a rate of about seven to one.
What Muhammad Sharif used to say to them is
Do you think
that you could become God?
Do you think that you could become God?
And they would say, No, no, no, no, of course not.
Why not? Why couldn't you become God?
They would say because I'm a human being.
So he said, he would then ask them
was Jesus Christ, a human being?
They would say, yeah, he was a human being. So I say, well, then he couldn't have been God.
Never thought about it that way.
Yeah, you're right. He couldn't have been God.
There was no chance to think
most of them are Catholics, they grew up in a very strong Christian environment, you know, things are just poured on them. There's no time to think.
If you start to think and question, they're told immediately. Don't ask that question. Satan has got you, boy, no,
forget it.
Don't read the Bible. It will tell them.
Don't read the Bible, it will send you a stray. Learn it to us.
So when you bring some simple logic, it's enough.
Of course,
when you're dealing with somebody who has gone to university,
he's gotten education on a higher level,
graduate, undergraduate education. He's done.
Philosophy 101.
is done philosophy 101.
Now you have a different
cup of tea.
Because when you say to him,
could you be gone?
Of course, if he says yes.
And have conversation. No point going down that road, you've got a maniac on your hands, right? Leave him find somebody else
who still got their heads screwed onto their bodies properly.
So he says,
Yeah, I couldn't be God. No, yeah.
Why not? Because I'm human human beings can be God.
Then he says, Then you ask him, was Jesus a human being?
Oh, you realize he got himself in a trap?
If he says yes, then he's finished. Because he learned in logic class. If A equals B, and B equals C, then A must equal c. So he sees what's coming down the line, right? So what is he do?
He says, somewhat.
Yeah. What do you mean someone?
Was he God or was he not God? He was sometimes partially, he appeared that way. As far as all kinds of other terminologies. He doesn't want to say that he was a man.
So you have to deal with him in a different way.
Another
explanation that Muhammad Sharif used to use
for basic people
Again, the average person
he would say, you know, of course your believes that there is one God is Christian you believe there's one God three and one. But yet one,
one God.
There was only one God.
They read the verse, here, O Israel, the LORD your God is one God, Jesus said it. It's in the Old Testament, it's no, God is one.
So
he would ask them,
you know, when cows give birth,
you have a little cow
called a calf,
a cow and the calf.
When dogs give birth, you have a little dog called a puppy, dog and the puppy.
When cats give birth, you have a little cat. The captain the kitten, got this call a kitten. So when God gave birth, what do you have? A little God? You got a big God and little god? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
God gives birth. He can only give birth to a god.
Right?
Some people have their head on cracking say, Oh, I never thought about that.
Yeah,
that's what it means. And I don't believe that I don't believe that there are two gods.
So therefore
God could not have given birth to Jesus. Jesus is not the Son of God.
Of course, some Christians will focus on the Son of God thing and they say but you know, yes, Jesus was the Son of God.
And when you mentioned to them, yeah.
But there are many sons of God mentioned in the Bible.
Adam is called the Son of God.
David.
The children of Adam and Eve are called the sons and daughters of God. They said yes, but
it is with a small s.
Whereas when it refers to Jesus, it's written with a capital S. Son, the big S.
And you say to them, Well,
you know, the language in which the Gospels are written,
is Greek, Greek.
That wasn't the language of Jesus. That's a whole nother story. Jesus didn't speak Greek. But
the Gospels, the oldest manuscripts are in Greek.
And the Greek language like Arabic does not have capitals.
Is there a capital bar? Do we have capital bars and capital olives and little olives? Just finish? Similarly in Greek, they don't have capitals, big and small letters. So guess what? Somebody played a trick on you.
So
the dour
has to be addressed to people according to their level of understanding.
How you give Dawa to a college graduate is different from how you give Dawa to a taxi driver. But know that the message of Islam
the message of Islam because it is the truth.
It will win over.
Don't be shy.
And focus on conveying the message of Islam some brothers, when they finally wake up that hey, we are supposed to be giving Dawa here. The first thing they do is they see Zach at night. Ahmed Deedat
and they hear all these quotes from the Bible. So the first thing they do go buy a Bible and start studying the Bible. No, no, no
so they become experts on the Bible.
And when the non Muslims ask them questions about Islam, they say, Oh, I'd love to get back to you on that one.
No.
Our base, our foundation has to be Islam.
We need to learn Islam properly, have a good understanding of the fundamental teachings, the various areas of Islam.
Our duty, our responsibility is to carry that message to them in the best way.
With the best language.
We don't address them as non Muslims,
you disbelievers. You kuffaar.
You pagans
Yes, they are pagans the aquifer they are disbelievers. But that just closes people's ears.
So
that if for you to say to them, my dear
you use words which are endearing, making people feel comfortable.
And we give them the message of Islam, where there is supportive evidence from the Bible, or elsewhere, we can use that as support.
But it shouldn't be the main presentation.
Why? Because those people who get off deeply into the Bible,
they will end up into a situation where it becomes an issue of interpretation.
You say this means this they say no, it means that
then where do you go from there?
Because for them, they don't have clear guidelines as to meanings etc. Everybody is free to understand and interpret things as they wish. So very difficult to pin them down, even with the texts.
So it's best to carry that message across to them.
What you do is instead remove the confusion, the misunderstandings about Islam. One of my favorite lectures when I give to non Muslims is called
common misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.
And people are usually interested yeah, we want to know about these things.
And you go from talking about Allah to polygamy, to terrorism, and you explain
it to them.
