The Declaration Of Faith
Date:
Channel: Bilal Philips
File Size: 20.28MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The segment discusses the confusion surrounding the concept of "has been revealeded" in Islam, which is distorted and comes from the belief that there is no God or object of worship. The importance of faith in Islam, including its use in achieving prayer, actions, and language appreciation, is emphasized, along with the need for privacy and privacy in media to avoid false accusations and the importance of following rules and actions to avoid false accusations. The speakers emphasize the need for men to be informed of their marital status before committing to anything, and for them to be aware of their emotions and let them be. They also mention the need for men to be informed of their emotions and avoid making false assumptions.AI Generated Transcript ©
100 in the head of the alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala rasulillah, Karim,
Allah Allah He was Sufi Minister nabeshima to Medina.
All praise is due to a lot, a lot of Peace and blessings beyond his last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and and all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day.
The topic of today's cookbook
was the Shahada tan, or the declaration of faith,
the declaration of faith, which states
I bear witness that there is no God, or no object of word of worship worthy of worship, besides the law. And I bear witness that Muhammad
is the Messenger of Allah, this declaration of faith forms the basis of Islam.
The foundation on which all of the other Pillars of Islam depends.
If this basis is not found,
then all of the rest of the acts of worship that a person may perform will be of no value.
And to the degree that is distorted, it is to that degree that the acts of worship have become devalued.
The reality is that today,
most people, or many people who consider themselves to be Muslim, have only the Shahada type, declaration of faith,
they have made this declaration and they feel that that is sufficient for them, to guarantee them paradise. And there is no need to do any other deeds beyond that.
So you will find
many Muslims in different parts of the world, who will not be establishing prayer, or fasting in Ramadan, you know, the various acts of worship, though they know them, they won't be doing so because they believe that when one declares one's faith, that is sufficient to get one to paradise. What has happened is that they have become deluded, as the Christians are deluded in believing that once one accepts Jesus
as being God, who came to the earth, and sacrificed himself for the sins of men, that that guarantees one paradise,
the majority of Christians, the Protestant, Pacific, you know all that, that guarantee is one paradigm, just that belief.
However,
this concept of faith
is one which is alien to Islam. Because when you look throughout the Koran, whenever Allah speaks about belief, you find that he always speaks about righteous deeds. After stating belief, he goes on to explain something of the righteous deeds, which are immediately attached to that belief, because faith without action is meaningless.
Faith has to produce some change that to produce some money, it must have some manifestation in the actions of the individual. Otherwise, that faith is just words. What has happened is that people have mixed up the concept of knowledge, and the concept of faith. Because you may have knowledge about a thing, but not have faith in it.
You may know that so and so is the case. Because that knowledge has come to you, you have knowledge about it. But because you haven't really accepted it in your heart, then you're not going to act on it.
When you have accepted it in your heart, and you are prepared to act on it, then that knowledge is translated into faith.
So this is the this is the correct Islamic concept of faith. When we say we believe that there is no God but Allah, we're talking about not just words that I've said,
but a concept which has been accepted in the heart,
which now will affect how we deal with our day to day life, how we deal with people how we deal in society, etc. This is face to face. And in Islam, Faith has to be preceded by knowledge.
So it's not that we're saying negate this knowledge and you just dealing with faith. No. Faith has to be preceded by knowledge, because you have to know who Allah is
so that you don't worship other than him.
If you don't know who Allah is, if it's mixed up in your mind as to who God is, you know, then you can end up worshiping his creation and think you're worshiping God like the Christian.
You know, when you ask them, why are you worshiping Jesus and say, well, we're not worshiping Jesus, the man who worshiping God who became the man.
So they're mixed up in their minds, they don't have knowledge and really who God is. And because of that, they can end up worshipping Him and believing at the same time that they're worshiping God. Similarly, the Hindus, when you ask them, why are you worshiping this idol? You know, the knowledgeable amongst them will tell you listen, we're not worshipping the idol itself, this object that we made by our own hands, we are worshipping God who is manifest
in this idol.
So there again, deluded their their concept of who God is,
is distorted. And so it has led them to worshiping his creation.
So in from an Islamic perspective, one has to have knowledge of who God is,
after understanding that, what is required of us, then we commit ourselves emotionally to it.
And the end result is what we call faith,
in the true sense, knowledge,
followed by an emotional commitment to that knowledge to act on that knowledge.
When the emotional commitment proceeds that knowledge, then
you may end up worshipping, as I said, anything
believing at the same time that you are, in fact, worshiping a lot. Now, when we look at the Shahada time,
the two declarations of faith,
the first part,
bearing witness that there is no God, but Allah.
It consists of two parts in itself.
One we say la ilaha. That is, there is no God. And what will do we mean by God,
whatever becomes an object of worship, whatever we submit our wills to,
this is the god
it could be our desires.
An individual who just does whatever his desires tells him, what his desires, his become his God.
It could be money.
One who will do anything, to get ahold of money, sell him soft, sell his wife, his sister, whatever,
kill, cheat, steal, whatever, for money, and money has become in God.
The God can be in many different forms doesn't necessarily have to be an object like we think in terms of worship, you're praying to directly No, because the law doesn't apply. And have you seen the one who takes his desires and got
them I said, you know that the worshipper of the dear half, that is of money,
will be wretched.
So, the first part of the declaration of faith, we negate
that there exists in creation,
any object
deserving of our worship,
deserving that we be submitted, that we become slaves up
and this includes cigarette
smoking.
We have talked before about the fact that smoking is prohibited islamically speaking, because of the fact that it is
harmful to the body, it will kill you. The medical profession, have shown it to be a direct cause of cancer.
And on that basis, it becomes haram for him to take something which you know, will kill you because this is now an act of suicide.
But from another point of view, a person who smokes who becomes addicted to smoking what has happened, he has lost his will. He can't give it up. He is so attached to the thing. It now controls him he knows it's harmful. He reads on the package, it says this will harm your health.
But it has no effect on it, because he has submitted his will
to
cigarettes.
He has become a slave of the cigarettes,
which is one of the reasons why cigarette smoking is prohibited anything which will
cause us to lose and give up our will to this is something that the Muslim has to avoid.
