The Search For Inner Peace Doha
Date:
Channel: Bilal Philips
File Size: 54.95MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers stress the importance of finding inner peace and finding a way to achieve it through worship, striving to find the right side of life, and guarding the message of Jesus through love and serving God. They also touch on the idea of Jesus being the last prophet and how it relates to modern day issues such as climate change and sustainability. They briefly mention a book about being a preppy princess.AI Generated Transcript ©
hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah.
All praise due to a law and made the Peace and blessings of Alavi on the last messenger of Allah.
Our topic, the search for inner peace.
First and foremost,
we can say that this topic represents a universal desire on the part of all human beings, no matter where they are in the world, no matter what religion they follow, no matter what race they belong to,
wherever they are, they all seek
inner peace.
Now, the channels by which it is achieved,
are varied.
There are many different channels by which people have sought in a piece.
It may be through music,
some people seek it through material possessions,
others through careers,
and yet others through the success of the children.
But
no matter what channel
we travel on,
there seems to be something missing. We don't seem to achieve it, we continue to search.
The facts of the matter with regards to
inner peace and modern developments, technology, etc. Is that modern technology has not helped us in this process.
When we look at the rates of suicide and depression,
over the last 100 years,
they have increased there on the steady increase.
So it is obvious
that the route for achieving inner peace is not one
through the material world around us through the development of technology,
advancement of society.
It is somewhere else, we need to look somewhere else.
Before we begin to look,
perhaps it's better for us to define, really, what is this peace, this inner peace that we're looking for? Perhaps our perception of it is affecting our ability to achieve it.
If we look at the Webster's 20th century dictionary,
it defines it
in six different ways.
The first is
freedom from war, or civil strife, freedom from war or civil strife.
The second
is a pact between
countries or groups.
The peace pact, the third, freedom from public disturbance or disorder, public security, law and order.
The fourth, freedom from disagreement or quarrels, harmony and Concord,
the fifth, an undisturbed state of mind absence of mental conflict, serenity.
Sixth, calm, quiet tranquility.
We look at these various definitions.
They address different aspects of the world in which we live.
Freedom from war or strife is really something which deals with international or national politics.
Freedom from public disturbance This is again, related to the national, the state or the city, the town
Freedom from this disagreements or quarrels, Harmony Concord seems to be a family related thing. Neighbors, immediate community
and an undisturbed state of mind absence of mental conflict. serenity seems to be an individual thing related to the individual's experience, calm, quiet, and tranquility. That seems to be a location. There are locations of calm, quiet, and tranquility.
When we look back at this, this quest of ours for inner peace,
we have to ask yourself,
Is it really attainable?
Or is it really an illusion?
a myth,
a fantasy is something that we desire. But it is really not something that we can attain. If we look on a world scale,
and the scale of the world, countries dealing with other countries,
peace doesn't seem to be attainable. Because somewhere in the world, there's some conflicts going on. Wars strife.
If we look on a state level, a country or a city, there is civil disturbance going on. And so many different locations,
there is crime.
If we look on the family level,
then we can sort of find peace for periods of time, although family even in families, we do find disagreements happening, some arguments, it's not a smooth going peaceful thing all the way through.
And even on the individual level,
though, through a variety of different means we might achieve
something of peace for a period of time, it doesn't seem to be lasting.
It doesn't really seem to be lasting.
If we look back at the human being,
from the end of his life, backwards to the beginning,
the only time where we could say, there appears to be a continual state of peace is when the human being is a fetus, growing in the womb, of his or her mother.
All needs are taken care of.
Perhaps here is a period of serenity and continual peace. However, any woman who has had a child will tell you
we might imagine there is peace, but I feel all these kicks and elbows and things happening, you know, so really what's happening with that fetus? Is it really peaceful? Maybe there isn't even peace there.
So
what is the answer?
is peace, inner peace, specifically attainable?
Well, there is a statement in the Quran, in which God says I have created human beings in toil and struggle.
This is the nature and the norm of their lives, that they will be in a state of struggle from the beginning to the end. And truly, when the child is born, it does fluctuate between periods of
peace, happiness, and periods of unhappiness, crying, screaming, etc.
As it gets bigger, it starts to move, trying to turn and to sit up and eventually to kneel and to crawl. And all of this is a series of struggles, till it finally stands up on its feet and it walks
but struggles all the way.
So what is really the essence of the situation the essence of the situation, is that we are living in a world of opposites. A world
in which everything seems to be
in opposition to everything else
that are
Position may be complimentary, like hot and cold,
sour and sweet,
high end low,
hard and soft.
These are complements, they're not fighting with each other.
But they have a role each one of them has a role because we don't know what is hard unless we have experienced what is soft. We don't know what is sour unless we have experienced what is sweet. So it has a place.
These opposites have a function in our lives.
There are other opposites, like good and evil.
They are opposites. And you do need to know good to know evil, and you need to know evil in order to no good. But these are in opposition. There is a struggle between justice and injustice, knowledge and ignorance. There are other aspects of our lives in which the opposites are engaged in a continual struggle.
So,
I would conclude that inner peace is something which we cannot attain
on a continual basis. However, we can attain it for periods of time,
for periods of time, which may be extended, depending on the degree to which we have understood life, and being able to apply the most important principles of life in our lives.
So that we can live
through longer periods of inner peace. But those longer periods no longer do have an end. There is a time when the inner peace will end, and our situation will shift.
And it's not a bad thing.
Though all of us, each and every one of us would like that inner peace, to carry on forever. However, it's opposite turmoil.
Struggle has to be there. For us to appreciate that inner peace, we need to also experience the toil in the struggle, the turmoil.
So at least let us work on together. The
basis for inner peace, at least for some
period periods of our lives that we can appreciate, can help
us get our lives in order to function without going through bouts of depression, because a lack of inner peace does not necessarily mean we have to go all the way to the other side into depression, suicide, know
that lack of inner peace requires us to be patient knowing that it is temporary also, as our period of inner peace was temporary. So is the period of inner turmoil temporary.
So let's look at how we can at least achieve a real working level of inner peace?
Well, I would say that
the first step that we have to take
is to remove obstacles. Those of you that are watching the PowerPoint presentation, you know that it's all out of sync.
Don't worry about it.
Anyway, just press it whenever you feel like
so,
to achieve inner peace,
we must remove the obstacles to inner peace.
That coming
still behind keep pressing.
We must remove the obstacles that prevent us from achieving inner peace. This of course, this is assuming that our basic state
our norm is one of peace and things have been piled on top of that norm which prevents us from from achieving that inner peace
We are assuming that.
And that's not the wrong assumption, if we accept that, that norm of inner peace also has a norm of turmoil along with it side by side.
What is our first strategy?
We need to identify
the obstacles, identify them, finally, thank you identify the obstacles.