Not necessarily that you have to convince them to accept your belief and your practice, but at least that they understand that it is a rational concept.
It has reason and logic behind it. Whether they accept it or not, is another thing.
Because when you speak to them, for example, about polygamy, because that's the first question they'd like to ask, why are you Muslims, polygamous.
And this and this misunderstanding is so common. I remember meeting a brother in UK in London, who had delayed accepting Islam for two years, he had decided to become a Muslim.
But he delayed becoming a muslim for two years and asked why. He said because I was under the impression that when a man becomes a Muslim, he must have four wives. And I was happy with the one wife and you know, that was enough for me.
Just common misunderstanding.
So, you can clarify about polygamy, not necessarily saying that. Yes, you should be polygamous. No, understand. Islam did not bring polygamy into the world.
It is not that the world was a monogamous world. And here comes Muhammad Salah was Salah with polygamy, you know? No, that's not how it was. The whole world is polygamous. That's how it is.
Human beings in all societies in all corners of the world throughout history.
From as far back as we can go to the pharaohs, to the Mesopotamians all over the world, and the jungles of the Amazon, Borneo, people are polygamous.
The anthropologists they even have a Darwinian explanation of why human beings men are polygamous. Yeah.
You can sit with them. And they will explain to you why they say
when you look, because they always like to go back to the animal kingdom.
When they want to explain about why we do what we do, they go back and look at the animals and say, See, that's why they do it. And that's why we do it.
So
what they do is they go back and they say, Well, look,
look at the Lion King,
The Lion King,
he has all of the female lions with him.
There are other male lions, and they're always prowling around, and he just beats him off. And he keeps
what's happening here, they said,
This is an evolutionary principle,
to ensure survival of the fittest.
How? Well, the fact that he is the Lion King is able to beat up every everybody else means he is the fittest. So by controlling the females, the whole next generation are all his kids, it means they will be the strongest.
That is the explanation. They say that's the same reason because human beings are really only talking animals anyway. Same thing happening.
So anyway, the point is, after explaining that Muslims did not introduce polygamy to the world, we explained to them that in fact, Islam came and organized it, put rules, regulations, rights, obligations, set these things. It didn't leave it as it was wide open, anybody could have as many wives as possible. And no,
the kids were not considered to be the
children of the father. It's like no,
it is the rights of the woman
who is the second wife to be treated the same as the first of all, her children are His children.
So it protects the rights of the children, they will inherit as he as the other children are the first wife.
So you explain to them the logical system that is there.
And you point out to them,
think about it.
In America.
And it does happen from time to time that there are people who are polygamous, you know, a man, he will live near the border of a state he has a wife in one state and a wife in the other states. He's a traveling salesman, so he has excuse for being away.
So he has a wife and he maintains the whole family, not until he dies.
And the word gets to the other family and they meet each other how, all these years this man had been married to two women raising a family here and there.
So think about that. That man is now called a bigger missed a criminal. If he were caught alive, he could be jailed.
But
if they were girlfriends, Mistress is no problem.
No problem. He can have as many mistresses girlfriends as he wants as many illegitimate children as he wishes. No problem. In fact, they will praise him write stories about him. He's very well, he's a man.
But what is the logic here?
The man who wants to do it right?
Looking after people's rights in the children and everything else, you call him a criminal. You put him in jail and the one who is exploiting women and abusing them and the children, you
it's illogical.
It is illogical.
Christianity is not monogamous.
They say yes, it was. No it isn't.
You just go back in their history.
Go back into the Bible. And there's clear evidence of polygamy.
Some women will ask after that, okay, we can understand that make sense?
Many times I've heard this. So yes, it's quite reasonable and logical, though I don't want it for myself. But I can understand, you know, polygamy in this context.
But what about women?
Why can't the woman have four husbands like the men have four wives. That's what concerns me. Fairness here.
Fairness?
Why not?
Well,
we explained to them that this
if a man has four wives,
and he has children,
the children know who their father is.
If a woman has four husbands,
and she gets pregnant and has a child, and the child asks, Who is my father?
She says, one of these four guys.
Do you think that's a satisfying answer? Would you be happy to be told that your father is one of these four?
Human nature rejects that you want to know who your father is. They say, Okay, we have DNA testing, DNA testing is not 100%. Not only that, how many people have access to DNA testing
a fraction of humankind.
Islam is a practical religion.
It deals with the norms of society. Anyway,
we see in general that human societies have a majority of
females,
wherever you go in the world, women are
surplus, polygamy is one of the ways by which they may be integrated within the family structure. Because every woman, it is natural for her to want to be a part of a family, to want to be a mother to want to be a wife. So this is the means for integrating them into society.
Now, if a woman takes four husbands,
is that solving the problem, or increasing the problem?
She's now taking four men out of circulation. So there's more women, the ratio of women to men is increased more women.
And with the spread of homosexuality today, in the world, the number of available men have dropped even more.
So women having four husbands
doesn't solve the problem. Not only that, but all the studies that have been done on females and the nature of females.
It's the nature of a woman to be with one man. That's her nature. It's the nature of man to be with more than one woman. I know you don't want to hear that.
I know you don't really want to hear that. No, not my husband.
Because every woman likes to think not my husband.
You don't know what he talks about when he sits with the guys when he's with you. Yeah, one wife? No, no, I'm never thinking when he's with the guys, oh, boy. I wish I could have a second wife, you know.
That's the reality.