The second part of that declaration is in law law.
That is, except Allah, we have denied that there is nothing in creation, worthy of submitting ourselves to as slave, submitting our wills to accept a lot.
And when we say a lot,
as I said before, we have to be clear on who is Allah.
Allah
is the Creator of the universe
with one
in the pure essence,
and the unique essence,
there is nothing similar to him in any way.
Nothing of this creation has the attributes of a law, nor does the law have the attributes of anything in this creation.
And he is the only one
who answers our prayers.
If there's a law alone, who answers our prayers, therefore, when we make this declaration, it
implies certain things.
If this declaration is true, then it implies certain things.
One, primarily, that Allah is the only one who will worship.
Because if he is the only one who answers our prayers,
then he is the only one who shouldn't be watching. So we believe he is the only one, then he is the only one who we will work.
And this is what is fundamental to worship in Islam, that worship is directed only to Allah.
We have nothing between ourselves and Allah.
There's no switchboard operators, we have to go through to get to a law. We pray to a law directly, a lot of federal need to develop a call on me and I will answer him.
This is Alaska.
So no one
can carry our prayers to allow for us. We pray directly to Allah alone.
And this was what was understood by the pagans.
When the Prophet Mohammed Salah, came to them and brought the concept La ilaha illAllah.
They understood that this meant canceling all of their gods, gods who were intermediaries who they believe that they said, The Buddha in law is known for who would bring us closer to these gods, they believe we're not alone. They didn't think that the gods were alone. But they believed that these gods would bring them closer to a law, they're sort of mean, like the saints of the Catholics
would bring them closer to a law. But when the government was on them came with this. No, they said, A Jalan in an alley illa handwash hidden in the heart of Michigan or job is he saying this is Mohammed I summed up his he tried to make all the gods into one.
You know, this is surely a strange, weird
claim.
They understood
that La la la la men, canceling all other gods.
So when we look around the Muslim world, and we see the proliferation
of things,
people who are praying to individuals who they have designated as saints
being of a higher and pure status than the average human being, as is claimed, and truly, people are on different levels. There were individuals of the past that there are individuals of the presidents who are more righteous, who have avoided more thin than the average person.
But the fact that they have done so does not put them on any kind of level, whereby they now have the ability to carry your prayers to allow for you know,
this has not been designated by a lot.
And what we find also is the proliferation of brainwashing
connected to the saints worship devoid to the Muslim world. And you'll find in many places, every Masjid will have a great finish.
The courtyard outside of it all right inside of the grave of somebody who they have designated people have designated overtime as being a thing.
And people will go to this grave, and they will perform acts of worship in the grave, did go to Egypt. They have the grave of what they call sejanus, Xena,
and they do tawaf around the grounds you go there you'll see people right now making power up just like they make around the Kaaba, no circumambulating the car bugs, they're not to worship
They're, they're making tough one around this.
And you'll find Muslims slaughtering animals, enough for the people in the grave.
bringing food, you know, just like how the Hindus and the others will go to their idols, they bring food and place food there, and
you'll find Muslims doing this around the Muslim world.
Now, can they be doing this, while believing their allies, the only one once is oppressed?
What is the difference between their acts and the acts of the Hindus and the others?
virtually there is no difference.
So this is telling us clearly that no people are claiming
that they declare their faith
that in fact, their practices have negated that
the fact that a person declared Smith does not automatically mean that nothing can negate it truly, when you make that declaration of faith, you know, I bear witness that there is no God, no object of worship, worthy of worship, except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, this takes one interface, very simple. You know, there's no baptism and set of rights that you have to go through to become a Muslim person, you make that declaration, you're in Islam.
But you start to worship a saint, and you're back out again.
You know, just as simply as you can come in, you can go out just as simply.
So let us not
be fooled.
Those of us who are born
in Muslim families and raised as Muslims practicing these acts, which in fact, are classified according to Islamic
polytheism.
That we are, in fact, Muslim simply because our parents were Muslims,
or because we have claimed
that we believe
in a law and the messenger.
And this declaration of faith
requires us
to establish prayer.
Because the law talks about those who truly believe, as those who repent and established prayer,
such become our brothers in faith.
If we believe
that Allah is the one who answers our prayers,
and we know, as we live from day to day,
that there are so many things that we need and we want,
then the only way to attain these things, ultimately, is to turn to align. It doesn't mean that we don't make any effort on our part, of course, we have to strive, we have to make some effort to gain the things that we want of this life.
The things that we want the next slide. However, it is a law, who ultimately gives our actions success
allows them to come into fruition, it is the so therefore, we have to turn to him and
that comes automatically, with the declaration of faith. So prayer cannot be separated from that declaration of faith. This is why everything else and in Islam is built on the declaration of faith, because they're all expressions of that declaration of faith.
Similarly, zeca,
paying compulsory charity
of 2.5%, on the wealth that we have accumulated over a year,
this is a part of that declaration of faith.
And
to show you that, we know after the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Allah, when some people refuse to face the, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam for the
two couples against
to make them pay, submit.
And they insisted that there was no difference. One could not separate between
summer and zecca.
Internet
because if we believe that Allah is the Creator of all things, the wealth that we have, it was created by him. It was given to us by him
and he is the one who will reward us
depending on how we use it.
Then are we going to resist giving up with what Allah has
commanded us for asthma
If we really believe that, we believe that when we take money from our money,
though it may seem to decrease in quantity,
when we give it according to the commandments of a law, then it is increased in reward.
What we have given a stored up in reward for us and what we have remaining is blessed by Allah.
If we believe that it is from Allah that we must believe, and if we believe that then we must give Zakat
and the amount quoted
a situation in which happened yesterday, one of the scholars of the early generation Muslim scholars
was out, you know, that people say
that whoever says Laila Allah will enter Paradise. Actually, the prophet bombers SLM said that
men call a nine out of a lot.
Whoever says law in the law will enter five.
But what does this mean?
Does it mean that if we say Milan, Milan,
and
we worship, idols,
or intermediary,
we disobey a law through our lives, rejecting all the principles of Islam, etc. We've said law, law law enterprise.