Well, to identify them, we must be aware of them.
We must be aware we have to be made aware or we have to find out for ourselves.
And then we have to accept them as obstacles. These are two different things. Because a person might say, anger, anger is an obstacle to inner peace, how can you have inner peace and you're angry all the time, you're shouting, you're screaming, you're worked out, but you can't possibly attain inner peace. But
I don't have a problem with anger.
Recognizing that anger is a problem, but then recognizing that you have a problem with anger are two different things. So
our first strategy involves not only being aware of the obstacles, but also accepting them, within ourselves, that whatever prevents
the achievement of inner peace
is likely to be found in us in one degree or another.
To be honest with ourselves, to be able to benefit from the input of people around us to escape the state of self denial. You know, this is the biggest problem, one of the biggest obstacles to awareness and correction, and removal,
self denial,
something, each and every one of us lives,
in different aspects of our lives, to be able to take criticism, to be able to recognize error,
it's much easier to deny it.
And so self denial is a common trait among human beings. The second step
is that coming
is to remove the obstacles by solutions.
We have to identify our solutions.
And
we have to take action to remove these obstacles.
These are, this represents our general strategy, I'm sorry, the screen was really supposed to be in the middle and everyone should have been able to see it. But let me just say for those of you that cannot see it, the general strategy for removing obstacles for dealing with the obstacles which prevent us from achieving inner peace
are one being aware of those obstacles to
recognizing them in ourselves accepting them as obstacles within ourselves and three, identifying the solutions.
We identify the problem, we identify the solution. And then fourthly, we have to take action.
Not enough just to have understood to recognize, to even grasp where the solution lies, without taking action, it is all meaningless. It becomes only a psychological exercise. So
let us look at where the main obstacles lie.
Before we go there, no, don't press a button yet.
I would like to hear from you.
Where you think the main obstacles lie.
We have a couple of microphones here. And I want short answers.
Where the main obstacles lie in our lives.
Where's the microphone on the women's side? Who's got the microphone?
Where's the microphone on the men's side?
Hmm egoism.
egoism
okay.
Somebody's making note of egoism here, please.
From the woman's side can we get we don't see the microphones not getting there somebody just say what you think.
Pardon?
environments. Okay? We're ambitious, paddle over ambitious,
ambitious
MB over ambition. Okay
Can I hear some more
paddle
pride? Yes.
materialism
sounds on it from the men
fear
traditions
hatred,
prejudice, prejudice,
denial of rights, denial of rights oppression,
inability to forgive,
an inability to forgive.
Pardon
an absence of
aim in life. Yes, aimless is an absence of an aim in life. What was that one? endless aimlessness Okay, same thing.
A lack of patience,
ambivalence.
ambivalence. What do you mean by that? It's between hatred and love, between hatred and love, no violence,
poverty,
an obstacle to inner peace, no clear understanding of about human beings. Pardon no clear understanding about human values are human beings, no clear understanding of human values or human beings. Okay, that goes back maybe to materialism.
Jealousy, yes.
lack of faith, not on purpose of life, lack of faith and lack of conviction not doing what Allah wants from us.
A lack of faith and lack of conviction okay.
The power the unbridled greed for power and control and unbridled greed for power and control and unclear destination unclear destination okay. The complexes, complexes inferiority and superiority complexes, okay. Related inferiority superiority complexes, let me say
you have mentioned many,
and all of them have a role.
I would say
that the main obstacles
involved involve personal problems, okay. These are the personal things that you just mentioned, the pride, the jealousy, the greed, the desire for control and power and these kind of things, your personal problems, defects in character.
The second group, we could call family issues, people didn't really talk too much about these family issues. Don't these affect our inner peace? When family things are not moving smoothly?
lack of communication. husband doesn't communicate with the wife.
Parents don't communicate with the kids. You know, isn't this a problem? Is this a problem area? does it create friction, lack of inner peace? Yes, it's a big area. And all of us in one way or another are parts of families and a dysfunctional family will naturally be a big obstacle to achieving inner peace.
Next categories financial dilemmas. Yeah, there are many we spoke about that poverty,
low salaries, problems at work in general. You're not getting paid for the work that you're doing. You know, finances money.
Also,
there are also work pressures.
Outside of the actual financial issues at work, those of us that are out working, we have a boss who's a tyrant. Now, it's not our problem. It's not my problem that my boss is the tyrant
and autocrat, he makes all the decisions he never, you know, delegates, every decision has to be in his hand.
It makes life very difficult, very difficult to work with. And I know this is an experience, most of us who are here who are expatriates, we have experienced this, you know, it seems to be a common trait in this part of the world, the leader who wants to make the decision for everything, he cannot delegate, so everything takes much longer. And he wants to make decisions in areas he doesn't even have knowledge of
problems, that autocrats
well work related problems. Then we have the last major character, category, which I call spiritual confusion.
Because we as human beings, are not only physical entities, with emotion, intellect, coming from it, but we are also spiritual beings. There is a spiritual longing that we have this spiritual essence, which is truly us. I mean, what we see on the outside of the external is only a cover, it doesn't really represent the internal, the spiritual
us So naturally,
where that spiritual being is in a state of confusion, then inner peace becomes difficult, how to achieve it, when spiritually, we are at a loss, we don't know, we are in that dilemma.
So
our obstacles are many.
You mentioned many, and I mentioned some general headings for some of what you mentioned, and there are others. If we were to try to tackle each and every one of them this evening,
I think it would take a few weeks
to take us a few weeks, we couldn't do it in two hours to be real. So what we need to do
is to
divide them into two categories, two major categories
that we can work with
what we perceive of the obstacles, we have to admit that there are certain obstacles which are beyond our control.
And it's important for us if we're going to try to remove obstacles to identify them to know which obstacles are beyond our control, so that we don't waste energy, trying to deal with something that we really can do nothing about.
So
it is important for us to be able to know what we can do and what we can't get the button.
The Prophet, Prophet Mohammed, may God's peace be upon him the last of the prophets. He said,
If the spirits, the jinn, and humans gathered together to benefit you, they could only benefit you with something which God has written for you.
They could only benefit you with something God has written for you.
There is this area that we really have no control over. It's coming. Like it or not.
He also said
No, he didn't say this. But there is this prayer, which is commonly called the Serenity Prayer.
And it consists of the state of three statements basically, this is one way of saying it can be said in different ways. We seek the patience to surrender to the unchangeable, we seek the patience to surrender to the unchangeable. What the Prophet spoke about. May God's peace and blessings be upon him those unchangeable things, we need to have patience.
Remember, we mentioned one of the obstacles, lack of patience, obstacles to achieving peace. So we need to have patience. When we recognize these unchangeable elements in our lives, we have to have patience to deal with them.