That's reality. You don't find women sitting together and saying, I wish I could have a couple of husbands, you know, three or four.
It just doesn't happen. It's not their nature.
So, there are logical, biological, sociological, demographic reasons for polygamy. Allah has made it a part of the nature of human society. So So you give this as the explanation that you give and then you bring it back to Allah because Allah who made people that way.
There is a reason for it, it serves a purpose, there is a logic behind it, etc. So in this way, you tackle the various issues that they raised.
there no end of them. If you want to help prepare yourself.
There is online, a university which I set up
back in 2007. It's called Islamic online university. And there we have free courses. Absolutely free cost you nothing diploma courses absolutely free.
The course there's the called the DTC course, that is our training course, go and take that.
There's a course they're called contemporary issues, where I deal with all of the major questions that are usually asked.
It's free, go and get yourself prepared from that perspective, while preparing yourself with the dean. And there are courses there, which deal with the various aspects of the Dean from Aqeedah, to fic, to Hadith to tafsir. Even Arabic is there, three, and there's also a BA course there, which we started
last year, which is tuition free. There's no tuition costs, it's virtually free, VA, which has
a
accredited degree given from a university in the Philippines, we are linked to a university in the Philippines in Southern Philippines in Mindanao. And they issue will issue the degrees for us that degree is recognized by the Ministry of Education in the Philippines. So there is available this degree in Islamic Studies, a very comprehensive degree, go to the website, www Islamic online university.com.
And take advantage of the knowledge.
We're gonna stop here now and give you an opportunity to ask questions. Of course, the questions are in the written form.
Okay, since this question, what level of knowledge do we need to have to actively engage in Dawa, we said,
and I?
In other words, you teach what you know, don't try to teach what you don't know.
Right? You stick to what you know, you give what you have, if they ask you a question. Don't try to give an answer because you know, some people, they're argumentative. So you get into I give them to somebody, they ask you a question. You don't have the answer, but you tell them something, which will just shut them out. It's not true. Later on, they're gonna find out that what you said wasn't true. Maybe at the time you won the argument. But later on, they find out and how are they going to look at you? Better for you to say, sorry, I don't have an answer to that one. I will go and get the answer and bring it back for you as soon as I can. So you give what you have. What do you need to
know? Well, you need to know the basics of Islam.
You need to know the five pillars of Islam Six Pillars of Eman that's basic knowledge, understand it understand what is behind it. What are the goals of Salah
not the ritual of course you need to know the ritual to do it properly. But you should be familiar with the goals. Why did Allah prescribed Salah Why did he prescribe fasting right? Because that's what they're going to ask you. Why fast? Why deprive myself of food?
So that's what you need to be able to explain. And of course, you yourself should know why you fast because otherwise what are you doing? You're just do it because everybody else does it. And that's why unfortunately for most Muslims today, Ramadan is a month of feasting, not fasting.
It's the same f word but it's feasting, not fasting.
That is the problem. We don't really know what Ramadan is about.
So
next question
What about
Surah Tao will be restricted to
non Muslims or should we also be giving Dawa to Muslims when Musa divinorum air was sent by the Prophet SAW Salem to Medina
to give Dawa and Medina along with the handful that accepted Islam?
Did he only go out to the non Muslims of Medina and give Dawa to them? No, he also educated the Muslims. So yes, part of the Dawa involves educating Muslims, where they are ignorant. Because our situation, as Allah said, will not change until we change ourselves.
The problem of the Muslim world today is one of ignorance
is one of ignorance. That's why Muslims are doing things that they shouldn't be doing. Now Muslims come and they ask, Why do you people, you know, why does your religion teach you to kill your relatives? For the sake of Your honor, and honor of the family? Known as under killing?
Why?
It's not good.
You suspect your sister of talking to a guy?
And what do you do? You go catcher, and you killer? You in Your uncle your father?
That happens regularly. And Jordan,
Turkey, Pakistan.
Why?
Where did they get this wrong? This is from the ignorance of Muslims. Because we don't have any principle of honor killing in this lab.
A couple is shut off.
You don't have that?
We don't. It's not there's no place for it. Murder is murder. You kill your sister, you are to be killed.
But our governments have recognized this custom from the period of Jai Leia still amongst us, and they go light you kill your sister. Okay. One year, don't do it again.
This is our ignorance, or they ask us
female genital mutilation. FGM. Why are you people into this cutting up the private parts of your women?
Sudan, Egypt, smaller worry why?
course they don't realize that the Christians of Egypt do it too.
It's a custom which predates Islam. It has nothing to do with Islam. Yes, Prophet Masasa. Love did tell the woman who was circumcised in Medina to take only a little bit.
Something equivalent to circumcision in a man.
When a man is circumcised, it's just the foreskin that's removed, you're not cutting off his private parts, right?
But for women, it's been justified. We want to make sure she is a virgin when we marry her.
Nonsense, evil, corruption. How many women die from this process in different parts of the Muslim world today?
So oftentimes, when we explain to people, you know, this is custom, that is custom, this is Islam, they ask you, Hey, how do we know what's Islam? And what this custom?
Maybe you're just sort of justifying whenever you find yourself backed in a corner and say custom. When it's good, you say it's loud. How do we know say, Well, you can follow a general rule of thumb.
If it's something that Muslims do everywhere,
every part of the Muslim world they do the same thing. You can be 99% Sure, that is Islam. But the thing which Muslims do in some places, they don't do it in other places here and there and then you can be 80% sure that it is not Islam. It's custom
Okay.