This is why in another statement of the problems, I felt like he did add
a clarifying phrase, my partner like that Lola, mocha, listen, you can be
whoever says, lilan law sincerely, from his heart interspire.
So truly, if we say, sincerely from the heart, meaning that it is
real
knowledge and commitment, which naturally must be manifest in our action, this is what happened with Buffy when he was asked this question, he said the people that
whoever says Laila a lot, but then applies what Laila, Allah implies.
Whatever is undestood, whatever follows from lilan the law, they apply it, they do it, yes, they will enterprise.
And another person was out of the early scholars
isn't nine nine, the law,
the key to paradise.
And he said, Yes. But every key has to
know the key, it has these little points which make the key operate. So if you come with a keen eye, no teeth, well, you're not going to be able to open the door.
So that's like, the teeth are like the application
of the meaning of lilandra law. So if you're not applying it,
you have a key without teeth, it won't open the door.
It is essential for us,
as Muslims,
to keep in mind
that our declaration of faith
is not the set of words that we parrot
five times a day.
In each of our prayers,
we go through the section of the prayer called the shotput. We make that declaration. we renew it.
At the end of our
departments Our solemn thoughts is that at the end of will do we should make the declaration of faith. So we're doing it numerous times.
But this is not a set of words which we just parents.
Just repeat from our lips, like a parrot.
What
a commandment
to action
based on knowledge and true faith.
The second part of the declaration of faith.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah from the law. Why do you send them?
This is accepting Muhammad is Allah as being the Messenger of Allah.
As all the people before us, were required to bear witness that the messengers who were sent to them
were the messenger
jurors have a lot
whether it was a PSA, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, David, whoever, of the prophets, those who we know and those who don't know, who attend to all of mankind, they all came
with a declaration of faith which had two parts.
The first part which we talked about accepting a law, as the one true God, deserving of worship, etc,
and the other part, accepting them
as being the Messenger of Allah.
Why was that necessary?
It was necessary, because
the message
was demonstrated by the messenger.
Law sent messengers, to show people how to apply law in law.
The declaration of faith in a law has to be applied, as we said, but how to apply it correctly. It was left up to the human being, he can end up worshiping, as we said, Before trees, animals, people, etc, etc.
So it was the job of the messenger, to show the application of lion and the law
in human life.
And this is how we would understand for example, the statement, which is commonly quoted by Christians, you know, you tried to explain to them that Jesus was a messenger of Milan, they want to insist No, he was God, and we should worship Him, or through him. They will say, that Jesus said, I am the light, and the way,
no one comes to the Father, except by me.
They commonly,
however, what we would say is that if Jesus, in fact, did say this,
was said, by all of the puppets,
Allah even tells Prophet Mohammed, Mila peace and blessings be upon him, to say to the people, as he said,
This is my way.
This is the way to Allah.
If we follow that path, we will be truly submitting to a life we do not, then we will despite following the path of Satan.
So the only way to Allah to God was the way in which the prophets brought.
So all of the prophets commanded the people to follow their way. And that's what we would understand from that statement of Jesus, if, in fact, he did say
that he was saying, to worship me, but to go my way,
the way of the Prophet
and
this declaration of faith
in relationship to the Prophet Muhammad,
it means that we will obey
whatever he has commanded
a lot in
my youth Rasul Allah,
whoever obeys the messenger has obey the law. This is why we OBEY Him.
Not because he was divine, or semi divine.
No, he was a human being like any one of us, in the sense that we are human beings, but
he was a righteous human being who received revelation from Allah. And that's what makes him in a different category.
The reception of Revelation. So that what he said,
was, in fact, revelation from a lot of the law said,
Well, my anticline in our in who in the Washington you have, what he speaks is not from his own design. It is revelation which he has received from Allah. So that's why we OBEY Him. That's why we must obey.
That's what that's the Shahada section of the Shahada. The declaration of faith means that we will obey Him in whatever he commands, because what he's commanding us is from Allah.
That was the purpose of the miracles that were given to the Prophet, to demonstrate to the people, all of the prophets receive miracles, miracles, which were specific to the people of their time, which demonstrates it to the people
That those individuals were in fact, prophets of Allah. That wasn't the show of people or to confuse people into thinking that they were alone. No. That's why when Jesus made the dead, come to life,
or the lame walk, or the blind, see, he would always let the people know that this was by the will of Allah.
Not by his will, but by the will of Allah. This was just to demonstrate to show people, otherwise people would, you know, there are always people claiming prophets with claiming that they're from a law, whatever, you have a lot of people claiming the rights that they should be followed.
So how do we know
when somebody comes
with evidence,
the miracle,
then that is clear evidence for us that this person is in fact, sent by a law.
What you found is that the various miracles which are given to the prophets, they were in accordance with the areas in which the people to whom they were sent, excelled. By Prophet Moses was sent to the Egyptian, the Egyptians were known for magic. The Magician amongst them was amongst the highest in the strata of the society,
they became almost objects of worship, next to the Pharaoh.
So Allah gave him miracles, which were similar to what the people were doing. But on another class in itself. This is why a lot isn't the crime, then when the magician threw their staff down and determined to snakes.
And Moses drew his stuff down, and it turned into a snake, and it ate the snakes of the others.
For the people standing back, this was evidence that what Moses had was stronger, was greater than what these magicians had. But for the magician, there was evidence that he was a messenger of a lot. So they all fell down in frustration, because they knew that what they were doing was illusion, there was only made to seem to the people that these staff that they threw on the ground, were, in fact, fix.
But they didn't change into snakes, really. whereas in the case of Musa alayhis, salam,
what he threw down became a snake. And then you will, this is beyond their power, they're not able to cause a change in nature, only they were able to delude people into thinking it took place, whereas Moses stopped became a snake. So they knew this was not the work of a man.
So they submitted. Similarly, Prophet Isa was sent to the Jews, the Jews were noted for medicine.
To this day, the leading doctors in the various fields, large numbers of them are Jews.
They specialize in these fields, medicine,
on a world scale is a very key field.
Because if you are the surgeon,
then it means the president is likely to have to come under your hand.
If your numbers are few, and you want to be able to control the society, and you control the medical profession, it means those people who are against you can eliminate
you're in that key position.