Also,
we need the spiritual strength to change what is changeable? Because after identifying the unchangeable, then we're left with a chunk of changeable things in our lives. But now, how do we change them?
How do we go about changing them? Do we as individuals have the power all by ourselves? to change them? This is the question.
And lastly,
we need to have the wisdom to realize the difference between these two categories between
the unchangeable and the changeable.
If we have the wisdom to identify them, then
we have the means to remove them and to correct them.
Let us go back to our first category, we seek the patience to surrender to the unchangeable.
For example,
if we say
I was born black, in a world, which favors white people over black people,
Can I do anything about being black? Well,
Michael Jackson thought he could,
you know,
he was trying to change the unchangeable. And he really messed himself up.
He really messed himself up,
better to accept
how you're born, how God has created you, and work with it,
or being born poor, in a world which favors the rich over the poor. Again, that's what we were born into.
Can we change that? birth,
of course, we can change our state of being poor by trying to increase our wealth through knowledge through work through whatever. But the fact that we were born poor, we can't change that.
We had no decision as to which family we're going to be born in. Whether we're born in a village in Bangladesh, or born in New York City,
who decides that this is among the unchangeable.
Of course, we do have much of the Third World lusting after the first world trying to get a visa, to go to America or to Canada, at least get nationality. We can try to change something of that. But
realities of birth, we cannot change. Similarly, being born short, in a world that favors tall people being born, plump, in a world that favors slim people.
These are things that really, we need to just put aside, don't waste our energies
on trying to change these things.
And God said, anyway,
in the crime,
perhaps
something good for you, and love something harmful to you.
This is a reality of our lives, that there are so many things that happened to us, which are beyond our control, and we are upset about it, we hate it.
But later on, we find out that it was something good.
And so many times we desire something which we feel is really good for us.
But later on, we find out that it wasn't it was harmful. This is the reality of our lives. We really don't know ultimately, what is good for us, and what is harmful, so when incidents befall us in life,
We have to look beyond them. We can't get caught up in the incident itself. We have to know ultimately, as Steven Covey said,
be in a win win situation,
be in a win win situation, whatever happens,
make the best of it. Find the silver lining with the rain cloud. The reality is that it's there.
There is a good side. What happens in our lives are ultimately for our benefits. But it's a matter of realizing where the benefit lies. So we need to strive for it,
to search for it to be patient until we find it.
I remember some years back
about three or four years back. When
I saw in the newspaper, I was living in the Emirates at the time. And there was this article in the newspaper. They had a picture of
it teacher from
Egypt. He was there with this big smile on his face. He had Moses both of his thumbs up and a thumbs up. And on one side, his father was kissing him on his cheek and the other side. His sister was kissing him on his cheek. Or maybe was his wife I'm not sure. Anyway. There it was big smile. Thumbs up. Father, wife or father sister kissing your money either cheek. Then underneath they had the caption. What happened is that
a day before that
he was due to get on the flight
to Bahrain, Gulf Air Flight, heading for the rain, all the teachers who are teaching in Bahrain, they were to get on this flight and flying to Bahrain, or the number of different flights. But this was the last of the flights. last flight, he delayed leaving till the last minute.
When he ran to the airport with his bags and everything. He found out that he was missing a stamp
in Egypt to do anything. You have to have 100 stamps, you stamp you go to this one stamps comes back to that one stamps, again. You go to that one, you know, you have 100 stamps.
And if you're wondering why this is happening here also
because Egyptians came and set up the
administration here. So this is the legacy right?
Anyway, back in Egypt, he had missed out one stamp, Mr. One stamp there he was at the airport, he didn't have his stamp. They weren't going to let him on the plane. He was in tears. If he came late, his pay would be docked. Maybe he would be fired. You know, all kinds just had conjured up all kinds of terrible situations happening to him. He was missing his flight back.
Of course, you all know, that was the flight, Gulf Air Flight, which crashed and all of the passengers died. No survivors.
So when the news came, the next day, there he was thumbs up the day before he was in abject, you know,
distress, and depressed and life just crumbled all around him. And the next day, thumbs up smiling from ear to ear.
This is life.
Also, I remember an incident a few years back, where my father in law in the states had been invited with his friends to go on a fishing trip. They had been planning for this trip for a number of months, you know, and
they were all ready to do it. And the last minute, one of the kids got sick. He couldn't go on the trip. Ah. He was missing out on this trip. You know, because it's not often that he and all of his friends were able to get together and go out on the trip.
The next day, they the others went on the trip he didn't go on it.
But what happened was
stormy weather, the ship their yacht to overturned and everybody drowned.
Except one amongst them, who wasn't a good swimmer. All the others were good swimmers. So it was my father in law. But the one person on the whole ship, who was a bad couldn't swim, swim to save his life. He is the one who survived,
is real. And I'm sure each and every one of you have in your lives, similar experiences, whether to you directly or to those around you. This is the nature of the life in which we are,
you may like something and it's not good for you. And you may dislike something, and it's really good for you.
So what we need is the spiritual strength to change that which is changeable, let's leave the unchangeable let us be patient with the unchangeable patience is the key for removing the obstacles of the unchangeable. That is the key patience.
And everybody knows it. Patience is a virtue. I remember, this is what I was told, growing up, patience is a virtue. Yes, it is. Patience, in all of its manifestations, patience, on one hand, to accept
what we cannot change.
And also, on the other hand, to be patient in continuing to do things that we know, are good, because we're in a world in which we are being tested.
A world in which good and evil, don't seem to be equal.
Evil seems to be dominant.
Those people who take the shortcuts who take the bribes
seem to be the ones who are successful, the honest person doesn't seem to be very successful.
So the temptation not to be honest, is great.
The temptation, not to be honest, is great.
How do we remain honest, it is through patience, we have to be patient, believing ultimately, that
in being patient, with honesty, staying on the honest path, it ultimately leads to good. Even if we can't see immediate benefit around us, it ultimately does lead to good.
And in the Quran, mentioned here,
God said, Hello, just
Is there any reward for good other than good?
Yes, if we stay right, and are patient with trying to do the right thing, ultimately, we will be rewarded.
Now, in dealing with the changeable things,
we have to develop a strategy, the changeable things, for the most part, are related to ourselves. The unchangeable things are things around us our environments, the things that we can't change, which are fixed, our born, where we're born, etc. But the changeable things do come back to us. So it means that if we want to achieve inner peace, we do really have to focus on ourselves.
We can't spend time and effort on those outside of ourselves, who we can't change. We can try to influence them, we can try to encourage them, etc. But whether they will change or they won't. That's up to them.
What's up to us is whether we change or not.
So
we have to focus on ourselves and focusing on ourselves.
We have to realize we have to accept that left only to ourselves. We are likely to fall back every time we try to change something ourselves. It is so easy to fall back and to do what we said we weren't going to do anymore.