The feminist issue. Islam is so easy for the guys for the men, so difficult for the women.
There are two elements here, actually.
On one hand, there is a general misunderstanding.
Because if we weigh the issues, the woman has to cover up herself.
The man, according to what they see doesn't have to cover up himself.
It's quite common to see here in Malaysia.
People coming from the Gulf, you'll see the guy walking in short shorts with dark glasses, you know, here this way and tight T shirts and he's on his hand. He's got a woman covered up. You can't even see her eyes. She's walking, you know, there is walking. So it's not surprising for them to say, hey, what's happening here? You know, where's the fairness?
Right?
That is a part of ignorance, because
there are dress requirements for men also.
But Muslim men today. Don't follow them.
That is the reality. Most Muslim men today don't follow Islamic dress requirements.
How do I say that? Why am I saying well,
most men today we know the outer is between the navel and the knee. Not the navel, not the knee. But what is between the navel underneath.
Now, men wear pants.
And I'm not talking about Turkish pants
where the crotch is down by your ankles,
or shallow are of the Pakistanis. Waist is like this big put it together. Huge. We're talking about Western paths.
Western that's
where the philosophy of fashion in the West is. If you have it, flaunt it.
Does that mean
if you look good, let everybody know you look good.
That is the philosophy of Western fashion. Meaning that the goal in making pants is to expose the outer. That is the number one goal.
When they make pants, the number one goal is to expose the outer. So it is cut in a certain way and stitched in certain way that you're behind is hug by the pant.
Your thighs are hugged by the pants, your hour if you bend over to come into the masjid late. People are Insitute our the biller
you can't look ahead of yourself. Otherwise you'll be looking at men's private parts. I was a biller.
And we know one of the conditions for the acceptability of Salah is what set through louder
but we're coming and praying in these facts. Now, in general in the Muslim world, if a man is a practicing Muslim, if his wife wants to wear a spandex outfit
you know like those people who are skaters racing skaters have an outfit which is like somebody sprayed on them.
Color Right
now if your wife wants to come out wearing that she's got a job on her head.
like this you're gonna say, hey, stop for law, get in there put out some blows
loose, covering the hour. But what about you?
What about you?
We have a double standard. It's okay for men to expose their outer but not for women. So that goes back to ignorance.
When you look at the early generations where
Kolok colonization started in the Muslim world pants are being introduced you find that Muslims whenever they wore shirts would be long shirts okay they wore pants but the shirt would come down to their knees
or here like in Malaysia they wear pants they have a
what do you call it here? Song Song you have a saran wrap around you? Why why the wrapping around covering the hour.
But now after the prayer is over to take off the serangan Hey, something wrong here. And Allah is only in the masjid.
So there's a problem is ignorance. This is ignorance in the Muslim world, which gives this impression to non Muslims when they look from the outside.
But now,
even from the inside out.
Some women might think listening to that kind of talk. Yeah, men have it easy.
Do they?
At least one week,
per month. Women don't have to pray.
We still have to get out there into the Masjid.
No time off.
Allah gave them time off.
The four weeks of fasting we have for
they have three.
Hey, where's the difficulty and 11? In fact, when you look at it, there's more weight put on the man than the woman who is responsible for looking after the other? Is it women responsible for looking after men? Or is it men responsible for looking after women women are not required to look after themselves.
So, it is a gross misunderstanding to think that men have it easy. And women have it difficult. When you actually go through and look at the various Artcam
the rules and the principles men are burdened with more responsibility. They are the head of the family
they will be asked first before anybody else.
Question Why give Dawa in a multicultural society
where people have different religions and traditions. Why don't we follow the principle of live and let live?
Live and let them
well Nakum Dino calm Well, lady, you have your religion I have mine. You do your thing. I do you mind?
Why?
Well, why fundamentally because Islam commands us to give Dawa
because Allah said give dollar oh man axonal cola man die the lawyer Amina saw that.
Other hola Sabina, Rebecca will equity Well, no, no commands in the Quran. Description of the best
given to those who give Dawa. That was the role of the prophets. What was Mama's Arsalan but they die?
From the time he received the message to the time he died? He was given dollar.
That's why we give out you have the truth. If you really believe it is the truth, then you should feel a burning desire to want to share it with others who have not received that truth.
If you are sincere. If you're sincere about your Islam, you must feel
have a burning desire to want to share it with others who did not hear the message.
So that's why
the Christian groups have
organized our sending out missionaries to different parts of the world, many parts of Muslim world, Muslim world, what was the world and then
they're converting people left and right.
What do Muslims have? Do we have an equivalent World Council of mosques?
Where we send out missionaries? We don't have
mostly it is a few institutions sending out
and mostly it is after that individuals who have some knowledge, spreading the word.
Is that the way it should be?
No, that shouldn't be like that. Actually, we should be the most active and spreading the message, we should have the biggest organizations and spreading the word, we have the truth.
They have falsehood, and they are
working night and day
learning the languages of tribes and
clans, different parts of the world just to go live amongst them to carry what they consider to be the word of God to these people.
dedication
for us, as like, mashallah, mileage.
If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.
We have remarkably
the biggest dour organization in the world Jamaat
with the largest number of followers, when they have their yearly HDMI, in Bangladesh,
4 million followers gather.
And at the end of the HDMI, they make a group dua, which people you know, you just don't want to miss that group dua
for guidance for the world.
But when you talk to the people from Jamaat
their philosophy is you must clean up your house before you invite people in.