So they're specialized in
their numbers are far out of proportion to the proportion that they represent in the American society.
And historically, they have been specialists in medicine, they would take your personal book his knee and
fix the splint or whatever, person who got sicknesses of the eye, they would, you know, get some medicines, Herbes, whatever and helped to cure the sickness.
A person who got so sick, they were almost about to die, they would prepare medicines which helped them
seemingly to
remain alive. But what Allah gave proper Jesus was that he made a person who was born late mother personal book, his leg, but one was born with a crooked foot.
It made him able to walk something the doctors couldn't do.
He made the one who was born blind. But the one whose back was going from sicknesses that he was born without sight, made him sick.
And then he didn't catch the one who was just getting sick was a pain to die. But the one who was that everybody said he's dead, he made him come back.
So the miracle that he was given was beyond the abilities of the doctors to show us that people that he was, in fact, a messenger of a lot. And of course we believe in miracles which even the Christians don't know about.
That Jesus, for example, spoke as a newborn baby in the cradle.
medical care
And that not only did he bring the dead back to life with that he took clay molded into the shape of a bird blue on it, and it flew away a living bird.
But the thing is, he said, By the will of Allah.
But this was to demonstrate to the people. Similarly, Prophet Mohammed Abdullah, there were miracles which took place in his time, we know of the splitting of the moon, in Mecca,
as assigned to the people,
a lot of cars the moon to split before there is one falling to one side, one half, one half wanted to the other side,
to demonstrate to them.
But of course, you know, people have always those who refuse even what their eyes tell them
what their hearts know to be true, because they don't want to submit they don't want to follow, they'll find some exclusively the magician, as
well, of course. And there were many other miracles also that performed,
confirming for his, with his followers and the people around him that he was a prophet of Allah. But he had because of the fact that he was the last of the profit. There Were None to come after him. He also had a miracle, which would not only
show the people in his time that he was a prophet of Allah, but which would remain for people for all time, so that we in this time can see that miracle. Because if we were asked to believe in the miracle of the splitting of the moon, or pop mommy by someone, or they bring into life from the dead of Prophet Isa,
or the turning of the staff into a snake for profit Moosa and miracles and the other prophets, if we're to believe in that we're asked to believe, and it's kind of hard, we didn't see it. First is like hearsay.
So a miracle was left, which would stand until the end of time, for people
to see with their own eyes, to be able to comprehend that Mohammed, Salah was the Messenger of Allah.
And that is the Quran.
The Quran, which is a miracle in itself,
a literary miracle,
a miracle, which could not be imitated.
The challenge is there in the plant. A lot of times if you do not believe that this is from Allah, then produce one chapter like, smaller chapter in requirements
for first
three verses
in English when we read it,
if we read that challenge, and we read it in English, with a surely we could find Shakespeare, who could make a better three verses than these, I mean, they're pretty good use the valleys. Three are pretty good. But Shakespeare or Chaucer, or you know, some of the famous English poets, I'm sure they could do better than this. Why is the miracle, the miracle is not in the English.
As I said, he revealed an Arabic,
Arabic leading
to choir and the miracle lies in Arabic. This is why we as Muslims are strongly advised, strongly encouraged, not only to learn enough Arabic to say our prayers, but to learn Arabic, so that we can taste
the miracle.
We can
feel
the words of a law as they were revealed.
Because this challenge, which was in Arabic,
was presented before the pagan hours.
And they had every reason to meet this challenge, because you have different kinds of challenges. You may have a challenge, which, for example, is a nonsense challenge. If I stood there and said, I'm greater than President Bush, and I dare President Bush to prove it.
The mountains challenge President Bush, if he heard that, below Phillips in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh said that he's greater than him, he's not going to go out of his way to prove that he is greater than I am.
Who am I?
So such a claim is I mean,
no need to prove it.
Now the claim of the arm was one where there was need to prove it. Because
what the Quran was calling to was a threat to the existence of Mexican society as it was.
Mecca has become not only the religious center of Arabia, because the Arab that all brought their idols there and they were all around the Kaaba,
House of Worship built by Prophet Abraham,
surrounded by idols, over 360 out of them were their become the center of worship,
of idolatry for Arabia. So Arab tribes used to come there until
image, so uncoming on pilgrimage, they would bring goods with them to trade etc. So the Arabs of Mecca had become the middleman of trade in Arabia, and then become economically, you know, very
well off. Very comfortable. There rich.
So when you're talking about destroying all the idols, what are you talking about? threatening their economics.
When you threaten a man's economics, he's ready now to fight. And that's what happened. The beginnings of Mecca. They wanted to stop the Prophet Muhammad doesn't live at all costs.
They tried everything. They offered him money, and said, Listen, if it's money you want, we will collect some of our money and make you the richest man in Mecca.
There is women,
we will take our most beautiful woman give them
because then they have polygamy without any restrictions. You could have 100 wives if you want.
Just please
Stop fussing. We don't. We're not even saying you don't have to give it up in terms of your own personal belief, but just stop telling people about it.
They tried to boycott for a couple of years, they boycotted him and his whole family tried to starve them to death.
So the only thing that was loved they said, Okay, listen, this is it. Now, we all have to get together make a plan. We get young men from each of our tribes, they get together to get to his house and the kingdom in his bed, everybody doing it at the same time, so that no one tribe would be blamed because in Arabia, you know, the tribal warfare,
you know, something which would go on for generations to do something gets my tribe, my tribe will not rest until they get back at you. And it will go on from generation to generation to generation. And the tribe of the public is a fairly powerful tribe. So they didn't none of the other tribes wanted to, you know, create that kind of problem for myself as individuals, but they figured if we all do it together, we send young men from each of our tribes, and they all take pride in killing him, then baru Hashim, the chairperson would not be able to take on all of us.
So they just have to accept it. So they made the plan, but a law had problems on the knee.
Went to Medina, but they weren't satisfied. It's not enough that they
left Mecca, they still have to go together, that they got their armies together to go to media to try to kill him in Medina. They wanted him to stop, finish him off.
Now, we're in doing all this and all the battle, they lost a lot of lights.
If all they had to do was to produce three verses, and that would prove that he wasn't a prophet of Allah that the Quran was just a fake.