Some organizations
like Alcoholics Anonymous
Dealing with an addiction, a major addiction in societies today, especially amongst Western societies, and even here,
when they outline they plan
to deal with addiction,
trying a number of different methods, they found that it was essential that those involve link themselves to a higher power.
They believe in God
was a necessary component for them to achieve
freedom from the servitude, of alcoholism.
Those who are able to do it, were able to change those who are not, were mostly unable
in practice
in the US,
when Islam began to spread
in the jails,
there was some alarm and some concern.
But after a period of time,
the penal system noted that people who became Muslims in jails, people with violent paths, etc,
changed, they were able to make changes that they were not before. That connection, that link made a difference in their lives, enable them to make the step they needed to make, which otherwise they would not have succeeded.
So what we're coming to here
is,
as God said, in the Quran,
it is only with the remembrance of God, that hearts, find rest, that inner peace that we seek, through changing ourselves,
is ultimately linked with the remembrance of God, being conscious of God, accepting God in our lives.
If we don't accept God in our lives, then ultimately we will not achieve inner peace.
We may achieve some elements of enjoyment at different points in our lives, but inner peace, we won't achieve it.
The reality
is that we are created beings.
We didn't come about
by chance.
Those who say there's no God,
say that we are here by chance. We just popped into existence, the Big Bang took place so many billions of years ago. And out of the Big Bang. Here we are today.
Darwin's theory of evolution in between and up we popped.
Well,
practical,
a practical view of life
seems to indicate otherwise.
If we were to take an atomic bomb,
one of the weapons of mass destruction
we were to take one of these weapons of mass destruction and drop it in a junkyard.
junkyard where they collect all the parts of cars spare parts on them. We drop
that weapon of mass destruction in there. What are the chances of a Rolls Royce rolling out?
Rolls Royce comes out. door is open key in the ignition engine humming.
Just need to get in and drive away.
What are the chances of that?
Well, some people say if you keep dropping atomic bombs in the junkyard, one day it will happen.
But
let us not fool ourselves. The chances of it happening after a billion attempts is no different than the first attempt. It's all the same. And just as in our minds, our common sense tells us it is
Impossible.
Guess what? When we say the Big Bang brought us into existence, we are far more complex than a Rolls Royce.
No big explosion of matter produced us.
That is like the Rolls Royce from the junkyard. Common sense tells us, but of course, we are tempted. we're tempted to want to say, yeah, it is by accident. Yes. It's by evolution. Yes. Our grandparents were monkeys. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. We've seen it in the books, we've seen the films about it.
It makes sense.
But rarely in our heart of hearts. We know it's not true.
It's not true.
And until we come to grips with this, to realize to understand that we are creative beings, and there is a creator,
we will be at a loss, we will not achieve inner peace. We cannot find it without the remembrance of God, knowing that God has created us.
Of course, some of us will say, Yeah, okay. I know God created me, God
created us. But
He created us and this world is too insignificant for him to get involved in.
It's nothing. Why would God get involved with this world, just like us getting involved with an anthill?
You know, you see the ants crawling in the hole, then, to go and dig it up and find out what's going on inside the antenna. Yes, you do have some people who do that. But for the average person to get involved with what's going on in an anthill. What's the point? insignificant. Similarly, God created the world and he just let it roll on by itself.
He just let it roll on by itself.
So it's just the life we live. Do whatever makes you happy. Find your inner peace to whatever pleasures will produce it for you. And that's what it is, you know, there is no real goal and purpose, purpose,
purpose. There's no purpose. We're just here. no different from the elephants, the monkeys, the fish, the birds, just living and dying, procreating. That's it? no purpose. But God created us. Well, if we just stop for a minute and think
if God created us,
without any clear purpose, we just deliver life.
What does that say about God?
If we found somebody said to us,
I have this wonderful machine here, we see it, parts are spinning and things are going up and down and
steam is coming out of it.
And then we ask the person what is the purpose of this machine? They say? no purpose.
What are we going to do?
What are we going to think? Something wrong here? This person has lost his mind.
Somebody comes knocking on your door. Knock knock you open the door. What do you want? person says, I don't know.
Who do you want? I don't know. Why are you here? I don't know. No purpose. I say call 911 ring him up.
Okay. We say call 911 or whatever.
And take him away.
Such a person
has lost his or her mind.
Insane, foolish, unwise. We have a lot of terms for such a person. So when we say that God created this world
and let it run without any purpose.
That's what we're attributing to God.
Common sense tells us No,
God, the Creator who had the power to do all of this surely
must be wiser than we are,
surely must be the ultimate in wisdom
and creation without purpose. Even in our own simple lives, we recognize as being unwise,
unwise, so, it is essential for us, to recognize God in our lives, to accept God into our lives. And to understand that there is a purpose here.
There is a purpose for us being here.
If we have understood it,
then
we can put trust in God.
We can gain the qualities which will help us to overcome the obstacles to our achievement of inner peace. Among them patience, we said, some people seem to be born patient, most of us have to struggle with it. Well, the prophet had said, Whoever pretends to be patient trying to be patient, I don't mean just faking it, but they're trying struggling. So they have to, they give an outer expression of patience. But inside they're struggling.
Eventually, if they're doing that sincerely, knowing that this is what God wants from them, eventually, they will gain patience, it will come to them, it is something which can be learned. And this is, this is not just only for patients, all of the various characteristics that we identify as being good, wholesome, beneficial characteristics, which would obviously contribute to our state of inner peace, all of them can be acquired, they can be acquired, by striving to
live them. Of course, it's a struggle, it's not easy. It's much easier not to acquire them, it's much easier to be impatient, to be angry, to be unfair, to be unkind, all of this is easier, it's much more difficult to stay on the right way, much more difficult. But ultimately, if we want inner peace, then we have to be ready to pay its price. It's not cheap, it will not come cheaply,
we will not achieve it by
lighting a lamp and staring at that lamp meditating.
To achieve inner peace, we won't achieve it that way.
This is not natural.
This is unnatural. Whatever we achieve, from staring at a lamp, or a light, or a point or whatever,
in terms of quietening, our thoughts in a quiet room. As soon as we go out into the noisy world, it's gone,
has gone.
The peace everything is gone finished.
Because we have created something in an artificial, unreal
environment. That's not the world we live. Nobody can live like that.
So we have to
address
this issue of God with regards to ourselves. We have to accept him in our lives. And we have to remember him. Remember God, remembering God meaning,
remembering that God is watching over us. He is aware of whatever we do.
He is pleased with us doing good and displeased with us doing bad. He wants for us good.
Knowing that he's with us doing bad. He wants for us good.
Knowing that we try to do what is right
and God promises us
As mentioned in the Quran, whoever trusts in God in him will find him sufficient.