When there are other issues, I'm just talking about this perspective. You must clean up your own house before you invite people into it.
So they say
we shouldn't be going out and giving Dawa to non Muslims we should focus on Muslims make them proper Muslims and then we can invite them in.
So the non Muslims in spite of their huge numbers,
very little doubt we're being given to them.
So they play a role in terms of inviting Muslims back to the masjid etc, Mashallah.
We have to recognize this goodness in it. There's that perspective.
But Tao No. So we can't say there are people doing it in an organized fashion around the world.
So
this is part of the challenges and it is actually a reflection of the state of the OMA.
We are fragmented into different countries with our own individual anthems and flags and national nationalism.
And this is, of course, a state in which the Prophet SAW Salem cursed
when he said man dial and also via, for lesson in
people who call to exclusivism whether it is a group
or a clan, or a region, a city or a country, etc. This is not from Islam. Islam is about
humanity.
to Oman. The whole that's what Hajj is about that's the message of Hajj. Islam is the world's
rather has atheists working with him.
In his work area,
they're happy with their atheism.
They're making lots of money, they're quite rich.
Why do I say to them?
Well,
first and foremost,
you need to know that they're not really happy.
There is a show,
there is a facade that they present
of happiness.
But it's known, money will not make you happy.
And
they, though they say I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God.
You can either tackle that claim, you don't believe in God. Okay. You, and so on. So graduated from the same class.
Same marks,
you have a nice job making loads of money. And he, he's got a low job making very little money. He's in debt is borrowing from his neighbors and
why?
He says, some people might say, my hard work.
We know that doesn't really work. The people who are working the hardest, and making the least
to farmers around the world, in the fields, who wake up at the break of dawn, they're out plowing the fields all day long. They get home, they just eat, go to sleep next day, they're back.
Bill Gates and the others. They're sitting in office signing papers, you know, he's making his billions.
mental work.
The hard work is done by the poorest people of the world. So you didn't get it because of your hard work. So what
he says,
my good luck,
his bad luck.
And why did you end up in school? In this school you got in and your neighbor didn't get into school? My good luck, his bad luck. And you go through his whole life. And you ask why this way that my good luck is bad luck. My bad luck, his good luck.
I think you have a god here.
You're saying that the events of your life, all of the crucial events of your life is controlled by good luck and bad luck.
The more academic term is good fortune, and bad fortune. fortune comes from for tuna, which was the name of the Goddess of good luck, and bad luck. Who was worshiped in Greece? Fortunately,
that's your God.
You do have a lot because you have to explain life why you're here how you got here why this is happening. So it's
simple for you because you're giving the reason your God is a blind force.
So you don't feel obligated to do anything for the god.
You may have artifacts connected to your worship like what when you first graduated, and you went out in the field, you're looking for a job here they couldn't get a job days, weeks, months.
Finally you went out you got the job. Beautiful job. What are you doing you come home, take off your tie and you're hanging in a special place. Your jacket, your pants, special place. This is my good luck tie and my good luck jackets. So anytime I'm going out, I have to do something and I need that extra boost of good luck. I make sure I wear that tie.
Part of your religious artifacts.
Or you may have charms good luck charms. In America, they have the rabbit's foot. They cut off Rabbit's feet and they put them on a chain and they carry them key chains. Why? Why rabbits? Well, because they noted in earlier times that rabbits were prolific. You put two rabbits together today, by the end of the month you got 50 rabbits. You know, they just produce that's rabbits. So they say, Koi, powerful stuff. Good to have a rabbit's foot.
So they have their rituals.
They have, but they don't call it religion. Number 13.
Puppet popular while
they avoid 13 like the plague.
You can't find the 13th floor in any hotel in America.
No, none. Doesn't exist. elevator goes 11 1214.
Huh? What happened to 13
got named 14, go down the street houses numbered 1112 12 and a half.
You don't want to hit 13
You become 12 and a half.
And this is deep rooted in the society in great
fear of 30. So
you have a lot.
And of course, if you
want to discuss with them on a logical perspective, then it's good to watch the debates between Hamza sources
and leading atheists around the world. On Facebook. You put in the name Hamza sources, t s o r t. Zed Yes, Hamza sources Hamza GMCH.
He was a Greek Brit, who was an atheist who converted to Islam.
And now he specializes in debating the atheists. So he has their arguments down if
you want to hear how to deal with an atheist, then you can learn from him. However, in general, if you're giving Dawa to the atheists, the good position to come from is that it is logical to believe in God and illogical to not believe in God.
The best defense is a good offense.
You go for the jugular, because this is what they like to do they sell your belief in God is you know, illogical, doesn't make sense. You can't see him smell him and you know, all kinds of things.
It's not logical. But in fact, when you look at the issues, belief in God is logical. And it is the disbelief in God, which is illogical. And that's why the mass of humankind believes in God, and only a few
don't.
In that course, dollar training course, I give a simple presentation on the logic of belief in God. You can watch that, but if you want to get in deep
Hamza sources is the man.
But she doesn't feel that she really believes in Allah.
And this is common today
that most people, when they look inside themselves,
there are doubts there.
Do I really believe in God? Is there really a God?
They have those feelings, those thoughts? Of course. It's from Shaytaan.
Satan
wants to put doubts in your mind but the thing is that if you have not prepared yourself, I've not understood the dean, then you become an easy prey for Satan.
This is why problems as elements
tolerable enemy for either Muslim seeking knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim.