You think that they're going to give that up and do all these other things. Of course, it's much easier to do that. And don't doubt that they didn't try. Of course, they couldn't do it. And because of that, they used to tell the others in Mecca. If you hear Mohammed
Salim or any of his followers reciting the Quran, stick your fingers in your ears.
They're magicians
that, you know how they cast the spell over you.
So that's what they would
avoid being enchanted by the crime. And they loved I mean, the poetry and prose they loved.
I mean, they loved it to the point that they worship
that content
in various times, and the parts where they would bring people from all over the country who would recite the poetry and their prose and they compete with each other. And the ones which were the greatest, the seven best ones, historically, they loved them so much. They wrote them in gold, and they hung them on the wall of the carpet
became objects of worship loved.
So they had a high sense of appreciation, those people tend to think of the arts as being like, wow, you know, just desert folk, you know, but at the same time, they had developed a very high level of language and language appreciation of eloquence.
And when they heard the quote,
I mean, they knew what eloquence were, they knew this was beyond anything that they could do.
The level of language and language appreciation, eloquent.
And when they heard the Koran,
I mean, they knew what eloquence was, they knew this was beyond anything that they could do.
So what was left for them, as I said, was to say that he's a magician. Don't listen to it.
I was, but this was the miracle, which would stand until the day of judgment that anybody you read, agree, for example, operate as an orientalist, none will be translated to you read the introduction.
Read what he has to say about the class, as a non Muslim, who mastered Arabic translated it into
his praise of the Koran, you would say, this man must be a must,
you must read, he was hiding it, because you have people in the West know for fear of their positions, etc, you know, have accepted Islam, but have kept it quiet.
But the point is that when you read it, you see the effect that it's had on and you talked about the symphony, that he heard the beauty that touched him to the deepest, you know,
core of his heart.
When he was down in time, he had problems, you know, he had problems with his work or whatever he would go and
read.
Like this would change his whole mood and, you know, have this almost magical effect.
That miracle, of course, Allah has also put in the grind person, others. But we now look at as the scientific miracles of the crime, were a lot of talks about things 1400 years ago, which nobody could perceive.
It is not until these times that we've developed microscopes and telescopes, etc, etc, we're able to understand what these verses are saying.
This is there.
For those of us who cannot read Arabic, at least, that miraculous aspects of the Quran is still there. For those who can't read Arabic with can honestly come to the Quran and see
the presence of God in the choir.
So that miracle, a problem as I tell them is four,
to require evidence, that he was a messenger of Allah. And as such, we are obliged to obey Him, and whatever he has commanded us to do, and whatever he has prohibited us from doing.
Because we believe
you as a messenger of Allah, and what Allah has commanded is what is good for us. And what is limited is what is harmful for us.
But we are also required by our declaration of faith, to believe whatever he has informed us of the future,
the prophecies,
whatever he is informed us of the past,
because he didn't make this stuff up. This was revealed to him by a lot.
Of course, for many of us who follow the prophecies and read in the collections of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed Salah, which we call the Hadees. There are many things which he spoke of, which we have seen come to light in our own time.
And there are many more things he has spoken of, which are yet to come.
And finally, this declaration of faith also means that we will not attempt to worship a law
in any way, which he did not do.
We will not attempt to worship a law in any way, which he didn't.
Allah sent him as the guide
the things which will bring us closer to Allah because anytime you do something, believing that it is pleasing to Allah, or that it will bring us closer to a law, this thing that you're doing is an act of worship.
And the province as Solomon said, matter act,
in a law in order to convey I have not left anything, which will bring you closer to a law without commanding you to do
so if somebody comes to you and says,
Let us celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
We asked that person
then the Prophet Muhammad wa salam celebrations.
He said no.
Did he tell people to celebrate his birthday? He said no. Did his companions celebrate his birthday? He said No. Then why are we celebrating his birthday?
Because you know a nice you know, something pleasing to Allah. Good. Remember, the prophet
said what
if it was something
Which was pleasing to Allah, then praqma was our Salah would have been the first to tell us to do it, and his companions would have been the first to do it.
So obviously, no, we might imagine that it is pleasing to Allah.
It is. In fact, it is something displeasing to Allah.
And of course, when we go around the world, we find Muslims celebrating the public diversity, celebrating it to the point where they have parties,
where they're playing music, and dancing and singing songs, and even drinking alcohol.
taking drugs,
in the celebration of the Prophet spread, you know, like Christmas,
like Christmas, for the Christians who celebrate the birthday of suppose the birthday of Jesus, where they're doing all these things,
you find looked into doing the same thing.
By disobeying the Prophet masala, knowing what he did not command us to do, we will deviate and that clear evidence of that deviation.
And I know many of you here from Philippines, you know, in the Philippines, it has been declared a national holiday. Right? Yo would not be
they have the Muslim fought hard that the government would give them this day, since the Christians are Christmas we should have a day.
Because it is not our job to compete with the Christians. With that they have won, we should have won
that our job, we have a weight, which is brought by the Messenger of Allah, that's what we follow. It doesn't matter if others are doing this or others are doing that. We don't try to follow them. Because proper asylum prophesied, you will follow the way of the people before you the Christians and the Jews.
Step by step inch by inch. So much so that if they went into a lizard hole and this hole in the ground and hides in it, but if they went in that hole, you're going to be crawling enough.
he prophesied.
And this is what we see come to pass.
So many Muslims around the world, the difference between what they're doing and what the pagans are doing? Very, very little. Only they call themselves Muslims, the other ones calling selves Hindu or when
you look at it,
or tragic calamity, which has befallen much of the Muslim world, especially in the area of indo Pakistan, Sri Lanka, these type of places where the Hindu practices that if you want to marry a woman, the woman's family has to give you wealth, give you a house and a car and money and
because the dollar is for them.
And because families will promise them
sometimes you're not able to fulfill the promises every year in India, you have hundreds and hundreds of women who are set on fire by their their in laws. They call Dr. Bernie,
the phenomenon in India, because the husband and the in laws are upset because you didn't bring the stuff that they promised from their family. So they set them on fire, throw gasoline on them and light them up.