If we put our trust in God,
when we find ourselves in difficulties, etc, ultimately, he will be sufficient for us.
He is one who will always come through everybody else that we trust in, we put our trust in our wives or husbands, our children, our bosses, our cars are mechanics. We put our trust in all kinds of people around us, and things. But what happens time and time again, they break our trust. And when they break our trust, what happens? We are upset, inner peace is destroyed, we're in turmoil, or angry or whatever. Because we trusted them, I trusted you.
You promised me
and you broke your promise.
That's the world around us. It's going to happen time and time again.
And
if we keep doing the same thing,
over and over again,
should we be surprised that we keep getting the same results over and over again.
So if we keep putting our full trust in people,
then don't be surprised that it will be broken time and time again.
This is the bottom line, we have no way out of that. People will always break our trust.
And one who continually does the same thing over and over again expecting different results, we call this person or call this kind of behavior, obsessive behavior.
We, in each and every one of our lives have elements of this, keep doing the same thing, expecting different results, but we keep getting the same results. We say like banging your head against the wall. It's not gonna move, it's gonna hurt every time we do it. Yeah.
So
we have to put our trust, the ultimate trust in the only one, who 100% will not break it. And that is God.
As
God says in the Quran, while I have lamora buka
your Lord will not be unfair and oppress anyone.
That is his promise. So if we had to put our trust that we need to put it in the one who will not break our trust.
Furthermore,
God says, God will make a way out for whoever trusts in Him. God will make a way out for whoever trusts in him, meaning, whatever situation we find ourselves in, no matter how bad it is, if we trust in God, put our trust in God, then an exit from that situation will appear for us, we will find a way out a good way forward is better.
Meaning when God makes that promise, he's saying basically, that if you find yourself in a difficult circumstance, don't make that an excuse for doing what you know, you shouldn't do. Don't use that as an excuse. Oh, I was
it was this circumstance.
We have a million excuses to justify doing what we know we shouldn't do.
Well, God says,
if you trust in Him, He will show a way out for you. So you don't have to do that. That whatever you do, will be what he wants you to do, what is good.
Also,
we have to consider ultimately, as we said, the very purpose of our creation.
Why are we
Hear, because inner peace is linked to this.
If we don't really know why we're here, okay, we know that God created us.
And He created us
with a purpose, then we need to know that purpose. We need to know what are we doing in this world.
It will inform us who we are, it will clarify to us what is going on in the world around us. It will give us awareness which will help us to deal with the trials of our lives and give us the inner strength,
the spiritual inner strength
to find that inner peace by removing the obstacles, obstacles, which mainly fall on ourselves, they're on our shoulders, we need to change them. So what is the purpose of life?
Each and every one of us ask ourselves at different points in our lives, why am I here? What am I doing here?
Well, the Quran offers an explanation, the Quran,
which Muslims believe, to be revelation from God, a book of Revelation, which has remained unchanged for 1400 years.
It states in their
eye, God, have only created the spirits and humans, to worship me.
That our creation
what is required of us
is to worship God
is to be in a state of worshiping God.
And when we consider
worshiping God being a purpose, or the purpose of life,
what do we mean?
commonly we think of worship as just being prayer,
or perhaps fasting, giving in charity.
These are acts of worship. However,
the Quran offers a revolutionary new approach
to worship.
It states they're called in alati, for new Suki, balmaha amati, lillahi, Rabbil aalameen. Indeed, my prayers,
my sacrifices, my living, and my dying
is for
a law, the Lord of the worlds
a law being an Arabic name for God,
not a different gods. Sometimes people think Muslims have this other God called a law. No.
Christian Arabs called God a law. So
a law is an ancient name in Arabic, for God, actually, those of you who want to see the passion, the Passion of Christ.
If you listen closely
to Jesus, when he was calling on God,
and they translated the word for calling on God, the term to use was what? Allah
because Aramaic, the language of Jesus is a sister language of Arabic.
Allah is an ancient name.
So
if we consider as I said,
that purpose is to worship God.
What is meant by that, it is meant what is meant is that one's life is dedicated to God.
All aspects of life is dedicated God should be dedicated to God. This is the true worship of God. It is not going to the mosque on Friday, going to the church on Sunday, going to the synagogue on Saturday, going to a temple whenever.
No,
it is living a complete life.
Doing what is pleasing to God. This is worship. This is the fulfillment of
This purpose.
So
what I am presenting What is it I'm suggesting here, I'm suggesting that
inner peace that we seek the inner peace that we seek
is not something that we can package in a small package like drugs or music or the stuff No, it is something which has to do with the whole of our lives.
Our complete state,
it isn't dealing with the unchangeable, and dealing with the changeable. It has to do with all aspects of our lives.
Islam
is
the religion which God prescribed for human beings. It is the religion prescribed
by God.
People say, Well, no, but Mohammed, you know, he just popped up 1400 years ago, and there was Jesus before him and Moses and so on. So how can you say Islam?
Is the religion of God,
prescribed for human beings that's kind of
one sided, narrow minded, bigoted, and all kinds of other things. Well, what is Islam mean?
What is Islam? What is this religion? Is it mohammedanism? No,
no.
Islam
is
the submission of one's will to God. That's what Islam means submission of the human will, to God.
It also means peace.
That is the other meaning if you go to a dictionary, Arabic English dictionary, you dig up that word Islam, you find it has two meanings, one, submission, surrender, surrender to God.
And it also means peace, because true inner peace can only be achieved when one surrenders, ultimately, to God.
That is where it lies, to inner peace.
So
this is where I believe, our quest, and the quest ends here at Islam.
This is my proposal, my suggestion.
Each and every one of us owes it to ourselves, to investigate this claim, this proposal and this suggestion. And of course, non Muslims might think, well, oh, he's just trying to convert this to Islam.
Well, no, it's a proposal. And guess what? It doesn't only include you, it includes Muslims, too. Because so many Muslims today, unfortunately, are unaware of really, what Islam is that submission.
They haven't really understood it.
What they have understood is the inherited culture and legacy of the generation that they were born into
a Muslim why because my parents are Muslim.
says that my passport Muslim.
But can you inherit submission?
No. submission is an act of the Spirit, which each and every individual has to do for himself or herself.
So this proposal is as much
a need
of non Muslims as it is Muslims.
Because when we look in the world today, because of course, the question that comes up is okay, Islam means peace and surrender. Then why do we find all these Muslims fighting everywhere we turn around? They seem to be fighting, you know, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir.
911. It might have been them. Yes. And all over the place, seem to be involved in all this violence. Well,
we must separate politics, from religion. What is really religion, the way of life, not the Friday prayer or the Sunday Mass
Whatever No, but the way of life that one lives that is, and has its own principles, which guides it. And much of what you see in the world today, done by Muslims cannot be attributed to that way of life known as Islam.