And where does that knowledge begin with? The first question that you will be asked in your grave? Is what mandrup book? Who
was your Lord?
And that's where we have to start.
We need to know who is Allah? Why, why? A, we should have no doubt in his existence.
That is a Qaeda.
That's what we call a leader.
You must have clarity, certainty in your hearts
to stand before Allah on the Day of Judgment.
Without that certainty, then
it's very easy to be shaken,
deviated, etc.
So
the solution
for his knowledge, it's ignorance, darkness. So the only medicine the only treatment for that illness is knowledge, first degree in quantum matter, as those who know, if you don't know.
So you have to start with knowledge. But of course, that knowledge is accompanied with a bada.
Because it's not about just going into
a classroom and studying academically, who God is. It's about
living
the teachings which God has given us. So a bada has to be done along with it. But what do you do? How do you approach a bother? Do you do it the way that you've been doing it? Now, the very reason why you're in the state that you are is because
you are doing it as blind rituals and not as something you understood,
and felt that you needed to do.
So that's where we need to be.
And that's what we need to pass on to our children, the next generation, they should have an understanding. And their minds are huge. They can accept a lot of information, but we generally tend to restrict the information as a kid, let him play.
Don't need to get into those things too complicated. Later on. No,
there is much that they can understand. And we should give it to them when they're young. They grew up with that understanding that sense of confidence. We it is our duty to give it it was our duty of our parents, but unfortunately, they weren't given it. And their parents weren't given it so it was just you're a Muslim you fast you pray, you make Hajj.
Why? Because you're Muslim.
That's it.
Next,
we're in the process of processing
where
the processing is
right.
Okay.
There is a well known Hadith, in which a Bedouin came to the Prophet SAW Salem, and asked him about what was required of him.
And as the Prophet SAW Salem went through the pillars of Islam, one after the other, he would explain the followed requirements.
And after explaining that,
and the veteran would ask, is there anything else after the obligatory requirements, rather, Salomon said No, unless you do voluntary acts of worship, fasting sadaqa. You know, and each time the Bedouin would say no
I'll stop here.
I won't do any less, and I won't do anymore. I'll just do these things.
When he finished going through
and above South Salem, affirm that that was it.
The bare bones, the skeleton, the foundation of Islam.
The man turned away, thank you left, the bosasa Lab turned to the Companions and said
he will be in paradise if he's truthful.
He will be in paradise if it's true, meaning that if you do
the five pillars of Islam
as they are required of you,
it is ticket to paradise.
But the reality
is, how many of us actually do it the way it is required? That's the point.
The ritual Yahweh do the ritual but is it the way it is required because for example, we learned the ritual of the Salah we do this a lot.
But Prophet Muhammad wa sallam said some people will pray
and nothing of their Salah is recorded.
Nothing I was that
if the ritual is going to get you to Paradise, and you're getting zero for every Salah Guess what? We're not gonna make it
so obviously, the Salah is more than just the ritual
it depends on the level of concentration, reflection, that is there. In the prayer we're thinking about what to do when we get home and
the game we want to play or place we want to go thing we want to do and that's what's on our heads. Our body's going through the moments but movements but our heads are somewhere else.
Then there's no reward.
There is no reward.
Similarly, when we fast
how do we fast
the way of the Prophet SAW Salem to fast was to have a light meal
for her a light meal. Some olives,
cubs Kobs
olive oil.
And he went into this fast what do we have? three course meals.
Bring it on.
Right? I have to fast today.
This is a joke.
We stuffed it in
and then
we spend the rest of the day digesting the food
about half an hour before Maghrib sunset digestion finishes. And it's now time to eat again. Yeah, Dan goes
back to the table.
We didn't even feel a single pang of hunger
I know
Muslims tell non Muslims oftentimes
fasting is not so hard.
I gain weight and Ramadan
proud.
At least an extra three, four or five kilos after Ramadan.
non Muslims look at how how do you do with that? How do you fast for 30 days and gain five kilos
because as I said we're not fasting. We're feasting.
So all of the pillars of Islam
if we want to increase our Eman they have to be done according to the way of Rasulullah sallallahu
not just externally but internal
That story you can find on YouTube.
Click on my way to Islam, Millau Phillips, it's there. I gave the whole talk in Australia, it's recorded up on YouTube.
But briefly,
I can just say that I went from Christianity
as a nominal Christian, nominal meaning, like Muslims, who are nominal Muslims, they're Muslim in name. I was a Christian and name went to church.
But I wasn't involved in what was going on there. You know, the minister would be up there talking, I'd be there with my friends chatting.
Later on, as you got older, we go to
Bible class or whatever, we went to Bible class to meet the girls.
So that was a nominal Christian.
When I went to university,
and my understanding of the world and what was going on around me was opened up. And I realized that there was this oppression and injustice and all these things went on around the world.
I wanted to be a part of some movement for change. And at the time, when I was in the university,
professors,
Jewish professors there, were promoting communism amongst the youth. So I heard enough of it, and became a communist.
And I read, I studied and gave Dawa, to communism.
That went on for a few years.
But the more I read,
the more I became disillusioned.
The more I moved with the Communist Party members, the more I realized that these people have no morals.
We wanted to remove the existing president.
But if any one of these guys got there, you will be worse.
And communism couldn't, couldn't compete with capitalism, economically, communism, fundamentally, an economic theory, couldn't compete with capitalism.
In the beginning, it was out but then they got left in the dust. They couldn't compete.