Guess what? The Muslims of India also
when they get married,
the father of the bride, the women they have to provide
and the men who are going to get married their demand.
Money car how
so now you see here are Muslim brothers from this part of the world. The brother will be crying so I got six sisters.
My father is dead.
He has to work the rest of his life to try and get two sisters married.
Brothers gray hair you know the guy is almost in the grave. You still haven't gotten married to try to play off just to get nice.
This is calamity which has been fallen.
And the result of this also is that when a man has a doctor
he's upset.
The problem is buses.
He's obsessed with his wife if you've got a girl What do you do that for me and what will happen is he has a boss he has a son. You know he will he will look after his son much better than in doctor
because the doctor is a problem.
deserving
because
like going back to pre Islamic tax, when the Arabs truly they didn't like doctors either to kill the doctor.
So we see anytime we deviate
from the path and we follow the paths of those pagans who live around us, then it ends up being a calamity for us.
And we have statements of the early scholars,
like Malika Nana's, who was the,
to whom the Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence is attributed to, he had said, sitting in Medina, in the master of the Prophet Muhammad, our fellow
next, which was the
tomb of the prophet SAW where he was buried. And
he said, all of us, for himself and all of the other scholars, and
we're committed,
we're capable of committing errors, and we need to commit except
the one who is very
different
in that he was protected by a law from errors, which would mislead
the community.
Not that he never made any errors. Because he did.
He made errors of judgment.
And the law corrected those errors.
So his errors became education to the oma. He didn't mean the problem was I tell him to make a mistake.
And his mistakes were not the kind of mistakes Of course, when we think of errors, where you're becoming sinful, you're disobeying a lot. It's knowing his mistakes with choosing
good when there was better
than a fan. Not that he was choosing evil over good. You have to be clear on that too, right. But choosing something which he thought to be good, was really another choice was a better choice to allow it correctly. But no, this one that you made, was not the better choice, it was really that choice
as a prop.
And we also have the statements of a sharpie, the one to whom the Jaffray School of Islamic jurisprudence is attributed, you know, in which he said that it was agreed upon by all the scholars of his time that if one hurts
an authentic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad SAW someone that believe that and follow somebody whose opinion this was major deviation.
This was stepping outside the bounds of Islam.
The words of the prophets of Salaam has to be given precedence over any human words of any human being.
And Imam Ahmed made similar statements, he said, You know, he was very surprised that
people would be told about statements of a law.
And they would be going to check the opinion of soufiane authority or, you know, the other scholars have decided, well, what's your opinion what's up and but a lot of them disclaimer, this is this brings to mind the issue of interest.
Right, you know, where a lot says in the Quran,
that
it is prohibited.
Whoever insists on dealing in it,
is cursed by Allah, he and his prophet have declared war against
that when this command is reached, we are to give up what remains
to us of interest, take our principles, what we invested, which was originally our take it out and leave the rest.
But you have people today who will tell you,
fatwas rulings have been made that if you have money in the bank,
and you take your money out, and there is interest remaining, if nothing, you take this interest
and you give it to poor people or use it to to build latrines for the mop, something, don't leave it because
if you leave it behind this bank will take it and donate it to the Christian organizations that are trying to spread missionary work into your countries and
see all these lines of human reasoning. And of course, this is pleasing to people the idea that you have extra money there you take it out, you don't leave it you find people with these
people who go and take these opinions. When it's clear in the Quran, I mean, in no uncertain words, a lot says, leave what remains to you of interest. Leave it.
You're going to leave a lot of words and go to the optimism.
What are you looking for?
seeking destruction
You know, a lot said yesterday in Edina, your holy tsunami knows who
the commandments of the Prophet of the law
should be where that a calamity will befall them
or they will end up in hell.
So we have to be very careful.
Because truly, if you look hard enough, you will find somebody who will give you a ruling which is pleasing to you.
This is why the scholars are unanimous in prohibiting us from following concessions. In other words, you go from one school of thoughts one scholars work because you're looking for, you know, a support for what you want to do. In other words, you're not going into an issue, you're going to research a problem, you want to find the solution, right? You're not going in to find the truth. You have already what you want to do and you're going looking for somebody will say you can do it.
Because yes, you can find people who made fatwa that says it's okay for a woman to wear a miniskirt. As long as she wears dark stockings underneath.
You find some people who will because medicine
Whatever you're looking for, you will find somebody.
So it is about seeking the truth.
Looking forward, the prophet Mohammed Salim said, what a law said, and how this was explained by the early generations of Islam, whom the Prophet x alum declared to be the best of generation.
And Abu hanifa was also reported to upset if I not if you find an authentic happiness, this is really my
opinion, this is the way that I wanted to go. In other words, he knew it wasn't possible for him to find all of the authentic IDs of his time, because college was widespread to have I gone through different parts of the competitive process of monetarism across different parts of the oma and it's carried with them statements of the profits. And it was not possible for one in in a limited area in those times to gather all of these to come to the complete and correct position. So they made the best of what was available to them knowing full well that there could be other more correct statements of the Prophet Muhammad Rasul Allah elsewhere. So they let the people know that's really
what they did was based on their own limited knowledge. And that really, in fact, whenever we find something, which is in fact, the authentic statements of the problems or some of them, then that is what we should actually follow.
So all that caused us to recognize in the second part of the declaration of faith, that Mohammed wa salam is the one who we follow
blindly.
The only human being who we are obliged to follow blindly, everybody else requested, also said, What did we say? What is your evidence for this? Please, brothers, you know,
not that we are going to be disrespectful
to say, Who are you to say this? No,
we
were not any one of us the source of all knowledge, we can always learn something new. So we have to be open to hear from our brothers, from the scholars, especially among them, who are gathered and spent their life and spent time and effort to gather this knowledge to convey to us, we have to depend on them. But we do not depend on them blindly.
We look to see and we ask them for the evidence for what they're saying. So we're following them based on knowledge, to the degree that our limited knowledge is able to understand.
But for Prophet Mohammed Arsalan, he said, don't do we don't
do
we don't quit. We may seek to understand the wisdom in it, etc. But this is not the finding of that wisdom does not become a factor of whether we follow or we don't know. We follow if we find the wisdom humbler great This improves our understanding to help us to understand it better to to be you know, behind it more actively more committed to it, but we don't stop until we find out No.