It's individuals, as Irish Catholics, in their struggle to liberate themselves from
British or English, Protestants blew up
pubs and blew up
railway stations and blew up and blew up and blew up people. We didn't call them
Catholic terrorists. So why do we want to call those Muslims who do terrorist, terrorist acts? Muslim terrorists? No, they're just terrorists. I don't
call them by any other name. They're just terrorists. So if we want to know
what Islam really is, then we need to go back to the sources. This is where we can find out what is that way of life.
That book of Revelation, called the crime, which contains its description,
and the prophetic statements, which elaborate on its teachings, we all owe it to ourselves, Muslim and non Muslim alike. To investigate this seriously, if we want to achieve inner peace, each and every one of us needs to investigate this.
Now,
in closing,
and closing this journey, which has taken us here,
I would like to say that the essence of the message of Islam in a nutshell, if somebody asked me to put the essence of the message of Islam, in a nutshell, I will say that it is based on the belief in one God.
I believe in one God,
that there are not many gods,
but only one God, who created everything. Who knows everything, without beginning without end, one God, indivisible,
having no father or son, brother or sister, uncle or aunt,
one God.
And that one God created one human race. Yes, people tell us you know, they are
the caucasoid race, meaning European type people, the Mongoloid race, meaning Chinese type people, the neag roid, race, meaning African type people, and in between different races. This is a story. This is not true. These are not different races, there is only one human race.
These divisions are artificial people, made them for political purposes. The reality is we are one race.
The African who has
a positive blood is closer to the Caucasian who has a positive blood. Then other Caucasians who have
positive blood,
their blood can save them while others cannot. Who is closer?
So
one God
created one race of human beings. And this race of human beings has one spiritual need. We're all created with the same need we talked about in the very beginning, this desire for inner peace, we all have it, we are all seeking it.
So God, the One God who created the one human race, he provided for us one way to fulfill that need. He didn't provide a variety of different ways
which contradict each other
So we have confusion. No, this confusion of religions is the making of human beings. God when he created the first man and woman gave them a way of life, he taught them
a way of life. That way of life was submission to His will,
doing his bidding, obeying His commandments, forbidding what he forbade.
It was one way of life. And that way of life was repeated.
With the coming of other prophets, as people strayed away from the correct way, God sent other prophets bringing them back onto that path, the path of submission to the will of God.
And this was what was expressed by all of the prophets, whether they came in India or they came in Africa, or in the Philippines or wherever they came, they came with one message in the Quran, it states while a hot bath nafi Coolio mutton Rasul Allah, and Yabu law which tenable thought, I have sent God says, to every nation,
a messenger, calling people to the worship of one God, and to avoid the worship of false gods, the gods of their creation, whether it be their desires, whether it be Gods they created with their own hands, or whatever other human beings that they take as gods, whatever all of the various gods that people have these false gods
belief in the true God requires that we leave those false gods and come to the one true God.
One message, one God,
one human race, one message, one way of life for all human beings, and that I propose to you
is Islam.
This concludes our search,
or the search that I invited you here to
go with me.
As is our normal practice,
we will open the floor to questions.
And you are welcome to ask any questions you like.
or to make comments you like,
as long as your questions or comments are brief. So as to give everybody an opportunity, who wishes to ask any questions they would like to ask,
How much time do we have actually?
20 minutes. 20 minutes. Okay. So who would like to ask the first question? And
let me say that
we would like to give our guests, our non Muslim guests, the first opportunity they are giving priority will favor them over the Muslims to let them ask the questions first. If no one wants to ask anything or make a comment, then we'll turn it over to Muslims who always have many, many, many, many questions to ask.
But we'll give our non Muslim guests the first opportunity.
The mic is with me from either the male or female side. Any non Muslim guests would like to ask a question just put your hand up and go ahead.
Is there search for inner peace in heaven?
Is there any search for inner peace in heaven? That is the perpetual state of inner peace, the one which we thought we could achieve in this world, but which I hope I have convinced you is not attainable in this world. It's one that we seek ultimately, by doing the right thing here. And this transitional world we would achieve
That true state of perpetual inner peace in the next.
Yes, I just like to say that I enjoyed your speech very much, and thank you, and that I didn't find it to be a Muslim topic at all. I think it's universal. And I agree with everything that you've said. I think we're all right there.
Thank you.
We appreciate good comments also.
Good evening, and thank you again, I really enjoyed
this, the topic of the searching for inner peace. And my question is,
as Muslim,
do you always need to pray in Arabic
or there are, other or other languages are acceptable?
I don't speak Arabic. Okay. Now the issue of prayer in Arabic.
We have in
Islam,
two types of prayers.
There are formal prayers, which are called Salah.
And there are informal prayers which are called da.
The distinction is made between the two formal prayers are the five times daily prayers which have been specified with specific things to say specific actions to do etc. That is the formal prayer. The informal prayer is one which one makes at any time. It doesn't matter where one is, circumstances etc, you can make this prayer you turn to God and ask God anything you wish at any time. And even within the formal prayer, there are portions in which you do your own personal prayers. Now, the main structure of the formal prayer is in Arabic, and it is something each Muslim is required to learn. Now, one may ask why Arabic? Why not your own language? Well,
what it does is that it unifies Muslims wherever they are. So if I went to visit China, for example, I went to China to Peking.
And the call for prayer was made in Chinese, I would have no idea what's going on. And if I stumbled into the mosque, I finally found a mosque because mosques in China don't look like mosques here. You know, they have varying designs. So if I manage to Bumble my way into a mosque, and they're praying there, and again, the one who's leading the prayer, he is speaking in Chinese. Again, I'll be at a loss as to what to do, when to do etc. So the Arabic only links Muslims wherever they are, and Hajj, the pilgrimage is the classic example, where Muslims come from all over the world, from Siberia, to Guatemala, you know, from
Alaska, to Philippines, and they all pray together. At the same time, the Arabic links them, and also because of the fact that the final message, the final scripture, the Quran, was revealed in Arabic, it is also an encouragement for all Muslims wherever they are, to read the revelation of God, as it was revealed, not just through translation, which is what most of us end up doing, but to encourage people to hear the revelation to understand it directly from God, as opposed to through intermediaries.
While a
very excellent presentation, and you talked about
the purpose of human beings
in this life and which is the submission to Allah.
But I just want to ask you like, what is the purpose of the, what is the purpose of creating this world of the god you know, like, he is exalted and
he is,
you know, much
higher
Then to
have this world created and worship for him, you know, he doesn't need all this if. And okay.
My friends question here
as to the purpose of God.
Why would God create a world?
A race of people to worship Him? When we all agree that he is not in need of worship? Why would he do that?