So I felt there was a vacuum there. This really wasn't the answer. And
at a time, when I was in that doubtful state, one of the members of the Central Committee of the group that I belong to the Communist Party group,
she accepted Islam.
And I was shocked because I was a basic Marxist Leninist
Russian type. She was a Maoist, hardcore, memorize Mao's red book. So I was shocked. She accepted Islam. Why did you why? What happened?
Communism teaches you that Religion is the opium of the masses.
It intoxicates them so that the ruling class the bourgeoisie can explain them.
Wow. She said,
it's different.
Somebody mean is different. Islam is different.
I have been to the States before
and visited one of the
centers of the Nation of Islam.
I visited it
and
I was impressed by the way they organized themselves. But when I listened to their theology
what is their theology?
White people are devils, black people are gods.
It's nonsense. It's total nonsense. I could never be a part of that.
So I said, you know, how's that? I mean, these people are talking nonsense. No, no, no, they are not Muslims.
They call themselves Muslims Nation of Islam. Later on, I call them the nation of Miss Lam.
She said no real Islam is something else. It has nothing to do with color and these kind of things.
So I said, Okay, give me some books. Let me read. And I began to read.
And the book by Muhammad Kutub. called
Islam the misunderstood religion.
When I read that, and I read a book by Maududi, towards understanding Islam, just before that was good. But when I read Islam, they misunderstood religion. That was it. That was it. Because
that book was written from a political perspective, comparing between communism, capitalism, socialism, Christianity,
Islam,
from social, economic,
spiritual, all the different perspectives. And systematically he just showed Islam was the answer.
So after finish reading that book, that was it for me, I was convinced, but
that wasn't enough for me now to become a believer in God, because I've been denying God's existence for years.
I was an atheist, I didn't believe in God. So you don't just flip overnight. You know, it's not like a light switch, you turn it on, it's time to turn it off, it's off.
So it took a while for me, to bring God back into my life to
realize God as a reality in my life. Once that happened, which was some months later,
I accepted Islam.
And after becoming a muslim,
the group of people that I was around some new Muslims and the brother who gave me Shahada. He was here in the Emirates sorry, in Malaysia. Not too long ago. Dr. Abdullah Hakim quick.
I don't know if some of you have attended some of his lectures has been here. He is the person who gave me Shahada. Anyway, the point is that at that time, the most active group of Muslims that I saw was Jamaat live.
Right? We had the leading representative for the Jamaat in North America that was with us, he was nicknamed Colonel Saab.
He used to be a colonel in the Indian military. His mom was a British woman, father was an Indian,
big, tall, imposing individual turban, very active, dynamic. So we went out with him
three days.
Then I ended up on the four months, went to the UK,
based on the fact that I was told because I wanted to gain knowledge of Islam, and we didn't have any books at the time, say Buhari, only Volume One was translated into English.
One, two, something like that. So it was incomplete. Very little literature. In fact, most of the literature available was Asmodee.
They had translated a lot of material that was mostly available in English.
So I was told that in England, they had many mosques. And in every mosque, there was a scholar, a Molana, who I could study under. So I said, Let me go get that knowledge. So I went out, the Jamaat traveled, they had an HDMI there in Dewsbury
and afterwards, I stayed on complete for months, going from master to master that would sit down with the molana with my notebooks and I would ask questions, and write down the answers.
After doing that
I was told
that, on one hand
I should focus on what I had been taught. I should read only the book for Xyla man. That's the only book I needed to read.
And I was told that very plainly when I had gone to a bookstore, bought a stack of books, I came walking back in the masjid with a stack of books and the
Jamaat brothers said, What do you got there? said I've got a book stack of Islamic books, where did you get it from? From such such bookstores are?
So what's wrong here? These books, you don't know the intention of the one who wrote them.
So leave that for Xyla mile we know the intention of the author.
Solid book, you keep reading that already read it like four times.
They said, We did some more.
Of course, my background in our reading and wanting to gain knowledge. It left me suspicious. I didn't really like that. It was like a nasty taste in my mouth.
And also, I found that
they liked to tell stories.
fantastic stories.
You know, when this guy went out on the Jamaat, that happened, wow.
This Oh, boy.
I told him listen, you know, I want to go and learn some Arabic. He said, I don't need to go I want to go to my car. No, you don't need to go to
the light of Islam has left Mecca and Medina. And it is in disarmer Back in north India, where hazard G the head of the Jamaat lives.
That light is so powerful that when Hindus walk the streets, and they pass by his house
they're hit they come walking in shahada
hearing the stories of a boy
that's a tough one.
So
they told me
that
was very niche to mom that they were having a spiritual bath
would come join the spiritual bath.
That's how I heard it anyway.
Actually, what they were saying an hour because they are
in or do it became bad.
Found first the closest thing in English sound like bath. So we, so we, the Westerners, we said spiritual bath. So we went into this room
has a G was in the other room.
And they had
towels tied in a string. We just held on to the towel. And we heard him saying something in the other
room.
And then they came okay, it's, it's over now let go.
Spiritual bath is over.
MashAllah left.
So, later, I asked the secretary of Hazaragi I asked him well, what was the spiritual bath all about? You know, what does it mean? He said, It means that when you go back to Canada,
and you have to make any decision in your life, you write a letter
to hazard G, I will translate it into or do he will read it, and then he will dictate back to me and answer and we'll send it back to you. And then you can make your decision
as a roof.