He said it when a fly falls in any of you or drink tickets, a milk fly falls in it, duck it in and then throw it out. Because under one wing is poison sickness. And under the other wing is obscure. Now we know flies, flies are carrying disease
flyswatter you think you want to throw away the drink?
Right.
But we believe
that what the prophet Muhammad wa sallam told us
though we may not have found it
This point in time, where is the antidote in the fly for the sicknesses with the fly carrier? We believe that what he said is true.
And so
we follow the advice.
Of course, it doesn't mean if you throw away the milk, that you've now left Islam,
clarify that for those of you that are not ready to deal with this point, right? This means you've left Islam if you did it right. But
one have a stronger faith, a sign of stronger faith is that one is prepared to comply, to follow the guidance and advice of the Prophet
believing Because ultimately, you see two people do the same thing.
And one gets an effect from it. And another one that
this is the example you have, though, we know the medical sciences told us smoking cigarettes produces cancer.
Yet you will find that an article by one woman in China was 120 years old or 115 years old. And they asked her what is the secret of your, you know, good help? Did I smoke a cigar every day? I've been doing it from the time I was 12.
It wasn't the Detlef celigo. But yes, he is healthy. You know, people loved him 15 years old smoking
the guy every day.
This is the greatness of Allah.
That though, we see a cause and effect happening here.
And this is the case for most people, if allowed to get tested, no matter what you do, you're not going to get it.
But we are obliged in this life, to act according to cause and effect.
If the evidence from cause effect shows that most people when they take this, they die, and we are supposed to assume that this will kill. And we act according to that. But we recognize ultimately, that it is with a law, whether you die.
So we follow
it whatever he has commanded.
We do not worship, except in the ways that he has fought.
And we believe whatever he has informed us of the past or the future,
because it all
came from Allah.
So in summary,
the basis of our faith
is that declaration of faith,
that there is no object of worth of worship, worthy of our worship, besides a law, the one true God,
who is the one alone who answers our prayers.
And as such, he is the only one to whom we should pray
and submit ourselves to them.
And we also bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
was the last messenger of Allah, nun to come up to him, what he brought was from Allah, and we are obliged to follow his way. Because the only way
to Allah to submit ourselves
in such a way which is pleasing to a law, which will earn this paradise is the way which he brought.
And we have to not only understand that, theoretically,
but we have to take it to heart
and act on it.
In accordance with it.
So when we see a person who says this, we are people who say our actions reflect
non Muslims, this believers will ask, why are you doing?
You're doing it because of your submission to Allah.
You become
by submitting to Allah
to the Messenger of Allah,
you become a beacon of light in the world of God.
You believe that
and you follow that light, which is from Allah.
there any comments
any of you would like to make on the topic caused by anything concerning the declaration of faith which perhaps I might have left out, or questions you'd like to raise?
Please
Maybe the kinds of data
one part the other part
in
the jump
but unfortunately
we talked about smoking
people are not able to practice, because
we tell people that smoking is prohibited, but you
about
to start
using
practice
anywhere
the possible
witnessing, because when we witness
and
when you say that,
of course, it means
we will declare, we know,
we know the
data, we know, we know we have.
But
we know, and how much things that we know that we have.
So, we go back to questions
about smoking, and about
how do we be able to stop
the playing field?
Well, you know better I mean, we have
something
which has to do with society, the implementation of Islam on a societal level
where
Muslims or Muslim scholars may not be in a position to determine the how Islam is implemented.
Then what happens is politics comes into play. And politics is based on economics, what a society or or country conceives to be in their own economic interests, they will do, even though the leading scholars of our country may say it is prohibited, to follow. So that kind of a change on a societal level will not take place until the scholars are given. They're just you in that society, to
guide the society to what is right and what is wrong. But if the scholars are limited, they allow them to speak, but not are not obliged to follow what they teach, or what they advise. Then, you see, we have a situation of a weakness, we don't have a truly Islamic situation where the law Islamic law is being implemented as the truth. So that's one level and it's the duty of the scholars to call to the truth.
And they will have to inform us they should not compromise with the government if the government is say controlled by you know, Europe or America or whatever, you know, and it's following on Islamic laws, etc. The scholars should not compromise in the sense of making halau what the government considers to be halaal and making Herat what they consider to be around. No, they should not do that. If they've done that then since they become the enemies of Islam, what are some of the greatest enemies and among the first to be thrown into hell, because they have certain effects when they do wrong, their effects on the people is much greater than when you as an individual does
wrong. So of course, they have to stand firm to what is correct, but at the same time
The reality of what we're living in today is that we are hard pressed to find a place where the government is committed to the point where the scholars, the Muslim scholars of the society, have a direct role to play in the
economic, you know, political and social sphere, all of these spheres in the society. So it is something we, we have to recognize, and we have to work towards to the degree that we're able, but ultimately, Islam comes back down to the individuals
that I don't say, well, because the government in the Philippines
trades themselves cigarettes
or in Saudi Arabia, or in Egypt,
that I am justified in using cigarettes.
I am obliged to know is this halal or haram? If it is clear, declared to be harassed by the leading scholars, etc, then I know it's Haram. For me, there is no excuse.
Unless I'm in a situation where I have no choice. As a matter of life and death, for example, I made me beside myself in an interest situation where the only means that I can get to put a roof over my head
is to get a mortgage for a home, and I have to have a roof over my head, otherwise, I'll die in the street. So I'm forced by that circumstance to deal with that degree in interest. That is another circumstance which Islam takes into account where people are forced by circumstances for the to protect themselves and their families, they may be forced to do some of the things which he normally classifies Haram. But under the general circumstances, we have, that's the beauty of Islam, that Islam is not something which we hold, in our books, on our on our shelves, in theory that we did base and discuss about, until such time as the perfect Islamic State comes into being now
It begins with
whatever we can find out Islam, we seek it, and we try to apply. We don't wait until
the circumstance become perfect. Because surely
any efforts of men is going to be imperfect. It's worked out.
And so what we tried to do is to implement Islam to the best degree as we can, within our own life, encourage others to, to follow the precepts of Islam, and to try to change the environment around us where we can when we can,
men
and women?