Well, the reality is that the worship of God is not for God.
As we agreed, God does need our worship, then obviously, that worship is not for him.
So what is the purpose of that worship? Who is it for?
Can somebody tell me?
Who is it for?
for ourselves,
our worshiping God is for ourselves, it is for our own benefit. God doesn't need our worship, whether we all worship them, or we didn't worship Him. It doesn't change God's state in any way. It doesn't harm him, it doesn't benefit him.
So the principle of worship is for us, to attain the state for which God created us.
For us to attain the state for which God created us, He created us for a state that is the state of Paradise,
the state of perpetual inner peace.
But he gave us a choice as to whether we
make that take that path and go there by
doing what is good, or whether we reject it, and leave it
by doing what is evil.
So the principle of worship is to help us to achieve what is good, because everything of worship,
every aspect of worship, is geared towards a moral good,
whether it is fasting, whether it is pilgrimage, whether it is charity, etc, all of it is geared towards developing in each and every one of us, the highest moral characters, characteristics that we can attain. That is why Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace be upon him It said, I was only sent to perfect for you, the highest of moral character traits. The essence of the message is a moral message. So prayer for example, mentioned in the Quran, God says there
in the Salatin, hand in
prayer, prevents evil speech and evil deeds. This is the purpose to remove to help us to restrain ourselves from evil speech and evil deeds. So the prayer the worship is for us as human beings
to attain the state for which God created us.
Okay, give another one a chance. Okay, because number of other people would like to and Otherwise Otherwise, we don't want to make it an individual discussion, right? You asked the purpose. I gave you an explanation. We'll get back to you on we'll get back to you. If nobody else wants to ask anything. Save that save the thought. We'll come back.
Okay, Doctor, my question is, can you interleague, the meditation meditation? And the second one is what to change? Now one question only. or two, okay, what to change mind or heart? What should we change the mind or the heart? Well, if we ask ourselves, what is the mind?
And we ask ourselves, what is the heart?
Of course, when we use the term heart, we're not talking about the organ in the body, which is pumping blood, because we can change those. We have the Java cart, which is an artificial one, right? When a person says you have a lot of heart, you know, we don't mean you got a big heart.
inside your body.
So when we're talking about heart and mind, we're talking about one and the same thing.
The mind, the expression, is the expression of the soul, really, the mind is the soul being expressed. We refer to it at times as the heart. And we refer to it at times as the mind. It is the you, the individual, that spirit, which God created. So we don't we don't have to go into a situation of which one should we change First, the heart or the mind? No.
We change the heart. And we change the mind. We change the mind, and we change the heart. They're one and the same. We only refer to them in different ways, under different circumstances.
So I'll
give the females a chance, please, as salaam alaikum.
Doctor, I have one question.
In your own perception, if you are a Muslim, they have an inner peace.
Question. I guess you all heard that, as a Muslim, did I find inner peace? Surely.
I was born a Christian raised a Christian, went to university became a communist,
experimented with Buddhism and Hinduism.
And when I found Islam,
I found
peace, peace in the sense that the way before me was now clear. Prior to that, it was confusion. I was trying to do a little of this, trying to do a little of that, not really knowing bumbling my way along, not being sure to try it, this is wrong.
What I found Islam, Islam brought to me a clarity, which gave me a sense of peace in terms of my own internal struggle and toil to find a way of life principles, which would guide me and guide those around me. Because I became a communist, not because I had any special liking for Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and the others. But because Marxism, communism, proposed
a state of inner peace, if we read into the writings of the Marxists, the communists, when they speak about the state, the communist state, where people will work according to their ability, and only take according to their need,
the state apparatus will fall away. No, governments know nothing. What is this? This is a state of angelic beings. I accepted, it sounded very beautiful.
Reality is something else
we have to do is look at the history, you know, of communism. And it's been a lot of massacres, you know, starting with Russia, to China to everywhere else.
So, it was a quest for a system which would produce a society in which justice would prevail.
And people could find a sense of peace in that justice, which brought me to communism.
And it was Islam, in which I actually found the principles fully enunciated, implemented at various points in time.
And applicable to myself. Now, it is a very important point now. Because in communism,
when or as a communist with my communist friends, when we had issues of morality, moral issues, where I felt really we shouldn't be doing this.
Others felt now we can
even if people agreed, they still wanted to do it.
And the common phrase that people would say is, after the revolution,
after the revolution will stop all these things, you know, but for now,
since the revolution has not been attained yet, you know, it's okay.
So the change the creation of that
New communist man could only take place after the revolution. Until that time came, people are going to be hardcore, you know,
Machiavellian, the ends justify the means types, right? And
one of the things that amazed me about Islam was that it said, Really you It begins and ends with you. If the whole world doesn't do it right, you are responsible to do it right? Not after you establish the Islamic State, not after the whole world becomes Muslim, maybe they never will know. You have to submit. You are responsible before God.
Salama Salam aleikum. Wa Alaykum
what I'd like to thank you first for a thought provoking speech. And I'd like to go back to an earlier comment
made about the fact that what you said applies University and applies to everybody, and probably
can be
applied twice, yes, apply to us and said by many others, I'd like to shed more light on what is unique to Islam in our search for inner peace. Thank you.
What is unique to Islam in the search? reality is that there is nothing unique.
The way had already been outlined by God to the very first human being on the face of this earth. Adam.
He was taught that way. Everything that was necessary to achieve inner peace was taught to him. That way of life that he lived
was Islam. He and his wife Eve lived with Islam. And it's only when people strayed away from that way.
And their lives became
in turmoil, their lives became disrupted.
They were misguided, satanic forces, beguiled them, deceive them, fooled them
that other prophets were sent to bring them back to that way of life. That way in which inner peace may be attained, so Prophet Mohammed, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, and on all of the prophets of God. He brought the final message of Islam, not unique and different, but only the final message in its completeness in a way, which would be protected by God till the last day of this world, it will be propagated and carried to all areas of the world and be made available to the vast majority of humankind.
The essence of the message is one in the same.
salaam aleikum wa alaikum Salaam. It's a fantastic evening and presentation which I believe sometime back in London for the same kind of presentation they asked for a ticket of 200 pounds per head, and I am getting it free of charge here as
good is the other way that I I owe anybody interested in this group to work with you in the future, so that we can find our path to search for inner peace become easy and accessible, rather than coming to a meeting and then going away and forgetting about
well,
my brothers or friends request here as to how you all any of you would like to continue this search to find the necessary information to help us in implementing the principles which would help us to achieve inner peace in this life. Work. Can we cooperate with you? Well,
I am a lecturer at the Qatar guests center. There are some pamphlets outside which explain where it is, what it's doing, etc. You're welcome to come there. We have
lectures, courses, a variety of different activities there, you're welcome to participate in them. And
if you have your own programs or activities that you're trying to do, and you would like me to partake of them with you to participate with you, then as long as my time permits, I would only be too glad to do so.