That doesn't sound right. I have important decision to make in my life. I wait one week to 10 days for the letter to reach there.
eventually gets translated after another week, eventually gets read by as big of another week, eventually gets said that retranslated and sent back three months have gone by for me to make that major decision in my life.
I had a problem with that.
Then,
in the course of my
traveling with the Jamaat, and I became like the protege of
Colonel Saab.
I used to sleep near him and he taught me to eat I'm the law. My first lessons in touch with this from him he taught me tells me that he was a potty. doula, I benefited.
Eventually he told me Listen, you know, as a Muslim, you must follow a madhhab
there are four
they're all correct.
But you must choose one.
If you don't choose one,
then your Imam is shaytaan.
You got to choose
one. And
a mommy Azzam
Abu Hanifa
he is the best one.
He was the first
closest to the Sahaba he had the largest number of followers in the Muslim world, most Muslims are Hanafis the greater proportion of them. They're the largest.
Because it makes sense. Okay. He was closest to the Prophet SAW Salem time. Most Muslims are Hana fees, then I'm a Hanafy. Okay, so what does it mean to be a Hanafi? Well, we do things this way.
And he taught me Hanafi Salah
for the men, nothing. Basically, same thing you just don't raise your hands after
going into record.
But for women, the Salah is acrobatics.
The female salah of the Hanafis today is acrobatics, you have to be an acrobat. If you haven't been trained in acrobatics, you'll fall down on the floor trip over yourself.
Because
there is a special way that they go down to the floor. You don't go down reaching down knees in order
for women to go down like the men go down knees first. For example, if the man goes down knees first, and a woman you know she must be covering you know you don't.
So how does the woman go down? She has to crumble down. She just sort of crumbles.
And then she puts her chest on her thighs and her elbows on the ground and she's just huddled up
first time I tried it, I couldn't do it that practice till I was able to crumble down because I have to go back and tell my wife now. When I came back, I said we are Hanafy she
says don't worry about the details but we are Hana fees and you have to pray like this.
So after I got back
we moved house and I moved next to the masjid.
And the brother whose house we rented an apartment in a basement apartment. We rented it. He was from Egypt. His father was a scholar among the one
and he had been raised in scholarship. So he started to teach me from fickle sunnah
teach me
fickle son along with Shafi flipbooks
so I started to notice differences
huh? Of course he was bringing evidences he said Prophet SAW Salem, did it. Here's the proof. When I was with the handpiece, there was no evidence. It's just, this is how you do it. Don't do this, you do that you do this, don't do that.
And actually when I was studying with them
I remember one occasion because I was getting my information initially from Colonel Saab. And I found that one point in time that what he had told me when I started with the molana and some of them were saying something different.
So I came back and I questioned Colonel Salah
he Molana so and so said that said die this is a young guy, young Milan, I just got out of Molana school. He does know how to wipe his behind in the winter in the summer.
There's a way to wipe your behind in the winter in the summer. So yes,
it's not the same.
When you wipe your behind in the winter, you're supposed to do it counter clockwise.
And when you wipe it in the summer, you do it clockwise.
Now some of you might think this is a joke and it's
not really like that. But hey, when I went to Singapore, some years back, I went to Singapore and they had a book, which is for new Muslims. And I opened up the book and I was reading it. I found it right in there.
They had it written up in there was a book which had been translated from Audible, you know, by
molvi
Translated into English. And it had in there the description of how to wipe your behind in winter and summer.
I told the people at a lot calm Listen, you better get rid of this book.
Anyway,
the point is that
this brother who started to teach me shop for a madhhab, I started to see differences and questions were in my mind Molana sabad said, Colonel sabad said that they're all rights.
So there was problems coming up here.
I befriended some Moroccans
hung out with them.
And the Moroccans that I hung out with, you know, though they were kind of nominal Muslims still.
Because they used to tell me they said, you know,
back home in Morocco, we break our fast with hashish.
So you can understand what kind of nominal Muslim you're talking about anyway, but they had learned the ritual, they learned the molecule ritual. So they said, Really, when you pray,
you should pray with your hands by your sides. You know, your mom of Medina, my Malik. That's how he prayed. Did this that, you know, these are differences?
problems? Because you can't do all of these things at the same time. How can they all be right?
The Hanafi say if you touch a woman,
your wudu is not broken.
Shafi say if you touch a woman you will do is broken. If they're both right, it means that you can be in the state of will do it out of it at the same time.
I said oh, this is a problem here. It sounds like Trinity.
You know
how one plus one plus one can equal one.
We all know one plus one plus one equals three. But they say no one plus one plus one equals one.
To accept that and to believe it, what do you do you have to turn your brain off.
You cannot think this one out. It's just that's how it is a divine secrets.
divine mystery.
Anyway,
after reflecting on this, I decided I have to go to the center of Islam where Islam came from and learn Islam from the roots, study Arabic and study the foundations of Islam to understand to put all these things into context. And hamdulillah at that time, when I made the decision,
scholarships were made available. Nobody wanted it. Nobody was interested. Myself and Abdullah Hakim quick we took it. People at the time were telling us Oh,
Muslims around us who were more modern time listeners No, don't go there. They read old books with the yellow pages and you know, dust all over it and what are you gonna do when you graduate? What are you gonna do with this? You know? No, no, no, no better you stay here. No, we were insistent we wanted to go and get that knowledge. So we set out to Medina and
the rest is studying in Medina
graduating, studying in Riyadh masters teaching, completing PhD becoming a professor. And here I am before you
have the
that's the short version of the story.