Well, we can say that, you know, if we're looking to because we're talking now in terms of logic, right, we can tell it when in the crowd, it says only for men, for
women, it is not convincing, right? Maybe it's time to give some kind of logical reasons why this is for men, and not in the case of women.
And one would have to look to see first, why is it that is permitted for men in the first place?
And why is it okay for men?
And we see that the number of women in the world
in general, from what most countries that you voted, the women outnumber them.
And this is not something which is, you know, you can't understand why I mean, you can vote and look at the factors there are biological reasons why women outlive men. This is God destiny, God's destined, that the average age of women in North America is like at the average age of men are like 72 or 73. You know, you go and look in around the world and people who are over 100, like 75% of them a woman. This is the destiny of God, that women outlive men. And also, we see in society, the crimes that are committed people are being murdered all around the world, who, when we read about people get their heads chopped off here each year for murder.
How many women do we read about?
Maybe one out of 100 it's men killing men.
These are the crime, violent crimes, you know, murdered men, wars, or fighting the wars. The men, you know, nowadays, in America bringing women out there getting killed, right, but still the Japanese men going out and killing them. Some women and children do get hurt in the process, but the most ruthless men. So there are all these factors which will lead to a preponderance of women in any given society.
So the allowance is there for men. It is not
a rule in Islam, every man should have four wives, or at least two.
It is a rule that you should out. But it is an allowance given to men to deal with this need. But it's to deal with a need, according to a legal system, not a free for all. Because it's what demand is probably proposing, you know, yeah, it's good for men to have more than one women. And then women should have what a woman it's like a free for all, anything you want. Anything goes without. This is what he's talking about, right? Where you pointed out the look, in spite of the fact that it is allowed for Muslim men to have more than one wife. You go around the Muslim world. How many men do you find having more than one wife? If you told Americans, it is now legally okay for you to have
one to one white? Man?
That would be it. I mean, people are doing it anyway. Right? But it's not legal. But he told him legally, Eric wouldn't be just like the Mormons, you got guys, they've got 20 wives, 30 wives.
But why how he's not working and supporting his 30 wives 30 wives and supporting him. He's like a pimp, you know, he's got all these women all working for him and turning the money over to him when he
did this is the idea of the free for all. Whereas in Islam, what we're saying is that, that men, when he takes another woman, he is going to provide, protect and maintain that woman had nice economics.
So he's not going to go into a situation if he cannot afford it, and handle it. So that's why we're we were on the Muslim world, though we're allowed to do it and others are not, you don't find more than 10 to 15% of any society, even here, where people have got lots of money. So more than 10 to 15%, who have more than one wire. So this is an allowance made by a law to deal with a circumstance a need.
Whereas what they're talking about, as we said, is a free for all. And not only that, but when we consider
marriage
in Islam.
What it does is it protects the rights of women and children.
Because when you have because, as you said, though, in America, they're saying polygamy, or sorry, monogamy is a rule in Philippines, it is prohibited for a non Muslim because they've made allowance for Muslims to do it. Right. So you find some Christians who will say I'm a Muslim, so you can do it. Right.
But I mean, that's, that's their problem. And then we can't, you know, we that's just not going to change the law for us, right. But the point is that in these societies where they say monogamy is the rule, you look at these guys, they have how many in in, in, in Philippines, as they're called live in, right. You know, how many wives when they're dealing with who they live with and so on. So you know, on official why, you know, and in America, you know, their girlfriends and mistresses, and how many how many people remain with that one woman Jimmy Swaggart? I don't know if you remember you saw the the film Jimmy Swaggart between the debate between flaggers and deedat. Right. How in the
beginning of it, you know, he was sort of lording over d that, you know, you all can have like four wives and we up to two, that's when we only have one we got to choose the best one the first one.
Next thing we know, they photographed him with a prostitute going into a whorehouse.
Jimmy Swaggart so much for your one life, gave nothing repented and cried and begged people forgiveness and they reinstated him a year later. Caught him again.
Yes, he was caught the second time. Now he's given up hopefully, you turned it over to his son finish.
guide him again. For Jenny, you know, but this is the reality. This is the reality of monogamy.
You know, and what I said is protect the rights of the woman. One, in that she is the one who gets pregnant, who ends up having to deal with the problems of pregnancy, raising the children etc. And to it protects the rights of the child and the rights of every child to know who his father is, and to be looked after by that Father. It's the joy
Now when you say to a woman, you can have four husbands.
And she has a child. What does he do? How does he find out? Who does he say meenie miney. Moe,
okay, you're the husband, you're the father of this child.
Nobody's gonna be satisfied with that. You know, a child who wants to know who is my father.
If you are denying the child that like, when you do it, or what you're doing, in fact, if a woman takes more than one as well, she is now exasperating the problem. The problem, which was that there are too many women, not enough men, she now has taken four men out of circulation, there's just increasing the problem of the society. So on a logical basis, below, we see that
limiting polygamy to men make sense?
By agreement, I'm saying but this kind of agreement is no it is no agreement, we say that the first job will be for you the second one with you. But that is not going to satisfy that child.
Even genetic needs genetic needs can only tell you that this couldn't be the father, but it will tell you the other three couldn't be
there, you know, so it is no definite way. You know, and also when you consider in terms of
sexual needs, right?
If a man has four wife, one wife is on her period, or she's pregnant to a point where she's going to deliver after pregnancy, he cannot have sexual relations with her. He still has three more than he can go. If a woman now has four husbands and she comes in a period
all for them not to sit back.
And what's gonna happen when you tell her bad, you know, you know?
Then you're just gonna increase the corruption because he's got to go look for somebody else.
Okay.
Okay, are there any other comments or questions?
Okay, then we close the hammock along with the hamburger, the head when they're in and the and the stockbroker want to boil it bhulekh we have come up to help us to realize the meaning of La ilaha illAllah, Muhammad Rasulullah. To realize this, from a point of knowledge, and to internalize this in our heart and to act on it. Whenever action is required. We are fulfilled his, his health, his aid. The success has come from him to be able to live as Allah has prescribed for us, according to the declaration of faith.