So I'm I can share,
Allah hi for this talk here. Just a brief question here. Can you please elaborate on how melot fear mammals that are dealing contribute toward the inner peace or achieving inner peace?
Rather, this question here friends question is that
how
one's social or financial dealings would help to contribute to inner peace? Well, if we consider
that the basis of modern finance is interest.
And God has prescribed in the Quran,
that interest is an evil
and evil, which he prescribed also prohibited also in the Torah,
prohibited by Jesus, and by all of the previous prophets. It is reaffirmed revived in the Quran,
it is a principle where it is applied, it brings peace to society's interest. financial dealings based on interest, only bring poverty, degradation and humiliation. If we look at the debt of the third world today,
which it is unable to pay, not even the interest on the loans they're able to meet.
Where because of this depths,
the First World demands of them things unfairly, demands rights which are not theirs, then we can say that we're the principle of non interest, financial dealings applied, it would bring great peace to the nations now under the yoke of the capitalist system in place in the world today,
the IMF, the World Bank, and these other institutions, which continue to force
loans in societies in such a way as to make them slaves to make their wealth, the prize to those financially stable nations.
If the interest laws
prescribed in the Torah,
the gospel
and the Quran were implemented, then, great peace would come to these nations.
And that's on a big scale.
We have just five minutes left if there is any more questions. Okay, before the question from the male side. Let's give a question from the female side.
Again, I have a question, because in your topic before when you're speaking about this Passion of Christ, I have one view of the Christianity that they believe that when Jesus Christ sacrifice for the world to save the sense of the world,
do you think this sacrifice for us will grant an inner peace but for me, in my own view, until now, some Christians still that have inner peace, about this sacrifice of Christ? Have they saved the world from seeing?
Well,
you're making a statement
and asking a question.
In terms of belief, as a Muslim, of course, I don't believe that Jesus was sacrificed.
The Quran states that he was not crucified.
FIDE,
nor was he killed. But it appeared that way to people.
He wasn't on the cross, he didn't die on the cross. So from a Muslim perspective, which I believe is the correct perspective,
the so called death of Christ
is only an excuse, which has been used by those who change the religion, which Jesus brought.
From what he taught to a new religion, which they call Christianity, which Jesus never called Christianity. They call it Christianity, and introduced a series of doctrines and beliefs,
which were at variance different from what Jesus taught. And central to that was that Jesus died to save the world, that salvation was no longer in the hands of the individual. I personally could not turn to God and repent, and God forgive him or her. And that's the end of it. No, the burden of sin was so great, according to this new set of beliefs, that no human beings repentance would be accepted. It required a defined sacrifice. So this is a whole set. That is the philosophy. Jesus never taught that. This is something made up after his time. And the story of his death became a central part of it.
But the teachings of the prophets, from
Abraham, to Moses to Jesus was that each and every human being has in his or her hands, the ability to attain salvation for themselves, without any intermediaries between themselves and God
is another question from the females.
So like, why they consider I just wanted to ask, I've met many Muslims from different parts of the world.
And the Muslims I have come across who seem to have attained in a peace definitely seem to be among the Sophie's and and I want to ask you, why is that was the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? Was he a Sufi in any way?
And can you elaborate on why as Muslims, we fast we pray, we do the five pillars, but we still don't seem to attain inner peace.
Okay, the question of those who appear to you to have attained inner peace? Well,
you know, when the Beatles went to India,
and they came across Ravi Shankar, or, what's his name, my Rishi yoga.
They it appeared to them that he had attained inner peace. And there are many people. Today we have Sai Baba, who claims that he is God incarnate. And those around him see him as attaining inner peace, those who go to his ashram, and do the rites that he teaches them, they seem to appear to have achieved inner peace. But the realities of inner peace are not necessarily external.
They're not necessarily external, it's not something that you can see on the outside. Now, we can all put on a show.
We can all put on a show an external show, but what is really happening on the inside, God alone knows. So if you find a group, which specializes in putting on the show, then don't be fooled by it into thinking that they actually have attained what they have shown.
We don't judge the book by its cover. This is only my advice for you in that regard. The reality
is that the prophet SAW Selim had said, The deliver who mixes with people and bears their harm patiently is better than the believer who doesn't mix with people or bear their harm.
Now
the Sufi way, encourages getting away from people because the people
affect your state, keep away from people, isolate yourself like a monk, go open a mountain someplace and meditate. You know, these kinds of
proposals are really not in keeping with the Islamic way that wasn't the way of the Prophet. He mixed with the people he bore their harm, and sorted his leading companions, etc. And they struggled, they strived, they had peace times of inner peace, and they had times of turmoil and struggle. That is the reality of the human being. So I would only say, don't be fooled by the cover of the book.
The speaker, there's just one last question and we have to wind up the session we are running short of time. Just one last question. Smaller. This is a question on the behalf of my non Muslim friends. Will God Is that why prophet promises Sonam? Is the last perfect? Don't you think that at this stage of the world also, God should have seen some other prophet. Thank you.
Okay, for those of you that couldn't hear the question, why is it that Muslims believe?
Or Yeah, why is it Muslim believe that Muhammad was the last prophet may God's peace be upon him, and on all the prophets,
or why God should send him as the last prophet? Well,
God knows best.
If he chose Muhammad, may God's peace must be upon him to be the last of the Prophet sent in this world, then he knows best that that's what was needed. If there was to be another prophet sent, then he would have sent one.
However, what we find is historically, prophets came after the message of the earlier prophets were lost. When their messages were lost and distorted, then new prophets were sent. However, because of the fact that Prophet Mohammed May, God's peace must be upon him was sent not only to the Arabs, as earlier prophets were sent to their limited areas due to transportation, communication factors, he was sent to the world, his message was carried to the world. And his message was preserved, as no other message prior had been preserved. They were all from God. But God had not chosen the earlier profits to be the last profits. So it was not necessary to preserve their messages. But in the case
of the final message, God says in the Quran, or in the hula, half his own, indeed, we will guard it, we are guardians of it, God has committed himself to God, the message has promised to guide that message. So it would remain as the final message to the world unchanged. And that's what we have experienced in 1400 years, the message has remained the same, the Quran remains unchanged. If we look at in the case of Jesus, within 100 years, or even less than 100 years after he came, his message was already changed.
So it's not surprising that God sent another messenger after him to clarify all the changes that were made and to bring people back to the clear truth, which he sent to all of the prophets and to preserve it as the final scripture to humankind.
barakallahu li comb thank you very much for coming. I appreciate your presence, your suggestions, your sharing, and I pray for all of your success and hope you pray for mine in achieving whatever we can have that inner peace salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.